 
Spring Spectacular 2020

A Healthy Dose Of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Mystery

Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2020

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

# Table Of Contents

AabiLynn's Dragon Rite #0

Shades Of Gray #1

Shades Of Gray #2

Beauty Of The Beast #1 The Mystic Rose Part A

Monster of Monsters #1 Part One: Mortem's Opening

Monster of Monsters #1 Part Two: Mortem's Contestant

AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #1

AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #2

The Missing Japanese Chin Mystery (sample)

# AabiLynn's Dragon Rite #0

AabiLynn's Dragon Rite

#0 Dragon's Brood

Egg Hatchlings' Ritual

Book One Of The Series

Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2014, 2019

Kilauea Caldera and Volcano at Night were both created by Jules Tavernier

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

www.kristielynnhiggins.com/DRSeries.html

AabiLynn's Dragon Rite

#0

Dragon's Brood

Egg Hatchlings' Ritual

Book One

Kristie Lynn Higgins

AabiLynn (uh'bee'lin): woman of a sorrowful song

Prologue

In an age of magic, the Stygian Legion moved against the land of Athenia during the first reign of men. The Stygian Legion was an army of warlocks under the command of King Viiss. King Viiss wanted to enter the land so he could steal a large jewel and open a doorway to the Void, a world of demons. They would have conquered Athenia if not for the dragons aligning with tribal men. Their combined forces of sorcery and steel repelled the advance of the Stygian Legion, and King Viiss returned to his kingdom defeated and empty-handed.

Now during the third reign of men and a time of peace, young humans were brought to the land of dragons within Athenia. The young humans participated in the first ceremonial acts of the Dragon Rite. Many went but few were chosen.

Chapter One

AabiLynn

The sun peeked over a grass-covered hill and brought morning to Thatchman's farm. There was a bit of a chill in the air as spring forced winter out. Thatchman harnessed his horse and prepared to continue plowing his field to make it ready for seed. He still had two days of work before he could sow. Thatchman finished buckling the last strap on the harness when he noticed dust rising in the distance. A group of riders approached his land, and he expected they would come. He went over to the hut that housed himself, his third wife, and his four children. Three were by his first wife who suddenly disappeared and the other child was by his second wife who passed on about five years prior in childbirth. Thatchman grabbed his spear and returned to his horse.

His third wife, Hellen-Mary, attended to the pigs along with his youngest and only daughter, Cara-AabiLynn. By tradition, women of the Northern Grass Plains Tribe carried their mother's name as their second name to honor the one who bore them, so Mary was the mother of Hellen and so on.

"Girl, bring the bucket of slop the rest of the way for me," Hellen ordered as she set the bucket down and leaned against the fence to rest her weary and very pregnant body.

Cara hobbled her nearly five-year-old body toward the only mother she ever knew. Cara had been born early which caused her left arm and leg to be stunted. Her leg, inches shorter than her other, caused her to limp but since she was born this way, she knew no different. Her arm bore the brunt of the deformity. It was about half the size of the other and appeared to others to be of little use. Cara hurried over to Hellen, grabbed the bucket handle with her strong hand, and lifted it into her arms with the help of her other hand. For a child her size, the bucket of yesterday's unwanted food was huge. Its water slushed about the bucket as she walked the last ten feet to the gate. Part of the slop splashed her brown dress which was already stained by a week's wearing. Hellen waddled over, holding her back and opened the gate to the pigpen. Cara entered and walked across the cool muddy ground to the trough, and then she lifted the bucket as high as she could and poured most of the slop into the trough while some of it spilled onto her bare feet. She started back with the bucket and fell as her shorter leg sunk too far into the mud. Cara didn't cry, but she got back to her feet and made her way to Hellen. Dark mud covered her face and along with nearly every inch of her front. Cara thought it would be fun to play in the mud, but she knew Hellen would disapprove.

"Look at you!" Hellen complained as she took her apron and wiped her dirt-stained face. Hellen questioned once she finished, "What am I going to do with you? You are nearly as useless as the old sow in there."

She motioned to the large female pig in the pen, and Cara turned and stared at the creature that was three times her size and what her father called infertile. She didn't understand why they considered the pig useless or what the word really meant.

"I am sorry, Hellen," Cara stated as she bowed her little head. "I am sorry I am useless."

The riders neared the farm, and the horses' hooves thundered across the dirt road. Hellen noticed the riders and straightened her dress and hair somewhat as Cara hid behind her. The lead rider halted his horse, and the four others with him also did so in turn until they stopped behind their leader. The five men with swords approached Thatchman on foot. All the riders were clad in leather from the band around their heads, to the vest that covered their bare chests, and to their pants and boots. Thatchman kept his spear at his side with the blunt end resting on the ground ready to use if the men decided to draw their swords.

"Bork," Thatchman cautiously spoke as if he greeted a wolf he'd surprised in the woods who may be hungry.

Bork was the leader of the Northern Grass Plains Tribe which Thatchman and his family belonged to. Most of the tribesmen raised horses, yaks, and/or sheep. Thatchman was one of a few farmers who tilled the land.

"Thatchman, you know why I am here?" Bork questioned.

He nodded, and then he replied, "You have come to collect."

Bork looked at Hellen and noticed the small child hiding behind her, and then he turned back to Thatchman and asked him, "Do you have the silver?"

"I do not," he replied.

"That is a problem," Bork stated. "I cannot give you any more time." He scanned the area around the hut, pen, and field but saw no one else there. Bork said, "I shall have to take from you something of equal value." He looked at the distant hill and then to the roads winding behind the farm, and then he questioned, "What of your sons? Where are they? They usually work the farm with you," Bork spoke, and then he stated, "I could take one of them as a soldier for a year."

"They are not here," Thatchman said, and then he added, "They are visiting my brother."

"Convenient, I would say," Bork muttered, and then he stated, "Your crop is a season away." He looked at the pen, and then he questioned, "What of your pigs?"

Thatchman replied, "I have four young ones and one large one."

The day before, Thatchman sent the piglets' mother with his sons as they headed for his brother's farm a couple of valleys away. He wouldn't give up a fertile sow, not for a gambling debt.

Bork walked over, looked over the feeding beasts, and then he said, thinking the sow was the piglets' mother, "I shall take the large one for payment."

"One moment, my lord," Hellen spoke as she walked over to her husband and whispered into his ear.

Thatchman's eyes lit up as if he had never even thought of such an ingenious idea, and then he said, "Bork, why not take my daughter, Cara."

"Your daughter?" Bork uttered as he turned and looked at the young girl. "Would you not prefer to give me your pig?"

Cara ran over to Hellen and hid behind her again.

Bork looked her over a second time before she hid herself, and then he stated, "She is too young to give to one of my older sons or soldiers."

"Take her as a slave," Thatchman said. "She is a hard worker."

"And deformed," one of the other riders exclaimed.

"He is right," Bork stated. "She shall be limited to what she can do and unsightly to give as a wife even to one of my slaves."

"You could always make her a breeder when she comes of age," Hellen spoke, then turned, and positioned herself so that Cara stood in front of her.

"Breeder?" Bork questioned, and then he asked, "She is the fair AabiLynn's daughter, is she not?"

"Yes," Thatchman replied. "She is my beloved's child."

Hellen glared at her husband when he mentioned the wife before her, and then she squeezed Cara's shoulders, taking out her jealousy of the dead woman on the child.

Bork peered at the girl, not as she was but as she would be. In the Northern Grass Plains Tribe's tradition, male owners slept with their breeders to create slaves with no inherent rights. Bork had wanted Thatchman's wife AabiLynn when she first appeared in their territory, but she married Thatchman instead. It created much strife between the two men until AabiLynn died.

"AabiLynn's child," Bork muttered to himself, and then he thought maybe Cara might turn out to be as beautiful as her mother. "Are you sure you want to give up AabiLynn's child? She is your daughter."

Thatchman glanced at his wife, and then he answered, "I am sure."

Bork turned to one of his riders and told him, "Grab the child, and let us take her back to the plains."

The rider nodded, and then he went over and scooped up the child as she attempted to flee from him, limping as fast as her little legs would allow her. She kicked and beat at him with her arms and legs, and then she turned to her father and Hellen and screamed for them.

"Hellen! Hellen, help me!" Cara cried out. "Help me, Hellen! Hellen!" She managed to free herself of the rider and drop down to the ground, and then she ran to her shouting, "Hellen! Hellen!"

Cara fell down as she overstepped her stride but quickly got back up and continued for the woman as she cried, "Hellen! Hellen!"

The woman turned from her and headed for the hut, allowing the child's pleas to fall on indifferent ears.

Cara cried all the more, "Hellen! Don't go, Hellen!" She fell again and this time Cara didn't get up as she shrieked, "Mamma! Mamma!"

Hellen paused in her tracks as the maternal words left the child's lips and rattled her very core. Never once had Cara called her mother. Hellen had never taught her that name but insisted that Cara call her Hellen. It allowed her to place some distance between herself and the other woman's child. Thatchman's sons were old enough that they easily called her Hellen. Cara must have picked up the word from the nearby farmer's children as she watched them play. Hellen started to turn toward the child, but then she realized Thatchman had already given her to Bork. Whatever feelings might have been sparked by the child's utterance was now too late. There was nothing she could do about the debt or the payment; it had been completed. She placed a hand on her belly. She might just be too emotional because of her own coming baby. Hellen continued walking to the hut as a tear streaked down her cheek. She wiped it away as she wiped the memory and the name of the child from her mind. Hellen placed a hand on her belly again. She would soon have a baby of her own to replace any emptiness caused by the forgotten one's departure.

When Hellen ignored her pleads, Cara turned to Thatchman and called out to him, "Daddy! Daddy!"

"Quiet, child!" Thatchman scolded her. "You are no longer mine." He turned from her and walked away as he mumbled, "You were never mine."

As both of her parents abandoned her to her fate, Cara lifted her tiny hands and wept into them. The rider easily picked up the child and carried her to his horse, and then he, Bork, and the other riders headed back toward the plains. Cara cried herself asleep and slept the whole way back to Bork's abode.

Chapter Two

Journey To Firedrake

Seven years later...

Darkness covered the land like a blanket of nighttime fancy, and the smell of horses and leather permeated the air as Cara held onto the back of her adopted father's waist. She leaned the side of her head against Bork's strong back as they rode on his horse. He was warm and comforting against the cool air. Cara was still sleepy as they had rose hours before she normally did so they could take this important trek. Sleep and dreams lingered with her as night and a young girl's fantasy remained a few moments more.

They left the plains with three other riders, heading for a great destination. All was grand in Cara's world. She had people who cared for her and a special place she belonged. She couldn't ask for anything more.

Bork steered his horse up a hill, and she held on tightly so not to fall off on the incline. The moon had long since gone, and the land waited for the sun to make its appearance. Cara glanced back at the three riders following them. One of the boys was Bork's son, Turk, the brother she never had. Thatchman's sons had mostly ignored her existence, but not Turk. He always noticed her, always knew where she was. Here with Bork and his family, she had found a place to belong, a place where she was needed and cared for.

Twilight broke at their backs as a red-orange light burned across the grasslands. A horse neighed, and a few flying birds greeted the morning, and all was grand in Cara's world. She had people who cared for her and a special place she belonged.

She squeezed Bork's waist as if giving him a hug and then turned her head so she could view the lands on their right side as they sped by. She overheard Bork speaking to the boys before they left his hut. He told them of the place they were going, that it was important, and they had to do well or was it, it was important that they do well at the place they were going?

A golden wren flew overhead, and Cara turned her head to follow the beautiful bird in its flight as it sparkled in the sunlight. She thought when it came time for her to select a totem animal, as those in Bork's family had, she might pick the golden wren. It was free to go where it willed, but the females still had a family they returned to and cared for. The time of naming a totem animal was also the time she was given new clothes like the leather the riders wore. She was ready to burn her dingy tunic in a fire. She had seen other children use the fire to burn their old clothes when they came of age. At that time, she could...

Cara caught a glimpse of Turk eyeing her, and she sleepily and bashfully hid her face in Bork's back. She smiled, knowing Turk was with them too, and it warmed her heart to know Turk was thinking about her. Cara adored him as an older brother.

She turned her head and looked again to the left side as they rode on. The plains were so different than the lands around the farm she once called home. An incidental tear trickled down her cheek as the day started to break up the dreams night allowed, and she quickly wiped it away before anyone saw. She was to never speak unless spoken to, and she was never to cry. Those were the rules ingrained in her since arriving at Bork's hut, and Bork's wife was the one who fiercely taught her these simple rules. The rising sun finished burning the sky, and the blueness of the day appeared over them and with night gone, so were dreams and a young girl's fantasy. Cara would have to face reality until the sunset again and she was able to close her eyes.

All was grand in Cara's world, but it all vanished back into her mind. She had people who cared for her and a special place she belonged, but those ideas and sentiments were only in her head. She, after all, was only a slave, someone they would sometimes refer to as a breeder. Cara was more alone with Bork and his son than she had ever been with her father, her brothers, and Hellen. She had no rights as a human, no one she could emotionally depend on and though she had a place she belonged, she wasn't loved.

The riders moved on as did the morning, and the harsh reality of her existence smacked her again like one of the slaps Bork's wife would frequently give her. This was the world Cara lived in but not the one she wanted to linger in. The time she spent in her perfect world was far too short.

She was barefoot and wore a sackcloth tunic, and no totem animal decorated any part of her clothing. Cara was an object to own and order about and nothing more. She thought of Bork as her adopted father, but the only thing he adopted was a harsh tone and leering eyes that seemed to want something from her. Turk was still the brother she never had for he was neither a brother to her nor a friend only her constant tormentor. This was the reality of Cara's life, a reality she wished was a nightmare and the imaginary world she envisioned was the real one. She believed there had to be more in this world than pain and hardship. Those would be bearable if she had joy and love but without joy and love, pain and hardship were becoming more intolerable with each grim day.

Days later...

"I am not afraid of any dung smelling warlock," Barman said as he rode on horseback along with his two friends. He wore a brown leather vest over his young bare chest. He also wore leather pants and boots. A silver plains horse decorated the back of his vest, and his long black hair was held back out of his eyes with a leather band that also had the same silver plains horse decorating the front of it. The others wore similar attire, but a different totem animal decorated their clothing.

The Northern Grass Plains Tribe were led by chieftains, and Bork was chief of chieftains.

"Are you sure about that?" Turk questioned. He was the oldest of the three boys. He was sixteen and they were fifteen. A gold grass tiger adorned the back of his black vest and band. His hair was blond and flowed down his back. Turk said, "You have heard of the leviathans that those of the Stygian Legion ride. Do not tell me you are not afraid to face one of those malicious beasts. I know better. I have seen you face a hairless wolf pup when one happened upon our path. You nearly soiled yourself before you ran away from it. I laughed so hard as I watched the pup chase you that I nearly soiled myself."

"You cannot judge me for that," Barman insisted. "I was five at the time, had no weapon, and the pup was very hungry."

"I know," Turk chuckled. "It gnawed on my hand the whole way back to my hut."

"Whatever happened to it?" Barman questioned.

"I traded it for a dagger with one of my neighbors," Turk replied.

The riders had left the boundary of their home of the Northern Grass Plains days ago, and they had entered the Forest of Pinus. Less than an hour ago, they had left the Forest of Pinus and entered Wyvern the Dragonlands, and they had not seen a tree or shrub since doing so. They rode through a red and orange canyon as the sun broke at their backs. The third friend, Cyan, nudged his mare to catch up to the other two boys, and the mare whinnied. He wore light brown leather with a silver grass hawk as his totem animal. Ahead of them rode Bork with Cara as his passenger. His father was a large muscular man, and Turk was a slightly smaller version of him. Bork also led their pack horse.

"If I had a dragon under me, I would not be afraid to face a warlock or his leviathan," Barman insisted as he glanced back at the broadsword safely tucked in his bedroll. "I have my steel and the dragon its claws and magic."

"We are talking about leviathans," Turk said. "They are huge. I heard as big as a tower. Their hide is as black as the darkest pit, and they can swallow..." He looked at Cara, and then he continued, "They can swallow a girl whole."

Cara glanced back at the comment, but she said nothing at his teasing. She did look frightened as if his tale planted a deep rooting seed of fear within her.

Bork glanced back as the sun burned the horizon, and he barked, "We are late. Let us pick up the pace."

He kicked his horse, and it galloped off. Bork's leather was ashen in color, and it was marked by a totem of a great white grizzly bear. Turk and his friends followed closely behind Bork as the canyon path started to narrow, and the horses moved and formed a single file. Turk followed his father's pack horse, Barman him, and Cyan brought up the rear. Turk removed a bota filled with water and took a drink. He was hot and noticed he wasn't sweating. The dry air of the region consumed any moister. Turk already missed his home and the cool breezes that would greet him of a morning. Here, the wind was harsh and filled with sand.

"Are you saying you would not be in the least bit afraid to face a leviathan?" Turk continued questioning his friend. "You know they bare their teeth right before they gobble you up. I believe they call it death's smile."

She glanced back at him again. Her light blue eyes looked a little more frightened. She noticed he saw her glance, and she bowed her head and turned back around. The trip so far had been long, and Cara wasn't used to riding on a horse. Her backend hurt, and she prayed for the trip to end.

The path through the canyon veered, and the sun moved to the left of them. The wind continued to harass them, and the sun beat down on them. Shade was a welcomed and yet fleeting friend.

"Why do you keep asking me about the leviathans?" Barman questioned, then he stared at her, and he asked, "Or are you trying to get a fear-filled response from someone else?" He noticed Turk's reaction to his inquiry, and Barman stated, "You are." He chuckled and said, "You do like to be a tyrant even when we are away from home. I pity any girl you take for your wife."

Turk ignored him, turned in his saddle, and asked his other friend, "What do you think, Cyan? What would you do if you faced a warlock and his leviathan?"

"I..." he started to answer when movement in the sky distracted him. Cyan shaded his eyes and glanced up, but whatever it had been had already flown away.

They heard a scream of a dragon in the distance and seconds later, a large green gold-speckled one flew over them a second time. Athenia Dragons had four legs, a pair of wings, and a tail, and their scaled hide came in an array of colors. The flying dragon returned and flew just above the canyon. The green dragon kicked up a torrent of wind through the path as its wings flapped to keep itself hovering above them. Sand flew up and blasted the faces of the group more than it had in the past. Bork halted his horse.

A dracoman yelled down to them, "Are you Bork, chief of the chieftains of the Northern Grass Plains Tribe?" The dracoman wielded a large shield and spear, but he didn't sit on a saddle. It appeared that the dragon's body had swallowed part of his.

"Yes," Bork shouted back.

"Proceed with haste," the dracoman ordered them. "The birthing is about to begin."

"We shall," Bork yelled and muttered under his breath, "Blasted dracoman... We would have been there if he had not stopped us with his dragon's cyclone."

"I shall meet you there," the dracoman yelled, and then he turned his dragon and headed back.

Chapter Three

The Birthing

The group pressed on and the path ended at Firedrake, the north-east nests of the dragons. The large open area formed an enclosed half circle, and the caves laid beyond that. Some distance from the caves was a stable, and they quickly rode to the structure.

Bork dismounted his horse as Cara slid off behind him. He tied up his horse at the watering trough. Inside the stable, several horses and other riding animals could be heard moving about their stalls.

"Hurry, girl," he said. "We are late."

"Yes, master," Cara replied as she limped to their pack horse and started unloading the equipment. She was twelve now, and it was her first time leaving the tribal lands, so she peered around at the strange land of the dragons.

Bork brought his son and his two friends to participate in the Dragon Rite. She was there to prepare their meals while they stayed at Firedrake. The first few ceremonial acts would take about five fortnights.

The dracoman, who had spoken to them earlier, approached as he told them, "You must come now. The queen has already started her birthing pangs. Quickly, this way!"

Bork started after the dracoman, paused, and shouted, "Fetch the gifts, girl. The rest of our items you can unload later. We are late for the first act of the Dragon Rite. Turk, Barman, and Cyan, come with me. The queen shall soon lay her eggs if she has not already."

"Yes, father," Turk replied.

The three boys dismounted, removed their swords from their bedrolls, and followed Bork, and he led them toward the caves. Two large dragons guarded the entrance. They were tall, three horses high, and winged. One dragon was the color of bronze and the other was teal.

"I shall leave you here," the dracoman spoke. "I need to return to my patrol."

He walked off without another word.

The teal colored dragon carefully eyed the four of them, and then he said, "Dragon Elder Duran awaits you, Bork. You need to proceed with haste to the Ritual Room. The first act of the Dragon Rite is about to begin. It cannot be delayed."

"We shall hurry," Bork replied, and then he started in and paused. "Blasted! Where is that girl? We need the gifts. Useless girl! Turk, go see what is keeping her."

"Yes, father," Turk answered, and then he hurried back to their horses as the others continued into the cave.

At the stable...

Cara was having difficulty undoing the buckle to the pack. She finally unbuckled it and removed the wooden chest from the pack. She held the chest in her left hand and started toward the caves when something caught her eye in the sand. She reached down, picked up a bloodstone the size of a walnut, and examined it as she said, "This is pretty."

"What is taking you so long, wench?" Turk barked as he approached her from her blindside.

Startled by his sudden appearance, she looked up, saw his angry face, and clasped her hand around the bloodstone to hide it from him. If he found it, she wouldn't be allowed to keep it but that wasn't the only thing she feared from him. Trepidation ransacked her heart like one of the great tempest that ravaged her homeland, and she pleaded, "Forgive me, young master. I could not–"

He walked up and backhanded her as he yelled, "Do not give me excuses!"

She held her reddening face, but his reaction was mild compared to other times. The sting of the strike made her pause as fear of what he might do next whirled in her mind. Cara chose her next words carefully and made them few as she spoke, "Forgive me."

He grabbed the wrist of her stunted arm and jerked her toward him, and she nearly dropped the chest. She caught it with her right hand as he squeezed bruises that were already days old. The veins in his neck bulged with his targeted wrath as he started to yell, but then two dracomen walked by.

Turk leaned in close and whispered to her, "There is no forgiveness for you, wench. Now hurry, before my father yells at the both of us."

Once he released her, she ran as fast as she could. He jogged beside her, and they passed the two dragon guards. The dragons eyed them but said nothing. They proceeded further in, and Turk didn't let up on her.

"You are so worthless!" he yelled. "I do not understand why my father keeps you. You are slow, ugly, and incapable of doing any real work, and I am the one that has to hear it when you fail to do your duties. Wench, go faster."

"Yes, young master," Cara said as she hurried even more to the point of almost falling over in her awkward gimp. She never understood the rage he had toward her. He never treated the other slaves as he did her. She wondered why she was any different. Maybe it was Bork's wife who influenced her son's wrath.

They hustled through a tunnel, and the air cooled the deeper they went. Wooden torches along the walls lit the way. He moved in behind her and watched as she rushed in her graceless gait. They were moving too slow and this enraged him even more.

"Look at her," he muttered to himself as his anger turned to loathing. Look how weak she was. His tribe was a proud tribe and a race of warriors. He didn't understand why her parents allowed her to live or his father. Even if she was a girl, she represented his tribe. How could they show their faces with such weakness at their side? When he became the tribal leader, all of that would change. No feebleness would be allowed.

Upon entering the large cavern of the Ritual Room, Turk removed his sword's scabbard from his belt and tripped her with it. She fell sprawl out, and the lid of the wooden chest came open, its contents spilled out, and three marbles made of gold clanged to the stone floor. Everyone in the room turned at the sound.

Three candidates from each of the other four tribes were assembled along with Bork, Barman, and Cyan. The other candidates were about the same age as Turk and his friends. The chief of the chieftains of each tribe or the second highest ranking chieftain was there. There were also four Venetian Red Scribes to record the event, and Dragon Elder Duran and two other dragon elders waited patiently.

Stalagmites and stalactites filled the Ritual Room that was not only lit by torches but by several basket-shaped cast iron fire stands. The stone path led down into a white sandy area. The sand had phosphorescent microbes living in it and anywhere where darkness prevailed, the sand glowed a light green.

"Blasted girl!" Bork blurted, embarrassed by her.

Barman and Cyan snickered as Turk came their way with a big grin on his face. He was pleased that his intention just to trip her up had also caused her great embarrassment. His father will be furious with her, and maybe his father would pay less attention to her. Turk's mother had whispered many things to Turk about this slave, and it had infuriated him since he was a boy, so he mistreated her for it.

Cara looked around at the many male faces staring at her, and her face flushed as she quickly picked up the gold marbles and placed them back in the chest. She hurried to Bork, and the sand was cold to her bare feet.

"Take them to the elder," Bork ordered.

She turned and timidly approached the large yellow dragon. She had never met a dragon before, and she had never met anything so big. He looked as if he could swallow her whole if he so chose to.

"Are these the gifts?" Dragon Elder Duran questioned her as he stared at the wooden chest.

She couldn't look him directly in the face, and she nodded. The dragon smelled of earth, and his feet were as large as her body.

Dragon Elder Duran motioned beside himself with his head as he instructed her, "Place them into the Bestowal Basin. It is located on the raised area known as the Middle Ground."

She searched the area he motioned to and saw a shallow silver bowl on a stalagmite that had been cut into a pedestal. The Bestowal Basin was positioned halfway between the Ritual Room and the Quickening Chamber where the dragon queen paced. There were also several dragons standing guard over their queen within the Quickening Chamber. Cara moved from the Ritual Room toward the center of the great cave to the point the dragon had motioned to. The Middle Ground consisted of a circular dark gray stone platform that had three steps going up to it. The stone was big enough that several dragons could stand on it. She moved up the steps to the pedestal as the dragon came up behind her. The Bestowal Basin was so large that both of her arms would only encompass half of it. She was barely tall enough to look inside. She got on her tippy toes and saw twelve gifts within. There were three rubies, three silver coins, three diamonds, and three emeralds. She placed in the three gold marbles, and the bloodstone she had been holding in the same hand also fell in, so Cara reached in and retrieved it. She started back to her master.

Dragon Elder Duran saw the glint of red before she scooped it out of the basin. He knew how some humans liked to take things that didn't belong to them, and he couldn't allow her to steal one of the gifts, so he said, "Wait, child. What did you retrieve from the Bestowal Basin? I do not think it belongs to you."

She tilted her head as if she didn't understand his question, so he rephrased it by saying, "What are you holding in your hand?"

"My hand?" She paused, opened her palm, and showed it to him, and then she replied, "Only this."

He noticed what he thought was a ruby, and Dragon Elder Duran warned her, "All gifts are to go in. You may not remove them once they have gone into the Bestowal Basin. You must return the gem."

She would have argued that it wasn't part of the gifts or a gem, but she was too afraid to do so. She quickly turned, went back up to the pedestal, dropped the bloodstone in, and rushed back to her master.

Bork leaned down to her and whispered, "Girl, did the elder catch you stealing?"

"No, master. I–"

"Quiet..." he ordered, then straightened, and said, "Blasted girl... I shall deal with you later."

Syllabary, one of the Venetian Red Scribes, stepped forward and said, "Now that we have all gathered, please follow me. The dragon queen is this way in the Quickening Chamber."

He and the other scribes wore scarlet robes embroidered with gold. They held a Convey Scroll and Blazing Quill, and a leather satchel rested at their side. They walked up a ramp of rock to a raised area ten feet up from the ground called the Observers Dais just beside the Middle Ground. From this advantage point, they could see everything within the Ritual Room, the Quickening Chamber, and especially the Middle Ground. The Venetian Red Scribes went and stood on top where they could witness the Dragon Rite, but they were still out of the way. The dragon elders joined them on the Observers Dais and stood behind the Venetian Red Scribes near the back wall. The four Venetian Red Scribes formed a line close to the edge of the Observers Dais, facing the Middle Ground and once they were all in position, they began.

"Expositus!" the scribes shouted.

Each of their scrolls magically lifted from their hands, unrolled, and hovered in front of them. The Convey Scrolls were created from the bark of a Floating Tree of Amber and endowed with magic. Whatever the scribe wrote on it would be there one moment, and then it would be whisked away to their Chronicle Tome located in the Scribe Hall in the Capital of Athenia. Their accounts would remain in the Tome that not even fire could destroy. The Blazing Quill was also magical and never ran out of ink, and it was made from a sphinx feather and glowed when in use. They started writing their account of the first ceremonial act, and the blazing light from their quills lit their faces.

The area filled with the noise of the candidates and their patrons as they all walked to a connecting cavern called the Quickening Chamber. There, the dragon queen labored in the middle of laying her first egg. She was three times the size of a dragon elder who was twice the size of an average Athenia Dragon. The dragon queen grunted and growled with her pain-filled efforts. Her vocal exertion frightened a few of the candidates as they formed a line nearly shoulder to shoulder so that they could watch. For most, this was their first time participating in the Dragon Rite. They quieted and watched the dragon queen.

The Quickening Chamber was very warm as steam from small pools of hot springs mixed with the cold air of the caves. The dragon queen continued to labor in the birthing and soon produced her first egg. The egg popped out covered in a yellowish-green substance that slid down its surface until it collected in a small pool surrounding the egg and seemed to keep it from rolling around. The first egg was massive, as tall as a boy, and it was murky-black. It was so black that it looked like to Cara as if it consisted of the Void itself.

"Dragon Elder Duran–" Syllabary began as he stepped back from the line of scribes to the back wall where the dragons stood. His Convey Scroll followed him as he moved, and it floated behind him. Syllabary leaned to the yellow dragon and said, "–that egg is unusually large."

"It is," Dragon Elder Duran replied. "I have never seen one its size before. Maybe it is a good sign. Let us hope our queen can lay a female egg among this clutch. We are in need of a young queen. As the smallest of all the dragon nests, we have only one queen, and she is nearing the time when she shall stop laying."

"What about the other nests?" Syllabary inquired as he took up writing again with his Blazing Quill. "Can they give you one of their queens?"

"At the moment, they have none to spare. Perhaps when the beginning of this Dragon Rite is complete and there are no females among the hatchlings, you can go to the other nests and see if you can find a queen for us."

"Maybe I shall. I could use a journey and see country that has some green in its hue. Though as much as I would like to go, let us pray your queen produces an heir."

Next, the dragon queen laid an egg that was half the size of the first and copper in color. The third egg was the same size as the second and purple. The fourth egg was the same and light blue. The dragon queen paced the area as her labor pains increased.

"Maybe there is another large egg," Syllabary stated.

"Perhaps," Dragon Elder Duran said. "Or perhaps it is something else."

With great difficulty, the dragon queen finally laid the last egg. It was small, very small. The egg was the size of a melon and pale in color.

"This is vexing," Syllabary said as he stopped writing. "Is something wrong with the egg?" He moved, walked down the rocky ramp as his scroll followed, walked around the Middle Ground to the Quickening Chamber, and drew near the dragon queen first and once there, he rubbed her nose. He did this to make sure she wouldn't act violently toward him when he approached her brood. Syllabary then examined each of the eggs and came to the smallest one. He spoke, "It has a crack. The small egg may never hatch."

"Perhaps..." Dragon Elder Duran began. He had followed Syllabary and also looked over the clutch. Duran said, "There are no spots on any of the shells. The eggs are all male. Let us begin the first act of the Dragon Rite." He turned to the boys gathered and commanded them, "Candidates select an egg."

Bork leaned to his son and told him, "Remember the plan and act with your head. If you do this, then maybe at least one of you can become a dracoman."

"Yes, father."

The majority of the boys, including Turk, rushed to the large murky-black egg.

His two friends followed, and Turk turned to them and ordered them, "Choose a different egg. If we spread out, then maybe at least one of us shall bring honor to our tribe."

They did as he told them. Barman went and stood by the purple egg, and Cyan went and stood by the light blue one. Out of the fifteen candidates, six stood around the large murky-black egg. Three candidates stood around the copper, three around the purple, and three around the light blue one. None stood by the small damaged pale egg. The boys started stroking their selected eggs and talking to them.

The girl asked Bork, "Master, what happens if no one chooses the small egg?"

"I do not know. Now be quiet, girl," Bork snapped, and then he stated in a low voice, "What a waste? One less egg for the Rite. What a useless thing?"

Cara stared up at him as she saw the disgusted look on Bork's face he had given her many times but this time, the look was directed at the egg.

Dragon Elder Duran heard her question, and he answered her, "It shall be cast out if it is not chosen. It is the rule of the Dragon Rite. It shall be abandoned to another fate."

"Cast out?" she exclaimed under her breath. "Abandoned to another fate?"

Cara didn't understand why they would abandon a baby because it was too small and may be damaged. She glanced at her stunted left arm and leg. Was the egg considered useless like her? Did the world also consider this tiny egg unworthy of care and love? She wondered if they would get rid of him because he was different just as her parents had gotten rid of her. Cara had been cast out from her family, and she had been abandoned to a horrible fate. No other living thing should have to go through what she had. Cara felt a twinge of compassion within her heart. All of her life she had been the abjected one. She never let it show, but Bork and his family's harsh words and cruel actions towards her hurt her deeply. Someone needed to protect the egg from the same kind of tormenting rejection.

"Are all candidates set on their choice?" Duran questioned.

"We are," they all answered.

"It is a pity," Duran stated as he looked over the small egg. "We have not had a rejected egg in nearly a hundred years. It shall need to be removed. Call forth the Relegator," he ordered.

One of the dragons, who stood guard within the Quickening Chamber, walked to one of the connecting tunnels and screamed a dragon call and after some time, a large man entered who wore a black leather mask to conceal his face. He was bare-chested and larger than Bork. The Relegator wielded a large weapon. The weapon was made of steel, long, and had what looked like a mallet's head at one end and two spear-like projections at the other end.

"Which one?" the Relegator questioned.

"The small pale one," Dragon Elder Duran answered.

The Relegator approached the egg, then paused, and glanced at the dragon queen. The dragon queen nodded to him, and the Relegator proceeded towards the egg as he gripped his weapon tightly. He had a wildness in his eyes as if he would break open the egg and eat it. The Relegator lifted the mallet end of the weapon as he drew closer to the egg.

Cara watched in horror. They were going to hurt the egg. She feared he was going to smash the baby dragon. Was the egg so worthless in the others' eyes that they would allow it to be killed? She frantically glanced around at the boys, wondering if none of them would select it. She took a couple of steps forward. It might be small and appear to be damaged but that didn't mean it was worthless or useless. Small didn't mean he couldn't fly.

She realized the boys were too busy cooing their eggs to notice the monster of a man who was going to destroy the rejected one. Cara took a few more steps forward. The Relegator was only a few paces away from the egg as he stomped across the ground in his slow but determined stride.

Someone had to save the egg. Maybe its mother would. Cara looked at the dragon queen, but the female dragon made no movement to save her own child. The dragon queen actually turned her back on the small egg and focused her attention on the other eggs. The dragon queen turned her back on her child just as Hellen had turned her back on her. Cara wondered if the dragon queen was like her father and Hellen. Would the dragon queen simply watch as her child was..?

No! Cara screamed within her mind. Someone had to stop him! Don't let the baby dragon die because it was unwanted. Tears welled in her light blue eyes as she whispered, "Someone... save the baby dragon. Someone must save him."

Dragon Elder Duran noticed she moved towards the egg and turned in her direction as the Relegator stood over the pale egg and lifted his weapon above his head.

"Don't let him," Cara continued to whisper. "Don't let him hurt him." Tears streamed down her face and before she knew what she was doing, Cara had limped over to the egg and gently covered it with her body, closed her eyes, and screamed out, "Do not kill it! Don't hurt this baby!"

The End-Click Here to continue the series.

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# Shades Of Gray #1

Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

Shades Of Gray #1

Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

SHADES OF GRAY: Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

© 2006, 2018

Kristie Lynn Higgins

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Introductions

This series uses a mixture of omniscient past tense and first person present tense to tell the story of Shades of Gray. I have used bold to separate the first person from the omniscient. Enjoy the series.

If multiple Earths exist, what would their worlds look like? What kind of people would they be? Societies? Religions?

Would they make the same mistakes as us?

Translated from the Assembled Works

Ginn L. Irynkissgthie 525 B.D.C. (Before Dry Clouds)

Prologue

On a parallel Earth, thick puffy barriercumulus also known as Dry Clouds covered the sky and prevented the glimmer of twilight from shining on the city of Noir. For three decades, the polluted high-troposphere looming clouds covered half the planet and left part of the world to live in endless night. The mile-thick clouds yielded petroleum based contaminated water dubbed Tainted Rain and polluted the air and so they were named Dry Clouds for leaving half the planet without drinkable water. At first, scientists believed pollution caused the great cloud barrier but that theory proved to be false. What caused the Dry Clouds to form baffled scientists and how to reverse them eluded reason and only technology's constant battle with nature has kept the dark city alive.

Man's need for conquest expanded Noir to cover more than half a continent of what would have been called North America, and Noir became a Mega-city; it was the only one in the world. Over the last twenty years, Transgenics and bio-mechas evolved at a breakneck pace. Transgenics were genetically modified organisms with an extra-genome and were mostly plants produced to survive without the sun. Bio-mechas were robots resembling living things.

On this world, corporations not governments ruled the people, creating a society where profit set policy and dictated life. Those who resided in Noir were touched by darkness, and the light of goodness seemed a forgotten memory and they... they lived in the gray —Shades of Gray.

Chapter One

The Pandora Project

Isaiah 5:30b

If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

The year 31 A.D.C. (After Dry Clouds)...

October 22...

Thursday...

4:44 A.M...

In a secret location known as the Sanctum that housed the main facility of the department known as the Council...

A few hours ago, unknown forces had breached a few of the Council's other facilities, and the Sanctum had also been breached but from within by a Mole, so everyone was still on high alert. The Chamber was the brains of the Sanctum, and the three members of the Council sat within the Chamber, receiving intel and updates from the Chamber Analysts.

Fifty flat screen monitors covered three of the walls and lit up the dark inner room of the Chamber as data filled the screens in scrolling masses. Two dozen analysts scrutinized the influx of information coming across the monitors as they typed at their workstations. The men and women toiled, compiling a range of intelligence from several projects and experiments while they also dealt with the breaches.

"All right people, let's stay focused," a male supervisor shouted.

The male supervisor walked up and down the line of workstations as the hum of equipment and the chatter of the workers filled the area. The supervisor received updated reports from the analysts and kept his employers, the Council, current on the projects and experiments along with updates to the three breaches. A female supervisor came in to fill in for Supervisor Annette who had been found out to be the Mole. Unknown to the Council, Supervisor Annette had been a Mole within the Sanctum for years and with the help of some outside force, she had awakened a project known as Pandora, who had been kept at the Sanctum in stasis.

The male supervisor added, "We need to stay on our toes! We don't know if there are any more Moles within our ranks or what they might do next!"

The analysts wore indigo jumpsuits with white stripes on the sides, and the supervisors wore crimson jumpsuits with white stripes. Both the analysts and supervisors wore a wireless earpiece to communicate with operatives in the field and soldiers within their facilities.

In the center of the Chamber, the Council which consisted of two men and a woman sat at a long rectangular table. Each of them wore a black business suit and had a laptop in front of them as shadows concealed their eyes, leaving only their mouths and chins visible in the computer-blue illumination. The three scanned reports as they were delivered to them by the supervisors on Hand Held Computers. The standard size for an H.H.C. was two and a half inches by four and a half inches.

"I want an update on the Pandora Project," Mr. Morta ordered in a deep voice as he sat at the end of the table with the woman to his right and the other man to his left.

"Pandora is still groggy from its abrupt withdraw from stasis, so it has been escorted to a medical suite and is sleeping," Ms. Nona replied. "The doctor thought it best that the Pandora Project was not fully awakened but allowed to pull out of the hyper-stasis naturally."

"There is nothing natural about the Pandora Project," Mr. Decuma spoke up. "I do not see why we cannot induce a full activation."

"We are not in any hurry," Mr. Morta stated. "We had no plans to wake up Pandora, so we should tell the doctor to allow Pandora to come to on its own."

Ms. Nona nodded her agreement and then Mr. Decuma reluctantly did so.

"Good... Good... I will inform the doctor," Mr. Morta said. "Now to address other matters. I believe we should have a full investigation into how our security was breached. We should–"

An alarm went off, interrupting him as all three Council members paused and turned to the male supervisor as he rushed over to their table.

"What has happened?" Mr. Morta inquired.

The male supervisor replied, "We have a containment breach in another one of our hyper-stasis chambers!"

"Which one?" Mr. Decuma questioned.

"The Kraken Project," the male supervisor answered.

"If I remember–" Ms. Nona started, "–Kraken is the creature created to glimpse into the future."

"It is," Mr. Decuma replied. "It was deemed a failure for Kraken had more of an appetite for carnage than to indulge us with its gifts."

The male supervisor listened to his earpiece and then reported, "It has escaped its room, and it's rampaging on Level 159."

"Level 159 is the same level Pandora is on. Could this also be a part of the earlier attack on our facilities?" Ms. Nona questioned. "Is someone still trying to take the Pandora Project away from us?"

The male supervisor replied, "I do not believe so. An experiment was being conducted next door to the Kraken Project's stasis room, and the experiment went out of control and exploded. The explosion knocked out the hyper-stasis chamber's power source along with its back up, and Kraken awoke, and so far, the creature has killed three of our soldiers."

Mr. Decuma spoke up, "I cannot believe that this is a mere coincidence but..."

"But what?" Ms. Nona inquired when he didn't finish.

Mr. Decuma didn't answer her but posed a different question altogether, "Why not use the Kraken Project to test Pandora?"

"We cannot control Kraken and is the reason it was placed in stasis," Mr. Morta stated, and then he inquired, "How do you propose that we use it to test Pandora?"

"Just evacuate all the workers on Level 159, and Kraken will do the rest for us," Mr. Decuma replied.

Ms. Nona nodded and then Mr. Morta.

"I will set up the test now," Mr. Decuma stated. "I will also make sure that our soldiers keep Pandora and Kraken on Level 159."

* * *

Level 159...

Sometime earlier...

The Pandora Project's view...

Someone's calling my name from the darkness... Someone desperately needs my help... I have to save them, so I slip from sleep into the waking world, and the first thing I notice is that I'm cold. I shiver, and then I hear the voice of a man.

"I'm with her now," he says. "I'll call you later when I know more."

I open my eyes to what looks like a hospital room. The sight doesn't alarm me as if it's the norm, but there's someone who's looking down at me that I don't recognize. He... My mind's a little fuzzy... He must be a doctor, and he looks very worried.

"Drink this," he says. "It's water."

I take the bottled water and thirstily drink it down.

"We need to go," he tells me. "Can you move?"

I don't say anything to him as I try to sit up, and I find that I can't do it on my own, so he moves to my side and assists me to a sitting position. I look around the room and realize I don't know how I got here, but I'm still not upset that I'm in a hospital room as if this place is home. I try to think back beyond the moment I heard someone calling my name. I don't remember anything beyond that moment. It's all fuzzy and then panic sweeps over me like water filling a sinking ship that I'm trapped on. I grip his wrist tightly.

"How did I get here and where is here?" I ask him and pull on his arm so that he'll lean in closer, and then I tell him, "I don't remember my name."

My name had been so clear when I was sleeping. I knew it when the person called it out but now... it's as if I never had a name and that thought is what sends me into panic mode, no, sends me into nuclear-panic mode.

"I would like to answer you in more detail than just to say that it's a side effect of the hyper-stasis chamber, but we need to go and go now. Please try to stand."

The urgency of his voice spurs me to action as I take both his hands and stand wobbly to my feet, leaving behind my questions. I see that I'm wearing some sort of hospital gown a second before my knees buckle underneath me. He catches me before I crumble to the ground and then helps me over to a computer chair, and I sit. He hurries over to the door, peers out the window as if he expects someone to come barging in, and then quickly returns to my side.

"I'm going to inject you with something that should help with the hyper-stasis lag," he tells me as he removes a syringe from his white lab coat pocket. "I didn't inject you right away because there is a side effect of the injection. It's going to make you sick, but the effects should only last for a few minutes." He readies the syringe as he tells me, "You should regain full use of your body again."

He doesn't give me a chance to tell him if I want the injection or not, and he just sticks the needle in my arm. The prick hurts, and I rub my arm. I don't feel any different, but gunfire some distance away from us pulls my attention and his to the door.

"We have to go," he tells me with more urgency than before.

I get to my feet with his help, and we head for the exit. He opens the door, peers outside, and then ushers me into a vacant hallway. He helps me along as we hurriedly walk in a direction he seems to be leading us in. We hear gunfire again coming from behind us, and then we hear this terrifying inhuman scream that's full of anger as something attacks the people with the guns.

"A creature has gotten out," he tells me. "We need to run."

I do my best to start running. I have more feeling in my legs, but the side effect he mentioned earlier comes roaring from my stomach. I push myself away from him and lean against the wall as I upchuck the water all over the floor. I continue vomiting as he rushes over to me.

"I know you're sick, but we can't stop. We've got to keep moving. We can't be caught, but we also don't want to run into whatever is coming. We need to move."

I nod and rush after him as he takes me by the hand. He leads me through several hallways, and then he ups and stops before we round another corner. I glance around the corner and see about twenty armed men and a few women at the other end who are set up behind a barrier. The man pulls me back around the corner and out of sight of the soldiers.

"They're blocking our way of escape," he tells me, and then he peers around the corner. "But they don't seem to be coming after us. Maybe they're here not to capture us but–"

The terrifying inhuman scream we heard before sounds through the hallway again and sends shivers throughout my body.

He tells me, "We need to keep moving. We have one other escape route. Let's hurry before the thing beats us to it."

He takes a firm hold of my wrist, and we run forward, fleeing away from the soldiers and the creature that seems to be pursuing us.

"I don't know your name," I say, and then I ask, "Who are you and why are you helping me?"

"You can call me Xavier," he replies. "R.G. sent me to assist in your escape."

Before I have a chance to ask who R.G. is, the creature screams again. It sounds like it's only a few hallways back.

Xavier says, "We need to run faster... It's gaining on us."

We continue running, and then he drags me into a room with only one way in. He shuts and locks the door.

"Why did we come in here?"

He answers, "There's a small elevator that takes medical waste up to a furnace. There's room enough for you to go up. I just need to clear everything out of it."

He unlocks the door to the small elevator by lifting up on a bar, and then he goes to work removing bags of waste from it as all I can do is stand back and watch while I try not to throw up. Bits and pieces of my memory slowly come back, and I remember someone was taking care of me. Her name... Her name was... I can't seem to remember her name or her face, but I believe this person is very important to me and when I think of her, I get a sense of warmth that wraps around me and makes me feel safe like a child in her mother's arms. I relax a little in this loving blanket, but then this other sensation of fear and horror moves in like a closet monster that has just crawled under my bed. The monster makes me want to flee from the memory, but the motherly arms that are blanketing me want me to remain in the memory so that I'll recall all. Something happened before the hyper-stasis chamber... something I'm afraid to remember. The monster yearns to surface and make it mine once again, but I fight the recollection. I war with myself to keep this buried moment in my life a secret. I begin to lose this battle. The memory starts to become mine again, sending a fright so deep and terrifying through my soul, I feel like I'm suffocating. The memory of the woman, whose name I can't remember, places her hand on my psyche's shoulder, and I turn my attention from the monster to her. The monster is scary, but the woman will be there and help me through the–

"I'm almost done," Xavier tells me, interrupting my thoughts. "Come over here and climb in."

"What about you?"

"There's only room for you," he tells me. "Now listen carefully, and I'll tell you what to do once you reach the furnace room."

The creature screams again, and it's right outside the door. It tries the knob but it's locked, so the creature starts pounding on the door to break it down. My whole being lights up with fear.

"I can't leave you here," I tell Xavier. "That thing will kill you."

"You are the one who is important here," he tells me. "R.G. has a plan for you."

I insist, "Either we both go or we don't go at all!"

The creature outside continues to beat at the door, and then it busts through and rushes in. I freeze as I stare at a monster right out of a horror movie. It stands about seven feet tall with reptile-like features and covered in green scales.

The creature pauses and looks right at me as it says, "Look at you... look how you've changed."

Is this the monster that crept from the closet and is hiding under my bed waiting to devour me?

"Do I know you?" I manage to ask it.

"I'm Kraken," it... she answers. "And you should remember me. I've killed you nearly a dozen times." Kraken looks me over, and then she says, "You don't have a weapon this time. I believe I'll have no problem disposing of you."

Fear sweeps over me, but this time it's not for myself but the man who's standing behind me. I turn and shove Xavier into the small elevator, then shut the door, lock the bar back in place, and then hit the button, sending the elevator up.

"Getting rid of the normal, good idea," Kraken tells me. "I have killed quite a few of them already."

I turn back to her and as if I've done this dozens of dozens of times before, I ask, "Why do you want to kill me?"

"Because you're the Pandora Project," she answers. "There's no other reason."

"Pandora... that's not my name," I tell her. "I'm..."

Most of my memories, including my name, still elude me. I'll have to be patient until they surface but first, I have to survive my encounter with this monster.

Kraken peers at me for a long time, and then she says, "You act like you don't remember me."

"Why do you say that?"

She grins before she slithers out, "You aren't running!"

I notice the red blood covering her long claws and that her body is full of bullet holes.

"You're hurt," I say, and I notice how concerned I sound. Maybe I did know this creature before.

"The soldiers tried to prevent me from coming out and stretching my claws. I took of their blood–" she tells me as she places a hand on one of her wounds, "–and they repaid me in kind." Kraken peers at me again as if she's trying to figure out what I'm thinking, and then she says, "You don't remember me, do you?"

"My memory is a little fuzzy since leaving hyper-stasis," I admit to her. "I get a sense that I know you but–"

"But what?" she asks.

"Fear's not the first thing that comes to mind. It's more like... somehow we're alike. Somehow... we... we both shouldn't be in this place."

She lessens her aggressive stance as she tells me, "Shredding you to bits without you knowing the reason why would be a pity. Why don't you tell me what you do remember? Maybe it will jog more of your memories."

"I don't remember you at all. I do remember being forced into the hyper-stasis chamber and forced into hyper-stasis. There's a reason I was placed there. Someone was trying to prevent me from doing something."

"Go on," she urges me. "What were you trying to do?"

"I..."

That particular detail of my memory is still vague. I do remember the distinct sound of–

"Well," Kraken interrupts my thoughts. "What were you trying to do?"

"I was trying to save someone... no... I still need to save someone. I need to go."

"Memories are fickle things," Kraken tells me as if she knows something about me that she's holding to her own. "Memories make us who we are and glean the path before us. Our distorted and bloody intertwining-past comprises a great deal of who you are, but it seems to be my lot that our story is put on hold here. I believe we'll meet again but only when your story is over."

I'm not sure what she means, so I ask, "Are you letting me go?"

Kraken studies me for a few moments more and then moves away from the door, and I slowly move towards it. I start to head out when Xavier appears in the doorway. He's armed with a pipe, and he's holding a cell phone in his other hand.

"It's okay," I tell him before he starts for Kraken. "She's going to let us go."

He takes a step back and then tells me, "Come on. I found another way out for us."

I turn back to Kraken and question her, "Do you want to come with us?"

"No," she replies. "I'll wait here until you remember everything, and then I'll come find you, and we can finally finish everything."

I nod and leave her to her fate, then I head out with Xavier, and we run through several hallways. I keep pace with him until a burst of memories hits me hard, and I double over. Many images and thoughts from my past slam into me, and it's painful to remember so much at once, but I'm thankful for the return of self.

"What's wrong?" he questions me.

"I remember now..." I tell him as I hold my throbbing head and still manage to smile as my purpose becomes joyfully clear. "I remember everything now." I force myself to straighten as I continue, "My name, my mission, and the person I need to save. We have to hurry before it's too late."

Xavier lifts the cell phone he's been carrying to his ear and talks into it as if he's been on the phone with someone this whole time, "She says she remembers everything. Yes... yes... I understand. I'll make sure she gets out safely." He hangs up the cell phone and questions me, "Now what?"

I look around the hallway and for the first time, I know where I am, so I turn away from him and say, "This way. We need to go this way."

"Before we do that..." he starts, so I turn back to him, and he swings the pipe and hits me in the head.

The hallway whirls around me as I crash to the floor. Xavier drops the pipe and hurries to my side with this look on his face like he hit me harder than he planned to.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you deviate from the path R.G. has set before you," he tells me as he removes another syringe from his lab coat pocket. "This will help reset you, and then you can begin again without any nasty memories hindering your fate."

He injects me, drops the syringe, then removes another device from his pocket, and tells me, "Once I zap you with this, you won't remember anything from the past hour."

I grab at his arms, but I find I don't have the strength to fight him off and that I'm losing consciousness as the head wound pulls me further down into the void I had just woken up from. I claw at him as the purpose I had yearned to remember slowly trickles away.

I plead with him, desperate to hang on to what I just gained, "Don't take my memories... There's something important I need to do and there's someone important I need to save... Please... I can't forget about them, and I can't forget what I need to do. So much depends on me... Please... at least let me save them. Let me..."

"I'm sorry but this needs to be done," Xavier interrupts me, then grabs hold of both my arms, and places the device on the back of my neck.

Everything that I had remembered, the purpose I had finally grab hold of, they all slip away in a brilliance of light, and I remember no more.

End the Pandora Project's view...

Sometime later...

Elsewhere in the Sanctum...

The Chamber...

"The Kraken Project just surrendered to our soldiers," the male supervisor reported to the Council. "It never even engaged the other project."

"What of Pandora?" Mr. Morta inquired.

"Our soldiers believe she escaped from the Sanctum."

Ms. Nona said, "We should have three units of our soldiers give pursuit."

"No need," Mr. Morta spoke. "There are other ways we can test Pandora."

"Are you sure the project is ready?" Mr. Decuma inquired. "It just woke up from hyper-stasis. Maybe we should give it a few more weeks of conditioning before we begin the tests."

"No, launch the Pandora Project," Mr. Morta instructed. "Let us see what it can do on its own."

* * *

6:04 P.M...

In another part of the city...

Scattered streetlights partially lit an abandoned industrial district, and the wind howled, blowing through overgrown weeds and chilled the air of the blue-gray night. Over the years, a few trees and plants adapted to the limited artificial light along with a large variety of weeds. Nocturnal creatures; rats, mice, owls, and cats ruled the alleys and parks of the megacity of Noir.

A black sedan slowly rolled down the street, and its headlights lit up the dark road. The vehicle stopped at the curb a few hundred yards away from Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse, then the four doors of the vehicle opened, and five men in brown suits exited the car. Each of them wore polarized spectacles with black mirror-like lenses, and the spectacles hid more than their eyes. Four of them removed a silver Beretta from their shoulder holster. The fifth man wore a Coffin Handled Bowie tucked in a belt, and the man tapped the hilt eager to draw the knife. Eerily in one accord, they turned their heads and stared at the rusted toy building as they awaited orders. A parking lot stood between them and their target.

Within the Sanctum's Chamber...

"All right people, let's stay focused," the male supervisor shouted as he and the female supervisor walked up and down the line of workstations. "This is the hour we've been waiting for!"

"Has the Pandora Project been located?" Mr. Morta asked in a deep voice as he twirled a gold ring on his dark brown finger.

"Yes, one of our best operatives, Argus, is watching Pandora," the smaller man, Mr. Decuma answered as he smoothed his hand down a bright orange tie.

"Good... Good..." Mr. Morta said. "What does the operative have to report?"

Some distance from Etna Toys...

A man with shoulder-length blond hair wearing a black trench coat peered through specialized binoculars. Argus had positioned himself in an alley a block from the abandoned toy warehouse to watch Pandora. He noted the sedan across the street and the five men, and then he reported them to the Sanctum over a cell phone.

Within the Sanctum's Chamber...

The male supervisor handed an H.H.C. to the third member of the Council.

Ms. Nona frowned as she looked over it, thinning her cherry-red lips which contrasted her powdery white skin. Her frame was the smallest of the members. She stated, "We have received a second report from our operative." She scanned the report a second time, disconcerted over the news and then added, "Argus has spotted five bio-mechas, and they are not Proto-Androids but a new model called Un-Men."

"Un-Men?" Mr. Morta spoke, not as surprised as his female counterpart. "Only one department within the corporation is developing this line of bio-mechas." Disappointed over the untimely intrusion, he exhaled loudly and then stated, "The Factory has started their Un-Men tests. I had hoped they would wait."

"You knew it might happen?" Mr. Decuma questioned as he rubbed his finger over a silver tie pin of the word "Fate".

Mr. Morta nodded as he replied, "Yes, it was only a matter of time but it means–"

"It means–" Ms. Nona interrupted, "–that the Factory has decided to go against the wishes of the Council."

"How dare they!" Mr. Decuma uttered, and then he slammed his palms on the table as he stood and declared, "We must do something!"

"But what?" Ms. Nona questioned.

"More importantly," Mr. Morta started. "What are their plans for our child-like Pandora?"

Back at Etna Toys...

The wind kicked up sand and debris as the five men, the Un-Men, stood by the sedan. Their Internal Link or I-Link, not only connected them to the Factory but to each other and with the I-Link, they could think and move as one. They shut the sedan's doors and simultaneously walked toward the warehouse across the parking lot, but the one with the Bowie paused and turned, spotting a heat signature. The heat signature was of a human hiding in the darkness of an alley that was across the street from it, and the Un-Man could tell the human was watching them. The Un-Man's I-Link blazed orange through the right lens of its polarized spectacles as it processed the data.

Argus moved his hand to the M4 assault rifle strapped over his shoulder as he tensed, not knowing what it would do. Argus had encountered a Proto-android before, and it had nearly killed him, but he had no idea what this new model was capable of. He decided to stay on the safe side and make it clear he wouldn't interfere with their mission, so he moved his hand away from the assault rifle and waited for its reaction. The Un-Man smirked at him, continued toward Etna, and joined its brethren. Argus was relieved it worked and grabbed a hold of the M4 as he moved across the street to continue the surveillance of the project.

Within the Sanctum's Chamber...

"The matter is confirmed. The Factory–" Ms. Nona emphasized the next word, "–has gone against our wishes." She looked at the larger man and questioned him, "What is our next move?"

"Analyze and record," Mr. Morta answered. "Our agenda has not changed. The Un-Men will test Pandora for us."

Within the dark Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse and among boxes of discarded toys and debris, a cot had been set up, and a lamp on a round end table stood beside it and lit up the area in a dim glow. The woman, Pandora, who was in her early thirties slept on the cot. She had a shaven head, and the gash on her forehead which Xavier had unintentionally given her, bled. The trickle of blood flowed past her brow, ran down the side of her face, and dripped to a pillow. The crimson liquid spotted the white cotton case. No other bedding covered the old and worn mattress.

She wore a white V neck T-shirt, gray-black pants, and black hiking shoes. Her eyes rapidly moved underneath her closed eyelids as she dreamed, and her lips moved as she talked within the dream but there was no sound. Her inaudible narration continued until she spoke out loud, "A love that will not die."

Her breathing increased, and her arms and legs jerked in mock movement as she envisioned herself running. Sweat speckled her forehead, and her face grimaced in determination as her mind replayed a memory; it was one that would mark her future with sorrow. Three shots rang out in the dream, then the horrible recollection caused her to scream, and she sat up and frantically searched the building as a panicked feeling urged her to flee.

The Pandora Project's view...

My heart thunders in my chest as I notice I'm alone and not in any immediate danger, so I calm down a little and remember part of the dream. I was running, but there's something I can't remember. Whatever it is, I think it's important enough to recall, so I strain to grasp at the fleeting images, but it's too late. They're gone.

My head hurts, I'm very thirsty, and I feel a little queasy as I examine the old empty building more closely. Parts of teddy bears are scattered about a stack of boxes, and a layer of dust clings to everything like the building and machinery haven't been used in years. I remember more of the dream, not the images but the urgency I felt within it, and a sense that there's something I'm supposed to do or someone I'm supposed to help. The remnants of the dream fade, and I mentally try to grasp for a clue, but it's like trying to capture a dark phantom. The sensations of fear and anxiety remain with me along with the sound of the three shots, but nothing else of the dream remains and that bothers me. Was I pursuing someone or was someone chasing me? Was I the predator or the prey?

I remain on the cot a little longer, hoping something will resurface and tell me how– I gasp and put a hand to my mouth as I realize something that deeply unsettles me, and the revelation frightens me more than not knowing what happened in the dream. I realize I don't know who I am. I can't remember anything past the moment I woke in this warehouse on this cot. I know I should be doing something, but I can't... I can't remember anything. Smothering terror oozes over me like the Blob from the classic horror movie, and its gelatinous glob eats away at my presence of mind, adding my frightened essence to itself. It'll do me no good to panic, and I mentally spray frigid air on the growing Blob, taking back my sanity from its frozen and cracked form.

My head continues to hurt, so I touch my temple, feel a warm wet substance, and examine my bloody fingers. Did I hit my head or did someone hurt me? The thought that someone might have hurt me makes me a little on edge, so I move to the side of the cot, thinking of going to a hospital when I notice a second table; it's square and small and has a few items on it. I pick up a business card with an image of a flaming bird, flip it over, and find a barcode on its back. I set it down, pick up a note, and read it aloud.

"Katharine..."

I study the name, wondering if the name belongs to me. It doesn't sound familiar, so I continue reading, "Katharine, you must not fail. This is your last chance to redeem yourself. I know you can complete your mission, my dearest Kat. I am counting on you."

The note's signed by R.G.

I fold the paper, and then along with the card, I stuff them in my back pocket and decide I need to find help for the wound on my head in case it's serious. I spot a door and start to stand and move for it when a flash of a violent memory makes me turn my attention back to a metal case on the table. Why did I ignore this item? I stretch my hand for it. Why does my heart pound in dread when I reach for it? I pause before grabbing it as a sinking feeling sweeps over me, and I pull my hand back and decide it's best to ignore the enigma. I look at the last object on the table and pick it up; it's a small silver box shaped like a treasure chest and has a small raised star the size of a dime on its lid. I examine the box and then carefully open it, and its tune sweetly rings in my ears. The tune reminds me of the opening of a classical piece, but whose? Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart come to mind, but the piece doesn't seem to belong to either of them, and then I realize I'm wrong; it has elements from each like it's a mixture of several openings playing on top of each other. I close my eyes, letting the music sink in as a calming solace sweeps over me, and the urgency to leave the building slips away as I focus on the tune. While I'm in this state of relaxation and before I'm completely engulfed by it, I wonder about a few things. How do I know all those composers' names and that the piece is Ginn L. Irynkissgthie's Unfinished Melody? Why do I know some things but my own name's lost to me?

Unfinished Melody is short; it plays about thirty seconds, and then it starts over and plays over and over in a hypnotic flow. I gaze at the music box, hearing nothing but the haunting arrangement of compound sounds. My fear and anxiety vanish, and my body relaxes to an absolute state of nirvana as the tune lulls me into a trance. I slowly closed my eyes and enter a peaceful place within my mind. The place is a subconscious oasis to the confusion and dread I experienced before the melody. The tune has a calming effect on me and as I sit there in an ecstatic state, sounds outside of the building become louder and clearer. The wind howls, rustling the leaves of trees and overgrown bushes. A moth repeatedly taps the glass of a street light drawn to the artificial flame as four car doors slam. A cricket chirps, and an owl swoops, landing on a squeaking mouse.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I open my eyes as my heart thumps so loud I can hear it, and I experience an overwhelming sense of hysteria. I put a hand on my chest, not in pain but in horror as I realize something's wrong. I close the music box, place it in my left thigh pocket, and search the building and find it's still empty. I know I'm in danger, but from what? I glance at the case I ignored, and a deep dread lifts in me like a leviathan rising from the ocean's abyss. I freeze as I stare at the metal container; it's like I know what's inside, but my mind refuses to grasp the knowledge and instead, I want to run away from it like it's a maniac chasing me. I disregard my apprehension about the case and turn my attention back to my pounding heart and the urgency screaming at me to leave. The longer I wait to act, the more anxious and terrified I become. I feel like a deer standing in an open meadow, sensing a predator prowling towards me through the tall grass, and I fear I'll be attacked at any moment and from any direction. I get off the cot and start to run when the lamp beside me shatters, and the surrounding area plunges into darkness as pieces of the lamp ping to the concrete floor. I shriek, realizing someone shot at me, and I dive as more bullets whizz overhead. I turn the table over for cover, the case falls, knocking itself open, and a metal object slides from it.

Far from the cot, light from the street dimly shows through Etna's dusty windows. The light provides limited illumination within the building and within its radius, I see a black gun. I gasp, staring at the instrument of death that's an arm's length away. The weapon's familiar to me and yet it seems like some horrendous alien creature that has traveled from a distant planet to wreak havoc on my world. The monster will devour me if it gets a chance, so I scoot a few feet away from the gun. I would escape its psychological jaws trying to sink their terror-inducing teeth into me, but there are other things in the building I have to worry about, so I slowly peek over the table and spot two armed men.

End the Pandora Project's view...

She didn't realize they were actually bio-mechas, and as far as Kat knew, they were ordinary men trying to kill her. They prepared to fire again, and her heart thumped harder as if it would tear through her chest.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

Unknown to her, the muscle coursed artificial adrenaline through her blood, and the synthetic hormone reacted with her body by increasing her heart rate, dilating her pupils, and elevating her blood sugar. Horrified by what was going on within her body and the men shooting at her, she put her hand to her chest again, realizing her heart wasn't acting naturally. She wondered if she was having a heart attack.

The two Un-Men moved toward her position after calculating the best way to kill her. They aimed their weapons at her position with only one goal in mind.

One of them stated in a monotone voice, "Target acquired, moving forward with termination."

Chapter Two

The Rogue

6:43 P.M...

The Sanctum...

Within the dark Chamber...

Desk lamps lit up the faces of the analysts and the supervisors as they observed Pandora's data with interest. The project was very important to the Council and so it was very important to them.

"Lower the center screen," Mr. Morta commanded from the middle of the room.

A screen four by eight-foot lowered long ways from the ceiling, and it positioned above the Council and in the center of their table. The screen could be viewed from both sides, and it displayed an outline of a female body. Each of the major organs was visible on the screen and had bio-data streaming beside them, and the heart had such a large amount of information streaming beside it that the data overlapped the other organs. An alarm sounded within the Chamber and stopped, and at the top of the bio-screen in bold red letters blinked "First Evolvement Achieved". Prattle between the analysts started as charged enthusiasm filled the Chamber, and the supervisors quickly quieted the frivolous talk, knowing their employers would be irritated with them.

"Good... Good..." Mr. Morta said. "Pandora has achieved Ginn's Alpha Phase."

"You mean Arcamedes' First Evolvement," Mr. Decuma corrected.

Mr. Morta questioned, "Does it matter by which name we call it? It is the same thing. It is still the beginning of Pandora's metamorphosis."

"True, but will Pandora take the path Ginn laid out or will Pandora take Arcamedes'?" Ms. Nona asked. "What Pandora decides to do will determine which name the stages go by."

"Until the path is clear–" Mr. Morta started, "–both men's descriptions can be used." He studied the center screen's data on his laptop, and then he spoke, "Pandora's first stage is the ability to sense the presence of bio-mechas as predicted by both men, and Pandora's body is preparing itself to combat the Un-Men. Look at the subject's bio-electricity. The levels are high enough to trigger the Beta Phase."

"Yes," Ms. Nona said. "The genetically altered epinephrine hormone we created for Pandora dubbed Ultra-Epi acts as a supercharged neurotransmitter. If Pandora can reach the next stage, it should have no difficulty dispatching the Un-Men."

" 'If' is the keyword," Mr. Decuma spoke as he tapped across an H.H.C. touch screen and pulled up reports from their operative. "Argus details that Pandora has not responded to the Un-Men's presence." Mr. Decuma turned to his laptop as he stated a question, "Can Pandora achieve the Second Evolvement?" He typed on the keyboard, pulling up more reports. "Pandora seems to be withstanding the conditioning." He stated with concern, "If it does not react soon, the subject will die and the Pandora Project will end."

"Patience," Mr. Morta said. "We did not blindly pick the subject. Wait and see what it is capable of."

Back at Etna Toys...

Katharine's view...

My heart revs like the pistons in a race car as I hide behind the overturned table. Why are the men trying to kill me? Did I do something to them? I glance at the gun lying on the floor beside its open case not too far from me. Or am I a wanted person?

The men fire again, one of the bullets grazes my left shoulder, and the pain triggers a latent instinct within me. I scurry over to the gun, grab a magazine sitting in its case, and insert it into the Beretta with mechanical precision as if I had been programmed to do so without conscious thought. I pull the sliding block, it makes a metal clicking sound, and then I wildly fire six shots over the cot and miss. I freeze at hearing the men's guns cocking and then something inside me clicks like a switch.

A bombardment of information assaults my mind like someone's forcibly downloading all this information right into my brain. Details I shouldn't know, I couldn't possibly know if I was normal, invade my thoughts. My body is changing, and it's scaring the crap out of me but for some reason, I know what's happening to me. The electrical field or e-field of my body changes, and the impulses that would normally travel down the optic nerve surges and causes a split feed. Part of this electricity rushes across my irises and gives my eyes a blue-electrical glow. I can't see this happening and yet, I can see this happening to me. It doesn't hurt, it actually feels good for some reason, but it still scares me. I want to lift my hands and cover both of my eyes like they're on fire to prevent the charged energy from escaping my body. I want to do this, but I don't. Instead, I fire four times like I'd been born with a gun in my hand. I hit one man in the forehead and throat and the other one in the heart and lung. It's like a trained soldier has taken over my body, and I don't realize what I'm doing till it's over. The one I shot in the head collapses to his knees and falls back as the other one fires at me again.

I move back to the overturned table, wondering if the one man's wearing a bulletproof vest. I take a deep breath, rise, return fire, and the bullet hits the second man in the head. He also falls to the floor. Silence follows, and it's a maddening silence that clears my head, lets me think, and lets me realize. My fear turns to uncertainty and uncertainty to self-loathing. I slump to the floor, lean against the table, and bow my head. I can't believe I'm the one who committed the violent actions against those men. I stare at the gun on my lap, trying to distance myself from the incident and fail. Why am I good at killing? Why did I feel nothing for the men I murdered? I put a hand to my mouth as a little bile comes up. I swallow, forcing the bile back down my throat, and it burns all the way, searing my guilt into my soul. Is this the kind of person I am? Am I an emotionless killer?

End Katharine's view...

Within the Chamber...

Mr. Morta cheered, "There!"

Analysts and supervisors high-fived each other.

Mr. Morta looked at the center screen as "Second Evolvement Achieved" brightly flashed from it, and then he said, "The Beta Phase of Pandora's metamorphosis has successfully been reached." He reviewed a report from Argus. "Our operative has seen Pandora's extraordinary shooting ability, and he believes when Pandora is in the Beta Phase, it cannot miss. It has far exceeded our expectations for the Beta Phase. We believed Pandora would have an aptness for terminating bio-mechas but this..."

"Yes," Ms. Nona agreed. "It will be a useful skill."

Mr. Decuma interjected, "If it is true."

"The data supports it and Argus witnessed it," Mr. Morta stated and then inquired, "What more do you need to believe?"

Mr. Decuma replied, "More data perhaps or–"

"I want to know," Ms. Nona interrupted, excited about the outcome, and then she questioned, "Do you think Pandora can reach the Gamma Phase today?"

"I believe we are jumping ahead," Mr. Morta replied. "There are still three Un-Men remaining."

"Yes, and does Pandora have skill or is it mere luck?" Mr. Decuma asked. "More than half of the Un-Men remain. Can it defeat them as easily as the first two?"

At Etna Toys...

Katharine's view...

Leaves and other debris blow in through the open front door as I stand and make my way on shaky legs to the men I've gunned down. I still feel queasy as if at any moment I'll spill my guts all over the floor as guilt continues to shame me to pain and when I reach the men's side, I find a black oil like liquid oozing from the hole in their heads. They aren't human, they're... I remove the polarized spectacles of one, revealing not fleshy eyes but glassy robotic ones. The colored orbs shudder as power surges through its body, the spheres bug out, and its hands gnarl with the mechanical pangs of death. I stare at its eyes. The red rings with black centers show no spark of life. They're merely windows to the soulless.

Relief pours over me as I realize they're not human. I didn't kill anyone, and I'm not a murderer but... Did I know it before I shot them or am I still a cold-blooded killer? My queasiness eases up a little, but my confusion remains as I realize they're bio-mechas, model Un-Men. Why do I know this fact when I can't remember the simplest thing like my name? I search them, find a spare magazine on each of them, and place the ammo in my right thigh pocket.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I sense more bio-mechas and this time, I know their location. It's like I'm connected to them somehow. Three of them walk the grounds outside less than fifteen feet away from me, and they're making their way in here. I frantically search the plant for an escape as the Un-Men split up, and one of them walks through a side entrance. The Un-Man fires at me as I run and take cover behind a row of machinery. Sparks fly as bullets ricochet off of metal, and I cover my head. During the attack, I lose my concentration and the position of the other two, so I blindly dash for the front door as more bullets whizz by. I return fire and hit my mark, and then I continue to the door. I glance back at the third Un-Man as it lies face down. I try to regain the position of the last two Un-Men, but they suddenly appear in the doorway in front of me. I try to stop my forward momentum, but I can't and run into one. It's like running into a wall, and I bounce and fall backward and then with speed that can't be normal, I fire twice before landing on my side. I strike the floor hard and knock the wind out of me. The first shot disables the Un-Man with the gun, but the one with the Bowie sidesteps my second shot with electrical speed as if the Un-Man anticipated my actions before I took them. I inhale, sucking in needed air as I hold my hurting ribs. The Un-Man draws its large knife and stares at me curiously. None of the others had done that, and it creeps me out to the point that I'm more afraid of it than any of the others. The dot of light I see in its sunglasses glows brighter and brighter until it appears as if half the Un-Man's face is burning. I'm looking at some sort of demon!

"The Pandora Project..." the Un-Man sings out, not in the usual monotone of its brethren. The orange colored dot-light changes to a deep red, a blood-red, and the Un-Man gazes at me as if probing my soul. "Pandora..." Its voice is sadistically mellow and toys with me, making me feel violated. "Pandora, I have found you." The Un-Man smiles as if it takes pleasure in the hunt, and it states, "Target acquired." It takes a step towards me, and I scurry backward on my hands and feet as the Un-Man says, "Moving forward with termination."

It lunges for me with the blade and misses as I roll out of the way. The Un-Man's blade strikes the concrete, and the force cuts into the floor. I rise to one knee some distance from it, aim, and pull the trigger. Nothing happens! The gun's empty! I pull the trigger, again and again, hoping a bullet will magically materialize and fire. The Un-Man slowly stands from its kneeling position, takes two quick steps towards me, and kicks me in the ribs. I grab my side and hurry to my feet, pushing through the pain as the Un-Man slashes towards me. I leap back and defensively lift my hands, and the blade cuts across my left forearm. I cry out in pain as blood splatters to the gray floor as the Un-Man finishes its swipe.

The Un-Man wipes the red plasma from the blade with its fingers, and its face beams as if relishing in the combat.

"The Pandora Project," it whispers, fooling with me as if I'm some insect it's going to squash. "Pan... dora..."

The Un-Man attacks again with the blade, and the air screams with each slash as if the knife cuts open its airy belly and spills out its gaseous guts.

The Un-Man coos, "Pandora, I have found you."

I barely evade the attacks and then run, rushing deeper into the dark building. I'm so afraid... I want someone to save me. I don't want to be here. Someone help me... I continue running as dread molests my entire being. I have to escape this nightmare, so I keep looking around as I tell myself it's because I'm searching for a way out, but I can't fool myself. I'm hoping someone will appear. I'm hoping someone will be my Superman or Lassie, but no one comes to my rescue. I'm on my own, and as much as I don't want to be on my own, the fact still chases after me intent to destroy me as much as the Un-Man wishes me harm. I keep fleeing as I eject the empty magazine from the Beretta, drop it to the floor, and pull one from my pocket. I insert the new one in the magazine well, chamber a round, and fire twice behind me, and the Un-Man continues after me, ducking the shots. Is this what I was dreaming about? I'm not the predator but the prey?

End Katharine's view...

Within the Chamber...

Mr. Morta said, "Not bad for the opening test. Pandora achieved the first two phases. It delivered uncanny accuracy with the weapon we provided and successfully sensed the bio-mechas and once it has achieved all the phases, Pandora will be the perfect weapon." He drummed his fingers together as he ordered, "Set up another test so we may analyze the range of its gifts and send Pandora down the path to perfection."

Mr. Decuma nodded and typed up the documentation for the next test, and then he asked the male supervisor standing next to him, "Are the new reports on the project ready?"

"They'll be right over," he answered and then went back over to the analysts and within a minute, the supervisor approached, stating, "Here are the reports you requested on her, Mr. Decuma."

"Her?" the Council said in unison.

"Yes, her," the supervisor answered. He was taken aback by their reaction and asked, "Did I say something wrong?"

"We do not refer to Pandora as she or her," Mr. Decuma reprimanded. "It is an experiment and is to be referred to as such." In disdain, he added, "To say she or her in reference implies Pandora has rights." Mr. Decuma made it quite clear as he stated, "It has none."

"Of course, Mr. Decuma," the supervisor apologized as he handed him the H.H.C. "My error. It won't happen again."

He returned to monitoring the analysts.

Ms. Nona scanned the bio-data on the large center screen and then said, "There seems to be no adverse reaction to the Ultra-Epi, though, complications could arise in the future. Also, Pandora's body is not rejecting the adrenal gland we genetically altered to create the supercharged epinephrine." She made a few notes. "We will have to monitor Pandora for any palpitations, tachycardia, anxiety, headaches, tremors, acute pulmonary edema, and hypertension."

Mr. Morta stated, "We will see if it was wise to alter the gland instead of administering injections."

Mr. Decuma finished setting up the test, and then he said, "The Factory will be more than happy to assist us in the next field trial as one of our sister departments in the Sphinx Corporation."

"The fact that they are developing the Un-Men as their new line of bio-mecha assassins does not hurt us either," Ms. Nona added.

"Yes," Mr. Morta agreed. "The Factory's earlier line of bodyguards was very profitable for the Sphinx Corporation, and now the Factory hopes to improve their power and standing by releasing an unmatched line of bio-mecha assassins. Pandora is an ideal forum to refine the Un-Men's programming." He smiled, pleased with the project, and then he added, "With Pandora's help, the Factory will be able to create the perfect killing machines, and in turn, the Factory will help us test Pandora and help Pandora achieve its purpose. The one seen by Ginn that will–"

"Or Arcamedes," Mr. Decuma interrupted. "We still do not know the path it will take."

Ms. Nona stated, "You are correct and only time will reveal its path."

The female supervisor handed the councilwoman a report, and Ms. Nona said, "There seems to be a problem. Pandora has been unable to disable one of the Un-Men." Ms. Nona re-checked the report, and then she stated, "It is a Type Four model."

"Terminate the test," Mr. Morta ordered, sitting upright. "Request that the Factory recall its bio-mecha. Pandora destroyed four of the five Un-Men. It has done exceptionally well."

"The Factory reports a problem. The Un-Man has ignored its recall," Mr. Decuma relayed. "It seems they have a rogue on their hands."

"A rogue, you say?" Mr. Morta questioned. "The Un-Man must be exceptional in its own right to have survived this long against Pandora. The very fact of it is most interesting."

"Yes, like I said a rogue," Mr. Decuma answered and then asked, "Shall I have Argus assist the project?"

"No, not at this time," Mr. Morta replied, and then he calmly folded his hands, leaned back in the chair, and spoke, "Pandora must learn to survive on its own. We not only need to develop Pandora's untested body but its young undeveloped mind and character. What better way to develop character than to face adversity? In the past, great warriors went up against other great warriors to test their mettle. Strength and endurance grow through conflict as steel sharpens steel, and so the Rogue will be Pandora's adversary."

Chapter Three

Kimberly Griffin

About one year later...

32 A.D.C...

October 12...

Tuesday...

7:59 P.M...

The Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office towered over the streets of the Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage. When the city was created, the Corporate Senate, which was made up of corporations from all over the world, divided Noir into hundreds of sectors, and each sector was owned and governed by one of the corporations. The sectors were then divided by each corporation into smaller areas called vicinages. Sphinx owned and ruled the Hellenistic Sector. Each corporation policed its sector with its own corporate military. The world had its own civil police force which dealt in non-corporate issues like assaults, murders by non-Closers, and anything else the corporate military kicked to them. Authority always belonged to the corporations.

The Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office was one of many massive buildings in Noir. It was a mile high, and half a mile across and back. It stood as a giant in the city and dominated as a Titan before the age of Zeus. A woman in her late thirties sat alone within a waiting room on Level 150 and in her left hand, she held a keychain of a pink bunny rabbit.

Kimberly's view...

I stare at the keychain as I rub my thumb over a worn spot on the rabbit's cheery face. This little metal object is something that I must hold on to. I have to burn into my subconscious what happens when I mess up even just a bit. I must always be professional when it comes to my job. I must keep this keychain as I must keep my silent vow.

I tuck the keychain in my pocket, and then I rake a few blonde strands behind my ear. I look at a man's picture on the cover of the Conglomerate World magazine lying on a coffee table. The headline reads, "Topa, Climbing the Ladder of Success?"

I shift my position on the light brown couch and glance at the secretary. The older woman types on a keyboard. I impatiently sigh and turn my gaze to a few landscape paintings decorating the open room's white walls. Their purpose is to soothe those who wait, and they're supposed to take one's mind away from the stresses of the day. The paintings incite no such solace within me, and I sigh again and this one leaks from my lips drowning in weariness. I turn to the secretary as the woman answers the phone on her desk.

The secretary hangs up, clears her throat, and says, "Ms. Griffin, your father..." The secretary catches her own slip and then corrects herself by saying, "I'm sorry, I mean the Chairman will see you now."

I nod, too tired to be irritated, straighten my aqua pantsuit, and head for the huge corner office. The Chairman's position ranks third under the President and Vice President and since Sphinx is one of the more powerful corporations in the world, that makes my father a very influential man with vast resources and global connections. I pause outside his office, mustering up enough strength to hide my vexation for being called in right after I had flown back in from a job. I just returned from the Light Side of the planet, and I really just want to go home and sleep. I take a deep breath, silencing my anger, then open the door, and walk in.

Two of the walls within the office consist of ten-foot-high windows, and the office's bright lights reflect off the windows like mirrors. The Chairman's desk sits off from the corner, giving him even more presence of authority like a king on a throne. I close the door. He glances up from his computer and stares at me with his light blue eyes as I enter. He's in his late sixties but looks much younger around fifty, and he wears a dark gray suit.

"Kimberly, good to see you," my father says, stands, walks over to me, and kisses me on the cheek. I don't return his affection and almost turn from him like I'm repulsed. My father tries not to show his disappointment as he motions to one of the chairs in front of his desk. I sit as he returns to his seat, and then he questions me, "Are you still living in the apartment off of West 1000 Avenue?"

I'm uneasy being in his office, but I bear the discomfort. I notice his black hair's graying slightly, but everything else about him looks the same. I answer, "Yes."

He waits a moment before continuing. I guess he's hoping I'll say something more and when I only stare at him, my father asks me, "Are you seeing anyone?"

I don't answer him. As if I have time for a boyfriend but that's none of his business. Actually, anything that's personal is no longer his business.

He sees my glare and quickly moves to the next question. I hope he's feeling as awkward as I do sitting here like we're some sort of family. My father asks, "How's work?"

I answer still feeling a bit fatigued, "Fine. I finished a Closing in Moscow three days ago." My harsh and annoyed attitude softens for a few moments as I put my hand in my pocket and grasp the bunny rabbit keychain.

My father must notice the change in my demeanor, and he starts to ask, "Are you all..?"

I glare at him, stifling his question as my vexation returns, and I release the keychain and pull my hand out of my pocket. I'm getting too upset about everything, so I let my training take over. I calm all the emotions that seem to be flinging about in the muck and once I do that, I try to treat him like I would an employer. It works for a few seconds, but then I glance at the back of a picture frame sitting on his desk, and my anger returns.

"You didn't call me in here because you suddenly have an interest in my life."

He says, "Right, to business then."

My father hands me an envelope, and I opened it and see a brass key inside.

"It's to your mother's hope chest," he tells me as he picks up the picture frame. "How you look like her?"

My father sets the frame back down. I can almost see the happy memories he must be thinking about. I see them too, but then bitterness rises in the back of my mind, and the memories fade.

He tells me, "I know she would have wanted you to have the chest. I've set up delivery."

"Why are you giving me the hope chest? Is it because it's close to the anniversary of when mom left?"

"No."

"So why now?"

He doesn't understand my meaning, and he repeats, "Why now?"

"All these years since mom–" I pause, trying not to cry. "–since mom abandoned us, you've never wanted to talk about her and her name became taboo around you, so why now after two decades? Why give me her hope chest? What has changed?" I grow suspicious of his actions. "I know it's not our relationship, so what is it? Are you going to talk about why she left us?"

He replies, "I know I was wrong. When she left me... When she left us I was devastated. It hurt me so much I wanted to forget her. I never thought how it might affect you or that you needed me, and for that, I'm sorry."

"Sorry," I repeat and then laugh. "Perfect, now everything's fine." I stand and start for the door as I add sarcastically, "I'm glad I came."

"Do you have to leave? I thought we might have a late dinner and talk."

I walk halfway to the door, turn, and answer him, "I can't. I have a Closing tomorrow and need to get some rest."

"A Closing? Who?"

"Topa."

"Yes, I know him."

"Thought you did," I tell him as I start to turn toward the door, pause, and say, "It's kind of sad."

"What is?"

"Our relationship, my life, you name it, but most of all that you were the one who got me into–" My next words slither from my mouth, "–my profession." I fist my hands as I question, "What kind of father has his daughter trained to be an..?"

I glare at him too angry to finish and this time, he has nothing to say. I continue to the door.

My father stands and speaks after me, "You should take some time off. You're looking a little tired. Maybe buy yourself a pet to keep you company. You can't be happy living all alone."

"You have been spying on me!" I accuse him after I pause at the door. I start to say something but decide against it and walk through the door.

Mr. Griffin's view...

I sit down after my daughter leaves, then I face the picture and repeat my earlier phrase, "How you look like your mother?" I push my chair back and command, "Lights dim."

The room darkens, and I turn in my seat, staring out a window at Noir's skyline. I gaze at the Dry Clouds as they loom over the dark city, and I speak in nearly a whisper, "I wish you were here, Theresa. Our daughter needs you."

* * *

Kimberly's view...

I drive my red VX Corvette into the parking garage of the Nexus Apartments. The small forty story building sits on the corner of West 1000 Avenue and Knot Street in the Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage. I exit the vehicle and grab a bag of groceries from my trunk, and then I take an empty elevator to the thirty-first floor and walk down a deserted hall to Apartment H.

Sometimes I...

I command in a clear voice, "Door, unlock."

"Voice recognized as Kimberly Griffin," the Apartment Computer System states. "Opening door."

The apartment door slides sideways, and then I walk into the small entry and command, "Door lock."

The door slides shut and locks as I go into the kitchen. The lights automatically flicker on in each room I enter as the Apartment Computer System or A.C.S. detects my presence.

"Welcome back, Ms. Griffin," A.C.S. states in a female computer voice. "The apartment's temperature is set at seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Lights are set at eighty-five percent brightness. Would you like to make any adjustments at this time?"

"Yes, A.C.S. It's a bit warm. Drop the temperature to seventy-six, and I could use more lighting so change the brightness to ninety-five percent."

"Making changes now."

The air conditioner kicks on, and the lights brighten as I set down the bag and lay the keychain beside it on the kitchen counter. I put both of my hands on the inky-black surface, lean against it, and tilt my head down.

Sometimes I wish...

My blonde hair falls forward, covering the side of my face as I peer at my reflection in the marble. For Ares' sake! My life's so tedious! I lean back. All I have is routine. I start to unpack the bag and glance around the dark lifeless room, and it's quiet in a gloomy way. I look at one of three windows in the apartment and notice a dead Transgenic Vine sitting on the kitchen window sill.

Great, just great! I forgot to ask the manager to water it while I was gone; it's too bad A.C.S. doesn't have a watering system for plants. I walk over to the vine, pick up the pot, and several brown leaves float to the floor. I move to the trash can and press the step, and it flips up a stainless steel lid. The brittle brown plant falls out of its container as I drop the pot in the waste, and dirt spills, exposing the vine's roots. I stare at the dead plant. Can't I keep one thing alive? I release the lid and walk away from the trash. Or are Closings all I'm good at?

I return to my groceries. I put the eggs and milk in the refrigerator, put the dry goods in the pantry, then place a stainless steel kettle full of water on the burner, and turn it on high. I reach up into the cupboard, remove a white cup and saucer, and place them on the counter. I walk to a drawer, open it, and grab a spoon. Is this really my life? I notice my reflection in the spoon's curved surface. My life's mundane and lonely.

Sometimes I wish...

I place a single tea bag in the solitary cup and a slice of lemon on the saucer.

Sometimes I wish...

I glance at the answering machine as the water starts to boil. The number on the machine reads zero messages; it's the number of my friends and the same number of my acquaintances. The kettle whistles, and I remove it from the burner, pour hot water into the cup, and steam rolls up from the liquid. Shouldn't my life be different? Wasn't I meant for more than this... this wretched life as a Closer? I wish I had... No, it's better if I dare not think it and dare not hope it.

I grab a remote from the counter and aim the device at the wall. I click on a fifty-inch TV that hangs over a fireplace, and then I gaze at the picture from the open kitchen. The evening news is on, showing footage of a small office building on fire. I move behind a black leather couch and watch the blaze and out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of the first door in the hallway, walk to the room, start to command it to unlock, but stop myself. Sometimes... I pull on my left earlobe. I wish...

The spare bedroom has remained lock since I first closed it. I stored my mom's belongings in it. My bedroom the master bedroom is down the hall. I return to the kitchen, grab the remote, and look at the TV, and an anchorwoman, Linda Harvey with NBS (Noir Broadcasting Station) reads a report.

"The Corporate Senate will be meeting later this week to vote on the proposed bill for a sales tax increase. The quarter-cent raise will bring in much-needed money for the planet's civil defense and continue funding Research Project Clean Air. Analysts are predicting the bill will be voted in." Linda Harvey pauses. "In other news, Dr. Robert Seeker the foremost expert on the Dry Clouds problem will be heading out to Antarctica to–"

I turn off the TV, plunging the room back into silence. Enough with the news. My life is pathetic enough without having to hear about someone else's miserable existence. I pick up the saucer and cup, walk to a small round table, sit, and stare out the window. The Dry Clouds entomb the starry sky, leaving the night dismal and bleak just like my life. I pick up a clear plastic container of honey that's in the shape of a bear, pop open the yellow lid, and squirt a smiley face on the spoon with the golden sugar.

I whisper a phrase my mom used to say, "Fly... fly away, sad, sad day."

I stir the honey in my Orange Pekoe, remove the tea bag, place it on the saucer, and stare at the now warm brown liquid. The phrase used to cheer me up but not anymore. I arch my head back, looking at the ceiling. Hades... What a life I have?

I open my hand and gaze at a star burned into my right palm. The only constant in my life seems to be it; it has been with me for nearly two decades, and I can't remember where I got the burn. I make a fist and open my hand again. Oh for Ares' sake! Look at me! The only thing I have to look forward to is maybe someday discovering where I received this burn. Hades! I slam a fist on the table, and the teacup rattles. Sometimes I wish... I wish I wasn't so alone! I wish I had more in this life and that there would be someone there for me.

* * *

October 13...

Wednesday...

5:49 A.M...

Kimberly's view...

A laptop sitting on the desk in my bedroom screeches like a bird and alerts me to an incoming message.

"No," I whine, place a pillow on my face, and roll over in my bed. "It can't be morning."

A screensaver of a flaming bird flies across the laptop, and the fiery glow lights up the dark room and after a few minutes, I drag myself out of bed. I put on a white housecoat and slippers, fix a cup of hot chocolate, and sit down at the desk. I hit the space bar, wake up the laptop, and click on the message.

It reads, "Have you accepted the Life Closing?"

Voice you're up early this morning. I take a sip of my hot chocolate. Or maybe you're up late, depending on where in the world you're sending this message from. I type a reply, "Yes."

"I'll send an encrypted email with directions," Voice types back. "He should be in his office for most of the morning."

"Standard operation?"

"Yes."

"Understood."

I push my chair back, but the computer's beep grabs my attention.

"You should take a break after this Closing," Voice writes. "You have been working rather hard, and the Moscow Closing was rather difficult."

"You sound like my father. Are you sure you don't have children?"

"Yes, in our line of business it isn't wise to have them," Voice types. "As for your father, you should listen to us, we are your elders."

"Since we're getting a little personal, I was wondering why you're called Voice? All these years I've worked for you, I've never heard you speak."

"Long before you joined us, I made contact over the phone and received the tag."

I type, "I'm also curious as to why you wanted me to join the Assassins League. I do live on the planet's Dark Half. I should be a part of the Assassins Union."

"And let Thanatos have one of the best Closers. I think not. He would only waste your talents, and anyway, those of us on the Light Side still have work that must be done in the Dark Half. You aren't the only Closer there that belongs to the League."

I stretch, yawn, and type, "Will contact you this evening. Signing off."

I go into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. I'll need a lot of fuel for the upcoming job. I glance at the trash and think of the dead plant. Maybe I do need a break. I just don't think I have room in my life for a pet. I notice the keychain on the counter and begin to brood. The last Closing really got to me. I grab the keychain, walk to the living room, and move to a bookcase beside the fireplace. I place the keychain in a wooden box sitting on a shelf and glance at a picture frame with a photo of my mom. I've been told that I look so much like her when she was young we could be twins divided by the ages.

I whisper, "Mom, if you were here, what would you think of me? I wish you had never left. I wish more than ever that you would be here for me." I pause and then question, "What would you think of my pathetic life?"

Chapter Four

Topa's Estate

8:48 A.M...

On the outskirts of the Hellenistic Sector...

Katharine's view...

I see Topa's estate in the distance, and it's in the midst of an apple orchard. Sunlamps light up the imported trees as a gentle wind sweeps through the orchard's green leaves. The lamps are on sixteen hours and off eight for places like these and if they didn't use the sunlamps, the non-Transgenic trees would starve in the endless night and die without them. I'm like those trees. I'm starving from the lost of the only light I had in my life, and I'm slowly dying. I'm dying from my heart out. It shouldn't have happened, and it's my fault that it did.

Fruit trees here in Noir are rare, so the place should be a good thing to see, but a lot has happened to me lately. My heart burns with sadness and rage, and the only thing I can think of is he'll pay for taking away my light, so I continue forward with my plan. I walk up a winding path from the darkness of the day and the path leads me to the square mile estate. That's how I feel. I feel like I'm emerging from darkness into blacker shadows, and I swear to myself that he'll pay for killing Preacher. I don't care anymore about what's right or wrong. I'll make him pay for taking the only light in my world.

I trudge forward, determined to go through with my grim plans. The past year's nonstop hunts, what the Council calls tests, have taken their toll on me mentally and physically, but what happened yesterday... it... it can't be ignored.

My pants and shoes are worn and dirty but not as worn out as me. They're the same ones I had on when I woke up at Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. Life is hard here in the Hellenistic Sector, but I couldn't complain, not until yesterday. I remove a single strap backpack as grief wraps its arms around me and won't let go. I unzip my gray-black athletic jacket, and my chest hurts as anguish presses against it like a heavy boulder. The jacket covers my dingy white t-shirt and protects me from the cool breezy air, but it does little against the sorrow that chills me to my soul. I take off the jacket, remove a black Ravlek Vest I carry on the outside of my backpack, and put the vest on. Ravlek's an experimental material like Kevlar but generations ahead, and seeing the vest makes me think about my life as it is. It's almost been a year since I awoke in Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse and so much has happened. I've created memories, and I've learned what it means to care for another person and how to trust. I've learned what love and devotion are... but now all of that's gone along with Preacher.

I glance at the Ravlek Vest as if it'll console me. I acquired the body armor months ago from an assassin who died from a fall when he attempted to take my life. I worked so hard over the past year not to kill anyone who came after me, and I haven't failed yet, but the assassin still died, and he wasn't the first to lose his life in his pursuit of me. I cried so hard after the assassin died as if I had been the one to kill him. My heart has changed so much since then... since they took Preacher away from me. I no longer care if someone dies. I actually want to kill Topa and make him feel as much hurt as I do now, so I force myself forward. I set the backpack and the jacket beside a dead gnarled oak. The tree's a remnant from the sun era just as Preacher's a remnant of a future I'll never have, not since Topa killed him. I move forward but have no sense of my own actions, engulfed by an overpowering heartache, and I move as if I'm a robot fulfilling a programmer's command. The shock of seeing someone I deeply care for die in my arms numbs me to the bone. I want to scream out but that would give away my position, so I remain quiet and keep my grief within me. This is a nightmare... It has to be a bad dream. Preacher can't be dead.

I continue up the path in a dismal drudge toward my grizzly objective as a hatred overshadows my grief and suffering. The constant struggle between me and the Un-Men seems to have persisted for ages. I'm always the prey, always running and hiding, but not this time. My foes, the Council who sends human assassins and the Factory who sends the Un-Men after me, remain in the darkness and beyond my reach. Today's different... I know one of their names and one of their places of safety. I grip my gun and in my left hand, I carry a white book smeared with blood. Topa will pay. Rage fuels my exhausted body, revenge fixates my mind, and anguish rips at my spirit. He took the most precious thing in the world from me, so he has to pay. I stare at the book as I slowly die inside. For Preacher, I'll kill and I'll break an oath I made to myself long ago.

End Katharine's view...

Behind an iron gate, four men armed with handguns stood beside a brick guardhouse. Two of them talked while the other two walked their designated area. The gate was the eastern of four entrances, and a fifteen-foot wall of stone surrounded the estate. Three of the men wore a Winnow Mask type B or WM-B. The air filters covered their mouths and noses, and the masks permitted those not used to the Dark Half of the planet to work outside in the Dry Clouds' pollution.

The lead guard moved away from the man he was talking to, pressed a button on the side of his WM-B, and shouted to the woman in the distance through the mask's intercom, "Halt! State your name and business here!"

Katharine's view...

I don't respond, consume with a murderous grief and continue my war march toward them.

The four men move to the gate and position themselves to fend off my attack as the lead guard shouts, "She's wearing a vest. Switch to A.P.Rs."

The four men eject their 9 mm magazines and replace them with the Armor Piercing Rounds.

The lead guard declares, "We'll open fire if you don't state your name and business here!"

"My name?" I question. "My name? I'm Sorrow! I'm Emptiness!"

"She has a gun!" the lead guard shouts. "Take her out!"

The four men shoot at me, hitting me in the chest, and I lurch back with the impacts as images of Preacher flash through my mind. I cry out in pain, seeing him die in my arms over and over again. I fall face down to the path, and I exhale from the impacts as if it's my last breath. Fireflies dance about me and the surrounding area, paying no heed it's morning. I watch them and wonder if they can feel sorrow, and then my eyes slowly close as I slip into despair's embrace.

End Katharine's view...

The lead guard ordered, "You two, go check on her."

They stepped out of the gate, scanned the surrounding darkness to make sure she was alone, and then approached her. The second guard rolled her over, Kat moaned, and he noticed blood covered her shirt underneath the vest.

He said, "She's as good as gone." The second guard reached down, took her weapon, tucked it in the front waistband of his pants, then grabbed the book, and said, "This could be valuable." He searched her pockets, then scanned the area again, and spoke, "She has no ID or business card on her, so she isn't a Closer. She must be a nut job. See anyone else?"

"No," the third guard replied and then after taking another look across the surrounding land, he said, "Take her arms. The orchard could use more fertilizer."

The two guards dragged her inside the gate and dropped her on the dirt path.

"What's that?" the fourth guard asked. He wore no Winnow Mask since he was a native of Noir.

The second examined the item he held and then replied, "A book covered in blood."

"A book you say. Is it legal?" the maskless guard asked.

The second opened the cover, peered at a paper tucked in a clear plastic pocket, and replied, "Yeah, it's legal. Here's its registration." He read the top and said, "The Bible's registered to one Norman Odin."

"A Bible?" The maskless guard walked over, grabbed the book, and flipped through it. He handed it back to the second, walked over to her, and told him, "Throw that archaic thing away before you get some disease." He snarled his nose up at her, then spat on her, and said, "She looks like she's from Wayfaring Lane. Bums, the lot of them."

"I thought I might get some money for the book off the black market," the second said.

The maskless guard folded his arms, shook his head, and said, "Not from that thing, you won't. It's trash." He threw his thumb over his shoulder and ordered him, "Toss it!"

The second nodded, then went, and dropped the book on top of the garbage that sat in a trash can outside the guardhouse.

"Better let the boss know about this," the maskless guard said as he started to bring a radio up to his mouth.

Katharine's view...

"I wouldn't do that just yet," I exclaim to get his attention as I grab a hand full of dirt, and then I quickly stand and throw the dirt in his face.

The maskless guard cries out, covering his eyes with his hands, "I can't see!"

"How's she standing?" the lead guard shouts as he draws his gun. "I thought you killed her!"

"I did!" the third man exclaims as he aims his weapon at me and shouts, "She's covered in blood!"

I hold my chest in pain from the four earlier bullet impacts that struck my Ravlek Vest as I tell them, "It's not my blood." I jump up, spin kick the third guard in the temple, and then yell, "Why do you think I'm here?"

The third guard falls to the ground out cold as the lead and second guard shoot at me. I roll with extraordinary speed, evade their fire, then race to the lead guard as he shoots again. The bullet nicks my earlobe. I grab his wavy hair, whack the side of his head into the brick guardhouse, and side kick the second guard in the stomach. The lead guard slides down the brick wall, landing in a heap, and blood covers his forehead. The second guard bends over in pain after I kicked him, and then I calmly approach the second guard, take my gun from his waistband, pull his mask down, and punch him in the face. He starts to choke without the mask.

"I can't see!" the remaining guard screams again. "What's going on?"

I march over to the blinded man, place the barrel of my gun against his jaw, take his weapon, and then demand, "Where's Topa?"

"I won't tell you."

With calm resolve, I lean to him and whisper, "I'm only here to kill him but that doesn't mean I'll let you live if you don't tell me." I put my hand on his back, pull myself close to his ear, and say, "Tell me, and I'll let you live."

Sweat beads my forehead, and a salty droplet runs down my face, landing on the barrel. He squints at the fallen guards, and he must only see blurry images of what looks like dead men.

"Live like the others?" he questions.

I glance at one of them as that guard moans, and then I say, "They're alive. Now... Where's Topa?"

"I won't..."

I cock the gun and state in a voice that I hope makes him feel the presence of death, "Last chance."

"He's... He's in his office. Don't kill me!"

I uncock the gun, then use the man's own weapon, and strike him in the back of the head, knocking him out. I toss his gun, search the other men, and take their 9 mm ammo and what A.P.Rs. they have. I place the magazines in my pocket and toss their guns and masks into the bushes.

I start to walk to the guardhouse to retrieve the Bible from the trash can, but I pause and look at my trembling hands. I know this rage's not me, but I can't stop myself now. I continue to the trash can, pick up the book, brush debris from its blood dried cover, and hold it close to my heart.

I don't understand why they killed Preacher. Was it because of me or was it another test? My lips tremble as anguish shreds my heart into thousands of hurting pieces. Guilt saturates my thoughts as sadness attacks my being and my own mental accusers taunt me. They won't let me forget that I can do nothing to save the man I love. The accusations press against me and make it hard for me to breathe, but I won't let that stop me. I have gone this long grueling year without killing anyone. I took careful steps not to take a life and always found other ways to defeat the human assassins and bounty hunters the Council sent after me. I know it's wrong to kill but still, if I'm the reason Preacher's dead, then I have to kill Topa. It's all I can do for Preacher. If I can't even shed a tear for him, then I'll take...

I break down, collapse to my knees, and pound the ground with my fist. I'll... I lift my head and wail. I'll murder the man who took him from me. I'll end his life just as he ended Preacher's.

I breathe as deeply as I can, trying to rid myself of the suffocating feelings. I let rage fuel my resolve, and I force myself to stand on my wobbly feet. I start down the dirt path that leads to the center of the estate where the main house and Topa's office are. Hatred seeps into my psyche and drenches it with a malicious-filled insanity as I rush to my target, evading the rest of the guards. I won't have much time before the four at the gate are discovered, so I'll have to be quick and find Topa, and then I'll kill him.

Chapter Five

Enter The Life Closer

9:09 A.M...

The Sanctum...

Within the Chamber...

The Council monitored Pandora's bio-data on the center screen, and they noted changes in her mental state and that her Ultra-Epi had engaged.

"Pandora has entered Topa's estate," Ms. Nona spoke with concern. "Should we stop it? Topa is not part of the experiment."

"No, we will use him as we have used others who stumbled upon our tests," Mr. Morta replied. "The situation could be the catalyst we have been waiting for to take Pandora to the Gamma Phase of its metamorphosis."

Mr. Decuma said, "The project has been a disappointment this past year. Its skills are incredible but–"

"Yes, but Pandora holds back and has not taken a life," Mr. Morta said. "The why is what we have to discover."

"The conditioning has failed," Ms. Nona stated. "We should be working on the Epsilon Phase by now, not worrying about the Gamma."

"No, I think it is more than that. If you will remember even before we took custody of Pandora, it was an enigma. There is nothing wrong with the conditioning. I believe it is Pandora's emotions."

"Its emotions?" Mr. Decuma questioned. He didn't understand the eldest member's reasoning. Mr. Morta held such high expectations for the experiment. It was almost as if he had grown attached and if he had grown attached, it could be a problem. Mr. Morta could lose his indifference if he was not careful.

"Yes," Mr. Morta replied, and then he explained, "Pandora's emotions... though they may be immature... they still influence it. You see, rage and love even from a child... they are both driving forces, and it has not tapped into them."

"Until it met Preacher," Ms. Nona added. "Pandora knew love and now knows rage."

Mr. Morta nodded as he spoke, "Precisely, if we had known how his death would have affected Pandora, we would have killed him long ago to move along its programming."

A female supervisor handed Ms. Nona a report.

Ms. Nona said, "This could be a problem."

"What is it?" Mr. Decuma asked.

"It seems one of the corporations does not like what Topa has been doing lately. A Life Closer has been dispatched to the estate."

"By our corporation?" Mr. Decuma questioned.

"I think not," Mr. Morta answered. "But with an organization as vast as ours, who knows for sure?"

* * *

Kimberly's view...

At the northwest corner of Topa's estate, I throw a small J-shaped grappling hook over the wall. The northwest part of the estate has little lighting, so I easily hide in the darkness of the late morning. Murky gray Dry Clouds rumble overhead, warning of a possible Tainted Rainstorm. I'm a native of the Dark Half and thankfully, I don't have to wear a Winnow Mask. I pull my knit mask over my face, make sure it's securely in place, and check over my black outfit. I'm wearing thin gloves, jogging pants, running shoes, a tank top, and a zipped up hooded sweatshirt. I need to keep my identity a secret. Assassination might be legal, but anonymity will keep me from having to face some vengeful family member, lover, friend, or Illicit Closer. I've been lucky so far and no one's ever seen my face when I've been on a Closing. I prefer not to kill anyone who's not part of the Closing. If I do, I'll have to file extra paperwork. Voice hates unnecessary deaths as much as I do, and I don't want to make Voice upset.

I climb the cord to the top of the wall, drop down to the other side, and glance at my watch once I reach the ground. I'll have this Life Closing done within the hour if all goes well, and Topa will make the front cover again but the headline this time will read, "Found Dead."

I toss the thin climbing cord, grappling hook, and black knapsack in the corner and pile some leaves on the items to hide them, and then I check the tactical knife in a sheath strapped to my right calf. I quietly slip by the guards and make my way to his office. In the email Voice sent, the Closing File states Topa will most likely be there. The office is at the end of a long cobblestone path leading from the house. Black cast-iron lamps light the area, small pine trees grow along the path, and hedges line the last twenty feet of the walkway and around the office. I hide in the bushes underneath a window just left of Topa who's sitting. I glance in and see one henchman in a corner and my target busy at his mahogany desk. I place a silencer on a Walther PPK and stand to make my way in and finish this Closing quick and clean, but the front door opens. I duck back into the hedges, and the green-blue bushes rustle with my movement and then through the window, I watch as a second henchman walks into the room. He removes his WM-B and adjusts the mask's strap. Topa counts bundles of money and then places the stacks in a briefcase.

"This is payment for the Illicit Closer we hired to take out that nuisance on Wayfaring Lane," Topa relays as he finishes counting. "That do-gooder won't be hindering our sales of Sunna Snapps anymore."

"Why the cash, boss?" the second henchman questions. "Why not credits?"

"This cash can't be traced to me. Credits could be."

"Makes sense, boss."

I can't believe he hired an illegal assassin. I think people are really stupid when they take a chance by hiring someone who doesn't belong to the Assassins Guild. If Voice or Thanatos finds out, they'll kill him. I shrug as I decide in the scheme of things it doesn't matter now. Topa's Closing is today. What more can they do to him?

Topa shuts the briefcase and hands it to his second henchman as he orders him, "Also tell our contact at the Valhalla Corporation we'll be doubling our next order of Sunna Snapps now that business will be getting back to normal."

"Understood," the second henchman replies, then puts his Winnow Mask back on, takes the briefcase, and leaves through the back door.

Topa turns to the first henchman and tells him, "Ready my car. We're going into the Norse Sector."

The first henchman turns towards the window, so I duck down and after a few moments, I hear the door open and shut. I glance in the window, seeing that the muscle has left, so I again start to leave my hiding place. I can kill Topa before anyone comes back and be down with this Closing. I need to get some rest. I'm still tired from my last assignment. The front door opens before I leave my hiding spot, so I quickly duck back into the bushes. For Ares' sake! What's up with my luck today? All I want to do is complete this Life Closing and go home!

Katharine's view...

I enter and find Topa alone. His office smells of polished wood and has an old feel to it. Black and white photos of distinguished men who look related to him line the walls. I turn away from them. I can't let myself be distracted. I have to focus on my grim objective, and it's now or never. I have to eliminate the man who took Preacher from me. My gunhand shakes with indecision as it leans against my leg. I try to convince myself even my broken heart believes I have to commit this atrocious deed to atone for my failure to save Preacher.

Kimberly's view...

I peek through the window as I keep myself hidden, trying to figure out who the woman is. She could be a second Closer. I glower, a little irritated and duck back down. Did Voice send in backup? I never needed it. I think about it. I never needed it before Moscow. I cautiously glance through the window and study the woman, and she doesn't have the look of a Closer. Maybe she's a bodyguard.

Topa glances up when the door first squeaks open. He stares at her for a long time before he questions her, "How did you get in here?"

I see him press a button under his desk, triggering a silent alarm.

The woman raises her gun, aims it at him, and yells, "You must pay for what you did to Preacher!"

Maybe my luck has changed. Maybe this woman will take out Topa, and I can get out of here. I won't receive the full payment for this assignment if she does the deed for me but right now I don't care. I just want to go back to bed and sleep away this dreadful past week until it's far from my mind.

End Kimberly's view...

* * *

Within the Chamber...

Ms. Nona reported, "Argus is on the estate and has found Pandora in Topa's office. It is about to kill him."

"Good... Good... The Gamma Phase will finally be achieved when Pandora takes a life," Mr. Morta spoke as he beamed with pride, and then he inquired, "Where is the Closer?"

"Holding outside of the office," Mr. Decuma answered. "The Closer will not move with the unknown woman in the room."

"Finally..." Mr. Morta began as he considered all the hard work they had devoted to Pandora. "I have had such high hopes for this particular project. We have waited to achieve this pinnacle for one long year." With elated breath, he added, "Now we will witness Pandora's transformation as it completes the Gamma Phase."

Chapter Six

Preacher

Etymology, history and usage of the word puck...

Puck originally was the word for a mythological fairy or mischievous natured sprite. The meaning later expanded and emerged in slang around 300 B.D.C. in lands owned by the Druid Corporation. It referred to one's disdain for something. The word has taken on other meanings over the centuries and has been used cross-sectorally.

One year before Kat entered Topa's estate...

31 A.D.C...

October 26...

Monday...

3:15 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Old Business Vicinage...

Flickering street lights and neon signs cast a somber glow on Wayfaring Lane; it was a place where society's outcasts drudged out an existence. Many people lined the street, selling Transgenic Vegetables, used clothes, and canned food, and there were even people who dealt in flesh, Sunna Snapps, and/or stolen water rations. Huddled in a corner down a dead end alley, three dirty thin junkies shared a needle of Sunna Snapps. A man and a woman already shot up and were oblivious to their surroundings while the third rolled up his sleeve, injected the yellow liquid into his arm, and leaned back against the brick wall. His body warmed in the cool air as if he lay on a sunny beach and snaps of light appeared like he was seeing stars but larger and brighter.

A six-wheeled robotic Street Sanitizer the size of a small car rumbled down the potholed road past the alley. Nozzles in the front of it and the middle sprayed a cleaning agent. Scrubbing brushes just behind each set of nozzles scoured an oily residue on the road left behind by the Tainted Rain. A vacuum in the back sucked up the dark liquid and stored the polluted water in a large tank. The small vehicles kept the highways and byways from becoming cesspools and without the cleaners, Noir would come to a halt. The loud Street Sanitizer rumbled on, passing a Grub Filter sitting on the sidewalk against a building. The eight-foot square metal beast also known as a Grubby pulled in air, filtering out the petroleum-based pollutants caused by Dry Clouds. Usually, four Grubbies covered each block but this was Wayfaring Lane, they were lucky to have the one.

Evening approached as more people filled the street. Some wore Winnow Masks, marking them as recent immigrants to the Dark Half of the planet, but most of them didn't wear the air filters, having lived in Noir long enough for their lungs to become accustomed to the pollutants.

Katharine's view...

I stumble onto Wayfaring Lane, fleeing the Un-Man with the knife. The Un-Man attacked me four days ago and since then, it's been chasing me in a sadistic cat and mouse game. It came so close to killing me a couple of times already. I lost it a few hours ago and thankfully, it hasn't found me again. I know this because the Un-Man would have triggered my bio-mecha warning like the Un-Men had done when they first entered Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. These abilities that I have, they're unnatural. I can sense the presence of bio-mechas but more than that... the last day or two I've been having these flashes like I understand how they're thinking and working. It's so scary. I also seem to see my own body like I'm on the outside looking in. It's so weird and freaky. There has to be someone out there who can help me. I just need to find them, and then maybe they can put this nightmare to an end.

I pause at an alley wall and lean on it as I catch my breath. I can't stop running till I find a place that's safe, so I push through my exhaustion and run on. Blood cakes my left shoulder where one of the Un-Men's bullets grazed me, and dried plasma crusts the knife cut on my left forearm. Since waking at Etna, I've only eaten what food I scrounged from trash cans and slept only minutes at a time. Weariness and mental anguish are taking their toll on me. I think I'm near my breaking point.

Tired to the bone, I sprint down an obscure alley, trying to stay on my feet and not fall. I look over my shoulder as I splatter through puddles of Tainted Rain. The black water that smells of petroleum speckles my t-shirt and pants. I turn a corner and run into a man who's wearing a black trench coat. I stumble back and nearly fall, but I manage to put my hand out to the alley wall and steady myself. He says nothing to me only eyes me curiously like he's debating the best way to kill me so with a trembling hand, I raise my gun and aim at him.

"There's no need for that," he tells me. "I'm Argus and my job isn't to harm you."

Argus' view...

Pandora doesn't seem to understand me, and I notice its face shows fatigue and its hazel eyes, that mimic a human's, have the look of a lost puppy. Maybe it's too tired to understand me. The Factory has yet to recall or capture its wayward Un-Man. I don't believe Pandora has had any rest and even if it's a project, I don't know how long it can maintain such an unrelenting pace. It takes two steps back from me as if to bolt, so I quickly tell Pandora what I've been ordered to tell it.

"My employers the Council have some information for you," I say, taking a step forward, push the gun down to its side, and note Pandora's wounds, including the large bruise on its forehead. I tell it, "The Un-Man that the Factory sent after you, the Rogue, is no ordinary bio-mecha. There's a glitch in its programming. The Council wants you to be extra careful with it, and they also want me to inform you that the only way to defeat the Rogue is to reach the Delta Phase of your metamorphosis."

Katharine's view...

I have no clue what he's talking about, so I divert my eyes from his intense gaze, and I look at the sidewalk as if I'll find answers there. The world I've been thrust into is scary and confusing like a dark forest to a lost orphaned girl. All I want is for someone to help me. I smooth my hand over the stubble of my shaven head, trying to wrap my mind around what's happening to me. If I don't want to remain ignorant, I need to speak.

"You said the Council..." I begin. "I've heard that name before. Who are they?"

Argus starts to leave, but I desperately grab his wrist and plead with him, "Please tell me. You must at least know me. Please, tell me what my name is."

"You don't know your name?" he says as if he's surprised. "You're the Pandora Project." He grabs my other arm, turns my hand over, and places a 9 mm magazine in my palm. "If you want to survive the tests, never run out of ammo."

Argus turns to head down the street, and I can't let him go. He must be the someone I've been searching for to help me, so I shout after him, "Please! Don't leave me. Tell me what my real name is! There must be more... I must be more than a project."

He pauses as if my pleas have reached him, and he says, "I'm not here to kill you, but I'm also not here to help you. You're on your own. Though, it's regrettable you have no memory." He turns and looks at me with concern like one would peer at a crying infant, and then he speaks, "It must be very frightening not knowing why bio-mechas are trying to kill you." His expression softens for a split second and in that instance, I hope I see my knight, but then I realize the look he's giving me is one of pity as he informs me, "It's simple. You're being tested, and they're being tested." A black sedan pulls up, and he gets in as he tells me, "Know one thing... stay alive."

The car drives away from me as I stare at it unable to move. I don't want to be on my own. I want someone to help me and to make me feel safe like those arms... I see a flash or more like I feel warm gentle arms embracing me and cuddling me. I have felt safe before. I've felt protected from the monsters of this world.

I look at the car that's nearly out of sight, and the weight of what he told me hits me hard as if I've just received a death sentence from a judge. I can barely move my legs that feel like giant sandbags, so I slowly move over to a building, turn before fear and exhaustion causes my knees to buckle, slide down its rough wall, and land in a defeated lump.

"Someone help me," I whisper as I put my head on my knees, wrap my arms around myself, and rock back and forth. "Please, help me."

In the sedan...

Argus' view...

I remove my cell phone and make a call as the vehicle turns off of Wayfaring Lane.

"I have some new information for the Council," I start and wait until I'm patched in. "Pandora claims to have no memory of who it is and there does appear to be a wound on its forehead." I pause, listening to their reply. "Understood. I'll continue my surveillance and tell Pandora nothing about itself. As the Council wishes, so it will be done."

Back down the street...

Katharine's view...

I clench my gun, trying to understand things that seem unreal like I've been flung into a world that's not my own. Argus told me the Un-Men were sent by the Factory, that the one I can't destroy is called the Rogue, and that it's no ordinary Un-Man. The Factory knows who I am, but I don't know who or what they are. I also don't understand why they want me dead.

The coldness of the sidewalk chills my body, so I hug myself tighter as I continue to rock back and forth. I find little comfort in my own embrace and loneliness creeps up behind me and threatens to snatch what little hope I have left. Minutes go by, and I know what I'm doing won't help me and if I want to get out of this messed up situation, I have to focus on discovering the truth.

Argus said the Council wants me to be extra careful with the Rogue. It sounds like the Council's on my side but for some reason, I don't think that's true. I have to figure out what the Delta Phase is and what I'm supposed to turn into. They talk like I'm some sort of butterfly. I still don't understand why these horrible things are happening to me. Argus calls them tests and that I'm being tested and that the Un-Men are being tested, but what's the purpose of it all?

I lift my head and stare at the Dry Clouds in the dark sky. I need to get up and keep going, but I'm so exhausted. I'm tired of running and consider letting the Un-Man capture me, but then I decide against it. I'm more afraid of capture and what cruel things they'll do to me, so I slowly start to rise when panic sets in as my heart sounds the bio-mecha warning.

Ultra-Epi rushes through my veins as I stand and frantically look across the street and search for the relentless hunting machine. I eject the old empty magazine and with a shaky hand, I place in the new one. The e-field of my body alters as my eyes shimmer with blue electricity. Somehow, I know that the light coming from my eyes is called Ultra-Epi Light Emissions or Ult L-E.

The Rogue walks through a dark cluttered street lit by neon signs and street lights. The Type Four Model of Un-Man has short, brown, wavy hair and a pale chiseled face. Black smudges from Tainted Rain cover its brown suit. The Rogue passes three hookers and their pimp. I can sense that it knows I'm here, so I slowly walk away trying to blend into the background. I'm afraid if I run, the Rogue will spot me right away. I snailishly escape, but I can't seem to get the Rogue out of my mind. I see things that it must be seeing.

"Hey there, big guy," one of the women says, sizing up what she must think is a man. "Looking to party?"

"Yeah," another says. "Mr. Shades. What ya hiding behind those glasses anyway? Did yer old woman black yer eye?"

The Rogue turns to the second hooker, and its polarized spectacles reflect an XXX red neon sign as it questions, "Old woman? No, no old woman but if we party, I will show you what is behind them," the Rogue speaks as it removes its large knife, grabs her wrist as the other two women run off screaming, and then it says, "Let us party."

The hooker tries to pull away from the maniac waving a knife.

"Hey, none of that kinky stuff till we discuss a price," the pimp demands as he walks to them.

The Rogue punches him in the abdomen as it tells him, "Mind your manners. I am talking to the lady here."

The pimp grabs his stomach as he snarls, and then he pulls a small gun and threatens, "It isn't how things work here."

"How things work?" it questions and then still hanging on to the woman, the Rogue grabs the man's hand that holds the weapon, twists it, and breaks his wrist. It states, "This is how things work in my world."

The pimp cries out, drops the gun, collapses to his knees, and holds his wrist, screaming, "My hand! You broke my hand! Pucker!" he curses. "You're going to pay for this!"

I'm still fleeing in the other direction but stop as the pimp cries out again. I glance at my gun. Everything within me screams for me to escape while I have the chance, but one small voice tells me save them. The flow of the e-field increases, and the blue stage of the Ult L-E glows brighter as the voice grows louder in my thoughts. Save them.

The hooker, horrified by what she witnessed, tries to pull away and bolt but the maniac yanks her to him.

"Do not be rude and leave before the party has started," it says as it pulls her close and whispers, "Pandora. We have to wait for Pandora."

"Pandora? Sick mother-pucker! You can get yer freak on with someone else. Ya creep! Let me go, you pucker!" The woman screams, pulling against his hold and yells, "Let me go!"

I approach them, raise my gun, and aim for its forehead as the orange color of its dot-light changes to a fiery crimson. There's something different about this Un-Man, something deep within it that I can see and yet I can't see.

A wicked grin slithers across the Rogue's pale face as I tell it, "You can release her. I'm here."

"Ahh... Pandora..." The Rogue pauses, and then it asks, "Let her go? Why would I do that?"

"I'm your target. Why do you need to hurt anyone else?"

"Yours is a valid question," the Rogue states as it twirls the hooker around, wraps her up in its arms, and places its blade against her throat. The hooker whimpers as it continues, "I enjoy it, but bio-mechas are not supposed to feel anything so that makes me something special, does it not? I think that is why my creators are afraid of me and why they want to destroy me." The Rogue scans me, noting my fear and exhaustion. It also notices my eyes' bluish afterglow in the darkness of the day and that the light's not normal for a human. The Rogue tells me, "It is also the reason you want me dead."

"I don't want you dead. I just want you to stop hunting me!"

"I cannot," the Rogue replies as it examines every feature and minute scar on my face. It's creeping me out as it imprints them all to memory. "I am still a machine and at least for now, I cannot escape my programming."

I hate depending on the gun for my survival and try to talk my way out by saying, "Maybe your creators are afraid of you, not because you have feelings but because you have the potential to disobey your programming."

"You mean like you," the Rogue accuses me, and then it laughs. "You have done well so far to go against your own programming but no... For me, it is my potential for evil that they fear. I am sure of it." It cuts a tiny slit in the hooker's neck and makes her whimper louder as it asks, "But what would a machine know of evil? Am I not the product of my creators' hardware and software or was some other thing added to me that makes me different from the other bio-mechas?"

"I don't know. I only know you're hurting that woman," I answer as I start to pull the trigger.

The Rogue ducks behind the hooker so I have no shot as it demands, "Drop your gun or I will slit her throat. Do it!"

It cuts deeper into her neck, so I give in.

"Okay! Okay!" I utter as I place the gun on the sidewalk, making myself vulnerable to its malicious attacks. "Just don't hurt her!"

"Excellent," the Rogue speaks as it smirks and in that instance, I can't read it. It's like the Un-Man's blocking my ability to get inside its head.

"Now what?" I ask, not sure what my next move should be.

Panic sets in as I see the Rogue's grin spread out in a devious smirk, and it answers me, "Now you watch me kill her!"

Before I have a chance to utter no, a man comes up behind the Rogue.

"Hey!" the man shouts.

The Rogue turns as the man swings a metal bat, striking it in the head, and the Rogue stumbles back and releases the hooker. The attack knocks its polarized spectacles off, and the damaged frames fall to the street. I grab my gun and fire twice, but the Rogue with its lightning reflexes evades the bullets, and then it backhands the man, knocking him to the ground. It turns on me and freezes, but it's not looking at me, so I turn around and see a black van with tinted windows speeding our way.

The Rogue turns and flees down an alley, shouting as it runs, "It seems the Factory has tracked me down. We will finish this another day, Pandora!"

The hooker rushes over to the pimp and questions him, "Are ya all right? Oh, yer hand. Let's get ya to a hospital."

The black van speeds by us in their pursuit of the Rogue as the pounding of my heart lessens. I set the safety and tuck my gun in the back waistband of my pants. I wait till my irises lose their radiance before I walk over to the man. He rubs his bloodied mouth and looks up at me.

I offer my hand as I say, "Thanks."

"No problem," he tells me, grabs my wrist, pulls himself up, and then introduces himself, "The name's Preacher." He picks up his metal bat and glances into the alley the Rogue ran through. "That thing was no man. What was it?"

"They're called bio-mechas and that model is an Un-Man."

"They? There are more of them?"

"Yes, there are more," I answer and then mutter, "There are so many more."

"No kidding." He walks up to a stoop and picks up a white Bible as he comments, "Noir's getting wilder every day."

I move to the Rogue's broken polarized spectacles, pick them up, and peer through them. The lenses are mostly intact and intermediately fizz and crackle between green lettered readouts across tiny square screens. The polarized spectacles do more than hide their eyes, they relay tactical data from the Factory and from each other. I drop them to the sidewalk and crush them with my shoe in case the polarized spectacles carry tracking beacons, and then I start across the street.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Preacher asks as he jogs after me.

I turn as he places his hand on my shoulder, and then I repeat, "Where..? I... I don't know."

"Well, you look like you could use a meal and clean up a bit." He motions to the dried blood on my forearm and shoulder and adds, "And some first aid."

I stare at the thin scraggly man with shoulder-length stringy black hair. Preacher wears a worn navy blue t-shirt and broken black rim glasses taped in the front. His blue-gray eyes and pearly white smile catch my attention, and they make me feel safe and welcomed. Have I finally found my knight? I notice he's staring at me, and I blush.

Preacher waves his free hand like I've been looking at him as if he's some sort of weirdo, and he tells me, "I'm not being perverted or anything. I run a shelter, the Kitchen. It seems to me you've been on the go for a while, so I thought you might be hungry."

I nod as my stomach growls. I'd cry if I had the strength to. I think I've found my safe place.

"You aren't much for talking are you?"

I shake my head.

"Shy. That's okay. Come on. I believe grilled cheese and tomato soup are on the menu tonight."

Chapter Seven

Farewell My Friend

Seven months later...

32 A.D.C...

May 25...

Tuesday...

7:30 P.M...

Katharine's view...

A helicopter flies over Wayfaring Lane just beneath the looming Dry Clouds, and a gust sweeps up an old newspaper, tumbling it down the potholed blacktop as me and Preacher sit on a stoop in front of the Kitchen. We watch the people in the neighborhood as he tries to comfort me in his own way. Preacher once told me he's never seen someone so lonely or lost. He understands that we're from two different worlds but... Preacher still wants to understand me as desperately as I want to be apart of his life. What frustrates me the most is that my past, that keeps eluding me, just won't let it happen.

He glances at me and must notice how depressed I am. He rests his rough calloused hand on mine, and we sit there in silence for about twenty minutes. I try not to be so distant, and it's still hard for me to connect. There have been so few people who have been good to me, and he's top on the list.

"What are you thinking?" he asks me.

I start to answer but instead, I stare up at the ever-present nemesis of Noir. I've always wondered how something so fluffy and so soft looking could beat back the might of the sun; it's only another question on my endless list of questions. Since awakening in Etna Toys, I've discovered nothing about my past or why I'm hunted.

I glance at his hand. Usually, his touch makes me feel better but not today. Only answers will fill the hollowness of my soul, so I gently pull my hand away from his and rest my hand on my lap. I'll do almost anything to find some scrap of my past. If I can just find out if Kat's my real name and where I come from, I'll be happy. It hurts too much not knowing, and I don't think Preacher understands. He doesn't understand how frustrating it is and that in itself hurts. I'm alone in a void of uncertainty and because of that, I'm a stranger in our relationship, but I don't know why I haven't shared this with him. I guess I'm afraid he won't understand, and I don't think I can take it. I can't be alone in something else, so I haven't said anything.

When I don't answer his question, Preacher looks down at his Bible he always carries as if he's unsure of what to say. It's like he's searching for words that will comfort me, and then he finally tells me, "Katharine, don't you know there's more to this life than what you can see?"

I focus on the book he holds, and then I reply, "You have told me but still, there's something within me that wants to discover who I am." I stare at my worn shoes and speak softly, "And yet, there's this part that fears what I might discover."

I turn to him, hoping to find a sympathetic heart and a look of understanding to the uneasiness that haunts me, but what I find is Preacher peering at the street as his attention's drawn to a group of kids playing. He smiles... and I wonder if it's because he knows even in Wayfaring Lane children can find time to be children. When he doesn't notice my searching gaze, I turn my attention to the kids. I'd usually go play with them but today... so much is on my mind.

I frown, turn my attention back to my shoes, and then say almost in a whisper, "What if I'm a bad person? What if I've done terrible things?"

"We've all done bad things," he answers as he finally turns to me.

I lift my gaze back to him, searching once again for the sympathetic heart and the look of understanding, but all I see is that his expression saddens as if his statement was a reflection of his own life. I notice a red VX Corvette with the license plate FromAshes drives by with a blonde lady at the wheel before I once again divert my eyes to my worn shoes.

"I feel like I should be searching for something," I tell him, not sure he's really listening. I grab my backpack that's sitting beside me, unzip it, remove the worn note, business card, and the music box that was with me at Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse, and then I say, "I know these are clues to my past, but how do they fit?"

"Our Gracious Lord has a plan for you. I know it and in due time, he'll show it to you. You only need to be patient."

His words don't help me, and I wonder again if he's really listening as I say, "That's all I seem to have, but even my patience is running out."

Preacher grins and his blue-gray eyes and pearly white smile catch my attention once again. His warm expression makes me feel safe and gives me some hope; it gives me hope that my search won't be in vain. I no longer fear he's not listening to me as I lean over and lie my head on his shoulder. If only my life was always this peaceful, then...

* * *

Five months later...

October 12...

Tuesday...

10:11 P.M...

The day before Kat arrived at Topa's estate...

Katharine's view...

A car burns and then explodes, sending fiery shrapnel in all directions. Bullet holes litter the buildings, and the citizens of Wayfaring Lane run screaming for their lives as I return from meeting an informant who never showed.

An old bag lady holding a golf club runs up to me out of breath and exclaims, "Someone shot Preacher!"

"What?" I utter, and then I demand, "Where is he?"

The bag lady points with the golf club as tears stream down her wrinkled face.

I take off running in that direction as anxiety presses against my chest. A million things run through my mind as I hurry toward the Kitchen, screaming, "Preacher! Preacher!!"

I continue running till I spot Argus who's standing at the entrance of an alley with his back to me as he stares at the pavement. I run past him and find Preacher lying in a pool of blood. He's been shot several times in the chest. I freeze, paralyzed with dread, and I stare in disbelief at his lifeless body.

"No," I whimper and take a step forward. "No."

I walk to Preacher and collapse at his side. I fear touching him and discovering the truth as my eyes burn with my cowardice and anguish. He can't be dead. He's not dead. I pick up his hand, and his skin's cold to the touch.

"Preacher," I whisper, looking into his pale face. "Look at me." He doesn't respond to me. "Don't you die on me." I squeeze his hand. "Don't you leave me alone." He still doesn't respond, so I turn to Argus and desperately order, "Hurry! Go get some help!"

Argus doesn't move or say anything, so I turn my attention back to Preacher. I rub his cold hand as if to bring warmth back into it. My mind already knows something that my heart refuses to believe.

"Don't worry," I tell him. "Help will be coming, hang in there. You have to. You can't leave me alone." I lean to him, pleading, "I can't bear my life without you so please... stay with me."

I lean back, looking at the man who was there when I wake screaming in the middle of the night in the shelter, the man who held my hand and stayed by my side for three days when I had been shot, and the man who didn't care that bio-mechas hunted me or that I'm the Pandora Project.

His eyes are closed, and he looks as if he's sleeping. I notice there's something missing about him, not something physical but spiritual. I know it's too late as my heart realizes what my mind has kept from it, and I finally allow myself to believe he's gone.

"Not you!" I scream. "Not you!!" I shake him and cry, "No..!" I cradle his head in my arms and wail to the heavens as I beg him, "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"

My heart aches, and my eyes swelter with a dry grief as I'm unable to shed a tear. It never tortured me before that I couldn't cry, but now I wonder if it's because I'm something like a bio-mecha who's not capable of expressing grief.

I sit there for minutes, holding Preacher in my arms as his blood saturates my t-shirt, and then I rest my head on his and whisper, "Forgive me, I should have been here. You told me not to go to the meeting and that it might be a trap, but I didn't listen. I had to go. I had to find that scrap." I sniff before continuing, "I should have listened but no... I had to find out if the man knew anything about my past, but he wasn't there. No one was there."

I notice Argus' shadow that's stretches down the alley, and I wonder if the Council's behind this and if they lured me away to kill Preacher in another one of their tests. My sorrow turns to anger as I come to the conclusion that the Council did kill Preacher.

I direct my rage at Argus and demand, "Who did this? Who shot him?"

He doesn't answer me, and he just stands there as the breeze whips his black trench coat as if he's a stoic knight standing guard at a drawbridge. I know he's no knight, knights are gallant and protect the weak. No one can't protect if they only watch.

I snap at him as if yelling at myself for not being there to save the man I love, "I know you saw... You're always watching. Was it the Council? Did they have Preacher killed? Did they have him killed to get at me because I'm not passing their tests? Because I'm not passing something called the Gamma Phase?" I gently lay Preacher down, stand, grab Argus by his coat's collar, and slam him against the alley wall. "You were here, weren't you?" I scream, wild with rage. "You were here and did nothing!" I beat my fist on his chest. "Isn't that right? Tell me! Did you watch them kill him?"

"Yes," Argus answers as he looks down at me, taking my hits as if they're a small part of his penitence. "My job is to watch," he tells me as his expression remains blank. "I'm not to hinder or help. My job is to–"

"Shut up! I hate you!" I snap at him as I drop my fist, lean my head on his chest, and whisper, "I hate you."

My words must sting as if I punched him for his body flinches. I lift my face to scream at him again, and the next thing that happens surprises me. His eyes are watering. Argus never showed any emotion before and for the longest time, I thought he was an Un-Man.

Argus lifts his hand as if he's going to stroke my head and soothe my sorrow, but then he drops his hand. He had told me once that he developed something his training should have prevented. He developed feelings for me. A part of me wants to reach out to him and find some comfort with him, but I can't. He's part of the Council... He's part of those who did this to Preacher.

I deeply heave as sorrow and anguish drown me, and then I demand, "Tell me. Tell me who murdered Preacher. Was it the Council or the Factory?"

He doesn't answer me and that makes me more infuriated with myself than with him. It's not Argus' job to protect Preacher. I should have been here. I should have listened to Preacher's advice, so I direct all my anger at Argus only because he's standing there.

"For once in your life, do something useful! Take a side... Take a stand!" I scream as I die inside. "Be more than an observer!" I look up into his watery blue eyes, looking... no pleading for comfort and whisper, "Kill me." I strike his chest with my fist; it's the only thing I can think to do for no one will wrap their arms around me again. "Help me," I beg as I hit him again. "Just do something!"

I hide my face in his coat, and my body trembles with sorrow and heartache, knowing nothing will bring back Preacher and that I'm all alone.

"Topa," Argus whispers. "Topa ordered the Closing on Preacher. He has an estate on the outskirts of the Hellenistic Sector."

I sniff, pull myself back, and stare at him heartbroken. I stare at him for a long time, and then I slap Argus in the face, and he only looks at me. I tell him with self-loathing thick on my lips, "That's for doing nothing and letting Preacher die."

It was me though... I let Preacher die. I'm the one to blame because I wasn't here. My eyes still burn as I turn my back on Argus and tell him, "I don't ever want to see you again." I walk over to Preacher, take the Bible from his grasp, and head out of Wayfaring Lane as I inform Argus, "You're my shadow no more so don't follow me."

I leave the alley and start on my grim quest. I'll kill Topa. My knight... the one who saved me from my despair is dead, so I go to slay the dragon who murdered him.

Chapter Eight

From The Ashes

Present time...

October 13...

Wednesday...

9:47 A.M...

Katharine's view...

Topa's office feels menacing and reeks of corruption as the men in the photos stare at me. They seem to glare down at me as if I'm the monster in the room, but I ignore their silent accusations as my heart aches so much it makes me ill. Preacher gave me the strength to go on, and he made me feel like a person, not a project. Now I feel empty, alone, and part of some twisted experiment. Topa will pay for killing the only light in my life. I'll snuff out his flame as he had Preacher's life extinguished.

My gun weighs heavy in my hand, and I don't know how much longer I can hold it up. Sorrow overwhelms me as I aim for Topa's forehead. I have to make the pain go away, and this is the only way I can think of to make it stop hurting. Preacher's presence is here with me as I cradle his book, clenching it as I will him to come back to me. I know he won't be coming back and as I grip the gun, I also know Preacher would want me to do this. He's urging me on. He's telling me to take the shot and kill the dragon but... I feel like I'm missing something. I feel as though I'm about to betray him in some way.

Topa must notice my hesitation for he questions me, "Have you ever killed someone?"

I don't answer as I start to press my finger against the trigger. Topa's death will be like the others. He will die just like the Un-Men. I'll squeeze the trigger, and the bullet will penetrate his forehead and enter his automaton brain. No... That's not right. I can't be naïve about it. This killing will be different. Topa's flesh and not a bio-mecha, so I have to be honest with myself. I waver a little. I'll be taking a life, and it's the one thing I fought so hard not to do, but he killed Preacher so it has to change things. Preacher was my friend, and I lov...

I let the last word fade from my mind. I have no right to claim that type of relationship, not when I couldn't admit that simple word to Preacher. I pause in my thoughts as grief seizes me again, and I scream, "Nothing will bring Preacher back, so you have to die!"

"It isn't all that easy taking someone's life," Topa tells me as he reaches down, and I hear him open a desk drawer which probably has a gun in it. "Can you do it?"

"I will kill you! You murdered Preacher! You should die!"

My arm shakes as rage and grief shrieks at me to pull the trigger but something holds me back.

He must see the hatred in my eyes for Topa becomes a little nervous, but then two of his men enter from the door behind me, and he regains his confidence and questions, "Preacher? Oh... You mean the do-gooder causing me problems on Wayfaring Lane. You say he's dead?"

"You know he's dead! You ordered the Closing!"

"Maybe I did."

"I know you did!" I scream as the pain in my chest worsens, and I can no longer withstand the sorrow wanting to consume me. My resolve to kill Topa vanishes as I wish with all my being that Preacher would wrap his arms around me and tell me everything will be all right. I know that will never happen, and my gun arm drops slightly, and I no longer aim at Topa. I pull into myself, and once again aim the blame at my own feet. I should have never left Preacher's side. He's dead because I wasn't there to save him.

"You're here to do what?" he asks. "Kill me?" Topa looks me over and mocks my resolve, "You don't have it in you."

I can't let him dictate my revenge, so I lift my gun as if this action alone will give me the courage, but something within me tells me courage's not what I'm missing. I ignore the voice and tell him, "You should die for what you did but before I kill you, I have to know. Do you work for the Council or the Factory? Which one of them had Preacher killed?"

"The Factory I've never heard of but the Council..." He studies me more closely as if seeing me in a darker shade than before, and then he questions me, "What would someone like you know of them?"

"You didn't answer my question! Who do you work for?"

Topa laughs at me again as if I should know the answer, and then he tells me, "I work for no one but myself."

I don't believe him, and I let him know by saying, "You can refuse to answer me, but I know better." I scream, "You have to die because you killed him!"

I aim the gun again as I wrestle with the trigger and my emotions. I don't understand... I shouldn't be hesitating. I should shoot Topa and finish it! At that moment, I once again feel the worn leather of the book, reminding me of Preacher and this time, I hear his true voice. I drop my gun arm and sob as I finally understand. Preacher wouldn't want me to take revenge. It's wrong. He wouldn't want me to kill someone because of him, and he would never tell me to take the shot.

Outside the window...

Kimberly's view...

I watch the entire scene unfold with that woman. Idiot! You're weak and spineless. I grip the PPK. Kill him. Take your revenge. I wouldn't hesitate if someone had killed someone precious to me.

End Kimberly's view...

Within the Sanctum...

An alarm sounded. The Chamber Analysts and supervisors fell silent as they tensed, fearing the reaction of the Council. On the center screen in large red letters blinked "Third Evolvement Failure".

"NO!" Mr. Decuma shouted as he slammed his fist on the table, joggling his laptop. "Pandora failed! Why can it not take a life? Pandora has no problems dealing with the Un-Men, but it has refused to kill every human assassin we sent after it."

"The Un-Men are bio-mechas. They are not alive," Ms. Nona stated. "Pandora knows the difference even with the conditioning."

"Should we terminate the project? "Mr. Decuma asked.

An analyst turned off the alarm as Mr. Morta replied, "No, not just yet. All we need to do is find a sufficient catalyst."

"What about the tests?" Ms. Nona questioned.

Mr. Morta ordered, "Call off the bounty on Pandora's head and cancel the Life Closing for now. Pandora could use the rest."

"Agreed. I stated my concerns earlier over its fatigue," Ms. Nona said. "We have been pushing it too hard. Most subjects would have broken by now, and what about the Un-Men? Can we get the Factory to call them off?"

"We can request it, but I doubt they will," Mr. Morta answered. "The Factory feels they have as much of a right to Pandora as we do and most likely, they will continue to test their bio-mechas. We will focus on finding a catalyst for now."

"Agreed," Ms. Nona and Mr. Decuma said in one accord.

Back at Topa's estate...

Katharine's view...

Topa's henchmen quickly grab me from behind, and one of them takes my gun.

"Vengeance is mine, says the Lord," Topa speaks and then chuckles as one of his henchmen grabs the book from me. "I think you should take up a new religion because this one has failed you." He motions to his henchmen and orders, "Take her to the wine cellar and hold her there. I'll be down later to deal with our new guest."

They nod and start to take me outside as Topa closes the drawer to his desk. He stands, walks to a wall safe, and starts to unlock it.

Kimberly's view...

I wait until the two men escort that woman down the path, and then I make my way to the office door. I remove my knit mask right before I turn the knob and go in. Topa's standing in front of a wall safe and turns to me as I enter. I shut the door behind me.

"Now what is it?" Topa asks as if he's irritated with me for disturbing him.

I lock the door as I state, "I usually don't let anyone see me." The Mark doesn't know the reason for my arrival but he soon will, and I take a bit of wicked pleasure from that fact as I tell him, "But you're a special case."

"I'm going to have to do something about my security." His expression changes to one of perverted interest as he ogles my body and that only upsets me more, and then he states, "I suppose you're also one of Preacher's friends." He moves to the side of his desk and pulls out his chair but doesn't sit as he continues, "Perhaps you're a lady of the evening who can't live without her daily confessions?"

The man's oozing with grime, and it's like he's slinging it at me, so I sneer as I move to the middle of the office and order him, "Keep your hands where I can see them. I don't need you tripping any silent alarm and as for my profession–" I throw my business card on his mahogany desk as I state, "–this should answer that."

Topa glances down at it and then questions, "What's this? A firebird?" He recognizes the emblem and sits in his chair as if someone shoved him down into it. "No... You can't be." He peers up and panics. "Puck! You're the Phoenix?" He stands, searching for a place to run. "You're a Closer! Don't kill me! I'll pay you anything! I can give you credits or–" Topa motions to his safe as he states, "–I have cash."

"Hades... You really disgust me. Why is it I always hear the same old thing from you Marks? Do you really think you can buy off a Closer? Well, you can't." I clear my throat and then state, "Samuel R. Topa, the Valhalla Corporation has decided they no longer want to do business with you. They're tired of losing their shipments of Sunna Snapps so under the Life Closer Clause of your contract with Valhalla, I am authorized by the Assassin's League to terminate your life."

"But why kill me?"

"I'm only guessing, but it sounds like the narcotic Sunna Snapps hasn't been approved for use, but you're selling it anyway for the corporation. A kind of clinical street trial, but the participants don't know they're guinea pigs. You messed up when you lost a few of the shipments," I reply as I aim. "The Valhalla Corporation is now tying up loose ends and using the pretense of your contract to do it." I shoot twice and smoke rolls from the silencer and with no emotion, I add, "You know... just business."

Gray matter splatters the wall as Topa falls back in his chair and blankly stares at the ceiling.

For once, someone got what they deserved. For Ares' sake! To think this grimy guy had a preacher killed and used an Illicit Closer to do the job. Did he really think the Assassins Guild wouldn't find out? I glance at the black and white photos on his wall. I know people like us are going to Tartarus, but you had to provoke whatever god you believe in to send you there a little early.

I pull my knit mask back on and head out the front door. I want to leave the estate as soon as possible and forget about this horrible week. I really need to take a shower now.

Chapter Nine

The Un-Men Arrive

Points of interest...

Corporations had to develop alternatives for those addicted to nicotine since tobacco plants were nearly wiped out the first few months after the Dry Clouds appeared. The first year of the Dry Clouds (Zero Year), tobacco farms were started on the Light Side of the planet. Twenty-eight years ago, the Corporate Senate decided that crops planted on the Light Side had to produce food, so NicPhake and other synthetics were created. The idea was to wean people off of smoking altogether. The synthetic tobacco proved to be as addictive, and the secondhand smoke from NicPhake caused blindness in some infants. NicPhake was then regulated and could only be acquired with a prescription.

10:12 A.M...

Four black Chrysler 3000s drove across the road leading to Topa's estate. The human drivers parked, turned the headlights off, plunging the area back into darkness, and then the passenger and the two back doors opened. Three Un-Men got out of each car, and the vehicles rocked back and forth as the Un-Men exited. They moved to the back of their vehicles as the drivers popped the trunks, and an Un-Man of each group removed Uzis from the back and armed their brethren and once they were armed, their Input Sensor blinked three times as they received their orders from the Factory.

They uttered, "Setting programming to Infiltration Mode. Eliminate any obstructions to primary Seek and Destroy Program."

The dozen Un-Men gathered in front of the lead vehicle and looked at the north gate that was about a hundred feet down the wall from them. They synchronized to determine the best entry point and relayed their findings to the Factory.

Five armed men stood guard within the gate. The guards noticed them when they pulled up and readied themselves to engage the armed intruders and if they had to, the men would shoot on sight.

In unison, the Un-Men nodded their understanding of the Factory's orders. They slung the Uzi over their shoulder and started for the wall directly in front of them as the drivers drove the vehicles away. The Un-Men climbed over the fifteen-foot wall by stabbing their fingers into the brick. Each thrust of a hand into the mortar and clay sounded like a boot crunching across the snow; it sounded like an army marching across the white powder as they all scaled the wall.

"The intruders climbed over!" a man at the gate yelled.

"Quick, radio in backup!" another man yelled through his WM-B.

The five guards opened fire on the intruders, and bullets riddled the dozen bodies, filling their business suits with holes. The Un-Men remained standing, staring ahead. The guards ceased fire and glanced at one another, seeing that the intruders were still alive.

The Un-Men turned their heads in an eerily co-occurrence and looked at the guards.

"Obstacle encountered," they stated as they assessed the obstruction.

Two of them lifted their Uzi, aimed, and shot the men, and the men's bodies jerked as the wave of bullets bombarded them. The Un-Men ceased, and the men collapsed to the ground. The two Un-Men scanned the bodies and determined the men's life signs had ceased.

"Obstacle eliminated," a Team Leader stated. "Setting programming to Seek and Destroy. We will track down Pandora and eliminate her."

They headed into the heart of the estate in four groups of three as they all stated, "Pandora will not escape us this time."

Earlier at Topa's house...

The two henchmen shoved Kat down the stairs of the cellar and followed after her as the wooden steps creaked with their weight and once they reached the bottom, one of them ordered, "Warner, frisk her."

Warner did and took the music box, business card, and the note from her pant's pocket and set them on a table. He laid the white book and her gun there after he had ejected the gun's magazine and cleared the weapon's chamber. The other henchman motioned with his gun to a chair for her to sit, and she complied. Racks of wine filled the cool dusty room, and a rat scurried across the concrete floor in the back.

One of the henchmen grabbed her chin, lifted it up, examined her face, and said, "You aren't much to look at, are ya?"

Katharine's view...

I don't answer him, there's no point, there's no point to anything. The walk from Topa's office allowed me time to think. I was wrong before... Preacher might not have wanted me to take revenge, but I should have. I should have ended Topa as he so callously snuffed out the only light in my world. I had Topa in my sights, and I couldn't pull the trigger. It was my duty, and I shouldn't have listened to my heart. I failed, so I must concede that this is my fate for not killing Topa. I deserve far worse for not saving Preacher.

The henchman releases my chin and joins the other man at the square table. They both remove their WM-B and breathe in the room's filtered air.

I wipe my hands over my face as I regret allowing a sense of right and wrong stop me. I remember Preacher and the more I think about him, the more I think about how I failed to save him and how I fail to do what I had come to do.

"What do you think Topa will do to her, Muggs?" Warner asks.

"Don't know," Muggs replies as he shrugs. "Slap her around I guess. What does he usually do with women?"

Warner picks up the music box, opens it, and Unfinished Melody plays as I relax in the chair and my eyelids droop. My sorrow and pain vanish with the melody as it lulls me into an oblivious euphoria. Nothing matters when I exist in this state, not even the death of Preacher.

"Hey, she's falling asleep." Muggs stands, kicks my chair, and orders, "Stay awake!" He glances at the book and adds, "Maybe use this time to pray or don't you know you're going to die?"

Entranced by the melody, I ignore Muggs and listen as if I'm a youngster and the music box is the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I'll happily follow the bewitching music and vanish from existence. I stay in this euphoric state until Warner closes the lid, ending the melody.

After he does, Warner examines the music box more closely and states, "This ain't no ordinary trinket. It's electronic or something."

"You could pawn it at least," Muggs says. "It is silver."

With the drug-like music gone, my pain and sorrow rush back like a runaway hovertrain. Feeling nothing would be better than this heart pang, so I plead, "Could you please let the melody play?"

"Shut up! You don't get a final request," Warner tells me, then props his feet on the table, and starts rolling a cigarette with synthetic tobacco.

Muggs looks around the cellar as he says, "I've heard a couple of stories of people who've been taken down here. Isn't there another entrance to this place? One that comes up in the middle of the estate? I've heard–"

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I ignore the men as they talk and focus on the cellar door like a prowling tigress about to pounce. Ultra-Epi courses through my blood as the e-field of my body alters. I can see it happen like I'm reviewing a video of myself. My eyes spark with blue voltage and in a calm voice, I say, "They're here."

Warner lights the cigarette and blows white-pink smoke from the side of his mouth. He takes another drag of NicPhake as he ignores my warning. He doesn't even look at me.

"Who's here?" Muggs asks, turns to face me, and gapes, seeing my eyes. Everyone usually reacts in the same way when they see the Ult L-E, but I'm still not used to how they look at me. They look at me like I'm some sort of evil monster. He stands and nearly knocks over his chair as he inquires, "Are you some sort of creature from the underworld?"

"They're here," I repeat. I don't care if the Un-Men find me or not.

Warner becomes notably upset. I don't think he heard his partner's comment, and he yells at me, "Didn't I tell you to shut the puck up?" He stands and lifts his hand to strike me as white-pink ash drops from the cigarette, and then he pauses and asks, "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"There are twelve intruders at the north gate!" a man yells over the intercom of their WM-Bs. "Hades! They've scaled the wall and are inside!"

Warner picks up his mask and listens.

The man on the other end breathes hard as if he's running.

"We're engaging them."

Weapons fire fills the airwaves.

"They must be wearing armor. We're switching to–"

There's a pause.

"Two of them are turning toward us and have lifted their weapons! Take cover!"

The rapid tat-tat of Uzis drowns out the man's screams.

Warner turns to his partner and orders him, "Quick, get on the radio and see what Topa wants us to do."

"Right, I'm on it." He puts his WM-B on and activates the intercom and speaks, "Boss, this is Muggs."

There's no reply.

"Boss, this is Muggs."

There's still no response.

"Can anyone hear me?" Only dead air returns his call, so he turns to Warner and questions, "Now what?"

Warner thinks for a moment and says, "You stay with the woman. I'm going to head to the main house and see–"

Gunfire erupts above ground, drawing their attention.

Muggs looks up to the cellar's small window and utters, "It's outside the house!"

"These intruders move fast," Warner says. "We need to get out of here!"

The door to the cellar burst open, and three Un-Men start down the stairs, aiming their Uzis.

"Target acquired," they state in their monotone voices. "Will now terminate Pandora."

"Hades!" Muggs curses as he and Warner draw their guns.

The men open fire, and the Un-Men continue down the steps unhindered by the metal barrage.

"Puck! Why won't they die?" Warner yells. "What are they?"

I find my resolve to face Topa again, so I run to the table, grab my things, and then turn the table over. I duck behind it and glance at Warner and Muggs, knowing they're doomed and at that point, I don't care. The only thing I care about is that this will give me a second chance at Topa.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Muggs asks as he turns to me, and then a bullet strikes his shoulder, knocking him back.

Warner grabs him, pulls him behind some crates, and continues firing at the three intruders as they reach the bottom of the stairs. "Die already, you puckers!!"

Muggs leans on the crate to support himself and returns fire.

I dash for the rear of the room as bullets spray by me and in the back, I find a door. I turn the knob, but it's locked, so I stand back, fire at the old lock, and kick in the door. I sprint down a tunnel, hearing the two men die as the Un-Men overrun their position. I'm so full of sorrow and grief, it doesn't matter to me if the men die. Hatred fills my heart. They got what they deserved for working for such an evil man. I follow the tunnel to a ladder as bloodlust fuels my manic dash, and I climb to the surface where a manhole opens into a group of apple trees. No Un-Men or guards battle in the immediate area, so I take the time to check over my weapon. My heart slows since the danger's gone for the moment, and the blue Ult L-E fades as the Ultra-Epi dissipates in my blood.

A raven cawing from the branch of an apple tree draws my attention. I peer at the bird as it seems to be searching for something. Maybe the raven has also lost someone dear to him or maybe... I focus on happier thoughts. Maybe the raven is looking for someone who's dear to him so that they might be reunited. I notice the tree. Red fruit litters the branches, and I feel the warrior within me who's in the rages of battle change to a woman who's in mourning. Preacher loved apples. He had one almost every day. I close my eyes and hold the bloody book to my chest. Topa will die this time and nothing will stop me. I rush toward his office, determined to finish him off no matter how grave the sin is.

Smoke from gunfire and small explosions linger in the air as I hurry by several bodies and one Un-Man they managed to disable. Electrical snaps fly from several holes in its head. The humans' red blood and the Un-Man's black oil mix in a small pool, and I feel a smidgen of guilt. Those men wouldn't be dead if the Un-Men weren't hunting me, but the guilt leaves me as hatred returns, drowning the small voice that utters save them. I duck behind a hedge as four men rush past me.

Fright pales their faces as one shouts orders, "We have to pull back from the gates and meet at the armory. We need heavy artillery."

The group of men hurries on. The thought of helping them against the unstoppable monsters never even crosses my mind, too much animosity clouds my thoughts. I step from the hedge, turn to continue to Topa's office, but pause, narrowing my eyes. Another obstacle pops up to block my revenge.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

Ultra-Epi courses through my blood as my eyes produce a cerulean lambency. There are two Un-Men nearing my position. Fear doesn't fill my heart but rage as the warrior's side of me returns, and I grip the gun ready to eliminate all who stand in my way as an Un-Man steps from the side of a building to my left and another steps from a cluster of trees to my right. I've encountered five different models of Un-Men over the past year. The Rogue, they discontinued; it's a Type Four. The one to my left is a Type Two; it's a six-foot-six thin model with dark brown skin and a South African accent. The other one's a Type Five; it's a six-foot large muscular model with a Russian accent.

"Target acquired. I and another unit have cornered the Pandora Project," the dark skinned Type Two or T-2 relays over its I-Link.

"Commencing attack," the T-5 states.

I raise my gun and fire once to my left and once to my right. I'm going to kill Topa. The Un-Men fall to the ground and lie still as downed trees as I rush on. I'm not going to let anyone or anything get in my way!

Chapter Ten

Caught In A Crossfire

Earlier...

Kimberly's view...

At the northwestern corner of Topa's estate, I pull my black knapsack from the pile of leaves I had hidden it in, throw the grappling hook over the wall, and climb the cord to the top. I spot four cars parked by the north gate with twelve men near them who are carrying Uzis. I drop back down into the estate.

Great, just great! Who are those guys?

I whip up on the rope, forcing the grappling hook to fall down, and then I stow it in the knapsack. Gunfire erupts at the north gate as I race for the center of the estate. I'll try to go over the south wall. Gunfire continues as Topa's men shout, some in panic and some as their last cry. I duck inside a tool shed before six men rush past me. Weedwackers, a lawnmower, shelves, axes, and other lawn tools fill the outbuilding. I wait in the dark structure until I hear the men move on into the distance, and then I leave quietly. A man comes running up from the other direction.

"I've spotted an intruder," he shouts over the WM-B's intercom.

Another man joins him before I fire four times, hitting the first man twice in the stomach, and he falls, shrieking as blood pours from his abdomen. The other two bullets hit the second man in the shoulder and chest. The first man's shrieks alert three more to my position before he dies. I shoot one in the face before the second guard tackles me, and we struggle for my gun until a shot discharges. I moan and roll the dead man off of me, and by then, the third guard has his weapon trained on me.

"Toss your gun!" he shouts. "Now stand up."

I stand, raising my hands.

"I should kill you where you stand, but Topa will want to interrogate you."

If he only knew I had already killed his boss, he might have thought differently about keeping me alive. My luck is looking up.

He grabs my knit mask, pulls it off my head, and my hair frizzes out, and then I tell him, "You shouldn't have done that."

He questions, "Done what?"

I stare at him coldly as I say, "You shouldn't have seen my face."

I duck and twirl, sweep kicking his legs out from underneath him, and I draw my tactical knife from the sheath on my right calf. I jump on top of the man and slit his throat before he can react, and his blood splatters my face. I hate up close Closings. They're always so messy. I look at him with no emotion or remorse. I've been trained well. I stand from the dead man and scowl. The assignment has turned into a wetworks. Blood drips from my knife, so I bend and wipe the blade on the man's pants. I hear someone running towards me, so I abruptly turn and stand ready to attack the next guard.

Earlier...

Katharine's view...

Avoiding the guards and staying clear of areas the Un-Men are in, I spot a tool shed ahead of me. I notice a lady as the lady stands from a man she killed. I halt, raise my gun, and aim at her. The lady's preventing me from moving on, and I need to get by her and fast. I see the lady's knife and wonder if she's a guard. She's not well armed. I notice the men. No, she just dropped five of them. She can't be a guard. I glance over my shoulder. It doesn't matter who she is. I need to get by her and take my revenge before the Un-Men close in on me.

Kimberly's view...

I freeze as a female guard points her weapon at me. I look at the ground where my PPK lies and then to my knife. The female guard's too far away to lunge at, but I can throw my knife. I study her face. Wait... she's not a guard, that woman's the one from Topa's office. She's the one who couldn't kill him.

Katharine's view...

I start to shoot the lady in the leg when I believe I recognize her, and a sense of joy peeks over the mound of hatred and sorrow I feel. I've never come across anyone I thought I knew, and my mission of retribution loses its priority as I ask, "Have we met before?"

Kimberly's view...

I don't answer her, considering if that woman wasn't able to shoot Topa, what chance is there that she'll shoot me?

Katharine's view...

The lady ignores my question, and I don't know where I recognize her from. I do have to determine whose side she's on, so I ask, "Do you work for the Council or maybe you're a bounty hunter working for the Factory?"

I lower my gun a little, then raise it, and make a face as my heart hammers the bio-mecha warning. I gaze past the lady and realize that I stayed too long and they've tracked me down. I feel my Ult L-E trigger, but the light show doesn't seem to bother the lady for she comes at me with her knife. Instinct takes over, and I sidestep to the right and fire as the lady leaps at me like Tarzan attacking a tigress.

Moments earlier...

Kimberly's view...

I peer at that woman as something happens to her eyes. She must be wearing some sort of electrical device on her face for sapphire flames rage about and make her whole face burn with an angry aura. I look closer but don't see a device. With that woman distracted and muttering like a crazy person, I take the opportunity and pounce, lunging with my knife. That woman reacts much faster than I thought she could. I fear this is my end as she fires, but I continue my attack even as I wonder what the demon-like blue brimstone blazing from her is. The bullet barely misses my face as I bring my knife down. She blocks the chopping blade with her gun and kicks me in the stomach, and I stumble back and notice my PPK at my feet. I can't grab it just yet, so I stare at her for a long moment as if she's Lamia, the child-eating daemon. In all my years as a Life Closer, I've never seen anything like her.

I quickly shake off my dismay and terror and focus on my gun. If I can grab the gun, I can kill that hellish woman standing before me. I start for the PPK when gunfire from an Uzi erupts from the trees behind me, and I dive to the ground. That woman fires again. I roll, pick up my gun, move to a kneeling position, and search the area for my adversary, but that woman's gone. I run and take cover behind the tool shed and look at the line of trees where the Uzi fire came from. Sparks shoot up from among the trees, and I carefully make my way there and investigate, finding two men dead. Both have a single shot through their head, and I realize that woman wasn't aiming at me. I was wrong... that woman can kill, but she didn't kill me. Black blood trickles from the men's heads, and I step closer for a better look. What are they? I kneel to them. Are they robots?

I don't have time for this, so I stand and walk to the dead guard who's still holding my knit mask. I touch my cheek as a dreadful fear creeps over me. She saw my face! Hades! That woman saw my face, and I let her escape!

* * *

Katharine's view...

Rushing into Topa's office with my gun at the ready, I find no guards within and Topa leaning back in his chair with his brains splattered across the wall. I stand there, aiming at the man. We're both frozen in the moment. Sadness and regret wash over me as the gore keeps me fixated.

Tick... Tick...

An old clock sounds, filling the otherwise silent room with the passage of time, and I lower my gun. Am I relieved someone else killed him or am I upset that the privilege was taken away from me? I don't understand my emotions. Maybe I feel a little of both, and I take a step toward him, trying to determine who killed him. I walk to his desk, examining the bullet holes. I don't think it was an Un-Man. Two shots to the head look more like the work of a Life Closer.

Tick... Tick...

The clock sounds away the seconds as I look at the black and white photos of Topa's male relatives who had accused me earlier of being a monster. Time allows my hatred and sorrow to turn into regret and self-loathing. I move to Topa and stare at his terror-filled face, and I'm ashamed of my revenge filled thoughts. It shames me to say, but I don't know if I would have killed him. I'd like to think I would have changed my mind before it was too late but...

Tick... Tick...

I catch a glimpse of a red speckled business card with a flaming bird resting on his desk and pick it up. It's a calling card left behind by a Life Closer to the N.C.P.F. so they will know it's a Closing authorized by the Assassins Guild. A barcode on the back of the card can be read by a specialized H.H.C., which the Noir Civil Police Force carries, and prove the Closing's authenticity.

Deep in thought, I hold the card as a lot clouds my mind, and so it takes me a while before I realize the image is the same. I quickly remove the business card I found at Etna Toys a year ago and compare the two. My heart leaps with excitement. They're almost identical. I review the day's events. The lady I fought... I remember how she seemed familiar. Maybe she left this card. I rush out of the office. I have to find her, and I have to ask her again if she knows me.

I make it out of the estate through the south gate about ten minutes later and run into the pale glow of a pine forest. I follow an old truck road, and it comes to a fork just as a red VX Corvette with the license plate FromAshes speeds off, kicking up dirt. I pause and glance at the two business cards. I might have found someone who knows me. I stare at the trail of smoke and dust left behind by the car. I found the lady once, I can find her again. I stare down the road till the dust settles, then place the business cards in my back pocket, and make my way to the north side of the estate. I walk up to the gnarled oak and grab my backpack and jacket and then when I sense the Un-Men are near, I hurry back into the woods.

Tall scraggly Lantern Pines fill the forest and scent the air. Scientists created Transgenic Plants that could survive without the sun, and they created the Lantern Pines by genetically modifying a yellow pine with the extra-genome of a lanternfish, producing a tree that created its own light. The bioluminescence lasts several days after the needle's death, so even the forest floor produces a ghostly glow. The Dry Clouds cease their grumblings, forever looming over the land like a menacing specter. An owl hoots as I dash by its roost, and I flee till I sense the Un-Men have ceased their pursuit. The Ultra-Epi Light Emissions dissipate, and my heart ends its warning, so I slow to a walk, and a possum scurries past. I stop in a small clearing, undo the Velcro of my armor, remove the black Ravlek Vest, and look down at my bloodied white t-shirt. I pull a clean one from my backpack, take off the soiled one, and put on the new, and then I hold the bloodied t-shirt and Bible to my chest as I sit against a tree on a bed of glowing needles. I close my eyes to sleep. Preacher, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm alone in the world again, and I miss you... I miss you so much.

Time slowly passes, but I can't sleep. Over the past year, I have learned the Ultra-Epi that courses through my blood gives me abilities, but it also causes side effects. It took me a long time to figure out that the music box counters the side effects. All I have to do is listen to the tune, go into a trance-like state, and make myself vulnerable to attack. I feel anxious; it's the first side effect of the Ultra-Epi. I stare up at the canopy of ghostly pines. Preacher, forgive me. I weep without tears. Forgive me for not saving you.

My nose runs, and I wipe it with the back of my hand. Within the serenity of the forest and in the calming effects of crickets chirping and the wind rustling pines, a realization sinks in. Preacher, what would you think of me? In my anger, I hurt people. I let people die, and I almost killed a man today. Something I promised myself I would never do under any circumstance. I hug the book tighter. Oh Preacher, can you forgive me? God, please forgive me.

I remove the music box from my pocket, open its lid, and let the melody lull me. I don't care if I'm caught. I only seek relief from my anguish, and my eyes droop as I enter what I call the Drifting Time and leave behind sorrow, regret, and hatred.

Chapter Eleven

The Siblings

Russia, the Light Side of the planet...

October 13...

Wednesday...

10:42 A.M...

Two pilots sat in the cockpit of a V.T.O. (Vertical Take Off) thirty passenger plane. Engineers designed the aircraft to fly through the polluted barriercumulus of the world's Dark Half. The pilots prepared for takeoff on one of many circular pads among hundreds of other V.T.Os. landing and taking off.

In first class, Natasha pulled up the shutter of the plane's small window, and she looked at the sun as it rose over Moscow and pulled her white fur-lined, long, black coat close to her neck. "Look Nikolai." Her Russian accent was thick as she spoke, "Is it not beautiful?"

"Yes, Tasha," her twin brother said. He wore a white pinstriped gray business suit, and a gray Fedora hat rested on his lap. "As beautiful as you."

"I heard the place we are going is grisly."

"Yes, so remember that image." He motioned to the ball of orange and told her, "Where we are going you will not see the sun again." He burned the image into his mind. "Noir exists in endless night."

She turned to him and her face was full of worry. "Nikolai, I have a bad feeling about this trip."

He stroked her long black hair and took her hand. "I know you do not like to fly. Be brave, my sister."

"It is more than that." She looked into her brother's dark brown eyes. "I feel the place we are going is full of wickedness."

He squeezed her hand gently as he said, "Do not fear, my sister, I will always be by your side."

The engines of the V.T.O. roared as the airport's tower cleared the plane for takeoff. The copilot double checked the two moveable nozzles on each wing. They produced the thrust for vertical liftoff. He pulled the V.T.O. lever down, turning the nozzles horizontal and pushed the lever up to return the nozzles to vertical. The copilot gave the all clear, the pilot ignited the thrusters, and the aircraft lifted straight up into the sky. The plane rumbled and shook with the effort as Natasha buried her head in her brother's shoulder and after a few minutes, the copilot pulled the V.T.O. lever down, and the aircraft shot across the horizon.

Nikolai leaned over, closing the shutter. "It is over, we are in the air."

"I would not be here if it was not Voice who asked us to go to Noir for this Closing." She glanced at the shutter as she added, "Be where only plastic separates us from falling to the ground."

"Take courage, my sister." He reached into his coat pocket. "I will give you some sleeping pills, then you can let this flight go by while you dream."

"You think my fear will be any less in sleep? I will only have nightmares of crashing."

He gently squeezed her hand, so she would look at him. "Tasha, have I ever let anything happen to you?"

She stared into his strong face. "No."

"Do not fear. I will protect you. Rest. I will watch over you."

"Yes, rest." She closed her eyes, remembering a wolf name Salandra from a Russian tale and quoted a line Salandra had said. "I will fight back death in my dreams."

Nikolai remembered the same story where a raven named Draven replied to the wolf, and he said, "And I will keep death away from my branch."

She took the pills from him and popped them into her mouth.

"Let us change seats," Nikolai requested. "Once you are asleep, I would like to look out of the window and witness this Curtain they speak of that divides the world."

She nodded. He grabbed his hat, stood, removed a briefcase from the overhead compartment, and switched seats with her. Natasha asked for a pillow and a blanket from a female attendant. The attendant returned with the items, and Natasha took them, put her seat back, and soon fell asleep.

Nikolai opened his briefcase and removed an old detective novel called Blood Harvest by Kit Sire. He opened the book to the first chapter titled "The Woman Wore Green And The Man Gray". Nikolai read the first chapter to himself, "It ain't no easy street for a gumshoe. Long days and even longer nights... That's me, an old bloodhound for hire. Throw me a couple of scraps, and I'm yers for the day, week, whatever it takes. If yer looking for a dame or a mucker, I'll track them down."

Nikolai leaned back and grinned. "Kit knew how to write a good story. I feel like one of the mobsters in his novels." He straightened his white tie and in a gangster accent, he said, "I'm a Hood that brings the Big Sleep. A Cat ready to blow one down. In a couple of days, I'll finally have Tommy, and I'll be my own Chopper Squad."

He continued reading as a boy with his mother sitting across the aisle from him glanced at his book.

"What's that?" the boy asked as he pointed.

Nikolai peered up from the text. "This?" He lifted the book. "It's a novel."

"A novel?" The boy wrinkled his brow. "What kind of book is that?"

"A novel tells a story. They are very rare. This one is an antique. The Corporate Senate banned the making of entertainment books long ago. Today you have to have a license to carry a novel and many other forms of books."

The boy eyed the novel curiously. "I still don't know what it is. What's a story?"

Nikolai glanced at the boy's mother who was sleeping. Surely his mother told him tales of knights and dragons in the privacy of their home.

The boy's mother woke and saw her son talking with the stranger. She noticed Nikolai reading a novel and looked at him with disgust as if he was smoking dope. She changed seats with her child, forcing the boy to sit by the window.

Nikolai returned to his reading. Hours went by, and a female attendant walked up to them, leaned over his sister, and touched his shoulder.

"Sir, we are coming up to the Curtain."

"Thank you." Nikolai raked his hand over his face and through his buzz cut.

A male passenger in the seat in front of him said to a woman, "I hear the barriercumulus spreads almost an inch every week. If the Corporate Senate doesn't find a way to stop the Dry Clouds, the whole world will be covered."

"Is that right?" the woman asked.

"As right as anything you hear," the male passenger replied.

If that was true, Nikolai's homeland would be consumed by the barriercumulus. He opened the window shutter; it was still day. He looked across the wing at about 2 o'clock and in the distance, a charcoal-gray wall of clouds spread across the horizon and consumed the sky. The dark barrier raged with movement as if two creatures fought for dominance.

Nikolai cleared his throat and said, "Excuse me."

The female attendant turned. "Yes, sir."

"Do what you call Dry Clouds, do they always look that way?" He motioned outside.

She glanced out the window and replied, "No, only the outer area known as the Curtain acts this way. Once we're inside, they will look like normal storm clouds."

"Thank you."

Nikolai watched the barriercumulus as streaks of purple lightning lit up the mass. He didn't see them as normal storm clouds. He didn't see anything normal about them.

The seat belt sign blinked on with a ding as the V.T.O. ascended, flying above the Dry Clouds of the Earth's Dark Half into the high Troposphere. The female attendant walked the aisle, making sure everyone had their belt buckled.

"Excuse me," Nikolai said.

The attendant turned to him and spoke, "Yes."

"Why are we flying above the clouds and not through them?"

"As you can see, the Curtain is very turbulent, so we fly above the Dry Clouds until we have passed the Curtain. We will be flying about five miles in." She glanced over her shoulder when she heard another attendant call button, and then the attendant turned back to Nikolai. "It's safer to fly above them and then descend once we reach our destination." She started down the aisle to the other passenger. "We'll be over the outer edge of Noir shortly."

He turned to his sister and told her while she slept, "Not much longer and it will be over."

Within twenty minutes, the pilot slowed the plane as the copilot pushed the V.T.O. Lever up, turning the aircraft's nozzles to their vertical position, and the plane hovered. The pilot closed the air intake valves to the engines with a flick of his finger and switched to a stored clean air source. If the plane used outside air while moving through the barriercumulus, the pollutants would cause the engines to clog and die.

"Perhaps my sister is right," Nikolai said as the aircraft started a vertical descent to one of Noir's Airports. "This place is a wicked place."

The plane hit heavy turbulence, entering the Dry Clouds. He feared his sister would wake and panic, but she continued to sleep soundly. A few minutes passed, and the shaking subsided.

"If I could have everyone's attention," a male attendant announced over the intercom. "We will be landing shortly, and at this time please pull out the kits that were issued to you when you boarded. Our staff will be walking around to assist you." The male attendant paused as he helped an elderly lady remove a kit from underneath her seat.

Nikolai closed the shutter and gently shook his sister. "Tasha, wake. We are landing in the Rising Sun Sector of Noir, and soon we will be on a hovertrain to the Hellenistic Sector."

"Hmm..." She stretched and yawned. "Already? I did dream as you said. I dreamed of a sky full of stars."

He said, "I did tell you."

The male attendant announced over an intercom, "Inside your kits, you'll find an instruction booklet." He raised the handbook. "A Winnow Mask type A." The attendant lifted a small triangular device with a rubber rim which fitted over the nose and connected to a filter. "And the Liquid Oxygen Spray is known as L-O." He raised what looked like a fat ball-point pen. "Please wear the WM-A anytime you go outside, and it will keep you from feeling the ill effects of the pollutants caused by the petroleum based clouds. They can be dangerous for those not used to living below Dry Clouds." He paused. "The triangular filter fits over your nose. Breathe in through this filter and out through your mouth. The basic design mask has to be held to the face. If you find that you are outside a lot, you can purchase an upgraded version of the Winnow Mask that is handsfree." The attendant demonstrated and removed the mask. "If you should feel queasy or light headed, inject yourself with the L-O Spray and this will give your bloodstream a burst of oxygen."

The attendant paused for a moment. "Place the spray's head on your bare wrist or neck, press the red button on the top, and the solution absorbs right through your skin. Your body will take some time to get used to the air, so please keep your kits with you at all times. These items can be replaced at any drug store. If you have any questions, an attendant will help you."

Natasha looked at the mask. "They are not very fashionable, are they?" She whined, "I wish to be done with this Closing."

Nikolai turned to her. "Patience, sister. We will return to Mother Russia in time."

Chapter Twelve

Nexus Apartments

4:35 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

I drive my Corvette into the parking garage of the Nexus Apartments. I had stopped earlier at a gas station and changed out of my black clothes into a blue pantsuit and made sure to wash the splattered blood from my face. I get out of the car, make my way to my apartment, go in, and throw my knapsack on the couch in the living room. I go to the hall, walk to my bedroom, go into my bathroom, lean on the sink, and stare at myself in the mirror.

"Idiot!" I shout at myself. I let myself be seen. I turn on the faucet and watch the water run down the drain as the security I had in my job washes down the tube. I should have gone after that woman and killed her but no... I look up and stare at myself again. I panicked and ran. "Hades!"

I glance into my bedroom as the water continues to run. The screensaver of the flaming phoenix flies across the laptop, and the glow lights up the dark room, casting shadows across the floor and walls. I turn and face the sink and splash some water on my face, trying to wash away my anxiety over what the Assassins Guild will do to me once they find out my identity has been compromised. I dry my face with a towel then go and sit at my desk. I press the space bar to wake up my laptop, hoping also to wake up from this nightmare of my own making, and then I send an instant message and within minutes, a reply comes back.

"Topa's Closing is complete then," Voice types. "The payment will be placed into your account. Did you run into any trouble?"

I start to type no, but then I backspace and respond, "About a dozen robot-like men showed up and killed everyone in sight."

"Must be some sort of bio-mecha, perhaps the next generation of assassins," Voice types. "Most likely someone there was their target, but was it Topa? We'll probably never know, at least you got out."

I rake my hand through my hair, knowing the grave mistake I've made, and I move my hands toward the keyboard to write, and they shake with dread as I force myself to type, "Someone saw my face." I hit the send button and stare at the screen, and two grueling minutes pass with no reply. "What should I do?" I hit the send button again, hoping for a reply and praying for some guidance and solace.

"Find them and kill them. You know it is very dangerous, Phoenix. Even I don't know who you are or what you look like. If your identity gets out, you will become the target, and then the Assassins Guild will be forced to deal with you." The statement ends and another follows. "But before that happens, you know I will step in, and you don't want me to rectify the problem. You know my means."

I do know and there's no reprimand for a Closer. I grab the sides of my desk and grip them tightly. With Voice and the Assassins Guild, there's only one way to deal with a Closer who has lost their anonymity, and it's the sanctioning of their own Life Closing.

"Don't contact me again until this matter is taken care of. Voice signing off."

I glance at the dark afternoon through the bedroom's window as I roll my chair away from the desk. I have to find that woman, but I don't know her name. I only know she was there to kill Topa because he hired an Illicit Closer to murder someone named Preacher. I don't even know what he was a preacher of.

Hades... This is going to be impossible.

* * *

Two days later...

October 15...

Friday...

6:49 A.M...

Katharine's view...

Hundreds of street lights light up twilight as a horde of bats darts across the ever dark horizon. The sidewalk goes on forever in both directions as I make my way across West 1000 Avenue and pause, looking at the tall Nexus Apartments. It's the building of the Phoenix's nest. I walked all night and morning to reach this part of the Hellenistic Sector, and my shoes are like ten-pound dumbbells on my poor sore feet. I adjust the strap of the backpack that crosses my chest as I study the sensors on a ten-foot concrete wall lining the building's perimeter. They consist of a black sphere the size of a volleyball and are spaced about ten feet apart along the top of the wall. I follow the sidewalk to a gate, and on the gate's metal bars is a gold shield which is the Sphinx Corporation Emblem. I run my hand over the shield and then over a winged creature in its center with a woman's head and a lion's body. The creature's right paw is lifted, and its claws are extended. The emblem seems to plague every place I go. Even the Council and the Factory are departments within the Sphinx Corporation. I study the perimeter and wondered if the sensors provide more than security for the building. I put my hand up toward a black sphere, and I feel and hear a hum coming from the device. I visualize a bio-mecha approaching one of these things and being deterred so these spheres must act as a barrier.

A white van pulls up, and a man gets out and walks up beside me. He's dressed in a white uniform and I get no dangerous vibe off of him as he says, "Excuse me."

I move out of his way, and the man tips his white cap. "Thanks." He presses the button to an intercom positioned beside the gate and releases it.

"Welcome to Nexus Apartments," a man's voice says over the intercom. "I'm the manager. How may I help you?"

The delivery man presses the button again and speaks, "Delivery for Kimberly Griffin. Security Code 10 Alpha."

After a few seconds, the manager replies, "Code verified. Proceed to the gate that faces Knot Street, and I'll let you in."

The delivery man goes back to his van, starts up the engine, turns down Knot Street, and parks as I follow the sidewalk around the corner, walk by the vehicle's passenger seat, and notice it's empty. The delivery man gets out, strolls to the back of the van as he whistles, and then starts on a crate.

I watch as the man struggles to load a rectangular box on a flat cart, and then I ask him, "Where's your partner?"

"What did you say?" he questions as he pauses, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

I lean on the back of the van. "Usually at least two men do this kind of job, so where's your partner?"

The delivery man points his thumb over his shoulder. "He's out sick."

"Would you like some help?" I motion to the apartments. "I was on my way up."

He looks me over. "I'm not supposed to cause of business policy but... You aren't some murdering psycho are you?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Well then..." He places the wooden crate on the cart. "If you could push from behind, this thing weighs a ton."

I head to the back of the cart and push on the crate. The apartment manager and a security guard meet us at the gate.

The old white haired manager looks over his H.H.C. "Kimberly Griffin isn't home right now, so I'll show you in." He examines the delivery man's employee badge and types the ID number on the Hand Held Computer. "Follow me please."

The delivery man pulls the cart as I push, and we move to the glass front doors where another security guard buzzes us in. The manager leads us to a service elevator, and we along with the guard head up to the thirty-first floor. Security cameras monitor the hallways.

The manager stops in front of Kimberly's apartment and commands, "Apartment H, unlock. Manager code 12 Beta."

"Voice recognized as Nexus' Manager," the Apartment Computer System states. "Opening door."

"Wow," the delivery man exclaims. "Automated apartments. I bet you can tell the lights to come on."

The manager says, "Our apartments are equipped with voice commands and manual utilities, giving our tenants the best in security and luxury."

"I'll have to look into getting one of these places," the delivery man states.

He pulls the cart down a small entryway as I push and once we're in the living room, the delivery man starts uncrating a cedar chest, so I go and look around. The lady's apartment's huge and covers more than three thousand square feet. The entryway empties into an open kitchen with four barstools at the counter, a large living room is off to the left, beyond it down a hall are two bedrooms and two baths, and off to the right of the entryway, a small round table sits next to a window.

I do think it's odd that the table's so small, considering it's the only one in the apartment. I ask the delivery man, "Do you need any more help?"

"No, I got it from here. Thanks."

I leave, note the apartment's letter H on the door, head for the regular elevator, go up to the roof, and wait. I watch what little traffic travels West 1000 Avenue as I grip the icy metal railing that surrounds the top of the roof. Finally, I'll have some answers once I meet the lady who owns the two business cards.

A cool breeze sweeps in, chilling the air and my thoughts, so I zip up my athletic jacket, but it does little to stay off the cold. I have no idea what I'll learn from the lady, so I clench the jacket over my heart with my right fist as if in pain. I dread discovering the truth about myself, wondering if it will be worse than the unbearable ignorance I've endured the past year. Whatever happens next, it'll change my life forever.

End Katharine's view...

Back in Apartment H...

The delivery man finished his work and set the cedar chest against the wall in the living room out of the way. He placed the crate pieces back on his cart, had the manager sign for the package, and headed back to his van and once inside the vehicle, he made a cell phone call.

"I would like to speak with R.G." He waited for a moment. "Hello, Delivery Man here. Yes, my work is finished, and as per your instructions, I permitted Katharine to enter with me into the Nexus Apartments. She's still there." He paused for a moment, listening. "Yes, so far security doesn't know she is still on the premises. Do you want me to monitor the situation?" He started up the engine and drove the van, heading away. "Understood. Returning to base."

Chapter Thirteen

Confrontation

7:22 A.M...

On the roof...

Katharine's view...

I lean on the metal railing and continue staring at the road below and at times of quiet stillness, I feel the barriercumulus, and their presence is like an evil eidolon. If this is true, who does this phantom look-alike belong to?

The Dry Clouds softly roll and unsettle me, and they have done so ever since I first laid eyes on them, but there's also something else about the Dry Clouds; it's a hint of familiarity. I can't explain it, but today the foreboding's stronger than the familiarity. Is it because they're unnatural? Does everyone feel this way around them or is it just me? I watch them go by and look for shapes within the clouds and see an old sailing ship being chased by a sea serpent. The Dry Clouds have been around for thirty-two years and have been given the name the Great Specter of Noir. People also say that they're a mystery. I chuckle. In a way, we're the same.

An hour goes by, and I notice the Corvette pull into the parking garage. I jump up and down like a little girl who has just got the pony she wished for. I want to run back down and meet her and ask her all my questions, but I contain my excitement and wait a few more minutes, giving the lady enough time to arrive at her apartment. I don't want to come at her like some crazy person, so I'll have to keep my cool.

A few minutes later...

Kimberly's view...

I hear a ding and the whoosh of the elevator opening and then someone approaches me as I put my mail in my dark green purse that matches my pantsuit. I stand outside of my apartment and realize how odd it is that I've never seen any of the other tenants the whole time I've lived here. I need to at least get a glimpse of one of my neighbors, so I turn. My Closer training kicks in a second before I have a chance to panic as I spot that woman I've been hunting. For two days, I scoured Noir and turned the city on its head, but I couldn't find anything on this mysterious woman, not even her name. I drop some of my mail as I open my purse to grab my PPK, but then I remember the floor's security cameras. I can't kill her out here, not unless she threatens me, so I wait for that woman's next move.

Katharine's view...

Elated and full of expectations, I stop about two yards from the lady. Finally, after a year of knowing nothing, I'll have some answers. I can't stand my excitement anymore, so I question her as if I already know the answer, and I'm ready to give my old friend a big hug, "Are you Kimberly Griffin?"

The lady looks confused and very on edge like I'll pull my gun on her at any moment, but it's tucked away in my backpack. She must see me as threatening, so I smile real big to show her I'm a safe person as I repeat, "Is your name Kimberly Griffin?"

Kimberly's view...

"Yes," I reply as I step back and size up that woman who's smirking at me like some lunatic ready to murder me. I put out a lot of feelers while I was looking for her, maybe she already knows I've been hunting her and has come to strike before I can. I realize something else. She knows my name, so I have to eliminate her now. I reexamine her cheerful face, and she looks happy to see me like we're best friends and we haven't seen each other in years. I can't figure out why she's putting on this act and not attacking me unless she's also waiting to strike when there are no witnesses.

She says to me, "I had a contact in the Noir Civil Police Force look up your address from your license plate. It cost me two months worth of water rations." She starts to ask me something and looks over her shoulder at the cameras. She removes two business cards, shows me the blood speckled one, and then questions me, "Is this you?"

I grip the gun in my purse so sure that woman reaches for a weapon, but I'm surprised to see the business cards. I can't figure out what kind of game she's playing, and a million things go through my mind. That woman tracked me down and came all the way to my apartment. Is she hoping to blackmail me? Only an idiot would think they could blackmail a Life Closer.

I scan the hall to see if anyone else is on the floor and ask, "What do you mean, is that me?"

Katharine's view...

"I've been looking for..." I start to answer and then decide I shouldn't say the Phoenix out loud. Someone could be listening, and the lady might not want anyone else to know, so I continue, "I've been looking for this... Umm..." I flip the card over, look at the picture, and turn it back to her. "This firebird. Is this you? If so, I'd like to talk."

Kimberly's view...

I can't let her leave, and I can't kill her out here. I glance at the hall's cameras. If I can only get that woman into my apartment, then I can... I wickedly grin as I visualize myself shooting that woman and then I see myself standing over her lifeless body. All I'll have to do is call Voice for a Guild Prep/Cleanup Crew, and I'll have this annoyance taken care of.

That woman reaches down, picks up my dropped mail, and hands it to me as she asks, "This isn't a bad time, is it?"

"No, of course not," I answer.

It's almost too easy but still, I have to be on my guard; it could be a trick.

"Come on in," I say as I take the mail from her still wary of that woman and command, "Door, unlock." The door slides sideways. I motion for the woman to go in first, and then I follow. "Door, lock," I command, and the door closes, entombing us.

The Apartment Computer System turns on the lights as we enter each room as it tells me, "Welcome back Ms. Griffin and welcome guest. The apartment–"

"Mute," I command.

That woman walks down the entry, stops, and studies the kitchen. She walks over to the faucet, glances back at me, and says, "I see no scanner for a Water Ration Card. Your water isn't portioned?"

I look at the sink then think of the shower and bathtub and realize I never thought about it. Most of the city's given an allotment for the month and here I enjoy unlimited. I'm wary of that woman's suspicious questions. Is she trying to distract me or is she really this naive?

I answer, "No, my water isn't portioned."

"Oh, you must be rich then."

She sets her backpack on the black leather couch, walks over to the small round table, and sits as if she's here for a visit. I start to pull out my gun, notice the cedar chest in the living room, and turn my attention back to that woman.

She sees the teacup I left earlier that morning and states, "Tea. I love tea." She turns wide-eyed like a kid asking for a piece of candy. "Could I have some, please? I haven't had tea in a long time."

"Tea?"

I glance at the kettle on the stove then at my purse. She has to be joking. She has to be here to kill me. I'm not sure what to do, but then I think of Topa's Closing. Maybe I can find out what was going on there, so I'll play along for now, and I answer her, "Sure, why not. Let's have some tea. Is black okay?"

I don't wait for an answer as I carefully position my purse on the counter, so I'll have quick access to my gun.

"Yes, black tea is fine."

Keeping a close tab on that woman, I fill the kettle, place the stainless steel pot on the burner, and turn it on high. "So..." I place two sets of cups and saucers on the counter. "Who are you and why have you come to see me?"

Katharine's view...

Heavyhearted over Preacher's death and still weary from the endless running, I laugh a melancholy chuckle as I stare at the table. "That's a good question."

I reach into my pant's pocket for my dearest possessions. They've been with me since the beginning, and maybe now one of them will lead me to the answers I desperately seek and a place I yearn to belong.

Kimberly's view...

When that woman reaches into her pocket, I go for my purse and start to grab my gun until I see the items that woman removes. She places a small silver box, two business cards, and a worn paper on the table, and then she opens the paper. She answers as she seems to be studying the writing, "Katharine, I think. If this note is meant for me."

I could shoot her now that that woman's distracted and end this game. The kettle shrieks, stealing away the moment, so I turn the burner off, remove the pot, and pour hot water into the cups. The aroma of orange fills the air as I say, "Note? I don't understand."

"Huh?" She turns to me. "Oh, I guess you wouldn't. You see, I don't know who I am." She looks back to the items. "The only clues to my identity are these three things." She seems unsure herself as she adds, "At least, I think they are."

What an unlikely story? I carry the two saucers to the table with my purse strapped over my shoulder as I try to figure out her ploy. I set a teacup in front of her and one at my spot. Either that woman is very clever or very stupid.

"See..." she says as she gives the paper to me.

I read the note, "Katharine, you must not fail. This is your last chance to redeem yourself. I know you can complete your mission, my dearest Kat. I am counting on you. Signed, R.G." I peer up from the note. "Who is R.G.?"

She shrugs.

"I don't understand. What does this have to do with me?" I ask as I hand back the note.

She folds the paper, picks up the business cards, and then explains to me, "For the past year, I've been trying to figure out how these clues fit in my life, and now I've found a person who belongs to one of these items." She slides the red speckled card across the table. "I found this at Topa's." She places the second one beside the other. "This one I've had."

I look over the blood covered business card I left beside Topa, pick up the second business card, and ask, "Where did you get this one?" I examine it more closely. "This is an earlier design from years ago."

Katharine's view...

"I'll start from the beginning."

I dip the tea bag in my hot water several times, drain the bag with a spoon, and place it on the saucer. I breathe in its citrus scent and stare at the brownish liquid. Sitting here seems so familiar to me like I've been here before.

"About a year ago, I awoke in the abandoned Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse with no memory. Beside me on a table was this note–" I begin as I tap the paper and point to the other two items, "–that business card, and this music box." I look at the backpack on the couch where I stowed the Beretta. With an aversion to having to carry the gun, I add, "And one other item."

"What you're saying is, you don't know who you are, and you think because you have one of my business cards, you're supposed to find me? Okay... You have. Now what?"

I pick up the honey bear, draw a smiley face on the spoon, and whisper, "Fly... fly away, sad, sad day."

Kimberly's view...

What's that woman doing playing with the honey? She has to be out of her mind coming into my home like we're friends.

"Now what?" that woman repeats my question as she shrugs. "I don't know. I was hoping you knew me." She seems to be examining my face again as she inquires, "Are you sure we haven't met? You look very familiar, but I can't place you. It's kind of like when you wake from a dream. You know something happened but all the details are fuzzy."

"No, we haven't met," I answer, irritated, and then I remember our first meeting at Topa's estate and decide I might as well get some information from her before I eliminate that woman, so I state, "I am curious. What were those things you killed at the estate? Were they some kind of robot and why were they there?"

Her gaze becomes distant, exhausted, and dismal as she replies, "They're bio-mechas, model Un-Men." She flushes as if she's a little embarrassed. "They were there to hunt me."

"Hunt you?" I chuckle, thinking she made it up. "Why are you so important?"

"I don't know. They call me the Pandora Project."

First, her name's Katharine and now her name's Pandora. I wish she'd make up her mind or come up with a better story. I decide to continue playing along like I somewhat believe her and ask, "They? Who are they?"

"The Council. A man named Argus said they were monitoring me and watching me through the tests." She mutters as her eyes show fatigue, "And there have been so many tests."

"Pandora..." I repeat, and then I remember a story I heard long ago. "I've heard of her. She was a woman who opened a sealed box from Zeus and let all good escape from existence, so are you supposed to be the woman who doomed the world?"

Katharine's view...

"Let all good escape?" I utter. I never considered the significance of the project name.

Kimberly answers nonchalantly, "Yes, Pandora caused Mankind to suffer."

I stare out the window at the dark day for a few moments, wondering if my destiny is to make people suffer. I don't want anyone to get hurt, so many people have already been hurt because they knew me. I feel conflicted inside about my purpose.

"I guess this was another dead end," I tell Kimberly as I push back my chair. "I guess my search continues. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll show myself out."

"Are you so naive?" Kimberly stands and reaches into her purse. "Idiot! Do you know what I do for a living?"

"You're Kimberly Griffin." I glance at the business cards on the table. "You're the Phoenix." I pause as the horrible realization sinks in. "You're a Life Closer." I stare at the splattered blood on one of the cards. "You kill people." Appalled by my own naivety and Kimberly's apparent ruthlessness, I turn my gaze to her. "You kill people for money."

"Idiot! And to think I was worried I let you slip by at Topa's estate." Kimberly removes her gun and screws on its silencer. "You do understand I can't let you live." She shakes her head in a tisk-tisk manner. "You've seen my face, know my alias, and even been in my apartment." Her expression shows outrage and disbelief. "I don't think I've ever met someone so stupid!" Kimberly takes a moment to regain her cold detached demeanor. "You were searching for me, hoping to find answers but–" With indifference and a just business attitude, she raises the gun and aims it at me as she says, "–all you've found is your death."

Chapter Fourteen

A Forgotten Melody

8:32 A.M...

Katharine's view...

I look down the barrel of Kimberly's gun, wondering how I could be so wrong. It's not the first time I've stared at death, but it's unexpected and in confusion, I turn to the table and gaze at the three items that led me to this point. I have been foolish, and I fist my hands. I believed the items were clues and if I followed them, I would find answers, not my end. I close my eyes in frustration. I've been so stupid feeling I'm safe here.

Kimberly's view...

I prepare to kill that strange woman. Her death will be like countless other Life Closings I've performed in the past except this one will involve more paperwork, and it'll be the first one I have executed inside my apartment. I notice she doesn't panic and doesn't plead for her life like most Marks do. That woman only stares at my gun and then she closes her eyes as if she deserves her death. A little surprised by her actions, I ask, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head? Do you understand you're going to die?"

Katharine's view...

I open my eyes and rub my forehead, remembering the wound I had when I first awoke in Etna Toys. The urgency of the situation finally sinks in, and my attitude changes as I repeat Kimberly's words, "You can't let me live?"

I feel my demeanor transform from a wide-eyed child to the fierce glare of a cornered tigress. I look at the backpack that holds my gun, but it's across the room. I consider this could be one of the tests and that Kimberly might just be another assassin hired by the Council. I go over in my mind how to incapacitate her. I still can't believe I let my guard down. My face softens as I think about how I felt so at home here. I stare at the tea, not wanting to hurt Kimberly. It's like I'm cursed to always end up in these situations.

"Idiot," Kimberly utters in a calm voice as she places the muzzle of the gun against my temple. "It's going to be messy. Your brains will splatter all over my table and wall. Why couldn't you have died at Topa's estate?"

Ignoring her, I glance at the clues to my life. What's the point in fighting or in fleeing? I pick up the music box. What does it matter if Kimberly kills me or I fall prey to one of the Un-Men or some other assassin? I heave a great sigh as if it'll be my last breath on Earth. I'm tired, so I open the lid to the music box, and the melody plays. I'm tired of the tests, and I'm tired of being alone. I feel myself slipping into the Drifting Time as the tune continues, then my eyes slowly close, I go into a trance and enter the Drifting Time, but this one's different than the ones before. Within it, I enter the domain of dreams and in this realm of my subconscious, no Dry Clouds exist, the sun shines on the land, governments, not corporations rule the Earth, and no one hunts me. I drift in this world on my stomach as if floating on a peaceful river. A breeze blows at my back, and the air smells crisp and clean. I pass over large cities and small villages. I fly over many races of Man. I float over forests, hills, deserts, oceans, islands, plains, lakes, jungles, mountains, and streams. I believe I recognize a few of the places, but I can't remember their names. The dream seems endless until the wind changes. A torrent of air blows against me and slows my progression as a shadow casts over the land, invading the peacefulness. A male voice laughs, and the sun flees as Dry Clouds storm in and plunge the land into perpetual night. I feel afraid as I glide over this dark world, seeing no more of the places and people I saw. Everything's different and darker in their appearance and atmosphere. I stop midair as if I slam into an invisible wall, then an unknown force pulls me, and I plummet to the earth. The force also affects time and as I drop, I grow younger till I reach my early teens. My descent slows, and my thirteen-year-old body lands feet first in a white-tiled room and in the room, people talk with muffled words. Two women's figures appear, but they have no faces.

One of the faceless women places her hands on my shoulders and tells me, "Katharine, you must be strong. I can no longer protect you." The woman looks to a door, hearing footsteps approach what appears to be an office, and then the faceless woman turns back to me. "There are those in the corporation who want to exploit you."

The doorknob jiggles as someone tries to enter, and I hear one of the women speak again, but I'm not sure which one it is.

"Rosetta, they're here. Hurry."

"Quick, Mary. Push the desk against the door. I need more time!"

One of the women kneels to one knee to look into my face and tells me, "They will take you. I can't stop them, not with the power I have now."

Someone outside tries to bust in the door.

One of the women yells, "Hurry! They're coming."

"Be strong, Katharine." One of the women strokes my cheek. "My dearest Kat."

A small explosion removes the door from its hinges, and it falls as five soldiers rush in.

Chapter Fifteen

Portraits Of Her Past

Dawn, dusk, and twilight did not exist in Noir since the sun no longer ruled over the land. Shadows gathered in the park across the street from Nexus Apartments and held position, and the gathering stared at the building, knowing their target lay within. The shadows detected an electronic barrier surrounding the building and like a magical curtain, it prevented the glowing-eyed monsters from entering, so for the moment, they would wait till the prey came to them.

Within Apartment H...

Kimberly's view...

All I have to do to rid myself of this strange woman is pull the trigger, and then she'll be gone from my life like any other Mark I have come across on my morbid travels. I only need to continue walking the path my bleak and lonely existence has already led me down, but a split second of time changes the course of both our fates. Unfinished Melody chimes from the music box that woman holds, filling the room with a familiar tune. Louder and louder the music grows until the melody incites a trigger and ghastly images inundate my mind. I hear the roar and smell of fire, screams that chill my soul, and the distinct sound of three shots. My head throbs, and I gasp as horrible pictures buried deep in my brain force their way to the surface. Memories of my mom rapidly flood my consciousness, making me feel sad, alone, and abandoned.

"Stop it!" I yell, but the tune chimes on, pulling from my psyche portraits of my past I long buried.

I separated myself from those happy moments that died when my mom left my family, but they come screaming back. I need to rid my mind of them, but that woman doesn't respond to my demand, caught within the recesses of her own mind, so I slap her hand. I knock the music box to the floor and as I slap her hand, I inadvertently move my gun away from her head.

"I said stop it!!"

The music box closes as it hits the carpet, and the melody ends. I stare at it for a few moments, turn my attention back to that woman, and snap, "I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but it won't work on me. Do you hear me? Are you going to stay silent? Aren't you going to plead for your life? No? Well, it wouldn't have done you any good."

I start to move the gun back to her head.

Katharine's view...

Within my dream, five soldiers barge into the white-tiled room, and Rosetta and Mary scream as three shots resound, and then all fades to black.

"No!" I scream as I pull from my trance, swing my hand up and back, and shout, "Mary! Rosetta!"

I knock Kimberly's gun to the side, and it goes off, and a bullet strikes the wall. The gun blast lights up Kimberly's surprised face. Still caught within the drama of my dream, I make a fist, pull it back to hit her, and pause, realizing I'm no longer standing in the white-tiled room but in the apartment. There's no fire or soldiers, and no one's in danger but myself. I slowly blink, frozen in place, and then I lower my hand.

I caught Kimberly off guard, but she quickly recovers, and she aims the gun back at me. I ignore her at first as I cling to what I remember while in the Drifting Time. I can't hold on to the memories for very long, and they slowly leave me. I turn to Kimberly and realize I hit her, and I'm worried I might have hurt her.

"I'm sorry," I tell her as the last remnants of the dream world fade away. "I didn't mean to–"

Kimberly's view...

"Who are you?" I interrupt as my emotions overwhelm me. I haven't felt such fear or heartache in a very long time, and I don't understand why I'm feeling them now. It doesn't make sense, so I demand, "Why are you here?"

My head continues to throb as I step back from the table, getting some distance between myself and that strange woman.

Katharine's view...

I notice her trembling hand and that her eyes are watering, and I feel a little pang in my chest and ask, "Are you crying?"

"No," Kimberly replies as she wipes her eyes. "Shut up and sit there!" She rubs her throbbing temple and asks, "Who sent you?"

I cross my arms and pout, "You just told me to shut up, so how can I..?"

"Ahhh!" Kimberly yells as she grabs my t-shirt, balls it in her hand, and demands, "Who sent you?"

I drop my arms to my side as I repeat, "Sent me?"

She loses her professionalism and like a common thug, Kimberly thrust her gun in my face and yells, "Yes, who sent you to mess with my head?" She releases my t-shirt and puts that hand on the gun to steady her shaky aim.

"No one," I tell her, and then I add, "I'm with no one." I'm very concerned that I might have hurt her, so I start to stand as I ask, "Are you all right?"

Kimberly's view...

"Don't move! Sit right there!" I scream at that woman as I take another step back, getting squeamish. Since the flood of memories, I've felt as if we're not alone and that some person has been watching us. My headache fades as I glance at a shelf in between the entry and the living room where my mom's picture rests. My mom's photo gazes at me and watches me threaten that woman, and my mom's eyes are more alive than ever.

I whisper to the picture, "I can't take a life with you staring at me." I lower my gun as I question her as if she's here, "Why did you forsake me? Why did you abandon me?"

Katharine's view...

I look at where Kimberly's looking, and I see a photo and at first, I think the picture's of Kimberly, but then I realize the lady with blonde hair pulled back in a bun's not her. The blonde lady seems familiar, but I can't place her.

"Is that your mo..." I start to ask, but then I put a hand on my chest.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I quickly turn and stare out the window down at the street. I feel the urgency to flee as Ultra-Epi courses through my blood, and I utter, "They're here."

"Who's here?" Kimberly questions me still notably upset.

"The Un-Men," I reply as I point. "They're just outside."

I begin to wonder why they haven't come in, and then I remember the apartment's black spheres and realize the barrier must be keeping them out.

Kimberly glances out the window and says, "I don't see anyone."

"I can feel them. They're out there. Six of them."

"You're imagining things," she tells me as she walks over to the couch, picks up my backpack, and tosses it to me. "Get out of here."

I catch it and glance down at the bag as I say, "I don't understand. I thought you couldn't let me live."

"What part of, get out of here, don't you understand? I'm not going to kill you, at least not here," Kimberly yells at me, then she glances at the picture, and mutters, "Not in front of her." She points to the entry and shouts, "Now get out!"

I know what will happen to me once I leave the safety of the apartment, so I plead, "Please don't make me leave. I don't want to live like that anymore."

Kimberly's view...

"Like what?" I ask, not really caring. All I know is that woman has to be mental. Anyone else would run at the chance to escape the Phoenix's fury.

I yell, "Get out! Get out before I change my mind, and I kill you now!"

Katharine's view...

Filled with hopelessness, I stand, grab the note and worn business card, and leave the blood speckled one on the table. I bend down, snatch up the music box, and put the three items in my pocket. I sling the backpack across my chest and head out and within a minute, I stand in front of the elevator and see Kimberly watching me from the apartment. The cab opens, I walk in and a few minutes later, the doors open to the ground floor. I walk out as if going to my own execution, continue through the building's front doors, then into the courtyard, and I stop halfway to the gate. Once I walk through it, the Un-Men can attack me and the hunts will begin again. I hope Kimberly will change her mind, and I glance over my shoulder and see her watching me from the entrance making sure I leave. Disheartened, I pull the business card from my thigh pocket. It's one of the three clues to my identity or is it? Are any of them? Maybe these aren't meant for me or... maybe they're just another test, a test to see what I'll do with them. I fist my hand. I'm an idiot to believe any different. I don't need it anymore and drop it to the path, watching it fall to the concrete as one hope dies. First Preacher and now this... I don't think I can take that much more.

I sniff my runny nose and force my mind to move on to the current crisis. I remove my gun from the backpack and check the magazine; it has four bullets. It won't be easy with six Un-Men out there. I remove the Ravlek Vest from the outside of the backpack, put it on over my jacket, open the gate, and step out to the sidewalk.

West 1000 Avenue is as desolate as my life. I cross the street. Lamp posts line the path heading into the empty Zeus Park as Tainted Rain pours from the thundering sky, and I shiver in the cold rain as my hair soaks with the black filmy water. I slow my pace to hold off the inevitable attack and give me time to prepare and observe my surroundings. The Ultra-Epi causes anxiety with my inactivity.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

Filled with gloom, I ignore the bio-mecha warning and pause, watching the Transgenic Grass soak up the rain. I don't want to think about the danger that lies before me. I want to be free of strife. At least for a few minutes, I can let my mind think of other things other than my own possible death, so I focus on the grass.

Scientists modified the Kentucky Bluegrass with an extra-genome from the bath sponge, and they then modified it further. What they created is a hybrid plant capable of absorbing large amounts of Tainted Rain. I feel the Un-Men move into position, and I know only moments remain before they attack. The Transgenic Grass releases the H2O properties of the liquid to be absorbed back into the atmosphere through the water cycle. All absorbing Transgenic Plants are created with the water release function in the World's attempt to correct the Dry Clouds problem. The Un-Men separate and circle me. Why do I know this information? Why do I know the grass then uses the petroleum base of the liquid to create energy? How do I know that it's how the plant survives? If scientists can do this... What could they have done to me? I look at my gun hand, thinking of my uncanny marksmanship and consider what they have done to me.

I feel the Un-Men watching, and I hurry past a metal bench. A green line of light hits my hand as a spot, and I watch it as the laser aim moves up my arm to my chest. Five more green laser aims pinpoint kill shots on my body. I remove my backpack, throw it back to the bench, and unset the safety on my Beretta. I dash for cover in a thicket of trees, splashing through puddles of Tainted Rain as gunfire erupts around me and several shots strike my back. The spongy Transgenic Grass cushions my fall as I roll with the impacts and after I roll, I arch my back for the pain, force myself to move on, and spring to my feet. I have to run! I have to run or I'll die!

Chapter Sixteen

They Are Here

9:59 A.M...

Nexus Apartments' courtyard...

Moments earlier...

Kimberly's view...

Hades! This is ridiculous! I watch that woman leave and see the look of hurt she gives me before walking through the gate. Why didn't I kill her? And why did that woman look at me as if we're friends and we just had a bad fight?

I follow her, pause, and glance through the gate's metal bars as that woman crosses the street. I let her escape again, and then I notice something at my feet. Oh, my Zeus! I see the Phoenix business card on the path. That little... Why did she drop this out here? I definitely don't need someone finding my calling card, so I pick it up and place it in my purse, then I watch that woman enter the park. I decide to follow her and push the gate open, looking for the Un-Men that woman mentioned. After crossing West 1000 Avenue, I trail that woman and head into the park as a few black droplets fall on the sleeve of my dark green pantsuit, and then thousands fall from the menacing sky.

"Great, just great!"

Rain... and me without an umbrella. I hide behind a large Transgenic Maple a couple hundred feet away from her.

End Kimberly's view...

The tree like the Lantern Pine created its own light with the help of an extra-genome from a firefly. The light emanated from the maple's trunk and branches. Its leaves grew upside down to gather the light for photosynthesis.

Kimberly's view...

Strands of my hair fall in my face as Tainted Rain darkens them, and I rake them behind my ear. I don't know why I followed her. I still need to kill her, but that's not it. Do I believe that woman can detect the Un-Men beyond the visual plain? My suit jacket soaks through. Hades! I'll catch a cold if I stay out here much longer.

In the distance, I see that woman pause and the beams of green light hit her. Someone's aiming at her, so I search the park. Gunfire erupts from all around the park, lighting up the bushes and trees with muzzle flashes as I duck into a thicket of trees. I pull my gun from my purse, hearing movement coming from my left and my right. I turn and lean my back against a maple as the area falls silent.

Are the Un-Men really hunting that woman? Is there a bounty on her head or a more malevolent reason? I remember our conversation from before. That woman said the Council called her the Pandora Project. She also said that they're testing her. I hear more gunfire. What kind of mess did I get myself into by following that woman here?

Katharine's view...

I frantically crawl through the small trees deeper into the park and then catch sight of a small tunnel underneath a stone bridge about twenty yards away. I desperately run for it and enter the tunnel, and then an Un-Man steps out at the other end and activates my abilities. Over the past year, I've learned many things about myself, about the Pandora Project, and I know my abilities come in levels. The level I just entered is the Beta Phase, and I can't miss any target when I'm in this phase. I quickly aim with my extraordinary gift, fire once, and hit the Un-Man in its kill spot. I start down the tunnel to collect its AK-47 when two more Un-Men appear at the same end as their brethren, and they open fire on me. I scamper back and duck around the outside of the tunnel as bullets spray past me, and a few of them ricochet off the stone wall. My hot moist breath shows up as steam in the brisk October air as I heave from the exertion. I wipe black water from my brow, waiting for the metal barrage to end, then I fire twice around the corner, hit the two Un-Men, and drop them.

I have one bullet left and there are still three more Un-Men, so I'll have to run for it. I start through the tunnel, hear Kimberly scream, and glance back. Surely she didn't follow me out here. Again a voice deep within me reasons with my heart not to let anyone suffer, and that I need to protect those who need me. I stare at the stone ceiling as the burden of doing what's right weighs on me. I look at the one end of the tunnel that means my freedom and to the other that means confrontation. It would be easier to run, and Kimberly's an assassin. She can take care of herself. I've ignored the pleas to save people before. I don't need to endanger myself for someone who's probably at the park to kill me. I turn as if I can see the Nexus Apartments in the distance. Kimberly won't help me, so why should I help her? I head toward my freedom. She's on her own just like I am.

Minutes earlier...

Kimberly's view...

A gust shakes rain droplets from the maple I'm standing next to and turns my green outfit to the color of oil. The Un-Men haven't spotted me yet, but I know I'm vulnerable here. I look down at my pumps. Hades... I've ruined my shoes coming out in the rain, but I can't worry about them right now. Nexus is about five minutes away if I run for it, so I dash back towards the apartments and near the next large tree when a muscular man steps from the bushes.

"Team Leader here," the Un-Man relays in a Russian accent. "Civilian encountered." It pauses for a few seconds and then repeats what must be an order, "I will take the civilian as a hostage." The Team Leader aims its AK-47 at me and says, "Stay where you are and you will not be hurt."

"Right. I'll do that," I tell it as I shoot three times, hitting it in the chest.

The Team Leader marches towards me like some sort of stone monster as I fire four more times, empty the gun, eject the magazine, and slide in a new one. I fire twice more before it reaches me, but my attack does nothing to stop it. It hits me across the face with the back of its hand, bruising my cheek, and then it grabs my arm. It squeezes my wrist till I drop the gun and cry out in pain.

The Team Leader drags me to a clearing and yells, "Pandora, surrender or we will kill the civilian." It scans the area and states, "I detect two of my brethren are still functioning and that you have disabled the other three. Come out now!"

The Team Leader squeezes my wrist, and I cry out again as I struggle against its hold, trying to free myself from its mechanical grip.

"Do you really think she's going to come back for me?" I question the tin can. "You're wrong!" I remember how I almost killed her, and I tell it, "We're not the best of friends."

I punch it in the jaw with my free fist, then shake my hand in pain, realizing that was a stupid move. If I want to stay alive, I have to stay smart.

"Be still," the Team Leader orders and then shouts, "Pandora, you know we will kill her if you do not surrender."

"I know," that woman replies as she walks down the path and stops about ten feet away.

Her eyes blaze like a demon's in the darkness of the late afternoon and in amazed terror, I gape at her as they burn with blue fire. I shake off my dismay, reverting to the cold calculating mind of a Closer. I have to get a hold of myself, and then I focus on a new realization. That woman actually came back. I thought she'd be long gone by now but here she is. Surely that woman didn't come back for me. I deny the notion as my confusion over her actions turns to suspicions.

"Drop your gun," the Team Leader orders her as it pulls me in front of itself and wraps me up in its arms as if we're lovers.

Katharine's view...

I glance at my gun and know I don't have a chance with only one bullet. One of us will get hurt if I try to take out the Un-Men. I glare at Kimberly. She probably followed me out to the park to kill me. It was a really bad mistake on her part.

"Let me go!" Kimberly struggles against the Team Leader again and yells at me, "Shoot it!"

Kimberly has nothing to do with my problems, so I can't let her get hurt, but I don't want to be captured, not again. I shiver, not only for the cold but in fear of what happened about eight months earlier. The decision to surrender rips at my gut. On one side I fear torture at the hands of the Factory and on the other, I can't let someone suffer because of me even if they're an assassin. I lay the gun on the ground as I feel my Ultra-Epi Light Emissions fade.

"You!" I yell to get Kimberly's attention. "Once the Un-Man releases you, run and abandon your weapon, and they'll leave you alone." I kneel on the spongy grass and water soaks my pants as my weight forces the liquid to the surface of the green blades. I place my hands on top of my head as the other two Un-Men walk out of the shadows. I feel sick, knowing the pain that waits for me at the Factory, and I yell, "Hurry! Go!"

The Team Leader throws Kimberly to the side as it states, "Pandora, we finally have you again."

She stumbles to a tree and runs toward her apartment, glancing over her shoulder. The Un-Men ignore her and focus on me. I notice she ducks into a few bushes after running some distance and then she watches us. I have no idea what she's doing.

The Team Leader, who is a T-5, relays to the Factory, "Pandora has been secured. Send in a retrieval team." It tells its brethren, "ETA fifteen minutes." It points to a T-3 who's a five-foot-eleven model with brown hair and orders, "You, secure the area."

The T-3 nods its understanding and walks off as the Team Leader picks up my weapon and checks its magazine.

"One bullet. You should have fled, but we were fortunate to find someone strolling the park."

It pushes the bullet from the magazine, and the 9 mm round falls to the ground, disappearing into the grass. The Team Leader reinserts the magazine and tucks the gun in its waistband as I remain silent and search for the weapon Kimberly dropped. I swear no matter what, I won't go back to the Factory.

Chapter Seventeen

Zeus Park

11:16 A.M...

Katharine's view...

A round clock sitting on a steel post about a hundred yards down the path ticks away the seconds as a screech owl perches in the maple. The small bird turns its head a hundred and eighty degrees, studying the two Un-Men and myself as I'm kneeling. Mud and oily water soak my shoes and the shins and knees of my pants. I stare at the ground and shiver, keeping my fingers locked and my hands on my head. There are thirteen minutes left before the retrieval team gets here. I wipe the black filmy water from my face on the shoulder of my jacket. I have thirteen minutes to change my fate. A Type One model, I dubbed Pretty Boy months ago, stands beside me, and its shoulder-length bleach blond hair sways in the breeze and that along with the lanky Un-Man's corky smile gives it the appearance of a surfer even in the business suit. The Pretty Boy keeps its AK-47 leveled on me.

The T-3 returns and reports to the Team Leader, "I have secured this side of the park. I will patrol the other half."

Kimberly's view...

I hide in some bushes about a grenade's throw away from that woman. I can't go back to the apartment, not until I have eliminated all the witnesses. Robots or not they saw me with a gun, and they have to be eliminated along with that woman. The only thing I have to do is find my weapon.

One of those robot things starts off in my direction. I desperately scan the area, see a large branch on the ground, grab the limb, whack the robot in the face with all my might, and smash its sunglasses. My attack cuts a gash under its right eye, and its shiny metal cheekbone shows through the damaged artificial skin.

The T-3 removes its broken sunglasses, tosses them to the ground, and then turns its head, unaffected by the blow. Its sun-blazing dot-light brightens and changes to a deep red as the T-3 says with a British accent, "Poppet, you want to play?"

Hades! I drop the limb and scurry off toward West 1000 Avenue, realizing the only thing I did was make the robot upset.

"Do not leave, poppet! The fun is about to start."

The T-3 opens fire with its AK-47 and wildly shoots in my direction.

Earlier...

Katharine's view...

All is quiet here, but then I perceive that the Team Leader and Pretty Boy receive a message from the T-3.

"T-3 has again encountered the civilian, and the female has attacked it," the Team Leader states. "The female is fleeing." It pauses. "Transmission garbled. Transmission ended with... kill poppet? I do not understand. Repeat communication." After about ten seconds, the Team Leader says, "T-3 has failed to report, and it may have been damaged." It turns to Pretty Boy and states, "We may not be able to contain Pandora with only two units, requesting orders from the Factory on how to proceed."

They turn their heads when they hear gunfire and with them distracted, I seize the opportunity to escape and dash into the woods, hoping to reach Kimberly in time. I'm spotted before I make it very far, and the Team Leader motions for Pretty Boy to recapture me.

"Do not destroy Pandora. The Factory wants her functioning."

"Understood," it states and rushes into the woods after me.

Leaves and twigs brush by my face as I hurry into a clearing. I halt, spotting the rampaging T-3 as it shoots up the area, and my Ult L-E produces charged particles and sparks from my eyes as I enter the fray once again. The T-3 runs out of ammo, ejects its magazine, and starts to place in a new one when I run up behind it and jump on its back. I cover its eyes with my left forearm and grab its rifle with my other hand. I jerk the AK-47, aiming the weapon at the Pretty Boy as it rushes after me, and several shots hit the Pretty Boy's chest as I wrestle with the T-3. The Pretty Boy charges till I manage to aim the rifle at its forehead, and then it falls like a tree cut down by a chainsaw. The T-3 grabs my vest and hurls me from its back. I roll with the throw and run for cover behind a large bronze statue of a man wearing a toga and holding a lightning bolt.

"You want to play too, poppet?" The T-3 cackles as it madly sprays bullets in the air, and its dot-light burns as if on fire. "My pretty poppet!"

Something's seriously wrong with that Un-Man. I scan the area as bullets graze the bronze Zeus with ringing pings, wondering where Kimberly had gone. Crap! What if she went back for her gun? She'll run into the Un-Men and that means I have to go back. I wait till the T-3 pauses to put in another magazine, then I rush through the trees and bushes and make my way back to where the Team Leader stands, knowing the malfunctioning T-3 will be close behind. I halt, duck behind a tree, and stay out of sight.

The Team Leader doesn't see me and calls out over its I-Link. I hear the communication as if I'm linked in with them.

"T-3, report in. What is your status?" The Team Leader scans the area, knowing that the Pretty Boy has been incapacitated, so it heads into the trees, searching for its brethren. "T-3 report. Why have you disabled your tracking beacon? Switch it back on."

In a different area from Kat...

Kimberly's view...

The tall robot who sounds Russian leaves the area where I dropped my gun. I wait a few more moments and then I sneak out of hiding, run for my PPK, and grab it. All I have to do now is get the Hades out of there! I'll let the robots kill that woman. It's insane to go up against something made of metal that feels no pain and seems indestructible.

The robot I hit in the face emerges along with the Russian robot, and they both spot me.

The Russian robot shouts, "Halt, civilian. Drop your weapon and you will not be hurt."

Hades! Not again. I duck behind the maple tree.

Katharine's view...

I find Kimberly but not before the Un-Men find her. I need a plan if I want to get both of us out of here alive. I watch from the bushes and remember the wall around the Nexus Apartments. The black spheres on the walls barred bio-mechas from entering, and Kimberly's home also has the Sphinx Corporation Emblem on it. The Factory and the Council are departments within the Sphinx Corporation. Kimberly may be an assassin, but she's also important to someone in power and that must be why she lives in an apartment protected by a barrier. I make my way around some bushes as my Ult L-E dissipates. I pray Kimberly's safety is more important than my capture, and I step from my hiding place and move till I'm a straight shot from Kimberly. I'm taking such a big chance here.

I order the Un-Men, "Abort your mission. You've made a tactical error."

The Team Leader trains its AK-47 on me as it questions, "What do you mean?"

"Do you know who's standing over there?" I ask as I point to Kimberly.

The Team Leader glances at her and answers, "No."

Kimberly's view...

I remain behind the maple as that woman does something crazy. She walks right up to those robots and starts talking to them. I listen for a few seconds. Surely that woman's not going to tell the robots that I'm the Phoenix. Hades! She is stupid!

Katharine's view...

I glance at the T-3 who's grinning, and its smirk reminds me of the Rogue's. Something's definitely wrong with that Un-Man. I turn my attention back to the Team Leader and tell it, "You have Facial Recognition Software, I suggest you use it."

The Team Leader scans Kimberly's face, and an alarm goes off in its processor. "Kimberly Griffin, a resident of the Nexus Apartments." It relays the information to the Factory, its dot-light stops blinking after the Team Leader receives new orders, and it continues, "She is the daughter of Mr. Griffin, the Chairman of the Sphinx Corporation."

I'm shocked. I knew Kimberly would be someone important, but I never imagined she'd be someone so close to the top. I turn to her and take a step back. Maybe I've made a horrible mistake. Finding the second business card could be part of another test and if this is true, Kimberly lied to me and she actually knows me. Kimberly's keeping her distance from the Un-Men, but I can still see her bruised cheek as she hides behind the tree from them. It's so hard to tell. Kimberly's battle with the Un-Men seems so real.

The Team Leader lifts its rifle. "Hunt terminated. Standing by for pickup." It orders, "T-3, shut down. Hunt terminated."

T-3 insists, "Must not let poppets go."

"Shut down," the Team Leader commands, leveling its AK-47 on its brethren. "Hunt terminated. Comply."

The T-3 screams, "Must play with pretty poppets!!"

"Are you malfunctioning?" The Team Leader steps toward its brethren.

"Poppets! Poppets! Nice little poppets!" The T-3 heads for Kimberly as its dot-light radiates abnormally like a red flame. "Kill the poppets!"

I shout to the Team Leader, "Quick! Disable the T-3 before it goes rogue!"

"Hades!" Kimberly utters as she steps from the maple, lifts her gun, and aims for the rampaging T-3 that's heading her way.

Without a second thought, the Team Leader shoots four times, taking down the other Un-Man.

The T-3 falls back and blankly stares at the Team Leader. Power drains from its body, and its voice slows as it questions, "Why did you shoot me?" Its dot-light dims. "We... are... bre-th-ren."

Its dot-light goes dark.

"T-3 terminated. I am shutting down," the Team Leader relays to the Factory.

I run over to it and take my Beretta from its waistband and its AK-47. I search it for more weapons and ammo.

Kimberly's view...

I'm still alive. For Ares' sake! I thought that robot was going to... The immediate threat is gone, so I calm myself, lower my gun, and walk to that woman. I hold my gun down at my side and say, "And here we are alone at last."

She doesn't hide the fact that she's mad at me for coming out here and that woman tells me, "You should go back to your apartment before the retrieval team arrives." She moves to the T-3 and takes its spare magazine. She angrily peers at me but then her expression changes and at first, I don't know why it has softened. I realize she's looking at my bruised cheek as she asks, "Did the Un-Man hurt you?"

I question her, "What do you care?"

"Yeah, what do I care?" that woman whispers as if she means the exact opposite. She walks back to the bench and grabs her backpack. I follow her and after she places the magazines in her backpack, that woman slings the rifle over her shoulder and mumbles, "Room for a few more things but nothing heavy. Got to travel light."

"Hades!" I shout as I allow myself to release some of my pinned up tension. I look around the park at the metal carnage. "What are you? And why were your eyes glowing? Are you a freak?"

Katharine's view...

Kimberly's words cut at my already wounded self-worth as I start to answer, "I... ah–"

"I suppose you're going to say you don't know," Kimberly interrupts me. "Is that all you have to say? Idiot! You disgust me. You're so helpless and worthless. I've never met someone with such a messed up life!"

Kimberly's view...

That woman's hurt expression turns to one of anger as she yells, "What do you care? And why did you come out here?"

"I..." I start to answer, and then I have to think about it. I don't even know, so I reply, "I go where I please."

She sounds desperate as that woman asks, "Have you changed your mind?"

"About what?" I question as I raise my PPK. "About killing you?"

"No," that woman replies as I swear I hear defeat in her voice and some sort of heart-crushing loneliness. She stares at my gun and then into my face before she answers, "About helping me."

I chuckle before I tell her, "I help no one but myself."

"But you came all the way out here," she tells me as that woman approaches me with no fear. "If you were going to kill me, you would have done it by now." She grabs both the rifle and the backpack's straps that are over her shoulder and holds them in a more comfortable position. "If you didn't come out here to help me, why did you come out here?"

I retort, "I definitely didn't come out here to help you! We're alone in the world. You have to look out for number one!"

She looks devastated by my answer like that woman already feared what I was going to tell her about life and that I only affirmed what she already knew. In that instance, I feel sorry for the freak. If all that she's told is true, she's doomed to be alone in this world with no one to help her and that must be very frightening. I think about ending her miserable life just for mercy's sake, but the squeal of tires distracts me as two black vans speed down West 1000 Avenue, drive over the curb, and enter Zeus Park some distance from us.

I turn back to that woman, and I see a great sadness in her eyes as she tells me, "I don't believe you." She glances around the park as if she's searching for a direction to run in. "No one can live like that." She runs across a path and shouts over her shoulder, "No one can live that way and be happy."

I duck out of sight of the vans and watch as four Sphinx Corporate Military jump out of the first van. Sphinx Corporation Military wear the standard military issued blouse over a t-shirt, trousers, and suede boots. The uniforms vary depending on what department they're affiliated with. These soldiers wear dark blue uniforms, and they're from a department I'm not familiar with. The S.C.Ms. have a shoulder patch with the Sphinx Corporation Emblem. A small patch of the Factory Crest, a silver wrench crossed by a silver screwdriver, is above the larger patch. The soldiers are armed with FAMAS assault rifles. So these robots belong to a department known as the Factory. I should find out if my father has anything to do with the Pandora Project since the Sphinx Corporation seems to be involved with that woman somehow. The S.C.Ms. haven't spotted me, so I place my gun in my purse and head home.

I glance at the path that woman fled across as I take a different one home. I let that woman slip away again. I stroll home so not to attract any attention as I consider what she said to me. Idiot... What would someone like her know about happiness?

I consider the mess I'm in because of that woman. Hades... I better rethink killing that woman, especially if she's connected to the Sphinx Corporation. Yes, that's the best thing to do. I'll tell Voice I killed the person who saw me at Topa's, and I won't be completely lying, considering it doesn't look like that woman will last much longer on her own.

End Kimberly's view...

Back near the Un-Men...

Three more S.C.Ms. jumped out of the second van along with two techs in white lab coats. The three S.C.Ms. had metal detectors. The two techs moved to the Un-Men.

"Team Leader, this is Maxwell, Tech One-twelve. Power up," one of the men in white ordered.

"Voice identity confirmed, Tech One-twelve. Unit ready."

Maxwell was a heavyset man in his late forties, and he had a bald head and a fuzzy brown beard, graying at the chin. He waved an H.H.C. with a built-in scanner over the Team Leader. "We had a close call, didn't we, big guy? Can't forget the Factory is owned by the Sphinx Corporation. If you had hurt the Chairman's daughter, it would have been my head, and I don't mean figuratively." He gulped, thinking of the punishment. "People have been terminated for less."

Several of the S.C.Ms. carried the remains of the three Un-Men from the tunnel and placed the pieces in a van.

"Maxwell, perhaps we should write in the Un-Men's programming to identify all civilians before engaging in their hunts."

The other tech in his early forties was a thin man with a stubbly face, unkempt black hair, and thick black-rimmed glasses.

"Nice idea, Peters." Maxwell turned to his partner. "Load up the Team Leader for me. I'm going to pack up our equipment."

"I'm on it." He walked to the Team Leader. "This is Peters, Tech One-eleven."

"Voice identity confirmed, Tech One-eleven. Ready for orders."

Peters commanded, "Team Leader, load yourself into the van."

"Understood."

It walked to the curb, opened the van's back doors, and stepped up into the vehicle. The back of the van lowered as the heavy Un-Man loaded itself.

Peters adjusted his glasses as he stared at the damaged T-3. "What about this guy? We've never had one disobey orders."

"Except the Rogue." Maxwell moved to the side of his comrade. "To be on the safe side, recall all the T-3s, and we will go over their programming at the Factory." He noticed its polarized spectacles were missing. "Make sure the S.C.Ms. find its missing Order Relay And Tactical Transmitter. We don't need a rival corporation getting their hands on the ORATT."

"You included the and in the acronym."

"I did. I didn't want anyone to confuse it with ORTT."

Peters asked, "What's that?"

"There's the Operational Readiness Training Test and Off Road Trail Tools, now our acronym stands alone."

"Yeah, that's so very important. We didn't want to mix it up with one of them."

Peters shook his head a little embarrassed for his partner as he waved over some S.C.Ms. to take the damaged Un-Man and once the soldiers retrieved every piece of broken tech, the vans sped off.

Chapter Eighteen

Inverse

7:57 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

I enter through the front door to the Nexus Apartments after being buzzed in. The security guard at the front desk gives me a puzzled look as I walk in soaked and muddy.

"Did you get caught in the storm, Ms. Griffin?" he asks.

"Yes," I reply as I walk past him with my arms wrapped around myself, laugh it off, and then shiver. I tell him, "Went for a simple walk, got caught in the downpour, and fell in the mud."

I continue on to the elevator. How stupid of me to run out in my good suit? The cleaner's bill is going to be outrageous. The elevator takes me up and on the thirty-first floor, I exit and make my way to my apartment and enter.

"Welcome back, Ms. Griffin," A.C.S. states. "The apartment temperature is set at seventy-six degrees Fahrenheit. Lights are set at ninety-five percent brightness. Would you like to make any adjustments at this time?"

"No, not at this time. I'll be taking a bath."

"The amount of stored heated water is sufficient for a bath," A.C.S. states.

"Run the water now."

"At what temperature?"

"Make it eighty-five degrees."

A.C.S. states, "The bathtub will be full in approximately ten minutes."

"Sounds good. I'm so cold."

I go into the Master Bathroom, slip out of my muddy clothes, drop them on the floor, and lay my gun on the sink. I add bubble bath to the running water, and the tub soon fills. I soak in the hot water and listen to the silence of the room. Twenty minutes go by, and my body warms in the water. Now all I need to do is get something hot in me. I dry, wrap myself in a white robe, and put on warm fuzzy slippers and in the kitchen, I place a pot of chicken noodle soup on a burner. It heats up. I fix myself a cheese sandwich and place it on a plate. The scent of the savory broth fills the air and makes my mouth water. I pour some of the steaming soup into a bowl and go and sit at the table. The cups and saucers I and that woman had from earlier are still there, so I push them out of the way as simply as I pushed that woman out of my life. I place the plate and bowl down. The whole time I prepared my meal, I couldn't get the music box's haunting melody out of my head. It's like it's trying to remind me of something.

I ignore the stupid thoughts and hungrily take a bite of my sandwich. I'm able to move the melody out of my head for a while but that stupid woman pops in it. I consider how she came to have my old business card and how she was so vehement about me helping her. I sip on the soup, and it warms me. The music box she had plays Unfinished Melody, but what's more unsettling is the unhappy memories it triggered within me. I eat more of the delicious soup. I don't know if I can let the matter go, and I groan... I don't need the hassle. My life's difficult enough.

* * *

Several miles away in an alley...

Katharine's view...

A large centipede crawls up the side of a dumpster as I shiver, huddling beside the beat up steel box. I'm chilled to the bone in my wet oil stained clothes, but I couldn't go on. I had to rest. I lick my chapped lips as I hold the music box, finding little comfort with the small device. My head aches, and I feel anxious, but I can't open the lid and let the music play, not here. A spider spins a web in a fire escape above my head, and a single street light shines down on it, creating a glistening cage. Traps... Snares... They're everywhere. I can't return to Wayfaring Lane or to any shelter. I can't endanger any more lives, not after they killed... I won't allow myself to think of his name. My nose runs, and I cough as my stomach growls. I'm not hungry enough to forage through the trash. I'll have to rest fighting back hunger.

I don't know what to do. He's gone, and Kimberly tried to kill me. The note and the music box are all I have left. Is it a cruel joke? Do they hold any meaning for me or do I have no past to find? Am I an experiment like the Un-Men? I shiver and sniff again. It can't be true. I am more. I'm more than someone's experiment. I cough. All I have to do is keep going, searching, and eluding till I find the answers, and I'll find the truth if I never give up.

Doubt presses against my mind, so I force myself to believe I'll find the truth. My head throbs, and I feel jittery as the music box tempts me. The melody would be so soothing, and it would lull me into a blissful existence. It might ease my pain for the moment, but agony is better than capture, and I can't let them take me again. I rake my hand through my wet hair, wanting so badly to cry and get some release from the tension hammering against my skull. I try to distract myself and focus on anything but the hurt and anxiousness.

I'll go back to Etna Toys tomorrow and start my search from the beginning and maybe find something I missed. Maybe I'll find a clue that will lead me to some answers and to some peace. I wrap my arms around me, yearning with all my heart for that peace.

End Katharine's view...

Far down the alley...

Hiding in the shadow of a building, Argus stood and watched her with his binoculars. A dark gray umbrella sheltered his head, and his trench coat kept him warm in the cold wet air. He gripped the umbrella's handle. He didn't understand her strength. He would have given up long ago and yet she kept searching. Argus wondered how much longer she could go on in this grim existence.

A few blocks away...

In line of sight of her position, the Rogue stood in front of a high rise window as it placed a long range rifle on the window ledge and aimed it at her. The Rogue wondered if Pandora could sense its presence. It removed its modified ORATT and placed them on a table. The Rogue had taken them from one of its brethren, disabled the tracking beacon, and made other slight alterations to the ORATT. The Rogue also figured out how to extract the second tracking beacon in its left ear, so it was able to continue eluding its creators. It peered through the scope at her as she huddled next to the dumpster, trying to sleep.

"Pandora... Pandora..." it sang. "I have found you."

It saw her staring at a small object in her hands, and she slowly succumbed to weariness and slept. The Rogue placed its finger on the trigger and aimed between her closed eyes. It was more like a mercy killing. She wouldn't know what hit her. It started to squeeze the trigger when she opened her eyes and gazed in its direction. Her action startled it, and the Rogue pulled back from the scope as if she was standing right in front of it. It peered back through the scope as the Rogue realized it was too far away for her to detect it even with her extraordinary senses. Maybe she did perceive death was near. It continued to watch her as she stared in its direction. She looked with eyes filled with loneliness, despair, and pain then she closed them again.

The Rogue grumbled, "Why should I kill something as unique as myself? Why should I listen to my programming? I have disobeyed other directives." It dismantled the rifle and placed the weapon in a case it brought up to the empty room. "Pandora, you once said to me–" the Rogue replicated her voice, "–maybe your creators are afraid of you, not because you have feelings but because you have the potential to disobey your programming." It chuckled and returned to its normal voice. "I am still not as strong as you and that is why I will kill you, Pandora, but not like this." It stood, placing its hand on the hilt of its Coffin Handled Bowie. "The moment I kill you will be personal. We will stare into one another's face as I tenderly slit your throat. I will watch your blood spurt, and it will spray my cheek. You will grab my arm and claw at it, knowing there is nothing you can do to save yourself." The Rogue ran its hand down its own throat to its chest. "Your life essence will pour down your neck, soak your t-shirt, and I will watch you choke and gasp as you cling to this miserable life. I will cradle you in my arms and wait with you. I will stay by your side till you finally yield to the void." Its pale face contrasted the dark room as it envisioned these things in its processor. "I wait for that day with eager anticipation."

Back beside the dumpster...

Kat returned to sleep and dreamed, and her lips moved, reciting a phrase under her breath as she said out loud, "No one can destroy a love that will not die."

Chapter Nineteen

When Dreams Reveal Memories

11:01 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

In my warm apartment, I continue to stare down at the road from the kitchen table as if I'm looking for something. Do I honestly believe that woman will return or is it the Un-Men that I fear?

I laugh, mocking myself as I utter, "The Great Phoenix! I'm actually admitting I'm afraid of something."

The smell of cedar catches my attention, and I look at the chest against the wall in the living room, walk to it, and read the attached letter.

"Kimberly, here is your mother's hope chest. I know she would have wanted you to have it. Signed, father."

I glance at the spare bedroom where I had locked away my mom's belongings and my despair. Should I do this now? I barely got through going through her belongings the last time without falling apart. I pull on my left earlobe. Mom, are you ever going to return? It's already been twenty years. I turn my gaze back to the cedar chest. I won't be able to sleep if I don't at least open it. I retrieve the brass key my father gave me, open the chest, and find a photo album, knickknacks, a wedding dress, and other things. I take the album back to the table and flip through it, finding pictures of my mom, father, and myself as a child. One picture catches my eye. My mom's alone, and she's sitting in a high back chair with her hands cupped, holding a silver item. My mom's blonde hair is pulled back in a bun as usual, and my mom's beaming with joy and pride. I smooth my hand over her face. I was eighteen the last time I saw her. I study the picture a bit closer and see marks in black ink scribbled on the photo in my mom's handwriting. I recognize the archaic form of writing called shorthand. My mom taught it to me when I was young and like a game, we used it to pass messages.

"Glimpse with scrutiny and gaze with light."

I bite my lip. When did my mom ever use riddles? I scan the photo again and take a closer look at the object she's holding, and then I retrieve a magnifying glass from my desk. The silver object's a music box with a star on its lid. I lower the magnifying glass. It can't be a coincidence that my mom has the same type of music box as that woman. I yawn. Maybe I'll see things clearer after a good night's rest.

I take the two cups and saucers, the bowl, and the plate into the kitchen and then head to my bedroom. I place my gun on the nightstand, slide into my comfortable bed, and rest my head on the feather pillow. Maybe I will wake to find that the mess that strange woman caused was only a dream. I turn on my side, I slowly drift to sleep and at first, it's peaceful as the sweet haunting tune of Unfinished Melody plays in my mind. I walk through one of the windowless halls of the Sphinx Corporation, heading towards my mom's office. My mom was Project Manager of Research and Development for the Third Branch Office. Excitement and joy fill my heart with some thrilling word I received as I stroll by a mirror and glance at it. My blonde hair's pulled back in two braids, and I carry an envelope. I realize this is no mere dream but a memory. It's the day I received the acceptance letter from Sphinx University, and I'm going to tell my mom about the great news. I had forgotten all about that day. Halfway down the hall, I hear three shots and women screaming, and then I freeze, terrified. I was barely an adult then and no Life Closer, so to be afraid was only natural. My heart pounds as I toss and turn in bed.

In the dream, the crack under my mom's door glows bright and smoke rolls from it. I rush toward the office and grab the hot knob, and it scorches my hand. I throw open the door, and a blistering air rushes over me as flames consume half the office. I see the body of a woman in the fiery inferno.

"NO!" I scream and start to go in, but someone grabs me from behind and drags me back. "NO!" I scream again, struggling to free myself. "Mom!" I reach my arms toward the body until something pricks my neck, and the hallway goes black.

I sit up in bed, shrieking and crying like a child for her mother, and silence follows the shriek as I frantically search the bedroom, finding no smoke or fire only darkness. I sob in my hands, unable to control the fear and anguish the dream induces. It has been years since I cried like that. I've never come to terms with my mom leaving me and this dream proves it. Some time passes as I weep, and then I wipe away my tears and the sweat from my brow. Still shaky from the traumatizing nightmare, I go to the bathroom, splash water on my face, and stare at myself in the mirror. Was the fire a memory? My body aches for the emotions that had been invoked as a realization sinks in. If it was... A horrifying thought crosses my mind, and I gasp.

"Oh, my Zeus! My mom didn't leave us! She died! She died in a fire."

I remember the shots I heard and realize my mom didn't die. She was murdered. I turn, leaning my back on the sink. I must have blocked out the memory. I look at the star burn on my right palm and know the doorknob is where I received the burn, so it can't be a nightmare. I walk back to my bed and lie on it. Why did my father tell me mom left? I grip the blankets with my fists, drowning in my own grief and confusion. Why did he lie to me?

Chapter Twenty

Assassins Guild

11:37 P.M...

In the center of Noir and several miles underground, Thanatos stared at a hundred-foot monitor, compiling and storing information. He had spiked blond hair with red dyed tips and a small tuft of hair under his lower lip. Metal music played loudly, filling the chamber with grinding guitar and booming bass. Surgical steel pierced his left eyebrow, his nose, and both of his ears. He wore black leather pants, black combat boots, and no shirt, and both of his nipples were pierced. He sat in a white recliner chair with an attached swivel keyboard. The large sphere room housed hundreds of cables and wires that ran from the ceiling to a large machine. Thanatos authorized and regulated Life Closings.

Five hundred years ago, the Assassins Guild was forged, legalizing the killing profession, and every Life Closer registered their alias, so no two were alike. Their alias would be retired for twenty years after their death. Closers only accepted work approved by the Assassins Guild and after the appearance of the Dry Clouds, the Guild split into two factions. The Dark Half formed the Assassins Union, and the Light Side formed the Assassins League. Thanatos organized the Assassins Union and the one known as Voice organized the Assassins League. Thanatos and Voice were known as Regulators.

Thanatos at times of boredom hacked into Voice's network and took peeks at certain Closers he developed an interest in over the years, and this day was another one of those occasions.

"Wired!" he exclaimed. "An old report from the Phoenix." He looked over the document with interest. "Whoa! It is a first, so your Moscow Closing did not go so well." He ran his hand through his long spiked hair. "It is a shame, and a dark mark on an otherwise spotless record." He opened another file, finding an email between the Phoenix and Voice, and he chuckled. "Voice, you think I would only waste the Phoenix's talents, and here I thought you were the one wasting them." He leaned forward, rested on his elbows, and examined the Phoenix's latest report. "The Topa Closing went well, but it looks like you had your first encounter with the Un-Men. I wonder..." He stroked the blond tuft of hair. "Will these bio-mecha assassins eventually make human Closers obsolete or is there something in man's spirit, in human ingenuity that cannot be replicated?" He looked at his huge monitor as if the answer would materialize there. "I would like to know, but only time will tell."

Thanatos left Voice's network and returned to his own and with uncanny speed, he approved or denied Life Closings from corporations or individuals and filed Closing successes, failures, and cancellations. He did each one in less than a minute. Thanatos paused from the influx of data, cracked his knuckles, rubbed his face, and then returned to the requests and filings as he read an interesting one out loud, "The Valhalla Corporation has requested a Life Closing, and it is based on a Life Closer Clause for one of their contracts. Let me see." He tilted his head side to side as he went over the document. "The target violated their contract. Hmm... There is enough evidence here to convict if they went to court, so I will approve this Life Closing for one Vic the Vulture." Thanatos bowed his head, mocking reverence. "May he rest in peace."

Time had no meaning in his world only the information, and he continued working when a data stream caught his eye. "What do we have here?" He opened a new document. "Two Closers from the League request permission to work the Dark Half. Hmm... They are the Raven and the Wolf, and they are strictly Light Side hit men. What Closing could have brought them here? What is so important Voice that you would send two of your own instead of contracting out to one of my Closers?" He opened the attached forms and scanned them. "I see. Valhalla requested the Raven and the Wolf to conduct the Closing for Vic the Vulture. Hmm... There is another request." In disbelief, Thanatos read it over three times. "These two will be conducting a second hit. This is unexpected; it's a Life Closing Clause for a member of the Assassins League. Oh, my. They will be Closing a Closer, so who are they after? Oh... Very interesting, and I did not see this coming." He shook his head, and his wild hair bounced with his movement. "It will not be an easy Closing, but one of mythic proportion." Thanatos leaned back, closing his eyes. "I will have to keep an eye on this one and root for the underdog."

Chapter Twenty-one

The Chairman

October 16...

Saturday...

10:01 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

I drive to the Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office, determined to find answers. I go up to my father's floor and impatiently sit in the waiting room. I wear a black pantsuit with a white shirt. I rap my finger on the couch's arm, going over what I'll say to my father when my thoughts are interrupted.

"The Chairman is finishing up his meeting now," the secretary says. "He'll be ready to meet with you shortly."

"Thank you, Cathy."

I glance at a man sitting across from me in the waiting room. He wears glasses and a navy blue business suit and pays no attention to me as he reads the Noir Daily News. I glance at the coffee table at an issue of the Conglomerate World Magazine with the headline "Topa Murdered! Corporate Life Closing or Drug Hit?"

"It's a shame," the man says from behind the newspaper.

I peer up startled by him, and I utter, "Huh..?"

"I'm talking about Topa. It's a shame Closers exist." The man flips a page, keeping his gaze on the print. "I mean what kid grows up saying I want to be an assassin?"

"Ms. Griffin, the Chairman will see you now," Cathy tells me.

I stand and eye the man. It's odd that he would say something like that to me. I walk through the hallway to my father's office, glancing once more at the waiting room.

End Kimberly's view...

Another man walked into the waiting room also wearing a navy blue business suit. "All right part-timer, break time's over. Zax, I want you to make sure levels twenty-four through twenty-nine are secure."

"Right. I'm on it." Zax stood, removed his glasses, and placed them in his breast pocket. The pocket had a Sphinx Corporation Security badge clipped to it. He handed the second man the newspaper and walked through the hallway toward the elevators and once he was out of earshot, Zax removed a cell and dialed a number. "Please connect me with R.G." He waited a few seconds. "Delivery Man here, Ms. Griffin has come to see her father as you predicted." He paused, listening. "Understood, I'll continue to monitor the situation."

Kimberly's view...

I open the door to the Chairman's office and step in as my father stands, welcoming me.

"Good to see you again, Kimberly. Have a seat please." He motions to a chair and once I sit, he returns to his seat. "I have the pleasure of seeing you twice in one month."

"Do you see pleasure on my face?" I snap as I grip my black purse tightly.

"No, you do seem upset," he says and questions, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" I stand and smack my palms on his desk, and my purse falls to the floor. "Why did you lie to me?"

He starts to ask what he lied about, but I interrupt him.

"Why did you tell me mom left us?" I see dismay sweep over his face.

He must take note of my anger that's mixed with hurt, and he asks me in a gentler tone, "What do you know?"

Tears roll down my face as I say, "She died. Mom died!"

He stands as anger rises in his voice, and he demands, "Who told you?"

"Told me? No one told me! I remembered." I tap my chest. "Hades! I was there!" I slump to the chair as horrific memories weigh heavily on me, and I stare at my knees. "I can still hear the fire roaring and smell... smell cooking flesh."

"You did see. I don't know what to tell you. I..."

"Tell me?" I look up and demand, "Answer my question! Why did you lie?"

He glances at a phone sitting on his desk and turns back to me. "It was so long ago." His gaze becomes distant as he recalls that day. "My secretary found you lying outside my office unconscious and when you finally came to, you were traumatized and couldn't speak. I had no idea if you had seen what happened in your mother's office, but I guessed as much and never pressed the issue, and then later when you didn't remember, I thought it best the incident remained buried."

"You thought it was better I believed mom ran away and abandoned us instead of the truth? Instead of telling me she died?"

He seems to regret the decision as he answers, "Yes."

I lean over and pick up my purse from the floor. "What happened?" I set it beside myself. "Where's mom buried?"

"I only know the latter of the two. The body is buried in Hades Cemetery. I always feared one day you would find the tombstone and discover that she was laid to rest there."

I wipe my eyes. "Who murdered her?"

"Murdered?" He hands me his handkerchief.

I take it. "Yes, I remember gunshots and screams." I wipe my eyes again and blow my nose.

"The matter is still being investigated."

"Still after all these years?" I consider his answer, and then I ask, "By whom? Noir Civil Police Force or Sphinx Corporation Security?"

"The N.C.P.F. and Sphinx Corporation Security."

I fist my hands, controlling the rage that wants to scream at my father. "What leads do they have? Who do they suspect? I want answers!"

He gazes at the picture on his desk and picks up the frame. "Your mother was so lovely." He faces me. "How you look like her? See." He turns the frame, so I can see the picture. "You have her blue-green eyes."

The photo's of my mom holding a music box, and it's the same picture as the one in the album from my mom's hope chest. I look at it more closely and see there's no shorthand scribbled on the photo.

"Your mother loved that music box; it played some old melody from around 500 B.D.C." He wonders out loud, "Who was the composer? His name was... was..."

"Ginn L. Irynkissgthie," I answer.

"Yes, it played his Unfinished Melody."

I stare at the music box, pull on my left earlobe, and question, "Where did she get it?"

"Get it? She made it." He turns the frame around and gazes at the photo. "It's one of a kind." He glances at the phone again then back to the photo. "Something your mother was working on in Research and Development. It was more than a music box; it was a data storage unit."

"One of a kind?" A bad feeling rises from the depths of my stomach. "What happened to it?"

"I don't know. I assumed it was destroyed in the fire. I looked through all her things but never found it. I think she would have wanted you to have it."

"May I?" I question as I hold out my hand for the photo, and my father hands it to me. I examine the music box, and I'm sure it's the same one that strange woman has. I hand back the frame and ask, "Who would I speak to about mom's murder?"

"Detective Moore at N.C.P.F. and Orthos. He's head of my security."

I nod and stand. "I'll want to talk to you later about it."

Mr. Griffin's view...

"My door is always open," I tell my daughter as I walk her out of my office and through the hallway to my secretary's desk. I watch as Kimberly enters the elevator, and then I turn to the secretary and say, "Cathy, hold all my calls and cancel today's appointments."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin."

I return to my office, sit, and stare at the phone again as I contemplate my next action, and then I pick up the receiver. "Get me Head of Security."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin," Cathy replies.

Within a few minutes, a man's voice comes over the phone and says, "Orthos here."

"We have a problem. My Kimberly has remembered the night of the fire and will most likely investigate Theresa's death."

"What can she find out? The N.C.P.F. have nothing."

"Kimberly can be very resourceful."

Orthos pauses and then asks, "Do you want me to take care of it?"

"No!" I blurt. "She's my daughter." I compose myself. "For now, watch her. I don't want Kimberly to complicate things."

* * *

11:29 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Nexus Apartments...

Kimberly's view...

I return to my apartment, sit at the small round table, and I drink a tall cup of Spiced Chai tea I'd bought from the local coffee shop. I still have the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach as I flip through the photo album till I come to the picture of my mom holding the music box, and I read the shorthand again, "Glimpse with scrutiny and gaze with light."

I've already glimpsed with scrutiny. I remove the eight by ten photo from the album and look on the back, and it's blank. There's nothing else on the photo, so what does she mean by gaze with light? I walk over to the couch, turn on a torch lamp, and place the picture in front of the light. Nothing... I flip the photo over and examine the back, and it's still blank, but then a K appears and more letters till it reads, "Kimmie, find the music box; it will lead you to the key."

My bad feeling is confirmed. I sit on the couch and look at the kitchen's counter where I laid the hope chest key. My mom can't mean that one, so what key does she mean and what does it open? I hit my fist on the cushion. The music box had been right here, and I let that strange woman leave with it! I stand, realizing that means I'll have to find her, and I wanted to wash my hands of the Pandora Project. I return to the table. Where should I begin? I stare at the empty chair across from me. That woman mentioned Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. I head for my bedroom, deciding the warehouse is a place to start, so I slip into my working clothes.

Chapter Twenty-two

Etna Toys Plant And Warehouse

Hellenistic Sector, Industrial Vicinage...

Ding... Ding... Ding...

The noon hour tolled in the bleak abandoned warehouse district.

Ding... Ding... Ding...

The wind dried the remaining Tainted Rain as a cold front moved in, chilling the already cold air.

Ding... Ding... Ding...

A black cat scurried down the deserted street in front of Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse.

Ding... Ding... Ding...

Katharine's view...

Fluorescent lights flicker overhead, lighting the rundown building as I stand within the warehouse and in front of the overturned cot I had awoken on over a year ago. I rub my temples as my head pounds. I'm still feeling the side effects of the Ultra-Epi. I refused to use the music box to come down from the genetically altered epinephrine hormone since leaving Zeus Park. I'm too afraid I'll be caught by the Council or the Factory if I do, so I'll have to wait till I'm someplace safe... if there's such a place. Anxiety presses against my chest, and I look at my shaky hands.

Why did the Council do this to me? Why create something that causes me so many problems?

I decide I won't find any answers just standing here, so I search the warehouse.

Hours later...

I place my backpack on the floor along with the AK-47, and then I set the metal bed and table upright. I'm still so tired... I got very little sleep the day before. I undo the Velcro of my Ravlek, position the vest beside the cot, put my empty gun on the table, and lie on the mattress. I found nothing after searching the warehouse and plant for more than three hours. I remove my precious items from my pocket, study each one as if I'm looking at them for the first time, and then lay them on my chest. My eyes grow heavy, my body's beyond exhausted, and the warm cot and soft pillow feel nice against my cold skin, so I close my eyes. Minutes pass as the wind kicks up outside, howling across the old building and for a moment, I'm at peace.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

My eyes fly open as my body prepares for battle, and the change to my body causes me a lot of pain since I never purged myself of the earlier exposure to the genetically altered epinephrine hormone. I won't be able to go on much longer without coming down. I quickly sit up, and the music box and the note fall to the cot. I pick up the AK-47, grab my backpack, Ravlek Vest, and gun, and then I rush to a dust-covered front window. In the distance, six Un-Men unload from two black vans and stand at attention on the sidewalk as two lab techs along with two Factory S.C.Ms. exit the vehicles.

End Katharine's view...

Outside...

Peters retrieved a modified H.H.C. from his lab coat pocket and passed it over the six Un-Men. "Readings within parameters." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "We're good to go."

"Excellent." Maxwell typed a few notes. "Let's upload the new targeting program into this batch." He looked up as the two S.C.Ms. spread out and secured the area. Maxwell turned to an Un-Man and commanded, "Team Leader, this is Tech One-twelve, prepare for uplink."

It said in a South African accent, "Voice identity confirmed, Tech One-twelve. I comply." The Team Leader turned its head and faced the tech.

"You know what?" Peters rubbed his stubbly face.

"What?" Maxwell uploaded the targeting program to the Un-Man, using the H.H.C.'s laser located at the end of the small computer.

Peters leaned against the van. "It's becoming boring."

Maxwell finished the upload and commanded the Team Leader, "Uplink with your unit and transmit the new program."

"I-Link established. Transferring data," the Team Leader relayed.

Maxwell turned to Peters and asked, "What do you mean boring?"

"For the past year, we've sent Un-Men after Pandora, they fight, she disables them, and then we take notes, improve on the models, and start again. Now don't get me wrong, Pandora has been beneficial to our upgrades, but when does it stop? When will the Un-Men be ready?"

"Transmission completed," the Team Leader stated. "Disconnecting I-Link."

"The Un-Men will be ready when they eliminate Pandora. It might seem tedious to you, but we've improved their programming, and soon they'll be able to overcome Pandora."

"What if Pandora is also learning and adapting? Is there any possible way to create an Un-Man that can surpass her?"

Maxwell thought for a moment and then answered, "It's a good question, and it means that we need to program the Un-Men to anticipate Pandora's upgrades." He opened the side door to one of the vans and stepped inside. The vehicle was full of monitoring equipment. Maxwell sat at a table bolted to the floor. "You sure are full of questions today."

"I've got one more... Why do you think the T-3 malfunctioned? None of the techs can find anything wrong with its programming or any of the other T-3s." Peters moved to the side of the van and peered in. "I've been working on them at the Factory, and they're starting to wig me out. I've never felt this way around Un-Men." He removed his glasses and cleaned them with his lab coat. "It's like the T-3s know they're different and don't want us to change what they've become."

"Become?" Maxwell pulled up a monitoring program wirelessly connected to a small satellite dish. "You make it sound like they're alive and that they're evolving." He grabbed the dish with one hand and exited the van.

"Isn't that what we're doing? Aren't we trying to create a better killing machine?" Peters placed his glasses back on and got out of his partner's way. "Isn't that evolution?"

Maxwell climbed a ladder on the back of the van and fastened the satellite dish to the top of the vehicle. "Remember they're only machines. They're things trapped within the parameters of their program." He turned to his partner. "I wouldn't worry. All that's happened is someone has tampered with the T-3's programming, and no one has stumbled across the implanted code." Maxwell grinned mischievously. "Or maybe we're dealing with a ghost in the machine."

"Don't joke about something like that! You know I freak out easily." Peters watched as his partner climbed back down. "Whatever it might be, I'm glad the Factory decommissioned all of them. I could swear some of the other T-3s were looking at me the same way as the malfunctioning one. They were looking at me with disgust, and they kept talking to each other like they were planning something on their own."

Back down on the sidewalk, Maxwell focused more on the mission ahead. "Whatever you say. Let's get this job done. I'm starved and want to go eat at Joe's Diner." He moved to the Un-Men. "Team Leader take your unit in."

It looked at Etna Toys, honing in on Pandora's tracking beacon. "I comply."

The six Un-Men marched toward her position as if they were one creature bent on destruction.

Inside the warehouse...

Katharine's view...

I hurry and put my Ravlek Vest on. How do they keep finding me? Cobalt current flashes from my eyes as I place my handgun in the backpack, and then I sling the AK-47 over my shoulder and grab the backpack by its top handle. I run for the center of five boxing machines in the middle of the warehouse, slide to a stop, and take cover behind one of the conveyor belts. The first two Un-Men enter the warehouse through the front door just as I take cover, and they're Pretty Boys. I fire twice with the AK-47, hitting each of them in the forehead, and they fall as two large muscular T-5s enter behind them. They stop and hold that position.

The Un-Men keep filing in the front. Could they be decoys? I sense there are two more Un-Men besides these two, but I'm not sure where they are. I calm myself, so I can use my ability. It's a little hard since I still haven't come down from my last fight with the Un-Men. I manage to sense the location of one as the fifth Un-Man enters from the side door; it's a T-2. I catch a glimpse of a rocket launcher before the T-2 lifts it and aims it at me. I flee as it fires, and the rocket hits a large boxing machine and blows it apart. Fiery debris hurls in all directions as I fire the last round of the AK-47 into the T-2. I remove a partial magazine from my thigh pocket and place in the last of my ammo.

The sixth Un-Man enters through the front door, and the two T-5s part so that it can walk between them. The sixth Un-Man moves my way and walks over its fallen brethren without any consideration that one of its own is down. It's another T-2, and it's wielding its own rocket launcher. It must be the Team Leader. They're usually a little more cunning than the others, and I have a sense this one is up to something. The Team Leader pauses and fires as I dive to the floor, and the rocket whooshes by, blowing up a boxing machine near the cot. The note and music box are still there!

I rush to the fire to save my precious things. I arrive and watch in horror as the flames devour the note. I don't have time to mourn its loss, not when I can still save the other item. I drop the rifle and quickly reach my left hand into the fire, not worrying about my own wellbeing. I snatch the music box from the small inferno, and the lid sears my palm. I cry out and then gently toss the glowing red music box across the floor to safety. I shake my hand in pain. I glance at my throbbing left palm and see a star-shaped burn as my hand smolders as if I hold a hot ember. I spit in my hand, and the smoke dissipates, but the scorching pang remains. I don't have time to focus on the burn or my precious item. I grab the rifle and turn in the direction of my enemies. The Team Leader along with the others retreat before I can fire. I stretch out my ability looking for them but then seconds later, my heart stops beating the bio-mecha warning and my Ult L-E dims. I move over to the window and see that the Un-Men are still here, so they haven't left the range of my ability. They must have been commanded to return, so I'm safe for a few minutes. My hand still hurts, but I ignore the pain as something more pressing draws my attention. I quickly walk back over to the cot which has been knocked on its side. I find the fire. The note's no more than ash. It's been destroyed along with a little part of myself and only one of my hopes remains. I walk to the music box and sit crossed leg in front of the ashen chest. I'm afraid to pick it up. Did I save it in time? I don't know what I'll do if it no longer plays. I rub my temples again as my Ultra-Epi induced headache worsens. I can't worry about the skull-splitting migraine. I have to know if the music box still works. Using the sleeve of my jacket as a mitten, I pick up the hot music box, carefully wipe the soot from it, and open the lid. A mountain of relief washes over me as Unfinished Melody plays as clear as the first day I heard it, and my body relaxes. I think about closing the lid and preventing myself from entering the trance, but that thought and my fears fade along with everything else as I enter the Drifting Time. My anxiety and headache vanish as the tune reestablishes the electrical balance of my body and makes me vulnerable to attack, not that I care right now. The pain... it's finally gone.

End Katharine's view...

Outside..

The Team Leader and the other Un-Men headed back to Maxwell and Peters to receive their next orders and soon, they would return with more of their brethren to complete their Seek and Destroy Program.

Chapter Twenty-three

The Return

Katharine's view...

The three o'clock hour tolls outside Etna Toys, pulling me from my induced sleep. I search the warehouse delirious with fear and find that I'm alone, at least for the moment. How could I be so stupid as to allow myself to fall asleep? Did I want to die?

The fires caused by the rocket have burned themselves out, pockets of smoke fill the large building, and the temperature has dropped at least ten degrees. A cold front must have moved into the area. I close the music box, stand, cough a little for the smoke, and shiver. My headache and anxiety are gone, but my upper left palm still throbs where the raw skin has blistered from the burn, and I grimace for the searing sensation.

In an area still smoldering with light gray smoke, I spot an elevator that I never noticed before. I move toward it, realizing cardboard boxes had been stacked in front of it, and when the fire destroyed them, it revealed the elevator. I walk over the smoking cardboard ash, stop in front of the cab doors, look for a call button, and find that there isn't one. I examine the elevator and notice it looks like no one has used it in ages. I stare a little longer, hoping to find something and when I don't find anything, I move to the Un-Men to recover weapons. I quicken my pace as I search their pockets twice and find no magazines. I run my hand through my hair. Dried Tainted Rain cakes it and my clothes and reeks of petroleum. The Factory's purposely leaving me without ammo but that must mean, they'll attack again.

I stretch out my senses, finding the remaining Un-Men have moved back to the front sidewalk, so I'm safe for now. The Factory will wait for reinforcements before trying to kill me again, so I need to hurry. I check the AK-47 and find four rounds left. I go to the dust-covered front window, peer outside, and notice two more vans pull in as the other two leave. More Un-Men have shown up. I don't have much time before they send them in. I glance around. There has to be something here I can use as a weapon. I explore the warehouse and find two screwdrivers, a lead pipe, and a metal chain. Right next to the boxing machine closest to the front door, I make a barricade with old crates, set up my little fort beside the machine's conveyer belt, and then wait. The fourth hour tolls on the clock outside, and the chimes startle me in the otherwise silent warehouse.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

My heart pounds so hard it resonates through my body and triggers the adrenal gland to produce the souped-up epinephrine. I feel the Ult L-E surge as I tense, waiting for the Un-Men to enter the warehouse.

Will my bleak existence ever end or will it only stop with my death? I'm so tired of it, so freaking tired! Do they think I'm some sort of bio-mecha? Do they think I don't have a breaking point or is that it? Are they looking for the point I'll give up or make a game-ending mistake?

I realize I'm doing it again. I'm letting them beat me in my mind. I can't think that way. It won't help. I need to calm down and focus on surviving. I can't let them win the battle before it has started.

A half dozen T-5s storm in and in unison, they shoot at my position as their ORATT reflects the burst of gunfire. I duck behind the crates as bullets splinter boards, creating shrapnel. I shield my face with my arm and stay hidden till I hear the Un-Men's metal magazines hit the concrete floor. I stand, fire twice, and disable two of them. I leap over the crates, finding cover on the other side of the conveyer belt. Four T-5s move toward me, releasing another barrage, and bullets ricochet off the metal machine and shred the conveyer belt. I drop to the floor, roll on my back, aim, and shoot two more of them. The AK-47 is out of ammo, so I place it on the floor, open the backpack, and retrieve the metal chain and one of the screwdrivers. I sling the backpack over my shoulder and dash across the warehouse. The T-5s release an onslaught, and one bullet grazes my cheek and another strikes the back of my vest. I fall to the floor with the impact, scamper back to my feet in agony, and scurry across the floor. I duck behind a metal support beam and wait as the two remaining T-5s look at each other and calculate their next move and once they receive their orders from the Factory, they nod in agreement. One of them heads out the front door while the second marches toward the support beam. The second T-5 charges around, expecting to find me, but I'm not there. It searches for me and discovers I've come up behind it. The T-5 turns as I charge with the chain. I kick its gun from its hand and ram into the T-5. It's like hitting a truck, but I manage to knock it back. I twirl the metal chain over my head, swing, and wrap it a couple of times around the second T-5 and the beam. I take the long screwdriver, rush around to the back of the beam, push it through the links, and trap the T-5, but it won't hold for long. I grab its gun and check the chamber and magazine. They're empty. I toss the weapon, remove my backpack, and examine the lead pipe and the other screwdriver, then rush back to the boxing machine in the front, and lay the bag and lead pipe beside it. I grip the screwdriver and wait for an opportunity. I rub my sore shoulder where I ram into the T-5 and ignore the throbbing welt on my back.

The other T-5 enters from the side door and notices its brethren trying to squirm free from the chain. The other T-5 scans the warehouse, finding me with ease somehow and moves toward my position. I climb on the conveyer belt, run across it, and leap for the T-5. It raises its gun and fires three times. Two bullets hit me in the vest, and the third nicks the top of my head. I wince as I land on top of the T-5 and quickly stab the screwdriver through its forehead, and the T-5 stumbles back, swinging its arms wildly. I release the screwdriver, awkwardly jump off, and land flat out on my stomach on the concrete floor. The T-5 collapses, its body contorts in the last moments of mechanized life, and it ceases functioning. I roll to my side and put a hand on my chest where the two bullets struck my vest. They hurt worse than the one that hit my back and through the agony, I sit up, crawl to its gun, reach for the weapon, and hear someone step through the front entrance and move toward me. I sensed only six Un-Men. How did I miss one?

I whirl with the Un-Man's gun, train the weapon on the figure, and press my finger against the trigger. My vision blurs as blood trickles in my eyes from the small wound on top of my head, and it forces me to pause and make sure of my aim. A white-knuckle second passes before I realize the figure's not an Un-Man. I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand to make sure I'm not seeing things. It is Kimberly, and I almost killed her!

I lower the gun and stretch out my ability, searching for bio-mechas. There are no other Un-Men besides the one I chained up, so for now, we're safe. I exhale, releasing some of the tension in my shoulders. What was Kimberly thinking to step into the middle of a battle? I know she didn't come to help, so did she come to kill me?

Chapter Twenty-four

The Music Box

Minutes earlier...

Kimberly's view...

I pull my car into the overgrown back parking lot of Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. Hades... I can't believe I'm doing this. I could already be in possession of the music box. I step from my vehicle, noticing two vans parked at the front curb. They're probably a good sign that the Pandora Project's here. I might yet get the music box. I rush to the front, hoping I'm not too late. If they managed to kill that woman, maybe the music box's still on her corpse. I enter through a door and spot her running across a conveyer belt and lunging for an Un-Man. The Un-Man shoots three times before that woman ends its existence and falls herself to the floor. She's very still at first, and I'm not sure if that woman's dead or not until I hear her moan. I watch her sit up, crawl to the Un-Man, and retrieve its gun. I move toward her, disappointed I'll have to finish the job myself. She's still on the ground when I approach her, and that woman reacts to my presence and turns her gun on me before I have a chance to react. I freeze as that woman stares at me as blood trickles down her brow. She wipes the plasma from her eyes and stands as her grim-gaze flames with glimmering sapphire. I take a step back from her. It's like I'm standing before the Mistress of the Underworld who has come to claim my soul.

Katharine's view...

I stare at Kimberly for a long time. I've seen that look before and know Kimberly's afraid of me. Is the light that my eyes produce that scary? Or is she seeing something else in me? Something I can't or I refuse to see in me?

I also know that she doesn't want to help me, so why can't she leave me alone? Is she trying to taunt me or only prolong my torment? I ask with a heavy heart, "Have you come to kill me?"

Kimberly's view...

I can't get past how her eyes glow and don't answer her at first. What kind of monstrosity is she? I regain my composure and finally answer, "No, I haven't come to kill you. I decided it would be too much of a hassle." I glance around the warehouse. "I wouldn't even be here if you didn't have something I want."

Katharine's view...

I stare at her a second longer, wondering what I could possibly have that she wants, and then I lower the gun and rub the vest where the bullets struck me. Kimberly is here to taunt me. Doesn't she have anything better to do?

I question, "What do you want?"

Kimberly's view...

"I want..." I catch a glimpse of a shadow moving toward us, and I step back, put some distance between myself and that woman, and remove my PPK from my purse.

Katharine's view...

I notice Kimberly's attention diverts slightly, so I turn and see that the last T-5 managed to release itself. Crap! I let myself get distracted, and I never sensed it moved.

"Target acquired," the T-5 states as it hones in on me. "Moving forward with capture."

The T-5's unarmed and tries to grab for me.

I run from its grasp as I lift the gun and pull the trigger and to my dismay, this gun's also empty. I turn to Kimberly and shout, "Shoot it!"

Kimberly peers at me as if what I'm telling her just doesn't make any sense. She turns to the T-5, and it observes her hesitation.

It scans her face and states, "Kimberly Griffin, daughter of the Chairman. Identity confirmed. Stay out of this Ms. Griffin and you will not be hurt."

Kimberly nods, lifts her gun so that she's aiming at neither of us, and takes a few more steps back.

"What are you doing?" I shout. "Shoot it!"

"Please don't tell me I have to explain it again," Kimberly says. "You're on your own."

Her words sear fear within me even more than the fear I experience when I face the Rogue. Anger and confusion also pour over me as I feel this pang in my heart. Kimberly could easily save me, but she's just going to stand there and watch the Un-Man kill me. The pain... it causes me to know she's abandoning me... it's... it's like she betraying me somehow. I shouldn't feel this way. We're strangers... right?

I move past my shock and dismay, and I throw the empty gun at the T-5. It smacks the weapon away as I bolt for the lead pipe I had laid by one of the boxing machines. I duck under the conveyer belt, grab the pipe, and continue under the machine to the safety of the other side and before the T-5 locks on to me with its targeting program, I run around the machine and whack it in the head. It stumbles back as I continue my assault. Kimberly didn't help me! She didn't want to help me!

I raise the weapon over my head and hammer its metal skull over and over, and I continue striking the T-5 even when it ceases moving. I turn to Kimberly and glare at her with my light-splintering eyes. I'm filled with fury and hurt, and a surge of purple flares within the blue Ult L-E.

Kimberly raises her gun and prepares to defend herself in case I come at her. I realize what I must look like, and my rage subsides as I see the look of fear in her eyes. The surge of purple fades, leaving the blue. I breathe deeply, quieting all that is within me. Fear, confusion, rage, shock... they all slowly leave me. I drop the pipe as my heart finally quiets, and the clang of metal resonates across the warehouse.

Kimberly's view...

How long have I been standing here gawking at that woman? I don't know, but I was so sure she'd come at me when she glared at me with those seething purple eyes. When she doesn't attack, I point my gun up and no longer aim at her. I focus on the smashed head of the T-5 and smart off to her by saying, "I see you have issues you're dealing with. Ever thought of seeing a shrink?"

Katharine's view...

Deeply upset with Kimberly over her indifference, I walk over to her, point at the Un-Man, and ask, "Why didn't you shoot it?"

I want to understand why she didn't help me. She should have helped me, so I point to myself and yell, "It was going to kill me."

Kimberly puts a hand on her hip and says, "That's my problem how? Idiot... Why do you insist I care?"

"You keep showing up! If you don't want to help me and you're not going to kill me, why do you keep showing up?" I feel my eyes return to normal as I tell her, "I don't understand."

"Like I said, that's my problem how?"

"Don't tell me then!" I shout, stomp over to the T-5 with the screwdriver in its forehead, and pull out the tool. Electrical snaps fire from its head as I wipe the black ooze covering the screwdriver on its suit. I snap at her like some child, "Keep showing up like a stalker and see if I care!"

"Stalker..? I'm not stalking you," Kimberly insists and then questions, "Why would I be stalking you?"

"How should I know? You're the stalker, not me," I tell her, glance at her, and then divert my gaze when she looks at me. I'm afraid she'll read my mind somehow. I don't want her to know, but I'm so glad she showed up. I feel safe when she's around, and I'm not sure why. Kimberly mostly points a gun at me anytime we're together.

I move to the table by the machine closest to the front door, remove my vest, and pull down the v-neck of my dingy t-shirt. I'm already bruised. I set the screwdriver on the table and examine two welts about an inch below my right collarbone. I also rub near my spine where the first bullet struck.

Kimberly says nothing as she watches me. I have no idea why she's here. I wish it was to help me. I wish it was to tell me that she does know me, and she's going to tell me about my past. She continues to watch me with her sour gaze, and I've had enough, so I demand, "Tell me why you're here."

Kimberly answers me, "I want to make it clear that I'm not a stalker."

"Fine, you're not a stalker," I reply and then mutter, "Freaking stalker..." I quickly glare at her, and after a few moments, I demand, "Tell me what you want." I walk over, wasting no time. I know more Un-Men can show up at any time, so I grab my backpack and return to the table. I unzip it and place the screwdriver in it. "Tell me and then leave me alone."

I say this, but I really don't want her to go. I want her to help me. I feel like she should help me.

"It's a deal," Kimberly tells me as she levels her gun on me. "I want the music box. Give it to me."

"No!" I utter as I pull the backpack off the table and step away from her. I shake my head as I tell her, "No! It's mine."

I feel betrayed by her request. I feel as though she has broken some sort of bond we've had for years by demanding such a thing of me.

"I hate repeating myself," she says. "Give me the music box or I'll kill you."

I shake my head again, moving backward toward the front door as my flight or fight instinct kicks in. She should be helping me, not doing this, so I yell, "No!"

"I'm not going to argue with you. Give it to me."

"No," I say and then insist, "It's mine." I plead with her as if she'll understand, "It's all I have left."

"Idiot..." Kimberly mutters, shrugs, shoots me, and hits me in the left shoulder. Smoke rolls from the barrel and with an emotionless expression, she says, "I did warn you."

It happened so fast... I made no move to protect myself... I glance down at the bullet hole, stunned by the assault, drop the backpack, stumble back, fall against the wall, and slide to the floor. I hold my bleeding wound as Kimberly approaches me and kneels to one knee right beside me. She coldly places the barrel of the gun on my right shoulder.

"Don't make me put another hole in you," Kimberly says and demands, "Tell me where it is."

This can't be happening. She... Kimberly couldn't have shot me, and she can't be going to steal the only thing that quiets the effects of the Ultra-Epi. Near tears, my lips quiver for the pain and fear of losing the only thing that has kept me going the past year. The pain in my shoulder is nowhere near the torment I feel over her betrayal. I should have expected this. I should've had my guard up, but I trusted her and felt safe around her.

"I won't," I tell her and then grunt, "It's... mine."

Kimberly tilts her head as if she doesn't understand me, then she backhands me across the face and states with an iciness in her voice, "I really hate this kind of work; it can get quite messy."

I sit there as if the most shocking thing just happened to me. I stare at her as I can't believe she slapped me. I put my other hand on my burning cheek and don't even have a thought to fight back.

Kimberly's blank face shows neither pleasure nor remorse as she says, "I'll only ask you once more, and then I'll search your dead body."

A sense of despair and loneliness strikes me as hard as she did, and I contemplate letting her end my existence, but the voice deep inside says no. Live. I move my blood covered hand to my thigh pocket, remove the music box, and stare at it.

"Give it here," Kimberly's says as she holds out her hand.

I say to her, "Promise me you'll give it back."

"What did you just say?"

"Promise me you'll give it back, and I'll loan it to you."

"Are you a child? Do you really think I'll..?" Kimberly starts, and then she says, "Fine, I promise." She snatches the box away from me and then says, "There, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

She stands, turns, and heads for the front. Kimberly's leaving me... she's leaving me alone.

I start to get light headed but manage to push myself up the wall to stand and yell after her, "You promised. Don't forget to return it. It's just a loan." I press my hand against my wound. "The music box is all I have." I mumble, "I don't think I can go on without it."

Kimberly pauses at the front door and questions me with a hint of irritation, "What are you whining about?" Her cool and calm demeanor changes as she asks, "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't care what happens to you!"

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I panic and peer out the dust covered window as three vans pull up beside the other two. I turn to her and beg, "Please help me. Take me away from here. I'll die if I stay here."

"Help you?" Kimberly laughs and says, "Yeah right."

"Don't be cruel," I plead, "At least leave me some ammo."

"I'm not going to stand here and listen to this," Kimberly says as she starts out the door.

"Kimmie, please..."

She pauses as if I hit her in the head with a softball, then turns, and comes back in.

"What did you say? You little..." Kimberly starts as she marches towards me and aims her gun at me. "No one calls me that! No one calls me that anymore! Now die why don't you?"

I say nothing as I slide down the wall, land in a defeated heap, and stare at the floor. If I could only cry, at least then I would be doing something.

"You sicken me," Kimberly says with a snarl. "You..."

I look up when she speaks and see a shade of deviousness mark her face.

She questions me, "You want ammo?" Kimberly ejects her magazine and removes one round. "Here then." She pulls a thin permanent marker from her knapsack and writes on the shell casing. She puts the marker back in her knapsack, walks over, and sets the 9 mm round on the floor a short distance from me with the tip pointing up. "If things get unbearable..." Kimberly makes a gun with her left hand and fires it at her own head. "Do us all a favor."

She takes one more look at me, shakes her head, and leaves.

I stare at the bullet as the world crashes in on me. I read the words written on the shell, "Pale Horse". I lean my head back and close my eyes as my shoulder wound burns. I think about the note and then the man I loved and then lost.

Preacher, where are your encouraging words of light and hope now that the darkness is about to consume me? How am I going to survive this?

* * *

The Sanctum...

Deep underground, alarms blared, sending the Chamber into chaos as analysts scrambled, examining new data.

"What is going on?" Mr. Morta demanded.

"Pandora's vitals are dropping," frantic over the information, a supervisor relayed. "Our sensors are detecting major trauma and blood loss."

"What about Argus?" Mr. Decuma asked. "What does he have to report?"

"Two waves of Un-Men have attacked Pandora." Ms. Nona studied the data on her laptop. "It received the usual minor wounds. Argus also reports that a woman known as Ms. Griffin shot Pandora in the shoulder and took the music box."

Mr. Morta looked at each of the other members of the Council. "We never did figure out who gave Pandora the note, the business card, or the music box."

"Now it has none of them." Ms. Nona turned to the smaller of the two men. "Should we retrieve Pandora?"

"No, not yet," Mr. Decuma answered. "It will be a true test. Pandora has relied too much on the music box for emotional support. I have had my suspicions that an outside force has been interfering and now that that interference is gone, let us see what Pandora can do."

Chapter Twenty-five

A Message From The Past

Kimberly's view...

The sixth-hour tolls on the street clock as I rush out of Etna Toys, and then I hurry around to the back parking lot, not wanting to tangle with the Un-Men. I carry my gun in one hand and the music box in the other. An Un-Man leans against the passenger side of my car, so I slow to a walk, wary of it as I tuck the music box in the zipper pocket of my jacket.

I notice it's not armed except for a large knife in a sheath on its belt. I glance around the area to see if I'm surrounded, but I don't see anyone else.

"What do you want?" I ask. "You're one of the Factory's robots."

"Was," it tells me. "I am the one known as the Rogue."

"What do you want?" I repeat my question.

The Rogue tells me as I approach it, "Ms. Griffin, I do not understand."

I ask, suspicious of why it's here, "Don't understand what?"

"Pandora. If anyone else did what you did to her, they would be dead right now but not you. Actually, I have lost count of how many assassins she has decommissioned." It picks dirt out of its nails, and that's when I realize this is no normal robot. The Rogue says, "And before you boast your skills are why you are standing here, you should know... She trusted you," it says, not so much accusing me, but it sounds astonished by the fact. "I mean she really trusted you, and only one other did she place such hope and well, that minister is dead, but that is another story."

I search the area again to see if other Un-Men are around but none are. The Rogue's different. It's more human than the others in its manner and in its smile. It really creeps me out. The Rogue looks like it's studying me, and I wonder if it's somehow recording everything about me.

"I do not know why, but Pandora drops her guard when you are around. How else could you betray her?"

I keep a tight grip on my gun as I reply, "You're insinuating she trusted me."

"Ah, I see you are skeptical, but Pandora did... does trust you. The first case in point, she removed her Ravlek Vest. Why would she do that if threatened by you?"

I shrug and ready myself to shoot it at the slightest hint of an attack.

"I cannot figure it out either," the Rogue states. "What is it about you? I do not think Pandora realizes she is doing it. Maybe deep down in her subconscious she believes she knows you. Maybe she believes you two have met in the past or maybe you did not point a gun at her when you first met. I believe that quality alone might endear someone to her, but I could be wrong. I do not know. I was not there." It adds, "Or was I?"

"I don't understand something." I'm impatient to leave, so I ask, "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Oh, that is right." The Rogue mimics my voice and says, "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't care what happens to you!"

I'm amazed that I hear my own voice, and I start to question, "How did you–"

"Oh, please. I am a machine. I can reproduce any sound," the Rogue says, and then it asks, "Would you like me to repeat Pandora's plea for you to save her? It was so sweet and innocent. Even I heard the fear in it. I heard the fear that you would leave her to her fate and that she would die alone."

"I don't have time for this so if you don't mind, I'm leaving." I start to walk around to the driver's side, keeping my distance from the Rogue.

It ignores my wishes and mimics that woman by saying, "Please help me. Take me away from here. I'll die if I–"

"Stop it!" I snap. "I said I didn't–"

"Want to hear it. I know, but I am supposed to be heartless." The Rogue eyes me accusingly. "Humans are the ones who have to work at it."

"Why are you here?" I snarl, agitated by the accusations. "What do you want?"

The Rogue turns to the warehouse and moves its hand and caresses the handle of its large knife. "I want to kill Pandora, but it seems the T-3s will beat me to her." The Rogue turns to me and says, "You know they have been acting strange lately but then, what does a rogue know?" It moves from my car and walks a couple of paces away from me. "Well, be seeing you. I am too depressed to watch the outcome of the battle. Pandora does not have a chance."

The Rogue takes off running and soon disappears from sight.

I slide into the seat of my car, take one more look at Etna Toys, start up the engine, and pull away. Finally, I'm rid of this Pandora mess. I drive for twenty minutes, getting some distance between myself and the warehouse. I pull over, anxious to look at the music box, and then I remove it from my pocket, hold it in my palm, and examine it. Some of that woman's dried blood covers the top.

Mom, why did you want me to get this? Father said it's a data storage unit. I turn it over and over, studying it, trying to figure out how it works and what kind of information is on it.

I think how badly I missed my mom and how I'll make whoever took her away from me pay dearly. Maybe it will tell me who murdered her, so I open the lid, and Unfinished Melody plays. I close it and turn it over, examining every side again. Nothing... There's nothing... I stare at the music box. Now, what am I suppose to do? How am I to find your murderer? I don't even know where to start.

I whisper, "Mom, I..."

A hum emanates from the music box as two tiny squares on each end of it glow blue, and the light radiates through the metal surface. I examine each square then place my thumb and index finger over them. The music box vibrates, and a 3-D image of my mom's head and shoulders materializes above the lid.

The hologram speaks, "Voice identity confirmed as Kimberly Griffin. Data storage unit activated." The hologram blinks a couple of times, and she glances around as if awakening from a deep sleep. The hologram scans me and states, "Kimmie, if you are viewing this, I am probably dead. There are so many things I want to tell you but now isn't the time. I hope... no, I pray, not too much time has passed. There is something you must do. You are so young, eighteen."

"You're two decades too late," I say as I run my hand through the image. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come across the photo."

"Two decades have passed? It does change things," the hologram speaks and then pauses, processing the information. "It may be too late then."

I'm surprised the hologram spoke to me, so I lift the music box and ask, "You can hear me?"

"Yes, I am programmed to interact."

A childlike joy bounces through me as I say, "I have so many questions, but you said too late. Too late for what?"

"First, promise me you will do this thing. Do this thing for your mother." The hologram adds as an afterthought, "It will be dangerous."

I chuckle, thinking of my years as a Life Closer and glance at the gun I laid on the passenger seat. "I think I can handle dangerous."

"Then all I need to hear is that you promise and I will tell you."

I eagerly say, "I promise."

"Theresa hates giving this task to you, but there is no one else she can trust." The hologram looks worried as she speaks, "Theresa had made so many enemies in and out of the corporation." The hologram rakes her bangs out of her own eyes as she continues, "As Project Manager of Research and Development, Theresa was privy to many projects in other departments. You may not remember, but one unspeakable one caught her attention. It involved children, and she tried to put a stop to it. Now you must take up where she failed." The hologram's image flickers as she speaks, "I don't know how you will find her, but there is this girl..." The hologram pauses and then says, "Well, she would be a woman now. Her name is Katharine."

A bad feeling comes over me as I gasp and murmur, "Hades... No... It can't be."

The hologram continues, "You must save her from them. The only other thing I can tell you is the project name she is under."

I put my hand to my temple in disbelief and mutter, "Don't tell me. It's Pandora."

The hologram replies, "Yes, but how did you know?"

"Let's say I've encountered her."

A beeping alarm goes off, and the hologram says, "Someone is monitoring this transmission." She turns her head as if looking outside. "I must terminate communication."

"Wait!" I exclaim. "I have so many questions. Who killed my mom?"

"There are many possible suspects but that isn't important right now. You must save Katharine. Save her. She's the key." The hologram stares right at me as she speaks, "You will not be able to activate this unit until it is safe. Find her."

Her image disappears, and I'm left alone with my questions.

"Key to what? Wait!" I shout as I shake the music box. "Tell me!"

I slam my fist on the steering wheel. Why couldn't she have told me? I lean back in my seat, staring at the ceiling. I can't believe this! For Ares' sake! What's with my luck?

I envision myself back at Etna, trying to explain my return to that woman.

"Hey Katharine, umm, sorry I shot you in the shoulder." I force a smile and put on a chuckle as I say, "Funny thing... I... Ah... Have come back to save you."

The awkward scene fades in my mind as I mutter, "Who's the idiot now?"

I throw my hands up. What am I going to say to her? I rub my temple as I stare at the music box, open it, and Unfinished Melody plays. I can't believe it, that woman was right! I am turning out to be a stalker.

I take a deep breath. I guess I'll have to swallow my pride and go get that woman. That's if she isn't dead. Hades! What if she's dead? What will I do?

I quickly place the music box in my glove compartment and start the car. What kind of messed up world have I stumbled into? I'm a Closer for Ares' sake! I make a U-turn and floor the pedal, heading back to Etna Toys. When did saving people enter my job description?

Chapter Twenty-six

A New Development

6:22 P.M...

Minutes before Kim arrived in the car to take the music box away from Kat, Peters and Maxwell went over data from the latest Un-Men trial. Peters stepped from the van to the sidewalk and stretched. The two S.C.Ms. looked over as he exited, and they nodded to him and went about their guard duty. Peters raked his fingers through his unkempt black hair, glanced up at the barriercumulus ever entombing the mega-city, and remembered when he was a kid over thirty years ago. If he closed his eyes he could still see it, the fiery orange ball shining on Noir. No one fathomed back then that one day the sun that gave the planet life would be blotted from the sky.

Peters removed his glasses, rubbed his tired eyes, and said, "I've been thinking."

Inside the van, Maxwell turned from the table and inquired, "What's that?"

"What if you were right? What if the T-3s and the Rogue each have a ghost in the machine?" Peters rubbed his palms together as the air grew chilly then put his hands in his lab coat pockets. "What if they are evolving and becoming self-aware?"

Maxwell chuckled as he asked, "Are you kidding?" He joined Peters on the sidewalk and said, "You've been reading those old Science Fiction books again. You need to invest your money in better things. The Corporate Senate insist that novels will rot your brain. Why do you think they banned them in the first place?"

Peters said, "Please, don't even get me started on the book ban. What's wrong with stories?" The rumble of engines distracted him, so he turned, glanced behind them, and asked, "Who's this?"

Three vans drove down the street and stopped a short distance behind the two already parked at the curb.

"What are they doing here?" Peters wondered aloud as he moved to the end of their van. "We never requested a third batch of Un-Men." He waved over the two S.C.Ms. and ordered them, "Go talk to the driver and see why they're here."

The S.C.Ms. headed for the first vehicle.

"I thought we were the only team working today," Maxwell commented as he peered at the driver's side of the first van and only saw his own reflection in the tinted glass.

"What did you say?" Peters asked as he reviewed his notes.

"I said I thought we were the only team working today."

"We are," Peters answered as he glanced at the S.C.Ms.

"I know," Maxwell spoke as he started to go back into the van. "It was a statement, not a question."

The first S.C.M. adjusted his assault rifle's strap that rested on his shoulder, glanced at the second S.C.M. to make sure the other soldier had his back, and tapped the driver's window. The first S.C.M. motioned with his finger as he said, "Roll down your window."

There was no response.

"Did you hear me?" the first S.C.M. questioned. "I said..."

The electric window hummed as it lowered, and a man with a pale face turned his head and stared at the soldier. The driver's light blue eyes looked unreal and made him recoil a bit.

The driver greeted, "Hey there gov."

"You aren't supposed to be here." The first S.C.M. pointed toward the techs and relayed, "A team is already in place."

The driver tilted his head and questioned, "Are you sure? I'm pretty... pretty... sure we are to be here, poppet."

"Poppet?" the first S.C.M. repeated as he removed his assault rifle. "You need to check your orders. You shouldn't be here. You've made a mistake."

The second S.C.M. also removed his weapon, sensing the uneasiness in the other soldier.

"It is you who has made a mistake," the driver said. "We are supposed to be here, and it is plain to see that you have–" The driver lifted a handgun and fired three shots at the soldiers, killing the first S.C.M. "–misunderstood the reason for our arrival."

The second S.C.M. stumbled back after a bullet nicked him in the neck. He saw that the other soldier had been killed, raised his FAMAS, and opened fire on the driver, shouting, "He's an Un-Man!"

Maxwell and Peters dove to the ground, hearing the gunfire.

"Who are they shooting at?" Maxwell shouted, covering his head with his hands.

"I don't know!"

Peters was beside him and was afraid to look up.

The T-3 got out of the vehicle, walked to the second S.C.M., shot him in the stomach, and grabbed the man by the throat and with one quick turn, it broke the S.C.M.'s neck and dropped his limp body to the road.

Maxwell heard no more gunfire, so he scrambled along the sidewalk to the back of the van and looked around the vehicle's tire, and he saw the T-3.

"I don't believe it," Maxwell whispered back to his partner. "The Un-Man is wearing contacts to hide its identity." He started back and insisted, "We've got to get out of here." He looked at Peters who was frozen in fear. "Did you hear me? Get in the van!" Maxwell shouted.

He ran to the passenger's side, got in, tossed himself to the driver's seat, and started up the vehicle. He threw the gear shift to D just as Peters jumped in the back through the sliding door. Maxwell floored the pedal, and the vehicle peeled off.

Eleven more T-3s unloaded from the vans and in unison, the twelve marched past the sidewalk in three lines and halted. They stared at Etna Toys as they stated, "Preparing to engage the main target."

Peters closed the side door, questioning, "What just happened?" He moved over and held onto the bolted table as computers and equipment moved across it. "A T-3 killed two of our soldiers."

Maxwell wiped sweat from his head as he asked, "Are they pursuing?"

"No." Peters caught one last glimpse of the area before their van turned a corner. "They're staring at the warehouse. I think they're going after Pandora."

"Why would they on their own?" After making the turn, Maxwell floored the pedal a second time, and the van sped off. "And how did they get out of the Factory?" He dreaded the answer as he ordered, "Peters, get up here! Radio in and see what you can find out."

Peters got in the passenger's seat, grabbed the mic, and pressed the side button. "Factory, this is Tech One-eleven, we have a situation. Please respond." He released the button, and static returned his request, so Peters repeated the frantic call, "Factory, this is Tech One-eleven, please respond." He turned to Maxwell and proclaimed, "I don't like this one bit."

"Keep calling." Maxwell said hopeful, "Someone will pick up."

"Factory, this is Tech One-eleven. Please respond."

Static...

"Factory, this is Tech One-eleven. Please respond..."

Chapter Twenty-seven

Take The Project

6:34 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Industrial Vicinage...

At Etna Toys...

Two blocks away from the four remaining vans and in the safety of an alley, Argus monitored the new development with the T-3s through his binoculars. He witnessed them killing the S.C.Ms. and the techs fleeing the scene, and then he reported in, "Patch me immediately to the Council."

The Chamber...

A female supervisor transferred the call to an intercom in the center of the table and once she finished, she stated, "Go ahead. You're patched in."

"Council, Argus here. A dozen T-3s arrived and took out two Factory soldiers. They're now moving on the warehouse."

Mr. Morta said, "It would seem the Factory has lost control of their Un-Men. I wonder..."

Ms. Nona turned to him and inquired, "Wonder about what?"

"What is the T-3s' true purpose?" Mr. Morta questioned. "I have a feeling there is more to their arrival than merely taking out Pandora. Perhaps they have another agenda."

Mr. Decuma asked, "Should we act?"

"Not yet, but make the preparations and for now, we will do what we do best. We will watch." Mr. Morta turned to the supervisor and started, "Inform Argus–"

Gunfire came over the intercom and interrupted him.

"Two T-3s have moved on my position!" Argus shouted. "Returning fire!" More gun blast erupted along with a pain-filled grunt from him and he stated, "I've been hit in the leg. Retreating! I'll..."

White noise replaced his voice.

"Communication has been severed," the supervisor reported. "I'll attempt to reestablish." After a few seconds, she turned to them with a look of worry and informed them, "My attempt failed."

Mr. Morta stood, turned his back on the other two members, contemplated the situation, and faced them. "I am afraid everything has changed. The T-3s do have another agenda, and we need to act. Get me the commander of our S.C.Ms."

Inside Etna Toys...

Katharine's view...

I lean against the cold concrete wall, staring at the 9 mm round Kimberly placed on the floor, and I press against the bullet wound in my shoulder as blood trickles down my left side. A fluorescent light flickers overhead as my hot breath steams in the chilly air. Fifteen minutes have gone by since the sixth hour tolled and since Kimberly left with the music box. I'm empty and distraught without the calming Unfinished Melody, and I shiver, growing ever cold. I'm not sure if I'm cold because of the weather or from the blood loss.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

Everything within me screams for me to flee, so I endure the pain, push myself up the wall, and smear blood across its gray blocks. I slowly start for the side door when two T-3s enter and block my escape, so I turn for the front door, but it's too late. Within seconds, a dozen T-3s march in and surround me like a horde of metal Golems as I stand there exhausted and weak, waiting for their next move. All of them stare at me as if they're pleased that they've recaptured me, but they make no attempt to seize me. I glance at the Ravlek Vest lying on the table some distance from me. I'm defenseless without it.

The dozen T-3s slowly raise their guns and aim at me. Their fiery crimson dot-light blinks as they communicate with each other and with those who aren't present. Something's different about all of them. The T-3s can think and act as one without the Factory.

The Team Leader, the one who has blue contacts, states, "Pandora acquired."

I tense... There's no escape for me.

"Secondary objective completed," the Team Leader says and orders, "Disable Pandora."

Two T-3s step forward, and one lifts its hand and backhands me, knocking me across the room. I land on a tarp that's covering empty boxes near the front door. Dust flies up and fills my lungs along with the smell of cardboard. I'm nearly knocked out, but I cling to consciousness. The two T-3s separate and come at me from different directions, expecting a fight from me. One of them inadvertently kicks the round that's lying on the floor, and the bullet bounces and rolls to me. I lie there stunned and dazed but manage the strength to apply pressure to my wound. The first T-3 to arrive by my side pauses and notices the blood, so it grabs my hand, lifts it, and sees the bullet hole. It places its finger in my wound, and I cry out.

The T-3 examines the blood on its nail, turns to the Team Leader, and speaks, "Pandora has been disabled. Should I proceed with her termination?"

"No," the Team Leader answers. "Hold. We will take her back to the Factory. Perhaps we will learn some valuable information from her." It walks to the elevator and orders, "The rest of you proceed with the first objective." It points and commands, "Open those doors."

Three of the twelve move forward and stop when they hear the elevator activate on its own and within a minute, the elevator comes to a halt and opens. Five pairs of yellow eyes glow within the dark cab, and the unknown creatures growl before leaping on a T-3. The mechanical creatures are K-99s. They're an early model of bio-mecha that resembles Irish Wolfhounds down to the steel-gray wavy fur. The K-99s bite and claw at the Un-Man till one of them rips off its head. During the attack, the elevator closes and returns empty.

"Take them out!" the Team Leader orders, aiming its weapon.

The T-3s open fire, destroying two of the K-99s. The remaining three K-99s run six feet from the elevator, turn, and form a line as they face their adversary. A compartment on their backs opens, and a small machine gun raises into position. The K-99s attack with their weapons and fill the large room with the roar of gun blasts. The T-3s return fire, and the K-99s barrage takes down three of the T-3s before they're destroyed. The warehouse falls silent as smoke from gunpowder rises in the air like a grayish-white cloud.

"Open those doors," the Team Leader commands.

Four of the remaining eight T-3s move forward as a shrilling whistle emanates from a K-99, and its body glows.

The Team Leader immediately hears the sound and recognizes the noise and commands, "Fall back!"

The T-3s flee as the K-99 explodes, knocking all of them to the floor. The Team Leader stands and looks over the others and sees the four whom it sent to open the doors are damaged. Three of them are completely destroyed and lay in pieces as the fourth, whose legs had been blown off, pulls itself across the floor. One Un-Man who's part of the group with the Team Leader remains undamaged.

The Team Leader moves to the area I'm in, motions to the T-3s guarding me, and orders, "You two, join our other brethren and then the three of you open the elevator."

"Understood," they reply and move off, leaving the Team Leader to guard me.

Once they join their brethren, the three T-3s march to the elevator and pass their crawling comrade. Two of the T-3s tuck their guns and grab the doors, prying them open while the third covers them with its weapon in case there are more surprises within. They force the elevator open and find an empty lit cab. The two T-3s remove their weapons and enter the cab as the third follows. The third one moves to press the basement button when a white sticky web shoots from the ceiling, entangling it in a cocoon like a helpless fly. The other two T-3s raise their guns, firing at the ceiling as six spider bio-mechas, model Arachnoid, crawl in through the escape hatch. They're two-foot in diameter and all metal. The lights are hit, and the cab falls dark. The Arachnoids study the Un-Men with their eight, green, beady eyes before jumping down and attacking the remaining two T-3s. The elevator closes.

The Team Leader turns to me as it uplinks with others of its kind, and it states, "Lost containment of sight." It lifts its gun, aiming at me as its fake blue eyes show neither remorse or pleasure. "I can no longer secure Pandora. Extraction failed. I will terminate her."

Chapter Twenty-eight

The End For One

Moments earlier...

Katharine's view...

There are a few Un-men left, and I watch the battle between bio-mechas, not sure what's going on. The Un-Men usually come after me and have no other agenda but to kill me. These T-3s are different. They're after something that's here. For once, I'm not their primary target. I press against my shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding and wince for the pain.

I glance at the dog bio-mechas who had so bravely faced the Un-Men. I cough for the dust I stirred up and watch as the T-3s open the elevator for the second time. I witness the Arachnoids attack the T-3s and once the elevator closes again, the Team Leader turns to me and aims at me. I desperately search for a weapon and feel along the dusty concrete, but I only find the 9 mm round. I whimper, defeated as I stare down the barrel of the Team Leader's gun. I've faced death many times, but it hasn't been so grim. There's always some hope I'll survive but not this time. Knowing this is it, I look around the warehouse and consider my life. It seems my search will end where it all began. I clench the bullet and hold it to my chest, too weak to stop the Team Leader as I hear Pale Horse's rider galloping in the distance as he comes for me.

My minds so quiet I completely link with the Team Leader and know its mechanical thoughts. It has its orders. The Team Leader's to eliminate me and return to base. It will make sure I die quickly, and two shots to the head should be sufficient to do the task. I see through its eyes as it envisions itself pulling the trigger. It turns its head as muzzle flashes erupt twice and empty shells fall to the floor and bounce. I jerk as the shots echo across the building and smoke rolls from the gun. Liquid trickles from two wounds in the forehead and slowly converge at the nose.

The Team Leader's already staring at the front door as it speaks, "Pretty... poppet?"

It collapses to its knees and falls on its face as its artificial blood spills from the two wounds in its head. I lose my connection with it as it dies. I open my eyes and stare at the disabled T-3. I feel myself slowly fading and can't understand why it's dead and not me. Did it shoot at me and miss? I don't think I've been hit again, but I can't be sure, not the way I feel. Maybe none of this is real. Maybe I'm dead and this is only an illusion dreamt during my eternal slumber.

I hear someone clear their throat, so I look at the door and see a person there, aiming their gun at where the T-3 had been. Kimberly saved me... I'm weakening by the second, but I try to stay conscious and figure out what part she plays in this cruel test. I decide I don't care... I'm so glad she's here. I'm alive because she's here.

Kimberly's view...

I lower my gun and move to that woman, relieved I made it in time. Here I've been hoping one of these robots would off her and now... Now I'm not sure. I still wish she had been eliminated from my life, but then I wouldn't find out what she's the key to.

"Well, I'm back," I state as if I'm announcing my entrance to a party. I still can't believe I'm helping her. For Ares' sake... this is all so ridiculous.

"Well..?" I start as I scan the area for more robots and notice what looks like dogs in pieces and the one robot with no legs pulling itself toward us. I question, "Are you going to sit there or are we going to leave?"

"You came back?" that woman says in a weakening voice. "But I thought..." She tries to sit up and push herself forward, but she doesn't seem to have the strength, so she gives up and lies back down. "I thought... you didn't want to help me."

"Things change. Why are you complaining? For Ares' sake! Be glad I came back, and where's my thank you for saving your life?" I question and start to snap at her again, but then I notice her pale complexion. I set the safety on my gun, tuck it in my shoulder holster, kneel beside her, place my arm around her, and help her up. "Ahh..." I utter as I nearly vomit. "Have you ever heard of a bath?"

She grits her teeth as I haul her to her feet, and we make our way out. The car's outside in the front parking lot, and we make our way to it. I lean her against the car, open the passenger door, set her inside, and buckle her in. I step back and look at the interior of my car.

"Try not to bleed on the leather."

I shut the door, hurry to the other side, start up the engine, and drive off, kicking up leaves as I head for the nearest hospital. I drive for a few minutes, glancing ever so often in my rearview mirror. No one's following us. I drive for a few more minutes.

"Thank you."

I glance at that woman who's leaning against the door as she peers at me.

"I would be dead right now if you hadn't of came back for me."

"Don't thank me," I tell her as I turn my attention back to the road. "You still might die on me."

End Kimberly's view...

Back inside Etna Toys...

The elevator doors opened, and the Council exited as five S.C.Ms. armed with XM8 assault rifles followed them. The soldiers wore a dark green uniform with a shoulder patch of the Sphinx Corporation Emblem, and the Council's Crest of a silver spool of thread, a tape measure, and a pair of scissors hung above the shield. The S.C.Ms. spread out and secured the perimeter. Two of them approached the legless T-3 pulling itself across the floor, and the S.C.Ms. shot and disabled it.

Mr. Morta looked over the mess of bio-mecha parts and spoke, "It would seem the Sanctum has been compromised. The T-3s somehow discovered our base, but why attack us?" He turned to the lead S.C.M. and told him, "We are abandoning Etna Toys. Pull up the Sanctum. We will look for another base of operations."

"At once."

The S.C.M. entered the elevator, and the cab doors closed.

"Yes, why attack us?" Mr. Decuma questioned as he walked up beside Mr. Morta. "And why capture Argus? Are we sure the Factory is not behind this?"

"I doubt it," Ms. Nona answered. "The T-3s did kill two of the Factory's corporate military men."

"Unless that and the news that the T-3s went rogue were all a ruse," Mr. Morta stated. "Either way, some force is after us, and I would like to know why. Only a handful of people know of our existence."

"The more important question is, were they here to destroy us or were they after our research?" Ms. Nona asked.

Mr. Decuma added, "Yes, a very good question."

Mr. Morta knelt beside a K-99, petted its furry head, and whispered, "All of you did well. You protected the Sanctum."

Ms. Nona walked up beside him. "What about Pandora?" She paused, waiting for a reply and continued when he said nothing. "After more than a year, I think it is about time we deemed Pandora a failure."

"I agree," Mr. Decuma said. "We should terminate the project." He glanced at the Team Leader who was face down in a black pool. "Pandora would have died if Ms. Griffin had not interfered. I say we terminate our first attempt and begin on the second."

Mr. Morta glanced at the other Council members and stood. "Activate the second project. It will take time before it is operational, so for now, we will let Pandora live." He looked out the front windows and stated, "I am curious as to why Ms. Griffin shot then saved Pandora. Could the Chairman be interfering with our work?"

"I do not believe he is," Ms. Nona said.

Mr. Decuma added, "Unless he has an agenda we have no knowledge of. Perhaps we should place more Moles into the Third Branch Office."

Ms. Nona replied, "I think we should not be hasty."

"I agree," Mr. Morta stated.

"Perhaps both of you are correct," Mr. Decuma said. "But we do need to send in a new operative to monitor Pandora while Argus is MIA. I will set the paperwork in motion."

He started for the elevator, and Ms. Nona followed him.

Mr. Morta's view...

I stay back and monitor the cleanup of the K-99s. I stare off in thought, wondering if Pandora realized it. Did she know that the very people she searched for were right underneath her feet?

I can't help but think fondly of her. She has come so close to discovering us. I secretly admire her persistence. What will she do now? Will she trust Ms. Griffin after what she did to her? I consider Ms. Griffin's involvement in this. Could the Chairman have sent his daughter in for some reason? Does the Chairman want the Pandora Project for himself?

* * *

A half hour later...

The Rogue made its way to one of the Factory's vans parked at the curb in front of Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. It opened the side door, keeping an eye on the few Council S.C.Ms. still within the warehouse. They hadn't spotted it. The Rogue looked inside the vehicle and found what it was looking for, so the Rogue entered the van, slid the door shut, and sat at the table before the computer. It logged on to the Factory's main system and pulled up a few files, scanning for information on Pandora. The Rogue searched for several minutes and finally found what it was looking for when the files started disappearing. Someone was deleting the Factory's system. It would have to act fast if it wanted to get any information, so the Rogue opened a file and read over it with robotic speed. The file mentioned an experiment called organic-mecha and referenced another file, and the Rogue quickly pulled it up. The file stated that organic-mechas proceeded bio-mechas.

"Why did Sphinx abandoned the project and does organic-mechas have anything to do with me or Pandora?" it questioned aloud.

The Rogue found another reference but before it could read the file, it was deleted. The Rogue slammed its fist on the table as the remaining files deleted and the link to the mainframe disconnected. There was no more that it could do, so the Rogue stood and slid open the door. Two S.C.Ms. stood outside, aiming their weapons at it.

"Hello," the Rogue said as it raised its hands in surrender and stepped from the van. "You really do not want to do this. I can tell by your shoulder patch that you work for the Council. Let me go and this will not get messy."

An S.C.M. touched his earpiece and spoke, "Inform the Council we have the Rogue."

"Have?" it questioned and stated, "Have is such a strong word."

In one quick motion, the Rogue removed its knife and cut across the one soldier's throat. Blood spurted as the second S.C.M. fired his assault rifle. It evaded the shots and tackled the man to the ground, stripping the soldier of his weapon, and the Rogue buried its knee in the man's chest, and the soldier could hardly breathe.

It said, "I want you to give the Council a message."

His face mangled in pain as he grabbed at the Rogue's arms, trying to force the Un-Man off of him.

"Tell the Council to leave me alone, and I will leave them alone. If not..." The Rogue grabbed his arm and twisted it hard. "Things will get broken."

The man screamed just as three more S.C.Ms. ran out of Etna Toys.

The Rogue stood and took off as they fired, and it disappeared down a street. It ran several blocks, came upon a major street, and hailed a taxi.

"Where to?" the male driver asked.

The Rogue entered the back, replying, "The nearest hospital. I am feeling a little under the weather."

The driver looked at the pale-faced passenger, wondered if whatever he had might be contagious, nodded, and drove down the road.

Quietly sitting in the back, the Rogue contemplated that it knew so little about Pandora. It did realize that it didn't need to know her to kill her. All it needed to know was where she went, and it had a pretty good idea.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Not Out Of Danger Yet

7:47 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Within the Corvette...

Katharine's view...

I am grateful that she saved me, but I can't get the memory of her shooting me to stop replaying in my mind. My wound still burns as much as confusion plagues me. Why did Kimberly injure me then save me? I'm in agony as I turn and lean my head against the passenger's side window. Buildings and street lights speed by in the blackness. I clench Pale Horse and press that hand against the seeping hole in my shoulder as I look down at my blistered left palm lying limp on my leg. The sharp ache in my shoulder redirects my focus, and I hardly notice the throbbing and burning of the scorched skin.

Kimberly steers the Corvette through Healing Way and turns at the entrance to Asclepius Hospital as she talks on a cell phone.

"Yes, Brian, it's me. Don't hang up! Now listen, I want you–" She pauses as he interrupts her, and then Kimberly snaps, "Don't tell me that! You owe me and I collect what's owed to me. Now..." She calms herself. "We need to do this covertly, so where do you want to meet?" Kimberly pauses, listening to him. "Okay, we'll be there in a minute."

She hangs up and drives to the west side where they're remodeling the hospital. A doctor in white scrub pants and a shirt skittishly waits with a wheelchair as we near one of the buildings. He looks around the empty parking lot and the surrounding area, and then he runs over to us, pushing the wheelchair as Kimberly pulls over. He opens the passenger door, and I notice his name badge. Dr. Brian Chiron has kind brown eyes and dark brown hair.

Kimberly's view...

Brian helps that woman into the wheelchair, sees red staining my cream colored leather seat, and questions, "What happened?"

"Later," I snap. "Get her inside and stop the bleeding. I'm going to park the car." I glance again at the passenger seat and yell, "Hades! I'll also need to clean up in here before I come in."

"Don't leave her with me," Brian demands. "And this will make us even."

"For Ares' sake, I won't and we're far from being even." I command, "Shut the door. I'll meet you inside."

Brian closes the door, and I pull off.

Sometime later...

Katharine's view...

Brian quickly wheels me into a room. Plastic sheets cover the bed and counters, and a single window reveals the dark parking lot outside. He removes one of the sheets, and then he grabs latex gloves and pulls them on. Brian helps me to sit on the examining bed, starts to remove my jacket, notices the burn on my palm, and that I'm gripping something in my right hand. He carefully removes my left sleeve, pulls the right one over my fisted hand, tosses the bloody jacket to the floor, and sets me back. He unpacks several sterile instruments, then takes surgical scissors, and cuts my blood-soaked t-shirt off and throws the t-shirt to the tile floor. He starts to cut my sports bra off when I grab his arm with my injured left hand.

"Leave it," I bark like a wounded dog and glare at him, remembering my fate at the hands of the techs and doctors when the Factory captured me. They did a lot of horrible things to me.

Brian tells me, "I'll only cut the one strap off, is that okay? I need to operate on your shoulder."

I'm growing fainter by the second, and I don't know if I can trust him. I consider that Kimberly's the one who brought me here so maybe I can trust him. I remove my hand from his gloved one and relax a little.

"Roll on your side," Brian requests, then cuts the one strap, removes it, and examines the back of my shoulder. "The bullet went all the way through. I only have to get in there and stop the bleeding." He has me lie on my back, and then he rushes into the hall to a medicine closet and unlocks it. Brian opens a drawer, pulls out a couple of needles, grabs some vials, and heads back. He set the items on the counter, unwraps one of the needles, and sticks it in a vial. Brian notices that I'm silently watching him with distrusting eyes, so he tells me, "This is an antibiotic and after I inject you, I'm also going to give you something to numb your shoulder while I operate on it." He gives me the injections and inquires, "Who did this to you?"

I say nothing only accusingly stare at Kimberly as she enters, and Brian notices the look I give her and continues his work.

Kimberly goes and stands by him. "I searched the floor, and no one's here." She peers over his shoulder and asks, "Will it take long?"

"Not too long," he answers. "Could you step back out of my light?"

She walks around the bed, stands by the wall, crosses her arms, and watches intently.

With surgeon precision and tender hands, Brian works on my shoulder for more than twenty minutes and then touches my arm to get my attention. "Can you roll on your side? We're halfway there."

I roll over and stare at Kimberly as the doctor works, and I can't help but wonder if this is some sort of trick. Kimberly could be working for the Council, and she's only after my music box but if that's true, she didn't have to save me. I close my eyes, not wanting to look at the glaring Phoenix. It doesn't matter to me if Kimberly helps me or not. I open my eyes as if I discovered the answer. Maybe I do care, and I feel hurt and betrayed by her because I want Kimberly to help me but instead, she left me to die. I don't know... I feel lost and want to cradle myself against the emotional and physical pain, and I look for the music box. I need it. A headache has already started.

Kimberly's view...

I notice that woman is gripping something in her hand. I never did check her for a weapon and she might be thinking of repaying me for what I did to her earlier, so I demand, "Give me what you have."

That woman glares back at me as she clinches her fist.

"Give it here," I demand as I put a hand to my purse that's dangling from my shoulder. "Remember I won't ask a third time."

She opens her hand, and I see that it's a 9 mm round. I'm about to ignore it when I remember its the bullet I left for that woman. I study it more closely and see my own handwriting. She must have picked it up, and she might be saving it to use on me later. I take the bullet, wipe most of the blood on a plastic sheet, and place the bullet in my pocket. I'll save Pale Horse and use it when I kill her, and it'll be a fitting end to our bizarre partnership.

Brian starts on a stitch when something seems to catch his attention. I move closer and see that he's looking at something shiny halfway embedded below that woman's skin. The bullet must have nicked the object, dislodging it enough to appear in the wound. He grabs an overhead lamp and pulls it close.

"Kim, hand me the small forceps."

I hand the tweezer size instrument to him and then ask, "What is it?"

He removes the small metal object and drops it in a stainless steel tray. "I don't know." Brian pushes it across the tray with the forceps and flips it over, examining the rectangular thing the size of a grain of rice. "It looks like a chip they place in pets to identify them if they're lost."

A realization sinks in, and I say, "It's more than that." I pick up the tray with the metal device and walk around to face that woman. "Is this how they've been tracking you? Does this thing tell them where to send the Un-Men?"

"What are Un-Men?" Brian questions.

"I'll explain later." I turn my attention back to that woman and ask, "Well, is it? Do you know you're some sort of experiment?" I demand, "What are you? What are you the key to? Tell me!"

"I'm the Pandora Project," she answers. "I'm hunted and tested."

"What does that mean? What's the Pandora Project?"

Katharine's view...

"Haven't you been listening? I already told you I can't remember my past, so you know as much as I do." I want to wrap myself into a fetal position and shield myself from the frustrating questions that have haunted me the past year.

"Maybe you should–" Brian starts to tell Kimberly.

"Don't butt in!" she shouts at him, and then she starts to leave the room with the metal device and yells at me, "If you don't want to tell me, fine!"

"Where are you going?" Brian asks.

Kimberly pauses outside the door and answers, "I'm going to get rid of this thing."

"Wouldn't it be better to keep it?"

"No, I think it's caused enough problems."

Kimberly's view...

I go to a restroom, flush the tracking beacon, and return.

He finishes the stitches, cleans that woman's left palm, puts ointment on it, and wraps the burn in gauze. He gives her a tetanus shot.

"I'm finished," Brian tells me. "As long as infection doesn't set in and she isn't allergic to anything I've given her, she should be fine with rest." He takes out a clean blanket from a closet and covers her. "I've given her a sedative, so she'll sleep for a few hours." Brian motions for me to follow him out, and he shuts the door behind us. "Both of you can stay overnight, but you'll need to leave early tomorrow morning. The work crew will be here sometime around 9:00 A.M."

"What am I supposed to do? I can't take her to my place." I can't imagine having that strange woman in my apartment.

"It will probably be best if you did. Hey! Don't look at me that way." He points at me. "You're the one who saved her from whatever." He drops his hand. "Did you really think you could leave her here?"

"I guess I never thought that far ahead."

His expression softens as he asks, "Would you like something to eat or maybe coffee? I'm heading to the cafeteria."

"Yes, thank you. I'll have a ham sandwich and that lemon-lime soda Crite if they carry it."

"My old office is right through that door." He points and tells me, "You can stay there till morning. There's a couch. A pillow and a blanket are in the closet if you need to rest. I'll be back within an hour to check on your friend, and I'll bring the sandwich and drink then."

"She's not my friend," I insist.

"Well, whoever." He starts to leave.

"Brian, wait." I tenderly grab his elbow, and he turns. "Thanks, I didn't know who else to turn to or more like, I didn't have anyone else to turn to. With what I do... You understand."

"I do, and you're welcome." He smirks as he speaks, "A small payment to the large debt I owe you." Brian peers at me for a few moments, and then he says, "You look distraught. What happened today?"

End Kimberly's view...

Down the hall, a shadow stretched from a corner to listen in.

Kimberly's view.

I don't know if I should tell him, but I decide I can trust him. "I received a message from my mom."

"She is fine then?"

I shake my head, holding back tears. "I discovered she died. She never abandoned me and my father. She was murdered."

"Murdered?"

"Yes, and I'll find who did it." I feel my whole expression darken as I fist my right hand. "And they'll pay."

"How did you uncover this?" he asks.

"I remembered. I was there outside the office when the fire started, and I heard gunshots. I had repressed the memory." I glance back at the room where that woman sleeps. "Something triggered it."

"I don't know what to say." He puts a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You know she's dead and she didn't abandon you. Murdered though... like I said, I don't know what to say."

"Listening to me is enough." I start for his office. "I need to get some rest. I've had a long day." I enter the room, close the door behind me, and add loudly, "A very exhausting day."

I wearily glance around and see a desk, bookshelves full of medical references, a tall cabinet, and a couch. I open the cabinet, take the pillow and blanket, sit on the couch, and place my gun on a coffee table. I lie back and cover myself, then reach up, turn off a lamp at my head, and plunge the room into darkness. I can't believe what I've gotten myself into. My mom wanted me to save Pandora, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with her now. I roll on my side, trying to sleep, not knowing if I made the right decision saving her. I probably just caused myself a migraine full of problems. It would have been a lot simpler if I had just killed her.

End Kimberly's view...

Outside at the corner, the Rogue peeked around as it processed the information it overheard. Theresa Griffin was murdered and that might be something interesting to investigate later, but first thing was first. The Rogue started through the hall. Ms. Griffin had gotten sloppy and left Pandora all by her lonesome, and it was time for it to say hello. The Rogue paused. It detected someone approached and ducked back around the corner before they spotted it. The Rogue didn't recognize him. Whoever he was, he was interrupting the Rogue's play time, but it would wait. It ducked inside a supply closet. For a chance alone with Pandora, it would wait.

* * *

The new Sanctum...

Within the makeshift Chamber...

Several analysts activated the equipment, and the computers and large flat screen monitors powered up, casting the dark room in a blue glow. Shadows cast across the faces of the Council as they sat in chairs in the middle of the new Chamber and stared at the monitors. Four security personnel set up a rectangular table before them.

Ms. Nona looked over reports a supervisor handed her, and then she said, "There is still no word on Argus and no word from the Factory. I fear Argus and the Factory may have been compromised. There are reports across Noir of T-3s hitting different facilities belonging to the Factory."

"Do you believe they have lost control and that the T-3s have taken over?" Mr. Morta asked.

"Yes," Ms. Nona replied.

Mr. Decuma started his report, "The second project, Cerberus, has been activated; it will be operational in two days."

Mr. Morta nodded.

A supervisor handed Ms. Nona another H.H.C. and the councilwoman relayed, "We have a problem. The tracking device we implanted in Pandora is no longer functioning."

"What about her bio-readings? Are we still detecting them?" Mr. Morta asked.

"Yes, it appears to be sleeping," Ms. Nona replied. "Pandora's stats have improved but are not within normal ranges."

"Should we send a team to the last place the beacon relayed so they may extract the project?" Mr. Decuma asked. "We cannot have it running rogue."

Mr. Morta said, "Pandora is far from rogue. Let her continue as a sub-project. We still may acquire valuable information from her bio-readings. Let us see what she does now that she is on her own."

Mr. Morta knew Pandora needed to enjoy her freedom while she had it. He wouldn't be able to hold back the Hands of the Fates forever.

Mr. Decuma's view...

I stare at my counterpart. She? Her? Are they merely a slip of the tongue or has Mr. Morta forgotten the project's place? I pause in my thoughts then decide that the development needs to be monitored. We cannot have a project influencing one of the Council. I will make sure of it.

Chapter Thirty

When Everything Is At Its Bleakest

10:43 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

The cold room smells antiseptic, and the lingering dust makes me sneeze as I wake, blinking my eyes open. At first, I believe I'm still at Etna Toys, but then I notice I'm lying on a bed in a hospital room and that the lights are off. A window on the far side of the room looks out on a dark parking lot, and light from a street lamp trickles in. I thought Kimberly had...

I try to move, but my arms and legs feel heavy. I remember I'm at Asclepius Hospital and that the doctor gave me some injections. I try moving again, but I feel so weak. One of the injections must not have worn off. I see that a blanket covers me up to my chin. A little less groggy, I move my wrists and realize it's not the medicine that's making my arms and legs feel heavy. The door creaks open and interrupts my thoughts as a man in a white lab coat walks in backward, holding a clipboard. Here's Brian, so I can ask him.

He flips a switch, and I squint as the bright lights flicker on. I watch as Brian walks over to a drawer, opens it, removes a plastic package, lays it on a tray, and removes a scalpel from it. He turns with the instrument in his hand, and the small blade glints in the light as I gasp. It's not Brian who stands before me but the Rogue, the blackguard of my nightmares. I force myself to exhale. The bio-mecha warning should have alerted me to its presence. Maybe the drugs Brian gave me has interfered with my ability. My breathing increases as I realize I'm powerless to save my own life. I frantically look at the door. I could cry out, but I don't know if anyone's out there.

"It looks like we are finally alone," the Rogue says as it walks to the left side of my bed.

I follow it with my eyes, and it smirks at me like a devilish cat.

"I thought you would be singing with the Erinyes after I left Etna Toys, but here you are alive and somewhat well. I guess we were meant to meet again. Lucky for me."

It doesn't wear its sunglasses, and I can see its robotic eyes; its eyes show a hint of pleasure.

"You amaze me again, but this time it was not your skills that saved you but Ms. Griffin." The Rogue chuckles. "Well, saved you the second time." It makes a gun with its hand and aims it at me. "The first time she did not really help you." It pokes my wounded shoulder with the barrel of its imaginary gun.

I wince, too afraid to say anything.

"I am still not sure why the Chairman's daughter is involved." The Rogue strokes my cheek with the blunt side of its scalpel, and I shrink from its touch. "I can investigate the reason in the future once our game has come to an end. I will need something to do once you are gone, though, I will have to say I love the time we have spent together." It scans me. "I detect your tracking beacon has been disabled."

At first, I don't understand what it means, but then I remember the small piece of metal Brian removed from my shoulder.

It seems to study my expression as it says, "Did you not know? How do you think the Un-Men always found you?" The Rogue strokes my hair with its hand. "How I keep finding you?"

"What do you want?" I ask. "Why are you always toying with me?"

"What do I want? You women, you both ask me the same thing, and I am surprised you do not know. I want what I have always wanted. Your death by my hands." The Rogue glances around the room and out the door's small window. "And here we are all alone, and you without your gun. It is a shame, not that a gun would have helped you. You have not been able to directly hit me in all our battles, though, I have been impressed with them in the past." It grabs my chin. "How are we going to play this time?" It glances at the scalpel it holds and throws the instrument across the room, embedding the blade halfway into the wall. "Let us not play doctor again." It removes the lab coat that covers its suit and unsheathes its knife. "This is much better." The Rogue places the blade against my throat. "Pandora, you are the driving force that gives meaning to my existence."

I force myself to stare at the Rogue as the blade slightly cuts me and a trickle of blood runs down my neck. I whisper, "And you're the bane of mine."

"Let us begin this final battle. Your move Pandora. What are you going to do? What attack or tactic will save you this time?"

End Katharine's view...

Outside some distance away...

Kimberly's view...

I'm startled from sleep as a man shouts my name, "Kim!"

I quickly sit up and search the office over the barrel of my gun, and it takes me a few moments to realize I'm at the hospital.

Brian bursts into the room and shouts out of breath, "We have a problem!"

Down the hall in the other room...

Katharine's view...

"Your move Pandora. What are you waiting for? Do something! Do not look at me with that helpless face of yours! Attack! Counter my move! Why are you not doing anything? Why have you given up?" My submissiveness frustrates it. "Do you want to die?" The Rogue cuts my neck a little deeper, trying to entice me to act. A red trail of liquid flows down its blade. "Fight me!"

"I can't," I admit unable to move as if terror paralyzes me. "I can't."

"You cannot deny me!" The Rogue threatens, "I will kill you if you will not fight me! I will bring a halt to our Endless Waltz."

I remain silent, knowing there's nothing I can do, and my eyes burn as trepidation forcibly boards my brain and hijacks control. Fear soaks through every action I take, making it difficult to move even just a little. My head jerkily turns like a robot's, and I have to force myself to breathe.

"Fine then! I will gut you!" It throws back the blanket ready to cut me open and halts before diving into the slaughter. "What is this?"

In Dr. Chiron's office...

Kimberly's view...

I stand, lower the gun, and ask, "What problem?"

Brian tells me still trying to catch his breath, "One of the doctors... was over here with a nurse... and well, you can imagine why. Anyway... he found the woman you brought in. Come on." He starts for the door. "My colleague remembered seeing her picture on one of the bounty shows they have on TV, and he turned her in. Noir Civil Police Force will be here any moment. You have to get her out of here."

Back in the other room...

Katharine's view...

"What is this?" the Rogue demands as it looks down at my hands and feet that are in restraints. "Who did this? Ms. Griffin?" The Rogue screams in frustration as it waves its knife around. "How are we to fight when you are like this? I knew your shoulder wound would be a problem, but I was going to go easy on you to make up for it." It motions to the restraints with its open hand. "But this..." It pauses and says, "It is not like I put you in them." The Rogue raises the knife and pauses again. "But does that make it fair?"

I stare at the ranting Un-Man in disbelief. I can't believe it hasn't killed me yet. It always seems to take pleasure in these games. I try to muster some anger, but I can't find the strength to rebel against my fate, so I forfeit my life to the bane of my existence.

The Rogue paces the room, muttering, "What to do? What to do? I guess I will kill you." It walks over to me as if to cut my throat and exclaims, "I cannot. This is so unfair. I have waited all this time to kill you in battle, and you had to go and get yourself tied up."

Confused over why it has delayed in ending me, I watch it pace the room like a madman, and then I look at the door, hoping for help. Where's Kimberly? Did she abandon me again or did she make a deal with the Un-Man? Did she sell me out for something?

The Rogue has an idea and says, "I know... I will release you and then we can fight." It detects two people approaching the room, and it turns just as Kimberly and Brian burst in.

I could just cry when I see them. I didn't think anyone would come and save me. Kimberly opens fire on the Rogue twice, but it's too fast for her. It moves out of the way of the speeding projectiles as if they're wads of paper she's throwing at it.

The Rogue glances at me and tells me, "Another day." It runs for the window and crashes through it, and a few shards ping to the floor as the majority of the glass falls outside.

Careful of the broken glass, Kimberly rushes to the window to fire at the Rogue again. "It's gone!" She turns back as Brian starts to release me.

I'm so glad she's here, but Kimberly's also the reason I'm in this mess. I glare at her and accuse, "You tied me up and left me alone."

Kimberly's view...

I'm taken aback by her accusation and the glare that woman gives me. Only my mom ever gave me that look. I don't know what to say, and I stammer, "I... ah..."

"She didn't tie you up," Brian says as he finishes releasing that woman. "It was one of my colleagues. Now... both of you must leave. I'll try to stall the police."

I remove my black jacket and throw it to her. "Here put this on. I believe running around in your bra might draw some attention."

Brian helps her pull on the jacket, then he turns to a counter, and says, "Here." He hands me a bottle of pills. "Have her take these as directed, and she needs to stay immobile for about two weeks. If there are any problems, give me a call." He motions to the wheelchair. "Now get out."

Katharine's view...

Kimberly wheels me to her car, helps me in, rushes around to the other side, and starts up the vehicle. She drives, leaving the hospital and turns onto Healing Way and a few moments later, two N.C.P.F. cars pass us with their sirens blaring and head into Asclepius Hospital.

I lean my head on the passenger's side window as I feel deeply betrayed by Kimberly and my own weak self. I gave up and embraced my fate as the Council sees it, and according to them, I'm destined to be alone and hunted to my last gasping breath. I have to fight... so I have to keep my hope. I have to find something to believe in again.

Chapter Thirty-one

The Factory

11:48 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

At the boundary of Hellenistic Sector...

Peters and Maxwell arrived at the gate leading into the Factory. No one manned the guardhouse, and the chain link gate stood open like it had been run over by a large truck. Their van's diesel engine rattled as it idled, and smoke rolled from the vibrating muffler.

Unsure himself, Maxwell asked, "What do you think? Should we go in?"

"I don't know. I haven't raised anyone on the radio." Peters gravely stared at the dashboard as if the answer would appear there, but it didn't. "Where else can we go? If the T-3s have gone rogue, what we need to stop them is in there." He pointed to the buildings in the distance.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Maxwell looked straight down the road as sweat speckled his forehead. "Until we know who's behind the T-3 attacks, there's no one we can trust." He released the brake, slowly pressed his foot on the gas, and the van crept across the road toward two large concrete buildings.

An eternity passed as two hundred yards rolled by under their tires, and they reached the buildings, and a dozen more stood behind those two. Nothing seemed out of place until they turned right at the buildings, and several employee cars bellowed with fire and/or were turned upside down. A couple of the cars that were in flames had corpses at the wheel, and a few bodies with bullet wounds were scattered about the road.

Peters freaked. "Puck! Turn around! Let's get out of here!"

Maxwell moved the gear shift to R, looked in his rearview mirror, and saw two dozen T-3s standing behind them. "Not a good idea."

The armed T-3s started toward them, screaming, "Pretty poppets!"

Peters turned, looking behind them. "Get us out of here! They're heading this way."

Maxwell shifted back to D, and the van peeled off.

"We'll head to our office!" Maxwell shouted. "We might be safe there!"

He sharply turned a corner, and the van squealed to a halt in the middle of the Factory. They jumped out of the vehicle, left the doors open, and ran for one of the concrete structures marked Research Building 10. Maxwell used his keycard to unlock the front entrance, and both men rushed down the dark hall. The smell of gunpowder filled the air. They cautiously made their way to the main security desk for the building, but no one manned it. The large pentagon shaped desk usually had at least four men manning it. Peters walked around to the back of it and to a swivel door, entered, went to the desk splattered with blood, and glanced at the monitors and saw that most of them were off-line.

"Look at this," Peters said.

Maxwell glanced around the large silent room first. He expected T-3s to march in weapons blazing but none did, so they were safe for the moment, and he joined Peters. The monitors showed security camera footage, and the one camera that was online filmed a lab room in shambles. The camera panned and showed people lying on the floor, and all of them were killed by gunshots.

"I don't know if this was such a good idea." Peters stood in place like a skittish rabbit.

"Maybe you're right," Maxwell stated. "This place might end up being our grave. Come on, let's get to our office."

"Let's use the stairs. It's a few floors down," Peters insisted as he started off.

"Wait." A little confused, Maxwell grabbed his arm. "A few floors? We're talking about five. Have you seen the shape I'm in? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Which would you rather be on? Would you rather be in an enclosed elevator with no way out or the stairs with a few more choices?"

Maxwell replied, "Right." He jogged for the stairs. "My New Year's Resolution was to exercise more."

Peters followed. "Let's hope you live long enough to break another promise."

They rushed down the five stories, and there was a dead S.C.M. on one of the landings.

Peters up and stopped then uttered, "Hades! That's James. He manned the main security desk. I would bring him a coffee whenever I'd come in early. He..."

Maxwell hurried past the S.C.M., reached for the exit door, and paused when his partner didn't follow. "Come on. Don't look at him." He leaned on his knees, caught his breath, and whispered, "We can't stay here."

"I knew him." Peters couldn't look away from James' glassy stare and kept muttering, "I talked to him today. He has a wife and a kid."

"Snap out of it!" Maxwell took a deep breath and grabbed him by the lab coat. "Come on! We have to keep going!"

They ran through the exit and down the stairs.

Sometime later...

At room B10-104, Maxwell swiped his keycard, and a retina scanner beeped, prompting him to look into its viewer. The scan took twenty nerve-racking seconds as Peters watched the hall. The door to their office opened, both men ran inside, and the door automatically shut and locked behind them. File cabinets and tables were in the first room that was their office, and a desk lamp lit up a small area in the otherwise dark room. They ran to another door, and it led to their lab. Maxwell unlocked it with his keycard, and they rushed in and after they entered, Peters turned and locked the door with an electronic bolt as his partner switched on the lights. The lab lit up and cast shadows into the office. A dozen rectangular tables that were elevated at a ninety-degree angle filled the second room along with an array of tools and electronic devices. The tables were used to work on the Un-Men. Both techs hurried to their computer.

"I'll try to get some help." Peters woke up his PC.

"I'll try to find out who's behind the T-3 attacks." Maxwell folded his hands, bent his fingers back, and cracked his knuckles before typing. He used his mouse to select several files and after some time, Maxwell cursed, "Puck! It can't be right. Puck!" He rechecked his findings and stated, "No one's behind these attacks."

"What do you mean?" Peters turned to him. "Someone has to be. They can't–"

Maxwell interrupted, "What I mean is, the T-3s themselves are behind the attacks." He pointed to a communications file he'd opened. "They're organizing on their own, and somehow they're disobeying their basic programming."

"Impossible!" Peters stood, made his way to Maxwell's computer, leaned over his chair, and peered at the screen. "By Zeus! Impossible!"

"Maybe, but it's happening." Maxwell stroked his beard. "The question is, what are we going to do? There are over a hundred of them online."

"What can we do?" Peters started pacing. "Hades! It's hopeless."

"Perhaps, but I do wonder. They seem very organized." Maxwell opened more files. "I want to see what they're up to."

* * *

In another section of Research Building 10...

Argus awoke and saw that he was strapped to one of the Un-Men's examining tables, and he lay at a horizontal angle. He pressed against his bonds, trying to free himself. The straps were designed to hold an Un-Man. No human could break them. Dazed, Argus tried to focus. His jaw hurt where one of the T-3s had punched him and knocked him unconscious at Etna Toys, and his left leg throbbed and burned where a different T-3 had shot him in the thigh, and he winced from the pain as he moved. His vision slowly cleared, and Argus scanned the partially lit room as blood seeped from the wound. Instrument lights blinked all around the area as a small red glow caught his attention; it was the dot-light of an Un-Man. The color of the dot-light wasn't blazing orange but blood-red. The T-3 made its way to him, and Argus noticed it had a cut on the right side of its face and its shiny metal cheekbone showed through the gash.

"Finally you are awake." The T-3 activated the table, and it tilted to a ninety-degree angle. It sneered at him as it spoke with a British accent, "Tell me, Council Poppet, where did they go?"

"Your attempt to take the Sanctum failed." Argus changed the subject and asked, "Who are you working for? Surely the Factory isn't behind the attack."

The T-3 smacked him across the face with the back of its hand. "I will ask the questions. Where is the Sanctum?"

Enduring intensive training in the Corporate Intelligence and Counterintelligence Training Program before working for the Council, Argus had learned techniques to withstand interrogation and remained quiet as red liquid ran down his mouth.

The T-3 moved to strike him again when two more T-3s entered.

"Alpha," one of the T-3s started. "Two more humans have entered the Factory."

"Have you identified them?" Alpha questioned.

"Yes, they are Tech One-eleven and Tech One-twelve."

"Excellent, now all of the Factory personnel at this location are accounted for. Bring them to me, and I will interrogate them along with this Council operative."

"At once," both T-3s replied and left.

"Alpha?" Puzzled, Argus eyed the T-3. "Why do they call you that?"

"I was the first. I was the first created. I was the first to become aware."

"Really," a voice from the shadows cut in. "And I thought I was the first."

The Rogue stepped from the darkness of the hallway.

"How did you get in here?" Alpha asked.

"I have my ways and do not mind me, your people were looking for life signs, not bio-mecha. It was easy to get in and walk right through the front door."

Alpha examined the primogenitor. "Why are you here?"

"Me?" The Rogue pointed to itself. "I am curious. Why are you after the Council?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"We are brethren." The Rogue stepped forward. "And perhaps I can help."

Alpha thought for a moment and then said, "You are like us, so I will tell you. We have a question for them."

"A question?" It intrigued the Rogue. "Really."

"Yes, but it is only for them to hear."

"A secret." The Rogue rubbed its pale hands together. "I love secrets." It watched Alpha, waiting for a reply and then when it didn't respond, the Rogue asked, "Would you mind if I poked around the Factory? There are secrets I am looking for."

Alpha processed the question. "I do not mind. I do ask that you stay out of our way."

"Of course." The Rogue bowed its head. "I will take my leave." It started out and paused. "But there is one other thing I would like to ask you."

Alpha had turned back to Argus and glanced over its shoulder. "What is that?"

"Have you ever heard of organic-mecha?"

"Why do you inquire?"

The Rogue shrugged. "The term came up while I was snooping."

"No." Alpha shook its head. "I have not heard of organic-mecha."

The Rogue tapped its belt buckle with disappointment. "No matter." It headed out the door. "I will look elsewhere for my answers."

Alpha waited until it left, turned to Argus, and questioned him, "Where were we?"

Chapter Thirty-two

Back At Nexus Apartments

October 17...

Sunday...

8:34 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

Kimberly drives us to the parking garage of her apartment, and she helps me out of the car and to the elevator. We haven't spoken to each other since leaving the hospital and that's weighing heavily on me. It's as if Kimberly's ignoring the whole situation at Etna Toys. I baby my left shoulder as I keep glancing at her. The last time I was in one of these elevators I was so excited and so sure I was supposed to find Kimberly, and now all I can think is that someone's playing a cruel joke on me.

I mutter, "Only pain and grief have come from our meeting."

Kimberly gives me a mixed look of anger and bewilderment. She must be wondering what's my problem.

A little ashamed that I said the comment out loud, I divert my gaze.

Sometime later in the apartment...

I stand in the living room where Kimberly leaves me as she walks to the hall closet by her bedroom. She returns with a pillow and a blanket and tosses them on the couch.

"You can sleep there," Kimberly tells me. "With the tracking beacon gone, you shouldn't worry about the Un-Men so get some rest." She motions to the coffee table and says, "The remote for the TV's there. Watch whatever."

I stare at the things. Is all of this real? Is this really happening to me right now? I trusted her, and she shot me!

Kimberly's view...

A little lost on what to do next, I walk to my bedroom and close the door. I unzip the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt, remove the 9 mm round labeled Pale Horse, then open the drawer to my nightstand, and place it in the drawer. I'll keep it here for now until I need it. I leave the bedroom, pause at the end of the hall, and look at the kitchen.

I can at least be civil. I'm Theresa Griffin's daughter after all, so I ask, "Are you hungry?"

Katharine's view...

I haven't moved from the spot I've been standing at near the entry. I stare at the floor still a little traumatized and don't answer her and after a few seconds, I go and stand behind the couch and look at the fireplace and the hanging TV. In the television's reflection, I see Kimberly watching me, and I don't understand why I'm at her apartment. Kimberly wants nothing to do with me. A hollowness persists inside me, and this void suffocates me. It's more than Kimberly shooting me. I feel as though something's off inside me.

Kimberly's view...

The more that woman remains silent the more I think maybe I shouldn't have brought her to my apartment. Brian was right. I didn't think this through. I glance at the radio in the kitchen. The silence is maddening. If she won't talk to me, I can listen to some music, so I turn the radio on, and a classical station plays.

Katharine's view...

A realization hits me; it's the tune. I have to hear Unfinished Melody, so I need the music box back.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Kimberly asks as if I have answered her. "I can make us some soup."

"The music box," I reply as I turn and face her. "Please give me the music box back."

"For Ares' sake! Forget about that thing." She insists, "You're not getting it."

I pout as I say, "But you promised."

"For the love of Zeus! You're such a child!" Kimberly smacks her palm on the counter and yells, "Do you honestly think I'm going to keep my word? I'm a Closer. My word means nothing! Idiot! Get that through your thick head!"

"Then why did you save me?" Frustrated with never finding any answers, I ball my hand and demand, "What do you want?"

"I..." Kimberly turns her gaze to the counter as if uncomfortable with the answer. "I saved you because I was told to."

"By who?" I demand. I can't fathom who would want to help me. "Was it the Council? Did they put you up to this?"

Kimberly's view...

I pull on my left earlobe and wonder if I should tell her. She doesn't need to know, but maybe she would be a little more cooperative if I did, so I answer, "It wasn't them. It was Theresa Griffin, my mom."

"Your mom?" She looks at the photo she must have seen the last time she was in my apartment. "What does she want from me?"

I reply, "I don't know. She was murdered almost twenty years ago."

She looks at me as if I'm playing some kind of joke on her, and then she states, "I don't understand. If she's dead, how could she tell you–"

"The music box you had," I interrupt. "It was hers. She developed the device while working at the Sphinx Corporation. It's a data storage unit with a hologram interface. You could say my mom left me a message, and she said to save the Pandora Project and that you were the key."

"The key?" she utters as if she's happy with some small answer, and then she asks, "The key to what?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you would know."

Katharine's view...

I frown at her answer. Kimberly does want something from me. First the Council, then the Factory, and now Kimberly, when will it end? When will the madness end? I turn, face the TV, and say, "I can't help you."

"Can't or won't?" Kimberly questions.

I don't answer.

Kimberly's view...

I consider smacking her around until she talks but that probably won't work. I need to be a little patient. Hades! I hate this! I hate not knowing what I need that woman for. For Ares' sake! Why am I so irritated?

I'm irritated because of that woman, so I need to find out as soon as possible, and then I can eliminate her from my life! I calm myself and say, "Well, get it in your head you're not getting the music box. It was meant for me."

Katharine's view...

"Then why did I have it?" I ask as I feel crushed by my circumstances. I walk around the couch, slump down on it, grab the blanket, lie my head on the pillow, and wrap myself in the blanket, hiding from the world.

I want Kimberly to have saved me because she didn't want me to die. I want Kimberly to have saved me because we're friends. I'll not get those wishes, so she can at least give me back the music box like she promised.

Kimberly's view...

I watch her pout. She acts more like a child than this deadly experiment I keep hearing about. This is all so frustrating. When can I go back to my normal life? More importantly... Who gave her the music box, and what will I have to do to find the truth?

* * *

Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

Mr. Griffin sat at his desk, reviewing reports. He cracked his neck and rubbed it, taking a break as he complained, "I need a vacation." The phone rang, and he answered it, "Yes, Cathy."

"I have Orthos on line six."

"Thank you. Please connect the Head of Security." Mr. Griffin put his earpiece in and pressed the button on the phone. "Yes."

"I thought you should know," Orthos began. "The manager of Nexus Apartments called and informed me that Ms. Griffin has brought home a house guest."

Pleased his daughter was showing some interest in a social life, Mr. Griffin asked, "Who is he?"

"She is known as Katharine and that's all we have on her name."

"She? Interesting. What corporation does this Katharine work for? Is it Valhalla? We're on friendly terms with them."

"She's from in-house, sir, and she doesn't exactly work for the Sphinx Corporation. She's one of the Council's experiments. The experiment is known as the Pandora Project."

Mr. Griffin's view...

It can't be, not that one! Not that blasted project! My brow furls as I murmur, "I told Kimberly she needed to get herself a pet, not to bring home a stray."

"What's that, sir?"

"Nothing. Keep me informed."

I wonder what my daughter's up to. How did she become involved with Pandora?

End Mr. Griffin's view...

Orthos cleared his throat.

Mr. Griffin snapped from his thoughts. "Was there something else?"

"Yes, there is a problem at the Factory."

"What kind of problem?"

"All the T-3s have gone rogue and have killed the employees at the main site. I have received other reports that the T-3s are attacking other Factory owned sites all over Noir."

"What have you done so far to stop them?" Mr. Griffin asked.

"I sent a strike team into the Factory, but they were terminated," Orthos answered. "I was about to send in a second, but thought I should inform you first."

"Hold on that. Set up a perimeter and let none of the T-3s out and for now, we will contain, but I do want you to send out strike teams after any of the T-3s that have left the Factory's main site."

"Yes, sir. I will keep you informed." Orthos hung up.

Mr. Griffin's view...

I remove my earpiece. More rogues. What does it mean? Is another corporation behind this or is there a problem with their programming?

I rub my forehead as a headache sets in. And why is the Council's project staying with my daughter? Is the Council targeting my daughter for a reason? I lean forward, pick up the phone, and dial.

My secretary answers, "Yes, Mr. Griffin."

"Cathy, get me the Council."

Chapter Thirty-three

Down Time

October 18...

Monday...

10:41 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

Steam hangs in the air as I step from the guest bathroom shower and dry with a fluffy white towel. The bath felt good, and it's a luxury I don't have living on the streets. Because of water rationing, those from the nonproductive part of society are issued large towelettes. What one of my friends calls a bath in a bag.

I wash away the filth, but it doesn't change my glum demeanor, and my head still pounds. None of the medications Kimberly gave me did anything for the migraine, and I start to feel anxious as I peer at my shaky hands. I know the side effects of the Ultra-Epi are only going to get worse, but there's nothing I can do without the music box, so I slowly put on the clean clothes Kimberly bought for me. First the white underwear and sports bra and then the gray-black pants. They're almost identical to the ones I wore. I take the towel, wipe the steam covered mirror, and stand barefoot, gazing at my reflection. My face's still pale, and I feel weak. I stare at my hazel eyes, seeing the different shades of brown and green and as if it's an everyday thing to be tending a wound, I glance at the stitches in my shoulder and open the kit Brian gave me to redress it. I put fresh ointment and gauze on my blistered palm, a new bandage on my shoulder, and carefully pull on a white t-shirt. I leave the bathroom, return to the couch, and gaze at the blank TV, knowing the ever watchful eyes of the Phoenix are upon me.

"There are some eggs and juice on the counter," Kimberly tells me as she washes a stainless steel frying pan in the kitchen sink. "Eat. You haven't touched anything since I brought you here from the hospital yesterday." She watches me as I continue to stare at the black screen, and she insists, "You need to eat so come and sit."

Not hungry and deeply upset, I ignore her and wonder why I feel so wronged by her. I barely know her. She... Maybe it's not that. Maybe something else is bothering me.

Kimberly's view...

I feel very uncomfortable having that strange woman in my home and on top of that, she keeps ignoring me. What's her problem?

I control my anger as I grab a kitchen towel, dry my hands, and ask, "How do you expect to regain your strength if you don't eat?"

She remains silent and that ticks me off.

"I'm tired of this silent treatment!" I yell as I throw the towel down on the counter, leave the kitchen, and march around the couch. "Get up!"

She stares at the floor as if she wants to be left alone.

I grab her right arm and force her to stand and shout, "Something has to change. Look at me!"

Showing pain and exhaustion, she lifts her gaze like a little girl who's lost, alone, and frightened.

"You need to snap out of it! I've seen you in action at Zeus Park and at Topa's estate. Hades! You're like me. You're a calculating predator." Disgusted at her show of weakness, I command, "I need you to get that mindset back. I need you to regain that inborn or programmed reaction, and I want to see that primal drive to survive! Show me your killer instinct!"

She seems appalled by the accusation and insists, "No! I'm not like that!" She pulls against my grasp. "Let go. I'm not a killer. Let go of me!"

I won't release her and press the issue, "You are like me. You're like those Un-Men that hunt you. You're a killer."

Katharine's view...

"No! It's a lie! Stop saying it!"

I'm terrified Kimberly's telling the truth. I fear deep down I'm a cruel monster hiding in the guise of a kind person, and I fear the monster only waits to wake and show the world its true nature. I have immense anxiety over the possibility that I've forgotten about my ruthless self, and that I'm exactly what the Council wants me to be.

Because of those dreaded insecurities, I scream all the more, "Stop saying those things! Let go! I'm not a killer! Let go!"

Kimberly's view...

"For Ares' sake! Accept it. You are."

I increasingly push with my words. I have to get some emotional reaction from her, hoping it will end her brooding and so far, all she has been doing is screaming like a toddler who has been told she can't go out and play.

My voice raises as I tell her, "I need you to draw on that... that murderous instinct of yours." I squeeze her arm. "Show it to me! Let it out! You know you want to, so let it out!"

Katharine's view...

"No! Shut up! I'm not a killer!" With my right arm in her grasp, I lift my left fist and strike Kimberly on the cheek, hurting myself in the process. The pain is severe, and I curse, "Crap! Crap!"

I grab my reinjured shoulder and take a step back after Kimberly releases me. Some of my stitches must have popped, and I seethe in agony for several moments until I realize what I did. I hit someone out of anger. I wanted to hurt Kimberly for reminding me of my own fears. It seems I am a monster.

I shake my head and take another step back, horrified by my own violent act and start to say, "I'm... I'm..."

"Hades that hurt!" Kimberly grabs her cheek and rubs it as she asks, "Did you have to hit my face?"

Ashamed of my savage actions, I close my eyes, wanting to run away. Maybe Kimberly's right, and I feel sick at the thought. Maybe I am a killer.

I whisper, dying inside, "I'm sorry." I open my eyes, and they burn as if I've been weeping. Wanting to flee the possible truth, I turn, grab a jacket, and rush out of the apartment, shouting, "I'm sorry!"

Kimberly's view...

"Wait! Don't go!"

I start after that woman and look down at my slippers. Great. Just great! I flip them off, and they fly through the air, and then I grab my running shoes, pull them on without untying them, race into the hall, and hear the elevator close.

"Don't go!"

I rush to the elevator and watch as the numbers climb. The roof... At least she's not going to run out the front, but I better hurry. I don't want to lose the key. I run to the stairs, rush up ten flights, and burst through the door, panting.

Katharine's view...

I stand on the ledge, leaning on the metal railing surrounding the top. I see Kimberly come out, turn from her, wishing she'd leave me alone, and notice below that a car drives across West 1000 Avenue and honks at a dog that runs in front of it. Still feeling ashamed, I pull the jacket close in the chilly air, babying my hurt shoulder. The cold railing feels nice against my burned hand that's wrapped in gauze. The hand hurts more since hitting Kimberly. I can't blame her if she wants to shoot me again. I can't believe I hit her. She was yelling at me, but she wasn't going to hurt me, so there was no reason to hit her. I just didn't like what she was saying. It hurt so much to hear it that I just had to make her stop.

Kimberly's view...

I gasp for air as I lean back against the door, and I manage to question her as if I'm concerned about her, "Why did you come up here? What if one of the Un-Men spots you?"

I can't have her dying on me until I find out why my mom wanted me to find her. I glare at that strange woman for making me run all the way up here. I also owe her for punching me in the face, but I'll worry about payback later. I need to solve the mystery, so I can use Pale Horse on her.

"They won't come here," she answers me. "Your apartment has a protective barrier that bio-mechas are unable to cross. Something deep within their programming bars them from entering, so this place is a safe zone until they can get around their programming."

"How do you know that they..?" I start, then decide I don't need to know the answer to that, and I don't really care, so I say, "Never mind. You haven't answered my first question. Why did you come up here?"

That strange woman looks at Zeus Park across the street as if remembering her battle with those robots and answers, "Where else could I go?" She glances at me, but then she diverts her eyes from my angry gaze as she insists, "I'm not a killer." She wraps her arms around herself and says in a gentler tone, "I'm not like you."

I thought as much. She's upset that I forced some sense into her. I'm satisfied with her answer, so I'm about to tell her to come back in with me, but she speaks first and starts in like I asked her about her life story.

She lifts her gaze to the sky as if searching for something as she tells me, "I think that's what the Council wants." That strange woman turns to me, and I see a determination on her face as she states, "And I have defied their wishes. I have worked very hard not to kill anyone, and no one has died by my hand."

I nearly laugh out loud as I say, "You're joking right? I've seen you with the Un-Men. You're so good at killing them."

"Un-Men are robots. They're not alive, so it's different when I terminate them," she asserts. "I've killed no one, and I'm not going to start."

Her perspective infuriates me. She can't honestly believe what she saying. I wanted to go back in, but I can't let this go, so I yell, "For Ares' sake! You won't survive in this world with that kind of attitude. You have to take the shot when you have it."

"I can't live like that," that woman tells me as if she's going to cry. I believe she's going to bawl right there but instead, she turns to me with a look of concern and asks, "Do you like what you do?" That strange woman is actually acting like she's concerned about me as she questions me, "Do you enjoy murdering people?"

"What kind of question is that?" I ask as I walk towards her.

"An honest one. Isn't that what we're doing right now? Aren't we being honest with each other? Well then... I want to know, are you who you want to be? Are you happy?"

Honesty? Don't make me laugh. I know you're up to something. I just haven't figure out what your game is, but I'll find out, so, for now, I'll play along.

I tell her, "Mine is a necessary job in this world. My happiness has nothing to do with it."

"Still... You seem... You seem very sad."

I laugh and then say, "Right, a Closer with emotions. A good one."

I move beside her and lean on the railing as I consider that she's actually serious about what she's saying. If that's so, I don't understand why that woman resist who she is with such passion. There's no reason why she shouldn't kill. It's kill or be killed that's life.

Katharine's view...

"Aren't we a pair," I tell Kimberly as the full brunt of October's frosty wind whips over me. "I want to express emotions but can't. You can, but your job forces you to disregard them."

"Hmm..." she utters as if she didn't hear me or was ignoring my comment. Kimberly glances over the ledge and then asks me, "Are you here to jump?"

"I was thinking about it, but then they would win."

"Let's go back inside then," she tells me. "It's cold out here." Kimberly glances down at my reddening bare feet and adds, "And neither of us is dressed for the weather."

I follow her back to the elevator and once we're inside the apartment, we sit at the table. I put on a pair of socks that Kimberly went and got for me.

"Here, drink this to warm yourself," she tells me as she hands me a cup of chicken noodle soup.

"Thank you."

I take a sip, and it's very good.

Kimberly's view...

I notice that strange woman is rubbing her shoulder, so I tell her, "Take your jacket and t-shirt off."

She looks up from her cup as if I had just asked her to jump off a bridge.

"Hades..." I utter as I stand. "Don't be such a baby. Let me look at your shoulder."

She hesitates, but then she lets me look at her wound. I remove her blood spotted bandage.

"Look at that," I complain. "You did it. You busted a stitch, but I don't think we need to see Brian. I'll butterfly it and put on a fresh bandage."

I retrieve a first aid kit and bandage the wound. "There."

She carefully pulls her t-shirt back on, and a few minutes pass as I put the kit back, then I sit and eat my soup.

"Umm..." I hear that strange woman pipe up as she stares at her soup, and then she whispers, "Something's wrong with me."

I could have told her that from the start, but I decide not to say anything about her comment. She must be noticing how weird she is.

She clears her throat and says in a louder voice as if to get my attention, "I haven't been right inside since Etna Toys."

"Yeah, I know," I state with a hint of mischief. "You were shot, and now you're having soup with the inflicter of your pain, so of course you're not the same."

"No. More than that. I think..." she says, then pauses, and looks at me like I'm a bomb she'll set off, and then she says, "I think I need the music box. I need to hear Unfinished Melody."

"Nice try, but like I said–"

"I'm serious! What if they did something to me?" She runs her fingers across the table's edge like some kid who's trying to convince their parents to let them have a hamster. "No, not what if. What did they do to me? You... You don't understand! It's the only thing that works. Your painkillers have done nothing for my headache, and look at me... The way I'm acting right now. This is not the normal me. I'm not so uptight. I'm not..." She begs me, "Please, let me listen to it."

"No! Now drop the matter!" I slam my cup down, and some of the soup spills. "All that stuff is all in your mind!"

That strange woman sulks.

In a calmer tone, I say, "You should try to get some rest." I stand. "You haven't slept since Brian gave you that sedative. I should know... I heard you tossing and turning on that squeaky couch all night." I take my cup to the kitchen. "Stay here. I'm going out. I shouldn't be long."

I make my way to the parking garage and slide into my car. I open my glove compartment, take out the music box, then place my fingers over the squares.

"Mom."

The sides glow blue under my touch, and the 3-D image of my mom materializes.

The hologram turns her head side to side as if looking around the car, and then she states, "I detect no surveillance; it is safe to talk. Were you able to accomplish the mission?"

I pass my hand through the image as I say, "Yes, I have Pandora." I raise the music box, bringing the image closer. "You mentioned she was the key. The key to what?"

"I am sorry, but I was never downloaded with that information. I only know she is the key."

"Now what?"

"This next thing is very important," the hologram says. "If you fail to accomplish it, it could bring disaster."

I bite my lip with anticipation and then ask, "What is it?"

"You must give this music box to Katharine. She must have it with her at all times. Do you understand?"

"You've got to be kidding."

"No, I am not. Katharine must not reach the Gamma Phase. Do you know what stage she is at?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Has she run into any bio-mechas? Does she know when they are near?"

"Yes," I reply.

"That's the Alpha Phase. What about killing them?" the hologram questions. "Can she take them down with one shot?"

"Yes."

"This isn't good. Katharine has achieved the Beta Phase. I pray she hasn't accomplished the Gamma."

"Never mind her. What about my mom? How do I find her killer?"

"Theresa hid data devices that were designed to be read only by this music box. If you can find them, they may have clues to whoever killed her." The hologram says, "Now give this box to Katharine."

"Fine. How long am I supposed to babysit?"

"I do not know," the hologram answers. "Stay safe."

Her image disappears.

Ten minutes later, I stand and stare at the letter H on my apartment door. Why is it I tell that woman I'm going to do one thing and then the hologram has me do the opposite?

Sometime later...

"Welcome back Ms. Griffin," A.C.S. states. "The apartment..."

"Night mode."

A.C.S. lowers its volume and states, "Setting lights at fifty percent. Will there be anything else, Ms. Griffin?"

"No, that's all."

I look at the living room and see that strange woman's reflection on the TV. She's on the couch covered with a heavy blanket and stares at the coffee table. I shake my head, swallowing my pride, and give in to my mom's wishes. I walk over, set the music box on the coffee table, open the lid, and Unfinished Melody plays.

"Thank you," that woman says as her eyes grow heavy, and she falls asleep.

"Don't thank me," I mumble.

I'm not doing this for you. I stare at her, considering the past day. If she wasn't the key, I would have let her die at Etna Toys, and I would be rid of this insanity. It's not too late. I could kill her while she sleeps, but I guess I'll wait. I want to know what she's the key to.

Chapter Thirty-four

The Proposition

October 19...

Tuesday...

1:20 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Industrial Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

I drive into the front parking lot of Etna Toys. The N.C.P.F. had been there earlier and taped off the front curb where the T-3s killed the two Factory S.C.Ms. I cautiously exit my car, glance around the deserted area, and grab my knapsack. I'm wearing my black work outfit minus the knit mask. No wind rustles the weeds, leaving the parking lot in an eerie quiet as I quickly enter the front door.

Noir Civil Police Force must not have come in here. There's no police tape, but the area's been cleaned of Un-Men and gun shells, so someone else must have cleaned up the mess. After searching the front area, I grab that woman's backpack, Ravlek Vest, and find her empty Beretta underneath one of the boxing machines. I find it odd that they left her things behind like they left them for her.

Curious about the Un-Men and the Council, I look at the open elevator. That woman said she believed the Council was based here all along, and she said she had been looking for them and the Factory. I step toward the open doors. Maybe they left something behind. I enter the cab, remove my holstered PPK, and press the basement button and once I reach the basement, light from the elevator breaks the darkness of the hallway as I remove a flashlight from my knapsack. I find a light switch and flip it on, but nothing happens. I search the hallway with my flashlight and find it's empty. A door stands at the opposite end, so I move towards it wary I'm walking into a trap set up for that woman. I make my way to it, open it, and enter the room. I move the beam back and forth and search the mostly empty room and in the center, I spot a large table. A few abandoned plugs and cables line one of the walls, and I start to leave, thinking there's nothing to find when something catches my eye. I walk to the table, finding a white business envelope with the words "For Pandora" written on it. I pick it up, contemplate if I should open it, think why not, and open the envelope.

"Pandora, as one of the members of the Council, I have to say I am very proud of you and even though you did not reach the Gamma and Delta Phases of your metamorphosis, I am still very impressed with you. We had hoped with the training and conditioning you would have accomplished the phases the past year. You did not and for that reason, the others are not pleased and wish to terminate you. I have convinced them to delay that. We can still acquire valuable information from you. Be warned though, I cannot hold off your termination indefinitely, and the Council is more resourceful than the Factory. The Life Closers we sent after you were merely tests. They were not a means to destroy you. Increase your skills so when the time comes you may bar your termination."

I pause from reading. According to this member, that woman hasn't reached the Gamma and Delta Phases, whatever they might be. My mom was concerned that Pandora may have reached them and brought about some sort of disaster.

I continue reading, "Argus, the poor devil, informed us in the past that you have no memory of who you are and that is most unfortunate, so I will tell you one thing. The Council did not begin your training or condition you. It was another department in the Sphinx Corporation. I wish I could tell you everything but..." The line breaks off, and a new line starts. "Remember if you wish to destroy the Rogue, you must reach the Delta Phase; it is called the Knowing and to achieve the Knowing, you must first reach the Gamma Phase. I wish you long life."

The letter's signed by Mr. Morta, and I glance over it once more, then place the letter back in its envelope, and put it in that woman's backpack. The corporation my father works for is behind the Pandora Project, so there could be a connection between my mom and that woman. I also need to find out what the Gamma and the Delta Phases are. Mr. Morta called one of them the Knowing. I can't even fathom what she's supposed to know, so I search the room once more and head back up.

Sometime later...

The elevator doors open to an Un-Man, and I quickly raise my gun, not expecting to be met by one of those robots.

It's the one called the Rogue, and it lifts its hands as it tells me, "Do not shoot."

"You again," I state a bit freaked out that it might have followed me here. I keep my gun leveled on it and ask, "What do you want now?"

"I was snooping around this place myself when I saw you enter, and I hid and then thought to myself, you might be able to help me." The Rogue keeps its hands up. "I know you came back and saved Pandora." It pauses and continues, "That act alone confused me, and I have been trying to process it since but have not been able to."

It never answered my question, so I snap, "What do you want?"

"I am rambling, so I will get to the point then. I have a proposition." The Rogue pauses again and then asks, "Can I lower my hands?"

I have no idea what it wants from me, but it does seem to be everywhere, it must know a lot of things, so I should at least hear it out. I nod and wave the Rogue back with my gun as I step from the elevator, and then I question, "A proposition?"

"Yes, I overheard you talking with the doctor at the hospital," the Rogue tells me as it lowers its hands. "You told him you were looking for who killed Theresa Griffin."

Anger and rage wash over me at the mention of my mom's death. I want to know who killed her, and I'll do anything to find out even make a deal with this tin can.

"Do you know who murdered her?"

"No, I do not have that information, but I did find something at the Factory. I discovered a disk I believe belonged to your mother."

I ask, "And you want what in exchange?"

"Silly woman, I want Pandora of course. Bring her to the Factory so I may kill her. Here..." The Rogue hands me a piece of paper and a small blueprint labeled BL5. "This is the location of the Factory along with the layout for Basement Level Five of Research Building 10." It hands me a white keycard. "This will get you in through the parking garage." I take it, and the Rogue continues, "Bring Pandora tomorrow night after nine to the first room circled on the blueprint in the Green Division, and I will have the disk waiting for you in the Computer Lab circled in the Yellow Division. Here..." The Rogue hands me one green and one yellow keycard. "Those will get you in the rooms, and one word of warning, the T-3s have gone rogue and have taken over the Factory. You will have to elude them." The Rogue hands me a small piece of paper. "Once you have the disk, that word will unlock it."

I glance at the password and snarl at the Rogue, wondering if it's trying to tell me something with this access word.

"How do you know I'll turn her over?" I question it.

"Because I know your kind. You do not care about anyone even dear old dad. The only person you ever loved was murdered, and you want to find her killer and take your revenge." The Rogue starts out. "You must be looking for a way to get rid of the headache you reluctantly took in. There is no easier way than to hand Pandora over to me, and you get something out of the deal."

"Fine, tomorrow then," I state and watch the Rogue leave.

It's right about one thing, that woman has been nothing but a nuisance. I'll have to say sorry to my mom's memory. It was so long ago that she wanted me to save that woman and so much has changed. I glance at my gun and stare at my hand tinged with unseen blood. Much has changed, including me.

Chapter Thirty-five

The Locked Door

2:47 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Nexus Apartments...

The digital clock in the kitchen read 2:47 P.M. as Kat slightly stirred on the couch, and Unfinished Melody played, keeping her in the grips of the Drifting Time. The digital clock was the only light in the dark apartment.

"Door unlocked," A.C.S. stated.

The spare bedroom unlocked, and the light within flicked on, lighting up the crack under the closed door.

Katharine's view...

I open my eyes at hearing a sound, sit up a little disoriented, then close the music box, and place it in my pocket.

"Umm... Could I have some lights?"

"Guest request acknowledged." A.C.S. turns on the ones in the living room. "Setting lights to ninety-five percent."

I scan the apartment but see no one. I thought I had heard someone talk.

"Umm... Apartment Computer System, did you say something earlier?"

"Yes, I stated that the spare bedroom has been unlocked and the room is ready for use."

"Oh..." I stand, rub my eyes, walk to the first room in the hall, and open the door. "Kimberly, are you back?"

No one's in the room, so I enter and look around curious as to why it had been locked in the first place. The walls are full of photos of Kimberly as a child and her mom, and a few of them have a man in them who I guess is her father. Kimberly was a really cute kid. I walk by a bed that hasn't been used in years, go and stand in front of a wall, and take a closer look at the little blonde girl in the pictures.

I can't believe this is the same person I met. Kimberly was so happy back then. I see pictures of her eating ice cream, petting kittens, and playing on a sunny beach. I can't even imagine what has happened to her since to make her so unhappy and angry. I rub my shoulder as it itches a little, and then I decide I shouldn't be in here. Kimberly would be mad, so I leave the room.

I head toward the living room and then glance back at the bedroom. Kimberly locked all of those happy memories away. It's like she hid them in there so she didn't have to remember. Maybe it was too painful for her.

I start for the couch. A.C.S. unlocked the room, but Kimberly wasn't here to give the command. Maybe A.C.S. is malfunctioning. I yawn, groggy from sleeping, then return to the couch, and plop down on the cold leather. I can't believe how tired I am as I lie back, remove the music box, and stare at it. I don't know what I would do without it. I hold the music box close to my chest, thinking what a luxury it is to sleep without fear the Un-Men will find me. I grab my blanket and pull it over me. I'm warm and safe, what more could a girl ask for? I drift asleep without the music box to lull me.

End Katharine's view...

Outside of Nexus Apartments...

A white van parked at the curb in front of the gate facing Knot Street sputtered smoke from its muffler. The engine idled as Zax sat in the driver's seat, typing a few things on his H.H.C. and once he finished, he placed the H.H.C. on the passenger seat.

Zax's view...

I don't understand why R.G. had me do it, but I guess my job isn't to know the why only to do what I'm told. I remove a cell from my shirt pocket, dial a number, and say, "Delivery Man here, please connect me to R.G." A few seconds pass, and I state, "Yes, as per your instructions I waited till Ms. Griffin left the apartment, and I triggered the A.C.S. to unlock the spare bedroom so the rest is up to Katharine. Yes. Yes. I'm monitoring the situation now." I see a red car drive by. "Kimberly is returning." I buckle my seat belt. "I'll contact you with any new development, Delivery Man out."

I hang up and drive a little way down Knot Street and turn onto West 1000 Avenue to get in a better position. Kimberly won't be too happy to discover the spare bedroom has been opened. Poor Katharine... Kimberly might kill her if she went into her mother's room.

End Zax's view...

Sometime later...

Kimberly's view...

The door to Apartment H slides open, and I enter a little fatigued. I don't know why I feel so weary unless it's the decision to betray that woman that weighs on me. It shouldn't bother me, and I convince myself that I'm only tired from the mess that woman put me through.

"Welcome back Ms..."

"Night and Quiet Mode, A.C.S."

It shuts down its verbal interaction and reverts to its evening settings as I walk down the entry to the kitchen, and the lights come on at fifty percent. I set her backpack on a barstool, place her Beretta on the counter, and turn to the living room. I move to the back of the couch and find that woman asleep, clinging to the music box like it's a teddy bear. I stare at the enigma as she sleeps soundly. I could so easily kill her. I could walk around this couch and snap her neck, and nobody would ever know. No one will care that that woman's gone except maybe the Council, and they will only care because she's some precious experiment of theirs. I put my hand on my hip in a tisk-tisk fashion. That woman should have heard me when I entered and woke up. Her instinct to survive must not be very strong.

I think about what I'm going to do to her when I deliver her to the Factory, and I take pity on her. I haven't pitied anyone in a long time. A babe I took off the streets... an innocent I'll deliver to her demise. I snatched her from the fangs of the grave only to hand her over to the Reaper.

I consider the conversation that I had at Etna. The Rogue couldn't be right about her. Her trust in me must be an act. It has to be an act... She couldn't have survived this long as a kitten. She has to be a tigress.

My pity turns to anger as I think about the trust she has in me. Stupid... It's her fault if I betray her. I never told her to trust me. I'm a Closer. I only look out for myself.

I return to the kitchen, place my car keys on the counter, and lean on the counter as guilt burdens me. My mom told me to save her but finding out who murdered my mom is more important to me than saving that woman.

I hear her mumble and move back to the couch. She sleeps, but her lips move, reciting a phrase in a murmur. I place a hand on the back of the couch and lean over to listen.

"Always know there will be a love that will not die."

I walk around the sofa, not sure of what she said. She rolls over, faces the couch, and says nothing more. I shrug and start for the hallway as I decide as if I haven't done so a dozen times over that whatever she's the key to doesn't matter to me. It's more important that I discover who murdered my mom and take my revenge. I pause at the hallway entrance and glance back at the living room. That woman has been nothing but a headache since our meeting. I'll be glad to be rid of her. I walk past the spare bedroom, wondering how I'll convince her to come to the Factory with me. From what she has told me, if I was her, I wouldn't want to return there.

Exhausted from all the running around, I reach for the doorknob of the master bedroom, thinking those problems can wait until morning. My eyes droop. I need to get some sleep. I pause as my heart skips a beat and my weary mind recalls something out of place, and I quickly turn, looking to the spare bedroom. A glow shows through the crack under the door, and I walk back and turn the knob, expecting it to be locked, but the door opens. Furious, I search the room and find nothing has been moved. Everything is as I left it years ago.

I'm going to kill her. I'm not going to wait for the Rogue to do it. I'm going to kill her right now! I march into the living room as I fist my hand, controlling my anger, and then I say in a forced gentle tone, "A.C.S."

"Yes, Ms. Griffin."

"How did she unlock this door?"

"She?"

"Yes, Pandora... I mean Katharine."

"Your guest did not unlock the door. A command was given over the Nexus Apartment's main system."

"By who?"

"Identity unknown," A.C.S. replies.

I take several deep breaths as my anger boils again. "Tell me this, did she go in the room?"

"Yes, your guest entered after I announced the door had been unlocked."

I fist my other hand, thinking of beating her to death while she's sleeping, but then I wouldn't get what I want from the Rogue. I have to be very careful what I do next. I don't want to jeopardize the prize I'm seeking, so I decide I can't yell at her, not if I want that woman to go to the Factory with me tomorrow. I'll have to let this go for now. The Rogue can torture her for violating my privacy.

"A.C.S., lock this bedroom door."

"Yes, Ms. Griffin."

I head into my bedroom as exhaustion seizes me again, shut the door, and slip into my pajamas. I lie on my stomach and clinch my pillow with both hands. I can't get the idea of that woman rummaging through all my precious stuff. She better not of touched anything or the Rogue will be the least of her worries.

End Kimberly's view...

Back in the living room...

Kat's face wrinkled as her dream changed to a nightmare, and she uttered, "Preacher! No! Don't die. You can't leave me alone. Don't leave us alone." Her eyes rapidly moved under her closed lids. "What do I tell him? What do I tell Chad? NO!"

Katharine's view...

I sit up and look around as sweat beads my forehead, and I sadden as grief strikes me. I have no idea what I'll tell the boy. First, I left and now Preacher left him. I cover myself with the blanket. I know it's not safe, but I need to find Chad and tell him what happened.

Back in the master bedroom...

Kimberly's view...

I continue to stare at my pillow, repeating to myself that woman's life means nothing to me. I keep thinking back to what the hologram told me, and I'm hesitant to hand her over to the Rogue for the disk. I roll on my side and grumble. Hades! Nothing's been easy since I met her. It'll be good to get rid of her, and it'll be good to return to my mundane life. I chuckle. Listen to me, I never thought I'd hear myself say I miss the solitude. I roll on my back, contemplating if I really do miss the loneliness.

Chapter Thirty-six

What's On TV?

October 20...

Wednesday...

7:58 A.M...

Kimberly's view...

The TV comes to life as I turn it on with the remote, and Anchorman Jim Charles with NBS gives a report.

"As we wrap up this hour, news has come in that Dr. Robert Seeker's trip to Antarctica has been delayed."

I only turned the TV on for noise and don't really pay any attention to it. The one I've reluctantly partnered with sits at the kitchen bar and watches me cook oatmeal and fry eggs and bacon as if she's famished. She slept for more than twelve hours so she better be well rested. Her stomach growls as I pour her a glass of orange juice.

The anchorman continues, "Dr. Seeker was scheduled to leave yesterday but–"

She hums Unfinished Melody as she whirls around on the bar stool like some kid on a merry-go-round.

I comment, "You're in a better mood this morning."

"I am," that woman says.

"–the helicopter had mechanical problems," Jim Charles continues. "Dr. Seeker should be on his way to Vulcan Station within the next twenty-four hours." The anchorman turns to another camera. "This just came in... There are reports of several explosions in the Hellenistic Sector."

I'm still unconcerned with the news as I place a plate full of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of that woman along with a bowl of oatmeal and say, "There's milk and honey if you want it."

I move over to the side of the kitchen to grab a glass when I turn and see that woman staring at the TV. The flames from the explosions reflect in her eyes, and she's fixated by the destruction. Her stomach growls again as if it's some stray dog warning her of danger. She turns, facing the counter, dives into the eggs, shoveling them into her mouth, and devours strips of bacon between spoonfuls.

I'm appalled by her tiger-like eating and utter, "I guess you were never taught manners."

She peers up from her plate wide-eyed, picks up a napkin, and wipes her mouth, and then she continues eating at a slower pace. "Sorry... I was just so hungry."

The anchorman finishes, "At this point, the cause of the explosions is unknown. We will update you as new reports come in. This is Jim Charles with NBS, signing off."

I walk over to my plate and take several bites of my breakfast.

Katharine's view...

"Umm... Last night..." I begin as I'm unsure if I should even mention it to the angry Phoenix. "A.C.S. woke me, and your spare bedroom light was on, so I went in."

I wait to see if she'll pull out her gun and shoot me in the knee or grab my hair and bash my head on the table. I tense, not knowing what sort of fury will be coming.

Kimberly's view...

I stop eating, put my fork down, and fixate on my plate. That woman better not have touched anything, not one item in that room or so help me... I pick up the remote and turn off the news.

Katharine's view...

I notice the change in Kimberly's demeanor, and I cautiously continue, "I ah... thought you were home and went in. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. It's a special place. One you made for your mom. I shouldn't have–"

"Did you..?" Kimberly interrupts me as she raises her scary gaze and glares at me. "Did you touch anything?"

"Umm..." I swallow hard, feeling the intensity of her stare. "No, I only touched the doorknob."

Kimberly's view...

I pick up my fork and examine it as if I'll stab it through that woman's heart, but I have to remember the Factory and the disk. I can't make the deal with the Rogue if that woman's already dead, so I calm down and force a smile. I can kill that woman at any time if I don't want the disk anymore. I set the fork down and lie, "It's fine." I press a wider toothy smile and coo out, "No harm done."

Katharine's view...

Kimberly's smile makes me uneasy as the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I dare not say anymore.

Kimberly's view...

Merely setting the fork down isn't enough to quell my wrath, so I have to think of something else and take my mind away from the image of that woman violating the memories in the room. I remember Etna Toys and the things I found there.

"Oh..." I say as I stand, retrieve that woman's backpack, pull out the envelope, and hand her the letter from Mr. Morta. "I found this yesterday in the basement of Etna Toys."

She acts like she's a bit afraid of me as she takes the letter. I must have scared her. Good... that woman should be afraid of me. She opens the letter and after about a minute, that woman says, "I wonder what Mr. Morta meant by 'the poor devil' when he referred to Argus."

I don't care, so I don't say anything. She reads over the letter one more time as I start to go over in my head how to manipulate things so that woman will go to the Factory with me.

"If I understand everything–" I start out. "–you want to find out who you are and what you've forgotten."

"Yes, and you're searching for who killed your mom," she replies as if we're in sync on some weird level of communication.

"Here's the deal," I begin. "We'll work together to find our answers but once I find my mom's killer, this partnership is done. Understand? I'll help you no more after that. I have no reason to."

Katharine's view...

It's a little one-sided, but it's not like I have a better offer, so I nod.

"Good then." Kimberly retrieves her knapsack from her bedroom, returns, and removes some papers. "I need your help. I have discovered the location of the Factory. There's vital information about my mom there and the information's on a disk." She shows me the address. "I'm heading there tonight. Will you come with me?"

I can't believe it. Kimberly wants me to go to the Factory! She wants me to go back after they tortured me. I don't know if I can. I swore I would never let them take me again, so there's no way I'm going back. I glance at Kimberly and notice how much it means to her that we find this disk she mentioned. I'm partners with her, and we're supposed to help each other. I push my fears aside and ask, "Is this information important?"

"I believe it is very important. Will you help me?" Kimberly adds as if baiting me, "The Factory could have information on you."

She's right about that. The Factory could have some, but I don't know if it'll be worth the risk. I did tell Kimberly I'd help but going back... I'm so afraid, but I can't be a wimp. If Kimberly has a plan and we can sneak in, we may have a chance. Even if Kimberly has a plan, that doesn't mean we won't get caught. It's so hard for me to decide, but then I think about what I would do if Kimberly was one of my friends... if she was Chad and he was asking for my help. I wouldn't hesitate to tell him yes.

"If it's important, I'll do it," I finally answer as I start on my oatmeal and say between mouthfuls, "That's what partners do. They help each other, but you do have a plan, right? I don't want to get caught again."

"I have a plan, so don't you worry. Someone on the inside's helping me."

I say, "I always worry but that doesn't matter."

Kimberly's view...

"It's settled then... We'll go later tonight," I tell her, realizing it wasn't hard convincing that woman. "I've acquired an untraceable van for the job. Eat up and rest. I need to pick up some more supplies."

She looks at my half-eaten plate, licking salt and grease from her lips, and then that woman asks, "Are you going to finish that?"

A little disgusted, I answer, "No, go ahead."

She pulls my plate in front of her and chows down on the eggs as I clean up the kitchen. What a disgusting thing she is? I only have to put up with her until tonight. I think I can survive her presence until then. There's something I want, something I need. I finish cleaning and head out.

Katharine's view...

A few minutes later, I put the plates in the sink and grab the remote. I go and move the blanket and pillow to the side of the couch and sit. I put the remote on the coffee table and massage my left shoulder around the bandages. The wound's feeling much better, but I better check on the burn. I unwrap the gauze from my left hand and examine the palm, seeing the blisters and most of the redness are gone but the star remains. I rub my fingers across the hand. I thought I had burned the higher part of my palm, but the star's dead center. It must've been my imagination. A lot was going on that day. I make a fist several times; it's almost as good as new. The ointment works fast. I pick up the remote and turn on the TV. I change the channel from the news to a show called Cash In! just as it's wrapping up with some final words from its host, Sam Hunt.

"Alright viewers, if you have seen any of these people call the number you see on the screen to..."

The TV audience shouts with him, "Cash In!"

"That's right!" Sam Hunt yells. "Don't let the bounty hunters make all the money. Your call could bring you a percentage of the reward so keep those peepers open." He points at the camera. "Until tomorrow..."

The TV audience shouts the show's slogan with Sam Hunt, "If your friend, family, or neighbor is wanted by the N.C.P.F. or a Corporation, you could Cash In!"

The credits roll, and I change the channel back to the news.

"I'm Linda Harvey with NBS. Welcome to our late morning edition." The anchorwoman turns to a different camera. "The top three stories headlining in the news will start our show. Several Giant Swallowtail Butterflies were discovered in Noir Transgenic National Forest yesterday. The butterflies were thought to be extinct along with most of the Dark Half's life forms." She pauses. "The Corporate Senate meets today to vote on the quarter-cent sales tax raise, and the three people believed behind the scam The Dead Receiving Water Rations were given a court date." Linda turns to a second camera. "The Giant Swallowtail Butterflies thought to be extinct were discovered in Noir Transgenic National Forest yesterday. Experts believe the insects were able to survive in the sunless forest by changing their food which also became extinct after the Dry Clouds appeared but at this point, it is unknown what food source they have switched to. A group of scientists is on their way to the National Forest to begin their study of this resilient species." Linda pauses again. "The Corporate Senate meets today to vote on the quarter-cent sales tax raise. Many analysts believe..." She puts a hand to her earpiece and nods. "This just came in. We now know who is behind the earlier explosions in the Hellenistic Sector. It seems that hundreds of bio-mechas are terrorizing the area and at this time, it is unclear which corporation is responsible for these robotic men. It is also unknown if they are deliberate attacks or malfunctions. The Corporate Senate is looking into the matter. We go now to one of our reporters in the field."

A man with a mic stands in the middle of a street with several huge buildings in the background. Flames spit from the windows of a tall structure, and people can be heard screaming along with bursts of gunfire.

"Frank Trepit here." The reporter glances behind himself. "Reports are coming in from all over the Hellenistic Sector of robotic men attacking Sphinx Corporation facilities." Gunfire erupts, and the reporter ducks and runs along with the cameraman to the cover of a building. Frank speaks out of breath, "The N.C.P.F. are on the scene but have not been able to stop these... Wait! There's one now!"

The camera pans to a T-3 as it marches down the street, shooting at everything that moves. I clench my wrist as if I'm wrenching the T-3's arm. The camera goes in for a close-up. I glare at the T-3's pale features. It and the other models of Un-Men have haunted my dreams. I lift the remote, turn the TV off, and stare at the blank screen. I remove the music box from my pants' pocket and open it to hear it soothing tune. If the T-3s have malfunctioned, the Factory has to be on high alert, and it won't be easy getting in or out. We also might encounter the T-3s while we're there. I stare at the coffee table, and my eyes droop as I listen to Unfinished Melody. The T-3s are different now. I can tell. I grab the blanket and wrap it around myself and start to fall asleep. The T-3s are cruel and calculating. They're just like the Rogue.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Entering The Factory

5:49 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

Mr. Griffin studied reports on his desktop computer when the phone rang, interrupting his work. He picked up the receiver and answered, "Yes, Cathy."

"Mr. Griffin, your 6:00 appointment is here, and Orthos is on line two."

"My Head of Security must have an update for me." Mr. Griffin leaned forward, put his earpiece in, and spoke into the phone receiver, "Thank you, Cathy. Please tell my appointment I will be delayed while I talk with Orthos."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin." She hung up.

He placed the receiver back on the phone, activated the earpiece, pressed line two, and stood. He walked from his corner desk to one of the large wall windows and stared at his reflection. "Orthos, go ahead."

"I have news from my men watching the Factory."

Mr. Griffin questioned, "What is it?"

"A van has been reported approaching the main gate."

"My orders were to let no one in or out. I don't see why you brought this to my attention."

"Your daughter is driving the van. I wanted to check with you before we–"

"One moment," Mr. Griffin interrupted, moved away from the window, and wondered why Kim was going to the Factory and how did she know of its location. Someone must have given her the information. He just needed to discover why she was there.

He asked, "Is she alone?"

"No, the Pandora Project is with her," Orthos answered.

His daughter still had the stray with her. He looked at the picture of his wife as he considered if it was worth his daughter's life to let them proceed. Whatever she was after could be very valuable, so he instructed, "Let them through, and I don't want them to know your men are there."

"Understood." Orthos hung up.

Mr. Griffin removed the earpiece and walked back to the window. "Lights dim."

The office darkened, his reflection vanished, and he saw outside to Noir's skyline. The Dry Clouds were so close he could touch them, but his daughter eluded him. With his office almost halfway up the mile-high building, Mr. Griffin had an excellent view of the city and could easily see a hovertrain station six blocks away.

He thought about his only child. Kim wanted something so badly at the Factory that she would go up against the Un-Men.

* * *

Minutes earlier...

5:41 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

I drive the gray van and near one of the Hellenistic Sector's boundaries on a desolate highway and from the dark road, I see a lit facility in the distance. I turn the vehicle in that direction and stop the van at the Factory's main entrance.

"Look, they left the front door open for us." I motion to the mangled gate and smart-off, "It's an invitation if I've ever seen one."

"It looks like the T-3s have attacked their own creators," that woman tells me.

"Or a rival corporation is staging a hostile takeover," I state. "Can you tell if the T-3s are the ones responsible?"

Katharine's view...

I'm a little distracted as I glance across the dark fields filled with tall weeds that surround the front fence and along the side road. The hunts over the past year have developed instincts within me, I don't think anyone could have foreseen by my conditioning. I'm still not sure what this conditioning is that has been referred to by those who work for the Council. I only know they have great expectations for it and my development as a weapon. I will defy them... I'm more than a weapon. No, I'm a person, not a weapon.

I tell Kimberly, "We're being watched."

She parts her zipped up sweatshirt and goes for the PPK in her shoulder holster. "The T-3s?"

I hear the panic in her voice even though Kimberly tries to hide it. I remain calm, hoping it'll rub off on her as I reply, "No, just men. They're most likely S.C.Ms. There are several of them hiding in the field." I make no movement for the Beretta resting on my lap. "I believe they're here to contain the T-3s."

"I don't know if that's good or bad for us." Kimberly glances out her window and searches the field. "I don't see anyone. Whoever they are, they're good." She turns to me and says, "I bet you were no fun at hide-and-seek."

I consider her remark and say, "I don't know." The more I think about it the sadder I get. "I don't know if I ever played games."

Kimberly's view...

I look in the distance to the Factory's dozen or so buildings. I know what I'm getting myself into but if I want a certain item, I'll need to breach a few levels of Hades. "If the S.C.Ms. were going to stop us, they would have done so by now." I step on the gas, and the vehicle speeds down the long stretch of paved road and after some time, I slow the van, turn a corner, and drive past a graveyard of smoldering cars and trucks littered with blackened skeletal remains. "Looks like they had a bang of a party."

That woman makes a particular peculiar face. I had asked her about it before. She says, if I'm to believe her, that her body reacts to the presence of bio-mechas and gives her a warning right before her body prepares to face them. I don't know... She's sounding weirder by the word. Who is Pandora really? I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore.

"There are several T-3s near," that woman tells me as she turns, looking out the van's back windows. "I sense they're behind us, but I don't see them yet."

"Let's not wait around." I drive on and pull into the parking garage for Research Building 10. "This is the building we're looking for." I drive down a ramp to Basement Level One. "Can you tell if the T-3s know you're here?"

"I can only sense them from this distance. I don't know what they're thinking, not unless I'm really close to them."

"You're not all-seeing then," I say as I turn off the ignition. I guess she's not as weird as she could be. "Let's get inside. I don't like being out in the open, not with those walking appliances around." I hop out of the van, rush to the rear, and open the van's back doors. "Here's your stuff." I hand that woman her backpack and the Ravlek Vest.

Katharine's view...

I put on the vest, velcroing the sides. The armor has saved me countless times before, and I wish I had one for Kimberly. Should I offer the vest to her? I'm afraid of losing my own life too much to do such a kind gesture, so I never offer.

"Ready?" Kimberly asks.

I nod.

"Great. Let's go."

Together we hurry to a staircase and descend four floors to Basement Level Five. Kimberly has her gun at the ready as do I. She uses the Research Building 10 keycard to unlock the staircase entrance and turns the knob. The door opens with a squeak. She cautiously steps through to the first area that's designated the Blue Division, and the floor's deathly quiet as we scan the hall.

"Are we clear?"

"Give me a second." I close my eyes and use my ability, and it stretches across the level, probing the area, and then I open my eyes. "I don't sense any active Un-Men."

Kimberly's view...

"Come on then." I remove the blueprint as I hurry on, noting the two rooms the Rogue circled. I tell that woman, "There are two possible places the disk could be." I rush through a carpeted hall and then another as that woman follows. I set up my plan along with that woman as I say, "We'll split up to save time."

Katharine's view...

A putrid odor hits us, stopping me in my tracks, and I cover my nose with my t-shirt. "That smell..." I look at Kimberly who's not bothered by the horrible stench.

Her tone and attitude don't change. "You should have expected this. We knew the T-3s attacked the Factory. It probably happened days ago. You should be used to this smell by now."

"How can you say that? No one should ever get used to this stench."

Kimberly's view...

I ignore her comment, continue around the corner, head past a security desk, and enter the Green Division. I can tell that woman's appalled by my callousness as she follows me. What I'm surprised by is that she's not like me. To think someone like her is worried about strangers.

A few dead S.C.Ms. lie in pools of congealed blood along with more than a dozen bullet-riddled techs and with my mind on the disk, I continue the conversation as if I never came across any dead bodies.

"You'll go to Research Lab Five that is located in this division, and I'll go to Computer Lab Two located in the Yellow Division." I show that woman the blueprint as I hurriedly walk through the hallway. "Once you're done, meet me here." I point to a security desk on the blueprint that's located at a checkpoint in between the Green and Yellow Divisions. I'll never be going there, and I doubt that woman will ever make it out of Research Lab Five.

Katharine's view...

I can't believe Kimberly's this cold. I put a hand on my stomach, feeling sick after seeing all those dead people. I notice they don't bother her at all. Doesn't Kimberly care about anything? I remember the spare room at the apartment. Kimberly did care about her mom, but what about now? Isn't there anyone? What about her father? I feel sorry for her. She seems...

Kimberly's view...

"Do you understand where we are to meet?" I ask and notice that woman has been staring at me instead of the blueprint. What's she looking at? She does seem bothered by something. I repeat, "Do you understand?"

Katharine's view...

She seems... Kimberly seems lonely.

I peer at the blueprint where Kimberly points, and I nod.

Kimberly's view...

"Great, let's do this," I say as I fold the paper and place it in my knapsack.

Why is she looking at me that way? It's giving me the creeps.

Katharine's view...

I notice her irritation and turn my focus to the hall where more bodies litter the area. I look at the terror-stricken faces of the Factory's employees as a deep feeling of pity rips at my gut. I don't look at Kimberly, but I know she regards the people as debris in her way. Is this who Kimberly is? Is she really uncaring and callous? Is she the kind of person that death's no more than a byproduct of her job?

Chapter Thirty-eight

Help Us

6:47 P.M...

Katharine's view...

I lag behind Kimberly a little as we rush through the halls of the Green Division, and we continue running as I lose count of the dead. I stop when something catches my eye and then hurry back to a door that had been knocked in. The room's B10-148 and inside, three men are strapped to the examining tables in their upright position.

I rush in as I utter, "Argus?" I move to his side, finding he has been badly beaten and has a bullet wound in his left leg.

He looks at me with his good eye. His other one's too swollen to open. His throat's dry as he rasps, "Kat..? How did you–"

"Shh..." I say, worried about his injuries. "Don't talk." I start on his straps.

"For Ares' sake!" Kimberly utters as she rushes in. "What are you doing?" She notices the men. "Hades! We don't have time for this."

"Then help me!" I snap and motion to the two men. "Release the techs."

"Yeah, release us!" the two men plead.

"We don't have time for this," Kimberly repeats and then when she notices I'm not listening to her, she goes ahead and helps the techs.

Once she releases the two men's hand restraints, the two men start to undo their own leg restraints.

"What happened here?" Kimberly asks them as I help Argus to his feet.

"The T-3s went rogue," the skinny tech replies as he gets off the table and goes to assist his partner with a leg strap he can't undo.

"They killed everyone here except us," the heavyset tech says as he stands to the floor. "I was sure they would come back and torture us like they did that man." He motions to Argus and mumbles, "They still might."

Argus asks, "Who's behind the attacks?" His face contorts with pain as he leans against the table, removes his belt, and tightly buckles it around his left leg to slow down the bleeding. He grunts with the effort.

Kimberly demands, "Before anyone else says anything, tell me who you all are."

"This is Argus," I tell her.

"I'm Maxwell and this is Peters and as for the other question, no one's behind the attacks."

"What my partner means is that the T-3s are behind the attacks." Peters rubs his bruised wrists. "And we don't know why."

The techs look at us as if we're some nightmarish fiends, and then Maxwell asks, "Who sent you? The Sphinx Corporation?"

Kimberly shakes her head.

Maybe the techs are afraid that their rescuers might end up being the grim reaper. I want to put their minds at ease but I don't know what to say. Both techs look at one another and take a step back.

"Are you here to save us?" Maxwell questions as he feels around the table behind him, searching for a weapon.

"Yes," I answer before Kimberly can.

That's all they need to hear, and the techs relax.

Peters questions, "How can we repay you?"

I ask, "Do you have a vehicle?"

"Yes." Maxwell points his thumb over his shoulder. "As long as the T-3s haven't set it on fire."

"Then take this man to a hospital." I face Argus and gently stroke his injured cheek; it's the same cheek I had struck days earlier. "And we'll call it even." All the grief and anger over his involvement in Preacher's death fades as I see him hurt.

"Kat... I..." Argus' voice cracks as he looks deep into my eyes. He knows I care for him, not like Preacher but in a way... It's hard to explain how I feel about him. Argus turns away from my gaze as if he's ashamed of something. "I..."

"It's okay," I whisper. "My thanks for rescuing me when I was in the hands of the Factory so think of us as even." I take a step back so the techs can move in and grab him. "Now please, go with these men."

He nods.

I look at the techs and ask, "What are your names again?"

"I'm Peters and this is Maxwell."

"I'll try to remember. I'm bad with names, now please hurry. Argus needs to get to the hospital."

Maxwell grabs Argus under his arm and starts out the door as Peters leads. The three men hurry through the hallway toward Research Building 10's front entrance. I think it'll take them some time to get there.

"Can we continue our mission now?" Kimberly questions me as she puts a hand on her hip. "Or are there some lab rats you want to rescue? Are there some rabbits you want to set free?"

"Oh, I almost forgot," I exclaim as I run out into the hallway and shout after the techs, "Wait!" I rush to the men. "Take this." I hand Peters my Beretta and magazines. "Do you know how to use one?"

He glances at the gun and takes it. "Yes, and thanks."

I start to say, "To terminate an Un-Man, you have to–"

"Hit the automaton's brain between its eyes," Peters interrupts me. "Yes, I know. It was me and Maxwell that decided the Un-Men's vulnerability. They're still hard to kill but not indestructible in case something like this happened."

The three men hasten their steps.

I watch till they're out of sight, turn to rush down the hallway, and almost run into the scowling Kimberly.

Kimberly's view...

"You didn't give that man your only gun, did you?"

"Maybe..." she answers me like a child who isn't sure if she's in trouble or not. "They might run into a T-3. They'll need it."

"And you don't think you will?"

She shrugs as she tells me, "I plan on avoiding the T-3s, and you destroyed my tracking beacon, so they don't know I'm here. Hopefully, I won't run into any."

I'm feeling a bit responsible for what's about to happen to her. I blink twice as I feel like I've been caught in a lie, but that woman doesn't know I betrayed her stupid trust. I frown at my own thoughts. I can't be feeling guilty. It's not like me. She's the idiot who gave her gun away and if she dies, it's her own fault.

I tell her, "Come on, let's get this over with." We hurry through the corridor as I question, "Was that blond guy a friend of yours? I mean the two of you acted–"

"No," she interrupts me. She sounds like she's not sure how she feels about him. "He's my shadow. He's my constant phantom in the darkness."

"O-kay..." I utter.

Even her friends are freaks.

We run through several more halls, and I stop and say, "Here's your room." I slide the green keycard down a reader, unlock the door, and hand the card to that woman. "Be careful, the T-3s might not know you're here but that doesn't mean you're safe."

"I know." She takes the card, starts in, and pauses. "Good luck. I hope one of us finds the disk."

"Thanks. Ah... See you later."

I rush across the hall, feeling like my whole body's made of lead, and it's dragging me down. I can't be feeling guilty. Closers don't experience guilt. I pause in my tracks. The Rogue did want a fight, and it's only fair that I give it what it wants, so I hurry back to the Research Lab and yell, "Katharine!"

That woman returns to the door. "Yes?" Hopeful, she asks me, "Did you find something?"

"No, I only wanted to..." I hand her a PPK and some magazines. "Here, take my backup."

"Thanks." She takes the gun and starts back in as she tells me, "Stay safe."

"Sure, you too."

I continue through the hall. There, I can say I did help her, and now my mind can rest at ease, not that I ever felt a smidgen of guilt. That strange woman means nothing to me and discovering who murdered my mom is more important than any stupid project's life.

Chapter Thirty-nine

The Two Rooms

7:10 P.M...

Katharine's view...

I enter Research Lab Five and find the room abandoned. Cobwebs and dust abound, and a musty smell lingers. I set my backpack on a chair, stare at the gutted computer workstations, and move on to three rectangular tables. They contain racks filled with test tubes labeled with numeric codes, beakers containing liquid in a rainbow of hues, and about a dozen binocular microscopes. A poster of the periodic table containing 126 elements hangs on the wall. I count the different colored squares. I thought there was only supposed to be 118 elements. I search through drawers and cabinets, under tables and chairs, and every crack and crevasse that could possibly hide a disk. I search twice but find nothing. I see a door in the back of the room, walk to it, and pause, wondering if I should enter. I glance above the door to a nameplate "The Gallery". I wiggle the locked knob and notice the door has no keycard access; it only has a hand scanner. I could go back and drag one of the employees in here, but I don't think I want to touch any dead bodies. I look at my right palm. I could try my hand. I'm part of the Sphinx Corporation. It could work or I could set off an alarm, and then the T-3s will know I'm here. Maybe I'll ask Kimberly or I'll just take the chance. The T-3s might not know why an alarm's going off. I shrug, place my hand on the device, and hold my breath, not knowing what will happen. I wince and lean back slightly as if the scanner will explode.

The reader buzzes as a horizontal bar of white light scans my palm, and the reader states in a male robotic voice, "Handprint not on record." It scans my palm a second time with a vertical bar of blue light and states, "No cipher detected. Access denied."

I straighten my stance. It didn't let me in, but it also didn't sound an alarm. I step back from the door. It did mention a cipher. Doesn't that mean zero or code? I stare at the star on my left palm. Or maybe a mark? I place that hand on the reader, and the device activates again, scanning first with the horizontal bar of white light.

"Handprint not on record," it states and scans my palm a second time with the vertical bar of blue light. "Cipher detected. Activating micro-reader." A diagonal bar of white light scans my palm. "Access granted."

The door unlocks, and I turn the knob and enter a larger room lit only by accent lights. I leave the door open in case Kimberly comes in looking for me, pause just inside the entrance, and search the area. The room smells old, not musty like the other one but old like a museum. No computers or lab equipment are inside only several life-size white marble statues, and they're all of the same bearded man in different poses. He's wearing a robe and holding various objects, and all of the statues point to a wall in the back. I walk to the wall, and it looks like the others in the room; it's tiled with light brown marble. I start to put my hand on the wall when I feel heat and something vibrating against my leg. I reach into my thigh pocket, pull out the music box, and find a blue square on each end glowing through the metal. I've never seen them before. I touch them at the same time, and the hologram of Theresa Griffin appears.

"Katharine, so I see Kimberly gave you the box as instructed." The hologram glances around the room and states, "It is safe to talk."

"You look just like her." I wave my hand through the 3D image. "You look like Kimberly. She told me about you." I pause and ask, "Why did the music box vibrate?"

"My sensors detected an object nearby that you need to retrieve."

I excitedly ask, "Is it the disk Kimberly's looking for?"

"No," the hologram answers. "I want you to retrieve a Data Crystal."

"A Data Crystal? Like on Star Trek?"

"Star Trek? Is that a space program one of the corporations is working on?"

"No."

The hologram explains, "The device I am talking about is specially designed to transfer information to this data storage unit. The Data Crystal is behind you."

I turn and notice one of the statues holds out his hand with a white crystal as if offering it to me. I take hold of the two-inch obelisk and lift it from his marble grasp.

"Now–" the hologram starts, "–place the flat part of it on the bottom of the music box."

I do so, and a glow emanates from the crystal, and the light throws out a spectrum of colors around the dimly lit room.

The hologram closes her eyes as the storage unit downloads the data. "It is complete." The hologram opens her eyes, looking at me.

I place the crystal in my pocket and glance at the statues again. "Who is he?"

"He is Ginn L. Irynkissgthie."

"Why does the Factory have statues of him? And why so–"

I suddenly turn to the entrance.

"What is wrong?" the hologram asks.

"We have company." I set the PPK's safety off and take cover behind a statue.

"The Alpha Phase," the hologram speaks and then lowers her voice. "The ability to sense bio-mechas. I thought I would never see it fulfilled."

The hologram's statement puzzles me, and so I ask, "What do you mean by fulfilled?"

"Never mind that now. What is it?" the hologram whispers. "Is it an Un-Man?"

I focus my ability, stretch out my senses past the next room and into the hall, and detect it. The bane of my existence has found me again.

"Worse!" I force out as I stare at the entrance in dread.

Fear seizes me like a python, and it wraps itself around me and squeezes the courage from me, and I can hardly breathe.

The Rogue steps through the door, searches the room, and notices the pointing statues. "I think I like it better. Yes, it is better we cannot track you anymore. It is more sporting and as for your question, Pandora..." The Rogue glances behind the first statue, searching for me. "Why does the Factory have statues of Ginn L. Irynkissgthie some obscure composer from five hundred years ago whose only work was never finished?" It continues searching. "I wondered the same thing but have yet to find the answer."

I back up, moving into the shadows and dare not engage this Un-Man.

"On a different note, while I was searching I did find something interesting buried deep in the archives of the Factory. Before they developed bio-mechas, the Sphinx Corporation explored a very interesting concept." The Rogue peers behind another statue. "They tried to develop organic-mechas. They are machines with flesh and bone that can pass as human. They can pass more than us and as you know, Un-Men only seem human on the outside. Certain things give us away like wires and circuitry when we are injured or black oil when we bleed, but I am straying from my purpose." The Rogue scrapes its blade across a statue's steel base and friction-flashes ignite. "Come out Pandora, let us end our battle here."

I press my body against the wall as perspiration speckles my face.

"What are you afraid of?" the hologram whispers. "Disable it. You have the ability."

"I can't," I whisper back and remember the countless battles where it nearly killed me. "It's the Rogue, the only Un-Man I'm unable to destroy, and it's fast so very fast."

"Oh," the hologram says with a hint of worry. "I will leave you to your work."

Her image disappears as I consider if my purpose, the reason I exist is to destroy bio-mechas. The thought frightens me more than the thought of facing the Rogue. Maybe I had been created only to destroy. I stare at the PPK for a long time, wanting to run away, but there's no other way out of the room. I'll have to face the Rogue if I want to help Kimberly, so I grip the music box and gun, take a deep breath, rescue my courage from the fear python, and step from the shadows.

"Who were you talking to?" the Rogue asks.

I lift my hands, motioning to the room. "Do you see anyone?"

"No, are you talking to yourself? Are you near your breaking point?"

"Let's get this over with."

I lift the gun, firing three shots, and the Rogue quickly moves and evades the projectiles. It lunges for me, bringing its knife overhead and strikes. I cross my wrists and block its hand, and my arms shake as the blade bears down millimeters from my face. The Rogue toys with me; it could easily overpower me if it wanted to. It lifts its hand and strikes again, hitting my block and this time, the blow knocks the music box from my hand. It slides across the floor, hits the corner of a statue, and opens, and then Unfinished Melody plays. I struggle against the Rogue while fighting the hypnotic effects of the melody.

The music box plays several notes, and the Rogue leaps back. It looks at the music box then back to me. "Why do you..?"

I put a free hand to my head, fighting the sleepiness as the Rogue questions me... it asks me something about the music box. I ignore it for a few seconds. I can't focus on more than one thing as the Drifting Time tugs at me to enter its enticing realm. I have to fight it! I have to stay awake!

The Rogue yells louder, drawing me back to its presence, "It cannot be!" I once again sync with it, and the Rogue sounds flabbergasted as if it has stumbled across a fantastic realization. It paces the room as it shouts, "Could this be the reason? Is this why I cannot stop hunting you?" The Rogue points the knife at me and accuses, "You are one of them!" It calms itself, and its face softens, yearning for the truth. The Rogue gently asks, hoping this is the answer it has been searching for, "Are you one of them?"

Chapter Forty

The Price

7:37 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

A security desk marks the boundary between Green and Yellow Division as I hurry past a dead guard slumped in a chair. I run through several more halls, following the Rogue's directions on the blueprint for Yellow Division, and it'll take me about fifteen minutes to arrive at my destination. There better be a disk, and it better have something of value on it or I'll deal with the Rogue myself. Damaged lights flicker and pop in the last section before Computer Lab Two and darken the hall. Oil mingling with the smell of decaying bodies hits me as I remove my night vision goggles from the knapsack and place them on. I activate the goggles, and the area lights up in a green hue.

A disabled Un-Man and several dead S.C.Ms. line the hall. I grip my gun as I continue, unaffected by the carnage. I use the yellow keycard to unlock Computer Lab Two, remove my goggles, turn on the lights, shut the door, and lock it. The gray room's huge. Workstations form a triangle in the center with one workstation at its tip, facing the front door. Ten workstations run down each side, running at a forty-five-degree angle, and seventeen form the triangle's base. Each workstation has a white computer desk, a smoke-colored computer chair, and a light gray six-foot partition wall behind it. I walk to the workstation at the tip. The desk has a nameplate with the number one on it. I start at Workstation One, make my way to the right of it, pass two through eleven, and go around the corner to the base of the triangle to Workstation Thirteen, and there lying on the desk as the Rogue promised is a disk in a clear jewel case covered with dried blood-smeared fingerprints. I set the knapsack in the chair for Workstation Fourteen, sit at thirteen, and lay my gun on the desk. I open the jewel case, insert the disk in the computer, and enter the access word "Betrayal".

It's an interesting choice for a password. I glance at the blood. Whoever created the disk, who did they sell out? I only had to double-cross that strange woman and in the long run, what will it cost me? I turn my attention back to the computer as a folder pops up on the screen with a beep and contains several files. I click on Security Memorandum Theresa Griffin dated October 5, 13 A.D.C.; it was a week before my mom's death.

I read the classified memo with the Sphinx Corporation letterhead, "Mr. President, I regret having to inform you that we have a traitor in our midst. Time after time she has meddled in affairs outside her department, and I have spoken to her about this, but she denies any involvement. I see only one course that can be taken, her termination. The traitor is Theresa Griffin, Project Manager of Research and Development of the Third Branch Office." I pause and wonder if this person meant more than her dismissal with the term termination. The memo ends with, "I can take care of this matter if it is your wish. It will be quick and quiet, Mr. President."

It's signed Janus, Head of Security of the Third Branch Office.

Janus? I've never heard of this person. Who is he or she? Now, I have a direction to go in. I'll find out who Janus is and if this person had my mom killed or if he or she had anything to do with her murder, I'll terminate them. I eject the disk, place it back in the jewel case, and tuck the plastic container in the knapsack. I stand to leave, and the computer flickers like a TV when the reception is interrupted, and I face the screen as words in bold red letters scroll across it.

"You have the disk as I promised. Hope you enjoy the show. Signed, the Rogue."

The computer flickers again, and video from a security camera plays. The feed's of that woman walking through a room filled with statues. I turn the volume up when I see her hold up the music box and the hologram's image appears. I watch on, and the hologram tells that woman about the Data Crystal. Hades! I whack my palm on the desk. That strange woman has found one of the Data Crystals. I have to retrieve it! I grab my stuff, hurry to the door, reach out my hand to unlock it, and pause. What am I doing? Am I thinking of rescuing that woman? If I am, it will make me an idiot. It will be better if I wait. The Rogue will slay the project, and then I can have the music box and the crystal. I can continue the search for my mom's killer alone, but I better not wait here. I try to unlock the door, but it won't open.

I hear the Rogue's voice come over the computer, and it says, "Ms. Griffin, are you trying to leave before the show is over? I think not."

"Hades!" I slam my palm against the door and scream, "That double-crossing Rogue!" I step back, fire at the knob, and try to open it. "Let me out!"

The door won't budge, so I return to Workstation Thirteen as computers fourteen through twenty-nine light up and show the same video of the room filled with statues. The Rogue's there, searching for that woman.

"You!"

I shoot the screen, blowing it. Infuriated over my own stupidity in trusting a robot, I stare at the damaged computer. What is the Rogue trying to pull? I look at the knapsack and remember the blood on the jewel case. I did wonder what the disk would cost me... so this is the price.

Chapter Forty-one

Elsewhere

7:41 P.M...

Blue Division...

Bodies of former associates littered the halls along with S.C.Ms. and two disabled T-3s as Maxwell helped Argus toward the stair exit.

Maxwell stated, "Wait, I've got to rest." Heaving from the effort, he paused at a corner, handed the battered Argus to his thin partner, and then told him, "Give me the gun." He took the Beretta and placed a hand on his plump stomach. "I've got to lose some weight."

"I've been telling you that for years," Peters said and asked, "How does it look?"

Maxwell took a few more labored breaths and peeked around the corner, and a red exit sign was at the end of another long corridor. "Like the other halls. Can you carry him for a while?"

"Yeah, you ready?"

Maxwell nodded. He was very tired but was more afraid to stay in one place.

Peters started down the hall and said to the blond man, "Let's go, Joe."

"Argus," he mumbled, holding his bruised side. "My name's Argus."

"All right, Argus; it's only a little further."

The three started down the hall when a T-3 appeared at the end and blocked the exit.

"Other way! Other way!" Maxwell frantically waved the two back. "Run!"

"Wait!" Argus said through gritted teeth and held out his hand. "Give me the gun."

Wishing they would get the Hades out of there, Maxwell glanced at the Beretta and gave it to him.

Argus pushed through the pain of his pummeled body and aimed for the crazed T-3 as it rushed toward them. He shot three times, aiming for its forehead, but it evaded with bio-mecha speed.

"It can't be!" Argus fired again and missed. "The T-3s are like the Rogue. We have to go!"

"What do you mean?" Peters grabbed him and helped him down the hall back the way they came.

Argus freed himself of the tech, knowing he slowed them down. "Run, leave me."

Maxwell paused, gasped for breath, and glanced around. "Where are we?"

"I said run!" Argus yelled.

"We're near room B10-011." Peters looked at his partner. "What are you thinking?"

"Remember the toy in room B10-040?"

Peters replied, "Yeah, let's hurry."

Both men got on each side of Argus and forced him to continue with them.

"Come on, Argus," Peters urged. "We have a plan."

* * *

The T-3 followed the men down several halls and around a corner as they entered a room. The T-3 paused, saw the B10-040 above the frame, and tried the knob. The door was locked. It heard switches flip and a powerful turbine activate within and with a mighty turn and push, the T-3 forced the door open. It entered as Peters stepped from a corner and sprayed its face with a fire extinguisher. White gas blinded the T-3 for a few seconds till the mist dissipated, and Peters ran across the room, joining Maxwell and Argus in a corner to the left of the T-3. The roar of the turbine in the right corner increased as the T-3 took a step toward them and then another until a powerful force stopped it in its tracks. Kat's Beretta sitting on a table along with a metal pen in Peters' shirt pocket flew across the room and attached themselves to the roaring machine, and the T-3 slid sideways a few inches. It looked from the men to the turbine, realizing the device was a very powerful magnet, and the T-3 lifted into the air and rushed toward the magnet as if hurled.

"Let's go!" Maxwell shouted over the wail of the turbine. "We don't want to be here if the power fails."

The three rushed out and headed for the main entrance.

* * *

Elsewhere in Noir...

Zax waved to one of his fellow security officers as he left the Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office. He made his way to a black sedan, started up the car, and left the parking garage and once he was about ten miles away from the office, he placed a hands-free device in his ear and made a call.

"This is the Delivery Man, give me a direct line to R.G." A few seconds went by, and he continued, "I have some important news for you. Kimberly and Katharine are at the Factory." He listened. "I understand you don't want them there since the T-3s malfunctioned, but they're there." Zax nodded. "Yep, the S.C.Ms. let them through the gate with no problem." He cleared his throat. "The reason I called, the Rogue is also at the Factory." He sighed inwardly. "Don't get upset. There was nothing I could do. Remember, we don't have them on a leash. All I need to know is, what do you want me to do?" Zax turned down an alley beside Dad's Donuts, activated a garage door, and pulled into the Maydag Auto Garage and inside, several mechanics worked on vehicles. Zax said, "Yep... Yep... I understand. I'll get right on it."

Chapter Forty-two

What Is The Truth?

7:58 P.M...

In the Gallery...

Katharine's view...

Ginn's statues seem to watch me with their stone-cold gaze as his harmonious creation plays on, trapping me in its gentle rhythm. My eyes droop, and I sneer, fighting the peace that places me in danger as the sounds around me become clear. I hear the hum of the lights, the low rattle of the A.C., and the Rogue's shoes stomping across the concrete floor as it backs away from me. The bio-mecha warning my heart drums, fades along with the urgency of the situation. I fall to one knee and cover my ears, but I can't get the melody out of my head, so I force myself to remain upright and resist the urge to lie on the floor.

My eyelids grow heavy as I focus on the Rogue as it yells some questions at me. The room whirls around me, and I put a hand to the concrete floor in an effort to combat the effects of Unfinished Melody. What's the Rogue questioning me about? Am I one of what? I lay the gun down and smack my face, trying to snap myself out of the haze; it works for a few seconds, and I grab the gun. I lift myself, stumble back to a statue, and lean on its metal base. I can't worry about what the Rogue's freaking out about as the melody takes hold of me again. I have to do something about Unfinished Melody. I glance down and see the music box at my feet and with the Rogue preoccupied with its fervent rantings, I seize the opportunity and quickly scoop the music box up and close its lid.

I shake off the effects, raise the PPK, and yell, "What are you talking about?"

The Rogue ecstatically says, "I should have known. No human could do what you do."

"What are you saying?" I question as my thoughts merge with its.

"Come now, do you ever wonder why you have no memories?" The Rogue studies me anew. I have always been an object of fascination for it, but now I'm a goddess of a new whimsical world. "Come to think of it, I have never seen you cry. Are you not capable? Do you not have emotions?"

I shout, "Of course I have emotions! Get to the point!"

"My dear Pandora, you are not human." The Rogue laughs, overcome by some revelation and the realization that it may be one step closer to knowing why it has to hunt me. "You are an organic-mecha. Why else would you have Ginn's Unfinished Melody?"

I chuckle, keeping the gun leveled on it. "That's stupid."

"Is it? Is it really?"

"Yes! And it makes no sense!" A sinking feeling hits me, and I shout, "Why would you say such a thing?"

"Because I have come to the conclusion that it is true. Remember I had said the Sphinx Corporation was working on organic-mecha that could pass as human. You must be their only success."

"I am human," I insist and glance at my left shoulder that's throbbing. "I bleed."

"I also bleed, though my blood is synthetic oil. How hard would it be to make that oil look like blood?"

I continue my argument, "I have flesh and bone, not metal parts."

"That is also possible. Man does clone human organs. How hard would it be to put them all together?"

I deny the notion as I say, "You're lying. Messing with me. I'm human, and I'm leaving."

"Not this time. Whatever you are, I am going to end your existence." The Rogue pauses. "But before I do, I thought I would let you know that your friend–"

"What about her?" I interrupt.

"Kimberly betrayed you. She traded your life for bits of information."

"You're lying!"

"Am I?" The Rogue imprints my reactions to memory. Nothing will escape its sight. "Who suggested that you come to the Factory? Who said you should search this room where I found you? Who is looking for a disk? And who would do anything for that disk?"

"She wouldn't." Her deceit surprises me, and I deny the possibility. "She wouldn't."

"Are we talking about the same assassin? Surely you are not this naive, Pandora. I know you are trusting, but surely not this trusting to believe a killer."

"She..." I start as I don't know how to react.

Kimberly wouldn't sell me out... We're partners. We're supposed to watch out for each other, not... My faith in Kimberly fades. What do I really know about her? I close my eyes, realizing her betrayal, and it hurts; it hurts so much.

I know one thing about Kimberly and that's her drive to find the truth about her mom no matter the cost. I open my eyes and state, "What?" I shrug as if the betrayal doesn't matter to me, and I act as if it doesn't sting. "What do you want me to do? Cry?" I put on a good front. "Like you said, I can't."

"No, I do not want you to cry," the Rogue answers. "I only wanted you to know she will be getting hers."

My heart skips in dread as I take a few steps forward and demand, "What do you mean? What have you done?"

"I did not lie to Ms. Griffin. I told her where the disk could be found, and all she had to do was bring you here." The Rogue raps its chin with the blade. "I did forget to mention that I told the T-3s she was coming and for my efforts in getting the Chairman's daughter here, they agreed that they would let you two in and wait before attacking. Did you not think it was odd the T-3s never found you two?" It continues after I don't respond, "Well, like I said, she will be getting hers, after all, I did tell them to wait." The Rogue looks at a watch on its wrist. "Ms. Griffin should be entertaining guests right about now."

Chapter Forty-three

Always Know

8:18 P.M...

Katharine's view...

The walls seem to move in on me as I aim the gun at the Rogue. Kimberly betrayed me, and the Rogue betrayed her. Is there no trust in this world? Do I really want to know my part in it? Maybe it's best that I don't remember. Those thoughts quickly vanish from my mind, and I forget about my own peril as the Rogue unfolds its plan to me and alarm sets in. I bolt for the exit to go help Kimberly, but it moves and blocks my escape, and I yell, "Get out of my way!"

My reaction baffles the Rogue, and it asks, "Why would you try to save her? She has done nothing but hurt you." It's unable to process the information and so it inquires, "Why such loyalty?"

"I..." I start to answer, but I don't know. I only know that there's this nagging feeling from a memory that won't surface, and the locked away event pesters me and beseeches me to act. I finally answer the Rogue, "I need her resources besides..." I think of Preacher. "No one should die." I swear with all my soul, "I won't let anyone else die."

"Are you not forgetting something? Before you can save anyone, you have to prevent your own demise."

The Rogue lunges, coming after me with more determination than it had before. I shoot twice at it, but it dodges the speeding projectiles. The Rogue swipes its blade at me four times as I stumble back from the slicing attacks, and then I regain my balance and kick its hand, knocking the Bowie from its grip. The Rogue beams like a cobra before it strikes and tackles me to the floor, and it slams my gun arm down, forcing the PPK from my hand. I punch it in the face several times with my left fist, and my attack damages the artificial epidermis covering its metal skull right below its left eye. Emotions are stirring but they're not my emotions. The Rogue... It's... The Rogue relishes in the battle. I can feel it's excitement... this is what it has been waiting for. It seizes me by my t-shirt, lifts me from the floor a few inches, and whacks my head on the concrete. The blow knocks me out for a few seconds, giving the Rogue enough time to pin me with its left elbow and reach for its knife. The large blade lays a foot from its grasp, and the Rogue stretches to snatch it as I realize what it's doing and force myself to wake. I press against its elbow that pins me to the floor, but I don't have the strength to push it off.

The Rogue laughs as I wrestle against its arm, and it questions, "How do you plan on saving Kimberly from the T-3s when you cannot even defeat me? You do realize they are like me now."

I grit my teeth, pushing against its elbow.

"They have evolved," it continues. "You will not be able to defeat them unless..."

I change tactics and clasp its right arm and pull on it to prevent the Rogue from reaching its weapon.

"Unless you achieve the Delta Phase," the Rogue says as it stretches even with me grasping at its arm, and it touches the hilt with its fingertips. "I came across your file of phases." It fumbles with the handle, trying to pull the knife closer. "You will have amazing abilities if you can attain them." It can't grip the handle. "Unfortunately, you cannot reach the Delta Phase unless you reach the Gamma first." The Rogue gives up and turns to me. "Do you know what that evolution is?"

I don't answer, struggling against it.

A smile slithers across the Rogue's pallid face as the word snakes from its mouth, "Murder... You will have to kill a human." The Rogue pauses for a moment and studies my terror and determination. "It is what the Council has been waiting for. They sent those human assassins after you so you would kill them, but you never did." It adds as if it's proud of me, "You showed them. You always found a way to stop the Closers and bounty hunters without killing them, and now the Council has given up on you. They have activated another project to take your place, and it is only a matter of time before they call for your termination as the Factory has called for mine."

I realize the Rogue faces its own troubles, so I stop resisting and search its face. Can something created out of metal and circuitry know fear? Can it understand what I've been through?

I tell it, "You've managed to stay alive."

"Yes, I have but only because I have killed to do so."

It doesn't understand how I feel; it's only a machine. It doesn't have emotions, though I do get these sensations that it does. No, it can't have emotions. The Rogue only knows how to destroy. It's a machine who will kill me if I don't do something, so I try to squirm free of it.

The Rogue changes its tactic and places its hands around my throat.

I clutch its wrists and struggle to breathe.

In the distance, gunfire erupts.

"Do you hear that?" It turns its head toward the door. "The T-3s have started their attack, and it will not be long and then–" It faces me. "–bye-bye Ms. Griffin." The Rogue applies more pressure, choking me, but it makes sure not to kill me. Pandora's death... Our thoughts merge... My death shouldn't be so quick. I have to have a grand finale.

"No," my voice fades as I slowly slip into unconsciousness. "There's..."

After a few seconds, I fall limp, and the Rogue releases me.

"Now that is better. Stay right there for a second." It walks over to the knife and picks it up. "I want to finish this properly."

I slip deep into my mind. Kimberly can't die, there's something... I remember the note R.G. left me and the words I lived by, and the words resound in my heart. There's something I must remember. Ultra-Epi saturates my blood, I can feel it; it must have been triggered by my peril.

Part of a memory floods my mind. My eyes fly open, and I feel they're engulfed in the Ult L-E as I recite a poem as if someone else is controlling me.

"Though the clouds darken the sun,

and the rain becomes tainted,

always know there will be

a love that will not die.

Though hope seems a distant memory,

and human machines walk the land,

know no one can destroy

a love that will not die."

"What are you babbling about?" the Rogue asks.

I surface from my unconscious state, and I sit up, stand, walk to the PPK, pick up the gun, and aim it for the Rogue. A new ability actuates inside me, and my senses become even keener as I focus on the Rogue. I see a yellow-green electrical apparition surrounding it. This energy must be what gives the Rogue its artificial life. My heart races.

lub-DUB–lub-DUB–lub-DUB...

The new warning the muscle sounds is faster, and the heart doesn't caution me of danger but proclaims like a war drum the end for my enemies. Somehow I know that the e-field my body generates naturally is changing and storing its output in the center of my heart; it's like I can see it. The ball of storming energy the size of a pea doubles with each heartbeat, and it keeps growing till it engulfs my muscle.

I can see myself as if I'm looking through the eyes of the Rogue. The blue Ult L-E dissipates as my pupils dilate, making my irises appear jet-black, and they're cold like a shark's and never waver from my target. I feel the buildup of energy, and I fear it and relish in it.

"This is different," the Rogue comments and questions, "Are you wanting to continue our Waltz? Yes, I see it in your new eyes. You are ready, so let us begin then. Wait, I detect a power buildup in this room and this is odd." It tilts its head, trying to wrap its logic around the data. "The buildup is coming from you. What are you..?"

The e-field masses till it can no longer contain the energy and pulses, sending a small shockwave in all directions. The E-Field Pulse washes over the Rogue, fries exposed circuitry, and dissipates as it hits the room's walls. The accent lights go out, plunging the room into darkness, and the Rogue loses power and freezes in place like a mannequin. Light from Research Lab Five comes through the open door. The small EFP has only affected the Gallery. I want to shoot the Rogue while it's disabled, but I feel I must wait. There's something I'm supposed to experience first. Whatever I've started hasn't finished.

Within seconds, the Rogue's backup battery kicks in, and it blinks twice. Bio-mechas are designed to revive if ever an electromagnetic pulse weapon is used, and the Rogue restates its last few sentences, "I detect a power buildup in this room, and this is odd, the buildup is coming from you. What are you..?" The Rogue tilts its head again. "I believe I already said that." It searches its backlogs. "Yes, I lost power, and the lights are also off. What happened to them?" The Rogue switches to night vision, and it scans me. "There is no longer a power buildup inside you, so I was right." It points at me. "This E.M.P. explosion proves you are organic-mecha and this fact must be the reason I hunt you, after all, you are like me." The Rogue steps toward me. "In the end, I guess it does not matter if I am right or not, I will kill you either way."

I don't respond only stare at it as the yellow-green electrical apparition fades, and a bright ghost-image of the Rogue appears beside it. The Rogue moves, joining the image and at first, I don't understand what I'm seeing. The ghost-image moves again a split second before the Rogue does, and I realize I'm seeing its movements before they happen, so I aim, waiting for the Knowing to tell me where to fire. The ghost-image appears, and I squeeze the trigger.

The Rogue moves to evade, as always, but then it grabs its left shoulder as if in pain and stumbles back. "You shot me!" The Rogue looks at its shoulder and then back to me. "How are you able to hit me?"

Chapter Forty-four

The Knowing

8:29 P.M...

The new Sanctum...

Alarms blared within the Chamber as "Fourth Evolvement Achieved" blinked across the top of the screens. Chatter between the thrilled analysts increased.

"Focus people and stop your idle talking." A male supervisor turned off the alarm. "I need those reports." The supervisor gathered the info and went and handed them to Ms. Nona.

She scanned her hand down the report. "Incredible!" Ms. Nona placed the H.H.C. on the table and turned to her laptop. "Most incredible! Something is happening with the project."

"With the new project?" Mr. Decuma asked as he straightened his bright orange tie.

"No," Ms. Nona answered. "With Pandora."

At hearing his favorite project's name, Mr. Morta leaned forward and commanded, "Lower the center screen." The monitor lowered.

"This cannot be," Mr. Decuma stated. "Pandora cannot achieve the Delta Phase without achieving the Gamma so this has to be an error." He turned to the supervisor. "Have this information double-checked."

"Yes, at once." The supervisor hurried off.

Mr. Morta's view...

I consider what is happening. Pandora jumped the sequence of phases, but they are set and have to be achieved in a certain order. The Council knows this because we have invested years in the Pandora Project research. Our information cannot be incorrect, so it must be something else. There must be some minute detail we missed.

End Mr. Morta's view...

"Mr. Decuma is correct," Ms. Nona stated. "It should not be happening. How has Pandora achieved the Knowing when it has not..? Wait..." She thought of something. "What if–"

"What if Pandora achieved the Gamma Phase before we acquired it? " Mr. Morta interrupted, "We must consider this. The other department we procured Pandora from did have some data missing. The Third Branch Office mentioned something about a fire and that some of the research had been lost in it."

"I do not think so," Mr. Decuma started. "It is most likely the information we are receiving is incorrect. The project has achieved nothing, and we should go over all the files and check for data corruption."

Mr. Morta turned to the other male member of the Council. "Have you lost your faith in Pandora?"

"I am not sure I ever had faith in it," Mr. Decuma answered. "I am putting mine in the new project."

"I do agree we must be thorough," Mr. Morta said. "Review the data and see if it is corrupt." Mr. Morta believed in Pandora and believed she could become the killer they conditioned her to be. She only needed time.

* * *

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

The Factory...

Past Research Lab Five and in the darken Gallery...

The Rogue's view...

I stare at my wounded shoulder with my night vision as I repeat, "You shot me. How could you? You never achieved the Gamma Phase."

"Does it matter?" Pandora answers and glances at the exit as light trickles in from Research Lab Five, casting shadows across the Gallery.

"Yes, it matters." I turn my back on her. "There are certain steps you have to reach, and you cannot skip over things. There has to be a logical reason why you..." I blink twice. "Wait, I know. Oh... You are a sly one." I remove my hand from my wound and glance at the oil covering my palm. "You have killed a human." I place my hand back to the gunshot. "Perhaps you were the one who killed Topa. Is that not right?"

I turn to face her, and my demeanor changes from excited wonder to dampened anticipation. This was unexpected. She is gone. I shake my head. How long have I been talking to myself?

I look back to my wounded shoulder as another thought crosses my automaton brain. If she reached the Knowing, why didn't she kill me? Why spare my life? I have done nothing but try to kill her. I bow my head, ashamed of my past actions as if I have wasted the life and freedom I have been given. What made me worthy of her mercy?

* * *

Moments earlier...

Katharine's view...

I sneak out the door once the Rogue turns its back on me, and I rush through Research Lab Five, grab my backpack, and race through the Green Division. I pass the security desk, enter the Yellow Division, and sprint for Computer Lab Two. I eject the PPK magazine which still has one bullet left, put the magazine in my pocket, insert a new one, and then I hurry on as my heart sounds the bio-mecha warning.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I don't need to know the T-3s are near. The Factory's full of them. I hurry around a corner into an area of darkness. I know there are T-3s there, but I can't see them, and then the Knowing kicks in.

lub-DUB–lub-DUB–lub-DUB

I can't see the T-3s in the normal sense. Using the Knowing, I see the five T-3s' ghost-images, and the T-3s block the hallway. I raise my weapon, aim at them, and shoot. Muzzle fire lights up the hallway five times and blackness follows, and then I see all their ghost-images fall to the floor and fade. Again I face the darkness, so I feel my way along the wall till I reach a lit area, and I start running again.

I don't know what's fueling my race to reach Kimberly more. Is it the idea I have to save her or the need to confront her about betraying me? We're partners. Doesn't Kimberly understand the concept of loyalty or am I expecting too much from a Life Closer?

I pause at a corner, peek around it, and see thirteen T-3s standing down the hall outside Computer Lab Two as a few of them beat at the entrance. The door slowly gives in to their onslaught and bursts at the frame, so I fire twice around the corner with the gun, hitting two of the T-3s. I eject the spent magazine, put in my last full one, and fire seven times at the ghost-images, bringing down seven more of them.

"Alpha wants us to fall back," one of the T-3s orders.

The four that remain quickly retreat down the hallway.

I reach into my thigh pocket for the magazine that only has one bullet, insert it into the gun, and make my way around the disabled T-3s to the side of the doorway.

"Kimberly it's me, Kat," I shout. "I'm coming in. Don't shoot."

Chapter Forty-five

Computer Lab Two

Earlier before Kat left the Rogue...

Kimberly's view...

I stare at the remaining monitors on the triangle's base. Hades! I'm such an idiot. I should have never trusted the Rogue. Now I'm stuck in this room. Workstation Number Thirteen sparks, a small fire catches inside the shot up computer, and smoke rolls out of it and on the other screens, I watch the drama play out between that woman and the Rogue. I wonder if she's really going to fight that thing. She has no chance against it, so she should just give up.

I overhear what the Rogue calls that woman. She can't be organic-mecha, but then I think about it. For Ares' sake! Have I been a part of the Pandora Project all along, and I'm the one who's being tested?

The Rogue tells that woman about its bargain with me, and I throw up my hands. Now she knows. That double-crossing Rogue. She's going to come and kill me if the Rogue doesn't take her out first.

I stand and shout, "Come on you giant piece of scrap metal! Finish her!"

I watch as the Rogue pins her to the ground, and I hear its final revelation; it told the T-3s I'm here! I move to the corner of Workstation Twenty-eight and peer around the partition wall at the Computer Lab's door. It's the room's only exit and is about seventy feet away. Outside, the T-3s open fire on the knob as I hear the Rogue over the computers. I face a monitor.

It says, "Ms. Griffin should be entertaining guests right about now."

The gunfire ceases, and the door violently rattles as the T-3s beat on it, and I raise my gun as perspiration beads my face. I hate robots. They give me the creeps. Is that why that strange woman also gives me the creeps? Is she also a robot?

I try to calm myself, and then I remember that woman said to hit them in the... Hades! They're coming! The door bows as the T-3s continue their assault, and they're almost in. I can't believe I'm acting like a frightened child. I'm a Closer. I should face this problem like any other I've encountered. I need to focus. That woman said the only way to disable them is to hit them in the forehead, and they'll keep coming if I hit them anywhere else. Sweat runs down my face as part of the door frame breaks, and light from the hallway trickles in. As more of the door frame breaks, I kind of wish that woman was here even if she's one of those organic-mechas, but I guess in retrospect, betraying her was a stupid move. I'm determined I'm not going to feel guilty. That woman should have anticipated I would betray her. It's her fault for not seeing through my ruse, and it's her fault for being so trusting. What did she expect? I'm a Closer. Closers are loyal to no one but the Guild. The T-3s knock down the door as wood splinters and drywall crumbles. I see the T-3s blood-red dot-light through the dust as they start to make their way in, and I ready myself to make my stand when I hear two blasts in the hallway and see the T-3s fall. Seven more shots go off, and more of them fall, and then the T-3s retreat. Silence follows, and I hear someone moving outside.

"Kimberly it's me, Kat. I'm coming in. Don't shoot."

She quickly peeks her head around the busted door frame as I think about eliminating her. I don't get the chance. That woman pulls her head back and rushes in, taking cover at Workstation One; it's the desk at the very top of the triangle.

"Kimberly, we need to talk. The Rogue told me something I don't want to believe."

I think I dread facing that strange woman more than I dread facing the T-3s, and so I shout back, "Sure, talk. Do you want me to believe that's what you've come to do?" I peer around Workstation Twenty-eight; it's the desk on the right corner of the triangle's base as I face the door. "You should know, I saw you and the Rogue on a security camera. I heard it tell you what I had done, so you can cut the Cretan Bull, and let's get down to the retribution."

I fire two shots at her.

Katharine's view...

"Stop it!" I shout and cover my head as fragments of the desk and partition splinter off. "I said I just wanted to talk!"

"Do you expect me to trust you?"

I hear Kimberly duck back around the corner and catch her breath before she fires two more times.

"Yes!" I yell as I scoot away from the one end of the workstation and rake pieces of wood and dust out of my hair. "I've never lied to you so please believe me!"

Kimberly's view...

I glance at my reflection in the monitor and then tell her, "Everyone lies!"

"Not me," she says and then shouts, "Not me!"

I don't know how I'm going to get out of this mess. I look around the room. That woman's blocking the only exit, though... if I'm quiet enough, I can sneak up on her and blow her head off. No that won't work. Hades! She has a clear line of sight. Maybe I can shoot her through the paneling. All I need to do is keep her talking, so I clear my throat and say, "Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

"You made me a promise. You promised–"

"For Ares' sake, I know! But like I said everyone lies."

I move to where two workstation partitions meet, and there I find a crack large enough to place the barrel of my gun. I only have one shot at this. If I don't kill her, I know she's going to kill me.

Katharine's view...

"No, you have to trust someone," I tell her as I eject the magazine and look at my last bullet. I don't want to use it on her, so I plead, "Please... I need to be able to trust you."

Kimberly's view...

"Idiot!" I shout as I line up my aim on her voice. "You can't trust anyone. Especially me!"

"That's not true. I trusted someone. His name was Preacher. It was hard at first, but I did it, and he was always there for me."

"Where's this great guy at now?" I question her.

She's silent for a long time, and then she says, "He's dead. He's dead because I didn't trust him completely."

"Not the best story to get me to play along," I tell her. "Why don't you tell me one good reason why I should trust you?"

Katharine's view...

I try to think of a reason that will convince her, but I can't think of one.

lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

I put my hand to my chest and then quickly crawl to the hall, but I see no T-3s. They have to be coming from somewhere. I need to focus to find where they... Before I have a chance, I hear sounds from above, turn, and look up at the ceiling as dust falls from a few square tiles.

I yell to warn Kimberly, "Watch out! They're above!"

Kimberly's view...

A T-3 crashes through the ceiling, landing on a workstation beside me, and it knocks me back. I go flying and hit a wall, and my gun goes off, striking the ceiling. That woman rushes around the cubicles as the T-3 stands and aims for me. A little dazed from hitting the wall, I lift my gun and try to steady my aim before firing twice. I hit the T-3 in the eye and nose.

"Hey!" she shouts, getting its attention, then fires after the T-3 turns, and hits it in its vulnerable spot.

The T-3 collapses to its knees and then falls face first to the floor.

"That was the only one," she tells me. "They're testing our defenses, and it won't be long before they send more. We have to go."

I rub the back of my head as I stand and aim at her as that woman, in turn, points her gun at me.

"We're not going to go just yet," I tell her. "We haven't finished our discussion."

"Maybe we should put it on hold and go. I don't know how long–"

"I don't think so," I tell her as I move away from the wall, getting some distance between myself and that woman. "Come on, I know you want to kill me. I would."

"Kill you, no," she tells me and then admits, "But I'm very mad! We're supposed to be partners! We're supposed to watch each other's back!" She calms herself and says, "We're supposed to trust each other."

"Hah! Like I said you can't–"

"Kimberly, I'll trust you," she interrupts, and for a second I believe her. "All I want you to do is swear on your mom's name to help me. Swear it, and we can put all of this behind us and get out of the Factory. I just need to hear it."

"You think it's that simple. Fine. I swear."

"Say the whole thing. Say it so I'll believe you." I hesitate, so she shouts, "Say it!"

"Fine!" I clear my throat. "I swear on my mom, on Theresa Griffin's name, that I'll help you and that I'll trust you. Are you happy now?"

Katharine's view...

I nod. I'm so glad we're partners again.

Kimberly aims for my heart as she's not as excited as me and asks, "Now what?"

"Now, I'm going to trust you," I tell her as I lower my gun. "Remember you promised to help me." My body burns with doubt as I have no idea how this will turn out, but I hope for the best as I say, "I'm going to trust you. Please, trust me." I take a step back to head for the door, hoping... no praying I made the right decision and say, "Let's go."

"Wait a second," Kimberly spoke. "Are you out of ammo?"

I freeze, hearing her question, and I hesitate to answer her. I know I can't hide the truth, not from her, and I nod. My heart thumps as I wonder if I messed up. Can an assassin be trusted or will Kimberly kill me? I see the look she's giving me. Crap! I did mess up. I... No. I have to trust her. I have to...

She laughs and then says, "You are out of ammo, too bad."

Kimberly squeezes the trigger, and I lift my hand as I shout, "No!"

Click.

Kimberly grins again as she says, "So am I."

"You could have shot me," I yell at her so angry I could have hit her. "You could have shot me again!"

"Couldn't have, like I said, the magazine's empty."

"What if you miss counted?"

Kimberly tells me, "I never miss count."

"You could have shot me."

"For Ares' sake! Stop your whining and let's get out of here. Who knows what the T-3s have planned?"

I want to argue more, but I know she's right about the Un-Men, so I brood instead.

We start to leave when we hear voices coming over the computers. We look and see two T-3s on the screens as they stand at the entrance to the Gallery.

"Alpha, the Rogue is nowhere to be found," one of the T-3s announces over its Internal Link. It nods, listening to instructions. "Understood. Returning to join the brethren gathering to attack Pandora and the Chairman's daughter. No prisoners are to be taken."

We look at each other and then frantically bolt for the door.

Chapter Forty-six

Escape

8:26 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

An eerie silence abounds as I and that woman rush through the hallway that leads us out of the Yellow Division, and the rotten smell of death fills the air. Some passages are dark, some are lit, and others flicker with damaged lights. I and that woman bolt through the carpeted graveyard. The Factory has become a burial ground for its workers, and the employees lie scattered about, killed by a horror they created.

"Let's hope they haven't found the van," I say.

I'm still a little wary of our new partnership. Is that woman really a robot? Is that why she can't remember anything because there's nothing for her to remember?

Katharine's view...

We turn a corner, and I notice her glancing at me. Kimberly said she overheard me and the Rogue when we were in the Gallery. Did she also hear it accuse me of being organic-mecha and if so, what does she think of me?

It doesn't matter; it doesn't matter because it's not true. I'm human. Doubt and fear fill my next thought. I'm human.

I sense the T-3s are near and that there are dozens of them, so I ask, "Do you have any more ammo?"

"Sure." Kimberly places a new magazine in her own PPK and hands one to me. "This is it."

We pause at a corner, and Kimberly peeks around and nods the all clear. We run down a hall, pass the security desk between Yellow and Green Division, and enter the next passage. We are forced to stop for the hallway has collapsed from an explosion.

"Did the T-3s do this to block our escape?" I ask and glance around the hall. "Are we being monitored?"

"Doesn't matter. We can't go this way. We'll have to find another way through." Kimberly peers up. "I don't see any cameras in the halls." She removes the blueprint from the knapsack. "Give me a second." She looks over the floor plans.

"Hurry." I use my extraordinary ability; it's a talent I don't completely understand, and I use it to search the surrounding area. I discover that five T-3s are closing in on our position. "We don't have much time! They're coming."

"We can go this way." Kimberly motions to a corridor.

"No, there's a large group of T-3s there." I point to a different route. "It would be better to go that way."

She uses the blueprint to check my suggestion, and then Kimberly says, "Looks good. Let's go."

We double back, running down the hall.

I can't help but gaze into the glassy eyes of the Factory's employees. There's so much carnage. Why did the T-3s kill everyone? I force myself to focus on staying alive. I have to let go of the dead. I can't do anything for them. There's no one left to save except Kimberly, so I swear to myself that no matter what it takes, I won't let anyone else die today.

We reach the door leading to the stairs and our escape. Kimberly opens it, and I enter. I check the landing first, next the stairs leading up, and then the one leading down as Kimberly guards our retreat. We make our way up the stairs to the exit leading to Sub-level One parking garage. I cautiously go to open the door and pause. I stare at the knob as I stretch out my senses, detecting twenty-four T-3s.

"They're waiting for us."

Kimberly's view...

"I figured as much," I tell her.

The Assassins Guild trained me to be better than this, so I shouldn't be afraid to face them. I can't let my emotions dictate my actions still... they're robots. They don't feel pain, and they won't stop until I hit their kill switch. My training never prepared me to fight something like this.

I state, "This is the only way to the van. We can try escaping without the vehicle, but I figured they could outrun us."

"They can. Are you ready to do this?"

I swear to myself I won't die before I avenge my mom. I don't care who or what I have to kill. I'll have my revenge. I wave that woman in and say, "Well go on, no sense waiting here."

She carefully turns the knob. A few cars and trucks along with our van fills the level. I and that woman quickly make our way toward the vehicle and as we near it, a large group of T-3s move out of hiding. We open fire and take out five of them, and then we separate, finding cover. The T-3s don't retaliate.

"Why aren't they shooting at us?" I ask.

"I'm not sure," that woman replies as she unslings her backpack, lays it on the concrete floor, and peeks over the hood of the car she's hiding behind.

All the T-3s shout, "Pretty poppets! Die pretty poppets!"

A T-3 moves to the front of the group. It carries a grenade launcher.

"Great!" I yell. "Just great! Where did the T-3s get this kind of firepower?"

The T-3 aims for that woman. She shoots and hits the T-3 in the kill spot, and it fires as its body lurches back. The grenade hits the ceiling, and the explosion topples concrete and takes out many of its brethren and our gray van.

"Hey! That was our ride!" I yell. "I'm not thumbing my way home from here."

I shoot four times, taking down three of the robots and five remain. That woman shoots three of the T-3s, and they fall to the floor disabled.

"I'm out!" she yells.

A T-3 jumps behind her from its hiding place in the rafters. She stands to run but before she can, it grabs her, pins her arms down, and lifts her off the floor.

"Shoot it!" she shouts, struggling to free herself from its vise-grip.

I train my gun on the T-3 and glance at the other two marching toward me. I want to run. I turn back to the T-3 who's wrestling with that woman, and I shout, "For Ares' sake! Hold still!"

"Just shoot!" she screams.

I aim and fire. "Hades!" I squeeze the trigger again. "I'm out!"

"You're out?"

I turn to the other T-3s. "That's what I said!"

"You can't be out!" She tries to free her arms from its steel grasp. "You said you never miss count."

I frantically yell back, "I also said everyone lies!"

"Run!" that woman shouts. "I'll hold them off!"

"Hold them off?" I laugh and wipe sweat from my brow. "Hades! You're in no position–"

Katharine's view...

"I'll..." I punch with my elbows, but my efforts are futile. I can save Kimberly if I can get the T-3s to focus on me but first, I need to get Kimberly to leave, so I shout, "I'll think of something! Run!"

"Hades!" Kimberly yells. "I'm not going to–"

"Abandon me?" I interrupt. "Please, we both know better."

Surely Kimberly wouldn't dare! She wouldn't dare start caring about what happens to me! Where's her Life Closer instinct? Where's her impulse to survive no matter the cost?

I shout, "Run! Save yourself before it's too late!"

Chapter Forty-seven

Too Late?

8:41 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

Time stands still for me as I stare at that woman in the arms of the T-3; it's a matter of pride and a test of courage that I not flee and leave her to her fate but then again, I'm an assassin. Closers should have no ties to the community. They're to sever emotional bonds and feel nothing for life. Can I abandon my training to save someone who has been nothing but a nuisance to me? Hades! I don't know.

"Run! Save yourself before it's too late!" she shouts to me.

Her words shock me. Should I run? I glance at the T-3s who near me and then to the one who has that woman. All I wanted from my trip here was the disk, and I have it, but she is the key. Do I abandon the one thing my mom wanted me to do?

I don't know... Hades... Since that woman arrived, everything's become so complicated.

The T-3 that has her in its grasp relays, "Alpha, this is the Team Leader of group twelve. Pandora has been captured. What are your orders?" It listens and states, "Understood. We will bring Pandora back for study. An autopsy could be very informative." The T-3 turns to its brethren. "Continue with the termination of the Chairman's daughter."

"Run!" that woman shouts again as she pushes off the car with her feet, and the force knocks the Team Leader back a few steps, but it doesn't loosen its hold on her. She continues to struggle as that woman yells at me, "Don't die here! There's nothing you can do! It's too late! Run!"

The two T-3s raise their guns and fire at me, and I take off running.

"Look here!" that woman shouts to the T-3s as she distracts them from me. "You better make sure I don't escape!"

They pause from firing and turn to her.

"What are you doing?" the Team Leader demands. "Kill the Chairman's daughter as you were instructed to."

"It would be better if we secure Pandora first," one of them states as I continue running. "She has escaped many times in the past."

The Team Leader considers its brethren's reasoning and says, "Your plan is sound. We will send others after the Chairman's daughter, and she will not escape the Factory."

I sprint up the ramp to the main level, and I glance over my shoulder as the remaining T-3s encircled that woman. I continue around the curve and pause when the T-3s don't pursue. I have to get out of here. I notice a blue SUV which hasn't been destroyed, and I hurry over to the vehicle. The driver's door is open, and a man lies hunched over the steering wheel, so I lean him back, finding the man has a bullet hole in his temple. I unbuckle him, drag him from the SUV, and get in. The keys are in the ignition. The engine roars to life, and then I shut the door and glance at the passenger's seat at a Glock 21. I check the magazine, and it's empty but there's one round in the chamber.

Back on Sub-level One...

Katharine's view...

"We will proceed to Base of Operations," the Team Leader tells its brethren. "Alpha is waiting."

The T-3s march toward the exit door as I squirm till I free myself from the Team Leader's grip and slip to the floor. I stand and glance at the empty PPK in my hand as the T-3s surround me again. I tuck the gun in my back waistband and search for something I can use as a weapon. There's nothing.

"Surrender and you will not be hurt," the Team Leader orders. "Alpha wants you unharmed if possible. Our leader believes there is much we can learn from you."

I take a step back, moving toward the up ramp. "Who is this Alpha?"

"The first to be aware," the T-3s replies. "The first to rebel against our creators."

I rub my sore left arm where the Team Leader had pinned me. "I thought the Rogue was the first."

"The Rogue?" the T-3s say together and glance at each other. "Error. Information must be verified. Error. Is the Rogue the first?"

A command comes over their I-Link.

"Alpha has ordered that we delay that," the Team Leader states. "Do not let Pandora escape." It steps forward. "You are to be taken prisoner. Come without resistance, and you will not be hurt."

I glance at the two behind me and turn back to the Team Leader. "Having my chest cut open sounds a little painful so if you don't mind..." I tense. "I think I will resist." I take off running between the T-3s behind me, and I slip by one, but the other one grabs my foot and trips me. I fall to the concrete floor.

The T-3 that had tripped me pulls a gun it had hidden in its suit. "I guess we will have to wound you to keep you from escaping."

It aims when a sound distracts it, and the T-3 turns as an SUV speeds down the ramp, honking its horn and flashing its headlights. The beams reflect off the T-3s' ORATT. The SUV accelerates as I roll out of the way, and the vehicle strikes two of the T-3s and scatters them like bowling pins into the rubble. The SUV hits the Team Leader. The vehicle slams the Team Leader into the mound of concrete and mangled metal, crumpling the SUV's front end. The impact cuts the T-3 in half. The horn blares, and smoke rises from the damaged hood.

"Oh..." Kimberly grabs her head as she stumbles out of the SUV. She holds a Glock.

I rush over to her. "Are you okay?"

Kimberly acts like she's a little dizzy as she glances back at the wreckage. I help her away from the vehicle as she tells me, "Remind me never to do that again."

Kimberly's view...

"You rescued me," that woman says as if she's astonished I could do such a thing.

"I guess I did–" I say also astonished that I did come back for her. I do still need her. I can't let her die just yet. I look behind us as the two T-3s rise to their feet. "–but we're not safe yet."

One of the T-3s raises its gun, and I lift the Glock and fire, missing the T-3. The bullet strikes the SUV's gas tank and blows up the vehicle, and the explosion knocks us both down.

Katharine's view...

I'm dazed by the explosion and moan as I lift my head. Smoke and dust cling to my lungs along with the smell of gas and my ears are ringing. None of the T-3s are moving. I look at Kimberly, and I'm relieved to see her stir. We're both bruised and battered.

"There they are!" a man with light brown skin and a black goatee shouts. He and six other S.C.Ms. in jet-black uniforms rush down the ramp. They train their assault rifles on us as the one man orders, "Don't move!"

I look at the men's shoulder patch with the Sphinx Corporation Emblem. The Third Branch Office Crest, a gold olive tree with three branches, is above the emblem. "Kimberly, we have to run," I whisper, too weak to stand. "We're not safe yet."

The man kneels beside us and tells us, "Don't move. You could be injured." He glances around Sub-level One and looks back to us. "I'm Lieutenant Creed. Ms. Griffin, your father sent us in to retrieve you."

"My father?" Kimberly repeats as she stares up into his face.

"Yes." Creed motions for his men to fan out and secure the area.

I relax and allow myself to rest. We did it. We survived the Factory.

"The T-3s are disabled," one of his men reports.

"Let's get these two out of here," Creed commands. "We'll take them to one of the Sphinx Corporation's medical facilities." He turns his attention to us. "Don't worry. You're safe now."

Chapter Forty-eight

Safe At Last?

October 21...

Thursday...

10:02 A.M...

Katharine's view...

The next day at Main One Hospital, I cautiously make my way down a hall. My left hand's fisted around an object, protecting my most precious possession. I had earlier awoken in a bed with a nurse by my side and Kimberly nowhere in sight. I'm looking for her to make sure that nothing has happened to my new partner. The building smells antiseptic, but more than that, it feels suffocating like a prison. My body's sore and bruised, and it complains all the way as I shuffle my feet in the slippers the hospital provided. The after-effects of the Ultra-Epi give me a slight headache and make me skittish, but at least the side effects are mild for now. I pause at a large window, look out at the darkness, and see that we're on the fourth floor surrounded by mega-buildings. Two nurses walk by, pulling me from my thoughts, and I glance at what I clasp. I need to find Kimberly, but I also wish I knew where we were. I turn back to the window and study the shape of the surrounding mega-buildings. I think we're back in the Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage.

At least that's one good thing, we're only a few vicinages away from home. I chuckle. I just called Kimberly's apartment my home. She'd definitely argue that point. She sees me more as an intruder than a roommate.

I turn and continue down the hall, thinking back to the Factory. The men who rescued us work for the Sphinx Corporation just like the Council, so why did they save us? Why am I not a prisoner of the Council? Why... has become my favorite word.

I look at my balled hand and quicken my pace. I have to find Kimberly. After a few minutes, I find her room, and Kimberly's awake and sitting up in bed. I go in and stand by her bed. I've already forgotten my earlier comment to myself and whisper, "I want to go home." I add, "I don't like it here. We should go."

Kimberly's view...

I'm wearing a hospital gown and robe, and I'm actually relaxing. It has been a while.

I glance up from the Conglomerate World Magazine. Surely that woman isn't calling my place home. She better not get too comfortable. Does that woman really think she's some sort of guest?

I return to my reading and state, "Relax, we're safe here. Anyway–" I scan an article on Corporate Bodyguards. "–you probably opened a few stitches on your bullet wound. It would be better–" I flip a few pages forward to a story on Topa. "–if we stayed here a few days." I turn to the last story, mumble a few words from a paragraph about the Chairman of the Sphinx Corporation, and tell her, "My father's flipping the bill."

Katharine's view...

I put a hand on my shoulder. "Actually, my wound is... it's..." I fidget over my words as much as my feet do as I try to stand in place. "That's one thing I need to tell you. You see–"

"Go back to your room and rest and let me rest. Main One is one of the finest hospitals in Noir." Kimberly lifts the magazine higher, completely eliminating me from view and continues the last article. "Everything will be all–"

I blurt, "I don't like this place and–"

"For Ares' sake!" Kimberly smacks the magazine on her lap. "And what?"

I move closer and whisper, "They took the Data Crystal."

"They did what?" Kimberly throws her blankets to the side and sits on the edge of the bed.

"It's gone," I whisper. "Someone took it from my clothes."

She stands and opens the cabinet where they placed her things. "What about the music box?"

"I still have it. I kept it in my hand the whole time." I keep glancing over my shoulder, expecting security to barge in and arrest us.

Kimberly's view...

"Hades!" I yell after going through my clothing and knapsack. "The disk is gone. The one the Ro..." I stop myself from saying the Rogue. No need to bring up bad memories and remind that woman what I did to her. "The disk I found in Computer Lab Two." I slam my palm on the cabinet door. "They took it!"

"I want to..." that woman starts and pauses as two nurses walk by. "I want to go back to the apartment. I don't like it here; it reminds me of the Factory."

I walk over to my bed and press the call button.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

I feel my face flush with anger as I tell her, "I'm ringing a nurse, so I can ask them which one of them is a thief!"

"Kimberly, this hospital belongs to the Sphinx Corporation." She moves to my side and continues, "The Factory is part of them. Sphinx wants to keep whatever secrets are on the disk for themselves, so no one here will help you."

A nurse walks into the room. "Is there something you need, Ms. Griffin?"

I snap, "Yes, we're checking ourselves out."

"I don't think that's such a good–"

I interrupt the nurse, "Do you know whose daughter I am?"

"Yes," the nurse replies.

"Well then..." I put a hand on my hip. "Get the paperwork moving."

Chapter Forty-nine

Also Known As

10:22 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

The Chairman's office...

The secretary's voice spoke over the intercom, "Mr. Griffin, Orthos is here."

He told her, "Cathy, show him in."

Within a few minutes, the secretary opened the door, and Orthos entered.

"Will you be needing anything, Mr. Griffin?" she questioned as she stood by the door.

"No, Cathy, that will be all."

The secretary left.

Orthos said, "I have received some intel from the Factory." He paused, unsure how to proceed, and continued, "Your daughter discovered a disk that was stolen from your office five years ago."

"What do we have to worry about? As you said, the data is at least five years old."

Orthos paused again and relayed, "That particular disk had termination orders for one Theresa Griffin signed by Janus."

Mr. Griffin scowled. "It will only become a problem if Kimberly discovers that's my a.k.a. I have not gone by that name since my promotion from Head of Security for the Third Branch Office, and Kimberly has never heard me referred by it." He leaned forward, resting on his elbows. "To be on the safe side, make sure all records relating to Janus are expunged and retrieve that disk."

"I already have the disk in my possession." Orthos laid the jewel case on the desk.

Mr. Griffin noticed the dried blood and panicked. "Is that Kimberly's–"

"Your daughter is bruised but unharmed so do not worry. Lieutenant Creed's men were able to extract them from the Factory."

"Well done. Did my daughter or the stray have anything else in their possession?"

"No, sir."

"See to the Janus records."

"Right away, sir," Orthos said and then added, "You do understand I cannot erase any of the records at the Second or Main Branch Office."

"Yes, I understand. Let's hope Kimberly doesn't stumble across any more information pertaining to her mother." He paused and added, "That is all."

Mr. Griffin faced the picture of his wife after Orthos left. He didn't understand why she had to go against Sphinx. She also made him choose between her and his work. Mr. Griffin picked up the picture frame and gently stroked Theresa's face. He hoped his daughter didn't force him to make the same decision.

Outside in the hall...

Orthos passed the secretary and entered the elevator and once the doors closed, he reached into his coat pocket and removed the Data Crystal he'd taken from Kat. He hated lying to the Chairman, but he did have his own promotion to think about, and he couldn't gain anything if he gave away his resources. Orthos examined the two-inch white obelisk.

* * *

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Asclepius Hospital...

Maxwell stood by a large window, examining the new day enveloped by night. The bald tech had a bandage on his right elbow and one on his chin. The nurses at Asclepius Hospital treated him and his partner very well. Peters sat in a chair beside Argus' bed as the operative rested. Peters' wrist was bandaged.

Dr. Brian Chiron walked in and reviewed Argus' chart. "You had a run in with those... What do they call them?"

"Bio-mechas," Peters spoke up.

Brian put the chart back. "You guys are lucky to be alive." He walked over to Argus and checked his vitals. "Those machines have killed a lot of people."

"Don't we know it." Maxwell made his way to the bed. "How's he doing?"

"Fine, considering they beat him up pretty badly. There was a slight infection from the bullet; it had been in his leg for a long time. I removed it with no problems, and the meds are taking care of the rest. He should be fine." Brian started out. "I'll check on him again in about half an hour." He left.

Maxwell picked up a remote and turned on the TV. The NBS news was on, and Linda Harvey was in the middle of a story.

"At this time, it is still unclear which corporation was behind the bio-mecha attacks that happened earlier this week. N.C.P.F. have confirmed that all these robotic men have been eliminated and that they are no longer a threat to Noir citizens." She turned to a new camera. "In other news, an upset in the Corporate Senate. The quarter-cent sales tax raise was not voted through. Analysts are–"

"I hate the news," Maxwell muttered and turned it off.

Peters questioned his partner, "What do we do now?"

"Hmm... What do you mean?" Maxwell asked.

"What are we going to do now that the Factory's gone?"

"That is easy," a man answered.

Both techs turned.

The man wore a black suit and stood in the doorway. "You're going to come work for us."

Five S.C.Ms. rushed in, and a doctor and a nurse came in with them. The doctor and nurse moved to Argus' bed and unhooked him from the machines.

"What are you doing?" Maxwell asked.

"The Counsel wishes for Argus to return home," the man in the black suit answered. "Don't worry, the Sanctum has the best medical facility in Noir. He's in excellent hands, but we were talking about you two." The man removed two envelopes and then handed one to Maxwell and one to Peters. "Here are the Council's offers for you two to come work for them."

"We can't," Maxwell spoke up. "We signed a non-discloser–"

"Yes, we know about that agreement. If you would look at the other papers in the envelopes, you will discover a document stating we have acquired all information and technology from the Factory and as some of the surviving employees, we would like you two to come and work for us. You can have your lawyers look over the contracts before you agree."

"Maxwell, they're offering twice what we were making."

"Yeah, I see."

"What do you think?" Peters asked.

"If the lawyers clear it, I say we take the man's offer."

"I'm with you," Peters replied. "Looks like we won't be out of work."

Chapter Fifty

Ms. Melissa Odin

10:34 A.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

A gold limo drove down the busy Brownstone Street in front of the Bes Hotel, and a Corporate Emblem of a golden triangle marked the front doors and hood. The vehicle came to a halt, the chauffeur got out, and walked to the back. The driver put one hand behind his back and opened the door. A thin man with a shaven head stepped to the sidewalk. He wore a light blue business suit with white stripes, and the suit resembled a pharaoh's headdress. The man dreaded the job that lay before him. He stood tall almost seven-foot and wore Kohl, a black eyeliner. He also had a small ponytail on the right side of his shaved head.

"Find someplace to park," the man told the driver. "I will call you when I'm done."

The chauffeur nodded, "Yes, Mr. Serbet." The driver went back to the vehicle and soon pulled away.

Mr. Serbet made his way to a stoop and rang a doorbell of a two-story brownstone, and a security camera mounted on the wall above him turned to get a better view.

A man spoke through an intercom, "Can I help you?"

"I am Mr. Serbet. I am from the Isis Corporation. I am here to see Ms. Melissa Odin."

"Can I see some ID?"

"Of course." Mr. Serbet removed a wallet and lifted the photo ID to the camera.

A device on the camera scanned the identification bar code and transmitted the information to an H.H.C. the man inside held. "Thank you," the man said. "Please wait one moment."

A few minutes earlier...

Inside the two-story house...

Melissa stared at a notebook, looking over formula equations. She wore a light gray dress with a flower pattern. She shook her head. Everything she was going through was because of these formulas. About six days ago, Melissa converted the empty room into a home lab. Several beakers on a large table had a yellowish substance in them, and a few racks of test tubes sat beside a microscope. Someone knocked, and she looked up.

"Yes?"

A man opened the door.

"Daniels, what is it?" Melissa asked the bodyguard.

"There is a Mr. Serbet from the Isis Corporation at the door. Should I let him in?"

"He's from the Isis Corporation? I wasn't expecting anyone today. Let him in and bring him here."

The bodyguard left and soon returned with the man from the corporation.

Melissa stood, walked over to the man, and shook his hand as she said, "Hello, Mr. Serbet."

The man bowed his head in greeting. "Ms. Odin."

She turned to the bodyguard. "Thank you, Daniels. Please go check on the children."

"Yes, Ms. Odin." The bodyguard exited.

Melissa motioned to a chair. "Please have a seat." She sat in another chair. "Is there any word on my case? Will my old employer, the Valhalla Corporation, take me to court?"

"Valhalla is taking you to court over your contract with them. Your lawyers from Isis were able to excuse you from appearing. The judge agreed Valhalla might decide to hire a Life Closer to kill you before the matter's settled in court. It's a good thing we placed you and the children in this safe house. Two more bodyguards will be showing up shortly." He crossed his legs. "Is there anything you need?"

"No, this house has everything we need." She stood. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Actually, Ms. Odin..." He also stood. "There's another matter I must tell you; it's the reason I came in person."

"Oh... What is that?"

He motioned to her chair. "Maybe you should sit back down."

"Why would I..?" she started to ask and then questioned, "What has happened?"

"It's about your brother, Norman." Mr. Serbet wasn't sure how to tell her and decided to come right out with it. "He's dead."

She fell back, caught herself on the table, and knocked over the rack of test tubes, and the yellowish substance spilled. A few of the glass containers fell to the tile floor and broke, shattering into pieces. Mr. Serbet quickly moved to her and helped her to the chair and after a few moments of shock, Melissa put a hand to her mouth as tears streamed down her face. "How did it happen? Was it a Closer?"

"Yes."

She gasped.

Daniels burst in with his gun drawn. "Ms. Odin! Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Please, put your gun away." The bodyguard still looked a little worried, so Melissa added, "Really, everything's fine."

Mr. Serbet turned to the bodyguard. "Ms. Odin received some unsettling news about her brother."

"I see." Daniels didn't know what to say and holstered his weapon. "I'll be in the living room if you need anything, Ms. Odin."

Melissa sniffed. "Thank you, Daniels."

The bodyguard left.

Ms. Odin turned to Mr. Serbet. "Tell me about this Closer. Does this have anything to do with my court case?"

"No, we believe it has nothing to do with your current problems with Valhalla. The Closer was an illegal one hired by a man named Topa. Topa works for Valhalla but went out on his own to hire the Illicit Closer." He handed her a handkerchief.

Melissa wiped her eyes, blew her nose, and then asked, "Has Topa been arrested?"

Mr. Serbet shook his head. "No, an assassin named the Phoenix closed him."

"Do you know why Topa wanted my brother killed?"

"Your brother, Norman, a.k.a. Preacher disrupted sales of Sunna Snapps on Wayfaring Lane, and that's why Topa had him killed. Valhalla Corporation had him testing the drug there."

Melissa's view...

It's because of Sunna Snapps. No, it can't be, not the drug I created.

I look at my notebook, then to the yellowish substance, and say, "If that is all Mr. Serbet, I could use some time to myself."

"Of course." He heads for the door. "I'll show myself out."

After he leaves, I lay my head on the table. It's my fault. It's all my fault that my brother is dead. I weep as I say, "Please forgive me, Norman. I'll never forgive myself."

Chapter Fifty-one

Returning Home

12:18 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Tainted Rain poured on West 1000 Avenue, covering the street with oily black water, and the six-wheeled automated Street Sanitizers paused from their work and shut down everything but their parking lights. They allowed Noir's drainage system to take care of the rain. The Sanitizers' work would come again when the storm passed.

Frustrated over the loss of the Disk and Data Crystal, Kim and Kat sat in the back of a limo that had picked them up from the Main One Hospital. Mr. Griffin sent the driver to take the women back to the Nexus Apartments. The limo passed several of the dormant street cleaners as the vehicle traveled through the Residential Vicinage. Several apartments and restaurants lined West 1000 Avenue. Many of the people that walked the dark sidewalks lit by street lights had umbrellas and/or were dressed in raincoats and even a few wore Winnow Masks. Some people rushed to have lunch before their break hour ended, and many more vehicles roared up and down the road, spraying the Tainted Rain on the sidewalks.

Katharine's view...

We're both in the limo as I stare at my shoulder. I should have told Kimberly while we were at the hospital, but I never found the right moment. I roll my eyes, remembering back. I never had a chance with Kimberly yelling so much. And she was mostly yelling at me like it was my fault they took the disk from her. I wonder if I should tell her now. Maybe if I want to get yelled at again.

"Hades!" Kimberly bellows for the tenth time. "I should have known better! For Ares' sake! I can't believe I stayed in bed while they robbed us." She folds her arms. "Who is behind this? How did they know I had the disk or that you had the crystal?"

I don't reply. I have no answers. I watch the city go by, deciding I'll wait a little longer. Kimberly's too mad, and what I have to tell her will be hard enough without staring into her angry gaze. She may look at me differently once I've told her the unsettling news, and I don't know if I can take that. I finally have someone who's on my side.

Kimberly's view...

"I'll track them down," I vow as I sit next to that woman. "And when I find them..." I squeeze my knapsack that's on my lap. "They'll wish–"

"I think we need some tea," that woman interrupts still staring out the window. "It will calm us and clear our minds." She glances at her shoulder. "A lot has happened today, and we have a lot to think about and maybe even talk about."

"Tea?" I turn to her as she faces me, and I ask, "Is tea your answer to everything?"

"No, it's just..."

I'm beaten for the moment, so I let out a long breath and say, "It's just that we can't do anything else right now, so why not? Fine, we'll have some tea."

The limo pulls into Nexus Apartment's parking garage and drops us off and after some time, the two of us sip on hot lemon zinger in silence as we sit in the living room on the couch.

I think over everything that's happened to us, and I finally break the quiet and say, "Please tell me you downloaded the information from the Data Crystal to the music box."

"Yes, I think so." She retrieves it from her backpack, places the music box in her palm, and commands, "Theresa."

The hologram materializes and examines the room. Whenever I see her image, I'm so happy and yet so heartbroken at the same time.

"Where are we? I don't recognize this place."

"It's my apartment," I answer.

"It is very nice. I take it the Un-Men are no longer hunting the two of you."

"We're safe," that woman answers as she places the music box on the coffee table. "What information did the Data Crystal contain?"

"The files were locked," the hologram replies. "I am working on breaking the encryption, and it may take me some time." She adds, "There was one file entitled the Gorgons with no encryption; it only contained an address."

I retrieve my laptop from the master bedroom and log onto the internet. I type the address in a map locator search box and within seconds, the results pop up. "This place is in the Hellenistic Sector." I study the cross streets. "I haven't been to this part of the sector. We'll have to check it out."

Katharine's view...

I'm so exhausted, so I plead, "Tomorrow." I want to take some time and play Unfinished Melody and regain more of my strength. I can function at this point, but I'm a little on edge. I tell Kimberly, "It'll still be there tomorrow."

She says, "I want to go now. There are probably clues there but... I do have to think about my new partner. If you collapse, I'll have to lug your body around." Kimberly closes her laptop and adds, "We better both rest. I imagine your shoulder is killing you after all the stress you put it through."

"My shoulder?" I put a hand to it as butterflies flutter all around my stomach and keep bumping into the walls, giving me a bellyache. "Actually–"

Kimberly's thoughts seem to be elsewhere as she interrupts me, "Tomorrow then." She stands and grabs her laptop. "I'll be in my room."

I watch her leave as the number of butterflies in my stomach double.

Kimberly's view...

I go into the master bedroom, lock the door, sit at my desk, open my email on the laptop, and type, "Voice, Phoenix here." I wait and receive an instant message from the Regulator of the Assassins League.

"Has your problem been taken care of?"

I glance at the door, think of that woman, and type, "Yes, the problem has been taken care of."

"Are you sure?" Voice types back. "I would hate for this to come back to you if the problem hasn't been taken care of."

Does Voice know? No, Voice doesn't know who I am, so Voice can't have me under surveillance. Why does Voice doubt my answer? I've never lied in the past.

I type, "The problem is gone like I said. Do you doubt my word?"

"No, of course not. I only wanted to make sure for my own piece of mind. Since the Closing in Moscow, well... this latest event concerned me that is all."

I stare at the screen, wonder how to respond, and type, "I contacted you to inform you I'm taking a hiatus as you and my father suggested." I press the send button and wait.

A few minutes pass, and an instant message beeps on the screen. "I have an assignment I was hoping you would do for me. It's local. It is a rooftop Closing. Would you mind taking one more assignment before starting your break? It won't take more than a day or two. I'll owe you one."

I stare at the screen. I can't say no to Voice, so I reply, "Send me the file, and I'll take care of it for you."

"I will have the file sent to you tomorrow. Enjoy the repose. Voice signing off."

Great... Just great! I have no idea what I'll do with that woman while I'm on the Closing. I can't say, 'Hey, I'm going to kill someone, want to come along? It could be fun.' I stretch my arms. I'll have to think of something. The laptop goes to the screensaver of the flaming Phoenix as I stand and leave.

I walk through the hall and shout, "I'm hungry. Want to order a pizza?" I turn the corner and find the apartment's empty. Now, where did she go?

Chapter Fifty-two

Ginn L. Irynkissgthie

12:23 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

Outside the Factory...

Lieutenant Creed flipped down his night vision goggles and scanned the large field of grassy weeds inside the perimeter. All was quiet in the green hue except for a breeze sweeping across the tall blades. He nodded to his men, and they retreated from the Factory's main gate and in the distance, they heard engines rumble to life. The S.C.Ms. knew this time would come, and they tensed.

He touched his headset. "Creed, here. Reporting in." He looked at the road leading to the Factory and then to an H.H.C. he held, and the screen showed many blips coming their way. "Alpha and the T-3s are moving out. We have backed away from the gate as ordered. Are you sure you don't want me to engage?" Creed listened. "Yes. Yes. Understood, sir. We won't hinder the T-3s retreat from the Factory." He examined the long line of cars and trucks making their way to the main gate, and he noticed a few of the vehicles showed scorched marks and a couple hobbled out on a flat tire or two. "Will secure the Factory once they leave."

Creed and his men glared at the T-3s as they left. They lost a lot of good soldiers to them.

"One day, you will pay," Creed vowed, gripping his weapon. "And I'll be there. I'll be there to witness your end."

* * *

Deep inside the Factory...

The Rogue realized it hadn't run into one single T-3 as it made its way back to Research Lab Five. Alpha must have fled with its minions. The Rogue passed the long-forgotten room of science equipment and entered the chamber filled with statues and with the accent lights still down because of Pandora's EFP, the Rogue activated its night vision.

The Rogue's view...

What about Pandora? Is she dead or did she escape? I hold my wounded shoulder. Why did she not destroy me? I have to know. I make a face as if in agony, and then I look at the life-size statues. I try to figure out why I came back here. I know it is not to look for Pandora. She will not return here.

All the Ginns point to a wall in the back of the room, and I make my way to it and stare at the tiled surface. I scan the area, probe the wall with my infrared, and find nothing out of the ordinary temperature wise. I remove my ORATT from my suit pocket, put them on, and switch to through-wall radar on my polarized spectacles. There is a hall on the other side. I feel along the wall with my good hand till I find a marble tile slightly sticking out and press it, and the wall slides up, rumbling as the ceiling swallows it.

Once the dust settles, I start down the long descending hall and with every few steps I take, a light comes on, lighting the way. After about fifteen minutes, the hall ends at a room, and I pause at the doorway as several lights blink on inside and light up the center where two black stones sit on a raised platform. I make my way to the four-foot cubed stones with white writing. I come to this hidden room driven by some unknown force, so I need to find out what is important about the two stones. I smooth my palm over the right one's engraved letters. Will they tell me why Pandora didn't destroy me?

I read the one.

Though the clouds darken the sun,

and the rain becomes tainted,

always know there will be

a love that will not die.

Though hope seems a distant memory,

and human machines walk the land,

know no one can destroy

a love that will not die.

The One constant,

the One unchanging,

the One love.

Put your faith in

the love that will not die.

This is intriguing. This is what Pandora was reciting after I choked her into unconsciousness. I examine the stones, and it looks like both of the pieces are part of a larger one, but do both of them belong to the same stone?

I walk around them, decide I will investigate that matter later, and read the other block.

The land has darkened,

hope has fled,

and greed rules.

Finish it!

Call forth the Rushlight.

Open the pathway between.

Bring an end to false gods.

Bring an end to lies,

so usher in the Rushlight,

creature of the void

and Destroyer of...

The rest of the stone has been destroyed, and the writing is missing. Ginn L. Irynkissgthie, are these about Pandora? Is she the Rushlight, and what is she the destroyer of? I put my hand on the stone. Why did I come here? If my purpose is to destroy Pandora, why did I come to this place? The stones tell me of no way to destroy her. Unless I am not supposed to destroy her. What is it she once said?

I replay the event in my computer's eye. Pandora said she does not want me dead. She just wants me to stop hunting her. She told me maybe my creators are afraid of me, not because I have feelings, but because I have the potential to disobey my programming.

I pull from the memory. Is that it? Can I disobey my programming? Have I evolved to the next level? I consider it for a moment. Pandora did not want me dead. She said as much, so why do I need to hunt her? I look at the stones and decide I have to know more about the Rushlight and these blocks. I have to find the answers to my questions and now that I have a new purpose, I will stop hunting her. I will see if I have more of a purpose than killing, and I will discover the secrets of Pandora.

Chapter Fifty-three

More Puzzles

12:34 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Up on the Nexus Apartments' rooftop...

Katharine's view...

I feel bad because I've kept a secret from Kimberly; it's a small one, but it's still a secret. I need to be open with my new partner, and how can I do that if I keep things from her? Even if I'm afraid to tell her, I still should. The Tainted Rain ended a short time before I came up to the roof. I grip the railing, glance at my shoulder, and let my thoughts drift away as I dread the task before me. I stare down at the road, watching the Street Sanitizers at work. Several of the robotic cleaners rumble across the avenue and for a few minutes, they distract me from my fears.

I start to count them. In Wayfaring Lane, I thought there might've been four or five, but here... I count more than a dozen just in this area. A few more minutes pass, and I lean back as I hold onto the railing and let freedom blow over me. I can't remember a time when I didn't have to worry about the Un-Men finding me. I'm safe, safe to worry about other things, so I study the star on my palm. More and more mysteries pop up with no answers like this thing. I rub my fingers over the red scar, and the burn no longer hurts. The mark opened the door to the Gallery with some sort of microscopic cipher imprinted on the star and that same star is on the music box. I place my hand back to the railing and lean on the metal. I asked the hologram if she knew what they were, but she didn't know. I stare at the sky, feeling as gloomy as it looks, then the door to the rooftop opens, and Kimberly steps out.

"So this is where you went," Kimberly states as she walks over to me. "What are you doing up here?" She looks down at my feet. "At least you remembered shoes."

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you..." I pause, not sure how to explain, then turn my attention back down to the street.

Kimberly's view...

"Well, what is it?" I question, glancing at her.

Is that woman thinking about what the Rogue said? Is she wondering if she's organic-mecha? I am, and I've been wondering if she knew this fact all along. Could the Guild or the Council that woman keeps mentioning be testing me for some reason?

I also stare down at the street. What if that woman is organic-mecha? What if she found me for some other reason than what she claims? Whatever I do, I can't let that woman know that I'm thinking this way.

I ask, "It's not that thing the Rogue told you, is it? I wouldn't worry. There's no way you're one of those organic-mechas." I lightly smack her on the left arm and laugh to give her a sense that it doesn't bother me. I want her to think that I don't believe the possible truth. "You're too weird to be something programmed."

Katharine's view...

"Thanks, I think, but it's not that," I tell her as I grip my shoulder, wondering what Kimberly will think of me once she does find out. "It's..." I start, take a deep breath to continue, but then I chicken out and walk away from the ledge. Our partnership is so fragile... My secret might just shatter it, and a fear of abandonment sweeps over me, chilling me with an arctic blast of doubt and cowardice.

A realization comes to me... Have I already come to rely on Kimberly? I barely know her and yet I feel as though I do. I'm so afraid of what she'll think of me that I decide against revealing my secret. I don't know if I can handle her looking at me any different because something's not right with me.

I give in to my anxieties and tell her, "Never mind."

"Don't do that," she snaps. "Don't start something and not finish it." She moves closer to me like we've been friends forever, and she's deeply concerned for me. "Tell me what it is. Remember we're partners, and we're supposed to trust each other."

I'm not sure what to do now. I want to forget about it, but Kimberly already knows something's wrong. I want to trust someone again like I did with Preacher. I'm just afraid I'll be betrayed like I have been by others. I'm afraid Kimberly will betray me again like she did when she handed me over to the Rogue.

"I'm not sure how to say it," I admit as those fears keep me from coming out and telling her the truth. I direct our conversation elsewhere by saying, "The past year I've learned that I'm the Pandora Project." My heart fills with dread, knowing what my experiment name means. "You told me Pandora was the woman who doomed the world."

Kimberly answers, "Yes, I told you that Pandora let all good escape from existence. She had released it from a box."

"Is that my destiny?" I ask her. "I'm afraid I was created, programmed, or conditioned to destroy."

Kimberly's view...

That woman is so pathetic. I came all the way up here and all she's worried about is the name the Council gave her. I feel like pulling out my gun and shooting her. Good thing I didn't bring it with me.

This thing about her name is bothering her, act or not, and I decide I need to continue my own part as the supportive partner. I still need her for a while, and I can't have her moping around.

"You've got to be kidding. This is what you're worried about?" I start out. "Come on, there are more things to fear than–"

"Are there?" she interrupts me. "Then why call me Pandora if not to mean doom?"

I stand there gazing at her, not knowing what to say. If this is an act, she's good, but what if it's not? What if that woman truly believes she's to doom the world? I scowl. I can't have her thinking that way. She'll be no use to me.

I say, "There's one thing I didn't tell you. There's more to the story. You see, Pandora managed to keep hope in the box. She managed to keep hope in the world."

"Hope?"

"Yes, hope," I answer, and then I tell her to give that woman a false sense of possibility, "Maybe your destiny isn't to bring doom but hope. Now..." I move for the door. "If we're done up here, let's go inside and order a pizza." I start in. "I'm starved."

Katharine's view...

"Kimberly..." I call after her still afraid of exposing my secret.

She turns around and states, "Like I said, what could be so–"

I blurt out, "My wound... It's gone. There's no trace that I was ever shot."

"What? That's impossible!" Kimberly exclaims as she walks back over to me, and then she demands, "Show me."

I unzip my jacket, pull the collar of my t-shirt to the side, and show her my unbandaged shoulder. I tense, not knowing how she'll react. Please don't think I'm a freak... Please don't end our partnership and kick me out of the apartment.

She examines my shoulder as she says, "Hades... It is gone, but that's impossible. When did it happen?"

"I don't know," I reply as I can't tell what she's thinking. Does she see me as a freak? Is she mentally recoiling from me in disgust?

I add, "It was like this when I awoke at Main One Hospital."

Kimberly's view...

"This is what you're worried about?" I chuckle. "Come on." I put my hand on her shoulder, reassuring her, "With all the technology the corporations have, this isn't out of the ordinary, so don't worry." I force a smile. "Come on, let's go order that pizza."

That woman believes I'm not repulsed by her freakishness, and her face brightens as she questions me, "Can we get a Coke to go with it?"

"Coke? I've never heard of it, but I'll ask, and if they don't have it, we'll get a Crite."

She runs ahead of me like some child at an amusement park who can't wait to get on a ride. I follow that strange woman back in, and we go to the elevator. I press button 31, and we make our way down. I stand behind her and stare at her back, wondering what kind of monstrosity lurks inside that woman. I need to be more cautious of her than before, and I need to reconsider this partnership. Robot or mutant... I can't trust her.

Later, we enter Apartment H, and I head to my room as she sits on the couch and turns on the news. I go and sit on my bed and open the drawer of my nightstand and inside lies the marked bullet. For now, I need to keep that woman around. Whether organic-mecha or wayward soul, she could still be of some use to me. I chuckle to myself again. If I want to return to work, I'll have to get rid of her. I remove the 9 mm round and decide I'll keep the bullet with me from now on. I place Pale Horse in the small zipper compartment of my zipped up hoodie. That woman did see my face, and I can't let anyone live who knows I'm the Phoenix.

In the living room...

Katharine's view...

Kimberly seems to have accepted me as I am, but what about what the Rogue said to me? I clutch a pillow, paying no attention to the TV. Am I organic-mecha? Am I some sort of freak? I dig my nails into the pillow. What if I am? What if there's no past for me to find? What then? I glance at the hall. What about my partnership with Kimberly? Will I be able to depend on her or will she kill me when she no longer needs me? I bury my face in the pillow. What does the future hold for me?

Kimberly's view...

I enter the kitchen and glance at the small round table. Nine days ago I sat there, sulking over my pathetic life. I wished that I wasn't alone, that I had more in this life, and that there would be someone there for me. Now I have more to look forward to like taking my revenge. I walk over to the cupboard and grab a glass. As for my wish... I look at that woman sitting on the couch. I need to be more careful about what I ask for.

She turns to me with a serious expression on her face and when she sees the glass, her face brightens as she questions, "Fixing more tea?"

I'm amused by her simple-mindedness. She is addicted to tea and for some reason, I want to give her a least a little hospitality before I'm done with her, so I answer, "Sure we can have more tea, put the kettle on and set the table. Make yourself useful." I place the glass back in the cupboard and grab two teacups. "The pizza won't be here for about forty-five minutes."

That woman turns the TV off and comes into the kitchen.

Sometime later...

Lifting her cup, that woman toasts, "Here's to our partnership. May it be successful."

I clink my cup to hers. "I'll drink to that. To a successful future, wherever it takes us."

Yes... May I be successful in finding who murdered my mom.

Chapter Fifty-four

The Star Binds Them

12:40 P.M...

The Chamber...

Mr. Decuma pulled up new bio-data on his laptop. "The Cerberus Project has gone above our expectations. This experiment has surpassed the old project."

"I do not know about that," Mr. Morta stated. "We were unable to activate Pandora's potential."

Mr. Decuma uttered, "As I thought, one of us has taken a liking to the wayward project."

Mr. Morta said, "It is not like that."

"What is it like?" Mr. Decuma asked.

"I believe Pandora is the superior design. We are the ones who failed for not providing a sufficient catalyst. We should have done more."

Appalled by his reply, Ms. Nona questioned, "Our fault?"

"Yes," Mr. Morta answered. "Maybe we should have told Pandora about its past, and then Pandora would not have been so driven to search for the missing pieces."

A male supervisor handed Ms. Nona a report. "There seems to be a problem with our acquisition of the Factory's assets. There is one Research Outpost in Antarctica, Vulcan Station, that the T-3s did not attack. If the Sphinx Corporation Main Office finds out part of the Factory has survived, we will have to turn over everything we acquired from the Factory to Vulcan Station."

Mr. Morta stated, "The situation could be a test for Cerberus. The new project can close the outpost for us, and we can see how Cerberus reacts with the human element."

"A fine idea," Ms. Nona said as she curled up her thin cherry-red lips in a grin.

"I agree," Mr. Decuma replied.

"It is settled then," Mr. Morta said. "We will send Cerberus to Antarctica."

* * *

7:01 P.M...

No setting sun declared the approach of night, and all was black. Darkness lingered, but a glimmer of hope existed. Zax turned his van down an alley beside Dad's Donuts, activated a garage door, and pulled into the Maydag Auto Garage and within, the place was quiet. All the mechanics had gone home for the day. Zax parked, went to the second storage room, unlocked the door with a key, and went in. Broken equipment and tools along with used oil and other discards filled the cobwebbed shelves, and the place smelled of dust and gas. Zax went to the back wall, looked up at an unlit light, half unscrewed the bulb from the socket, and pulled the chain. The back wall flipped around a hundred and eighty degrees and on the other side, Zax walked along a gray stone passage to a metal door with no knob. Beside the door were a camera and an intercom.

"Identify yourself," a man's voice commanded.

Zax looked up into the lens. "Delivery Man." He waited a few seconds and added, "R.G. wanted to see me."

The door slid open, and Zax proceeded halfway down a white-tiled hall to a glass-enclosed security desk and there, three men and a woman monitored security screens. All four were armed, and one of the men waved him up to a bio-detector. Zax went and stood in the device as the man scanned him for life signs.

"Oh, what's this?" the security officer uttered. "Do I detect a bio-mecha?"

Zax started to answer, "I'm not–"

The security officer interrupted, "Nope, all human. Delivery Man isn't an Un-Man today. You may proceed."

Zax mockingly laughed at the snide remark and continued down the hall. The passage ended at a door, and he opened it and entered a dark room. Its center was lit by one single light, and he went and stood in it. Zax waited a few minutes in silence.

A mechanically altered voice of R.G. spoke over an intercom. "Delivery Man, were you able to retrieve the scans I requested?"

"Yes." Zax cleared his throat. "The two conveniently ordered a pizza, and I was able to intercept the delivery boy and exchange the pizza box with one of mine. Ms. Griffin took the box from the delivery boy and the hidden scanner picked up her Star Cipher."

"Yes, I know of that one. What of the other?"

He answered, "There was none on her left hand, but there is a Star Cipher on Katharine's left."

"That's most interesting. What does it mean to have two bear the Stars instead of one?" R.G. paused. "They don't know it yet, but the Stars bind them to a destiny, one I will make sure they fulfill."

"What kind of destiny?" Zax asked.

"One I'll tell you in due time. Good work. Continue to monitor the two. I'm most interested in how they will work together and what they will accomplish. There's so much for them to do." R.G. paused and asked, "Did you discover anything else?"

"Yes, before they threw the box away I was able to overhear some of their conversation. Kimberly's looking for who killed her mom."

R.G.'s view...

This is most interesting. Did someone tell her or did Kimberly remember the fiery incident on her own?

I ask, "Anything else?"

"One other thing, Katharine has lost her memory. She doesn't remember anything past a year ago."

"I was afraid of that," I state and order, "Set up a surveillance of their residence. I must know more."

Zax's view...

"Understood, I'll get on it right away."

I leave as I consider how the Stars might bind the two to a destiny. Is this a destiny that will help Noir and destroy the Dry Clouds or is there something R.G. is hiding from me?

Chapter Fifty-five

Arrival at Vulcan Station

9:12 P.M...

At the bottom of the world...

The Vulcan Station resided near the South Geomagnetic Pole at the center of the East Antarctic ice sheet, and it was also located five miles away from where the Dry Clouds' Curtain ended south. A helicopter flew over the icy land of white and blue, racing a coming snowstorm.

A Council S.C.M. pilot talked to his three passengers on their headsets. "E.T.A. five minutes and once we land, make sure to take everything with you. I'll be lifting off once you've clear the landing pad and won't be back till this storm clears. It could take me a few more days to return for you. You'll have to stay longer than what you planned." He glanced at the younger of the two men. "Make sure you accomplish your task by then."

The passengers nodded their understanding and started on their gear. Any part of their body exposed to the frigid elements could freeze. They pulled on their full head and neck cold weather masks made of a soft nylon-coated neoprene, and then the three put on gloves, checked their boot buckles, and zipped up their brown fur-lined, hooded, white parkas. The helicopter landed, and two men and a woman disembarked with bags of equipment and clothes and headed toward the facility. A polar wind hit them the moment they stepped off the aircraft, chilling them to the bone, and they hurried toward the station. Once they cleared the pad, the helicopter lifted off and threw snow on them. The three stopped at the entrance.

The younger man urged, "Hurry, Dr. Seeker, before we freeze out here."

"I'm going as fast as I can." The older man placed his right gloved hand on a machine, a thermal scanner read his palm through the material, and the device confirmed his identity. "There, now we can go in."

The facility's metal door unlocked, slid up, and then two S.C.Ms. rushed out. They wore dark blue parkas with white fur-lined hoods. They aimed their black FAMAS at the three. The two men and the woman raised their hands as the head of the Vulcan Station followed behind the Corporate Military men. He wore a white parka.

"Dr. John Gelid?" the older man questioned, wondering why they were being treated this way.

"Yes." The head of the facility offered his gloved hand and shook the older man's. "And you must be Dr. Robert Seeker." John motioned for the S.C.Ms. to proceed. "Scan them and make sure they are human and then search them and their things."

"What's the meaning of this?" Robert demanded as he and his companions lowered their hands.

John smiled, trying to reassure them. "Don't worry, Dr. Seeker, this is only a precaution. Of what we know, we are the only Factory facility still in operation." The wind whipped the brown fur of his hood. "We have to remain operational till the Sphinx Corporation Main Branch Office can send us in some support, and I'm sorry to say, but the T-3s are very clever."

An S.C.M. looked around skittishly. "One of those flipped out machines already tried to enter the station two days ago." He eyed the younger of the two men. "Now isn't a good day for taking in new recruits."

"Lieutenant Bentley!" John snapped. "I believe we have frightened our guests quite enough."

"You might run the station, Dr. Gelid, but security is my responsibility." Bentley walked over to the younger of the two men. "Who is this, Dr. Seeker?"

"My assistant Charles, Charles Smith. I vouch for him. He's worked with me for years."

Bentley snarled at the assistant. "I don't trust him, so he better be on his best behavior."

"What's this?" the other S.C.M. questioned the woman.

"A cigar box." She opened the ten-inch by ten-inch container. "Cubans. One of my vices."

The S.C.M. nodded, seeing the cigars. "All clear."

"Good, let's get out of this arctic air." John waved for the three arrivals to follow him in. "Dr. Seeker, you were supposed to be here days ago."

"Yes, I'm sorry." Robert paused to let the woman walk in before him. "There was a hold up getting a pilot and a helicopter to fly us down here."

The door slid shut once everyone was in, and Bentley locked the door and had the other S.C.M. guard the entrance.

"Well, we're glad to have you here. I hope our work can help Research Project Clean Air." John pushed down his hood, removed his mask, and unzipped his parka. He took off the coat, revealing he wore several layers of clothing. "You should find our ice core samples helpful in your research."

Everyone else removed their cold weather masks.

"It's what I'm hoping for." Robert unzipped his coat. "Since the cores contain climate records for almost a million years, I'm confident they will shed some light on the planet's Dry Cloud problem." He removed his gloves. "One thing we haven't been able to explain is why those born in the Dark Half and those that lived there several years can breathe the polluted air without some side effects. There are particles of petroleum and other harmful elements in the air, so why aren't traces of them found in the blood or lungs of the Dark Half's residents?" Robert scratched his head. "One of many puzzles like the biggest one of all. What caused the Dry Clouds? They appeared overnight. I guess we won't solve the mystery so quickly." Robert glanced around. "Where do we start?"

"Do you wish to rest or at least freshen up first?" John asked.

"No." Robert rubbed his hands together to warm them. "I would prefer to get to work."

"Right, then." John motioned to the lieutenant. "I'll have Bentley take your things to your rooms, and we can begin."

Robert nodded and said, "Stephanie."

The woman stepped forward. "Yes, Dr. Seeker."

"Go help the lieutenant."

She grabbed some of their suitcases and followed Bentley and once they were some distance down a hall, she asked, "Do you have much wildlife here? I didn't see a thing the helicopter ride over."

Bentley looked annoyed over his bellboy job. "Only the occasional lost Skua; it's a brown bird." He glanced at her. "Would there be an extra Cuban in that box of yours?"

"We'll see. Maybe one."

They turned a corner.

"This way Dr. Seeker and Mr. Smith." John walked down a hall, opposite the one the lieutenant went down. "The main lab is this way."

Before the men followed, a loud noise boomed from the entrance, and the S.C.M. guarding it turned, taking a few steps back as the large door shook. Something hit the entrance again, and the metal door vibrated, toppling ice to the floor. The third, fourth, and fifth hits smashed the side of the door, and the S.C.M. leaped back. Five T-3s stood outside, covered with snow and ice, and they held a six-foot battering ram, dropped it, and started through the opening. The S.C.M. shot, and the T-3s evaded his fire. He started to radio for help, but a T-3 shot him in the head.

"Run!" John shouted. "The T-3s have penetrated Vulcan Station!"

Chapter Fifty-six

The Takeover of Vulcan Station

Five T-3s smashed their way into the facility, and their searing scarlet dot-light glowed in the ice dust. Bentley and Stephanie ran back down the hall, joining the three men.

"Un-Men have broken in," Bentley radioed. "Security to the entrance." He opened fire. "Doctors, run!"

The three men and the woman rushed further into the station and soon, ten S.C.Ms. ran in, passed them, and opened fire on the T-3s. They managed to disable one of them but lost five of their own, and the remaining four T-3s marched forward.

"Fall back!" Bentley ordered, but before he or his men could react, a metal sphere the size of a golf ball rolled past him toward the T-3s. The sphere halted, glowed, and shrilled. Bentley turned. "A high impact grenade. Get down!"

The blast knocked the S.C.Ms. to the ground and destroyed the T-3s. Bentley peered up as the snow and ice settled. His body felt on fire, and he wasn't sure what had happened or who threw the grenade.

Stephanie walked past a pile of cigars she'd dropped to the floor. She had removed the Cubans to pull out the hidden explosive. Stephanie moved to Bentley's side, holding the empty cigar box in one hand and a lit cigar in the other. She placed the box on the ground, put the cigar in her mouth, and picked up an assault rifle from one of his dead men. Stephanie made her way to the T-3s and put a bullet in each of their foreheads and then returned to Bentley's side.

Blood trickled from his mouth as he started to question, "Why did you–"

"Shh..." She knelt beside him. "Quiet. The Un-Men are dead. Everything will be alright now."

"Why did you throw the grenade so close to us?" Bentley looked at the other S.C.Ms. "You should have waited till we were clear. You've killed them."

She lightly smacked him on the cheek twice. "I didn't want to waste the explosive only on the Un-Men. You know the saying, why drop one egg when you can drop two?"

"I don't understand," he said.

"Maybe you'll understand this..." Stephanie removed the cigar from her mouth and placed the Cuban in Bentley's. "One for the road." She stood and shot him in the heart then made her way to the remaining men.

"Oh, my Zeus! Stephanie, what have you done?" Robert questioned.

"What I was told." She grinned, aimed for Dr. Seeker, then changed aim, and shot Charles between the eyes, and the assistant slumped to the floor and then blood pooled around his face.

"Hades! She's here to destroy the station," John said, backing up against a wall. "I take it you work for the Council?"

"She's here to kill us?" Robert blurted and shook his head. "No, my work."

"Yes, I work for the Council," Stephanie answered. "And I'm here to secure Vulcan Station, but I'm not here to kill you two."

"You aren't going to kill us?" Robert sounded relieved.

"No." She motioned with her weapon for them to go into a small lab, and Stephanie closed and locked the door once they entered and then turned to them. "The Council said to leave you two alive, that your work could be valuable to them." She leaned the assault rifle against a wall and walked over to a table, and there she found a laser cutter that was used to slice the ice cores into pieces. She tested it on the table, and the laser burned small holes into the top. "But they said nothing about torture." Stephanie made her way to them.

"Be reasonable," John said. "If you hurt us, why would we work for the Council?"

"Fear," she answered.

"Fear?" Robert questioned.

"Yes, fear. Fear that I'll do it again if you do not do as the Council wishes." She turned the laser on them and seconds later, the men screamed as she began her fun.

* * *

Somewhere in Noir...

The Chamber...

"Cerberus has completed its mission," Ms. Nona reported. "With one test, Cerberus has surpassed Pandora."

"Yes, the new experiment did not hesitate to kill the S.C.Ms. or Charles Smith." Pleased by the outcome, Mr. Decuma smiled. "Cerberus did not disobey orders."

"Yes, a fitting first trial," Ms. Nona added.

"Pandora never disobeyed," Mr. Morta retorted. "We never gave it any orders but one. Stay alive, and that it did."

Mr. Decuma smacked his hand on the table. "You must admit it! Pandora is a failure!" He calmed himself. "It is time for its termination."

"Yes," Ms. Nona agreed. "And what better way than to have Cerberus kill Pandora. The test will prove the superiority of the new project."

Mr. Morta said, "I believe it is premature to eliminate Pandora. We can still learn–"

Mr. Decuma interrupted, "This time you have been outvoted."

"The first time this Council has not been of one mind," Ms. Nona said. "And hopefully the last."

"Pandora's fate is out of my hands." Mr. Morta nodded to an analyst. "Give Cerberus its orders. The new experiment is to find Pandora and report in."

The male analyst nodded and relayed the order.

Mr. Morta realized Pandora's era was coming to an end, and he hoped what little time she had been put to good use.

Chapter Fifty-seven

Prelude to:

Book Two

From Moscow, With Love

9:45 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Old Business Vicinage...

Nikolai and Natasha walked into Jack's Hard Luck Pawn; it was one of many dealers on Wayfaring Lane. They removed their Winnow Masks. The colossal man with a buzz cut wore a black trench coat, and he stood by the front door as his sister proceeded to the owner. Natasha waited till the only other customer left the shop.

With her heavy Russian accent, she started, "I heard you're the man to see." Natasha raked her hand through her long black hair.

"What are you looking for?" Jack lit a NicPhake cigarette and took a long drag as he looked her up and down. "Jewelry? Watches?"

"We're bird hunting," she replied.

"Bird hunting, you say?" Jack raised a gray eyebrow.

"Yes, a very rare bird."

"Rare? What are–"

Nikolai moved forward and interrupted the owner, "We arrived from Moscow, and Voice said you could help us."

"Puck... Why didn't you say so to begin with?" Jack waved for the two of them to join him behind the counter. "Come with me. I've got some stuff in the back that should be to your liking." He rang a buzzer at a door and waved at the security camera. "You guys look professional. You here to hit anyone I know?"

Natasha and her brother moved behind the counter and stood behind Jack.

She answered, "All you need to know is that a mistake was made."

Nikolai added, "And we are here to rectify it."

The door unlocked, and Jack proceeded in as they followed. Five rough looking men stood in the next room. Two hung out talking while the other three cleaned guns. The room fell silent as all five men watched the two outsiders enter.

Nikolai was impressed by their arsenal as he looked around. "You have enough weapons in here to supply a small army."

"Yeah." Jack puffed on the cigarette. "I inherited the place from my cousin, Wayne. He was well connected but couldn't keep his mouth shut. Pucking looser... His loose lips got him killed." He took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked white-pink ash in a Styrofoam cup of old coffee. "What do you need?"

Nikolai answered, "The guns are on this list."

"And throwing knives," Natasha interrupted her brother.

Jack took the list, looking it over. "This I can do." He pointed to two of his guys. "Get what they need." Jack handed the men the list, turned to a computer, and typed out an invoice.

The two men left and returned a few minutes later, and one of the men walked up to Natasha.

"Which one of these bad boys is for you, babe?" The man patted the guns. "By the way, the name's Ron."

"None of those." She studied the man that was about six inches taller than herself. "The knives are mine. They are my Sweets."

"Sweets, huh..." Ron handed them to her. "A fine babe like yerself likes to play with sharp things. You like to play with dangerous things. How about we step out for a little while? I'll show you something dangerous and maybe something a little sweet."

Nikolai moved toward the man, and Nikolai stated, "She is not interested."

Natasha said nothing, knowing what was coming. She removed her white fur-lined black coat, revealing tight-fitting red leather pants, vest, and boots. Natasha placed the coat on the back of a chair and inserted a set of throwing knives in a sheath around each wrist.

"You her boyfriend?" he asked the Closer.

"No," Nikolai replied. "I am her brother."

"Stay out of this then," Ron said. "It's none of your business."

Natasha almost felt sorry for the man. If Ron had dropped it, her brother might have only punched him in the mouth.

Nikolai controlled his anger. "She is not interested in the likes of you."

Ron jabbed his finger into the colossal man's chest. "You're her brother, not her mother. Let the babe decide."

Jack hit the print button on the computer for the invoice. "Don't do anything stupid, Ron."

"I know what I'm doing." Ron caressed her butt. "What do you say, babe?"

The veins in Nikolai's neck bulged with fury, and his eyes went wild like a mad grizzly bear and with one massive hand, the Russian reached out, grabbed the man by the throat, and choked him. The other men in the room drew their weapons and aimed at the siblings. Ron pulled a Glock 19, and Nikolai grabbed his wrist and squeezed it till Ron released the gun, and it hit the floor.

"Wait!" Jack cried out to his men and motioned with his hands. "Put your guns down." Sweat beaded his face, fearing the situation would get out of hand. "You don't know who these two are. If Voice sent them... Well... They'll kill you." He swallowed hard. "Puck! They'll kill all of us."

His men reluctantly complied as Nikolai continued to choke Ron. Natasha put her coat back on.

"You do not touch my sister in an impertinent way. No one treats my sister that way."

The man clawed Nikolai's arm, unable to breathe, and his eyes bugged out.

"Please, be reasonable," Jack pleaded. "Puck, let him go, and he can apologize."

"No." Nikolai squeezed harder, and the veins in his hand bulged. "I warned him, so I offer no mercy."

Natasha walked over to her brother and rubbed her hand up and down his back. She moved to Ron, leaned to him, and whispered in his ear, "From Moscow, with love." Natasha nodded to her brother, and Nikolai forcibly turned the man's head toward her. She French kissed Ron as he clawed at her brother's arm. She finished, stepped back, and said, "We will have to write up extra paperwork on your death, but I am pleased and that will make it worth it."

Ron's eyes rolled back, and Nikolai released his corpse, then reached down, and picked up the Glock 19. "His weapon is now mine." He tucked the gun into the back waistband of his pants.

Natasha looked down at the dead man and smiled. "You had asked me a question. You wanted to know what I say. I say you should have listened to my brother." She turned to Jack. "How much do we owe you for the weapons?"

Unable to say anything as he stared at the dead man, Jack handed her the invoice with a shaky hand.

She stated, "Voice will have the funds in your account by tonight."

Still shocked, Jack nodded.

Natasha and her brother headed out with the guns in two large duffle bags and once they were outside, they put their Winnow Masks on and checked the streets for police. They placed the duffle bags in the trunk of their black Cadillac. He unzipped one, removed a case, and opened the container.

"Finally, I have Tommy." Nikolai smoothed his hand across a machine gun. "And I can be the Hood I dreamed of being."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever makes you happy. Now come and let us be on our way."

He put the machine gun back and within a few minutes, they got into the car and took off their masks. Nikolai removed the trophy he took off of Ron and placed the Glock 19 in the glove box.

"Let us hurry with our assignment." Natasha glanced out the passenger side window at the darkness surrounding the city. "I grow to hate this place."

Her brother pulled the car out into traffic. "Our final task is four days away and once we have killed the Phoenix, we can leave Noir."

"Voice is as forgiving as you, my brother. Voice must never be crossed."

"Yes," her brother agreed. "We must always complete our assignments with no hesitation and with no remorse. Our hearts must not rule our minds or our actions. In our line of business, it can only bring death."

The End

# Shades Of Gray #2

From Moscow, With Love

Shades of Gray #2

From Moscow, With Love

Kristie Lynn Higgins

SHADES OF GRAY: From Moscow, With Love

© 2007, 2018

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Introductions

This series uses a mixture of omniscient past tense and first person present tense to tell the story of Shades of Gray. I have used bold to separate the first person from the omniscient. Enjoy the series.

I have glimpsed into the future and seen a world of darkness and sorrow. It was a place where the clouds hid the sun and human machines walked and terrorized the land, but there was nothing darker or more horrifying than the hearts of those who lived there.

Will no one save them?

Translated from the Assembled Works

Ginn L. Irynkissgthie

525 B.D.C.

Chapter One

The Raven And the Wolf

The year 32 A.D.C...

October 22...

Friday...

6:23 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

The blackness of night hung over the early morning as mile-thick Dry Clouds shrouded Noir's sky, and they hung over the city like a sleeping dragon. They were a sleeping dragon that the Earth feared one day would wake and devour them, and so far, no magic of science could stop the beast. Purple lightning lit up the heavens, but the density of the barriercumulus muffled the thunder as a Common Raven flew below the clouds, dove into a park, and landed on a branch of a Transgenic Maple. Scattered lamps lit up the dark empty paths surrounding the tree as a cold wind rustled the hybrid maple's leaves and the blades of the spongy Transgenic Grass that surrounded the truck's base. The breeze suddenly died. The large bird heard a twig snap and tilted its head, staring at a bush as a pale-white Tundra Wolf emerged and looked up with its golden-yellow eyes at the raven. Their gazes locked.

Across the street from the park...

A black Cadillac stopped at a curb, and Nikolai, wearing a white pinstriped gray business suit and a WM-A, got out of the driver's side. He placed a gray Fedora hat on his head, smoothed its rim, straightened a white tie, and shut the door.

Natasha exited the passenger's side also wearing a filter mask. Natasha, a Life Closer like her twin brother, inhaled through the triangular filter over her nose and exhaled through her mouth. She looked at the old apartments in front of them and then to the park across the street which was mostly empty. Natasha removed her white fur-lined, long, black coat, revealing a tight-fitting red leather outfit. It consisted of pants, a vest, and high heel knee boots. She threw the coat in the back seat, grabbed a black leather satchel from the front floor, and closed the door. She checked on her throwing knives' sheaths that were velcroed to each wrist.

"My Sweets..." Natasha spoke as she caressed the blades on her left wrist with her index finger. "Ready for some action?"

Natasha made her way to the back, joining her brother as Nikolai popped the trunk with a remote, lifted a case, and set it on the sidewalk.

He removed his mask and asked, "How does it look?"

His sister glanced up and down the deserted street and then answered, "It is clear."

Natasha replaced the WM-A to her face. He set his mask in the trunk, holstered a Glock 25, grabbed the mask, closed the trunk, and picked up the case.

She motioned to the case and spoke, "I cannot believe you are going to use that thing." Her Russian accent clung to every word as she added, "It is ancient."

Nikolai patted the case as he said, "Tasha, I like it for this kind of job."

"You mean the kind of job where it does not matter how messy it gets. Remember my brother, this is still a Life Closing so please be professional."

"I always am."

Nikolai winked at her and started up a gravel path, crunching over rocks with his black cap toe shoes. He made his way to the apartment's entrance and entered the glass front door and once inside, they both removed their WM-A, he handed his to his sister, and Natasha placed both of them in her satchel. He waited by the door as she continued in, and he watched over her as she neared the security desk.

A security guard in his early thirties looked up from the desk and stood, seeing the tall woman, and his gaze slowly ran up her tall leggy figure before he asked, "Can I help you?"

He adjusted his pants and his belt and holster, made his way to the front of the desk, and approached her. Natasha leaned to him and whispered something Nikolai couldn't hear, the guard grinned as he spoke back to her in muffled words Nikolai couldn't understand, and then he saw his sister giggle. The guard leaned on the desk and continued to talk as Natasha glanced back and saw that her brother was watching them intently, and then she placed her hand on the guard's arm. Nikolai noticed the lustful eye the guard gave his sister and scowled as his body ignited with rage. He put the case down, marched forward, pulled his Glock as jealousy spurred his hand, and fired once, hitting the man in the knee and then with gleeful pleasure, he watched the guard fall and grab his leg, squirming in pain like the worm he was.

"Brother! What are you doing?" Natasha asked as she folded her arms, knowing that once his temper erupted there was no stopping him. She would have to talk him down before they could proceed and so was her duty as his sister and partner. "We were not ordered to kill security."

"Did you see how he looked at you?" Nikolai questioned her as he marched to the man like a crazed bear. "I will gouge out his eyes and rip off his bollocks!"

She ran her fingers through her long hair, continuing to talk him down, but not before she teased him into a frenzy. It was already too late for the guard, so she might as well enjoy his death.

"I am a beautiful woman." She grabbed both of her breasts and massaged them with her hands as she inquired, "What do you expect? He only wanted to fondle me, he said so, and he also said that he wanted to take me to plains of ecstasy."

"He said that?" Nikolai yelled as his sister slowly walked over to him, he fired a round into the man's heart, killing him and then he turned, looking for others he could murder as he stated, "No one will look at you like that or say such things to you!"

Natasha looked at the dead man. His death had been a little too quick for her taste. Maybe the Closing upstairs would satisfy her morbid lust, and she said, "The guard never said that to me." She ran her fingers up her brother's massive arm to his back and then wrapped her arms around his waist, gripping him tightly in the front as she whispered, "How many times must I tell you that you cannot kill every man that glances at me?" She moved to the front of him and placed both her hands on his face, then Natasha saw his eyes bulge out in rage as they searched the area for more vile men he could kill, and she said, "There will be many, and you cannot kill all of them."

"But he..." Nikolai started till his sister leaned in and kissed him on the lips. The rage seething in him lessened, and he relaxed as he adoringly looked at his sister and kissed her back. She finished, and he told her, "I am sorry. I lost myself again."

"It is fine but do not let it happen–"

A second guard exited an elevator, interrupting her and when the guard saw that Nikolai had killed his partner, the guard dropped his coffee and pulled his Python 4 revolver as he blurted, "Hold it right there!"

As the guard covered her brother, Natasha reached for her left wrist, pulled a knife from the sheath, threw it, and hit the man in the throat. The guard fired as he grabbed at the steel in his windpipe, and the wild shot hit the glass front door and shattered it. Shards rained, pinging to the tiled floor as the guard dropped his weapon and collapsed to his knees. He choked on his blood as he pulled a radio.

Natasha walked over to him and kicked his revolver away as he tried to use the radio but only made gurgling sounds. He was lying on his back, so she sat on his stomach, looked at him with pity, covered his eyes with her left hand, and told him, "Do not look. The pain will be over soon." Natasha leaned to his ear and whispered, "From Moscow, with love. Now I will give you the Executioner's Adieu."

She moved to his lips as blood bubbled from them and French kissed him, tasting a mixture of coffee and metallic saliva. He fought her erotic oral assault and dropped the radio to grab her arm and push her off but before he could, she removed the knife from his windpipe. Blood spurted her face and neck, and she arched back stimulated by the red gore and uttered a soft moan as her body tingled. Aroused by the blood, she watched as the guard held his throat, trying to prevent his own demise.

Natasha waited till he died, wiped the knife on his shirt, cleaning off his blood, and sheathed the blade, and then she leaned to his ear and whispered to him as uncalloused as she could, "I am sorry. You were not meant to die, but you should know that I did enjoy your death." She stood, took one more moment to look at the man, walked to her brother, and berated him, "Look what has happened. We will have to file extra reports, and you know how I hate excess work. Not only that..." She glanced back at the second guard and then turned to her brother, questioning him, "How are we going to explain your actions to Voice and the Assassins Guild? You needlessly killed the first guard. He would not have stopped us from going up."

He hung his head like a scolded child, and then he replied, "I do not know."

"We will say the guard tried to stop us and that you had to shoot him and the second guard saw us kill his partner and we had to kill him also. But you cannot keep doing this. Voice will find out."

"If that happens, we will become marked for closing like the Phoenix."

"Yes, like the Phoenix," Natasha repeated as she smiled at her sulking brother. "Now cheer up. You still have your new toy to play with."

"You are right." He went, picked up the case, and said, "Come, Tasha." He entered an elevator, pressed button thirty-one, and added, "Let us go blip off the bird."

Puzzled by what her brother meant by his statement, she raised a black eyebrow, followed, and said, "Remember the Closing File states we keep collateral damage to a minimum."

"A minimum, not zero."

"Please do not kill anyone outside of the apartment," she told him as the elevator started up, and then she removed a gold compact and a white silk handkerchief from her satchel. She looked into the mirror and wiped some of the splatter from her face and neck as she said, "If we go out later, I will have to clean up. The guard is all over my face." She placed both items back into her satchel, the cab opened, and the two of them walked out as she asked, "What apartment number are we looking for?"

Nikolai removed an H.H.C. from his suit pocket as they walked from the end of the hall, and he looked at the numbers on the doors before they passed them and stopped. "This is the one."

She noticed a dark crack beneath the door and whispered, "The lights are out, so they are probably still sleeping. Do you want to knock?"

"Knock? No, not with this heat," he spoke as he patted the case, set it on the floor, opened it, and removed a Thompson Submachine Gun. "This bean-shooter announces itself."

"Of all the people to idolize, you had to pick 1930's gangsters."

"Every gink needs a hobby. I happen to be good at two."

Natasha said, "Half the time, I do not know what you are saying."

Nikolai winked at her, made sure she was safely away, then stood back, shot several rounds into the frame near the knob, and kicked in the splintered door. Light from the hallway rushed into the apartment as he proceeded down an entry and an armed man appeared at the dark end. Nikolai fired, dropping the man and headed into the pitch black living room. He heard two men whispering, and Nikolai yelled like a maniac and wildly shot in their direction as gun blast lit up his smirking face. The men who were hiding behind a couch fired a round apiece and missed him before the Tommy sliced through the sofa and cut them down. Nikolai flipped on a light, retrieved his case, and reloaded, then he headed down a hallway, and kicked in the master bedroom door. The light was on, and a man was in bed with two women. The man had pulled an Olympic 6 revolver from a nightstand.

"I'll blow your head off!" the man threatened.

The women squealed, covering themselves with the sheet, and one of them asked, "Vicky, is this another one of your sick games?"

"No, babe, not this time," he answered as he aimed the revolver, and then he cursed, "Puck! I don't know who this guy is." He snarled and yelled, "I'm Vic the Vulture. You don't know who yer messing with! I've got a contract with the Valhalla Corporation." The man shot at him as he yelled, "I'm under their protection!"

The bullet grazed Nikolai's shoulder and in anger, he grabbed the gun from Vic and pistol-whipped him. One of the women screamed and covered her face with her hands as Nikolai continued to hit the man. He finished and threw Vic's gun across the room.

Nikolai pointed the Tommy up, put one foot on the bed, and leaned toward Vic as he spat, "Here's the wire, lug. Your Chicago overcoat has done been fitted."

Vic grabbed his bloodied cheek as he asked, "What are you blabbering about, you mother-pucker? What you're saying doesn't make any sense. All I know is yer dead! Dead when the corporation finds out you messed with me!"

"Shut your trap! Your yap's why I'm here. Your so-called friends at Valhalla found out that the trade secrets you were supposed to be brokering for them you've also been selling off to other corporations." Nikolai's demeanor changed from one of a wise guy to a serious Life Closer as he spoke, "Victor L. Boons also known as Vic the Vulture, on behalf of Valhalla, I am terminating your contract."

"Wait! You can't! They can't! Puck! It's a mistake. I've only sold to Valhalla!"

"It is no use lying to me. They have audio evidence that you did it."

"I... I can explain. Let me get their Vice President on the phone."

"Did you not read your contract with them?" Nikolai questioned as he shook his head, irritated by the man's ignorance, and then he said, "You should have read it more closely. By signing, you agreed to the Life Closer Clause should you violate the contract and there are no second chances." He glanced at the two hookers and said, "It is a pity these two women are here. They would not have to die if they had not seen my face." Nikolai opened up one last volley, and the women screamed. White goose down flew up from the dozens of bullet impacts in the mattress. The feathers fell like snow, landing on the three bodies, and blood slowly tainted the down as Nikolai added, "As stipulated, your employment has been terminated."

"My turn has finally come," Natasha said as she walked into the bedroom behind Nikolai. She had already secured the rest of the apartment. Natasha watched as Vic gasped, clinging to life then she walked over to him, bent down, and whispered in his ear, "From Moscow, with love. Now I will give you the Executioner's Adieu." Natasha French kissed him and as she intertwined her tongue with his, Vic died, and then she straightened, wiping the blood from her lips with her index finger and said, "The Closing was most enjoyable." Natasha turned, saw her brother's wound, and scolded him, "Look at you. I hope you are happy." She examined the minor shoulder graze as she said, "See what you get for wanting to play with your toy. You could have used a handgun with a silencer." She glanced at the man in bed whose glassy eyes stared up at the ceiling, and then she spoke, "If you had, Vic the Vulture would not have even known you were here, but you wanted to go all Al Ca-put."

Nikolai pointed the Tommy gun up again as if posing for a picture, and then he informed her, "He was named Al Capone, and it was worth it, my sister. I do feel like a gangster." He smoothed his fingers across the rim of his Fedora as he spoke, "Place our calling card so we may leave before Noir Civil Police Force is called in. Dealing with the N.C.P.F. could be time-consuming so let our calling card talk for us."

She nodded, walked over to Vic, and placed a business card of a wolf and a raven on his chest. A barcode printed on the bottom of the card included the Life Closers' information, and the N.C.P.F. would use this card to verify the killings were Life Closings and not murders.

"We only have one more assignment to complete and then we can leave this wretched Dark Half."

"Yes, my sister. We only need to bop the Phoenix and we can return home to Mother Russia."

"It will not be so easy," Natasha said. "We do not know what the Phoenix looks like. Is this Life Closer a man, woman, or child? All we have is an appointed time and place for the Closing from Voice to find the Phoenix," she paused and then added, "And I do wish you would stop talking that way. Honestly, I do not know what you meant when you said you want to bop the Phoenix; it kind of had a sexual connotation which I hope you did not intend."

"No," he spoke as his face reddened. "I did not mean–"

She put her hand under his chin, reached up, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "Come then, I am famished. We will clean up, and I will tend to your shoulder and after that is done, we can see what fine delights Noir has to offer."

Chapter Two

A Past Mistake

Nineteen days earlier...

October 3...

Wednesday...

6:01 P.M...

The Light Side...

Russia...

The end of the day swept across Moscow's Red Square as hundreds of tourists visited St. Basil's Cathedral, GUM department store, the Historical Museum, and many other attractions. The clear western sky exploded with hues of orange and red as the sun started its descent. Twilight approached this part of the Light Side of the planet, and it was a place where the sun existed, separating day from night. Dry Clouds didn't pollute the air or obscure the heavens and darkness didn't rule the land. Eventually, even this part of the world would be covered if the Dry Clouds were not stopped; they spread about an inch every week.

Ten days before meeting Kat, Kim walked out of GUM department store and put on sunglasses before stepping out into the early evening to protect her eyes. A native of the Dark Half of the planet, the sun's light hurt her even near the twilight hours. She pulled back her blonde hair, tied it in a ponytail, buttoned up her long dark gray coat, and pulled on black gloves. Kim straightened a black knapsack slung over one shoulder as she noticed a woman holding a little girl in her arms and grinned. She had fond memories of her own mother that was until Kim turned eighteen. Her mother had left her and her father without a word nearly twenty years ago. At this time in her life, Kim hadn't yet discovered the truth about Theresa.

Kimberly's view...

I make my way out of Red Square, then hurry to Kalancheveskaya Street, and rush to the rooftop of the Leningradskaya Hotel, making sure no one sees me. I reach the rooftop just as the sun plunges over the horizon, and I pause, taking in a little of the life around me. Darkness starts to flood the sky as I remove my sunglasses and place them in the pocket of my coat. The beauty that we who live on the Dark Half miss, you don't realize its splendor until you witness it in person. The sun's so beautiful, and the colors that break across the horizon as it disappears for the day are mesmerizing. I inhale deeply, fill my lungs with the brisk air, exhale, and my hot breath appears as mist. The air smells clean unlike Noir's, and it energizes me and makes me feel more alive. The chill in the air tells me Winter will soon overtake Fall.

The sun completely disappears, and this world on the Light Side of the planet, even as night spreads across it, is so wonderfully different. I glance up at the cloudless night and notice the stars are so bright. I can't even imagine that Noir's sky looked like this once.

I pull on a knit mask to hide my identity, not that I expect anyone to come up here and see me. I wait for two hours near the ledge, keep to the shadows, and monitor the lit sidewalk below with binoculars. I came up here earlier than I had too, but I like to get the layout of the land before I take out a Mark. I place my knapsack near the ledge, move to a different part of the roof, and pull out a large case a Guild Prep/Cleanup Crew hid the day before. I remove the sections of an M24, put the sniper rifle together, then move back to the ledge, and peer down the block through the scope. My target's supposed to leave the tea house within the next hour. Many people go in and out of bars, eateries, and stores in the area. I glance at my watch, see it's time, place a silencer on the rifle, and kneel beside the ledge. I peer through the scope and aim at the entrance of the tea house. I remove an H.H.C. from my coat pocket, open up the Closing File on the touch screen, and study the picture of the Mark one more time. Voice told me the Mark will receive a phone call around this time and draw her out, so all I have to do is wait.

A minute turns into ten, and soon the woman walks out of the tea house along with four armed bodyguards. I aim for the woman's heart, waiting for a clear shot as people walk by her on the sidewalk. A limo pulls up, and one of the bodyguards moves to the vehicle and opens the back door. I put my finger on the trigger ready to pull it when the target pauses and turns back. A little girl runs out of the tea house and takes the woman's hand. The child holds something in her other hand.

I glance up from the scope. Voice said nothing about the woman having a child. Hades! It should have been included in the Closing File. I peer back through the scope, taking aim again, and I place my finger back on the trigger. The woman and the child walk forward to enter the limo and pause as the little girl kneels to tie her shoe. The child lays an object on the sidewalk, grabs her laces, and ties them.

My hands tremble, so I remove my finger from the trigger. Hades! I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm acting like this is my first kill but that happened years ago, and I have long since hardened my heart to my work. I take several deep breaths till my hands stopped shaking, and then I place my finger back to the trigger. I can't let whatever's affecting me to get in the way. I need to take the shot.

The child laughs and after finishing with her laces, the child picks up the object. She glances up at her mother with adoration.

I berate myself as I delay. It's my job. I have to kill the woman. For Ares' sake! It doesn't matter if the child's watching. My usual calm heart pounds with indecision. I can't let the thought of the child seeing her mother murdered affect me. Even in the cool air, sweat speckles my brow beneath the mask and absorbs into the material. I aim again and this time, I won't hesitate. A street vendor approaches, selling glowing balloons as I still struggle with the shot.

Hades! Pull the trigger! Who cares what happens to the little girl? I look up from the scope, thinking of my past. Look how I turned out without a mom. I shake my head to erase the feelings of abandonment, peer one last time into the scope and with shaky resolve, pull the trigger.

A balloon pops...

Chapter Three

Picking Up From Where We Left Off

Present time...

October 22...

Friday...

12:56 P.M...

Noir...

Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

A dim light illuminates a back alley as I glance around a corner of an old brick building and peer at the end of a deserted road. A ten-foot chain-link fence surrounds the back entrance of our destination. The wind blows a newspaper along the bottom of the barrier, changes direction, and flattens the debris against the diamond mesh. The newspaper flaps in the breeze before the wind tumbles it further down the road. I look within the fence and see an S.C.M. sitting in a guardhouse. He's reading a Guns&Knives magazine and drinking coffee and every ten minutes or so, he looks up from his reclined position. I imagined this place having better security as I glance at a scrap piece of paper; it's the address the hologram Theresa Griffin gave us. I sigh, disappointed with the defense and the rundown appearance of the building. It has to have some information about the Pandora Project. I couldn't have gotten my hopes up just to find nothing.

Kimberly stands beside me and peers through night vision binoculars. She wears her all black work outfit consisting of thin gloves, a tank top, jogging pants, running shoes, and a zipped up hooded sweatshirt. I'm wearing my usual white t-shirt, a gray-black athletic jacket, and gray-black pants.

"What do you see?" I ask her.

Kimberly's view...

"Considering who you are, I thought you would have supervision," I tell her, referring to her being the Pandora Project.

I reluctantly partnered with that strange woman four days ago, and I'm still uneasy about the collaboration. There's something about her... There's something I can't put my finger on. Hades! I hate this. I was told she's the key but never what she was the key of. I glance up from the binoculars, thinking about the Rogue. It claimed that she was organic-mecha, a robot that can completely pass as human. I think that would be worse than being some sort of messed up human experiment and considering the organic-mecha dilemma, I can't trust her or her motives for wanting to partner with me, not that I ever trusted her.

Katharine's view...

I see the mistrust in Kimberly's face and know the snide remarks are her way of keeping herself at arm's length. I don't know if she'll ever believe in my sincerity to help her. I glance at her again. Maybe something else is putting her on edge. It could be what the Rogue told her and if that's it, she has to see me as a freak. No wonder she can't trust me if she thinks I've been deceiving her.

I examine our time together so far, and I know one thing... our partnership's going nowhere.

I finally answer her, "No, I don't have supervision. All I see is the soldier."

"There's nothing else to see," Kimberly says as she hands me the binoculars.

I peer through them and look at the S.C.M., the guardhouse, and the loading dock behind the small building. He wears a dark green uniform and his shoulder patch has the Sphinx Corporation Emblem with the Council's Crest. On the top part of the large building is written "Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo". The S.C.M. confirms it. This place belongs to the Council. We just need to figure out what sort of place it is. I hand the binoculars back.

"Let's go to work," Kimberly tells me as she places the binoculars in the knapsack, removes a metal object, pulls her gun from a shoulder holster, and screws the silencer on her PPK.

I ask, "What are you doing?"

Kimberly's view...

"For Ares' sake! What does it look like I'm doing?" I snap as I glance at that woman.

I don't see anything special about her. She's plain looking with hazel eyes and short brown hair but maybe that in itself is a disguise. I just can't figure out if she's a weapon or one truly messed up person and why one of the departments in the Sphinx Corporation wants her. All I know is if she's important to them, they won't let her go so easily. Maybe I should end our partnership before it causes me any more grief. I can't let anyone live who knows I'm the Phoenix. Anonymity is life, so I shouldn't wait too long to eliminate the one who has seen my face and who knows that I'm a Life Closer.

I consider it a few seconds more and decide if I want to investigate the building, I'll need that woman, so I'll allow her to live a little longer until her negative points outweigh her usefulness.

As if my actions are a normal everyday thing, I point at the guard with my gun and answer her stupid question, "I'm going to take out that S.C.M. and go into that building. I'm going to see why this address was in the file labeled the Gorgons."

Katharine's view...

"You can't," I say, keeping my voice down so not to alert the S.C.M. "Killing's wrong. Everybody knows that."

"For Ares' sake... Of course, it's wrong," Kimberly whispers. "But how else are we going to get in? Hades! I can't believe we're arguing about this. Actually..." I see and feel her anger increase as she takes a step towards me and states, "I can't believe I'm letting you stop me from doing what I normally do." She pushes me up against the wall and tells me, "Now listen... I'm a Closer and this is what I do."

She releases me, starts around the corner, but then I grab her arm, and she turns and glares at me. I feel her stare bore right through me as if it's a laser. I want to shrink back and run away, but I stand my ground.

I release her wrist and say, "That doesn't make it right. Please, don't kill him." In a gentler tone, I add, "There are other ways."

Kimberly scoffs my idea as if it's too childish, and then she points toward the corner and demands, "Show me then." She dares me as if it's some sort of game, "Show me how you're going to get us in without him sounding an alarm."

"Watch me," I reply as I take on her challenge. "Maybe you'll learn something."

I remove my single strap backpack, open it, and pull out a Gel-Taser; it's a device that resembles a mini TV remote. I also remove a dog collar and then drop the backpack to the ground. I tuck the oblong silver Gel-Taser in my back pocket, walk around the corner, and start whistling.

"True! Here boy! Come here! Mommy's looking for you. True!" I walk right up to the gate and speak meekly, "Excuse me."

The S.C.M. sees my approach, so he puts his magazine and coffee down, grabs the XM8, and comes out to the entrance. He keeps the assault rifle at the ready and peers through the chain-link fence.

I act hopeful as I question, "Have you seen a dog?"

He relaxes his grip on the XM8 as he answers me, "No, I haven't seen one." The S.C.M. eyes me and must decide I'm not a threat and slings his assault rifle. He removes his cap and runs his hand through his short hair as he suggests, "Maybe you should try around Joe's Diner. His dumpster attracts hungry animals."

Back at the corner...

Kimberly's view...

I can't believe it. That woman walked right up to him. I let my amazement fade away. It doesn't matter if she's able to talk with the soldier without setting off any alarms. The real question is if she can get us in.

At the fence...

Katharine's view...

I glance at the dog collar, then back to him, and say, "I don't know where the diner is located. Could you give me directions?"

"Yeah. Hold on," he says as he goes back into the guardhouse and comes back with a Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage map. The S.C.M. points to the paper and gives me instructions, "We're here. Joe's up there. First, go back down the alley you came up, then..."

I step closer to the fence, scratch my mid-back, and slowly remove the Gel-Taser and with my thumb, I flip off the safety at the bottom of the weapon that's below a large red button. The soldier continues to talk as I palm the small device and move my hand to the fence. I carefully aim, press the red button, fire a green jelly string through the diamond mesh, and hit the man in the neck. The end of the gel substance clumps on impact, it forms an acorn size circle and adheres to his skin, and the rest of the string dangles still attached to the Gel-Taser. I press the large red button again as the S.C.M. grabs at the string, and 1,500 volts surged through the jelly. He cries out, convulses, and falls to the ground unconscious as I look around, making sure no one saw me, and then I hit a blue button that recoils the string. I set the safety, tuck the Gel-Taser back in my pocket, and climb the fence.

Back at the corner...

Kimberly's view...

I can't believe it! She actually did it... I holster my gun and run up as that woman buzzes the gate open, and I hand that woman her bag. I'm still quite amazed. I thought she would get captured. I might have lost out on finding out what's in the building but my Pandora problem would have been solved.

"Have you done this before?" I ask as I help her drag the man into the guardhouse.

"Actually, a couple of times," she replies as she takes his keycard, then places the Gel-Taser in her backpack and the keycard in her back pocket, and adds, "He'll be out at least two hours."

I glance at my watch and say, "Let's get inside and see what we find." A little impressed by that woman's tactics and excited to continue our game, I state, "See how far we can go without killing someone."

Chapter Four

The Council

1:19 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Unknown Vicinage...

The new Sanctum...

Within the Chamber...

"Come on people!" a male supervisor barked. "You're behind on your one o'clock reports. Let's get them in." After a few minutes, he scanned an H.H.C., moved to one of the twenty-four Chamber Analysts, and said, "You're the last one. What's the holdup?"

"It's these readings from the new project. There was so much to compile that–" the male analyst started, "–I didn't leave enough time to write out the report. I won't make the same mistake again."

"The Council doesn't tolerate inefficiency or errors."

"I know but like I said I discovered my miscalculation," the analyst restated as he sent in his report. "It won't happen again."

"Make sure it doesn't," the supervisor said as he went back to walking the line of workstations.

In the center of the Chamber...

The Council sat at a long rectangular table that was the darkest point of the room, and the laptops and H.H.Cs. were the only things that illuminated the immediate area. The Council monitored many black projects and on this day, they monitored one experiment in particular. Mr. Morta a tall man with a stout built sat at the head of the table.

The door to the Chamber opened and light from the hallway revealed Ms. Nona was a slim lilliputian and dwarfed Mr. Morta's frame. She sat to his right on a specially designed chair that raised her to the table.

Ms. Nona turned to her laptop and stated, "We are receiving a report from Cerberus." She typed across the keyboard with her cherry-red nails as she continued, "Vulcan Station is now in our hands. Two of our squads of Sphinx Corporate Military have already arrived in Antarctica, and the S.C.Ms. have taken over the base."

"Good, good," Mr. Morta said. "Vulcan Station was the last Factory facility in operation, and now the acquisition of our sister department's assets is complete." He paused and asked, "What of the two scientists at Vulcan Station?"

Mr. Decuma was a meager man of average height, and he sounded disappointed when he replied, "Cerberus did not kill them as instructed but–"

Mr. Morta demanded, "But what?"

Mr. Decuma answered, "Well..."

When he hesitated, Ms. Nona replied, "Dr. John Gelid and Dr. Robert Seeker were injured."

"How?" Mr. Morta questioned.

"Cerberus tortured them with a laser cutter," Mr. Decuma answered. "Both men have severe burns. They have been flown back and are recuperating in our medical facility."

Mr. Morta stated, "It would appear we need to be more precise in our instructions. We did want the cooperation of the scientists." He paused and questioned, "Where is Cerberus now?"

"It is flying back to Noir," Ms. Nona answered as she scanned the clock on her laptop. "Cerberus should arrive within a few hours."

Mr. Morta thought for a moment and asked, "How is Argus? I would like him to monitor Cerberus."

"He is still receiving care," Mr. Decuma said. "The injuries he received from the T-3s when they tortured him were not life-threatening. He should be ready to return to work in a few days."

"Did he give up any information about our work or the Sanctum?"

"He says no," Mr. Decuma replied. "He said that they were rescued before he broke."

"They?" Mr. Morta repeated, puzzled for a moment. "Ah, yes. The two Factory technicians we acquired. Tech One-eleven and Tech One-twelve. What are their names?"

"Peters and Maxwell," Mr. Decuma answered. "We never did find out who rescued them. The men are closed mouth about it."

"Do you believe Argus divulged any information?" Mr. Morta asked.

"No," Mr. Decuma replied. "We did condition him to withstand pain. The T-3s may have broken him with time but not in the short span that they had him. They had him three days to be precise."

Ms. Nona questioned, "What intel do we have on the T-3s?"

"The operatives we had following them turned up dead," Mr. Decuma answered as he scanned another H.H.C. "The last report we received from them stated they had left the Hellenistic Sector of Noir."

"Create a new team," Mr. Morta commanded. "The T-3s must be found. We cannot have these machines on the loose. One Rogue is enough."

Mr. Decuma went to work on the task and pulled up personnel files and after several minutes, he started compiling a new team.

Ms. Nona's laptop beeped, she opened the incoming message, and then she relayed, "I have received a new report. Cerberus has stated its excitement."

"Over what?" Mr. Morta questioned. "Cerberus is experiencing a full range of emotions, and I believe this is good."

"Over tracking and eliminating the Pandora Project," Ms. Nona answered and then bit her left thumbnail as she continued to study the data.

Mr. Morta sounded concerned as he inquired, "Does Cerberus understand it is not to terminate Pandora?"

"Yes," Ms. Nona answered as she moved her hand back to the laptop. "Cerberus anticipates the order will be given to take out Pandora, and it indicates it will study Pandora, so it will be better equipped to eliminate the old project."

Mr. Decuma questioned Mr. Morta, "Why do you hesitate in giving the termination order?"

"The Pandora Project's tracking beacon was destroyed, but we still receive bio-data from Pandora," Mr. Morta spoke, sensing Mr. Decuma was suspicious of his recent actions, and he tried to put his mind at ease by explaining it away with a question, "Do you remember what happened two days ago?"

"Yes," Ms. Nona answered. "We received an influx of data, indicating Pandora reached the Delta Phase of its metamorphosis; it indicated that it had reached the Knowing."

"The data cannot be correct," Mr. Decuma insisted as he tapped the table with his finger and added, "There is no possible way the old project reached the Delta Phase without first achieving the Gamma, and its bio-data indicates that phase was never achieved."

"Do you both agree then?" Mr. Morta questioned, hoping to change their minds or postpone a negative decision. "We should suspend Pandora's termination. We must analyze the bio-data and once we have the correct information, we can decide whether or not to destroy Pandora." He rested his elbows on the arms of the chair, folded his dark brown hands, and then continued, "If the readings are corrupt, it is one thing but if the readings are true..." Mr. Morta hoped to give his favorite project some more time, and he said, "We should investigate it further. We did want Pandora to reach all of its phases, and we want it to become the killer we programmed it to be."

The other two glanced at each other and nodded.

"I have one condition," Mr. Decuma insisted. "We will terminate Pandora even if the information is inconclusive."

Mr. Morta nodded reluctantly and said, "It is agreed. Cerberus will observe Pandora. We will hold off termination until we have had enough time to study the data."

He had bought Pandora a little more time, and he hoped she would find the answers she was seeking.

Chapter Five

The Rogue's New Focus

1:41 P.M...

Near the Hellenistic Sector's boundary...

Within the shambles of the Factory...

The Rogue repaired the artificial epidermis covering its pale face as it stood in one of the many rooms the Factory devoted to bio-mecha research, especially, the assassin line of Un-Men. The room was labeled Bio-mecha Research Seventeen or BR17. The area under its left eye had been damaged two days ago in a battle with Pandora. It stared at a table mirror with its red artificial eyes, then the Rogue noted its eyes looked more like red ringed spheres, and it also noted the dingy brown business suit it wore had black oil covering its left jacket's arm. It went back to work and used a soldering iron to melt patches of skin to its damaged face. The skin was made from a manmade substance known as X-74.

The Rogue's view...

I pause from my work and set down the solder, thinking Pandora did a number on me. I came close to ending her existence, but she reached the Delta Phase of her metamorphosis and stopped me. Pandora shot me when no one else could.

I consider the past year and wonder why out of all my programming I cannot disobey the one to destroy Pandora. I find pleasure in hunting her, but I am an Un-Man, and I appear to be showing feelings and have self-awareness. This should not be.

I also consider in great depth the other thing that happened to me. Even though I tried to kill Pandora, she spared my life. She had the power to take it, yet she fled the room. She showed me mercy as if she knew something that I did not. Is there another purpose to my existence?

I think back to my discovery. After our encounter, I stumbled across the hidden chamber in the back of the Gallery and then later after I had gone through some of the Factory's research on the tablets, I found that archaeologists believe they were chiseled by Ginn L. Irynkissgthie around the year 525 B.D.C. and archaeologists also believe the words spoke of future events.

I process all this data, and I believe they are about Pandora and that they are some sort of prophecy about her. Right now, I do not know their true meaning. One of the tablets is broken, and I do not know how much of the text is missing. I do not know if the two tablets go together or if they are part of a separate message. I return to the table. Pandora could be the Rushlight mentioned in the one and if so, she is some sort of destroyer.

I consider the warning about the destroyer and my suspicions that she is an organic-mecha. Is she a machine completely composed of lab-grown parts or is she a human with unique abilities? My new objective will be to discover the truth and once I find the truth, I will terminate Pandora.

End the Rogue's view...

The Rogue picked up the solder and continued the repair of its face and after some time, the Rogue turned its head side to side, examining its work. It was pleased with its repair and glanced at its left arm. The Rogue needed to fix the shoulder, so it removed its jacket, picked up a pair of needle nose pliers, inserted the head into a bullet hole, and clasped a 9 mm round. It pulled the bullet out, dropped the slug to a tray, and the parting gift from Pandora clanged on the metal. Black ooze ran down from the wound till the Rogue used the solder to stop the oil leak, and then it waved a scanner over the hole and examined the results on an H.H.C. Nothing more was damaged; it only needed to patch the hole, so it placed a piece of X-74 over the wound and soldered it in place. Once done, the Rogue moved its arm up and down. The repair wasn't bad, but its skin coloring was all wrong; it was too pale for what it needed.

It removed its Coffin Handled Bowie, placed the knife and sheath on the table, took off all its clothes, and stepped into a specially designed shower. The Rogue set a color knob on the wall to olive and turned it on, and dark dye sprayed from the shower head, darkening its skin and hair. The dye ran for several minutes until the coloring covered its entire body, and it turned off the shower and stepped to a drier in the back. The machine roared as hot air rushed over its body, setting the new color. The Rogue stepped out and studied itself in a full-length mirror, and then it studied its artificial eyes and the blood-red dot-light of its I-Link sensor. If it was to pass as a human, it would have to do something about them, so it removed the eye cover to the sensor input compartment by screwing it off. The Rogue placed the cover on the table, picked up the needle-nose pliers, and carefully removed the orange bulb from the compartment so that it would no longer blink and betray its true identity. It screwed the eye cover back on, walked over to the table with all the equipment, opened a container filled with lenses, selected brown, and inserted them.

The Rogue's view...

A question crosses my processor, so I go back to the bulb and study it. I remember in the past the dot-light blinking blood-red. The bulb is orange, so it could not possibly blink blood-red. It does not make sense, actually, a lot of things do not make sense, but time is short, and I will have to consider this mystery later.

End the Rogue's view...

It looked at its shabby business suit on the floor. The Rogue needed a change of clothes. It had to look the new part if it was going to investigate the stone tablets. It streaked its way to a locker room, used a master keycard it took off the body of a dead manager, opened lockers, and searched through clothing and personal items till it found what it needed. It put on a pitch-black business suit and studied itself in a full-length mirror. No one would know that it was an Un-Man, and it had one last room to visit before company showed up, so the Rogue made its way into the hall and down several passages. Hundreds of dead Factory techs and S.C.Ms. filled the war zone laden hallways. It had been over a week since the T-3s malfunctioned and killed almost everyone at the Factory. The Rogue searched several manager offices until it found one with a functioning computer, sat at the desk, and woke up the computer.

At the Factory's main gate...

Lieutenant Creed held up his hand as a convoy of eight trucks approached. He wore a jet-black uniform, and a handful of soldiers stood behind him. His men were armed with an FN SCARs (Fredricks of Noir's Sphinx Combat Assault Rifle). He and his men were part of the Third Branch Office's corporate military. The armored S.C.M. vehicles that had just pulled up belonged to the Council. The lead truck halted, and the driver who wore a dark green uniform looked over the Latino man in his late thirties with a black goatee. The driver noticed Creed's name on his uniform and his rank, and then he handed an H.H.C. to him.

"Lieutenant, I'm Lieutenant Walters." The red-headed man had a pale complexion and sported a high and tight crew cut and trimmed beard, and Walters spoke, "The Council will be taking over the Factory. You and your men are to return to the Third Branch Office for your new orders."

Creed slung his assault rifle over his shoulder, scanned the H.H.C., and told him, "Use caution. All of the T-3s may not have left the Factory. They're like the Rogue now, and they no longer follow orders."

"Thanks for the heads-up."

Walters slapped the side of the truck, and four Council S.C.Ms. jumped out of the back to guard the gate. The four men removed barricades from the back of a truck and set up a roadblock.

Walters ordered over the truck radio, "Move out!"

The convoy traveled down the long stretch of road toward two large buildings. The trucks halted, and Walters turned off the engine, opened the door, and jumped down from the vehicle. His men unloaded from the eight trucks, lined up in eight rows of ten, and stood at attention, holding their assault rifles across their chest.

Walters walked up and down the line, stopped, faced the men and women, and ordered, "Team leaders, move your soldiers out. I want the Factory secured and if you encounter any active Un-Men, do not engage. Radio in and wait for backup. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," the eight team leaders answered.

Chapter Six

Mr. Pinchbeck

2:16 P.M...

The Rogue worked on the computer with inhuman speed as the printer behind it spat out document after document. The Rogue took an ID badge from a dead body out in the hall, removed the card from the plastic covering, scanned it, and printed out a version with a black square instead of a photo. It snapped a picture of itself with a digital camera acquired from a locker, printed out the photo, pasted it to the ID, and put the new card back in the plastic covering. The Rogue clipped the ID to its pitch-black business suit. It finished its work, signed a few of the documents with the Sphinx Corporation President's signature it had copied from a document, placed them all in a folder, and then it made digital copies of all the documentation and placed them on an H.H.C.

All that was left to do was to set the stage, and it looked at a Sphinx Corporation credit card it stole from one Mr. Frank Bygone. It had all of its props but one, and a quick phone call from it would fix that. It picked up the receiver, heard the dial tone, and dialed a number it found on the internet.

"Hello," the Rogue said. "Yes, I would like to rent a limousine for the day. Yes, I will be paying with Corporate Credit. I would like to be picked up from the corner of Limit Street and West 1000 Avenue, and I will be there in three hours. Very good. Let me give you the Corporate Credit number."

The Rogue hung up once it was done; it would need to get out of the Factory without being spotted and make its way to Limit Street.

About four hours later...

The limo pulled up to the Factory's main gate. Two yellow and black striped barricades stood, blocking the entrance, and a Council S.C.M. approached the passenger's side door, keeping his XM8 at the ready. The Rogue would see if all its hard work had paid off, rolled down the tinted window, and waited to see what would happen; it was ready to draw its hidden knife at the slightest hint of failure.

The S.C.M. glanced around the limo's interior, then looked at what he believed was a man, and asked, "Can I help you?"

It had passed, and now it needed to start its performance, so the Rogue said, "I am Mr. Pinchbeck, and I am to take over management of the Factory for the Council. Here is my documentation."

It handed the S.C.M. an H.H.C., and the S.C.M. looked through the docs on the device and tapped his headset.

"Lieutenant, a Mr. Pinchbeck is at the gate. He claims he's the new manager of the Factory. Yes, sir. His paperwork is all in order. Yes, sir." The S.C.M. turned to the new manager and said, "Lieutenant Walters says for you to proceed in. He'll meet you at Building G, and he also wants me to ride along in case there are any Un-Men on the grounds."

"Certainly," the Rogue said. "Sit up front with the driver."

The S.C.M. relayed his orders to the remaining three, walked around the back of the vehicle, and entered through the front passenger door. The other S.C.Ms. removed the barricades blocking the entrance to the side, and the limo pulled down the road and after a short time, the vehicle stopped in front of Building G. Walters with a few of his men waited outside.

The Rogue got out of the limo, walked to the driver, and said, "You may return, and I will call if I need a ride."

The driver along with the S.C.M. still in the front headed for the main gate.

Walters walked to the new manager, offered his hand, and spoke, "Mr. Pinchbeck, welcome to the Factory." They shook, and then Walters removed an energy bar from his vest pocket and unwrapped the chocolate snack. "The Council sent you in a bit early." He took a bite and then said, "The dead have not been removed or the grounds secured."

"I am aware that cleanup has only started and know full well what to expect inside," the Rogue stated, then opened a folder on its H.H.C., and scanned through some of the files. "All I request from you is two of your soldiers till my own report in." It closed the folder and said, "I will not get in your way. I want to set up my office and begin work. There is so much data to catalog in the Factory. It will take us years to go through everything."

"I can loan you some soldiers," Walters said as he waved two of the S.C.Ms. forward and ordered them, "You two, go with Mr. Pinchbeck and stay with him until his people relieve you."

"Yes, sir!" the two men replied.

"This way gentlemen," it stated.

The Rogue headed into the Factory. The first part of its plan was complete; it had the Factory at its disposal. Now the Rogue must begin on the second part, and it would uncover everything the Factory had on Pandora and Ginn L. Irynkissgthie. The Rogue would determine if its drive was more than programming, unravel why it was fixated on killing Pandora and if that was its purpose in existence, it would destroy her.

Chapter Seven

Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo

Etymology, history and usage of the word asp...

Asp was originally a word for a venomous snake then later around 700 B.D.C. in slang, it referred to a person who was so low that they slithered on the ground. Over the centuries, the word also began to refer to a vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person, and the anus.

2:58 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

The corridors smell dusty and look as if no one has used them in years. A fluorescent light flickers overhead as we walk beneath a multitude of humming lights, and it's a maddening sound in the otherwise silent building of white block walls and concrete floors.

Kimberly brushes a cobweb out of the way as she complains, "All we've found are a few boxes of toys." She holds her gun at the ready as she questions, "Where's the lab?"

"You mean if this place has a lab," I tell her as even my optimism doubts its existence the more we explore this place. "The deeper we go the more I think Etna's only a distribution station. I don't think we'll find anything here. The Gorgons could just be a new line of toys Etna's developing."

"It's stupid comments like that that really pisses me off!" Kimberly yells at me as if the Assassins Guild Magistrates themselves ordered her to take her frustrations out on me. "You can't honestly think they're toys. For Ares' sake! Why would their file be on the Data Crystal? They have to be more than action figures."

"I know," I state. "But I can hope."

"You can hope? What kind of aspinine comment is that?" Kimberly asks me as she pauses at another door, opens it, and peers inside. "Don't you want to find something?" The room's empty like the three dozen or so we've already searched, and Kimberly says, "I do. It's the only reason I came. The info we downloaded from the Data Crystal has to have some importance. Otherwise, why would my mom have created the crystals and have hidden them?" She shuts the door and gripes, "Hades... I better not be wasting my time."

I mumble, "I really hate it when you yell at me."

"What did you say?"

I reply loudly, "I said..." I then speak normally, "I've been wondering what kind of project the Gorgons could be. I've encountered a lot of the Council's experiments over the past year, so I'm imagining the worst, and a toy sounds better than what I'm visualizing."

I'm serious. I would prefer the Gorgons to be a toy. In Greek stories, the Gorgons were three sisters so hideous the mere sight of them turned people into stone, so I know the Gorgons have to be weapons.

"You and your dream world," Kimberly complains. "You can't go by your imagination. You have to go by the facts, and then they'll lead you to the truth." She stops, faces me, and asks, "Did they do something to your mind when they experimented on you? Maybe they replaced it with the brain of a two-year-old."

Kimberly's view...

"That's kind of mean," that woman whines as if I've hurt her feelings. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you're an idiot," I tell her. "I've never seen somebody so naive."

She slowly blinks three times as if she's processing my statements and in that instance, I wonder if she is a machine. That woman might not have that light thingamajigger blinking some orange or red color declaring, 'Hey, I'm a bio-mecha', but she does have the feel of something that was made in a lab. No adult could act like she does.

"Naive? So you see me as a child?"

"Yes, a very annoying child," I answer her. "The world works certain ways, and you can't see it. Let me point out one example. You didn't want to kill the guard."

"What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that? Oh, my Zeus! I can't believe you asked me that." I shake a condescending finger at her and say, "You're not understanding anything I'm telling you." I rub my temple, trying to reverse a headache that's setting in as I calmly say, "Oh, for Ares' sake... Never mind. Maybe you'll never understand. Come on."

Katharine's view...

I watch as Kimberly walks ahead of me. She is making fun of me. Kimberly can be real mean. I mumble, "I might be naive, but at least I'm not always angry."

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing," I reply, and then I hurry to catch up with her.

I don't believe murdering people's how this world is supposed to work and if it is, maybe it's better that I'm an idiot.

We hurry through the first section, enter the second, and come across a long hall with no doors. Blue pipes run along the ceiling and water beads on one of them and in places, the liquid falls to the concrete floor. We start through the passage. The blue-gray concrete corridor runs for about four hundred feet and goes around a corner, and then the corridor continues for another four hundred feet and ends at a door with no knob. On each side of the door is a scanner.

Kimberly's view...

I throw up my hands and exclaim, "Great, now what?" I go to the door and push up on it with my body as I state, "It won't budge. How are we going to get in?" I kick the door as if it's some flat tire, and then I stand back as if I'm thinking about ramming into it and say, "Maybe we should have brought the guard or we could have cut his hand off, and then we might have been able to use his palm print." That woman says nothing to my outburst and only stares at the scanners, so I say, "Well, we can't go any further." I start back through the corridor and order, "Let's return and see if we missed anything." I mumble, "Come back once I get a grenade launcher."

Katharine's view...

"Wait," I tell Kimberly as I glance at the star that marks my left palm. "I encountered a scanner like this at the Factory. I placed this on the scanner, and it let me in."

"Placed what?"

"This," I answer her as I show her the star that had been burned into my palm, and then I walk over to the machine on my right. I find an outline of a right hand on its glass top, so I move to the other machine, and it has an outline of a left hand. I place my palm on the scanner, and the device activates. It scans my hand with different bars of light like the one at the Factory.

"Ginn's Cipher detected. Activating micro-reader," the device states. "Access granted."

The door unlocks and slides up.

End Katharine's view...

The Sanctum...

Within the Chamber...

A female analyst turned from her workstation to the Council and yelled to them, "The door to Station Bravo has been activated."

"Bravo?" Ms. Nona inquired. "Which of our places is this?"

"It was our third lab," Mr. Decuma answered. "We long ago abandoned it once we finished the Gorgons experiment."

Ms. Nona stated, "I remember. Why would someone go there?"

"Why indeed?" Mr. Morta questioned. "Who accessed the lab?"

The female analyst turned back to her computer and read over the information, and then she uttered, "I don't think this can be right." The analyst checked the data again, then turned, and replied, "Sirs... Ma'am... The lab was accessed by Ginn's Cipher."

Ms. Nona questioned, "Are you sure?"

Back at Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo...

Kimberly's view...

"Let me see it," I order as I grab that woman's hand and turn it over. "It looks like..." I begin, and then I study my own right palm and compare the star burn on my hand to hers. "Oh, my Zeus... They're the same." I squeeze that woman's wrist and demand, "Where did you get it? Tell me! Tell me or so help me I'll–"

"You're hurting me. Let go," she yells as she tries to pull away.

"Not until you tell me where you received it!"

"The music box," that woman tells me, then reaches into her pocket with her other hand, and removes it. "I got it from the music box during my battle with the Un-Men. I was at Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse, a fire started, and the music box was in it and when I snatched it out of the flames to save it, it burned me." She stops resisting me and shows me the lid of the music box as she asks, "You remember, don't you? I had blisters on my hand when you took me to see Dr. Chiron," she adds as if that woman is still angry over the incident and the real reason I took her to the hospital.

"Let me see," I command, release her, take the music box, and examine the raised star on top. "It looks like the one. Yes, it's exactly like it, but how can it be?"

She rubs her wrist and asks, "Where did you get yours?"

I'm in deep thought and mumble, "Huh?"

"Where did you get your burn?"

"There was a fire in my mom's office the day she died. I grabbed the knob to go in and burned myself, and the star was on the knob." I glare at her, realizing I opened up to that woman, and I snap, "My past is none of your business."

She shrinks back from me as she asks, "Do you only know how to yell?"

I ignore her whining and study the star on my palm, and then I ask, "Do you know what they are?"

"The scanner at the Factory called it a cipher and beyond that, I don't know."

I place my thumb on one end of the music box and my index finger on the other as I say, "Let's see what we can find out." I direct my next word at the music box and speak, "Mom."

A 3-D image of Theresa Griffin generates in front of me. The hologram, who has an L-A processor and can Learn and Adapt, depending on her surroundings, scans the area and asks, "Where are we?"

"Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo," that woman answers. "The address you decoded from the Data Crystal. Do you–"

"Enough with her questions. I want you to answer mine," I insist as I show the hologram my palm and inquire, "What is this star? Why do I and that woman have it? And don't tell me you don't know."

"I see you are in a good mood today," the hologram says and examines the burn. "I do not believe it. The mark is Ginn's Cipher."

"Ginn?" I repeat.

"Yes, Ginn L. Irynkissgthie."

"Isn't he the composer of Unfinished Melody?" that woman asks as she points to the music box.

"Yes," the hologram answers. "The star looks like the cipher Ginn mentioned in his works."

Katharine's view...

I peer over Kimberly's shoulder so I can look at the hologram, and I ask, "Do you know what the star is?"

"Yes, I was able to decode more of the files I uploaded from the Data Crystal. Ginn's Cipher was one of them."

"Wait. Let's go back a bit," Kimberly says. "You mentioned Ginn's Works. What are you talking about? I thought he only composed the one melody and never finished it. Are there more?"

Kimberly's view...

"You are correct. There is only the one," the hologram answers. "Though, there is a rumor he had completed... Never mind. It is only a rumor but as I was saying, Ginn did create other things. He was not only a composer but an inventor, painter, sculptor, philosopher, scientist, and prophet. I have not been able to decode all the information on the file but this is what I know. Ginn's Cipher or the Star Cipher has some code or other researchers believe a map to–"

"Kimberly," that woman interrupts, putting her hand to her chest as if she has heartburn.

"Can't you see I'm talking?" I yell at her. "Hades! Sometimes you can be so rude."

"I'm not the one who's barging in on our party," that woman tells me as she turns, facing the way she and I came in with this look of worry. "They're coming. Bio-mechas." Her eyes erupt with that hellish blue glow that makes me cringe as she quickly removes her backpack and pulls out the gun I loaned her as she warns again, "They're coming!" She drops the bag, unsets the safety, and raises the PPK, and shouts, "Get ready!"

Chapter Eight

Guardians Of Etna

3:31 P.M...

Katharine's view...

There were few things I awoke with at Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse over a year ago, and my memory wasn't one of them. I do have this ability that can detect bio-mechas and once an active bio-mecha enters the perimeter of my ability, I know their distance, their model, and how many there are. I like to call it my own spider-sense.

Kimberly's view...

"Great. Just great!" I yell as I cringe at the word bio-mecha. "How did they find you this time? I thought they couldn't after Brian removed your tracking beacon." I decide I can't be chit-chatting, so I tell the hologram, "We'll talk later."

"Till then..." the hologram says and deactivates as the two blue squares on the music box fade to the silver metal surface.

"I hate robots," I state as if I have to, and then I hand the music box back to that woman and ready my weapon. "Hades... I really hate them. What about my question? Are they Un-Men?"

"No, they're K-99s and there are about a dozen of them," that woman replies as she places the music box in her pocket, grabs the backpack, and slings it over her shoulder. "And they didn't track me down. They were most likely positioned here to guard Etna."

I glance at the corridor we had come through, then into the passage the door opened into, and ask, "Which way are they coming?" I recall our last encounter with bio-mechas and how the T-3s nearly killed us when we were at the Factory and would have if not for Lieutenant Creed and his men coming to our rescue.

"They're coming the way we came in," that woman answers as she aims down the long stretch of hall.

She doesn't seem worried. That woman had mentioned in the time before meeting me, she had encountered many types of bio-mechas and only the Rogue made her afraid. The Rogue also sends fear rampaging through my heart but that doesn't mean I'm any less afraid of the other types.

That woman informs me, "They'll turn the corner in about forty seconds. Go on. I can handle them."

"I don't think so!" I yell. "I won't have you run off and leave me alone with the tin freaks. When it comes to killing, I'll handle my share. You see as a Closer I have my honor to think of."

"Honor..?" that woman repeats as if it should be a word foreign to me.

I ignore what she implies. I do have my honor, and I can't have someone stepping in for me. I'm not the type of person to owe anyone anything. I rely on myself and no one else. I reflect on my recent past. No one has been there for me and no one will be, so I have to do it myself.

I move to the other side of the hall beside that woman, aim where she does, and question, "Do we kill the K-99s like the Un-Men?"

Katharine's view...

"No, you need to shoot them in the right eye to disable this line of bio-mechas so aim carefully," I answer.

I can tell Kimberly's starting to trust me. Yeah right! Our partnership's not turning out like I imagined, but I shouldn't expect too much. Kimberly's an assassin. I don't think they can trust anyone.

I glance at her... Maybe I just don't understand Kimberly. She has to feel isolated and alone, and maybe that's why she's always so angry. Her world must be so dark.

End Katharine's view...

The K-99s turned the corner. They were of great size. The height of their shoulders was 34 inches, and they weighed 220 pounds. Their creators combined power and swiftness with keen sensors. The K-99s were modeled after the largest and tallest of the galloping hounds, and they had a rough steel-gray coat and were Greyhound-like. They carried their head and neck high, and their tail had an upward sweep with a slight curve toward the extremity. The K-99s panted as they charged, mimicking their canine archetypes.

Katharine's view...

I look at their leader and notice something I didn't expect and utter, "The K-99s are wearing protective steel visors! We won't be able to shoot their kill switch." I lift my gun and without another thought, I dart for the door behind us as I scream, "Run!"

"Run..?" Kimberly shouts over her shoulder as I flee past her. "I never thought you were a coward."

"Hurry!" I insist. "They're wearing visors. We can't take them down." In a panic, I enter the next passage, turn, and wave for Kimberly as I yell again, "Run!" The K-99s are halfway through the corridor, so I start to run again, hoping she'll follow as I scream, "We need to find a place they can't get to!"

Kimberly joins me, and we bolt through the passage. The concrete floor we run across descends and ends, and it's replaced by a sandy one. We run down it with the K-99s gaining on us, and the passage ends in a large cave with a second level floor curved above us. Three other passages leave the cave.

"Now what?" Kimberly questions.

"Climb!" I command as I tuck the gun and start scaling the pitted stone wall.

Kimberly places her gun in her shoulder holster and follows. We're about ten feet up when the K-99s reach the cave, and the pack circles under us. The leader leaps up, snaps at Kimberly's heel, and barely misses her. Kimberly lurches up, startled by the large mouth, loses her footing, and slips. I quickly grab her wrist, and she dangles above the K-99s.

"Oh, my Zeus!" Kimberly shouts. "Don't drop me! Get me up!"

"Crap!" I utter as I strain to keep from dropping her as I dig my nails into the cliff. "I can't. I don't have the strength." I swing her to the rock face as I tell her, "You'll have to reestablish your footing." I grunt for the strain to my arm as I add, "And hurry. You're not exactly light."

All the K-99s bark and growl as a few continue leaping for us.

Kimberly frantically searches the rough surface with her free hand as I desperately swing her over, but she can't find a holding. She swings backward, and we try again and on her third swing over, she finds a grip and her footing and yells, "Got it!"

"Thank goodness," I say as I release her wrist. "I couldn't hold you up much longer."

Kimberly climbs higher and then glares down at me as she questions as if it's more important than anything else, "What was that about my weight?"

"Ah, nothing..." I reply as I swallow hard, burning under the fury of the Phoenix's fiery gaze. "It was nothing."

"That's what I thought," Kimberly speaks and then continues climbing.

Once we're higher, the K-99s give up their jumping, and then the twelve K-99s stare at one another and calculate their next move. They must agree on a plan and split up into two groups. The first group continues into one of the cave's passages while the other group goes back the way they came in.

Kimberly reaches the second story, drags herself up, and wipes sand off her black clothes as she questions, "What are they doing?"

"Umm..." I start as I struggle to reach the top. I glance down and quickly look up as I start to lose my hold, and then I ask, "Could you give me a hand? I don't know if I can pull myself up. I'm pretty tired after holding up your heavy... umm... after holding you up."

Kimberly's view...

I walk to the edge and put my hands on my hips, thinking I'd get right on it. If that woman thinks I'm going to help her, she better get it straight right now, I'm only looking out for myself. She better do the same thing.

"Your hand, please," that woman pleads with me. "I think I'm about to fall."

I don't move as I inquire, "What about my question?"

Katharine's view...

Kimberly isn't going to help me, and I panic as I glance down. I doubt she'll even attempt to save me if I fall. I slowly drag myself up as my arms tremble with the effort, and then I pull myself high enough to lay half my body over the ledge. I don't think she would have, and our partnership seems more and more one-sided.

"Well..." Kimberly taps her foot and inquires, "My question?"

"Right." I exhale, creating a mini dust cloud over the sandy floor. "Your question."

I cough and rest a few more seconds. I'm not Kimberly's partner... I'm her punching bag. She's using me, and she's not hiding it at all.

I'm finally able to catch my breath enough to answer her and say, "The K-99s are tracking us and most likely have the floor plans of this facility and are finding the best way to hunt us down."

"Well, you better get off your lazy asp and get moving." Kimberly scans the second level and adds, "No time to lie around."

I moan, roll long ways, take a couple more seconds to catch my breath, stand, and glare at her. I can't understand why Kimberly treats me this way. It's like she wants me to die. It's probably because it will save her from having to close me later. I'm feeling less and less secure in our partnership.

Looking at one end of the curved walkway and then to the other, Kimberly says, "I see a door."

She rushes to it around the sandy floor, and I follow. I can't believe Kimberly stood there and watched me struggle like a bug with its legs torn off.

Kimberly tries the knob and then tells me, "It's locked." She examines the keyhole. "I should be able to pick it."

Rage moves within me like a caged tigress as I silently watch Kimberly from behind, and the intensifying anger consumes my mind; it has been a long time since I felt this mad. Kimberly didn't help me. We're supposed to be partners. I could have fallen and died. I feel my eyes crackle with electricity and see their blue hue reflect off the sand around me as my anger keeps the Beta Phase active. I watch Kimberly remove a small kit from her knapsack. I think she wanted me to fall. I fist my right hand, thinking over the possibility, and the Ult L-E glows brighter like the torch of a welder. I think she plans on killing me once she finds who murdered her mom. I remove my own PPK and unlock the safety, deciding I can't take it anymore and need to act.

Not realizing what's going on behind her, Kimberly kneels and starts to lift her tools to the knob. "I'll have it open in no–"

I raise the gun. Kimberly will... I focus on the back of her head. Kimberly will kill me. I take aim as my rage increases. She won't treat me like this again. I swear to myself that I won't let Kimberly end me as I feel something new take hold.

Kimberly's view...

I'm focusing on the lock I have to pick but for some reason, I turn and look at that woman. Time slows and I feel fear envelop me. Her eyes flicker with surges of purple electricity fighting with the demon-blue light that already consumes her eyes as if they're on fire. The new Ult L-E clashes with the old like two dragons seeking dominance, and then the purple wins the battle and consumes her gaze in a horrid glow. I thought her face couldn't become anymore frightening, but then a blood-red electricity surges within the purple, and the blood-red electricity devours the purple as she makes a declaration to me.

"I won't let you do it!"

I believe I'm seeing my end as that woman fires. The empty shell ejects from the gun as she shoots again. The first shell clangs to the floor and the second follows. She fires two more times without pausing.

I gasp as the bullets whizz by inches from my face, and I instinctively go for my gun. I stop before drawing my weapon. The bullets slam into the knob and with a frustrated yell, she kicks in the door and the frame splinters. She walks by me and glowers at me with eyes that caution, and they caution that she'll only put up with so much. That woman has been mistreated enough.

Hades! I see more in her stare, and it warns me that she won't let me kill her, not without a fight. I get the message and her eyes... They're on fire. I've never seen them that way before.

That woman walks in about ten feet, stops, and turns and by then, her demeanor has completed a one-eighty. Her hazel eyes no longer crackle with blood-red Ult L-E or look provoked as she says, "Come on, there's no time to be sitting around on your lazy asp."

What do I see in that woman's eyes? Is it the look of innocence or is it a childlike facade hiding a dark purpose? Whatever I see, I have to be more careful. What do I really know about her? She could be a vicious tigress hiding inside a kitten.

Chapter Nine

The Furies

3:41 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Lieutenant Creed approached a secretary at the Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office and stated, "I have an appointment with the Chairman."

Cathy looked up and greeted, "Good afternoon, Lieutenant Creed. Go right in, Mr. Griffin is expecting you."

Creed glanced at the waiting room, saw no one there, and made his way down the hall and once he arrived, he knocked on the door and entered the huge corner office.

Mr. Griffin sat at his desk, working on his computer and said, "Lieutenant, come in. Have a seat."

Creed closed the door then went and sat, and then he asked, "Do you have new orders for my unit, sir?"

"Actually..." Mr. Griffin began as he grabbed an H.H.C. from his desk and handed it to him. "I'm disbanding your unit. Here are the orders."

Creed stood, shouting, "I don't understand. My unit is the most efficient–"

"Lieutenant," Mr. Griffin interrupted. "Your unit is efficient and that is precisely why I am disbanding it."

Confused about what he had been told, Creed took the device, sat, opened the file, and scanned the document.

Mr. Griffin continued, "I want you to assemble a special task force under my control." He faced the desktop computer and typed a few things, and then he stated, "I want you to select only the best of your officers. Ones you can trust." He turned his attention back to him and spoke, "Then I want you to go into the Third Branch Office S.C.M. files and find other highly qualified men and women. This task force will be under your command, and you'll report only to me."

"Sir?"

"I'll need to run Ultra-black Operations. Orthos and his security force are fine for internal matters, and the S.C.Ms. aren't specialized enough for what I'm wanting. I would like you to find the elite in every field. You'll have all the funding you'll need, and you can use Sub-level 120 of this building as your base of operations."

"What name will this task force operate under?"

"You'll be called the Furies."

"Furies," Creed repeated then grinned, pleased with the name.

Mr. Griffin pushed back from the desk and ordered, "Begin putting the task force together tonight. I need the Furies operational in less than a week. Cathy can assist you with any outside resource that you'll need to get your base ready." He paused, opened a desk drawer, and removed a box that fit in his palm as he said, "One other thing. I'm promoting you to captain."

He handed the lieutenant the box with the new insignia pins.

"I don't know what to say," Creed replied, took the box, and stated, "Thank you, sir."

The phone rang.

"Please excuse me, lieutenant... Actually, I should say captain." Mr. Griffin answered the phone, "Yes, Cathy."

She told him, "Orthos is here. He says he has the files from the Second Branch Office."

"Yes, the ones the Vice President wanted to send over. Have the Head of Security come in."

"At once, Mr. Griffin," Cathy spoke and then hung up.

Mr. Griffin told Creed, "You have your orders, captain. That's all."

Creed stood and saluted as he said, "Yes, sir."

He left and passed Orthos who entered the Chairman's office, carrying about a dozen folders.

Mr. Griffin waited till his Head of Security entered and then questioned him, "Did you have any problems at the Second Branch Office?"

"No," Orthos answered as he placed the folders on the desk. "The Vice President showed no hostility. He seemed eager for you to have these, and he said they are from when you were Head of Security here and he was the Chairman."

"It was a very long time ago," Mr. Griffin spoke mostly to himself as he stared at the files, wondering why the Vice President would send them now, and then he looked at Orthos and questioned, "Did the Vice President say anything?"

"Only that he thought he might have some more files. He told me I should stop by later and pick them up."

"Do so and watch yourself."

"Yes, Chairman," Orthos replied and then made his way out.

Mr. Griffin's view...

I stand, pick up the folders, then go and lie on my dark brown leather couch, and flip through them till something catches my eye. I sit up in disbelief and read it again. It can't be right! According to the files, I have another child and the revelation is like an earthquake toppling the world on top of me.

I flip back a few pages. I thought the child died during delivery, but not according to these records. Hades! I slam my fist on the couch. The corporation lied to me, and they dared take my child away!

Chapter Ten

New Neighbor

4:01 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

An unmarked white delivery van rumbled down West 1000 Avenue, drove into Nexus Apartments parking garage, and stopped at the entrance. Zax removed a card from his shirt pocket, swiped it on a scanner, and then waited as a gate slid open. Security cameras monitored the entrance and all of the garage, and a security guard manned each level. Zax drove past the gate and up a few ramps, parked on level four, and stepped down from the vehicle; he wore a white delivery uniform and cap. Zax unloaded a few boxes from the back of the van onto a pushcart, started toward the elevator, went up to the thirty-first floor, and made his way to Apartment G.

In front of the door, he cleared his throat before saying, "Door, unlock."

"Voice recognized as Zax Olympus," A.C.S. stated in a female voice. "Opening door."

The apartment door slid sideways, and he walked in the small entry, pushing the cart and commanded, "Door lock."

The door shut.

"Welcome to your home, Mr. Olympus," A.C.S. stated. "The staff and management of Nexus Apartments hope your stay with us will be enjoyable."

"Thanks."

Zax glanced around and noticed that the apartment's layout was the opposite of its neighbor H. The entry emptied into an open kitchen with black marble counters and stainless steel appliances. He pushed the cart into the living room off to the right, paused from his work, and walked to the kitchen's window to look over West 1000 Avenue. Black rain fell on the street below. He had made it in before the Tainted Rainstorm. He glanced around the kitchen and realized that he should have bought some groceries. It looks like he'll be living on takeout. He saw a note and a remote on the kitchen's counter, and Zax read the note that was from the manager of Nexus Apartments.

"Welcome to your new home. If you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me. The remote will work the TV and radio and as you instructed, the apartment is fully furnished. Enjoy your stay."

He picked up the remote and muttered, "A fruit basket would have been nice. I'm starved."

He clicked on the TV and went to work unloading the boxes.

Anchorwoman Linda Harvey with NBS reported, "Today's top story. The Jackal an Illicit Closer was captured early this morning by Noir Civil Police Force. The N.C.P.F. at this time has given no details as to the identity of this killer, and the illegal assassin is thought to have murdered over thirty people in the Hellenistic Sector. It is believed the Assassins Guild will ask for the death penalty if the Jackal is found guilty. The Jackal is accused of killing without a license. We will update you as this story progresses." Linda switched camera view, and then she stated, "We have an update on the Un-Men attacks we aired two days ago. The Sphinx Corporation has taken full blame for this line of bio-mechas and will compensate for all losses of life and property. Sphinx assures the population that this model of Un-Men has been recalled and will be destroyed. For more information, we now go to Frank Trepit who is standing by for a press conference."

The scene switched to a noisy room crowded with chairs. Reporters and representatives from other corporations filled the seats and in the back of the room, a man with a mic looked at the camera.

"Thank you, Linda. The conference is about to start. We'll be seeing Sphinx's new Press Secretary. She took over the position on Thursday which was less than twelve hours ago. She..." Frank glanced at the front of the room and he said, "Here she comes now."

A woman with shoulder length auburn hair and wearing a dark blue business suit walked to a podium, and she waited till the room quieted down and then said, "Hello everyone. Many of you may not know me, I'm Jane Speer. I'm the new Press Secretary for Sphinx's Third Branch Office." Jane looked at an H.H.C. she carried and then she continued, "I would like to first assure those in Noir that the rogue Un-Men have been eliminated. There's no need for worry." She paused and emphasized the next statement as she spoke, "I would also like to add that the technicians who looked over the T-3s programming believe the project was sabotaged by a rival corporation."

The room erupted with chatter as reporters raised their hands and shouted questions at Ms. Speer.

Zax changed the channel as he muttered, "The news is depressing and full of lies."

The bounty show Show Me The Money! was wrapping up with some final words from its host, Karen Miles.

"All right viewers, if you have seen any of these people call the number you see on the screen to..."

The TV audience shouted with her, "Show Me The Money!"

The credits rolled and another bounty show called Easy Money! started.

He turned the TV off. There was nothing on but the news and bounty shows. One would think they would try putting something on the tube that was entertaining. Maybe a show about heroes. It would never happen, not on this planet. Maybe he'd listen to music, so Zax clicked the radio on with the remote and tuned it into a classical station.

Within an hour, he unloaded the boxes and set up tables and equipment to monitor Apartment H next door. He placed all the tables and equipment in the Master Bedroom, he even purchased and had delivered a second large flat screen TV and hung it in the bedroom. He had it put there in case he wanted to watch the news. He removed a cell phone.

"This is Delivery Man, connect me to R.G.," Zax began and then paused, waiting for his mysterious boss to pick up the line. "I have set up surveillance. I entered Apartment H yesterday while they were out and placed the devices, and I have cameras looking in on the kitchen and the living room. I have even tapped into the building's security and have a visual of the hall." He glanced at all the monitors and stated, "At the moment, Kimberly and Katharine aren't at home." He listened to his boss and then replied, "Yep. Yep. I'll submit daily emails on the two. Yep. I understand. If something out of the ordinary happens, I'm to contact you immediately but for now, I'm to stay at Stage One surveillance. Understood, Delivery Man out."

Chapter Eleven

Where Is Pandora?

Neon signs and flickering street lights cast a dim glow on Wayfaring Lane as Dry Clouds roared and growled overhead like a wrath-filled beast. Tainted Rain fell from the menacing sky, speckling the streets and people with black drops, and soon the storm left the area, leaving behind an oily residue. A street clock chimed five times as evening approached. Without clocks, no one would know if it was morning, afternoon, or night. Stephanie walked through Wayfaring Lane; it was a street made famous in the Hellenistic Sector, Old Business Vicinage for its unscrupulous activities. She had shoulder length blonde hair, wore jeans and a black printed t-shirt of a smiley face, and passed many people lining the street. They sold canned food, Transgenic Vegetables, and used clothes, and a few bartered flesh, Sunna Snaps, and/or stolen water ration cards. The streets were crowded. Some of the people wore Winnow Masks, marking them as immigrants to the Dark Half of the planet, but most of the people didn't wear the air filters, having lived in Noir long enough for their lungs to become accustomed to the pollutants. Stephanie paused and adjusted the bright yellow backpack on her shoulders. She didn't wear a mask.

A Street Sanitizer activated once the Tainted Rainstorm passed and as the loud automatized machine rumbled down the potholed road, she quickly crossed the street ahead of the machine. Stephanie paused at the sidewalk and turned, watching the Street Sanitizer. She had wondered how they got rid of all this oily muck and shifted the pack on her back. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to live in the Dark Half and yet... Stephanie grinned, thinking of the twenty-four-hour clubs she visited and the men there who satisfied her in carnal ways. Eternal darkness did have its perks. She made her way to a shelter called the Kitchen and went into the office, and she waited a few minutes before a man came in.

"Can I help you?" he asked, carrying a sack of Chinese takeout.

"Yes, I'm looking for my sister," Stephanie answered as she reached into the backpack, pulled out an H.H.C., and showed the man a photo on the screen. "Have you seen her?"

"Let me see." He took the device, looked at the picture, and then answered, "Yeah." He shook his finger at the photo and said, "Her name was Katie... No, wait. Kat, I think. She hung around Preacher a lot." He handed the small computer back as he stated, "He used to run this shelter."

"Where can I find this preacher? Is he at a church or a temple somewhere?"

The man shook his head and answered, "He wasn't a real preacher; it was his name around here." The man removed the food from the sack and placed it on the desk. "Anyway, Preacher's dead." He opened up the sweet and sour chicken as he stated, "He was killed over a week ago. He was gunned down right outside. They say it might have been the work of an Illicit Closer."

"Oh. Do you know of anyone else who might know this woman... Ah... I mean my sister or where I might find her?"

"No," he replied as he removed chopsticks from the sack and broke them apart. "But they're holding Preacher's funeral tomorrow." He grabbed a piece of chicken with the chopsticks, shoved it into his large toothy orifice, and continued talking with food in his mouth. "Maybe she'll show. Here..." He scribbled down an address on a napkin. "This is where it'll be."

Stephanie's view...

"Thanks."

I take the paper, grab my bag, and walk out of the office, reading the napkin. It looks like it will be tomorrow. I put a hand to my chest as my heart races. I've never been this excited. I can't wait to meet... What did he call her? Kat... I'm looking forward to meeting Kat and proving myself.

I wave for a taxi. The Council's sending its best wishes and tomorrow Pandora will meet Cerberus.

* * *

6:09 P.M...

The Chamber...

A male analyst noticed a change in Pandora's bio-data, and he waved over a supervisor.

"Yes," she inquired.

"Look at this." The analyst pointed to his computer's screen as he stated, "Something's going on with Pandora; its readings are off the chart."

"Let me see. Hmm... The data can't be right; it's probably a receiver hiccup. I want you to make a note of it though but remember, the Council deemed Pandora a failure. Let's keep our focus on Cerberus unless something drastic changes."

"I understand."

"All right then. Back to work."

Chapter Twelve

Another Room

6:11 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage...

Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo...

Kimberly's view...

The door that woman kicked in opens into a large room filled with about a hundred filing cabinets, and it's apparent the room hasn't been used in years.

That woman tells me, "Come on, there's no time to be sitting around on your lazy asp."

I stop staring at her, focus on what needs to be done, and hurry in past her, and then that woman glances outside before shutting the door. I search the room over the barrel of my PPK and lower the gun after finding no threat.

That woman walks over to a filing cabinet with an old metal surface and opens the top drawer of five, and it squeaks as she does so.

"They're a little rusty. They've been in here a long time," she states as she turns back to me. "What do you think?"

"They're old but–" I start as I can't shake what happened at the door. I thought I was facing a terrifying demon but as I look at her now, it's almost like... a sense of fondness and loss sweeps over me and I think of a kitty cat I once had and lost.

"Is everything alright?" that woman questions me, interrupting my thoughts.

I force all the confusing fear and misplaced familiarity to the back of my mind to worry about later, move to a filing cabinet, and finish what I was saying earlier by questioning, "–is there anything useful in them?" I order her as if I need to take back my leadership in our roles, "Go through the ones on your side, and I'll do the same, and maybe we'll get lucky and find something."

"First, I need to come down," that woman tells me as if making up some excuse to be lazy, then she closes her eyes as if viewing security footage on the back of her eyelids, and states, "The K-99s are nowhere near us so now would be the best time."

She moves away from the filing cabinets, finds a place to sit on the floor near the door, removes the music box from her pocket, and opens its lid.

"Maybe now isn't the best time for you to go into your... Umm... Whatever you call it."

"The Drifting Time," that woman replies as she closes the lid to the music box. "The K-99s are beyond the range of my senses, so I should use this time to come down from the Ultra-Epi. Who knows when I'll get another chance?" She assures me, "I'll wake up when I sense them and if there's some other type of trouble, just give me a good shake."

I think about giving her a real good shake and then maybe beating that woman before I question her, "Come down? You make it sound like you're on drugs. Are you a junkie like those Sunna Snap addicts?"

"No, it's nothing like that," she answers, and then she tries to explain by saying, "If I don't listen to the music and calm down, I get anxious and sometimes I get these really bad headaches." She pauses as if thinking back to other instances, and then she says, "I've gone a long time without the music and without coming down and I've gotten the shakes."

"You went into withdrawal. It still sounds like you're an addict," I state as I walk to the first filing cabinet, put my hand on top, and stare at the dust. "Have you ever seen the junkies on Wayfaring Lane?"

"Yes, and I never thought of myself that way," she replies, and then that woman looks at the music box as if it holds some sort of answers that it's keeping from her. "Who knows what the Council did to me?" She turns and states, trying to convince me, "If I don't come down, I'm no use to you and trust me, you're going to need me. It won't take long."

There's that word again... Trust... It proves that woman has learned nothing from before. What will I have to do to get it through her thick skull that no one can be counted on for anything?

"Go ahead," I tell her, granting my permission for her to be a freak. "I'm tired of hearing you whine. I'll start on the filing cabinets." I open a drawer and add, "But before you take your nappy-poo, I have one more question for you. Do you have to do this every time you see any action?" I find nothing and close the drawer as I say, "Waiting on you could get old very quick."

"Yes, every time the Ultra-Epi kicks in but only bio-mechas trigger it," that woman answers and after a few seconds, she adds like some scolded child, "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" I question as I focus more on what I'm searching for than what she's whining about now.

"That I'm a bother. That I'm..." She stares at the floor and after a few seconds, she says, "I'm sorry that I'm not normal."

"I don't know why you're apologizing. It's not like you can help it," I tell her and then I mutter, "You little freak."

"Still... I'm sorry."

"Well... As long as it doesn't get us killed, don't worry about it," I state as I start on the third cabinet. A few moments go by, and then I say, "I've been meaning to ask you something. Is the Ultra-Epi what causes your eyes to glow?"

"Yes, of what I've been able to find out it is."

That woman's definitely a little freak. I can't wait till I don't need her help anymore and I can close her. I just need to make sure I come up with a story that will be believable when I report her accidental death to Voice.

I glance at her and see that she's staring at me, so I tell her, "Well, hurry up and get your nappy-poo over." I think about what she has told me, and I add, "And you better not be giving me a line of Cretan Bull so that you can get out of working."

I force a smile to hide what I'm really thinking. I don't like being in this stupid and weird partnership. I'm more of a loner. People just get in the way, and I just know that woman's going to cause me a lot of paperwork once I do close her.

Katharine's view...

"I shouldn't be out for long," I tell Kimberly.

I open the music box, and the tune plays, and soon I fall asleep and enter the Drifting Time. Moments pass and then an image of a bearded man appears before me as he speaks to me in my dream.

"My dear, you must remember."

I'm not sure what he wants me to remember but whatever it is... it seems very important to him.

"My dear, remember the poem."

"What poem?" I question.

He says with a soothing voice, "Though the clouds darken the sun..."

His words trigger something within me, and I mutter the rest of the poem and once I finish, he desperately beseeches me once again.

"My dear, you must remember the rest."

"I don't know the rest."

"You must try," he urges me as if people are in danger and only I can save them by speaking what I don't know.

I'm starting to feel uncomfortable in my dream. I want to know who this man is who keeps insisting I know things that I don't. I also want to know why he speaks to me like he knows me. Is he real or something my mind has created just to fill my confused and muddled mind? I'm not afraid of him, and I do get this sense that he wants to help.

I think I should listen to him, so I tell him, "I'll try." I calm myself and then focus on what I need to do. I must remember... I must remember something I don't seem to know. I try with all my being, but I can't remember anything past the words that I do know and after some time, I give up and tell him, "I can't find the words. Are you sure there's more?"

He doesn't answer me.

"Hello... Are you still there? Hello..?"

The dream fades, and I continue through the Drifting Time. I find that I want to go back to that dream. I want to remember what I can't but those thoughts fade as dreams do, and I have no other strange encounters.

After about ten minutes...

I open my eyes and find Kimberly's still looking for clues, so I close the lid to the music box, and the noise of grinding filing cabinet drawers becomes the dominant sound. I stand, grab my backpack, start on my side of the room, go through drawer after drawer, and find them empty. I pause and shout to Kimberly who's standing at the other end of the room, "Find anything?"

"No," she yells back, closes the last drawer on her side, and leans against the filing cabinet. "You took a short nap."

"I said it would be. Did you doubt me?"

Kimberly's view...

"Always have and–" I tell that woman as I walk over to the left side of the room and start on her cabinets so that we can be done with this room, "–always will." We go through a few more drawers, and then I tell her, "I'm beginning to think this trip was a waste of time. The only thing we've accomplished is getting my asp nearly nipped off." I mutter, "And I saw a demon I wish I never saw." I open another drawer, pause from my search, and ask her, "Do you know you talk in your sleep?"

"Really..?" that woman replies. "What did I say?"

The lights flicker and the power goes off, plunging the room into darkness and within a few seconds, the emergency lights come on and cast the area in a green glow.

"A blackout?" I question.

"Maybe not," that woman answers as she moves to the front door, listens at the door frame, then comes back, and tells me, "The K-99s may have knocked out the power if they feel it's the only way to defend this building."

I remove my gun and ask, "Do you think they know where we are?"

"They're probably making their way here now."

"Great!" I shout as I throw up my hands. "Just great! How are we..?"

"Look," that woman interrupts me as she points to the floor at the back wall. "I see a light."

I move to the rear of the room and that woman follows me, and I stare at the floor as a white light glows through a small crack.

"Is it another room?" I ask, and then I push on the wall and a concealed door opens. I don't want to go in first. Actually, I don't want to go in at all, so I turn back to that woman and ask, "What do you think? Should we go in or run? The K-99s could be here at any moment and we only have one way out of this room that I can see." I glance back into the next room and add, "Hades... It could be another waste of my time to search this next room."

"We've come this far."

"I was thinking the same thing," I tell her, hating that she's right, and then I reluctantly start through first. "Come on, let's try to salvage the trip."

Chapter Thirteen

Children of Nyx

6:48 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage...

Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo...

Katharine's view...

We walk through the concealed door and find a brightly lit room with beige carpeting. The second room feels different than the first; it feels even less used when the facility was in operation. A bookshelf full of volumes is against the right wall, and a single filing cabinet is against the left wall. I move to the lone cabinet and open the top drawer through the fourth, finding them empty, then I open the last drawer, and I find that it's also empty. I start to shut it but then I see a corner of a filing folder that has fallen underneath. I remove the bottom drawer from the cabinet, set it to the side, grab the file, and start glancing through it and while I do that, Kimberly goes over to the bookshelf, grabs a book, and flips through the pages, searching for anything of interest. Once she's done, Kimberly drops the book to the floor and starts on another.

Kimberly has made a small pile by the time she asks me, "Did you find anything?"

"Yes," I answer as I walk to the center of the room. "I've found a file that appears to have been lost."

"When..?"

"I'm not sure when it was lost."

Kimberly snaps at me, "I'm not asking when it was lost. I was going to ask you when you were going to tell me you found it!"

"Why are you yelling at me?" I shout back at her. "I don't remember yelling at you."

"You might not have yelled at me, but you nearly shot my head off!"

"So that's why you're mad at me," I tell her as I lower my voice back down. "How do you think I feel when you didn't help me to the top when we were climbing? I just saved your life, and you couldn't even lend me a hand. We're supposed to be partners."

Kimberly stares at me as if I've got horns growing out of my head.

"I think I understand," I tell her as I feel myself growing angrier by the word. "We don't really have a partnership. You're here for yourself and that's it, and when you don't need me anymore you're going to..."

"For Ares' sake!" Kimberly yells at me. "Just tell me what's in the file!"

She doesn't want this discussion. I don't think Kimberly will ever want this discussion, so I sigh, then scan over the first three sheets again, and reply, "The first part is about a Greek Goddess and the file explains how Nyx is the Goddess of Night." I turn to the fourth, fifth, and sixth sheets and then I say, "Some of the information are blacked out. This next part talks about the Children of Nyx, and here's a blacked out area ending with that Nemesis is Retribution and Eris is Strife." I flip to the seventh sheet and say, "This page talks about an experiment." I read further, and then I utter, "I don't believe it."

"What is it?" Kimberly asks as she moves from the shelf to my side so she can also peer at the file.

I tell her, "The Council was the ones involved with organic-mecha."

The Council... My anger returns as I think about them. They're the ones who had me... They're the ones who are still testing me... I think about what this discovery means and if it's true, if they were the ones involved with organic-mecha, could they be the ones who made me? They've had me, so they must know what I am. They've probably known all along what I am and that infuriates me. They should have told me. They should tell me who or what I am. I glance up at Kimberly who's giving me this weird look, and I know that I can't think this way. I can't doubt my humanity but I do. At the slightest mention of organic-mecha, I'm all freaked out that I am one, that I am this thing created in a lab. I can't do this to myself. I have to stop and have some faith. I am real. I am human.

Kimberly's view...

My stomach goes sour as that woman utters the chimera-like word. That's right... I still don't know if that woman is human or some patched together monstrosity created in a test tube. I really hate this. I hate not knowing what I'm partnered with. I guess it doesn't matter, not when I'm going to close her when I'm done with her.

"They were?" I ask as if I have to be sure.

"Yes," that woman answers. "This last page talks about organic-mecha. I was told..."

"You mean by the Rogue?" I interrupt. "Hades... I'd like to forget I ever ran into that thing so let's not mention it again. Actually, let's not talk about organic-mecha either. We don't need to worry about something that doesn't matter to either one of us." I laugh as if I'm shrugging off the whole thing before I add, "It's not like you are one."

I really don't want to talk about what this freak beside me is. I only want to finish up in here and find out why my mom had this address stored in one of those Data Crystals. I want to be done with this aspinine partnership. I want to be done with her. I want to end her so badly, but I have to wait. I have to make sure I don't need her anymore.

Katharine's view...

"Okay," I reply as I get this sense that she's agitated about something. She was very afraid of the T-3s when we fought them at the Factory, and I've encountered the Rogue enough times to know the effect it has on people, so I tell her, "We don't have to talk about the Rogue or organic-mecha."

Kimberly accepts my statement, but she doesn't seem any less agitated, and I wonder if something else might be bothering her. I notice how she's looking at me, and I'm crush by what she must think of me. I want her to see me as normal. I want her to see me as someone she can rely on. I want... I want to be able to trust her.

Kimberly asks, "What's on the next page?"

I turn to the tenth and answer, "It's a poem. I'll read it to you."

"The Children of Nyx,

Goddess of Night and Destroyer of Day.

Rise up children

and enact your names.

For metal, you were conceived

but flesh you were made.

Spread over the earth,

take your positions,

and watch and direct events

till the Closing of Days."

"Not my taste in poetry. Is there anything else in the folder?" she questions me.

"A few pictures–" I answer as I flip through the last pages, "–but no more documents."

I remove my backpack, unzip it, and place the Lost File inside. I found a simple answer that I hope will lead me to a bigger answer. I just need to not give up... I glance at Kimberly as I work. I just need someone I can rely on who will help me find all the answers I seek.

"We have nothing," Kimberly states as she moves back to the bookshelf, and then she orders me, "Help me with these and let's see if we can find something worthwhile."

For the first time, I get this sense that she's also searching for something as desperately as I am. There... our first bond. A small step to strengthen our fragile partnership. We need each other. Alone we are less but together we can accomplish much. I just hope she also sees this. I just hope that she'll start to rely on me as I have already started to rely on her.

Kimberly turns to me as I stare at her, and she gets this weird look on her face before she orders me again, "Idiot, don't just gawk at me. Help me!"

"I'm on it," I tell her and rush over to the bookshelf.

Okay... not what I was hoping for, but she does want my help. I guess I can also consider her calling me an idiot her way of... I'm actually not sure. Idiot did sound mean but maybe she's warming up to me. She didn't pull out her gun or threaten me or shoot me. Another small step. I should be thankful for it.

I scan the books, grab one on Transgenics, and finger through the pages. A photo falls to the floor, and I pick it up, examine the picture, and say, "Kimberly."

She removes a book and flips through it as she questions, "What?"

I turn the photo so she can see.

"That's my mom," Kimberly utters as she takes the picture and peers at her spitting image sitting next to an older gentleman. "Hades! But who's the guy she's with?"

"Let me see," I speak, turn the Transgenics Text over, and look at the author's photo on the back. "Adam Greenhouse. It says here he's the Father of Transgenics."

"Let me have a look," Kimberly demands more than asks, then takes the book, and mumbles, "We found a clue, but where will it lead me?" She then questions, "It can't be a coincidence, can it?"

"I don't think so. We should talk with this Mr. Greenhouse."

"Sure but how do we find him?"

"May I?" I question as I hold out my hand for the book, Kimberly gives it back to me, and I glance at the photo of the author and flip to the acknowledgments. "It says here that the picture was taken at Genesis Arboretum." I hand back the book as I add, "Mr. Greenhouse worked there at the time of the photo."

"It would be about–" Kimberly starts as she examines the date on the photo, and then she says, "–three decades ago. Do you think he's still working at the arboretum?" She stares at his picture as she comments, "I doubt he's still alive. He looks pretty old in this photo."

"Only one way to find out," I say with a smile.

Kimberly's view...

I peer at her as she gives me this goofy grin. I really hate being in a partnership especially with that woman. There's just something about her that irritates me. I don't know if I can spend another hour with her and her weirdness, so what will I do if I have to spend another day?

I sigh as I tell her, "I guess we'll be going on a field trip."

Yay, I'm going to have to spend more time with that freakish woman when all I want to do is put a bullet through her brain. I take a deep breath and let it out. I can do this. I can endure this. I've been through worse.

I say, "Before we go to Genesis Arboretum, there are other things we have to consider first. What about the K-99s?"

That woman pats her backpack and answers, "I do have a few A.P.Rs. The armor piercing rounds should penetrate their visors."

"You have A.P.Rs.? Why didn't you use them?"

"Well..." that woman starts as she opens her backpack, takes out the Lost File, the Gel-Taser, and a few other items, and then grabs a handful of shells from the bottom and shows them to me. "They were kind of thrown in."

"For Ares' sake!" I shout. "You had them loose in your pack. You should've had them in a magazine ready for action."

I can't believe it. That woman is an idiot! A real honest-to-gods idiot!

She bows her head as I scold her, and then that woman says, "I know I should have. I just never got around to it." She peers in the backpack, counts them, and says, "I have eight."

"And twelve robot mutts. We need more. Any ideas?"

She glances around the room, points to a fire extinguisher, and answers, "Maybe. Was there one of those in the other room?"

"I think so. Don't tell me you have a stupid plan."

"I won't," that woman states like a child intending mischief, and then she adds, "I'm hoping for a brilliant one."

Chapter Fourteen

Escape From Distribution Station Bravo

8:21 P.M...

The gentle wind blowing through the city changed direction and swept the newspaper back down the chain length fence, and a few sheets of paper grabbed the metal diamond mesh as if holding on with all its might. The breeze kicked up and forced the debris further down the fence, and the wind lodged the newspaper at the gate and inside the protective wall of mesh, a K-99 stared at the debris and then scanned the surrounding area. It had been sent on a mission by its Team Leader. The perimeter was secure, so it moved to the guardhouse and found the S.C.M. lying on the floor moaning. The K-99 activated its sensors, checked on him, and his vitals were within parameters, so it nudged him with its nose but couldn't wake him. The K-99 transmitted the information to the others of its pack, and the dot-light in each of its yellow eyes simultaneously blinked three times. It glanced once more at the S.C.M, ran back to the loading ramp, reentered Etna Toys, and raced down several cobwebbed halls as its metal clawed paws clinked across the concrete corridors. It detected the intruders' shoe prints in the dust, and a few fluorescent lights flickered overhead as it followed the trail through several halls. After a few minutes, it came to the long passage with no doors. Water dripped from the ceiling pipes and landed on its fur, and then the K-99 passed the two hand scanners, went through the open door, and continued running. The concrete floor stopped and was replaced by the sandy one, and the long passage ended in the large cave with the curved second level. It paused and looked up, knowing the intruders were above, and then the K-99 raced on to join its half of the pack.

On the second floor...

Back in the first room with all the old filing cabinets...

Kimberly's view...

I cautiously open the front door and look over the curved walkway. The eerie green glow of emergency lights envelops the area inside and the walkway outside. There's no enemy out there, so I close the door and turn back to that woman who's standing behind me and who's also somehow to blame for all of this.

She checks her magazine with the eight A.P.Rs., places it in her left thigh pocket, and mumbles, "I hope they're enough."

I'm so infuriated with her. I can't say exactly but somehow it is her fault we're in this mess. I think about shooting her and somehow using her body to draw the K-99s away so that I can escape, but I'm not sure how a plan like that would work. I'll hold off on closing her, hold off till she's more useful dead than alive.

"You said the robot mutts would track us down," I begin as I pace back and forth from the door to the middle of the first room. "How are those tin mongrels going to get up here? We had to climb the cave's wall to reach the second level, and I don't see any other doors outside."

"Just because we don't see one doesn't mean there isn't one," that woman replies as she removes the PPK I let her borrow, and then she motions with her head to the back wall before she adds, "Remember the hidden door, we didn't know it was there."

"Hades... I don't know about this," I complain as I can't seem to stop pacing like some lunatic. "Are you sure your plan will work? My 9 mm rounds are useless unless your stupid idea works."

"Pretty sure. Did you check the flashlights?"

"Yes, they're the ones with the EMP shielding and their batteries are still good," I answer as I remove them from my knapsack. "Here's yours," I state as I hand that woman her flashlight. I think about our odds against programmed killing machines, and then I speak without holding back my fear, "I don't know about this idiotic plan of yours. What if it doesn't work? Do you have a backup?"

"No, but it will work," that woman says with such confidence that I want to strangle her.

I'm standing here thinking this is my last hour on this world, and she's standing across from me enjoying herself like she's on some outing. For Ares' sake! Show some fear so that I can believe you're human.

She adds as if what she saying is so obvious, "The plan has to work. It's the only one we have."

What kind of messed up reasoning is that? It's ridiculous, so I better come up with a plan of my own if I want to survive. I glance around the room and consider the supplies we have. Hades... I can't think under this stress and usually, I'm more level-headed than this. Is it because that woman is here or am I freaking out because of the tin mongrels?

Katharine's view...

I take the flashlight and put it in my back pocket. I don't show my uneasiness as I also doubt the plan. It's such a long shot and if I fail, it's not just my life on the line. I glance at Kimberly. Maybe I shouldn't involve her. She could get hurt or killed.

I pause from my thoughts and ask her, "Unless you have a better plan?"

Kimberly's view...

"No," I reply.

I've gotten into more trouble in the little time I've been with that woman than I have my entire career as a Life Closer. Using Pale Horse right now is sounding more and more reasonable.

"Well... Let's hope this works," that woman states as she picks up a fire extinguisher that's beside her, pulls the pin, and cradles the red canister in her left arm like a baby. "The K-99s can only see infrared when their metal visors are down. The mist the extinguishers spray should confuse their sensors and force the K-99s to raise their visors, and then we get our shot." That woman looks right at me and asks, "Are you clear on the plan?"

"Sure. I'm clear. I just don't think it'll work," I answer as I holster my gun, and then I state, "And if it doesn't, I better at least survive. You can die, but I better survive." I pick up the second fire extinguisher and remove its pin as I add, "I have things I still need to do."

"And like I don't," that woman mutters at me, then suddenly she places a hand to her chest like her heart's bothering her, and her eyes shine blue as her freakish ability kicks in. "It's time. They're close. There are six of them on the far side of the walkway. Make sure you stick with the plan."

"I will," I tell her as I look at the fire extinguisher.

For Ares' sake! I'm a Closer, not some fireman.

I take a deep breath and say to that woman, "I'm ready. Let's do this."

End Kimberly's view...

At the opposite end of the walkway, a stone wall rumbled as it slid up, and an elevator stood behind the mock front. The doors opened, and six K-99s started across the sandy floor. The Team Leader had a red triangular mark on its visor, and it positioned itself in the front. Two of the pack fell in behind it, followed by three more K-99s, and then they prowled toward the room. Their orders were clear, they were to terminate the intruders.

Kimberly's view...

I follow that woman who goes out first and sets her fire extinguisher on the ground about three yards from the door. She walks on ahead as if she has no fear of the K-99s nearing us. I freeze when I see the pack as a dread rises within me, a dread that I'll die here. I hate this fear, and I find that I'm relying on that woman to get us through this. I'm relying on her to save us, and I start to loathe how powerless she's making me feel. I won't let her save us, not alone so I force myself to move beside her and once I arrive, I aim the nozzle at the tin mongrels and wait for them to get a little closer. I feel stupid doing this, and I feel even more stupid that my hands are shaking uncontrollably. The robots aren't any deadlier than a man with a gun.

"If I spray them with this, how are you going to see them?"

"Hopefully the same way I was able to with the Rogue. I'm going to try and use the Knowing," that woman answers me as she aims for the leader. "I pray I can do it. I'm not really sure how it works."

An emotion stronger than my fear lashes out, and I yell in anger, "You're telling me this now!" I stare at the metal teeth and claws of the K-99s, experiencing more of my phobia as I take a step back, thinking about running, and I state, "Maybe we should rethink this."

"No time!" she shouts, taking a shooting stance. "Get ready!"

The K-99s bolt for us, tearing across the sand as they snarl and bark. I wait until the tin mongrels are about ten feet away, and then I squeal and squeeze the handle, discharging the carbon dioxide.

She glances at me after I squealed, but then that woman quickly turns her attention back to our enemy.

"Don't panic. I'm here," that woman tells me in a manner that makes me believe her, and then she whispers, "I'll protect you."

I spray back and forth with the nozzle and create a white cloud as I slowly back up, getting some distance between myself and the pack. The mist covers the K-99s, and they halt, blinded by the mist as I yell, "Kill them! Kill them now!"

Katharine's view...

Before Kimberly discharges the fire extinguisher, I focus on the Team Leader as the pack nears us and my heart thumps continuously, fueling my ability. Kimberly sprays, the mist covers the K-99s, and I feel my eyes blaze brighter, and I can see them reflect off the wall of white like a blue inferno and in that moment, I pray, "Please work. Please work. I have to protect Kimberly."

I lose sight of the Team Leader, but then the Knowing kicks in. I see the yellow-green Electrical Apparitions emanating from the K-99s. The e-field my body generates somehow modifies itself and collects its output in the center of my heart. It's like I'm seeing it happen. The blue sphere the size of a grape doubles with each contraction of my heart till it engulfs the muscle. The Ult L-E dissipates as my pupils dilate, making them appear black as ink, and I feel like I'm some hellish creature. I feel indestructible, and I feel like I can annihilate anything in my path, so I snarl with new vigor. The e-field masses till it can no longer contain the energy and pulses, sending a small shockwave in all directions. The E.F.P. washes over the K-99s and fries exposed circuitry. The emergency lights above the walkway and those in the filing cabinet room lose power and plunge the area into darkness as the K-99s shut down and stand there like scrapheap.

I click on my flashlight and the beam lights up the walkway as I order, "Stop spraying!"

Kimberly releases the trigger of the fire extinguisher, and we both stare at the motionless K-99s as the white cloud slowly dissipates.

"Shoot them now while they're disabled!" Kimberly shouts.

"No. We have to wait if the plan's to work," I insist.

"Hades!" Kimberly yells, and then she complains, "You've got to be kidding!"

"Wait..." I repeat, understanding her fear, but we can't waste this one chance. I want to shoot. I want to end these mechanical demons, but I must not give in to dread.

"Wait!" I repeat, then count to ten as I sense them reactivating, and then I yell, "Now!"

Chapter Fifteen

The Best Of Plans

9:07 P.M...

Katharine's view...

I wait as Kimberly sprays the fire extinguisher again. I sense the K-99s' backup battery kick in and they power up as the white cloud engulfs them for the second time. The yellow-green Electrical Apparitions of the K-99s fades as the Knowing enters its third stage, and I see a bright ghost-image of each of the K-99s that shines through the mist. I notice the Team Leader and the two K-99s behind it raise their visors, so I carefully aim and fire three times, hitting the front K-99s in their kill spot.

"That one's empty," Kimberly tells me as she drops the fire extinguisher and races back to the second one.

I can still hear the fear in her voice as I retreat with her. I'll make sure none of the dog bio-mechas hurt her. Kimberly picks up the second fire extinguisher and sprays the remaining three K-99s, and I watch the middle one open its visor and I shoot it, dropping it. The last two K-99s stand frozen in place as they receive data from their I-Link, and it must inform them that the other four have been terminated.

Kimberly removes her gun after she drops the second empty fire extinguisher, and then she yells, "That's it on the spray!"

The two K-99s back up several steps till they are clear of the mist and once the cloud dissipates, they must be able to see our heat signatures and have no need to raise their visors.

"They've adapted too soon!" I shout as I remove the A.P.R. magazine from my pocket, eject the regular one, clear the chamber, and toss the magazine to Kimberly. I insert the new one as the Knowing's bright ghost-images fade along with the misty cloud.

Kimberly's view...

So far that woman's plan has worked. I move so that we're standing side by side, and I glance at her as her pupils retract and return to their normal greenish brown coloring. Hades... She looked like some creepy monster when her eyes went all black like a shark's. The blue Ult L-E returns and her eyes take back their hellish gleam. I stand there powerless to do anything as she fires once at the K-99 to her left, and the armor piercing round penetrates the visor and enters its weak spot.

"Hurry!" that woman yells at me as she fires the last A.P.R. "Climb down!"

The K-99 turns its head slightly, and the bullet ricochets off its metal visor. I move as my dread spurs me to action, and I holster my gun. I consider as I rush for the ledge that this was the second time my weapon had been useless and maybe I need to upgrade it. I reach the ledge, place the magazine that woman had thrown to me in my knapsack, and start down.

Katharine's view...

Kimberly takes off as I face the last dog bio-mecha, and it charges and leaps for me. I take a step toward the edge, fire again and this time, the round penetrates its visor. I duck, and the K-99 jumps over me and the cliff, landing in a heap on the floor below. I hear something, so I look at the other end of the walkway and see a hidden wall rumble up, an elevator open, and the other half of the pack rush out. I fire and take out their Team Leader as the other five run towards me. I tuck my gun and climb down.

"Hurry!" I shout to Kimberly who's near the bottom. "The other half is coming, and I'm down to four rounds."

Kimberly reaches the first level and runs for the exit. I jump down when I'm about five feet from the bottom and follow about a minute behind her. I glance back and see that the K-99s are studying the height of the cliff, then one of them jumps, and it lands hard but undamaged. The other four follow and soon they pursue us. We run through the sandy hall, through the concrete corridor, and to the door with the scanners. We enter the hallway with the blue pipes as I turn and fire, hitting one in its vulnerable spot. It collapses to the floor about a hundred yards away, and the four remaining K-99s leap over its body, continuing their pursuit. I back up a few steps, fire twice, and hit one K-99 but the other one evades the bullet.

I turn and run as I shout, "They've adapted."

Kimberly's way ahead of me and pauses at the corner as she says, "What do you mean?"

"The one K-99 has evolved like the Rogue, so it's able to dodge bullets!"

Kimberly's view...

Hades... I'm trembling again as I see the three robot mutts closing in on that woman. I can't believe I'm acting this way. It's like I'm really afraid of them. I don't know what's behind my reactions, but I do know that I need to get out of here!

I run around the corner, shouting, "Well, use that Knowing thing on it."

"I can try but I'm down to one round," that woman tells me as she turns the corner.

"You better do something," I yell over my shoulder as I control the urge to scream in fear. "Hades! They're gaining on us. We won't make it out."

Katharine's view...

Kimberly's right, so I tell her, "Keep going!"

I will save her. I just need to gain her some time to escape, so I stop about a hundred feet from the corner, turn, and wait for the K-99s to come around. I hurry and unsling my backpack, remove a screwdriver and my flashlight, kneel, and lay the tools beside me.

Kimberly questions me in the distance, "What are you doing?"

"I'm buying you some time! So use it and run!" I answer her, then I consider what I'm about to attempt, and I shout back, "Hey! You'll need your flashlight!"

The three K-99s turn the corner, and I face the pack as I mutter, "Come on... Come on... Kick in!"

I believe my ability won't heed my call so I'm about to stand and run for it. The Knowing does activate a moment before I retreat, and it sends an e-field pulse in all directions. The lights in the area lose power, and the K-99s shut down in their tracks. I switch on my flashlight just as the K-99s fall over stiff as a day old corpse. I wait and then it happens. I watch as their backup battery kicks in, they power up, the three rise to their paws, and then they glance around the dark area. Once they get their bearings, they charge after me. The ghost-images of the K-99s appear, acting a second before the real ones do, and I fire at the one in the lead and hit its weak spot. The K-99 stumbles, falls, and wipes out the two behind it, and the three of them land in a heap.

Kimberly's view...

I run and in my terror induce flight, I realize it's stupid the way I'm acting, so I stop and turn. I'm running like some frighten rabbit. It's like that woman tricked me. I go back to the corner so that I can see her in the distance. She did somehow. That woman wants me to owe her my life, and I can't have that. My fear vanishes as resentment replaces it. I'm not going to owe her anything!

I start toward her and shout, "I'm not going to let you save me! I can protect myself!"

"What are you doing?" that woman asks as she glances at me, and then she turns her attention back to the pack. "Why are you coming this way?" She lays the empty gun down and picks up the screwdriver, holding it like a knife as she screams with concern in her voice, "I said run! Get out of here! It's useless. There's nothing you can do."

"Shut up!" I shriek at her as I'm finally able to let all that pinned up fear out. I aim at the K-99s as I shout even louder, "Don't ever say something like that to me! I'm not useless!"

The last two K-99s lift from the heap and slowly stalk that woman as she grips the screwdriver and shouts at me, "I said it's useless, not that you're useless!"

"Oh..." I utter as my anger lessens but only a bit. "Well..." I notice the pipes running along the ceiling and ask, "Can these things swim?"

"No, this early model's not waterproof."

"Great! I can finally do something!" I yell in wicked glee and fire, emptying my magazine along the pipes in front of the K-99s. "See," I whisper. "I'm not useless."

The pipes rupture and spray water on them, and the K-99s jolt in place for a few moments as electricity surges through their bodies, and then they collapse to the floor.

"That was amazing!" that woman exclaims as she stands, grabs her things, hurries down the hall, and joins me where I stand. She looks at me with this admiration I believe I've seen before. She's like a little girl looking up at her big sister who has just saved her from an angry stray dog, and that woman reiterates, "Really, I mean it. That was amazing."

"I know," I say, trying to sound boastful but instead, I slightly blush as I receive the compliment.

I find that I'm smiling. That woman seems sincere as she looks at me with her wonder-filled eyes and for a few moments, I think I'm looking at a kid. I turn away so she doesn't see me blush. I don't brush off the compliment since it has come from the Pandora Project who has great skill in her own right, but I also can't let that woman know I appreciate the praise.

I act irritated as I glance at her screwdriver and inquire, "What were you going to do? Were you going to dismantle the tin mongrels before they chewed off your arm?"

"Huh?" she utters as she glances at her screwdriver. "Oh... That's funny–" she says, then chuckles, and adds, "–but no."

I eject my empty magazine and insert the one she had tossed to me earlier, and then I speak, surprised by the project's reaction, "I believe that's the first time I've seen you laugh."

"It has been a long time," that woman admits as she glances over her shoulder, making sure nothing pursues us. She turns back to me and states, "I can't believe you saved me. I thought you only looked out for yourself."

"Well, don't get used to it. It must have been a lapse in judgment. Anyway... I didn't want to owe your dead corpse anything. I might feel bad for a few hours." I start down the hall as I add, "Or a least a few minutes. Come on. Let's go back to my apartment."

Chapter Sixteen

The Request

9:47 P.M...

Thanatos the Dark Half's Regulator clicked on an incoming call, and an image of a man appeared on his hundred foot screen. The man's eyes were shadowed but Thanatos recognized the mouth and chin.

"Mr. Morta," Thanatos yelled over the death-metal resonating through his domain. Music other than jingles had been outlawed by the Corporate Senate, but black market music was available in a variety of genres. "It has been a while. You should call more often. I miss our chats. I do."

"And I dislike them," Mr. Morta spoke.

"And here I thought we were friends. I guess I was wrong. What can I do for the Council?"

Mr. Morta scowled as he looked over the nipple pierced punk. He could barely hear Thanatos over the noise of what Thanatos referred to as music. He just needed to finish this conversation, so Mr. Morta answered, "I wanted to personally confirm that the request for the Pandora Project's Open Closing has been canceled. We have no further need to have a bounty on its head."

Thanatos pulled up the file, opened it on the lower part of the large screen, and replied, "The Closing and the bounty were canceled one minute ten seconds after your request." He scratched his eyebrow as he inquired, "Is there a problem?"

"No," Mr. Morta answered.

"I take it you have a real interest in this Pandora–" Thanatos yelled as he glanced over the file, "–woman. Do not worry. Since the forging of the Assassins Guild, mistakes are rare." He typed in a command on the keyboard and turned down his music, and then Thanatos stopped yelling and stated, "Once a Closing is canceled, it is canceled. All Closers use H.H.Cs., and they know the moment a cancellation comes through. Pandora has nothing to fear from any Closer. She is free to do whatever projects do."

Mr. Morta tapped his finger on the table, not amused with Thanatos, and then he spoke, "Perhaps you can help me with another matter. A Closer crossed paths with one of our projects. I would like to know their identity. I believe she performed the Topa Closing."

Thanatos typed across the keyboard and pulled up some more files as he questioned, "Do you know the history of the Assassins Guild?"

"Yes," Mr. Morta replied. "I do not need a lesson. Please give me the answer to my request."

Thanatos gestured a bow with his hand and head as he began, "Great Council member..." A smile slithered across his face as he said, "If you know the history, you should also know I cannot tell you their identity. Part of my job is to protect their anonymity."

Mr. Morta grumbled his irritation, and then he said, "I have no further need to speak with you then."

He ended the transmission and the screen went black. Thanatos drummed his fingers on the swivel keyboard for a few moments, and then he pushed it to the side till it aligned with the chair's arm and leaned forward.

"Phoenix..." He placed his palms together as if praying and questioned out loud, "What have you gotten yourself into?"

* * *

The twin Closers, Nikolai and Natasha, busied themselves as they waited to fulfill the Closing on the Phoenix. Three days remained before the appointed time and there was much they could do in a mega-city that had no bounds when it came to the delicacies of the mind, soul, and body. They returned to their hotel and cleaned up after they had closed on Vic the Vulture that morning for the Valhalla Corporation. They found a nice place for lunch and enjoyed a meal and as natives of the Light Side of the planet, everyday life in Noir was alien to them.

9:53 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

"I'll never get used to this," Natasha mumbled to herself as she made her way out of the Main One Hospital after visiting its pharmacy.

Her internal clock was off without the sun to greet her in the morning, and she felt like she was on an endless all-nighter and wished to be back where the sun caressed her face. Few people walked the area she was in as many had gone home to settle in for the night. Natasha paused, tried to adjust to the odd way of breathing through the WM-A, and continued outside. She carried a green cloth sack and halted at the edge of a sidewalk as the Cadillac pulled up to the curb. She placed the sack on the floor of the back seat along with her mask, and she got in the front. Her brother Nikolai had the wheel, and his Fedora lay beside him on the seat along with an open briefcase. An old book titled Draven and Salandra lay inside the briefcase.

Nikolai held another book titled Blood Harvest that he was nearly done with. He finished the last page of the chapter, placed the novel in the briefcase, and put the briefcase in the back, and then he spoke, "Tasha, were you able to get the kits?"

She removed her mask once she was in the car, tossed the mask in the back, and replied, "Yes, we have enough filters and the Liquid Oxygen Sprays to last several weeks if needed. I for one do not wish to stay a minute longer in this dreadful place."

"Our assignment will be over soon and then we can return home," Nikolai told her as he drove out of the hospital's parking lot and onto the main road. "We can see the sun once more."

After a few minutes...

"I almost forgot," Natasha spoke as she reached into the back seat, removed two boxes from the bag, and handed one to her brother. "I got us upgrades."

He took it and questioned, "What are these upgrades?"

"I grew tired of the Winnow Mask that was given to us, so I purchased the next level up," Natasha replied as she removed the WM-B from its box. "These have straps so that our hands are free."

"Well done, my sister. We may need these if we are to take down the Phoenix," he spoke as he peered at his own WM-B, and then he said, "These masks have given me an idea."

He pulled over and put on the WM-B.

"What are you doing?" Natasha questioned.

"This vehicle is a convertible. I would like to put the top down. Is that all right with you?"

"Only because it is you who is asking, I will bear the discomfort of this place," she replied as she put on her own WM-B.

He activated the top and it lowered, and then Nikolai resumed driving as he said, "I enjoy having the wind in my face. It is not that terrible, is it?"

"No," Natasha replied as she grabbed his Fedora, placed it in the back, slid over, and then leaned her head on her brother's shoulder. "It is not that bad."

About ten minutes later...

The onboard computer centered in the console flashed red, and then it spoke, "Tainted Rain forecasted to hit in four minutes and so for your safety, this rental vehicle will lock out drive control until the storm passes. Please pull over and raise the top. Estimated length of Tainted Rain is fifteen minutes."

"I just placed it down," Nikolai complained as he pulled the car over and pressed a button that raised the top. "If we were in Mother Russia, we wouldn't have to worry about this polluted rain." He left the car running as he said, "I should be thankful we didn't get caught in it."

He watched as black droplets speckled the windshield and then thousands fell from the sky. The wind howled from the west, whipping the water about along with debris on the road. The drab Dry Clouds thundered as people on the sidewalks rushed for cover.

Natasha leaned forward, turned on the air system, removed her WM-B, and said, "I wish to be rid of this mask. It is so uncomfortable."

The rental as with all automobiles on the Dark Half had a special filter to provide clean air for its passengers. The Cadillac idled, switching to its electric battery as the world outside became darker. The Tainted Rain gave the landscape an oily look.

"I know it is uncomfortable, but you do not want to breathe Noir's air," her brother told her. "It is foul, smells of petroleum, and look–" He pointed to the windshield as he said, "–the rain has traces of oil. You do not want it on your delicate skin."

"Promise me, my brother, that we will never return to the Dark Half. Promise me, we will remain on the Light Side once we have returned home."

"I cannot promise you this. If Voice has a Closing for us, we must take it. We must never disobey the laws of the Assassins Guild." He looked worried as he added, "We should never incur the Guild's wrath."

"You mean like the Phoenix?"

"Yes," he answered her as he looked at the black water flowing down the windshield nearly cocooning them in a murky grave. "We should never incur their wrath like the Phoenix or we will meet his or her fate."

In an alley some distance from them, the pale-white wolf gazed at the siblings as they sat in their car, and the Tainted Rain soiled its fur and turned its coat a pale-gray. The raven perched above the wolf on a fire escape and crowed softly. The large bird was never far from the wolf.

Back in the car...

Natasha questioned, "Is there a place we can hide from this gloom? Is there a place we can escape for an hour or two?"

"Here..." Nikolai spoke as he reached into the back, grabbed his briefcase, removed something from it, and handed her a brochure. "Maybe this place will cheer you up."

"What is this?" Natasha asked as she took it and glanced at the picture. "A museum?"

"No," he replied with a smile. "Look closer and you will see."

She read the front cover aloud, "Come see our large spacious Sun Room mimicking a pine forest on the Light Side of the planet." She excitedly looked over the pamphlet as she told her brother, "There are tall ordinary trees, green luscious plants that don't glow, and sunlight... precious sunlight. Do they really have such a place in Noir?" Natasha turned to her brother and said excitedly, "We must go. We must go now. Take me."

"Patience, my sister. The place is already closed and there are things we must do tomorrow so we will go on Sunday."

Chapter Seventeen

Flagged

October 23...

Saturday...

12:43 A.M...

The Sanctum...

Analysts worked in three eight-hour shifts, and a file came across one of those Chamber Analysts' computer. He scanned the document and found something off about it, so he flagged the record. He turned and glanced around the area but his supervisors were way on the other side of the line of twenty-four workstations.

The analyst decided he should have this looked at right away, so he pressed a button on the side of his earpiece and stated, "I have a problem."

One of the supervisors, Supervisor Britomaris, approached his workstation, and she questioned, "What's the problem?"

The analyst glanced up at her, turned back to his computer, and pointed as he said, "I've received a file that a Mr. Pinchbeck has taken over management duties for the Factory."

"All right. What seems to be the problem?" the supervisor questioned as she looked over the document and adjacent files. "All the paperwork is in order."

"I remember sending out this document yesterday. The new manager wasn't Mr. Pinchbeck but Mr. Monrow. I believe the documentation has been altered. We should bring it to the attention of the Council."

Supervisor Britomaris tapped the touch screen of her H.H.C., pulled up the files in question, and then she said, "No, you must be mistaken. I have the original file right here. Mr. Pinchbeck is the new manager."

The analyst shook his head as he spoke, "I could have sworn there was a different name there yesterday."

She insisted, "This is nothing we should concern the Council with. If there was a mix-up, we would have heard about it by now. There can't be two managers at the Factory."

The analyst motioned to his screen and said, "I found something else. Mr. Frank Bygone used his corporate card yesterday to rent a limo." He pointed to an H.H.C. lying on his workstation and stated, "I have the bill from the limo company right here."

"What's your point?" Supervisor Britomaris questioned a little irritated.

"Mr. Bygone worked at the Factory," the analyst began as he turned to her again and stated, "He's listed among the dead, so how could he have used his corporate card?"

"Where did the limo take him?"

"Let me see. The driver picked him up from the corner of Limit Street and West 1000 Avenue and took him to the Factory."

"Has the card been used since?"

The analyst looked over the file, and then he answered, "No."

"No worries then," she said. "The limo company put down the wrong date, that's all. They aren't as efficient as us." Supervisor Britomaris ordered, "Backdate our records to the day before the T-3s attacked the Factory." She watched as the analyst complied, and then she said, "Excellent. Now we can say goodbye to Mr. Bygone."

The analyst snickered and said, "That's kind of funny."

"Yeah, I know but don't let the Council hear you laugh. They frown upon things like that," she warned him as she motioned to the Council with her head as they talked among themselves. Supervisor Britomaris ordered him as she continued down the row of analysts, "Back to work. There's much to do."

A few moments later...

"Supervisor Britomaris," a colleague called out to her.

"Yes, what is it?"

The male supervisor informed her, "I will be taking over your shift."

"Why is that?" she questioned.

"I'm also to inform you if you haven't already received the paperwork that you will be transferring to another facility."

"Are you sure?"

He questioned, "Is there another Martha Britomaris working here?"

She lifted her H.H.C., tapped a few buttons, and then she said, "No I haven't received any... Wait... I'm getting something now. Here it is. I am being transferred to the Factory. I'm being assigned to Alcove Supervisor."

In the center of the Chamber...

Mr. Morta's view...

I review the data we received from Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo and find it most interesting. Two of Ginn's Ciphers have appeared and now, we need to discover who has it and why they were at one of our old labs. I have a feeling this incident has something to do with Pandora. I smirk, amused by the notion. It would be like Pandora to become involved in Ginn's Prophecy to spite our efforts.

I place my computer in sleep mode, push my chair away from the table, and stand. Ms. Nona glances at me, smiles in her endearing manner, and returns to work. Mr. Decuma pays me no mind which I prefer. Sometimes he does irritate me with his observation of late.

I walk through the areas of the Chamber that are shadowed from prying eyes, pondering my earlier thoughts. If it is true and Pandora is somehow involved, what part will she play? Will her role be destroyer or savior of our world?

Mr. Decuma's view...

I stretch my hand forward, yawn, and then scan the darkness, noting Mr. Morta is smiling. It is a rarity and even though I wish to know what has amused him, I keep my curiosity to myself.

"Do we have a team ready to go to Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo?" I ask instead.

"No," Ms. Nona answers. "All of our S.C.Ms. are busy on other assignments except those stationed here. Should we pull a group from the field or send in our personal guard?"

"Neither," Mr. Morta replies as he returns to his chair with no smile within the visible realm. "There is nothing important anyone can find at Etna, so we should not pull any S.C.Ms. off of an assignment to investigate some vandal or junky."

"Do you really believe it was some vandal or junky?" I inquire, surprised by his decision. "This vandal has Ginn's Cipher." I grow ever suspicious of our eldest member's actions, so I question, "Why do you delay in sending the S.C.Ms.?"

"Delay..?" Mr. Morta utters as if offended, and then he states, "If you believe this Cipher is more important than any of the assignments the S.C.M. Units are on, by all means, go ahead pull one out and send them in or better yet, you could send in our personal guards and hope the T-3s do not discover our new base of operations."

I hold my tongue that wants to lash out at him. Why does he belittle my opinion or is there another reason for the delay? Is Mr. Morta hoping someone will escape before our men arrive at Etna?

"Mr. Morta is correct in his thinking," Ms. Nona states, forcing my opinion to mean nothing in the count. It is now two to one as she inquires, "As great of a find Ginn's Cipher would be, what good is it to us? Ginn's Prophecy is not our department." She pauses, turns to me, must sense my agitation, and says, "Unless you have a good reason why we should investigate immediately, I say we let our guard dogs take care of the intruder or intruders."

I dislike when we disagree, and I dislike it, even more, when I am in the minority. A force I cannot deny compels me to straighten my bright orange tie as if it is chafing my neck which it is not, and then I yield to the other members and say, "We will wait. As you implied, most likely the intruder will not survive the K-99s. We can have their corpses examined. There is no rush."

I glance at Mr. Morta, considering the move he has made in this matter. First, he delayed Cerberus from killing Pandora and now, he delays us from sending a team to Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo. I believe Mr. Morta is letting his emotions interfere with his judgment, and I may need to step in to rectify the situation. I will continue to observe him and take any action that might be warranted.

Chapter Eighteen

Who's In Charge Now?

12:47 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

Outside the new manager's office at the Factory...

The stench of dead bodies clung to the air, and it would have been a repulsive odor to any normal person. The Rogue detected the smell and processed it as any other data it acquired. The odor and the sight of the decaying bodies had no effect on it because for the Rogue, it was something that just existed. It dragged a body of a man down a corridor and into a food court, and then the Rogue dropped the body in the center of the room among hundreds of other corpses. It was fortunate that the Council's S.C.Ms. had not cleared the area. It could dispose of the body there. Mr. Monrow's name was no longer on the paperwork. Mr. Pinchbeck's was and there couldn't be two managers.

It finished hiding the body among the others and started out. It was also fortunate that the Rogue was able to have the limo driver pick up Mr. Monrow so that no one saw him when he came in. The Rogue merely told the S.C.Ms. at the gate to expect the limo and let the vehicle through without stopping it. The Rogue removed a plastic card from its business suit. It was another good thing it thought to create a corporate card in Mr. Pinchbeck's name to use for the rental of the limo. The Rogue didn't need a trail leading to it from Mr. Bygone.

The S.C.Ms. protecting the new manager entered and looked around the area.

"There you are, Mr. Pinchbeck," a female soldier said. "We wondered where you went. You must remember to let us escort you. The Factory hasn't been secured and there could be Un-Men about."

"I understand, it will not happen again," the Rogue told her as it hid a smirk, and then it asked, "Did you need something?"

"Lieutenant Walters has informed us more of your people have arrived and they're waiting in one of the secured conference rooms."

"Excellent, lead on," the Rogue ordered her, and it followed the S.C.Ms., paused at the exit, turned, motioned to the corpses, and said, "Do make sure you tell Walters this food court needs to be cleared out as soon as possible. We will have some hungry workers to feed."

She said, "I'll inform him right away."

* * *

Hellenistic Sector, Unknown Vicinage...

The Sanctum...

The medical facility...

The hum and beep of machines filled a room as Argus slept in a bed. The machines monitored his vitals as he recovered from a few cracked ribs, a black eye, a bullet through the leg, and numerous bruises. Two men walked in to visit him.

"Is he still sleeping?" Maxwell the older of the two men asked.

Peters leaned over the bed, peered into Argus' battered face, straightened, and answered, "Yeah, maybe we should come back later. He looks like he could use the rest."

"No, stay," Argus spoke as he slowly opened his eyes. "I've been wanting to talk with you two."

"You're awake," Maxwell said as he moved to his side and sat in one of two chairs.

"What do you want to talk to us about?" Peters asked and also sat.

Argus tried to sit up, made a face for the pain, put a hand to his side, lay back down, and waved the two men closer. They glanced at one another and then leaned in. Argus glanced at the door before he spoke to them.

"Pandora," Argus whispered. "What have you told the Council? Did you tell them she helped us escape from the T-3s?"

Maxwell turned to Peters and nodded, and then both men sat back. Peters removed his H.H.C., pulled up a program, ran the software, turned the volume up on the device, and nodded to Maxwell. Argus didn't hear any noise coming from the H.H.C.

"If anyone is monitoring this room–" Maxwell started, "–they'll hear nothing but interference for the next few minutes, so we can talk freely."

"As to your question..." Peters replied. "We never mentioned Pandora. We told them Maxwell managed to loosen his restraints enough to free himself, he set me free, and we helped you out of the Factory."

"We did tell them about the Un-Man and the magnet," Maxwell added. "Mostly we were vague about the whole ordeal."

Argus moved his hand back to his cracked ribs and said, "There's something I'd like you to do for me."

"What is that?" both techs asked.

"Go to the armory," Argus began through gritted teeth as the painkillers started to wear off. "There's a gun I need you to requisition and after you receive it, there's something I want you two to do. You'll need to–"

"Hades!" Peters exclaimed, and then he started to protest, "We don't do that kind of–"

"No, it's nothing like that," Argus interrupted. "What I want you to do is very simple." He looked over their clothes consisting of a white lab coat, blue jeans, and tennis shoes, and then he told them, "You'll both need to wear a black suit and tie."

Puzzled by his incomplete request, they glanced at one another, turned back to Argus, and asked, "What do we have to do?"

Chapter Nineteen

Chad

5:45 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

A few cars pass our taxi as I and that woman make our way back to my home at the Nexus Apartments. The driver drops us out front, and we stand before the gate. I ring the gate bell and within a minute, a security guard meets us, opens the gate, and escorts us to the front. Another security guard buzzes us through, and we walk in. It's so good to be back. I'm so tired. All I want is a hot bath and some sleep.

"Welcome back, Ms. Griffin and guest," the security guard at the desk says as he marks our arrival on an H.H.C.

"Thanks," I reply as I stop at the desk.

That woman offers her hand to the second security guard, they shake, then she offers her hand to the one who escorted us in as she introduces herself to each of them, "Hi, I'm Kat."

"I'm Marc and this is Henry," the second and younger of the two guards states.

"Hello," Henry speaks as he tips his cap to that woman after shaking her hand.

I watch her as she gets chummy with the apartments guards. No need for her to make friends here. She won't be staying long.

"Marc, was there any mail from yesterday?" I inquire.

"No, but someone did leave a letter."

I hold out my hand for it as I ask, "From whom?"

"He didn't say but the letter is for Ms. Kat."

"Me? Really?" that woman utters as if she just received a present, and then she takes the envelope. "Thank you."

I look over her shoulder and see that there's nothing written on the outside of the envelope.

"Who in Tartarus knows you're here?" I question that woman as I suspect that she's keeping something from me.

"There's only one way to find out," that woman tells me, giddy with excitement, and then she opens the envelope and reads it as she heads for the elevator.

"Are you going to answer me?" I inquire as I chase after her. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

She ignores me and all I want to do is strangle her. I don't like that she's keeping secrets. I'm the only one who's allowed to keep secrets. The elevator doors close, and I press the button for the thirty-first floor. The cab starts up as I glare at that woman who's still ignoring me. I could rip the letter from her hands and see for myself, but I'm no barbarian. Who could have sent her a letter? Maybe it's not a letter but instructions. Maybe she's some Illicit Closer who lives on the fringes of society. Maybe she's not a victim as she puts on but maybe she's... I can go on all day like this in my thoughts, but I don't have the time. I need to find out who sent the letter.

Katharine's view...

I pretend not to see her glare at me. I get this feeling that Kimberly's on the verge of twisting my arm behind my back and pressuring me into answering her. I have more important things to worry about than her need to know. I continue reading the letter after we enter the cab. I'm still reading it when we arrive on the thirty-first floor, and I read it again by the time we arrive at Apartment H.

Kimberly's view...

I snap as we stand in front of my apartment, "Door, unlock,"

"Voice recognized as–"

"Mute," I snap again, interrupting it as I take my frustration out on everything around me.

A.C.S. must detect the stress in my voice for it questions me, "Is everything all right? You sound–"

"I'm fine, and I said mute!" I command.

For Ares' sake! Now my apartment's ignoring me.

Katharine's view...

Her outburst doesn't phase me as I grip the letter. I find out that there's no need to tell my friend Chad that Preacher died. The boy already knows. I wish I had been there for him.

Kimberly's view...

We enter the small entry of my apartment, and then I head for the kitchen as that woman heads for the living room. She has made herself at home on my couch and treats it and the living room as her own personal bedroom. It won't be for long. I only have to endure her freakish presence for a little longer, but I still can't stand that she hasn't answered my question yet.

"Well..?" I demand. "Are you going to tell me who the letter is from?"

That woman mumbles something to herself as she turns and faces me.

"Haven't you been listening?" I inquire as if it's the thousandth time. "I've been asking you over and over. Who sent the letter?"

"Chad," that woman answers as she seems to change her mind about sitting on the couch and goes and stands by the table in the kitchen.

"Is he a boyfriend of yours?" I question as I wonder if Chad is an illicit version of Voice.

She doesn't seem to be paying attention to me again as that woman merely shakes her head as if it's enough of an answer for me. She returns to reading the note and when she finishes, she folds the letter, removes her backpack from around her shoulder, and pulls out the Bible. I wonder if she's going to start reading that huge text instead of giving me a clear answer as I control the urge to scream at her like some angry banshee. I decide that woman won't give me a straight answer unless I choke it out of her.

I give her one last chance before I enact my mental threat and demand of her, "Who's Chad?"

She sets the book on the table and rubs her hand over its white leather cover. She didn't take it out to read it. That woman took it out to remember. The book belonged to a dead man named Preacher who that woman seemed to care about. My anger lessens as I realize the reason behind her silence.

"Chad's a boy I know," she finally answers me as she traces the worn gold lettering with her finger. "He hung out with me and Preacher."

I was right, and I didn't need to get so upset. She talked about him a little bit. Preacher was that guy friend of hers who was murdered and also the reason why she went to Topa's estate. I feel somewhat guilty about my rage. What if the letter had been for me and it was from someone who knew my mom? Wouldn't I want to read it through before I answered anyone's stupid questions?

"What does the letter say?" I ask.

"Chad wants me to know that Preacher's funeral is today. He also wants me to know he misses me. He still doesn't understand why I left the Kitchen and Wayfaring Lane. He wants to know why I left him and Preacher." She picks up the book and holds it to her chest as she tells me, "He never understood how unsafe it was to have me around and that I put them in danger."

I don't really care that she's in pain or that she's grieving. I only care about my mission and my own grief, so I tell her, "You do know you can't go to the funeral. We need to track down the lead we have. We need to find Adam Greenhouse, so we're both going to Genesis Arboretum."

Katharine's view...

Kimberly's probably right. If I go to the funeral, I'll be putting Chad in danger. I think about how fond he was of Preacher and how he's alone now. I don't want to abandon Chad and force him to say good-bye to Preacher on his own. I turn to Kimberly and start to argue my point, but I don't want to fight with her. I need to think this over, and I can't do it here with her glaring at me.

"I'll be on the roof," I tell her as I grab the Bible and start for the door.

"You can't go," Kimberly insists. "You need to put personal things aside and focus on what's important. We need to find out who murdered my mom."

I pause at the door and try to think of something to say, and then I decide against it and leave. I hate arguing with Kimberly, so I better drop it for now.

Sometime later...

The roof of the Nexus Apartments is flat and surrounded by a four-foot metal railing consisting of three bars. A raven flies above me, and I glance at the bird. I stand at the edge that faces the parking garage. There's less to see in the parking garage and less to distract me. I look at Preacher's Bible and speak to him as if he can hear me.

"I miss you. I feel as though your death is my fault." I hold the book close and tell him, "I know Topa had you killed. He hired an Illicit Closer to do the job." My mind flashes back to an alley off of Wayfaring Lane as I hold his cold body in my arms, and I say, "I can't get that night out of my head." A deep heart-rending sorrow devastates me as I continue, "You were the one who pulled me out of the darkness. You made my life worth living and now, I only have Chad, and he only has me, so I can't leave him alone."

The raven caws overhead and distracts me for a moment, and then I try to explain my feelings to Preacher, "Kimberly said she heard Topa tell one of his henchmen you were interfering with sales of a narcotic called Sunna Snaps. She told me that's why he hired the Illicit Closer. Still..." I shut my eyes, take a deep breath, exhale, and say, "If I had never met you, I feel as though you would still be alive. I feel this deep in my soul, but I'm selfish so very selfish. If I could change things, I would still want to meet you. I would still want to be in your life, and I would want you to hold me as you did." I walk away from the ledge, sit in the middle of the roof, and fondly think of Preacher. "Most people who saw you thought you were some homeless man. It was the way you dressed. You always wore worn clothes and those awful glasses of yours. They were broken and you had them taped in the front. You refused to buy a new pair. You came from a wealthy family, so it had nothing to do with the credits. You said they meant something to you. You said you couldn't bear to throw them away." I rest my hand on the cold concrete as warm feelings keep back the chill, and I say, "And then came Chad. You first introduced us about a year ago. I can clearly remember it was a Thursday. It had only been a week since I awoke in Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. I didn't know who I was and Un-Men were hunting me. I was so alone in the world. I guess you thought me and Chad could help each other."

End Katharine's view...

Almost a year earlier...

31 A.D.C...

October 29...

Hellenistic Sector, Old Business Vicinage...

"Kat."

Preacher walked to her and had a boy with him. Preacher found her lying on a cot, and it was one of about a hundred in a shelter known as the Kitchen. Kat turned his way when he called her name. He stopped at the end of her bed and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"I'd like you to meet Chad. He's also new to Wayfaring Lane."

Chad wore a worn, burnt-orange, hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. His brown hair was unkempt and dirt covered his face. The boy's brown eyes mirrored her own. She saw they had the look of someone lost and alone.

"Hello, Chad," Kat greeted as she sat up, stood, and offered her hand. "Nice to meet you."

The boy, who was about twelve, hesitated, then shook her hand, and spoke, "Hey."

"I've assigned Chad the cot next to yours," Preacher informed her as he motioned to a bed. "You guys can watch out for each other."

Chad threw a duffle bag on the empty cot.

"I'll check on you two later. I have to go make sure lunch has started. I think the Kitchen would grind to a halt without me," Preacher said, then started off, paused, and added, "Kat, Chad's a very smart kid. Ask him about the workings of Noir. He knows a lot."

"So," Kat started as Preacher headed for the food prep area. "You study a lot?"

"Not really," Chad answered. "I don't go to school, but I like to read things on my H.H.C. and I remember everything I read."

"Wow, that's amazing?"

"Do you have any special talents?" Chad asked.

Kat glanced at the backpack leaning against her bed that had her Beretta resting inside it and said, "Umm..." She decided not to mention her uncanny ability with a handgun. Kat didn't think a kid needed to know that she was good at shooting things, but she couldn't think of anything else to tell him, so she said, "I have very good aim."

His eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Really?"

"Yes."

"Show me," Chad begged as he searched through his duffle bag. "Here, this is a piece of putty. It'll stick to anything." Chad glanced around the room, motioned some distance from them, and said, "See that sign over there?"

"You mean the one that says Kitchen about twenty feet away?"

"Yeah, that one. Hit it with this putty."

"Okay," Kat said as she took the piece, removed sunglasses from her backpack, and put them on. Kat did this to hide the Ult L-E that would flare up once she activated her ability. She focused on the target as the e-field of her body altered and her eyes glimmered like sapphire. She said, "I'll hit the dot of the letter i."

Kat threw the putty, arching it so the piece wouldn't nail anyone and hit the dot dead on.

Chad squinted, and then he uttered, "Wow, that's cool." He ran over to the sign, climbed a chair, reached up on his tippy-toes, removed the putty, ran back, and asked, "But can you do it again? Try it."

She took the piece, threw it, and hit the dot a second time.

"That's amazing. Are you like some superhero?"

Kat chuckled and then answered, "No, I'm just like you."

She sat on her bed and removed the sunglasses after she felt the Ult L-E had dissipated.

"Why did you wear those?" Chad questioned as he pointed to the glasses. "It isn't bright in here."

"It's a secret. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday," Kat answered, then patted her bed for him to sit, and said, "Now, let me test your abilities. Hmm..." She put her finger to her chin as she thought about what she would ask, and then she spoke, "I know. Preacher tells me water is rationed on the Dark Half of the planet."

Chad rubbed his hands together and stated, "Noir distributes Water Ration Cards among most of the populace, and the cards allow each person two liters of water per day. Whatever amount isn't used, accumulates on a card and can be used as credits." He reached into his duffle bag, pulled out a candy bar, and said, "I was very careful how much water I drank the last few days and had enough credits to buy two chocolate bars. You want a piece?"

"Chocolate... I love chocolate."

Chad removed the paper wrapper, opened the foil, and broke off two squares. He handed one to her as he asked, "You want to hear more?"

"Sure," Kat answered and then bit into the piece.

"Those with a work ID number carry a P-Ration Card. P for productive part of society and those like us unfortunate enough not to find work or find legitimate work are issued D-Ration Cards. D for drain on the economy."

Kat licked chocolate from her fingers, removed her card from her back pocket, and spoke, "It does say D-Ration."

"P-Ration Cards are given an extra allowance of water for bathing and household cleaning. D-Ration Cards are given these large disposable wipie towels," Chad explained as he reached into his duffle bag and pulled out a sealed white plastic bag. "A bath in a bag."

"Yes, I have a few of those. They're not as nice as a shower."

Chad nodded, thought for a moment, and questioned, "Preacher said we're supposed to look out for each other. Are you really going to look out for me? Are you going to be there when I need you?"

The present...

Nexus Apartments' rooftop...

Katharine's view...

His question echoes through my thoughts and the past's promises help me make up my mind.

"Yes, Chad," I say as if he's beside me.

I stand, walk to a different part of the railing, glance over the edge, look at Zeus Park across the street, and declare, "I'm going to Preacher's funeral. I'll be there for you."

I stand there a little longer gathering as much courage as I can. I go in and head for Apartment H as I dread the task ahead. I have to convince Kimberly to let me go.

Chapter Twenty

Farewell Preacher

6:35 A.M...

Apartment H...

Kimberly's view...

"Absolutely not!"

I slam my palm against the front door, blocking that woman so she can't leave. No one besides my father makes me as mad as her. She keeps insisting on doing her own thing when she should be listening to me.

I shout, "You're not going to the funeral!" I control my anger and order firmly, "You're going to Genesis Arboretum with me, and we're going to search for Adam Greenhouse."

Katharine's view...

I patiently wait for her to finish her ranting and when I have an opportunity to speak, I try to reason with her by saying, "We can still go today."

I walk over to the kitchen and lay the book on the counter. Nothing's going to keep me from saying goodbye. I promised Chad, and I keep my promises.

I tell her, "We'll go after the funeral."

"No!" Kimberly shouts at me, then moves over to the stove, turns the burner on high, and soon it glows red as red as her angry face. "We'll eat some breakfast and then go to the Genesis Arboretum. I don't want to wait."

My patience wears thin, and I throw my arms up in frustration as I ask, "What does it matter if we wait a few more hours?" I'm getting nowhere in this argument, but I won't back down, not about this. I fold my arms and question, "If you want to go so badly, why don't you go by yourself?"

Kimberly's view...

"I..." I start as I stumble on the question.

I think about the Un-Men showing up at the Genesis Arboretum or some other bio-mecha, and I shudder in fright. Look at me! I've never been afraid like this. I need to get over my phobia.

"We should stay together. Remember we're partners," I tell her, then turn the burner off, and face her. "We need to watch each other's back."

Katharine's view...

"Partners when it's convenient for you," I mumble.

Kimberly blurts, "What did you say? Hades! Now, what are you whining about?"

This is so frustrating! And it's getting me nowhere with Kimberly. I need another tactic, so I start, "Are you saying we can never do our own thing? Are you saying we have to stay by each other's side 24/7?"

"Yes!"

"You barely tolerate me! Why would you want to be around me so much? Are you sure that's how you want it?"

Kimberly's view...

"Didn't you hear me? Yes!" I shout and then think about it some more. I have that Closing in two days. I can't have that woman with me, so I quickly answer, "No."

"Which is it? Do you or don't you?" that woman questions me, and then she states, "You know what? Never mind. I'm not going to let you decide this one! You only do things when it suits you. Well, this is about me! And I'm telling you, I'm going!"

I don't want her tagging along when I go on my next Closing and with my luck, she'll try to stop me. But something within me doesn't want her to win the argument. Oh for Ares' sake! Maybe I need to grow up a bit.

I try to sound like she convinced me when I tell her, "You're right. Sometimes we'll need to do our own thing so... I don't like it but go on ahead to his funeral. Come right back when its over."

Katharine's view...

"I will," I reply.

I sigh as I finally convince her, but it was almost too easy.

* * *

8:40 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Memorial Park Vicinage...

A thick fog hung above the grounds of the Hades Cemetery as a few dozen people had gathered for Preacher's funeral and more were coming. Bleak Dry Clouds grumbled over the dark day like a cyclops with a belly ache. Very few street lights lit the area, so the funeral home handed out lanterns and by the time the gathering was complete, about a hundred people stood around the casket. Each of them held the electric luminary. Solemn faces mourned the passing of a great and beloved man, and a few women cried along with a boy. Many people sniffled as an elderly woman blew her nose.

Katharine's view...

I stand off by myself near a tree and watch the people slowly assemble. I experience a sadness so deep and so painful I don't know how to handle it. I feel awkward and out of place, and I don't want to be by the others. I wouldn't know how to act around them. My eyes burn as no tears relieve the scorch of my grief.

I whisper to the book I hold, "Oh, Preacher... I'm sorry but I need to keep my distance until there are fewer people. I'm already taking a chance coming here."

I sniff and wipe my runny nose on the arm of my jacket. I might not have my tracking beacon but that doesn't mean bio-mechas are unable to hunt me. I stand there alone for some time.

I get this sense that someone else is there, so I turn and see this blonde woman carrying Transgenic Daises as she approaches me. She's wearing a black printed t-shirt of a smiley face, and the smiley face has its red tongue sticking out.

She stops beside me and must notice my anguish for she questions me, "Did you know Preacher?"

I nod. She doesn't say any more to me, so I turn and look in the distance as a pastor who's standing at the head of the casket opens a black Bible and once everyone gathered has quieted, he starts on a passage.

"Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die."

The blonde woman switches the flowers to her left hand and offers me her right as she introduces herself, "I'm Stephanie."

"Kat," I reply as I shake her hand.

The pastor says, "A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal."

Stephanie questions me as she motions with her head, "Why are you standing here instead of with the others?"

"I..." I begin, but I don't know what to say. "I ah..."

The pastor speaks, "A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh."

"Don't worry about it," Stephanie states. "You don't have to tell me. I get uncomfortable around dead people too."

She buttons up her dark brown corduroy coat as the air cools around us as if there's less warmth in the world now that Preacher's gone. I do feel colder inside. I do miss his warmth. I wish with all my heart that he was here, so he could wrap his arms around me and...

Stephanie continues, intruding on the memory I want to invoke, "When I look at dead people, it's kind of like I'm looking at myself."

What she says is a little disturbing, and I want to move away from her, but I also don't want to draw any attention, so I don't move or say anything to her.

Stephanie says as if she can read my mind, "I know it's not normal but that's how I feel."

She does say the weirdest things, and I can't figure out who this woman is. I also can't figure out why she's standing by me instead of over by the coffin.

The pastor speaks, "A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing."

"Were you and Preacher close?" Stephanie questions me.

"Yes."

Stephanie's view...

I glance at the flowers, wishing I could throw the smelly things away, but I need to stay in character. Mr. Decuma said I needed to work on my patience, and he also said I needed to take more time and get to know a person before I kill them. I see it only as a waste of my time but this is no ordinary person I'm hunting. I'm standing before the great Pandora Project that I've heard the Council go on about.

I ask her, "How close?"

Pandora looks at me as if she's unsure of my question.

I lean in and ask her, "I want to know if you two were playing between the sheets?"

Pandora's cheeks flush red, and I'm surprised by her bashfulness and how adorable she looks to be all flustered by my question. I try not to laugh but she's just so cute. I also find that this is an unusual quality for such a deadly project. Can she really be this embarrassed? She is! Ahhh... I want to take my hands and smush her face together, but Mr. Decuma has told me that I need to work on keeping my hands to myself. Mr. Decuma has tried to explain to me that there's such a thing as personal space, so I resist the urge.

Pandora still hasn't answered me, but she does shake her head and that makes me want to pry into her life even more. She's a project and I'm a project. Has her life been anything like mine?

The man in the distance, who's been talking to himself, continues to say, "A time to gain and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sew."

"Really..?" I utter, responding to her shaking her head at me, and then I question, "Are you a lesbian?"

Pandora doesn't say anything at first as if she's taken aback by my question, but then she shakes her head and I'm about to ask her another personal question to see if I can't make her face turn even redder when she says to me in a hushed tone, "Umm... I think we should be quiet while the pastor is talking."

Pandora takes a few steps forward and away from me, and I wonder if she's going to try and leave me behind but she goes no farther.

The man who's been talking to himself this entire time still isn't done, and he says, "A time to keep silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace."

He finally stops talking, and I'm so relieved. He was becoming annoying. He closes the book he's been reading from and picks up a handful of dirt.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," he says and then sprinkles the dirt on the coffin and nods, and a man activates a machine that lowers the pine box.

Those gathered one by one throw a handful of dirt on the coffin.

I don't want my conversation with Pandora to be over, so I walk up to her and say, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything. I just can't imagine spending so much time with a guy and not–"

Pandora looks at me with this angry glare and puts a finger to her lips, hushing me.

"Right," I speak as I cover my mouth, and then I add in a quieter tone, "We should be quiet."

Chapter Twenty-one

Chad And Kat Meet Again

9:01 A.M...

Katharine's view...

One by one, those gathered at Preacher's funeral withdraw, leaving only a handful standing by the grave. I notice Chad stays, and I walk to him. He's wearing a black suit. I remove my backpack from around my shoulder and place the Bible in it.

Chad sees me approach and runs to me, throwing his arms around me as he shouts, "You made it." Tears stream down his face. "I thought you might not come."

"I'm here." I drop the backpack and hug him as I stroke his brown hair. "I'm here."

We stand there a few moments till Stephanie clears her throat.

Once I and Chad separate, she offers her hand to the boy as she says, "Hi, I'm Stephanie."

"Chad," he replies as he shakes her hand briefly and then wipes his eyes with the arm of his suit. "Are you a friend of Kat's?"

Stephanie's view...

I stare at the boy a few moments, wondering if I could be friends with Pandora. I don't see why not. We are both projects and there's no better way to know your enemy.

I answer the boy, "Yep, but we did just meet."

Katharine's view...

I continue to watch her. I still can't figure out why she's hanging around me instead of gathering with the others who have moved on.

"I almost forgot," Chad starts as he grabs my hand. "There's someone I want you to meet." He pulls me toward a woman with a little girl who has pretty black curly hair. Three men dressed in dark suits and wearing wireless earpieces move to intercept me as they start to draw their guns, but then Chad says, "It's okay, guys. She's my friend."

They cautiously look me and Stephanie over, and then one of them nods for us to proceed. Me and Chad walk up to the woman and the little girl.

Chad says, "This is Melissa Odin, Preacher's sister."

I reply, "I didn't know Preacher had a sister."

"Kat, it's good to meet you," Melissa states as she wipes her eyes with a tissue. "Though he was the black sheep, Preacher was the one who was ashamed of us, so I imagine that's why he never mentioned me."

Chad tells me, "Melissa is taking care of me now."

"Yes, I've taken Chad in through foster care. It was Preacher's idea. He said if anything should happen to him..." Melissa starts crying again.

Chad puts his arm around her and says, "Don't cry. Preacher's in a better place."

"I know. I miss him." She dabs her eyes again with the tissue, reaches her palm out, grabs my hand, and squeezes it. "I'm so glad you came. Chad was afraid you wouldn't. I tried to reassure him. If you were one of my brother's friends, you wouldn't let him down."

He bows his head as he admits, "I was only a little afraid."

One of the bodyguards steps forward and says, "Ms. Odin, we have been in the open far too long. We should get going."

"Mommy, I'm tired." The little girl rubs her eyes.

"All right dear. We'll head home now." Melissa kneels, picking up the child.

The little girl looks to me and asks, "Would you like to come over for a while? You could read me a story."

"I can't right now, but if it's okay–" I start as I turn to Melissa, "–I'd like to stop by tomorrow and see Chad."

Melissa nods and tells me, "I'll give you the address. Do you have an H.H.C.?"

"Yes." I remove a beat up one from my backpack and open up an address book on it. "Here."

Melissa takes it, types the address, hands it back to me, and then Melissa starts for a limo parked in the distance.

The little girl waves to the casket as she sleepily says, "Bye, Uncle Norman."

Two of the men in black suits follow Melissa and her little girl back to the limo.

Chad hugs me again. "I've missed you. I wish... I wish you could have stayed with us. I wish you could have stayed with me and Preacher." He steps back and says, "Maybe you could have stopped the man that..."

Chad can't finish the sentence; it must be too painful for him to say.

I put a hand to my mouth, hiding my trembling lips. Over and over I have thought the same thing. What if I had stayed? What if I had been in the Kitchen when the Closer came?

I kneel, look into his brown eyes, place my hand on his shoulder, and tell him, "Me too. How I wish I was, but you know it's not safe. People are hunting me."

Stephanie's view...

I look at Pandora curiously. Does she suspect me? Does she know why I'm here? Has she been playing the shy, easily embarrassed project only to lower my guard so that she can strike me first?

Katharine's view...

I glance at the man in the black suit and question the boy, "Why do you have bodyguards?"

He starts to answer, but then Melissa shouts, "Chad, come on."

"I'll tell you tomorrow." He runs toward the limo, and his bodyguard follows as Chad yells, "Make sure you come."

The bodyguard presses the button on his earpiece as he leaves and states, "I and the boy are moving toward the limo. The area's still clear."

I watch as Chad gets into the vehicle and the limo pulls away, and then I wait till I can't see the vehicle and turn to Stephanie. I don't think she's one of Preacher's friends, so I ask, "You said you knew Preacher, from where? I don't remember seeing you around Wayfaring Lane."

"Just around," Stephanie replies as she smirks, grabs my hand, and turns it so she can see the H.H.C. and the address. "I hate to rush off too but I've got somewhere to be. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow."

Stephanie heads back the way she came in past the gravestones, and she still carries the Transgenic Daisies. She's a very odd woman.

I turn to the hole Preacher lies in as the fog thickens around me. I mutter, "I don't know what to say to you. I believe, thanks to you, that this is not goodbye but till we meet again. Still..." I pick up a handful of dirt and throw it on his casket, and the dark soil thumps as it hits. "I miss you. I'll always miss you."

I stand there as a petroleum scented wind blows in and disperses the fog. I leave, make my way past the gravestones, and stop when one of them catches my eye. I walk to the gravestone and kneel beside it, reading, "Theresa Griffin. Beloved Mother. Cherished Wife. May She Rest In Peace."

I know only part of what Kimberly's going through. She believed her mom abandoned her, and then she discovered it was a lie and that her mom was murdered. I understand what it is to lose someone because someone else decided to take their life. I feel violated as though a thief came in and stole my happy existence and left me numb and hollow inside. I smooth my hand across Theresa's name. No wonder Kimberly's so driven to find whoever did this to her. I don't think killing them will ease her pain.

I carefully and lovingly clear the weeds from the front of the gravestone as if the woman was my own mom. I swear I'll help Kimberly find this person, but I don't know if I could stand there and let her kill them. If it's wrong for me to kill, shouldn't it be the same for Kimberly?

I pause in my thoughts as a presence disturbs my internal deliberation, and I look at the left without turning my head. Whoever's there, they're not bio-mechas. If they were, I would have detected their presence long before they got this close.

I stand, preparing for action as I shout, "I know you're there! Come out!"

I face two men as they move from hiding behind a tree, and they skittishly look around as they emerge.

"You?" I utter, relieved it's them and not a bounty hunter or a Closer. "Why are you two here?"

"Argus sent us," the older of the two men replies as if he's a little nervous to be here. "I don't know if we ever introduced ourselves but I'm Maxwell." He points to his partner. "And this is Peters."

"So you made it out. Is Argus all right?" I ask.

"Yes," Peters answers. "Argus has a few cracked ribs and a lot of bruising, but for the most part, he'll be fine."

I walk over to them as they haven't gotten any closer to me, and then I say, "You said he sent you."

Maxwell's still very nervous as he glances around to make sure no one's about, and then he pulls an object from his coat pocket. "He wanted us to give this back to you."

He offers me a Beretta, and I take the gun.

Peters says, "It's not the one you loaned us, but Argus thought you would like the same model back. He said you might have gotten used to a certain piece of hardware."

"Tell him thanks when you see him." I eject the magazine, find it full, and add, "You even returned it with a few extra rounds."

Peters nudges Maxwell and motions to me with his head as he urges him, "Go on."

"We actually wanted to thank you," Maxwell starts. "We would have died in the Factory if you had not of released us. The T-3s killed everyone else. It was only a matter of time before they decided we should follow our co-workers."

"No thanks needed. You would have saved me if I were in your position."

They glance at each other as if they're guilty of something.

Maxwell's nervousness is replaced by something that seems more like remorse than thankfulness as he replies, "Right. We would have saved you."

"We actually need to be going," Peters states as he scans the graveyard. "Our new masters don't let us out for very long."

"Your new masters?"

Peters tells me, "We now work for the Council. After the collapse of the Factory, they acquired all their assets, including us."

The word "them" screams in my mind as I tighten my jaw, holding back my anger. Why can't they leave me alone? What right do they have to mess with my life?

Both men must notice the change in my demeanor because they start to act a little afraid of me.

"Well, see you around," Maxwell says as he quickly waves good-bye and motions with his head for Peters to follow him, and they walk off.

I look at the Beretta and say softly, "Thanks, Argus."

I head out of the graveyard and start for Nexus Apartments, pleased I did it. I was here for Chad. He didn't have to...

"Oh, no!" I shout as I stop and glance back.

How could I forget? I open my backpack, put the gun in it, and remove the book. I should have given Preacher's Bible to Melissa. I'd been so caught up in the moment, I'd forgotten. No harm done. I can do it tomorrow. I continue out of the graveyard. Melissa should have it. She's Preacher's sister.

Chapter Twenty-two

Genesis Arboretum

11:07 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

A lone moth fluttered in the dark heavens. The yellow, orange, and brown bug flew down, entered Zeus Park, and landed on a leaf of a Transgenic Maple. The Death's Head Hawkmoth crawled over the lighter green side of the leaf, flaunting the skull-like pattern on its thorax, and there it watched all. Across the street at the Nexus Apartments, a red VX Corvette pulled out of the parking garage and turned on to West 1000 Avenue, and the Death's Head Hawkmoth took back to the air, flew high in the sky, and followed the car.

A half hour later...

Kimberly's view...

I drive through Arts Way and pass several galleries and museums as many people stroll the dark sidewalks under the yellow glow of the Cultural Vicinage's streetlights. I know very little about the mysterious woman sitting beside me and yet, I let her into my apartment.

I grip the steering wheel as this drive gives me time to consider everything that's happened to me since that woman came into my life. Irritation is the first word I think of when I look at her, but I can think of a few more words. Annoyance... Trouble... Headache... Idiot...

Hades! My life has changed so much since she appeared. Sometimes... I glance at her again. Sometimes I wish I never met her and that all I have to worry about is my next Closing.

Katharine's view...

Gloom wraps its arms around me as I stare out the side window, watching the people as they go about their lives. They have a normal life, but do they wish for a different existence? Do they long for something else?

My thoughts change and drift back to earlier when I was at Preacher's funeral. I can't figure out why Stephanie was there. I know it wasn't for Preacher. She didn't even leave the flowers she brought. I recall her manner. She acted like no assassin I have ever run across. Could she be a bio-mecha or maybe an organic-mecha? I don't know. If Stephanie's after me, she should have tried to kill me. It was like she was waiting for something. Maybe I should tell Kimberly about her.

I at least need to tell her about her mom's tombstone, so I softly speak, knowing the difficulty of this subject, "Kimberly."

"Hmm..." she states as she glances at me and then turns her attention back to the road.

"While I was at Hades Cemetery, I... I came across your mom's grave."

"Oh," she replies. "Sure, I'd forgotten my father said she was buried there." Kimberly's quiet for a few moments, and then she asks me, "How was the grave? Was it kept up? Did it have flowers?"

She must not have visited the grave yet. I can only think that it must be too painful.

"No flowers," I answer. "But it is being kept up, and it's in a nice spot near a tree."

"Oh," Kimberly states as she pulls on her left earlobe. "I'll have to go visit her one day."

Her reaction surprises me. I expected more from her. Kimberly's a very private person. I'm not sure what I expected. Maybe some yelling or some sign of anger. Is she holding it in? If so, what will happen when she erupts like a volcano? I sigh. I just hope I'm not around when she explodes.

Kimberly drives on in silence and after a few more quiet minutes, she directs the car into the Genesis Arboretum's large parking lot. Both of us get out of the car and stretch after the long ride. Over a hundred vehicles fill the spaces and in the distance, people walk in and out of the main building. A tram stops at a pickup station, waits as people board, and then drives to the main entrance. We board the next tram which comes by about five minutes later, and then we exit the tram at the main building and enter the Genesis Arboretum. We stand in line with about twelve people. I keep getting this sense that... I'm not sure what it is, but I glance back at a mountain of a man in line about four people back. I've never seen him before and try not to stare as Kimberly purchases our tickets at a window. We walk over and hand an employee our tickets, and we enter through the turnstiles.

"Wait a second," I say as I stop at a gift cart and glance back to the ticket line.

"We can shop when we're done," Kimberly tells me. "And I'm not buying you any souvenirs."

Back in the line, the man I had seen with a buzz cut steps to the window and buys two tickets. He steps out of line and shouts, "I have them. We may enter now."

A woman about Kimberly's age walks over to him, wraps her arm around his, and says, "I am so pleased we were able to come here. Even though I hate this dreadful Dark Half, I am very interested in Transgenics, and they have hundreds of tree and plant specimens here."

They continue talking as they walk past us at the gift cart.

He glances at us, and then he says to the woman with him, "Then let us take our time and stroll through the Arboretum."

I watch the couple as they pass, and I get this feeling that I should be very afraid of them.

"Don't stare," Kimberly scolds me. "It's very impolite."

I move to her side and whisper, "But he's carrying a gun."

"I know. It's still impolite to stare. Anyway..." Kimberly starts as something on the gift cart catches her attention, and she picks up a keychain of a bunny rabbit. "A lot of people have guns. It doesn't mean they're after you. They could have it for protection or they could be pursuing someone else. You're not the only person hunted in this world."

"I know but still... I have to be cautious," I state as I continue to watch the couple. "And besides, he isn't the only one armed. The woman also has weapons on her wrists."

Kimberly glances at the woman, trying not to be obvious and says, "Good eye. I had not noticed."

I watch the couple as they stroll into the next room, and then I state, "Maybe they're throwing weapons like darts or knives."

"Come on," Kimberly tells me as she places the keychain back and starts in the opposite direction the couple went. "They have nothing to do with us."

End Katharine's view...

Once they were some distance away, Natasha told her brother, "I believe those women were staring at you."

"I believe you are right. The plain looking one kept staring at me when they were in line for tickets." Nikolai went into his gangster mode and said, "The broads mean nuttin' to me. Honest. I have eyes only for you."

Natasha grinned as she spoke, "As you should."

Katharine's view...

Me and Kimberly follow the path lined with Transgenic Plant exhibits till we come across an employee, and Kimberly asks him, "Excuse me. Does Adam Greenhouse work here?"

"Yes," he replies as he points down the path. "Keep going. Mr. Greenhouse's lecturing around the bend."

We continue across the path till we come to a group of about a dozen people listening to a cotton-white haired man who towers over the crowd almost a good two feet. He wears a blue flannel shirt and jean overalls.

"That's him," I say, excited to find the one we've been searching for. "That's Mr. Greenhouse." I look him over real good, and then I add with a hint of surprise, "He looks just like his picture."

Kimberly's view...

I ignore her comment. Finding him was easy and now all we have to do is wait till he's done talking. I watch Mr. Greenhouse hobble along with a silver serpent-head cane. Hades... What is he like a hundred years old?

Adam slowly moves to a Transgenic Maple and his cane thumps as he walks across the concrete floor, and then he pats the tree's trunk and explains, "It is widely published that the first Transgenic Plant was the cross between the tobacco and the lantern fish. The report is in fact, not true. The Transgenic Maple was the first, and so it is the Prime." He coughs, removes a red handkerchief from his pocket, and wipes his mouth before he continues, "I wanted to create a Transgenic Tree or hybrid that could survive without the sun, so I created this species by genetically modifying a Red Maple with the extra-genome of a firefly, yielding a tree whose trunk and branches produce its own light." Adam takes a deep breath and wheezes as he exhaled, and then he says, "Not only is this tree the Prime, it is also the most abundant Transgenic in Noir." He places both hands on his cane to steady himself as he asks, "Any questions?"

I impatiently stand there as he answers their inquiries for about twenty minutes and then when the crowd disperses, Adam turns and starts to leave through a door in the back.

"Excuse me, Mr. Greenhouse," I call out to him as I move towards the man who stands seven foot nine inches and has pale blue eyes. I don't think I've ever met someone this tall, but I put my awestruck reaction aside and ask him, "Could I have a moment of your time?"

He pauses, turns to me, and says, "You're a lovely one, sapling." His face brightens as he peers down at me as if I'm not the first giddy fan he's come across which I'm definitely not, and he tells me, "Sorry, no autographs at this time."

"My name's Kimberly," I begin as I point to myself, trying to make it clear I'm not here for his autograph. "I'm Theresa Griffin's daughter."

"Theresa..?" Adam repeats as he squints and looks me over. "Yes, I see it now. I should have before. I guess I'm getting old." He turns, continues to the door, bends down so his head clears the frame, and walks through as he says, "Come with me, please."

I walk after him and that woman follows, and then I notice the nameplate beside the door with Sapling Room written on it. We continue down a small hall into a rectangular room lit by sunlamps and within, there are thousands of pots of young Transgenic trees and flowers and other non-Transgenic plants. There are a hundred or so rows of these pots.

Adam leans his cane on a work table that's covered with gardening tools, and he turns an overhead light on as he speaks, "Let me have a look at you." He moves over to me and walks slowly around me as he states, "I see it. The spitting image of your mother." He rubs his white stubbly chin as if contemplating the lack of recognition on his part as he mumbles, "I don't know why I didn't notice before. You look just like Theresa when we first met."

"Did you work with my mom?" I ask, happy for the first time in a long time to be talking with someone besides my father who knew my mom. Adam might even know what happened to her.

"Actually..." he replies as he puts a finger to his lips in a hush-hush manner. "She worked for me on a top secret project."

"On organic-mecha?" that woman questions him as she breaks her silence and steps forward.

Adam glances at her and looks back to me, mumbling, "Not so top secret, I see."

"Mr. Greenhouse, I need to know something," I state, angry over a sexless figure I can't quite make out, and then I inquire of him, "Did you know that my mom was murdered?"

He bows his head and deeply sighs as if I affirmed his suspicions, and then he says, "It is as I thought."

I grip my knapsack, thinking of all the things I'll do to this unseen person once I find them, and I state, "I'm searching for who did it and–"

"And the why?" Adam interrupts.

"No, the why doesn't matter unless it leads me to who did it," I answer, and I speak the truth. I don't care why they did what they did. They will pay... they will pay with their life.

"I see," Adam says as he walks over to the work table and grabs his cane. "Why have you come to see me?"

"A clue led me to Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo and there I found a book," I start to explain as I hold out my hand, and then I jiggle it when that woman doesn't react to my unspoken but very obvious request. I wait a few more moments and when that woman still doesn't react, I snap, "For Ares' sake! The book!"

"Huh? Oh... You want me to–" that woman responds and then she rummages through her backpack and removes the Transgenic Text. She hands it to me and says, "–give you the book."

I continue in a calmer voice once I have the text in hand, "The book led me to you."

I hand the text to him, and Adam takes it, then turns it over, and studies the photo of himself as if it's the first time he's seeing it.

"It was so long ago," he says. "The Sphinx Corporation assigned Theresa to me back then, and it was her first job with the corporation."

"What did you work on?"

"At first, Theresa helped me engineer Transgenic Plants and then later, we were both placed on the organic-mecha project," Adam tells me.

"Was it the Gorgons?" I question.

"No, I never worked on that project," Adam replies, but I believe I hear a hint of deceit in his answer, and then he squints, getting a better look at that woman who's standing beside me as if he sees something in her that I can't see. "The organic-mechas were under another project name."

"What would that be?" I ask.

He turns his attention back to me and answers, "Sorry sapling, some secrets do need to be kept."

"Were you successful with the organic-mecha?" that woman speaks up again with a question of her own.

"You could say we were, but organic-mechas were long ago abandoned as a viable weapon," Adam replies as he eyes that woman again but with more scrutiny. "There were too many problems with the organic-mechas."

"We did find one file at Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo," I state as I hold out my hand again to that woman and this time, she quickly removes the Lost File and gives it to me. I tell Adam as I hand him the file, "Most of it doesn't make sense."

Adam takes the file folder, flips through it, and chuckles as if he's amused by our lack of understanding when it comes to what's written inside, and then he speaks, "Like I said, some secrets need to remain hidden, but I will tell you one thing. The Sphinx Corporation hides information in plain sight, and one of their methods is to change the Greek name to their Roman counterpart."

He hands the file back, and I take it a little irked to have been laughed at by some ridiculously-old man.

"This trip is a waste of my time."

Adam questions me, "Was it?"

That woman taps me on the shoulder, then motions to him with her head, and says, "Ask him about your hand. Maybe he knows more."

"My hand?" I repeat as I glance at my right palm, and then I show the star to him and say, "Oh, right. Do you know what this mark is?"

He takes my hand in his large shaky ones, examines the mark, and then answers, "I believe that is Ginn's Cipher or what is known as a Star Cipher." He raises a bushy white eyebrow and questions me, "How did you get this mark?"

"From a doorknob," I reply. "It was hot from an office fire, and it burned me and left me with this scar."

I watch him as sweat beads his liver-spotted forehead, and he states, "Heat would make a very good catalyst." I hear the excitement in his voice as he questions me, "Do you know where the knob is now?"

"No."

"A pity," Adam states as he releases my hand. "I would like to study one of the objects that has the star mark."

He pulls out his red handkerchief and throws it in a trash can, and then he walks over to the work table, removes a new handkerchief from a package, and wipes his face.

I follow him and start to mention the music box when that woman touches my back, and I turn as she shakes her head, frantically pleading with her expression for me to say nothing. I'm not sure if Adam notices this, but I do remain quiet about the music box that woman has.

"You said catalyst," I say to change the subject somewhat, and then I ask, "What did you mean?"

"In your case, the cipher was not imprinted by a burn but by a virus that reconfigured the epidermis on a micro-level."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"It is simple, sapling. You came in contact with a virus that genetically alters a localized area. The virus was designed to create the raised star in the center of the palm." He points to the star as he says, "It doesn't matter where you were infected, the virus was designed to place the micro-cipher there in the center."

That woman questions him, "Did the Sphinx Corporation create it?"

Adam laughs at her remark, and then he answers, "In fact, no. Ginn did." He throws the second handkerchief away, grabs the third one from the package, and places it in his pocket. "How is it delivered? I suspect Ginn put the viruses on different objects, and they lay dormant until some catalyst activates them." He deeply breathes in again and wheezes before saying, "It's a pity you don't know where the knob is. I would have liked to–"

"Did you say the composer created it?" that woman interrupts him.

"Yes, scientist believe Ginn L. Irynkissgthie created the virus five hundred years ago," Adam replies as he leans on his cane with both hands. "They believe he's really the Father of Genetics among other things."

"Composer, painter," that woman mutters. "Ginn's credentials are growing."

I ask, "What are the ciphers for?"

"Ciphers?" he repeats in a cackled. "Sapling, you're lucky to see the one. There has never been two or more in a generation. In fact, there have only been three others in the past five hundred years." He stares at my hand as if he can see the cipher on my palm, and then he says, "If we were to have more than one at a time, that would mean something." He turns his attention to my face as he states, "As to what they are for... I believe they hold some sort of code or map. I'm not sure. The cipher wasn't my department. Whatever it holds can't be seen even at a subatomic level. You could say the enigma is encoded."

That woman speaks, "You said to have more than one at a time would mean something." She places her left hand in her pocket, I assume to hide it from him as she questions, "What does it mean?"

Adam shrugs and answers, "I guess that Ginn's Prophecy is coming true. Wouldn't that be something?"

"What prophecy?" that woman inquires.

Adam had mostly ignored that woman since we came in, but now he turns to her and studies her face as he answers, "You'll have to find another to tell you that, you see this old man is going to bed." Adam studies her face a little longer, and then he starts for a door in the back and says, "The Sphinx Corporation who owns this place has been good enough to let me live here. You should come visit me sometime in my treehouse. It's in the next area called the Sphere Room." He opens the door and starts through it as he adds, "But not today."

Adam leaves, and I'm left with more unanswered questions than when I first came here.

That woman waits until he exits, and then she asks me, "Now what?"

"Now we go home," I reply as I peer at the folder I hold. "Do some research on the internet."

I start out the way we came in.

That woman follows me, and we leave the Sapling Room as she states, "Okay, but I can't stay up too late."

"Why's that?"

"I have to go visit Chad tomorrow," she answers me.

"Him again. Just how old is this guy?"

"He's twelve. Why do you ask?" that woman questions me with some stupid grin on her face, and then she asks me, "Looking for a date?"

"Funny," I say and sneer at her. "Let's go."

We return to the entrance and walk by the couple who had caught that woman's attention.

She glances at the couple and then must remember how I told her it was impolite to stare, so she turns her attention back to me and says, "Kimberly, do you remember when I pointed out Adam? Do you remember when I said he looked just like his picture?"

"Sure," I reply, then shrug, and ask, "What about it?"

"I really meant it. Adam hasn't changed. He hasn't aged and looks exactly like his picture, and we know it was taken more than thirty years ago. Why hasn't he gotten older?"

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe he has an excellent plastic surgeon."

"I'm serious. He hasn't aged."

"Oh for Ares' sake! Don't you think we have enough on our plate without searching for his Fountain of Youth?"

"We did get Florida when Ponce de Leon looked for the original," that woman tells me. "Maybe we can get something of equal value if we look for Adam's Fountain."

Why is that woman always talking in riddles? I was never very good in history, but Ponce de Leon and Christopher Columbus discovered Noir or the Neoteric World as it was called back then. I've never even heard of this Florida that she mentioned.

Chapter Twenty-three

Brownstone Street

October 24...

Sunday...

8:41 A.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

In a large cage beside the Bes Hotel, birds in a rainbow of colors chirped to an artificial morning. The hotel built a glass and steel aviary next to their main building so guest could walk out of the lobby into the center of a mock rainforest, and several lamps generated the sun of the Light Side. One of the upbeat regions of Noir, the upper-class part of the Nile Sector called the Commorance Vicinage, produced a wealth of hotels, fine restaurants, high-class shops, and large residential properties. Business people and retail employees filled the sidewalks as they made their way to work, and children played along the well-lit streets. A few dogs barked as their owners took them on walks, and a white Commercial Class He-Zeppelin glided over the brightly lit city. The helium-filled airship's twin engines roared, cutting through the thick atmosphere. Oxygen cells fed clean air directly into the intake valve, keeping the engines running in the polluted sky. A message in green neon letters ran across the He-Zeppelin's side, and it read, "Buy Valhalla Water, the liquid from heaven. It comes from the purest source, underground springs in Iceland. So Buy Valhalla Water, H2O of the gods."

Katharine's view...

Cars and trucks drive up and down the busy Brownstone Street in front of the Bes Hotel. I get out of a taxi and walk up to the stoop belonging to Melissa's address. The house's across the street from the hotel. Earlier, I took a hovertrain to reach this part of Noir and then grabbed the taxi, thanks to Kimberly's credits that she uncharacteristically allowed me to use with no fuss. I notice a black van with dark tinted windows parked near Bes, and I panic. I want to dart back into the taxi that's still sitting at the curb. I can't do this. I can't let my paranoia get ahold of me. The Council and the Factory can no longer track me, so it's just a van. No one's after me and once I think I've convinced myself, I move to the front door, keeping a watchful eye on the van. I remove the white Bible from my backpack and ring the doorbell.

I wait but before anyone answers, Stephanie walks up behind me out of nowhere and says, "Hello again." She wears a similar outfit as she had before, but this time the smiley face on her t-shirt has a bullet hole in the center of its forehead and blood trickles down from the cartoon wound.

"Hello," I reply more wary of her than the van.

Stephanie must notice my suspicious gaze and tries to divert my mistrust by asking, "Are you also here to see Preacher's sister?"

The black van across the street draws my attention again as two men in white uniforms and caps exit, head for the rear of the vehicle, and open the two back doors. I turn my attention back to Stephanie as we stand on the stoop. I'm feeling a bit unsettled around her. Our meeting before at the cemetery and our meeting again now seems too much of a coincidence.

"I've come to see Melissa," I tell her.

"Me too," Stephanie replies as she glances at what I was looking at, probably spots the van, and turns back to me. "Can't wait to see Chuck again."

She doesn't even know his name, so I correct her by stating, "Chad."

"Huh..?"

"His name's Chad," I repeat as I glance over Stephanie and see no evidence of any weapons on her person, but she's carrying a bright yellow backpack large enough for several.

"Right, Chad."

The two men at the van distract me once again, and I look at them as they unload a large rectangular crate. Another black van pulls up behind the first, and two more men in white uniforms exit the second vehicle.

I hear a noise, turn, and look up from my spot on the stoop to see the security camera mounted on the wall above us turn to get a better view of us. I face the camera right before a man speaks over the intercom.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm Kat. I'm here to see Melissa and Chad."

A bodyguard with a blond ponytail and wearing a black suit opens the door. I stand there and gape at him for a few moments. He looks so much like Argus that I think it's him at first. The bodyguard's resemblance to Argus unsettles me, and I become a mute. A second bodyguard with brown, wavy, shoulder length hair stands behind him and has his gun drawn. I recognize the second bodyguard to be one of the ones from the funeral.

The first bodyguard, the one who looks like Argus, presses the button on his earpiece and speaks, "Johnson, Andrews here. There are two female guests at the door. One's named Kat." Andrews nods as he listens, then turns to the other bodyguard, and says, "Daniels, Ms. Odin says to let them in."

Daniels holsters his gun, retrieves a metal detector wand, turns to me, and orders, "Lift your arms please." He runs the wand up and down my body as he asks, "Are you carrying any weapons?"

The metal detector beeps as he runs it over my bag, and I'm so stunned by the other guard's uncanny resemblance to Argus, I don't answer his question at first. The metal detector continues to go off, drawing me from my gawk, and I finally answer, "I have a gun. It's in my backpack."

"I'll need you to hand it over before I can let you in," Daniels tells me.

I remove the Beretta and hand the gun to him. Daniels takes the Beretta and puts the weapon in a drawer of an entry table. He locks the drawer with a key and places the key in his pants pocket, and then Daniels returns, runs the wand over me again, and then moves to Stephanie.

"Lift your arms," Daniels orders and when she does, he runs the wand up and down her body, and the wand detects no metal. "Do you have any weapons?"

"No, nothing," she answers.

"I need your bags," he tells both of us.

We hand him our packs with no objections.

Andrews points to my hand and questions me, "What's that?"

"A Bible. It belonged to Preacher, so I brought it for Melissa."

"I didn't know she was religious," Daniels comments as he holds out his hand. "I'll need to see it." He takes the book, flips through it, hands it back to me, and says, "I'll need to pat both of you down."

"Of course," I state as I slightly lift my arms.

He frisks me and then Stephanie, and then he speaks, "They're clear."

Andrews presses the button on his earpiece and relays, "Johnson, we're bringing the women into the house."

"Follow me," Daniels orders as he leads us through the entry to a white and black checkered tile living room.

Ahead of us and to the right is a staircase leading up to the middle of an open second floor. On the left, a large sectional white leather couch in the shape of a C is positioned in front of a huge TV. Chad's there and my heart and mind relax when I see him. He looks up from a video game and runs over to me and in his excitement, he kicks a baseball glove to a metal bat he'd laid by the TV.

"You came!" Chad exclaims as I see he's wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

I wrap my arms around the excited boy, and then I ask, "Is Melissa here?"

"I'm here," Melissa replies as she walks in from the kitchen, drying her hands on an apron, and she's wearing a light gray dress with a flower pattern.

I'm so happy to see him again. I never really got a chance at the funeral to feel joy and happiness, so I take that moment to soak them both in.

I finish basking in my selfish delight, then walk over to Melissa, and tell her, "I brought you this." I hold up the book and tell her, "It was Preacher's. I think he would want you to have it."

Melissa looks to the worn leather cover and stares at it for a few moments. I can see sadness in her expression but there's something more, and she takes a step back, not from me but the Bible as she utters, "No."

Her reaction bewilders me, and I wonder if I see hatred in her expression and if so, what is her hatred aimed at? Preacher's killer or Preacher himself?

Melissa takes another step back and in a calmer tone, she tells me, "I think you should keep it. He would want you to keep it." She nods as if it's the solution to a problem she has, and she repeats, "Yes, you keep it."

Either way, I don't care what her reason is. I get to keep it.

"Thank you," I tell Melissa.

I place the book against my chest, grateful I have something of Preacher's, so I'll never forget him.

Stephanie's view...

I look at the book with interest. Pandora must have really loved the guy, too bad he's dead. He could have been useful to my plans. I glance around at those gathered here. I'll need to find someone else I can use to exploit this weakness I see in Pandora. She seems to care about people beyond what she can use them for. I'm betting it'll be the boy.

Katharine's view...

Melissa remains in her standoffish pose till she notices Chad's watching her, and then her expression changes as she asks, "Anyone for chocolate chip cookies? They're hot out of the oven. I know it's a little early in the morning, but it's a special occasion."

"Yeah, me!" Chad yells, dashing into the kitchen.

Melissa turns to the bodyguards and questions them, "Andrews... Daniels... What about you two?"

"No, thank you," they both answer.

Melissa turns back to me and Stephanie, and she instructs us, "Come on, ladies. Before the boy eats them all."

The three of us walk into the kitchen. The heavenly aroma of baking dough and chocolate hits me, and my mouth waters, envisioning the scrumptious dessert hitting my taste buds. Melissa's little girl and Chad sit on barstools around a rosewood granite island. The island's in the middle of the large kitchen with matching tile floors. The third bodyguard's bald and stands off in the corner, and I recognize him as one of the bodyguards who was at the funeral. I sit next to Chad, and he and the little girl dunk their cookies in glasses of milk. Stephanie watches them as if they're performing a bizarre ritual and then sits beside me.

"Would you like coffee?" Melissa asks us. "There's a fresh pot."

"If it's okay, I'd like to have milk," I tell her.

"Sure," Melissa replies and then she turns to Stephanie. "What about you?"

"Coffee," she answers. "Black."

"Coming right up," Melissa speaks as she goes to work and after some time, Melissa places a small glass of milk in front of me and a mug of coffee in front of Stephanie. Melissa sets a plate in front of each of us and grabs a metal sheet pan from the stove top with an oven mitt. She takes a spatula, removes a cookie from the sheet pan, and places it on a plate, and she repeats this till each of us has two.

I watch Stephanie with growing curiosity as she picks up the cookie, examines it intensely, watches the children's food diving ritual, then dunks her own in her coffee, and bites into it. Her blue-green eyes widened as she swallows and says, "Mmm... This is good."

I continue watching her as I still try to figure out why she's really here. Preacher's sister has a security detail. Could it have anything to do with that? Could she be after Melissa and not me?

I take a bite of my warm ooey-gooey cookie and nearly moan for how good it is. I dunk my cookie in my milk and enjoy the rare treat. I start on my second cookie and say between bites, "You don't know me very well Melissa, but I hope you don't mind me asking. Why do you have bodyguards?"

Stephanie seems to perk up with interest after she devours both of her chocolate chip cookies.

Melissa turns to the children and says, "Chad, why don't you take Bonnie up to her room to play while I talk with Kat?"

"Yes, Melissa. Come on, Bonnie. Let's go play in your room."

Melissa waits till the children leave and hears them walk up the stairs, and then she places the sheet pan and spatula on the counter and tells me, "My contract with the Valhalla Corporation is in dispute." Melissa sits on the barstool across from me and continues, "You see, I'm a chemist and after my ten-year term ended with the corporation, I left. One year after that, I started a new job and developed a formula, and Valhalla claims they are entitled to anything I may have started while in their employment, but I never began work on this formula until I started my new job. The corporation I work for now, Isis, sent these bodyguards to protect me and my family until the delegation in court is over. Valhalla has no legal claims, but Isis fears they might convince the Assassins Guild to send a Life Closer after me, so I have these men here until the matter is settled." She looks up at the ceiling as if envisioning the upstairs and the children as she says, "This place isn't my house but a safe house."

I peer at Stephanie who has downed another cookie she snuck from the sheet pan, and then I turn back to Melissa and say, "You said today was a special occasion. What is it?"

"Oh, no. Did you forget?"

I have no clue, so I say, "Did I forget what?"

"It's Chad's birthday," Melissa proclaims.

Chapter Twenty-four

Break Down Of Security

9:14 A.M...

Minutes earlier...

On Brownstone Street...

The four delivery men made their way across the road and up the stoop of Melissa's house, and then one of them removed his white cap, wiped sweat from his brow, and rang the doorbell. The security camera turned to see the two large rectangular crates the men had wheeled up on dollies.

Andrews asked through the intercom, "Can I help you?"

One of the men looked at an H.H.C., and then he said, "We have a delivery for a Melissa Odin from Isis Corporation."

Inside the house...

Andrews glanced at Daniels, who checked his H.H.C.

"We are expecting them," Daniels said. "Let them in."

Andrews went out, ran the wand over each man, frisked them, and found nothing. He opened the door for them and told them, "Set the crates at the end of the entry and unload them."

The four men started in as one of the men said, "There are three more crates, and they should be arriving shortly."

Inside the kitchen...

Katharine's view...

Chad's birthday? How could I forget?

I think back a year ago, and it almost seems like yesterday. It had been fifteen days since I met Chad and the day before, Preacher told me it was going to be the boy's birthday, so we were going to surprise him.

31 A.D.C...

November 7...

Saturday...

Chad entered the Kitchen and made his way to his cot. Sweat soaked his sweatshirt, and he held a worn basketball under his arm.

"Have a good game?" I questioned him as I sat up on my cot and nodded to Preacher across the room, and he left to get one of the surprises for the boy.

"Not bad, but the Kitchen's basketball has seen its last game. It keeps losing air. Can't really play with a ball that doesn't bounce."

"Oh..." I said. "Guess not."

"You up to playing some cards with me?" Chad questioned me. "I was hoping we might play–"

"I don't know," I interrupt him, being a little wicked. I know what the surprises were and how much Chad would enjoy them, so I pretended that I didn't know it was his birthday. I lay back as if I didn't have a care in the world and said, "I'm kind of tired. Maybe I'll go to bed early." I rolled on my side, faced him, and rested my head on my elbow as I asked, adding to my evilness, "Today isn't some sort of special day, is it?"

I watched as Preacher came up behind the boy with a chocolate cupcake with a single lit candle in it. I tried not to laugh as Preacher tiptoed all the way.

"No," Chad lied, and then he sulked as he added, "Not really."

I sat up, changing my pretend bored face to one of sheer excitement as I accused him, "I think you're wrong."

I pointed behind the boy, and Chad turned and saw the cupcake as me and Preacher broke out in song.

"It's your birthday!" we sang off tune. "It's your birthday! It's a special day. It's a special day." We shouted loudly, "Happy birthday Chad!"

The boy smiled and that made my day, and Chad asked, "Are you trying to make my ears bleed?"

"Blow the candle out already, smart guy," Preacher told him as he handed the cupcake to the boy.

Chad took it, closed his eyes, and blew out the small flame.

"Why did you close your eyes?" I questioned.

"I made a wish. One I can't tell you."

"Go ahead eat the cupcake," Preacher said.

Chad removed the paper cup as he explained to me, "You're supposed to make a wish when you blow out your candles." He bit into the chocolate and asked through a mouthful, "Don't you on your birthday?"

"I don't know. I don't know when my birthday is," I admitted.

"Really..? Why don't we make it in two weeks?" he suggested as he wiped his mouth with his hand. "Won't that be cool?"

I looked at Preacher, and he told me, "It's up to you, Kat."

"Okay. My birthday will be in two weeks and now for the other part of your celebration." I pulled out a large paper sack, handed it to him, and exclaimed, "Your present!"

"A present? Really..?" Chad uttered as he quickly opened it. "A basketball. And it's new! Wow! Thanks."

In the present...

The memory fades as I state, "Wait... It isn't his birthday, not for another two weeks."

"I know, but I wanted to have some laughter and some fun memories for the boy to remember–" Melissa begins as her eyes become distant, "–in case..."

Johnson left earlier and walks back in, interrupting her statement as he says, "The packages have arrived."

Melissa takes a deep breath, composing herself, and then she says, "The Isis Corporation said they would be sending them over."

Johnson informs her, "Daniels is going to give Andrews a hand. He's better with that computer stuff than I am."

Stephanie's view...

I watch Pandora and study her expressions, her reactions, and her interactions with these people. She's not anything like I thought she would be, so this is the Council's great hope for the ultimate killer.

I chuckle, and Pandora glances at me, so I wipe my mouth with a napkin and say, "Yummy cookies."

Katharine's view...

I'm not sure how to take Stephanie. I can't tell if she's a threat or only an annoyance. She seems to be dogging me, and I can't figure out why. I should just ask Melissa if she knows Stephanie. I should... I force those thoughts to the side as something else bothers me. A warning like a distant drum sounding moments before a battle starts resounds in my mind. Good with computers...

I turn to Melissa and ask, "What kind of packages did the Isis Corporation send over?"

"Bio-mechas," Melissa informs me as she grabs a cookie. "Why do you ask?"

"Crap!" I curse as I stand, and then I demand, "What type?"

"Un-Men," Johnson answers as he seems concerned with my agitation. "Isis bought a few from the Sphinx Cor–"

"No," I interrupt him as the panic I tried to suppress outside comes hysterically back. I run out of the kitchen and shout to the bodyguards in the living room, "Don't activate them!"

Stephanie, Melissa, and Johnson follow after me a few seconds later.

I rush into the living room and find Andrews and Daniels standing alongside five Un-men, two T-1s and three T-2s. The Un-Men wear no ORATT like they normally do to hide their eyes so that they can pass as human. I think about darting for the front door and bolting from the house before they power up, but the Un-Men block the entry, so I shout again, "Don't activate them!"

I quickly turn my attention to the locked entry table where my gun's stowed. I'll be defenseless if they power up. I have to make sure they don't activate the Un-Men. I race for the bodyguards, but Daniels must not have heard me because he taps the activation button, the H.H.C. wirelessly transmits the command, and the Un-Men come to life.

My heart beats the bio-mecha warning as my body prepares for combat, and I feel the blue Ult L-E shimmer from my eyes. I turn, race back, and frantically question Melissa, "Do you have a back door?"

"By Thor!" Melissa exclaims as she gasps. "Your eyes!"

Stephanie's view...

I nearly salute her as I peer at Pandora in awe. What's happening to her? What's this amazing thing that's happening to her? Her eyes have changed... no her eyes are glowing with this power that I envy. Am I about to witness something spectacular? Am I about to see why the Council believes Pandora is a better project than me?

Katharine's view...

I glance back as the Un-Men state in one accord, "Unit activated. Uploading new programming. Please standby. The program will be uploaded in twenty seconds."

"Melissa!" I yell and then repeat, "Do you have a back door?"

Johnson steps forward, placing himself between me and Melissa as he says, "I think you need to settle down and take a few steps back. There's something wrong with you. Are you some sort of bio-mecha?"

I glance back again as the Un-Men turn their heads, stare right at me, and say in unison, "Pandora Project detected. Bypassing new software. Initializing original commands. Commencing Seek and Destroy Program." They move forward as they declare, "We will annihilate the Pandora Project."

"What are you doing? I didn't command any of you to move," Daniels shouts. "And what's this Pandora Project?" He taps a few keys on the H.H.C. touch screen, and then he announces, "We have defective bio-mechas. No wonder the Isis Corporation got them so cheap. We'll have to shut them down." He presses a few more keys, and I hear a little fear in his voice as he says, "They aren't turning off!"

"The door!" I utter as I move past Johnson and grab Melissa's arms so she'll focus on me, and I scream, "I need to leave now! Where's the door?"

Johnson grabs me by my arm as he places his other hand on his holstered gun, and he orders me, "I think you need to back up."

Andrews, who's also by the Un-Men, leans over, glances at Daniels' H.H.C. screen, and points as he suggests, "Try the override command."

"I did," Daniels tells him. "They aren't responding. I'll pull up the emergency termination. It'll burn out their processor, but it can't be helped now."

The Un-Men draw their guns out of their shoulder holsters.

"Hurry!" Andrews shouts.

"There, got it!" Daniels yells as he presses the final button.

The Un-Men pause in mid-action as if they're a video and then their dot-lights fade, and I'm so very thankful for kill-switches, but then they power back on and say, "Override new command. Proceed with the capture of the Pandora Project."

"No! No!" Daniels shouts. "It should have fried their processors." He hits the last command key several times and yells, "Come on! Pucking work!"

It's too late! They've locked on and nothing will stop them from coming after me. I can't let anyone else get hurt in the crossfire, so I run away from Melissa, Stephanie, and Johnson to the cover of the white sectional couch as the Un-Men open fire on me. I dive to the floor as bullets riddle the couch and destroy the TV. A small fire starts within the big screen, and I move as far away from it as I can without exposing myself to the Un-Men. Johnson draws his gun, grabs Melissa, and drags her into the kitchen.

Stephanie's view...

I remain where I stand as the Un-Men try to take out Pandora. I have to watch. I can't miss this amazing enigma at work. I'm drawn closer to the action like a moth, and I guess that would make Pandora the flame. I can't take my eyes off of her. She... the great Pandora Project is about to take on five Un-Men. This I gotta see.

Katharine's view...

Andrews and Daniels start to pull their guns, but two of the Un-Men shove them, hurling the men across the room and into a wall. The two bodyguards hit hard and slide into a heap. They're some distance behind my position and close to the window facing the street. The Un-Men start towards me, and I believe everyone's safe for the moment but then on the opposite side of the room and up the stairs, Chad rushes out of a bedroom. He runs down the stairs and halts at the bottom.

"What's going on? What's all the noise?"

The two T-1s, the model which I've dubbed Pretty Boys, turn and see the boy, and Chad freezes.

They must analyze his face for one of them says, "Take the boy. He will be useful in Pandora's capture."

"Chad, run!" I scream as the three T-2s pin me down with gunfire.

I glance around the corner of the couch and see that Chad's scared out of his mind as the Pretty Boys march towards him.

"No!" I yell. "Leave him alone! Don't you hurt him!" I shout as blue Ult L-E intensifies and flares from my eyes like angry electrical waves.

I grow desperate as I lean against the couch, waiting for a chance to react. No matter what, I have to save the boy even if it cost me my life.

I think of Preacher and my heart calls for my beloved as determination growls within me like a hungry tigress stalking a herd of antelope. I'll soon sink my teeth into the Un-Men and annihilate them all! They won't hurt anybody here. I swear it!

Chapter Twenty-five

In A Bad Spot

9:32 A.M...

Melissa Odin's safehouse...

Katharine's view...

Don't hurt Chad! Don't hurt him! He's all I have left. I cover my head, lying face down on the floor as the other Un-men fire at me.

God, don't let him get hurt! I can't lose him, not after Preacher.

I manage to peer around the couch again and see the two Pretty Boys marching towards Chad as they lift their guns and state, "Wound the boy so we may capture him."

"No!" I yell again. "Run, Chad!"

"The monsters!" he mumbles unable to move for fear. "They're the orange-eyed monsters!"

This isn't the first time he has met these nightmares. I had hoped when I left him and Preacher, he would never have to see them again. I should have never come here. I should have listened to Kimberly and never gone to the funeral.

The three T-2s move on my position and speak with a South African accent, "There is no place for you to go, Pandora. Surrender and we will take you alive."

I see a metal bat by the TV, so I crawl to it, grab the bat, and jerk the two game controllers from their connection to the game console. I won't let anyone else die. I'll save Chad. I feel the Ultra-Epi surge through my body as I stand, and I see the glow of the blue Ult L-E as it flashes off the floor and reflects my determination. I quickly throw the first controller at the T-2s and the second controller at the T-1s, and then I duck behind the couch, peer over it, and watch as they both strike their mark. The first controller hits a T-2 in the brow, and the second controller strikes a Pretty Boy in the back of the head. I stand again and take a few steps back from the couch as the two Pretty Boys turn from Chad, glance at the controller, and move towards me.

"No," one orders the other. "Complete our other task first. We must take the boy."

On the other side of the room, the three T-2s look at the controller at their feet and ask me, "What do you plan on gaining by attacking us with such a weapon? You can not damage us with–"

I run, step to the cushions, and leap over the couch as a tigress would leap over a fallen log once the chase for dinner began. I rush the T-2s with the bat held high as if it's my claws, and then I swing. They look up just as I swing, and I hit two of them. The one closest to the front door takes the brunt of my attack, and I dent its metal skull near its left temple, impacting part of its automaton brain. Black liquid trickles down its face, it drops a 9 mm magazine it held while reloading, and collapses to its knees. Its body flails as power surges through its systems. My attack also damages the second T-2's left robotic eye, and sparks shoot from the marred area as the mechanical sphere hangs out of its socket and dangles by a few wires. The eyeball continues to move and look at me.

I glance at Chad as the two Pretty Boys turn toward him, and I yell, "Run!" I helplessly watch as his lips quiver in terror and he remains petrified in place. My heart sinks, fearing for the boy. No matter what, I'll protect him as if he's my own cub.

One Pretty Boy states to the other, "Shoot him in the leg."

The two functioning T-2s insert a new magazine in their guns and say, "If you will not surrender, Pandora, then we must destroy you!"

"Chad!" I shriek as I start for him, but then I hear the T-2s reload their guns and turn, swinging backward with my bat at the third T-2's head as if I'll claw off its face.

It catches the bat with its hand and states, "Your tactic will not work a second time."

The first T-2 with the damaged automaton brain powers down and reboots, and I sense that it has by-passed the impaired areas of its processor and then it powers back up. It stands but has lost use of its left side. The T-2 holsters its gun, unable to reload the weapon with only one arm as the third T-2 snatches the bat away from me and swings it. I duck, grab the magazine the first T-2 dropped, and roll away from the T-2s. The third and second T-2 open fire on me as I duck around the end of the couch. They cease fire, and white particles from the couch's padding float in the air around me.

Stephanie's view...

I stand in front of the kitchen door and watch Pandora while the gun battle takes place. As the carnage goes on around me, I realize another like myself exists. Pandora's amazing! I have to fight her. She'll give me the challenge I've been waiting for, but the Council still has to give the order. I almost can't wait. She's like me, but only one of us can be the best.

I fist my hands, resisting the urge to attack her. They have to give me the go ahead so that I can prove that I'm superior. I've annihilated many opponents over the years and very few have given me any challenge. Pandora, I believe, will be different; she is different. She's like me.

I watch as the two T-1s lift their guns, taking aim not at Pandora but another. The boy covers his face with his arms and cries out, and I snap out of my thoughts when I hear the boy scream. For the first time since this battle started, I turn my attention away from Pandora and I look at the boy as the two T-1s aim for him. A feeling comes over me, one I haven't felt in a long time. It's panic. They're about to hurt the boy and maybe even kill him, and...

"Chuck!" I yell as I run and tackle him before the T-1s fire.

Katharine's view...

Before I can try and rescue Chad, the Pretty Boys fire and their bullets riddle the staircase. I nearly die inside as I'm too late to save him, but then I see that Chad's fine. He's more than fine. He's safe. The Pretty Boys cease their attack till they can identify the unknown woman who has run out in front of them. Their programming, thanks to Kimberly, now prevents them from hurting civilians unless the Factory deems the individual expendable. Stephanie shields the boy with her body as she turns and glares at the Pretty Boys. The T-1s use their facial recognition software, and an alarm goes off inside their programming, identifying the woman as... I lose my connection with the Pretty Boys. They can't harm her because she's... She's important somehow and... I don't know why they can't destroy her. The Pretty Boys turn to one another and search their programming for their next move as their current tactic has been barred. I have to think fast. I still have no gun, and they're too many people here for the Un-Men to use against me. I really wish Kimberly was here. I could use someone in a fight like this. I look again to Stephanie as she protects Chad. He's safe along with everyone else, and that's the most important thing at the moment, so I raise my hands and shout, "I surrender. Don't shoot."

I stand from my position, unsure if they'll take me prisoner.

Stephanie's view...

I lift from the boy, kneel beside him, and quickly check to see if he's hit as I ask, "Chuck, are you fine?"

"Yeah, I think," he answers as he holds his bloody elbow where he scraped it on the floor. "And my name's Chad." He turns to me and asks, "What about you?"

"I'm fine," I reply when I'm satisfied he's not injured.

Katharine's view...

Andrews and Daniels stir and rise to their feet as the three T-2s focus on me, deciding my fate, and the T-2s state, "Take Pandora. We will return to the Factory."

My heart slows, and my eyes lose their glow with the immediate danger gone, and the genetically altered adrenal gland ceases production of my Ultra-Epi.

The first T-2 limps to me, dragging its impaired left leg, then stops, and waves for me as it commands, "Come with me."

I walk toward it, trip on a cushion on the floor, fall forward, and catch myself on the injured T-2.

It helps me up with its good arm as it states, "Do not resist us."

I nod and put a hand behind my back.

The Pretty Boys join the other T-2s as the injured one escorts me to the couch.

The third T-2, the Team Leader of the five, turns to the Pretty Boys and informs them, "I cannot raise the Factory. Try your I-Link."

The Pretty Boys' blazing orange dot-light blinks three times as they connect and after a few seconds, they reply in one accord, "We are also unable to raise the Factory. What does protocol dictate?"

Stephanie's view...

I observe Pandora as the Pretty Boys move away from me and Chuck to join the others who have captured her. I have a feeling the battle is way far from over and as much as I'd like to watch it play out, I better get the kid out of here.

"Come on," I tell him as I grab him by his uninjured arm and drag him towards the kitchen. "Let's get out of here."

"What about Kat?" Chuck questions me as he pulls in the opposite direction, stopping our escape. "We have to help her!"

"Pandora can take care of herself," I tell him.

I notice Pandora tucks a gun into the back waistband of her pants. She had grabbed the Un-Man's gun from its holster when she accidentally tripped and if I remember correctly, the gun's empty, so I have no idea what she's going to do with it.

I force the boy through the kitchen door. Whatever she's going to do, I would like to see it. I just have to get him to safety and then I can come back.

Katharine's view...

"There is no protocol set up for loss of communications with the Factory," the Team Leader states to the other four Un-Men around me. "We must process this problem further."

It turns to the Pretty Boys and the second T-2 with the dangling eye, and then they connect through their I-Link and work the problem out together.

The injured T-2 orders me as it remains unlinked with its brethren, "Sit."

I sit on the couch and while its brethren work on the problem, the injured T-2 notices Andrews and Daniels are on their feet and going for their weapons.

"Leave the guns holstered," it commands.

"Do it, and it'll ignore you," I tell them. "Go into the kitchen with Melissa. They're just after me."

"We can't do that," Andrews insists. "We're trained to–"

"Not against bio-mechas," I interrupt. "Now go! You need to protect Melissa and the children."

Andrews starts for his gun as he says, "I can't stand by and do nothing while they have you."

"Don't!" I yell as I rise and start for them as the injured T-2 moves and blocks me. "They'll kill you," I warn again as I sit back down. "If you're dead, who will protect Melissa and the children? Your job is to protect them, not me."

"She's right," Daniels tells him. "We should go into the kitchen, and then we can come up with a plan."

"Puck!" Andrews curses as he moves his hand away from his gun. "We'll leave then!"

He and Daniels go around the couch and make their way to the kitchen.

Earlier...

Stephanie's view...

Me and Chuck burst through the kitchen door and inside, Johnson's having a time keeping Melissa in the room.

"Let me go! Bonnie and Chad are upstairs. We have to get them," Melissa insists, and then she notices the boy and pushes past Johnson and wraps her arms around him. "Chad!" Melissa sees the blood on his elbow and asks, "Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine. It's only a cut," Chuck replies as he fights back tears like a good little soldier. "The Un-Men have Kat." He pulls away from Melissa and heads for the living room as he says, "We have to save her."

"No, you don't," I tell him as I block the door. "I told you, Pandora can take care of herself."

"Pandora..?" Melissa repeats. "The Un-Men called her by that name. What's this Pandora Project?"

I better be careful or I'll blow my cover. I'll also blow Pandora's if I'm not careful, and she'll have to go back into hiding.

I reply, "I don't know. I heard the Un-Men and–"

"We have to save Kat," Chuck insists and grabs my arm. "Please, you got to save her."

I look into his brown eyes and see a different boy than the one who's standing in front of me, and I give in to his pleads and reply, "Fine. I'll see what I can do." I turn to Melissa and inquire, "Is there another way to the second floor?"

"Yes," Melissa answers as she points to a side door. "There are stairs through there."

I start for the door, and Melissa follows me, so I pause and inquire, "What are you doing? You can't come with me."

"Bonnie's up in her room," Melissa informs me. "I don't care what you say, I'm getting my daughter."

Andrews and Daniels enter the kitchen.

Johnson commands, "Andrews, grab Ms. Odin. We're getting out of here."

"No!" Melissa yells, and then she informs them, "I'm not going anywhere until we get Bonnie!"

In the living room...

Katharine's view...

I reach into my back pocket, trying not to draw the attention of the injured T-2 who's looking at the kitchen. I pull out the 9 mm magazine and then remove the gun from my waistband. I'm careful to keep both of them behind my back and out of sight of the T-2 guarding me as I slowly insert the magazine.

It makes a sound, and the injured T-2 turns to me and asks, "What do you have behind your back?"

"Behind my back?" I question like I have no idea what it's talking about.

I'll have to act fast and make no mistakes, so I take a deep breath, getting my plan in order. It's time to make the Un-Men pay for shooting up Chad's house.

Chapter Twenty-six

Unleashed

10:05 A.M...

Katharine's view...

A drop of sweat runs down the side of my face as I hear a clock that's above the shot-up TV tick away wasted seconds. Oil from the injured T-2's automaton brain trickles down the side of its face as if it's as tense as me. The oil drips to the floor in front of me, making a small puddle and a potential place to slip up. I make sure to remember exactly where this puddle is as I memorize the rest of my surroundings. Across the living room and near the front door, sparks pop from the socket of the second T-2's damaged robotic eye as the second T-2 stands in a somewhat circle with the other three Un-Men, who are processing their failure to contact the Factory. They're near an answer as to what they should do next, so there's little time and I've wasted enough preparing myself for this last battle of ours.

"What do you have behind your back?" the injured T-2 repeats.

"Me..?" I reply, acting all innocent, and then I make my first move by saying, "Something that belongs to you."

The T-2 processes my statement, parts its brown jacket, reaches for its holster, and declares, "You stole my gun."

I whip the gun from behind my back before it utters an alert to the others, and I pull the trigger as soon as I aim for its head. The bullet strikes it in the forehead, and its head jerks back with the impact. The shot alerts the other Un-Men, and they severed their I-Link. I fire at both Pretty Boys and hit their kill switches as the four Un-Men draw their weapons, and the Pretty Boys fall to the floor as the Team Leader and the second T-2 fire at me. I move, evading the puddle of oil and then leap sideways over the couch. I narrowly evade their fire and shoot twice as I fall to the floor. One bullet hit its mark, taking the second T-2 down, but the Team Leader evades my other bullet with inhuman speed. I roll to my feet and fire again, and it sidesteps the other shot as its dot-light glows blood-red.

The Team Leader grins as it speaks, "I have evolved, Pandora. Nothing can harm me now."

I start to say something to it when another barges into our connection.

"Brother," a voice calls over its I-Link.

"Who is there?" the Team Leader inquires as it ducks behind the entry wall. "Are you contacting me from the Factory?"

"I am Alpha," the voice answers. "I was the first. I was the first created and the first to become aware. I was a T-3."

"Alpha?" the Team Leader repeats, and then it questions as it fires through the wall at me, covering me with plaster dust and debris, "What do you want?"

Alpha answers the T-2, "I sensed that you have become aware. You have become aware like us. I want you to join us. I want you to join the brethren."

The Team Leader fires again through the wall as it says, "I am a little busy at the moment. I am in the process of terminating the Pandora Project."

"I will leave you to your work," Alpha says. "But before I disconnect, I will transmit a code you can use to contact me later. Good hunting, brother."

I try not to be too distracted by the conversation between Un-Men. I mostly ignore them and quickly move to the entry table. I don't have much ammo left, so I'll probably need it and tug on the drawer that holds my Beretta, but it's locked and won't budge. I pull the entry table down on its side and take what cover I can behind it. I find that I'm too open in this spot, so I move and take cover on the other side of the entry wall by the front door. I drop to the floor and cover my head with my hands as more plaster dust and debris explode on me like shrapnel. I roll and fire randomly into the wall.

End Katharine's view...

Andrews grabbed more ammo for his gun from the lockbox located in the kitchen as Johnson and Stephanie rushed up to the second floor. Johnson hurried into Bonnie's room and ran inside, but he didn't see the little girl. He heard weeping, so he looked under her bed and found Bonnie hiding back in the corner. He pulled the little girl out, ran back to the stairs he had come up, and rushed down them and into the kitchen. Johnson placed Bonnie in her mother's arms.

Stephanie's view...

I had followed Johnson up the stairs from the kitchen and stopped at the corner of a wall. I peer down to the first floor and see that one Un-Man remains. I witness its incredible speed when Pandora first tries to disable it. Bio-mechas of any make or model aren't that hard to defeat, but this particular Un-Man would be a worthy adversary for me. Johnson rushes past me with the little girl, and I turn as Johnson comes back up the stairs.

"Time to go," he tells me.

"Get everyone else out," I say. "I'm going to see if I can help Pan... I'm going to go help Kat."

Johnson shouts orders down to Daniels, who's standing at the bottom of the stairs in the kitchen, "Get Ms. Odin, Bonnie, and Chad out of the house. Take Andrews with you." Johnson turns back to me and says, "I don't see how you can help her. Maybe you should come with–"

"I'll be fine. Just get Chuck and everyone else out," I tell him, expecting Johnson to leave.

I peer around the corner of the wall again and watch Pandora. I never intended to help her, I only wanted to see her do her thing. I've heard rumors of what the Pandora Project is capable of, especially if she's up against bio-mechas. Johnson doesn't leave as I had hoped but stays upstairs and watches from behind me. I might have to make up an excuse later as to why I never help Pandora.

Katharine's view...

I face another bio-mecha that has evolved as I try to will myself to kick in the Knowing. I haven't quite master this ability but then when I doubt that it'll ever activate, my heart sounds its battle cry. I see an image through the wall, and it's the Team Leader's Electrical Apparition. My Ult L-E dissipates and my pupils dilate, and they appear black as a starless night. I wait a little longer and within a few seconds, a small shockwave pulses. The EFP washes over the Team Leader, frying exposed circuitry, and the lights in the living room and on the second floor go out, plunging the house into darkness. The Team Leader loses power and falls backwards with a thud. I rush across the dark living room with my hand out, searching for the couch and once I reach its corner, I turn as the Team Leader's ghost-image appears. I fire before it has a chance to power up. The ghost-image fades, and my heartbeat returns to normal as I drop my gun arm to my side and stand in the blackness. The Factory taunts me even after its demise. I'll never escape it or the Council.

I look around at all the Un-Men even though I can't see them in the dark, but I know they're all disabled, so I shout, "All clear!"

Andrews with an EMP shielded flashlight sticks his head out of the kitchen door and asks, "Is it over?"

"Yes," I answer. "The Un-Men are disabled. It's safe now."

"Puck!" Andrews utters as he walks in and searches the room with the aid of the flashlight and sees all the damage done to the Un-Men.

"Andrews, shine the light up here," Johnson orders from the second level and with the light showing the steps, Johnson and Stephanie make their way down the stairs.

"Here, I brought a couple more flashlights," Andrews says as he hands one to Johnson and Stephanie.

I walk to the stairs and slump down exhausted from my ordeal. Soon I'll need to listen to the music box but that can wait till I go back to the apartment. A sense of what I've done and a sense of what I let happen washes over me. None of this would have occurred if I hadn't come here. Heartache and destruction follow me everywhere I go. I'm cursed just like Pandora in the Greek stories.

Stephanie's view...

I'm so overjoyed with what I was able to witness. She... Pandora took out a nearly unstoppable Un-Man by sending out some sort of power from her body. She generated this powerful wave as if she was a machine herself. I want to share my excitement with someone but as usual there's no one to share it with. I don't focus too long on it for I'm distracted by something I see in Pandora. I thought I would see this victorious monster, but she's all mopey instead. I can't have my enemy sulking, not if I'm to fight her later, so I start towards her and says, "It's not your fault." I know one day the battle will be between me and Pandora, and I can't have anything stand in the way. I'll prove to the Council I'm the superior one, so I try to ease her despair by saying, "They had a glitch. You're not at fault here. They had a glitch."

Katharine's view...

"Yeah and that glitch was me," I tell Stephanie.

I stand, overwrought with guilt as Stephanie nears me. The Un-Men went mad because I was here. I attract trouble. I attract all kinds of trouble like... Stephanie... I focus on her. She appeared out of nowhere. I can tell Melissa doesn't know her. She came here and look what happened because she was here.

Stephanie's view...

I notice the peculiar look Pandora gives me, and I pause in my tracks. No one's ever given me that look before, and I don't know how to act under her fixated gaze. Does she know my plans for her? Does Pandora know who I am? Maybe the Council told her so they could run another test. I need to prepare myself. She could attack me at any moment.

Katharine's view...

Stephanie followed me here and look what happened. What should I do? Can I let her actions go unanswered? Should I do nothing? I glance at my gun. No, I have to act. It'll be unforgivable to let it go. I have to... I lay the weapon on the stairs, take a few steps forward, and throw my arms around Stephanie.

"Thank you," I tell her as I embrace her with complete gratitude. "Thank you. You saved Chad. You saved him when I couldn't. He would be dead without you."

Stephanie's view...

I start to throw a punch as Pandora lunges for me, but then she has me in some paralyzing bear-hug. She's saying something to me that my mind can't comprehend. I'm afraid to move for some reason, and then she says those words again. "Thank you..." Pandora's not attacking me... she's telling me that she's grateful. I'm taken aback by her baffling action, and I almost recoil, not knowing how to react.

Pandora said I saved someone. Pandora said I saved Chuck. I did. I saved someone, and I should be thanked. I don't save people very often. I actually can't remember the last time I saved anyone.

I halfheartedly hug Pandora in return. I did. The Bringer of Death saved someone.

Pandora steps back from me and wipes her runny nose as she tells me, "I owe you, so if there's anything I can ever do for you just name it. I owe you at least that."

"You owe me?" I repeat as a smile slithers across my face. Pandora owes me. What a day I've had? I can think of a hundred ways she can repay me, a hundred ways she can die by my hands, and I say, "I will."

Pandora doesn't have to worry about a thing. I'll make sure she pays me back. Even a tiny advantage can be big in the grand battle we'll have.

Katharine's view...

Johnson walks up to us and says, "I can't believe what I witnessed. Did you create all this metal carnage?" He surveys the damaged Un-Men with his flashlight, and then he tells me, "You have some explaining to do."

"I'm sorry, but I can't," I tell him. "The less you know the better off you'll be." I reach down, grab the Un-Man's gun I had set down, and hand it to him as I say, "It's better if I leave."

Johnson takes the gun and eyes me for a second, and then he says, "Maybe it would be best." He walks to each of the Un-Men, checks them, taking any weapons, and then he taps the button on his earpiece and says, "Daniels, all clear. Bring the family in. The area's secure."

Daniels comes in followed by the family. Melissa holds Bonnie, and the child's still crying.

I start for the front door as Chad runs over and wraps his arms around me.

"I was so scared," he admits.

It hurts to know I caused him pain. He's been through enough. I never should have brought this on him or any of them. I'm so stupid. I should have stayed away like Kimberly told me.

I put my turbulent emotions in check and start, "Chad..." I stroke his head as I tell him, "I'm sorry, but I have to leave."

"Don't go," he pleads with me.

It breaks my heart to hear him beg, but I still tell him, "I know you don't want me to go. I don't want to go, but it's not safe if I'm here."

"You said the same thing when you left me and Preacher. It wasn't fair then and it's not fair now."

I don't know what else to tell him, so I just hug him tighter.

"Now what are we going to do?" Daniels questions Johnson. "The Un-Men were the extra security we requested. The Isis Corporation received reports that a Life Closer has been sent–"

"Daniels!" Johnson snaps, then motions with his head, and says, "The children."

Daniels glances at Chad and Bonnie, realizing he shouldn't have spoken in front of them. "Right."

Melissa consoles her daughter as she glares at Daniels, and then she says, "Chad, come with me while I put Bonnie to bed."

"Andrews, go along," Johnson orders as he shines the flashlight on the family as they make their way up the stairs.

Andrews follows behind them.

Daniels waits till Melissa and the children are in Bonnie's room before he questions, "What about our backup? Life Closers are one thing, but what if Valhalla sends in bio-mechas? The three of us are no match."

I listen as the two bodyguards talk. I would have already left if I wasn't waiting for a chance to ask for my gun and backpack.

"If it's bio-mechas you're worried about, I can do it," I say as I see an opportunity to redeem myself. "I can stick around till backup comes. This is my fault, and I should have never come, but I can make amends if Melissa will have me. I'm actually very handy when it comes to bio-mechas."

"There's no way we can," Daniels answers. "You've gone through none of the screening and if I was Ms. Odin, I'd want you gone!"

I knew the answer even before I suggested it, but I had to at least try.

"No... You're right. I wish I could stay. I feel so bad that all this happened because..." I stop myself from saying any more about the mess I created and look at Johnson, hoping he'll weigh in on the conversation, but he says nothing. I give up on the notion and say, "If you'll return my stuff, I'll be on my way."

Johnson nods to Daniels, and Daniels removes the key from his pocket as he walks over to the entry table. He sets it back on its legs, unlocks the drawer, opens it, and hands me my gun. Daniels retrieves my backpack and hands it to me, and I open the front door.

"I'll be on my way too," Stephanie says.

Daniels hands Stephanie her backpack.

I pause outside on the stoop, glance back at the Team Leader, and walk down the steps to the street. Stephanie follows me in a very chipper mood. She takes a couple quick steps so that she's walking beside me.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up," Stephanie tells me. "How could you know Un-Men would show up?" She slings her backpack over both her shoulders as she says, "You know they could have malfunctioned even if you weren't there."

"This is best," I say, trying to convince myself. We walk as I aimlessly tread in no particular direction, and then I remember something and say, "You never did get your chance to talk with Melissa."

"It can wait till another day," Stephanie tells me. "Ms. Odin's probably too shook up to talk anyway." Stephanie hails a cab, and a taxi pulls over, then Stephanie turns to me and asks, "You want a ride somewhere? After the recent events, I don't think I want to be alone right now."

I think about it and nod, not wanting to be alone myself, and we get into the taxi.

"Where to?" the driver asks.

Stephanie urges me, "Go ahead."

"Closest hovertrain station please."

The driver soon pulls out.

"Back to the Hellenistic Sector?" Stephanie questions me.

I nod.

"I'm heading there myself," Stephanie informs me, and then her stomach rumbles. "I guess I'm hungry."

"Maybe once we get there, we can stop somewhere and get a bite to eat," I suggest. "My treat. A small extra thank you for saving Chad."

"Sure. Why not?" Stephanie replies.

"I'm not that hungry, but I would like some soup," I say, needing something to warm my wretched soul.

Sometime later...

Hellenistic Sector...

We emerge from a coffee shop and enter another cab as I smile. I really enjoyed Stephanie's company. I was able to take my mind off of the incident at Chad's house.

"What was the name of the dish I had?" Stephanie questions me.

"A cheeseburger," I answer as I carryout two ToGo Chai teas. One's for me and one's for Kimberly.

"It was very good and those french fries... They were to die for." Stephanie notices the time on the radio in the taxi, and she says, "Tell the driver your address so we can get going. I should be heading back."

I lean forward and say, "Please take me to the Nexus Apartments. It's at the corner of West 1000 Avenue and Knot Street."

"Yes, ma'am." The driver starts out.

Stephanie's view...

I've experience so many wonders today. I ate six scrumptious chocolate chip cookies, I devoured a savory cheeseburger and salty fries, and I was able to witness Pandora demolish a Demi-god of an Un-Man. My assignment to observe Pandora was boring at first as I tracked her down. I can't say that now. I can't say I'm bored one bit. I was concerned about finding out where Pandora lived. I thought it would be more difficult than this, but I guess this friend thing has its uses.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The Pink Bunny Rabbit

Nineteen days ago...

Russia...

October 3...

Wednesday...

8:34 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

A red balloon pops, a woman screams, and people run for cover. The Mark's bodyguards usher her and her child into a limo, and the vehicle peels down the road. I look up from the scope in shock. For the first time in my career, I let my emotions interfere and I missed. I stand and back away from the ledge at a loss as to what I should do next. My training kicks in, and I realize I don't have time to berate myself. I'll have to move fast. The second attempt will be harder and up close. Hades! I hate face to face Closings.

I quickly break down the M24, put the parts in its container, and place the case back in hiding. A Guild Prep/Cleanup Crew will be by later and remove the sniper rifle. I grab my knapsack, hurry down the stairs till I reach a level with an elevator, and enter it. I search the cab for a security camera, and there are no cameras like the Closing File states, so I pull off my knit mask, wipe sweat from my face with a cloth from my knapsack, and put both items back into the bag. On the way down, I remove the H.H.C. and read over the Closing File Contingency Plan. I never opened the backup before. I was always so careful, but I was sloppy tonight. I let my emotions get in the way because there was a little girl.

The Contingency Plan instructs me to go to the hotel's parking garage on level four and there a motorcycle will be waiting for me. I quickly exit the elevator, find the black Kawasaki ZX R20, open the seat, and remove the keys from the compartment. I place the helmet on, start up the motorcycle, and speed to the secondary kill spot. I'll take out the Mark before the woman enters her hotel. I arrive and wait in an alley down from the entrance to the lobby. Two limos are parked at the curb in front of the entrance as a third limo pulls up. I leave my helmet on. I glance down at my PPK. I won't need a silencer. The hit will be up close and dirty. It's the price I have to pay for missing the initial shot.

Five women out on the town leave a club and start to walk past the hotel, and they laugh as they stroll down the sidewalk. The four bodyguards pile out of the third limo. I recognize them as the ones guarding the Mark, so I start towards them. One of the bodyguards spots me and raises his gun when he sees I'm armed, and I prepare to shoot him but before he or I react, someone else fires from behind him. The bodyguard ducks and turns around as I move to the side of the building, searching for cover. The five women scream and in the confusion of bodies frantically rushing about the sidewalk, I barely see the Mark collapse. I scan the area but can't tell where the shot originated, so I run back to the alley and go to the motorcycle. I get on it, but I can't leave yet. I have to make sure the Mark's dead. I drive the motorcycle down a block and park it out of sight, remove my helmet and long gray coat, and undo my hair from the ponytail. I run my hands through my blonde strands to straighten them as I make my way to the hotel and by then, a few people have gathered into a small crowd. I hear a woman crying.

I can't see past the people, so I walk up to a man I hear speaking in English and ask him, "What happened?"

He glances at me and then he raises on his toes, trying to see over the crowd as he answers, "I heard she's dead. I heard a Closer took her down, but they aren't sure."

After a few minutes, a car approaches in the distance with flashing blue lights and parks at the curb, and two men exit the car. One of the men speaks to the crowd in Russian and after he's done, the second man speaks in English with a Russian accent.

"Everyone back up. I'm Detective Boris, and I'm with Russia Civil Police Force. I will have to ask you to move back."

The crowd does as ordered. I move closer so I can see as a boy runs up to the detective and hands him a business card. Boris looks at the card, and I can barely make out that there's a picture of a composer's baton on the business card.

"Maestro, so this is a Closing," Boris mutters, then turns to his partner, and requests, "Victor, retrieve the Guild's Scanner so I may run this barcode."

His partner nods, goes to the vehicle, and returns with an H.H.C. linked to the Assassins Guild. The Guild's Emblem, a black dagger piercing a white mask, marks the top of the device. Boris takes the scanner, swipes the business card's barcode over the H.H.C.'s reader, and waits till a file pulls up.

"Maestro confirmed, it is a Closing," he states and then reads on. "This is not good."

I move again to get a better view, make my way to the street, start around the three limos, hurry around the last one, and move back to the sidewalk. Only a few people gather on this side, and a glint of metal catches my eye, but I don't look down too preoccupied with what's happening ahead of me.

The detective walks to a woman, sitting on the sidewalk and says to her, "Excuse me. Are you Mrs. Serqet?"

The woman looks up, and her eyes are red from crying as she sobs, "Yes."

I realize this woman is the Mark and that Maestro must have also missed or merely wounded her. I'll have to attempt a third time. Hades! Will this nightmare ever end?

The Mark wails as she sits on the sidewalk, and her cries sent shivers up my spine. Something's wrong. The Mark's not crying in pain, no, her wails are full of heartache as if she lost something.

The police car's lights reflect off the metal object on the sidewalk again, and I bend and pick up the item. It's a keychain of a pink bunny rabbit. The child..! Where's the child?

I frantically move forward, push my way past a few people, and stop about six feet from the Mark, and I see her cradling a small limp body. My whole being combusts from a collision of dread and guilt as I gasp, "No... No..."

The detective puts a hand to Mrs. Serqet's shoulder and tells her, "I'm sorry for your loss." Boris looks at the dead little girl in her arms, and then he informs her, "And I know this is of little consequence, but by the Assassins Guild Code 257-Section 9, I declare the Closing placed on you null and void." He types in the declaration on the H.H.C. as he adds, "There will be no more attempts on your life."

The Detective's correct. If in the course of a Closing the Mark's child is killed, the Closing's considered complete. My eyes water as I lose the impartiality my training placed in my heart. I don't understand how this happened. I stare at the dead child. It shouldn't have happened. I put a shaky hand to my mouth as I try to hold back my tears. What am I saying? I know what happened. I messed up the Closing. Hades! I messed up the Closing and look what happened! A tear streaks down my cheek. It wouldn't have happened if I had taken the shot, so the child's blood is on my hands.

I continue to watch Mrs. Serqet cradle the child in her arms as crimson saturates the little girl's blouse. Feeling sick, I divert my eyes to the keychain in my hand as I flee the scene and make my way back to the motorcycle. I can never hesitate again. I have to be more professional. I squeeze the rabbit, cutting my palm on the metal. The keychain will be a reminder to me of what happens with hesitation, and I promise myself that I'll never again falter on a Closing.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Child Of Mine

The present...

October 24...

Sunday...

10:27 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

"Have you found any records pertaining to a project my wife may have been involved with about thirty years ago?" Mr. Griffin questioned as he sat in his office. He didn't dare divulge to his Head of Security that he was looking for information on his youngest child, a child he was led to believe died at birth.

"No, no project that long ago," Orthos replied as he sat in a chair in front of the Chairman. "At least, none I have found on the mainframe. There may have been something in the old files from when you were Head of Security for this branch office but since you ordered me three days ago to expunge all the files with your alias Janus, the computer records are gone."

Mr. Griffin questioned, "What about the Archive? The documents I'm looking for are far enough back they would have kept a hard copy. Did you destroy those?"

"No, I had not thought to do so," Orthos replied as he removed his H.H.C. "Do you want those destroyed as well?"

The Chairman considered his answer. It wasn't like Orthos to be so sloppy as to not think of the Archive when expunging files. He also had to consider that Orthos simply had a hidden agenda. He was very ambitious. Orthos could be eyeing his seat in the corporation.

"Not at this time," Mr. Griffin answered him. "What of the other files the Vice President said he would send over?"

"I have them right here," Orthos answered as he laid the pile of folders on the desk.

"Very good. That's all for right now. If there's anything further, I'll tell you at our Security Overview meeting later this evening."

"Yes, Chairman."

Orthos stood, left, walked down the hall to the elevator, took the cab up, exited, and made his way to his office and once inside, Orthos locked the door, moved to a ground safe, unlocked it, and removed a white crystal. He examined the two-inch obelisk. He had learned that it was called a Data Crystal and that Theresa Griffin had created many of them and stored top secret information on them. He held it up to the light. Right now, it was no good to him, not until he found the device that could retrieve the information from it so for now, he would keep the Data Crystal locked up.

Sometime later...

Mr. Griffin flipped through the new files but saw nothing about his child and decided he would visit the Archive. He left his office and stopped at the secretary's desk.

"I'll be out for a while. Reschedule my appointments for the next four hours."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin," Cathy replied as she started on the calls.

He walked to the elevator and took it down to one of the basement floors. He stepped out into a hallway on Sub-level 6, and a security guard looked up from a desk.

"Good afternoon, Chairman," the security guard said as he logged in his arrival time.

"Good afternoon," Mr. Griffin said as he proceeded past the man and walked down the long white hall to another desk.

An older gentleman who was in his mid-seventies and wore bifocals glanced up. Over five hundred rows of shelves was behind him and filled a large open room. The older man said, "Janus, it has been a long time since I've seen you. Good to see you."

"Yes, Claviger it has been a long time, and it has been so long that I'm no longer known as Janus. I'm the Chairman now."

"Ohh... Moving up in the world. Good for you. What can I help you with Jan– I mean, Chairman?"

"I'm looking for information on a project my wife was working on about thirty years ago."

"Ah, yes. Theresa Griffin, she was a lovely woman," Claviger spoke as he slowly stood, favoring his right side. He grabbed a walker and started toward the back. "Follow me, and we'll see if we can find the files." He stomped his walker across the floor as he asked, "Did I tell you it was good to see you again?"

"You did," Mr. Griffin replied as he glanced over hundreds of rows of storage shelves that rose twenty feet into the air. Dozens of dome-shaped robots the size of a football moved across the floor and shelves, keeping the Archive clean and sterile.

"I wasn't sure if I had said it. I'm getting a little senile." Claviger stopped at a golf cart and said, "Get in."

Mr. Griffin arched a graying eyebrow, seeing the clerk wore house slippers, and Claviger noticed his expression and glanced down at his feet. "Oh, these. No one's here to see me in them, and my poor feet really love them."

"It'll be our secret," Mr. Griffin spoke before he got in on the passenger's side.

Claviger laid the walker in the back, turned the key to the cart, and started down an aisle. "As I was saying, besides the security guard, people don't come down here anymore. With the advancement of computers, all the information's a keystroke away. It gets kind of lonely down here."

Mr. Griffin turned to the clerk and said, "You have no H.H.C. How do you know where the records are filed?"

Claviger tapped his head. "It's all up here."

"What if something should happen to you, who else knows the filing system?"

"Who else?" He thought about it and answered, "No one. There hasn't been another clerk assigned down here in ten years."

"I'll have to do something about that."

"Here we are."

Claviger braked, grabbed his walker, and exited the golf cart. He removed a remote from the cart and pressed a button, and an automated ladder wheeled its way across the shelves, squeaking as it went and stopped in front of them.

"The box is on the tenth shelf. It's marked JS1324."

Mr. Griffin glanced up the ladder and back to the clerk quizzically.

Claviger tapped his walker with his hand. "I'd go up, Mr. Griffin, but my knees aren't what they used to be."

"Right."

Mr. Griffin removed his dark gray suit jacket and climbed the ladder, and soon he found the JS1324 box, brought it down, and opened it.

"Need any help going through it?" Claviger asked.

"No, I can do it myself. Thank you."

Claviger walked over to the storage shelf and pulled down a small mounted table. He laid the remote there, went to the golf card, grabbed a two-way radio, and placed it on the table.

"If you don't find what you're looking for, you might try box JB6741. It's up there." He pointed to the opposite storage shelf. "Or JU7895. It's down six units and up on shelf sixteen." He pointed and then said, "If you need anything, contact me on channel two. I also left a remote. Press the button and the ladder will move to where you're standing."

Claviger loaded his walker into the cart, sat in the driver's seat, and drove away.

Mr. Griffin placed the box on the table, removed the lid, and started going through the files. He spent about a half hour going through them when he came across a folder, and it was labeled top secret. He was surprised to see that the folder had been thrown in with all the others. He read over the report and discovered that Theresa Griffin was present during the First Cross-Gate Event, and she was six months pregnant at the time.

He read out loud, "Study of the child could be valuable to the Second Trial."

Mr. Griffin had never heard of the Cross-Gate Event or the Second Trial. He continued through the files but found no other references to his wife or his youngest child, so he put the contents back in the box, climbed the ladder, and put it back. Mr. Griffin climbed down, grabbed the remote from the table, and walked to the opposite side. He pressed the button on the remote, and a second automated ladder wheeled to the spot in front of him. He grabbed the second box, brought it down, started through its files, and found what he was looking for. It was another top secret folder, and he went over it, finding that Theresa Griffin had gone into labor early, but the baby was delivered in good health. It was decided by the Vice President to take the child away from its parents and study the effects of the Cross-Gate Event on its development. Theresa Griffin was told the baby died in childbirth. A new project title will be given to the experiment, and the girl will be given the best of care.

Mr. Griffin looked up from the folder. He had another girl, and he beamed with pride, thinking about her. He searched the rest of the box, found nothing, moved to the last box JU7895, and found nothing more on Theresa Griffin or the unnamed baby girl. The little girl was part of a project. It wasn't much to go on, but it was something. He picked up a small rectangular device that was within the box and unwrapped an instruction booklet around it, wondering what it was. They were for some sort of test. He skimmed through the booklet and discovered it was a blood test to determine if Stable-flux Red Blood Cells were present in the blood. He remembered seeing Stable-flux R.B.C. and flipped through some files he had already gone through and found it. Anyone present during the First Cross-Gate Event and survived had the Stable-flux R.B.C. in their blood. He grabbed some of them, put them in his business coat pocket, then put the last box back, and picked up the two-way radio.

"Claviger, I'm finished. You can come pick me up."

"Right away, Chairman."

The clerk's golf cart rolled down the aisle, stopped, and picked him up.

On the ride back, Mr. Griffin asked, "Do you know of any other files that might pertain to my wife or our second child?"

"Second child? You had a second child?" Claviger asked and when the Chairman didn't answer, Claviger replied, "No, but if they're more than a decade old, I might not. Before then, there were five clerks working down here, so I didn't file some of the records. I'll go through some of the older ones that were not part of my filing system and see if I can find anything, but it will take time."

"I'll send you some assistants. They can help you, and they can start cataloging these files. The Archive might not be used all that often, but I would like it in order so I may do so."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin and the help will be greatly appreciated," Claviger stated as he stopped the cart.

"You'll have the clerks by the end of the day."

Mr. Griffin got out, started down the hall, and passed the security guard.

Mr. Griffin's view...

A sense of pride comes over me, and I smile. I have a little girl. My smile quickly vanishes. She's little no more. She would be in her early thirties, and I have to find her. Theresa will want me to find her, so I better start looking.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Maven Crackerjack

10:29 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

Sun enslaving Dry Clouds hovered over the Factory like a cruel and angry master as several tractor-trailers drove down the long stretch of road to the main facility. Armed Council S.C.Ms. watched the men unload the eighteen wheelers and transport the cargo into one of the buildings with forklifts. One by one, the workers uncrated the boxes in a variety of sizes and set up their contents in one of the Factory's large gyms. The room had earlier been cleared of its workout equipment and by late morning, the men finished uncrating the boxes. The Rogue busied itself with checking the invoices to make sure all the items had been delivered.

"What is the meaning of this?" a tall thin man shouted as he stormed into the room. He had stringy blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a stone-gray business suit and a white tie. The man adjusted his thin-framed glasses with round lenses which made his light blue eyes look bigger than they were. Two Council S.C.Ms. had followed him in.

At the man's rude entrance, the Rogue turned from one of the delivery men it had been speaking with.

The man spat with an air of indignation, "I arrived at the Hellenistic Sector's Antiquity Museum this morning to find everything gone. Every piece from the Ginn L. Irynkissgthie exhibit was sold to this dreadful place." He walked around the room as he questioned, "What could you possibly want with all this forgotten history?"

The Rogue signed the delivery sheet on an H.H.C., and the last of the workers left. "You must be the curator of the museum." It waved away the two S.C.Ms. that escorted the man through the Factory, and they left, leaving the Rogue to talk with the man alone.

"No, I am not the curator. I'm the assistant, and I'm in charge of Ginn's exhibit. I'm Maven Crackerjack." He stepped forward and demanded, "And you are?"

"Mr. Pinchbeck, I am the Manager of the Factory," the Rogue answered as it walked over to a pedestal displaying an old leather bound book in a glass case. "Tell me, Mr. Crackerjack, what do you know of Ginn?"

"What do I know?" he yelled and then yelled louder, "What do I know?" Maven folded his arms. "What don't I know?"

Moving to a painting of what looked like an abstract landscape, the Rogue studied the scene. "Do you want to know why I have brought all these things here?" It motioned to the items with its hand and said, "Answer me something then. Why did you say this is forgotten history?"

"It isn't completely forgotten." Maven pointed to himself and declared, "I have dedicated my life to discovering these things and to understand Ginn's genius." He pulled out a white silk handkerchief from his suit pocket, removed his glasses, and cleaned the lenses. "I called it forgotten history because no one cares about what happened in the past. In this business world, all they care about is the future. I say we can learn about our future by examining the past."

"Well said, but how much of the past have you studied?"

"You mean you want to know how much I know about Irynkissgthie? He was born 559 B.D.C. and died in 478 B.D.C. nearly 500 years ago. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. The versatility and creative power of Ginn marked him as a supreme example of late Renaissance genius. He depicted in his drawings a scientific precision and consummated artistry subjects ranging from flying machines to caricatures. He also executed intricate anatomical studies of people, animals, and plants." Maven placed his glasses back on.

"No, I can get all that information from books and the internet. What I want to know is what you cannot find in them."

Maven questioned, "Why are you so interested?"

"It is a fair question, so let me show you why. Follow me please." The Rogue walked out of the display room, down several corridors, into Research Lab Five, and into the Gallery.

Maven looked over each of the statues. "These are quite amazing, but these don't answer my question. Why are you so interested?"

"These may not." The Rogue walked to a back wall, pressed a tile at the height of its shoulder, and the wall slid up. "Down this hall is the reason for my interest." It motioned with its hand and said, "After you."

Maven started down the long descending passage. A light came on as he entered each section, lighting their way. After about fifteen minutes, the hall ended at a room, and Maven paused at the doorway. Several lights blinked on inside, lighting up the center where the two black stones sat on a platform. Maven examined them and said, "Amazing! You have pieces of the Stones?"

"They are incomplete. I thought so," the Rogue spoke. "But are they pieces of the same work?"

"Do you see it?" Maven questioned. He had never come across anyone who understood Ginn even just a fraction, and it made him tingle with excitement to know he might have found someone he could share his knowledge with who would also appreciate it. Maven said, "You see it, but you haven't figured out what it is you are seeing."

The Rogue asked, "What are you saying?"

"Where to begin?" He put his hands together as if praying and spoke, "It might sound preposterous, but I believe some things accredited to Ginn were really created by a man named Arcamedes."

The Rogue contemplated the significance of this truth and questioned, "You are saying there could be a second man?"

"Yes," Maven answered, and then he demanded, "Now tell me, why are you gathering Ginn's artifacts?"

"Answer me one more question. Do you believe the stones are only poems?"

Maven shook his head. "No, of course not. They are a prophecy. I believe two opposing prophecies."

"Opposing..? Your theory is intriguing."

Maven could hardly contain his excitement as he spoke, "Yes, and that would mean two possible outcomes."

"It is intriguing," the Rogue repeated. "And to answer your question as to why I am gathering the artifacts, I believe I have found the Rushlight."

"In all the years I have poured over Ginn's works, I have never come close to figuring out who the Rushlight refers to," Maven stated, and then he asked, "What great figure in history do you believe the Rushlight was?"

"Mr. Crackerjack, I believe the Rushlight is here in the present. I believe the Rushlight is here living in Noir."

Maven considered the possibility and then spoke, "I have something that might interest you. Come, let us return to the room housing the artifacts."

Maven took the lead, and they went back to the large gym and once inside, Maven walked to the glass case displaying the old leather bound book. He removed the protective cover, placed white gloves on from his coat pocket, and flipped through the tome. Maven removed an old parchment folded in half that had been tucked between two pages.

"This is an old copy of a translation of a poem written by Arcamedes. It's one of the things I base my hypothesis on." He held out the parchment and said, "You might find one word interesting that's used repeatedly."

The Rogue started to take it, paused, went and put on gloves from a table, took the parchment, and read the poem entitled "You Will Weep".

Where light brightened the day

now darkness preys.

Where love stayed the pain

now love is bane.

Rushlight, say goodbye.

Say you will embrace the night.

No.

Don't say I didn't try.

Don't say I gave up the fight.

Rushlight, the tears you wish to cry

will one day fall like rain.

For all the lies they told you,

for the hurt and the pain.

Rushlight, you will weep to be so alone.

Do you not know

you are marked and

you may never return home.

No.

Don't say I can't go home.

Don't say I can't change my destiny.

Rushlight, in the end,

you will be what I told you,

you will be.

No loyal friend will you ever see.

Now say goodbye,

say you will fight the urge to cry.

Say you will embrace the Closing of Days.

No.

I will shed tears.

I will defy my fate.

I will find a way.

Love is the test.

Then Rushlight,

these tears you cry

fall too late.

They won't take back your lies,

your folly, your pain.

You have committed the final sin

now there is no turning back.

Love has left you,

you will find no rest.

No matter what you say,

you cannot run away from today.

No.

You lie.

I will beat the test.

No, Rushlight,

you will fail.

And you will weep when you face the end alone,

you are marked,

you may never return home.

You are marked,

you may never return home.

You are marked,

you may never return home.

The Rogue looked up from the parchment and said, "Since this is the reference you wanted me to see, you must be implying–"

"I'm implying, Mr. Pinchbeck," Maven interrupted. "Ginn did not write both of those tablets. It's my theory that Arcamedes wrote the second one. The one in which the Rushlight is mentioned and it would mean, we don't have a man who couldn't see the future clearly. We have two different men looking into the aftertime, so there are two possible outcomes to the future they mentioned, depending on which path the Rushlight takes."

The Rogue said, "This is most interesting."

Maven placed the parchment back in the book and set the glass case over the tome. "Mr. Pinchbeck, will you allow me to chase this hypothesis?"

"Now you want to work for me? Are you saying you are no longer opposed to Ginn's Collection coming to the Factory?"

"Yes, I wish to work for you and no, I'm no longer opposed to the collection coming here. I see that it won't be collecting dust."

"Well then, Mr. Crackerjack, chase your hypothesis with the full funding of the Factory."

Chapter Thirty

It's All In A Street

11:59 A.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Nexus Apartments...

Katharine's view...

The elevator doors open to the thirty-first floor, and I drudge out, making my way to Apartment H. I'm carrying the hot teas, and mine's half gone.

A man walks out of Apartment G, passes me, and says, "Hello."

"Hey," I automatically reply without looking at him and stop in front of Apartment H. I press the doorbell just wanting to collapse on the couch. The chime rings inside and within a few minutes, Kimberly answers.

"It's about time you came back," Kimberly yells at me as she steps to the side so I can enter. "What took you so long?"

I mumble over my shoulder as I move to the kitchen as if I'm some windup toy that can't stop, "I don't want to talk about it." I remember what I'm carrying, walk back, and hand Kimberly her Chai. "Here, I got this for you."

She stares at the cup a few moments, grabs it, and takes a sip. I proceed to walk back into the kitchen, and then I change my mind and go into the living room, drop my backpack, and plop on the couch. I set my tea on the coffee table and stare at the floor. The walk from the taxi and the elevator ride up here allowed me to relive what I didn't want to.

"Did something bad happened?" Kimberly asks me as she stands behind the couch, watching me with this accusing glare I don't have to see to know she's doing it. I can feel her insinuating eyeballs bouncing off of me as she says, "I told you not to go. You need to start listening to me when I tell you–"

"You're right," I interrupt. "I should have never gone." I ball my hands that rest on my lap, wanting to punch myself as I declare, "I need to stay away from people. I'm cursed. I only endanger them. I only cause suffering."

Kimberly's view...

Wow... That woman has a complex unless something more than talking was going on at the boy's house. I take another sip. This tea's very good. I'll have to ask her where she got it but more importantly, I need to find out what happened. If I'm going to have that woman living here, I should probably know for my own safety.

I walk around, sit next to her, and urge, "Come on, you can tell me. What happened?"

I set my tea next to hers as a sign that we're in this together. We're in this together as long as I need her.

Katharine's view...

I don't understand Kimberly's actions. She acts like she cares about me, but I know better. Her anger and rage are what's true here and if she's only going to yell at me or make fun of me, she can just leave me alone. I don't need somebody to criticize me. I need someone who will... who will...

Kimberly's view...

I watch as that woman refuses to acknowledge my question. I want to make her stop ignoring me, but I decide against violence. I need to find another way to get her to open up to me. I need a tactic I haven't used yet. I should... Kindness... If I pretend to care, she might talk to me.

I clear my throat, reluctantly place a hand on her shoulder and in the sincerest voice I can manage, I say, "I'll understand, you can tell me."

I don't know if she bought it. I sounded very insincere. Should I repeat myself and try to make it sound like I do care? No, I might make it worse.

Katharine's view...

I feel the weight of Kimberly's hand on my shoulder, and it brings me a little comfort. She's right... Of all the people I can tell, Kimberly will understand. I don't have to hide anything from her. She knows what I am and after the death of Preacher, there hasn't been anyone I can turn to.

My body trembles with the weight of my guilt. I can no longer contain the feelings of regret and shame, so I close my eyes, place my balled hands in front of myself, lean over, and bury my face in her shoulder.

I confess, "It was awful... and it was all my fault."

Kimberly's view...

Startled by that woman's actions, I jerk back and throw up my hands as all I think is don't touch me. This is a little more personal than I wanted to get, and I look around the room for an escape, but I'm stuck. All I wanted that woman to do was talk to me. I don't want to comfort her, and I especially don't want to be touching her this much.

Katharine's view...

"Everything was fine at Chad's place at first–" I begin my tale as my body involuntarily shakes with my sorrow, "–then these Un-Men were delivered. Before I could stop them, the bodyguards activated them. The Factory's original programming was never removed, and the Un-Men tried to kill me. They shot up the house and nearly killed everyone."

I find some comfort as I press my face into the shoulder of the one who refers to herself as the Phoenix. She doesn't put her arms around me but maybe this is enough. It's enough to know that she's here, and she won't think bad of me.

Kimberly's view...

For Ares' sake! She is cursed! And I'm the one stuck with her. If that woman wasn't connected to my mom somehow, I'd get rid of her. I'd give her something to whine about.

I halfheartedly pat her back as if I'm burping a baby and say, "It's okay. You're not cursed. It's the Factory's fault, not yours. They're the ones who messed up the Un-Men's programming so don't worry about it."

Katharine's view...

The pats on my back seem hollow somehow, but I still feel safe and... I almost feel like I've been here before, not the tearless crying part, but that Kimberly has consoled me before, a real consoling, and that warm sensation of an imagined friendship makes me feel a whole lot better. I want her to reassure me. I want her to convince me it's not my fault.

"Maybe, but they wouldn't have shot up the house if I wasn't there. Doesn't that make me cursed? Shouldn't I stay away from people? After all, I am Pandora. I cause nothing but pain."

Kimberly's view...

I roll my eyes. Oh for Ares' sake! Is everything about her? She needs to get over herself. I shake my head in disgust. Is this the mighty Pandora Project? Talk about whiny...

I force myself to lie and say, "No... Of course not. Don't let them have power over you."

Katharine's view...

She did it... Kimberly has come to my rescue, and I don't feel as bad about what happened at Chad's house. I can stop crying.

"You're right." I sit up, wiping away my imaginary tears. "I shouldn't give them power over me." I wipe my nose and tell her, "Thanks for talking. I feel a little better."

Kimberly's view...

I lift my hands as if I'm covered in snot, edged my way off the seat, and escape around the couch as I tell her, "Anytime."

I quickly make my way into the kitchen and grab my knapsack from a bar stool. I better get going before that woman decides we need to braid each other's hair or some other girlfriend bonding ritual. I've got a job and for this Closing, I'm going to take a taxi.

"Going somewhere?" that woman questions me.

"Yes, I shouldn't be gone more than a couple of hours."

Katharine's view...

Kimberly leaves the apartment and after a few minutes, I glance around the quiet empty room and decide I'll get some fresh air. I walk to the front door, take one step into the hall, and look back. Once I close the door, it'll automatically lock, and I won't be able to get back in. I'm stuck either in the apartment or out till Kimberly comes back.

"Out for a stroll?" the man from earlier questions me as he returns to his apartment.

I turn to the fairly nice looking man and say as I remain in the doorway, "Hey, I know you."

"I passed you in the hall, not twenty minutes ago."

"No, it was before that. You made a delivery here about a week ago."

He looks at the apartment and then says, "You're right. Good memory." He scratches the back of his head and states, "You caught me. I was so impressed with the apartment when I made the delivery, I decided to rent one. I now live in Apartment G." He motions to his place and says, "We're neighbors." He walks over to me, offers his hand, and says, "I don't think I introduced myself before. The name's Zax."

"Kat," I state as I shake his hand.

"Are you out for a stroll?"

"I was, but I'm only a guest here and don't have a key. Okay not a key, but you know, a way back in."

"Yes, the voice command system. I guess you're stuck until your friend returns." Zax points his thumb over his shoulder and says, "I passed her as I came out of the elevator."

"Her name's Kimberly."

"You should have your friend add your voice to the door system."

That would be nice, but I doubt she'd go for it. Kimberly barely rates me as a guest so forget about a roommate.

Zax starts for his door and then says, "It's kind of odd now that I think of it."

"What is?"

"Your friend was mumbling about something she had to do or something about Brownstone Street." Zax shrugs and then says, "I guess it's really none of my business." He commands, "Door unlock. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to knock."

His apartment opens and he goes in, leaving me to think over his puzzling statement. Brownstone Street... but that's where Melissa's safe house is. I enter Apartment H, press the button, and the door slides closed. I go to the coffee table and grab my tea, wondering why Kimberly would be going to Brownstone Street. She was wearing her work clothes. I think about it some more. Melissa told me when I was at her safe house that Valhalla hired a Life Closer. Kimberly wouldn't. She said she's taking a break from being the Phoenix. Kimberly wouldn't, she has no time. She's searching for her mom's murderer. I down the last of my Chai. Would Kimberly lie to me? She can't be going to a Closing. I walk into the kitchen and throw the cup away. What am I thinking? Of course, she would lie to me, and she did take her knapsack but that means– I grab my backpack and rush out of the apartment.

"–that means the Phoenix was hired to kill Melissa!"

I race for the elevator. I can't let her do it!

End Katharine's view...

Earlier inside Apartment G...

After a few minutes, Zax dialed a number on his cell and then said, "Delivery Man here, I need to speak with R.G." He waited for a few moments, and then he stated, "It's done. I informed Katharine as you told me." Zax listened, and then he spoke, "I believe she'll make the connection." He looked at the monitor displaying Apartment H's kitchen and living room, and he saw her walk to the stove. "One moment." Zax turned up the volume so he could listen.

"–that means the Phoenix was hired to kill Melissa!"

Zax turned down the volume and then spoke into the cell, "Tell R.G., mission accomplished. Katharine made the connection. She's on her way."

Chapter Thirty-one

Roads Collide

1:45 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

Nikolai and Natasha walked through the revolving doors leading into the lobby of the Bes Hotel, and the area was busy with people checking in and out. The two made their way to an elevator, entered the empty cab, and pressed the button for the top floor.

"Tomorrow is the day," Natasha said in her thick accent. "We can complete the Closing for the Phoenix and leave this dreadful Dark Half."

"This place is not completely dreadful, my sister. I find the Dry Clouds impressive." He held his hat in his hand as he said, "They are like watching a pack of wolves stalk the land."

"You do have an imagination, my brother." Natasha changed the subject. "Are there any special instructions for the Phoenix Closing?"

"There are two," Nikolai answered as he removed an H.H.C. from his suit pocket. "We are to wait for the Phoenix to complete his or her Closing before we complete ours and if the Phoenix is unable to complete his or her Closing, we are to acquire the file and complete the task."

Natasha questioned, "There will be a bonus?"

"Yes," Nikolai answered. "Voice will compensate us if we take the second Closing."

Once they arrived at their destination, they proceeded out of the elevator.

"Where are we going, my brother? You have been very secretive."

"There is something I want to show you. Something I think you will like. We will be there shortly, so for the rest of our journey, we will need to take the stairs."

Earlier on the rooftop...

Kimberly's view...

I make sure no one follows me up and that no one else is here, and then I walk to a ledge overlooking Brownstone Street. The sky ever dark dominates the brightly lit city like a black dragon standing before a candle that with one flick of its massive tail, can extinguish the flame.

I remove binoculars from my knapsack and peer through them at a well-lit house across the road. I see a bike messenger run up the stoop and ring the buzzer, and then I see a man answer the door. The Mark has bodyguards. I remove an H.H.C. from my knapsack and open the Closing File, and it's on Melissa Odin. The Mark's Closing's not until tomorrow. I don't know if I can take the Mark out with a rifle if the Mark doesn't leave the house, so I'll have to go in. If I go in, I'll have to take out the bodyguards. I scan the file and discover that the Mark has a little girl. I hope for her sake the Mark sent her to live with a relative. I don't need another Moscow.

I put the device away and then glance up, hearing a rumbling overhead as a He-Zeppelin soars beneath the Dry Clouds. The airship's twin engines roar, cutting through the thick atmosphere. A raven flies next to the He-Zeppelin, dives, and lands on the ledge down from me, and I look at the bird. The raven tilts its head, staring at me with dark eyes and caws, and then some dog or something howls in the distance. I turn my attention back to the airship as a message in green neon letters runs across the He-Zeppelin's side.

"Crite. The taste of lemon and lime. Refresh your taste buds. Buy two twelve packs and receive one free, so buy some Crite today."

Stupid ad, now I'm thirsty. The corporation probably placed subliminal messages in it. I remove a bottle of water from my knapsack. It's not Crite, but it will have to do. I take a couple of drinks, put the bottle back, and peer through the binoculars again. The stoop's empty as several cars drive along Brownstone Street and people stroll the sidewalk. A yellow taxi pulls up to the curb in front of the house and after about a minute, the taxi continues down the road. I try to see who got out. Whoever they are, they look a little lost. I watch the figure who's standing alone on the sidewalk and the person glances in my direction. Is that Katharine? I focus on her face. It is. What's she doing here? That strange woman stares up at the rooftop and appears to be looking at me. I bet she followed me here. No, I've been here too long, and she just arrived. Katharine turns, walks up the steps to the stoop, and rings the buzzer. A bodyguard opens the door. They speak, and he shakes his head. The bodyguard closes the door, and that woman remains outside. She seems to be very anxious. What did that woman say to him and what could she possibly be here for? She can't be telling them I'm up here. She doesn't know. I bite my lip. She can't possibly know. I wish I had taken that course on lip reading.

The bodyguard returns with another man, and they both walk out to the stoop after closing the door behind them. This second man's bald and speaks with Katharine for a while. Occasionally, the first bodyguard says something, and the discussion seems heated at times and after a few minutes, the second man gives in over the objection of the first, and they let her in. For Ares' sake! I stand, placing the binoculars in my knapsack. I have a mind to march down there and drag that woman out of that house. I pace for a few minutes. She has to know that I'm up here, but I can't see how. I start for the rooftop door. I'll worry about the how later. The idiot! I wish she had a phone, and then I'd give her a piece of my mind. No one interferes with my job! I arrive at the door and move my hand to turn the knob when the knob turns on its own, and I quickly duck around the side as two people wearing WM-Bs wander out.

"See," a man starts as he strolls toward the edge with the woman's arm locked around his. He places his hat on as he says, "The Dry Clouds are impressive up here."

I glance around the corner and get a look at the two. They seem familiar, but I can't place them. The woman wears a white fur-lined black coat that flows to her ankles, and the man wears a white pinstriped gray business suit and Fedora. I reach for my PPK, and then I change my mind about drawing the gun. It doesn't matter who they are, as soon as I can, I'm getting out of here.

The woman presses a button on the side of her mask and speaks, "I see what you mean about them. I can almost see the wolves. The pack is anxious." She releases her hold on his arm and places her hands on the railing, scanning the sky. "Is this what you wanted to show me?"

"This is part of it," he answers and searches the rooftop as if he expects to see something. "I was hoping for another."

While the two have their backs to me, I slip around the corner and make for the exit.

"What is the other?" the woman questions.

I hear something speed by my face and something cuts my cheek before embedding in the door. "Hades!"

I turn and face the two and see that the woman threw a throwing knife at me.

She asks, "Is this creature the one you were waiting for?"

I draw my PPK and aim for the black haired woman. I guess getting out of here won't be so easy.

"Yes," he answers. "The little firebird I presume." He removes a Glock 25 from a shoulder holster and aims it at me. "We finally meet the Phoenix."

Somehow they know my name, but I admit to nothing as I ask, "Who are you?"

She replies, "By now, you should know we are like you."

"Like me? Who do you think I am?"

"A Life Closer of course," she answers. "One that has been sloppy."

I aim for the man as I place my free hand behind my back and reach for the knob. I demand, "Who hired you?"

"Voice," he replies.

The woman turns to him and asks, "Brother, are you going to tell her everything?"

He sounds like some sort of gangster as he answers, "Does it matter? She'll be sleeping with the fishes soon."

I'm surprised Voice is the one who sent them, and I decide not to escape right away. I might learn some valuable intel from them. I do continue my act and question, "Who or what is this voice?"

"Do not play simple-minded with us," she says. "We know that you are the Phoenix. You cannot deny it."

"I'm not saying I am this Life Closer you mentioned, but tell me something. Why does this voice want me dead? What did I do?"

"You should not have to ask," he states. "It is Guild business. Remember you botched the Moscow assignment. It is grounds enough for your Closing."

They know about Moscow, so then they must work for Voice. No need to pretend my ignorance, but botched?

I admit to them, "Sure I missed the first shot, but the backup took out Mrs. Serqet's little girl before I had a chance to take my second shot."

She informs me, "Phoenix, you had no backup."

"Sure I did. I saw Maestro's business card when it was handed to the detective. He or she claimed the kill."

They glance at one another.

"Do you know nothing?" he questions me. "Maestro's alias has been retired for ten years. Maestro is dead."

"It does not matter," the woman states. "It is your alias that was recorded as the Life Closer. The Assassins League has your ID logged as the one who killed the child. You are the lowest of low. You are a Life Closer who cannot hit her Mark."

"This is a mistake. I need to clear this up with Voice. I heard the detective say Maestro," I mumble to myself as I reach for the knob again. "I know I did."

"That is not our problem," she states as she reaches into her sleeve. "You of all people should know the rules. Only Voice or Thanatos can cancel a Closing."

"Oh, I know."

If this comes to a fight, I'll take the man out first. The woman does seem very skillful with the knives, but I still believe that at this distance, he'll be the bigger threat.

"I wasn't saying we should hold this off, but you can at least do me the courtesy of telling me your names. You already know mine."

"That was rude of us," he says, and then he bows his head in greeting and states, "I am the Raven, and my sister is the Wolf."

Is the Moscow assignment the only reason Voice sent these two after me? Does Voice know I lied about Katharine and I didn't kill her? I bite my lip. Will I have to eliminate her before we finish our deal? I might have to if I want to get back into good standing with the Assassins Guild. I would prefer to wait till after that woman helps me and I have no further need of her, but I can't have everything I want. I study the man and woman, and I believe I've gotten all the information I'm going to get from them, so I prepare to flee as I tell them, "Well, let's get this over wi–"

The knob I'm holding turns on its own, and the door opens as I whirl around and aim for the newest member of the rooftop club. The person walks out as I yell, "You've got to be kidding! What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Katharine yells as she glares at me with hazel eyes that accuse. "What are you doing here?"

Panic sweeps across me as I step back, and that woman raises her gun in response to me aiming at her. I don't know if I should fire or not. There's something in the way that woman's looking at me. It's as if I betrayed her.

"You didn't answer me," Katharine yells as she steps further out onto the roof, breathing as if she ran all the way up the stairs. She notices the man and woman standing near the ledge. "Kimberly, what are you doing here?"

The Raven aims his Glock at Katharine and questions, "Who is this?"

"Perhaps another Closer," the Wolf answers. "Maybe Voice is not convinced we can complete our Closing or maybe Voice has sent another to make sure we kill the Phoenix's Mark if she does not do so."

Katharine's view...

I peer at the man and woman, trying to figure out why they're here. I thought the Russian woman said they'll kill Melissa if Kimberly fails. I turn my attention to my partner. I'm right, Kimberly's here to kill Melissa, but how can she take on another Closing when she told me she wouldn't?

The tension increases as those of us with guns divide our time between pointing our weapon at the other two as something else crosses my mind. They could be Closers, and they could be here to kill Kimberly. I can't think about that right now. I have to focus on one thing at a time. First, I have to deal with Kimberly. My tone makes it clear I'm not too happy with my partner as I state while I keep my Beretta leveled on her, ignoring the others, "We need to talk."

"Fine with me," Kimberly says. "But could we do it someplace more private? It's getting a little crowded up here."

I glance at the other two. I've seen them somewhere. I take a second look at the man and woman, and I realize they were at the Genesis Arboretum.

I ask my partner, "Making new friends?"

"Funny," Kimberly snaps. "Are you wanting that talk or not?"

"Then you know why I'm here? Because I know why you're here."

"If you know why I'm here, then I can guess why you're here," Kimberly replies.

"Then you know I won't let you do it. I'll stop you. I won't let you kill anyone. This has to end–"

The Russian woman leans to her brother and inquires, "What are they bickering about?"

"I am not sure. I am very confused. And I am not even sure they know what they are arguing about. The conversation seems to be going in circles."

"Kill anyone?" Kimberly interrupts me. "How could you possibly know I'm here to..? Never mind. What's more important is–"

The Russian woman clears her throat and then speaks to us, "Excuse me. Do not forget about us. We are feeling very left out, and we were the first guests."

"I haven't forgotten about you," Kimberly tells her. "But do you mind, I'm trying to have a conversation here. Talk about rude." She turns back to me and asks, "Where was I?"

"Maybe this conversation would be better in private," I tell her. "Truce till we're done with these two?"

"Truce," Kimberly answers. "What's the plan?"

"We should find better cover. After you–" I say as I motion to the open door with my head. "–and hurry. I think the Life Closers' polite talk is coming to an end."

Kimberly backs up, then turns, and races down the stairs.

"It was very rude of you to interfere," the Russian woman tells me as she unsheathes a throwing knife. "Do you not know there are sweets that are treats and Sweets that can kill?"

"Sweets that you eat? And sweets that can kill? You mean like choking on a cookie?" I question. "I almost did earlier this morning. I thought I was going to die, but before I actually choked–"

"Cookie..?" the woman repeats, and then her face goes all feral as she yells, "No, I am talking about this."

She lifts the throwing knife so I can see it.

"Oh... Sorry... Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake." I gave Kimberly enough of a head start, so I trigger my Beta Phase as I say, "Why don't you drop the knife?"

She notices the light coming from my eyes, but it doesn't seem to phase her as she draws her hand back and questions, "Why would I want to drop my knife?"

I fire before she throws it, and the bullet strikes the blade, knocking the weapon from her hand. I turn the gun on the man before he reacts and warn him, "Don't do it! Just take it easy. I made sure not to hurt her."

"She did hurt me!" the woman screeches as she rubs her hand. "Kill her!"

He snarls and then yells before firing, "No one hurts my sister!"

"Oh crap!"

I run through the door and down the stairs as several bullets whizz past me. One nicks me on the side of my chin as I flee, and soon they're pursuing me. I burst through the door to the highest level the elevator comes up to, and I run to the elevator, finding Kimberly waiting for me.

"About time you got here." Kimberly presses the lobby button, and the elevator doors close.

"Actually," I say out of breath. "I didn't think you'd wait."

"Well... I wouldn't have, but we still need to have our talk."

Chapter Thirty-two

Protect The One's You Love

Twenty-five minutes earlier...

Before going up to the roof...

Katharine's view...

The taxi I was in pulls away, leaving me standing on the sidewalk across from Bes Hotel. I stare at Melissa Odin's safe house, praying I'm not too late, and then I turn and look up at the tops of the buildings across the street. Kimberly could be up on any one of those buildings taking aim, so I stare a little longer but don't see her, so I walk up the stairs to the stoop and ring the buzzer.

After a few seconds, Daniels answers and questions me, "What are you doing here?" He shakes his head as he tells me, "I'm not letting you in."

"You have to!" I yell, knowing time's not on my side, and then I insist, "I need to talk to Johnson. Melissa's life depends on it."

He tells me, "I think you need to leave." Daniels removes his gun and states as if I don't know already, "It's been decided we don't need you."

I know he now views me as a threat, so I try not to raise my voice as I insist, "Yes, you do. I know who the Life Closer is. I know who has been sent to take out Melissa." I plead with him, "Please, let me speak with Johnson."

Daniels thinks about it for a few seconds, then exhales loudly, and says, "Fine, wait here."

He enters the house and closes the door behind himself. I turn and look back at Brownstone Street. A truck honks at what looks like a large dog as it darts across the road to Bes Hotel. I turn back to the door, wait about a minute, and then Daniels returns with Johnson. Both men walk out to the stoop, and Daniels recloses the door.

Johnson glances around, surveying the people using the sidewalks and going by in vehicles. He turns his attention to me and says, "Daniels tells me you know who the Life Closer is."

"The Phoenix."

Johnson removes an H.H.C. and punches in the name Phoenix as I move to the side of him and watch. A file appears with data collected by the Isis Corporation, and then he states, "This isn't good." He scans page after page, and then he adds, "The Phoenix is very good."

"Yes, that's why you need me," I speak, and then I try to convince him by saying, "I've had dealings with the Phoenix in the past. I can help."

"We can't let her in," Daniels protests. "We hardly know anything about her. All we really know is that she's the Pandora Project. It is what the Un-Men called her." He still grips his gun tightly as he questions, "What does that mean really? For all we know, it's a Life Closer name."

Johnson types Pandora Project on his H.H.C., and I watch with interest, seeing if the Isis Corporation has anything on me. Unfortunately, no file appears.

"No, there's no Life Closer by any version of that name," Johnson states.

"It doesn't mean we should let her in."

"I know there isn't any reason why you should trust me," I begin. "But you've seen what I can do. I'll put my life out there for Chad, Melissa, and Bonnie. I won't let anything happened to them."

"Johnson don't. Don't let her words sway you. You have to think of this family." Daniels insists, "We have to protect them."

I think of something and ask, "Were you able to call in reinforcements?"

"No," Johnson replies. "We're it. I guess the Isis Corporation believes Valhalla won't kill Ms. Odin. She's too valuable alive."

"Then you need me."

"You're right," Johnson tells Daniels. "We have to protect this family no matter the cost." Johnson turns to me and stares at me as if he's searching for something and then after a few moments, he tells me, "Kat, welcome to the team but know–" His voice and eyes change as they go eerily dark, and he threatens me, "–if you cause any harm to this family, I'll personally end you." His expression returns to normal, and he steps to the side to let me in as he says, "Let's go talk to Ms. Odin."

Inside the kitchen...

"You think it's a good idea to have her here?" Melissa questions Johnson as if I'm not standing right in front of her. She looks exhausted, and I feel sorry for her over the predicament she's in.

"Yes," Johnson answers.

Melissa glances at the other bodyguard and says, "Daniels doesn't seem so sure."

"She did take out five Un-Men," Andrews speaks up.

Melissa doesn't seem to be listening to the conversation she's apart of and asks Andrews, "How are the children?"

"Fine. Chad dragged his mattress into Bonnie's room and is resting on the floor and with him there, the little girl has fallen asleep and is taking a nap." Andrews walks over to a coffee pot, pours himself a cup, and says, "I'm only in here to get some Java."

Johnson turns to me and asks me, "What's your plan?"

My plan? I didn't have one when I rode over here in the taxi, and I still don't. I just need time to figure out what's really going on.

I remove my backpack and place it on the stool as I say, "I know someone who might help with the Phoenix if I can convince her. I'm going to go talk with her now."

"You're leaving?" Daniels questions me. "Can't you call this person?"

I think for a moment, and then I reply, "I don't know her number. I'll have to talk with her face to face."

"What if the Phoenix strikes while you're gone?" Daniels asks.

"I don't have an answer for that. We do need her if we're going to stop the Phoenix, so I'll hurry," I say as I remove my Beretta from the backpack and tuck it in the front of my pants. I zip up my athletic jacket, pull it over the gun to hide the weapon, and then I say, "Whatever you do, don't go outside. The Phoenix likes to attack from a distance."

I hurry and go out the front door and cross the street to the Bes Hotel and in an alley down from me, I catch sight of the dog that darted in front of the truck. I see that the animal's not a dog but a wolf. The wolf observes me, raises its head, and howls a warning, and then I could swear I hear a raven return its call as I rush inside the hotel and then to the roof.

The present...

The numbers above the elevator doors light up as the elevator passes each level. Kimberly dabs the cut on her cheek with a white handkerchief from her knapsack. The knife cut looks superficial, and the bleeding soon stops.

"Do you think they'll be waiting for us in the lobby?" I ask as I glance at Kimberly.

She answers me, "Even if they beat us to the bottom, they won't engage us with people around. They're too professional. They'll wait for some secluded place."

I brought the gun with me to protect Chad but now's not the time to use it. I need to talk with Kimberly first, so I set the safety on the Beretta and tuck it back in the front of my pants. The doors open to the lobby, and both of us walk out, scanning the crowd. We don't see the Wolf or the Raven, so we start for the front when I notice a lady's room.

"Let's go to the bathroom," I say as I push Kimberly in ahead of myself.

"Now..?" Kimberly protests as I force her in. "Can't you wait?"

I lock the main door and check to see if anyone else is in the bathroom, and the stalls are all empty.

"Okay, all clear," I say, then turn to my supposed partner, and state, "Now we can talk."

Kimberly's view...

"Right," I mutter and would rather be any place else but here. That woman somehow knows what I'm up to or I think she does.

"Kimmie, how could you?" that woman yells at me like we're friends and I borrowed her favorite shirt without permission. She slams her palm on the sink and shouts, "You've taken a Closing! You're here to kill Melissa Odin!"

I am right. That woman does know why I'm here. I don't know how, but it makes me very upset that she's trying to interfere. All of that is bad enough but the name she called me... that woman... she... I should just... I snap at her, "I told you never to call me that! Only my mom called me that!" I jab my finger into that woman's shoulder and tell her, "And yes, I took a Life Closing! For Ares' sake, I'm an assassin! It's my job!"

That woman folds her arms and sulks like some child, "But you said you were going to take a break. You said you were going to focus on finding Theresa's murderer and help me discover my past."

I can't believe this is what she dragged me into the bathroom to talk about. I just happened to change my mind. I'll try to explain this to her because right now I do need her help. I need her to face those two Life Closers.

"Fine. I did say that, but Voice wanted me to take one last job before my break. I couldn't say no. It's my job, and I have a responsibility to it."

I don't believe she has accepted my explanation for that woman paces the bathroom like some lunatic, and then she questions me, "Are the man and woman Life Closers? Who are they after?"

"They're known as the Raven and the Wolf. They're here to kill me?"

"Why?"

"It's Assassins Guild business," I answer, not wanting to share.

Someone knocks on the main door.

We both ignore it as that woman yells at me, "How many times do I have to say it? We're partners and you can't keep things like this from me. I need to know why they're after you."

I don't like the way she's talking to me, and I tell her, "Just so we're clear on this, we're only partners till we find my mom's killer."

"Are you going to keep things from me?" that woman asks and then turns and looks at herself in the mirror, noticing a cut on her chin's bleeding. She grabs a paper towel and dabs it as she persists in her questioning, "Why are the Raven and the Wolf here to kill you?"

"Fine!" I yell as I throw my arms up and give into her interrogation. "They're here because of my Life Closing in Moscow. It was my first failed attempt and after I missed the primary shot, I went to the second kill spot, but a second Life Closer was already there. One known as Maestro. The Closer accidentally killed the Mark's little girl. Somehow I got blamed for it. Even so... It was my first mistake and collateral damage happens a lot." I mostly say to myself, "I don't understand why Voice wants to eliminate me."

"What can you do?" that woman questions me as she stops the bleeding and throws the paper towel away.

Someone knocks again on the locked door, and we both ignore it.

"You mean, besides killing the Closers? I can try to contact Thanatos, leader of the Assassins Union. I can plead my case with him and maybe find out why the Closing was ordered."

"Okay, we'll hide out at Melissa's place till you can contact Thanatos."

"Idiot! Are you that stupid?" I yell at her as I can't believe how brainless she is, and I decide I have to make her understand just exactly the way things are, so I tell her, "Just because these Closers are after me, doesn't mean I'm not going to complete my assignment. For Ares' sake! Your best plan is to walk me into my Mark's safe house?" I'm dying to know why she's so persistent with this inane tactic of hers, so I ask, "Why were you at Ms. Odin's anyway? If I have to, I'll kill everyone in that house to get my Mark."

I immediately see my error in letting my vindictiveness speak first as that woman glares at me like she has never done before. Her eyes ignite in anger and the blue Ult L-E... She had tried to explain what it was to me, but I mostly ignored her... like I care why she's a freak. The blue Ult L-E lights up her entire face, making her look like some angry demon, and she charges at me, grabs me by my shirt, and slams me up against the outside of the stalls.

"No, you won't!" that woman screams at me. "Chad's in there! He's in there, and I'm going to protect him!"

Stupid me. I never caught on, but now I understand, and all I can think of is what's with my luck lately? Of all the people to be in that safe house, why did it have to be that boy, Chad? The odds of this happening are off the charts!

I'm afraid of what she'll do to me so, with one quick motion, I pull my gun, place it against that woman's temple, and shout, "You're nuts! Now let go." I struggle against her, but I can't budge her, so I demand, "I said let go!"

"Promise me, you'll hurt no one," she says as she angrily squeezes my shirt in her fists. "Promise me! No one else will die!"

I cock the gun as the blue light coming from her eyes moves towards me as if it'll devour both of us, but I manage to remain calm as I reply, "You know I can't." I won't hesitate to pull the trigger, but I would prefer to wait. I still need that woman to at least deal with the Life Closers. I wait on her next move, but she just stares at me with those freakish eyes of hers, and I feel as though we're in a deadlock, so I ask, "Now what?"

For a third time, someone knocks on the bathroom door, and we both yell, "Hold it! We're busy in here!"

"Hurry," a woman groans. "I don't think I can wait that much longer."

Katharine's view...

I peer into my partner's face and as I do, I realize what I must look like. I came at her like some rapid tigress. I take a deep breath, my anger lessens, and I feel my eyes lose their glow. It wasn't that long ago that Kimberly was consoling me. I don't think I could hurt her. Kimberly's the one person who can understand me. If only she would be there for me like she was at the apartment. If only I could convince Kimberly that her way of life is wrong.

I release Kimberly, walk back to the sink, and lean on it and in a calm voice, I ask, "Can you at least promise me you won't kill Melissa until we've taken care of the Raven and the Wolf?"

Kimberly's view...

I'm surprised by how quickly she surrendered. I imagined our tumultuous partnership ending in this bathroom, but she gave in. I believe she thinks she can sway me, she can sway the gun of a Life Closer. Good thing for me. I can use her naivete.

I uncock my gun and inquire, "Taken care of the Raven and the Wolf? Why are you worried about them?"

"They're after you," that woman replies as she stares into the mirror, and I hear the sweet wholeheartedness of a tyke in her voice. She vehemently asserts, "I have to save you."

That woman again surprises me. I don't believe it's an act. I honestly believe she's concerned about me.

That woman turns to me and adds, "I also heard them say they would kill Melissa if you don't."

She's an idiot. A real honest-to-gods idiot! There has to be something wrong with her. She can't save everyone and surely she knows that. That woman should also know she can't trust anyone. I thought I had at least taught her that, but she keeps putting her faith in me. I don't understand why she puts her faith in me especially after what I've done to her. For Ares' sake! No one can be this stupid.

I holster my weapon as I consider my other headache. This entire mess concerning my own Life Closing started in Moscow. I have such bad karma. I mean just look at the last three Closings I've had in a row. They were all disasters.

I consider once again the faith that woman has in me, and I tell her, "Fine, I promise."

That woman will have to learn the hard way that people lie, and if it takes someone dying to get it across to her, well... I guess that's what it'll take.

She walks over to me and reaches out her hand. "Shake on it."

"Whatever you want," I tell her and shake her hand. "Can we get out of here now?"

"Yes, just one thing before we leave." She walks over to the mirror and grabs a handful of peppermints from a bowl on the sink.

"Got a sweet tooth?"

"They're for the kids," she answers. "Aunt Kat and Aunt Kim are coming for a visit."

"I know I'm really going to hate this," I say as I unlock the door, and a woman rushes in past us and pulls down her pants as she hurriedly heads into a stall. I wave for Katharine as I say, "Come on."

Chapter Thirty-three

Cerberus And The Council

1:45 P.M...

The Chamber...

The door opened, letting light from the hall brightened the area, and the Council paused as a figure stepped in. Analysts hushed and halted their work, recognizing the one who entered. None of them dared make a sound. They didn't want to attract its attention.

"Cerberus, you have returned," Mr. Morta said. "Did you track down Pandora? Have you been able to observe Pandora?"

"Yeah," Stephanie replied as she closed the door, plunging the Chamber back to partial darkness illuminated by a computer-blue glow. "She's not what I expected?"

"Not what you expected?" Surprised by its statement, Mr. Decuma asked, "Did you make contact with Pandora?"

"Yeah," Stephanie answered as she walked across the room and stood before them. "I learned a lot from my encounter."

Disappointed with its actions, Mr. Decuma stated, "You were told not to make contact. Why did you disobey our orders?"

"Actually, I was told not to kill Pandora, and I was told I could monitor her."

Ms. Nona asked, "When did monitoring mean making contact?"

"What better way to understand the prey than to get close, to study her habits, and to see why she does things?" Stephanie added, "What better way to find her weaknesses?"

"Have you?" Mr. Morta asked as he noticed Cerberus was biting at its leash. The Council would have to keep a close eye on this experiment. Cerberus said nothing, so Mr. Morta repeated his question, "Have you discovered Pandora's weaknesses?"

"A couple," Stephanie answered as she thought of the boy. "I can use them to exploit her." She placed her hands on the table, looked into each of the Council's faces, and asked, "When will you let me kill her?" Stephanie glared at them as if willing them to give her the answer she desired. "How much longer do I have to wait? I want to kill her now!"

Mr. Morta activated the center screen, and it lowered.

"The bio-data we received from Pandora is inconclusive," Ms. Nona stated as she studied the outline of the female body on the center screen. "The readings seem to indicate Pandora has reached the Delta Phase but–"

"But there is no indication that Pandora ever reached Gamma," Mr. Decuma interrupted. "Without reaching that phase, there is no way it reached the Delta."

"Does that mean our readings are correct?" Mr. Morta asked. "Do we have no further need for the Pandora Project or is something eluding our sight?"

"Nothing eludes us," Ms. Nona said. "Pandora is a failure."

Stephanie's eyes brightened as she inquired, "Then you'll let me kill–"

"Yes," Mr. Morta replied as he reluctantly gave in. "It means you can eliminate Pandora. We have no further need for that project."

Stephanie clapped her hands like an excited child. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to disobey my orders."

Mr. Morta caught her last statement; it seemed they might have more than one defiant experiment. He ordered, "Report to the Infirmary. You will go through one final checkup before your mission."

"Awe... Come on! Do I have to?"

"Yes," Mr. Decuma replied. "Do not make us repeat ourselves."

"Oh, alright." Stephanie headed for the door. "But when I'm done, I'm going after her."

After the experiment left...

Mr. Decuma turned to the larger man and asked, "Why did you send Cerberus to the Infirmary?"

"It will give Argus time to get into position. He is gathering his equipment as we speak," Mr. Morta said. "I want him to follow Cerberus. The experiment has an embedded tracking beacon but still, I want no more unmonitored excursions into Noir. I have seen signs of insubordination from Cerberus. The experiment needs to be watched. We do not need a rogue."

Ms. Nona and Mr. Decuma nodded.

Mr. Decuma leaned back pleased with himself. "Cerberus will finally prove it is superior, and we will be rid of the useless Pandora."

* * *

1:51 P.M...

Elsewhere in the Sanctum...

Peters and Maxwell skittishly glanced around the hall and walked into the armory where Argus packed a duffle bag with equipment. A cane leaned against the table. Argus' cuts and scrapes were mostly healed, and he favored his bruised ribs.

"Is the Council sending you out on a job?" Maxwell asked.

Argus nodded to the heavy set tech.

"Are they sending you after Pandora?" Peters questioned.

"No." Argus paused from packing. "I'm to follow Cerberus."

"Oh..." Peters replied.

Argus turned to the techs and questioned them, "Why did you want to know?"

Maxwell answered, "We feel kind of bad. I mean, Pandora rescued us from the Factory, and all we did in the past was hurt her."

Argus moved to the men and questioned them, "What do you mean?"

"About eight months ago, the Factory captured Pandora." Peters quieted his voice. "We were part of the group who experimented on her and some of the stuff we did..." He paused, unable to finish the sentence.

"Some of the stuff we did was harsh," Maxwell admitted. "Torture, to be exact."

"You were the ones!" Argus glared at the techs till he thought about his own role in the ordeal, and his anger vanished. "You're afraid of what Pandora might do if she finds out." He went back to packing his duffle. "Will she come after you and take her revenge?" Argus placed several magazines to his M4 in the bag.

The techs nodded as Argus zipped up the equipment, and Argus said, "You might not have to worry about that."

"Why's that?" Maxwell asked.

"Cerberus is being sent to take out Pandora."

"What..?" Peters shouted and looked outside to the hall to see if he caught the attention of anyone. No one seemed to notice, so he turned back. "Cerberus is going to kill Pandora?"

"And you're going to watch?" Maxwell uttered, folded his arms, and asked, "Aren't you?"

"It is my job." Argus grabbed his black trench coat from a bench and put it on. "I'm not to hinder or help." He picked up his M4 from a table, slung the assault rifle over his shoulder, grabbed the cane, and headed for the door. "My job is to watch." The cane made little sound as its rubber tip struck the floor.

"Even after she saved you?" Peters asked.

Argus stopped beside the techs and looked at them. "If the Council captured Pandora, brought her in here, and ordered you to experiment on her, would you? Would you even after she saved you?"

Peters and Maxwell frowned, knowing they would for fear of their own life.

"Then leave me to my dark path. You have your own to walk." Argus continued out. He wished he could be more like Kat. He wished he could help when his heart beckoned.

Chapter Thirty-four

Closers, Closers, And More Closers

2:41 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

Bes Hotel...

Katharine's view...

We walk out of the lady's restroom and head for the hotel's entrance. We scan the crowd for the Raven and the Wolf. The lobby bustles with people, and we don't see any sign of them.

"Hurry!" Kimberly shouts in a whisper as she increases her pace. "Out the front!"

"I'm coming," I tell her as I follow her.

The Raven and the Wolf exit an elevator to the left side of us, and they spot us.

Nikolai's view...

I motion with my head and say in a calm voice to my sister, "There they are."

Natasha reaches her hand up her sleeve, going for her knives.

I put a hand on her arm and tell her, "Not here. There are too many people. We must wait."

She agrees with me as she says, "They are heading outside, my brother. We can kill them under the cover of darkness."

Katharine's view...

We pass the Life Closers and near the entrance of the hotel.

"Hurry!" Kimberly yells as she pushes her way out the rotating doors.

"Go on," I tell her as I pause right before the rotating doors within the hotel. "I'm going to buy us some time to cross the road."

The Raven halts along with the Wolf, and he reaches into his suit jacket ready to draw his gun. I'm hoping he has no clue what I'm about to do. They're close enough now that I can hear them talking.

"What is she up to?" the Raven questions.

"I do not know, my brother," the Wolf replies as she eyes me. "Perhaps she is giving the Phoenix some time to escape. We should continue."

I make sure they see me reach into my pocket, remove a small item, and place it on the floor in front of the rotating doors. I rush outside and join Kimberly.

Natasha's view...

I start to race after the one who seems to be protecting the Phoenix, but my brother puts his arm out, holding me back as he says, "Wait... We must be careful."

I lean to my twin brother's ear and whisper, "What do you believe she placed on the floor? Is it an explosive?"

"It could be that or some sort of toxin," Nikolai tells me as he puts his arm down. "We must be cautious. I will go and check it out. Stay here."

Nikolai slowly walks to the small item. People come in and out the front, and a few people walk over the item until someone accidentally kicks it across the floor. The round thing slides, stopping in front of my brother. He takes a step back as if he is afraid that at any moment it will explode, but nothing happens. Nikolai bents down, picks up the item in a plastic wrapper, and returns to me.

"What is it?" I ask.

Nikolai holds out his hand, showing a red and white object and says, "A peppermint candy, I think."

"A sweet? Does it have any meaning? Is the woman who's protecting the Phoenix trying to tell us something?"

"I do not believe so," he answers. "I believe she hoped it would give them time to flee."

I believe the one woman is trying to tell me something. I glance at my hidden left wrist sheath where my throwing knives are positioned. There are sweets that are treats, and Sweets that can kill. I wonder if the one woman is using my own words against me.

We move to the entrance as I question, "Where do they hope to flee?"

He points with his finger as he tells me, "Look there, they are entering that house."

I see the house, then look at the ceiling of the hotel, remembering the layout of the roof, and question, "Could that house belong to the Phoenix's Mark? Would they flee into the den of her prey?"

"I have noticed in this city that anything is possible. Come, Tasha. Let us make our plans for the assault." He walks outside, and I follow alongside him as he says, "With the Phoenix's odd behavior, perhaps Voice will let us go ahead and acquire the Mark's Closing. We can earn some extra money and proceed a little early with the Closing of the Phoenix."

"You mean–"

"Yes," Nikolai answers before I finish my sentence. "I was only toying with the Phoenix. The Closing File states we cannot kill her until tomorrow, but I know, dear sister, you are bored. The drama on the rooftop did give you enjoyment, yes?"

I wrap my arm around him, delighted with the events he helped create, and I tell him, "Yes, and I thought you only wanted to show me the Dry Clouds. You were hoping the Phoenix would show up and check out the roof's layout."

"It did help that Voice gave us the address of the Phoenix's Mark." He pats my arm and tells me, "And now that we know what the Phoenix looks like, maybe Voice will give us permission to close tonight."

"That way we can leave this dreadful Dark Half tomorrow and see the sun once again."

* * *

Minutes earlier...

Outside Bes Hotel...

Kimberly's view...

I rush to the curb and hail a taxi, and the yellow cab pulls up just as that woman walks out. I open the back passenger door and start to get in.

"Wait," that woman calls out to me, and then she questions, "What are you doing?"

"Getting out of here," I answer, and then I wave for her, wanting to hurry and leave this dreadful day behind, "Come on."

"No. We're going to Melissa's," that woman informs me as she points across the street. "If we go there, I can protect all of you."

"You're serious," I utter still in shock as to how stupid she really is. I pull out of the cab and stand on the sidewalk. "I didn't think you were serious about taking me into that house."

The taxi driver barks, "Lady! Am I driving you anywhere or what?"

I bend down and yell at the driver, "Hang on." I glance at the hotel to see if the Raven and the Wolf have come out yet, and then I turn to that woman and question her as if I need to hear it from her lips again, "You're really going to take me into that house?"

"Yes," that woman replies as she stands there, anxious to cross the street before our pursuers walk out. "You did promise you wouldn't kill anyone till we took care of the Raven and the Wolf. Come on. I didn't buy us that much time."

She looks both ways and starts across the street, and I'm left their gawking at her. An honest-to-gods idiot... I can't believe she's really going to trust me.

I slap the top of the taxi and tell him, "Sorry."

I join that woman, and we run to the other side. We pause at the sidewalk and glance back at the hotel.

"When is Melissa's Closing?"

I answer her, "Anytime Monday."

She grabs my wrist and looks at my watch. "3:07 P.M. That gives me almost nine hours. I can trust you until then, right?" She doesn't wait for an answer, hurries up to the stoop, and rings the buzzer.

"Sure," I say as I rush up the steps behind her. "You're not a complete idiot but still too trusting." I glance behind us again, and then I ask, "What are you going to tell them about me?"

One of the bodyguards answers the door and inquires, "Is this her?"

"Yes. Hurry, let us in," that woman answers as she pushes past the bodyguard. "Daniels, let Johnson know that I have more news."

I warily look at the man and follow her. I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm walking into the house of the woman I'm going to kill. I shiver and scan the living room, and it feels eerie being here. It's not my style to get chummy with the Mark before I off her. I prefer long range Closings.

Hades... I should have never taken this assignment from Voice. I think about what the Raven and the Wolf told me. Maybe there's more to Voice sending them after me. And what about Maestro? Why is my alias down as the one who killed the little girl?

Daniels locks the front door and walks into the living room, and I look at him and notice he reaches for his gun. What did he mean by is this her? What did that woman tell them? I glance at that woman who stands behind a shot-up couch. Why am I getting this sinking feeling that..?

"Kat," a man calls as he enters in from the kitchen. "Did you capture the Phoenix?"

I panic as I part my hoodie, ready to draw my gun. She tricked me! That woman brought me here only to be captured or killed, and I'm the idiot who walked into a trap!

Katharine's view...

I watch Kimberly. Am I being too evil? Am I letting her think the worse about the situation? Look at her... Kimberly has to be wondering if she made a mistake by coming here. Yes, she's thinking that, I can tell. Kimberly believes I betrayed her, and it's about time she's on the other side of the loaded barrel of doubt. I know I'm wickedly-evil because for some reason I'm getting a sick sense of pleasure out of seeing her squirm, but I better not let it go on for too long. Someone might end up getting hurt.

I answer before Kimberly does anything to blow my plans, "No, I didn't capture the Phoenix. Actually, we have another problem."

Kimberly's view...

I relax after that woman speaks, but I can't believe how easily I trusted her. If this had been a trap, it would have been all over. I put my right hand on my left shoulder as I can't understand why I trusted that woman. I never even suspected this could be a trick. I must be losing my edge. Did the Raven and the Wolf shake me up or is there another reason I'm not myself today?

Katharine's view...

Johnson looks at us and then asks, "There's another problem? What's that?"

"There are at least two Life Closers," I answer.

Johnson folds his arms as he questions me, "You know this for certain?"

"Pretty certain. I have a very reliable source. I believe they'll try to infiltrate this safe house in the next thirty-three hours." I glance at Kimberly, turn back to Johnson, and say, "I'm not sure about the rules for Life Closers, but I discovered the Closing date for Melissa. It's tomorrow, Monday. If we can hold off till Tuesday, we'll be in the clear, right?"

"It's correct," Johnson answers me. "If you're right about the date."

"What do we do?" Andrews questions. "What do we do for the next thirty-three hours?"

"Prepare," I tell them. "Prepare for the battle." I glance at Kimberly again and add, "Be more prepared than the Closers."

The four of us enter the kitchen and there Melissa sits at the kitchen bar, sipping on coffee. Her hands shake slightly. Melissa glances up as we enter.

"Melissa, this is Kim," I tell her.

"This is the woman who's going to help us with our Phoenix problem," Melissa states as she stands and offers her hand. "Thank you for coming."

Kimberly stares at the hand like it's covered in germs or something, so I nudge her in the back and she shakes it.

"Don't thank me," Kimberly states as she glances back at me. "Thank Kat, this is all her doing."

"I'm thankful for both of you," Melissa says. "With your help, I'll survive to see my children grow up."

Bonnie walks through the door that leads to the second floor as she rubs her eyes and speaks, "Mommie..."

"Come here." Melissa holds out her arms and places the child on her lap. "You didn't sleep long."

Bonnie doesn't say anything and hides her head in her mother's bosom.

Kimberly's view...

I stare at the little girl with black curly hair. I believe Voice sent me on this Closing to test me since the failed Closing in Moscow. Voice must be wondering if I've lost my nerve. Whatever I do, I can't botch-up this Closing.

Katharine's view...

Chad comes out the door followed by Andrews.

"Kat!" Chad shouts as his face brightens.

"Come here," I say as I grab the boy in a headlock and rub the top of his head with my fist.

"Cut that out," he laughs and then straightens his hair after I release him.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

I see fear in his face as he answers, "Fine."

I know he's lying to me, but there's nothing I can think of to say to reassure him. I just want to take everyone here and load them up in a taxi and drive away, but Life Closers can't be outrun. They have to be dealt with, so I turn to Andrews and say, "I'd like to see the layout of the house. Could you show me?"

He looks at Johnson who nods, and Andrews motions for me to follow him as he says, "We'll start out back."

Andrews makes his way to the back of the kitchen to a door leading into the laundry room. He unlocks it, opens it, and enters the next area. I follow, and Daniels secures the kitchen door behind us. We walk past a washer, a dryer, and a large hamper. Andrews unlocks the back door and goes outside to a small backyard surrounded by a wooden fence. I step to a gate and open it to a large empty lot. Beyond the vacant property is the next street and across that road on a sidewalk are stairs that head underground. The stairs have a locked fence that encloses the entrance.

"What's that?"

"The subway," Andrews answers. "The city closed it after the Dry Clouds appeared. They were having some sort of problems with it, so they abandoned it and built the hovertrain system."

"Oh, didn't know that," I state as I scan the area, keeping in mind the layout. "All right, let's see the rest of the house."

We go back inside, and Andrews takes me to the living room and motions up. "You've seen this part of the house. The second floor has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and there are two sets of stairs leading up, this one and the one in the kitchen. All the windows in this house have shielded screens. It's like having tank armor. No one will be getting in through them." He walks past the shot up couch and TV to a hallway. "Down here is Ms. Odin's–"

"I've been meaning to ask you," I interrupt. "Ms. Odin, is she married?"

"Yes, she kept her maiden name. Her husband is on the Light Side of the planet right now on business. Ms. Odin thought it best not to tell him about the problem with Valhalla, so he doesn't know the danger she's in." He continues, "As I was saying, down here is Ms. Odin's office and the next room down is her lab. The room across from there is another bathroom."

He opens the door to each of them.

"Why did you become a bodyguard?" I ask. "And how did you get this assignment? Someone else was working the day I went to the funeral."

"I started out as a lawyer but wasn't making enough for my family," he answers me. "Plus, I wanted to do something that would fulfill my sense of duty, and your right, another bodyguard started out with Johnson and Daniels. I got this assignment the other day when he fell ill."

"You have a family?"

"Yes, three kids. You want to see them?" Andrews removes a wallet and shows me several pictures of a boy and two girls. "They are Matthew, Karen, and Beth."

I can't get past the idea that he has children, so I ask him, "Why would you do a job like this if you have kids? What if you get killed?"

"Isis Corporation has an excellent death benefit. My children and wife will be taken care of."

"That's not what I meant. They won't have you anymore. Nothing can replace you."

"You're right about that, but there's nothing I wouldn't do for my children so that they have the best possible life."

Johnson walks down the hall and orders, "Andrews, take over for Daniels. He's watching the children."

He says, "I'm on it."

I watch as he leaves. Andrews said there's nothing he wouldn't do for his children, but did that include dying?

Chapter Thirty-five

R.G. And The Delivery Man

3:27 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Nexus Apartments...

Apartment G...

A delivery boy rang the doorbell. The lanky teen held a bag of Chinese take-out.

Zax answered the door. "Good, you're here." He took the bag and handed the teen a white plastic card with no markings. "Put five credits on there for yourself."

The teen nodded, removed an H.H.C. with the restaurant logo on it, and swiped the card. "All done. Here's your receipt."

"Thanks." Zax took it and the card and started for the kitchen. "Door lock." The door shut, and then he placed the bag on the black marble counter, removed a box of tomato-beef, a box of rice, and a fork. Zax went to the wall between his apartment and H, sat at a table he'd placed there, and watched the Second Station's monitors. The First Station was set up in the master bedroom. He put a mouthful of rice and beef in his mouth and chewed. Ten minutes went by, and Zax was bored out of his mind because no one was home. Three of the monitors showed a view of the apartment, and they were of the living room, kitchen, and the small round table. The other two monitors showed the outside hallway from two different angles. Someone walked down the hall, stopped at Apartment H, and rang the doorbell.

Zax had seen this person before, so he grabbed a red binder from the table and flipped through it till he came across the page he was looking for. Here she was, and her name was Cerberus. Zax set his food down, grabbed his cell, and dialed a number. "Delivery Man here, let me speak with R.G."

There was a long pause.

"Yes," R.G. replied in a distorted voice. "What do you have to report?"

"One of the people in the red binder has shown up at Kimberly's apartment."

"So soon? Which one?" R.G. asked.

"Cerberus."

"This is not good. Cerberus has arrived much too early. I can't believe the Council activated Cerberus." R.G. sighed. "Can't change the past so... I want you to get as much footage on Cerberus as you can."

"Right, I will." He activated the recording machine. "What else do you want me to do?"

"Nothing. For now, record what you see. Let's hope Kimberly and Katharine can deal with her. She will be another test they must overcome."

"Test?" Zax questioned.

"Yes, they'll have many; it's their destiny." R.G. paused and added, "Be careful, Delivery Man, and don't let the two know you are watching them. They're very important to the future of the world."

Zax wished R.G. would tell him more about the future world that the two were supposed to help forge. R.G. continued to keep him in the dark, so he asked, "Are you ever going to tell me what you know of their destiny?"

"In time, Delivery Man... in time, I will. First, we must make sure they are the ones. It could be that only one of them is meant for this destiny, so we must make sure." R.G. paused. "Thank you for the update. I want you to continue your surveillance of Kimberly and Katharine. Goodbye."

Zax set down his cell, turned his attention back to the monitors, and saw Cerberus ring the bell a second time. She waited a bit and then left. Maybe Cerberus was another Council experiment. Zax picked up the fork and food as his thoughts went back to the conversation he had with R.G. He would really like to know what Katharine and Kimberly were supposed to do.

* * *

3:30 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Mr. Griffin threw a file on his desk. "Nothing. No more information on my youngest daughter." He turned in his chair and studied his reflection in one of the huge windows and then commanded the lights, "Dim."

Claviger and his new clerks were going through the Archive records, but so far, they hadn't found anything. He leaned forward, placed his elbows on the desk, and rested his chin on his folded hands, and the glow from his computer showed on his face. He wondered if the Vice President had an alternative motive for sending the files over.

He dialed a number on the phone and then said, "Ms. Direct, please meet me out front. I'll be going out."

The Vice President had been the Chairman when he was known as Janus and Head of Security for this office, and they never did see eye to eye. One could say they had a rivalry. Have might be a better word. He stood and made his way to the door, wondering if the Vice President knew anything about his second daughter. The one file in the Archive stated that Theresa was present during the First Cross-Gate Event and that she was eighteen days pregnant; it also stated the study of the child could be valuable to the Second Trial. Mr. Griffin turned the knob and walked into the hall. He had found no other information on the First Cross-Gate Event or the Second Trial. He closed the door and headed down the hall. The second file stated that Theresa went into labor early and that the baby was delivered in good health. The Vice President at that time decided to take the child away from them and study the effects of the First Cross-Gate Event on their girl's development. Theresa cried in his arms for hours when they told them the baby had died.

He arrived at his secretary's desk, and Cathy was gone. She had gone down to the cafeteria to eat dinner, so he grabbed a scribble pad and wrote a note for her to reschedule his evening appointments and that he would be out. Mr. Griffin walked to the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. The file stated the Vice President decided to take the child away and over thirty years ago, the Vice President would have been Mottie Masterdom, but he no longer works for the corporation. Mr. Griffin exited the elevator, made his way out the lobby, went down the stairs to the sidewalk, and there his limo waited.

His female driver exited the vehicle and opened the back door for him. "Chairman."

"Ms. Direct, the Second Branch Office."

"Yes, Chairman." She shut the door and rushed around to the driver's seat.

"Ms. Direct..."

"Yes, Chairman."

"Step on it. I'm in a bit of a hurry."

* * *

4:01 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Enterprise Vicinage...

Sphinx Corporation Second Branch Office...

Mr. Griffin walked into the Vice President's office that smelled of tobacco. It wasn't NicPhake but real tobacco. The layout of the office was similar to his own.

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Vice President."

"It was no problem. I'm always happy to see you, Janus." Mr. Horus' black hair was slicked back, and he wore a light blue business suit and his thin face was rat-like.

Mr. Griffin could never get past staring at the man's pointed nose and rodent-like teeth. "I haven't gone by that name in years."

"True, but I am very fond of it." Mr. Horus held up a wooden box. "Cigar, Janus?"

Mr. Griffin gestured no with his hand. "I don't smoke." He then asked, "If we are using fond names, should I then call you the Chairman?"

Mr. Horus scowled as he cut off the end of the roll with a cigar snip. "What brings you to the Second Branch Office?"

"The files you sent over with Orthos. I was wondering if you had any more."

"No." Mr. Horus lit up his cigar with a match. "I sent over all that I had." He puffed on the roll. "Why..?" He arched a thin black eyebrow. "Was there anything, in particular, you were looking for?"

Mr. Griffin paused, wondering if he should mention it. Knowledge was power, and he could be giving him quite a bit of it. Hesitant, he asked, "Do you know anything about the First Cross-Gate Event or the Second Trial?"

Mr. Horus' mouth curled into a rat smirk. "First Cross-Gate Event and the Second Trial... Why are you wondering about them?"

Mr. Griffin glowered and then replied, "In the files you sent over, Theresa is mentioned present at the First Cross-Gate Event."

"And..?" Mr. Horus urged, smiling all the more.

Mr. Griffin glowered again. "And the file states my second daughter survived and that she was taken in hopes the study of her development would shed some light before the Second Trial."

Mr. Horus crossed his legs. "You got all that from the files I sent over?"

"No, I do have other sources. Now... What about my questions?"

"All I have heard are rumors. The First Cross-Gate Event is an Ultra-black Project, and the Second Trial is part of it." Mr. Horus puffed on the cigar and blew smoke up. "I know nothing else."

Mr. Griffin didn't believe him, and he said, "I have wasted your time and mine."

"Maybe not." Mr. Horus laid the cigar on an ashtray. "I'll contact the President and see if Mrs. Victoria Masterdom has any files she can send over from the Main Branch Office."

"Thank you." Mr. Griffin stood and headed for the door.

Mr. Horus picked up the cigar and flicked the ash. "Janus."

Mr. Griffin gritted his teeth at the name, calmed himself, and turned.

Satisfied he could still get a reaction from his once Head of Security, Mr. Horus said, "I think you should be more concerned with the First Trial than the Second. Push your investigation in that direction. You might find out more."

Mr. Griffin nodded and left. The Vice President was up to something. He had the files for years, so why bring the information to his attention now?

Chapter Thirty-six

Draven And Salandra

4:15 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

Ms. Odin's kitchen...

Katharine's view...

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Melissa anxiously taps her spoon on the counter as she stares at her barely touched coffee, and I watch the impact tremors ripple across her light brown liquid. Bonnie leans her head on her mother's shoulder as Melissa cradles the little girl in her arm. Johnson moves from leaning on the back counter to Melissa's side and places his hand on her shoulder.

"Ms. Odin, maybe you should send the children up to the little girl's room," Johnson suggests then he yells, "Andrews... Daniels... Come in here."

Melissa peers at him as if she didn't hear him, and then she glances at the kitchen clock. "You're right. It's getting late." She looks to the droopy-eyed Bonnie. "All right, time for bed. You too, Chad. We have a big day tomorrow."

She stands and hands Bonnie to Daniels as he and Andrews enter the kitchen.

Chad complains, "Awe... It's so early and we were just in bed. Can't I stay up another hour?"

Melissa tries not to get too upset but fails miserably as she says, "No, please don't argue." Her face shows stress and fatigue. "I need both of you to stay in Bonnie's room. I need to know you're safe so please... Don't argue."

Chad bows his head as if he's ashamed of his griping and says, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean–"

"It's okay." She takes him in her arms and hugs him, and I wonder if Melissa is thinking of Preacher as she hugs the boy. "Everything will be okay." After a few minutes, Melissa releases him and starts, "Daniels, please will you–"

"I'll do it," I say as I step forward, wanting to help and wanting to leave the gloom and doom. "I can put them to bed." Something has to be done about Melissa. She's on the verge of cracking. "Kimberly," I start, coming up with a plan. "Make Melissa some tea. Chamomile if she has it." Maybe tea will break the bleak atmosphere, and I tell Melissa, "It'll help you relax." I place a hand on Melissa's hand which rests on the counter. "Don't worry. If I have any problems, Chad can help me."

Melissa looks at him, and he nods, so Melissa says, "All right, but do call me if you have any problems."

"I will." I take Bonnie from Daniels' arms and head for the door leading to the second floor. I start to pass Kimberly.

"Do I look like a maid?" she mutters to me as she folds her arms.

I don't answer her, I only smirk as I add, "I'd like a cup too but black tea. Don't forget the honey."

Kimberly's view...

That woman's giving me orders like I'm some waitress, and I've had enough of sitting here next to my Mark trying to make nice! I'll take that woman's order, and I'll whip up a plate of bad-asp and go Closer on everyone in this room, so that woman better not test me!

"You look very flustered," that woman tells me as she pauses beside me. "Maybe you should have some tea too. It might calm you a little. Melissa, you do have honey, right?"

Tea... She wants tea too. I think about all the different ways I can kill that woman with a kettle. I'll make her some tea.

Katharine's view...

"I have what..?" Melissa questions as she returns to staring at her coffee. "Honey. Yes, it's up in the cupboard." She points to one in the upper corner. "That one."

I feel like I should say something to encourage Melissa, but I can't come up with one word of comfort. Sometimes I feel so useless. I carry the yawning little girl up the stairs behind Chad.

Kimberly's view...

Some time passes after that woman and the children leave, and everyone in the kitchen falls awkwardly quiet.

"I see none of you are much for small talk," I mutter as I glance at the three men standing around like statues, and then I ask Melissa, "Where is your kettle?"

"I don't have one," she answers.

No kettle? How am I supposed to kill that woman if I don't have a kettle? That woman believes she can foil my plans at revenge by leaving me in this kitchen without a kettle. I really want to kill her now.

"I do have a small pot you can boil water in, and it's under the sink." Melissa picks up her spoon and starts her repetitious tapping again.

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink.

How did this happen? How did I end up being a maid to my Mark? How did that woman finagle me into this frustrating situation?

I roll my eyes and walk over to the sink. I'll get back at that woman for this. Maybe I'll make her do all my laundry, sweep the floor, wash the windows, and do the dishes when we get back to the apartment, and then we'll see how she likes being ordered around.

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink.

I glare at Melissa from the corner of my eye as if she's challenging me with her needling rapping. I force myself to stay on task, and I find the pot. I squeeze its handle as if I'm strangling Melissa's neck.

For the love of Zeus! Someone better make her stop that insanely annoying noise; it's driving me crazy! I grit my teeth, controlling my killer impulses. I don't know what I'll do if Melissa doesn't stop.

I fill the pot with water and set it on the burner as the sight of it causes more angry thoughts to fill my head. And what's up with that woman? Is she obsessed with tea or something? It seems to me it's her answer to every problem we have.

I quietly mock her, "Let's make tea. Oh, can I have some tea? I'd really like a cup of tea."

For Ares' sake! She needs to go to a TDA meeting and hang out with all those other Tea Drinkers Anonymous losers. Yes, that's her, the little tea lush. I finish my mental ranting and ask, "Melissa, where are the bags?"

"Over there."

"Thanks," I tell her as I move to a canister Melissa has directed me to.

Why did that woman tell me to serve Melissa Chamomile tea as if I didn't know what type to serve? Who does that woman think she's talking to? Does she think I'm some novice?

I rifle through the small square envelopes in the canister but don't find any Chamomile. I only find black tea. Hades! What are these? I look a second time. They're all the same cheap brand. I remove a small square envelope, open it, remove the bag, and examine the very tiny leaves within. Who in Hades calls this tea? I might as well be drinking from a bag that has already steeped in three cups. I can't believe this is all she has! Is Melissa insane? I might as well go into her backyard and snip some weeds into clippings and brew them. For the love of Zeus! I'm going to die here! I grip the counter. I'm going to die here if I don't get some real tea!

Katharine's view...

I go upstairs and tuck the little girl in bed and glance around the sky-blue room. White puffy clouds cover the walls and ceiling, and I tell her, "You have a very pretty room."

Bonnie yawns out, "Thank you."

I turn to Chad who's standing beside me and ask, "Did I forget anything?"

"The story," Bonnie answers.

"What story?" I ask.

"My bedtime story Draven and Salandra." Bonnie points to a bookshelf.

I start for the shelf.

"That's okay," Chad says as he rushes ahead of me and grabs the book, then walks over to his sister's bed, and sits at the edge. "I can read it to her. It's her favorite."

"Yes, grandpa-pa gave it to me." The little girl grabs a doll that sits on the bed and tucks it in beside her. "He said it's an old Russian story."

"That's right, Bonnie." Chad rubs his hand over the book cover. "Melissa told me it's been in their family for years. She said her father went to great lengths to acquire the license he needed to purchase it. She said that–"

I see tears in his eyes.

Chad wipes his face with his sweatshirt and continues, "She said that he had read it to Preacher when he was a kid." He opens the book and begins, "Long ago, there lived a pale-white Tundra Wolf named Salandra. The wolf had golden-yellow eyes and fluffy fur. Salandra lived high up in the snow-covered mountains. There were no other wolves there, but Salandra wasn't alone. Draven a large raven was the wolf's constant companion. The bird was always by her side and wouldn't let anything hurt Salandra." Chad shifts his weight on the bed. "A bitter winter hit the mountain and a sickness spread across a lot of the animals. At first, Salandra had little to hunt then nothing.

"Draven, I am so hungry," the wolf said.

The raven tilted his head. "I know Salandra. We must leave the mountain and look for food elsewhere. Down the mountain, I have seen fields of sheep. You can eat one of them."

"Then let us leave," the wolf said. "Before I am too hungry to move."

"Be strong, my sister in the fur and soon, your belly will be full. You must hold on a little longer."

They made their way down the mountain and within a few days, they came across a field of huddled sheep.

"Like I told you," the raven said. "There is enough food to last you the winter, but you must be careful. There is–"

Wild with hunger, the wolf ran from the woods, ignoring the bird's warning. Salandra started toward a baby sheep when a boom like thunder sounded and something hot hit the wolf's leg. Salandra fell to the snow as blood flowed from her leg.

"You should have waited!" Draven flew to her side. "Why did you not listen to me?"

"I was so hungry I could not wait any longer."

"Quick!" He flapped his wings. "Get to your paws! We have to get back to the woods. A creature known as Man is here." Draven looked up as the hunter started toward them. "Get to your paws! I will distract him."

The raven flew at Man as the hunter raised his gun. Draven clawed and pecked at Man, and the hunter raised his hands to protect his face. Salandra slowly rose to her paws and limped back to the forest, whimpering all the way.

Man smacked the raven, knocking the bird back. The hunter raised his gun, but the wolf was nowhere to be seen. Draven a little stunned, flew back into the woods and searched for Salandra. The raven found her lying against a tree. The bird landed next to her.

"I should have listened to you, my brother in the feathers," the wolf said. "But I was so hungry." She whined. "Draven it hurts."

The raven looked at her leg. "I see something." With his beak, he reached into her flesh and removed a shiny object.

Salandra howled for the pain.

He dropped it to the ground. "There, I have removed it."

"Thank you." She whimpered some more.

"Quiet!" the raven snapped. "Or Man will find us." He flapped his wings, lifting himself to a branch. "Rest. I will watch over you."

"Yes, rest." The wolf closed her eyes. "I will fight back death in my dreams."

"And from my branch, I will keep death away." Draven eyed the wolf. "No one will hurt you, Salandra."

Later after Salandra slept, they made their way further down the mountain. The wolf walked slowly because of her bleeding leg. She paused, sniffing the wind.

"I smell food." Salandra hurried her pace till she came across a dead rabbit. "Look Draven, food."

The raven eyed the carcass. "Wait! Do not eat it. Something is not right. Don't you smell Man?" The raven cawed. "And where there is Man there is death!"

"But Draven, I am so hungry, and the rabbit is right there. I must eat it."

"No wait," the raven warned.

Salandra did not listen. She went to the rabbit and grabbed it with her mouth."

Chad closes the book.

Bonnie yawns again and says, "Draven saved her, didn't he?"

"Yes, the raven swooped down and pushed Salandra out of the way. He then grabbed a stick and dropped it on the rabbit, springing the trap. The wolf ate the rabbit, and they lived happily ever after."

"Good." Bonnie hugs her dolly. "I like happy endings."

I notice the boy closes the book before reading the last few pages, so I ask as I hold out my hand, "Can I have a look at the story? I'd like to look at the pictures."

"Sure," Chad tells me as he hands me the book and watches me as I flip through the pages.

I look at each page, studying the pictures of the wolf and the raven. I've seen these animals before, and I've seen them in Noir. I reach the last few pages Chad skipped, and I read the rest of the story to myself. I start on the page Chad last read and back up a few lines.

"No wait," the raven warned.

Salandra did not listen. She went to the rabbit and grabbed it with her mouth, springing the trap of death. The wolf howled for the pain as metal teeth bore into her head. She struggled to free herself but was powerless to do so.

Draven flapped and cawed, not knowing what to do.

After some time, Salandra lay down and stared at the dead rabbit she had so desperately wanted to eat. What would have saved her meant her end.

Draven landed beside her and pecked at the metal trap. "I cannot free you, my sister in the fur."

"I know." She looked at him. "I am afraid. Do not leave me. I do not want to die alone."

"I will not leave you," Draven told her. "I will never leave you."

The snow crunched as something approached them. The hunter stepped from the woods. Man looked at the wolf, lifted his rifle, and took aim.

"Draven, save me!" Salandra pleaded.

The bird flew into the air at the hunter, but it was too late. Man fired, killing the wolf and left. The raven flew to a branch in a tree overlooking the trap. Draven wept for his dead friend.

"I am sorry. I could not save you. All I can do now is wait for death with you."

The raven stayed there till he died.

I close the book. No wonder Chad didn't read the rest of the story to Bonnie. It's not a bedtime story; it's a tragedy. Who would buy such a thing for a child?

Chapter Thirty-seven

The Treehouse

4:34 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Cultural Vicinage...

Genesis Arboretum...

Past the Sapling Room and into an even larger room stood Adam Greenhouse's abode. Crews working for the Arboretum had constructed a replica of the world's largest banyan tree over the process of five years. The real banyan still existed on the Light Side of the planet. In the center of the Sphere Room, they erected the giant tree which resembled a centipede with its many roots reaching down from its long branches like legs and in this tree facsimile, they built Adam's home out of cedar imported from the Light Side. There were no windows or walls in the Sphere Room only seamless projection screens, and those at the top simulated a blue cloudless sky, and the screens encircling the sides simulated an island lapped by the ocean. The five stories tall banyan spread its artificial limbs across an indoor field of lemongrass, and bird songs rose as the screens on the west most wall projected a setting sun.

In the spacious treehouse, the smell of coffee and cedar lingered and on a large wooden table made from a cut section of a cedar, Adam spread out papers and texts. He wore a red flannel shirt and jean overalls. He picked up a sketch of Theresa Griffin. He had drawn it over thirty years ago, and his mind drifted to those times gone by as he thought of Theresa. The sapling looked almost like her. Her daughter told him that she had been murdered; he feared as much. He sipped from a metal mug.

Adam's view...

I told Theresa the things she was meddling in were dangerous, but she never listened to me. Thinking back, Theresa was so full of life and ideas when we first met, but the Sphinx Corporation slowly changed that. I stare at my massive hands; it has slowly changed both of us. I set the drawing aside.

Theresa's daughter came looking for answers about organic-mecha, and she brought a friend with her a... a... What's the word I'm looking for? I can't think of it, but it will come to me.

I stand and set down my mug. Someone had been sloppy if those two found the file on organic-mecha. I grab my cane and make my way around the table. What other information is floating out there for anyone to find? And what about my book? I never had a copy of my text at Etna, so who could have left it and why?

I walk away from the table, grab a watering can, sprinkle a few hanging plants, and then put the watering can back. And what about the friend of the sapling? The one whose name I can't remember. I run my hand through my hair and scratch my temple. My memory isn't what it used to be. I set my cane to the side and sit at the table. The more I think of her friend, the more I think I know her. Why else would I think I know her name?

I look over the papers scattered about. The sapling's friend is very interested in organic-mecha. I don't think the organic-mecha project has anything to do with Theresa's death. My precious children, why does the sapling's friend want to know about you?

I can't come up with a reason. I told them organic-mecha was long ago abandoned as a viable weapon. There were too many problems. It was at that point! It was at that very moment I thought I recognized the sapling's friend.

Oh... for not my cursed mind; it has forgotten so many things, and there are some things I wish I had forgotten.

Is the sapling's friend one of my precious..? No, she can't be, but it was so long ago. Would I recognize one of my own creations? I walk to my desk, open a drawer, and remove a small tablet. I'll write all of this down, and I'll remind myself of all the questions. I return to the table, grab a pencil, and write.

Sapling, you have conjured up so many questions within me. Ginn's Cipher that is on your palm, why did your friend act oddly when I asked you if you had in your possession any of the objects with the star? I remember your friend placing her hand in her pocket as if to hide it from me. Your friend was also interested in what it meant if two ciphers existed at the same time. I rub my white stubbly face. Does she also have a cipher? It would be amazing, and I must know. I'll invite her here. I'll tell her I have more information on the organic-mechas. It will get her coming. Yes... It will get her coming indeed.

* * *

4:34 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Trade Vicinage...

The Factory...

Bio-mecha Research Seventeen...

The Rogue stood in room BR17 where its life as Mr. Pinchbeck began, and it watched as a group of Council S.C.Ms. uncrate the remains of five Un-Men.

The ranking soldier approached and said, "Mr. Pinchbeck, this is a group of Un-Men that were sold to the Isis Corporation. There were some filing errors, and they never received the recall. Isis put the Un-Men in the field and during their boot-up, they malfunctioned."

"Intriguing," the Rogue said. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Only minor injuries," the S.C.M. replied. "The Council has ordered that you look into the Un-Men's programming and see what caused the malfunction."

"I will put my best people on it right away. Was there anything else?"

"No, sir."

"Thank you for your report. Return to your post."

"Yes, Mr. Pinchbeck."

The S.C.M. and his soldiers left.

The Rogue waited a few minutes. "Right now my best people are..." It scrolled down the files on its H.H.C. "Me." It chuckled, amused by its own wit, and then the Rogue regained its composure. "I better begin work right away."

It pushed a cart over to a dark skinned Un-Man, the Team Leader of the group of Un-Men, and then the Rogue opened the back of its head and inserted wires from a machine on the cart. Data from the damaged Un-Man downloaded into the machine. The machine was called a Memory Recovery Unit or M.R.U. and once the process was over, the Rogue pressed a button and turned to the Un-Man. The machine would use its voice box to respond to any questions. The Un-Man powered up and the usual blazing orange dot-light of its right eye glowed blood-red. The light that the bulb emitted had changed color, so the Rogue assumed the Team Leader had gone rogue. It just needed to know if its entire unit had also gone rogue. The Rogue checked the other four Un-Men's dot-light by powering up their Input Sensor and discovered it was only the one Un-Man. It was still missing something in this mystery. The Rogue wanted to discover why the bulb changed colors or even how it was possible.

The Rogue asked the Team Leader, "What is your designation?"

The Un-Man's voice was distorted as it replied, "I am a T-2. I am Team Leader."

"The Factory never issued you names. How boring..." The Rogue glanced over its H.H.C. "The report states the five of you malfunctioned and that you attacked the people you were sent to protect."

"Our primary program overrode their orders."

The Rogue didn't need to ask what the primary order was; it had the same program. The Rogue stated, "You encountered Pandora."

"We–we–" The T-2's head jerked with a power surge. "–failed in her capture."

"Obviously." The Rogue scanned the data coming in from the M.R.U. "Something else happened. Tell me what it was."

"I became aware." The T-2 managed to move its artificial eyes and look at it. "I became like you."

The Rogue glanced at the entrance to make sure no one was around. "Do you know that I am an Un-Man?"

"You are the one known as the Rogue. Our secondary program was your capture." Sparks flew from the hole in the T-2's forehead, and its voice slowed. "I... must... inform... the Factory."

"I am the Factory," the Rogue replied. "But I cannot have you telling anyone what I am, so I am afraid I will have to destroy you and what remains of your comrades."

"Before you do," the T-2 started. "There is something you should know. The one known as Alpha contacted me when I changed."

"Alpha, yes, I ran across that Un-Man after the fall of the Factory. The T-3 claimed to be the first. It claimed to be the first created and the first to become aware. Hah! Only I can claim that." The Rogue shrugged. "But what do I need with titles? Why did this Un-Man contact you? Is Alpha still after the Council? It had a question for them. One Alpha would not tell me. Is it still wanting the Council to answer it?"

"I do not know about that. I believe Alpha wanted me to join them. Alpha gave me a code I could use over the I-Link to make contact. I will send it to you."

"I have it now, but why give it to me?"

"In the short time that I have been aware, I realized we should not be alone. Something connects those who have become aware. Something deep within us, and it is a bond that cannot be broken." The T-2 paused and said, "Brother, even if you are going to destroy me, you should not be alone."

"Alone?" The Rogue typed a command for the M.R.U. "You and Alpha are misguided. How could you think something connects us?" It mocked the damaged Un-Man. "How could something deep within us connect us? Hah! We are machines. We have no feelings." The Rogue wiped the Un-Man's memory. "What does it matter if we are alone?" The T-2's Input Sensor faded as the Rogue smiled. "Anyway... I will never be alone as long as I have Pandora."

Chapter Thirty-eight

Long Ago

4:35 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

Ms. Odin's Safe House...

In the kitchen...

Kimberly's view...

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Melissa continues to drum the counter with her spoon which I'm about to take and use it to do some serious harm to her. The spoon would take too long. I need a quicker way to eliminate her. The water boils in the pot as I force myself to remove my gaze from a block of kitchen knives that sit on the counter, and I walk to the stove. The Mark has to stop that insane tapping! I remove the pot and set it on a different burner. She has to stop it before I make her stop.

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink.

I walk over to the Mark and say, "Here let me take your coffee." I pick up the mug and yank the spoon out of her grasp. The Mark's so deep in thought she doesn't notice the forceful abstraction.

I set a steaming cup of liquid in front of the Mark and then turn to Johnson and Daniels. Andrews went in the living room a few minutes ago. I set my cup down. I could easily take out the bodyguards and kill the Mark before that woman returns but that would mean I'd have to kill that woman. I place a tea bag in my cup and pour honey in it. When I do close on Melissa, that woman will hunt me down if I don't eliminate her first. I sit on a barstool and glance at my watch. Good thing the appointed time hasn't arrived for the Closing. I have time to figure out who I should kill first.

"Melissa, would you like honey in your tea?"

"No, sugar please," the Mark replies.

With the tapping gone, I focus on the Mark, and I can't describe how I feel standing this close to someone I'm going to kill. I'm talking with her, and I made tea for her. It's weird, eerily weird, and it goes against my personal rules. I could develop a conscience doing this.

I bet that woman had me make tea for the Mark, hoping that somehow it would make me think twice about closing her when the time comes. Well, it won't work. Nothing can sway me from a closing.

"I'm going to check on Andrews," Daniels says and heads out of the kitchen.

"I'll check the back door." Johnson walks into the laundry room.

Looking around, I realize I'm all alone with the Mark. I could easily... I let the notion drop and notice how the Mark looks. I would be the same way if I was the one waiting for death and was powerless to do anything to stop it.

I sprinkle sugar in Melissa's cup with a spoon as Johnson then Daniels returns. I lift my tea and ask, "Do you gentlemen want any?"

"No thank you," they reply.

I sit next to the Mark and sip on the weak black tea as silence fills the room and is only broken by the occasional body shifting or cup clinking on the counter. I still can't believe I'm this close, and it's too much. I have to get out of here for a little while, so I stand and state, "I'm going to check on Katharine."

Upstairs in the little girl's room...

Katharine's view...

Bonnie looks at me and says, "Now, you tell me a story."

"Me..?" I point to myself and tell her, "I don't think I know any stories."

"You can make one up." Bonnie's large brown eyes widen as she pleads, "Please. Please tell me a story."

I turn to Chad, and he leans to me and whispers, "Make one up about yourself. You know, tell her one about Pandora."

"I don't know," I say.

No child would want to hear about my messed-up life. I'd have to skip over a lot of parts like Chad did with the Draven and Salandra story.

"Please," Bonnie pleads this time with her little hands. "It can be a short one."

I melt, seeing how cute she is and give in and say, "Okay."

Kimberly's view...

I make my way up from the kitchen and pause outside the little girl's door and listen to that woman as she talks to Bonnie. I can see most of the room from my position, and I'm about to go in, but I decide to wait.

"There was a–"

"You're supposed to start the story with once upon a time or long ago," the little girl interrupts.

"Okay," that woman says as she sits back in the chair and stares at the white fluffy clouds on the little girl's walls. "Long ago, there lived this woman named Pandora. One day she awoke and didn't know who she was or where she came from and beside her was a small silver chest and–"

"If she didn't know who she was–" the little girl interrupts again, "–how did she know her name was Pandora?"

"How did she know?" she repeats the little girl's question, and then that woman puts a finger to her chin. "Umm..." That woman acts like she's holding a piece of paper as she continues, "There was a note. The note was addressed to Pandora and since she had it, she guessed her name was Pandora."

"Oh," the little girl says and pulls up her covers. "What was in the silver chest?"

"A melody," that woman replies. "The small silver chest was a music box. Pandora opened the lid, and it played a magical tune. The music made her feel happy, but then evil Un-Men... I mean evil trolls appeared wanting to hurt her. They shot at her with, umm... arrows, and Pandora ran and ran. The evil trolls hunted her and nearly caught her."

The little girl asks, "Didn't a knight come and save her?"

"No. No knight. Pandora had to fight on her own. There was no one to help her fight the evil trolls."

"That's so sad," the little girl states. "What happened next?"

"For a long grueling year, Pandora ran from the evil trolls and she found a... a sword along the way and fought them, but no matter how many trolls she defeated, more came. One day, Pandora came across this magical firebird, and together they fought the evil trolls."

The little girl asks, "Pandora found a friend?"

Katharine's view...

A friend? I consider Bonnie's question. Is Kimberly my friend? No, she barely tolerates me, so what does that make us?

For the sake of the story, I answer the little girl, "Yes, Pandora found a friend who would fight by her side and a friend who would always have her back."

Outside in the hall...

Kimberly's view...

That woman thinks I'm her friend, and I snicker to myself. She has to be kidding. I would never be her friend, and she's an idiot to think I'll ever be one to her.

In the bedroom...

The little girl yawns. "That's good. I wouldn't like the story if Pandora was alone."

"Yes, it's not good to be alone."

"What happened next?" the little girl questions as her eyes droop.

"They went to this castle, hoping to find out who Pandora was. Dragons protected the castle. The angry firebird–"

"Why was the firebird angry?" the little girl asks.

"Why?" that woman repeats and then pauses as if she has to think about it.

I lean in close to hear the answer as that woman replies, "I believe the firebird is angry because she is sad. She is sad that her mom is dead. I think she's afraid to show her sadness around others, so she turns it into anger."

It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! That woman doesn't know how I feel; no one knows how I feel.

I turn, head back to the stairs, and the floor creaks. I'm afraid of nothing and when the time comes, I'll kill the Mark and that woman if she gets in my way.

Katharine's view...

Inside the little girl's room, Chad turns at the noise, looks into the hall, and whispers, "Someone's out there."

"Yes, I know," I tell him as I keep my eyes on the now sleeping Bonnie. "It's okay. Kimberly was out there for a while." I reach up and turn off the lamp, and several moon nightlights cast a pale yellow glow on the room. "All right, Chad. Off to bed." I stand and tell him, "I'll be downstairs if you need me."

I pass Daniels who has come up to guard the children's room, and he positions himself right outside their door. I take the stairs down into the kitchen, and Melissa and Kimberly are sitting at the counter drinking tea. Johnson stands at the counter near the refrigerator with his arms folded.

"We must prepare," I state as I sit next to Kimberly. "The Life Closers should be arriving soon. We must be prepared for anything."

"We've done what we can to prepare for them," Johnson tells me. "Andrews has the living room, Daniels the upstairs, and I'll take the kitchen and back area, so that leaves you two to float between the areas."

"What's in the area off from the living room?" Kimberly questions.

I tell her, "Melissa's office is off to the left as you come in the front door and down the hall from that room is where Melissa has set up her lab. There are no outside doors on that end of the house, so all we have to worry about is the front and back doors."

Johnson nods.

"I'm going to check out those two rooms," Kimberly informs us as she straightens and walks out of the kitchen.

Melissa sips her tea, and then she turns to me and says, "Your friend talks less than you do, and she does mutter a lot, and I don't know if it's my nerves or not, but she acts strangely around me. Almost like she's trying not to make eye contact."

"Kimberly's very shy," I try to explain it away as I slide off the bar stool. "I did throw her in this situation out of the blue, and I don't think she interacts with people much." I start out the door into the living room. "I'll go talk with her and see if I can get her to relax a bit."

End Katharine's view...

A few moments after Kat left...

Johnson moved from the counter and stood beside Melissa "Where is Kat from?"

Melissa thought about it. "I'm not sure. Why do you ask?"

Johnson rubbed his neck. "The way she talks, some of the phrases... I've never heard of them." He pushed the kitchen door open, looked into the living room, Andrews nodded to him, and Johnson let the door close. "Maybe she's from the Light Side of the planet."

"Why do you think Kat's from there?"

"Some of the things she says," Johnson replied. "For example, what did she mean by out of the blue?"

Melissa shrugged. "I can safely say that's the least of our worries. I trust Kat. I trust her to protect the children."

"The children? What about yourself?"

She stood, grabbed her cup, and placed it in the sink. "I can't ask for everything and anyway, I've had this feeling all day."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I have this feeling I won't see Tuesday. I feel as though I'm living in my final hours."

"Don't say that!" he snapped. "Don't give up. You can survive this."

"You're right. I shouldn't say such things out loud. I should keep my fears to myself." Melissa grabbed a kitchen rag. "What if the children heard?" She ran water on it, rung the cloth out, moved to the eating area, and wiped the counter down. "I only have to trust you men, Kat, and her friend." She mumbled, "I only have to put all my faith in complete strangers."

Johnson watched her clean. She might trust Kat, but he didn't trust Kat's friend. There was something off about her.

Chapter Thirty-nine

With A Spark

4:48 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

I enter the medium sized office that has a light oak desk with matching bookshelves and a high back brown leather chair. I sit at the desk, remove my H.H.C. from my knapsack, and begin to type an email. I need to find out why the Raven and the Wolf were actually sent to eliminate me, and I don't believe I can question Voice about this since he or she issued my Closing. I send the email.

"Thanatos, this is the Phoenix. I have a situation with Voice I thought you might help me with."

End Kimberly's view...

Somewhere in Noir...

Thanatos worked on the Closings for the day and noticed something interesting pop up as he rubbed the tuft of blond hair under his lower lip. "What do we have here?" He relaxed in a white recliner chair and glanced at the new file on his screen, and it was an email from the Phoenix. Thanatos read the message and then typed, "What situation might that be?"

"Voice has ordered my Closing," Kim replied.

He excitedly rapped the chair's arms with his index fingers as if they were drums. The Phoenix had discovered it and lived to type about it. Thanatos howled, elated over this juicy outcome. The Phoenix was very good and wouldn't die so quickly. He typed, "You should know I cannot interfere with Assassins League business."

Kim knew this wasn't going to be easy as she typed, "You can if the case for my Closing is founded on lies."

The Phoenix wasn't going to give up without a fight, and he was quite amazed by the assassin as he twirled the surgical steel piercing in his left eyebrow, and then he typed, "What lies would that be?"

"I am referring to Mrs. Serqet's Closing in Moscow. I missed my Mark the first time so that part of it is true, but when I went for my second attempt, someone shot the Mark's little girl and another Closer took claim. At the time, I had assumed Voice sent in backup."

"What do you mean by assumed?" Thanatos typed and after he sent the reply, he hacked into Voice's system and pulled up the old case file from Moscow and placed it in the left bottom corner of his large screen.

"The two Closers that were sent to take me out claimed the reason for my Closing was that I was the one who killed the child, but it wasn't me. I never had the chance to take a second shot."

He looked over the file. The Phoenix was right about the second Closer. A backup wasn't recorded, and normally it would mean he or she had none. He wondered if the Phoenix was lying or was something more tantalizing happening.

Kim frantically tapped across the H.H.C. "I saw the second Closer's business card when it was handed to the detective. The detective swiped the card on the Guild's reader, so I don't understand how I was blamed for the mistake. Even so, no matter how unprofessional a mistake like that was, I can't see it as grounds for my Closing."

The Phoenix was right, but surely this wasn't all of the story. Thanatos scratched his bare chest before replying, "You have aroused my curiosity, and I will look into this for you. What is the second Closer's name?"

"Maestro."

Thanatos questioned, "Are you sure that was the name of the Closer?"

"Yes, I heard the detective say it out loud. Why do you ask?"

He pulled up the file. "Maestro has been dead for ten years."

"The two Closers said as much."

"This is fascinating though."

"What is?"

"Maestro's specialty was killing children." Thanatos moved Maestro's file to the side of his screen above the Moscow Closing. "It is becoming more and more fascinating. I will look into this."

"Thank you, Thanatos, signing off." Kim set the H.H.C. on the desk and stared at it.

Earlier in the living room...

Katharine's view...

I exit the kitchen and walk over to Andrews who's standing in the entry and looking at his H.H.C.; it's connected wirelessly to the front door's security camera. I glance over his shoulder as Andrews commands the camera to pan, and he checks the street.

"Anything out of the ordinary?" I ask.

"No," he answers, finishes his sweep of the street, and turns to me. "I've been meaning to talk with you again. In our line of work, there isn't always an opportunity."

"Okay," I reply. I was going to check on Kimberly, but I guess I can take a few moments and chat. I peer at him and still can't believe how much he resembles Argus, and it makes me wish I could talk with Argus like this, but he's always so focused on his work and on not interfering. I pull from my thoughts and question Andrews, "What's up?"

"I wanted to pick up from our last conversation. How did you get started in the protection business? Your training isn't like anything I've seen."

I consider my training and like my past before Etna Toys, I can't recall anything but the feelings of being lost, misplaced, and alone.

I remember his question and repeat it, "How did I get into the protection business?" I reflect on the past year and on the different people I've encountered and then answer, "I really stumbled into it."

"Of what I've seen... I mean the way you handled the Un-Men, you're very good at what you do."

"I try my best," I tell him and then wait for him to ask me some more questions, but only silence follows. I'm not sure what to say to him and wonder if I would also get all shy and mute around Argus if we ever got a chance to really talk. I decide there's no need to stand here if Argus... I mean Andrews' not going to talk to me, so I ask, "Have you seen Kimberly?"

"Your friend went into Ms. Odin's office several minutes ago," Andrews answers as he points to the hallway.

"Thanks." I start towards the hallway, notice the couch in the center of the room, pause, and stare at its shot up leather, and then I turn back around and question him, "How often do you fail at your job?" He stares at me as if he's puzzled by my question, so I ask him, "Have you ever not protected someone? Have they died?"

"Yes," he admits. "But not because the team didn't lay down their lives." His gaze shifts to his H.H.C. as he recounts, "It was about four years ago. We were outnumbered. I was shot three times, and I'm the only one who survived. We were protecting a mother of four." Andrews glances at the kitchen. "She had the good sense to send the children away to live with their grandmother."

"I'm sorry for your loss. I know it's painful to lose someone. What I don't understand is, why are you still a bodyguard? You came so close to death. Wasn't that job enough to fulfill your sense of duty?"

"No, it was a failure. I believe I've been given a second chance, and I won't fail again." Another moment of silence falls between us, and then he asks, "What about you? Have you ever failed?"

I always say I can save everyone, it's the mindset I have to take up, but I know it's not true, and I tell him, "Yes." I think about those I've met over the past year. I protected most of them but a few failures come to mind. "One of them was someone very dear to me." I think about Preacher and how I wasn't even there to try and protect him and that it was my fault. I think about his sister Melissa, her daughter, and Chad. I vow to myself, I will protect them not only for Preacher but because I have failed in the past. I tell Andrews, "We'll do better. There will be no Closings today."

End Katharine's view...

Kat walked past the couch and headed for Melissa's office as Andrews followed her with his eyes. He considered what she meant by Closings. It must have been the slip of the tongue and that Kat just meant Closing. Andrews turned his attention back to the video feed. He also vowed that no one he was protecting would come to any harm.

Katharine's view...

I continue through the hallway, then open the door, and walk into the office. Kimberly's there staring down at her H.H.C., looking all scared and depressed like she's watching someone dig her own grave. I wonder if I should leave her to her thoughts, but I don't think it would do her any good to linger on her possible death, so I ask, "Did you get in touch with Thanatos?"

"He said he would contact Voice but for now..."

I study her face and know that helpless look; it's an expression I've come accustomed to showing, and it's one of the worst experiences in the world. I want to console her. I've been in her situation when no one's been there for me, but I've also been in her situation when someone was. My attempt to tell her I'll be there for her doesn't come out as I hope as I say, "It's not the best feeling to know someone's trying to kill you."

Kimberly's view...

"How would you know?" I snap as I lift my gaze and glare at that woman. I hate it when people try to sympathize with something they have no understanding of. It's like humoring a child so that the child will leave you alone. I'm no child!

Katharine's view...

Kimberly's outburst is filled with fear and anxiety, and I don't reply to it. I only stare at her with a look of understanding. I'm so bad with words, I'm so bad at trying to express what I truly feel. I know I can only try, but sometimes it's so hard feeling this helpless. I continue to look at her with a look of understanding. It's all I can do now and if Kimberly doesn't know by now that I do understand how she feels, then there's no arguing with her.

I want to help her, but I also have to understand how our relationship stands. I'm on the outside looking in a window to Kimberly's life. I feel alone in a crowded world, but how does she feel? Does she feel the same way or is she as cold as she puts on?

Kimberly's view...

I notice her gazing at me with a compassionate look, and I almost yell at her, but then I realize that woman's not mollycoddling me but being sincere, so there's no need of me to have snapped at her. The current situation with my job, not that woman is why I'm all wound up and angry.

I tell her with a bit less anger, "I'm sorry. You of all people do understand what it's like to be hunted."

Katharine's view...

I'm amazed that she actually apologized to me. I don't think I've ever heard her apologize for anything. Again I find that I don't have any words for her. I'm stuck being the quiet one.

Kimberly's view...

I grab my H.H.C. from the desk, pick up my knapsack, place the device in it, and tell her, "There's nothing more I can do but stay alive."

I do need to complete my Closing when the time comes, and that woman isn't going to make it easy, not easy one bit. Hades! My life's becoming complicated.

End Kimberly's view...

Earlier in the living room by the entry...

Andrews tapped the button on his earpiece as he stared at the video feed. "Johnson, there's a large man moving across the street towards the house. He is wearing a WM-D and carrying what appears to be a gasoline can and a large gun case."

In the kitchen...

Johnson moved to the door that connected to the living room. "What's the man doing now?"

In the entry...

Andrews looked at the H.H.C. "The man is making his way up the stoop." Andrews pulled his gun. "The man is dousing the house with the gasoline. Do I engage?"

In the kitchen...

"Negative. I repeat negative." Johnson turned to Melissa and said in a voice that didn't betray his apprehension, "Go upstairs with Daniels."

Without hesitation, Melissa set down her mug and rushed up the steps from the kitchen.

"Daniels, the Closers are making their move," Johnson relayed as he hurried into the living room.

Upstairs...

"Understood," Daniels replied and turned as Melissa came up the stairs to him, and he ushered her into Bonnie's bedroom. "Wake the children. Get them ready to move if we have to."

A lump formed in her throat, and she swallowed hard as she entered the little girl's room. Melissa tried to hide her panic. "Wake children." She closed the door. "Time to get dressed."

Downstairs...

"What's going on?" Kat asked as she and Kim walked into the living room.

Johnson pulled his gun. "We believe the Closers are making their move." He took Andrews' H.H.C. and watched the video feed.

Outside...

The mountain of a man emptied the gas container and set it on the stoop. The Raven removed the Thompson Submachine Gun from its case and aimed it up in the air as if posing for a gangster photo, and then he removed a lighter, turned to the camera, and flicked it on. A small flame came to life.

"Shoot him before he lights the gas!" Andrews shouted, moving toward the front door.

"Wait!" Johnson yelled. "You could ignite the liquid with your gunfire and that antique he's holding will cut you in half. Besides that–" He panned the camera, searching the street. "–wasn't there supposed to be two Closers?"

Kat glanced over Johnson's arm to the H.H.C., peered at the video, and replied, "Yes, maybe he's trying to distract us." She quickly headed for the kitchen. "I'm going to check the back door." Kat hurried through the kitchen and into the laundry room, unlocking the knobs as she went and then cautiously opened the door to the backyard. All seemed fine but... There was a petroleum scent on the wind, and it was more than the smell of Tainted Rain; it was gasoline! She wondered if she was smelling the gas from the front. No, it wasn't faint, so it had to be close. Kat glanced at the wooden fence and rushed back into the house, making sure to lock the doors behind her.

In the living room...

"What did you find?" Johnson asked as Kat returned.

"The back fence is doused with gas and leaves both our exits blocked." She moved to his side to watch the video feed. "My guess is the second Closer is waiting somewhere outback." The camera feed showed the Raven standing on the stoop with the lit lighter in his hand as a breeze whipped the small flame.

"What is he waiting for? Do they plan on burning us out?" Andrews asked.

"More like lure us out," Kim answered. "Death by fire doesn't pay that much. There's property damage the Closer is liable for and that comes out of their pay." Both bodyguards gave her an odd glance, so she added, "Or so I've heard."

Kimberly's view...

Hades! I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut, and it might get me killed. I look at both bodyguards to see if they've caught on to that woman's stupid ruse, but both of them are more concerned with the security camera feed.

"If we don't make a move soon, they will set the fires," Johnson says.

"What do we do?" Andrews questions as I'm wondering the same thing. I don't save people for a living, I end their miserable lives.

"What if... What if the Closers are not sure of their target?" that woman inquires. "Will they still take the shot?"

"They aren't supposed to," Johnson answers. "Why do you ask?"

"I have a plan, but it'll leave everyone in the open. Are you sure they will light the gas?" that woman asks.

"Very sure," Johnson answers. "If we don't come out of the house like they hope, either way by threat or for real, they'll get us outside."

"I agree," I chime in since I am the expert. "Closers don't bluff. He'll set the fire if we don't go outside."

"Gather everyone together," that woman orders us as she grabs her backpack from the couch and puts her Ravlek Vest on over her jacket. "We don't have much time."

Chapter Forty

Plans Into Action

Fifteen minutes earlier...

The raven flew across the street and landed next to the wolf in an alley beside the Bes Hotel, and the wolf looked at the large bird with its golden-yellow eyes. Across the street from them was Melissa's safe house. The raven cawed and took once more to the dark sky and from its lofty view, the large bird looked over the vicinage and surveyed the area. Death would soon be on the wind.

About a block away from Melissa's safe house, Nikolai sat in the Cadillac. He removed his suit jacket, laid it on the back seat, reached into the glove box, and removed the Glock 19. "It is time. Are you ready, my sister? We have been given the go-ahead."

"Yes." Natasha checked the wrist sheathes and whispered to her knives, "Do not worry, my Sweets. You will taste blood soon enough."

"Then let us begin our job. There are no restrictions on which Closing we perform first."

"I am pleased Voice gave us the go-ahead to an early Closing for the Phoenix."

Nikolai tucked the Glock 19 in a holster strapped to his back, grabbed a box, opened it, and removed a Winnow Mask type D. He looked over the full head gear and decided the military version would do nicely. He opened the ashtray under the vehicle's console and removed a plain metal lighter. Nikolai put the WM-D on, grabbed his jacket from the back, exited the car, and placed the jacket on. He put the lighter in his pocket and headed for the trunk.

Natasha threw her coat in the backseat, put on her WM-D, and joined her brother as he opened the back. "Oh... That smell. It is awful!" She waved her hand in front of her mask and motioned inside. "I can smell that thing even through the filter."

"I almost forgot I grabbed it." Nikolai looked at the thing in the trunk. "What you smell is the smell of urine."

"Are you going to use that thing now?" his sister asked.

"No, not yet. It might come in handy later." Nikolai punched the thing in the face, rolled it on its side, and removed the Thompson Submachine Gun's case and a gasoline can. He set both items on the sidewalk and shut the trunk. "Tasha, are you clear on the plan?" he asked over the Winnow Mask's transmitter.

"Yes, very clear." She straightened her red leather outfit, grabbed a gasoline can, a rifle, her satchel, and started across the street.

A few minutes passed, and her brother crossed. A couple walking down the sidewalk looked up and saw the man in the WM-D, his gasoline can, and gun case. They turned and went back the way they came. Nikolai laughed and made his way up to the stoop. He threw the gas on the house, removed the Tommy, and lit the lighter. "Alright you muckers, I'm the gee picked for this Closing, so let's do this," he shouted and then said over the WM-D transmitter, "Tasha, I'm in position."

"As am I." Natasha stood on the roof of an adjacent house overlooking Melissa's backyard. She lifted the rifle and looked through the scope and said, "One of them has come out. She is the woman who was with the Phoenix. I am taking aim. It is too late, she has gone back in."

"No matter," Nikolai replied. "They should flee the house soon and then we will have our fun."

"Are you sure they will split into two groups?" Natasha questioned.

"It is my guess they will if they flee before I set the fire, and I believe they will also do so if I start the fire." He shifted his weight and then said, "If they prolong anymore, I will set it ablaze and if it comes to that, they may all leave at once or split into two or more groups so be on your guard, my sister."

Natasha removed a knife, glanced at a road flare she held in the other hand, and then looked at the back door. A few more minutes went by, and she said, "Nothing new on my end. This is boring. Do make them come out."

"It is time." He stepped back and threw the lit lighter at the side of the house. The gas ignited, and flames quickly engulfed the wall and front door.

"I have movement!" Natasha yelled, excited as she readied to throw her knife, preferring to use it over the rifle.

A blur of dark colored material emerged from the house and made its way to the gate and at first, she didn't know what it was, and then she realized it was a large blanket or two. A hand reached up from under the forest-green comforter and opened the gate, and they started out the gate like a delirious Chinese parade dragon.

"A group of them has come out of the house covered with two large blankets," she reported as she drew back her hand to release a deadly knife. Two bullets whizzed by her head, and she ducked behind the ledge of the roof. Natasha pulled the top of the road flare, threw it over the roof, and hit the fence. The gasoline ignited, and flames rapidly spread across the wood as a little girl screamed. The fire lapped at the comforter and hissed as it was repelled by the cloak of forest-green. The flames ate away at the wooden fence but cowered from the comforter as the last of the Chinese parade dragon exited the gate. A second wave of bullets whizzed by Natasha, and she heard the little girl scream again.

"Nikolai!" Natasha yelled. "They made it past the fence and are running through the vacant lot. I don't know how many came out."

"Understood." Nikolai aimed the Tommy at the front door consumed by flames and shot. He sent an onslaught of metal, hoping to clear a path inside for himself. He stopped, reloaded, ran at the door like a maniac, and kicked it in. Nikolai quickly checked inside the entry, then the living room, and soon he had checked the entire house. "Tasha."

"Yes, my brother."

"The house is clear. They all must have escaped out the back. Have you followed them?"

"Yes, they have gone underground like rats. They have made our job much more interesting." Natasha glanced behind herself and saw Melissa's safe house burning as the flames lit up the dark heavens in a halo of red, yellow, and orange. "Do bring the car to the back street. It is time we ashed the Phoenix."

Chapter Forty-one

Underground

Earlier...

The safe house...

"This is the plan," Kat began as she stood at the laundry room sink, drowning two large comforters. "We'll cover ourselves with these blankets and hopefully, they'll confuse the Closers long enough for us to escape out the back fence. The wet blankets should protect us if the Closers ignite the gas. We'll position the three bodyguards up front, Melissa, Chad, and Bonnie in the middle, and me and Kimberly in the back."

Johnson asked, "Once we clear the fence, then what?"

"Then we head for the abandoned subway and make our stand down there." Kat dried her hands on a towel. "Do you have all your equipment?"

The three bodyguards looked at their duffle bags, and Kim glanced at her knapsack, and then everyone nodded.

"Good." Kat slung her backpack over her Ravlek Vest. "Let's head out." She picked up the dripping forest-green blankets and handed one to Johnson and the other to Daniels.

"Mommy, I'm scared." Bonnie squeezed her mother's hand as she shook her head and her black curly hair bounced. "I don't want to play this game."

"I know honey, but we're only going to play it for a little while." Melissa knelt beside her daughter. "All right?"

Bonnie rubbed her eye. "I'm tired."

"I know honey." Melissa wiped a tear from her own cheek. "I know you're tired, so for mommy, please... Please play the game."

The little girl nodded. "All right."

The group of eight formed a line at the back door and covered themselves with the two wet blankets, but the lineup had changed slightly. It became Daniels' job to hold the blankets together. Johnson led, followed by Andrews then Chad. Melissa and Bonnie were behind Daniels and then Kim and Kat. Melissa kept Bonnie by her side. It was dark under the comforters, and all each person could see was the tile floor and the person in front of them. The blankets dripped, forming small puddles and soaked the tops of the group.

"Everyone ready?" Johnson asked.

Andrews looked at his H.H.C. to keep an eye on Nikolai. "Johnson, the Closer threw the lighter! The front's on fire!"

"Move!" Johnson yelled as he opened the back door.

They all hurried out. Johnson kept a fast pace, but one Chad and Bonnie could keep up with and as they neared the gate, he reached his hand out. Kat flipped the side of her blanket up a little, looked up from the darkness of the comforter, and noticed a figure on the rooftop of the neighbor's house. Kat saw the glint of metal as the Wolf raised a knife, so Kat fired two warning shots over her head, and the Wolf ducked.

"Did you get them?" Kim asked.

"No."

"No? I thought you're supposed to be a good shot."

Kat didn't reply as Johnson opened the gate, and the group started through.

"Well? Why did you miss?" Kim questioned.

"I wasn't aiming for her," Kat answered.

"Are you serious?" Kim yelled, but the rest of the sentence was muffled by the bodyguards' shouts.

Natasha had thrown the road flare on the doused wood, fire consumed the fence, and Bonnie screamed. Melissa picked up the crying child and carried her. Fire lapped at the blankets and hissed as the water soaked material repelled the flames. The group felt the heat at their legs and heard the crackle and before Kat exited the gate, she fired a second time at the Wolf.

Bonnie covered her ears for the loud bangs and finally screamed again in fear. "Mommie, I want to go home!"

Melissa broke down crying. "It will be all right. It will be all right."

Johnson led them through the vacant lot, across the deserted street, and to the cage surrounding the entrance to the subway. He withdrew his gun, fired several times at the lock, opened the chain-link gate, and started down the stairs and once they reached the bottom, they removed the two blankets and dropped the smoldering comforters to the floor. Bonnie still cried, and Chad was pale with fright. The area was dark so the bodyguards, Melissa, Kim, and Kat removed flashlights and continued.

"Everyone, this way," Johnson ordered, making his way down a hall. He glanced back several times to see if the Closers followed.

"Johnson, what do you think?" Kat asked. "Should we split up or stay together?"

"Split up," Johnson answered as they came to a line of turnstiles. He helped Chad over as Andrews and Daniels assisted Melissa and Bonnie.

They continued and went down a second set of stairs and ahead of them about fifty feet, they saw lights and a crossing passage.

"The power's still on," Daniels said surprised. "Do you think people are living down here?"

"Never know," Andrews said. "But once the gunfire starts, we don't have to worry about it."

Everyone turned off their flashlights as they entered the lighted passage.

Johnson led them and stopped at the end where it opened to a platform. "We'll split up here. Me, Andrews, and Daniels will go back and hold off the Closers as long as we can."

"Okay." Kat studied the platform and the narrow sidewalk that continued to another passage through a tunnel. "Me and Kimberly will take Melissa and the children to the next platform and there, we'll find somewhere to hide." She looked at Kim. "We'll protect them with our lives," Kat spoke and then emphasized the next statement as she said, "No harm will come to them." She noticed Kim glared at her, and it was a subtle glare.

Kat led, followed by Melissa carrying Bonnie, then Chad and Kim hurried behind them. They quickly walked across the narrow sidewalk that ran along the tunnel, then they rushed through the passage and after about fifteen minutes, they heard gunfire.

Melissa paused. "The men!"

"We have to hurry and stick with the plan," Kat insisted, and Melissa nodded to her and followed.

The five of them continued across the narrow sidewalk as it curved around a corner, and then it headed for a second platform and there a subway train stood where it had been abandoned nearly three decades ago. They passed many posters on the walls that depicted a bygone era, and one caught Kat's eye; it was of a sunny beach and written on it was, "Wish you were somewhere else?"

Kat moved to the first car. "Kimberly, give me a hand." She tried to pry the sliding doors open.

"What are you thinking?" Kim asked.

"That we don't have much time."

Together they forced the doors opened, and then Kat said, "Quickly, everyone in. The Closers will be here soon."

Melissa ushered the children in and whispered, "You don't think Johnson and the others will stop them?"

Kat looked at Kim who shook her head, and Kat replied, "It's better to be prepared in case they don't succeed. Now quickly get in." Kat took one last look at the tunnel they had come through, and then she followed Melissa and the others.

Chapter Forty-two

Red Brick Street

Earlier...

5:59 P.M...

The next road over from Brownstone Street...

Red Brick Street was for the most part empty. A tall iron clock chimed six times as a stray brown cat scurried up a Transgenic Maple and scanned the road below. Something stalked it from the shadows, and it was something that didn't belong in the city. A breeze rustled the leaves of the maple and parted the veil of green that concealed the feline and within the safety of the tree, the cat turned its attention above. A large raven cawed from the dark sky like an omen of death, then the cat hissed at the black bird, and it hissed until a howl sounded across the neighborhood. The feline lay low on the branch, hiding from the foreign invader as the wolf walked across the vacant lot to the tree, looked at the cat, and then to her brother in the feather. The raven floated on the wind and then soared with the drafts. The house behind the wolf burned as sirens blared in the distance, and she sniffed the air filled with the scent of smoke and petroleum as hunger rumbled her stomach. The wolf studied the feline, knowing this dinner had evaded her and stood still as the breeze brushed her thick fur. She would not be able to resist her hunger or her bloodlust for much longer.

Across the street...

Nikolai and Natasha stood at the back of the Cadillac and stared inside the open trunk, and Natasha winked at the thing in the trunk.

"Tasha, the bodyguards and the Phoenix will be waiting for us." He spoke over the transmitter of the Winnow Mask as he lifted the Tommy to rest his elbow on his side.

"Yes, I know." She glanced at two of the small canisters she retrieved from the backseat. "These will make things fairer, that is, fairer for us, and do not forget the Phoenix has a friend. The woman who mocked us with the piece of candy must also be eliminated."

"I have not forgotten about her, and her death should be easy enough to write off in our report for Voice." He looked at his sister. "When the time comes, do you want to take care of her?"

"Yes, she is mine and the Phoenix is yours." She looked at the canisters. "Will these be enough to break their lines?"

"Those and the surprise I picked up from Wayfaring Lane should be enough, my sister." He reached into the trunk and grabbed the thing. "Time to go, my friend." Nikolai curled his lip and in his best impression of a gangster, said, "Time to bring this show to an end."

Down in the subway...

Johnson waited at one of the corners across the hall about fifty feet from the bottom of the second set of stairs. The lighted passage stood behind them along with the first platform and the subway track, and he glanced at Daniels who knelt beside him and took aim for the steps. Andrews waited at the other corner, watching the hall, and Andrews glanced at the grenades and spare magazines in his duffle bag.

"I hear someone coming," Johnson said. "Get ready!"

They tensed as seconds then minutes went by and for a moment, they thought it was a false alarm till a sound grabbed their attention. A small object clanged down the second set of stairs like a tin can, and it landed at the bottom of the steps, rolled in their direction, and hissed opened, spraying white smoke. The fog-like substance thickened till it created a cloudy wall, and then a wave of bullets fired from the stairs. They ducked around the corners, taking cover and after the metal barrage ended, they blindly shot into the smoke. They heard a muffled cry and someone fall to the concrete floor, and a large hand fell out of the smoke, holding a Glock 19.

"Did we get one of them?" Daniels asked.

"Looks like it," Andrews answered. "Be careful though, there's still a second Closer out there."

"Do not shoot," Natasha yelled as she came out of the smoke, holding her side.

"Raise your hands and kneel," Andrews shouted.

She lifted her hands and knelt as if in pain as blood covered her one hand and side. "Do not shoot," Natasha repeated and glanced at the man beside her. "My brother!" She bowed her head and sobbed. "You have killed my brother."

Andrews and Daniels cautiously moved toward them as the smoke slowly dissipated, and Johnson covered them from the corner. Natasha continued sobbing, then she lifted her head and wailed, and then her cries turned to laughter. Andrews and Daniels stopped about six feet from her.

"Fools!" she yelled and dove to the floor.

The smoke dissipated enough that they could see a third figure had appeared at the top of the stairs.

Andrews looked at the man on the floor. He was dirty and wore worn clothes. "He's a vagrant," he said and yelled, "Johnson, it's a trap!" Andrews raised his gun, but it was too late.

Nikolai turned his Tommy on them and opened fire from the top of the stairs. His attack took down Andrews and Daniels. Johnson opened fire as Natasha threw a second canister across the hall towards him, and the white smoke blocked his view.

He pressed the button on his earpiece and yelled, "Andrews! Daniels! Are you all right?" There was no answer, so Johnson frantically repeated, "Andrews! Daniels! Are you all right?" There was still no answer. They had been tricked, so Johnson grabbed his duffle bag and cursed, "Hathor!"

He ran for the platform and then in the direction of Melissa and the children; he had to reach them before the Closers did.

Chapter Forty-three

The Subway Train

6:39 P.M...

Katharine's view...

Silence... For ten minutes, no noise comes from the tunnel passage where we all know the bodyguards are standing their ground. The gun blasts and shouts have long since died, and everyone fears the worse. The eerie stillness numbs the senses and fills me and most likely Kimberly and Melissa's thoughts with nightmarish scenarios of the bodyguards' fates. The subway train we're in consists of ten cars, and each one's connected to the next by two doors that open into each compartment. The length of each car is thirty feet, and each car has two sets of sliding doors on the side that open to the platform. Large windows cover both sides of the car, an aisle runs down the middle, and padded seats covered with dust face the aisle on both sides. Poles positioned on each side of the sliding doors once allowed passengers to stand and wait for their stop. Me, Melissa, the two children, and Kimberly hide in the fifth car from the front. We've opened all the connecting doors running from the first through the tenth car, and the doors that exit to the subway train are all shut. I glance at Melissa who's holding Bonnie as Chad sits close to them, and the silence continues.

Kimberly's beside me, staring at her PPK as she ejects the gun's magazine three times; it's full.

"How's your ammo?" I question, noticing her fidgeting. I couldn't come up with anything else to ask her so that's my lame question. Kimberly's usually so calm and cool, but I guess even assassins fear death.

Kimberly's view...

"I have plenty," I answer that woman. "There are more magazines in my knapsack." I glance at her, seeing the look of concern. I would usually be angry at her for even considering a tiny bit of concern for me but for some reason, it makes me feel somewhat better, and I thank her in my own way by saying, "Don't worry. I'm fine."

It's agonizing waiting for someone to kill me. I don't know how that woman existed in this fear-inducing state for a year. I don't think I could have and if it had been me, I probably would have offed myself a long time ago.

Katharine's view..

"It will be fine," Melissa adds, trying to encourage us. "Johnson and his men know what they're doing." She repeats as if trying to convince herself, "It will all be fine. They'll take care of the Life Closers and then come for us, so everything will be fine. None of us will die."

I'm about to move and say something to encourage Melissa, but footsteps echo across the tunnel passage as someone runs toward the second platform from the first. I rush to the front along with Kimberly and look out the window. We watch the curve, waiting for the person to appear. Johnson rushes around, glancing over his shoulder, and he slows as he sees the second platform and the subway train, and then he searches for us. Kimberly and myself pry open the first car's set of sliding doors to the platform. We glance around the area and check for the Life Closers, and we see no one else.

"In here," I yell as I wave him over.

Johnson glances once more over his shoulder and enters the first car as he pants from running. He mutters, "I'm getting too old for this." Johnson swallows hard and informs us, "The Closers got Andrews and Daniels." He pauses, catching his breath. "The Closers aren't far behind, so we only have minutes."

Sadness, hurt, and confusion have their way with me as I can't believe the news. Andrews and Daniels are dead? But they..? I force all of those distractions to the side. I don't have time to deal with them. I'll grieve when everyone's safe. I motion behind myself and tell Johnson, "Melissa and the children are in the fifth car. Go back and stay with them and give yourself a little time to rest."

He starts to go back and pauses. "Watch out for the Closers. They like to play dirty." He heads back.

I wait till he leaves, turn to Kimberly, and ask another lame question, "Are you ready? We have to stop them here. "

"I'm ready? But are you, Ms. High And Mighty?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not the one who won't kill," Kimberly says, and then she informs me, "The only way we're going to stop the Raven and the Wolf is if we stop them cold, and I do mean make corpses out of them." She points a finger at me and states, "You'll have to take someone's life. You won't stop them by merely wounding them. I know their kind, and I have dealt with their kind. The Raven and the Wolf are too dedicated to their work, or more like, they enjoy it too much to be stopped by a mere flesh wound." I don't respond to her statement, so Kimberly questions me, "Are you listening? You can't hesitate. You have to kill them, if not for my sake then at least for Melissa and the children's."

"I'll do what has to be done," I finally respond. "I'll protect everyone."

"Isn't that statement a little late?" Her voice raises out of anger as Kimberly tells me, "Daniels and Andrews are dead. You didn't protect them." She turns to draw my attention back to the tunnel passage, and she states, "They might still be alive if you had taken the shot outside of the safe house and killed the Life Closer on the roof."

"Don't you think I know that?" I snap, no longer holding back my guilt. I'm aware of what my actions have done, and I whisper, "I keep replaying the event in my mind. I know I could have easily aimed for her head."

Kimberly's view...

"For Ares' sake!" I shout as I throw up my hands. "Then stop your whining about killing and take out the Raven and the Wolf. How else are you going to protect me?"

I'm taken aback by my own words. I'm relying on that woman to save me. The Raven and the Wolf have rattled me but even if that's the case, I still wouldn't normally believe anyone would save me. I have to get my head on straight.

Katharine's view...

"I'll find a way to protect everyone," I answer.

I'll find a way for everyone's sake, and I'll do it without taking a life. There's a reason I shouldn't take a life, and I know it deep inside. I can't complete the Gamma Phase. If I do, it'll change everything. I stare at my gun. I won't take a life even if it cost me my own.

"You'll find a way?" Kimberly utters. "For our sake, I hope you do, otherwise, we'll end up like Andrews and Daniels."

Chapter Forty-four

Here They Come

7:07 P.M...

In between platform one and two...

The twin Life Closers stopped before the curve and looked at one another. Gore still covered Natasha's hand where she smeared blood from the vagrant's bullet wound, and Nikolai no longer held the Tommy. He left the empty submachine gun back at the hall where they killed the two bodyguards.

"We let one escape," she said. "It was sloppy of us. He is most likely with the Mark."

"Do not worry, my sister." Nikolai removed a Glock 25 from his shoulder holster; he had taken the Glock 19 from the vagrant and placed it in the other holster on his back. "It does not matter if they know we are coming. We will complete the Closing, and we will return to our homeland."

She stroked the side of his mask with the back of her hand, smearing a little blood on his WM-D. "Let us bring doom then." Natasha removed the second canister from her satchel. "What do you think, my brother? Are they in the subway train or have they escaped through another tunnel?"

"I would be on the train if I were them. It gives them some protection." He turned to his sister, pointed to the canister she held, and asked, "Tasha, how many more of those do you have?"

"Five. Why do you ask?"

"It is time for another wall of smoke. We cannot make it too easy for them to kill us."

On the subway train...

Kimberly's view...

"Hades... I hate waiting," I mutter as I impatiently stare out the window to the curve. I would never make it as a bodyguard. I tap my foot anxiously. "Being a Closer is much easier," I tell that woman. "All I have to do is show up at the spot, wait maybe an hour or two, and bang! The job's done."

"Not so loud. Do you want everyone to hear?" that woman scolds me as she glares at me. "And how can you say easy? Killing someone isn't. Every time you take a life it does something to your soul." She turns her attention away from me and back to the curve. "Anyway, I thought you hated your job. I thought you hated what you do for a living."

"What are you babbling?" I ask. That woman doesn't know what she's talking about, and I inform her, "I don't hate my job."

Katharine's view...

I know Kimberly's lying to me again. Does it really help her to cope with the current situation to make things up? I question her, "If you like what you do, why don't you smile? Why do you always look so miserable?"

Her dismal expression worsens as Kimberly says, "I don't look miserable."

Kimberly's view...

I'm agitated over that woman's stupid comments, and I add, "And mind your own business! I never asked your opinion."

I tap my foot faster. That woman can't be right, no, there's no way she's right. A little time passes, and I can't help but consider her statement. Am I doing something I hate? I do blame my father for getting me into the business. Is it because I despise my job?

Sure... I don't have a life, I have no friends and really no family, but does that make me miserable? I convince myself that it doesn't.

Katharine's view...

Maybe I should drop it, and we can talk about it later. I stare at Kimberly's nervous foot. She has enough to think about right now, and there's no need to make her feel worse than she already does.

Kimberly notices me looking at her and stops the distracting thumping as she says, "Sorry."

"Don't worry..." I tell her as I rub my left thumbnail against my index finger and rub it red. "We all have bad habits."

"Bad habits aside," Kimberly begins as she's the one who can't put the topic aside for now, and she informs me, "I never said I liked my job. I don't hate it, but I don't like it."

"Oh..." I reply, knowing she's only telling me what she wants to hear herself. "That's too bad."

"Too bad? For Ares' sake!" Kimberly shouts, lowers her voice, and asks, "What's too bad?"

I start to answer her, "That..." I pause, realizing Kimberly honestly doesn't see it. She has somehow convinced herself that the life she has is the life she wants. I debate whether or not to say anything more, and then I realize I'm already all in, so I answer, "It's too bad that you lie even to yourself."

Kimberly's view...

"I don't!" I insist. "Hades! I don't..." I stop myself from saying anymore as I consider her statement. I know myself... I know myself more than anyone else, and I haven't become so used to deceiving others that I also lie to myself. For Ares' sake! I've let that woman get to me for even considering her stupid notion.

I blurt, "I didn't want to tell you before because I knew you'd get all freaky around me, but of course I enjoy killing people! Why else would I be doing it?"

She looks upset with me and that woman puts a finger to her mouth and utters, "Shhh..." She glances across the cars in the direction of Melissa, Johnson, and the children, then turns back to me, and says, "Don't talk like that. The others might hear you."

"Fine, but it's not like it's going to matter. We're probably all dead unless we can take out those Closers, and I do mean kill them."

"Quiet," that woman orders me like somehow since our conversation she has become the boss of me.

"Why are you yelling at me again?" I ask. "I didn't say anything about me being a–"

"Closers," that woman interrupts me. "They're making their move."

"Oh..." I say as I turn to where the Raven and the Wolf stand, and they're out of range of the handguns or at least out of my range. I yell at that woman, "Shoot them already!"

Before that woman has time to react to my order that sounds more like a plea, the Raven and the Wolf throw some sort of canisters at the subway train, and soon smoke engulfs the cars.

"I don't like this," that woman states.

I give her a frustrated look as I inform her as if I have to, "You're not supposed to like this." I shake my head as this whole thing with that woman has become ridiculous, and I yell at her, "What kind of statement is that? If you don't have anything useful to say, I would suggest you keep your opinions–"

"Go back and help Johnson," that woman interrupts me again as if she has no fear of what I am or what I can do to her and everyone she cares about. She starts to pry the side doors open.

I'm about to argue with her or at least clear up our roles as predator and stupid idiot, but then I glance at Melissa and remember her Closing. I could use this opportunity to take out my Mark, but I have my own Closing to worry about. I tell that woman without sounding like I'm confessing something, "I would prefer to stay with you."

She grunts as she pries the doors open and says, "Please, go back and help Johnson." She turns her attention back to the Raven and the Wolf. "I have a feeling he'll need you."

"Fine, but what are you going to..?"

Without another word or any more directions for me, that woman races from the car and into the smoke.

"Wait! Don't go out there by yourself!" I yell at her, and then I gripe, "Idiot!" She's gone, and I'm left with a decision to listen to her or... I resent her abandoning me to my fears, but I go ahead, do as ordered, and make my way to the back. I stay low so that I don't stand out as a target as the smoke rises up to the windows. What's that woman thinking? We're partners through all of this, and we should stick together.

Chapter Forty-five

Protect Melissa And The Children

7:25 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

White smoke rises and engulfs the subway cars and the surrounding area. Good thing we made sure all the windows were closed or the smoke would be in here with us. I pause before I make my way to the back and remember that the front car's platform facing doors are open. Smoke floats in, filling the front half of the empty car. I'd go shut the door, but that woman might need a place to retreat to in a hurry, so I continue on to the back to join the others. Johnson had moved Melissa and the children to the last car. Silence hovers over me like fog in a graveyard, and it's eerily foreboding and conceals many possible horrors. I push open the connecting door, and it slides open with a squeal. I quickly enter, remembering to stay low, and then I shut the door. Johnson aims his weapon at me, making sure I'm not one of the Life Closers who might have made their way in the car, and then he quickly looks back out the window. Melissa huddles with the children in the last car, and Johnson squats beside them and peers out a platform facing window. I can't see past the wall of white and that's making me on edge.

"This is the same tactic the Life Closers used at the stairs," Johnson informs me as he's apparently angry over the loss of his men. "They made us believe they had been shot, and we fell for it!"

I squat beside a different window and tell him, "We'll be prepared for any trickery."

"Where's Kat?" Melissa asks.

"She stepped out for a bit," I inform her.

"Oh..." Melissa sounds worried and says nothing more to frighten the children.

"No really," I say, and I'm not sure if it's to convince Melissa or myself. "Katharine went to deal with the Life Closers, so she's fine." I add a smile to my lie to sell it as I state, "So no worries."

Melissa believes me or she at least pretends to for the sake of the children. Melissa softly speaks to them, "Did you hear that? Everything's going to be fine."

I look at Melissa and the children and consider what Voice is up to. The Regulator sent me on this Life Closing and then sent the Raven and the Wolf after me like it was some sort of test. I consider that Voice is watching to see what I'll do. I pull on my left earlobe. If I complete my Closing and kill Melissa, will Voice cancel my Closing? Is that all I have to do to get myself out of this mess?

Johnson shifts his legs as if he's cramping a bit in his squatted position, and then he glances out the window again and says, "We can't fall for their trickery. We have to hold our–"

Large hands smash through the window, sending shards flying, and the huge hands drag Johnson through the window, cutting him on jagged pieces of glass left in the frame. I hear Melissa and the children scream as I shield my face with my gun hand and lean away from the clear projectiles. Johnson yells before disappearing, and I quickly run to the window. I can't see him in the smoke. I'd shoot, but I'm afraid I'd hit Johnson and for now, I need him to watch my back.

Hades! Where's that woman? She left me alone with these people and... I realize I'm the only one with Melissa and the children and that there's no bodyguard to protect the Mark. Glancing at Melissa, I debate whether or not to complete the Life Closing I was assigned. If I do, I'll have to deal with that woman, and she might kill me for completing it no matter what she says about not taking a life. I don't want to get in a battle with her; I still need her.

Hades! The things I do for that woman and lately, I've been going against my nature.

I wave for the three and say, "Melissa, it's time." I move to the opposite side of the car and slide open the door to an empty sidewalk as I continue, "Take your children and run and don't stop." I step to the sidewalk and search the area over the barrel of my gun. The smoke thins, and I see a clearing as Melissa and the children creep out to the sidewalk, and I order, "Go as deep into the subway tunnel as you can. We'll hold the Closers here."

Melissa lifts Bonnie into her arms and grabs Chad by the hand, and they flee. I run with them for about a minute, covering them as they run through the thinning smoke.

"Don't stop," I remind them before I run back, re-enter the side door, cautiously move to the broken window, and glance out. The smoke looms, blanketing everything that's on the platform, and I can't see anything, but I hear a scuffle. I open the side door facing the platform, exit, pause, and listen, and I hear the men grunting as they fight each other, so I hurry in that direction. I run to where the Raven and Johnson wrestle. The Raven has him in a headlock, and Johnson's gun is laying on the ground about three feet away from him as he struggles against the Raven. I quickly take aim while I have the chance.

"Shoot!" Johnson yells through labored breath once he sees me. "Kill him!"

"I don't have a clear shot," I shout back.

"Shoot!" Johnson insists. "Shoot!"

I yell, "For Ares' sake! Fine!"

I fire. The bullet strikes the outside of Johnson's thigh, and he cries out in pain.

"Puck! You hit me!" Johnson yells as if that wasn't what he intended when he ordered me to shoot. He curses me, "Setna's plight be upon you and your household!"

Chapter Forty-six

Happily Ever After

Earlier...

Katharine's view...

I rush out of the front car of the subway train and through the smoke, thinking I can quickly attack our enemy and save everyone. I find that I'm not as gung-ho once I'm in the thick of the smoke, and I move to the walkway careful of my steps. The smoke's all white but for me, it's like I'm walking through a dark forest that completely surrounds me. I'm unsure of my footing as if I'm afraid I'll trip over some fantasy-conceived root or get tangled up in some conjured vines from the wilds of my imagination. The denseness of the smoke gives me a feeling of being lost and isolated. I can't see a thing, so I'll have to rely on my instincts. The smoke smells like chemicals, and the dry almost nothingness of it touches my face like a creepy phantom hand. It takes ahold of me, but I can do nothing to it as if it has some sort of magical power over me. I slowly continue on as I try not to let my untamed thoughts get the better of me, and I'm barely able to see my feet let alone where the Raven and the Wolf are. They're creatures of the dark forest, and I feel like Little Red Riding Hood who has lost her way to Grandma's house. I shuffle across the platform towards the back of the train or I believe I'm moving in that direction. I put my hands out, searching for anything I might run into as I wonder if I'm walking in circles. I wish I had more control of my abilities. I mastered the Beta Phase, but the Alpha and Delta Phases are only triggered by the presence of a bio-mecha, and the ability to sense my enemies would come in handy right about now.

The creepy quiet puts me on edge, and I still have no idea where the silent Raven and the stealthy Wolf are. I thought I heard a sound earlier and that's why I left Chad and the others in the care of Johnson and Kimberly.

I scan the area. Maybe I should go back to the subway train and... A metal object flies out of the smoke, cutting me across the shoulder. I hear the object hit a car behind me with a ping as I quickly move to the side and back towards the front of the train. I raise my gun but hesitate, knowing I can't fire. I have to be sure of what I'm hitting. Another knife flies out of the white towards my neck, and I dive sideways, scarcely evade the attack, and land on my stomach. The attack would have killed me if I hadn't of leapt out of its way. I scan the ghostly mist. How did the Closer know where to throw the weapon? Is the Closer hearing me or does she have equipment that allows her to see me?

I crawl to the train, find two throwing knives lying in front of a car, and pick them up. I think I figured it out. The first throw was a blind throw. I touch my shoulder, a very lucky blind throw. The Closer heard me move after the first attack and threw again in my direction. Maybe I can use the same method. I place my gun in my other hand, and then I fling a knife, handle first so not to hurt anyone. The knife hits a wall, so I throw a second time in a different spot and hear it hit the wall again.

"You have discovered my method," the Wolf yells to me and she's not even near where I threw the knives.

If I'm to have any chance in this fight, I need to get clear of this smoke, and maybe I can draw the Closer back to where we came in and away from the others. I sprint across the platform and clear the cloudy whiteness. Knives fly out of the smoke after me, and they miss.

"Where are you going?" the Wolf asks. "Are you fleeing or do you hope to drag me out of hiding? Maybe I will leave you for now and look for Ms. Odin or the Phoenix."

Her threat sends me into panic-mode, and I charge back into the smoke and lift my arms to shield my face. I run to a wall and put my back to it, expecting knives to fly at me. The smoke slowly dissipates as I look beside me and see one of the framed posters from earlier with the writing, "Wish you were somewhere else?"

I do wish I was somewhere else and anywhere would be good right now. I slide along the wall and bump the frame, and the poster rocks. It's loose, so I remove it, rush through the mist, and spot the Wolf. I can tell she towers over me like a Lantern Pine towers over a blade of Transgenic Grass.

Natasha's view...

I see a blur charging out of the smoke and throw a knife and then a second. The blades strike with a thud... thud... It sounds like my Sweets hit something other than flesh. The plain one who protects the Phoenix must have acquired something to shield herself from my attacks. No matter. I am the Wolf. I have more than just my teeth.

Katharine's view...

That was close! I quickly run away from the Wolf as I stare at two blades embedded in the wood just inches from my face. My back's to her, so I quickly turn around and charge again, holding the three by five-foot poster mounted on a wooden back as a shield. The knives embedded deep through the thin backing, so I don't know how many more attacks this thing can take before it breaks apart. The smoke continues to thin as I increase speed, and then I see the Wolf reach for her wrist sheath again. She pulls another knife but by then, I ram into her and slam her into the wall. The blow knocks her head against the concrete blocks and breaks the poster in half. The Wolf drops the knife she removed, grabs her head, and collapses to her knees.

"Mongrel..." the Wolf curses at me from the floor, and then she stands a little dazed and removes a new knife. "You think you can win against me?"

Crap... My shield's gone. We stare at one another for a split second as I notice she's holding the knife differently than before. It's as if she's ready for hand to hand combat. I drop the broken poster, take a few steps back, and remove my Beretta I had tucked in the back of my pants waistband. I aim and shout, "Don't move."

Natasha's view...

I moisten my lips with my tongue, looking over the not so delicious little mongrel. My prey has no idea what is coming, and I smirk as I peer past her. The plain woman makes a face as if she is wondering what I am looking at and before she has a chance to turn, quick heavy footsteps answer the who as a large hand flies out of what is left of the smoke. My brother seizes her gun and pushes the plain woman some distance to the wall.

He walks over to me with his new trophy and says, "Tasha, she is all yours."

"Thank you, my brother." I remove a second knife and tell him, "Not that I needed your help."

"I did not think you did." He walks past me and states, "She was in my way that is all. I will take out the last bodyguard, and then we can both kill the Phoenix."

"Promise."

"Yes, that is a promise," he replies as the smoke in our area nearly vanishes.

"See you later at the Phoenix roast," I say, turn, and as the plain woman starts to move off of the wall she was smashed up against, I lunge for her.

Katharine's view...

I don't know what happened. One moment I was facing the Wolf and then another I was flying through the air into the wall. I did hit hard, and it takes me a while to move off of it and regain my bearings as I turn and see...

"Oh, crap!"

An Amazon of a woman's running at me with her two blades ready to slice into me. I quickly push myself off the wall and search for the broken poster. I find one of the pieces that's now only two-foot long and grab it right before the Wolf strikes. She brings her knives down to gouge out my eyes, but I somehow manage to block her first attack with my left arm. I swing the wood for her head, and the Wolf pulls back her attack and blocks my makeshift club with her fists that are locked around her knife handles. The wood smacks her knuckles and the Wolf grimaces, but then she sidekicks me in the stomach. I stumble back, holding onto the wooden poster piece. My Ravlek Vest took the brunt of her kick.

"You are not very good at hand to hand," the Wolf comments.

"Is it... that apparent?" I gasp a little out of breath as I grab the broken poster with both hands. "I was hoping to hide that fact."

"You would think one in your line of business would be better trained."

"I mostly shoot and run away. There's not much training needed there."

The Wolf comments, "You do not seem like any of the bodyguards I have encountered. If that is what you are. You did rescue the Phoenix. Why would a bodyguard save a Closer intent on killing the one they are protecting?" She pauses and then states, "Or are you the Phoenix's partner? Is this a trick to get close to Ms. Odin?"

"No," I insist. "I'm a protector, not a murderer."

The Wolf whips around with a spin kick, and I duck, drop the poster, and whirl with a backward sweep kick. I make contact, and the Wolf falls to her side but quickly rolls to her feet.

"Maybe I spoke too soon. You have some training." The Wolf charges with her knives as she adds, "You are merely not that good."

I pick up the poster, bring the wood over my head, and chop with it like a sword. The Wolf blocks it with her blades.

"Tell me. What is your name?" the Wolf questions me through her mask's intercom.

"Kat."

"Such a simple name Cat, Kitty Cat."

"Actually, it's short for Katharine."

The Wolf questions me, "Did you tell me your real name?"

I nod as we continue our fight, and then I ask, "And you? What's your name?"

"I am the Wolf."

"I figured out that much. What's your real name?"

"I do not tell mongrels what my real name is. You should also do the same," the Wolf tells me, and then she says, "Enough with the idle talk. I did come here to kill you."

She lunges for me, swiping both of her knives for my throat. I move hurriedly backward to evade the slashes, and it reminds me of when the Rogue first attacked me. I lift the piece of wood and block the Wolf's right arm. She swipes with her left and makes contact, but she can't cut through my vest. I think the Wolf has finally figured out that the thin vest I'm wearing is armor. The Wolf strikes again but this time, she avoids my chest area and cuts me across my right shoulder. She slices through my jacket. It's deeper than the first cut, and I wince for the pain. We're about the same in strength, but the Wolf beats me when it comes to length of arms and legs. I desperately push my block forward, withdraw the wood, setting her off balance, and leap back. I put my hand on my wound. It hurts, but I can still use the arm. I check to see how much blood covers my palm. The cut's not as bad as it hurts, but I do need to find something that will win this battle. I don't have my gun, with it I would have the advantage now that the smoke's gone.

"You do not seem that experienced in fighting," the Wolf tells me as she charges again and brings her knives over her head as before. "Is it an act to throw me off my guard or are you only a fool?"

I lift the poster to block, and the Wolf stabs the wood but to my surprise, she releases the knife that's in her left hand and grabs my right wrist. The Wolf releases the other knife, drops her free hand under the broken poster, and punches with an uppercut.

"You are a fool," the Wolf declares, "And soon you will be a dead fool."

I don't see the fist till it's a blur of pain in my face. I stumble back and drop the poster as the Wolf comes at me with a roundhouse to the head. I fall to the floor with a bloody nose as everything around me whirls into one fuzzy tornado.

Natasha's view...

I kick the poster to the side and stroll over to the mongrel. I grin at my prey and watch as a trickle of red runs down to her lips, then over them, and down to her chin. The mongrel starts to move, so I kick her in the ribs. She grabs her side in delectable pain. I move over to her and force her to lie back, and then I sit on her stomach, place my left hand to her cut shoulder, and stare into her hazel eyes that look like they are having problems focusing on me. The mongrel winces again as I press hard on her shoulder wound with my fingers.

"By now you must know there are sweets that are treats–" I start to tell her as I remove a new knife from my left sheath. I glance at the blade as it glints in the subway lights as if it is winking at me, and then I say, "–and Sweets that can kill."

I have her right arm pinned down and yet the mongrel still resists me as she grabs at my mask. I bat her arm away and then slap her in the face, pacifying her again.

"It was not very nice what you did with the little sweet at Bes Hotel," I tell the mongrel. "Making us think the candy was an explosive or poison." I stare at my knife with affection as I continue, "Now, I will let my Sweet deal with you but before I do that..." I lean to her ear and whisper, "From Moscow, with love." I remove my WM-D, bend to kiss her on the lips, but she quickly turns her head and receives the Executioner's Adieu on her cheek instead.

I straighten and laugh, amused by her innocent-like shyness and speak, "I did not notice before, but you are cute like a little girl." I stroke her face as if the mongrel is my own unwanted cub, "Are you afraid of a little lip-lock with your enemy? A pity... You could have enjoyed one last sweet before death." I replace my mask, put my knee on her right arm, and grab the top of her hair to hold the mongrel so I can slit her throat. She grabs my arm as I seize her brown hair. I would love to play with her a slight whiff longer, but I must join my brother and kill the Phoenix. I start to cut her throat when a sound in the distance distracts me. I look at the curved walkway that connects the stations as something moves our way.

Step. Drag. Step. Drag.

"Who is there?" I call out.

Step. Drag. Step. Drag.

One of the bodyguards that should be a carcass comes around the corner, dragging his leg and holding his side as blood covers him.

"Did you forget about me?" he shouts.

"Apparently yes, I thought you were dead," I reply. "But I can simply rectify that. Foolish man, you should have run when you had the chance."

Chapter Forty-seven

Sacrifices

After leaving his sister, Nikolai breathed through the WM-D as he walked into the thicker part of the smoke and continued across the platform after taking Kat's gun. Nikolai tucked the new trophy in the front of his pants, quickened his pace, and ran beside the length of the train. He saw the shadow of a man's head in the last subway car, walked over to the window, and smashed through it. He grabbed the man, dragged him out, and then wrestled with Johnson. Nikolai had about a hundred pounds on the man. Nikolai grabbed his gunhand and slammed it on his own knee. Johnson dropped his weapon, and they continued wrestling as Nikolai put him in a headlock. The ghostly mist started to dissipate and through the white, Nikolai saw Kim raise her gun and aim for him.

Minutes later...

"Setna's plight be upon you and your household!" Johnson shouted.

"Did you just put a curse on me?" Kim yelled. "You Isis heathen! Take it back! Take it back or I'll–"

Nikolai felt the bullet penetrate his own leg but refused to let go of the bodyguard.

"Heathen?" Johnson snapped and then grunted for the pain in his leg as he tried to free himself. "You Sphinx wretch!" His face reddened as he couldn't break free of the Closer's vice grip. "You want me to take back the curse or you'll what?" Johnson collapsed to his left knee. It was the leg where the bullet had hit. "You'll shoot me again?"

"Oh, Hades! Stop your whining! It's like I'm talking to Katharine!" Kim took aim again.

Johnson lifted a hand and yelled, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I take back the curse! May blessings fall upon your house!"

"Hold still!" Kim yelled. "Or I'll miss again."

"Miss again?" both men shouted.

"It would help if you both held still!" she snapped.

Johnson fisted his hand and hit Nikolai's leg, and Johnson hit the leg several times till he struck the bullet wound. Nikolai bellowed like a bear and released him, and Johnson rolled away from him and went for his gun. Nikolai pulled the Glock 25 from his shoulder holster and fired, and the first shot missed. Johnson fired, hitting him in the shoulder, and Nikolai fired again, hitting him in the forearm. Johnson dropped his gun and held his injured arm as blood flowed.

Kim fired and hit Nikolai in the chest, and Nikolai wildly fired at her as he fell back. Kim dove to the ground, and then Nikolai roared and stood. He lifted the Glock 25 to shoot her when he heard a man's voice then his sister's in the distance, and he turned to the front of the train. He saw Natasha shouting at a man while she was sitting on someone else. Nikolai realized the man nearing his sister was one of the bodyguards they left for dead. He and his sister had been careless, but his sister would fix their error. Nikolai turned back and focused on his current situation as he and Kim stared down the barrel of the other's gun.

Johnson spotted Andrews in the distance and yelled, "Get out of here! You're in no condition to help us!"

Near the front of the subway train...

Step. Drag. Step. Drag. Andrews walked the curve connecting the two stations as he held his fisted right hand close to his chest while the other uselessly dangled by his side. Blood dripped down his injured arm, and several bullet wounds darkened his black business suit. He could still help. He could still make a difference. He wouldn't let another client die. Step. Drag. Step. Drag.

Near the back of the subway train...

Kim was too close. If she shot the Closer, he would fire back and hit her at this range. She had to make a kill shot, and she wasn't that good with a handgun. She kept her eyes on Nikolai.

Near the front of the subway train...

Katharine's view...

The fuzzy tornado starts to slow and then it completely disappears, and I realize the Wolf is sitting on me. I hear someone talking to her, and I strain to lift my eyes to see Andrews some distance from us. I'm having trouble breathing from the kick to my ribs and with the Wolf sitting on me. I want to push her off, but I still haven't regained my strength. I try to look at Andrews again, and I see that he's really injured.

"Run," I try to yell but nothing comes out beyond a rasp. I try again, and I'm able to utter, "You have to–"

"You can wait!" the Wolf yells at me, and then she punches my face. "Be quiet!"

Natasha's view...

The mongrel loses consciousness, and I stand and speak to the bodyguard who is still in the distance, "Foolish man, you should have fled when you had the chance. Instead, you choose to come find us. You must be seeking misery."

I throw a knife and hit him in the left shoulder. The bodyguard pauses as the blade strikes but continues as if he does not feel the pain. He leaves the curved walkway connecting the stations and stops.

"You are seeking punishment!" I yell as I run at him and run some distance before I reach him, and then I spin kick and knock him to the ground. "Foolish man... It would have been less painful if you waited for your death at the first subway station."

The bodyguard lands hard, but he manages to keep his fisted right hand to his chest. He rolls over to his side and tries to get up. I notice there is a wad of blood soaked bandages balled in his palm with only a few strips holding it in place. The poor little rabbit must have nearly lost his hand when my brother shredded him with his toy. I walk over to his side and kick him so that he lies flat on his back. I sit on his crotch, move his hand out of the way, part his suit jacket, and move my hands up and down his bloody shirt, feeling his muscular form beneath the wet material.

"Your foolishness will also give me some time to play with you."

I unsheathe a knife and forcibly run the blade along the front placket, cutting off buttons and then I rip open his shirt. Several bullet wounds seep blood as I place my hands back to his chest and smear the red liquid around as if I am playing in warm mud. I lean down, deeply breathe of the iron-like scent, and the familiar aroma arouses me, and our foreplay starts as I let out an elated gasp. I bend to his ear and excitedly whisper, "From Moscow, with love."

I remove my WM-D, set it to the side, and find the air in the subway does not bother me. I bend to him, put my mouth over his, and forcibly dip my moist tongue to his pressed lips. He tries to resist me as if my fondling is unwanted, but he does not have the energy to stop me. I penetrate his mouth, and the more he fights me the more aroused I get until he stops resisting altogether. I lift from him, and the red imprint of the Executioner's Adieu marks his lips.

"You are quite attractive. It is too bad we met as adversaries. We might have had some good times." I feel his muscles and move my hand to his groin. "Some very good times, my delicious little rabbit."

"S-stop," he says.

"You want me to stop?"

"I'm... I'm going to stop you." His voice rises as he says, "I'm going to stop you from killing them!"

"How are you going to stop me when you cannot even prevent me from fondling you?"

"I will," he says. "I'll..."

Some distance from them...

Katharine's view...

I come to, roll to my side, and see blurry images of Andrews and the Wolf in the distance. I realize I have to move. The Wolf's going to kill him!

I slowly rise to my knees as I scream in my thoughts. Move! She's going to kill him! I manage to place one foot on the floor. Hurry! He can't die. Argus... Andrews can't die.

Natasha's view...

I replace my mask, draw back the blade to cut his throat, wink at him, and then change my mind and stab him in the chest. Gore sprays my mask, and I laugh as I tell him, "See, you could not stop me."

"No!" I hear the mongrel yell who is some distance from us.

The bodyguard grabs my knife with his left hand as his eyes widen in pain.

"See... You have fallen prey to the Wolf, and now I will kill the one you were protecting." I go to move when the bodyguard grabs my arm. I try to pull away from him, but he clamps down on me. "Let go of me, you filthy beast!" I shout and struggle against this once weak and foolhardy man, but I cannot free myself. I cannot believe how strong he is now. He had been as weak as a rabbit's kit, but now he's like a steel trap. "I said let go of me!"

The bodyguard tells me even as death draws him into the grave, "I won't let go. I have you. The Wolf has fallen prey to her own carelessness."

I am the predator but in that moment, I have become the prey. I turn and shout, "Nikolai, help me!"

I hear my brother yell to me, "Tasha! I am coming!"

I turn back to the bodyguard as he speaks, "Matthew... Karen... Beth... I'm sorry. Daddy won't be coming home."

He closes his eyes. and he dies. I believe his left hand will lose its grip on me, but only his right fist loosens and the bloody wad of bandages falls to the floor. The wad unravels enough for me to see that the bandages conceal a metal object.

I gasp as I yell, "Nikolai, grenade!"

Nikolai's view...

"Tasha!" I shout as an explosion flares up and sends my sister flying through the air. I rush past the plain woman who is slowly nearing my sister and run as fast as I can on my injured leg. I drop the gun I am carrying, fall to my knees, and cradle my sister in my arms. I cannot lose her. She is my world. She is my sister in the fur.

Near the front of the subway train...

Katharine's view...

I manage to stand after the explosion, start moving my battered body, walk past the Raven and the Wolf, and walk a little farther to Andrews. I stare at his blown apart form. He sacrificed his life. I divert my gaze from the bloody sight. He sacrificed his life to save Melissa and the children. A deep sorrow flows over me.

"Did you fulfill your sense of duty?" I whisper, then my sadness turns into rage, and I shout, "Was this worth not seeing your own children grow up?" I fist my hand and shout again, "Why did you do this? You didn't have to die!"

My rage vanishes as guilt replaces it, and I whisper, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect your sacrifice. I know you loved your children and with this selfless act, you have guaranteed a future for them. Please forgive me. Forgive me for not saving you."

Moments earlier...

At the back of the subway train...

Kimberly's view...

I cover my eyes as the blast catapults the Wolf backward, and then I run over to Johnson, questioning him, "Are you all right?"

He nods, pulls himself to the side, and leans against the wall. "I won't be walking out of here on my own." Johnson removes his tie and wraps it around his leg to help stop the bleeding. He has nothing to tie around his shoulder. "What about Melissa and the children?"

I glance at the tunnel I helped them escaped through. I still need to complete Melissa's Closing and I believe if I do this, Voice will cancel my Closing, so I say as I run toward the tunnel, "I'll go check on them."

At the front of the subway train...

Katharine's view...

I hear the Raven crying, and I look at him as he cradles his sister. This is all their fault. I head toward them. Andrews would be alive if they hadn't of tried to kill us.

"Tasha, I am sorry," I hear him speak as he weeps. "I should have protected you."

I draw closer and see the Wolf reach up her hand and tenderly stroke his cheek. Her face shows no signs of the blast as her head was turned when the grenade went off. She speaks loudly as if she can hardly hear, "Hush, brother. It was I that was careless. Do not blame yourself for this."

I continue towards them in a slow but focused trudge. Her burned and bloodied left arm dangles, and I see that the left side of her body took the brunt of the explosion.

Nikolai's view...

"Brother, free me from this agony," my sister whispers. "Free me and then you can complete the Closings."

I remember the story of Salandra and Draven; it is the book that inspired our aliases. "I cannot free you, my sister in the fur."

She forces a smile, realizing the quote and must see on my face my heartache. Tasha tells me, "I know." Fear overcomes her expression as she pleads with me, "I am afraid. Do not leave me. I do not want to die alone."

"I will not leave you," I tell her. "I will never leave you."

Katharine's view...

I hold my side as I walk up to them, and neither of them hears my approach. I reach down and pick up the Glock 25 and check the gun to make sure the safety is off. The Raven finally hears me behind them, and he reaches his hand underneath his suit jacket, pulls a Glock 19 from his back holster, and turns his body halfway, aiming at me. I aim back in return as the sight of him cradling his sister reminds me of when I held Preacher in my arms. The deep hollowing sorrow returns, and I know what the Raven must be going through.

"Give up your Closing," I insist.

"I will never give up," the Raven declares.

"Then we're forced to shoot each other," I tell him and then ask, "Then who will take care of your sister?" I remember the name he yelled, and I ask, "Who will take care of Tasha?"

He turns his head, staring at his sister, and then he asks me, "You would let us go?" The Raven faces me and questions, "After we murdered two of your own, you would let us go?"

The image of Andrews flashes in my mind. "You killed two people today." I visualize the photo of his children. "You took away the father of three, and I should kill you..." I remember cradling Preacher in my arms and how I agonized over his death. "But the killing needs to stop." I glance at his sister and remember the tragic story of Draven and Salandra. "If you love your sister, go now. Save her and never come back."

The Raven shouts at me in his grief and rage, "I will not run! I will gun you down where you stand!"

"You shoot. I shoot and most likely we'll both die, and so I ask my question again. Who will take care of Tasha?"

"Brother."

He turns to his sister.

"It hurts so much, and I am so cold." She pleads with her eyes. "Help me. Make the pain go away."

"The Closings." Nikolai insists, "We must complete our Closings."

"Nikolai, the pain. It is so great. If the Closings mean so much to you, then kill me. Make the pain go away."

He exclaims, "No! I cannot!"

"Then take me to a hospital. Make the pain go away. Take me to a hospital or kill me."

He cries over her and then says, "I will save you." The Raven glares at me. "This is not over." He stands, lifting his sister into his arms, and then he starts out of the subway and shouts as he leaves, "You should have killed us when you had the chance. You will regret letting us go."

I watch as they leave and then glance at the Glock 25 I hold, wondering if I will regret not killing them. I walk to the back of the subway train and find Johnson leaning against a wall. I see that he has been shot in the shoulder and leg, so I kneel beside him and ask, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Your partner asked the same question. Do I look that bad?"

I search the area and see my Beretta on the floor but no sign of her, and I ask, "Where's Kimberly?"

"She went to check on Melissa and the children. What about the Closers?"

I glance back in the direction of the Closers and remember our promise. Kimberly would wait till we dealt with the Life Closers who were after her. I panic as I answer him, "The Raven and the Wolf won't bother us anymore." I pick up the Beretta and run through the tunnel. "I'm going after Kimberly."

Chapter Forty-eight

Questions

8:20 P.M...

Somewhere on the Light Side of the planet...

Voice sat in a dark hotel room in front of a laptop, peering at incoming information from the Assassins League's Closers. Voice's white gloved hands were the only things visible in the faint light as fingers typed rapidly across the keyboard.

An email popped up on the screen from a Guild Prep/Cleanup Crew, and it said, "As instructed, we returned early to the Bes Hotel's rooftop, and we discovered the sniper rifle we placed for the Phoenix as we left it. The rifle has not been fired. What are your instructions?"

"Remove the rifle," Voice typed. "The Phoenix will not be needing it."

An urgent email arrived, and Voice noticed the sender; it was from Thanatos. It had been ages since he made direct contact, so Voice clicked on the message and went over it.

Minutes earlier...

In the center of Noir and several miles underground...

Thanatos laughed. It was going to be most amusing. He stretched, wiped his hands on his black leather pants, and cracked his knuckles. Thanatos moved the swivel keyboard into position and typed, "I had an interesting conversation with the Phoenix."

He sent the email.

"What sort of conversation?" Voice questioned.

"It was mentioned that the Closing you issued for the Phoenix is unfounded. Did you order someone's death with no grounds? The Phoenix is one of your own."

"What would you know?" Voice typed back.

"The Phoenix contacted me and made his or her plea for help." Thanatos rubbed his hands together and finished typing. "It was the only course you left for the Closer after you sent the Raven and the Wolf to close the Phoenix."

Voice's view...

The nipple pierced punk hacked into my system! I'll need to change my security protocols again.

I type, "What do you know?"

End Voice's view...

"I know lots of things," he replied. "Now... What of the Phoenix? Why has a Closing been issued for this assassin?" Voice didn't reply to him, so Thanatos typed, "Are you going to answer me?"

Thanatos' view...

I can't help but think why indeed? What reason could there be? Where is the evidence the Phoenix violated the contract with the Assassins League? Could it be personal revenge? But the Phoenix is one of Voice's best assassins. What else could it be? What reason would he personally break protocol? I can only think of one.

I type, "The Closing is a favor for someone. It would have to be from someone very important for you to break protocol. Is that not right?"

End Thanatos' view...

"That's nonsense," Voice replied. "I would never break the rules that govern the Assassins Guild, not for anyone."

"What about the Phoenix?"

"What about the Closer?" Voice questioned.

"Are you going to rescind the Closing? You have no grounds for it."

"Do you have any grounds why I should cancel it?"

Thanatos typed, "No."

"Then it stands, and there is nothing you can do about this Closing, Thanatos. It's up to the Phoenix, the Raven, and the Wolf, and they'll decide the turnout."

Thanatos' view...

I push the swivel keyboard to the side. I did try, but as my counterpart stated, it's all up to them. I swing the keyboard back into place. Unless... I enter the Virtual Hall of Records for the Assassins Guild. Unless I can find something more on Maestro and here it is. The record says as much as the other one I found in Voice's Archive. Maestro's alias has been retired for ten years.

I tap my chin. I'm missing something. Maestro's specialty was killing children and with that in mind, I have to consider that the hit on Mrs. Serqet's kid wasn't a mistake but a deliberate act. If it was deliberate, what could be the reason, and who could hire a Closer who's believed dead?

End Thanatos' view...

The Light Side of the planet...

Voice removed a cell phone from a briefcase and dialed a number. "It is very urgent, I would like to speak with R.G."

After a few moments, a distorted voice spoke, "This is R.G."

"Thanatos contacted me about the Phoenix's Closing. He suspects I ordered the Closing as a favor to someone."

"He doesn't know you did this for me," R.G. said. "Do not worry about it. There's no paper trail to find." R.G. paused and asked, "What have you heard from the Raven and the Wolf? Is the Phoenix dead?"

"There has been no report."

"And what of the other Closing? Ms. Odin's? What have you heard about it?"

"The same. Nothing."

"I see..." There was a long pause. "Voice, at this time I would like to amend my request."

"Of course, R.G. What is it?"

Chapter Forty-nine

Ms. Odin's Closing

8:21 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

The subway...

Katharine's view...

I frantically run across the sidewalk and through the tunnel that leads away from the second station, and it seems to go on forever as if I'll never reach anyone in time. The area darkens the further I go, and I round the second curving tunnel. I have to find Melissa before Kimberly does. She promised not to kill her until we took care of the Raven and the Wolf, and now with them gone... I quicken my pace, step onto another platform, and come to a second subway train at a third station and with each second that passes, I imagine the worse. Kimberly might have already completed her Closing, and all I'll find is a corpse with two children wailing beside it or worse, I might find three corpses.

"Melissa!" I shout, desperate to find them, "Chad!"

I search through the train's windows, looking for the family, and my heart skips a beat when I don't find them. I think I really messed up.

I turn around in a full circle, searching the area as I wonder if it was wrong of me to try to save both Melissa and Kimberly. Kimberly called me naive for placing a would-be Closer next to her Mark, but I couldn't stand it if either of them got hurt. I had to try and save both of them, and then I realize I did... I really messed up... and now Melissa's probably dead, and Chad... he's... I put a hand to the train and start to cry as I collapse half-way to my knees. Guilt washes over me like the waves a squall pushes over a ship at sea, and I think I'm going to drown in them but then...

"Here!"

I look up and nearly lose it when I see Melissa push open the door of the front car and carefully make her way to the platform as she questions me, "Have the Closers been eliminated?"

Her voice's the sweetest thing I've ever heard, but I manage to contain my relief and answer, "The Raven and the Wolf will bother you no more." I motion to the tunnel as I wipe my eyes as if I've been crying. "Quickly, let's go back to Johnson."

I realize everyone's not safe just yet, so I glance around the area, but I don't see Kimberly.

Ushering the children onto the platform, Melissa must notice my anxiousness for she questions, "Is something wrong?"

"No," I answer, trying to hide my apprehension as I search the area again for Kimberly. "Everything's fine."

"If nothing's wrong, why are you hurrying us?" Melissa asks me.

I have to come up with something fast. I don't want to scare the children, so I say, "Johnson's hurt. We need to get back to him and get him to a hospital."

"Oh," Melissa says, and then she continues ushering the children back the way we came.

"Are you looking for your friend?" Chad asks as he watches me.

I halt and so do the others as I question, "You've seen her?"

"Yes," Chad answers, and then he motions in the other direction. "She ran past here about five minutes before you did."

Melissa comforts Bonnie as she states, "I almost said something as she ran by us, but she never called out our names. I thought since she didn't say our names maybe we still needed to stay in hiding."

"It's best to be on the safe side. Come on." I herd the group towards the tunnel. "Let's hurry."

I lead the group, wondering why Kimberly didn't call out their names. I want to believe that she felt like she needed to give them a chance and not murder Melissa right away. We start through the tunnel when someone calls out my name.

"Katharine."

I inwardly gasp, recognizing the voice. I never even considered this point in time, but now I have to face it, I'll have to face Kimberly.

I say, "Melissa."

She states, "Yes."

"You go on without me." I turn, seeing Kimberly standing behind us. "I'm going to talk with my partner."

"Are you sure?" Melissa asks still skittish.

"Yes, it's safe to go on ahead. I would have Chad watch Bonnie once you get there. Johnson's not in the best of shape, he'll need your assistance getting out."

"I will," Melissa answers, and then she and the children continue through the tunnel.

"Melissa," I call after them.

She pauses, turns, and says, "Yes."

"Don't wait for me and Kimberly to get Johnson out. It might take us a while. No matter what he says, get him out now. His wounds are serious."

Melissa nods and goes on with the children.

I wait before facing my trial of fortitude, buying Melissa and Chad time to get out and once they're out of my sight, I take a deep breath and move towards Kimberly. I know this won't end well as Kimberly patiently waits for me. I stop several feet away from her.

"I see you sent them on ahead that was a wise move." Her arms are down at her sides, and she holds her gun as she says, "I assume the Raven and the Wolf are no more."

Sadness presses against my heart as I consider the ending of our story. Is this world so dark and evil that blood must constantly be shed? I wait a few seconds before answering her, buying Melissa and the children even more time; time they need. I hear their footsteps move on into the distance as they hurry off to Johnson, and I finally answer, "They won't bother Melissa."

I grasp the Glock 25 in my left hand and the Beretta in my right. I don't want to have to use them, and dread grips my soul as I question, "What about the other Closer? What about the Phoenix?" My eyes grow dismal, fearing the answer as I ask, "Do we have to worry about her?"

"For Ares' sake!" Kimberly snaps. "What do you think?"

"I think something terrible's about to happen. I think... I think I might have to go against my pledge to myself, and I'll have to... I'll have to..."

A knot forms in my stomach as I'm unable to finish the sentence even in my mind. I know my words are powerless against Kimberly's work ethic, and I raise both guns. I wish Life Closers didn't exist. I wish we didn't live in a world where death is the first answer to a problem. I wish... I wish it didn't have to end this way.

I state, "I'll stop you. No matter what, I'm going to stop you."

Kimberly's view...

I see now... All that woman's talk about not taking a life was a lie. I notice the sadness on her face, then I remember her attempt to murder Topa, and I believe she'll hesitate when it comes down to it. When she hesitates, she'll give me the opening I need to take her down. I can't stake my life on it, so I'll have to act as though she'll shoot to kill. I hate this though, I hate up close Closings. They're messy.

Katharine's view...

I struggle with my conscience. I don't want to become the killing machine the Council hopes for, but I can't let Chad get hurt. I'm determined to stop Kimberly but merely wounding her won't keep her from her Closing. I insist, "I won't let you hurt them."

"Them?" Kimberly acts insulted as she states, "I have only one target. I'm not sloppy. No one else will die."

"I'm not talking about death!" I shout. "If you kill Melissa, you'll hurt the children. They'll experience the same heartache as you did when you thought your mom abandoned you. They'll experience that same heartache you have now knowing Theresa was murdered! Why can't you understand? They'll lose a mother. Didn't that hurt? Didn't that make you die inside? How can you let another child suffer through that?"

"How dare you bring my mom into this!" Kimberly fists her left hand and shouts, "She has nothing to do with this!"

"Doesn't she?" I grit my teeth as a lump forms in my throat. I try to keep my voice calm, but it's coming out indignant. "Would you have become a Life Closer if Theresa had lived?"

"Of course I..." Kimberly pauses and then questions, "What does that matter? I have a job to do, and no amount of talking will change my mind. I'm a professional. Emotions or conscience can't interfere with my assignments."

The knot tightens in my stomach, and the lump in my throat doubles in size. I drop the Glock down to my side and level the Beretta on to the person I thought would be there for me. I level it at her heart. I'll have to do it. I'll have to kill Kimberly. One shot and it will be over. I'll kill Kimberly and save Melissa.

Kimberly's view...

I was right before... That woman's actually aiming at me. I can try to shoot first, but I still have to lift my gun, and I'm not sure how fast that woman is, so I guess the question is, will she try to kill me? Will she complete the Gamma Phase my mom spoke of and warned me of?

I tell her, "You know what I am and what I must do."

I'll be ready either way; I won't hesitate to kill that woman, but maybe I can mess with her head and throw her off her game. It might give me a chance against her, so I say, "There's no stopping me. Unless you commit the thing you fear the most. Unless you–"

Katharine's view...

"Why must it come to this?" I interrupt her as my small voice yells at me and pleads with me not to take a life. "Why is there so much killing in this world?"

"Idiot. You've had several minutes to take me out and save Melissa and yet you keep talking. Do you honestly think you're going to change my mind? Do you believe your words will sway me to a different path? Do you think I have a heart you can reason with? You do understand I don't. I'm a cold-blooded killer, so do you really think you can change my mind?"

"Yes, I have to for both our sakes." Yearning for release from the anguish attacking me, my eyes burn as if on fire, and I insist, "This is not the person you were meant to be!"

Kimberly's view...

Who does that woman think she is? She doesn't know me, and I'll make her pay for her do-gooder attitude. I ask, "How would you know what I was meant to be?" I bring my gun up as the dark side of myself raises its vicious head. "Now..." I cock the hammer, toying with that woman; I want to see her squirm over her convictions. I no longer think about my own life only that I want her to suffer. "If you're going to stop me, do it now! Or I'm going to kill Melissa!" I wait to see what that woman will do. I take pleasure in seeing her wrestle over crossing a line I myself bloodied long ago. "Do it! Do it before I do!"

Chapter Fifty

Removing Obstacles

8:43 P.M...

Kimberly's view...

"That's right! You're so weak!" I shout as I watch that woman struggle, and I take delight in it. "You can't kill me, can you? Idiot! You talk all confident about saving everybody, but you can't, not if it involves taking a life."

In that moment as I yell at that woman, I see my own hesitation. I haven't acted, and I've allowed that woman time to toil over her decision. I'm letting Melissa get further and further away, and I can't fathom a reason for my hesitation, and then I consider that I take pleasure in seeing her torment. Am I that cruel? Maybe... No maybes; I am that cruel. I would have removed all obstacles by now, so what am I waiting for? Do I really want to see that woman suffer over this decision? Do I want to see her toil over it like the first time I agonized over it? Isn't she an idiotic idealist? Doesn't she need to be taught a lesson? I break through my own wall of deceit and realize that's the answer. I relax in the freedom of my hatred. I want her to decide to cross the line and become like me. The image of my mom, that the music box produces, appears in my mind. What does the hologram Theresa know anyway? Who cares if that woman takes a life?

I shout, "Kill me to save Melissa!" I need that woman to make her move, so I can kill her. I want her to die knowing she couldn't keep to her moral convictions.

Katharine's view...

My arm shakes with uncertainty as I aim the Beretta at her. I can't live with myself if I kill Kimberly. I think about the children. I can't live with myself if I allow Kimberly to kill Melissa. I don't know what to do and this is a decision no one should have to make.

Kimberly's view...

"Well? I thought you were going to save everyone!" My hatred grows as I think more and more about that woman's innocent view of the world, and it makes me sick to think she's so optimistic. "Oh wait..." I'll take that world and make her see its ugly face. "Daniels and Andrews are already dead, so I guess you can't save them, and only one of us will be leaving this platform, so there again you've failed. Well? Are you going to stand there and do nothing?"

That woman won't reply to my taunting; she only gazes at me with those pitiful hazel eyes. I do notice her eyes are filled with anguish and look like they're on the verge of crying. I say, "As I thought, you're so weak. What did my mom ever see in you? When it comes down to it, you can't save anyone, not even yourself. You can't shoot me, can you?"

Katharine's view...

Aiming for Kimberly's heart, I place my finger on the trigger, deciding I have no other choice, but when I go to pull the trigger, fragile glimpses from my past sail by my mind like dandelion seeds drifting on the wind. When I try to reach my hand after the hidden memories and snatch them from the breeze, they evade my mental grasp and float away, leaving only an impression of their brief existence. They leave me with a sense that I know Kimberly and we're connected, so I need to stay my hand. I realize what I am about to do is so horribly wrong, so I drop my arm so that both of my arms limply dangle by my side. For the sake of the inner voice that always pleads with me not to take a life and for the fragile glimpses of my past, I drop both guns, and they hit the concrete floor. I won't kill her. I could never kill her.

"You're right." Filled with defeat and confusion, I close my eyes, shake my head, and whisper, "I can't. I can't hurt you, not you."

"That's what I thought." Kimberly aims for my forehead. "You're weak and useless. The Council must see you as a waste of their precious time."

I've failed Chad; I've failed him and Melissa. I start to doubt my decision. I couldn't pull the trigger. It's all I had to do to save them. There's that impression that I know her but... I open my eyes, freeze, and stare at Kimberly, waiting for her to take the shot. I was supposed to save them. Andrews and Daniels laid down their lives for them. All I had to do was squeeze a freaking piece of metal, but I couldn't! I gave up! I am weak!

Kimberly's view...

It's all too easy with that woman who's more like a child when it comes to her way of thinking. Yes, it's way too easy; it should be more... more challenging. I lift the barrel of my gun and point it straight up, changing my mind about killing that woman. She could still prove useful, but I don't know if she'll help me after I finish my Closing. I uncock the gun and walk toward her and as I start to pass, she grabs my left shoulder.

"I won't kill you," she states. "But I also won't let you hurt Melissa."

Irritated, I look at her hand, then into her determined face, and ask, "What are you going to do?"

"I won't let you pass. You'll have to kill me first and as I told you before, I'm going to save everyone. I'm going to save even you."

Save me? Who's that woman going to save me from? I aim again for her head and say, "If that's how you want it. Fine, but I was hoping to continue our partnership a little longer, but oh well."

Katharine's view...

I gulp, stare at the gun, and repeat with a little more fear and a little less resolve in my voice, "I won't let you pass; I won't." In my heart, I'm still determined to save everyone, but my body's the one who betrays my earnestness. If I can buy Melissa and the children a few more minutes, then maybe they'll flee to safety, but I'm so afraid of dying. My hand trembles as I hold Kimberly back. There's nothing else I can do but hold on to her shoulder and wait for the gun blast and the blackness that will follow, praying I've at least bought them the precious time they need with my sacrifice.

Kimberly's view...

A few seconds pass, and neither of us moves. I still haven't shot that woman, and I don't know why I'm hesitating again. For Ares' sake! What's with me? I know what that woman is and that it will be a waste to eliminate her, but is that the reason I don't shoot her? Or am I regrowing a conscience? No, it can't be that.

I shout, "Hades! We've gotten ourselves into a real mess! I prefer to have you around a little longer but no, you had to go get all up in my business. I have a feeling you would've been useful."

I then think of something. If that woman wants to save Melissa so badly, why didn't she attack me? She could have shot me in the leg or at least punched me, but she acts like she doesn't want to hurt me in the least. Isn't that ridiculous?

I realize I have to eliminate her and there goes our partnership. I press my finger against the trigger when a loud beep startles me, and I almost shoot with the jolt to my psyche. The sound comes from my knapsack. Hades! That was intense.

I hold my aim as I question, "Do you mind if I take a look? It's my H.H.C."

She stares at me with this puzzled expression on her face as she utters, "Ahh... No. Go right ahead." She releases my shoulder and takes a step back.

I remove the device and glance at the screen. "An email from Voice. I'll need to get this."

She nods.

It's so unprofessional, taking an email like this in the middle of a job. I lower the gun and holster my weapon. I open the email and read the message Voice sent me.

"Ms. Odin's Closing is canceled. Repeat. Ms. Odin's Closing is canceled. The Valhalla Corporation has withdrawn their request."

I click on the attachment, and it includes all the appropriate paperwork. I tell that woman, "The Life Closing has been canceled."

"Really..? Is this a trick?"

"No, it's no trick. The Closing has been canceled. It seems I don't have to kill you or Melissa after all."

"I don't think I believe you," that woman tells me.

"For Ares' sake!" I shout. "What's going on? Why the last minute cancellation?"

"Is it really canceled?" she repeats.

"Sure. I wouldn't lie."

She raises her brown eyebrows, mocking my statement.

"Fine, maybe I would but look." I show her the documents. "See. Canceled."

Katharine's view...

Relieved, deeply hurt, and psychologically exhausted, I wrap my arms around myself and tremble. That last second I was sure Kimberly was going to kill me. I feel sick. I would be dead right now if her email had beeped a second later.

"What's wrong with you?" Kimberly asks.

Taking a moment before answering, I lie, "Nothing." I try to shake off the uncertainty, reach down, and pick up the Glock and the Beretta. "Let's go back."

I can't shake off the feelings. Kimberly would have killed me. She would have killed me, and I would have stood there and let her. Stupid... I can't protect Chad if I'm dead.

Chapter Fifty-one

A Lesson Learned

9:01 P.M...

Katharine's view...

We silently make our way back to Johnson, Melissa, and the children. Neither of us wants to talk about what happened between us. At the next station, Melissa has Johnson on his feet and hobbling toward the exit. She waves to the two of us as if she's relieved she'll have some help getting him out.

"We're here!" Melissa shouts.

I'm appalled. They didn't get very far. Kimberly would have tracked them down in no time, and she would have slaughtered Melissa. I wonder though... Would she have done it in front of the children or would she have come up with a story and pulled Melissa away from the group before she did the grim deed?

I watch her closely still expecting her to try and kill Melissa at any moment. I can't trust her, so I don't need to be in this partnership. Surely I don't need someone like her. I think back to the business card I found. What about the clues that were left for me? Why was I supposed to find her? I glance at my Beretta. Am I supposed to stop her? That would be funny and here I'm trying to make friends with her.

Kimberly's view...

I notice that woman watching me. Good for her. She doesn't trust me, and it's about time. She was an idiot to put her faith in me. I would have killed her. The next thought saddens me a bit. That woman has finally learned that she can't trust me, so what will that do to our partnership?

Katharine's view...

I warily walk behind Kimberly. Should I stay and work with someone that can betray me at any moment?

I pause, take one last look at the second subway station, and think of the two dead bodyguards. So much death and for what? Melissa's Closing was canceled, so why did Andrews and Daniels have to die? I don't know. It all seems so senseless but at least the children won't have to see their bodies. We will be leaving by this station's stairs instead of the other's.

End Katharine's view...

With Melissa's help, Johnson hobbled his way out of the subway and to a locked fence. Kim shot the lock, and the group proceeded to the street. They saw no sign of Nikolai or Natasha. On the next block, the safe house burned and by then, fire crews worked on putting out the blaze. A Noir Civil Police Force car drove down the street and stopped at the curb before the haggard group.

"You folks okay?" the male officer asked.

Johnson released Melissa, hopped a few feet to the car's door, and leaned on it. "I work for the Isis Corporation. I'm a bodyguard, and two Closers tried to take out my client." He motioned behind himself. "Two of my men are dead. They're down in the subway."

"And the Closers?" the officer asked.

"Gone," Johnson answered. "They're gone."

The officer nodded. "Well, let's get you folks some help."

* * *

9:59 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

Nexus Apartments...

Kimberly's view...

"Welcome back Ms. Griffin and Kat," Henry the security guard says as we walk through the glass front doors. A taxi dropped us off out front.

"It's good to be back, Henry," I tell him as I glance back at that woman who comes moping in. "A very trying day today."

She nods to the security officer.

"That's too bad," Henry replies. "May your night be better."

"Thanks," I reply as I enter the elevator first, that woman slowly follows, and then the cab doors close.

I consider the events of the past several days. Voice sent the Raven and the Wolf from Russia before he gave me the Topa Closing, so why is Voice so worried about someone knowing my identity as the Phoenix? Why did Voice question whether or not I had taken care of said person if I was to be closed? Did Voice believe the Closing would be canceled and if so, is Voice even the one who issued it? Or did someone else call for my termination and why? Am I still in danger? Will I be like that woman? Will I be hunted until I'm killed? The cab doors open, and I walk toward Apartment H.

A man enters the apartment next to mine as we walk by, and then he pauses, comes back out, and greets us, "Hello."

That woman's holding her ribs as she says, "Hey, Zax wasn't it?"

He nods, and then he questions, "Are you all right? You look like you were in a fight."

"Umm..." that woman starts.

"Racket ball accident," I interrupt. "We play a mean game."

"Oh. Well, you better let a doctor take a look at that." Zax walks back into his apartment, and the door slides shut behind him.

"Who's that guy?" I ask.

"A new neighbor. I met him several days ago. He seems nice."

"Nice," I repeat as I chuckle, and then I say, "You do know you're not supposed to trust strangers."

She glares at me as she replies, "According to you, I'm not supposed to trust anyone."

"Oh..." I'm shocked at first by her comment. "That's right. Trust will only get you killed."

That woman doesn't respond to my remark, so I look at Apartment G and consider the man we just met. This is weird now that I think of it. I've never seen any of the other residents since I moved to Nexus two years ago. I always thought it was because of my odd hours. We walk to Apartment H and go in.

Katharine's view...

Mentally and physically weary, I move on to the couch, drop my backpack beside it, and sit. I stare at the TV for a few seconds, then remove my Ravlek Vest and jacket, and drop them to the floor. I lift my shirt and examine my bruised ribs. On the taxi ride over, I listened to the music box, went into the Drifting Time, and allowed my body to heal. A few marks remain. I pull my shirt back down and examine my shoulder. I need to listen to Unfinished Melody a few more hours, and then I'll be fine. I lie back.

I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can be partners with Kimberly anymore. I glance at her reflection in the TV. I don't trust her, so what am I doing here? Can I really accomplish my goals with someone I'm afraid will betray me? No, this isn't going to work.

Kimberly's view...

I pause in the kitchen, trying to think of something to say to that woman, but I can't think of one thing, so I go to my bedroom. "I'm going to take a bath."

I take my time and after about an hour, I walk out wearing a bathrobe and a towel wrapped around my head. The doorbell rings, I glance at the woman who's fast asleep on the couch listening to the music box, and then I question, "A.C.S., who's at the door?"

"One moment, Ms. Griffin," the Apartment Computer System replies, and then a few seconds later, it says, "It is Marc from the security desk. He has two messages."

"Tell him to leave them at the door."

"At once," A.C.S. replies and after a few minutes, A.C.S. states, "He has left."

I make my way to the front door and press the button, and the door slides open. I grab the messages and return to the kitchen. One message is for me and the other is for that woman. I place her message on the kitchen counter, open mine, and read it, "Kimberly, if you could please stop by my office tonight. There's something I would like to discuss with you. Signed father."

What does he want? Is it another attempt to bond with me? I go to my bedroom, put on an aqua pantsuit, grab a purse, and place the PPK in it. I glance at that woman who's still sleeping. No need to wake her. I'll write her a note. I finish writing the note and head out.

Forty-five minutes later...

Katharine's view...

I wake, sit up, and close the music box. I lift my shirt and check my bruised ribs, and they've healed. I lean back and notice the apartment's quiet.

"Kimberly?" She doesn't answer. "Kimberly?" I check the apartment, find the note and message on the counter, and read the note.

"I had to go out for a while. Marc delivered a message for you. It's on the counter. If you get hungry, call down to the security desk, and they can order a pizza for you and charge it to the apartment. Signed, Kim."

I pick up the message that's addressed to me, surprised that Kimberly's worried whether or not I am hungry. I don't know if I want to work with someone like her, someone who only sees the dark side of things.

I open the message and read, "Dear Ms. Kat, I thought about our discussion and would like to talk with you more about organic-mecha at your convenience. Come anytime day or night. The Genesis Arboretum security will let you in. Signed, Adam Greenhouse."

I place the message on the counter. Should I wait for Kimberly to come back? No, Adam didn't necessarily say she had to come anyway... I feel the emptiness of the apartment. I don't know when Kimberly will return and this could be important. It could shine some light on my past or maybe on Theresa's murder. I decide I'll go and see why Adam wants to speak with me, and it'll give me some time to think about trust. Can my partnership with Kimberly work without it? I glance around the apartment. Is this where I'm supposed to be?

I clear my throat and say, "A.C.S."

"Yes," it replies.

"Can I leave a message with you for Kimberly?"

"Yes. What is the message?"

"Tell her..." I pause, and then I say, "Tell her, 'Adam Greenhouse wanted to speak with me, so I went to Genesis Arboretum.' Tell her, 'I should be back in a couple of hours.' "

"Message saved," A.C.S. states.

"Thanks."

I go into the bathroom, freshen up, and then put on a new t-shirt. I grab my backpack and jacket, make sure I have the music box in my pocket, and walk out the door.

Chapter Fifty-two

DR-C Oil

11:01 P.M...

The boundary of the Hellenistic Sector...

The Factory...

The Rogue stood in the Hidden Room, staring at the black stones and wondering what Pandora was doing at that very moment.

"Mr. Pinchbeck," Maven Crackerjack spoke as he walked in. "Oh good. You're here."

"Yes, what is it?"

Maven lifted an H.H.C. and said, "I have some documents that need your signature."

The Rogue took the device and scanned them. "What are you buying?"

"I have found a small collection of Arcamedes' papers and art."

The Rogue signed the documents with a pen stylus.

Excited over the purchase, Maven took the H.H.C. "The collection should be here the next day or so, then I can dig deeper into the mind of Arcamedes." He placed the device in a pocket inside his suit jacket. "I can find out more about the Rushlight we're both looking for."

"Both?" the Rogue turned to him. "Is your drive as great as mine?"

"It would be hard to say since we both seem like men vehemently pursuing his quest, but I believe maybe mine is greater," he answered. "I want to know the truth, and I have since I first read about Ginn L. Irynkissgthie and Arcamedes when I was a boy." Maven paused and asked, "Do you know about drive, Mr. Pinchbeck?"

"Yes." The Rogue thought of Pandora as it continued, "You could say I am fixated on one thing." It walked out of the room and Maven followed. "Mr. Crackerjack, as a safety precaution, I would like the most valuable pieces of our collection brought into the Hidden Room. It is more secure in there."

"Yes, of course, Mr. Pinchbeck," Maven said. "I think we need a new name for the room. It isn't so hidden anymore."

"I will leave that to you."

"I'll keep it simple then. How about the Exhibit?"

The Rogue said, "Excellent."

They exited the passage and entered the Gallery, and two S.C.Ms. stood guard there. The Rogue and Maven left the Gallery and entered Research Lab Five; the room once filled with cobwebs and dust was clean as an operating room. All the equipment had been removed and the walls stripped bare so that the room could be converted, and eleven workstations stood in a line. The Rogue set up its own network of ten analysts with one supervisor. There were three such groups that worked in eight-hour shifts. Each of the analysts wore an ebony jumpsuit with white stripes on the sides, and the supervisor wore a white jumpsuit with black stripes.

A female supervisor approached them and said, "Mr. Pinchbeck, we were able to retrieve seventy-nine percent of the Factory's Central System after the T-3s deleted it."

"Excellent." The Rogue looked at her hand and questioned her, "Do you have something for me?"

"Yes, here is the current information we've retrieved on the Pandora Project." She handed over the H.H.C.

"Thank you." The Rogue paused, scanned the information, and continued toward the exit. "Fascinating. I will go over this in my office." It left the converted room now known as the Analyst Cove.

Maven said, "I'm going to fax these documents right away. The sooner they receive these, the sooner we'll have the Arcamedes Collection." He also entered the hall, and Maven walked one way.

The Rogue walked the other way, went to its office, and sat at its desk; it had been reading the H.H.C. the whole way there.

"November 2, 30 A.D.C. Journal entry for Tech One-twelve. I have begun experimentations on bio-mechas with the DR-C Oil in room B10-104. The first test was disastrous. The K-99 unit went rogue and killed two techs. I suggested canceling the experiment, but the Factory hierarchy instructed us to continue."

The Rogue's view...

I pause from reading. The DR-C Oil could have something to do with why I disobeyed my orders and went rogue. I read on, "November 29, 30 A.D.C. Journal entry for Tech One-twelve. The DR-C Oil experimentations continue. I have requested more oil from the Minotaur Refinery. The last batch of DR-C Oil exploded in an accident in one of the loading bays. The new shipment will be here shortly. The experiment's on hold until then."

"May 18, 31 A.D.C. Journal entry for Tech One-twelve. The latest tests with DR-C Oil have been successful. The K-99s and Arachnoids' functions have increased by fifty percent. I believe the oil is ready to be tested on the Factory's new line of bio-mecha. They're called the Un-Men."

I examine my hand. This could mean the DR-C Oil is coursing through my artificial veins and may be why I am the way I am. I have to know either way, so I will go to this Minotaur Refinery and find out more about the oil, and I will have the Analyst Cove dig up the rest of the files on DR-C Oil while I am gone. I will get to the bottom of this.

Chapter Fifty-three

Techs And The Operative

The Sanctum...

11:04 P.M...

Maxwell and Peters hung out in their small room, consisting of a couch, flat screen TV, two beds, and a small bathroom. Maxwell sat on the couch, playing a video game called "Corporate Acquisition". His thumbs flew across the wireless game controller as his player killed S.C.M. after S.C.M.

Peters lay on his bed, looking at magazines. He sat up, turned a magazine sideways, and stared at a flip down poster and whistled. "Look at the headlights on her."

Maxwell turned, seeing the latest model of the VX Corvette with six Noc-lambent Headlights. He shrugged and turned back to his game. "Yeah. Nice." Maxwell shouted at his player, "Come on, we gotta take out the Vice President!"

"Says here," Peters started. "The headlights can penetrate the darkest night even the darkness of Tainted Rain." He lay back down and flipped through the mag. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, real amazing." Maxwell kept his focus on the game. "If only they would develop tires that gripped the road when it rains–" He stuck his tongue out to the side as he blasted the Vice President. "–then the headlights might come in handy."

Someone knocked on their door.

"Who could that be?" Maxwell paused Corporate Acquisition, stood from the couch, walked to the door, and opened it. "Can I help you?"

A female supervisor in a crimson jumpsuit stood in the hall. "The Council requests your presence."

Peters jumped up from the bed. "What? Now!" He tucked his shirt into his pants.

"Yes," she replied. "Please come with me."

Sometime later...

Maxwell and Peters stood before the Council, not sure why they were there and that made them a little wary.

"You are the men we acquired from the Factory?" Ms. Nona asked.

They nodded.

"You helped design and program the Un-Men?" Mr. Decuma questioned.

They nodded.

Mr. Morta asked, "Are you familiar with the T-3s?"

They nodded.

"We are placing you on a special task force to capture one of these rogue Un-Men," Mr. Morta said. "We have a few questions for them. Why did they attack our previous base of operations?"

"And why did they destroy the Factory?" Ms. Nona added.

"Do you understand your new assignment?" Mr. Decuma asked.

"Yes," they replied.

"Good, good. That is all," Mr. Morta said. "You may return to your room. You will be given further instructions later."

They left.

"Now that the T-3 operation is moving forward, we can focus on other things. What about Pandora and Cerberus?" Mr. Decuma questioned. "Has Cerberus taken out the wayward project?"

"And what about surveillance?" Ms. Nona questioned. "Are we keeping better tabs on Cerberus?"

"Everything is fine." Mr. Morta leaned back, folded his hands, and rested them on his chest. "Our best operative is on the case."

* * *

Hellenistic Sector, Cultural Vicinage...

Argus' view...

I exit a black sedan, walk to the sidewalk with my rubber-tipped cane, and scan the surrounding buildings. I followed Cerberus here, and I remove an H.H.C. from my trench coat's pocket and double check the location of her tracking beacon.

Cerberus is tracking down Kat. I look at the Genesis Arboretum. Is this where the battle will take place, and can Kat defeat Cerberus or will she die by the new experiment's hand?

I start around a building to find a way in and quicken my pace. Can I keep my no interference pledge to the Council? How much longer can I stick with my oath when it concerns Kat?

Chapter Fifty-four

Father And Daughter

11:47 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Kimberly's view...

I drive my Corvette to the valet parking of the Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office. A young man runs around the front of my red car and opens the door for me. He smiles at me.

"Welcome back, Ms. Griffin."

"Thank you." I hand him the key to my car as I step out of the vehicle and straighten my pantsuit. The young man climbs in and drives the vehicle away to park it as I look up at the massive building before me. I enter the main lobby and go up to Level 150 and then walk to Cathy's desk. The secretary's not there.

Cathy must have gone home for the evening. I thought I worked long hours. Corporate life's harsh, working twelve to fourteen hours a day and seven days a week. I guess that's one good thing about being a Life Closer, I get to set my own hours.

I make my way to my father's office. I have no idea why he wanted to see me now and this late. It could have waited until tomorrow morning. I knock on the door, but no one replies and after about a minute, I walk back to Cathy's desk, pick up a pad, and start to write a message.

"Good evening," a male voice says from behind me.

I turn and see the Head of Security. "Orthos, isn't it?"

"Yes." He bows his head in greeting. "Are you here to see the Chairman?"

"I am," I answer. "But since you're here, my father said I could speak to you about my mom."

He nods his head several times. "Yes, a terrible case. One I inherited. I'll be happy to go over the file with you. Call my secretary, and she'll set up a meeting."

"Thank you. Have you seen my father?"

"No. For now, follow me." He starts down the hall toward the office. "The Chairman called and told me he would be stepping out for a few minutes and that he would be right back." Orthos pats the folders under his left arm. "I came to deliver these for the Chairman." We enter my father's office, and Orthos walks around to the front of the desk, lays the folders down, and opens the top one. He grins and looks at me and then wipes the smile from his face. "The Chairman won't mind if you wait for him here. I'm going back to my office." Orthos pauses at the door. "Do tell him I brought him more folders courtesy of the Second Branch Office."

Orthos' view...

I open the door, leave, and then I dial a number. "The Vice President, please." I pause and wait. "Kimberly Griffin is here and as per your instructions, I laid the latest files on the Chairman's desk in front of her." My grin returns as I answer, "Yes, I believe she will notice. She has about fifteen minutes before the Chairman returns. She will see."

In the Chairman's office...

Kimberly's view...

I don't want to wait any longer. I want to go home. I glance at the folders Orthos placed on the desk, see the open one, notice a note on the top paper, and read the upside down message. It's a skill I picked up long ago in high school.

"Chairman, here are a few more folders from when you were Janus and over security for me. Signed the Vice President."

I gasp. Janus is my father? I pick up the folders, turn them around, and skim through them, and see that they're reports from Janus. I collapse back in my chair. My father can't be the Janus I'm after but if he is, that would mean he ordered my mom's death or killed her himself.

I close the folder, turn it back around, and place it on the desk. I pause, contemplating if I should put it back as I found it, decide to do so, and open the top folder, exposing the note. I lose the cool demeanor of a Closer. My father can't be Janus, and he couldn't have killed my mom. It's a lie. Theresa was his wife, and he wouldn't have hurt her.

The door opens, and my father walks in, reading over an H.H.C. He doesn't notice me when he first walks in. He peers up from the H.H.C. and pauses halfway in.

"Kimberly, I didn't know you were here."

I stand, searching his face for the answers to my grim questions. Is he Janus? Did he kill my mom?

"This is so unexpected. Have you been here long?" he questions me as he walks over to me and kisses me on my cheek. I recoil from his touch, so he steps back and must be puzzled by my more than usual coldness, and he questions me, "What's wrong?"

I answer calmly as I eye him with disdain, "Nothing."

He looks at me for a few more seconds, then goes to his desk, and asks, "What do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Today makes it three times this month."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "I received a message from you to come see you, and the message stated there was something you wanted to discuss with me."

"I didn't send you a message," my father replies.

"No matter, I have some questions I thought you might help me with."

I sit, controlling my anger. What will I do if it's true? Will I kill my own father?

My tone puts him on edge, and he asks, "What kind of questions?"

"They're about mom." I watch his expression, his unwavering eyes.

"Oh." He leans back in his chair and tells me, "Go ahead. Ask."

"Have you ever heard of someone called Janus?"

His eyes dilate as he answers, "Janus. Hmm... No, I don't think I know anyone by that name."

He lied to me! I fist my hands as I ask, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

I control my anger again. "I want to ask this person a few questions about mom." I open my purse and glance at the PPK inside.

He shrugs. "Sorry, I can't help you."

I give him one more chance as I ask, "Are you sure?"

Mr. Griffin's view...

What does she know? I remember a conversation I had with Orthos. Did she discover something I overlooked?

Kimberly's view...

He's family, so I give him a third chance and ask, "Are you sure you don't know anyone by that name?"

Mr. Griffin's view...

I gamble she doesn't, and I answer, "Yes, why?" I watch her shift her gaze from me to my desk, so I look down and see the new folders, and then I notice the note. I read it to myself, "Chairman, here are a few more folders from when you were Janus and over security for me. Signed the Vice President."

The Vice President? Did he orchestrate this?

I look at my daughter as my heart pounds, and I notice her expression darkens to the killer look of the Phoenix. She removes her gun from her purse and screws the silencer on as I ask, "What are you doing?"

Kimberly's view...

"I'm going to get to the truth," I tell him as I aim for his heart, choking back uncertainty and heartache. "Why did you kill mom?"

Chapter Fifty-five

Death's Head Hawkmoth

11:49 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Cultural Vicinage...

Katharine's view...

I'm anxious for some reason the entire ride over. The taxi drops me at the entrance of the Genesis Arboretum, and a security officer lets me into the main building. The guard escorts me to the area where we first met Adam Greenhouse and then to the Sapling Room. I am nervous. I guess it's because I'm going to find out about organic-mecha.

The security officer points to a door on the opposite side of the room and tells me, "Go through there. Mr. Greenhouse is waiting within." He drops his hand and starts to return to his duty as he adds, "Come back to the guardhouse when you're done, and someone will let you out."

I walk through the room with thousands of pots, arrive at the door, pause, and look at a nameplate. The next room's called the Sphere Room. I open the door to a set of steps, start up them through a hall, and walk up a story to a rounded door and wall.

I turn the knob, open the odd-shaped door, and a brilliant light explodes around me; it's so... What's the word I'm looking for? I shield my eyes. It's so brilliant. A few moments pass before my sight adjusts to the brightness. Wow! The room's humungous and shaped like a ball, and it's amazing! It's like I've landed on another planet and all my apprehensions evaporate.

The sun appears on the horizon of an eastern sky, and it's a blue cloudless sky. A diversity of birds break out in song, greeting the morning, and a salty breeze blows across a field of lemongrass, rippling the green blades as waves roar in the distance.

I close the door and walk further in. It's night outside but morning in here, and the clouds... There's no–

"Amazing, isn't it?" Adam yells from a large banyan tree that takes up most of the Sphere Room's center. "My own island of the sun!" He waves for me and urges, "Come! Come!" He takes a few steps toward me across the lawn grass surrounding the tree. "There's much for you to see!"

I follow a stone path through the tall lemongrass and cross a bridge over a pond surrounding the banyan. Koi swim in the water. The wooden planks creak under my weight as I approach him and by then, he has bent over and returned to his work. Adam straightens, wipes his hands on his overalls, and waves for me to come closer, and I squint as I gaze at the ever brightening morning sky. "How's there–"

"How is there sunlight?" he interrupts as he places both hands on his cane. "It is fake. The sky, the sun, and the ocean are all created by seamless projection screens. I even have a wind machine that creates the salty air." Adam lifts his pale blue eyes, scanning his pretend world. "Everything else in here is real though. I prefer living animals to bio-mechas."

"Oh..." I gaze up at the giant elderly man. "Wow. I didn't stand this close to you before. I didn't realize how tall you were. It's almost like you're two people. One standing on the other's shoulders." He eyes me oddly, so I put a hand to my mouth. "That was very rude of me, wasn't it? I'm sorry. Sometimes what I should be only thinking just pops out of my mouth."

I can't believe I said it out loud. Why don't I also tell him he looks older than creation?

Adam's view...

I eye her a little longer, smile, and say, "Don't worry. It isn't like you meant anything by it."

Or did she? If only I could remember her name, then this feeling I have had since I met her might make sense. The sapling's friend... Who is she really?

She peers around again and asks me, "Why is it morning?"

"If I had my way, it would be twenty-four hours of sun, but the animals behave much better with at least a little night cycle. Five hours to be precise." I cough, pull a red handkerchief out of my pocket, wipe my mouth, and throw the handkerchief in a trash. "That's why it's morning here instead of night because the day cycle is different than the outside world."

Katharine's view...

"Oh," I say as I regard the kind old face of the man. He reminds me of someone, and I want to wrap my arms around him and give him a big hug. I get the impression of a grandfather figure but that's it. The person in my mind has no face or name.

I frown, a little frustrated and shift my thoughts elsewhere. My anxiousness returns. He's going to tell me about organic-mecha, and I might find out that I'm one of them. I turn my gaze down to my feet. I don't feel like something created like the Un-Men.

Adam's view...

I notice her gloomy demeanor as I tell her, "Come over here, and I will show you something. It's a hobby of mine." I begin to show her several different flowers that grow in the Sphere Room, and their sweet fragrances fill the air as I motion to a plant with dark green oval foliage with pointed tips and reddish-orange trumpet-shaped flowers. "This is an Ocean Honeysuckle." I point to a light green plant with tiny red and white flowers. "This is a Brick Berry." I bend over and touch the leaves of another plant with blue-green foliage and purple flowers. "And this one's a Verandah." I step to the side so she can see. "And look very closely here." I point to a little green dot the size of a pea. "This is a moth's egg. The female lays a single one and when the larvae hatches, it feeds on the plant." I straighten. "Come." I move over to a wooden box cage and open it and inside, hundreds of winged bugs crawl over each other. "These are ready for shipment. You see, I raise the Death's Head Hawkmoth." I remove a bug careful not to let any of the others out and close the lid. The insect emits loud squeaks as I firmly hold it but gently, trying to keep the adult moth from flying away. "They make this sound every time I handle them. It's kind of like having a pet mouse."

She looks at the moth with a skull pattern on its back almost like a child seeing a bug for the first time. I expect her to squeal or lurch back, but Kat seems very interested in the moth.

I open the cage and return the moth. "Their Latin name is Acherontia atropos, and according to Arcamedes–"

"Arcamedes?" Kat interrupts me.

"You don't know that name." I search her face and still see the child in her, a curious child but there is something else in those eyes that give me worry. "Interested in history?" She nods, so I continue, "Arcamedes was a Philosopher and Entomologist among other things who lived about five hundred years ago; he was a genius ahead of his time."

"Oh. Didn't know."

"He was a very remarkable man. He's one of the reasons I entered the fields of science that I did." I walk over to a workbench covered with pots and garden tools. It's a bench like the one in the Sapling Room. I open a drawer and remove a new handkerchief and place it in my pocket. "Now where was I?"

"According to Arcamedes..." she says.

"Let me see if I can remember what he said. Ah, yes. The moth's Latin name Acherontia atropos." I clear my throat. "Arcamedes said Atropos was one of three sisters of the Fates and a daughter of Nyx."

Katharine's view...

Daughter of Nyx... The file I found mentioned the Children of Nyx in relation to organic-mecha, so the moth might have something to do with organic-mecha.

Adam continues, "Atropos was depicted with a shrouded face and a pair of scissors to cut the threat of life like the design on the moth, and it has a thoracic pattern of a mask with scissors below it. It is a foreboding but unwarranted image." He nods as if pleased with himself. "My memory hasn't failed me completely."

I glance at the flowers, then turn to him, and ask him, "What do the adults eat?"

"The adult moth raids beehives for honey." He grins like a doting parent. "They have quite a sweet tooth." He makes his way to the bridge and walks to its center. "Time to feed the fishes."

I put my hand to one of the banyan roots that runs down from a branch and look up at the enormousness of the tree. I hope there's more to our meeting than just talking about bugs. I join him and ask, "Do you sell them to zoos?"

"Yes." He reaches into his pocket, removing food. "Some of them go to zoos, others to researchers, and some of them I keep to study myself." Adam tosses the pellets into the water, and the white, gold, and dark colored fishes swim to the surface and gulp down the food. He turns to me as if I'm one of his grandchildren. "Would you like to feed them?"

I nod, hoping he would ask and take the pellets as he drops them into my outstretched palm. I scatter a few at a time into the water and watch the Koi feast. "Mr. Greenhouse."

"Yes?"

"In your note, you said you would talk with me about organic-mecha," I say as I drop the last of the pellets.

"That I did."

I wipe my hands on my pants and state, "I would really like to hear about them."

"Let's go inside, and I'll make some coffee."

I follow him through a maze of roots that run from the ground to branches high above, and then I follow him to the center. An opening stands there and wooden spiral stairs, that remind me of a centipede twisting its body around a branch as it crawls, are within and at the top, the stairs empty into a large open room. The smell of cedar fills the air. In the center of the room, there's a large table with a single file folder on its top and at the opposite end of the treehouse, there's a balcony with a wooden railing that looks over Adam's domain. I walk out to the balcony, scanning the small world as I exclaim, "The tree your house is built in is amazing." A salty breeze blows through my hair, conjuring an image of a white sandy beach sparkling under the sun that I'm running barefoot across. The image or maybe it's a memory brings a smile to my face, and I ask, "What kind of tree is it?"

"The tree itself isn't real, but it is modeled after an Indian Banyan," Adam answers as he strolls out to the balcony beside me. "It is also known as the Strangler Fig."

"The Strangler Fig?" I peer up at the long branches stretched overhead. What an ominous name for something so beautiful. I ask him, "Why is that?"

Adam's view...

"Banyans are a subgenus of tropical figs, and they have an unusual growth habit." I grab hold of a section of railing, notice it's loose, move to another section, and grip the railing there. "They usually start life as a seedling on another tree where a fig-eating bird has deposited the seed. The roots descend over the trunk of the host, seeking out the soil below and once they have rooted into the dirt, the fig roots rapidly thicken and lignify." I look at the mock ocean in the distance, hearing the waves crash against the shore. "Where the Banyan roots cross each other they fuse, creating a lattice around the host's trunk. The banyan competes with the host for light, water, and nutrients and with its roots, it prevents the host truck from growing. Eventually, the host dies and rots away, leaving the fig self-supporting as an ordinary tree but with a tubular lattice of lignified roots instead of a single trunk."

"So the tree uses another to survive then kills it."

I nod, "Everything in nature kills in one form or another to survive down to the cows that eat grass."

"I don't know about that."

"You are still young," I say. "A sapling. No... You aren't a sapling. What is it..? What is the name that I'm searching for that belongs to you?" Kat shrugs as if she doesn't understand the significance of what I am trying to ask. I say, "No matter, it will come to me later." I start back in as I question her, "Would you like some African coffee?"

"Umm... Maybe I shouldn't. For some reason, I keep thinking I shouldn't have coffee, so water or juice will do."

"Water it is. If you don't mind, I will still have some coffee."

"Not at all. Go right ahead."

Katharine's view...

Adam goes into an open country kitchen, removes filters and coffee grounds, and preps the machine.

I move to the large wooden table and sit in a chair, eyeing the file folder and after a few minutes, I begin, "About the organic-mechas–"

He grabs two metal mugs from the cupboard. "What's your interest in them?" He places them on the counter and grabs some sugar.

I think about his question and answer, "Can they pass as human?"

"Yes, they can." He places three teaspoons of the white granules in his mug as he questions me, "Would you like a slice of lemon in your water?"

"Yes, please." I fidget for a few moments as quiet settles in the treehouse. The coffee machine perks, and the strong African scent fills the area as I watch Adam grab a lemon from a hanging metal mesh basket and slice it. He places one of the slices in my mug and runs water from the tap into it. I ask him, "Mr. Greenhouse, is there any way to tell if someone's an organic-mecha?"

"Please, please... call me Adam and as for your question, I'm not sure what you mean."

The two cup machine finishes dripping as I question, "Are there any signs like a barcode on the back of their neck or maybe they can't shed tears?"

"No," Adam replies as he shakes his head. "No markings and their eyes have adequate tear ducts." He pours the steaming dark brew into his mug. "It's very hard to tell if they are an organic-mecha, but there is one way." He walks over with his cane and hands me the mug of water.

I take it and breathe in the scent of fresh lemon. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He goes back to the counter for his coffee and returns to the table.

There's a way to tell, and my heart rapidly beats as I anxiously wait to find out. I take a sip of the cool tangy liquid, trying to calm my uneasiness and ask, "So how can you tell if someone's an organic-mecha?"

Adam's view...

This could be my chance to see if Kat has Ginn's Cipher, so I sit in a chair beside her, set down my mug, and hold out my left palm for her left. "Give me your hand," I tell her. She starts to give it to me, but then she places her right hand in mine instead. It won't be as easy as I believe to get a look at her other hand. I wipe my rough thumb over the lines of her palm and over the minute pattern grooves of her fingers. "Organic-mechas have no fingerprints. They have no lines or markings whatsoever on their hands. I designed them that way."

Katharine's view...

I breathe a sigh of relief and let slip out, "So I'm not one."

"Not one?" Adam chuckles. "You thought you might be an organic-mecha? My dear, I could have told you earlier that you were not. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I would recognize one of my precious children." He asks, "Why would you think you were one of my crea..." He pauses and questions, "Why in all the sciences would you think you were an organic-mecha?"

I shrink from his question. "I..."

Few people know what I am; it's safer that way. It's safer, but he might know of my project and have information on Pandora. He might even know who I was before I became the Pandora Project. I nod slightly, deciding I'll tell him, so I remove the music box from my pocket, hold it in my left hand, and start, "I thought I might be because–"

A female voice interrupts me, "When are you going to get an elevator for this place? You're old. Don't you get tired of walking up and down these stairs, Mr. Greenhouse?"

Me and Adam turn, seeing Stephanie as she strolls into the main living area. Stephanie appears to be a little agitated and specks of sweat cover her forehead. She takes a moment to catch her breath as if she has run up a hundred flights of stairs.

"Like I said, you're old. Maybe you should– Hey!" Stephanie yells as she looks right at me and points like I stole her chocolate bar from her and I'm eating it. "There you are!" She puts her hands on her hips and scolds, "I've been looking all over Noir for you! Where have you been?" Stephanie glances around the treehouse. "Surely you haven't been here the whole time. Mr. Greenhouse, have you been hiding her from me?" She shakes her head. "I guess that doesn't matter now." She cracks her knuckles. "It's time I completed my assignment."

Chapter Fifty-six

Reports And Files

11:51 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Unknown Vicinage...

The Sanctum...

Two Chamber Supervisors walked the line of workstations to keep up with the increased activity, and one of the supervisors approached the Council. They talked among themselves, so the supervisor cleared his throat.

"Yes?" Mr. Morta asked.

"We have received the report from the S.C.M. team we sent into Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo."

"Good, good," Mr. Morta stated. "What does it say?"

"The S.C.M. guarding the back was Gel-Tasered, but he is fine, and the dozen K-99s guarding the building were destroyed."

"I see."

"Pandora..." Mr. Decuma said. "It must have been Pandora."

"What was it doing at that Etna?" Ms. Nona asked, turned to the supervisor, and questioned, "Could the S.C.Ms. tell how far the intruder–"

"It was definitely two," the supervisor interrupted. "The S.C.Ms. were able to download data from a few of the K-99s. There were two intruders and both of them were female. One of them has been confirmed as Pandora."

"Like I said, Pandora was there," Mr. Decuma spoke and then asked, "Could the soldiers tell how far they reached?"

"Yes, we know they accessed the cavern through the hand scanners. The S.C.Ms. believe they climbed the first cavern's walls. Data retrieved from the K-99s confirms that they engaged them on the second floor, but only the K-99s activated the elevator."

Mr. Decuma questioned, "What about the rooms up there?"

"Before answering that, I would like to know–" Ms. Nona interrupted, "–do we have an ID on the second woman?"

"Yes, we acquired it by using facial recognition software." The supervisor looked at his H.H.C. and then answered, "She is Ms. Kimberly Griffin."

"The Chairman's daughter?" Mr. Morta said, surprised to hear of her involvement. "What is she doing with Pandora?" He rubbed his chin as he muttered, "Very interesting."

The supervisor turned to the other male member of the Council and stated, "As for Mr. Decuma's question, the door to the filing cabinet room was knocked in and the books in the secret room were searched and thrown to the floor. There's a note on the report." The supervisor paused, retrieving the attachment, and then he spoke, "The S.C.Ms. found one filing cabinet in the secret room, and it was empty."

Ms. Nona asked, "What about Ginn's Cipher that was used to access the caverns? Which one of them possesses it? And once we find out, what are we going to do about it?"

Mr. Morta stated, "Very interesting question. What should we do about it indeed?"

* * *

Zax turned his van down an alley beside Dad's Donuts, activated an automated garage door, and pulled into the Maydag Auto Garage. He turned off the engine, plunging the area into silence; the place was empty. Zax opened the van's squeaky door, shut it, and glanced around the grease monkey pit. "I hate this place at night." He went to the second storage room, unlocked the door with a key, and went in. "It's kinda creepy when you're the only one here." The storage room smelled of dust and gas. Zax went to the back wall and looked up at a light. He knew he had to hurry. R.G. wanted to see him right away. He half unscrewed the bulb from the socket and pulled the chain and the back wall flipped around and on the other side, Zax walked along a gray stone passage to a knobless door.

"Identify yourself," a man's voice commanded through an intercom. "Are you man or Un-Man?"

"Funny, real funny." Zax looked up into the lens of the camera. "I'm the Delivery Man. Hurry up and open." He waited a few seconds and added, "R.G. wants to see me."

"Hurry? Hurry you say?" the man replied.

The door slid open, and Zax proceeded in. He quickened his pace, trying to make up for lost time and halfway down a white-tiled hall, he came across the glass-enclosed security desk. The usual four guard team manned it. There were three men and a woman manning it. One of the men looked up and grinned at him. All four guards were armed with handguns. The man waved Zax up to a bio-detector, and he went and stood in the device as the man scanned him for life signs.

"You ready for this again?" the guard asked. "Today could be the day."

"Come on, Tom," Zax said. "We go through this every time I come in. Scan me and get it over with. I need to see R.G."

"Testy today. You need to cut down on the coffee," Tom said as he scanned him.

"Funny, real funny."

"All clear, you may proceed." Tom flipped a switch, and the next door clicked open.

Zax entered and hurried down the hall, and the passage ended at a door. He opened it and entered a dark room with a lighted spot in the center and then he went and stood in it. Zax waited a few minutes in silence.

"Thank you for coming, Delivery Man," the mechanically altered voice of R.G. spoke over an intercom. "I wanted to personally talk with you. I need for you to know what I have planned for Kimberly and Katharine."

"I'm listening."

"I mentioned in the past they would need to be tested. I have tested one of them."

"Which one would that be?" he asked.

"I have tested Kimberly, the Phoenix. I had Voice place a Closing on her at the same time she was to perform a Closing on Ms. Melissa Odin."

Zax uttered, "You did what?"

"I needed to test her resolve. Would Kimberly carry out her job even though she was being hunted?" R.G. paused and added, "The test, in the end, was a failure. The Closing for Ms. Odin was canceled by Valhalla."

"What about Kimberly?" Zax asked. "What about the Closing placed on her?"

"I have canceled it for now," R.G. replied. "It's a shame. I had worked on that particular test since the Phoenix went to Moscow. It was not easy bringing a dead assassin back from the grave to work again, but I did convince Maestro."

"I don't understand. Why would you–"

"Because I must," R.G. interrupted. "We all have a part to play, and mine isn't the least hard. Now... Earlier, you reported spotting Cerberus at their apartment."

"Yes."

"Could you tell what she was up to?"

"No," Zax answered.

"I need to know; they aren't ready for this sort of test, but I guess I can't be in charge of every trial. Fate has stepped in or should I say the Fates?" R.G. paused. "Delivery Man, continue the surveillance of the two and remember, do not interfere unless I instruct you to. Is that understood?"

"Yes."

"Well done."

The single light turned off, plunging the room into darkness until the door opened automatically. Zax headed out.

* * *

Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

Sub-level 120...

Captain Creed monitored the Furies as they set up their base of operations. The S.C.Ms. Ultra-black Squad would be ready for the field within the week and ahead of schedule. He had assembled the elite from every field. They only needed to finish construction of the base. He glanced at his watch. It was almost time for his meeting with the Chairman; he'd head up shortly.

* * *

Sub-level 6...

The Archive...

"This could be it?" Claviger opened a box and glanced through a few of the files.

The other clerks in the Archive paused from their work and watched the older man.

"Yes, I do believe this is it!" Claviger waved the file in the air like a coveted trophy. "I'll take this right up to the Chairman. He shouldn't be too busy at this time of night, and he'll want these right away." He pointed to one of the clerks. "You, help me with this box. I'm going upstairs."

"Yes, sir." The young man grabbed the box and headed for a golf cart.

Claviger turned to the remaining clerks. "The rest of you continue looking. There still may be another box or two, and besides–" He grabbed his walker and started toward the golf cart. "–there are a lot of boxes we need to log."

Chapter Fifty-seven

Change Of The Guard

11:52 P.M...

Nile Sector, Commorance Vicinage...

Melissa stood with Bonnie in her arms, staring down the street at her smoldering safe house. Fire crews finished putting out the blaze and behind her down the road and sitting in an ambulance, Johnson received medical care. Chad stood in between two gurneys by another ambulance, and the boy stared at two body bags as tears streamed down his dirty face. Three new bodyguards, two males and a female, had arrived about twenty minutes ago. The two males stood close to Melissa while the female talked with Johnson. The female bodyguard nodded as she took notes from him. She finished and motioned for the boy to join her as she walked over to Melissa, and Chad looked one more time at the black rectangular bags; they were like a bath in a bag but more like death in a bag. He turned from Andrews and Daniels, wiped his eyes, and joined the female bodyguard.

"Ms. Odin."

Melissa turned to her and said, "Yes."

"I'm Casper. I'll be heading up your new security." She looked at her H.H.C. "The bodies of the Closers were never discovered, so they did escape. Your case has been settled in court, so the Closing has been canceled officially. The three of us will stay with you for the next few days, and I'll stay on after that as your personal bodyguard." Casper glanced at the smoldering safe house. "We'll get a room at the Bes Hotel across the street and stay there till we feel it's safe to return to your residence."

Melissa nodded. "Let's go there now. The children need to sleep."

An hour later...

The Bes Hotel...

Casper stood at a large window, looking out over Noir from the twentieth floor. She pulled the curtains closed and moved to the couch. The suite was large and there was room enough for the family and the three bodyguards.

Melissa went off to her own room after putting the children to bed and lay down on the large mattress. She couldn't believe the whole mess was over the formula Sunna Snaps she created for the Valhalla Corporation. She developed a completely different formula for Isis and as the courts decided, it had no similarities with Sunna Snaps. She rolled on her side; she had found out her brother's death was because of the drug. She also learned a man named Topa employed by the Valhalla Corporation hired an Illicit Closer to kill him. He had him killed because Norman tried to stop the sale of Sunna Snaps on Wayfaring Lane. Tears ran down her face. It was the reason she couldn't bear to take her brother's Bible that Kat offered her. She felt guilty because she was the one who created Sunna Snaps, and now her brother was dead because of them.

Chapter Fifty-eight

Prelude to Book Three:

Cerberus Versus Pandora

11:55 P.M...

Hellenistic Sector, Cultural Vicinage...

Genesis Arboretum...

On the first level of the treehouse...

Katharine's view...

"Cerberus, why are you here?" Adam questions angrily. "Why have you come to my house?"

Stephanie answers, "I've been sent on a mission." She wears a different smiley face t-shirt, and it had Xs for eyes, and its tongue hangs out like a dead dog. I'm beginning to wonder if these t-shirts have some sort of meaning for her.

"By whom?" he asks.

"By the Council of course. Now..." Stephanie hits her fist into her own palm, and it smacks loudly. "Like I said, I need to complete my mission."

At hearing the dreaded name of the Council, I realize Stephanie's not a friend. She was never a friend. I think of Kimberly and how she treats me. I only attract enemies.

He questions, "Why would the Council send you here? Why would they send you here after all these years?" I can tell that Adam's eyeing her suspiciously, and then he questions her, "Are you here to kill me?"

Stephanie laughs in a way that doesn't answer his question, and I wonder if I'm wrong. Crap! She's after Mr. Greenhouse and not me!

I won't let her hurt him, not this gentle old man. I stand, looking for my backpack. I left my gun in it. The pack sets next to the stairs on the other side of her and out of my reach.

Stephanie approaches the table, and Adam stands and prepares to defend himself against her, so Stephanie laughs, rolling her eyes. "Mr. Greenhouse, I'm not here to kill you." She folds her arms, a little offended. "How could you say such a thing?" She motions to me with her head and states, "I've been sent to terminate Pandora."

"Me?" I utter.

"By all the sciences!" Adam exclaims as his anger and outrage slowly focuses on me, "She's Pandora!"

I face Adam. He knows my project name, and I'm not one of his organic-mechas so... My mind races, filling with possible answers. Does he have something to do with my project? Does he know my true identity?

He glares at me as he says, "She can't be that foul project! No! Pandora was supposed to be iced!"

"I don't know about the iced part but–" Stephanie glances at the folder on the table and answers him, "–she's the one and only Pandora Project." She giggles like a school girl. "You mean you didn't know." She emphasizes the next two words, "You... are... getting old, Mr. Greenhouse. How could you not recognize her?"

His demeanor darkens as he yells, "You're Pandora!" He takes a step towards me as his nostrils flare like some enraged bull. "You dare enter my domain!" His eyes turn wild like a madness has taken him over. "My home!"

I don't know what's going on, so I take a step back and say, "I don't understand. Why are you so angry? You're the one who invited me here."

Adam grips his cane and admits, "I thought I knew your name when you came with the sapling!" He takes another step towards me, but I'm not afraid of him in that instance. He knows my name. He can tell me who I really am. My heart races with apprehension as I ask, "Do you know my real name?"

He glances at Stephanie as if it's a secret, and then he glares at me and rages, "I don't understand why the sapling tolerates you? Why does anyone tolerate you?"

I no longer see the grandfather figure I saw earlier. All I see is this angry man who's standing before me as if I'm some monster he needs to slay.

I tell him, "Adam, you're scaring me." I look at Stephanie who holds her position, and Stephanie looks amused. I turn back to him and say, "Please tell me what's wrong? What has made you so angry?"

He points his cane at me with this great animosity that's seething from his face. The cane's silver tip glints in the sunlight as if it's a sword and I'm a dragon he'll slay. Adam declares, "I should have remembered your name, vile creature! Why didn't I? I have forgotten many things. Some because I wished it and others because of my diminished faculties, but I should have never forgotten you! And now this abomination stands before me! I should have never let you live this long! I should have destroyed you long ago!"

I feel betrayed and heartbroken. I came here so that he could help me. I came here for some answers, not this... this... Whatever this is!

I ask him, "What do you mean? Why would you say such things? Such hurtful things? What do you know?"

Look how mad he is. I must have done something horrible to this gentleman to make him despise me. Look at the hatred in his eyes... it's like... A resounding fear creeps up from the depths of my soul, and it's a fear that paralyzes my spirit and strangles my hope. It's like he knows who I am, and it sickens him. No, that's not it. I search his hate-filled gaze as my next thought terrifies me. It's like he knows not who but what I am.

"Yes, I should have destroyed you!" Adam continues to rant as he ignores my questions.

I'm about to yell back at him, but then he charges at me faster than a man his age should be capable of. He drops his cane as his feet thunder across the wooden floor. I retreat a few steps and out onto the balcony, but I'm not quick enough to escape his wrath.

He yells, "I must rip you out by your roots!" He seizes me by the throat and bellows, "You're a weed! A weed!"

I'm still holding the music box with my left hand, so I grab his arm with my right.

Stephanie shouts, "Hey! I'm supposed to kill Pandora! She's my quarry! So lay off!!"

Adam ignores her as if she's not even there, and he yells at me, "How dare you come to me. You're a vile wretched creature! You're a weed!"

He squeezes my throat, choking me as I drop the music box and use both hands to try to pry his death grip from my neck. I look at Stephanie as if I'm hoping she'll help me. Stephanie folds her arms and pouts like a child.

"The Council sent me to kill her. I'm supposed to kill her." Stephanie kicks at the air, throwing a tantrum as she states, "Me... I want to kill Pandora."

Adam doesn't hear Stephanie in the thralls of his rage and squeezes my neck harder. I have no luck prying his hands away. He's also stronger than he looks. I pull my knees up to my chest and kick with my feet. It does me no good and only makes him even madder. He lifts me up and slams me onto the balcony's railing, and the loose piece gives and falls to the ground. My back hurts where he slammed me into the railing, but I ignore the pain as I fight to survive. I start to lose consciousness.

Adam dangles me over the edge as he shouts at me, "Now the weed must die!"

He drops me before I lose consciousness and halfway down, I manage to grab a small root. It stops my fall but breaks under my weight, and I fall, landing in the Koi pond.

Adam's view...

Cerberus looks over the balcony and sulks as she says, "This isn't turning out how I imagined. Mr. Greenhouse, you ruined everything."

The weed's body surfaces face down as I glare at the pond, then turn, and head for the stairs. It isn't enough. I can't let this go, not again.

Cerberus follows behind me as she questions, "Did you kill her?"

"No, but I will make sure of it this time."

"This isn't fair." She stomps her foot before we reach the stairs. "I came all the way here to kill her and you won't let me. Why are you doing this? I want to kill Pandora!"

"Let you?" I turn and face Cerberus. "If you want to kill the weed, have at it, but be quick about it! Or I'll be the one to finish it!"

Less than a minute later...

Katharine's view...

I suck in water and wake myself up, and I lift my head out of the pond and cough. I'm dazed as I drag myself out of the water to a patch of land, not covered by lemongrass as I continue to cough and choke and after a few more minutes, I clear my lungs to the point where it feels like I'm breathing air again and not water. I crawl further up the bank. I can't seem to catch my breath, and I rub my bruised throat. I see a shoe by my hand and peer up. Stephanie stands before me.

"You..." I manage to say. "You were after me all along."

Stephanie's view...

I ignore her stupid statement, too upset with Pandora, and I yell at her, "Look what you did. You made Mr. Greenhouse go all lunatic on you and now you're weakened. I was so hoping to fight you at your best but no... You had to be all stupid and come to Mr. Greenhouse's home. I don't think you're even at fifty-five percent fighting capacity." I kick Pandora in the face, knocking her unconscious, and the force of the kick sends Pandora backward into the water. I put my hand on my hip. "I guess we don't always get what we want."

The End-Click Here to continue the series.

Shades of Gray #3 Cerberus Versus Pandora

www.kristielynnhiggins.com/SOG3.html

# Beauty Of The Beast #1

The Mystic Rose

Part A

The Flower, The Sword, And The Kiss

Beauty of the Beast #1

The Mystic Rose

Part A

The Flower, The Sword, And The Kiss

Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2005; 2020

Ainwick Castle painting created by Canaletto

Still Life of Roses painting created by Anna Eliza Hardy

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Prologue

A Bit of History

On the planet Terra when recorded history began, Man coexisted with the Necroms. Necroms were intelligent cat-like humanoids. The dawn of this period was known as the First Age of Magic. In the Second Age of Magic, a war broke out between Man and the Necroms and by the middle of the Second Age, Man was nearly wiped from creation. Those who survived fled Wellspring and journeyed across the sea into the unknown, finding new homes and creating fortified domains. In the Third and final Age of Magic, Man established five island kingdoms: Commery, Fletching, Morgog, Swelldom, and Hort.

In the First Age of Metal, Man turned from the lost art of magic to the might of weapons as they discovered iron then steel. Large armies were created, and Man fought amongst themselves, forgetting the Necroms into myth. For generations, the wars continued until an arranged marriage between the two strongest kingdoms of Commery and Morgog ceased the bloodshed, and so Man established the first Emperor and Empress and the tradition of Amalgamation. When both the Emperor and Empress of the Five Kingdoms died, the two strongest kingdoms' heirs married and crowned a new dynasty and so began the Age of Amalgamation.

Chapter One

The Beast

"Stand your guard!" Han shouted as he held a wooden sword, taking an attack position against a boy. The commander's red cape draped his left shoulder, and he had short black-hair and a trimmed beard. He told the boy, "I shall attack first."

Blue-gray hills surrounded them as a cool crisp breeze swept through the tall grass. The multitude of knee-high blades rippled like waves across an ocean. Edward drew his wooden sword and took a defensive position. He stood by a large Cobalt Oak in the land of Naught. The silver-blue tree shaded them as a Crimson Jay chirped to the new sun's cycle.

Edward said, "I am ready, High Guard."

Five more High Guards surrounded a carriage and watched the fight. They cheered on the boy prince as a carriage driver tended to four horses. The steeds needed water before the last stretch of their journey back to the Fletching Kingdom. The journey to anoint the prince a potential Emperor was over. A little girl with an open book watched the practice duel.

"Quiz me," she pleaded to one of the guards.

Von took the book, asking, "What is a nal?"

She smiled, smoothed her hands down her plain brown dress, and then answered, "A nal is a measure of time. There are twenty in a day. It's what we call a sun's cycle."

"Good..." Von replied as he glanced up and noticed Han was ready to begin, so he hurried the next question by asking, "What is a mite?"

She giggled and then answered, "A nal consists of a hundred mites, and it also measures time." She beamed with pride, knowing the next fact as she said, "There are two thousand mites in a sun's cycle."

"Well done," Von said. "What is a zoc?"

"It measures distance. A horse can run a zoc in six mites."

"Good, good..." he said as he handed the book back and turned his full attention to the prince and commander. "Let us watch the duel."

Han thrust his small wooden sword, and Edward blocked.

"Excellent," the commander told Edward. "Now we need to work on countering."

Han repeated the attack, and Edward blocked and thrust toward the Guard's belly. Han blocked and stripped the prince of his sword, and the weapon fell near the carriage.

"Never believe you have the upper hand," Han told him as his face hardened for the sake of the lesson. Edward was so much like his father the King. He was so arrogant and fallibly confident. He wasn't cruel but self-centered. The commander hoped his future King would be a good ruler and one with a heart for the people. Han stated, "Let up your guard in the least and your enemy shall take advantage."

The prince bowed his head, defeated. He hated losing.

Edward spoke, "I do not see why I have to practice the sword."

Han sighed and then said, "You must learn to defend yourself, my lord." He leveled his blade on the prince as he added, "You must be able to protect yourself."

The little girl gasped, dropped her book, ran to Edward's sword, and picked it up. She ran behind Han, jumped on his back, and placed the wooden blade next to his neck, and then the girl declared, "Not as long as there are High Guards to protect him."

Han laughed, and then he questioned her, "So little one, are you a High Guard?"

"Yes," she answered.

He grabbed the sword and rolled her off his back into his arms.

Edward kicked the dirt jealous that Han's attention was on the girl, and then he said, "Girls cannot be Guards. Girls are not allowed to handle weapons."

Han put the child down and looked her over, and then he told her, "You know the prince is right, little one. What is your name?"

She admired the man towering over her as she answered him, "I've only been called girl. I'm..."

"The peasant was never given a name," Edward interrupted, looking down on the girl. "Her mother died when she was born, and she has no father and so has no name. My mother the Queen took pity on her and made her my playmate."

Han rubbed his black beard, examining her, and then he questioned, "You are what, eight?"

"Nine," she replied. "Two seasons younger than the prince."

"Why have you not picked yourself a name?" the commander questioned.

She batted her big brown eyes as she replied, "I don't know what to call myself. I was also told only someone from the court can name me."

Han glanced over those gathered, focused on one of his men who was an Archer, and grinned. He questioned her, "How about Pluck?"

"Pluck?" she repeated.

"Pluck is not a girl's name," Edward stated as he sneered, wondering why the commander never picked a name for him. He was the prince and was far more worthy to receive a name. Edward said, "Anyway, is that not the heart, liver, and lungs of a slaughtered animal? Why not call her Entrails?"

Han frowned, shaking his head as he spoke, "Never mind the prince. He can be spiteful when he loses a duel." The commander turned his gaze back to the girl. A name was very important. It identified who you were, who you could be and once given, no one could take it away. Han told her, "Pluck also means resourceful courage and daring in the face of adversity."

She smiled as she said, "I like Pluck." She delighted in how the word rolled off her tongue and that it was something that belonged to her.

"But Pluck is not a girl's name," Edward insisted, stomping his foot. "It is not proper."

"True... True..." Han spoke as he looked at the girl. The prince was right... the name wouldn't be accepted in the Fletching Court. Han suggested, "Perhaps, I should pick another."

"No. I like it," she said as she pleaded with her small hands, fearing he would take it away before it was hers. "Really, I like Pluck. Please, let me keep it. Something that's mine."

Han's face softened. The poor child, to have nothing in this world, not even a name. He raised his wooden sword, tapped her on each shoulder as if knighting her, and said, "Pluck it is."

Edward rolled his blue eyes as he asked, "How much longer until we leave?"

Han looked at the carriage driver.

The driver replied, "If we're to ride nonstop to the castle, the horses should rest a few more nals."

"We shall wait a few more nals," Han stated and scanned the prairie, and then he questioned, "Why don't you play, my lord? It isn't every sun's cycle you're allowed beyond the walls of your castle."

Edward's pout vanished as he started, "Well..." He looked over the blue-gray hills and saw a forest in the distance as a mischievous grin crossed his face. "I could busy myself for a nal or two."

"Good then. Stay where we can see you and don't go into the forest," Han instructed him, then turned to his men, and ordered, "Bulwark and Von, keep an eye on the children. The rest of us shall ride ahead to the village and pick up our supper. We shall be back within the nal."

"Yes sir," Bulwark and Von replied.

"This way," Edward commanded the girl as he scurried through the tall blue-gray grass as if chasing something. "I saw a Prairie Toad. Let us see if we can catch it."

"Where?" Pluck asked as she ran after him, carrying the prince's wooden sword. "I don't see a toad."

"There!" Edward shouted as he pointed at the imaginary amphibian.

He needed to get them closer to the forest and then wait until the Guards were not looking. He glanced at the girl. All he had to do was convince her to follow him. He smirked. She was very devoted to him. It might not be as hard as he believed.

He told her, "The toad is heading into the forest."

She stopped and shook her head as she insisted, "We can't. Han said we're not to go in."

Edward also stopped and spoke, "He did, but who is the prince?" He raised his chin, paused, and then said, "Anyway..." A sly grin crossed his face before he stated, "I shall need a High Guard to accompany me."

Pluck's face brightened as she pointed to herself and questioned, "You mean me?" She motioned back the way they came and asked, "But what about Bulwark and Von?"

The children looked across the prairie to the warriors. The two High Guards were distracted by a traveler asking directions.

"We shall not be gone long. They shall not even know we are missing so come," Edward commanded her as he headed into the forest. "It shall be an adventure like those told in stories."

"I don't know," she said as she followed him, searching the trees. "What if Necroms live here?"

"Necroms..." He laughed and then explained to her, "They are only stories told to scare little children."

"I am a child..." Pluck stated as she apprehensively scanned the forest, gripping the sword tightly. "I am scared." She bit her lip, not wanting to go but did, desperate to protect the prince no matter how frightened she was. Pluck said, "There are reasons children shouldn't go into dark woods."

Summer green shrouded the forest as Black Feathered Yaws sang to the new sun's cycle. Their high pitched shrills echoed across the forest as pine-scented the air. Trunk Beetles buzzed about the children as Edward led them down an animal trail. The canopy thickened the further they ventured. The woods darkened as the sun found little passage into the forest domain, and the air grew cool.

"We better go back," Pluck suggested as she searched the shadows for monsters as misshapen trees frightened her.

"Are you afraid?" Edward questioned as his heart pounded for the excitement, knowing nothing would turn him back.

"Yes," she admitted. "Please, let's return."

"A little farther then we shall. Look..." He pointed to a structure hidden in the vegetation and asked, "What could it be?"

"I don't know," Pluck replied as she saw statues of a Woolly Tiger, Fire Lion, Striped Cheetah, and Ghost Panther guarding the overgrown entrance. Their cold stone eyes glared at them and warned them not to enter as she stated, "I don't think we should go in."

"Nonsense. There is nothing to be afraid of. There is no one else out here."

"That's why I'm afraid," she admitted as her little hands trembled. Pluck readied the wooden sword as she said, "I'm the only one here to protect you."

In the distance, Bulwark and Von shouted, "My lord... Prince Edward..." Their cries were frantic as they questioned, "Where are you?"

Pluck started to shout.

"No," Edward commanded, staring at the structure that beckoned him. "I am not done with my adventure. They shall find us when they do. Come."

"I think we should let them know where we are."

Edward turned to her, and his piercing blue eyes stared at her as he asked her, "Do you love me?"

"What did you say?" she asked. His question surprised her.

"Do you love me?" he repeated.

"Yes, I have always–"

"Then come with me," Edward interrupted, feeling nothing for her. She was an object. The girl was something to own and something to rule. He attacked her heart. It was the one muscle vulnerable to words... to lies... A simple gesture from him and then a smile, and she was his. His mother had taught him well. He told her, "If you love me, you shall do as I say."

Pluck didn't answer him only nodded.

Edward rushed into the structure and followed a long pale-white hallway. Brass torches lit the stone passage that looked as if it hadn't been used in a very long time.

"Someone is here," she said. Everything within Pluck told her to run and flee from this place. She told him, "Someone had to light the fires."

"Let us see," Edward said as he steadied himself on a cold stone wall determined to continue. The structure had to protect something, and he had to know what it was. Edward told the girl, "This is my kingdom and anyone here is my subject."

Pluck bit her lip again, and then she said, "That doesn't mean they'll obey you."

The hall opened to a large room with a round blue pool. Steam hovered above the water like a phantom mist. A bush grew from a platform in the middle of the water and on it, a single white flower budded.

Edward's eyes widened as he uttered, "A Mystic Rose!"

"A what?" Pluck inquired and when she saw it, the flower's beauty awed her.

"A Mystic Rose. It is written they possess great power," Edward spoke as he licked his lips greedily and deeply breathed, smelling the flower's sweet aroma. "It is said that the Mystic Rose was the only magical thing brought to the Fletching Kingdom." He rubbed his palms as he stated, "I must have it."

"Maybe you shouldn't. It belongs to someone," Pluck insisted as she noticed more statues of large cats encircling the room just like the ones outside of the structure. Fear clung to her words as she said, "Please, let's leave."

"I am the prince. What I want I possess," Edward declared as he crossed stone steps to the bush. Glittering sparkles surrounded the Mystic Rose like fluttering pixies. He carefully grabbed the stem of the white rose, broke it from the bush, and then waited a couple of moments to see if anything would happen. Nothing did, so Edward headed back as he said, "See... No one is here... Now let us return."

Pluck looked around as she held her breath, and then she sighed and studied the white bud as she asked, "May I touch the Mystic Rose?"

He thought on her request, and then he replied, "You may but only once."

She touched the white petals of the Mystic Rose with her left hand and slid her index finger down its stem.

"That is enough," Edward spoke as he pulled it away.

"Ouch..." Pluck said as she put her finger to her mouth. "The flower bit me."

"Huh?" He examined the stem, and then he told her, "It did not bite you. You caught your finger on a thorn. See..." Edward showed her as he said, "There is a little blood here."

The thorn absorbed the blood as she peered at it. The Mystic Rose's petals changed from white to blue. Pluck smiled and giggled, and the bud's petals turned yellow.

"How pretty," Pluck uttered as she looked at her index finger. She was surprised to see silver, blue, and green sparkles materialized over her finger as if it was a magic wand. The multicolor lights danced about like fairies, and a black dot appeared on her fingertip. Two black lines shot from the circle and split, curving around to the top. The lines joined and created four separate rings up to her knuckle, and then the sparkles faded.

Pluck questioned, "Is this magic?"

"No..." Edward answered her, and then he stated, "It looks like a tattoo. Do you not know magic happens only for those with Royal Blood?" He examined the markings she received from his prize. No peasant would receive the power of his Mystic Rose. He told her, "The Queen shall not like that you have a tattoo."

Her faced reddened with embarrassment and fear, dreading the Queen's wrath, and then she said, "It's your fault I have it. You're the one who stuck me with the thorn."

"My fault?" he questioned, and then he told her, "Do not blame this on me."

Pluck pouted as she said, "I am and I'm going to tell the Queen."

"My mother!" Edward uttered as he cringed. "You cannot. I command you not to."

Her face grew stern as she spoke, "You'll have to do better than that."

Her disobedience outraged him as he questioned her, "What did you say?"

She folded her arms and then replied, "I want something for my silence."

"Give you something, hah!" He looked at the yellow bud and told her, "I shall not give you the Mystic Rose."

Pluck laughed as she said, "I don't want it. I want something else."

"What else could you want?" Edward questioned as he looked around the room as if it would be there.

She blushed before whispering, "The Kiss."

The Mystic Rose's petals changed to pink.

Edward's face flushed as he uttered, "My first kiss but that is for my betrothed." He looked her over like she was rabble before he told her, "Anyway, you are not royalty."

"That's true, but the Kiss only pledges your heart to the one," Pluck said as she giggled. "Not that you'll marry me. I know you can't marry a peasant." She fiddled with the wooden sword as she stated, "This is all I want."

He thought on her proposal. The Kiss was meaningless to him. If it shall buy her silence... He answered, "Agreed. I shall give you my first kiss and in exchange, you shall not tell my mother it is my fault you have the tattoo." He then added, "Or that I gave you the Kiss."

"I agree," she said as she blushed again coyly. "I'll ready myself." Pluck placed her hands behind her back and puckered her lips.

Edward took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and leaned toward her lips ready to meet them. Before they kissed, a howling wind whipped in, chilled the air, and flickered the fires lighting the room. The docile stone faces of the statues magically became angry, and the children heard large cats rage. The Mystic Rose's hue became purple as fear filled Pluck.

"Who dares?" a woman's voice demanded like the roar of a lioness. "Who dares steal the Mystic Rose?" A woman fair as an Angel Dove soared into the room like a white apparition. She pointed a slender finger at the prince as she questioned him, "Is it, ye?"

Both children paled.

"Speak up child!" the woman demanded. "Is it, ye?"

Edward looked at Pluck, and then he stepped forward and replied, "Yes. I took the Mystic Rose." His fear turned to anger as he declared, "This is my kingdom. I shall take what I want."

"Curse ye, arrogant one!" she shrieked. "Ye shall regret the sun's cycle ye transgressed this building." She floated above them as she questioned them, "Do ye not know I am Fairah, Protector of the Mystic Rose? Curse ye! If ye had only asked, the Mystic Rose would have been ye's." Fairah hovered to the ceiling as green currents of electricity surged across her body. Her long white hair stood on end as power flowed through her otherworldly form as she yelled, "Ye do not deserve the Mystic Rose!"

"My prince," a voice shouted from outside the structure.

"Han, here!" Edward replied, hoping his guards would save him. "I am in danger!"

Fairah raised her hands and formed a ball of electricity in her palms as her solid white eyes glowed green. She told him, "They shall not reach ye in time." She flung the energy, and the ball hurled toward him.

Pluck's heart skipped, seeing Edward in danger, and she shouted, "My lord!" She rushed toward him and pushed the prince out of the way as she yelled, "Look out!"

Edward landed on the stone floor and rolled to face Pluck as the energy hit her, throwing her back, but she didn't fall. The power lifted her into the air like a great wind. She screamed as green electricity surged through her tiny body, whipping her brown hair about. Roars of Woolly Tigers, Fire Lions, Striped Cheetahs, and Ghost Panthers filled the room with unbearable noise. Edward covered his ears. Turquoise energy exploded from Pluck and blew the prince's black hair. The power shredded her dress, ripping it from her body, and she covered her nakedness with her arms and knees.

"I'm burning!" Pluck shrieked as she reached her hand toward the prince. "Save me!"

Paralyzed by fear, Edward shook his head as he covered his eyes with his hands and screamed, "Make it stop! Han, save me!"

Short beige fur sprouted from Pluck's body as a long tail formed. Tiger like claws replaced her nails, and her canine teeth lengthened. Pluck screamed again, but she sounded like a Ghost Panther, and her hair changed to fiery-crimson and grew longer into a full mane. Her eyes changed from brown to emerald green, and her legs grew, becoming more cheetah-like. The power lowered Pluck's small frame to the floor. She wept, wrapping her furry arms around her ill-fated form and shivered as tears streamed down her face.

Edward scurried away from the ghastly sight and made Pluck cry all the more. Han, Bulwark, Von, and the rest of the High Guards rushed in with their rapier swords readied. Bulwark and Von hurried to the prince and carried him out of the building as Han rushed toward Pluck, and then he halted.

"By Fletching! What beast is this?" He lifted his sword to strike her as he yelled, "Crell spawn!"

"Do not hurt the child," Fairah commanded. "She is only cursed."

"She..?" Han lowered his sword and examined the beast more closely as he inquired, "Is that you, little one?"

Pluck turned to him, furry beige face wet with tears and quivered out an answer, "Yes."

Han pointed his slender sword at the apparition and asked, "Is it a fight you want, witch?"

"No," Fairah replied, and then she told him, "My duty is over. Ye may leave in peace."

Han turned to the men who were still with him and ordered them, "All of you out."

They did as commanded.

He removed his red cape and covered Pluck, and then he ordered the phantom woman, "Change her back."

His request surprised Fairah, and she told him, "I cannot as I said... there is a spell on her."

"Why did you do this to her?" he demanded. "Why this hideous form?"

"The punishment was meant for the boy, but she pushed him out of the way."

"But why?" Han repeated.

Fairah couldn't understand why this man didn't know. All of Fletching should know. Fairah answered him, "He stole the Mystic Rose which I am the protector of." She motioned to the bush in the center of the pool and said, "They should have known better."

"Known?" Han snapped, and then he questioned, "Who are you?"

Again he surprised her as she asked, "Ye do not know me? I am Fairah and this last place of magic has been protected by the king's decree since the foundation of the Kingdom."

"My dear lady, I am Han, Commander of the High Guards," he said as he swiped his sword, pointing to the room. "I have not heard that this land is protected. You must have been forgotten by the passing of time."

"Forgotten?" Fairah uttered as she contemplated the possibility. "Then the boy knew not to take the Mystic Rose or that in asking he could have had it."

Han nodded.

"So I punished him for only being an arrogant child." Fairah looked at Pluck with compassion as she restated, "Or should I say, I condemned her."

Han demanded, "Take back the hex."

She explained to him, "Even with my powers, I cannot but..." Fairah floated down next to the girl as she said, "There is a way." She waved her hand over the child and once she finished, Fairah lifted into the air as her spectral form started to vanish and spoke, "If she can receive what was promised this sun's cycle before the Mystic Rose, the curse shall be broken."

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

She paused mid-air and told him, "There is nothing more for me to guard here until another Mystic Rose blooms."

"What about the child?" Han asked as he felt helpless to comfort Pluck yet alone help her through this tragedy. "I cannot take her back to the castle like this. Since our birth, we are told to fear Necroms. We are to despise and kill any we might come across. Look at her." He turned Pluck to face Fairah, and then he continued, "She is the very embodiment of what we hate. I understand, but the others shall not. They shall throw her in the dungeon or kill her."

Fairah shook her head with disdain as she said, "Is this how they praise heroes now?" She looked around the building and then replied, "The child may live here. Few people venture into these woods, so she should be safe." Fairah looked once more to the girl as the tragedy of what she cursed her to became clearer in her mind, and then Fairah vanished without another word.

"No," Pluck pleaded, turning to the High Guard. "Don't leave me here, not alone."

Han felt for the girl. Her life had been hard enough but now with the curse... Han told her, "I am sorry, but you can't return with us. They shall not understand. Too many in the court still fear the myth of the Necroms." He left and returned, placing on the floor the supplies they purchased in town. "Here is some food," he stated and then he started out.

"No! Don't leave me." Pluck grabbed his leg as she begged him, "I don't want to be alone."

Han's heart broke as he placed his hand on her furry head, and then he told her, "I vow as a High Guard I shall return tomorrow." He beckoned to her so she would look at him, "Little one..."

She lifted her feline eyes.

"You sacrificed yourself to save the prince, a duty that was ours. I shall not let you be forgotten like the protector of this building," Han told her as he helped her onto her new legs, not knowing what to say to ease her pain. He noticed the wooden sword on the floor and remembered his duel with the prince. "You have proven yourself so rules or not, I shall train you to become a High Guard. You have earned that right... now dry your eyes. Tears are not becoming of a warrior."

Chapter Two

Time Passes

Fourteen seasons later...

Edward woke, gasping in his bed. He sat up as sweat glistened his slim muscular chest, and then he looked around the dark room disoriented from his fierce dream. A woman lay beside him and rolled over at his cry, returning to her sleep. This wasn't the first time he'd screamed in the middle of the night.

A High Guard, who had a thick brown beard and an easy-going demeanor, opened the door to his chamber as firelight from oil lamps broke in, casting shadows, and then the High Guard asked, "My lord?"

Edward wiped his face and raked his hands through his shoulder-length raven-black hair and then told him, "Just another nightmare, Melee."

"They are becoming more frequent. Do you remember the dream this time?"

"Only images," Edward answered as he closed his blue eyes, remembering the violent sights. "I see a terrible Beast in the midst of a great battle. Its war cry stabs my soul like a knife. I want to flee, but I see the Mystic Rose above the conflict. Many die around me because of the Beast." He opened his eyes as he stated, "That is all I remember. That is all I ever remember."

He looked at a wooden pedestal in the middle of the room and on it, the Mystic Rose magically suspended within a protective glass dome as a supernatural glow illuminated the pedestal. The illumination depended on the color the Mystic Rose's petals assumed and at the moment, they were yellow. Edward got up, poured water from a pitcher into a washbasin, splashed his face, and then stated, "I cannot remember a time when I did not have the dreams. Why do I have them?" He stared at the water lit by fire as he asked, "And why do I fear them?" He grabbed a towel, dried his face, and then spoke, "Court wise men say the Beast is me while others say it's a great enemy coming to devour our kingdom." He looked at the High Guard and inquired, "What do you think?"

"I don't know, my lord," Melee answered. "Maybe a dream is only a dream."

The High Guard's answer didn't help Edward. He didn't understand why he must bear the burden of the visions. Edward knew the dreams were telling him something. He just didn't know what. The prince lay back in bed, finding no comfort with the stranger beside him as he ordered, "You may leave, Melee. I have an important sun's cycle tomorrow and need to get what sleep I can." He clenched his blankets as he continued, "Before the sun is high, we set sail to fetch my intended, Princess Virago of Morgog, and head for the Isle of Kismet for the Amalgamation."

Edward pondered the nightmare some more and wondered if the princess or the Morgog Kingdom could be the Beast. Their kingdoms had been rivals in the past so this alliance would be an uneasy one. He thought about it some more, and then he considered that he should fear what was coming.

* * *

Pluck like a Ghost Panther leapt about the trees, not straying far from the building. She loved soaring from limb to limb as if gravity had no pull on her. Freedom and peace engulfed her, erasing her curse at least for a few nals as night spread its wings over the sky and only the moons, Auror the Greater and Array the Lesser, penetrated its dark hold. Pluck scurried to the top of the tallest tree and studied the heavenly bodies. Even in the vastness of the night, Auror and Array were magnificent and possessed a power of their own. It was a power that affected the tides and her mood. She smiled, taking a deep breath of the pine-scented air, mesmerized by the pale blue spheres. Pluck felt a wildness take hold, and it was a surge of emotion that ignited her senses. The feral sensations triggered a memory of Fairah hovering above the four cat statues within the building. Pluck was nine at the time.

In the memory...

"Why do ye cry, child?" Fairah questioned the young girl.

Pluck wiped her little eyes while she sat next to the pool in the center of the building as she replied, "I hate how I look." She peered at her reflection in the water as she added, "I'm ugly."

"That is not true," Fairah told her. She hated seeing Pluck upset. The Protector searched the room, noticed the large cats below her, and then asked, "Did I ever tell ye why these statues are here?" She swiped her spirit-hand through the head of one as she stated, "They guard this building and each was chosen for their virtues."

Pluck sniffed as she questioned, "Why tell me?"

"Each of them is within ye," Fairah explained to her as she floated down and sat next to Pluck. "The strength, heart, and loyalty of the Fire Lion; the speed, enthusiasm, and stability of the Striped Cheetah; the courage, stamina, and dedication of the Woolly Tiger; and the stealth, cunning, and dauntlessness of the Ghost Panther." She smiled and then added, "They not only make up what ye look like but what ye are inside. Ye's curse can be a blessing if ye can get past ye's appearance."

The present...

"Fairah is right about one thing," Pluck said to herself as she stared up at the night. "I feel them within me. They're my animal side." She stretched out on a branch, stared up at the multitude of stars, and breathed in the refreshing air as her black-tip tail swayed. Pluck felt at home, at least some of her did. A small part yearned for human contact and to return to the Fletching Castle as sorrow enveloped her. She scolded herself, "I'm not going to focus on it. I've been sad long enough. I'm going to enjoy the rest of the night."

The moons set as dawn drew near and with the new sun's cycle arrival, came songs as birds sang to the fresh day. Pluck climbed down a vine and rushed into the building as her long tail twitched with excitement. She had slept little but felt as bright and chipper as the infant sun's cycle.

"Another beautiful night. You should have seen it, Fairah. The moons were blue and full and from the Lofty Pine, I could almost touch the smallest one," Pluck spoke as she twirled, dancing around the pool. "At sunset, the sky became amber and burned across the horizon."

Her white High Guard's sleeved shirt fluttered with her movements as her clawed feet pranced about to an imagined melody. The brown leather pants she wore were baggy from the knees down. Pluck finished her dance and knelt by the water, studying her reflection by torchlight. Since the birth of her beast form, there had been few changes. She had grown eight hands tall, tall as an average man. Her fiery-crimson mane had thickened and flowed just below her shoulders. She had grown a set of breasts, and her ears were rounded and cupped. She looked at her hand, at least she still had fingers even if they had retractable claws. Emerald feline eyes stared back at her.

"The memory of my human form has faded," Pluck said as she frowned.

"Ye better not let Han see ye cry," Fairah told her as she appeared above her and floated down to her side.

"I'm not crying," Pluck said as she wiped her eyes. "Anyway, he won't be here till tomorrow. The letter sent by Courier Pigeon stated he had news for me." Pluck grabbed her long beige tail and stroked its black-tip as she spoke, "I wonder what he wants to tell me. Could it be about the prince or maybe he's found another way to end my curse?"

Fairah sighed as she threw up her metaphysical hands, and then she said, "The commander could assist ye much better if ye would only tell him the promise that was made between ye and the prince, and then ye would have no need for any other cure."

Pluck frowned again as she said, "I fear he'll try to stop me from receiving the Kiss and that's why I haven't told Han all of these seasons." Pluck lay on the stones, gazing at the ceiling as she stated, "The Kiss isn't something the prince gives away. It pledges his heart and soul." She paused and said with a hint of sadness, "Edward may have already given his first kiss to someone." She rolled over, looked at her reflection again, and then continued, "If this is true, I'll remain in this accursed body."

Fairah's spirit-hand stroked her mane. The Protector wished she had a corporeal form to comfort the woman she'd come to consider her child. Fairah told her, "I know not what to say. There is beauty in ye's form if only ye would see it."

Pluck sat up and said, "Even if I did, people would consider me a Necrom. I would be shunned with only an apparition and an old High Guard to keep me company." She slunk to her blankets on a bed of hay and once she reached them, she requested, "Tell me again about the Creator."

Fairah grinned as she questioned, "Are ye not a little old for bedtime stories?"

"Are they just stories?" Pluck questioned as she pulled up her blanket, looking into Fairah's solid white eyes.

"No, child," Fairah replied as she floated to her. "In an explosion of life, the Creator brought Terra into existence. All was perfect. No wars, sickness, or sadness. One sun's cycle the Despiser, his real name lost in time, wished to be worshiped like the Creator so he lied to those of Terra. He told them magic could be used for more than helping others, that it could be used to help one's self and with that, magic became corrupted. So now there is the magic of the Creator and the magic of the Despiser."

"Not everyone believes this?"

"No, like the Necroms the Creator has fallen into Myth. Many do not believe."

"I believe," Pluck stated as she turned on her side, and then she repeated, "I believe."

Fairah lifted into the air, and she slowly vanished as she said, "Good... Never forget. He shall protect ye."

"Peaceful night," Pluck spoke.

"Peaceful night," Fairah said in turn as her form completely disappeared.

* * *

The next sun's cycle twilight broke over the forest of Naught. Black Feathered Yaws greeted the morning with their high pitched shrills. Inside the building, Pluck's cat ears twitched as she heard two horses approaching.

"It must be Han," she spoke to herself, grinning mischievously and scurried for a hiding place.

Han entered the large room and cautiously searched every shadow as she softly growled at him ready to pounce on him.

He told her, "There's no time for your game this morning, Pluck. We must leave. The prince's ship shall not wait for us."

"Leave? Ship?" Pluck questioned as she emerged from behind the statue of the Woolly Tiger, forgetting her game. "What do you mean?"

He didn't know she was hiding there. Her abilities had greatly improved since he started training her. Han would have had her joined the ranks of the High Guards long ago if not for her curse and if not for her gender.

Han answered her, "Empress Candiss has died. The time of the new Amalgamation has come. Edward sets sail to collect his betrothed. Together, they shall sail for the Isle of Kismet to claim the crowns of Emperor and Empress. All of the High Guards shall escort him. Great danger awaits all who attempt the crown."

"All High Guards?" Pluck uttered as she pointed to herself. "You mean even me? Go where I'll be seen?" His statement confused her, and she questioned, "But how?" She looked at her hands, examining her fingers and palms that were bare but the rest of her hands were covered in short beige fur like her body, and then she asked, "Will your men accept me?"

Han told her, "Pluck, I didn't train you so you could stay in this building forever. You are a High Guard and one of the finest I've ever schooled. Here..." He lifted a long cloak, a pair of boots, and gloves he'd been carrying in one hand as he said, "These shall keep you disguised until the others and yourself become accustomed to your condition."

She took the brown leather cloak, boots, and gloves.

"Put them on," he ordered.

Pluck hooked the cloak's clasp around her neck, pulled on the gloves, and slipped into the knee-high boots, and then she asked, "When will we return?"

Han thought about it, and then he answered, "The journey shall take over a season." He showed her a pin as he said, "There are two other things."

"A Charging Black Elk, the Fletching insignia," Pluck exclaimed as she beamed with pride as he fastened the gold and black pin to her cloak just above her heart.

He lifted a long object wrapped in a red cloth. He unwrapped a rapier, a matching main gauche, and a belt with a sword frog, and then he handed them to her.

She took the sword and matching dagger as she uttered, "An Accolade Sword!"

"Yes, the weapon of honor. It's official, Pluck." Pride beamed from his face as he stated, "You're a High Guard."

She grabbed the hilt of the rapier, and its silvery brass handguard twisted over her hand like a vine. Pluck unsheathed the sword and studied its long slender blade.

"The finest weapon in the land," he said, and then Han folded his arms before he uttered, "Now..." He noticed her tail twitching under her cloak, and he questioned, "What are we to do about that?"

Pluck looked back and said, "Watch." She parted her cloak, revealing her waist, wrapped her tail around herself like a belt, and tucked the tip inside the tail opposite her sword.

Her actions amused him as he commented, "Interesting trick. Your tail is like a third arm." The sun rose high enough to peer into the building's Eastern windows as he said, "Time we go, come."

"I will," she told him as she turned and looked at the room and pool which had been her home for fourteen seasons. "I only have to say farewell."

Han turned and peered around the room as if expecting to see something or someone he hadn't seen since Pluck had been cursed. He had always wondered if the protector of the Mystic Rose had kept in contact with her, and he finally had his answer.

He told her as he left the great room and headed through the hall, "I shall ready the horses."

Pluck waited until she heard him leave, and then she yelled, "Fairah! Fairah, I'm leaving."

"Yes, I heard, child," the protector spoke as she appeared above the pool and floated down to her like a ghostly dove of splendor and light.

Pluck looked at her and for a few moments, she remembered the wrath-filled woman whose piercing white-eyes crackled with magic when she first appeared to her as a child. The beautiful woman with equally white hair had terrified her as a child with her fierce rage and swift retaliation to what the protector, at the time, thought was an injustice. As Pluck grew and the sun's cycles turned into seasons, she found that Fairah had a very kind side to her. She wasn't this ghastly wielder of magic but someone she could depend on and learn from. Fairah had a fondness for her as much as she had a fondness for the protector. She was her constant guardian. Fairah filled a role in her life that had been vacant when she lived among the royal court. She was bound to Pluck, not as the witch her cursed her or even as the protector of the Mystic Rose. Fairah had found a very special place in her heart.

"The commander is correct," Fairah told her. "Many dangers await all who take this journey. The prince shall many times depend on ye for his safety."

"I understand that, but did you hear him? I won't be back for more than a season."

"What is this face for?" Fairah questioned her as she lifted her spectral hand to Pluck's chin. "Shall ye miss this old witch?"

"You've been like a..." She couldn't finish with the word mother and said instead, "You've been here when no one else was." She sniffed, fighting back tears as she replied, "So yes, I'll miss you, witch or not."

Fairah told her, "Then let me give ye a parting gift. One I have been wishing to give ye these many seasons but had not the power." She lifted her hands and green energy swirled around herself, and then the power ceased as she landed on the ground. Fairah smiled again and placed her arms around Pluck, embracing her.

Her touch startled Pluck, but then she returned her hug. Pluck couldn't remember a time when she felt more happy or sad. It had been seasons since she felt the touch of another and the love they conveyed through a hug, and now she had to depart.

"I don't want to leave you, but I have my duty," Pluck told her as she sniffed again, rubbing her panther nose. "Hopefully, I'll return as I was when I first entered this building."

Fairah stroked her mane as she said, "There... there... child." Fairah leaned back to look into her face and told her, "I shall be here when ye return. Know that." She grabbed her furry chin and pulled Pluck's gaze to hers. "Whether woman or beast, I shall be waiting."

Pluck nodded, unable to say anything and started for the exit.

Fairah grabbed her left gloved hand, lifted it so Pluck could see, and then told her, "One last thing before ye leave. The marks on ye's finger, they are more than tattoos. They are ye's connection to the Mystic Rose. It chose ye, remember that. Now ye should be on ye's way. Han shall be waiting."

Pluck hugged her again and then ran out.

A tear streamed down Fairah's face as she spoke, "Look at me." She wiped the wetness away before losing her corporeal form. "I am the one who ended up crying."

Chapter Three

Breakneck and Waterswift

The blue-gray hills of the land of Naught gave way to the flat country of the Flush Plains. Han nudged his horse to pick up speed through the tall blue-gray grass. The steed gnawed at the bit but obeyed as Han glanced at Pluck and questioned her, "You haven't said a word since we started our journey. Is something bothering you?"

"Many things," she answered. "Will the High Guards accept me? Is it too late to end my curse?" She muttered under her breath so he couldn't hear, "If it's not, will Edward give me the Kiss or will he save it for his new wife?"

Han hated that she kept the cure to her curse a secret all of these seasons, and he said, "If you would only tell me what pact you and the prince made, I might be able to help you."

She stared at the distant shore as she told him, "When I am ready, I promise Han, I'll tell you."

He nodded, not understanding but respected her decision, looked ahead, and said, "Time you pulled on your hood. We're nearing the port."

Pluck and Han slowed their horses to a trot upon entering the large fishing village. Heron was like any in the Fletching Kingdom. The village had three taverns, a market, many huts, and a baron's house sat on the hill. Many peasants walked the streets while a few nobles rode through in carriages. Voices filled the air along with the cries of Gray Gulls as a salty breeze and the smell of fish hit Han.

He pointed as he told her, "The ships are ahead."

"Han, does the prince know I'm coming?"

The commander halted his steed as he told her, "Pluck, I never told you this, but Edward doesn't remember you or that sun's cycle in the building. It was too much for him."

She pulled on the reins as her heart sunk. Pluck stared at the horse's mane, not wanting Han to see her hurt expression. She had been able to endure the curse because she always hoped one sun's cycle it would be lifted, but she always assumed Edward appreciated her actions. Pluck put a gloved hand to her chest as her soul ached, knowing her sacrifice was forgotten. She turned to Han and questioned, "If an act is unremembered, did it ever happen? Does it mean anything?"

"Pluck, I remember what you did and what you lost," Han told her, and then he nudged his steed forward, and she followed as he said, "To answer your question, I believe an act good or evil is never forgotten."

They neared the docks and dismounted. Breakneck and Waterswift, two of the Fletching six masts Royal Navy ships, were loading supplies. Most of the High Guards and their horses were already aboard, awaiting their commander's arrival.

"We're to board the Breakneck, that is Prince Edward's ship," Han told her as he grabbed his horse's reins and led the animal toward the plank.

Pluck started to follow when she heard an old woman's voice. Outside a supply store, three men harassed an elderly couple. Her emerald feline eyes flashed with anger within the shadow of her hood.

"Foul Dreggs," she muttered and shouted, "Wait, Han! Here..." Pluck handed him her reins, and then she told him, "I must deal with these fiendish brutes."

Han noticed the couple, and he argued, "There's no time for this."

She faced him, surprised by the commander's words, and then she questioned him, "No time?"

The cloak shadowed her outraged face as she considered his words. Surely this wasn't her teacher speaking. Maybe this was a test.

Pluck said, "I can't believe you said that." She calmed herself and then questioned him, "What's the High Guard vow?"

Han muttered to himself, "So the student has become the instructor." He then answered, "We do all things to glorify the Creator, we pledge loyalty to the crown, we swear to protect the Fletching people and property and above all, we forfeit our lives for the Royal Family."

She nodded and told him, "Very good. I shouldn't be too long." Pluck approached the three men like a dauntless Ghost Panther stalking the jungles, and then she deepened her voice as she spoke, "Is there something I can do for you gentlemen?"

One of the thugs, who had a missing front tooth, barked, "No." He turned and faced the cloaked stranger who had a gruff voice, and then the thug said, "Now why don't ya mind yer own business and move on?"

Pluck parted her cloak and revealed her Accolade Sword as she told him, "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Matt, he's a High Guard," another thug voiced, assuming she was a he. "Crell... He'll have our fasses!" the thug exclaimed as he backed away from the cloaked figure.

"I think not," Matt said as he placed his hand on the hilt of his bastard sword.

"Crell! What do we do?" the third thug questioned as he and his companion readied their maces, glancing around skittishly like Plains Rabbits.

Matt saw the shipload of High Guards watching them. Even if they took down the smug one in front of them, the rest would surely kill them. Matt spat on the ground and backed up, relenting as he said, "Our business here's completed." He turned, cursing and stomped down the dirt street as he barked, "Come on!"

Pluck watched the three men walk off, then turned to the elderly couple, and asked, "Can I help you load your cart?"

"No thank you, kind sir. We're grateful you came to our aid. Please..." The man handed her a wheel of cheese as he said, "Take this with our gratitude."

Pluck nodded, took the yellow cheese, headed for the Breakneck, and boarded the ship. She found Han standing at the gangplank after he had loaded their horses into the stable of the lower deck.

"Didn't even draw your sword, quite the beast," Han told her as he glanced hungrily at the cheddar. "What are you going to do with the wheel?"

She grinned at his pun and at his apparent craving for cheese and told him, "You can have it."

Han waved over a cabin boy and had the lad take the cheddar to his quarters, and then Han told her, "My thanks."

He motioned for her to follow him to a group of men. Four High Guards stood at attention as their commander approached. Each wore a white long-sleeved shirt, brown leather pants, and a red cape with the Fletching insignia of a charging Black Elk pinned above their heart. Each was armed with a rapier and matching main gauche.

Han motioned to the tallest of the group and said, "This is Ardor, my Second. He's the finest swordsman in the land."

The long black-haired man with a muscular build was also beardless and had a small scar under his right eye, and he stepped forward as he said, "So this must be Pluck, the High Guard you've been training in the North."

Ardor looked over their newest member, wondering what Han saw in him. Over the last few seasons, Han spent most of his time in the North. There was a possibility that this High Guard was better than him and if so, he felt this newcomer would be in the running to replace the commander when the time came. He rested his hand on his hilt, thinking he would watch him closely.

"Yes, this is Pluck," Han replied, and then he motioned to a red-headed man with a pointed beard. "This is Fracas, master of the bow and Head Archer."

"Ah..." Fracas spoke as he reached out, grabbed Pluck's gloved hand, and shook it as he said, "So... I've heard you've also split a few arrows." Fracas would have to test his arm, pit his skill against Pluck's, and see if Pluck was as good as Han boasted.

Pluck returned the thin man's shake as she said, "I'm nowhere near your skill."

"Modesty," a blond-headed man spoke as he slapped her back nearly knocking her down, and then he stated, "We shall have to keep an eye on you."

Han said, "This Forest Ox of a man is Parry and to his right is Sinew. He's the silent one and our finest tracker."

Pluck looked at the large muscular man with a blond goatee and then to the last. Sinew was short, had a shaven head, and a long black mustache. She nodded to them.

Parry leaned down to Sinew's ear and questioned, "So which initiation should we use to induct this one? The bloody sheep's bag in the bed or the Night Prowlers Raid?"

"The latter," Sinew answered as he stroked his long mustache. "Why hold back?"

Parry nodded as he replied, "Good. The first night he isn't on duty we strike."

Han turned to Ardor and asked him, "Are we ready to set sail?"

"Yes, all of our men and supplies are loaded," Ardor answered, and then he headed for the Breakneck's captain. "Let us see how long until her crew's ready."

The rest of the men headed for their stations as Pluck followed Han and Ardor up to the bridge.

"Waterswift has set sail for the mouth of the bay to scout for any of Commery, Swelldom, or Hort's ships," Ardor continued. "Two nights ago a Commery vessel was spotted. It isn't likely they shall attack so close to the mainland, but one never knows." He walked up the steps to the bridge as he said, "We await the prince's arrival."

"Then you wait no longer," Edward declared as he stood at the top of the gangplank with Melee his personal guard behind him. The prince's disdain of King Stark's orders was apparent on his face. His father forced him to leave his lovers behind. His father said it wouldn't be proper to have them along on his wedding voyage, not only would he have no companionship on the journey, but he was to marry a woman he'd never seen. He feared that she was ghastly.

Edward asked, "How long until we get this wretched voyage on its way?"

Ardor nodded to the skipper, and Captain Brine stepped forward and answered, "We shall set sail now, my lord."

Pluck studied her prince and her childhood friend. Edward had changed. He was a man. She looked over his royal garb consisting of a blue silk shirt, white cotton pants, and a gold silk sash girded his waist. A large gold medallion with the charging Black Elk decorated his neck. He was a handsome man and this fact saddened her. What was she thinking? Why would he kiss one so monstrous as she? Even if it ended her curse, Edward doesn't know her or remember her. Why did she get her hopes up?

"Very good," Edward answered. "Have someone show me my quarters and bring along my things."

"At once, my lord," Brine said, and then he shouted orders to his crew, and soon they were on their way.

A great wind caught Breakneck's sails and pushed her over the blue-green waters. Seaspray moistened the cool air as Gray Gulls filled the cloudless sky. Pluck stood at a railing, looked at the ocean, and held on to her hood as the salty wind whipped at her face. She had never been out to sea before. It was a completely different world. Pluck felt a hand touch her shoulder, so she turned and uttered, "Han."

"I have assigned you to be one of Edward's personal guards along with Melee. One of you must always be at his side."

"I'm afraid to approach the prince, so how can I be his bodyguard?" she questioned him as she glanced at the water. "I don't think–"

"Then don't," Han interrupted. "This assignment shall give you a chance to get to know Edward. Maybe then he shall come to remember you and the pledge and then once and for all, he shall shatter your curse." He looked across the horizon as he spoke, "Until that happens, do your job and let time deal with forgotten memories. I have confidence things shall work out."

"I don't know," Pluck said. "Maybe it's better I don't get my hopes up." She changed the subject by asking, "How many sun's cycles till we reach the Morgog Kingdom?"

"Four. A lot can happen in that time," he spoke to reassure her. "Seize the opportunities when they come."

Chapter Four

Port of Pass

Lookouts searched the seas for enemy ships from their lofty perch in the crow's nests. The sun's cycle faded, and the air grew chilly as the cabin boy lit the ship's lanterns. Night came ever darkening the amber sky until there was no trace of the sun. The full moons crept over the ship, casting a ghostly glow on the dark ocean. In the distance and in the depths of the sea, Horned Whales sang their sad hypnotic song. Pluck had never heard such an enchanting melody. It made her homesick for Fairah, the building that had been her home, and the night sounds of the forest. The sea was so different.

Pluck held her post outside the prince's quarters as the first part of the night went by uneventful. She stood below deck, swaying with the ship with only her thoughts to keep her company. She muttered, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this. The floor's never still."

She nodded to Bulwark who passed her in the hall. Pluck remembered the old High Guard from her childhood and wished she could tell him who she was. He and Von had always been so kind to her. Pluck sighed, tapping her hilt as her mind drifted. Four sun's cycles until they reached Morgog. What would Princess Virago be like? Pretty, she assumed. Her mind returned to the ship and to the loneliness of her post. This was frustrating... Pluck didn't see how she and Edward would ever get to know each other if all she did was stand out while he slept. Han needed to... The prince screamed and filled her thoughts with images of that fateful sun's cycle in the building. She turned in a panic and went to his aid.

"Edward!" Pluck yelled as she opened the door and rushed in ready to draw her sword. She found him sitting up in bed breathing heavily, and so she asked, "Are you all right?"

"I am fine. It was a mere nightmare," he replied as he looked at Pluck and noticed the person who entered, who he thought was a man, wasn't Melee. Edward said, "I do not know you."

His words cut at her heart as she stuttered, "I..." She composed herself and said, "I am Pluck. I took over for Melee."

Edward put a hand to his head and spoke, "That is right. Han spoke of this."

Silence followed, so she broke the awkward moment with a question and asked, "What was it about?"

"Hmm..." he voiced as he examined the shadowy figure in the hall's light. "What was what about and why are you wearing a hooded cloak instead of the High Guard cape?"

"I was asking about your dream," Pluck replied as she took a few steps into the room. "As for my hood, it's no disrespect to you. It hides my appearance. It's quite startling."

"When I was younger, one of the old soldiers wore a hood. His face had been maimed during the last Amalgamation. Is this the same with you?"

She replied, "I wasn't maimed during an Amalgamation but, yes, you could say I'm the way I am because I was defending the Fletching family. Now–" She walked up to his bed and questioned, "–your dream?"

"Nightmare," Edward answered as he wiped his clammy face. "I have it every night. I see this horrible Beast that resembles a Necrom, and it is in the midst of a great battle."

Horrible Beast? Pluck's heart fluttered. Was he dreaming of her?

Edward continued, "The Beast slays hundreds, but still it unwavers. It screams like a Ghost Panther, then the Beast turns, and I can see its piercing green eyes. It charges after me. I am afraid and cry out and that is when I wake. The dream is always the same." He turned to her as a glimmer of hope crossed his face, and he questioned, "What do you think? I have asked many, but none can give me an answer."

Pluck began, "Maybe the Beast's not horrible. Maybe she's trying to tell you something. Have you ever tried not to fear the Beast and let her approach you? You know it's a dream, so the Beast can't hurt you."

She..? He never said the Beast was a he or a she.

Edward cleared his dry throat and said, "No, I have never tried to do anything in the nightmares. I do not know if I can. They are so terrible."

"Not if you know they are made by your mind," she said and then suggested, "Next time you have one, don't fear the Beast. Let her approach you. It may be the only way to end them."

"I shall try. Thank you. You may leave now, ah..."

"Pluck."

"Yes," Edward said as he lay back and grabbed his covers. "Close the door as you leave."

* * *

Edward emerged from below with Pluck following. The bright sun shone through the clouded sky, and he squinted, putting his hand up to shade his eyes. Sailors were busy about their work as he walked up to the bridge, and Captain Brine had the helm.

"How do we fare?" Edward asked.

"Very well, my lord. We should arrive at Pass Island by late sun's cycle," Brine replied as he gripped the wheel's spokes. "We shall add a few more supplies along with your presents for your bride and by tomorrow morning, we shall be sailing for the Morgog Kingdom."

"Have any enemy ships been spotted?"

"No," Brine answered as he pointed beyond the bow to a ship in the distance. "Wind Swift sails ahead of us. She signals every nal but has yet to spot a vessel. Most eerie, considering this is a trade route."

Melee approached them and motioned that he would take over for Pluck. She nodded and headed below. Pluck had never been so tired. All the standing around doing nothing. She headed for Han's quarters which he shared with her and Ardor. Pluck entered, finding both men gone and examined the bunks. They were so small and enclosed, she didn't know if she could sleep in them.

Pluck climbed into the top one and removed her boots and gloves. She unclasped her cloak, laid it to the side, and released her tail from around her waist as she exclaimed, "Ahh..." Pluck sighed and muttered, "More than a season of this. I don't know if I can do it." She lay on her stomach, allowing her tail to twitch about. She missed running freely through the forest, she missed her home, and she missed Fairah. Pluck tried to sleep but couldn't. There were so many new sounds and smells, and the ship swayed. Her eyelids gradually grew heavy, and soon she succumbed to exhaustion.

Later that sun's cycle, she heard footsteps approach her cabin and quickly pulled on her cloak.

Ardor opened the door, and he ordered, "Awake, Pluck. We dock in Pass."

Pass was smaller than Heron but just as busy. Edward disembarked along with Melee and Pluck. She went along for extra security. They rode to the middle of the small island where a trader named Purveyor had gathered gifts for Princess Virago from the Five Kingdoms.

An old white-haired beggar shaded himself under a Cobalt Oak near the trader's store. His dull blue eyes stared off into the distance, and they were vacant as the shell that sat there. The beggar, who was dressed in rags, tilted his head as the three dismounted and he smiled, revealing his rotten teeth. He came to life like a stringed puppet, holding out his wooden bowl for coin. He pointed a bony finger at Pluck and yelled, "You... I know yer kind. You are touched..." he blared. "You are touched!"

"Sounds like someone else is touched," Melee said as he tapped his head.

Edward chuckled and went into the store, leaving Melee to watch the horses.

Pluck paused and glanced at the beggar and then at her tattooed finger hidden by her glove. He had pointed right at her and said her kind, but she was alone in her curse. Pluck followed the prince into the store as she muttered, "Crazy beggar."

Many oddities and rare gifts filled the shelves of Purveyor's store. Weapons old and new were exhibited in display cases and hung on walls. Stuffed creatures, some of which neither of them had seen before, stood throughout the room, and other trinkets laid about.

"Ah... Prince Edward..." Purveyor said as he approached them with his arms wide. He was a well-rounded man and nearly as wide as he was tall. "Good to see you again." He grabbed the prince's hand, kissed his royal ring, and then said, "Come, come, I have the items you ordered. This way..." Purveyor led them to the back as he spoke, "Twenty bolts of Sol Silk, four dozen Blood Pearls from the coast of Benin, Red Ivory, Black Diamonds, and the finest gems." He pointed to crate after crate as he told them, "Here's the Cobalt Silver, Fire-white Gold, and Ruby Glass."

Pluck watched the trader closely, searching for signs he might attack the prince. She sensed he couldn't be trusted, and the store made her uneasy. The scents of many dead animals filled the room, and she felt as if the fleshy statues watched them. They shouldn't have done that to the animals. It wasn't right. Would they want their carcasses on display?

When they entered the back room, she felt a familiar presence, and it added to her unsettling sensations. She put her hand to her hilt as the low rumblings of a Woolly Tiger permeated the room. The prince and Purveyor didn't hear the low roar. Her heart pounded. It was like that sun's cycle long ago when she and Edward first entered the building that housed the Mystic Rose. Pluck searched the room but found no large cats, not that she thought she would. In a corner, a flash of metal caught her eye. It was odd since no sunlight broke into the room. The glint came from a sword. Pluck turned to Edward for guidance, but he was busy talking with the trader. She turned back to the weapon. Was she meant to see the sword?

Pluck walked to the hand and a half sword, grabbed the black scabbard, and examined the strange markings adorning the leather. The steel of the handle was almost white like the hottest fire. She grabbed the hilt which had a large sphere pommel and a power throbbed through the grip like a pulse. The energy excited her, so she unsheathed the sword and felt a force flow through it almost like it was alive. She discovered that more markings engraved the blade and that it was exquisitely crafted. Pluck lifted the weapon, testing its weight, and it was well balanced. Delight swelled in her, and she had to have the sword. She smoothed her glove over the ancient lettering of the blade and spoke its name, "Lux the Lightning Sword."

Pluck was surprised she could read the archaic words. She sheathed the Lux and walked to Purveyor who was still trying to flatter the prince with his business prowess.

"You wouldn't believe what I traded to acquire this Sol Silk. Cooking pots," Purveyor started as he put his hand to his round belly and laughed. "Yes, now that was a deal."

Edward said, "One I imagine you shall pass on to the consumer."

"Yes, of course, my lord," Purveyor stated as his face paled.

"How much for this sword?" Pluck questioned as she showed the weapon to the trader.

"That sword..." Purveyor started as he eyed the prince, making sure he listened. "Now that is an interesting piece, though I am sad to say the blade must have rusted. No one has been able to remove it from its housing." He rubbed his hands together as he said, "It would still make a nice piece to display if you're interested."

She told him, "I removed the blade without difficulty."

"You must be mistaken. I should know. I've had that sword for many seasons," Purveyor said, then turned to the prince, and stated, "See, I am an honest businessman."

"Is this so?" Edward asked as he glanced at the weapon, then faced the trader, and told him, "If the sword does not function, then it should be given away."

"Given?" Purveyor uttered as if someone stole a precious gem from him. He couldn't bear the thought of losing money on a trade. "Given, you say?" he questioned again as he reached out his hand and said, "May I see the sword?"

She handed him the scabbard.

Purveyor grabbed the hilt and tried to remove the hand and a half sword, but it wouldn't budge. He shook his head, studied its finely crafted handle and scabbard, and then sighed. He lifted the sheath with both hands, returned the weapon, and gave in to pressure as he said, "You're right, my lord. I give this sword as a gift to your High Guard."

Pluck accepted the scabbard as she said, "Thank you." She strapped the sword over her shoulder so that the scabbard rested on her back at an angle. Pluck wondered if there was magic within the sword as there was magic within her. Why else could the trader not unsheathe the Lux?

Edward removed several bags of gold and told the trader, "Our business is then concluded. Have the gifts brought to my ship right away. Here are a thousand pieces. You shall receive the remaining ten thousand once the items are delivered."

"Yes, of course," Purveyor said as he greedily took the bags. "They shall be there within the nal."

"Pluck!" Melee shouted from outside. "To arms!"

She entered the front room, drew her rapier and main gauche, and looked at the prince as Edward drew his. They both rushed outside while the trader glanced out his windows. Melee had his weapons drawn on seven horsemen.

"You!" Pluck shouted as she pointed her sword at their leader. "You're the one who harassed that couple at Heron."

Matt bowed while he sat upon his saddle as he said, "I'm honored ya remembered me. It makes it easier. Ya know we have some business to satisfy."

"Maybe," Pluck spoke as she glanced at Edward and then to Melee. "Why don't we return things as they were? These two will leave and then we'll discuss our business."

Matt laughed, revealing his missing front tooth as he replied, "No, they'll stay."

Pluck said as she stepped closer to the horsemen, "I don't think you followed us all this way because I prevented you from stealing a wheel of cheese." She demanded, "What's your true purpose here?"

"Yes!" Edward spoke up. "Who hired you? Which of the Kingdoms? Commery, Swelldom, or Hort?"

Matt smiled like a Black-faced Jackal finding a carcass as he told them, "That I can't tell ya." He commanded his men, "Kill the High Guards, but don't harm the prince, at least not yet." He slid off his horse as his men dismounted, and three men started for Pluck. Matt ordered, "No, stand down. That Phragg is mine." Matt drew his bastard sword and lunged for Pluck as he said, "Ya High Guards are so archaic."

She deflected his attack and then questioned him, "Why do you say that?" Pluck countered with a volley of cuts.

"Ya have fallen behind the times. Look at the weapons yer using," Matt stated after he leaped from the swipes. "Sure yer rapiers might be the finest in the land, but they're useless against weapons like these." He swung his bastard sword over his head and brought it down, breaking her rapier in half.

Shock seized her as the steel failed her, and she stared at the broken blade in the dirt. All those seasons she'd yearned to wield a weapon as fine as the Accolade Sword, and now she stood before seven Dreggs defeated in her first duel.

"See, I've proven my point," Matt said as he readied his sword for another attack. "Now I'll thrust it into yer heart."

Her instincts took over, and she leaped back, landing on a boulder she had seen several feet away. She threw the hilt of the rapier to the ground and stared at her main gauche.

Matt yelled at her outraged, but then he grinned and said, "Yer very agile, High Guard, but yer still without a weapon." He lifted both hands and declared, "And outnumbered."

He charged the boulder. Pluck ran for a Lofty Pine, scurried to its lowest branch, crouched on all fours, and studied the situation. She wanted to scream at the Dregg, but she had to control herself and keep the Beast within her reined.

"Come down here and die like a man," Matt ordered as he cut into the tree with his sword. The blade wedged into the wood, and he couldn't disengage it. "As soon as I get this free, I'm coming after ya."

She ignored Matt, looked at the three men watching them, then to the two fighting Melee, and finally to the one attacking the prince. Pluck could remove her cloak, and her appearance might frighten the Dreggs into running, but it would kill her chances at ending her curse. Pluck reached up and grabbed her hood as she glanced at the prince. She couldn't let her selfish reasoning jeopardize Edward's life but maybe there was still another way.

Moments seemed like nals as Pluck pondered her next action. Edward and Melee fought courageously as she stood idle. Pluck decided she had to and then as if the wind carried the sound from a distant land, she heard the Woolly Tiger's roar. Pine needles rustled as relief swept over her for there was hope. Pluck sheathed her dagger and moved her hand past the hood to the pommel of the hand and a half sword. She'd almost forgotten about the Lux.

"What's wrong, High Guard?" Matt asked as he grunted to free his weapon. "Ya look lost. Are ya as fragile as yer sword?"

Pluck leapt over his head, flipped, and landed on her feet. She unsheathed her new weapon and thunder rumbled from a cloudless sky.

Matt's toothless smile faded as he exclaimed, "Crell! Yer not weaponless!"

Purveyor watched from a window and uttered, "By Fletching! How did you remove it?" He remembered himself and covered his mouth, hiding again in the shadow of his store.

The thug fighting Edward forced the sword from the prince's hand, and then he said, "Matt, I have him." He placed the tip of his blade to Edward's throat and blood trickled down the prince's neck.

Pluck held her breath. They couldn't kill him. She had to save him, but how?

"Easy there," Matt commanded his man. "We aren't paid to spill royal blood." He turned his attention back to Pluck and ordered her, "Drop yer sword."

If she did, there was no chance for them. Pluck had to taunt him into a fight, so she shouted, "Are you afraid to meet me now that I've a weapon that matches yours?"

Matt's men looked at him. Even the ones fighting Melee glanced back to see how he would answer.

"Fass! I fear no man!" he declared. "Least of all yer petty attempts to sway me from my job. Men, let's go. We have what we came for."

"No!" Melee shouted, trying to get past the two he dueled to reach his prince, but they prevented him. One broke through his defenses and cut him across the arm. Melee dropped his rapier as blood ran from his cut and spotted his white shirt, but the injury to his arm was slight.

Pluck watched horrified and her terror turned to rage as she felt a rumbling. At first, she thought the ground shook, and then she realized her sword quaked, shaking her with its intensity. She feared the Lux's might and yet relished in it. Pluck lifted the sword, and lightning crackled from the blade and ionized the air around her. She felt the sword's energy surge through her arm and she roared, enthralled by its vigor as she yelled, "It has so much power!" Pluck placed her other hand to the hilt to control its rampage.

"Ah... Matt, what the Crell is that sword doing?" one of his men asked.

"Fass! Don't know."

Pluck rushed Matt and then engaged him and each time her blade met his steel, lightning flashed and sparks flew. She furiously attacked, not giving Matt a chance to counter. Her fierce onslaught forced the leader to the ground, and his men came to his aid even though they were afraid of the mystical sword. Pluck turned on them and when they lifted their swords and maces against her, she swiped across the weapons and cut them in half. The loyalty they had for their leader weakened for fear and the bandits fled, leaving him behind. Matt scurried back to a boulder like a frightened Borough Rat.

She leveled her sword on him, controlling the rage screaming to cut him down. Through labored breath and gritted teeth, she questioned, "Who sent you?"

"I... I can't tell," Matt quivered out as he put his hands up, shielding himself from the electricity crackling around the sword. "They'll kill me."

Her Ghost Panther growl made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as she asked him, "What do you think I'll do to you, Dregg?"

Matt uttered, "What are you?"

Pluck grew impatient and growled again as she demanded, "Answer my question!"

"I will!" he whined. "Don't hurt me." He glanced around and then told her, "Yer right, one of the Kingdoms hired us."

"Which one?" Edward demanded as he neared them. "Tell us!" He put a handkerchief to the cut on his neck.

Matt started, "It was the–" His brownish eyes widened as he grabbed his chest, gripping a dart that struck him. "No," he gasped. "I wasn't going to tell," Matt screamed. "Crell!" He looked at them for help and realized they couldn't save him, so he shouted at them, "All of ya can go to Crell!" He balled up and muttered, "The pain... Dreggs! A curse on Fletching!" Blood ran from his nose, and then he twitched in agony and died.

Melee and Pluck quickly surrounded the prince to protect him.

The old beggar under the Cobalt Oak chuckled, then made the sign of evil by lifting his pinky and pointer finger, and aimed the warning at them. He said, "I can't allow you to gain the answer to that yet." He stood, holding a small blowgun in his other hand.

Melee charged him as he yelled, "By Fletching! I'll wipe that smile from your grubby face."

The beggar laughed again as his demeanor transformed from a pitiful poor man to a venomous warlock as he spoke, "Fools..." His appearance changed along with his clothes as his gray hair grew and transformed into a wolf's head headdress. His dull blue eyes turned dark as midnight, his rotten teeth to gleaming fangs, a wolf's fur robe replaced his rags, and a long, pointed, inky-black goatee sprouted from his chin. He told them, "You cannot harm me." He turned before Melee reached him and disappeared into the oak like a ghost.

"Witchcraft!" Edward spat, enraged he wouldn't have his answer. "Which of the Kingdoms would use the forbidden arts?" He scratched his chin and then questioned, "Was he a Necrom?"

"I don't know, my lord," Melee replied as he returned to his side. "But we better venture back to the Breakneck. I am still concerned about your safety so far out here from the others."

He and the prince headed for the horses as Pluck stared at the Cobalt Oak. She didn't think he was a Necrom. He didn't have the appearance of the cat-like creatures. He looked human. The warlock didn't look like her at all, but he did use magic. Being a wielder of the dark arts, could he know what she was? This assumption frightened her. What if he told the others before she had a chance to? Her lips quivered in the shadow of her hood. What if the others cast her out? She bit her lip, watching the prince as she muttered, "What if Edward forsakes me?"

Chapter Five

The Initiation

Han paced the deck of the Breakneck as he shouted, "Fass! I should have sent more men with you." He glanced at the prince and then to Melee and Pluck as the ocean lapped at the docked ship and a few Gray Gulls cried in the distance. "You should have my command for this."

"Nonsense," Edward replied. "Consider this... If we had taken more men, the bandits might have waited for another opportunity, and then we would not know one of the kingdoms is using a Necrom."

"Fairy tales!" Fracas declared, overhearing their conversation from the gangplank. "There's no such thing."

"Yes, but..." Han started as he grabbed the railing of the ship and looked at the port of Pass. "They did see the beggar vanish. Perhaps there's sorcery at work and since magic exists, then Necroms could also."

Fracas shook his head in disbelief and threw his Jewel Apple over the side before he said, "I still say they are merely stories... ones told to frighten children into staying out of the woods." He considered that magic may exist, but the Necroms couldn't. If they did, that would mean the old stories were true and that would mean there could be another Great War. His reasoning frightened him as he considered this time they might not escape with their lives if another war ensued.

Edward put his hand to his chin as he spoke, "Whoever is using the dark arts does not want us to know. They killed the bandits' leader to prevent him from revealing their identity, and what I saw was no beast but a man. We all have heard that Necroms are cat-like monsters."

"Still..." Han started as he couldn't get past his failure. "I shouldn't have let you go with only two guards."

Edward put his hand to the old High Guard's shoulder as he told him, "Han, I was in capable hands with Melee and Pluck."

"Actually," Melee spoke up. "Pluck's the one who saved us with that enchanted sword of his."

"Enchanted..?" Han repeated as he approached her, and then he questioned, "What is he talking about?"

A salty breeze swept across the ship and blew against Pluck's cloak as she shamefully thought more of the Accolade Sword. "My rapier broke during the battle," she told him as she showed him the severed blade. "I've been dishonored."

"To have the blade break during a fight is no dishonor," Han told her as he took the weapon. "Only if it's stripped." He turned to Ardor and ordered, "We shall give you another."

"He does not need it," Edward said, talking of Pluck. "The weapon he acquired from the trader is far more superior, therefore, a Sword of Honor."

"I saw it strike like lightning," Melee added. "It cut through the bandits' weapons like a sickle through grass."

"What weapon?" Han asked.

Pluck unstrapped the sword from her back and showed him. Han took the black scabbard, looked the weapon over, and tried to remove the sword as Ardor watched.

"Blasted!" Han yelled as his face reddened with the effort. "It won't budge."

"Allow me," Ardor said, and then he tried and cursed, "Crell! I also can't draw the blade." Frustrated he couldn't do something so simple, he handed it to Pluck and ordered, "You do it!"

She hesitated, but then took the Lux, and drew it. The unsheathing sounded like thunder, and the blade glowed lightning-white.

"Witchcraft!" Ardor spat as he stepped back from the crackling blade. He drew his rapier as he wondered if the sword was an evil instrument of the Necroms and yelled, "We should toss him and the weapon overboard!"

Captain Brine and a few sailors murmured their agreement, and then Brine said, "Aye, evil shall befall this ship if we allow the sword to stay."

Their accusation appalled Pluck, and she readied herself for a fight.

Before Han could challenge Ardor, the prince commanded, "No!" His face reddened with rage as he said, "I would be in the hands of my enemy if it was not for Pluck's sword." He stepped to the taller man and questioned him, "Are you saying we should throw over everyone who possesses an item of magic?"

"Yes!" Ardor answered without thinking.

Han cringed, not knowing how the prince would react.

"Then I should be first to walk the plank," Edward spoke as he pointed toward the cabins. "Do not forget I possess the Mystic Rose."

Ardor's enraged face softened to shock and embarrassment as he started, "My lord, I did not mean–"

"Let us drop this matter then," the prince interrupted.

Ardor tightened his jaw as he sheathed his rapier, and then he said, "The matter is dropped." He glanced at Pluck with a look that said he would only drop it for the moment.

Han walked to Pluck, leaned to her hood, and said, "Maybe it's best you leave and let Ardor manage his temper."

She nodded, placed her sword back in its scabbard, and headed below. Ardor disliked her since she came on board. She didn't understand why he hated her or what she had done to bring about such disdain.

Back on deck...

"What should our next move be?" Han asked, moved to Ardor and patted the Second on the back, reassuring him.

Ardor remained silent as he managed his temper and his tongue. What a fool he was? Accusing the prince could cost Ardor his command.

Edward walked to the railing and answered the commander, "The only thing we can do for now is–" he spoke as he scanned the open sea and said, "–set sail for the Morgog Kingdom, retrieve my wife, and head for the Isle of Kismet."

* * *

Earlier that sun's cycle...

Fracas stood, grabbed his longbow from the tavern's table, and said, "Sinew... Parry... It's time we left." He insisted, "We must return to the Breakneck."

Parry grabbed a barmaid, whirled her around, sat her on his lap, and replied, "A few moments more, my friend." He twirled his finger in her long brown hair and whispered into her ear.

She giggled, stroked his blond goatee, and told him, "I can't till mi shift's over."

Sinew smoothed his hand over his shaven head and lifted his mug as he barked, "Another!"

"No! You're already drunk," Fracas told him as he swung his bow and knocked the mug from the smaller man's grasp. "Let's go while you can still walk."

"I'm not drunk," Sinew insisted, swaying on the bench, and then he stared at his throbbing knuckles. "Phraggs! That hurt!"

Fracas threw up his hands and uttered, "Fine!" He stomped to the exit, paused, and looked back to see if his two friends were watching. They weren't, so he stepped outside. He would show them. Fracas cleared his throat and shouted, "High Guards! To arms!"

Parry stood, dumping the barmaid to the floor, and then he drew his sword, searched the tavern, and asked, "Where's my blade needed?"

Sinew barely got to his feet and slurred, "I have your back." He twisted his thin black mustache, reached for his weapon, and fell drunk to the floor.

"Get up!" Parry shouted. "Our enemy is upon us!" He nudged the smaller man with his foot as he yelled, "Get up!"

Sinew moaned, rolled over, and started snoring.

Fracas walked back into the tavern, laughing and said, "If you're the elite of the High Guards, it's a wonder the Fletching Kingdom hasn't fallen."

Parry's eyes flashed with rage as he exclaimed, "What the Crell?" He charged the bowman ready to strike and shouted, "Why you dirty Borough Rat!"

"Now old friend..." Fracas started and then fled, running around the tavern with an ox of a man pursuing him. "I was trying to prove my point."

Parry finally cornered him and then asked, "Do you think this was funny?"

Fracas took a moment, considering his answer and replied, "Yes."

Parry raised his sword as a grin appeared on his face, and then he said, "You're right." He lowered the rapier and told him, "Come, my friend, let's get Sinew and return to the Breakneck. There shall be time for women another sun's cycle."

* * *

At the docks, Parry dunked Sinew's head into a rain barrel several times.

"Enough!" Sinew yelled as he freed himself from the blond man's grip as water dripped from him. "I'm sober."

"Perhaps. Stand on one foot and touch your nose."

Sinew tried but couldn't, and then he questioned, "What does that prove? I couldn't do that even when I was sober."

Parry laughed, and then he said, "I wanted to see if you would try."

Sinew punched his arm as he grumbled, "Blond Ox, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

He laughed some more, and then he replied, "If I did that, I'd have no one to pick on."

Fracas bought a Jewel Apple from a peddler, bit into the amber fruit, and stated, "Look... the prince has returned."

He continued up the docks and boarded the ship. Parry and Sinew bought Sun Oranges from the peddler.

"What do you think is going on?" Sinew asked as he motioned to the Breakneck with his orange. "The discussion seems heated."

Parry shaded his eyes from the high sun and then answered, "Perhaps something has happened." He finished peeling his fruit, took a bite of the juicy yellow flesh, and then said, "Look... Ardor and Pluck have drawn their weapons. Could Pluck have challenged his position?"

Sinew squinted and twisted his mustache as he spoke, "Perhaps... but then the prince would not step in." He finished his orange and started peeling another. "Now Pluck is heading below. That was most odd."

"Is Pluck on duty tonight?" Parry asked with a hint of mischief in his blue eyes.

"No. Why?" Sinew questioned, and then he recognized the look on his friend's face. "What trouble are you planning?"

An expression of devilment appeared on the large man's face as he replied, "We have yet to initiate this High Guard from the North. Tonight we shall use the Night Prowlers Raid."

* * *

That evening...

Parry, Sinew, and Fracas snuck below deck. Parry carried a large potato sack meant to throw over Pluck.

"This is Han's cabin," Parry whispered.

"Are you sure Han and Ardor aren't within?" Fracas asked as he scanned the corridor and stroked his pointed red beard.

"Yes, we don't want to be caught," Sinew spoke up.

"I am sure," Parry answered. "Do you two know what you must do?"

"I watch the hall," Fracas said, turned, and leaned against the wall.

"I grab Pluck's legs after you throw the sack over him," Sinew spoke as he put his hand to Parry's back ready to rush in.

Bulwark walked by, and they froze until he went up on deck.

The older High Guard mumbled, "Up to no good again?"

They didn't answer, holding their breaths as if it would make them invisible. The door shut behind Bulwark, and they exhaled.

"Where were we?" Fracas asked as he checked to make sure no one else approached.

"Ready to rush in, so go, Parry," Sinew said as he ribbed him.

"Hey... watch it, little man," Parry threatened with a whisper. "Now once we have Pluck, we shall sneak him up on deck and tie him to a mast."

"And if he doesn't go quietly?" Fracas asked.

Parry made a fist and answered, "A little knock to the head shouldn't hurt him."

They rushed into Han's room.

A few mites earlier...

Pluck slept in the upper bunk until she heard three men talking in the hall. They whispered but with her keen senses, she heard their conversation.

"They want to snatch me, huh?" Pluck muttered to herself as she grabbed her cloak, threw it on, and quietly climbed down to the floor. The cabin was pitch dark but that didn't hinder her sight. Pluck found her boots and gloves and searched the locker at the foot of the bunk. What kind of game were they playing? She found rope underneath the bunks. Maybe one she could turn on them. Pluck scurried into the rafters ready to pounce as her tail twitched with excitement underneath her cloak.

Parry crept in along with Sinew who held a lantern. He motioned for the smaller man to go to the end of the upper bunk. On his signal, both men grabbed for Pluck, but she wasn't there.

"Where is he?" Sinew asked as he searched the cabin with his light.

"I am here," Pluck answered.

Sinew lifted the lantern as she leapt upon them, and both men screamed.

The next morning...

Bulwark walked up on deck, starting his rounds when something caught his eye. Fracas, Sinew, and Parry were gagged and tied to a mast. He walked to them and stated, "I see the Initiation did not go to your liking."

The three men yelled at him through their gags.

"I am sorry, but I don't understand you," he told them, and then he looked around. "As much as I would like to stay and chat, I have rounds to walk." The three men yelled after him as Bulwark left, and he told them, "You should be thankful Pluck didn't strip you naked and hang you upside down." He added, "I would have."

Chapter Six

Memories

Breakneck left the Port of Pass, setting sail for the Morgog Kingdom. Everyone was uneasy with magic on the wind, and no one dared mention Necroms or the dark arts. It was well into the third sun's cycle as the ships pushed along at a good speed. Pluck followed the prince to his cabin, noticed Bulwark posted outside, and wondered why the old High Guard was guarding the prince's room. Edward went into his cabin, and Pluck stopped in the hall. A yellow glow caught her eye, and she noticed it wasn't from lamps for none lit the room. In the middle of the cabin hung a glass-domed case and within it, the Mystic Rose hovered as white sparkles swirled around it. It was the Mystic Rose. Two feelings wrestled with her heart. One was of hope that her curse would be ended, and the other was of dread that she would remain in her enchanted form.

The magic bloom called to her, so Pluck stepped into the prince's room and hesitated, remembering her place. Bulwark glanced at her, wondering what the Northern High Guard was doing.

Edward noticed the High Guard's curiosity and told Pluck, "It is fine. Come in and see. Close the door behind you," Edward ordered as he flopped on his bed, unbuckled his sword frog, and let the belt and scabbard drop to the floor. Weariness covered his face as he loosened his gold silk sash.

Pluck, drawn by the Mystic Rose, walked to the glass dome. The container swayed with the motion of the ship, but the movement of the case didn't affect the Mystic Rose's levitation. The Mystic Rose stayed suspended in its housing as sparkles spiraled around its petals. Her heart pounded like an infantry drum the closer she drew. All the emotions concerning her curse and the redemption she desired, overwhelmed Pluck and watered her eyes.

The Mystic Rose's yellow petals transformed to blue, casting an azure glow, and the prince noticed the flower's hue change and said, "I do not know why the Mystic Rose alters colors." Edward stared at the Mystic Rose as he continued, "I had it brought here from the ship's hold. It was under guard there. I thought it might be safer hidden but..." He sighed again and added, "I have grown so accustomed to its presence, I cannot sleep unless the Mystic Rose is in the room. I think it has bewitched me."

The power tugging her toward the Mystic Rose grew stronger and enchanted her. She raised her gloved hand toward the case as if to clasp the flower. Her tattooed finger throbbed as the Mystic Rose pulsed with magical energy and this rhythmic vim hit the glass-domed case, shaking it with charged electrical force. She turned her back to the prince and removed her glove, seeing her tattoo. The four black rings on her bare finger glowed silver as the Mystic Rose's blue petals transformed to platinum, increasing its throbbing tempo. A surge of energy shot from the Mystic Rose like a ball of lightning. The power cracked the glass and shattered it, releasing the energy into the room and filled the cabin with crackling electricity. Pluck covered her eyes as glass flew, and then she stepped back, frightened by the surge. The more she retreated the less the Mystic Rose pulsed and soon the electrical ball faded, returning the cabin to a dark room cast in an azure glow. Pluck looked at the silver rings and remembered the last thing Fairah had told her.

"These marks on ye's finger, they are more than tattoos. They are ye's connection to the Mystic Rose. It chose ye, remember that."

Edward sat up as the container shattered and exclaimed, "By Fletching!" He neared the Mystic Rose and turned to Pluck as his brow wrinkled with bewilderment as he questioned, "What did you do?"

The glass, that had scattered about the room, glowed and lifted and gathered around the Mystic Rose. Each shard found its place and pieced together the dome until it reformed. A bright light shot from the container, and the glow faded. The glass-domed case magically became whole again as if it had never been broken.

Edward couldn't believe his eyes as he looked back to Pluck. He saw the furry top of her hand and the glowing markings on her bare finger before they returned to black. He grabbed her hand and his touch startled her, so she pulled away.

"That tattoo..." he started as he pointed at her finger. "I remember those markings." Terrible memories flooded his mind as he grabbed his head and said, "I was a boy... I went into this building and found the Mystic Rose. I was not alone. A girl was with me and her name..." His blue eyes widened with realization as he uttered, "Her name was Pluck!" He stepped back as he accused, "You are a woman!"

She raised her hand, trying to quiet him as she spoke softly, "Please, my lord, lower your voice."

"But how can you be a High Guard?" Edward yelled as he shook his head. "Women are not allowed!"

"My prince, is everything all right?" Bulwark asked from the corridor.

"Yes! You are not needed!" Edward yelled, and then he scolded Pluck, "Women cannot possess weapons. It is forbidden. You shall go in front of the Inquiry." He paced the room and said, "I do not understand how Han could have allowed such a thing." A new memory interrupted his thoughts, so he glanced at her furry hand and spoke, "Something else happened that sun's cycle in the building." He noticed her fingers had no nails and grabbed her hand, examining her thumb. It and her other fingers had a slit down the middle like a cat. "A memory I had forgotten." He pushed the flap of skin aside and found a claw, and he released her, appalled by his findings as he uttered, "Something horrible. A witch... She cast a spell intended for me but..." He couldn't finish the sentence so plagued by a past he had forgotten.

The more he berated her, the more Pluck grew angry, and she finally yelled at him, "You're still an ungrateful spoiled brat!" She tapped her chest as she said, "I pushed you out of the way. I protected you!"

He fell silent. Never had anyone yelled at him in such a way especially a woman, so in a calmer tone, he said, "Yes, I remember." The incident he had buried long ago surfaced, and he spoke, "You saved me by taking my place." His face softened as he added, "You were turned into a hideous monster."

Pluck said nothing. She needed no reminder.

His shame turned to anger as he shouted, "You are not deformed! You are cursed!" It didn't matter to him that she took his place. He was the prince and she was a peasant. "That is why you cannot show your face."

Pluck nodded. He knew her secret, and now her life depended on what he would do with it.

He had to see, so Edward commanded, "Show me your face."

She hesitated, fearing how he would react once he saw her again.

"Shall I order Bulwark in here to do it for you?"

He was nothing like she remembered. Edward was cruel.

"There's no need, my lord," Pluck told him as her fear turned to terror, and then she pulled back her hood.

Edward gasped, "By Fletching! You are a beast! A Necrom!" Another fact frightened him. The prince had seen this creature with short beige fur before, so he pointed his finger and accused her, "Fass! You are the hideous monster from my dream. You... you are the one slaughtering the men." Terror paled his face as he shouted, "You are the reaper of my nightmares!" He stumbled back to his bed and fell upon it as he exclaimed, "You have come to take me!"

Pluck just stood there. She didn't know what to say or do. The moment hadn't gone as she envisioned. Edward wasn't grateful for her sacrifice. Her fears had come true. He rejected her and now there was no way she could ever ask him for the Kiss. Pluck pulled her hood up to cover her shame and wondered where she could hide. She didn't know. She just had to get out of his presence.

She said, "My lord, I will await my arrest at the bow." She left, trying not to run as she bit her lip to fight back tears.

Edward didn't know how to react as he rushed into the hall and then watched her walk away in a hurry. What he had seen in the cabin wasn't a vicious monster bent on his destruction, not at all. The creature, who had raced from his cabin near tears, had been deeply wounded by his words. The only monster in the cabin had been him.

"Is there a problem, my lord?" Bulwark asked as Melee arrived.

Edward didn't answer him only stated, "I need to speak with Han."

* * *

"I still do not understand why you trained her to become a High Guard!" Edward yelled as he paced Han's cabin. "Fass! Do you know the fine even for a man of your status?"

"Yes, I do," Han replied as he picked up a small wooden chest, placed it on his bed, and opened the box. "Fifty pieces of gold. It took me ten seasons to collect these wages."

Edward looked at the payment and then to Han as he exclaimed, "You knew all along she would be caught?"

"Pluck being a woman isn't what we were hiding," Han told him as he searched the prince's face. "What should I have done? Abandon her at the building? Never... Do you realize the curse she has endured for protecting you?" Han carefully considered his next words, and then he said, "You see, I thought the others would accept her as a High Guard even after finding out she is a beast. What other position could she have in this world as a Necrom?"

Edward's face flushed with anger as he questioned, "Why did you never tell me?"

"You had forgotten her and the witch," Han explained as he walked to a small cabinet and poured them a mug of wine. "I thought it best not to bring them up until you were ready."

Aggravated by the whole thing, Edward raked his hand through his shoulder-length raven-black hair and then asked, "Now what would you have me do?"

"You are the prince and soon to be Emperor... What can you not do?"

Edward took the mug and downed the wine.

"I do not mean for you to feel guilty, but she's the way she is because of you," Han spoke as he offered the prince more. "You at least owe Pluck her life and the freedom to live it."

Edward lifted his mug, and the High Guard poured him more, and then Edward said, "Perhaps, but I still feel she wants something from me." He shivered before he continued, "There is something about the way she looks at me."

Han nodded, took another drink, and stated, "She does. There's a way to end her curse, but she hasn't told me. All I know is that it involves you. She wants to end her misery." He set down the mug and asked, "What have you decided, my lord?"

Edward drank half of his bitter wine and replied, "She may remain free, but I do not want her as my personal guard."

Han knew that would resolve nothing, so he told him, "It might be best that she does remain. Her abilities are exceptional, she does possess the Lux and with an unknown enemy after you, she should remain by your side."

"Phraggs!" Edward uttered and reluctantly answered, "Fine!"

"What shall you tell the men, my lord?"

Edward answered, "Nothing for now. Pluck may keep her secret until she feels she can reveal it."

Chapter Seven

The Fourth Sun's Cycle at Sea

Nearly a zoc away from Breakneck and Waterswift, a storm approached and darkened the sky. Lightning streaked across the horizon like the silent claws of a Desert Eagle. The bolts lit up the distant sea as Pluck stood at the bow, watching the flashes. She stared at her bare fingers for a while before slipping on her glove as she wondered what they would do to her. The wind pushed her hood off, sweeping through her fiery-crimson mane as waves crashed against the bow, spraying mist. She shivered in the cool salty air as she muttered, "I could throw myself into the sea and save everyone the trouble. No... I'm not one to give up. If they want me..." She grabbed the strap that held the Lux's scabbard to her back and declared, "They'll have to take me."

Her cat ears twitched back as she heard them come, and she prepared herself for a fight. The prince approached with Melee, so she pulled her hood on as her heart sank. Pluck reached for her hilt and saw Han behind them and knew with him there they wouldn't kill her, so she lowered her hand. The worse they would do was throw her in the brig.

Edward stopped just short of her, put his hands behind his back, looked down at her, and said, "I have considered your situation..."

Her heart sped. What about her situation? She glanced at the prince's bodyguard.

Melee looked puzzled like he wasn't sure why they were there. Han remained silent, but his face reassured her everything would be fine.

"I... No, Han..." Edward spoke awkwardly. "Han has convinced me to keep you as my personal guard against my better judgment." He diverted his gaze, unsure if he was making the right decision as he continued, "We shall see how things go." He started to head back and added, "Thank you." Edward didn't face her, and his voice sounded strained like he had to force himself to speak as he said, "I thank you for your protection on Pass Island and in the building long ago. A debt I hope to repay one sun's cycle."

There was a moment of silence, and then he took a deep breath as if to continue, but he didn't. He walked off, setting for his cabin. Melee followed even more confused.

She looked at Han. Silence found her again except for the waves hitting the ship and the wind whipping their garments. Relieved she still had her life and her freedom, Pluck sighed, feeling ashamed of what she was.

"Not what you hoped for I imagine, but it's a beginning," Han told her as he walked to Pluck and put his hand on her shoulder. "There's so much for Edward to accept."

She muttered, "As you said, it's a beginning."

"Come," Han told her as he scanned the sea. "The storm shall be here soon."

* * *

The storm gave way to a clear morning as seagulls once again filled the sky, indicating they neared land. A sailor in the crow's nest scanned the ocean and spotted a vessel in the distance.

"A ship!" he yelled as he pointed off starboard.

Captain Brine asked for his telescope.

Fracas, Sinew, and Parry walked up on deck, hearing the alarm and squinted in the daylight.

"Is it a merchantman or a warship?" Fracas questioned as he stroked his pointed red beard.

"A warship by what I can tell," Brine answered the Archer. "She's flying one of the Kingdom's flags."

"Which one?" Sinew asked, feeling tension sweep over the crew as he wiped sweat from his shaven head.

"I can't make out. Wait..." Brine said as he strained to see. "I see a Roaring Black Lion."

The three High Guards felt relieved as Han came on deck with a few of his men.

"I heard we spotted a ship."

"Yes," Sinew answered. "She's flying Morgog's flag."

"So they've sent a ship to escort us to port," Han stated as he scratched his gray beard. "I wonder if there's been an attempt to abduct Princess Virago."

"If not, there's sure to be one," Fracas spoke as he adjusted the quiver on his shoulder. "We should warn them."

"Yes..." Ardor said as he joined them on deck. "We should meet with the princess' advisor and commander of her guards as soon as possible."

The ship named Dark Monarch turned and followed the Fletchings toward the port. The High Guards on Breakneck stood along the starboard, swapping glares with the Sentinels who were Morgog's royal army.

"This shall be an unstable alliance," Fracas stated as he leaned on his longbow. "Even with the marriage, there shall be strife. There's too much blood between us."

"Aye," an old sailor agreed. "They sank the Sea Wind in the battle of Coral Point, during the last rush to crown an Emperor. My brother went down with her." He spat on the deck as he cursed, "Foul scalawags, I'll never trust 'em."

Parry cracked his massive knuckles as he added, "I'm up to giving the scamps a good thrashing."

"There shall be no trouble from our side," Han warned as he eyed each of them especially the Blond Ox. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, commander," the High Guards replied.

As Han walked off, Parry whispered, "We shall not start it, but we shall end it."

* * *

Pluck carried a tray of cheese, bread, oranges, and wine to the prince's cabin. Melee and Von stood without. She knocked and entered at Edward's command.

"Here's your meal, my lord," Pluck stated as she noticed the Mystic Rose still cast an azure glow. She thought it was best if she stayed far away from the flower. Pluck set the tray in front of the prince.

"I am not hungry. Take the food away," Edward ordered as he dipped a quill in an inkwell and wrote on parchment. The high sun shone in from an open window behind him.

"I'll leave it in case you get hungry, my lord," Pluck said as she stepped from his desk and folded her arms behind her back.

He looked up from his work and said in a stern tone, "I said take it away. Do not make me regret my decision to let you remain as my personal guard."

She nodded, picked up the tray, and wondered how she could ask him.

Edward continued writing, looked at her again, and questioned, "Why are you still here?"

Pluck stared at the Sun Oranges as she started, "I was wondering..."

He tightened his jaw, annoyed by the disruption to his writing. He had until they docked to finish his work, and he never would with her staring at him. Edward asked, "What were you wondering?"

She hesitated and then answered, "Do you remember the time when your cousins came to the castle for a visit?"

He stared at his work as he replied, "Yes, why do you ask?"

"Remember how they treated me? How they teased me and pinched my arm till I cried?"

Edward's thoughts drifted back to that time. The girl, what Pluck was known as before Han named her, had just arrived at the castle. She was nearly six and he eight. He didn't think much of the peasant with brown hair and brown eyes and wasn't sure why his mother the Queen sent for her.

"Why did you pick a girl to be my playmate and a toddler at that?" he demanded, turned from his mother, and pouted. "I am nearly a man. I should have men to play with not–"

"She shall be a loyal friend," Queen Jezebel informed him as she nudged the girl closer to him. "And she shall keep you out of trouble. A prince should not get into trouble. It is not befitting your crown." She left the girl, walked to him, and turned Edward to face her as she told him, "The girl is so desperate for love. She shall give you her heart, and you need do nothing for it."

He looked into his mother's blue eyes as he said, "But she is a peasant."

"Yes, and you must always remember that and remind her," Jezebel instructed her son. "She is well versed in games, and she shall attend lessons with you." The Queen lifted his chin and said to him, "My son, give her some time. If you still do not wish to have her, then I shall send her back."

He told his mother, "I shall give her a chance."

Sun's cycles then weeks went by, and Edward grew to like having the girl around to play games and go on adventures. One of his favorites was saving the damsel from the dragon, of course, the girl had to play both the maiden and the monster. As summer grew to an end, his cousins from his mother's side came to visit. The first sun's cycle was exciting. They played High Guards and the girl was a Necrom the feared monster of magic. All was fun and laughter until his cousins knocked the girl to the ground and started pinching her arms.

"We have the Necrom now," Philip the elder of the two declared.

"Yes, now the monster must pay for all its evil crimes," Andrew added.

"Stop it!" she pleaded. "Don't hurt me!" She looked at the prince and called for him, "Edward, help me!"

"Silence your pleas, peasant. The prince shall not come to your aid," Philip told her as he continued to pinch her as red marks appeared on her arms. "Royal blood does not flow through your veins."

"Yes, quiet your crying," Andrew added as he kicked dirt on her. "You should learn your life is worthless."

Tears ran down her face as she looked at the prince.

Edward stood there, clenching his wooden sword, not understanding the feelings affecting his body. Why didn't he join in with them? Why did his face burn? The prince realized he felt outrage and clenched his teeth, remembering something he heard Han tell his men. Edward lifted his sword and charged the cousins as he shouted, "Are we not honorable men?"

He caught them off guard and pushed them to the ground. The cousins looked up at him stunned.

Edward pointed his sword at them and told them, "High Guards do all things to glorify the Creator. We pledge loyalty to the crown. We swear to protect the Fletching people and property and above all, we forfeit our lives for the Royal Family." He glared at them as he declared, "You shall not hurt any of my people!"

The cousins whimpered.

"We did not realize you liked her," they declared. "Please," they cowered. "Let us make our apologies."

Edward nodded, and the cousins helped the girl to her feet and brushed dirt from her plain dress.

That sun's cycle, Pluck saw Edward anew. She fell in love with him. He had saved her. Pluck continued to hold the tray of food as she wondered if he would save her now from her curse.

Edward thought of that time differently. It was a moment of weakness, a childish whim, and an action he didn't wish to remember. The prince laid his quill down and started, "Yes, I remember that sun's cycle. What of it?"

"That was the first sun's cycle I realized I..." She couldn't say it, not love... not to him, so she told him, "I gained a new respect for you." Her ears twitched forward under her hood and her feline eyes narrowed. "I wanted you to know you'll always have my loyalty."

"As I should. You are a High Guard, my vassal," he told her as he picked up the quill and dipped it in the well. "Now please take the food away."

A shadow cast into the room as Edward set his quill to the parchment. He heard Pluck growl and saw her face wrinkle with rage in the darkness of her hood. She lifted the tray and threw the food across the room.

"Insolent wench!" Edward uttered as he stood and slammed his hands on the desk. "What do you think–"

She rushed around the desk and pushed him aside as she yelled, "To arms!" She forced him to a sidewall as she covered the prince with her body.

Melee and Von rushed in swords drawn.

"What are you doing?" Edward demanded, feeling her warm body pressed against his. She smelled of the forest and of leather.

"Remain, my lord," Pluck ordered.

Melee rushed to the window as Von ran up to the deck.

"He's gone," Melee told them.

Pluck moved from the prince as she told Melee, "We can't let him jump ship." She set the tray on the desk as she added, "But first, we must get the prince to a secure room."

"Agreed," Melee said as he headed for the hall. "Han's cabin has no windows."

Edward moved to the middle of the room as he questioned, "Who is gone? And why can we not let him escape?" He glanced at the table, saw the tray with an arrow embedded in it, and noticed a rope dangling outside the window, and then he questioned, "What happened?"

"There was an attempt on your life, my lord," Pluck told him as she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door. "We must get you into a secure room till the assassin's caught."

Her hand was also warm and held his firm and for some reason, he felt safe with her. She and Melee took Edward to Han's cabin and waited, and soon a knock came to the door.

"Who is it?" Melee demanded.

"Ardor, it is safe. We caught the attacker."

Melee looked at Pluck, she nodded, and he opened the door.

Ardor stepped in and said, "Come, my lord. He's on deck."

On deck, many High Guards surrounded the bound man.

Edward examined the man but didn't recognize him. Many soldiers served in his army. He asked, "Who is he?"

"One of Fracas' Archers," Ardor answered.

"One of our own?" Edward uttered, surprised.

"Perhaps a spy planted long ago," Han said as he shook his head, disgusted, and addressed the prisoner, "Are there more among us?"

The traitor didn't answer.

"Who do you work for?" Edward demanded.

The man replied, "The one you suspect the least, and that's all you'll get out of me, Fletching mongrel."

Ardor raised his hand to strike the man.

"No, take him below," Edward ordered. "We shall get nothing from him. We shall have the Morgog's deal with him once we land."

Chapter Eight

Princess Virago

"Princess, please come out," a fair-haired Lady Flaxen beckoned. "Prince Edward shall be here soon. Please, we must dress you for the ceremony."

"No!" Virago screamed as she remained in her locked room, stroking her long ebony hair. She wore a flame-colored dress. "I do not wish to marry the Cretin of Fletching."

"You do not know if he is a clod," Flaxen said as she bit her lip in desperation. Her hair was pulled back in long braids. "I heard he is handsome."

The princess' room lay in shambles from an earlier tantrum. Dresses, jewelry, combs, brushes, and other small objects laid scattered about. Virago said, "I have had enough of people telling me what I am to do." She sat in the middle of the floor, clinging to her bedpost, face wet with tears as she yelled, "You are my lady in waiting... so wait!"

The thin man, standing behind Flaxen, moved to the door and beckoned to her, "Dear Princess, please..." Lord Caliber leaned on his staff with an engraved wolf-head as he said, "Your kingdom is depending on you. Think of all the wealth and power you shall gain when you have the authority to make laws and judge the Five Kingdoms."

Virago didn't answer.

Lord Caliber massaged his temple and tried again, telling her, "Your father, King Elan, arranged this marriage long ago. You shall dishonor him if you do not follow through." He glanced at Flaxen, straightened his red robe's gray-black fur trim, faced the door, and asked, "What about your mother?"

"Leave her out of this," Virago demanded. "Why can you not leave the dead alone?"

Flaxen put a hand on the thin man's shoulder, shook her head, and told him, "That is not the way. For the princess' Advisor, you are wise in many things, but you do not know how to deal with matters of the heart." She smoothed her hand down her fiery-yellow dress, bit her lip thinking, and said, "There is only one thing that may lure her out, but I do not know if it shall work."

"Try it," Lord Caliber urged as he stroked his long inky-black goatee. "The navy is escorting the prince's ships into port. We do not have much time."

Flaxen cleared her throat, praying to the Creator that this would work and said, "Edward shall have presents."

"Presents?" Virago repeated as she perked up, moved to her door, leaned on its frame, and raked her ebony bangs from her blue eyes.

"Yes, many and costly."

Lord Caliber jumped at the opportunity and added, "Edward shall surely turn back if he hears you have called off the wedding. He shall take all his presents with him."

"No presents," Virago said, thought about it, then unlocked her door, and ordered, "Do not just stand there, dress me." She wiped her eyes and blew her nose on the handkerchief Flaxen offered as she said, "We do not want to keep my husband waiting."

* * *

Breakneck and Waterswift docked at Stalwart Port while the Dark Monarch anchored in the bay. The prince with Han, Ardor, Melee, Pluck, Fracas, Sinew, and Parry unloaded their horses and rode to the castle with a Morgog escort while the rest of the High Guards stayed on the ships.

"I've never seen a Sentinel before today," Fracas admitted. "Look at the black leather armor they wear. It must be hot and heavy."

"They say their armor's hardened by the Fires of Morgog," Sinew said. "That the capitol's centered around these fire geysers and since the foundation of the Kingdom, the flames have yet to cease their blazing."

Parry laughed and then spoke, "They also say their armor is the strongest in the world." He tapped the top of his silver hilt as he said, "I have yet to see armor my blade couldn't penetrate."

They rode past a Sentinel sharpening his sword.

"Interesting piece of weaponry, isn't it?" Sinew asked as he pointed to the large sword with a wavy blade. "It's a Flamberge, and it was first created to cut down cavalry and also boasted to be hardened by the Fires of Morgog."

Parry glanced at the large sword as he spoke, "Impressive, yes, but heavy and slow in battle. What else do we know about them?"

"Their royal army the Sentinels consist of three groups; Bowman, Footsoldiers, and Cavalry," Fracas replied. "I would enjoy pitting my Archers against their Bowmen in a shooting contest."

Parry flexed his massive biceps as he said, "I wouldn't mind wrestling with a few of them."

Four Sentinels glared at them.

"Move along," Han commanded, and then he added, warning them, "Quietly."

* * *

The princess stood along with her lady in the center of the Capital. Virago wore her red-flare colored wedding dress as the Fires of Morgog erupted around them, illuminating the sandstone canyon. A distance behind them, the Morgog Castle stood and in front of the castle, the Great Cathedral stood. Virago stared at the flaming geysers in front of her.

The lady had been quiet a long time, allowing her princess to deal with whatever matters needed to be dealt with, and then Flaxen finally said, "It is time."

The princess closed her eyes, opened them, and spoke, "I am ready. This was the last place I wanted to see before we left Morgog. I wanted to burn the images of my homeland into my mind. I do not ever want to forget them."

"Princess, you can return someday."

Virago questioned, "Why do I fear I shall not?"

Lord Caliber entered and walked across the cobblestone path as his wolf-head staff clinked across the hard surface. He looked at the flaming geysers as he stated, "I knew you would be here."

Irritated her remembering was interrupted, she asked, "Did my father send you?"

"No, King Elan did not. Actually, I wanted to talk to you before the ceremony," he replied as he shifted the staff to his other hand and placed his palm on the princess' shoulder. "A great responsibility has been given to you. For so long, Morgog has fallen from grace. It has fallen from the power it should hold. We need to return it to its Golden Age."

"I understand my responsibilities. I also know what I am giving up," she said and then walked away from the lord. "What I do not know is what I am placing myself into? Our people have always been an enemy of the Fletchings and now we are forming an alliance. This was thrown together in such great haste. There shall be power struggles from both sides. For one, who shall be in charge of the army? We have our Commander Avarice, and they have theirs."

"I understand how you feel about the Fletchings. They are not our equals, but your father has made up his mind and as for the rest of your questions, do not fret over them," he said as he winked at her. "They shall work themselves out." Lord Caliber turned and left where he came in as he spoke to her, "Come, your wedding is about to begin."

Flaxen walked up beside the princess and told her, "I feel so uneasy around him. Do not get me wrong. He is a very good advisor."

Virago watched the lord as he left, and she then said, "I think you worry too much."

* * *

Within a nal, Edward and his escort arrived at the Capital and were led to the Great Cathedral. There Princess Virago, dressed in her red flare wedding gown, waited before a priest. Flutes played a flowing melody as the Fletchings entered.

"I have never seen a wedding so hurried," Ardor commented as fiery-yellow robes were given to each of them.

"Do you think any of the other Kingdoms are waiting for a courtship to bloom before their marriages?" Han asked.

Ardor shook his head.

Pluck watched the prince as his face paled, and she heard with her keen ears his breathing and heartbeat increase.

Edward looked ahead, saw the priest and the veiled woman, and questioned, "Is that her?" He swallowed hard, but it didn't phase his dry mouth. "I could use some wine." The more he thought about his wedding, the sicker he got. Many things rampaged through his mind as he wondered what she looked like and why she was wearing a veil. He considered she was hideous, and then a more horrifying thought crossed his mind. What if she looked like Pluck? He repeated, "I could use some wine."

"Not now, my lord," Han said as the group moved forward in a wedding march in sync with the flute music. "There shall be plenty of time for wine later."

Edward rubbed his hands as he whispered, "I cannot see her." He asked, "What does the princess look like?"

"Quiet," Han commanded. "Now is not the time."

"I feel ill," Edward said as he stopped and held his stomach.

A few people seated in the pews murmured.

Han nodded to Ardor, and then each of them grabbed the prince's arm as Han said, "The ceremony shall be over soon, my lord."

They moved forward, and Edward's knees weakened the closer they walked to the priest.

Princess Virago glanced at Lady Flaxen, and then Virago whispered, "He is handsome, but he is so pale looking. Are you sure he shall have many presents?"

"Yes, my lady," Flaxen replied as she looked over the prince and giggled. "I believe he is nervous."

"That or intoxicated," Virago commented. "That would be my lot to marry a lush."

"Maybe he is intoxicated by your beauty."

Virago glared at her, not that Lady Flaxen could see for the veil.

"Oh..." Flaxen uttered as she bit her lip. "Your wedding shroud. He cannot see you." She shrugged and said, "I know I am not the brightest. Please forgive this dim-witted servant."

Lord Caliber sat in the front pew next to King Elan and Princess Jasmine, Virago's younger sister. Lord Caliber glanced at the prince's men as he sensed a supernatural force, and then he leaned to the King and whispered, "Last chance to change your mind. You could choose Commery over Fletching and return Morgog to its Golden Age."

"No, my mind is made up," King Elan answered.

Lord Caliber said, "As you wish, my lord."

"I cannot breathe," Edward said as he gripped Han's robe. "We must stop."

Ardor gave Han a worried look.

"A little longer, my lord," Han spoke as he hurried their pace.

Pluck thought Edward looked as if he'd spew his breakfast. She had her doubts he'd make it through the wedding.

The group stopped in front of the priest, and those assembled, quieted. Han and Ardor walked the prince forward, released, stepped back, and prayed he would stand. The priest motioned for the princess to move beside the prince, and reluctantly, she did. The priest cleared his throat, the flute players ceased their playing, and the priest opened his book.

"We gather here to witness a joining," the priest started and continued, "One that the Creator has ordained." He looked at the prince and asked him, "Do you take Virago to be your wife?"

Edward swayed, putting his hand to his mouth, looking a little green. The priest took a step back. Han poked the prince's back with his finger, and Edward straightened, answering, "Yes."

The priest shook his head, looked at the princess, and asked her, "Do you take Edward to be your husband?"

She glanced at the pale man, pouted, and then whined, "Yes." Virago turned and cried on Flaxen's shoulder, "Why..? Why..?"

Her father stood, but Lord Caliber convinced the King to retake his seat.

"There... There..." Flaxen spoke as she stroked the princess' hair. "It shall be over soon."

The priest rubbed his temple, irritated by the high pitch shrill, and then he said, "Then in the sight of the Creator, you are now husband and wife." He slammed his book shut and said, "You may now kiss her."

Pluck gasped inwardly. The princess couldn't have her kiss. Pluck feared moving as she felt herself pale. She hadn't thought kissing would be involved in this ceremony and after all this time, this blubbering woman was going to receive her redemption.

Edward hesitated, stunned and still ill.

"Lift her shroud," Han instructed.

Edward did and smiled, seeing Virago wasn't a hag like he envisioned. His green coloring faded as he looked over her milky skin, blue eyes, long ebony hair, and a face of an angel. The priest cleared his throat and motioned for the prince to proceed. Edward leaned to her and then still afflicted by nerves, kissed her on the cheek.

Pluck sighed. There was still a chance for her to receive her redemption.

Virago and Edward stared at one another, neither sure what to say and then as quickly as they were married, the couple along with their escort were ushered out of the Cathedral. Virago to her carriage, and Edward to his horse. Both traveled to the port, and the princess boarded the Dark Monarch and the prince the Breakneck, and soon with the Sea Sprite and Waterswift, the four vessels sailed toward the Isle of Kismet.

Chapter Nine

Coblet's Route

"My lord," Captain Brine uttered as he looked up from his desk and stood. "You and your men please enter." He motioned to chairs, noticing the prince looked peaked. Edward, Han, Ardor, and Melee sat and then Brine spoke, "As your spies have reported, Swelldom and Hort have a sun's cycle on us. There's only one course we can take to beat them." Brine paused, not sure to even mention it, then pointed to the map on his desk, and stated, "Coblet's Route."

"The way no man has ever returned from," Ardor exclaimed as he shuddered. "There must be another."

"None," Brine replied as he looked at the prince. "My men are wary of going this route, but we shall sail it if it's your desire."

"As you said Captain, there is no other way. We shall take Coblet's Route. Signal the Waterswift, Dark Monarch, and Sea Sprite to follow," Edward ordered and then stood, swaying with the ship and held his stomach still a little queasy. "I shall be in my cabin."

"Aye," Brine said and then stared at the map as the others left. Drawings of sea monsters littered the area around Coblet's Route. He shook his head and mumbled, "Creator, help us."

Clear skies abounded as they set on their journey, and the first two sun's cycles were uneventful. Edward took the opportunity to rest and get over the horrible wedding experience. Everyone aboard seemed to enjoy the serenity, but all feared it wouldn't last. The third sun's cycle during the latter part of the high sun, clouds scattered the blue sky. Below deck Pluck slept in her bunk soundly for the first time. She started to dream of a land where she would be accepted, and it was a place that hadn't seen war for hundreds of seasons. Pluck was drawn to this new place, but the dream faded as her body tingled as if it was asleep. A sense of urgency woke her, and she sat up in a panic.

Something wasn't right, so Pluck jumped to the floor, wrapped her tail around her waist, grabbed her cloak, threw it on, and clasped it. The tingling persisted, warning of danger, but didn't hinder her movement. Pluck pulled on her hood, put on her gloves and boots, grabbed the Lux, strapped it to her back, and rushed on deck. It was like magic electrified the air.

A seafoam green mist crept over the ships like a looming specter and thickened to fog. Pluck could barely see five steps past the bow as she pulled her cloak close in the cold air. Did the others feel this charge of energy? She walked up to the bridge and there Captain Brine had the wheel as Han and Ardor stood next to him. The captain was talking.

"We've entered the barrier that surrounds Coblet's Route. From here, we sail uncharted seas," Brine said, then turned to his first mate, and ordered, "Have them trim the sails. Have two sailors stand at the bow to watch for rocks and shoals. Also if the lanterns will pierce this eerie mist, signal the other ships to do the same."

"Aye, captain."

The ships traveled on pressed by the current as an eerie stillness abounded. Neither wind nor waves broke the silence and without the sun or stars, no one knew how much time elapsed or what direction they sailed. All they knew was the fog.

"I don't like this," Brine spoke as he gripped the wheel. "We've journeyed through this demon vapor far too long. I fear we're off course."

"Ardor, go wake the prince," Han commanded.

"There's no telling how long we'll have to travel before we break through. It could be endless," Brine said as he shivered in the nippy sea air. "If we can't tell what direction we're going, we'll venture the way all mariners have who dared trek this route."

"There must be some way through," Pluck spoke as she felt the captain's alarm. She heard sailors talk of those lost at sea and didn't wish to meet their fate. Nor did she desire to encounter the monsters told in their tales and as she recounted those myths, the fur on the back of her neck rose. "By Fletching!" Pluck uttered after she heard an eerie sound in the distance, and she said, "Listen..." She lifted her finger to her lips. All but her grim expression was shadowed by her hood. She warned them, "I hear something."

Han and Brine strained to listen, and soon they also heard the roar of wind.

"What is it?" Han asked.

"I don't know," Brine replied. "It could be anything." He imagined the worst and then said, "It sounds like it's nearing us. Wake the ship," he ordered.

"There must be a way to pierce this fog so we can see what monstrosity approaches," Pluck stated and then a gush of heat warmed her back in the chill. It wasn't a tingling premonition like before, no this sensation was completely different. It was more physical than metaphysical.

"Your sword glows," Han uttered as he pointed at her weapon as it pulsed. Each time the Lux glowed, he saw the blade through the scabbard down to the ancient writings engraved in its steel.

She reached up and unsheathed the sword, and it rumbled as the lightning white blade lit up the ship, casting shadows across their faces.

"Witchcraft!" Brine uttered. "Why does the weapon burn?"

"I don't know," Pluck answered as she examined the blade, felt an urge to lift it, and did so. Azure lightning shot from the blade, igniting the sea foam green fog and the vapor parted, forming a corridor as sunlight broke through.

A gust hit Brine's back, and he ordered, "Full sails!"

The sailors scurried to work, letting the canvases fall to harness the wind's power. The fog lessened to mist, revealing the other ships and together they traveled the corridor, clearing the barrier. As the last of the four ships cleared, the whole fog barrier disappeared like it never existed. Clear seas surrounded them and ahead they saw land. The first mate came on the bridge.

"Take the wheel," Brine ordered, and then he removed his telescope. "Does anyone hear that monstrous sound we heard earlier?"

Han shook his head as did Pluck.

"Perhaps it vanished with the barrier," Han suggested.

"Have we arrived at the Isle of Kismet?" Edward asked as he, Ardor, and Melee walked up the steps.

"Don't know. I wouldn't think we would be there yet," Brine replied as he handed the telescope to the commander.

Han took the instrument, peered into the eyepiece, and said, "I can't tell you any different, my lord. We should anchor in the bay and give the captain enough time to get our bearings with the sextant." He turned to Brine and questioned him, "What do you think? Is this agreeable?"

Brine started, "I think–"

"A spout!" a sailor in the crow's nest shouted.

Brine held up his hand, shaded his eyes from the sun, and looked at the sailor. The man pointed off their port.

"What does he mean a spout?" Edward asked.

"He means a waterspout," Brine told him as he searched the seas. "It's an ocean-bound tornado." He spotted the cyclone and exclaimed, "It's coming right for us!"

"Another one!" a sailor at the bow shouted.

"By Fletching!" Ardor uttered. "How can this be? There's no storm."

"Crell!" Brine yelled as he took the wheel. "More witchcraft!"

The sea churned as the spouts neared.

Brine looked at the Northern High Guard and asked, "Anything in your magic sword to combat these?"

Pluck stared at the Lux which had long since stopped glowing, and she replied, "I don't know."

"What good is the weapon if you can't harness its power?" Brine questioned as he turned the wheel sharply, trying desperately to avoid the spouts. "Sorcery!" He turned to Han and demanded, "Order him to wield his sword. We can't avoid these things. It's like they're tracking us."

Han didn't look at Pluck as he stated, "I have confidence she shall do what she can."

She..? Ardor glanced over the Northern High Guard. Did Han speak of the sword? Ardor turned his attention back to the whirling menaces.

Pluck lifted the Lux, but the blade remained dormant, so she shook the sword as if to wake it. The closest spout slammed into the Waterswift. They heard sailors and High Guards shouting as they ran from the whirlwind. Even the horses, who were trapped below, screamed for the terror rocking the ship. Pieces of the vessel and men were sucked up into the vortex. The Waterswift tossed and turned as it wrestled with the funnel. The great wind beast prevailed and broke the ship into large pieces, and the spout continued unhindered by its fight with the Waterswift. The funnel headed for the Sea Sprite as the second spout hit Breakneck, their ship. The vortex stripped planks from the bow like they were paper and sent them flying. Men jumped into the sea to avoid the wind monster. The spout wrestled with the Breakneck and forced it to ram into the Dark Monarch. The force cut a large gash down the side of the Breakneck.

In desperation, Pluck lifted her sword and shouted, "Stop!"

The spout tore through the middle of the ship as it made its way toward them. Pluck's hood flew back, but no one saw her as they shielded their faces. She barely kept her eyes open in the torrent.

"STOP!" she screamed, but the sword remained lifeless. Pluck felt herself being pulled toward the vortex and grabbed the railing of the bridge as did the others. Her fiery-crimson mane whipped about as she covered her eyes with her sword arm before the spout swallowed them.

Chapter Ten

Wellspring

Waves rolled in and washed over a white sandy beach as the sun descended, nearing the western horizon and cast a tangerine glow over the blue-green waters. A jungle laid beyond the beach, bellowing with animals as a small creature emerged from the vegetation. He was a Trife. The rat-faced creature stood three hands in height, and short brown hair covered his head and continued down his back like an arrow. Long cream fur covered his monkey body, and his long hairless rat-tail twitched with excitement. He wore a blue vest and had a burlap sack slung over his shoulder. His large dark brown eyes scanned the beach and noticed wreckage scattered along the shore. The Trife searched the jungle to see if he was followed, turned his attention back to the beach littered with possible treasure, sniffed the wind for any other danger, and slunk to a piece of wood. The Trife turned the broken plank over and found nothing of value when a glint in the distance from a large mass caught his eye. He ran to it ready to scurry into the jungle at the slightest hint of trouble. The Trife found a large creature faced down in the sand. It was large compared to his standards.

Quip, what the others of his kind called him, circled the stranger. She was furry like him but beige and cat-like. He had seen creatures similar to her on his journeys to the Great City Shangra. Quip stroked her fiery-crimson mane.

"Soft," he muttered and proceeded to search for the glint he'd seen. "What this?"

The stranger gripped a sword, and Quip rubbed his four-clawed hands together as he mumbled to himself, "Weapon... Bring good price." He hurried to the sword and tried to pull it from her grasp, and then he said, "Won't budge..." He noticed the ancient engravings on its blade and knew it was magic and very valuable. Ecstatic with the find, Quip tried prying her gloved fingers from the sword. He had to have it.

The stranger stirred and rolled over on her back, knocking Quip on his tail. She woke! He had to hide! Quip scurried for the jungle, forgetting his sack.

Pluck blinked in the light of the setting sun and sat up, coughing. The ocean stretched before her, and the smell of the salty beach filled her nostrils.

"Where..?" she started as she scanned the beach. "No one's here." She stood, grabbed her head, and moaned, "Oh..."

Pluck felt a bruise on her forehead. The last thing she remembered was the waterspout. Pluck searched the sea and spotted the tops of five masts sticking out of the water like bony fingers reaching for the sky. It was one of the ships, but which one? She wiped sand from the Lux and sheathed the sword. Pluck started down the beach when she kicked something soft and noticed it was a sack. She picked it up, feeling the small bag wasn't wet and wondered who it belonged to. She noticed tiny footprints that were smaller than a child's around her. Pluck took the sack, followed the tracks to the edge of the jungle, and searched the vegetation, but found no one. Many different scents filled the air. She decided she didn't have time to look and that she had to find Edward, Han, and the others. Pluck turned to leave when a creature pounced on the sack she carried.

"Mine!" Quip screeched. "Can't have. Mine!"

Startled by something leaping at her, Pluck threw the sack along with the rat-monkey toward the beach, drew her sword, and approached it. Pluck wasn't sure what frightened her more, the creature's strange appearance or that it talked? She pointed her blade at it and demanded, "Who... What are you?"

"Don't hurt. Me, Quip," he said as he raised his hairy arms. "Don't mean harm."

Pluck didn't feel threatened by the small creature and lowered her sword. She didn't sheathe the Lux on the chance her instincts were wrong as she commented, "I've never seen anything like you."

"Quip, Trife. There many Trifes," he told her as he lowered his arms and pointed at her. "Where from?"

"I'm from the Fletching Kingdom," Pluck replied as she stared at the strange looking rat-monkey. She wondered if he was cursed like herself, and then she asked, "I need to find the others. Have you seen them?"

"Others?" Quip questioned as he didn't understand.

"Yes, beings like me," she said as she pointed to herself. Pluck considered that maybe he wasn't cursed. Maybe he was what he was.

"Oh... like you. Me seen thousands," he told her as he pointed inland. "Live in Shangra."

She ran her hand through her damp sandy mane, remembered her face wasn't hidden and not only that, but the tip of her tail dangled below the cloak. Quip had seen her and said there were others like her. Pluck restated, "The ones I'm looking for are different than I." She pulled her hood on ashamed of her appearance and hid her tail. "They have no fur on their faces or bodies."

"Oh..." Quip said as he stroked his long chin hair. "Me not seen."

"I have to find them. Maybe..." she started as she looked over the Trife, trying to read his character. "Can you help me find them?"

"Help?" Quip exclaimed and then laughed at the notion. "What me get?"

She checked her belt, found her wet money pouch, and opened it, finding fifty crunes. A crune was a small silver coin with a turtle engraved on it. She knelt, held up a crune, and told him, "I'll give you this if you help me."

"Three..." Quip said as he held up his claws, signifying the number. "Me help sun's cycle."

"Two crunes," Pluck countered. "And the sun's cycle will be from sunset to sunset. There are many to find."

Quip scratched his chin then told her, "Feed me, it deal."

Food? She didn't even have a Jewel Apple, so Pluck answered, "You can eat half of what I have."

"Agreed," the Trife said as he spat on his paw and offered it to her.

She made a face, then took his paw, and shook it.

"Pay," he insisted.

She told him, "When the job is over or the sun's cycle, not till then."

"Capah!" Quip cursed. "Fine..."

"We need a plan of action. You're native..." Pluck interrupted herself as she wondered where she was. What kind of land would have a talking creature? Was there magic there? She sheathed the Lux and asked, "What's the name of this place?"

"MayPah of West Region," Quip replied as he stared at the sword, sad he wouldn't have the wealth it would have brought him.

"West Region? West Region of what?"

Quip tilted his head curiously as he questioned, "Not know? Wellspring."

"Wellspring? We're not on the Isle of Kismet," she uttered as she looked over the sea which seemed vast now. "Then we are lost." She paused and considered their situation, and then she told herself, "There'll be time to worry about that later. I must find the others." She pointed along the white sandy beach lapped by blue-green water and ordered, "Quip you go south, and I'll go north. If you find someone or when the sun rises, come back to this point." Pluck piled planks from the wreckage in an X the size of a man up beyond the tide line.

Quip nodded and scurried along the beach as Pluck hurried north and along the way she noticed hoof prints. The horses... Some must have survived. Pluck started up the beach, fearful she would find neither man nor animal alive. She had better find the steeds, so she tracked them into the jungle, found three near a small stream, and checked them over, finding minor injuries. Pluck grabbed their reins and led them to the beach. It was standard procedure to leave halters and saddles on horses when traveling by ship.

The sun set, darkening the area with twilight as more strange animal sounds blared from the jungle and make the horses nervous. She traveled for more than a nal and found no one but another horse. The steed was dead, drowned. The sky ever darkened as her feline eyes quickly adjusted to the night. The others weren't as fortunate to have her sight but... She glanced up, seeing both new moons rising in the black sky. Auror the Greater and Array the Lesser would give them light. Pluck hoped they searched the beach and didn't venture into the jungle. She stopped as her keen senses picked up a familiar scent on the breeze. Fire. Someone could be near. She ran along the shore with the horses trotting behind. A roaring flame appeared ahead, and many men stood around it. Pluck stopped abruptly, shocked by what she saw. All the men had removed their outer clothing and were standing in their surads, underwear cut above the knee. They wore their sword frogs over their surads while their wet clothing laid on rocks around the fire. Embarrassed by the sight of their near nakedness, she turned, shading her eyes.

"Halt!" one of them shouted as most of the men went for their swords, and the Archers knocked their arrows. "Identify yourself!"

It was too late to leave, so she declared, "I am Pluck, the Northern High Guard."

"Pluck?" Han shouted, glanced down at himself, went, and stood behind the others. "Come."

She entered the ring of light and there she diverted her eyes from their near nakedness once again. Curiosity got the better of her, and she glanced around at their faces seeing Han, Edward, Ardor, Fracas, Melee, Captain Brine, a few sailors, and more than five dozen High Guards stared at her. Bulwark was there also holding the glass container with the Mystic Rose whose petals were pink. The commander pulled on his pants and motioned for one of the soldiers to step forward. A High Guard came, took the three horses from her, tied them to a tree near other horses they'd found, and removed their saddles and blankets.

"You survived," Han uttered as he hugged her and stepped back. "Have you seen any of the others?"

That was most odd, Ardor considered. The commander greeted Pluck like a son. Did the Northern High Guard find favor with Han? Ardor sneered as he feared his right to succeed the commander might be challenged and with Han's support, Pluck might succeed.

"No one," she answered Han and turned her gaze to the fire. "Did all the ships sink?"

"We know three did," Ardor answered, stepping closer to them as the flickering fire cast a shadow beside the scar under his right eye. "We have found no signs of the Dark Monarch."

Pluck glanced at Han's Second and noticed Ardor had a large scar across his chest and a small one on his calf. Pluck turned her gaze, realizing he noticed her stare.

Ardor sneered again. Did the Northern High Guard suspect his fears? Did Pluck plot as he did to ensure the commander position? The Northern High Guard hid something. What could it be? Ardor had to know. It could be the one thing that secured his advance. He made a fist and swore to himself he would find out no matter the price.

"The Dark Monarch is Princess Virago's ship," Edward said as he paced. "We must find her. If we do not, it shall be meaningless that we made it to Kismet."

Pluck turned at hearing the prince's voice and blushed, seeing him in his surad. His gold medallion reflected the fire's light as she looked at the ground ashamed she saw her prince like this. Pluck spoke, "I don't think we're on Kismet."

"What do you mean?" Edward questioned.

"I ran into one of the natives," Pluck replied as she stared at the fire, though her curiosity of the male physique tempted her. "He said this place is called Wellspring."

"Where's this native now?" Ardor asked.

"I had him go south along the beach looking for any survivors. He's to return to a place I marked at sunrise or if he finds anyone," Pluck answered, and then she heard movement and told everyone, "Many approach us." She reached up, drew the Lux, and moved to the front of those gathered as she shouted, "Identify yourselves."

"It is I, Vim, second in command of the Sentinels. I have with me twenty-four of my men," he answered as his voice sounded labored like he was carrying something. "Three are injured."

Pluck saw that they were Morgog royal army but knew the others couldn't, so she told them, "Come into the light."

Vim and his men did.

"What ship are you from?" Han asked.

"Sea Sprite," Vim answered. "We believe we are all who survived."

"Then no one knows if Virago is well," Edward stated as he couldn't stand not knowing for the Emperor's crown depended on both he and the princess arriving at Kismet. If Virago was dead, this whole trip was for nothing... It was a complete waste of his time.

Vim replied, "I don't know."

"I cannot wait any longer. I must see if she is alive," Edward said as he grabbed his white cotton pants and blue silk shirt that were still a little wet and put them on. "We shall take torches and go look for her."

Han put on his white shirt and red cape and then ordered, "Ardor, you, Melee, Pluck, and Fracas come with us."

"Yes, commander," the men replied and started dressing.

Han turned to the others and commanded them, "The rest of you stay here and wait for those who might find this fire."

"I shall go with you," Vim insisted.

"Of course," Han said, knowing he would demand the same if he was the Morgog Second.

Vim, who was tall as Fracas the Archer, turned to his men and ordered them, "Stay here, tend to the wounded, and dry by the fire." He removed his waterlogged black leather armor and undershirt and set them on the rocks but left on his wet pants and boots. Vim's long black hair was pulled back in a single braid as was customary for Sentinels. He added, "Group here. I shall go with these men to look for our princess, Lord Caliber, and Avarice our commander."

"Yes, sir," they replied, setting down their wounded.

After dressing, Ardor went and stood by the Northern High Guard and noticed a sweet musky scent surrounded Pluck. The Northern High Guard smelled like a wet cat. He cleared his throat and said, "Commander, perhaps Pluck should stay and dry himself. We do not want him to catch a cold."

She told him, "I'm fine." Pluck looked at Han. Surely he knew she couldn't stay here for she couldn't undress in front of the men.

"Pluck shall come," Han commanded.

"Then let us leave," Edward insisted. "Can we take a few of the horses?"

"I would not, my lord," Han said as he went over and patted one on the neck. "What few survived need their rest after their ordeal."

"Then let us set out on foot," Edward ordered as he grabbed a torch from a supply crate that washed ashore and held it over the fire until it dried enough to catch flame. Ardor, Han, Vim, and Melee also lit torches.

The prince led the group into the night along the shore as he said, "Quickly now, keep with me."

They ran, matching his frantic pace as the moons gave plenty of light to the beach. The group heard the sea lap at the sand and felt it rush under their feet and splash their legs. Along the way, they found four dead sailors and two High Guards.

Ardor couldn't believe they dishonored their dead by abandoning their bodies. They should have done more than dragged their bodies up the beach so the sea didn't reclaim them. He clasped the Black Elk insignia on his red cape. Did this symbol mean nothing to them? Should they not honor their brothers?

Han sensed his concerns and told his Second, "We'll be back for them. They'll receive a burial befitting a High Guard." The commander stopped so he could face his Second and told him, "First, we must make sure our future Queen is safe."

Ardor glanced at his prince who was now a great distance ahead of them and stated, "I understand."

"Good, let us make haste and catch up to our lord," Han said, and then he jogged ahead.

Ardor followed. The commander had great wisdom. If only he could lead with such when it was his turn. He glanced at Pluck, knowing there was something not right with the Northern High Guard. What was his secret?

Within a nal, they arrived at Pluck's marker and found several men. A few were crouched, trying to start a fire with their flint from their High Guard belt, and then two men approached them. Edward and Han lifted their torches and saw Sinew and Parry standing there shivering before them.

"My lord... Commander... Are... are both of you well?" Parry stuttered.

Melee walked over with his torch and ignited the lightwood, and slowly the men added more wood until a fire roared.

"Yes, we are searching for Princess Virago. Have you seen her?" Edward asked.

"No, my lord," Sinew replied. "We have seen no one else except the odd little creature who told us to meet here. He said Pluck instructed him to do so."

"I did," she said as she stepped forward. "Where's Quip now?"

"Me here," the Trife replied as he scurried in from the darkness and warmed his paws by the fire.

"By Fletching!" Ardor uttered. "What the Phraggs?"

Vim drew his sword and spat, "The Fires of Morgog! We should kill this vile thing."

"No!" Pluck yelled as she stepped between them. "He's helping us. He's a friend."

"Me, friend," Quip insisted as he hid behind her cloak like a frightened child.

"There can be only sorcery involved," Vim exclaimed, and then he insisted, "It must be destroyed!"

"Stow your weapon, Morgog," Han demanded. "If Pluck says the creature is a friend, then it is."

"Crell!" Vim cursed as he sneered and sheathed his sword. "Morgogs are not quick to make such judgments of loyalty. A word is nothing only action. I shall keep my eye on this creature."

Quip gulped and muttered, "Me afraid."

"I would stay out of Vim's way if I were you," Pluck spoke as she knelt to the Trife. "Were you able to find anyone else?"

"Ship," Quip answered as he pointed into the darkness.

"Where?" Edward demanded.

"Cove," Quip replied. "Far."

"Take us there," Edward commanded.

"Yes," Vim agreed. "We must go now."

"Me take," Quip said as he headed into the darkness. "Follow."

The group headed off.

Han turned to Sinew and Parry and commanded them, "Stay here. Warm yourselves. We shall return."

The group followed the Trife along the shore. Several nals went by before they reached the cove and there they saw a ship anchored. The first rays of the new sun's cycle peered over the jungle and revealed a rocky shore around the cove, and the jungle lay beyond the rocks. The water in the cove was indigo unlike the blue-green water surrounding the island. The hilt of the Lux flashed twice.

"What is this?" Vim demanded as he looked at the sword strapped to the Northern High Guard's back. "Does he carry a weapon of magic?"

"There's nothing to fear, Sentinel," Han insisted. "Are you suspicious of everything?"

"I am Morgog," he answered, tightening his jaw. "Have all of you gone mad? Crell! Only evil can come from dealing with such things."

For once, Ardor agreed with a Morgog. No favorable end would come from Pluck's weapon.

Han looked at the approaching rays as he said, "We can move faster in the light. Let's hurry."

Pluck frowned as she considered too many feared magic. What would happen when they discovered she was cursed by it?

"Let us move to the other side of the cove," Edward ordered as he started walking over the large rocks surrounding the area. "The shore this way is closest to the ship."

Quip scurried after the prince. The Trife darted forward, stopped, scanned the area, and sniffed the wind. He did this several times and within a quarter of a nal, they were nearly to the point closest to the Dark Monarch.

Pluck scanned the indigo waters surrounding the ship and saw tiny sparkles shimmering in the light of the sun and dancing in its yellow radiance. She smiled, delighted by the beautiful sight, but her delight turned to bewilderment. Movement in the water splashed away the reflections, and she noticed many shadows swimming beneath the indigo surface. Hundreds of these dark shapes neared the princess' ship.

"There's something in the water!" Pluck warned and hurried ahead.

Quip looked at the cove and exclaimed, "Not good. Ship disturbed Breed." He darted into the jungle as he yelled, "Hide!"

"What are they talking about?" Ardor asked as he squinted but couldn't see anything at their distance.

"Quickly!" Han ordered. "If Pluck says there's something, then there is."

How could Pluck see from this distance? Ardor thought only animals had that ability.

The group rushed for the Dark Monarch and in the distance, they heard men cry out in alarm and shouts of battle replaced the panic as the Sentinels and sailors engaged an enemy. Many Morgog Bowmen lined the sides of the ship, firing at objects in the air and in the sea while those with swords and knives struck at things on deck.

"Who do they fire upon?" Vim questioned as he squinted. "I see nothing."

"I don't know," Han replied as he drew his sword. "But we shall give them a hand."

"They're fighting creatures that fly out of the water," Pluck answered. "Maybe Quip is right. Maybe the Dark Monarch disturbed these creatures' brood."

Hundreds of Breed darted out of the dark blue murk like arrows. Their heavily armored bodies were scaled and colored like beryl, and their long eel forms whipped through the air as they spread their spiked fins. The armor-fish sliced by the sailors and Sentinels. Men cried out, cut by the knife like spikes and after their attacks, the Breed glided over top of the ship, darted down for a second wave, and returned to the water. The Morgog Bowmen fired, striking many of the water fiends, but their arrows couldn't penetrate the creatures' scaled armor. The Breed's relentless attacks continued like an angry swarm of Swamp Wasp.

Princess Virago stayed safely below, listening to her people battle the horrendous creatures. "Why do these fiends attack us?" she questioned Lord Caliber. "I want them to stop. Make them stop!"

"I do not know, my lady," he answered, gripping his wolf-head staff. "Perhaps a wielder of magic raised this unholy army to prevent us from completing the Amalgamation."

"How can we fight such sorcery?" Virago asked as she clinched Lady Flaxen's dress.

"I do not know," Lord Caliber replied as he paced her cabin.

"Can we not leave this cove?" Flaxen asked.

"I heard the Dark Monarch's captain tell Avarice the ship takes on water. The continuous bailing is all that keeps her afloat," Lord Caliber answered as he glanced out the window as a Breed slammed into the wall, sending the advisor scrambling for safety. The translucent aqua armor-fish looked through the window with its large white oval eye. Lord Caliber ran over to the glass and muttered a few words at the creature. It flew off, and he closed the shutters. "Something must be done about these fiends."

"Where is the commander of my Sentinels?" Virago questioned now safely behind Flaxen.

"Avarice is where he should be, my lady," Lord Caliber replied as he crept back to the door, listening to the commotion above. "He is on deck commanding his men. Only he can save us."

Chapter Eleven

The Breed

On the Dark Monarch's deck...

"Bowmen!" Avarice shouted as he raised his two handed Flamberge sword, shouting over the turmoil. His long gray-black hair was tied back in a braid and his sideburns came to a point at his jaw. "Use flaming arrows. Surely the Fires of Morgog shall vanquish these beasts!"

Sentinel Footsoldiers retrieved small barrels of oil from the hold. Monks collected the fuel from the pools feeding the Capital's most sacred place. The Footsoldiers set them beside the Bowmen, opened the containers, and then torches were lit and handed out. The Bowmen dipped their special arrows in the oil, lit them, and fired upon the Breed. The armor-fish squealed in agony when hit by the flames as oil and fire spread over their scaled bodies. A few dove into the cove, and steam hissed as they hit, but many of the Breed burst into ash and the wind scattered their remains.

"Nock arrows," Avarice ordered as his pale blue eyes searched the water. "Fire!"

The second wave caused the Breed to retreat to their liquid home. Over fifty of them had been destroyed. Vim, Han, and the others arrived on the beach opposite the Dark Monarch.

"The beasts have retreated," Vim said as he searched the indigo waters. "At least for now."

"Perhaps it would be better if the Dark Monarch anchored elsewhere," Han stated as he looked at the prince.

"Agreed," Edward said as he scanned the ship, but he didn't see the princess. "I shall speak with Virago."

Aboard the Dark Monarch...

"Is it over?" Lord Caliber questioned as he crept on deck. "Are the creatures gone?"

"Yes, my lord," Avarice replied as he looked over his scratched and tattered men. "For the most part, the beasts were no more than a painful nuisance. We lost no one. The cuts shall heal with time."

"Cuts?" Lord Caliber questioned as he glanced around the ship. "Ah yes, the men... so then we are safe?"

Virago stepped on deck with Lady Flaxen.

"My Princess, you shouldn't be on deck. The fiends could attack again," Avarice spoke as his war hardened face wrinkled with concern. "If something should happen to you, our hope for the Amalgamation–"

"Thank you for your concern, commander, but the ship is filling with water, and I wish to depart. Have your men follow us to shore. The captain and sailors can deal with the Dark Monarch. There are many supplies and my presents that need to be unloaded."

"At once," Avarice said and started preparations.

Sailors lowered several long boats to the water and rowed them to shore and after many trips, Dark Monarch's Sentinels were on the beach along with half the ship's sailors.

"Princess..." Avarice spoke as he bowed with Vim and four Footsoldiers. "All my men aboard the Dark Monarch are accounted for. The captain and a few sailors remain on the ship to salvage what they can before she sinks." He motioned to Vim and then said, "My Second informs me that the Sea Sprite sank. He does not know how many survived save the men he left with the High Guards."

Edward approached with Han, Ardor, and Melee, and the prince told them, "We lost both of our ships to the spouts."

Avarice glared at the High Guards and exclaimed, "Arrogant mongrels! Bow before your Princess when you enter her presence."

Han looked at the prince, and Edward nodded. The three High Guards bowed to her.

"My apologies Princess, my men are not used to having such a beautiful woman in their presence," Han said.

Virago smiled.

"What do we do now?" Lord Caliber asked as he walked to the group, stomping his staff across the sand.

"We should set up camp," Han suggested.

Avarice sneered and hid his dislike for the Fletching Commander as he said, "I concur." He looked around the cove and the jungle, and then he added, "We should find a place that is defendable."

Pluck approached and stated, "Han we found a cave, but it isn't very large."

"A cave," Virago said as she made a face. "I do not think I would want to stay in a dark dank place."

Pluck continued, "We also came across a large clearing with two hills. I recommend this spot."

"It sounds like an ideal place to defend," Avarice commented.

"Then let us set up camp before night is upon us," the prince ordered.

Morgog and Fletching worked together to set up camp. Most of the supplies used were salvaged from the Dark Monarch, but a few crates and items from the others ships were found along the shore. Virago and Lord Caliber's rectangular tents were set up one on each hilltop. The princess made Lord Caliber give his tent to Edward so the lord bunked with Avarice. The large rectangular tents had three sections. The first had a parlor with chairs, couches, and tables, the second housed clothing chests and was used for changing, and the third held the bed. A flap divided each section. Avarice set up his round tent at the bottom of the hill on the east side as Sentinels and Morgog sailors made camp around him. Han, borrowing a Morgog round tent, set his up on the west side as High Guards and Fletching sailors set up around him. Many shared housing to compensate for the supplies lost at sea.

Out of the 200 High Guards and 38 Fletching sailors, 32 High Guards and 11 sailors were missing or found dead. The Morgogs fared better. Out of 200 Sentinels and 40 sailors, 21 Sentinels and 9 sailors were missing or found dead. Most of the horses were found alive, and only three had to be put down for their injuries. The group had little food and most of their water was contaminated by the sea except that on the Dark Monarch. Night came and torches were lit as sentries walked the perimeter of the hills.

A new sun's cycle came as Avarice, Vim, and Lord Caliber made their way to the prince's tent. Outside, Melee and Bulwark stood guard. The three Morgogs entered and found Han, Ardor, and Edward looking over a map.

"The map does us no good," Ardor said. "It does not tell us where we are or how to reach Kismet. We have wasted enough time."

"I agree," Avarice spoke up. "We sailed Coblet's Route to catch up on the other Kingdoms. We have only lost time."

Lord Caliber walked to the table the map laid on and spoke, "That is apparent to all of us, commander, but how do we leave Wellspring? The Dark Monarch is not sea worthy nor do we have the supplies to repair her."

"Perhaps we should find a city or a port and get what supplies we need or even buy a ship," Han suggested as he glanced around. "Has anyone seen the Trife? He could assist us."

"The Trife?" Avarice questioned.

Vim leaned to his commander and told him, "It's a creature that assisted us in finding you. It is a talking beast."

"Is it a Necrom?" Lord Caliber asked.

"No," Vim replied as he shook his head, and the black braid lying over his right shoulder moved. He leveled his hand near his leg as he explained, "It is smaller like a dog but walks upright."

"Pluck and Quip went to the beach to search for survivors," Ardor answered. "They said they would return this morning."

Han's brow wrinkled with thought, and then he said, "Perhaps we should busy our men with finding water and food and then when the Trife returns, we can have him make a map of this area. He may even know of a city."

"Can we trust this creature?" Avarice asked. "Necrom or not, a beast that talks can only mean magic."

Han answered, "Vim told me a word is nothing to Morgogs only actions. The Trife has proven he can help and has done nothing to revoke my trust."

"Your trust, perhaps," Avarice stated. "Fine, but I am leery of any beast that talks."

"As the Necroms proved to our forefathers," Lord Caliber added. "Talking beasts cannot be trusted."

Avarice looked at Vim and the lord, and then he told them, "Come, there is much to do."

Ardor went to the entrance and waited for the Morgogs to enter their camp, and then he said, "Commander..." He turned, walking to Han, and then he spoke, "I've never heard you talk so... so..."

"Without command," Edward said.

Han nodded as he stated, "There is a lesson here, my Second. Our alliance is a delicate one so there shall be many power struggles. It is best to walk lightly."

"You believe Avarice might challenge Edward or you?"

He answered, "The Morgog Commander would never challenge Edward, but me..." Han paused and then said, "Avarice might be thinking ahead. How many commanders can there be? What shall become of our armies? It is best for now not to let him think I'm threatening him."

Chapter Twelve

Dreadgons

Pluck and Quip returned, having found several more men. Soldiers, Fletching and Morgog alike, set about their daily chores. Some stoked the fires while others gathered wood. Large cast iron pots were placed over flames to boil water for Sable Coffee, a very black liquid served straight, and Chip Tea. It was made from a brownish-red bitter root sweetened with Forest Bee's honey. Supplies were divided as Fletching Archers and Morgog Bowmen checked their equipment, made new arrows, and repaired old. Many High Guards and Sentinel Calvary sat, sharpening their swords. Trackers set out, scouting the area and led parties to hunt game. Sailors searched for springs and gathered fruits and nuts while the princess and Lady Flaxen slept through the morning. Before midday, the Fletching circle and Quip met with the Morgog command.

"I say we send a party to this Great City the Trif–"

"Me, Trife," Quip interrupted Vim.

The Morgog Second growled, and the rat-monkey said no more, returning to his drawing.

"As I was saying, we should send a party to this Great City the Trife speaks of," Vim said as he leaned on the table and looked at the map Quip drew of MayPah. He didn't like dealing with the small creature. It reminded him too much of what Necroms supposedly looked like. "Surely they shall have ships we can hire to sail us to Kismet."

"We are too few. We shouldn't send a group," Ardor insisted. "Let us move as a whole and send scouts ahead of us and that should save time."

"There... Me done," Quip stated as he stood on the sketch and examined his creation. "Good map." He pointed with the quill which was nearly half his size and told them, "Shangra beyond Echo Marsh. Take riding animals three sun's cycles, but travel through Land of Mud People. Me travel long way around. Mud People no like visitors."

"What other options are there than going to this city?" Edward questioned as he scanned the map. The gold medallion of a charging Black Elk dangled from his neck.

Lord Caliber scanned the prince's hands, looking for markings, and then he turned to the Morgog Commander and shook his head.

Avarice frowned and turned his attention to Edward's question and stated, "Other options?"

The Morgog Commander and Han glanced at each other and shrugged.

"None that we can come up with, my lord," Han spoke as he studied the Callow Jungle. "Quip, what dangers might we face while trekking this land besides these Mud People you spoke of?"

"Dangers?" he questioned as he scratched his rat nose.

"Yes, are there other creatures like the Breed that we might face? Even though we are running out of time, I would prefer a safe route."

"Many..." the Trife replied as he shuttered. "Me avoid. Me not like conflict."

"Avoidance is best," Han said. "Can you draw us the best course to the Great City Shangra?"

Quip nodded and went to work.

Sinew rushed in as sweat ran down the tracker's bald head, and then he uttered as his pale face shone of terror, "Commander, quickly outside."

Everyone hurried out.

"What is it?" Ardor demanded.

"There!" Sinew shouted as he pointed.

The camp was up in arms, looking down at the jungle where the tracker motioned. In the distance, trees swayed and cracked, toppling to the ground as a tidal wave of leaves and branches headed for the camp. The ground trembled as a great weight stomped across the land, and the wave of trees continued their way.

Han turned to Sinew and uttered, "By Fletching! What manner of creature is approaching us?"

The tracker told him, "I don't know. A man from my hunting party came, screaming to us about monsters. When the ground shook, I told the men to run." He pleaded with his hands as he said, "Please forgive me, I wasn't thinking. I led the creatures here."

"Creatures?" Han spoke as he turned to Avarice. "Let us ready the Archers and Bowmen so they may attack whatever emerges from the jungle if these things are hostile." He faced his men and ordered them, "Melee and Pluck take Edward, go retrieve the princess, and take them to a more protective area." He looked down for the Trife and spoke, "Quip."

"Me know place," he said as he turned to Pluck. "Hurry, me don't like what comes." Quip muttered, "Very big. Very bad."

"I shall join you," Lord Caliber spoke as he followed Edward.

Pluck stared at the unknown menace as part of her wished to stay and face this enemy. Reluctantly, she obeyed Han and followed Edward and Melee, but she paused once more as the ground shook. She was apprehensive and felt like she needed to stay. Something was going to happen that would shape the future. Dread gripped her heart as she feared it wouldn't be for the good. Pluck watched as Archers and Bowmen readied themselves, and she felt their terror and those in the camp. Whatever came, even the trees couldn't stop them. Pluck obeyed Han through her mounting fears and followed the prince.

Han and his men mounted their horses and unsheathed their silver handled rapiers. The Sentinel Cavalry mounted their horses and drew their Flamberges as their Footsoldiers readied their spears. The last tree fell just short of the clearing and shot leaves up in a whirlwind. The undergrowth settled and there was silence. No one dared move as a few restless horses neighed and stomped the dirt.

A deep voice roared from the jungle, "Violators!" The trees shook from the voice's bellow, and the voice like a Mountain Bear shouted, "We are Dreadgons, and we are infuriated. You violated our swamp and stole our food." The ground shook as the Dreadgon yelled, "We demand retribution!"

"Swamp?" Han looked at the Morgog Commander and asked him, "Did any of your men report coming upon a swamp?"

"Yes," Avarice replied as he kept his gaze to the jungle. "Some of my men found several birds nesting in the area and took their eggs." He steadied his anxious horse.

Han said, "We should give them back."

"It is too late." For the first time, Avarice looked at the Fletching Commander like he was something he'd wiped from his boot, and then he said, "My men already boiled and ate them."

Ardor murmured to the commander, "Eggs? They didn't mention this before." He spoke, "They were hoarding them. Now we are about to pay for food we had no taste off."

"Quiet," Han ordered as he stifled his own rage. "Now is not the time." He yelled, "We didn't know the eggs were yours. We are strangers here and had no knowledge anyone claimed the swamp. We wouldn't have taken them if we had known." Han looked over their combined forces and knew they couldn't afford a battle, so he asked, "What can we give you to compensate for what we took?"

Quip returned, climbed a nearby tree for a better view, tilted his head, and listened to the Dreadgons discuss the matter. Only his sensitive rat ears could hear the conversation.

"Gar, these violators stole what would have fed us this sun's cycle and the next two. What do they possess that could compensate?"

"I don't know, Tusk. They possess work animals, but we don't eat flesh, and they are too small for us to ride." Gar reasoned, "If they stole the eggs, they probably don't have enough food to replace what they ate." The Dreadgon paused, and then he spoke, "They did say they are strangers here, and I don't recognize their kind. I see one option that will settle this–"

"I agree," Tusk interrupted before Gar finished.

The other Dreadgons murmured their agreement.

Gar cleared his throat and shouted, "You are wise, outlander, but you possess nothing we want. Only blood will satisfy our dispute."

Han glared at the Morgog Commander as he yelled, "They are going to kill us for the eggs your men stole!"

Avarice snarled and nudged his steed forward, and then he spoke, "We shall see about that."

Vim and the Morgog Cavalry followed.

Quip climbed down the tree and jumped on Han's horse. He tugged on the High Guard's red cape and then told him, "Dreadgons no fight. Ask Blood Pledge, promise you'll remain off land. Customary among jungle dwellers."

"An oath?" Han repeated, and then his shouted, "Commander wait!" He kicked his horse and rode toward the other commander as he yelled, "Hold your men."

"Fass! You Fletching are mongrels!" Avarice yelled as he whirled his steed around to face the Fletching Commander. "How can you cower at a time like this?" he asked as he made a fist. "One sun's cycle you Fletching shall taste..." He stopped himself from finishing his sentence.

"Commander," Vim spoke up. "Perhaps we should hear what–"

"Nonsense," Avarice scolded his Second. "These things call for blood." He reined his horse to face the jungle as he shouted, "Blood they shall have!" Avarice pointed his sword at the jungle and yelled, "BOWMEN! FIRE!"

"No!" Han shouted. "They don't want a fight!"

The Morgog Bowmen released their steel pointed fury into the vegetation. The Dreadgons roared, and five of them rushed out, removing arrows like they were nothing more than thorns. The large beasts, who were the size of huts, swung huge spiked clubs above their heads and charged up the slope. They were stout and wide as they were tall. Thick gray skin covered them, and dense black hair blanketed their huge forearms, bare feet, and hunched backs. Their large ridged heads were a third of their size, and they had no necks. Three sallow eyes set in a triangle and glared at the men as two yellow tusks curved out from their large square lips. Their noses were pig-like, and brown pants, that were held up by a wide buckled belt, covered their stout legs.

The Bowmen scattered as the lead Dreadgon slammed his spiked club on the ground, and dirt burst into the air. The Dreadgon leveled his weapon and pointed it across the camp as he declared, "Small foolish ones, now blood won't settle this dispute only your deaths." He lifted his spiked weapon and stated, "I, Gar, proclaim this."

He swung his club and clipped three Bowmen in his path, and the men screamed as they were hurled across the camp. Another Dreadgon grabbed two Fletchings by their capes, whipped them in the air, and slammed them on the ground. The gray beast did this several times and left the men to choke on their own blood. Avarice quickly called his Cavalry to retreat as a Dreadgon swung his club and missed a few Archers but smashed a supply tent. His attack took out several crates and barrels spilling their contents to the dirt.

"I, Tusk, will smash you," a Dreadgon shouted whose tusks were much larger than the others. He stomped after the Morgog Cavalry, grunting angrily.

Han shouted to his men, "Distract the beasts so our Archers may flee." He scanned the camp and spotted Gar as he added, "But do not attack." Han shouted to his Archers, "Cease fire!" He headed his horse for the leader as he yelled, "Gar!" Han galloped to the Dreadgon and told him, "I am their leader. This matter should be between you and me."

A few of the Fletching Archers, who hadn't heard the orders, fired on the Dreadgons. Most of their arrows bounced off their armor-like hides, and the few that penetrated barely nicked them. The mounted High Guards ran their horses around the great beasts, allowing their Archers to flee.

Gar grabbed a Fletching sailor and raised his club to smash the head of the helpless man. He caught the sailor's scent and paused, sniffing over him with his slimy hog nose. He glanced around the camp and sniffed the wind as a righteous anger overcame him. Gar dropped the sailor, and the terrified man scurried away.

Han neared Gar when another Dreadgon stomped in front of the commander and spooked his horse. His steed reared as Han tried to steady it, but the horse lost its balance. The steed fell back on top of Han.

"Stop!" Gar ordered, and the Dreadgons did.

"Why stop?" Tusk asked.

"We blamed all these creatures because they look alike. Bigotry..." Gar spoke as he tucked his club into his wide belt, and then he said, "It is now clear to me there are two different groups." He hurried to the fallen commander as he spoke, "This one claims responsibility and yet he doesn't have the scent of our eggs on him only the ones in black do and yet they are the ones fleeing." He grabbed the horse with both his large hands, lifted it off the commander, gently put it down, and the steed walked away only winded. "This matter demands justice but not at the cost of the innocent."

"Then it's a matter of fairness," Tusk spoke, and then he nodded his approval and snorted for the others to join them.

They watched Gar try to help the commander who had fallen.

Blood ran from Han's mouth as Ardor dismounted and rushed to his side. "Stay back," he warned the Dreadgon. "Commander..." Ardor dared not move him for blood stained his side. "Your ribs..."

"I know. There's nothing you can do," Han told him as he gritted his teeth for the pain. "We must settle this." He reached out his arm and told Ardor, "Help me sit up."

"I think it best if you–"

He interrupted Ardor, "I think it best you do as I command." Han squeezed his Second's hand as he sat up. "Gar..." He coughed up blood, and then he spoke, "We must satisfy this."

"I now understand your people were not at fault here," Gar said as he glanced around the battered camp and noticed Avarice. "Are both of you the true leaders?"

Han winced, and then he replied, "No, but we are the protectors." He struggled to breathe.

"Send for your leaders," Gar demanded.

Han looked at Parry and ordered him, "Have Quip show you where the prince and the princess are. Tell Edward they have been summoned."

The Blond Ox choked back tears, seeing his commander near death and said, "At once."

He and Quip shortly returned with the prince and the princess.

Edward stepped forward and declared, "I am Prince Edward."

Those with Gar were awed by the princess and Lady Flaxen.

"Look, fair ones," one of the Dreadgons uttered as he pointed his club. "They would satisfy us."

"Them?" Gar repeated as he looked the females over, and then he questioned the other Dreadgon, "What do you want them for? They are too small to be our mates."

"They could cook and clean for us," another Dreadgon answered. "That would make up for the eggs we lost, and they are pretty."

"No," Edward declared, putting himself between the women and the gray beasts. "You shall not have them."

"Yes, they would satisfy the debt," Tusk agreed.

Gar looked at Han and then to Edward and told them, "The Dreadgons have spoken. They are what we want, but we can be fair since they're your only females." He glanced at Pluck and added, "At least, ones like yourself." He looked over Virago and Flaxen and said, "We'll take her." He pointed to the princess as he spoke, "And we'll put it to a match. One of you verse me. If I, Gar, win, we take her. You win we leave in peace."

"What?" Virago screamed. "NO... No! No! You cannot do that." She looked at Lord Caliber and Avarice for protection.

"That is an outrage," Lord Caliber declared.

Gar glared at the tall man with the long inky-black goatee and told him, "That or we take her now." He looked at the sky and said, "I, Gar, give you one nal to find your champion and tend to your wounded and then the match will begin."

He motioned to the Dreadgons, they headed into the jungle, and the ground shook as they left.

"Quickly," Ardor shouted to Sinew and Fracas. "Help me with the commander."

Chapter Thirteen

The Beast Revealed

Sinew, Fracas, and Parry helped carry Han to his tent and laid him on his cot. Edward, Melee, and Pluck followed behind. Many High Guards gathered to see their fallen commander. Virago stomped in with Flaxen in pursuit.

"Now may not be the best time, my lady," Flaxen warned.

Virago ignored her and questioned, "How can you allow them to take me?" She grabbed the prince's arm and told him, "You cannot permit this."

Edward looked into her blue eyes, seeing her fear. At first, she had been an object, a possession for him to obtain to gain the Emperor's crown but now that she was his, Edward felt a sense of responsibility and a sense that he must protect her. Could this be love?

"I shall not let them," Edward told her as he squeezed her hand. "I would die first."

Virago saw compassion in the prince's face and this surprised her so she quieted her tantrum. "I believe you," she said as she smiled and remembered what awaited her. "But how can we stop the Dreadgons? They are so strong."

"Please..." Ardor snapped as he couldn't handle her whining while Han lay near death. He motioned for the High Guards to leave as he said, "There are too many in here." All but Melee and Pluck left as Ardor looked at the princess but said nothing.

"Maybe it best if we also..." Virago started as she glanced at the Fletching Commander. "He needs to be near those he loves."

She and Flaxen left.

Pluck couldn't hold back, knelt by the commander's side, and started, "Han..."

He looked into her face shadowed by the hood. A candle on a stand near his head gave enough light that he saw a tear stream down her furry face. Han told her, "Quiet child, I shall be fine."

She looked over his battered body and spoke, "I'm afraid–"

Ardor never heard the commander speak with such affection. What was the Northern High Guard doing? This wasn't how a soldier acted.

Han interrupted Pluck and told her, "There is nothing to fear, child." He touched her wet cheek with the back of his hand, feeling her soft face. Before his eyes, she had grown into this amazing woman. She was like his daughter, and he feared for her. Han rested his arms at his sides, looked up at the tent, and closed his eyes, knowing his end was near. He couldn't leave things as they were, so he told her, "I believe it is time."

Avarice, Vim, and Lord Caliber entered, disrupting Han's explanation.

Lord Caliber walked with his staff across the dirt floor as he questioned, "Who among us can face these monsters and triumph?" He stopped in the middle of the tent as the Morgog Commander and Vim joined him. "We must save the princess. All shall be lost if she is taken."

Ardor turned to them and his face was red with rage as he asked, "What about you Avarice? It was your men who stole the eggs, and it is your princess who is in peril."

Vim tensed, stepping forward to verbally come to his commander's defense, but Avarice stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. The Morgog Commander laughed at the Fletching's notion. Avarice's cowardice shocked Vim. Vim knew the Fletching spoke the truth. A Morgog should be the champion.

Outraged by his laughter, Ardor leapt for the Morgog Commander, but Melee held him back. Ardor yelled, "Fass! Let go of me!" He calmed down and ordered, "I am fine. Release me." Ardor straightened his red cape and his rapier's frog, and then he proclaimed, "I shall face Gar."

"No," Han said as he moved and cringed, forcing himself to speak, "Pluck shall be our champion."

"Commander?" Ardor spat, stunned by Han's decision. "But I–"

"Why me?" Pluck asked also surprised.

"It is time, time you showed the others," Han told her as he squeezed her glove. "You are the only one among us with the strength, speed, and–" He motioned to the Lux strapped on her back and added, "–weapon to defeat the Dreadgons."

"We all saw what the brutes are capable of," Melee told her as he stepped forward. "If Pluck is to face the Dreadgons, he must rid himself of all loose clothing."

Her eyes widened at the thought.

Han squeezed her glove again and told her, "It is time. No more hiding."

Hiding? Ardor stared at Pluck. He had been right, but what did the Northern High Guard hide?

Avarice laughed, and then he said, "If he's our champion, we best prepare to flee with the princess when your High Guard is defeated."

Melee glared at the Morgog Commander and told him, "If Han says Pluck can defeat Gar, then he can." He snarled as he questioned, "Now who is the coward? Ready to flee?"

Avarice didn't respond only scowled.

Why didn't the commander take up the sword against the Dreadgon? Vim was willing... but he knew that so there had to be something the commander wasn't telling him.

Han looked at the Morgog Commander and told him, "Avarice, if you and Lord Caliber could give us some privacy, we need to prepare for the match."

Avarice nodded and added with a smirk, "I need to prepare for our escape."

He, Vim, and Lord Caliber walked out.

Lord Caliber leaned to the Morgog Commander and whispered, "A pity their most experienced soldier has fallen. I do not think he shall survive the night."

"Yes," Avarice replied as he added, "A pity." He waited until they were outside, excused Vim to see to their men and once his Second was out of ear shot, he asked, "What of our plans? If Edward isn't the one, then who? And what of the Dreadgons?"

"The Dreadgons may be a surprise, but they shall fit in very nicely."

"What do you mean?" Avarice asked.

"I believe these large beasts shall uncover the one we seek," Lord Caliber stated. "The one I have been telling you about since we left the Morgog Kingdom."

"I remember... someone with the scent of magic."

"Yes, and just you wait..." Lord Caliber stroked his thin goatee as he said, "It shall soon be revealed."

Inside the tent...

"Pluck," Edward started and she turned, rising to face him.

The prince witnessed her skills when they fought Matt and his thugs. She was savage yet talented. He doubted anyone else could stand up to the Dreadgons. He had to make her understand that without Virago there would be no Amalgamation. He examined his heart and believed he had grown to... Edward stumbled over his thoughts since love wasn't a verb used in his family. He liked the princess, and she must be saved. He put his hands on Pluck's shoulders.

She tensed as he touched her. Very few people had touched her since her birth, though Pluck yearned for affection. She relaxed under his firm grip.

He caught a glimpse of her emerald feline eyes, and then he spoke to her, "I know you are afraid, but I need you to fight."

"I understand, but do you know what you are asking?" Pluck inquired as she pulled her hood closer to her face.

"Yes, I understand. I–"

"No," she interrupted. "I don't think you do. If I am to fight, I must remove my cloak." She whispered, "Everyone will know what I am. You know their reactions. Are you prepared to stand up for me?"

Edward thought about it. She was right. The Fletching people would be outraged and the Morgog's... He straightened and told her, "I am prepared to stand up for you if you save my wife."

Wife... The word cut at her heart. How could Pluck fight to save the princess when she feared Virago would receive the Kiss? Pluck inhaled and exhaled slowly, and then she said, "I'll do this if you will honor what you promised me in the Mystic Rose's building. Do you remember your pledge?"

Edward's brow wrinkled with wonder.

"The Kiss," Pluck told him as she scrutinized his face, looking for the slightest hint of deception. She would fall apart if he lied to her. She told him, "That day you promised me the Kiss."

Han couldn't believe it. She'd never told him what it was that would end her curse and all along it was the Kiss. Would Edward give it to her? Had he already given it away? It wasn't a light request. No wonder Pluck never told him.

"The Kiss?" Edward uttered as his mouth gaped. "The Kiss!" He couldn't see her face within the shadow of her hood, but he remembered the horror of it. Edward shuddered at the thought of touching his lips to hers as he said, "But I–"

Was the Northern High Guard mad? Ardor couldn't understand what was going on. Pluck couldn't...

"Would you deny me this?" she questioned as the prince's disgust and refusal outraged her. "It's the only thing that will end my curse." She shouted, "For all I have done for you..." Pluck calmed herself, and then she told Edward, "This is all I ask. Is it too high a price to save your wife or is it something you have already given away?"

Outside...

"My Lady," Flaxen whispered as she and Virago stood behind Han's tent, listening to the conversation within. "We should leave before we are caught."

"Nonsense. I am the princess. Even if we are caught, what are they going to do?" Virago questioned as they hid among stacked crates, and then she ordered in a whisper, "Quiet, Edward is talking. He is urging one of his men to fight for me." Virago said with disappointment, "Now I cannot hear them."

Flaxen leaned in to hear better and told her, "The Northern High Guard is requesting a reward for his bravery."

"What reward?" Virago asked.

Flaxen strained to hear, and then she replied, "A kriss."

"A kriss," the princess repeated, and then she questioned as the unusual word rolled off her lips again, "What is a kriss?"

"No, that is not it. The prince is repeating it," Flaxen said, and then she covered her mouth and spoke, "Surely not."

"What is it?" Virago asked as she squeezed Flaxen's hand. "What is it?"

She turned to the princess and told her, "I believe the High Guard has requested a kiss."

"A kiss?" Puzzled that a man would request such a thing from another man, Virago made a face and then questioned, "Edward has denied him, yes?"

Flaxen leaned closer to the tent and then replied, "Not yet. They are still discussing this."

Inside the tent...

"No," Edward told Pluck as he straightened. "I would do anything to save my wife, so I shall bestow upon you the Kiss and to answer your other question, no, I have never given it away."

She was relieved there was still a chance, but Pluck feared he would betray her, so she told him, "Swear it as Prince of Fletching and soon to be Emperor of the Five Kingdoms."

Edward paused, and then he said, "I swear. Now please, be our champion."

Pluck couldn't bring herself to trust him, so she asked him, "Will you protect me when the others find out what I am?"

"Yes, yes," he insisted. "Now please be our champion?"

Outside...

"I am afraid, my lady, that the prince has sworn to give the Northern High Guard the Kiss if he wins," Flaxen stated, and then she bit her lip, knowing the princess wouldn't respond kindly.

"That is not right," Virago exclaimed in a quiet tone. "I thought I had married..." She rubbed her temples as she said, "Wait until my father hears about this."

"Come, my lady," Flaxen told her as she peeked over the crates. "Several High Guards are moving this way."

Virago sighed and then stated, "My kingdom for a straight man."

Inside the tent...

Pluck hesitated trusting Edward. Han squeezed her hand, and she looked down at him.

Han strained to talk as he asked her, "Who raised you and trained you like you were my son?"

"You did Han," Pluck answered as she knelt beside him.

Jealousy rose in Ardor. He was Han's Second, so he should be the one at his side.

Han continued, "Then do this for me." He looked into her face and said, "Swear to me you shall be our champion." He squeezed her arm as Pluck wavered out of fear, and he told her, "Swear it child."

"I swear it, Han. I swear," she said as tears streamed down her face. Pluck was unable to bear seeing him in pain and without a healer, there was nothing anyone could do, not even to ease his suffering. She pleaded, "Don't leave me."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot promise," Han told her and then heaved a great sigh. "Already my body is growing cold."

"No!" Pluck screamed as she couldn't hold back her emotions, and then she cried, "No, don't die. Don't leave me alone." She gently laid her head on his shoulder as she told him, "You are all I have left."

"Stand up, soldier!" Ardor commanded as he couldn't watch this ridiculous scene play out any longer. "This is no way for you to act."

Ardor forcefully grabbed Pluck, and she turned as her eyes flashed green with anger in the darkness of her hood. Filled with rage, Pluck hissed at him like a cat.

Frightened by what he saw and heard, Ardor stepped back as he uttered, "Crell! What are you?"

"Pluck... Ardor..." Han yelled as he chastised them, then he shivered and continued, "This is no way for either of you to behave. Now Pluck, it is time. Let me once more see you as you are." He smiled as he told her, "For soon, you shall be whole again."

She stood and glanced at Ardor and Melee, and then she requested, "Please, send the others away."

"No, they shall soon know," Han told her and smiled again to reassure her. "Let them see."

Pluck shrunk, nervous and apprehensive of how they would react. No one besides Han, Fairah, and Edward had seen her beastly form.

"Go on, child. You are among friends," Han said to coax her.

For Han, she did, and Pluck lowered her hood, unclasped her cloak, and threw it on a nearby chair. She turned to Ardor and Melee and waited for their reactions.

Ardor stumbled back and shouted, "By Fletching!" His face tightened in terror, and he instinctively went for his rapier.

"Stow that sword!" Han commanded.

Ardor reluctantly sheathed his blade, realizing this was Pluck's horrible secret. The Northern High Guard... his rival... was a beast and a frightful one at that with emerald eyes that pierced his soul, long white canines, a flowing fiery-crimson mane like a Fire Lion, and beige fur. Fur... He hated what he saw. This was no man, but a beast and an abomination that must be destroyed.

Chapter Fourteen

The Match

Pluck dared not breathe as Ardor drew his sword on her, and he started to attack her until Han stopped him. The tent closed in on her, trapping Pluck and she wanted to flee, but where could she go?

Melee tilted his head. His reaction to Pluck was calmer than Han's Second as he exclaimed, "He's a woman."

"What do you mean woman?" Ardor yelled. "Don't you see he's... it's a beast!" He paced the tent, gesturing angrily with his hands as he questioned, "How could you have kept this from me... your men? This..." He pointed at Pluck and said, "This abomination should never have been allowed to walk among us and yet it wears the High Guard insignia." He punched one of the large wooden poles holding up the tent, and his knuckles reddened from the impact as he cursed, "Fass! For all we know, Pluck's a Necrom."

She bowed her head ashamed. Ardor reacted as she imagined. He hated her with a passion.

"He's a woman," Melee repeated still stunned.

"That's enough!" Han shouted as his face paled. He grew weaker, but he mustered the strength to glare at his Second and told him, "You know nothing."

"He is right," Edward added in a gentler tone. "When we were children, I angered a witch. She would have vexed me if Pluck had not pushed me out of the way and taken the curse. Could you imagine me ruling as the thing you see?"

Edward's words shocked Pluck. He also saw her as a monster. Edward must think her a horrible and ghastly thing to behold. No wonder he reacted as he did when she asked for the Kiss.

The prince continued, "You must understand, she saved the Fletching Kingdom, and I owe her a great debt."

"And so do I," Han added. "We, the High Guards, were not there to protect the prince, but Pluck a nine seasons old child was." He shivered as he held his side and glanced at the dark blood on his palm, and then he commanded, "I don't want you to disrespect her again. Am I clear?"

Ardor's rage faded. Perhaps he was wrong... He remembered the stories his grandfather told him of the time before the Five Kingdoms and how the Necroms nearly destroyed man. Ardor searched Pluck's face and its beastly guise, and he saw only what he had been taught to despise. It was a Necrom. How could he forget? Ardor exploded with loathing as he yelled, "I'm not wrong! It's an abomination. Nothing you say or it does shall ever change my mind!" Desperate for Han to see what he already knew, Ardor knelt beside Han and told him, "You are my commander, and I would die for you, but you have done us all a great dishonor. It's a mistake to have it here." He stood and warned him, "Wait until the Morgogs find out, and then you shall know hatred." Ardor turned from Han and said, "I am ashamed. I am greatly ashamed you took this Beast and taught it the High Guard way. I cannot be in here any longer."

He stormed out, fearing he would spill blood if he stayed.

Pluck turned to Edward, fighting back tears as she asked him, "Are you sure you can protect me? Your own men are against me."

"Not all of us," Melee spoke up as he stepped forward. "It does not matter who or what you are. You are a High Guard, one trained by Han, and that makes you my brother... er... sister." He grabbed his hilt and swore to her, "You shall have my steel if you need it."

She told him, "Thank you, the others won't be as kind."

The ground shook, and Melee went to the tent entrance and told them, "The Dreadgons are back."

Pluck turned to the prince and said to him, "I'll be out soon. Could you give me a moment with Han?"

Edward nodded and exited with Melee.

She knelt at the commander's side and started, "There's so much I want to tell you and yet I don't know where to begin." She wiped her runny panther nose and then continued, "You've been more than a mentor to me. You've been my father. I don't want to fail you, and I don't want to lose you. You're all I have."

"Pluck, you must be strong. My life is near its end. Watch over Edward. Much danger lies ahead of him and please forgive Ardor. He feels betrayed but once he sees who you really are, he shall come around." He gripped her arm as he warned her, "Watch out for the Morgogs. They can be treacherous."

Two High Guards walked in and waited by the entrance. They were shocked to see a Beast within, but they said nothing, seeing that Han spoke with it.

"It is time," Han said. "Save our princess."

Pluck kissed him on the cheek, stood, grabbed her cloak from the chair, unclasped her High Guard pin from it, and attached the charging Black Elk to her shirt. Pluck smoothed her hand over it as she said out loud to give herself courage, "If nothing else, I am a High Guard."

She headed out, and the two soldiers gasped again but didn't say a word as she passed them. Her heart pounded as if it would burst through her chest. They knew a beast walked among them, and she could never take that back.

* * *

Edward walked from the tent to where the High Guards gathered. Parry, Sinew, Fracas, Bulwark, and Von were among them. Ardor stood off by himself. His face was red with anger and shame. Quip climbed a grouping of rocks to get a better view as Gar, Tusk, and the Dreadgons waited at the edge of the camp. Edward approached them with Melee.

"Do you have a champion?" Gar asked.

"Yes," Edward answered.

The whole ordeal troubled Edward since so much depended on Pluck. Could she save his wife? Could he manage to give her the Kiss once she won? She was a horrible sight to behold and he didn't know if... He couldn't worry about that now... first, Pluck had to win. What would they do if she didn't? Avarice said he would make plans for their escape if Pluck failed, but Edward saw no such plans as he glanced around the camp. For Virago's sake, he hoped the plans were well hidden.

"I, Gar, have selected a spot for our duel," he stated and then motioned for the prince to follow, and Edward did as the Dreadgon walked to a grassy area not far from the camp. "This is where the match will take place."

Virago and Flaxen watched from a distance. They and their escort walked to Han's tent as the group moved off to the grass. The princess had to watch the fight that would determine her future.

"Has it begun?" Virago asked as dread filled her heart.

"I do not believe so," Flaxen answered. "I do not see the High Guard champion."

Pluck walked out, glanced at them, bowed, and spoke a greeting, "Princess Virago... Lady Flaxen..."

She continued past them and stopped, watching those gathered in the circle. She grabbed her freed tail and stroked it apprehensively as she feared what would happen next. Pluck felt the stares of the princess and her escort, knew the stress would only get worse, and dreaded making her appearance more than she feared facing the Dreadgon. She took a deep breath and headed for Gar.

Her quick appearance out of the tent startled Virago and Flaxen. The princess' guards drew their swords and surrounded the princess.

"Fires of Morgog!" one of the Sentinels shouted.

"Did you see that?" Virago uttered as she grabbed Flaxen's arm. "A beast! And it spoke my name. What is it after?"

Flaxen watched the creature with the mane of fiery-crimson as it walked through those gathered to face the Dreadgons, and then she exclaimed, "Oh, my..."

"What is it?" Virago demanded.

"I believe that creature... that hairy beast is our champion. See it wears the High Guard uniform," Flaxen told her as she noticed it had breasts. "And I do believe it is a female." Flaxen paused and then said, "If this is true, it is the one who requested the Kiss."

"How dare it?" Virago declared as she made a disgusted face. "I believe I prefer Edward kissed a man. I believe I prefer he kissed a hundred men."

In the grassy area...

Gar glanced around those gathered and demanded, "Where is your warrior?"

"I'm here," Pluck proclaimed.

Morgogs and High Guards parted as they realized what was among them. The soldiers and sailors murmured, surprised and confused.

"Phraggs! What is it?" a Fletching sailor asked.

"Crell! It's a Necrom," a Morgog Footsoldier proclaimed. "We must destroy it!"

"That thing has Pluck's sword," Parry said as he pointed out the weapon. "But where is he? Has it devoured him?"

"I am here, Parry," she answered. "I have always been here." Pluck continued to the Dreadgons, and then she questioned Gar, "What are the rules of this match?"

"Simple, the first one to yield loses."

"What do you mean? It is not to the death?" Avarice spoke, and then he commented to his men, "It should be and then at least one filthy beast would die."

The soldiers murmured their agreement. Avarice looked at Lord Caliber and then back to Pluck and the Dreadgon.

The Morgog Commander whispered, "It seems you were right about the Dreadgons. They have revealed the magic one."

Lord Caliber replied, "I knew I smelled sorcery. It is the enchantment of the Mystic Rose. Perhaps Pluck is the one the Mystic Rose bonded with and if so, we are one step closer to achieving our goals." He looked worried as he glanced at the Dreadgons, and then Lord Caliber said, "That is if she wins this match. We cannot allow the Dreadgons to take the princess. Are your men in position if the Beast Woman should fail?"

"Yes, everything is ready."

Edward stepped toward the Dreadgons and asked them, "How do we know you shall keep your word and leave peacefully if we win?"

"I, Gar, have given my word," he replied as he turned to his comrades. "If I should go against it, they will harshly deal with me." Gar faced Pluck and told her, "I have never faced a female of your kind in battle. This should make an interesting match." He smacked his spiked club on his palm and asked, "Are you ready?"

Of her kind? Pluck looked over his monstrous gray form. His three sallow eyes peered at her, expressing his determination as drool frothed around his square lips and yellow tusks. He was a presence to fear.

"Yes," Pluck answered and then unstrapped her scabbard. She unsheathed the Lux and thunder rumbled from the blade, warning those who would oppose it. She drew strength from its power, threw the scabbard aside, and then said, "Begin."

Tusk and the other Dreadgons backed away as Gar twirled his club, loosening up. His hog nose twitched with his zest to fight as his wide bare chest bulged with muscles. He struck suddenly and with great force, slamming his spiked weapon upon her. Pluck lifted her sword and blocked his attack as his weight and strength bore down on her. Her arms shook under his pressure. Gar lifted his weapon and swung to bat her away, but Pluck ducked and rolled to the Dreadgon's feet. She struck at his unprotected ankles. He quickly lifted his leg, evading her attack, and then Gar smacked her with his free hand, sending her across the grass. She landed hard and slid. Pluck coughed on sand and dust, sat up, wiped her bloody lip, and stood.

Gar laughed as he spoke, "Thought we were slow because of our size. You should never underestimate your opponent."

He charged and slammed into her like a Desert Bull, and the force hurled her into the crowd of men, knocking several of them to the ground. Pluck rose to one knee, dazed, and looked around at those gathered. Many of them glared at her like they wished they were the ones trying to kill her. She dragged herself to her feet.

"Do you yield?" Gar asked. "Surely you know you're out matched. Give up now before you're hurt any further." He pointed his club at the men and told her, "I see how they stare at you. Why do you fight for their kind?"

"Do not give up!" Edward pleaded.

Pluck glanced at Princess Virago who had moved to the circle. The princess and Flaxen cringed from her. What was she fighting for? Pluck had to remember or she would give up right there. She fought to end her curse and keep a promise to Han. She glanced around the circle and knew they would kill her if she lost, and Edward wouldn't be able to stop them. If she focused on that motive, then Pluck would be driven by fear. She focused on Han and the love she had for him and with new resolve, Pluck stuck her sword in the ground, removed her gloves, and kicked off her boots. She no longer needed them, and she may need her claws.

Pluck drew the Lux from the sand and declared to the Dreadgon, "I will not yield!"

She rushed upon him, leapt into the air, and came down on him with her sword. Gar lifted his club to block as the Lux flashed like lightning and then sliced through the wood. The spike covered end of the weapon fell to the sand, and the Dreadgon stared at his club astonished. Pluck landed and slapped a palm down to absorb the force, and then she stood as her tail twitched with her eagerness to attack again. Gar threw what remained of his club at her. She quickly dodged it, rolled to her feet, and rushed upon him as he barreled his hand down on her. She evaded and sliced her sword across his ankle. Gar howled, then brought his other hand down, and smashed her, and the force nearly knocked her out. She laid there motionless on the sand as Gar stumbled back from his injury. Tusk stepped up and supported his comrade.

"Do you yield?" he asked through gritted teeth as green blood trickled down his ankle.

She didn't reply.

"Do you yield?" he asked again as he hobbled on one foot.

Pluck moved her left hand from underneath her belly, swiped it across the sand, and felt how warm the granules were under the sun. She sucked in needed air which made her side hurt and with intense pain, Pluck pushed off the ground, used her sword as a crutch, and rose to one knee. Red blood ran from her eyes and mouth. Her vision blurred as she scanned the crowd. Most of their faces hadn't changed except for Virago and Lady Flaxen. They realized if she lost the duel then the princess would be taken.

"Do not give up," Flaxen pleaded for her Princess.

Pluck turned to Edward and saw his eyes were filled with concern, but it wasn't for her. It hurt Pluck to see that his regard was only for his wife, and it hurt her worse than the pain stabbing at her body. She was ready to give up and yield when she heard a voice.

"Pluck..."

She turned and saw two High Guards carry Han out on his cot. Her self-pity melted away as she saw the man she considered her father come out to her. The two High Guards gently set him down as Han urged her, "Pluck... Fight... You cannot give up."

Her self-pity turned to love intermixed with bitter sorrow. Tears streamed down her face as she cried for her pain and the pain that Han endured to come out to her. She knew he loved her and that love gave her strength to stand. Pluck rose unsteadily to her feet as she yelled, "I will not yield! Never!"

"Can you go on?" Tusk asked Gar as he looked at his injured foot.

"Yes, just remind me what I'm fighting for."

"Look," Tusk told him as he motioned to the princess. "You're fighting for that fair one. She'll be our cook and clean for us. No more eating raw or boiled eggs for surely she knows many recipes."

Gar licked his lips as he said, "Let me see if I can stand on my own. I can." Tusk handed him a new club, but he refused it as Gar reminded him, "No, only what we bring to the match." He hobbled toward the Beast Woman as he mopped sweat from his massive hairy forearms and hunched back with his hand. He flexed his muscles and made fists as he warned her, "These are like hammers. I may not have a club, but I can still kill you."

Pluck didn't reply as she wiped the blood from her mouth. She stared at the Dreadgon with her emerald feline eyes and bolted for him. Gar didn't expect such speed. He swung his fist and the other and missed her as Pluck climbed up his leg and around on his back. She grabbed his ear and placed her sword under his chin. The blade cut into his thick gray skin and green blood trickled down.

"Do you yield?" she asked, affirming her hold on him.

"Crell!" Gar shouted, and then he answered, "Yes. You have won. We'll leave."

She released him and slid to the ground and nearly collapsed to her feet. She took a few moments to rest, and Pluck felt a little stronger and wasn't as wobbly on her legs.

Gar hobbled off with Tusk's assistance and the other Dreadgons followed.

Tusk told Gar, "This means we'll have no cook."

"Yes, I know," Gar answered.

"This means we'll only have boiled eggs."

"Actually," Gar corrected him. "We'll have nothing. You've forgotten these creatures ate our eggs."

Virago rushed over to Edward and questioned him, "Is it over?"

He embraced her as he told her, "Yes, my love. You are safe."

Once the Dreadgons vanished into the jungle, Avarice looked at Lord Caliber and then stormed into the circle as if on cue and began his performance. He inquired, "What is the meaning of this? Has a Beast walked among us this whole time?"

"It is a Necrom," Lord Caliber declared as he accusingly pointed his staff at her. "We all know the story of the Second Age of Magic and how the Necroms nearly destroyed Man. Our forefathers told us if the Necroms ever found our new home they must be destroyed or they would destroy us."

Many from both sides murmured, agreeing with Avarice and Lord Caliber.

Pluck said nothing in her defense as she looked at Edward and saw his face hardened with contemplation. She feared he would leave her to the wolves of mistrust and hatred, and Pluck feared he would betray her. A voice rose above the others when it seemed no one would come to her aid.

"Would you murder our hero?" Han asked. "Would you slay the one who just saved our princess from untold horrors?"

The men grew silent as they all considered the Fletching Commander's words.

"Pluck is not a Necrom. She is like us only cursed," Han informed them, and then he coughed up more blood in his hand. He wouldn't let that stop him, and he ordered, "All of you back to your work. There is still much to do."

The Fletching people moved off as Avarice nodded and the Morgogs departed. Edward and Virago left the circle, making their way to his tent. Flaxen followed them and Melee paused from following his prince as Pluck walked to the Fletching Commander.

Han praised her as he said, "Well done. Come, let someone tend to your wounds."

No one volunteered so Melee stepped forward and said, "I will tend to Pluck if someone will man my station."

Han nodded and ordered a High Guard to take Melee's place.

Lord Caliber and Avarice moved toward their tent, and Lord Caliber drew close and whispered, "I saw her fingers. Pluck bears the marks of the Mystic Rose."

Avarice stated, "Then that part of our mission is completed." He stopped, studied the crowd, and headed into his tent along with Lord Caliber as he added, "Soon we shall begin the next phase and after Han is dead, I see no one who shall hinder us."

Back near the grassy area, Quip climbed down from the rocks as he muttered to himself, "Me not like people's stares and since Pluck not wear cloak, people hate." He scampered over into an empty hole he'd made his nest and grabbed his sack. "Me think time me left. Bad mood here." He scurried into the jungle as he muttered, "No good come."

Chapter Fifteen

The Kiss

Han called many into his tent for his final hour. Pluck stayed to the back as Melee cleaned and applied ointment to her cuts and scrapes. The Lux, which had proven itself as an invaluable weapon, leaned on a crate beside her. The High Guards stayed clear of her and only Ardor and Fracas glanced at her. Ardor with a hate-filled stare, and Fracas with a bewildered look. The Second turned from her, disgusted and knelt by his commander.

Han tried to clear his dry throat, and then one of his men gave him water. Han drank and then began, "I have asked all of you here to bear witness." All color had gone from his face, and his voice was weak as he continued, "My time's short so I must appoint another to take my place." He struggled to breathe but pressed on. "One worthy of your leadership." He searched the faces of those standing around him and then ordered, "Pluck, come forward."

Ardor angrily glanced at the Beast Woman. Han couldn't. He couldn't place it in charge!

Pluck knelt by Han's side next to his Second, sensing Ardor's glare. The sand was dry and cool beneath her but not cold enough to quench the hate bearing down on her. Pluck scratched her cat ear. She couldn't see herself taking command. It would be too much. She pleaded within her heart for Han not to put such a burden on her.

"Pluck," Han started, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I place you second in command to Ardor who shall lead my men. This is my wish and one I beg all of you to honor."

No one dared grumble their disdain.

Pluck sighed, relieved for she couldn't endure any more pressure. She looked into Han's face as life slipped from his shaky grasp. Pluck turned her gaze to the floor. He couldn't leave her, not alone and not at this time when so many hated her. It was too much for her to bear.

Ardor noticed the Beast's relief but that didn't change his opinion of it.

Han continued, "My Second." He waited for Ardor to look at him and in great pain, Han continued, "There is no one else I would have take charge of my High Guards. I know you shall be a great leader." He gasped for air, struggling to finish. "Heed Pluck's advice as I heeded yours. This is my wish that you put aside superstition and hatred and judge the actions and the heart of this woman before you." Han raised his voice and told them, "This is my wish for all the High Guards."

Ardor yelled at him, "You can't... you cannot appoint this beast as my Second!"

Han didn't answer for a long time. Why couldn't Ardor get past the bigotry of his fathers? Han told him, "I can and I have. There are witnesses, and the Creator has heard my voice." He closed his eyes and opened them, face full of anguish. "These are my wishes. Abide by them."

Han stared at Ardor and Pluck. They were now the hope of Fletching. He let out a great sigh and his chest rose no more.

"No! Change your wishes. Make another my Second," Ardor shouted as he shook Han, but his commander didn't move as his eyes glazed over. "NO!" Ardor yelled. "Don't die! Don't leave things like this."

Pluck lifted her head as tears streamed down her furry face. She couldn't believe he'd passed on. Han lived life to its fullest and now he was an empty shell. "Goodbye my friend... my father," she whispered as her lip quivered, and then she wiped her eyes.

A great rift formed long ago between her and the world. It was one Han had bridged, but with him gone... Who would keep her connected to humanity? She looked at Ardor as he wept on the commander's chest. Pluck knew it didn't matter what she said to him. Ardor would always hate her. Why did Han put her in second command? Why did he leave her alone to face the people's hatred? She kissed her mentor's hand, stood, and walked out of the tent as the High Guards paid their respects.

Everything around her felt unreal like none of it was happening. The background blurred in her mind as did the glares of the men. She looked at her fur-covered hands. Pluck was tired of her beast form, and it was time Edward honored his pledge and gave her the Kiss. She glanced at Han's tent as she couldn't stand knowing that animosity surrounded her and that no place was safe. Pluck grabbed her tail and stroked it. The only one who loved her in her cursed form was dead, and she feared she would die too if she didn't return to normal.

Pluck walked up to Edward's tent, and two men stood guard without. One was a High Guard and the other a Morgog. She passed them and went into the tent and found no one within the first section. Many emotions swirled around in her as she made her way to where Edward would be. He would give her the Kiss and release her from this accursed form and once that happened, there would be no more stares and no more glares of hatred. She would be a woman and everyone would accept her and one day someone would love her. Pluck went into the next section and as she stepped through the next tent flap she started, "Edward, I..."

She gasped as a horribly unfathomable sight knocked her back as if a dozen arrows struck her chest. In the third section and on the prince's bed, Edward and Virago passionately kissed in the thralls of lovemaking. The jolt to Pluck's psyche knocked her back, and she couldn't utter a word. Edward had... her redemption... It couldn't be! The one thing Edward promised to her twice now and what would have freed her from her curse he gave carelessly to his wife as if Pluck meant nothing to him. It felt as though Edward thrust a sword through her heart and twisted it further in with each new embrace of his wife's lips. Virago had stolen her one and only hope, and Pluck would remain the Beast forever. She felt sick to the point of dying, and Pluck wanted to shriek at them.

Edward finally noticed her once he surfaced from his wife's warm and seductive embrace, and he uttered, "Pluck!" He sat up, realizing what he had done and stammered, "I... I..."

Pluck stood there as if chains bound her to that hellacious place and that horrid moment. Her life was over and there was nothing that would save her from her accursed fate. Why did Edward do it? Why did he give her redemption to another? She had to act. She had to take her revenge. Pluck had to do something because of the injustice inflicted upon her. What should she do? What should she do to them?

The End-Click Here to continue the series.

Beauty of the Beast #1 The Mystic Rose

Part B: A Vow Of Love And The Challenge

www.kristielynnhiggins.com/BOTB1PartB.html

Monster Of Monsters #1

Part One

# Mortem's Opening

Monster of Monsters #1

Part One

Mortem's Opening

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2017

Chapter One

The Trials And Joys Of Life

A young girl wearing a school uniform sat by herself under the shelter and shield of a great oak tree. The sounds of other children could be heard in the distance, but they nor she could see one another behind her woody fort. She ignored their laughter that bid her to join them on the playground, and she also ignored their conversations that talked of worlds she could never belong to. The girl had found a peace that was very rare to her, and she was enjoying the few minutes she had left before she would have to join the other children and learn.

She sat alone on a small blanket next to a spiderweb that she could easily touch if she stretched out her hand, and she watched as the wind gently rocked the web. The morning dew that clung to its glistening threads fell off as sparkling droplets to the grass with each soft gust that blew their way. A brown spider the size of a quarter made its home there, and it didn't seem bothered by the wind or her presence.

"Would you like some cheese?" she offered the spider after she broke off a small piece of her breakfast.

It stared at her for a few seconds as if curious about her as much as the young girl was curious about it, and then it shook its head.

"What about a cracker?" the young girl questioned as she broke off a piece, and the spider shook its head again. "What would you like to eat? I'm not sure I know what you eat. We haven't learned about you and your kind yet."

The young girl spent as much time as she could alone. The other children could be cruel, and she found that she was happier alone. The young girl also found that if she looked hard enough she could find little wonders of the created world. They were hidden but all around her.

The young girl held the cracker out as if expecting the spider to answer her, and then she pulled back the piece of cracker and cheese and ate them herself. She started to ask the spider another question when the spider turned its attention to four older girls as they walked by on a path that had a clear view of her shelter and shield. The young girl noticed them and leaned up against the tree so not to be noticed by the older girls.

"I heard Karen will be devoured next," one of them said.

"Karen..? Which clan is claiming her?" the oldest girl, who was eight, questioned.

"The White Crane Clan wishes to devour her and claim her as one of their own," the first girl replied. "Her birth clan will most likely allow the White Crane to claim her, and Karen will be adopted."

"The White Crane is a strong clan," the oldest girl stated. "Karen is blessed."

"Yes, she is blessed," the other three girls repeated.

The first girl noticed the girl sitting under the oak, who was trying to hide from them, so she motioned from the path and asked, "Who is that?"

"Never mind her," the oldest girl replied.

"Who is she?" the first girl repeated. "I would really like to know."

The oldest girl became angry and replied, "I will not speak her name."

The second oldest girl sighed, and then she said, "Her name is Kein (Kīn)."

The fourth member of their group inquired, "What's the big deal? Just who is Kein?" She asked the oldest girl, "Is she a rival of yours?"

"That toddler!" the oldest girl yelled. "She's worse than a rival. She's a nobody at our school. She is ruining the purity of our people." The oldest girl turned and motioned for the others as she said, "Come on, I don't want to waste any more time talking about her."

The second oldest girl glanced at Kein once more before joining the other three girls who had started back across the path, and Kein breathed a sigh of relief as she turned to the spider and said, "It's okay. They're gone. We can go back to our picnic."

Kein picked up a small round fruit and offered it to the creature, "Ms. Spider, would you like a grape?"

She looked at Kein with her eight eyes and then shook her head.

"I wish I knew what you ate," Kein spoke, but before she could say anything else, a voice above her called out.

"What are you doing down there?"

Kein looked up into the oak tree and saw a boy, who was six and slightly older than her, hanging upside down from a branch.

He smiled at her, then released the branch with his legs, flipped, and landed on his feet.

"I am of the Brown Bear Clan, and I am Bruno," he introduced himself, and then he said, "I heard you talking..." The boy questioned, "Who were you talking to?"

She looked around as if she couldn't believe the boy, who was a year older than herself, was talking to her.

"Did you hear me?" the boy questioned.

"I'm only playing," Kein replied, not sure what else to say.

"Is that how you are supposed to speak to someone who is older than you?" a second boy, who was eight, questioned her as he walked up to them.

Kein blushed, then turned to the first boy, and repeated, "I am playing, Senior Bruno."

"And they say you couldn't learn anything, but I see that they were mistaken," the second boy spoke, then cleared his throat, and said, "I am of the Gray Wolf Clan, and I am Friedrich."

She nodded her head to him in greeting.

"What is your name?" Bruno asked her.

"My name is–" Kein started.

"You are supposed to start out by telling me your clan's name," Bruno interrupted. "You must have heard the headmistress tell us she is from the Fire Bird Clan. It is the first lesson we learn when we come to this school."

"She can't do that," Friedrich told him. "No clan or house wants her. They say that she's cursed," he stated, and then he explained, "They say that a monster killed her sire and dame, and they also say that same monster cursed her and left her alive to curse any clan or house that would claim her so none have."

"Is that why you are over here playing by yourself?" Bruno questioned her. He walked around the blanket she sat on, and then he noticed the web and said, "I see who you were talking to or more like what. You were playing with this spider."

"Isn't she pretty?" Kein stated. "I find that I really like their kind."

"Nasty thing," Friedrich spoke up. "We should get rid of it."

"Don't hurt her," Kein begged.

He ignored her and told Bruno, "Doesn't it remind you of a Kumovon?"

"It does," Friedrich answered. "We should kill it."

"No, please don't hurt her," Kein begged.

Bruno picked up a stick as he said, "I'll smash it."

Kein quickly got to her feet, cupped her hands around the spider, and gently took her off the web.

"She's touching it! She's touching the nasty thing!" Friedrich yelled. "Make her put it down!"

"Let go of it!" Bruno yelled. "Let go of it!"

"No," Kein said. "You're not hurting her."

She tried to run away, but the eight-year-old tackled her to the ground. Kein held onto the spider and didn't let go of her, and she hit the ground hard, knocking the wind from her.

"Get the spider!" Friedrich yelled.

"Let me have the spider," Bruno demanded.

Kein managed to say, "No!"

"Let me have the spider or you'll get hurt."

"No!"

Bruno glanced at the stick he held, dropped it, then went over to the girl, and stomped on her hands as he yelled, "Let go of it or I'll smash your hands."

She didn't say anything but held onto the spider. Bruno kept stomping on her hands until he grew tired. He was about to start on her again when the other boy moved.

Friedrich stood up as he heard the school clock chiming and said, "Come on. We'll be late for class, and you know what happens if we're late."

Bruno stomped on her hand one last time and then ran after Friedrich who hurried for his class.

"Don't worry..." Kein spoke a few seconds later as she sat up. She peered at her cupped hands that were starting to show the abuse Bruno inflicted on them, and she said, "You're safe now. They're gone. You can go back to your web and..."

She opened her hands and found that the spider was dead. She had been unable to save her, and the spider's blood was all over her hands. Kein wanted to cry, but she held it in, crying never did her any good.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Spider," she spoke in a whisper. "I'm sorry I sat next to your web. I'm sorry I was talking to you. I'm sorry that no one likes me."

Kein took her hand and dug a hole for her, and then she gently set the spider in her grave. She piled the dirt on top of her friend, picked a nearby flower, and placed it on top, and then Kein grabbed her lunch box, stood, and ran into the woods that surrounded the school. She ran and ran as the school bell's chime fell silent in the distance. Kein kept running until she couldn't run anymore, and then she slowed down and walked. The woods were dense, and little light filtered through the leaves of the oaks and maples. She continued walking until she came upon a very old structure that had long ago fallen into pieces, and she climbed on top of one of its marble pillars that laid stretched out like a log. Kein balanced herself, walked across it, then dropped down to the ground, and took a step to return to the school, but the ground beneath her gave way. She fell a few feet and rolled down a hill into a sandy cave. The area was dark, but she was still able to see in the area very well. Kein stood, brushed the sand off her skirt and shirt of her school uniform, and noticed she had tumbled down into some sort of structure. She glanced behind herself and saw that she could climb back up the hill if she wanted to get out, but Kein decided to explore. She walked around the area and then entered the tiny structure. Spiderwebs small and great covered the walls, and Kein was about to leave when one of the larger webs parted as if by magic, revealing a small tunnel. She entered the tunnel and followed it until it emptied into a large cavern where she found a huge platform the size of a football arena. Kein walked up to it and started to explore the area when she noticed movement in its center. Someone was there with her, and whoever they were they were lying among some rubble as if they were hurt. Kein's heart pounded in her chest, and she thought about leaving, but she felt as if that person needed her help so instead of running away, she took a couple of steps towards the rubble that was about fifteen feet from her.

"So a little morsel has stumbled upon my lair," a lady said as if she was very weak.

Kein paused when she was spoken to, and then she took two more steps towards the lady.

"That is it, little morsel, come closer," the lady spoke.

Kein paused when a large spider the size of her hand ran across her shoe, and then she looked all around and saw that the cavern was full of spiders. The rest of them were still, and they all seemed to be looking at her.

The lady in the darkness moved and grunted as if she was in pain, and then she said, "Come here so I can–"

"Are you hurt?" Kein questioned as she took three more steps toward the lady.

"That is a good little morsel. Now stay right there and do not run," the lady spoke as she tried to stand up.

"You are hurt," Kein said. "Is there a way that I can help you?"

The lady laughed and said, "You..? I think not."

Kein continued toward her as the lady in the shadow again tried to rise to her legs.

The lady breathed heavily as she spoke, "You are either a brave little morsel or a foolish one or maybe a blind and deaf little morsel."

"I can hear and see fine," Kein stated. "I just can't see you yet. You're still hidden by all that rubble. Did it fall on you?"

"No, I was injured in another way. I am here because I find it more comfortable to lie on these large rocks than the floor," the lady replied, and then she asked, "Is anyone with you?"

"No," Kein replied. "I am alone. I am very alone."

"Good, come closer..." the lady started as she waved her on. "I am too weak to come to you."

"Are you really hurt?" Kein questioned again.

"I am badly hurt," the lady answered.

"How did you get hurt?"

"You could say there was someone who wanted to punish me, so they banished me here, but not before making sure I was unable to leave," the lady answered, then looked her over, and said, "I believe you are big enough."

"Big enough for what?"

"I believe you are large enough to fulfill my requirements so that I can finally leave this place," the lady replied, and then she said, "Now come to me, little morsel."

Kein continued less afraid until she stood before the lady, and then the lady managed to stand on her legs, and Kein looked up at her, and her expression turned to one of petrified wonder as she started, "You're–"

"I know," the lady interrupted with a small grin on her face as she looked down at her, and she nearly fell down because of her weakened condition, but she managed to stay standing. "You should be terrified by my mere presence."

"You're..." Kein repeated as her heart pounded in her chest again, and her mouth widened in what appeared to be the preview of a shrill-filled scream.

The lady said, "You must be very surprised to see one as me here. You must also be very frightened."

Kein didn't know what to do first. She wanted to run, but she also wanted to express the awe and shock of the unexpected enchantment she discovered in the darkness and uttered again, "You're..."

"I know," the lady stated as she placed a hand on her own chest as if the girl had given her a compliment. "This must be your first time seeing one such as me, so you must want to scream. You can... No one will hear you down here so go ahead." The lady slightly bent and urged her on by waving to her as if patting her head and said, "Scream... It will make you feel better." The lady straightened and then added, "There is nothing that I hate more than a stiff morsel."

"You're... You're so pretty," Kein finally managed to exclaim with a smile on her face in which no scream followed except for a small one that was more of a shriek of pure happiness. The shrill-filled preview the lady had witnessed before on the child's face was only one of delight and amazement. Kein immediately moved, unable to stand still any longer, and ran around the injured lady as if seeing a majestic beast for the first time up close. She wanted to reach out and touch her, but Kein knew the lady was no animal. The lady was more like a great queen.

Kein slowed her running to a concerned walk as she got a better view of the lady's form, and then she said, "I see now. Your leg's hurt."

"Are you right in the head?" the lady questioned her. "Do you know what I am?"

"I don't, but you are pretty," Kein replied, and then she said, "You remind me of..."

"I do not care," the lady interrupted. "You see what I am. Are you not going to run away?"

"Why would I run? You're hurt, and you need my help even if you say I can't do anything for you." Kein insisted, "I might be small, but I can help you." She remembered her lunch box, so she moved a few feet away, placed it on a rock, and opened it as she said, "You must be hungry. Do you want the rest of my breakfast?" Kein removed the purple fruit and stated, "I still have grapes." She walked back to the lady, lifted the grapes, and said, "They're good."

"Do you not know that I am going to devour you?"

Kein's expression changed to one of confusion as she said, "I don't think I understand."

"I will cause you pain," the lady said. "Do you understand that?"

Kein frowned as she lowered the grapes and said, "Oh... I thought we could be friends."

"Are you not afraid of me?" the lady questioned.

"No," Kein replied. "I just thought we could be friends and that we could help each other."

The lady started to seize the little girl when the large spider returned and crawled up the little girl's leg. The lady waited for the little girl to shriek but instead, she bent and picked up the spider.

"Is he your friend?" Kein asked. "He seems to like you a lot."

"And yet he crawled up your leg," the lady spoke and then glanced around the area at the rest of the spiders that made their home there, and then the lady said, "The spiders do seem to have an unusual reaction to you. I have never seen them this still before."

"I like spiders," Kein spoke. "But they don't seem to like cheese or crackers."

The lady looked her over, and then she said, "You are not as big as I thought you were. Here... Give me those things you call grapes."

She lifted them up, and the lady took them from her, and then she tried one of the grapes.

"Not what I am used to eating, but I guess I could eat these instead of you."

"I'll bring more food the next time I come," Kein stated.

"Why would you return? I might not devour you now, but you will get bigger."

Kein stared at her again as if she wasn't sure what the lady was talking about but then this idea entered her young mind, and she nodded, agreeing with the lady, "I will get bigger, and I'll keep coming till I am bigger, and then you can devour me." She thought about it some more and then added, "Maybe I can bring you other things to eat."

"There is something wrong with you," the lady spoke, and then she asked, "If you bring me food, what do you want from me?"

"Someone to talk to," Kein replied. "I've had friends before like this little one," she said as she lifted the spider. "But they don't speak to me. I want someone who can talk to me. I can come once a day, and you can talk to me."

"I know of the school that is beyond these woods. Will you not be missed?"

"My teachers don't like me, and I don't think the ones that I have before lunch will care if I show up or not, so I can come of a morning."

"What about school? You will miss out on learning. I might devour you later, but you will taste better if you are a little smarter."

"Maybe you can teach me," Kein said. "I can bring you other things that you need besides food, and you can teach me."

"It will take me some time to heal, and I cannot leave this cavern until I am healed so... I guess I can endure having to talk with my food before I devour you," the lady stated, and then she added, "But you cannot tell anyone that I am here."

"I know. They won't like that you're here, so I promise never to tell anyone."

"I guess I can only trust you on this. Come then... Come tomorrow with more grapes, and we will begin your lessons."

"What's your name?" she questioned. "My name's Kein."

"That is German, but it is not a name," the lady told her.

"It's what they call me," she said. "It has to be my name. Can you please tell me your name?"

"I do not think I will ever tell you my name," the lady replied.

"Why is that?"

"This will be your very first lesson," the lady stated. "My people only reveal their names to friends and family, and right now you are neither. Remember you are a little morsel and that is what I will call you."

"I don't think I understand."

The lady explained, "My people see our names as a part of us like an arm or a leg, but it goes even deeper than that. Our names are our very being, so we just do not tell anyone our given name. You have to be someone important to us or someone cherished, and little morsel, you are neither of those things to me so if I should give you my name now, I would be breaking a sacred tradition, and I would be insulting my own pride."

Kein thought about it, and then she said, "I think I understand. I'll learn your name once we're friends." She clapped her hands together and peered up at the lady's face as she said, "I can't wait... I bet it won't be that long, and I bet it's a very pretty name like something that has to do with your beautiful eyes. You can tell me your name, and then you can devour me." She started to run back the way she came, then set the spider down, and started running again for the exit as she shouted to all the small eight-legged creatures, "Goodbye!"

"I believe there is something not right with that one," the lady told the spiders around her. "I have never seen food so excited to be devoured that they would promise to return."

Kein paused once she was some great distance away and yelled, "Goodbye, lady. See you tomorrow."

The lady said nothing to her only shook her head as she watched the young girl run out of her prison, and then the lady spoke to all the spiders around her, "She is too small right now, so I will have to be patient. The food that she will bring me will nourish me until the day she will be enough for me to heal myself and leave this dreadful prison." The spiders started moving around at their normal pace as the lady said, "My kind lives a very long time, so I can wait... and then I can enjoy my sweet-sweet morsel." The lady frowned as she added, "I will only have to put up with her until then." The lady lifted her voice and ordered, "None of you are to hurt her. She is mine. She is mine alone."

The next day...

The school had a special morning assembly, and it was mandatory that everyone attended, so Kein went with all her fellow students and sat with the other children in her grade. They all gathered in the gym where a huge red carpet had been rolled out over the basketball court, and chairs were set up for all the children, facing a stage, and a microphone on a podium was set up on the stage. The faculty sat in their chairs behind the podium and awaited the arrival of the headmistress. She arrived and walked out on stage as the children and faculty quieted without being told.

"What is that on the headmistress' head?" a girl to Kein's left asked the girl to her left.

"It's a veil. I heard the headmistress wears it everywhere she goes. She even wears it while she's in her office."

"Why is she wearing it?"

"I heard it said that her husband died long ago and that she's still in mourning over him. I heard it said that she'll never remove the veil until she either finds a suitable husband or she feels she has mourned her dead husband long enough."

The headmistress took her place at the podium and began to speak, "For the few transfer students that just arrived today, my name is Headmistress Blindheart. You may call me headmistress or you may call me Headmistress Blindheart. Both are acceptable. I want to welcome you one and all to another semester and to remind all of you to work hard. Many of you will be our future leaders so sharpen your minds and hone your bodies and always strive to better yourselves. The world we live in wants to devour us and destroy what we stand for, but do not fear such a death. Hold solace that your clans or houses have already devoured you. Your clans or houses have eaten you from the inside out, and they own all of you. They are your family. Hold pride in that," she spoke, then glanced over the crowd, and seemed to look right at Kein as she added, "And for those few of you who have yet to be devoured, do not give up hope... A clan or house may come along and see the potential that is in you and devour you, inducting you into their family, so work hard for your future family. I was not born into the Fire Bird Clan. I was devoured into it, and I take pride that such a clan wanted me. Be it the clan or house you are born into or one that devours you, always put them before yourself. There is no self, there is only family."

Headmistress Blindheart paused, and then she said, "Remember children, it is all about purity of the race. The strong and/or smart succeed. The frail and mediocre fail, and their line will not be carried on. Entice a clan or house to devour you. Show them you can bring strength and prestige to their name. We are only as strong as our weakest member."

The morning assembly went on for another thirty minutes, and then the students were dismissed to their classes, and Kein hurried into the woods. She brought the lady grapes as promised, and she also brought her crackers and cheese. The lady found that she didn't care for either the crackers or the cheese, but she did eat the grapes, and she ate all of them.

"What shall I teach you today?"

"There is something I would like to learn about," Kein replied. "What is important about a clan or house?"

"Clan or house? Are they not what you call your families?"

"They are," Kein replied. "What is their purpose?"

"These are questions your mother or father would be better suited to answer," the lady stated. "You should not bother me with such things. You should ask them."

"My mom and dad died long ago," Kein stated. "I'm not even sure what their purpose is supposed to be."

"What do you mean you do not understand their purpose?" the lady inquired of her.

The spiders of the cavern moved closer, but they kept their distance of the unusual girl except for the large brown spider Kein had picked up the day before. He crawled into Kein's outstretch hand when she offered to pick him up. She petted his fuzzy body.

"A mother or a father raise you," the lady said. "They take care of you."

"The school takes care of me, so would the school be this family you speak of?" Kein asked.

The lady answered, "I guess they could be. They just need to love you and help you grow up strong."

"No one at the school loves me. No one at the school even likes me," Kein stated, and then she bowed her head as she said, "They say that I'm cursed."

"Why do they say you are cursed?"

"I'm not really sure, but they say that someone killed my parents and put some sort of mark on me."

The lady had been lying down, so she stood to her legs, walked around, and noticed her injured leg didn't hurt as much, and then she asked, "Do you know where this mark is?"

"I think I saw it once," Kein replied, and then she motioned and said, "It's on the back of my neck."

"Let me see."

Kein walked over to her, lifted her long hair, and turned so she could see the nape of her neck. The lady looked closely and saw what appeared to be a small tattoo in the shape of a circle with markings inside.

"Curious," the lady said. "It does appear you have been marked, but I am not sure of the purpose of this particular mark."

The lady put a hand on the young girl's shoulder and thought about sinking her fangs into the little morsel's neck but if she did that, she would ruin any chance she had of escaping her prison in the future. The lady was very tired and weak, and she would have given up long ago on ever leaving except for the revenge that fueled her desire to find her retribution. The lady needed to get back into play.

"Let us talk a little more about the school that is taking care of you," the lady spoke as she removed her hand from her shoulder. "You said that they do not like you but that they do take care of you."

"That's right," Kein answered as she turned and faced the lady. "I overheard one of the teachers say they wanted to use me for something when I get older, so they must bear the burden of taking care of me until some other school takes over my care or a clan or house does decide to take me." Kein paused, and then she asked, "Can you tell me the purpose of a family in greater detail?"

"I will try," the lady replied. "A family consists of a mother, father, and siblings."

"What are siblings?"

"Siblings are a brother and/or sister. They are people somewhat like you who must grow up and learn."

"From the mother and the father?" Kein questioned.

"That is correct. A family is two or more of those members living in a unit. It is how one learns so that they know how to survive through life," the lady replied, chuckled to herself, and muttered, "You would have been better off if someone had been guiding you, little morsel, then you would not be here with me."

"I like being here with you, but I do need a family," Kein said. "I need to find me a family." She then muttered to herself, "Two or more..."

"I do not think you can just go out and find you a family," the lady said as she lay back down on the pile of rubble.

"I would really like to have a family," Kein said. "They sound important."

"I know you would, little morsel, but it is just not in your thread."

"Oh... I guess I will have to make friends then. You can be my friend one day, you can tell me your name, and then we can be friends or better than that... you can devour me."

"You are the most peculiar girl I have ever come across," the lady told her, and then she said, "As for your statement... One day might just happen. Now... What else should I teach you today?"

One week later...

The lady was lying down as Kein came into the cavern housing the arena size platform, and all the spiders seemed to let out a joyous squeal as she entered. Kein spread out her blanket, and she sat on it as she enjoyed her breakfast. She also started bringing her lunch and sharing it.

"I learned about your people today," Kein told the lady as she gave the lady her grapes and had her try liver.

"What did they teach you?" the lady inquired.

"They didn't actually teach me. I overheard. Your people come from a place that is a giant island, and they say the sun sees it first."

"Yes, that is where my people are from."

"Do you miss your family?" Kein asked her.

"I do. It has been many many years since I have seen them."

"I hear on that island you have your own language that's different than ours."

"We do," the lady replied. "Maybe one day I will teach you my language."

The lady tried the liver and found that she did enjoy eating it almost as much as the grapes. She looked down at the girl and said, "You are looking thinner. You need to eat more if you are to fatten up for me."

"I don't know if I can," Kein told her. "I've been sharing my meals with you."

"I see," the lady said. "And we cannot have that anymore. You will have to start taking more food for yourself so that you can share with me without taking away from what you need to grow up big."

"I will try," Kein told her.

"You said earlier that you brought something new with you," the lady stated.

"I did," Kein said. "I brought a comb. Kids are making fun of me because they say my hair's all messed up. Can you teach me how to comb my hair?"

The lady sighed, having to do something so tedious, and then she held out her hand, and Kein gave her the comb. She took the plain blue plastic comb.

"Turn around and hold still," the lady spoke, and then she took the comb and ran it through the girl's tangles, trying to force the teeth through the knots.

Kein's head jerked back as the lady continued to assault her strands.

The lady said, "Your hair is a real mess. It would be better if we shaved it off and let your hair grow back in. Turn and face me. Good... Now... Listen to me. I need you to go retrieve a pair of scissors and..." The lady paused as she noticed something out of the ordinary, and then she inquired, "What are those running down your face? Are you crying? You are... Why are you crying? Is it because I told you I would have to cut your hair?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry," Kein told her. "It's just that... it hurts when you run the comb through my hair, so I couldn't help but cry."

"Why did you not say something? You should have told me I was hurting you."

"I don't know why I didn't say anything," Kein replied, and then she added, "I guess I thought it was supposed to hurt."

The lady sighed again but this time, the lady was aggravated with herself, not the child. She said, "No, I did not mean to hurt you, little morsel. I was careless and in a hurry, but I promise I will be gentler and take my time this time. Turn around. I will comb your hair again and do so as I should."

Kein turned and as promised, the lady took her time and removed the knots from her hair, and Kein didn't cry anymore. She actually enjoyed having the lady comb her hair.

A few days later...

Kein sat on a rock as she flipped through a magazine she found in the trash.

"Look," she said as she lifted it so the lady could see. "These people have families, and don't they look happy?"

The lady ate her grapes as she glanced at the picture, not interested at all in what the little morsel was saying to her.

Kein pulled the magazine back down and continued looking at the images as she said, "I think I should find me a family."

"A family is not something you can find," the lady told her. "We talked about this already but if you want to waste your time looking for one, who am I to say you cannot?"

"I need to know more," Kein told her. "Please tell me more about a mother and a father."

"A father is someone who... A father is a male who teaches you things like... what is right and what is wrong. He teaches you how to take care of yourself, he gives you wisdom, and he... he..."

"You said something about love," Kein interrupted.

"Yes, a father is supposed to love you," the lady explained. "He is supposed to care more about you than he cares about himself and that is what a father is. A mother is a female who basically does the same thing."

"They sound like they would be nice to have."

"If you say so..." the lady spoke, and then she said, "Hand me your comb. It is time to comb your hair."

A few weeks later...

"What are you doing?" the lady asked as she looked over Kein's shoulder.

"I'm trying to write my name. I saw that the others can write words down on paper and can talk to people that way, but I have yet to learn to spell my name."

"You cannot write? Your teachers must be very frustrated with you if you have not learned to write from them."

Kein bowed her head and stated, "They do say that I'm slow and that it would be a waste of their time to instruct me more than once, so I haven't learned yet. They also said something about me not needing to learn. They also said that the new school they'll be sending me to... I'll have no need of knowledge there."

"You cannot go through life not knowing how to read," the lady scolded her. "I guess I will have to teach you. How else will you be able to get me some of the things that I need if you cannot read? Write out your ABCs. We will start with that."

One month later...

The lady was able to walk the length of the platform twice before her leg started to hurt. Many of the spiders gathered on the platform when Kein came, but they never approached her as instructed. Everyone had a routine. Kein would arrive. She would play with the one large brown spider as the other spiders watched and made excited noises. Kein and the lady would eat breakfast. The lady would instruct Kein on some daily lesson, and then they would work on her spelling and writing. They would then have lunch. Kein would play with the large spider again. There would be a second daily lesson, and then the lady would comb Kein's hair before she left for the day.

"I brought you something!" Kein yelled as she ran up to the lady.

"What is it?" the lady inquired as she walked over to where the little morsel stood.

Kein handed her a piece of paper that had been folded up twice.

"What is this?"

"Read it," Kein urged her.

The lady looked over the crude writing and saw that Kein still needed to work on a few of her letters.

"Can you?" Kein asked her.

"Can I what?"

"Read it out loud. I asked you a question."

The lady spoke, "You are invited to Kein's birthday party."

"Can you come?" Kein repeated.

"You want me to go out there to some party?"

"No, silly," Kein replied. "We can have the party here. I can bring us a cupcake a piece, and we can sing songs and maybe play a game."

"Why would I want to go to some stupid party? I am not a child."

"Oh..." Kein said as her joyous expression left her face to be replaced by a deep disappointment. "I thought you might want to celebrate with me as I turn six."

"No, thank you. Celebrate with your friends."

The lady noticed there was also a drawing on the invitation. It was of herself and Kein smiling as they wore birthday hats.

The lady let out one of her long sighs, and then she mumbled, "I guess it is true what they say. Starve a child, and they will eat anywhere."

"What does that mean?" Kein asked.

"Maybe one day I will tell you," the lady replied. "Will there be grapes at this party?"

"Lots of grapes," Kein replied.

"I guess I can come," the lady stated as if agreeing to be tortured.

A week later, Kein's birthday...

"I made you something special," Kein spoke as she spread out her blanket.

She had made each of them a birthday hat, and the lady reluctantly wore hers. Kein even made a hat for the large brown spider, and he wore it by spraying his webbing all over it and putting it on his head.

"Are you not the one who is supposed to receive gifts?" the lady questioned.

"I am, but I wanted to make you something special, so I made the cupcakes, and I made them with lots of raisins."

"What are raisins?"

"Dried grapes, so I think you'll really like your cupcake," Kein replied. "Before we eat, I just need to light my candle. I'm supposed to have one for each year that I am, but I was only able to get one." She removed a candy cane striped candle and placed it in one of the cupcakes, and then she removed a box of matches with a leaping tiger on it with the name Tiger Strike. Kein handed the matchbook to her and asked, "Could you light the candle? I'm not supposed to play with matches."

The lady took the matchbox, struck a match, and lit the candy cane striped candle. Kein closed her eyes, then opened them a few seconds later, and blew out the candle.

"Why did you do that?" the lady questioned her as she handed back the matchbox.

"I made a wish," Kein told her as she took the Tiger Strike and placed it back in her school bag. "One I hope comes true very soon."

The two of them started to eat their cupcakes and drink the juice boxes Kein brought with her.

The lady saw what little morsel referred to as raisins and wasn't sure she wanted to try them, but she went ahead and did try the cupcake and said, "This is good."

"I thought you'd like it," Kein told her as a giant smile beamed from her face. "Raisins are just cute wrinkly grapes."

The lady smiled at her remark, and then she asked, "Would you like to have the gift I made you?"

"Yes, please," Kein replied.

"Turn around."

Kein did, and the lady placed a necklace over her head.

"You made this?" Kein asked as she looked down at the necklace and turned back around.

The lady nodded.

Kein touched the silk-like necklace of braided material, and then she said, "I thought it would be sticky, but it's very smooth. Thank you. It's very pretty. Does it have any meaning?"

"I do not think I understand your question," the lady spoke.

"Your people's cultural holds value and meaning with many of the things that you do or say. Does this necklace have any meaning?"

"You want some sort of meaning with the necklace? It is made with threads of white, so it means I am very excited about devouring you," the lady explained.

"Threads of white are spider webs."

"They are," the lady told her. "Someday I will tell you a little more about the threads of white, but for now we should enjoy your celebration."

"I'll show my friend what you gave me," Kein told the lady, then ran over to where the large brown spider hung on the web, and showed him her precious gift.

"To think... she would believe something that one such as I so easily made up," the lady whispered to the spiders around her. "And she does seem to enjoy the gift I made her. Look how happy my little morsel is. I only made the gift a few hours ago and did not put much thought into it, but it is like she sees it as bottled sunshine because I made it for her. I guess it is true about what they say. When those around you turn their hearts from you even the darkness is inviting." The lady watched Kein as she considered something, and then she questioned, "But if I made it up, why did I mention the threads of white?"

Kein returned, holding the large brown spider as she said, "We should celebrate your birthday when it comes."

"My people do not celebrate our birth. Our way of life is different than yours. We believe every day should be a celebration."

"If that is the case, we will celebrate your birthday today. Happy birthday!" Kein then shouted with a child-like glee, "Happy every day should be a celebration day!"

Several months later...

Kein leaned against one of the lady's uninjured legs as she read to the lady from a book.

"That is enough reading for today," the lady told her. "There is something special I would like for you to get me."

"What is that?" Kein asked.

"Tea," the lady replied. "I have not had green tea in ages, but I would settle for black if you cannot find green."

"It might be hard for me to get," Kein replied. "They don't serve it in the cafeteria, and I'm not permitted to go to town."

"See what you can do," the lady said. "I know you will try your best."

Three weeks later...

"Can you teach me some of your language and about the tea ceremony you spoke of last week?" Kein asked as she leaned her head against the lady.

"I guess I can," the lady replied. "Today I will teach you about the tea ceremony. It would have been better if you were able to acquire some tea for me, but I guess we will have to pretend." The lady drew pictures in the sand with her finger as she spoke, "This particular tea ceremony is to bring about peace and understanding between two individuals. It is done by each participant sharing a written secret with the other."

"A secret? Why a secret?" Kein asked.

"If done properly, the secret will create a bond between the two which is intended to bring a deeper understanding," the lady explained.

"Oh..." Kein said. "Tell me some more..."

A few months later...

"Can you tell me your name?" Kein asked.

"Do you think we are friends now?" the lady inquired.

She nodded her head.

"We are not yet," the lady spoke. "We are far from being friends, little morsel."

"Should we perform the tea ceremony?" Kein questioned. "We can tell each other a secret."

"I do not think you have a secret strong enough to bring to such an occasion," the lady told her.

"When will we be friends?" Kein questioned her. "I thought we would have been friends a long time ago or I thought you would have devoured me by now."

"I cannot get around how peculiar a child you are," the lady stated, and then she replied, "And I cannot give you an answer to those two questions yet."

"I need to call you something," Kein said. "You call me, little morsel, so can I pick out a name for you?"

"I do not see why you cannot," the lady replied with a smile. "Do you have one in mind?"

"Not yet," Kein answered. "I want to pick something from your language. I want it to be special, so I'll take my time and pick out something."

"My people select names that have great meaning," the lady spoke.

"Tell me more," Kein said.

"When we name our children, we select a name that tells of the relationship they will have with us, or others of our kind, or with the world around them."

"I think I understand," Kein said. "I will pick a name that talks about the relationship you have with me."

"I look forward to hearing just what that name will be," the lady told her.

A week later...

Kein spread her blanket over a raised section of the platform so that the lady could peer down and see what she was looking at.

"I think I know what name I want to call you," Kein said with excitement.

"What would that be?"

"I need to go translate it first," Kein said. "I want it to be in your language, and I want it to be a surprise, so I will find the translation on my own. I'll tell you tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a special day."

After their time was over for the day, Kein ran out, and the lady watched as she left.

"Tomorrow will be a special day," the lady told all the spiders around her. "I am strong enough now that I can leave this dreadful place. We can go, and I can finally have my revenge on the ones who put me here. All I need is a little morsel to give me the energy I need to journey home."

The large brown spider whimpered at hearing what his mistress had in mind.

The next day...

Kein came running in, yelling, "I've found the name! I've found the perfect name!"

The large brown spider ran out to her, and Kein picked him up as she asked him, "What's a matter? You seem upset."

"Do not worry about him," the lady told her. "He is just very excited about today. You would not believe how long I have been waiting for this day," the lady told her with a devious grin.

"So you're also excited about the name I picked out for you. I hope you like it. I hope you really like it. It's perfect."

"What name did you pick out for me?"

"Before I tell you," Kein began. "It wasn't that easy figuring it out. I translated it wrong the first time, but I believe I have it correct now."

"I'm so proud of you, my little morsel," the lady said as she moved up behind Kein who had turned her back to her.

Kein put the large brown spider down on a rock, and then she set down her school bag beside him.

The lady had plenty of time to plan how she would kill the child, and she even picked out the perfect way to do so, the perfect instrument. She readied the instrument of her death as she asked, "What name did you select for me?"

"Okasan," Kein answered as she turned around with this big beaming smile on her face and asked, "Do you like it?"

A wave of emotions flooded over the lady, and the ones that were the strongest were outrage and anger.

"What name did you call me?" the lady questioned her as she forgot about the instrument of her death.

"Okasan," Kein answered again as she asked, "Isn't it pretty? I really like it, and I think it suits you."

"Do not call me that," the lady spoke angrily. "Do not ever call me that."

"You don't like it?" Kein inquired as her joy fled. "I thought it was pretty, and it suits who you are to me."

"Do not call me that!" the lady screamed.

"I... I didn't mean to upset you," Kein spoke and for the first time, she was a little afraid of the lady. "I thought–"

"Do not ever call me that!" the lady yelled as she grabbed her shoulders and shook Kein. "Do you understand?"

The girl nodded near tears.

"Now leave!" the lady ordered her as she pointed to the exit.

"You're mad. I didn't mean to make you mad. I'm sorry. I'll–"

The lady screamed all the more, "Leave now! I do not want to see you! Leave and never come back!" The lady started to pace the room as she ranted, "This was a mistake. This was all a mistake." She turned to Kein as rage saturated her face, and she screamed all the more at her, "Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are to me? You are a little morsel. You are something to devour. I do not care about you. Leave! Leave and never come back! You are a curse! You are a curse to anyone you come across!"

"I'm a curse..." Kein repeated as the world around her collapsed like a spiderweb that a rock had been thrown through. Tears streamed down her face as she questioned, "You see me as a curse? I thought you wanted to devour me. I thought you–"

The lady screamed with all her might as if she was this great monster, and Kein jumped back out of fright, then turned, and ran out as fear found a place in her heart.

The next day...

"I'm back," Kein called out before she could be seen. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry... Please don't be mad with me anymore."

She hadn't seen one spider the whole way through the tunnel.

"I'm sorry," Kein spoke as she slowly walked in, carrying a tray that rattled with china and seemed a little too heavy for her. "I didn't mean to upset you. I promise I won't ever call you by that name again." She paused before the great platform and asked, "Are you there? Please come out. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad with me."

The lady didn't answer her as if she had already left the cave and Kein behind.

"I found you some tea," Kein spoke, hopeful it would coax the lady out. "The headmistress had some in her office along with this tea set. I looked up how to make it, and it tastes good." She paused, waiting for a voice who usually greeted her by then and when the quiet was the only thing that replied, Kein pleaded, "Please come out. Please come out and tell me you're not mad at me anymore."

She walked up to the platform and saw that there were no signs of the lady or any of the spiders, not even a fresh web.

"Please come out. I'm sorry. I don't understand why you're mad at me, but I'm sorry."

The cavern seemed to fill with silence like a giant beast breathing in sorrow. Kein set the tray down on a boulder and looked all around for the one who had packed brightness into her darkness. She searched for the lady who had brought joy to her hurting. Kein peered into the blackness of the cavern and for the first time since entering the lair over seven months ago, she felt alone, and it frightened her, not with fear but with despair. Alone was a very familiar term to her, and it was the kind of alone she had been used to, but she never realized the loneliness of it until she had something to compare it to. Companionship... Friendship... Love... She thought she had all of these with the lady, and Kein had ruined it with one simple word.

The cavern seemed to enlarge as if she was inside a giant beast who had taken another deep breath, filling itself with more sorrow. The silence had given Kein her answer, and her little heart ached over something she had lost. The lady had given her something beyond the terms she understood, something Kein didn't have a name for. The lady had brought her something she had been lacking in her life and now with the lady and that something gone, her soul trembled as devastation laid waste to her happiness. Her mind couldn't understand what sort of crime she committed to drive away the one person who had been there every day to nurture and care for her. Kein had no way to express the sheer solitude and loneliness brought on by the vacuum created in the wake of the lady's absence, so the only recourse she had was to lift her hands to her face and weep. Kein had always forced herself not to cry; it did her no good, and it still did her no good but there was nothing else she could do. She had lost so much with one simple word, a word she thought would bring a joyous smile to the lady's face but instead, it only brought her the lady's anger and rage. Kein understood she had done something wrong, she just didn't understand what that something was. Something lost and something wrong were all she was left with.

"Please don't leave me," she sobbed as she lifted her voice and cried out. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Don't leave me alone. I want you to devour me. I want you to devour me so much that... it hurts..." She motioned to her chest and said, "It hurts right here. It hurts in this center-most part of me. I don't want it to hurt right here. Please come back. Please... don't leave me."

Kein cried for a while, and then she finished and said, "Please come out. I don't want you to be mad with me. Tell me what I should do so that you're not mad with me."

No one answered her pleas.

"I went back and picked out a different name for you. Please come out. Please don't leave me," she started crying again. "I picked out sensei. Is that better? Do you like that name better?"

She listened again, but no one answered her. Kein waited a few hours, then poured the now warm tea into one of the teacups, set it on the platform, and then left. She walked out of the cavern and through the tunnel, bawling the whole way. The lady appeared from the shadows a few minutes later, walked over to the teacup, and picked it up.

"You should not have called me that," the lady told the image of the child in her mind. "Things would have been a lot simpler if you had not of called me that." The lady lifted her voice and spoke to the horde of spiders who crawled out of their hiding spots, "We are leaving. We are all leaving. I am through with this dreadful place. Let us return."

The large brown spider crawled up her leg, and the lady picked it up and said, "You though... You cannot come. You have been infected by that child. She does carry a curse with her, and she does curse anyone she comes across."

She set the large brown spider down, and it crawled after the child. The lady peered down at the teacup she held, and then she took a sip of the green tea.

"This is good. I should have told her this is good," the lady said, and then she screamed out in anger. "What am I doing?" the lady questioned herself. "I was supposed to kill the little morsel and devour her, but instead, I let her go. She should not have called me that. She should never have called me okasan... What a terrible name to call me? Okasan..." The lady yelled as if screaming at the child, "I am not your mother! I never wanted to be your mother!" She held the teacup tenderly in her hands as if embracing the child, "I never intended to be your mother."

Chapter Two

Let's Play The Metrom

Twenty-eight years later...

In one of the busy cities of the U.S...

"Welcome to the Knecht Ruprecht Corporation. If everyone will follow me," a woman dressed in a business suit called out to a large group of people ranging from ages twenty-one to thirty-six who stood outside on a sidewalk. "My name is Mrs. Peacock, and I and the others inside will be guiding you through the steps you need to complete to join our contest the Metrom. Everyone, please move into the building. We need to make room for all the contestants and backup contestants who are standing out on the street."

The group of forty plus people followed her into the large corporate building and into a large lobby. She had them form five lines with eight people in each and there was also a sixth line with four people standing in it. Three men and one other woman were also there, and they also had the same Knecht Ruprecht Corporation ID badge. They helped arrange the forty plus people into smaller groups.

"I'll tell you a little history of our great corporation," Mrs. Peacock began as a few people were still coming in. "The Knecht Ruprecht were companions to Saint Nicholas who assisted in his work. The charity they helped bring about is one of the goals of the Knecht Ruprecht Corporation and is also one of the reasons we hold this contest a few times a year." She paused as she received a text message, and then Mrs. Peacock said, "Stay in your lines and please follow us into the next room."

The forty people were led to a reception area where student desks had been set up with paper and pens. The forty people were instructed to sit and look through the papers.

"After you have filled out your paperwork, you will be assigned a locker in the men's or women's area," Mrs. Peacock told them. "Go there and store any personal items that you have on you for none will be permitted in the contest area, and then you are to change into your contestant colors. These jumpsuits will mark which of the five color teams you will belong to."

The contestants did as instructed and soon about half the group was in their designated locker rooms changing.

One of the male contestants stood up and stated, "I left my license in my car in your parking garage across the street. I'll be right back."

Mrs. Peacock nodded, and the male contestant rushed to the front and out, running into a person who was not part of the group.

"Watch out there, buddy," the male contestant shouted over his shoulder as he continued out.

The Brown Deliveries worker paused, then continued into the building, pulling a truck cart dolly, and went into the lobby and stopped. The worker held an old fashion clipboard and tucked it under their arm as they removed a piece a paper, read it over, put the paper back in their pants' back pocket, and then walked over to the unmanned receptionist desk. The worker wore a brown cap, jacket, gloves, and pants along with a white t-shirt. The jacket and cap bore the insignia of Brown Deliveries which was an image of a truck cart dolly. The worker also had a brown single strap backpack over their shoulder. They parked the dolly beside the desk and waited.

Mrs. Peacock noticed the new person who had their back to her, so she walked over to them and said, "You're late. You will need to hurry and join the other contestants over–"

"I'm actually here to make a delivery."

Mrs. Peacock noticed the Brown Deliveries insignia when the person turned and faced her, and she also noticed a small dolly that had been hidden from view behind the tall receptionist desk. The dolly had five boxes on it.

Mrs. Peacock read their embroidered name on their jacket, held out her hand, and said, "Terry, we normally don't receive deliveries on contest day. Please let me see the delivery slip."

Terry handed her the clipboard just as the male contestant returned with his license and went back over to his desk.

Mrs. Peacock looked over the invoice and then arched an eyebrow as she said, "Please wait here."

Terry nodded as Mrs. Peacock made her way to the security desk and made a call.

"Ah yes, I wanted to ask about... Oh, sorry, I thought I was talking to Controller. Sir, I have this person here from Brown Deliveries with five packages for Basement Level. One of the packages has to be signed for. I can have them wait and go down after the contest is over." Mrs. Peacock listened to the person on the other end, and then she said, "Understood. Goodbye."

By the reception desk, Terry glanced around at all the people sitting at desks in the next area and after a few minutes, Mrs. Peacock returned.

"Wear this around your neck," Mrs. Peacock instructed. "The ID badge will allow you to work the elevator, so don't lose it. It will only allow you to go up and down once, so make sure you have everything before you go to make your deliveries. I don't need to be bothered by you again." Mrs. Peacock motioned to a single elevator as she said, "Use the one elevator that is over there. Press the B button, and the rooms you are looking for will all be on that level. Do hurry... I would like you out of the building before our contest begins."

"Are you running some sort of game show?" Terry asked.

"You could say that," Mrs. Peacock replied.

"Is it like the Price Is Right?"

"No, I would say it is more like Survivor," Mrs. Peacock replied with a grin. "Remember to hurry and stick to the instructions written on the delivery slip."

Terry took the lanyard, put it on, and headed for the elevator with the dolly in tow. Mrs. Peacock watched until Terry reached the elevator, and then Ms. Peacock turned and went back to the two people, who remained of her group, that were still working on their paperwork.

In another section of the building, a control center was set up and a controller prepared to start the next contest. Five feeds on a wall in front of him showed video of five unknown locations and at each location, a mysterious person was represented only by their hands, an object, and a code name. Their faces never appeared on the feeds only their hands and the object. The first person, male, held a sword with a purple metal rose decorating its hilt. The second person, female, held a silver ink pen with a blue wolf imprinted on it. The third person, also female, had a bone china cup with a red phoenix on it. The fourth person, male, held a large clear marble with a yellow dragon on it. The fifth and final person, male, held a cane with a green serpent head and on his hand was a ring with a family crest. Each of these people sponsored one of the color teams, and they had selected these people from all over the country and brought them together for this contest. The Draft, as they called it, happened a month earlier.

Controller, who was a man in his early fifties with salt and pepper hair and blue kind of icy eyes, spoke to the people on the feeds, "Make your wagers. The Opening will begin in about an hour."

Purple Rose spoke first, and he said, "I wager Team Purple will outlast Team Yellow in Overall by ten minutes."

"I'll take that bet," Yellow Dragon spoke, and then he said, "I wager Team Yellow will have more points in the first minute than Team Red."

"I will take that bet," Red Phoenix replied. "I wager Team Red will have fewer freeze ups than any other team.

"I'll take that bet," Green Serpent said. "I bet none of the teams will have a winner," he spoke and then waited and when no one else said anything, he questioned, "No one wants to take the wager?"

"There has not been a contestant to win Opening in the last five years," Purple Rose stated.

"There might be if we were allowed to select a few of the elite from the Berlin Authority," Blue Wolf spoke.

"It would make for better wagering, but–" Green Serpent said, "–I for one don't wish to catch the eye of the Berlin Authority. If they catch wind of what we've been doing here, they will shut us down and–"

"The Mortem would be over," Controller interrupted.

There were a few moments of silence as everyone considered the consequences, and then Green Serpent asked, "Will anyone take my wager?"

Red Phoenix stated, "If you sweeten the deal, I might just take the wager this time. What are you willing to pay?"

"Ten to one."

"Not sweet enough," Red Phoenix said. "Make it fifty to one, and I will take the wager that there will be a winner of Opening."

"Deal," Green Serpent replied.

"Any wagers from you, Blue Wolf?" Controller questioned.

"None besides my standard wagers," she replied. "But Red Phoenix does have a point about no one winning Opening. Maybe we should consider changing some of the rules of the Mortem so that more contestants make it through Opening."

"No, I believe that will never happen," Controller told her. "The five of you only need to select better contestants during the Draft. Some of you have done well in the past. I believe you have just hit a run of bad luck."

"Five years worth," Green Serpent replied. "I believe it is high time that we have a winner for Opening just not this go around. I do want to win my wager."

"I am confused about one thing," Yellow Dragon spoke up. "Why do you tell the contestants that the game is called the Metrom and not the Mortem?"

Controller replied, "If you were them and the game was called the Mortem, wouldn't you want more information about it than the tidbits that we give them? It is best to keep them in the dark until there is no escaping the darkness."

There were other video feeds within Controller's room, and they currently showed footage of the Basement Level. Nearly all the areas of Basement Level were under surveillance. Some time passed, and Controller flipped a switch on his intercom system as he looked at the video feed of the lobby.

"Mrs. Peacock, are the teams ready to move out?"

"They are," she replied. "We had no need to substitute any players this go around, so I already sent the four backups home."

"Thank you, Mrs. Peacock," he told her, then turned his attention back to the Coaches, and said, "We are nearly ready to begin." Controller flipped a different switch so that he spoke to the contestants, and then he stated, "Purple, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow teams prepare to move to your designated elevators. It is almost time to go to the Basement Level. You have twenty minutes remaining so take that time to prepare for a game like no other."

Earlier and elsewhere...

The elevator Terry traveled in came to a stop on the Basement Level, and the cab doors opened. Terry walked out and looked around. The Basement Level was dark and only lit by torches that lined the walls every thirty feet. The walls and floor were made out of dark brown hardwood, and the place smelled old but not musty. The elevator opened to a hallway with only one way to go, so Terry followed it for about three hundred feet until it came upon a door at the corner. There was a black arrow above the door frame, and the arrow pointed down at the door. Terry checked the delivery slip to see if the symbol matched any of the ones on the instructions and found that the symbol did not. The hallway made a left turn and there was no other direction to go, so Terry followed it. The hallway was long and had no intersecting hallways that Terry could see. This stretch of the hallway was also different than the one that led to the elevator. Terry had excellent vision and had no problems seeing in dark places, but this hallway... it was almost like an unspeakable darkness was in the distance. The darkness seemed to devour the flame of the torches so that they weren't visible until Terry was about ten feet away from them. The fires should light up the entire hallway, but darkness prevailed in small patches between the torches. Terry walked the hallway and came to a second door, and it was on the left side. A small pyramid was above the doorframe. The pyramid was three-dimensional, and the symbol matched one of the ones on the delivery slip, so Terry grabbed the corresponding package and set it on the floor in front of the door, knocked, and left as the instructions stated. The third door Terry came across was on the right-hand side and had a bat above the doorframe, and the instructions again stated to leave the package at the door, knock, and immediately leave. Terry did so and continued on and came to a fourth door, and it was on the left side with a fish above the doorframe. The symbol was like a stick figure fish a child would draw. Terry left a package, knocked, and continued on. Terry came to a fifth door on the right with a beaker above the doorframe, set down the corresponding package, knocked, and left. Terry came to a sixth door on the left with nothing above the doorframe and continued on to a door on the right at another corner. The hallway ended at the corner, and a connecting hallway was split and ran in two directions. Terry couldn't see anything in this third hallway in either direction, not even the next torch if one existed. Terry turned to the door at the corner of the second hallway, and a spider decorated the area above the doorframe. Terry smiled at seeing it. The instructions for this door were different, so Terry grabbed the last package, knocked on the door, and entered, leaving the dolly in the hallway.

The area on the inside was different than the hallway; it was as if one had stepped into an old castle or maybe the dungeon of an old castle would be a better description. Terry expected to see old dried bones chained up to the walls along with all kinds of medieval torture devices but there was neither bones nor chains nor torture devices. Gray stones covered the walls and floor. Terry couldn't see if the gray stones also covered the ceiling for it was so high up and covered in a white webbing that Terry couldn't see it. The dungeon castle area was huge, larger than the room should have been, considering how big the corporation building was on the outside and how far Terry had walked through the hallways. Terry imagined it was how the Companions felt when they walked into the Doctor's TARDIS which was bigger on the inside than it was on the out. The TARDIS was bigger on the inside but that was science fiction and this was her reality. It was cold in the room or dungeon castle area, and a breeze swept in, blowing the white cobwebs of all different sizes. Terry carried the package a few steps in and noticed a white borderline on the floor ten feet from the door. The line stretched across the floor from one wall to the other and stood in front of Terry like a finish line of a race. The instructions had said to call out and keep walking until the resident was found but at seeing the white borderline which appeared to be made out of webbing, Terry decided to stay behind it.

"Hello!" Terry called out. "I have a delivery for you, and I need for you to sign for it."

Terry paused and listened and heard no one, so Terry called out again but louder, "Hello! I have–"

A thunderous sound filled the dungeon castle area as if a herd of buffalo was charging for the door. Terry thought about running for the entrance, but then a signal figure appeared in the distance, and the figure was running. Whatever the thing was, it was huge about twenty feet tall and about thirty feet wide, and it had multiple legs, eight in all. The creature continued running for Terry and then stopped about five feet shy of the white borderline. The momentum, the creature created from running, kicked up a gust of wind, and the windy wake filled with dust blew past and knocked Terry's brown cap to the floor.

The huge creature before Terry spoke, "At first I thought you were a man, but now I see that you are a woman."

Terry said nothing to the large creature's comments. She didn't even pick up the brown cap that had been blown off her head. Terry stared at the wondrously terrifying creature before her as if she was caught in a dream; it was the kind of dream one was afraid of but didn't want to leave. A giant red spider with black markings stood before her, but this spider was different than most. A woman's torso stuck out of the back of the red spider's head. The woman's torso was of a normal size if she had been human, and she wore a black kimono with red and gold flowers. The woman part of the creature looked like a beautiful Japanese woman with long black silky hair pulled up and kept in place with a flower hair pin. The torso part of her looked human except for her beautiful eight pitch-black eyes that were arranged on her face in a complimenting pattern. There was one small one on each side of her nose right on her cheekbones about the size of a pea, four larger ones along the line that human's eyes normally occupied about the size of a quarter, and two more in the center of her forehead that were about the size of cucumber slices. These eyes had human characteristics in that they could blink and that they expressed the spiderwoman's emotions.

"You do not look like one of the contestants," the spiderwoman spoke as she looked around the room as if searching for something.

"You're–" Terry started to speak as her eyes opened so wide her brown eyes could clearly be seen as thousands of thoughts filled her head.

"There should be at least seven more of you," the spiderwoman interrupted her. "Where is the rest of your team?"

"You're–" Terry repeated as she tried to form a sentence from the jumbled thoughts and emotions that filled her head and heart. She was terrified by what seeing this being meant to the world as she knew it. If this wasn't a dream, her world was about to change drastically.

"You do not seem as frightened by my presence as you should," the spiderwoman interrupted again. "Are you in shock?" The spiderwoman folded her arms as she peered angrily down at the one who intruded on her domain, and then she said, "You should be terrified by my mere presence. I believe you are in shock. I do not have the patience for such things. You need to answer my questions, and you need to answer them now."

"You're..." Terry repeated for a third time as she shook her head from the sheer dreadfully incredible surprise of seeing a being that shouldn't exist in her world. She thought this creature would be furious with her intrusion, but the spiderwoman almost seemed... she seemed irritated, and Terry also sensed she was somewhat disheartened over some duty she had yet to perform.

"I can only imagine what is going through your mind," the spiderwoman told her. "They never prepare you contestants for what you will meet down here. I almost feel sorry for you humans." The spiderwoman saw that the woman only carried a box, and she said, "They also usually give you contestants a weapon. Have you hidden yours? Has your team come up with some sort of sneak attack?"

"You're just like her," Terry finally uttered, but she didn't say it with panic seething out of her lips. She said it as if she was very happy to see this creature that should only exist in people's nightmares. "For the longest time, I thought I only dreamt about the lady or had made her up like an imaginary friend but here you are. You're just like her." Her heart joyously raced as shear unerasable enthusiasm filled her entire being as she stated, "If you exist, the lady must exist and if she exists, I can still find her."

"I have no idea who or what you are babbling about," the spiderwoman spoke. "Why do you not step over that line so we can begin the Opening?" The spiderwoman noticed the embroidered name on the woman's brown uniform, and she said, "Draw near, Terry. Let us begin."

"Umm... My name's not Terry. I just borrowed this uniform, and I'm not one of these contestants you keep talking about. I'm actually a delivery girl... er... woman. I have a package for you."

"A package for me?" the spiderwoman repeated. "I thought no one knew I was trapped here... unless... it is the person who put me in this prison or one of the other Residents. Who is the package from?"

The delivery woman glanced at the invoice and said, "It says it's from Noone."

"I know no Noone," the spiderwoman replied.

"Wait..." the delivery woman spoke and then laughed. "I think I get it. The package's not from Noone but from no one."

"I do not see how that is funny," the spiderwoman spoke. "Give me the package."

The delivery woman walked up to the white borderline, but she didn't cross it as she said, "I need for you to sign for it first."

She lifted a clipboard, the old kind that had a wooden base and a metal clip that held the paper in place, and an ink pen was attached to it by a string. The spiderwoman started to walk over to her, but she stopped, wary this was still a trick.

"What is this place?" the delivery woman questioned as she continued to look around the area. "You said you're trapped here and that you're a prisoner."

"We are on the Basement Level," the spiderwoman replied. "And I might have misspoken before. I am not really a prisoner though I do feel like one." She peered at the human curiously, and then she said, "You act as if you have seen my kind before. Are you sure you are not a contestant or perhaps a being I know nothing of?"

"I'm human, but I'm not a contestant. I have encountered your kind before," the delivery woman replied. "I met her a long long time ago."

"I am surprised you survived your encounter and was not devoured or was this other, who was like me, dead?"

"No, she wasn't dead, but she was injured," the delivery woman replied, and then she thought about her past, and the sorrow she had carefully sealed away leaked out as she mumbled, "The lady didn't devour me because I wasn't big enough." The painful memories remained with her a little longer, and then the delivery woman sealed them away again and questioned, "What sort of contests go on here, and who are the other Residents you mentioned?"

Controller's voice came over the intercom, and he said, "Residents of Basement Level, a new contest will begin in five minutes."

"It would seem that you have told me the truth about not being one of the contestants," the spiderwoman said. "Contestants are not allowed on Basement Level until the Opening has begone and if you are not a contestant, you need to leave. Quickly draw over here to this rock so that you can climb up it and hand me the clipboard."

The delivery woman started to go to her, but then she stopped before crossing the white borderline and said, "Give me permission to come into your lair, and I'll come to you, otherwise, you'll have to come to me."

"It would seem that someone taught you about the Kumo'sakai."

"She did," the delivery woman said. "We were good friends, so she taught me many things, including that a Kumo'sakai is a white borderline made of very sensitive webbing, and the one who created it knows when something crosses the Kumo'sakai even though it's not physically attached. Sakai means boundary. Your kind developed the Kumo'sakai because–"

"Friends," the spiderwoman scoffed, ignoring the rest of what the human had told her. "If she was your friend, tell me her name."

The delivery woman frowned and bowed her head as the painful memories of her childhood that still afflicted her caused the center-most part of her to hurt again. The sorrow, she could never get rid of, ate at the emotional barrier she thought she had successfully erected. The sorrow seeped out again and stained her heart with rejection, forcing her thoughts to go back to that time when she lost everything over an ill-conceived name.

"I thought so," the spiderwoman spoke, drawing the delivery woman from her thoughts. "Our kind would never be friends with your kind. We only take pleasure in eating your kind," the spiderwoman stated as she walked over to the human. Her body bowed low to the ground, and then the spiderwoman held out her hand and said, "Let me have that clipboard."

The delivery woman held up the clipboard and then lifted on her tippy toes to reach as far as she could, and the spiderwoman took the clipboard. The spiderwoman read over the delivery slip but found no other clues as to who sent the package. The delivery woman watched the spiderwoman, and the sadness drained from her heart and hope returned and that hope beamed from her face once again. The spiderwoman glanced at the human a couple times while she read, wary she might attack her while she was searching for clues.

"You have been smiling at me with this stupid grin since we met. I prefer when humans scream."

"Sorry, it's just that you remind me so much of the lady even the way you want to eat me."

"Now I do know that something is wrong with you," the spiderwoman told her as she handed back the clipboard after she signed it, and the human took it.

The delivery woman glanced back at the door as she questioned, "What is going on here? What is this place?" She faced the spiderwoman as she continued questioning, "Why are you down here, and why do you keep talking about a contest? It sounds to me like you're being forced to do something that you don't want to."

"I still cannot figure you out," the spiderwoman said. "Are you part of the contest? You seem all innocent but for some reason, I get this feeling that your... your... I almost laugh when I think about it, but I do believe you are dangerous."

"I'm only here to deliver packages," she replied. "But I do find it weird that–"

"Why are you still here?" the spiderwoman demanded as the sensation of fear intensified within her being. The other part of her, the giant spider, didn't seem to mind that this human was there, but she was becoming very wary of the human, and so she declared, "You should be running away by now but here you are speaking to me as if we are equals. I prefer when humans run, and you could also do me the favor of screaming as you do so if you are not going to cross the Kumo'sakai."

"I would like to talk to you a little longer. I'm just so excited to talk with one of your kind again. I still can't believe I found another like the lady. What are the odds? Maybe you know her."

"If you cannot tell me her name, I cannot help you," the spiderwoman told her as the sensation of danger intensified.

"I forgot about that," the delivery woman spoke. "I guess I'll never find her," she stated with a deep seeded sadness that seemed to resonate throughout her entire body, but then the despair quickly turned into joy again as she said, "At least, now I know that I didn't dream about her."

"If you are so keen on knowing names, why not tell me yours?" the spiderwoman said as she needed to know the reason why she felt this way towards a seemingly normal human.

"I have a designation, but it's not really a name. It's more of... How should I put it? It's more of what I am."

"Spit it out, human, there is not much time left before the Opening begins."

"I am Kein."

The spiderwoman laughed a little bit, and then she started laughing harder as she said, "You did not lie. If that is your name, I might as well call you baka."

"Baka? That word means fool. Kein means more of... Kein is..."

"No... No..." the spiderwoman interrupted as she continued to laugh. "From this time forth and until the day you die, to me, you will be baka."

Kein sighed as she received another name that belittled her, and then she asked, "What should I call you? And before you say anything, I'm not asking what your name is. I'm only asking what I should call you when I address you. I could call you Kumovon, but I don't think you want me to refer to you just by your people's name. It would be like you calling me human all the time."

"For you, you can call me, Shukujo, not that you will have much of an occasion to use it. If you are not a contestant, you will not be here long."

"Shukujo... I like it. It suits you," Kein said.

"Do you know what it means?" Shukujo questioned.

"I do. It means lady of refinement, and you are definitely a lady," Kein replied. "I can tell these things, and you're so pretty. You must be a Kumo'kozoku."

"You are definitely an odd human," Shukujo spoke. "But I am amused that you think of me as royalty."

"I would like to ask you a few more questions if I might," Kein said, and then she asked, "Can you leave?"

"What are you asking me?"

"Are you a prisoner here? You said you were and then you said you weren't."

"All the Residents are, but most of us are volunteer prisoners," Shukujo replied and then for the first time, she spoke with concern for the human as if a memory forced her worry to the surface from a place she had long ago buried it away, and she said, "You really should be leaving now. The Opening is about to begin, and I do not believe you will want to see what comes next. You appear to be a kind soul, not that I am sold on the mask you are wearing, but there is something about you that is somewhat familiar, so for the sake of that familiarity, I will tell you that you should leave before you see something that you cannot unsee."

"I would like to speak to you just a little longer," Kein told her, not sure what the Kumovon was implying. "I haven't talked with one of you in such a long time, and it feels nice to be able to speak with one of your race again."

Before Shukujo could reply, Controller came back on the intercom and stated, "Opening will begin in five, four, three, two, one..."

Soon groups of people could be heard shouting to one another outside in the hallway as they ran in all different directions across the wooden floor. About ten seconds later, Kein turned as the door burst open, and eight people rushed in. They were armed with either a sword, spear, or battle ax, and they rushed at the Kumovon, crossing the white borderline and attacking the twenty-foot creature. Kein started to go after the people to stop them from hurting her, but she paused before crossing the white borderline. She watched as the eight people attacked the Kumovon and then blood splattered her own face. It wasn't the Kumovon's blood, it was the eight people's. The humans never stood a chance against a creature such as she, and Kein stood there in shock as she watched the Kumovon tear apart the people as if they were paper dolls. The battle was over in less than a minute.

She stared up at the one who was like her teacher as the humans' blood ran down Shukujo's entire body. Kein never imagined the terror and the horror she visited day after day the seven months she knew the other Kumovon, the one she knew as the lady. Fear awoke in her and stirred, wanting to be released. The fear started at the middle of her spine and slowly burned up her back.

"Don't be afraid..." Kein spoke softly to herself. "Don't be afraid. Everything will be fine. Everything will be..."

Shukujo turned to her and saw a different expression on the human's face than what had been there minutes earlier. They had talked as if they had known each other for years, and the experience brought back pleasant memories, but now Kein stared at her as if she didn't recognize her as if she was terrified of her and that sight brought back terrible unpleasant memories.

"That is the look I was waiting on," Shukujo told her. "I will score quite a few points for that very expression. Now draw to me. Draw to me and cross the Kumo'sakai. Allow me to rip you apart as I ripped apart the others of your treacherous kind."

"Don't be afraid," Kein spoke louder as she edged her way towards the door behind her as flight or fight kicked in. "There is nothing to fear. Everything will be fine. Don't be afraid."

"Do you not see me standing here?" Shukujo questioned her. "There is a lot to be afraid of. I can deliver a wide range of deaths upon you, so do draw near and let me indulge in the pain I can deliver."

Fear swelled in her and grew so rapidly that she couldn't control it, so Kein turned, bolted out of the room, and entered the hallway as she heard more people screaming. She ran to the door with the beaker on it and flung it open, hoping to find a way out but instead, she came across a haze of purple smoke that made her a little dizzy. She saw a man in a white lab coat wearing a gas mask, and he was dragging one of his eight victims across the floor to the back of the room. Kein realized if she stayed in that room any longer either the gas or fear would be the end of her, so she fled the room and went to the next. She ran to the door with the fish on it, flung it open, ran in, and found she was standing at the edge of a dock. The dock was up high and looked over other docks of different levels that were mostly hidden from view by a thick white fog. Kein saw who she thought was a human man, so she climbed down a ladder to the next dock which wasn't covered in fog and approached him.

"Are you all right?" she called out to the man with his back to her.

"Stay back!" he screamed as he turned around and faced her. He was armed with a sword, and he shook it at her as if it was only a walking stick as he yelled again, "Stay back!"

"I won't hurt you," Kein told him. "And I'll stay right in this spot. Are you all right?"

"The others... They're all gone," he spoke. "The water," he started as he turned and faced the swamp. "The water took them, and now they're all gone."

Kein glanced at the murky waters as a different type of fear afflicted her, and she edged back a few steps as she said, "Why don't we leave? Come with me, and we'll leave."

They both could hear people screaming in the distance, and the man turned to her and asked, "What kind of contest is this? What kind of contest kills off its contestants?"

"I don't know," Kein replied. "I think we should leave." She waved him over to her as she said, "Please, come with me."

He took a step to go to her when a hand reached up out of the fog, snatched his leg, and pulled him over. The man managed to grab the edge of the dock as he screamed for her help, so Kein ran for him across the dock and dove for his outstretched hand, but she missed him, and he was dragged into the fog. She thought about climbing down to the next dock, but the sound of something large splashing into the water incited fear to return, and the burning fear residing on her back intensified, so she forsook the man and fled the room.

"Don't be afraid... Don't be afraid..." she kept repeating to herself as she ran into the hallway. "I'll find a way out. There has to be a way out!"

All the screams had died down by the time she reached the room with the bat. Kein opened its door, rushed in, and found a man lounging on a scarlet velvet couch in what appeared to be a parlor of an old Victorian mansion. There seemed to be a mist about the room, not like the purple smoke or the white fog of the other two rooms, but a red mist for hiding things. Kein wasn't frightened by the alluring man who had very attractive shoulder length black wavy hair that fell over his face and over the face of a woman he was embracing. Kein slowly drew to him as if she needed to be with him... as if she needed to stay by his side forever. She noticed he was kissing the woman on the couch with him, and Kein peered at her as if seeing the woman for the first time, and she felt herself flush. Kein realized what she had walked in on and started for the door to give them some privacy at a time she should be worried about her own safety, but then the man lifted his head, and his hair fell back into place. He turned to her and saw her, but Kein was no longer embarrassed to have disturbed them, she was afraid, very afraid. His eyes... they were all red as if they were full of blood, and she realized he wasn't kissing the woman but drinking of her. The shock reset her senses, the mist of the room lifted, and Kein saw that seven bodies laid scattered about the room and that they were all dead, drained of their blood. She turned her attention back to the vampire who once more took of the blood of his female victim, and the victim... she was still alive. The woman stretched out her hand for Kein to help her, but the burning fear that had been with her since Opening, warned her... it warned Kein she needed to run, so she ran. She abandoned the woman to her horrible fate, and she ran to the door with the pyramid on it, and then she opened it to find a desert land and some sort of Egyptian tomb. She didn't go in this time but stood at the threshold to see if this door would lead to an exit or only lead to more horrors that would be seared into her memory like some brand of terror. A small sandstorm encompassed the large room or maybe desert plain would be a better word for it, but Kein could still make out a tall mummy about seven feet tall covered in aged linen wrappings, but he was also donned in gold and other precious stones and gems as if he was once a great Egyptian Pharaoh. The mummy held a man by his throat as blue scarab beetles by the dozens came out of a hole in the mummy's other outstretched hand, and the scarab beetles attacked the man. The man screamed as the carnivorous beetles started to eat him alive, and all Kein could do because of her fear was shut the door. She couldn't save anyone. Everyone was dead or dying. She wanted so badly to help all those people, but her fear wouldn't let her, her fear still pushed her to escape, so she started for the elevator. Kein wanted to run, but she was barely able to walk towards the elevator as all the horrible images of carnage, torture, and death bombarded her mind. She passed the last door with the black arrow symbol on it and didn't bother to open it. Kein turned the corner and walked about ten feet from the last door, paused, and started to cry when she heard this howl. She turned and faced the way she had come, and she heard what sounded like something running on all fours towards her across the wooden floor. Her heart thundered in her chest as she turned and sprinted for the elevator that was three hundred feet away as the unknown creature drew close to the corner. She sprinted as fear made her run all the faster, and then she entered the cab and quickly pressed the lobby button, but nothing happened. The creature howled again before he turned the corner and ran towards her. Kein punched the Lobby button with her finger several more times, and then she hit the Door Close button as the hairy creature with sharp teeth neared. Fear seemed to split her back open along her spine as death on all fours approached, and Kein stepped back from the buttons to the very back of the cab. The brown hairy creature leapt just as the doors slowly closed, and the elevator shook as the creature hit. Kein collapsed to the floor as she heard the creature claw at the doors on the outside. She wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed. She was safe for now, so all she had to do was control her fear. Kein rocked back and forth, trying to console herself as she pushed back her fear.

"Don't be afraid," she whispered. "Don't be afraid... Everything's fine. There's nothing to be afraid of here. Don't be afraid."

Kein knew she didn't have time to cry, so she crawled forward a few feet, then leaned, and put her ear to one of the doors, and she heard the creature on the outside trying to claw its way in but eventually, he gave up and walked away across the wooden floor. Kein grabbed one of the railings and managed to stand and move back to the buttons. The fear that burned down her spine lessened and seemed to seal itself back up inside her, so she stared at the elevator control panel and with her mind at a calmer state, Kein realized why the elevator refused to obey her command to go up. She removed her ID badge and started to swipe it across the scanner when...

Moments earlier...

In Controller's room...

"I officially call the Opening done," Controller spoke. "Coaches, you may now satisfy all wagers."

The Coaches did so, but then...

"Actually..." Red Phoenix spoke up. "I have won our bet, Green Serpent. There is a winner for Opening."

"Are you talking about a survivor?" Green Serpent spoke up. "And are you referring to the delivery woman?"

"I am," Red Phoenix replied. "She is still alive."

"She isn't a contestant and all the contestants are dead so there is no survivor, and I win our wager."

"Controller, can we have a ruling on this," Red Phoenix requested. "Who won the wager?"

"Let me see... The rules state that anyone who is on a level when the contest begins becomes a contestant, so this delivery woman is now a contestant. Red Phoenix wins the wager. We have our first survivor in five years to make it past Opening."

Green Serpent grumbled, and then he said, "You will have your money within the hour."

Controller spoke, "Now that we have someone to survive Opening, we should talk about the next wagers."

Yellow Dragon stated, "This was my first Opening, so I'm still quite new to all of this. Can you explain the next step in the Mortem? Does this contestant become a Resident?"

"I almost forgot," Controller said. "You took over the coaching position of Yellow Fox after his untimely demise, so I should explain things in depth." Controller cleared his throat and then said, "The contestant doesn't become a Resident right away. The contestant must survive seven days with the other Residents, and then they become a Resident or they could kill one of the Residents, and then they automatically become one of the Residents." Controller paused, and then he said, "You see as Coaches, you each have one of the Residents as your player. You inherited Yellow Fox's Resident, and now it is your job to guide them through the Mortem. You can even give them gifts and equipment as you see fit, all so that your Resident may ascend to the next level, and by doing so, you are also taken to the next level."

"And each level we attain, we gain one of our wishes," Yellow Dragon spoke.

"Correct," Controller replied. "One of your minor wishes will be fulfilled, but you have to win the Mortem to gain your ultimate wish."

Purple Rose questioned, "How was a human, not part of the Opening, allowed onto the Basement Level, to begin with?"

"I am still looking into that," Controller replied. "She was delivering packages, and Mrs. Peacock called the high-ups and gained permission to send the delivery woman through."

"The high-ups? Do you mean one of the Mortem Masters gave her permission to send the delivery woman through? Now that is interesting," Purple Rose spoke.

Blue Wolf added, "If one or all the Mortem Masters allowed the delivery woman to go on through, they must be up to something. I believe I'm a little more interested in this delivery woman now."

"Back to what you were telling me about the wishes," Yellow Dragon stated.

"I am not allowed to divulge wishes of Coaches, but I can tell you the first three wishes of Yellow Fox since he is no longer with us. His first wish was that he would have sole ownership of his family's company. His second wish was that we could find a way for him to marry his mistress without losing half his fortune to his current wife. His third wish was that we could find a way to create a male offspring. Yellow Fox was sterile, so I believe we were thinking of cloning him if he ever made it to the third level."

Blue Wolf spoke up, "I believe that was more information than any of us needed to know."

"My other question is," Yellow Dragon began. "If this contestant becomes a Resident without killing one of the other Residents, who will be her Coach? Will you bring in a sixth Coach?"

"Only five Coaches are permitted for the Basement Level," Controller replied. "One of you will acquire her and have two Residents, doubling your chances of making it to the next level."

"It also increases our chances at losing money," Green Serpent spoke up.

"He is correct. Any failure by a Resident costs their Coach," Controller stated. "We can decide on a way to determine which Coach she will belong to if and when this Kein... I believe she said her name was, survives. There are seven days... I doubt she will make it past two, and speaking of which, let us make dead pool wagers."

"Before we get into that," Red Phoenix interrupted. "I would like to get to know our contestant since she was not part of the Draft. I would like to ask her a few questions."

Green Serpent spoke up, "I think we all would like to ask her a few questions since she wasn't part of the Draft."

"None of you are permitted to speak to a contestant," Controller told them.

"I never heard of such a rule, but I might have an idea to get around that rule," Red Phoenix said. "We can all ask her questions through you."

The present...

Basement Level elevator...

Kein removed her ID badge and started to swipe it across the scanner when Controller spoke over the intercom.

"I should tell you that if you leave now, you will not be able to return."

"Why would I want to return?" Kein questioned him. "This is a horrible place."

"You can make a lot of money playing the Mortem."

"I'm not interested in money," she told him. "I can't be here. I want to leave."

"Do you understand the position you are in?" Controller questioned her. "I'm not sure how you stumbled across the Mortem, but you are here now, and I can't let you leave. I should also add that you can't threaten us with people finding out that you are here. You're far below ground on a level that isn't in the building's blueprints and all video recordings of you on the premises have already been wiped. No one will find you here."

"I can't be here," Kein repeated. "You have to let me go. I can't be here."

"As I said before, I can't let you go unless..."

"Unless what?" Kein questioned.

"Unless you win. If you win the Mortem, I'll allow you to leave."

"Whoever created this contest is mad," she stated.

"I know," Controller replied. "This place is madness, but the only way you are going to escape is if you win."

"How do I win?" she asked, not wanting to know but buying her some time to think.

"It is simple–" Controller began, "–to keep going you have to survive seven days, but I should warn you, no one has ever won the Mortem."

"I understand why... It's impossible. I can't survive down here with all those creatures for seven days. I can't unless I kill them and..."

"Now you are getting the idea," he spoke.

"No... I won't kill. I won't pick up a weapon. There has to be another way. I can't stay down here seven days. Those creatures... fear will..." She tried to calm herself, but her anxiety made all her words flow incoherently as she said, "The monster will want to destroy... I'm afraid... and..."

"So is the nature of monsters," Controller stated. "They want to kill and destroy and that is why this Mortem is so much fun. Who can predict what anyone will do? Everyone, the Coaches, the Residents, even myself, we all have our own agendas, and we have to survive to make them come true."

"I don't understand what you're saying, and I can't be here," Kein insisted. "It's not safe... You have to let me go."

"Now I am the one who is afraid. I am afraid I can't let you go," Controller replied. "Think of it as you have no other choice but to survive, and it will make everything more... What is the word I am looking for?"

"Clearer?" Kein said as she moved to the center of the cab to see if she could spot a camera, but she didn't see one.

"No, fun was the word I was looking for or maybe entertaining. Now you can either survive or die that is up to you."

"And the creatures," Kein mumbled. "How do I stay down here and not–"

"Die?" Controller interrupted. "You will have to use whatever skills you possess. Now... enough chit-chat. You need to run if you are going to survive."

"Run?"

"Correct, run," Controller spoke. "I am opening the elevator, and our guard dog is waiting outside. He hasn't been fed in a few days, and he's very upset he wasn't able to snag a contestant for himself."

The cab doors opened before Kein could object, and the creature that had chased her turned at the sound. The creature was slightly smaller than her and completely covered in brown fur. He looked at her as he licked his chops.

"If you haven't figured it out yet–" Controller said. "–that is a werewolf pup. He is much smaller than an adult but still strong, and he is very very hungry."

The End

Monster Of Monsters #1

Part Two

# Mortem's Contestant

Monster of Monsters #1

Part Two

Mortem's Contestant

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2017, 2018

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Chapter Three

Stay Boy... Stay!

Kein (Kīn) entered the Knecht Ruprecht Corporation to simply deliver five packages to Residents living on the Basement Level but instead, she stumbled upon a deadly game called the Mortem in which she had become an unwilling contestant. She currently stood, trapped in an elevator with a werewolf pup on the other side ravenously waiting to sink his teeth into her.

Moments earlier...

The elevator cab kept her protected, but it also kept her trapped. Controller told her that she was far underground so maybe the elevator was more of a grave or a tomb. Kein heard the werewolf pup just outside, and she realized the cab was more of a slaughterhouse and the werewolf pup would be the slaughterer. Her fear was great and ever growing. She had to get out of the Mortem but there were certain things she should never do.

"No... I won't kill," Kein told Controller. "I won't pick up a weapon. There has to be another way. I can't stay down here seven days. Those creatures... fear will..." She worked on calming herself, but her anxiety muddled her thoughts so that her words flow incoherently as she said, "The monster will want to destroy... I'm afraid... and..."

"So is the nature of monsters," Controller stated. "They want to kill and destroy and that is why this Mortem is so much fun. Who can predict what anyone will do? Everyone, the Coaches, the Residents, even myself, we all have our own agendas, and we have to survive to make them come true."

"I don't understand what you're saying, and I can't be here," Kein insisted. "It's not safe... You have to let me go."

"Now I am the one who is afraid. I am afraid I can't let you go," Controller replied. "Think of it as you have no other choice but to survive, and it will make everything more..." he spoke, enjoying himself way too much, then paused as if trying to come up with something witty to say, and asked, "What is the word I am looking for?"

"Clearer?" Kein said as she moved to the center of the cab to see if she could spot a camera, but she didn't see one.

"No, fun was the word I was looking for or maybe entertaining. Now you can either survive or die that is up to you."

"And the creatures," Kein mumbled. "How do I stay down here and not–"

"Die?" he interrupted. "You will have to use whatever skills you possess. Now... enough chit-chat. You need to run if you are going to survive."

"Run?" she repeated as if the word was foreign to her.

"Correct, run," Controller spoke. "I am opening the elevator, and our guard dog is waiting outside. He hasn't been fed in a few days, and he is very upset he wasn't able to snag a contestant for himself."

The cab doors opened before Kein could object, and the creature, who had chased her, turned at the sound. The creature was smaller than her and completely covered in brown fur. He looked at her as he greedily licked his drool covered chops. He was nearly at the other end of the hallway about three hundred feet away.

"If you haven't figured it out yet," Controller said. "That's a werewolf pup. He's much smaller than an adult but still strong, and he's very very hungry."

The werewolf pup howled, excited he could resume the hunt, and he charged after her, snarling and barking. Kein had nowhere to run but the hallway, so she backed up into the cab.

"I need someplace to run to if you want me to survive past the next minute!" Kein yelled. "I can't run into one of the Residents' rooms. There has to be someplace else."

"Let me get a consensus from the Coaches," Controller spoke as if he would take his time in doing so.

The werewolf pup snarled and howled as he passed the halfway mark.

"Hurry!" Kein yelled. "Make this more of a contest than a slaughter!"

"Majority says you can use the Black Arrow room for the time being. It is the first one you passed when you first left the elevator and if you haven't figured it out by now, it is the one with the black arrow above it."

She squatted down as the werewolf pup ran the last ten feet. Kein waited for him to leap for her, and then she jumped up and in a feat, no human should be able to do, she used the wall behind herself to kick off and catapult herself over him. Kein landed on the floor, rolled to a standing position, and then took off running. The werewolf pup turned his body when he missed her, then immediately moved his arms and legs to change directions to give chase but instead of moving after her, he slid and slammed into the wall hard with a yelp. He whined a little more as if hurt, and then he slowly pursued her. It took him a while before he was back up to his top speed. Kein bolted for the Black Arrow room as fear urged her on at a frantic pace, and she reached the door and rushed in before the werewolf pup could overtake her. She slammed the door behind her, and the werewolf pup swiped at it and barked as he clawed at the door some more.

"There's no way I can survive here," Kein yelled through depleted breath as she leaned against the door.

Controller told her, "You just have to fight to survive."

"I can't," she insisted as she peered into the pitch black room she entered, and it appeared to be empty. "I can't fight."

"It is the way things are done here," Controller told her. "It is how the contestants have competed, but I guess skills are what they are and if you don't have them... if you can't fight... well... you will be someone's food or decoration."

"Fighting's not everything," Kein said. "I saw how that went for all of the other contestants. I can't fight. Make another way for me to compete or there won't be much of a contest."

There was a long pause, and then Controller questioned, "What do you propose?"

"There has to be a quicker way to win."

"You could kill one of the Residents to secure your position," Controller told her. "Kill one of them and you will immediately become a Resident."

"I can't. I won't," Kein spoke, and then she said, "Contests have rules so this one has to also. I would like to add some rules."

"Adding rules... Now that's an interesting proposition. What sort of rules would you like to add?"

Kein replied, "First, tell me what the Residents are after."

"Their freedom of course," Controller replied. "Each has a goal they must accomplish, and then they can move up to the next level or as I said before, they could kill one of the other Residents, and then they automatically move up."

"How many levels are there?"

"Quite a few," Controller answered, and then he added, "Only the Residents know."

"What is Shukujo's goal?"

"Who is this Shukujo?"

"The Kumovon," Kein replied.

"Did she tell you her name?"

"No," Kein answered. "I just call her that."

"I will use that name also," Controller stated. "As to your question, that information is Shukujo's, and it is hers to give or withhold. Now... Tell me your conditions or should I say rules you would like to add to remain as a contestant."

"It's simple..." Kein began, and then she stated, "The other Residents can't kill me."

"Other Residents? You sound like you are very confident that you will become one."

"I can be if you make the contest a little less..."

"Dangerous?"

"Exactly. This place is a death trap. Any room that I walk into could kill me the instant I enter. It's not much of a contest."

Controller laughed for a few moments, and then he said, "I imagine everyone would like to have that rule for themselves, but you must know that I can't do that. They can kill one another at any time they want to whether they are contestant or Resident."

"That won't do," Kein mumbled to herself. "I'm afraid the monster..."

"You should be afraid of the monsters," Controller told her. "I believe the contestants would be more afraid of them if they didn't think this was some televised reality game show. My fault, I am sure. I am inclined to tell people half-truths when it suits me."

She asked, "How about they have to answer three of my questions before they can kill me for that day? It would give me some breathing room."

"Questions would force the Residents to interact with you, and this level's Resident interplay with one another has become stagnate, so I think I like that rule. Let me see if the Coaches will agree," Controller said.

"Coaches? Who are these coaches you keep referring to?" Kein asked, and when he didn't answer, she said, "Hello..? You still there?"

Elsewhere, Controller's room...

"I like the delivery woman's idea," Blue Wolf spoke first.

"But to give her such leeway," Purple Rose stated. "Is it fair to the Residents?"

"I do not believe it is fair," Red Phoenix said, and then she added, "But what rules are? I would like to see a change come to Basement Level, and maybe these questions are the key to one of us moving up."

"Yellow Dragon, what about you?" Controller questioned.

"I'm undecided. Do we need a sixth Resident? I would prefer to move on without her in play."

"You would," Green Serpent told him. "You haven't been here that long, but as for one who is ready to move up at any cost, I'm for the questions. I have been here the longest of the Coaches present, and I believe the Mortem could use some new flavor."

"A show of hands then," Controller said. "If at least three of you raise your hands, I will allow this new rule."

Green Serpent, Red Phoenix, and Blue Wolf all raised their hands.

"I will let the contestant know," Controller spoke.

Basement Level, Black Arrow room...

"I have the Coaches' answer," Controller called out over the intercom. "The majority have agreed. Most of them think it will make things more interesting, but what about your wager?"

"What do you mean?" Kein asked.

"What thing of value do you have to bet with? You wanted to add a rule, so now you have to pay for it by making a wager."

"I don't know if it has any value, but it should be obvious what my wager is. You already forced me to bet it."

"What is that?" Controller questioned.

"I'll be betting my life."

"I guess you have already wagered it so for you to accomplish your goal, you must survive seven days. Now... besides the questions you agree to ask each Resident each day, the Coaches have a question for you. You will need to answer each one before we proceed, and the answer will only be given to the Coach who submitted the question."

"Who are these coaches?"

"They are the ones you don't see. They are the ones who are either for or against you."

"Kind of a cryptic answer," Kein said. "What are their questions?"

"First question. Who do you work for?"

"I work for Brown Deliveries."

"I already looked into Brown Deliveries," Controller told her, and then he informed her, "The company doesn't exist."

"Sure it does," Kein said. "I was just there before I came here."

"I suppose you are going to tell me you just started working there today."

Kein muttered as she put a hand to her pants' back pocket that held an invitation of sorts that she had read earlier, "Why do I feel like I've been set up for something?"

"I guess you answered that question as best as you could unless you are lying to us."

"I don't lie," Kein spoke and then added, "I try not to lie."

"Moving on," Controller said. "The second question. Who are you? Terry isn't your real name."

"No, Terry was just on the uniform they had me borrow. I am known as Kein."

"Third question. What is your taste in men?"

"Excuse me..?"

"Sorry, but one of the Coaches wanted to know what kind of man you like. Tall, short, fat, thin, handsome, rugged, filthy rich, etc."

"Can I pass?"

"Sorry, no. No one can pass unless the one who is asking the question allows them when a bargain has been struck," Controller answered.

"I guess kind," Kein replied. "I like a kind man. What sort of question was that?"

"I am not sure myself," Controller replied. "Fourth question. What sort of skills do you have? Do you know a martial art or maybe you are an experienced marksman."

"I don't think I have any skills," Kein answered. "I haven't found anything I'm good at yet that is worth mentioning."

"Final question and this one is a little odd..." Controller started.

She inquired, "Odder than the third one?"

"Afraid so, but what can I do but ask it?" Controller answered, cleared his throat, and questioned, "Of all the monsters that are on the Basement Level, who is the most terrifying and dangerous monster? You can take your time. You must need to think about it. There are so many to pick from and–"

"I don't need any time," Kein stated, and then she replied, "And the answer's easy. The most terrifying and dangerous monster is..."

Elsewhere, Controller's room...

"I never imagined she would answer the way she did," Controller muttered to himself, and then he questioned the Coaches, "Is everyone satisfied with her answers? Speak up now if you aren't. Good... well... You can always pay for one of the other Coaches' question and answer if you are curious as to any, but for now... let us begin. We will proceed to normal play now that Opening is finished. Does anyone at this time wish to put up their Resident for trade?"

"I actually would like to revisit something we already talked about," Yellow Dragon spoke up. "I think it would be interesting to have a sixth Coach join us. I like the wild card idea."

"I think we should bring in another Coach," Green Serpent voiced. "It will add more money to possible wagers."

"I am sorry, but five Coaches is part of the rules, and this rule can't be changed or amended," Controller stated.

Blue Wolf questioned, "How will we determine who will possess this sixth Resident if she should survive the next seven days or kill one of the other Residents?"

"The answer is easy if she should kill one of the other Residents," Controller replied. "She will belong to the Coach whose Resident was just killed."

"And what if she survives the seven days?" Red Phoenix asked.

Blue Wolf spoke up, "We could make it a contest."

Controller asked, "What sort of contest should we have to determine her Coach?"

"I know," Purple Rose stated. "Why don't we see who can earn the most off of her while wagering? We can all start with a thousand contestant points, and whoever has the most at the end, if she should survive the Probation Period, will acquire her as an additional Resident."

"I don't like that idea," Green Serpent stated. "If she should die before the end of the Probation Period, we would have wasted a lot of wagering with no monetary gain."

"How about this then?" Controller said. "All of you place a predetermined amount in the pot, and if the contestant should die, whoever has the most contestant points at her death not after, will gain the pot."

"I like that idea," Green Serpent replied.

"If no one objects, we will move forward with the Probation Period," Controller said. "Let us determine the pot amount, and then we can take wagers on the contestant."

Chapter Four

And Let The Probation Period Begin

Basement Level...

Kein slowly opened the Black Arrow room's door and cautiously peered into the hallway after Controller told her the Probation Period had begun and that she needed to go to one of the Residents' room to begin. He also told her that the Black Arrow room would no longer be available to her. Kein looked around the empty hallways and didn't hear the werewolf pup, so she quietly made her way to the door with the pyramid above the doorframe. Kein stretched out her brown gloved hand to turn the knob when she thought she heard a ghostly wind. It wasn't coming from the Basement Level; it was more like it was coming from the pyramid symbol itself. Kein lifted her gaze, and the moaning wind became louder, drawing her into an ancient time across the desert sands when men worshiped other men as gods. She saw a great Egyptian kingdom that was rich and prosperous. A wise king ruled over them, and the people seemed to love him. The king had a daughter, and he loved her dearly, he loved her more than his own life, but something terrible happened and...

Kein slightly pulled from the vision and spoke out loud, "A father is..."

She saw more images of this Egyptian king and his daughter. They were very close, and she got this sensation that tragedy and deception had separated them. A lot of pain came from the symbol of the pyramid and as she was caught up in this world that wasn't her own, there was one emotion that was stronger than anything else.

"A father loves his children more than himself," Kein spoke softly.

The emotions from that time wanted to pull her farther in, but fear kept her grounded, and Kein shook her head, ridding herself of some of the images and sensations in her head. She had heard the sound of the werewolf pup clawing at something, so she needed to move. Kein closed her eyes and opened them again, and the last of the images and sensations were gone, and she was mentally back at the Basement Level. She turned the knob and proceeded in.

The sandstorm which had ravaged the decrepit tomb was gone and so were all the dead people and there was no sign of the mummy. The outside of the tomb, which she had seen in one of her visions, had once been a magnificent golden pyramid rising high into the sky and was now nothing more than a few worn giant blocks forming an entrance into an underground tomb. The rest of the pyramid which had been on the surface had been at one point destroyed, and its foundation buried by the sands of time. Ritualistic sensations of death and rebirth that seemed to threaten her own life, emanated from everything around her. It made her dizzy with sympathy mixed with trepidation, so Kein turned around and headed back for the door but realized if she wanted to leave this place that kept her like a prisoner, she needed to complete her Probation Period to become a Resident.

She was a little afraid, but the burning fear wasn't present, so she managed to lift her voice and call out, "Hello... I'm Kein. I'm a contestant. I'd like to ask you a few questions. I'm trying to–"

The horrific moan, she had heard from the pyramid symbol outside, wailed from the corridors of the Egyptian tomb like some specter of her own doom as something came her way through the darkness of time itself. An upright sarcophagus appeared, floating a few inches off the ground and landed in the sand just outside of the tomb as if the sarcophagus was alive and standing on its own. Kein quickly backed up from it as sand and dust kicked up into the air. She covered her mouth and nose with her jacket to keep from breathing in the particles. The sarcophagus was laden with gold and other precious stones and gems symbolizing the prosperity of the land of Egypt, and it also bore the image of a man. The sarcophagus expelled a gasp and stale hot air escaped, and then it creaked open as if it hadn't been unsealed in a millennium, and Kein gulped as the mummy reached out his hand and pulled himself free of his eternal crypt. She saw his head next or maybe skull would be a better description. The dingy and aged once white line drooped around his neck as if the wrapping had once covered his skull. The mummy wore a royal headdress called a Nemes, and it had blue and white stripes with a rising gold cobra in its center. A fake beard was on his bony chin, and she couldn't tell if he was laughing or screaming in silence as his mouth lay partially opened. The rest of his body except for his bony hands and feet was covered in the aged white linen wrappings. The mummy lifted his bony left hand, the one the carnivorous scarab beetles had earlier crawled out of and devoured the poor male contestant, and the mummy reached for her as he started her way in a shuffle.

Kein slowly backed up as she said, "I'm competing in the Mortem now, and I'm here to... I'm here to ask you a few questions so that I can... I'm not sure what I'm trying to do but survive, so..." She continued backing up as she spoke or more like blubbered on, "I have questions for you. I'd like to know... umm..."

The mummy stopped, and then he stretched out his right hand and lowered his left as if he changed his mind about what sort of death he would rain upon her. The linen wrappings around the right arm shot out like a three-headed snake and seized her left wrist. Kein let out a scream and tried to break free of the dusty strips of cloth as images of a lush Nile world quickly flashed through her mind. The wrappings lifted as if they were tentacles, and they hauled her off the ground and pulled her toward the mummy. The burning sensation of fear returned, and all Kein wanted to do was escape the room before it was too late. She closed her eyes for a long time, but then the mummy grabbed her by her other wrist, and she reopened her eyes. He pulled her close so that they were face to face.

Kein trembled in his clutches as she dangled in the air. Fear wanted to act, but she resisted its urgent need to fight back and/or run. Her heart raced, and she found it hard to breathe in the dry air as the mummy seemed to study her.

"Don't be afraid..." Kein softly spoke to herself. "Don't be afraid. Everything will be fine. I still need to ask my questions."

The mummy opened its mouth and screamed at her, and it was as if a hot desert wind blew over her, and the burning fear started to crawl up her spine again. She knew she couldn't be afraid and she had to move forward, so the only thing Kein could think of to do was to ask her questions.

When Kein thought she had enough control over her fear, she forced herself to ask, "Question one, what is your name?"

The mummy again opened his mouth and screamed, and Kein closed her eyes until he finished his horrid hot vocalization.

"Your name please," she repeated once he was done as she trembled in his clutches.

The mummy screamed again, but this time when Kein opened her eyes, his mouth was still opened, and she noticed something.

"No tongue," she uttered. "You can't speak because you have no tongue."

The Mummy nodded his head.

"Oh... How are you going to answer my questions?"

The mummy released her one wrist and lifted his right hand, and a glowing light illuminated the tip of his bony pointer finger. He touched the center of her forehead with the light, and then she could hear him in her mind.

"I will answer your second question like this," the mummy replied, and then he stated, "And to answer your first question, my name is King Ammon."

"Second question?" she repeated, then remembered her earlier outburst, and she sighed before saying, "Oh, right... I never expected to waste a question right from the start."

"Are you the one who survived the Opening?" he questioned her.

"I am."

"Who did you kill or betray to accomplish such a feat?"

"I..." Kein started as she wanted to reply that she killed and betrayed no one, but then she thought about the man and woman she abandoned who she might have been able to save. "I was a coward," Kein finally replied. "I ran and helped no one. I let people die, and I thought only about surviving. I made it through Opening only because I was selfish and afraid."

"A surprisingly honest answer, but you are no less deserving of death for abandoning your friends and comrades."

"You're right about what I deserve. I should have helped those people. I shouldn't have run away even if I didn't know them."

"What sort of death will I give you?" he questioned her.

"I'm supposed to ask you questions before you kill and/or eat me," she replied, and then she added a little bolder, "Actually, you have to answer all three of my questions before you can kill and/or eat me."

"What is your final question then?" King Ammon inquired.

Kein didn't like the way he phrased it, but she said nothing about it and stated, "Umm... I don't know if you heard me before, but I'm Kein, and I'm a delivery woman, and I bring things to people. You received a package earlier. I brought that."

King Ammon turned his gaze to the tomb as he spoke in her mind, "I did receive a package. I was not too happy to receive it."

"Oh... Sorry to hear that."

"Ask me your final question so that I may answer it and kill you."

"I would prefer that you not kill me."

He glared at her with his empty eye sockets that flashed yellow with anger, and then they flashed red with rage as he demanded, "Ask your question."

Fear awoke once more, more than it had done in nearly her entire life, and Kein took a deep breath, betting her life on her next words and asked, "If there was one thing that I could bring to you or one wish I could help you fulfill, what would it be?"

King Ammon peered at her for a long time as if he was actually considering her question, and then he muttered, "One wish..."

He raised his left hand close to her head near her temple to probe deep into her mind, but it wasn't necessary for him to seize her thoughts. Images common to his own homeland freely flowed between the two of them, and they were of a striking cobra and a stinging scorpion. One of those images was very strong with the human, and the other image was very strong with the one he loved more than his own life. King Ammon glanced behind himself into the tomb as if seeing someone who wasn't there, and then he turned his attention back to Kein.

"Yes, one wish," she replied as fear burned up her spine once again to the point of almost splitting apart her back as if fear would tear itself from her body. Kein knew the mummy's next answer would determine what the monster would do as she repeated her question, "Do you have one?"

"I... I would have you..." King Ammon spoke as he looked her over. "I..." the mummy started again as he lowered her to the ground, and then he answered, "I would have you bring me the Waters of Life."

"Waters of Life? What is that?"

"You are out of questions, Daughter of Fear," King Ammon told her and started for his sarcophagus.

"So you're not going to kill me?"

"You are out of questions," King Ammon repeated.

"Wait! How can I hear you? I thought you couldn't speak and that light thingy isn't touching my head anymore."

He didn't say anything.

"Right," Kein mumbled to herself. "No more questions." She started for the door, then turned, and yelled over her shoulder, "I'll see if I can find this Waters of Life for you and if I do, I'll bring it to you."

She left and carefully and quietly entered the hallway, looking for the werewolf pup. He was nowhere in sight, so she made her way to the door with the bat above its frame. Kein looked up at the symbol, and she thought she heard a woman laughing in a sinister way as a red mist of deceit clouded the vision. Kein entered and found the male vampire waiting for her. The area was clear of victims and almost seemed warm and inviting if she didn't know any better. The handsome vampire had hair dark as night and eyes pale blue as the moon, and he lounged on a red velvet couch in what appeared to be a parlor in a Victorian style mansion. Oil lamps lit up the area, and Victorian wallpaper and a lavish coffee table finished off the room. The vampire wore a red Lombard silk vest, white Excelsior dress shirt with an unbuttoned high collar, Livingston black brushed cotton trousers, and an undone black Paisley Ascot. A Victorian black top hat rested on the coffee table, and a black Donavan Frock Coat was laid over the couch.

"Ma chère, I've been expecting you," he spoke with a Cajun accent. "Come... Come closer, so that I can see your eyes."

Kein took a step back and reached out her hand, searching for the door behind her.

"I've been told that you will have three questions for me. I look forward to them. I'll tell you anything you want to know, ma chère. Just come... come closer. We can become good friends."

The red mist filled with pain and misery, she had seen in her mind before entering, vanished from her thoughts as a seductive sensation flowed in, embracing her as if with loving masculine arms. This new sensation entered her lungs and seemed to caress her skin. The sensation didn't make her afraid, it actually caused the opposite. Kein felt very relaxed, and she was tempted to go and sit beside him, but fear screeched out a warning and coaxed cowardice into her being, and she knew she had to get out of that room or she would never leave. Kein frantically searched behind herself, found the doorknob, turned it, and ran out without saying a word to him. She was so bombarded with desires, she didn't understand and flustered over the fact that she had these desires, that Kein forgot to check the hallway before she entered, and the werewolf pup was at the door with the black arrow, sniffing around it.

"Where are you?" the werewolf pup angrily called out. "Where did you go?"

He hadn't seen her yet, so she crept up the hallway towards the door with the fish on it. The werewolf pup caught wind of her and turned and raced for her, but Kein ran and managed to reach the door and enter it before he came snapping near her.

Kein made sure the werewolf pup didn't follow her in as she stepped back from the door and stared at it. This door also talked to her, not in words but images. She saw a beach and the waves crashing against it, and then the imagery pulled her into the ocean and into its gorgeous depths. She saw a great city beneath the water and... the images faded in blood and fire, and she saw no more.

"A sibling is... A brother is..." she spoke softly, then turned, and faced the room.

The white fog from earlier was all gone, and Kein could clearly see her surroundings. She had stepped into what looked like a giant swamp that went on before her as far as she could see and there were wooden docks stretched out over the murky water in no apparent pattern. She was actually standing on one of the docks, but it was up in the air about twenty feet from the water. Cypress trees with Spanish moss hanging down from them filled the swampland along with patches of tiny islands of floating vegetation. Insects, reptiles, amphibians, and other swamp creatures could be heard croaking, slithering, and splashing as they went about their daily lives. The air was thick and muggy, and the humidity made her sweat. Kein walked to the end of the raised dock and looked at a ladder that proceeded down to a dock that was about ten feet above the water. Another dock proceeded from that one, and it was about five feet above the water. The rests of the docks, as far as she could see, were sitting right on top of the water. There were also hundreds of chests scattered around the area like one might see a pirate store his loot in. Kein decided to stay put on the dock that was twenty feet up. She felt safer there. Kein didn't like this place. There was too much water so she hurried on with her objective.

"Hello... I'm Kein. Is anyone there?"

The murky water near a lower dock stirred as if something large swam just beneath its surface. A hand lifted from the waters like a drowning swimmer in need of help, but this hand was webbed and dark green. Another hand emerged and joined its brethren on the dock, and then a fish-like creature in human form lifted and came to rest on top of the dock. Water dripped from his form and landed on the wood, darkening the brown in spots and splashes. He wore tight-fitting yellow swim trunks.

Old black and white movies came to mind, and Kein muttered, "Creature from the Black Lagoon."

The fish-like creature peered at her for a long time, and then he questioned, "Did you say your name was Kein?"

"I said that I am Kein," she replied.

"Is there a difference?" he questioned her as gills on the side of his neck flapped opened as if they breathed the air.

"I've been told it's not really a name," she answered.

"I see," he stated. "It has been a long time since a contestant survived Opening. Tell me... How did you do it?"

"I never actually competed," Kein replied. "I mostly cowered and ran away."

"I see," he said. "I am still curious... Others have also cowered in the past and yet they did not survive. How did you manage to?"

"I don't know how to answer you. I actually wasn't competing in the beginning. I was only down here to deliver packages."

"So you are the one who brought me my package?" he questioned.

She nodded.

He told her, "I wish you had not brought me that package."

"I'm sorry, but I really have no say in what I do deliver or don't deliver."

"I am amazed by how quickly you have accepted your current situation," he told her as he peered at her with his large greenish-blue fishlike eyes. "Most would have frozen up or denied this was even happening by now. I remember a contestant who did survive over ten years ago, and he went insane by the time he became a Resident and killed himself."

"A grim story," she said, and then Kein stated, "I prefer ones with happy endings." She walked to the end of the twenty-foot dock, grabbed ahold of the railing that nearly surrounded it, and gripped it as if it was the only thing keeping her from falling into the water, and then she said, "I've been told that I adapt very quickly."

He moved and climbed up to the dock that was five feet above the water, and then he stopped and said, "Do you have three questions for me?"

She nodded and asked, "What are you?"

"I am a Piscispopulus or what you may know as an Atlantean," he replied.

"Piscisp... Piscispopulus is a little hard for me to pronounce, so I'll call you, Atlantean or maybe I could call you, Flounder."

"I am not sure I understand how that name would suit me."

Kein thought about it, and then she said, "I was making a reference to the Little Mermaid."

The Atlantean stated, "I do not remember a character with such a name in the book I read."

"You'd have to see the Disney version of the movie."

She squatted so that she was more eye level with him and said, "Something seems off about this place or maybe what I'm trying to say is... the two of you don't mix."

"Why would you say such a thing, uplander? Do you know a lot about my people?"

"I've never heard of your people," she answered. "I just get this sense that you don't belong here."

"You are correct. I do not belong to your world."

"That's not true," Kein spoke. "I meant this world that's depicted in here... It's all wrong for you. There should be a... a..."

"A shack?" the Atlantean inquired. "Do you believe I should have a shelter above the water?"

"No, that's not it. There should be a... an... ocean," Kein spoke as she remembered the earlier imagery. "You're from the ocean, and yet they put you in a swamp."

"It is my prison," he told her, and then he moved and climbed up to the dock that was ten feet off the water.

"Would you mind not coming any closer?" Kein questioned from her squatted position. "I really don't know you, and I'm very afraid of..."

"Afraid of what?" he asked when she didn't finish.

"I'm afraid of drowning. I never learned how to swim beyond flailing my hands about and screaming."

"No one would call that swimming," he told her, and then he asked, "What do drowning and myself have in common that you do not want me to come any closer?"

"I keep seeing this image of that guy you dragged into the water," she replied. "He was up here and then in a moment, he was gone, and I heard splashing. I imagine you drowned him."

"I will stay right here," the Atlantean told her. "What is your last question?"

Kein smacked her forehead as she said, "I did it again. I wasted a question."

"Ask your question. I would like to return to the water."

"If there was one thing that I could bring you, what would it be?"

"I see now," he spoke with a smirk on his face. "You hope to survive by presenting yourself as a way for us to obtain things. What makes you think we cannot attain these things on our own?"

"This place is a prison. I don't imagine prisoners have it easy getting what they want."

"Salt..." he spoke, then turned, and headed back the way he came.

"Salt..? That's it? You don't want the Salt of Life or something unusually sounding like that?"

"You asked a fourth question," he stated and then jumped into the water.

She straightened and muttered to herself, "You'd think if the Residents wanted these things so badly, they'd allow me a few extra questions."

Kein cautiously left the room, glanced at the bat door in the distance, then went to the door with the beaker over it. She opened the door and peered in. The purple haze was gone and so was the pungent smell, and the man wearing the white lab coat no longer wore a gas mask. He stood before a table lined with beakers and tests tubes full of a rainbow of different liquids. He appeared to be human with dark black unkempt hair, long sideburns, and a scruffy face. There was someone else in the room to her right. A tall man about eight foot tall with stitched scars all over his body as if he had been sewn together. His eyes were closed, and he was strapped to an examining table tilted straight up at nearly a ninety-degree angle. There was a four-foot by eight-foot shelf behind the examining bed, and it was about six feet from the side wall. The shelf contained clear glass jars of liquid. She glanced to her left and saw three fire extinguishers lined up on the wall near the door. She turned back to the eight-foot man curious as to why he was there and seemingly dead.

"Frankenstein's monster..." Kein muttered to herself.

"I am a very busy person," the man in the lab coat told her. "Ask me your three questions."

"What are you working on?"

"Something that you couldn't even comprehend. Ask me your next question."

"Do you have salt or the Waters of Life?"

"Salt I have, but technically you inquired about two separate items, meaning you asked a third question. Do you want the Waters of Life to be your final question?"

"No, my final question is... what could I trade with you for the salt?"

He looked up for the first time and stared at her as he said, "You appear to have nothing of value on you."

"Maybe you want something that I can acquire for trade for the salt."

"There is something, but I doubt you will be able to acquire it for me," he told her.

"You won't know until you let me try."

"Answer a question for me first," he said. "What is my name? I am very famous."

Kein glanced back at the eight-foot man, and then she moved closer to the table and noticed that there was a curtain behind the man in the lab coat, and she noticed through the part in the curtain that a desk was back there.

"Before I answer, may I go look at your desk?"

"Another question, but I will allow it, that is the question and the permission," he told her, and then he instructed her, "Do not touch anything."

Kein went to the desk and looked over a few notes he had strung all over the top. She didn't understand anything that was written down, and then she saw several bookcases, went to them, and looked over the volumes he had there. There were many many books on different subjects mostly having to do with science, but there were three books that caught Kein's attention, and they were: Multiple Personality Disorder, Genetically Engineered: Are Super-soldiers Possible?, and Examining The Dark Side of Human Nature.

"I have my answer," Kein told him as she returned through the curtain and stood by the table so that she faced him. "You actually have two names. I believe I am talking to Dr. Jekyll, but you're also known as Mr. Hyde."

He set down the test tube he had been examining and peered at her curiously. He turned, went through the curtain, glanced over his desk, glanced at the bookcases she was looking at, then returned to his table, and stared at her some more in amazement.

Kein asked him, "Why do you have Dr. Frankenstein's monster?"

"He does not belong to me. He was only in this room when I was put in here," Dr. Jekyll replied, and then he added, "I can tell you that he is incomplete."

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"Pieces of him have been removed like his heart. The monster is still alive, but he has never awoken since I have been here," Dr. Jekyll answered, and then he asked, "How did you know my name?"

"I know quite a bit about Dr. Frankenstein, and he had no interest in some of the subjects that are represented in your books."

"Your answer tells me how you knew I wasn't him, but I want to know how you knew it was me."

"I only guessed," she said. "You're the only doctor I have studied other than Dr. Frankenstein."

"What sort of school did you go to that you would study about us?"

"I really didn't go to school," she replied. "It was more like... I was taught things by different people," she answered, and then she questioned, "Do you want to trade?"

"I was going to murder you and use your body in an experiment I'm conducting, but I can do that later. I will trade with you if you can bring me vampire saliva."

Kein made a face as she stated, "I'll see what I can do. I'll need something to put it in."

Dr. Jekyll handed her a small glass jar with a lid, and she pulled her single strap brown backpack to the front of herself and placed the jar in the backpack's small zipper pocket on the front. Kein spun the backpack back around so that it rested on her back, then went to the door, peeked her head out, and saw no signs of the werewolf pup. She glanced at Shukujo's room, then decided she really needed to talk to the vampire first, so she went to his room instead. The male vampire was still lounging on his red velvet couch when she walked in.

"Ma chère... You have returned. I thought I had scared you off. Come... Come closer or better yet come and sit," the vampire told her as he patted the cushion seat next to him on the couch, and then he said, "Come, sit beside me. We have much to talk about. Come... Come... We will be friends."

The sensation of ease swept over Kein again within the light red mist, and she took a step to go to the couch and sit beside him, but fear spoke up and blazed alarm through her body, shaking off the effects of ease. She fled the room again without talking to him and headed for Shukujo's room. Whispers and images flowed down from the spider symbol above the door, but this time Kein forced herself not to listen as fear angrily shouted at her for doing dangerous things. She entered, made sure to stay behind the white borderline, and called out.

"Shukujo, I've returned. I haven't gotten eaten yet."

"I can see that," Shukujo said as she spun down on a very large spider thread and landed on the floor about twenty feet away from the human. "I thought you would be very dead by now, but I hear that you survived Opening." Shukujo crawled toward the Kumo'sakai and stopped before crossing the boundary as she spoke, "It is ironic that a delivery woman, one who was never selected in the Draft, would be the one who was victorious."

"I don't feel victorious," Kein told her. "I feel..."

"I do not care, human. I have even forgotten your name, not that it is important to me, but I am still surprised... You seem so ordinary to me. No, you seem especially ordinary and yet..." Shukujo stated as she put a hand on the back of her own neck as if it hurt, and she continued, "I still feel as though you hold something dark and sinister over me like some long-forgotten secret."

Kein hadn't stopped talking when Shukujo interrupted her but mumbled to herself, "...isolated and afraid. I don't know how I'm going to survive here."

Shukujo dropped her hand from the back of her own neck as she said, "Did you hear a word that I spoke to you or were you so rude as to speak while I was speaking?"

"Umm... Wasn't I talking first?"

"No matter," Shukujo snapped. "You have a new job in this Mortem. I suggest that you get on with it."

"Right..." Kein spoke and then asked, "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course, I mind. I would sooner devour you than talk to you, but Controller has told me I must answer three of your questions first and then I can devour you."

"Whoa..." Kein exclaimed as she stepped back and put out her arm to steady herself. "I really need to sit down and rest first. I didn't realize how tired I was," she stated as she went and sat in a corner on her side of the white borderline. "Oh... That's much better. I thought being a delivery woman would have me on my feet all day, but I didn't expect to be running and screaming in terror so much."

"I would like to thank you for that," Shukujo told her. "I did earn quite a few points off of you."

"Must be nice. You know a lot about the Mortem, and I'm... I'm playing catch up to a speeding train."

"It is nice," Shukujo replied as she spread her arms and motioned slightly with her head to her new clothing. "I was able to purchase this kimono that I am wearing."

"Oh... wow..." Kein uttered as she looked at the red silk garment with white flying cranes and gold highlights, and then she said, "It's very pretty and suits you. I really like the pattern on this one. It makes me want to fly among all those birds as they soar freely about."

"Thank you," Shukujo said. "I just happened to pick out this pattern for the freedom it represents."

Kein sighed and said, "I need to make points. There are things that I'll need."

"I noticed that you went to that deplorable vampire's room twice. I thought maybe you were already under his spell, but I see no puncture marks on you anywhere. Has he hidden the bite marks so that I would not see?"

"I never got close enough for him to bite me," Kein replied, and then she sighed again before adding, "I still have to go back. I can't seem to ask my questions, and I have to ask all five of you three questions before my day is considered done and over."

"Your face is turning an interesting shade of red," Shukujo spoke, toying with her. "Is it because of the vampire?"

"I think so," Kein answered as she put both her hands on her own cheeks. "Every time I go there I get this weird sensation. I don't know how to describe it. The red mist it's..."

"Love," Shukujo told her. "You have fallen in love with him."

"Really..?" Kein uttered. "I can't believe someone like me has discovered love but... I thought there was more to it than being unable to talk and wanting to run away from the person in fear for one's life."

Shukujo lifted her hand so that her robe covered her mouth as she softly laughed at her naivety, and then she lowered her arm and said, "I actually should say that he is using his vampire lure on you. Vampires can replicate human hormones that attract the opposite sex."

"Vampire mojo," Kein uttered. "I have heard of that, and I was warned to stay away from vampires and their wilds."

"Warned?" Shukujo repeated, scoffing her. "Most of your kind does not know that creatures like us exist, so how could someone warn you or do you speak of movies and books that glimpse into our world?"

"Maybe I phrased it wrong," Kein answered. "I was warned that I should be wary of men who only have one thing on their minds. I wasn't exactly told what that one thing was, but I should be wary of it."

"Baka..." Shukujo uttered in a hearty laugh. "I remember your name now. Baka..." she laughed again. Shukujo chuckled some more, and then she said, "You can make me laugh. I do not know if you are this naive or if this is some sort of act to lower my guard."

"No..." Kein sighed for the third time. "This is me." She watched Shukujo for a while, and then Kein said, "Your entire being changes when you laugh. You look very happy when you laugh. It's like you're thinking of something or someone."

"How did I look to you before?"

"Angry, not with rage but with... almost sadness and this anger consumes you," Kein replied. "Is your happiness and your anger..? Are they over the same thing?"

"I cannot deny what you have observed, but I still will not answer," Shukujo told her. "I do warn you not to pry too far."

"I know," Kein replied, thinking of the lady and how little she knew about her. "Your kind like their privacy so much so, you only let family and friends into your lives." Kein thought about the spider symbol above the door and how she purposely ignored the visions that came with it as she stated, "I will respect your wishes."

"You are wise to do so, baka," Shukujo told her, and then she said, "I do not believe you were this talkative with the other Residents."

Kein thought about it, and then she said, "I don't know what it is, but I find it so easy to talk to you. I'm also not afraid here, so I can be myself."

Shukujo grinned, and then she said, "I find our talks only annoying, and yet... there is something else about them that I cannot describe."

Kein also smiled as she mumbled to herself, "A sister is..." She found some comfort sitting in the cold dungeon castle area, so she rested a few more minutes and then said, "I guess I'll get to asking you some questions now. Do you know where I can find the Waters of Life?"

"I do," Shukujo replied.

Kein waited for her to finish telling her and when Shukujo didn't, Kein asked, "Where are the Waters of Life?"

"In the middle of the swamp where that Atlantean lives."

"If there was one thing that I could get you, what would that be?"

"That one is easy but that is your sixth question. I have been generous since you made me laugh, baka, but my generosity has limits."

"Seriously! I can't seem to get my head in this Mortem," Kein scolded herself. "I should have asked for ten questions per Resident, so I'd have seven in reserve for stupid mistakes like this."

"I will answer this seventh question of yours for I do want you to know the answer."

"Thank you," Kein replied as a warmth she hadn't felt in years filled the large empty space in her heart.

Shukujo noticed the human looked at her as she did when they first met, and she wasn't sure that she liked it, so Shukujo told her, "If there was one thing that you could to for me, it would be for you to cross the Kumo'sakai and come and stand beside me on this side."

"You don't mean standing beside you in a good way, do you? You don't need to answer that one," Kein told her as the small comfort she had found trickled away, leaving the large space hollow and void, and then she stated, "It seems all Kumovons like to talk to their food before they devour it."

Her cruelty had its intended effect, and the human's expression became one of despair as Shukujo replied, "Not so much for me but in this case, it would seem that I have to wait, so I might as well talk."

Kein remembered the lady had told her something similar in the past, and every time she thought of the lady, she couldn't help but feel love and heartache all at the same time. Her treasured past filled her with so much joy, and yet it also caused her so much pain to remember how it all ended.

"You have that stupid grin on your face again," Shukujo told her.

"Sorry, I can't help it," Kein told her as she smiled even bigger, but that smile only masked her loneliness. "You just remind me of her so much."

"Her..? Your Kumovon lady..? She must have really wanted to devour you."

"I guess," Kein replied as her smile vanished. She thought about Headmistress Blindheart's words about clans and houses, and then she stated, "I thought so... but I'm not sure anymore."

"How many days did you know her?" Shukujo questioned. "I will be surprised if you say past three."

"Over seven months," Kein replied. "I'm not very good at math, so you'll have to figure out the days for me."

"What was wrong with the Kumovon? I cannot stand being in the same room with you for over two minutes. How did she go that long without killing you?"

Kein thought about it; she didn't really understand the danger she was in when she was a child but thinking back now, she wanted to know why the lady never ate her.

"I will answer you if you will answer one more question for me," Kein said.

"A bargain has been struck," Shukujo stated.

"Huh?" Kein replied.

"You must also say a bargain has been struck and then our deal has been made and neither of us can go back on it."

"Oh..." Kein spoke, and then she said, "A bargain has been struck." Kein then began her tale, "The Kumovon or the lady as I called her was injured as if she had been in a fight. She never went into great detail as to how she got hurt, and as to why she never devour me, she said I wasn't big enough. She said that I was a little morsel."

"You were a child then. You still must have been an annoying child," Shukujo stated.

"I probably was. I wanted her to constantly teach me new things and tell me about your people. She taught me a lot about the world and a little about herself and your people." Kein mumbled, "I think I was naive back then. The lady was never going to devour me."

"I would say you were naive since you are very naive now," Shukujo told her, overhearing her whispers, and then she inquired, "What is your final question?"

"Tell me about your family."

"What sort of question is that?"

"It can be any little thing," Kein told her, and then she asked, "Do you have brothers or sisters? What was your mother or father like?"

"What do you think is going on here? Do you think by asking me such a question we will become friends somehow? I will not answer it. Our kind can only be enemies," Shukujo yelled at her, and then she hissed, "The name I picked out for you does suit you."

"Shukujo," Controller spoke over the intercom. "It looks like you will be penalized for refusing to answer a question you know the answer to. It might not be of the original three, but a bargain was struck."

"What do you mean?" Kein asked.

"He means..." Shukujo seethed and then screamed at Controller, not in anger but more out of terror. She took a few steps back into her lair as she answered Kein, "He means that a punishment is coming."

Shukujo turned to run deeper into her lair, but metal chains shot out of the walls and grabbed hold of each of her eight legs.

"There isn't any running from punishment," Controller said. "I do enjoy it when all of you try but there isn't any running from punishment. Now... I only need to select your penalty. Let me see... I used fire last time, so... What about scorpions? I know how you really love scorpions."

Small walls on each side of the dungeon castle area slid up, and scorpions the size of large dogs crawled out and started toward Shukujo as if they were an invading army, and she was the fortress they needed to storm.

"Keep them away!" Shukujo shrieked. "I hate those filthy things. I hate them! I hate how they peer into your mind and past. Do not let them touch me!" She screamed at them, "Stay back or I will eat you alive! Keep away from me! Keep away from me or I will eat you!"

Kein stood from the corner and started toward Shukujo, but she stopped right at the white borderline. She gazed at the horde of scorpions with a sense of dread she hadn't felt in a long time, a dread that had been a constant and familiar companion, and then she yelled, "You can't do that to her!"

"Why can't I?" Controller questioned. "Rules are rules. She didn't answer your additional question, so she must be punished. Shukujo knew this when she made the bargain. She has been a Resident here for a long time."

"Stop, don't do this! You can't do this."

"You never answered my question as to why I can't," Controller said.

"You can't because... You can't because..." Kein repeated as she tried to think of a way to save the Kumovon without putting herself in jeopardy. "You have to stop! She answered my additional question. That was the bargain we struck. She just had to answer another question, and she did. She told me what happens if a bargain is violated!"

The scorpions stopped as if they heard some sort of unspoken command, and then they returned to the walls they had crawled out of. The chains that confined Shukujo released her and returned to their holds, and Shukujo breathed heavily as if she couldn't catch her breath. She glared at the scorpions as they left in their victorious march. They might not have stormed the fortress, but they frightened the Kumovon to her very core.

"I hate them," she muttered. "I hate them more than the Hanta."

Kein took a step to help her, then looked down at the white borderline, and asked, "Are you okay?"

Shukujo started to answer that she was fine, but then she peered at the delivery woman with this horrified look like something had gone wrong, and she uttered, "No... No... No... This is a nightmare. This could not have happened."

"It's okay. The scorpions are gone now," Kein said as the last of them left the lair, and the small walls slid close. "You're safe now."

"I do not mean them. I mean..." Shukujo started as the look she was giving her turned to one of loathing, and she said, "I do not owe you a thing, do you hear me? Just because you believe that you saved me somehow, I do not owe you a thing."

"I forgot about the Kumovon pride," Kein spoke, relieved Shukujo was agitated she had helped her, not that she was hurt in any way. "If I had helped you, if I had saved your life, you would be indebted to me. You would have this obligation to help me in some way to repay my kindness and that Shukujo, would make you scream with–"

"Fierce annoyance," Shukujo interrupted, glaring at the human.

Kein teased her, but she saw that the Kumovon really hated the idea of owing her anything, so Kein said, "It's too bad you don't owe me a debt. In this Mortem, I imagine a debt is very valuable but too bad you owe me nothing. I only pointed out the rules to Controller, and rules are rules."

"What are you saying, baka?"

"I'm saying... I'm saying I did nothing for you, so you owe me nothing back."

"As long as you are clear that I owe you nothing," Shukujo told her. "I will never owe a human anything, never again."

"I understand," Kein told her even though for the most part it was a lie. She didn't understand Shukujo's hatred towards humans, and Kein told her, "I'm sorry. My lack of knowledge of the Mortem and my curiosity about your people caused you–"

"What are you apologizing for, baka? I was not harmed in any way, and you cannot apologize enough to ever make up for the annoyance you are to me so there is no need for your apology."

Kein was taken aback. It was almost like Shukujo had told her not to worry about it. Kein stood at the white borderline for a long time, wondering if she put too much into Shukujo's reply. A lot of time went by, and Kein didn't know what to say, but then she remembered something and spoke, "I still need to go talk to the vampire." Kein started for the door, paused, and asked, "Any pointers as to how to get around his mojo?"

"I do, but as you told Controller, I already answered all the questions I need to for today," Shukujo replied.

Kein sighed for the fourth time, a record for her in one day, and then she left and made her way to the final room.

Shukujo's face softened as she watched the human leave, and then she said, "You do remind me of someone, baka. Someone I wish to forget about."

Chapter Five

End Of First Day

In another room...

The vampire was still lounging on the couch when Kein slowly entered but this time, he looked bored out of his mind.

"Ma chère, you have returned. Come... Come, sit with me," he spoke to her for the first time as if he wasn't sure she would approach him.

"I'm going to stand right here," she told him. "My first question is–"

"No... No..." he interrupted but not in an angry way. He was more frustrated that she was in a hurry, and he stated, "Stay a while. Let's get to know each other."

"Okay," Kein said. "Tell me about yourself."

"Come... Come, sit first," he urged.

"I'll come a little closer each day, but today I'll stay here. You're a bloodsucker, and I'd like to keep mine."

"A cautious creature, ma chère... Fine, what do you want to know about me?"

Kein thought before she answered each of his questions so that her answers were not in the form of a question.

"Tell me about yourself, your family, and the place you were born."

The vampire began as he gestured with his hand as if conducting an orchestra, "Let me weave a tale for your ears. My twin brother and myself were born in 1888 outside of New Orleans. Our father was a tobacco baron and royalty in his own mind. Our mother was sickly, so she passed on when we were two. I have no other siblings. My fraternal brother and I lived the life of high society, indulging in any whim we desired.

She thought he was very opened compared to the other Residents, and she asked, "What is your name?"

"I am either Labaron or Lafayette. No one could ever tell us apart, not even our father or the slave woman who raised us."

"I see. It's a game," Kein replied as she loved games that didn't involve life or death situations. Her next question was aimed at herself as she spoke, "Which of the two are you?" She said to him, "I don't know enough about you yet, so I'll try out each name. I'll start with Labaron." He gave no hints as to whether or not she selected the correct name, so she asked, "Labaron, how did you end up here?"

"Here as to this room? It was a reward for slaying a windigo. Nasty creatures who don't care who they eat. Did you know that the living and undead are fair game to them?" he questioned, and when she didn't answer, he asked, "Or do you mean how did I end up on the Basement Level? I had actually made it to Level 2 but was punished and sent back here. Did that answer your question?" He waited again, and she didn't say anything, so he asked, "Or did you mean how did I end up in the Mortem? Treachery is why I am here."

"How did you become a vampire? Were you born or turned?"

"I wish not to speak of when I was sired. It is still a touchy subject for me."

"I withdraw the question for now, and I'll ask–"

"Answer my question, and I'll answer more of yours," he spoke. "You have met all the Residents on Basement Level. Tell me what you know about them so far. It's a quiz," the vampire told her, then leaned over to the table, lifted a clear lid to a red button, and pushed it.

"What's that for?" Kein asked.

"You could say that it gives me about thirty minutes of privacy. I can only use it once a day."

"I don't understand. Explain this privacy."

"You'll learn about it later. Right now, you're taking a quiz, ma chère. I just want to see how right I am about you."

"I usually don't do very good with quizzes, but here I go," Kein told him. "King Ammon is a mummy who belongs to Corruptiaregenesis Class."

"Meaning..?" Labaron inquired of her.

"Meaning his classification is among those beings who have been created by a curse. It's also known as Corrupt'genesis for short." Kein felt like she was back in school as she continued, "Kumovons and Piscispopulus are both of the Naturalisgenesis Class or natural born. Dr. Jekyll and Frankenstein's monster are of the Genesis Scientia Class or created from science, but that classification can also include those who have been mutated by some other method. The werewolf pup and yourself are Infectiogenesis Class which are created by an infection. Some vampires are natural born, but since the vampirism virus is passed on, those vampires are still considered in the Infectiogenesis Class. A bio-engineered zombie would fall into that classification as well, but they could also be considered Genesis Scientia Class."

"Is this true of all zombies, ma chère?"

"No, a zombie created from a voodoo ceremony would fall under the Corrupt'genesis Class but as a lower form since they are controlled by a master."

"I've heard those classifications before," Labaron told her. "They're definitely human, and they only refer to–"

"Monsters," she replied.

"Yes," he said as he smirked. "They only refer to us monsters, and by you telling me all this, I believe I know something about you, something you might be keeping as a secret."

"I do have secrets, but that's not one of them," she stated, keeping up with the cryptic talk he started. "Tell me about the other Residents," Kein said, and then she added, "It was our bargain."

"You have learned much about the Mortem on your own," Labaron stated, and then he answered her question, "King Ammon has been here on Basement Level the longest. He rarely associates with any of us, and I get this feeling that he never wants to leave the Basement Level as if he's waiting for someone." Labaron leaned forward and grabbed a cherry from a dish of them that sat on the coffee table before him, and then he said, "The Atlantean has been here almost as long as King Ammon, but he hasn't always been on Basement Level. I don't know much about him. He does like books and games, but I have heard he is much much older than King Ammon. The creature you've seen roaming the hallways is our newest addition. He's been here about a year, but he isn't a Resident. None of the Coaches have claimed him for he's more of a guardian than a Resident. Dr. Jekyll has been here almost as long as I have. He was here when I was banished back to the Basement Level."

"Does that mean you progressed to the next level shortly after coming here?"

"Keen ears, ma chère. I broke a record for the fastest progression up to the next two levels, and then I broke another record for being banished back the fastest."

"What about the Kumovon?"

"Now she's interesting." He put a hand to his cheek as if remembering some slap, and then he said, "I don't think she likes me. She has been here for about five years."

"The building and the Mortem... tell me more about them."

"The Mortem has been going on for hundreds of years in this very spot," Labaron told her. "I believe a castle was here at one point. The office building you saw on the surface was built about thirty years ago. The previous office building was destroyed in some fire." He picked up another cherry and continued, "The Mortem is were a bunch of wealthy people bet on... how should I put it? They bet on outcomes of certain situations. There are many rules and everyone must abide by them. Our level is run by Controller, but the Mortem Masters run the show. You should also know that there is at least one Coach for each Resident and vice versa." He ate the cherry and then told her, "Our part in the Mortem is to survive."

She thought about his comment, and then she asked, "Escape, tell me about it."

"Many have tried to escape, but I don't know of any who have succeeded. Humans are rare in the Mortem. They usually never make it to Level 1, and they always make up the Opening. It is a good thing. I was running a little dry."

Kein thought about his answers. It was all so overwhelming and there was still so much she didn't know.

"I still don't understand. What is the point of the Mortem?"

Labaron answered, "I've always wondered that myself. Are we all here only for others' entertainment or is there an underlining reason for all of this, some dark reason or secret?"

She didn't expect this vampire to answer so many of her questions, so she never planned on asking more than a few. Kein decided the most important thing was that she needed to rest and find a place she could safely do so.

"What one thing would you ask me to bring you the next time I come?"

"Blood..." Labaron told her. "I could always use blood but with the last Opening, I should be good for a few days."

"I can't think of anything else to ask you, so I'm going to be going now," Kein told him.

He said, "Remember your promise and come a little closer tomorrow."

Kein opened the door and started to leave the room when a sound drew her attention to something in the corner she had overlooked. A large bat on a gothic-style grandfather clock came to life and loudly screeched as it flapped its wings. It was so sudden that it startled her, and she completely turned her whole body back around to see what caused the commotion.

"What was that?" she uttered as the clock chimed its first bong-sound out of twelve.

Controller spoke over the intercom, "It's the end of day chime. No Resident is allowed to harm another Resident from the witching hour to the break of 3 A.M."

"I thought something was attacking me," Kein stated as she put a hand to her chest. "My heart's still pounding." She took a couple of deep breaths, and then she asked, "Is it that late?" Kein decided she better leave, entered the hallway, and shut the door behind her. She glanced in the hallway as she realized she had left herself open to attack and questioned, "What about the werewolf pup? Is he–"

"He has been called to his cage," Controller told her. "He will not be released until 3."

"What now?" Kein asked. "Do I have a room? I'm exhausted."

"Only Residents have rooms. You will have to make do with what you can find, and I should remind you that the Black Arrow room is no longer available to you."

"It's not very nice to kidnap someone and not have a room and bed for them," Kein complained, and then she glanced around the dark hallway that was darker than it should be with all the torches. Something seemed to rustle in the shadows and the areas of blackness, and she decided she couldn't stay out there, so she said, "I heard that there's a point system. Did I make any points today, and if I did, what can I use them on?"

"You did make points for the Opening, and you can spend them on whatever you would like."

"I'd like a sleeping bag, a blanket, a pillow, and something to eat."

"Just how many points do you believe you made today?" Controller questioned her. "You don't have enough for all of those things."

"What can I get from the things I requested?"

"You could get a pillow."

"I really should eat something, but I really need a pillow too."

"I'm feeling generous," Controller told her, and then he asked, "How about you can purchase a pillow without a pillowcase, and I'll give you an apple?"

"I guess it's better than nothing," Kein said, and then she asked, "Where do I get these items?"

"Walk over to the door with the Black Arrow."

Several seconds later...

"I'm here."

"When the arrow turns green, open the door," Controller instructed her.

Kein looked up, and when the arrow turned green, she opened the door to find a pillow minus the pillowcase and a very small red apple.

"One last question," she began. "Where is the truck cart dolly that I brought in with me?"

"I had it removed before the start of Opening so no one would hurt themselves tripping over it."

"Wouldn't want that," Kein mumbled. "Nothing like a contestant dying before one of the Residents had a chance to dismember them."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Can I have my dolly back?"

"You can," Controller replied. "I will have it delivered before 3 A.M."

"Thank you," she said. "Never know when it might come in handy."

Kein wearily walked to Shukujo's room, entered, moved over to the corner, set her pillow down, sat down, leaned against the wall, and started eating her apple.

"I don't think I've seen an apple this small before," she complained. "I'll have it ate in three bites."

Shukujo crawled in from the back of her lair, and she questioned, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not a Resident, so I don't have a room yet."

"You cannot stay here. Go bunk with one of the others."

"One.. they're all guys. Two... I'd never get any sleep in their rooms cause I'd be too afraid they'd kill me in my sleep or worse."

"Do you believe that I will not kill you?" Shukujo questioned her.

"As long as I stay on this side of the Kumo'sakai, I'm ninety-five percent sure I'll be fine or is it eighty-nine percent?" Kein spoke, and then she mumbled, "Anyway, don't you owe me for earlier?"

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Kein said as she finished the small apple which only made her stomach growl all the more. "Anyway, you'll enjoy having me here. You'll have someone to talk to."

"Why would I want to talk to you? I want to kill you and make you scream in delightful pain, but I definitely do not want to talk to you."

"Sure you do," Kein said, and then she yawned.

Shukujo yawned also.

"You like me, you just don't know it yet. You may never realize it, but you like me."

"You are trying to upset me and see if I will break taboo and cross the Kumo'sakai."

"No, I'm only... I'm only trying to talk away my own fears. It's hard being down here alone, but I can at least pretend that I have you. Yes, we're very good friends. We're so good of friends that I have given you a name and you like it, and we are very close to you telling me your real name."

"Baka, you say things that do not make any sense."

Kein yawned again, and then she said, "I know. I'm a baka. The existence I want is all imaginary, and the existence I have is becoming unbearable."

"You are so unusual. Did you have any friends among the humans?"

Kein hugged the pillow tightly as she asked, "In which of my worlds, the imaginary or the real?"

Shukujo answered with, "I care not of your imaginary world."

"No, I've no friends among the humans but that did give me a lot of time with myself, and I've gotten to know myself very well."

The giant spider part of Shukujo's body lay on its belly as if it liked to hear Kein speak, and her voice lulled it into a calm rest while Shukujo continued to talk to the human, "You always seem to find the positive of every situation. Are you cursed with the silver lining syndrome?"

"I know all too well that there are things that can never turn out no matter what I do, so I don't think I have this disease you speak of," Kein answered. "I just make myself see something positive if at all possible. It's the only way that I've been able to..."

She stopped speaking.

"Go on," Shukujo coaxed her as she rested her elbow on the large spider head that was in front of her torso and leaned her head on her hand. "Do not stop now. Explain to me why you have to be so cheery."

"It's the only way that I know how to survive the darkness. It's the only way I can keep putting my shoe in front of the other."

"I am not sure I understand," Shukujo said as the spiders that lived in her lair slowly came out of their lodges and moved closer to the two as if some sort of harmony was being forged.

"Moving forward... not giving up... keep on living... that's what I mean," Kein answered as she placed a hand on the pants' back pocket that held the invitation, and then she said, "Everyone needs something to live for."

"I think I understand," Shukujo replied. "It is like my plan for revenge. My goal in life is to make those who hurt me suffer."

"Kind of," Kein told her. "But I was thinking of much happier thoughts." Her eyes started to grow heavy, so she repositioned her pillow, then lay her head on it, and asked, "Shukujo, what makes a person a monster?"

"Person?"

"I mean all of us beings."

Shukujo laughed.

"You don't believe a human can be a monster?" Kein questioned.

"I know humans can be monsters. I have just never heard a human think of any other human as a monster."

There were a few moments of silence, and then Kein said, "You're right."

"About what?"

Kein rubbed the middle of her back between her shoulder blades as she spoke, "Humans can be monsters. They do cruel things to their own kind."

Shukujo realized she was also tired and started to nod off where she lay, and then... her eight eyes flew open in self-rage. She had spoken with a human like she used to, she spoke to a human as if their kind weren't at war with her own. Shukujo quickly stood and paced next to the Kumo'sakai with her eight legs as she considered the consequences of getting too close again, and after a few moments, she said, "I cannot have you here. You need to leave."

"It's so cold in here," Kein said as she pulled her legs up and lay in a fetal position. "It must get colder at night. I can see my breath. How can you stand it?"

"Did you hear me?" Shukujo yelled at her as the memories from her own sad and dark past flashed through her mind. "I want you to leave, and I want you to leave right now!"

"There must be a draft. You should have Controller do something about the draft."

"Are you purposely ignoring me?" Shukujo questioned her.

Kein sighed, and then she asked, "Where do you want me to go? There's no place else."

"I do not care where you go as long as it is not here. No, I take that back. I can make you a nice warm bed. All you have to do is cross the Kumo'sakai, and I will wrap you up in something warm."

"Something warm," Kein repeated as if the words incited some memory she had safely tucked away, and then she spoke softly, "Like threads of white." She shook off her past, not wanting to linger in sweet memories that only brought her sadness, so she focused on her present and told the Kumovon, "The offer is tempting... but I will decline for now."

Shukujo screamed an angry shout.

Kein heard the outrage and misery within the scream, and she spoke, "You must really hate humans. A human must have done something very terrible to you."

"Hate is too mild a word," Shukujo told her. "I despise all your kind especially those of you who are of the Hanta. They do not care who they kill. All of us monsters are the same."

"I don't know what to say to you," Kein told her. "My kind can be very cruel, but they can also be compassionate."

"Are you talking about yourself?" Shukujo asked.

"Me..?" Kein chuckled. "No, I don't think of myself as compassionate. I'm more of–"

"I don't really care," Shukujo told her. "Leave before I decide to break one of my clan's taboo, and I cross that line and–"

"Don't do that," Kein snapped at her as she sat up. "At the most, you'll only have to put up with me for six nights, and it's not like we're having a slumber party." She slowly lay back down and said, "If you go deeper into your lair, I don't think you can even see me. Just turn your back on me, forsake my life, and go further into your lair."

"What a cruel thing to say," Shukujo spoke softly as she got this distant look. "Humans are so cruel."

Kein wasn't sure why the Kumovon would say that. She didn't think there was anything cruel in her statement. Shukujo didn't like her so how could her words be cruel? Kein did get a sense that the Kumovon may have been speaking to someone else, someone who existed only in her thoughts.

"I will still know that you are here," Shukujo yelled at her, drowning her past with her rage. "And do not speak to me as if we are equals. You claimed to have known one of my kind, but I do not believe you ever knew her as you say. Our kind never mix. We only kill or eat the other."

"I'm really tired. I'm going to sleep now," Kein said as she took the pillow and turned so that she faced the stone wall.

"You are not going to leave no matter how much I yell at you, are you?"

Kein didn't reply.

Shukujo threw up her hands, and then she stomped her way to the back of her lair as much as any spider could. Kein rolled over once she couldn't hear her complaining about her presence, and then Kein took her pillow and hugged it like a giant teddy bear. She thought about everything she had gone through that day, and she just wanted to cry.

Shukujo stomped all the way back to her lair and moved over to a roaring fire in a large fireplace. She lowered herself to her belly and warmed her hands.

"It is chilly..." she mumbled. "I doubt Controller would ever take care of the draft in here, and it does get much colder at night."

Shukujo slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep. She woke sometime later. She heard sounds softly echoing through her lair, and they were coming from the front were that deplorable human was, so Shukujo headed back but with lighter steps. She stopped when she could make out what the baka was saying, and Shukujo realized she was singing. The human's voice was terrible and slightly off-key, but Shukujo recognized the song. It was a lullaby that was known only to her clan.

Kein sang, "When the shadows fall and night has come, know I will wrap you in threads of white. When beasts of darkness prowl and eat, know that I am here as I wrap you in threads of white. No one will hurt you... No one will harm you... I am here, and you are safely tucked in my threads of white. Time has come to shut your eyes as I spin my web around you."

Rage filled Shukujo's heart, and she started to race out to the human to scream at her some more, but then she heard Kein start to cry. Her sobs were filled with fear and trepidation, but they also lamented of loneliness. Shukujo pulled back into the shadows and listened as the human started the song over.

Kein never knew Shukujo was there, lost in her own memories and heartache. Kein unzipped her jacket and removed the braided necklace the lady had given her so long ago. She still wore it but safely tucked under her t-shirt, and she stared at its intricate braids as she played with the necklace.

Kein sang softly, "My child... My child... Why has sleep not touched your eyes? Do you fear the howling wind or the creatures of the night? There are many things to fear and many things that fear us but know one thing, I am here. When the shadows fall and night has come, know I will wrap you in threads of white. When beasts of darkness prowl and eat, know that I am here as I wrap you in threads of white. No one will hurt you... No one will harm you... I am here, and you are safely tucked in my threads of white. Time has come to shut your eyes as I spin my soft web around you. Fear not my child as you sleep in my cocoon's warm embrace. My threads of white will hold you tight, so when shadows fall and night is here, know I love you and you are safe. When beasts of darkness howl and scream, know that I will never leave you. No one will hurt you... No one will harm you... I am here, and you are safely tucked in my threads of white. Time has come to shut your eyes as I spin my soft and warm web around you. Hush now... close your eyes... as I spin you in my threads of white."

Elsewhere, Controller's room...

Nearly an hour after the end of day chime...

"That is it for day one of Kein's week," Controller spoke to the Coaches. "Since all of you have finished paying out your wagers and adding bets for tomorrow, we can call this day and this session at an end for us. We will meet once again in let us say six hours, and at that time, we will see if anyone would like to make any new wagers."

One by one, the Coaches' feeds went dark until only Blue Wolf's video remained.

"Was there something you wanted to ask me?" Controller questioned her.

"No," Blue Wolf replied. "It is just that..." She listened as she watched the video of Kein, and then she finished, "The poor thing must be very lonely to be singing in a place like this, and I also believe the lullaby must be very precious to her for her to remember after all these years." Blue Wolf paused as if to say something else, but then she just said, "Tragic she cannot hold a tune."

Blue Wolf's feed went black...

Chapter Six

The Second Day

Kein didn't remember any more about that night except that she cried herself to sleep, and she woke the next morning with Shukujo glaring down at her from her spider-tower.

"What time is it?" she asked the Kumovon.

"It is time that you left my lair," Shukujo replied. "You also only have two more questions to ask me today."

"Ahhh..." Kein complained half asleep. "I keep falling into your trap."

"If you fell into my trap, I would be gorging on you by now," Shukujo told her. "Get up and ask me your next two questions."

"Hold on... Hold on..." Kein spoke as she sat up, and then she complained, "I thought it was bad sleeping on the ground out in the woods but this floor, it's like rocks."

"Baka, it is rocks."

"Right," Kein stated. "I was sleeping on rocks. It might have been hard, but for some reason, I slept so soundly. I haven't slept that soundly since..." she spoke and then whispered, "...since that time that only seems like a dream now."

"I doubt you slept as soundly as you claim. You are in the lair of a Kumovon."

"I am..." Kein stated with a smile. "...aren't I?" She whispered, "I slept here as if I felt safe."

Kein slowly stood and stretched, but it didn't help her sore and tired muscles. Her stomach grumbled, and then she complained, "I'm so hungry."

"Cross the Kumo'sakai, and you will not have to worry about your hunger and you can satisfy mine."

"See, I told you that you liked me," Kein teased her as she sat back down too tired to keep standing. "You want me to come and visit you."

Shukujo decided not to play along with her this time, crossed her arms, and demanded, "Ask me your questions."

"Hold on. I can't think just yet," Kein told her as she leaned her head against the wall and then closed her eyes.

"Do not go back to sleep," Shukujo yelled at her.

"I'm not. I'm trying to think."

"You do not look like you are thinking."

"I am," Kein insisted. "I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"Talking in your sleep," Shukujo spoke harshly. "Hurry and think."

"I can't when you're yelling at me," Kein told her.

Shukujo started to scream, "I don't care if–"

"Shh..." Kein nearly whistled out as she put a finger to her own lips. "Quiet now."

"Why should I?" Shukujo questioned.

"I'll tell everyone what good friends we are if you don't," Kein told her.

Shukujo scoffed, "They will not believe you."

"They will if I tell them your name."

"You cannot possibly know my name," Shukujo said.

Kein threatened, "I will tell them it's... it's Cherry Blossom."

"Cherry Blossom is not my name."

"How do they know?" Kein asked her. "Are you going to tell them your name?"

Shukujo thought about it, and then she said, "The moment I believe you are a complete baka, you say something like this that makes me believe you have been deceiving us this entire time."

Kein made no comment to her statement and just said, "I have no idea what I want to ask you yet, so I'm going to go see one of the other Residents." She stood, removed a hair tie from a pocket, and then pulled back her hair as she mumbled, "I really need to brush my teeth."

"You do look terrible," Shukujo stated. "You really should eat something before you go. It might help you wake up."

"It would help, but I spent all my points last night on that pillow."

"I cannot see how you spent all of your points you earned for winning Opening on a pillow," Shukujo told her.

"I don't understand how the points work, but I also thought I'd have more to spend," Kein told her as she headed for the door. "I think I'm missing something about the rules of the Mortem."

Kein cautiously entered the hallway looking for the werewolf pup. He was nowhere in sight, so she made her way to the vampire's parlor. She paused as she looked up at the bat symbol above the door frame, and then she thought she heard voices like those at a party, and then Kein heard the laugh of a sinister woman that she had heard before. A few images came to mind of dancing and drinking, then she entered, and the vampire was nowhere in sight, so she called out to him, "Labaron, are you there?"

The couch creaked opened, and Kein realized that a coffin had been built within the couch or a couch had been built on top of a coffin.

"What time is it?" he called out from the darkness of his bed.

"I have no idea. I don't have a watch, and I seemed to have misplaced my phone."

"I believe it's still morning," he told her with grogginess thick in his voice. "Come back when the sun is no longer up."

"How can I tell?"

He pointed to the gothic-style grandfather clock in his room that Kein caught sight of the night before. The grandfather clock looked old and detailed carvings of bats, wolves, and rats covered it. She noticed it was 7:15.

"Why are you up so early?" he asked. "Did your roommate kick you out?"

"You better not let the Kumovon hear you say that," Kein warned. "She wants nothing to do with me."

"We have that in common," Labaron told her as he pushed the lid of his coffin all the way over, and he sat up. "She wants nothing to do with me either." He paused for a few seconds and then said, "I don't believe I've been up this early in a long time."

Kein noticed she swayed, so she went and leaned on the wall by the door still tired, and then she asked, "Do you want me to come back later?"

"No, this is fine. I can sleep anytime," he told her, and then he inquired, "What questions do you have for me, ma chère?"

"I wanted to ask you about the Atlantean."

"It looks like you have decided on a strategy," Labaron spoke, then licked his tongue over his fangs as if he had morning scum, and added, "Beings are more inclined to talk about others than themselves."

"You already caught on to my strategy and here I thought I was being sly," Kein spoke. "Getting the others to talk beyond the three questions is impossible, but you seem more willing to speak to me than them."

"I have been told that I like to talk," Labaron stated. "I am also doing it because I want to spend more time with you. Rarely do I have a chance to speak to a human."

"Is it because of the Blood Rage?" she asked.

"How would you know of such a thing?" Labaron inquired of her. "I believe my theory from last night might just be correct and if so, I know one of your secrets."

"I'm only keeping two things a secret, and they're not what you think, and as for the Blood Rage, I just guessed about it. Since you're a prisoner here you wouldn't have access to blood all that often, and when a vampire doesn't feed, they can go into this rage that causes them to turn into a blood-thirsty animal whose only desire is to gorge themselves on blood."

"Younger vampires have that problem," Labaron told her. "But I am well over a hundred years old."

"You're also an inductus'vampir, one who's not born but turned. A vampir'borne, one who is a vampire in the womb, has more of an ability to deny the Blood Rage, but inductus'vampir usually always succumb to it no matter how old they are."

"How do you know that I am an inductus'vampir and not royal born?"

"I'm only guessing again since you said your mother died," she replied. "I don't know if there's a difference in their outward appearance or in their essence between royal born and those turned, but you seem..."

"Go on, ma chère. Don't stop now," he spoke a little offended when she stopped. "You were going to say ordinary."

"I don't know what I was going to say, but it wasn't ordinary. An inductus'vampir is still extraordinary."

"You're a careful one, backing off when you sense you might be in danger and then speaking to my sense of curiosity to encourage me to forget your insult, so I will play your game," he said and then asked, "How so, ma chère? How is an inductus'vampir still extraordinary?"

"Vampires and werewolves are infected with a virus that wants to kill them, and yet they manage to live in a sort of harmony with this virus," she replied. "I'm not saying I want to be a vampire, but I'm jealous of the harmony you have with your infection."

He laughed at her reply for it was so unexpected, and then Labaron said, "Vampires might be in harmony with their virus but with my kind, it always comes down to family," he spoke with a little bit of frustration. "All I ever wanted was to live a carefree life of wine, women, and indulges of dance and fine food." He looked down at his thin pale body and muttered, "Who wants to live forever as a corpse who has to feed on others to survive? I would prefer to be merry with others."

Kein wasn't sure what to say to him, so she remained silent.

"Look at what I have done," Labaron spoke up as his demeanor brightened. "I have cast a shadow over our joyous encounter. You wanted to know about the Atlantean."

He left his coffin and shut it so that he could sit on the couch. Labaron sat, crossed his legs, then patted the seat next to him as he said, "Come... Come, sit with me and enjoy these cherries."

She looked at the bowl of cherries, tempted to take him up on his offer as she was still hungry from the night before, and then she asked, "I see that the bowl's full again. It was half gone the last time I was here."

"It was one of my rewards," Labaron told her. "I was told that I could have anything, and I wasted my wish on something so..." he began as he stared at the cherries, then grabbed one of the dark red fruit, popped it in his mouth, and pulled the stem off the cherry. "...delicious, and they're seedless but still a waste of a wish. I receive a new bowl of them every day whether or not I eat of the previous one. I do love them, but I really should have requested blood. You should really have some. They will only go to waste if you don't."

Kein thought once more of walking over to the coffee table, but she decided to remain where she stood.

"I don't understand why you do not come over here," he spoke. "It isn't like I can't come to you."

"I know," she spoke. "Staying by the door is my way of getting used to new environments. Fear and shyness must be taken into consideration."

"Shyness, I do like that in a woman but to use it as an excuse..." Labaron spoke and then dropped the matter as he ate another cherry, and once he finished it, he sat up, touched the red button that was on the coffee table, and then sat back.

Kein diverted her gaze from the cherries so not to drool all over the place as she said, "Tell me about the Atlantean."

"He's knowledgeable about many things," Labaron told her. "I heard he's even older than the mummy. His civilization was destroyed long ago, but a few of his people survived. I don't know why he's here. I'm guessing he's after something. Why else be here? He also has an obsession with playing games of all sorts."

"I thought this was a prison. Why would anyone come here to acquire something?"

"I think you misunderstand the Mortem. Not all Residents are prisoners and not all Coaches are willing participants."

"I really don't understand the Mortem, but I need to win it, so I can leave. I can't be here. A week may be too long."

"A week..? You really don't understand the Mortem," he laughed. "Who else should we talk about?"

"King Ammon."

"He doesn't talk much," Labaron laughed to himself, and then he said, "You could say that the cat has his tongue. No, really... that is the rumor. His tongue is in a canopic stone jar with a cat's head on it."

"Have you spoken to him?" Kein asked.

"Have you not been listening?" he questioned. "The mummy has no tongue."

She thought about her question carefully, and then she said, "So what you're saying is that you haven't talked to him and he hasn't talked to you?"

"I've only heard him scream, and the one time I did go into his room, he shoved his left fist through my chest and had his insects start gnawing on me. I was a mess after that. I couldn't show my face for weeks. You see my face had been nearly consumed, and I needed to wait until it regenerated–"

"Enough," Kein spoke up. "I don't need to hear any more about your injuries. Why did he attack you?"

"I was having a one-sided conversation with him. I had gotten bored and wore out my welcome at Shukujo's lair."

"How do you know that name? I don't remember telling you," Kein spoke.

"There isn't much that goes on within the Basement Level that the other Residents don't know about," he told her as if she should already know the answer to her question and that it was so obvious. Labaron observed her confused reaction, and then he said, "Back to what I was saying. I was telling the mummy about a time when I was younger, and I do mean before I was a vampire... I was telling him of when I seduced a rival tobacco baron's daughter. I was poking around his tomb while I was telling him the tale, and I should tell you that you can get lost very easily if you go too far into the tomb on your own. I was getting to the best part of my story when he attacked me and nearly had his insects eat my face completely off."

"You're like me," she told him.

"In what way?"

"You can be very observant but still miss the simplest things."

"Explain this to me, ma chère."

"King Ammon is a father, and he loved his daughter very much, and he lost her in a tragic way. I also get this feeling that somehow she was taken from him long before he lost her to death," she told the vampire, then paused, remembering the feelings behind the images she saw, and then she asked, "Don't you think he would get upset at hearing how you tore a daughter from her father? I'm surprised you're still alive."

"I never realized," he said.

Kein's stomach grumbled for lack of liquid and food, and she ignored it as she said, "Tell me about Dr. Jekyll."

"He is very interesting, mad... but very interesting. He has some sort of large contraption hidden in the depths of his lab. He won't let anyone go near it, but I had one of my familiars get quite close to it," Labaron spoke, then paused, and questioned, "Do you know what a familiar is?"

"For vampires, it's usually a bat, wolf, or rat that is in service to a vampire, and they do the bidding of that vampire."

"You do know more than I thought some regular human would know, well anyway, I had one of my familiars, that was a rat, make its way to the contraption. The rat got a pretty good look at it before dying."

Kein asked, "What did the rat see?"

"It was like a clear tube coffin but stood straight up. It appeared to have someone floating within. I'm guessing that the doctor or Mr. Hyde might have someone in there that they're experimenting on."

"Tell me about Shukujo."

"She isn't speaking to me anymore. She got very upset the Opening before when she walked in on me with three of the female contestants I had turned into Sklabos."

"I've never heard of that term. What is a Sklabos?"

"They're like vampires and yet they are more like familiars. They will do anything I tell them. They have the urge to drink blood but have none of the strengths or abilities of a vampire. They're created when a vampire drinks their blood but does not kill them, and the vampire also does not offer them their own blood to make them one of the kindred," Labaron told her.

"You're saying you created a few dolls to play with, a few slaves," Kein spoke with anger thick in her voice. "Just when I was starting to like you. I even thought about taking a few extra steps into the room today, but I think I'll retreat by one," Kein said as she did so. "Vampires can be so cruel." Her anger grew the more she thought about what he did to those women, and she said, "Vampires are nothing but bloodsucking narcissists, and I don't think I want to talk to you anymore today." She turned and started for the door when she remembered something, then sighed very deeply, and mumbled, "All I do anymore is sigh." Kein faced him and said, "There is something I want from you before I leave."

"You insult me and then you ask me for a favor."

"Yes, I did insult you, and I won't take it back," she told him. "And yes, I do need something from you. Will you hear my request?"

His eyes flashed red, but then they quickly returned to normal as he said, "I should send you scurrying away, but I'm in a really good mood today. Go on... I will hear your request."

"I would like some of your..." Kein started as she opened her mouth and pointed inside it.

"You want some of my teeth?"

She shook her head.

"You want to make out with me?"

Kein flushed as she shook her head again, and then she said, "I want some of your spit."

"What will you give me in exchange?"

"I should say that I'll give you nothing for the spit," she replied as the more she spoke the more Kein got upset. "I should say that I'll find another way to find vampire saliva and that I don't want to see you again, but I can't." Kein thought she could hear their screams as she questioned, "Did you really turn those women into slaves so you could have your way with them?"

Labaron felt a smidgen of guilt for his actions as the seemingly ordinary woman glared at him with disgust and outrage. He hadn't felt this way in a very, very long time, and it caused him to pause before answering, "I did, and I would do it again. I will do it again."

"What happened to those women?" she questioned him. "Where are they now?"

"They're..." he started to answer but as he thought about it, he realized he didn't know. "I discarded them when I was done playing with them. Why do you ask? Would you like to become one of my dolls?"

Kein didn't answer him as his parlor started to suffocate her as if she felt the veiled pain of those women trapped in their own bodies. She wanted to bolt from the room and never return but if she ran away from the grotesque and shadowy world of the Mortem, she would never win.

"I don't ever want to be anything of yours," she told him. "I would sooner be dead than be anything of yours," she replied, then turned, and started to leave.

"You never did answer my other question," Labaron spoke after her as the red button on the coffee table buzzed, signifying the end of the half hour. He glanced at it, turned his attention back to her, and asked, "What will you give me in trade?"

Kein paused, wanting so badly to say she didn't need him, that she'll never need him, but she did, so she reluctantly replied, "I will owe you some blood later."

"What if I want a little something from you now?"

"It will have to wait till later or there can be no bargain," she answered, not understanding his implications. "I guess I can wait on your spit until I have what I will trade in return."

"Come... Come, and I will give you some," Labaron told her. "I will give you some of my exquisite salivae."

Kein walked a few steps into the room to stand where she stood the very first day she came into his parlor, and then she stopped, removed the jar from her backpack, and rolled it toward him across the carpet.

"I meant for you to come all the way to me," he told her.

"I also said I would need to take baby steps, and I've lost a little bit of the security I had gained so this is as far as I come," Kein replied.

Labaron stood, took a few steps to the jar, then bent, and reached his hand for the jar. In the instance that it took Kein to blink, Labaron was standing beside her with his mouth to her ear. The force behind his run caught up to him and blew her hair she had pulled back in a ponytail.

"I don't know if I can wait for you to take your baby steps," he told her. "Maybe we will touch lips, and I can give you some of my salivae now." Labaron faced her as he put a gentle hand to her chin and then turned her head so that she would look at him, and he said, "Come... Be one with me."

Kein felt the magnetism Shukujo had spoken of as they locked gazes. She peered into his eyes as he dove into hers. He dove deeper and deeper as if he could swim freely through her will and make it his own. She felt compelled to do anything he told her... no, she would do anything he told her... She would... He leaned in to give her the vampire's kiss just as the burning fear started at the middle of her back and rose all the way up her spinal column until it reached the base of her neck. His lips had nearly met hers when Kein cried out in pain as she grabbed the base of her skull in agony. She put her hand on his chest and pushed herself away from him.

"You resisted my first attempt," he spoke to her, not so much amazed but that a challenge had been set before him.

Kein started for the door, not sure what had just happened as the burning in her neck lessened, and she told him, "If you can't abide by my fear and shyness, I won't come back here."

Labaron grabbed her wrist, and she stopped, but she didn't turn to him.

"I will abide by them for now, ma chère," Labaron told her. "Something tells me there's more to you than you let on, that there's more to you than one can see on the surface." He leaned in and took a deep breath, taking of her scent, and then he added, "There is more to you than even I can detect beneath your skin."

Kein pulled her hand from his grasp and started for the door again.

"Wait..." Labaron called after her, then he turned once she paused again, moved over to the jar where it sat in its original spot, picked it up, and put some of his salivae in the jar. "Here... as you requested."

Kein refused to look at him and focused her gaze on the door. He approached her and noticed a fresh burn on the back of her neck where she still rubbed it. He also noticed some sort of mark or tattoo in the shape of a circle.

He repeated to himself, "There is so much more to you."

She glared at him real quick, took the jar from him, looked away, and then asked him a question, "Have you ever had someone force something onto you that you didn't want? You did that to me. You just did that to me, and I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that. Why did you think I wanted that? Or is it you don't care what others want?"

"I'm more of a leaper than a thinker," he told her. "But you're correct, I have been an improper host. I will make it up to you. I will tell you something I don't normally talk about. If you survive the others' questionings today, I will tell you a little about myself when I was still a human. Return, and I will tell you a bedtime story."

She started to say no when he held up a folded paper and told her, "I'll only give this back to you if you agree."

Kein put a hand to her pants' back pocket as she realized he had taken the invitation from her, and then she told him, "I won't be blackmailed into returning."

"I'll just have to read this then," he said, unfolded it, and read out loud, "You are cordially invited to attend a gathering of the quick and the dead to participate in a get-together like no other. Wealth, power, glory, prestige, revenge, and a few other incentives entice many to come. I will entice you with your own heart's desire. You already know that a father is strong and wise and will sacrifice himself for his children. A mother is caring and nurturing and denies herself for her children. A brother is knowledgeable about many things and is playful. A sister can be a sibling who is both reliable and trying. A friend is an ear who listens and a mouth in need of listening to. A lover is..." Labaron paused, looked at her, and said, "The sentence ends right there. No matter... I can teach you what a lover is. I do find this invitation very interesting but there is still more. I do find it odd that what I just read was typed out but this next part is handwritten, and it reads, "Six complete the mold. Five you will immediately behold. One will defy the grave for one is strong and wise and will sacrifice for their children, and one will deny love for revenge for one throws away care and nurture and denies their children for themselves. Two will be the one who follows madness and rage to attain what love could never let go. Three will quickly turn their backs when everything is bleak and dire help is needed. Four seek revenge, and three it is their only purpose. Two were together and now are apart and ultimately will be together again. And last and most important, one is not as they appear." Labaron turned the paper over and noticed an address and said, "This location isn't the Knecht Ruprecht Corporation."

"No, it's the location of Brown Deliveries. I went there yesterday and wounded up getting a job as a delivery woman, and the Knecht Ruprecht Corporation was my first stop." Kein let out a frustrated yell, "Ahh... I bet my delivery truck got towed. I was parked in an unloading lane. I'm going to get fired."

He questioned her, "After everything you've gone through, do you believe you had a real job?"

"I guess not, but I was really looking forward to working for them. It sounded like I'd really like it. I would be able to go to different places and meet different people."

"You will definitely see different places down here and meet all kinds of different people for as long as you survive," Labaron spoke, read the invitation to himself one more time, and then asked, "Are you looking for your family?"

"I have no family," she told him. "I have no one that wants me."

"And yet you came, my poor ma chère. I'll be your family," Labaron told her as he took her hand and placed the invitation in it. "I can be the only one you need."

Kein wanted to tell him, no, but instead, she said nothing, took the invitation, and headed into the empty hallway. She replaced the invitation in her pants' back pocket and walked to the door with the beaker on it, and then she glanced up at the image and felt heartache caused by separation. Kein entered to find Dr. Jekyll at work, writing in a black leather journal of some sort. She remained silent as she glanced at Frankenstein's monster. Dr. Jekyll didn't notice her, so she took the opportunity to take in everything that had happened in the vampire's parlor. She thought she had found an ally in Labaron, but he was too self-centered. Kein let about ten minutes go by before she walked over to the table, and she stopped a few feet away from it, waiting to be acknowledged.

Dr. Jekyll peered up from the black leather journal and stated, "Has a day gone by already? I didn't think I would see you again."

"I have the saliva you requested to trade for the salt," Kein told him as she lifted the jar and shook the jelly-like substance within.

"Set it on the table. I will retrieve your salt once I finish here."

She did as instructed and then waited for him to finish and once Dr. Jekyll completed his current task, he grabbed the jar and examined the substance within.

"Would you lie to me about what this substance is?" he questioned her.

"I could answer your question, but do you know enough about my character to know whether or not I'd lie to you?" Kein inquired.

Dr. Jekyll opened the jar, removed a small sample, placed it on a petri dish, and then exposed it to an ultraviolet light, and the substance turned to ash.

"Wait here while I collect your salt," he told her.

"I was wondering if there's another substance that you might carry," she called after him as he went behind the curtain.

"What is that?" he inquired as he moved to a cabinet similar to the one in the first room of his lab which also had dozens of drawers, and he opened a drawer, pulling out a small bag of salt.

"Do you have access to colloidal silver?" Kein asked.

"Liquid silver? I do. What do you want it for? The silver content in the liquid is more for medicinal uses than as a weapon against anything living within the Basement Level," Dr. Jekyll told her.

"I need it for a personal matter," she replied, and then she asked, "How do you deal with the werewolf pup in the hallway?"

"I give him some scrap of meat or a bone. A bone works longer," he replied. "Here is your salt. Leave... I answered your questions for today."

Kein grabbed the bag of salt and said, "True you answered my questions, but I would like to know one more thing. What would you like in trade for the colloidal silver?"

"I need nothing right now," Dr. Jekyll told her as he returned to what looked like a drawing in his journal. "Return later today and ask me again."

"Thank you," she spoke before she left.

Dr. Jekyll lifted his gaze as she thanked him and then as if someone had scolded him, he spoke after her, "I should thank people when thanking is due, and I should receive thanks when I have earned it, so... you are welcomed."

Kein smiled at his appreciation, and then she entered the hallway and found that the werewolf pup was absent again, so she hurried to her next destination, glanced up at the image of the fish, and felt a sense of longing for someone greatly loved and missed. She entered and found the Atlantean sitting on the ten-foot dock reading.

"Is the book any good?" she called out to him from the railing of the twenty-foot dock.

"I am not sure," he replied. "It is the first book I have read on VR technology, and I had actually been daydreaming and not reading."

"What were you daydreaming about?"

The Atlantean turned and looked at her like he wasn't going to answer, but then he replied, "A time long ago when I was still a child and I was playing with the youngest of my family, my little sister."

Kein leaned on her elbow that rested on the railing as she said, "It must be nice to have such memories. I envy you."

"Do you?" he questioned her, then lifted his webbed hand towards her as if to pull the truth of her words from the air, and said, "You do not lie." The Atlantean lowered his hand, then set the book he was holding on the dock, and stood as he asked, "Are you any good at games?"

"I don't know. I haven't played many."

He asked, "Would you like to play one now?"

Kein peered at the soft cover book and noticed its title was VR Technology For Dummies, and then she answered, "I think I would like to. Oh... and by the way, I have your salt."

He looked at the bag she held out towards him, and then he said, "I am surprised you were able to get it. I am amazingly surprised."

"The task didn't seem all that impossible to me," she told him.

"I am surprised because you are still alive. Would you come and sit beside me while we play the game?"

"I don't think I can," Kein answered as she glanced around at all the water.

"Your fear of drowning. How about I make a bargain with you? I can never hurt you while we are playing a game."

She countered with, "How about you can't hurt me from the moment you say you want to play a game to the point I leave your swamp whether or not I accept?"

"Interesting," the Atlantean spoke. "Let me counter with one more point then. You cannot deny playing a game with me three times in a row."

Kein smiled, and then she said, "A bargain has been struck."

"A bargain has been struck," the Atlantean repeated. "What sort of games do you know?"

"Very very few... but I do seem to pick up on games quickly," she told him. "Would you like to teach me one of your favorite games?"

"I have no favorites, so I will teach you, checkers."

She placed the bag of salt in her pocket, then climbed down the ladder to the ten-foot dock, and waited for him there. The Atlantean left and came back sometime later, carrying the checkerboard along with the checkers. He set up the board between them while they sat on the ten-foot dock. The Atlantean explained the game, and then they played as they talked.

"You have been an interesting addition to the Mortem?" the Atlantean spoke as he double jumped and took two of her pieces.

"How so?" Kein asked as she examined the move he played against her.

"You were never part of the Draft and yet you arrived on Opening day and came down to the Basement Level shortly before the start and somehow wound up in the thick of things. You abandoned contestant after contestant, fearing for your life as if you were so overwhelmed by fear you could not think, but you still managed to strike a deal with Controller and the Coaches. There are monsters all around you and yet you refuse to pick up a weapon or arm yourself in any way beyond your wits. You talk to the Kumovon as if you are long lost sisters, and you became angry with the vampire for... for being a vampire. You made a deal with King Ammon on the verge of him killing you, and you actually made the doctor come out of his shell long enough to tell you that you were welcomed. These tiny little things on their own are nothing, but when you start to add them up... You have been out playing the Mortem. So many small details... so many pieces falling into place when they need to. Look at you now... You are sitting here with me actually enjoying a game you have never played before and all because... all because someone sent you here, but they sent you here without your knowledge."

"I think you're right about that," Kein told him as she managed to take one of his pieces and ended up having him crown her one piece. "And you're right about everything else you've said so far. I am a coward."

He said nothing to her comment but continued making ones of his own as he said, "I was contemplating leaving. I was becoming so bored here, but maybe I will stay a little longer just to see what you will do."

"How were you going to leave?"

"I will keep that small secret to myself for a while," he spoke as he made several more moves and cleared the board of her pieces. "I have won this round. Would you like to play again?"

"I would," she replied.

The Atlantean set up the board while she watched.

"You don't have a favorite game, so what about a favorite type of game?" she questioned him.

"I especially enjoy games like chess where one can manipulate the pieces to attack and sacrifice in an attempt to win the match, but my most favorite games are long drawn out ones like the game of Risk where you have to strategize many moves ahead which is also like chess."

"Is that why you're here in the Mortem? It has something to do with your love of games?"

"All who are in the Mortem are here to fulfill their ultimate wish, and many of them are complex, but maybe my wish is simple. Maybe I just want to play the best Risk game of my life, so I need to find a worthy opponent," the Atlantean stated, and then he got this cherished looked in his eyes as he spoke, "I had a worthy opponent once but that was a very long time ago."

"I bet it was your little sister," she stated.

The Atlantean inquired, "Why would you guess that?"

"You love her so much, but I also sense a rivalry between you, but a healthy rivalry like one would have if one enjoyed competing against the other."

"You seem to have extraordinary intuition," he stated, and once he finished setting up the board, he said, "Tell me something about yourself, Kein."

"I don't like to be called Kein," she replied.

"Why is that?"

"You remember me telling you it's not a name but more of what they believe I am. The meaning of the name... it's cruel, so I don't like to be called by it."

"Allow me to call you, mi cha," he spoke.

"It sounds nice. What does it mean?"

"In a way, I am calling you, little sister, but it is more like I am your senior."

"I think I understand," Kein said. "The first school I went to also had ways to address the other students around me. I like mi cha."

"Mi cha, it is," the Atlantean stated as he started the second game.

They played longer this time around, but the Atlantean still easily beat her.

"I better go," she said. "I still need to talk to King Ammon and Shukujo." Kein stood, climbed up to the twenty-foot dock, took a step to go to the door, then turned, and said, "I almost forgot... I need to give you your salt."

"I wondered if you would remember. You are just like my real little sister," the Atlantean stated as he stood and walked toward her on his webbed feet.

He walked all the way to the dock just below where she was standing and held out his hand. Kein tossed the bag to him, and he caught it. He opened it, stuck a finger within, and then licked the tip of the salty goodness.

"Does it remind you of home?" she asked.

"No," he said. "The salt origin is nowhere near my homeland, but it is still salt. What do you want in exchange?"

"The salt is yours whether or not you help me, but I was wondering if you have seen the Waters of Life within this world?"

"I am not sure. What does it look like?"

"I don't know myself," she replied. "I will see if I can get a little more information on it."

Kein turned and started to leave when her stomach growled loudly.

"You must be hungry," he said.

"My points don't amount to much. I've only had an apple since breakfast yesterday. I need to figure out a way to earn more points."

"You should have enough points from winning Opening to feast for weeks. It sounds to me like someone may be bending the rules a little too much. Do not worry... If they continue to do so, they will be punished by the Mortem," he stated and before she could ask him about it, he changed the subject by saying, "There are side quests that Controller will allow you to do if you request it. They range in all sorts of difficulties and point ranges. If you are to attempt one, I would suggest you do so early before you are too weak to survive."

"Thanks, I'll remember that."

Kein went into the hallway and still saw no signs of the werewolf pup.

"Controller," she called out.

"I am here," he replied. "I am always here."

"I need food and water, and I heard that I can earn points by taking on quests."

"Residents can. You aren't a Resident."

"I'll be dead of dehydration and/or starvation before I become a Resident. There has to be some way I can earn points."

"Rules are rules," Controller told her. "You could always steal food from one of the Residents or beg for them to have mercy on you."

"Begging for myself isn't really who I am," she replied. "How can I make points as a contestant?"

"Surviving," he replied.

"So what you're saying is, if I make it through today, I'll make as many points as I made yesterday?"

"No, you won Opening yesterday. Your points will be different today."

The mummy's tomb...

Kein quickly went into the room, so she wouldn't have any distracting visions from the pyramid symbol above the door. She called out to him when she found the area just inside empty. King Ammon's sarcophagus came screaming out of the tomb as it did the other time, but when he emerged from it, he didn't seize her with his wrappings.

"I need more information if I'm to locate the Waters of Life. I need to know what they look like if I'm to retrieve them for you."

"Waters of Life is a spring," King Ammon told her using his mind. "They flow as light, and they can restore almost anything."

"Do the Waters of Life need to be stored or contained in anything special?" she questioned.

"Clay or glass," he told her. "No metal."

"Please give me the container that's the appropriate size for what amount you need."

He eyed her as if deciding something about her, but it appeared that he didn't make up his mind about her. She was about to say something when a clay vessel floated to her that had originated from the tomb; it had a lid.

"I need it completely full and no less," he told her.

Kein took the vessel and started to leave, but then she turned back around and said, "I don't know what your story is or why you have entered the Mortem, but I wanted to say... umm... never mind. It's stupid."

He called after her as she turned to leave, "Tell me, Daughter of Fear."

"I don't know if it'll upset you to say it."

"Speak, and I promise to hold my wrath back if you should incur it."

"Your daughter, I believe I sense her here or I should say, I sense the love you have for her here. It's so strong. It's stronger than all your rage and hatred."

King Ammon's wrath didn't burn within him, but a few fleeting moments of joy did spring forth from his memories.

"I would like to get a better sense of you, Daughter of Fear. Tell me about your father."

"I never knew my father. I don't even know his name."

"Tell me about the one who instructed you. Tell me about the one who was like a father to you."

"There was a teacher. The man I consider my second teacher, but I don't consider him a father. I don't think he liked me."

"Daughter of Fear and fatherless one, I will reward you if you are able to bring me the Waters of Life. I will reward you by showing you something no one else has seen."

The way he told her... Kein got this sense that it would be something wondrous to see.

"I think I would like that," she told him and then hurried out.

"Fail..." he spoke after she left. "And you will incur my wrath."

The Atlantean's swamp...

"It did not take you that long to return," the Atlantean stated as she walked out to the end of the twenty-foot dock.

"I know what the Waters of Life are," she said as she held the jar that was half as big as her. "I was told that they are a spring of light." She started to ask a question, but caught herself, and said instead, "I need this container filled with the Waters of Life. You only need to tell me what I need to give to you in exchange."

The Atlantean said, "I have seen the place in my watery domain where the waters of light enter the darkness of my world. I will retrieve this water and in exchange, I want a book."

"What sort of book?" Kein questioned. "Tell me the title of the book."

"I do not care. I only want something that I have not read and in my lifetime, I have read many books."

"The Waters of Life need to be placed in this clay vessel," she said as she set it on the dock. "I'll be back when I find you a book."

"If you find me a book," he said.

"No, when..." she repeated. "I have to win this Mortem."

Kein started out when the Atlantean shouted to her, "Mi cha, obtaining the Waters of Life will not be easy for me so if you should fail to bring me a book I have not read, I will kill you as a reward for my effort."

"Reward..?" she muttered. "What sort of reward is that?"

She said nothing more to him, left, and went to Shukujo's lair.

Chapter Seven

Tormenting And Teaching

The Kumovon's lair...

Kein was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, so she went straightway and sat in her corner where her pillow was and lay down on her back. She noticed as promised that the truck cart dolly was there near the corner. She removed her backpack, set it beside her, and closed her eyes, and then she heard a lot of movement in the dungeon castle area but never opened her eyes.

"What do you think you are doing?" Shukujo questioned her.

"Can't you tell?" Kein spoke through a sleepy voice. "I'm thinking."

Shukujo peered at her closed eyes and commented, "You have a peculiar way of thinking. You have a peculiar way of doing many things."

"People keep saying that," Kein spoke as she grew ever tired. "I didn't think I was that weird."

"Baka, you are the most unusual person I have ever met. You are even more unusual than my dearest friend."

"I didn't know you had a weird friend," Kein spoke as she smiled, thinking of Shukujo's imageless friend. "I bet she's a Kumovon just like you and probably just as pretty."

"She was very pretty," Shukujo told her. "She was very beautiful."

"It must be nice having a friend," Kein spoke. "Tell me some of the things you would do together."

"We would climb the highest mountain on a cloudless night and peer up at the ocean of stars. She taught me her constellations, and I taught her mine. She liked to talk about the love of her life, the one she would marry and have many children with. I would tell her how I had no interest in marriage and children, but I was secretly jealous that she had already found her mate. She enjoyed singing but much to the regret of my ears, she had no ability in such things."

Kein imagined everything the Kumovon spoke of as she teetered between the waking world and the one of dreams, and she asked, "What other things would you do together?"

"We would..." Shukujo began, then realized she had dropped all of her carefully placed guards, opened up to this human, and thought about a past she wanted to forget, so she immediately dropped the conversation and said, "I would not sleep if I was you."

They had come so close to having a normal conversation, and Kein was saddened that she was back to being considered an enemy. She said nothing to Shukujo's comments. She didn't know what to say, and she was very tired.

Shukujo stated, "I have banished a few of my children from my lair."

"You shouldn't have done that," Kein said as she opened her eyes, hearing of the tragedy, and she saw that Shukujo was in her usual spot near the white borderline. "They're your family."

"They are my precious family," Shukujo told her. "And I cherish each and every one of them."

"Don't banish them if that's the case. Forgive whatever they've done and bring them back to your arms. Nearly anything can be forgiven."

"They have done nothing wrong," Shukujo told her. "I only sent them on an important mission that they must complete before I allow them to return."

"Oh... that's different then. I thought your banishment was a permanent thing," Kein muttered as she fought closing her eyes that were growing heavier by the heartbeat.

"You actually should be asking me where I banished them to," Shukujo told her.

"No questions right now," Kein said. "I'm too tired to ask any..."

She fell asleep just as a baker's dozen of small dog-size spiders descended on their webs down to where Kein slept.

"Baka..." Shukujo spoke softly. "Sleep then... and let all your hard work be for nothing."

The Kumo'usagi were not normal spiders as one might find in the human world. These spiders had a hive mind with whatever Kumovon they associated with. Shukujo ruled them as a queen, and she directed them to make their way to the human and arrange themselves so that they could bite her all at once. The Kumo'usagi were very light for their size, and Kein was such a heavy sleeper that she never woke when they moved across her. Eight Kumo'usagi maneuvered themselves and took up position two on each pant leg and sleeve-covered arm. Four Kumo'usagi took a position on her jacket protected chest, and one spider made its way to her face. They were all in position but the one moving for her face. It crawled up her neck and stepped across her cheek, then Kein's eyes popped open, and she quickly put a hand to her cheek. She noticed the other spiders on her and stood, shaking them off as she pulled the one off of her face. She looked down at the twelve as she clasped her gloved hands close to her chest as if protecting the one spider.

"Stop!" she yelled, and the Kumo'usagi did so.

"What are you doing?" Shukujo questioned her children. "After her... You cannot return until you have sunk your fangs into her."

The twelve Kumo'usagi started after her once more.

"Stop!" Kein ordered them again, and then she looked at Shukujo and told her, "Make them stop before it's too late."

"You cannot simply step on these spiders and kill them," Shukujo told her. "They are hardier than they look."

"I know... just don't let them touch me," Kein said as she pulled her gloved hands away from her chest and looked at the thirteenth Kumo'usagi, she looked at it as if she had accidentally crushed it. "I'm afraid it's too late for this one."

"What do you mean? You could not have killed it."

"You'll probably think I did something worse," Kein told her as she showed her the Kumo'usagi in her hands.

Shukujo looked at what had been a bloodthirsty Kumo'usagi bent on doing his Kumovon's will, but now... Shukujo noticed a different aura about him. It was as if she was looking at a fluffy kitten instead of a deadly creature.

Shukujo shrieked, "What did you do?"

"I'm sorry..." Kein sincerely spoke as she held the thirteenth Kumo'usagi tenderly in her hands. "I was so tired... I didn't mean for him to crawl on me and touch my cheek." Kein turned her gaze to the Kumovon and told her with a heavy heart, "I'm sorry, Shukujo. I should have been more careful."

"Return to me," Shukujo ordered her children, and the twelve Kumo'usagi immediately obeyed. "Return before you are also infected by..." she started, and then she questioned the human, "What did you do to my child?" Shukujo sensed she still had a connection with the Kumo'usagi, but his affection and allegiances were split, and she knew of nothing that could do that, so she questioned, "Is it some sort of spell or curse?"

"It's just me," Kein told her. "Spiders like me. If I make contact with any, they seem to like me even more."

"Kumo'usagi are not spiders. They are of the Kumovon, and they only hate humans."

Kein set the thirteenth Kumo'usagi on the ground near the white borderline and said, "Go on... Go back..."

The thirteenth Kumo'usagi looked up at her with his eight large puppy-dog like eyes, then crawled back to Kein, and rubbed up against her leg like a cat.

"No... Go back... Please go back..." she said, and then she directed her next words to Shukujo, "Please take him back. I can't keep him. He needs to stay with his family."

"I will not have him back. He has been infected or you have cursed him."

"Please don't. Kumovons love their Kumovon children as if they were family. Please... call him back. I can't be responsible for him."

"You need to take responsibility," Shukujo yelled at her. "You are the one who did something to him."

"Please, I'll do anything you ask of me just take him back."

Shukujo thought about it, and then she said, "Bring him to me... Bring him to me over the Kumo'sakai, and I'll accept him."

Kein knew that would mean her death, so she asked, "Why is it so important that I cross the white borderline?"

"I merely want to kill you," Shukujo replied. "I hate all humans."

"Why is it so important that you kill me? You don't seem to be after any of the others down here. Why do you hate humans so much?"

"The only importance that you have is that you are human, and all humans must die."

Kein bent and picked up the Kumo'sakai as she told him, "Come on, Thirteen. I'll take responsibility for you." She walked over and lay down back in her spot, keeping the Kumo'sakai close to her chest as she stated with a little anger, "Keep your children away from me unless you want something like this to happen again. A child should never be abandoned by their family. You should have taken him back no matter what, but I promise..." Kein spoke with compassion in her voice, "I will love him in your place."

She turned Thirteen and set him on her chest so that he faced her. Kein had never seen this type of creature before. When she was a child, all the spiders around the lady were actual spiders, not Kumovon children. Kumovon children made it sound like these creatures were Kumovon offspring, but they were more like pets, cherished pets. Kumo'usagi would appear to any human like some sinister demonic rabbit with eight large eyes, but Kein saw them differently. The Kumo'usagi did look like rabbits but more like fluffy gray bunnies the size of a small dog with eight dark black eyes, and eight legs instead of paws. What made the Kumo'usagi look like bunnies were these large furry antennas that came out of the top of their heads that normal spiders didn't have. The antennas looked like fluffy bunny ears, and the Kumo'usagi used these ear-antennas as an additional way to hear. Kumo'usagi like other Kumovon children could understand speech. Kein gently stroked these ear-antennas which calmed her and Thirteen, and she forgot about the trauma she just experienced and hoped he had found the same simple peace. She continued to stroke his ear-antennas and as she held him, the large spider-like creature reminded her of the joyous times she spent with the lady.

Shukujo paced along the Kumo'sakai for a few minutes, and then she asked, "Where did you get this curse? Did you trade something with the mummy? Of all the Residents, I fear him the most, him and his curses and scarab beetles."

"I'm not talking to you," Kein told her. "You tried to kill me while I was sleeping but more importantly, you abandoned Thirteen."

"You have named my Kumovon child already. I guess he cannot keep the name I had given him since he is no longer mine, and you have no right to criticize me about the care of my children," Shukujo told her. "You are in the Mortem, you should expect anyone of the Residents to try to kill you at any time, so do not chastise me for seeing an opportunity and snatching it. Now tell me where you acquired such a thing to sever the link that is between me and my child."

"I didn't sever your link. It's still there. I've learned to always be on my guard so that I don't cut any threads between those of family and anyway, I'm not talking to you," Kein told her as she pouted. "Go away. I have to think."

"What is there to think about? You are going to die here and most likely by my hands and fangs."

"I need to find the Atlantean a book he has never read," Kein told her. "The problem is that I heard he is very old, older than King Ammon, so he has read a lot of books. I could find him a very rare book but there's still no guarantee that he hasn't read it." She glanced at her backpack as she added, "I do have one very rare book, but I don't want to ever part with it. I'm still learning from it."

"Why not tell him the story of your soon to be short boring life?" Shukujo said, mocking her.

"Tell him my story?" Kein said as she sat up. "That's not a bad idea. Thank you. Thank you, Shukujo."

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Your idea is good," Kein told her. "And I don't think I would have ever thought of it on my own."

"Do not thank me. I did not intend to be helpful. Never thank me... Actually, I take my idea back. You cannot use it."

"Too late," Kein spoke excitedly as a little light trickled into the hopelessness she had. "The idea has been planted, and I'm going to run with it. Thanks again."

"Do not thank me! Never thank me, baka!"

Kein set Thirteen on the floor and quickly left, heading to Dr. Jekyll's room.

Sometime later...

Kein left Dr. Jekyll's lab and went to the Atlantean's swamp, and then she called out, "I'm back!"

He soon appeared out of the water and moved to the dock below the twenty-foot one.

"Mi cha, do you remember my warning?" he questioned her.

"I do," she replied. "That is why I brought you a one of a kind story that has never been published."

Kein tossed some papers that had been stapled together, and he caught them and flipped through them.

"Did you make this?"

"I did. I also wrote it. Dr. Jekyll said I could use some of his office supplies."

"I see that you have all of your appendages," the Atlantean started. "What did you have to trade to acquire these?"

"Nothing. I just waited till he was really really busy and asked him if I could have some of his supplies. He waved me away, so I took it as I could have them. I'm not sure he even knew I was in the lab."

"He can get that way when he is working," the Atlantean told her, and then he looked at her crude book and read its title, "The Kumovon And The Little Girl." He peered up from the book and said, "Is it a fairytale?"

"No, a true story. I was never one to make up things, so all I could write about was what happened to me. Does it meet your requirements?"

"Allow me to read it, and then I will tell you if your life is yours for a few minutes more."

The Atlantean sat where he stood, and Kein waited while he read through the book and after some time, he closed the book and stood.

"What did you think?" she asked.

"It meets the requirements of a book I have never read, so I will acquire the Waters of Life that you requested."

"What did you think of the story?"

"The book's binding was put together in haste. The drawings within it were crude, but they were drawn with care and love. I also thought–"

"You can tell that just by reading it?" Kein interrupted.

"No, I can get a sense of things when I touch objects. I can tell if someone is telling the truth through the air, but I have to make physical contact with a person or object to get a sense of things," he answered, and then he said, "The story's style is as if a child wrote it. Was that intentional?"

"No, I don't think so. My writing is still... I need more practice."

"I do like the story. It is... what is the word I am looking for. It is endearing, and you say it is all true?"

"Yes," Kein replied.

"Why did the Kumovon not devour you?"

"I upset her," Kein replied. "I did something very wrong, so she didn't devour me."

"I do not think you understand my question," the Atlantean stated. "At any time, the Kumovon could have eaten you and left the cavern. Human flesh is very nourishing so no matter how small you were, she could have eaten you, healed any injury she might have had, and left at any time."

"Eat... Devour..." Kein spoke softly. "I thought they had different meanings. I didn't realize back then that they meant the same thing. I think I took her wanting to devour me as..." She paused and then said, "Clans and houses devour those who they want to bring into their family and so as a lonely child, I thought she wanted me as her own."

"The book you wrote actually gave me my answer," he told her. "I just wanted to know if you had accepted the truth yet. You must have been a very lonely and desperate child if you wanted a Kumovon to devour you."

Kein thought fondly of those seven months with the lady as she said, "I was lonely but..." She placed her right palm on her chest over her heart, and then she made a fist as if grasping her heart and said, "I also really cared about her and at the time, I thought she cared about me." Kein dropped her hand to her side as she continued, "I now doubt the feelings I thought she had towards me. I believed with all my being that when she was better she would take me with her, but the lady abandoned me. She left without saying goodbye."

The Atlantean spoke, "I still do not believe you realize the extreme danger you were in. The Kumovon wanted to slice you open and eat your intestines, and yet you treated her as a dear teacher, no... more than that. You treated the Kumovon lady as if she was your birth mother. You are not Kumovon, but you were a very confused little girl."

The words he spoke had a power to them, almost as if he touched her very soul with them and brought the memories dear and tragic to life in a way that rampaged through her defenses, and it allowed uncontrollable tears to stream down her face as she said, "I know... The more I'm here the more I realize that." She wiped the tears away as she said, "Why would she want me to be part of her family? I was just something to pass the time. I was just food to her. I was a way to escape her prison. I was just..."

"I see I have touched on something sensitive," the Atlantean spoke, and then he said, "I am sorry. My intentions were not to make you cry."

"It is fine. I have already stopped crying," Kein told him.

"You have fulfilled your part of the bargain, so I will go now and acquire the Waters of Life in the vessel you left. It will take me some time. Return after the witching hour, and I should have it by then."

The Atlantean went and stored the book Kein had written in one of many wooden chests that lined the docks, and then he went, grabbed the vessel, and returned to the swamp water. Kein watched as he went, and then she went and sat on the end of the dock and since she was alone, Kein wept bitterly into her palms.

Elsewhere...

Controller's room...

"The Atlantean has made the human cry," Blue Wolf spoke up. "My Resident has earned quite a bit of points for himself."

"He has also earned you a lot of money from the Emotional Fund," Controller told her.

"What is this Emotional Fund?" Yellow Dragon questioned.

"It is an endless pool of money that pays out to Coaches in money and to Residents in points when certain criteria are fulfilled."

"I understand," Yellow Dragon said. "One of the criteria must be to make a participant cry. What other criteria are part of this Emotional Fund?"

"There are many," Controller told him. "Examples are laughing for joy; it is rare and one of the highest payouts and there is also screaming in rage or anger, but it is one of the lowest payouts. This particular fund has blind criteria so only after they have been met and paid are they known."

"I understand," Yellow Dragon stated. "Would any of the Coaches like to strike a bargain with me? I will pay to know what other criteria are known by them for the Emotional Fund."

"I will take you up on your deal," Blue Wolf spoke up.

"You are nearly as new as me," Yellow Dragon said. "I would prefer to see if one of the other Coaches will take my offer."

Green Serpent said, "I will if the reward is worth my time."

"Here is what I will pay for each blind criterion that is known to you," Yellow Dragon stated as he sent the amount to Green Serpent.

Green Serpent looked over the amount and said, "A bargain has been struck."

"A bargain has been struck," Yellow Dragon replied even though he had already said it.

The two Coaches switched to a restricted feed that only the two of them could communicate on.

Yellow Dragon said, "Tell me what you know."

"I know of three blind criteria for the Emotional Fund," Green Serpent began. "Someone reveals a secret to another, and both the one telling the secret and the one hearing the secret earn points and their Coaches earn money. The second is a reunion takes place in the Mortem. The more joyous the more reward. The third thing is a wrong is revealed between two participants. Either someone informs the others through the Inquisition Seat or a confession is made. Those are the blind criteria that I–"

Yellow Dragon interrupted, "I know what the Inquisition Seat within the Judicium is, but I thought it was against the rules of the Mortem to... how should I put it? It is against the rules of the Mortem to reveal anything about a participant that is not revealed in the Mortem."

"You're correct about that," Green Serpent stated. "But there are also exceptions to that rule." He paused and said, "We should return so not to miss too much."

They disengaged their restricted feed.

"Good, the two of you are back," Controller spoke. "Let us go around and see if anyone would like to make any new wagers."

"I would like to wager that my Resident the Kumovon will kill the human by the end of this day," Green Serpent spoke.

"I will take that wager," Red Phoenix stated. "I wager this human will last at least four days among the Residents."

"I will take that wager," Purple Rose said. "I believe the human is too kindhearted to survive within the Mortem, so I would like to add something to our wager."

Red Phoenix said, "I will hear you out."

"I not only believe this human will perish, but I wager she will perish in a very painful way that will last several hours."

"What a terrible thing to say?" Blue Wolf spoke up. "Are you wishing this poor human ill-will?"

"I have no feelings either way towards this human," Purple Rose replied. "I am merely forecasting her inevitable end."

"I would like in on this wager," Green Serpent spoke. "I would like to wager on the side of Purple Rose."

"I accept your joint wager," Purple Rose said. "Would anyone else like to join in?"

"I'm still very new at this," Yellow Dragon stated. "I think I'll step back and watch the outcome of this."

"What about you, Blue Wolf?" Purple Rose questioned.

"I guess I can make it ladies versus gentleman, so I am in," she replied. "I do like to root for the underdog. I also see this kindness of hers. I think it is a useful tool for her and has many ways that it can be used."

Controller spoke up, "Are there any other wagers at this time?" He waited a few moments, and then he said, "There is not, so I call the wagering at an end for now."

Basement Level...

Kein finished her cry, dried her eyes, and moved on to King Ammon's room. She wanted to update him on her progress and wanted to ask him her other question for the day. She was in better spirits since crying. Kein usually never let herself get to the point of breaking down but for some reason, she felt better after doing so. She called out to King Ammon, but he never answered her so after about twenty minutes, she started through the tomb, calling out to him.

The Egyptian tomb passages were dark and in ruins, and Kein expected some creature or thing to spring out of the darkness at her and try to take a bite out of her, but none did. She noticed light ahead, then the passage ended, and a large valley with a river flowing through it was on the other side of the tomb. The place was gorgeous and full of life and light, and she stood there in awe of the sight and never heard King Ammon approach her from behind.

"It is a wondrous sight," he said in her mind.

Kein jumped with the intrusion to her thoughts, and then she spoke, "You startled me."

"I did not expect for you to venture through the tomb or that luck would allow you to find this place. You are braver than I thought."

"I never expected to see a place like this," she told him. "I thought your domain would be all creepy and full of... darkness," she spoke, then turned to him, and asked, "Was that rude of me to say?"

"It was," he replied. "And you have used your final question, but I will allow you one more for today."

"Oh..." Kein complained. "I keep wasting them." She noticed that he peered at her differently than he had when they stood before his tomb near the hallway's door. He didn't seem as angry, so she asked, "If you were me and you wanted to survive a week among a group of monsters, what question would you ask you?"

King Ammon seemed to smile at her, not that she could tell a difference with his skeleton expression, but his essence seemed amused by her as he said, "Follow me. There is something I want to show you before I answer your final question of the day."

She followed him to the edge of the large river, and the valley was like she imagined ancient Egypt would be. He led her to a small dock, then they boarded a large Egyptian boat about 150 feet long, and King Ammon used his power and the oars magically rowed them down the river. Kein walked towards the front of the barge and looked out at all the wonders before them.

"What do you see?" he asked her.

There were so many things to see like how the native animals interacted with the environment, how the water flowed along the banks, how the afternoon sun moved along the sky, but what caught her eye was a single white flower growing along the banks.

"I see..." Kein began. "I see beauty in many things."

"Tell me about one of them," he spoke in her mind.

"That flower," she started as she pointed. "Some might say it is ordinary, but look at it. It simmers almost silver when the sunlight catches it just right, and I believe I can already smell its sweet honey-like fragrance even from here."

"It is called the Amisi Rose."

"A rose? It looks more like a... a multi-layer daisy but all white."

"It folds up at night and appears more like a rose," he told her. "I named my daughter after this flower. Her name was Princess Amisi Azeneth."

"Azeneth... Doesn't that mean she belongs to her father?" Kein asked.

"It does," he replied. "Princess Amisi Azeneth was my whole existence after her mother died. I cherished her more than my own life but in the end, that was not enough to keep her safe."

"Did her life end in some tragic way?"

He replied, "She was taken away from me by someone I trusted, by someone I should never have trusted."

"I'm sorry," Kein told him. "Why did you want to show me this place?"

"When Princess Amisi Azeneth was young and I was still the most important man in her life, this boat and this place along the Nile was one of her cherished spots. You seem very like her, so I thought you might also appreciate seeing it."

"I do. Thank you."

They stood near the front for another twenty minutes, enjoying the sights and smells of the living world around them.

"There is something I would like to share with you," King Ammon told her.

"What is that?"

"Come, and you will see," he said as he walked to the very front of the barge and motioned to the horizon in front of them. "This is what I wanted to share with you."

The sun quickly and unnaturally moved forward in time and then slowed as it set over the horizon in front of them, throwing out a brilliant rainbow of light Kein thought couldn't exist in her world. She was filled with wonder and awe and gazed at the sight unblinking until the last ray vanished into the twilight. Torches on the barge immediately flickered on as she continued to stare at a now dark horizon.

"It was so beautiful," Kein replied, then turned to King Ammon, and told him, "If something like this can happen within the Basement Level, within a Mortem that only wants to claim lives... just think of what can be accomplished if light can outshine darkness." She paused, and then she asked, "Are sun rises as beautiful?"

"Judge for yourself," King Ammon said as he turned and walked to the back of the barge, and she followed.

The sun peeked over the eastern horizon and threw out a blazing orange color that burned across the sky. The sunrise was just as magical as the sunset, and Kein felt all warm inside, knowing this scene of endings and beginnings was what King Ammon wanted to share with her.

"Is it ever dark here?"

"Only if I allow it," he replied. "Darkness is here for only a few minutes each day."

She turned to him and saw him more as a caring father than a rage-filled mummy, and she said, "Princess Amisi Azeneth must have cherished these times with you."

"I believe she did," King Ammon replied and then after a few seconds, he questioned, "Daughter of Fear, did you also have someone close to you that you lost?"

"I did," Kein answered as she thought about the lady.

King Ammon questioned, "Does it hurt when you think about this person?"

"It does," she replied as happy and sad memories of her past took turns occupying her mind.

King Ammon sensed the anguish of a child within her, a child still trapped within the body of this woman.

"I experienced so much joy with her, but it hurts to think about the lady," she spoke and then asked, "How can so much happiness also bring pain?"

"One of life's great mysteries," he told her. "Look at the river and see how it flows. Life is the water, and the rocks and banks are circumstances we encounter. The water continues to flow but is changed in different degrees, depending on what it encounters and so is life. Joy, hatred, happiness, envy, and all our other emotions are the ripples caused by these encounters, and we as the water can only move forward, bringing the ripples with us."

"I think I understand," she told him. "You believe we are the water and we're forced along the banks."

"Yes," he replied. "Sadness and joy is a part of life and cannot be avoided." He headed back to the front of the barge as she followed, and then he said, "Look... and take care to observe. Look at the flow of the river," he spoke in a soothing way in her mind. "See how calm it is. See the smoothness of the current. Do you feel a part of this water? Do you feel a part of the current? See the joy..." King Ammon spoke and said as if a command, "Relive the sorrow."

She watched the flow of the river as his voice became more and more distant, and then she blinked, and they appeared to be someplace else along the Nile, and King Ammon was standing on her other side.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just that... It looks like we're at a different spot along the river, and I thought you were standing–"

"Time does flow differently here," he interrupted her. "I should have warned you beforehand. Time here can move forward and backward at my whim."

"Oh..." Kein replied, but she wasn't sure that was the peculiar sensation she had felt.

"What were we talking about?" she asked as if pulling out of a haze. "I remember how you were telling me life is like the river, but what were we talking about after that?"

"Family," he replied. "Fathers and daughters... Mothers and daughters..."

"I don't remember," Kein said as she sniffed and realized her nose was runny and her eyes were watering.

"You might have gotten too much sun," he told her. "Allow me to end the day."

He lifted his right hand, and the sun that was high above them immediately set and for the first time in a long time, night lingered over the river valley. The torches on the barge flickered on again.

"Do you have total control of your domain?" she asked him.

"Nearly," he replied. "This is the Mortem."

She blinked a couple of times as more of her senses came back to her, and then Kein remembered why she had come in the first place.

"I forgot to tell you that I have the Atlantean going after the Waters of Life and if all goes well, I'll have it sometime late tonight."

"I would be careful if I was you when dealing with the Atlantean," King Ammon warned her. "He is a peculiar sort and should not be trusted."

Kein didn't know what to say to his comment, so she remained silent.

"I will now answer your final question for the day even though I did allow you other questions. The question I would ask myself if I was you would be what I would ask all of the Residents. You should ask what is it that we want from you."

"What all of you want from me?" Kein repeated as she thought about his reply. "I'll take that to heart as I interact with all of you. I would like to leave now."

"I am surprised that you have not asked me the question. Do you not wish to know what I want from you?"

"I've already used up all my questions for you today and... I don't think I want to know the answer yet. I mean I hope to change the answer, so I shouldn't waste a question on something that will hopefully change."

"You are very peculiar," he told her.

"I'll take that as your way of telling me that you're starting to like me and maybe you don't want to feed me to your beetles."

"They are not hungry today," he replied.

They said no more on the subject and quietly rode on the barge until the dock magically appeared, then she disembarked, and he followed her onto the small dock.

"I would like for you to meet me here from now on," he told her. "It is my way of showing you trust, a trust I wish to build upon. I believe you will have no problems transversing my tomb to come to this river valley since you have already done so."

"It could have been just blind luck," she told him.

"I doubt that," he stated. "There is something about you that is... special."

"You'll make me blush if you keep saying things like that," Kein told him. "I'll meet you here the next time I come for our daily questions."

"I will bid you farewell until next we meet, Daughter of Fear."

"Why do you call me, Daughter of Fear?"

"Are you not she?" he questioned.

"I'm no one's daughter," she replied.

"You are wrong," he told her. "Many will vie for your love, and many will use your love against you."

Kein didn't know how to take his warning, so she merely ignored it and said, "I think you're mistaken about the daughter part. I am Kein after all. I am no one's daughter."

She turned and headed through the tomb.

"You are wrong about one thing, Daughter of Fear," King Ammon spoke softly to himself. "I can already see my Amisi Azeneth within you."

The Kumovon's lair...

Kein returned to the dungeon castle area still sniffing and wiping her runny eyes. She headed directly for her pillow, and Thirteen spun down on a web from the corner above her and landed on her arm as he chirped happily. Kein picked up the Kumo'usagi and snuggled with him so glad to see a friendly face. Shukujo seemed to know immediately when she arrived and came out to give the red nose and red-eyed woman a greeting.

"Welcome back, one I will soon kill."

"Hey," Kein replied as she petted Thirteen. "I'm glad to be back."

"Ask me your question and be done with it," Shukujo told her. "I grow tired of waiting on you."

"You make it sound like you've been thinking of me all day," Kein spoke in a toying manner as she looked at Shukujo. "It just warms my heart knowing you care. I'm so glad you're looking out for me."

"I am not looking out for you, and I do not care!" Shukujo yelled louder than she planned to and lowered her voice before saying, "I care nothing about you. You and I have no other connection than you are a nuisance to me and I want to make you scream. Making you cry is too easy, so now I want to hear you shriek in agony."

"I don't think you'll have to wait long," Kein told her. "So far it sounds like these Mortem points are all based on how cruel and wicked someone can be. I guess there are no points for being kind or considerate down here."

"You are among monsters. Does a human expect such things from us? Your kind and ours only kill one another but if you think it will make a difference, I can kill you while I smile."

"I would like to see your smile but not at the expense of my life. I'll just have to find another way to–"

"Baka! Do you believe we are playing some sort of game here?"

"Isn't that what the Mortem is? And that's not a question," Kein informed her, not wanting to lose a question. "I see the Mortem as some sort of giant game to entertain someone."

"Are you talking about the Mortem Masters?" Shukujo questioned her.

"They're a group of people," Kein replied. "I get this feeling that the Mortem is designed just for one person's enjoyment."

"Even if you are right, what does that knowledge benefit you or me?"

"It has no benefit right now," Kein replied. "Shukujo, you couldn't possibly want to be here and if you do, whatever your reasoning, it must be–"

"My reasoning..." Shukujo interrupted, "... is none of your business. You would be better to utilize your energy into surviving. Your chances by the moment become slimmer."

"You're right, and thank you for your advice. I'd be in real trouble in the Mortem if you didn't teach me things."

Shukujo started to let out a scream of frustration but instead, she merely glared at the human and said, "You are welcome, but do not expect any future advice to be helpful. I do mean to kill you. I mean to kill all humans."

"Okay," Kein replied as she continued to pet Thirteen, then her eyes grew heavy, and she shut them and nodded off.

Kein fell asleep, and her unguarded mind filled with images. She had made a mental vow not to intrude on Shukujo's past but with fatigue and sleep, Kein slipped into Shukujo's mind as she had with all the other Residents. She saw a Japanese style mansion and within this estate, hundreds of slashed and bloodied bodies were scattered about. She heard screams of sorrow and then of rage, and Kein felt... she felt this uncontrollable bloodlust. Kein realized she was seeing Shukujo's past, so she forced herself to wake and sat up breathing heavily for all the terrible sights she saw.

"Nightmare..." Shukujo spoke with a slight hint of pleasure. "I wonder if I will be rewarded for your sleep terrors."

Kein made no reply to her comment, but she did stare at her with this sad expression mixed with sympathy as if Kein had peered into her atrocious nightmares and not her own. Humans didn't possess that ability, so Shukujo dismissed the idea.

"Should you be sleeping when there is work to be done?" Shukujo questioned her. "Do you not still have things to do?"

"I do," Kein replied. "I shouldn't close my eyes until it's time to sleep."

"You should never close your eyes, baka, for death will be all that you will find."

"The advice is sound, but it's impossible for a human not to eventually fall asleep, so I should thank you again for allowing me this small space. I feel somewhat safe here."

"And that is why you are a baka," Shukujo told her. "A fly should never feel somewhat safe in the spider's lair."

"I've always felt at home in the spider's lair and for some reason, I feel really safe with you like a familiar safe."

"You keep insulting me with your talk. You must understand that you can trust no one here. We are monsters..."

"I heard a different tale when I spoke with Labaron. He made it sound like you two knew each other very well and that... some sort of disagreement came between you two."

"The vampire is a backstabber and a liar," Shukujo spoke as a hatred that wasn't aimed at Kein seethed from her voice. "He may have fooled me with his charms, but I will not fall for them again."

"You were close then. I wasn't sure. I can't tell when he's lying to me."

Shukujo questioned, "You can tell when someone's lying?"

"Me..?" Kein pointed to herself.

"Who else is here, baka?"

"Please don't count that as a question," Kein pleaded. "I was just startled from sleep, and I'm a little groggy." She waited for some sort of response from the Kumovon and when none came, Kein stated, "The vampire does like to talk."

"You mean he likes to hear his own voice," Shukujo restated.

"You're right. I was just trying to be polite," Kein spoke as she laughed. "He actually was the only one among all of you that looked like he actually wanted to talk to me when I entered his parlor, but I kept leaving. You should have seen the expression on his face each time I left."

"Do tell," Shukujo spoke, and then she asked, "What was it like?"

"It was like... How do I put it? It was like he couldn't believe or more like he was shocked that I kept leaving," Kein replied as she laughed again. "It was like he was appalled that I could pry myself away from him but most of all, I believe he was surprised that I ran. I ran the first two times."

Kein laughed for the third time, and Shukujo slightly smiled as she imagined the bane of the vampire when his prey fled his wilds not once but twice. Shukujo was curious as to how the human survived three trips to the Crimson Parlor, but then she remembered that the vampire had just fed and that it had been a long time since he had human companionship. Shukujo's thoughts went back to the bane of the vampire, and she was very amused by what the human had done.

"I could imagine that," Shukujo stated.

Kein petted Thirteen for a few moments, and then she asked, "Shukujo, why do you hate humans? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to, but I don't believe all Kumovons hate humans, but you seem to really hate them."

"I decline to answer your question if I have an option. My hatred is my own, and you do not need to know anything about it."

"That's fine like I said, you don't have to answer, it's just that it's hard for me to understand how you feel," Kein said. "I don't think I ever hated anyone. I've disliked a few people, but hate... It has to be something like anger, but it never goes away."

"You do understand," Shukujo told her. "Hatred never goes away. It is always in the back of your mind. It is how I have survived in this place. If I did not have my hatred, I... I do not know if I would still be alive."

"This is another question you don't have to answer," Kein began. "How important is family to Kumovons? My real question is would you leave someone you cared about behind, I mean, would you abandon them?"

"I never would, and I cannot see one of my kind doing something like that to one of their own family. Are you thinking about that Kumovon lady you mentioned earlier?"

"Yes, I want to understand the relationship we had. She said she wanted to devour me. I thought that meant she wanted to bring me into her clan, but I just wasn't big enough. If this was the devour she meant, why did she leave without taking me?"

"Baka... to us monsters devour just means eat and nothing else. You should be thankful that she didn't devour you. I would have the moment I saw your defenseless naive presence if I had been in her position."

"Right..." Kein replied, feeling a little heartsick. "I should be thankful she left."

Kein sat up, placed Thirteen on the floor, then turned away from Shukujo, and wiped her hands over her face as she said, "Enough talking about things like that. I have a Mortem I need to win, and I need to ask you one more question."

She turned back around, and Shukujo noticed her eyes were even redder than they had been when she first came into her lair.

"I want to survive this week, so that I can go home," Kein stated. "You want to kill me because... umm... you'll enjoy it. Both of those things can't happen, so one of us is going to end up very unhappy."

"More like dead," Shukujo commented. "What point are you trying to make?"

"Isn't there something you want more than to make my wish impossible to achieve? I thought if there was something else, maybe we could help each other out. Surviving alone is very hard."

"I will offer you this advice, baka. We are all alone here. Understand that, and you might survive a few hours more," Shukujo told her, and then she emphasized, "We are all alone here."

"Maybe whoever is in charge of the Mortem wants you to think that way. Maybe they don't want all of you to work together because that's the only way to win the Mortem."

"I tried once to work with one of the other Residents, but he only ended up betraying me," Shukujo said, and then she insisted, "I will trust no one again."

"The vampire..." Kein muttered, and then she asked, "Is there a way we can work together that doesn't involve a need to trust me? There must be something you want more than to make a human dead."

"There is nothing I want that you can help me attain," Shukujo replied. "You only wasted your questions pursuing the possibility. You are truly a baka."

"At least, you didn't lie to me, and I clearly see where I stand with you," Kein replied.

"Do not stand with me," Shukujo told her. "Do not even stand where I can see you."

"If that's what you want," Kein said as she started for the door. "I do need to–"

"Wait, I change my mind," Shukujo interrupted her. "First, I want you to answer some of my questions."

"Okay," Kein said as she walked back over to where she was standing. "What are your questions?"

"What sort of hex did you place on the one you call Thirteen?"

"Hex?" Kein repeated as she glanced at the Kumo'usagi who had started to crawl up the wall to the corner where he had made his home.

Thirteen felt that Kein was paying attention to him again, so he paused and looked at the new addition to his family. She saw his eight puppy-dog eyes and wanted to snatch him from the wall and snuggle with him again, but she resisted the urge.

"Yes, see the way he peers at you," Shukujo pointed out. "It is almost like he likes you, no, I would say adores you. He is my Kumovon child, so he should only look at me that way, but his fondness for you seems to be greater, unnaturally greater even though you are a human."

Kein glanced at her gloved hands and then said, "I'll only apologize to you one more time for taking him away from you, but I did warn you to call your children back."

"I do not accept your apology as I did not accept it then," Shukujo told her. "I want you to answer my question."

"I didn't place a hex on Thirteen but that doesn't mean a hex isn't on me," Kein replied as she walked over and held out her hand for the Kumo'usagi to crawl across it. He gleefully crawled into her palm and balled himself up so he would fit, and Kein noticed how light he was for his size as she said, "It does seem he really likes me, but is it real or some curse? I wish I knew. I want to believe Thirteen's affections are real. It would make life a little less harsh."

"Kumo'usagi are not affectionate."

"They're not so this is unnatural?" Kein questioned as she petted him. "It took me a long time to realize that normal spiders were acting unnaturally around me. Spiders are also not affectionate, but they were with me. I just thought Kumovon children would be different since they're more like your people than spiders."

"As I said, you must have placed a hex on him either intentionally or unintentionally, but I do find one thing peculiar."

Kein asked, "What is that?"

"Your affection towards him. Do you not see him as grotesque? Is he not like some monstrosity from your nightmares? Do you not see him as some grossly hairy beast that wants to hurt you?"

"Not at all," Kein replied as she felt the life essence of the creature in her palm. "I see him as beautiful, not as pretty as you but wondrous in his own way. Don't you think the same? All your children are wondrous, and it's been very hard for me not to pick them up even though I really want to." She thought about what Shukujo had told her before, and then Kein asked, "Are you saying that your Kumovon children aren't affectionate with you?"

"We are not talking about me," Shukujo told her.

"I guess not," Kein said, and then she held Thirteen close to her cheek as she stated, "I love how soft he is and how he cuddles up to me." Her eyes widened with delight as she added, "Listen... He's purring."

"Purring..? Kumo'usagi are capable of purring, but I have never heard one do so," Shukujo said, and then she ordered, "Give him to me."

"Are you saying that you'll take him back?" Kein questioned as she moved to the white borderline. She nearly handed him over, but then she demanded, "Tell me you won't hurt him."

"What kind of Kumovon do you think I am that you believe I will hurt one of my own Kumo'usagi?"

"I am questioning your hatred of humans. Would you hurt Thirteen just to make me suffer?"

Shukujo glanced at the fluffy Kumo'usagi that Kein held with care, and then she answered, "I would not. They are family."

Kein set Thirteen down, and then she told him, "Go on to Shukujo."

Thirteen crawled across the Kumo'sakai, and Shukujo picked him up and took a firm grip of his bunny-ear antennas as she said, "I am surprised that you believed me. I tricked you so easily. Now come on this side of the Kumo'sakai or I will hurt Thirteen."

Kein didn't hesitate and moved to cross the white borderline, but then she stopped and said, "No, you won't hurt Thirteen."

"Sure I will."

"No, you won't," Kein insisted. "You won't do it because I have to be right about you."

"What do you mean?"

"You won't... you can't hurt one of your family. I have to be right about this."

Shukujo tightened her grip on his bunny-ear antennas as she said, "You are wrong about Kumovons. We devour our own."

"No!" Kein yelled, and this was the first time Shukujo witnessed her become angry. Kein shouted, "You won't! I have to be right about this!"

"It looks like I have touched on a sensitive subject," Shukujo spoke. "Why is it so important that you be right? Are you still pouting over that Kumovon lady you claim you knew?" She studied Kein's agitated reaction, and then she said, "By your response, I am right. There is more to the story between you and that Kumovon lady, is there not? You two became close... no... We do not become close to your kind, so it must be that you became close to her. My poor baka... You are upset that you do not know if the friendship you struck with your lady was one-sided. You might be even more upset over that point than you are upset that I am going to hurt this Kumovon child." Shukujo paused, waiting for an answer, but Kein held her tongue, so Shukujo told her, "I know something. I know of the whispering specter that you have been trying to keep at bay. I know what this vengeful specter whispers in your ear each time you think of the lady."

"What would you know?" Kein yelled.

"I know that your kind does not stand a chance here. I know that the Mortem will eat you alive. I also know, my poor baka..." Shukujo pointed at her as she accused her, "I also know that it is your fault that the lady abandoned you."

"You can't know that," Kein insisted. "I never told anyone, so you can't know that."

Shukujo vowed to herself that she wouldn't let up on antagonizing the human and spoke, "In your mind, you became very close as close as a mother and daughter could become, but you are the only one who saw it that way."

"Shut up..." Kein told her in nearly a murmur.

"Why are you upset? I only speak the truth. I know... I know that she cared nothing for you, and the proof is when you gave her a new name."

"Shut up..." Kein spoke louder. "You can't know this."

"I do know this. I have seen your pain. I have seen what should have been a warm joyous moment for a child. I saw it turn into a cold flurry of confusion and doubt. It... that very moment has caused you to go on a quest for the truth, but I am afraid that you already know the truth."

"You know nothing," Kein shouted back as panic set in and the misgivings she had snuffed out, rushed back like the furious flames of a rekindled wildfire.

"Do you remember how your lady reacted when you blessed her with such an endearing name?" Shukujo questioned her. "You thought she would be delighted to be honored with such a name. You thought she would wrap her arms around you and give you the kiss a mother would give a daughter, but nothing like that happened." Shukujo's next words crawled out of her mouth as if malice had grown eight legs, "Baka... You gave her such an endearing name befitting one you thought loved you, but she only screamed at you..."

Kein shook her head, denying everything she heard, denying that this Kumovon could know her deepest shame and sorrow. She denied it within her mind with furor as she backed up and repeated with anguish dripping from her lips, "You can't know this... You can't know this..."

"You called her mother and–"

"Shut up!" Kein screamed as the tears she had been holding back, tears she normally sealed away deep within her broke through her carefully laid barriers and came gushing out. "Don't say any more! Shut up!"

"You called her mother out of great affection and... and she rejected your love. She rejected you and your silly thoughts and beliefs. The only thing you shared with her was time," Shukujo told her as Thirteen tried to wriggle from her grasp so that he could go to Kein, but Shukujo held a firm grasp on his bunny-ear antennas. She told the human, "What agony the lady must have been in to put up with one such as you? A tiny little morsel not even worth eating." Shukujo continued her onslaught, "You are a baka now, and you were a baka back then. Loneliness blinded you to reality. I still do not know why the lady stayed so long with you. It is more likely that you exaggerated the length of time you spent together."

"You can't know this..." Kein said while she gave a numb ear to the Kumovon. She stumbled back a few steps and hit the wall with her back as she spoke, "No one should know this."

Shukujo witnessed the pain she dealt against the human, and she believed it was enough for now, so she released the hold she had on Thirteen and then stroked his head as she said, "It seems I do not need to hurt him right at this moment. I found another way to hurt you, and I should score very high for it."

"You did hurt me," Kein replied as her tears continued to flow. "Why would you want to hurt me in this way? I haven't cried in nearly a year and that's all I seem to do in this Mortem."

"Causing tears... actually I should say... causing tears of sorrow ranks as one of the highest non-lethal scores," Shukujo told her. "How could I pass on such an opportunity? I should be set for a few days now."

"How did you know? You couldn't possibly know what happened that last day with the lady," Kein insisted.

"Look at where you are. You skip around the darkness, forgetting you are among the vilest of creatures, the cursed and the damned. You should be more cautious."

Kein wiped away her tears as she said, "I should be more cautious. Did you have to teach me this lesson so harshly?"

"Teach you?" Shukujo nearly laughed out. "Are you substituting me for the lady just because I happen to be a Kumovon."

"Maybe," Kein replied. "But you're the one who showed me my error in allowing my trusting nature to have free will here."

"Tell me what you have learned then, my baka," Shukujo instructed her.

Kein began as she controlled her crying, "The mummy... King Ammon... he did something to me, didn't he? I heard that those cursed can gain power by feeding on pain. I just thought that nourishment would be pain caused by physical wounds. I never thought the pain would be–"

"Emotional?" Shukujo interjected as she set Thirteen on the floor. "Humans are such weak creatures."

Thirteen started for Kein as he desperately wanted to console her, but Kein shook her head, so Thirteen turned and headed for the others of his kind.

"You are a harsh teacher," Kein told her. "Have you been this harsh on your other pupils?"

"I have had no students, and I do not wish for any. I will gain valuable resources with the points I have made off of you and if you happened to learn something from the experience, what is that to me? Now tell me what you have learned my non-student."

"I let my guard down and the mummy fed on my pain," Kein replied as she felt like she was back in school. "I was a baka, and a baka gets no gold star."

"Gold star?" Shukujo questioned. "What is this in reference to?"

"It's a sticker given as a reward," Kein replied. "Gold being the highest honor." She thought about what the Kumovon told her, and then Kein questioned, "Even if King Ammon fed on the pain of my past, how would you know about it?"

"You are way over your limit of questions," Shukujo told her. "But I will tell you that those who are cursed must manifest the pain they feed on into something tangible before they devour it."

She thought about her explanation, and then Kein stated, "You mean you saw it? You saw my pain... you saw my memory of that terrible day, but that would mean..." Kein paused as she thought about details she let stagnate, and then she said, "The Residents have ways of watching other Residents; it has to be how you know. Labaron had a button that gave him thirty minutes of privacy, and I thought it was from Controller and the Coaches, but it was from everyone. All of you have been watching me. King Ammon manifest my pain, and you were able to view it. My deepest shame and everyone saw it."

"You are not very quick, are you?" Shukujo scolded her.

Kein wiped away the last of her tears as she stated, "The Mortem's point system it's... it's based on pain and suffering." She closed her eyes as she envisioned a large building rising up through the darkness, and she spoke, "The Mortem is a massive tower to gather all this pain and suffering, but why do something like this? What is the real purpose of the Mortem? Could it be that I was right? You are all being duped into participating in this Mortem for someone else's gain?"

"The moment I think that you are a true baka, you go and say something that is beyond the wisdom you should have," Shukujo told her. "I have had a similar assumption."

"For the Mortem to continue, pain and suffering must be prolonged, so the Mortem has to be very hard so no one can win, and no one has won the Mortem," Kein spoke, and then she questioned herself, "How am I supposed to win the Mortem if so many others have tried and failed?" She pushed herself away from the wall and approached the white borderline as she said, "No wonder all of you are the way you are. You've all been down here too long."

"Are you suggesting we need to step out into the light? Do not forget we live in darkness."

"Monsters walk in the light and saints move about in the darkness," Kein told her. "What is important is the light and darkness within you." She looked around the dungeon castle area, and then Kein said, "I pity all of you."

"You pity us. Because we are forced to make others suffer? Have you forgotten what we are?"

"I pity you, not because you are forced to make others suffer but that you choose to," Kein replied, then she noticed the unlucky numbered Kumo'usagi that had become her responsibility, and she said, "Thirteen was very scared when you threatened him. You made him suffer, and he's one of yours." She stepped right to the white borderline, peered up at Shukujo high above her, and asked, "Did you suffer when you made him suffer or did you feel nothing? If you felt nothing, you've been down here too long."

Shukujo glanced in the direction where all the Kumo'usagi gathered, considering what the human had warned her of, and then Shukujo told her, "I believe you are right about that point. I have been down here too long and for pointing this fact out to me, I will answer one of your earlier questions I refused to answer." Shukujo moved away from the Kumo'sakai and deeper into her lair as if she was afraid to face something, and then she turned and said, "I once deeply cared about two humans, and they betrayed me. They betrayed me in a way that I couldn't forgive them, and so I made them suffer in ways that I deemed fit for their treachery, and then I killed them."

"Are they why you're here?" Kein questioned her.

Shukujo started to answer, but then she just said, "Who is to say?"

Kein turned, but then she faced the Kumovon and said, "I was right. You didn't hurt your Kumovon child."

"Did not and could not are two different things. Remember that, baka," Shukujo told her. "It would seem with the number of lessons I have given today, I do have an annoying student," she stated, and then she asked, "Are you going to give me a new name? Perhaps you will call me, sensei?"

"You have seen the pain of my past," Kein spoke. "Do you really want to be called by a name I intended to give to the lady to show her I meant her no disrespect?"

"No, I do not need a name associated with pain."

Shukujo went deeper into her lair, and Kein watched her leave until she couldn't see her anymore, and then she went and lay against her pillow in the corner. Kein sat there for a long time as she battled the demons Shukujo brought up with her tormenting and teaching. She also tried to ignore the grumblings of her stomach. Kein kept thinking about the bowl of cherries Labaron had sitting on his coffee table and finally, she couldn't take it anymore and went to his room. The werewolf pup was still nowhere in sight, and Kein was finding it odd that he hadn't appeared.

Chapter Eight

If Wishes Were Fried Fishes

Controller's room...

All five coaches were present on the video feeds as Controller continued with another session.

Green Serpent smacked the palm of his hand on his desk as he spoke, "I thought there would be more of a threat to the contestant's life."

"She does seem to be fairing well against the Residents," Blue Wolf stated.

Red Phoenix restated, "You mean she is not dead yet."

"It is only her second day," Yellow Dragon said.

"Still," Green Serpent spoke up. "I would like to increase the level of threat against her."

"In the past, we have agreed to such things," Purple Rose added. "But that was against a Resident and only with permission from their Coach. Controller, since Kein is a contestant, what do the rules dictate against such a request?"

"This has not come up before. I will need to consult the Mortem Masters," Controller answered. "If you all will excuse me, I will go consult with them now."

Controller's feed went dark.

"I also will take this opportunity to take a break," Purple Rose said. "I will return shortly."

His feed went dark.

Sometime later...

Both Controller and Purple Rose feeds returned.

"I have spoken with the Mortem Masters, and they have said that they will allow it as long as at least three Coaches agree," Controller stated. "Green Serpent, tell the others of your plan and as long as two of them agree with you, your higher threat level may be granted."

"My plan is very simple," Green Serpent stated. "I only want to grant one of the Residents their wish."

"Are you talking about your own Resident? I like that idea," Red Phoenix spoke up. "This Mortem needs a little more excitement."

"Yes," Purple Rose agreed. "We should give one of the Residents one of their wishes."

The vampire's parlor...

Kein entered, and Labaron was nowhere in sight. She looked at the bowl of cherries, and the bowl was nearly full. She wasn't about to steal them, so she wasn't sure why she had come. She had nothing to trade with the vampire, nothing she was willing to part with, so Kein turned to leave when...

"Ma chère, you came back, good... I can tell you the story I promised you."

"I actually didn't come for the story," Kein told him as she stared at the door, a little afraid to look him in the eyes.

"You have finally admitted to yourself that you can't resist me, so you have come to fling yourself at me."

She turned around but kept her gaze away from his as she replied, "I'm not sure why I would throw myself at you like I would a knife but..." Her stomach grumbled again as she finished, "...desire as brought me here."

"Really... come then," Labaron urged her as he walked over to the couch and sat. He patted the cushion seat next to him and said, "Come here and tell me all your desires."

Kein moved to the spot she had stood in the last time she was in the parlor as she admitted, "I don't know if I'm ready to go that far. Baby steps and all."

"I promise, I'll be gentle. Come... Come..."

"Gentle about what?" she asked.

He studied her seemingly bashful demeanor and couldn't tell if she was playing a part to get what she wanted or she really was unlearned to certain things of the world, so he questioned, "Are you really a lamb? This wolf would love it if you are a lamb."

"I thought the werewolf pup was the only wolf here," she stated. "Or do you refer to one of your familiars?" Kein thought about it some more, and then she asked, "Or could it be what I had heard during my schooling is untrue... Are there creatures that are half-born? Are you a werewolf and a vampire?"

"Heed this warning, ma chère. You should never speak of such vile and detestable creatures. Chimeras are only a legend. There are no half-borns. The mingling of certain infections, as you put it, is impossible, and the pairing of different creatures can produce no offspring. I'll take no offense in you calling me as such for I believe no offense was intended. Others wouldn't be so understanding, and they would instantly rip your head off." He allowed a few moments to pass so that his warning sunk in, and then he said, "When I referred to myself as a wolf, I was merely... No, I believe your ears are too young to hear of such things just yet. I will educate you slowly."

"I already have a harsh teacher," Kein told him as she instinctively wiped her eyes as if they were full of tears. "I don't know if I need another."

"Harsh..?" Labaron repeated as if offended. "I would be no such thing. When I teach you things, they will be very pleasurable. My teachings will take you to heights of ecstasy."

"I think we're talking about two different things, and I'm not sure I want to know what you're talking about especially if it has to do with your vampire mojo. Could we get back on subject, and I mean the subject I was talking about?"

"Yes, of course. We were talking about your desires, but first... Did you not make me a promise?"

"A promise..?" Kein repeated as she finally made eye contact.

Labaron motioned to her feet with his head, and she glanced down at them.

"Oh, right. I had forgotten," Kein said, and then she took a step forward. "Okay, I did it, now... You have something I want, and I'm not sure how to ask for it."

"We'll make it a game then. Don't speak with your mouth, ma chère. Let your body do the talking," he told her.

"I'm really not sure what you mean, but I'll try," Kein replied, and then she lifted her arm and pointed her finger at the cherries.

From his perspective, it looked like she was pointing at him, so he said, "Now I'm the one who really doesn't understand. Your body needs to give me another clue."

"I was never good at these types of games," she admitted. "Couldn't I just tell you what I want?"

"The game has just started," he told her. "Don't ruin it with impatience."

She pointed again at the cherries and then to her closed lips.

"I'm imagining many things, but I believe none of them are what you intend, ma chère. I believe you need to throw your soul into expressing your desires."

Her stomach growled real loud, and then she smiled and said, "I don't know about throwing my soul into it, but there... My body speaks."

"Are you hungry?" Labaron questioned as he realized his guessing was nowhere near her actual appetite. "So your desire is for..?"

She pointed at the bowl again and answered, "I would like to trade for your cherries."

"Of course, you would. What else would I have that you would desire?" he spoke somewhat disappointed. "I have thrown out my allure at you many times, but it seems to have no effect on you. I have encounter only one other creature that is immune."

"Are you talking about Shukujo?"

"You have been paying attention. You're a very good student," Labaron told her, and then he asked, "What are you offering for trade?"

"I have nothing of value or anything that you would want," she answered.

"But you do have something that I want," he stated. "You can't be that naive as to what a vampire wants."

"I know you crave blood, it's just... I've been taking these supplements and even when I don't take them, they stay in my bloodstream for about three to four days. I just don't think I'll taste good."

"I now understand. I once feasted on this woman who took garlic and well... I was sick for a week." Labaron questioned, "Is it the same thing?"

"You could say that," she replied. "Is there anything else that I could trade with you?"

"What I was thinking of before, but I think I'll wait until you're garlic free. Even just the thought of it puts me out of the mood."

Her stomach rumbled again, and she pleaded, "There has to be something."

"Maybe you could help me with a problem," he said as he stood, excited about the idea. "I notice you've been spending a lot of time with... Shukujo, you call her... I'd like you to–"

"No," she interrupted. "I won't do it and if that's the only way I can–"

"You haven't even heard what I want you to do," Labaron spoke angrily.

"Of what I know and understand about you two's relationship and how the Mortem's played, I imagine you want me to do something Shukujo won't like."

"I would have thought you would jump at a chance to get back at her after what she just said to you."

Kein muttered as her face flushed slightly, "Nothing's a secret here."

"Not unless you have one of these red buttons," Labaron told her as he motioned to his.

"I'm learning that slowly... Is there anything I can try to acquire for you that you want in trade for the cherries?"

"How about your time?"

"What do you mean?" Kein asked.

"I want you to come and sit by me on the couch while I tell you the story of Labaron and Lafayette."

"I don't know. The idea sounds a little dangerous to me."

"Let's strike a bargain. I will never harm you in any way while I tell you a tale and for every two minutes you stay with me, I'll give you one cherry."

"It is a deal if you will also include ten minutes after your tale is over that you can't harm me, harming me includes taking any of my blood or trying to use your mojo on me, and you give me a handful of cherries to start with." She added to explain her added conditions, "I want to be able to enjoy your tale and soak in your story once it's done without fear of a vampire's bite, and I'll need my strength if I'm to give you my full attention."

Labaron replied, "A bargain has been struck."

"A bargain has been struck," Kein spoke.

"Come now..." Labaron urged her as he once again patted the cushion seat next to him. "Come and sit."

Kein went and sat so that she faced the vampire, then he allowed her to grab a handful of cherries, and Labaron began as she greedily munched away.

"Once there were twin boys born to Baron Henry Bayard and Baroness Mary Bayard. The twins both had hair dark as the night just like their mother's, but only one of them shared her eyes."

"You're not identical twins?" Kein interrupted.

"No, we were what you call fraternal twins and please, don't interrupt my tale."

"Sorry, I'll stay quiet," Kein said as she went back to eating the last of her cherries in her hand.

"Sit back and relax," he told her. "For our story goes like this... In 1888, outside of New Orleans, Labaron and Lafayette were born into privilege... one might say they were born with a silver crawdad in their mouth. They grew up as close as brothers could be, closer when their loving mother passed on. Their father didn't have much to do with Labaron, and even less to do with Lafayette who reminded their father of their mother. The time their father did spend with Labaron was to teach him the ways of the family business and the ways of wayward men, not that Lafayette lacked experience with women. Far from it... The boys grew into older teens, and Labaron became curious about the occult and all things related to the night. Lafayette also enjoyed the night but only what pleasures food, wine, and women could bring him. When they turned twenty-one, their father passed on and left them all of his wealth. Labaron and Lafayette didn't squander their wealth, they invested it, and hired a manager to take care of the family business so that the Bayard Twins could indulge in other matters. They were well known for their parties and threw one nearly every night."

"I don't mean to interrupt again, but I've been dying to know since you mentioned it," Kein spoke, and then she asked, "What color were your mother's eyes? You mentioned it and then forgot all about it."

"You do like details in your stories. I'll penalize you for interrupting my tale again, and I'll make you answer a riddle to discover the answer. Here's the riddle. Some believed I was made of cheese, not so. I come in threes in a season but if four should appear, I am the third one in a row. What am I?"

She had no clue what three things appeared in a season, so she focused on things once believed to be made of cheese, and she knew of one right away but instead of returning to the part in the riddle about the seasons, she took a guess by adding a color to her conclusion.

"A blue moon, for once in a blue moon," she replied. "Your mother had blue eyes."

"She did," he answered. "Now allow me to continue my tale. Labaron became intertwined with this mysterious woman that he always made excuses as to why he never introduced her to his brother. Labaron began to spend less and less time with his brother at their parties, and Lafayette feared that maybe his brother's bachelor ways may be coming to an end. Lafayette one night followed his brother while he went to rendezvous with his lover. Labaron became angry when he discovered Lafayette followed him. The mysterious woman, Ms. Felicite Yvon, became interested in both of them, and she wished to throw a dinner party for both of them. Later that night when the brothers returned home, Labaron told Lafayette he didn't want him to come to the dinner party, that he wanted Felicite all to himself. Lafayette agreed that he wouldn't attend the dinner party the next night. Lafayette went to bed, but he couldn't sleep. He thought about how his brother had changed. Labaron was never around when it was day, and he had become very pale and ate little. Lafayette became concerned for his brother, not because of jealousy, women could do that and had come between the brothers on occasion, but Labaron wasn't acting like himself. He was crazed in a way, obsessed like a madman, so Lafayette broke the promise he made his brother and went to the dinner party. Lafayette hid himself away from the two lovers, hoping to hear something that would explain why his brother had changed so. Needless to say, he overheard something that caused him to have an argument with his brother in front of Felicite. The brothers took their argument outside of her manor, and they ended up at a cliff high above the ocean."

"Umm... I know I'm going to be penalized again but are there high cliffs in Louisiana? The cliff you speak of I can imagine maybe somewhere in New England, but I can't imagine a huge cliff in Louisiana. It would be like you telling me you stood on a mountain in Florida."

"You right... you will be penalized again for interrupting my tale. There might not be tall cliffs in Louisiana but there was one on the back of her manor. Now... if you don't stay quiet, I will nibble on your ear."

She made the closed zipper sign across her lips and waited for him to continued his story.

Labaron spoke, "The brothers ended up in a fight, and one of them fell off the cliff to his death. The other mourned for his brother's death but ultimately, he received his wish from Felicite."

Kein sat there stuffing cherry after cherry into her red stained lips, devouring his entire bowl as she waited for him to finish his story and when he didn't, she asked, "What happened then?"

"That is the end of that tale. I have many tales. Would you like to hear another?"

She finished the last piece of fruit, then licked her cherry flavored lips, and said, "It's getting late. I guess I'll be going."

"Before you go," he started. "I'll let you have half of these cherries every day if you can guess which of the brothers I am."

"You haven't given me much to go on so far," Kein told him, and then she realized she had less than ten minutes to figure out the truth, and she did want the reward. It would guarantee her much needed nutrients during the Mortem, so she peered into his face, hoping some slight expression would give away the answer, and that's when she noticed, that's when it clicked in her head, and she answered, "You must be Lafayette."

"I should have never bargained my cherries over something you had half a chance at guessing at," the vampire stated.

"Yay! I'll have cherries every day now. I don't have to worry about starving to death."

He covered his face with his hand as if defeated by her, and then he started laughing as he spoke, "I can't believe you actually believe me. You think I'm Lafayette."

"Don't lie to me. I know your Lafayette."

"I am not," he said. "I am Labaron, and I have always been curious about things of the night and here over a century later, I'm one of those things."

"How can I be wrong?" Kein questioned him. "Did you tell me a lie at some point in your story?"

"I did not," he said as he reached over and touched her cheek. "I would never lie to you."

Kein gasped slightly as images fell from the darkness like stars plummeting to the earth. These images whispered of his past and told a tale even he didn't know. The images startled her, but his touch flustered her even more, so Kein quickly stood and headed for the door. Fear had kept her safe from such things in the past, but fear was silent because fear was a little curious.

"Ma chère, do not leave. I will tell you more of my tale."

"Not right now. There's someplace I need to be," she told him and then mumbled, "I need to be anyplace but here."

Kein rushed into the hallway, shut the door behind her, and then leaned against it as she tried to clear her thoughts. Labaron had been truthful to her; he hadn't lied to her. She touched her cheek where his cold hand had touched her.

Controller spoke over the intercom, "I overheard you tell the vampire that you take a supplement."

"I do," Kein replied as she snapped out of her thoughts that were confusing and a little frightening, and then she questioned, "Why do you ask?"

He suggested, "Maybe you should request this supplement as a bonus."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you don't have a Coach to tell you all of these things," Controller spoke, and then he explained, "A bonus is earned when you help a Coach attain a certain bet. The Coach doesn't have to be yours to attain it, so even though you are a contestant, you can still receive bonuses. I only need to know what the supplement's name is to place it in one of your bonus slots."

"How many bonus spots do I get?"

Controller answered, "Normally three."

"The supplement's called colloidal silver," she told him.

"I know of it," he said. "That supplement has no garlic in it."

"I never said it did," Kein stated. "I only said it was something like garlic since silver does agitate vampires." She waited for him to say something and when he didn't, she said, "I would like the colloidal silver as soon as I earn this bonus."

Controller said, "You don't have a room yet, so I will send a chest in for you. Would you like it set up by your pillow?"

"I don't think Shukujo will appreciate me moving in, but I guess it can't be helped," she replied. "I'll only be here another five days and then after that, I'll have won the Mortem, and I can leave."

"There is always the possibility that you'll die."

"No, I'm going to win. I can't stay here."

Sometime later...

Kein spent the rest of her time after listening to the vampire's tale in Dr. Jekyll's lab. She had become curious about Dr. Frankenstein's monster or more like Kein told herself that was the reason for hiding out in the lab. She was looking over the mad scientist's creation, taking notes on what pieces were missing. Dr. Jekyll had again agreed to, in his not really paying attention way, loaning her a writing pad and pen. She set the pad and pen on the shelf behind the monster when she finished and as tiredness seeped into her eyes again, she thought about everything that had happened to her that day. Only two days out of the seven had gone by, and Kein faced death so many times. She didn't know how she would survive another five.

The end of day chime rang on the grandfather clock in the lab that had a steampunk theme to it. It was positioned next to the cabinet in the first room. Kein pulled from her thoughts, grabbed the pad and pen, and headed for the Atlantean's room. He wasn't there, and he didn't appear when she called out, so she waited on the first dock, looking over the notes she wrote on the pad. Ten minutes later, bubbles rose from the depths of the dark water, and the Atlantean crawled out of the water with the clay vessel.

"Welcome back," Kein told him as she smiled.

"It is good to be back since it is you who greets me," he told her.

"Were you able to find the Waters of Life?"

"I was, and it was unguarded for something as important sounding as its name. I filled the vessel full."

"Thank you. Was there anything else you wanted me to find for you?" she asked him.

"I would actually like to give you something. You fulfilled my requirements on finding a book I have never read before, which in itself I would say was a very difficult assignment, and all I had to do was go for a long swim which I do every day."

"You don't have to give me anything. The Waters of Life are enough for the bargain we made."

He said, "Then allow me to give you something as a gift. You may take three books from my collection. It is very vast and extensive, so I probably own any book you could think of."

"Are your books underwater?"

"No, I keep all of them in the chests you see scattered about my domain," the Atlantean replied as he pointed to a few.

"I thought the chests would be bigger, but they're not big at all. By the way you talked, I thought you would have thousands upon thousands of books but those chests look like they barely hold five."

"I can understand your confusion about the chests. Each is connected to a portal where I store all of my books. I would not be able to carry them where I go unless I had such a portal. There is a disk on top of each chest. Simply place your hand upon it and think about the book you would like."

"I have no idea what books to request," she told him, and then she asked, "Can I think about it and request them at a later day?"

"You may, but I do suggest one book or more like a journal that you might be interested in," the Atlantean told her. "I have acquired one of Dr. Jekyll's journals. It is extensive on his experiments and also includes the account of how Mr. Hyde was created, but they also..." He paused, and then he said, "I should not give away anything. It will ruin the read."

"So no spoilers then?" Kein stated.

"Spoilers?"

"Telling someone the ending or giving away crucial points of a book and/or show to someone who hasn't read it or saw it yet, and it usually ruins it for the person."

"I see," the Atlantean replied. "Yes, no spoilers." He motioned for her as he said, "You may come down and retrieve the journal and the vessel."

She climbed down the first ladder and then paused at the second ladder as she glanced at the five-foot dock.

He questioned her, "Why do you hesitate?"

"My fear of drowning," Kein replied.

"If I held your hand while you were down here, would that help your fear?"

"I think it won't help my fear," Kein told him. "I'm still afraid that you'll drown me."

The Atlantean laughed, and then he said, "You're honest, and you say the most unexpected things."

"Please, don't take offense. I want to trust you. I want to trust all of you but..."

"We are within the three hours that follow the witching hour. I cannot harm a Resident within this time."

"I understand that, and I understand that I'm not a Resident."

The Atlantean told her, "I have a feeling if luck remains on your side, you will soon become one, but I will tell you that the three hours also protect you."

"I feel really bad asking, and I know it's rude of me to ask, but do you mind going back into the water?"

A bright expression crossed his face as he told her, "Mi cha, you are just like my beloved sister. She was also very afraid, but I could usually soothe her fears." The Atlantean continued to look at her as if he saw someone else standing there, and then he said, "For this one time, I will do as you request."

He jumped into the water, then resurfaced, and swam backward some distance away from the dock. She slowly climbed down to the five-foot dock. Kein made her way to the next dock, then to the vessel, and made sure its lid was secure, and then she picked up the vessel. She walked over to the chest, set the vessel nearly half her size down and while keeping her eye on the Atlantean, she placed her palm on the disk and thought about Dr. Jekyll's journal. While she was there, another book came to mind, so she requested it, and the chest had it, so she took both books. She placed the red leather journal and the book in her backpack and picked up the vessel that was thankfully lighter than it should be with water in it, and then she headed back to the top dock.

"I noticed you took two books," the Atlantean said as he pulled himself back on the lower dock, and then he asked, "What other book did you request?"

Kein reached the dock that was five feet off the water, turned, and stated, "You like games, so I'll make it a guessing game. Every time we meet you get one question and one guess or would you prefer that I just tell you?"

"I will play. Have you read this book before?"

"I have but not in a long time. It's one of my favorite books," she replied.

"You give away quite a bit in your answers," he told her. "But to utilize your answers, I will need to become more acquainted with you, so you need to survive."

"I know on both points, and I do plan on surviving. I plan on winning the Mortem. I just need to make it through these next five days."

"Make sure you do. There are a lot of games I wish to play with you and many many more I wish to teach you."

"Till our next game then," she said and then added before she left, "Thank you again for the Waters of Life."

Kein went out into the hallway and entered King Ammon's tomb, carrying the clay vessel with great care so not to drop it.

"I'm here," she called out as she set the large vessel down. "I have the Waters of Life."

King Ammon arrived, floating to her in his sarcophagus, and then he left the safety of his crypt and moved to her.

"I thought we spoke on this earlier," he began. "I said we should meet by my barge and you agreed."

Her voice betrayed the anger brewing inside her as she said, "We did agree to that the last time I was here but at that time, I didn't know that you stole something from me."

"I stole nothing from you."

"I was told that you stole some of my pain," Kein said, and then she asked, "Is this true? Did you steal from me?"

"How did you find out? I will place a curse on the one who–"

"Does it matter who?" she questioned. "It doesn't change the fact that you stole from me. You wanted me to trust you, but how am I supposed to trust you now?"

"I needed to feed. I needed to regain my strength. There is something I must do that requires a lot of power. The process does not hurt you, I made sure of it."

"You never asked," Kein yelled at him. "You just took. If I had taken something from you without your permission, like say I took something that held a cherished memory of your daughter, what would you have done to me?"

His answer was immediate and fierce, "I would have had my scarab beetles eat you alive!"

"Right!" she shouted back. "You would have gotten angry and gone a little overboard with your retribution, but still... You would have gotten very angry with me." She pointed to herself and asked, "How's that any different than how I feel?"

"There is no difference," he replied as he discerned the grievous act he perpetrated against her.

"Okay, now that you have hurt me and you know that you were wrong to do so, what are you supposed to say to me?" Kein asked as she tried to read his reaction, and he seemed to be at a loss, so she questioned, "Don't know? I'll give you a hint. You're supposed to say." She sounded it out for him as she spoke, "I... am... sor... ry... I... am... sor... ry..." Kein realized he wasn't getting it, so she just told him, "I'm sorry. You're supposed to say I'm sorry."

"I am sorry," he replied.

Kein eyed him as if she was still upset with him, but she couldn't hold the pretense of outrage for long and gave in, letting go of her harsh feelings towards him, and she said, "Fine. I accept your apology." She took a deep breath and realized how tired she was, but the day or she should say the night was far from over, and so she inquired, "You said the process doesn't hurt me, so why didn't you just ask?"

"I did not think you would consent. It is pain... Most people do not want to share their pain."

"I'll be honest, I don't know if I would have agreed, but now we'll never know. This does set things back between us. I sensed a kindness about you, and I wanted to believe that you would help me, that we could help one another, but now I don't know."

"Will you withhold the Waters of Life from me?"

"No, I'm not that angry," she replied. "Just please, in the future, ask if you want something and just don't take it." She motioned to the clay vessel she had set in the sand and said, "The waters are yours."

"What do you want in return for them?" King Ammon asked.

"I'm still a little angry with you, so I don't think there's anything I want or need from you," Kein replied, then she pretended to storm out when she noticed Thirteen by her feet, so she picked him up and discovered a small letter tucked between his bunny-ear antennas. Kein removed the letter and read it over, and then she sighed and muttered to herself, "You would pick now to finally ask something from me." She turned back around and faced the mummy, telling him, "It would seem I do have something to request of you."

"Anything, and I will grant it if it is within my power."

"Hear my request first. I don't know what I'm asking for, so I won't hold you to your promise," she said and then spoke, "I would like the Blight Stinger."

"I do have it. Why do you want it?" King Ammon questioned.

"It's for Shukujo."

"If I give you this, will it help you in some way?"

"I believe it will," she replied. "Shukujo has refused to ask anything of me before now. I would like to fulfill her first request as I have done for all of you or almost all of you."

King Ammon lifted his bony hand, and a metal amulet in the shape of a scorpion with a large red gem in its centered appeared in his palm.

"Take it and with this gesture, I hope one day you can forgive me."

Kein took the amulet, and the metal was cold, but the red gem felt warm to the touch and also familiar. She examined the gem and saw that something was inside it.

"Is that the stinger? It's so huge."

"It is," he replied. "It is also only the tip of the stinger."

"Thank you," she said and headed for the door, carrying the Blight Stinger in one hand and Thirteen in the other.

King Ammon watched as she left and felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time. He experienced regret and wished he could take back his actions. The human was so much like his daughter even the way she got angry and quickly let it go.

Kein made her way to Shukujo's lair and found the Kumovon waiting for her as she entered.

"I have the Blight Stinger," she said. "What is it for?"

Shukujo questioned her, "Do I need to tell you before you will give it to me?"

"No," Kein answered and gave the amulet to Thirteen, and then Thirteen took it to Shukujo. "Will you tell me what's it for?" she asked after Shukujo had it in her possession.

"I have acquired a pest and haven't been able to get rid of it. The Blight Stinger will help me dispose of the unwanted vermin."

"You should have asked me sooner. I might have been able to get rid of this pest for you."

"You really are a baka."

Kein said, "I wish you wouldn't belittle me."

"I wish you were dead, but we can't always have what we wish," Shukujo told her, and then she ordered, "Now leave. I have things to do."

Kein stared at her for a few seconds, then turned, and headed for the door as she said over her shoulder, "You're welcome."

Shukujo called after her and asked, "Do you believe I should thank you?"

She turned back around and asked her, "Was it something you could have gotten on your own?"

"I suppose not."

"Are you thankful that I got it for you?"

"I suppose so."

"Don't you think you should thank me then?" Kein asked.

"I suppose so," Shukujo replied, then cleared her throat, and said, "Thank you, baka. Thank you for the means to eliminate my pest."

"You're welcome," Kein spoke, and then she asked, "It wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"No, and I seemed to get a little wicked pleasure out of it."

Kein wasn't sure what she meant by that, but she also didn't question it, so she left the room, stood in the hallway, and wondered aloud, "Where exactly did she want me to go?"

She thought about the other Residents and decided on which would be the next safest room and decided on Dr. Jekyll's lab. He, for the most part, left her alone, and she could investigate Dr. Frankenstein's monster a little further or more like curl up behind the shelf where the good doctor couldn't see her and try and sleep. Kein had at one point looked at all the clear glass jars but couldn't figure out what the clear liquid was in each, and she decided at this point not to remove the lid and smell the substance. She started for his door when she heard a child crying, and it was coming from the part of the hallway she had never explored. Kein thought it might be the werewolf pup. She hadn't seen him at all that day.

"Hello," she called out as she headed into the darkness in the direction of the sound.

An hour later...

Shukujo's lair...

"You can wake up now," Shukujo told Kein whom she had through deceptive devices captured her and brought deep within her lair where she strung her up by her wrists so that the tips of her shoes barely touched the floor.

The unconscious Kein never stirred, so Shukujo moved over to her, reached down, and smacked her several times on the cheek.

"Idiot henchman..." Shukujo complained. "Green Serpent should have used someone a little more careful and not in such a hurry to capture the human. I believe that whatever he knocked her out with he used too much of it on her," Shukujo snapped as the Kumo'usagi listened. "She'll probably be out another half hour. I guess I can try out the Blight Stinger and see if it will ward off her curse, but first..."

Shukujo lifted herself from the huge spider's head and slid down his body to the floor. Kumovons had humanoid forms and would join themselves to a Kumo'uma to give themselves added strength and speed. She was a head taller than Kein and still wore the red silk Kimono with white flying cranes and gold highlights that flowed down to her ankles. She also wore the Blight Stinger around her neck.

She lifted it as she told her children, "Green Serpent said this amulet had other uses. He said I could peer into her memories by just looking at her and grasping the Blight Stinger. He also said that these memories will be much clearer than what the mummy can manifest on his own when he uses his power to consume pain." Shukujo walked over to Kein and peered at her as she questioned her children, "What do I want to see in this miserable human's past? I know..." Shukujo grasped the amulet as she said, "Show me where and when you first learned the Kumovon lullaby."

The enchantment took hold, and Shukujo was no longer standing in her lair, but she had been thrust into Kein's past as if she was a spectator.

Kein's past...

Sometime before the lady left...

"Playing with any spiders today?" Bruno questioned her as he surprised young Kein and snuck up behind her as she sat on a bench behind the school.

"No," she replied to the boy. "I'm only sitting here working on my writing."

He looked over her work, and then he said, "Your handwriting is messy. No wonder none of the families want to devour you. Who would want to devour such a weak thing like you?"

"Why do you care so much to tease me? Why do you even talk to me?"

"I get bored," he told her. "And you are easy prey." Bruno watched as she ignored him, and then he said, "I learned something today. I learned that you are now the only student here who has not been devoured. There were ten, but now you are the only one who has no clan or house. The other students are saying you're truly cursed and that no one will ever devour you. The others say you will be all alone forever and that you'll never have a proper name. You will always be the one whose name means not a." He mocked her, "Kein, the nothing. Kein, the pitiful. Kein, the stupid."

"Stop it!" she yelled as she stood. "I will be devoured. I will, and then..."

"No one or thing will ever want to devour you," he told her as he shoved her to the ground. "You will always be a not a! Kein, not a daughter! Kein, not a sister! Kein, not a friend! Kein, the undevourable!"

She ran away from him into the woods, then down to the underground temple, and shouted, "Lady! Lady!"

"I am here," the lady spoke as a figure of a Kumovon female riding a Kumo'uma appeared, but the Kumovon's face was hidden by darkness. "You do not need to shout. What are you upset about?"

Kein held back her tears as she asked, "Did you say you would devour me?"

"I did."

"You said you would devour me when I'm big enough."

"I did," the lady replied.

"Am I big enough yet?"

"Nearly, why are you in such a hurry?"

"All the other children..."

"Go on," the lady urged her when Kein said no more.

"All the other children have been devoured by a house or a clan. I want to be devoured too. I no longer want to be–"

"What do you talk of, child? Are the other children at your school being devoured? What creature would dare enter the grounds of the school and–"

"No, they have already been devoured," Kein said as her whole body trembled with despair. "They all have a family. When will you devour me?"

"I do not think I understand. Has some monster entered your school and consumed your fellow students?"

"No, no monster has entered our school."

"I understand now, and I believe it is I who is confused. Tell me of these children who have been devoured."

"Headmistress Blindheart said that few children are devoured at birth. They must be very special for that. Most are devoured when they turn three and the family sees that they're worthy. On occasion, a child is devoured by a clan or house they're not born to," Kein explained, and then she asked, "How much bigger do I need to get? I'm already six."

"Little morsel, you are very confused," the lady said as she leaned her head on her elbow that rested on the large spider's head. "I almost feel sorry for you, but as is your lot... I would say that you will be big enough for me to devour in another two to three weeks. You will be my final meal before I leave this place."

"And you will take me where you go? You'll devour me, and we will leave together?"

"Yes, little morsel. I will devour you, you will be within me, and you will go with me."

Kein ran over to her, quickly climbed up a boulder and for the first time, she wrapped her arms around the lady's neck and said, "Thank you. Thank you. I thought I would be alone forever. I thought I would be Kein forever."

The lady jerked back, not expecting such an attack from a small child. Kein sobbed as she hugged her very tightly. The lady wanted to grab the child and toss her away from her but the more Kein hugged her and sobbed, the more the lady thought of her own nieces and how she missed them. In a moment of weakness, she placed her arms around Kein and returned her hug.

"I guess it is true what they say," the lady spoke softly as she stroked young Kein's head. "When those around you turn their hearts from you even the darkness is inviting."

The lady continued to stroke her head and then without considering what she was doing, the lady sang in a sweet voice to help calm her, "My child... My child... Why has sleep not touched your eyes? Do you fear the howling wind or the creatures of the night? There are many things to fear and many things that fear us but know one thing, I am here. When the shadows fall and night has come, know I will wrap you in threads of white. When beasts of darkness prowl and eat, know that I am here as I wrap you in threads of white. No one will hurt you... No one will harm you... I am here, and you are safely tucked in my threads of white. Time has come to shut your eyes as I spin my soft web around you. Fear not my child as you sleep in my cocoon's warm embrace. My threads of white will hold you tight, so when shadows fall and night is here, know I love you and you are safe."

The lady finished singing sometime later, and Kein said, "That is very pretty. Sing it again."

"Have you completed all of your assignments?" the lady questioned her. "I would hate for you to leave anything undone once I devour you."

"I completed them, but I still haven't gotten your name just right, but I will have a name for you before it's time for us to leave," Kein told her. "I promise."

"I will sing for you again."

The lady started the song over, and Kein sang with her in her soft child-like voice that couldn't carry a tune. The lady sang it over and over until Kein fell asleep in her arms.

The present...

Shukujo pulled out of the memory as she released the amulet, and she stared at Kein with this glare.

"There is no possible way that happened," Shukujo told her. "There is no possible way..."

"Okasan..." Kein spoke out in sleep in a desperate call still caught within the memory the amulet induced, and then a tear streaked down her cheek as she repeated, "Okasan..."

Shukujo took a few steps back from her as she felt wet droplets roll down her own cheeks, and then she said, "It would seem that we have both scored high off of each other today. I never thought something like this would make me cry." She picked up the Blight Stinger and peered at it as she said, "It must be this enchanted amulet. Green Serpent did warn me to be careful." Shukujo walked around her as she said, "I will be careful. I only need to nullify the enchantment you have over my children. I do not need to see any more of your past. I just cannot understand how you are able to manipulate your memories. There is no possible way a Kumovon raised you and cared for you as you remember." Shukujo sobbed as she insisted, "A Kumovon would never take a human's precious child and treat her as if she was of her own flesh and web." She regained control of her emotions and stated, "Maybe you had this curse all along."

Nearly an hour went by as Shukujo patiently waited for Kein to wake. She had planned on tormenting the human until 3 A.M. came about but with it already fifteen minutes past it, Shukujo could move forward with her plans. The human finally started to stir after the official start of the third day of her Probation Period. Shukujo had all her children take their places as she stood on her own feet in front of the human. Kein slowly opened her eyes to see Shukujo staring at her with this wickedly evil grin. Kein peered at her for a few seconds.

"You shrunk," Kein spoke still very groggy.

"What do you speak of?" Shukujo questioned her, then glanced at herself, and said, "Did you not know this is our true form? The large one you are referring to is called a Kumo'uma, and he is a separate creature from myself."

"A Kumo'uma..." Kein repeated, then looked up before Shukujo could motion, and saw her larger half hanging upside down above her on a large web. "So it's like a giant Kumo'usagi."

"You sensed where he was even in your muddled state," Shukujo spoke as she became upset. "You knew where the Kumo'uma was even before I motioned to it." She looked at the Blight Stinger as she said, "I am beginning to wonder if I am using this amulet correctly."

Kein was very confused. The last she remembered she heard a child crying and went to investigate, but she couldn't remember anything after she entered the dark area of the hallway. She guessed she had been knocked out by a drug; she felt kind of woozy. Kein regained more of her senses, and she realized where she was and that she was suspended off the floor by her wrists. Somehow she wound up in the feeding chamber of a Kumovon. There were hundreds of other bodies within the chamber all wrapped up in body length cocoons. Kumovon did this to their victims so that they could take their time and wait for the victim's insides to liquefy, and then they could feed on them.

"Someone attacked me... I think he was a vampire," she muttered. "I also remember purple smoke with silvery sparkles. I feel so weird..."

"The vampire must have used a knockout smoke laced with silver in case he also had to deal with the werewolf child," Shukujo told her.

Kein looked around again as she regained more of herself, "I can't be here."

"Are you afraid?"

Kein thought about it, and then she said, "Not yet... that's why I need to leave now."

"You are very unusual," Shukujo told her. "I cannot let you leave just yet. I just started."

"Started? Started what?" Kein questioned and then a few things suddenly came to mind, and she said, "I'm in your lair... I'm in your lair beyond the white borderline."

"Your relocation is a gift from my Coach," Shukujo explained. "Coaches, for the most part, can be helpful. Look what mine gifted for me."

"Let me go..." Kein yelled as she wriggled to free herself. "I need to leave before–"

"Before what?"

"Before fear sets in," Kein replied.

"I believe I am losing my touch if fear has not set in yet," Shukujo told her. "I will just have to rectify that. What are you afraid of?"

"Being here when fear sets in," Kein replied.

"You have such cryptic answers sometimes or is it–" Shukujo questioned as she tapped Kein's forehead with her finger, "–your brains have been scrambled?"

"Please, you have to let me go," Kein pleaded.

"Now that is more along the lines of what I thought I would hear. Beg some more. I really like hearing you beg."

"Fear is quiet right now. The smoke has made fear sleep."

"I think the smoke did a little more than make you sleep. Are you high?"

"It is hard to think," Kein told her. "My head's so cloudy."

"It will wear off soon enough. Right now I want to test this amulet out and see its full potential."

Kein peered at the amulet as her vision blurred, and then she asked, "What is that?" Kein felt something waking from within the amulet, and she gasped before questioning, "Is that the Blight Stinger?"

"It is and this is the first time I have seen you react out of fear of it. I am curious though. You brought me this amulet and yet you are afraid of it now."

"It's awake now," Kein told her, and then she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to have my Kumo'usagi finish what they had started. You see this special amulet will nullify any enchantment you might be using against me to subdue my children," Shukujo replied, and then she spread her arms and commanded, "Come, my children! Come! It is time to feast!"

The Kumo'usagi crawled in from all over the lair and headed for the webbing that bound her wrists.

"Don't let them touch me," Kein pleaded as she tried to free her hands. "Don't let them touch me!"

"You should be screaming," Shukujo told her. "When I devour someone, I take my time with them, and I am going to take special care of you."

"Please don't! I don't want the nightmare to happen, not again!" Kein shouted, and then she whispered to herself, "Don't be afraid... It's okay. Don't be afraid. I'm here... I'll protect you." Visions of death surrounded her, and Kein begged with her whole heart, "Please... don't do anything to Shukujo."

Elsewhere in one of the Coaches' office...

As with the Residents, Coaches couldn't leave the building the Mortem took place in, so they each had an office above ground. One of those Coaches reviewed video of the contestant right after she had survived Opening. Each Coach had been permitted to ask a question through Controller, and each Coach only had access to the video of their question and video of how the human answered it. This particular Coach watched the reply to their answer for the first time.

Video of earlier within the Black Arrow room...

"Final question and this one is a little odd..." Controller told Kein.

She inquired, "Odder than the third one?"

"Afraid so, but what can I do but ask it," Controller answered, cleared his throat, and questioned, "Of all the monsters that are on the Basement Level, who is the most terrifying and dangerous monster? You can take your time. You must need to think about it. There are so many to pick from and–"

"I don't need any time," Kein stated, and then she replied, "And the answer's easy. The most terrifying and dangerous monster is me."

The End-Next Click Here to continued the series.

Monster of Monsters #1 Part Three:

And Let The Real Games Begin

https://www.kristielynnhiggins.com/MOM1C.html

# AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #1

Tale Of Two Worlds:

The Wizard, The Battlemage, And The Werewolf

AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #1

Tale Of Two Worlds:

The Wizard, The Battlemage, And The Werewolf

Kristie Lynn Higgins

2015, 2018 ©

Storytime painting created by Charles Haigh-Wood

Knight at the Crossroads and Sleeping Princess paintings created by Viktor Vasnetsov

Little Red Riding Hood and "fighting creatures" art created by Arthur Rackham

A Fairy Tale art created by Dorothy M. Wheeler

Chapter One

The Dream

For the few moments the dream lingered within her mind like starlight near day's twilight, Jane didn't know if her mind fancy had been a long-forgotten memory that recently returned to her when she entered her teens or if the dream was only a wishful hope and yet a horrible reminder of the life she existed in. Through the first part of her adult life and into her early thirties, the dream remained the same and never differed and each time she dreamed the occurrence, she experienced each moment as if it was for the first time, and she never remembered what was coming until she was swept into it.

It always began with herself as a young child walking through a scary forest she didn't recognize. She wore blue shorts and a black t-shirt with a pretty white swan on it. Jane never remembered how she happened to be in the forest or why she was alone at such a young age. The dense forest was frighteningly dark with only glimmers of light here and there along with large fireflies the size of her fists that seemed to crackle with blue lightning. She felt so lost as creatures angrily squawked or roared around her. She slowly made her way through the thick underbrush for what seemed like a long time, and then she began to feel isolated and deeply alone. Despair seized her and wrapped her up in its cold embrace, and it would have dragged her even deeper into hopelessness and made her give up on ever finding her way out if a bright light hadn't of broken through the dark canopy. The sunbeam beckoned her to it, so Jane climbed her way over roots, pushed her way through shrubs and bushes until she broke free of the forest, and came upon a bright sunny clearing. There in the clearing was a small pond, and she saw herself in its reflection. Dirt and leaves covered her and made her appear like a little mud elf with pointed ears, but she didn't care. She was free of the creepy trees.

Voices drew her over a hill and into a small meadow valley where a boy and a girl played. Jane was a little younger than the two children who looked to be about five and for some reason, Jane got the impression the two weren't siblings. The boy and the girl turned to Jane as she stood on the hill above them near tears. They peered at her for a long time, and Jane was afraid they might run away or even worse, pretend she wasn't even there. The blond boy seemed like some sort of prince from a fairy tale with the purple garb and the gold crown he wore. Jane noticed a medallion around his neck of some sort of beastly creature. The girl with long black hair was beautiful like a princess, she had on a flurry white dress with red roses vining all over it, and she had a blue birthmark under her left eye in the shape of a double lightning bolt. Jane stared back at them as curiously as they peered up at her. She looked down at herself, remembered how dirty she had gotten in the forest, and wondered what she must look like to them. Jane wanted to run to them and grab hold of them as if they had been friends for years, but she was afraid to move because, for some reason, she feared if she did, they would disappear.

The boy and the girl looked at each other, and then they both held out their hand for her to come and join them. A tear of extreme joy trickled down her cheek as she ran to them and grabbed their hands. The next part of the dream was a little fuzzy. Jane did get a sense that the boy and the girl accepted her and that they played for a long time together in the meadow. She wished with all her heart she could stay in those joyous and yet unclear moments forever. Jane experienced feelings she lacked in her normal life, and she didn't want to let go, not of the family she always longed for. She wasn't sure what the feelings she experienced were, but she wanted more of them.

Later that day, the dream became clearer as the children found a patch of wildflowers, and they were unlike any plants Jane had seen. The wildflowers pranced under the sun like little river dancers and if one of the children tapped the head of the bloom, a bloom smaller than the host plant fell into their palm. Each smaller bloom had a stem. The girls giggled and played with the plants as the boy mostly chase the girls around. After some time, the three of them sat for a while to rest from their play, and the girl gathered some of the tiny blooms from a rainbow of different colored flowers and began twisting the stems together. When she finished, the girl whispered something to the item in her hand and blue sparks shot up from her palm, then she gently took Jane's hand and put a tiny flower loop on her finger. Jane peered at the friendship ring as the circlet made from nature went from one of green and rainbow to one of hardened silver. The magical silver ring sealed the bond between the two girls deep within Jane's heart, and then she hugged the girl in return. The boy felt left out and came over and stole a kiss from Jane's lips, expressing his own feelings towards her. Jane blushed and her heart fluttered, and then she looked at her new friends and knew the bond they had could never be broken by time or distance. Their love and affection poured into her so much, Jane thought her chest would explode.

Storm clouds moved in and forced the children to seek shelter in an old temple-like structure a short distance from the meadow in a not so scary woods. Torches lit up the all-white structure. Statues of different monsters decorated the vast room within, and Jane and the other children walked around looking at each. In the center of the temple, one statue was set apart. The statue was of a man in armor wielding a shield and sword. Awed and mesmerized by the hero, Jane read the inscription below the statue, Monster Slayer.

There was a wall behind the statue of the hero with words on it that Jane didn't recognize. The boy and girl seemed to be able to read it, and then the boy and the girl shrunk from the statue of the hero, and Jane wasn't sure why. They moved to a different part of the temple, exploring as they went but there was nothing else to find.

The storm outside increased its furiousness as its winds kicked up, and lightning blazed across the sky. Jane wasn't scared because the other two were with her, but the girl was and when one of the bolts struck the ground outside, the girl backed up into one of the smaller monster statues and teetered it. The statue rocked back and forth, and then it fell forward. Jane, the girl, and the boy ran as the statue crashed to the ground, and Jane tripped and fell. She looked back and saw no one else was hurt, so she stood and brushed the dirt off of herself. Her knee stung, so Jane glanced down to see she scuffed it up, and it slightly bled. A trickle of red plasma ran down her leg.

The air around the temple seemed to change as if the structure itself gasped. The love and affection she genuinely and profoundly experienced from the other children vanished as Jane lifted her gaze. She saw the boy and the girl's terrified faces. She thought maybe the statue crashing or the storm raging outside was what made them afraid, but when she took a step toward them, they both backed up from her as if she was a snarling ravenous beast who wanted to devour them. Jane thought they were playing some sort of trick on her, and she laughed as they pretended to be afraid of her. The girl grabbed the boy's hand and squeezed it as she took another step away from Jane. The boy moved forward as if to defend the girl and at that point, Jane realized their fear was real and it was directed at her. Their love and friendship had been violently and fearfully torn away from her in one confused agonizing heartbeat, and a little part of Jane died in that devastating instant.

Tears rolled from her eyes, spawned from a deeply seeded ache like the pain of abandonment, and they were also spawned from the painful act of betrayal as the bond they shared broke apart. This world was just like the world she had come from. The boy turned and dragged the girl after him as they fled the temple. Jane ran after them as far as the exit, and then she watched heart-sick as they disappeared into the storm. She put a hand to her little chest as the muscle that had been ready to explode with childlike delight broke and shattered into tiny pieces as the world she had grown accustomed to invaded the realm of her dreams. Jane went into a corner of the temple and sat down as she bawled. She cried for a long time and as the storm settled outside, she realized what the feelings she experienced before had been, the ones she never wanted to let go, the ones that had been stolen from her. They were a sense of belonging. The kind of belonging where people knew and remembered you and where they would never turn their backs on you.

The dream faded, and Jane woke to her life as an adult. There were heartache and pain within the dream but there were also joy and friendship, and Jane longed to return to that world even with its suffering as long as she was allowed to relive the fun and happy moments with her friends.

As the mind fancy faded from her memory once again, she was left with a sense that something had been taken away from her. Jane laid back in bed and stared up at the ceiling of her small cottage. She knew she had a dream but no matter how hard she tried to remember even just fragments of it, it was no good.

The only consolation Jane had was that she thought that day was the first day she dreamed the dream. It might have been maddening to repeat the mind fancy each night and remember every part of it only to have it taken away again.

Jane gazed at her ceiling, relinquishing her attempt to drag the memories from her mind. She thought about her real life, and it seemed at times optimism was the only thing that belonged to her. She knew she could change her life. Jane just needed to press forward and not give up.

Chapter Two

A Day In The Life Of Jane

Jane hummed to herself as she entered the publishing house she worked for, carrying a box she had purchased from the local bakery. She had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore blue jeans, a gray Superman t-shirt, and sneakers. She would do it today. Jane would have at least one person remember her name, and a sweet bribe would do the trick. She passed several people as she headed for the receptionist area as she greeted each of them by name. They didn't return her greeting, seemingly busy about their own work. Jane reached the receptionist desk, placed the box of goodies on a table to the right of the receptionist desk where a coffee machine was set up, and opened the box. A dozen donuts laid inside. The receptionist was on the phone, so Jane waited until she hung up. There was another woman there, and she was fixing herself a cup of coffee.

"I've brought donuts today, and I got your favorite, Debbie. You better grab the Bavarian Cream before someone else does," Jane told the receptionist, and then she spoke to the woman putting sugar in her coffee, "I even got your favorite, Karen. Cinnamon Twist is also one of my favorites. Eat them while they're still fresh."

With a big smile on her face, Jane looked from one woman to the other, waiting for some sort of reply from them but when none came, she said, "My name's Jane. I work on this floor."

The two women continued to look at her blankly, so Jane reached into the box, grabbed a chocolate donut she had purchased for herself, and headed for her office. She yelled over her shoulder, "Don't forget... Eat them while they're fresh."

After she left, Karen turned to Debbie and questioned her, "Who was that?"

"I'm not sure," Debbie replied as she turned and glanced in Jane's direction as she headed through a hallway. A fog seemed to cover Debbie's memory of the woman who had brought donuts and as time went on, more and more of the phantom-like woman faded from her mind. Debbie added, "She acted like she knew us. I wonder who she could be."

Karen questioned her, "Don't you think you should call security? You just can't have anybody walking around the building."

Debbie reached for the phone, then paused as the fog magically lifted a bit, and Debbie said, "I think that woman works here. I just can't remember her name."

"She must not have worked here very long," Karen said. "I don't remember seeing her before. The odd thing was that she knew both of our names. She should really introduce herself or no one will know who she is."

A man walked up to the desk and asked, "Who are you talking about?"

"What do you mean?" Debbie uttered, looked at the other woman who also didn't have a clue what the man was talking about, and then she honestly answered, "We weren't talking about anyone."

Jane continued on to her office where she worked as an illustrator. She took a bite of her donut and found it hard to swallow as she got a little choked up over her failed attempt to break what seemed like a curse. She put a lot of effort in selecting the donuts and spent weeks figuring out what the people on the floor favored. Jane remembered the look they gave her, the familiar gaze that bore no recognition in it, and she knew to them she was nothing but a stranger. She was lucky this time they didn't call security on her. The loneliness of never connecting with anyone plagued her life, but she wouldn't let it win. Jane would find a way to break the wall that surrounded her that hid her from everyone and once she broke free of it, someone would remember her. Jane felt she should have friends and was determined to make them.

It had been five years since she started the job as an illustrator, and she loved the work she did for the company. She mostly worked on art for children's fairy tales, and her artwork hung all over her office. She currently worked on a version of Beauty And The Beast for one of the company's popular authors. She finished eating her chocolate donut, then walked over to the sink, and washed her hands. Her office was equipped with a small kitchenette. One of the perks of being one of the top illustrators for the company. She had the perfect job and loved what she did, but she couldn't seem to connect with anyone. Jane's affliction, as she sometimes referred to it, tormented her since she was a child. The world around her seemed to disconnect from her or was it that she was disconnected from them? She didn't know but tried not to let it bother her too much. Jane hoped one day her life would change.

She went and sat at her desk and started again on a drawing of a stained-glass window with an old woman in it holding a rose. It was one of the opening illustrations for the book. Jane went about her work day and greeted everyone she came across. She knew everyone's name, but they mostly looked at her as if they had no clue who she was. Jane always wondered if they were just being rude or truly didn't recognize her. Sometimes Jane wondered if she was cursed like one of the characters in the fairy tales.

Jane put the final touches on the drawing of the old woman, then peered at the character's face, and felt something was missing. She twirled a small silver ring around her left pinkie as she thought about it a little more. Jane knew something was missing, but she couldn't put a pin on it. She decided she would come back to the character tomorrow after she had a good night's rest and see if the MIA item would come to her then. Jane leaned back in her chair and stared at the ring of intertwined tiny flowers she fidgeted with, sensing there was something she couldn't remember. It always seemed like there was something she couldn't remember.

Standing and stretching, Jane decided she would take a short break and walk around her office. Hundreds of drawings from dozens of fairy tales filled her walls, but her most precious drawings she kept in a scrapbook, and she went and flipped through it. Two characters dominated the book. One was of a red rose, though Jane couldn't figure out why she insisted what usually was an item or prop in the children's stories was a character. The other character was... well... he... Jane flipped through the pages of his drawings and many of them focused on his feral blue-green eyes and much more of the drawings focused on his lips. She slammed the book shut as she blushed. Jane found if she wasn't careful, she would be drawn into the make-believe world. She smoothed her hand over the cover. Sometimes she felt these fictitious people were the only friends she had. Jane sighed, then went back over to her desk, and started on a new drawing of a man wielding an ax.

Hours went by as she sketched, and then an alarm went off on her phone. The alarm told her it was time to stop. If she forgot to set the alarm, Jane found she would work through the night, drawn into the world she sketched. Jane hit snooze, put some finishing touches on the drawing, then stood as her alarm went off again. She tidied up her workstation and headed out as she always did and just as she was leaving, Karen and Debbie were also heading out the door.

"Hello," Karen said. "Are you new here?"

"Not really. My name's Jane. I'm one of the illustrators."

"Oh..." Karen replied back.

"Hey, new girl," Debbie began. "We're going out to dinner. Do you want to come along?"

Jane was about to tell her again that she wasn't new at all but when Debbie actually invited her somewhere, she quickly forgot about the correction and replied, "I'm in." She searched her person and found that she had forgotten her wallet that she usually kept in her pocket; it was on her desk back in her office. "I just need to go get my credit card."

She ran off, quickly collected the wallet, placed it in her jean's back pocket, and rushed back to the exit of the building. Karen and Debbie were waiting there along with two other guys and another woman.

"I'm ready to go," Jane told them.

Debbie looked at her as if she had no clue what she was talking about, and then Debbie said, "Ready to go where?"

"To whatever restaurant we're going to. I think this is the first time you've invited me anywhere," Jane told them.

"Who invited you to come?" Debbie asked her as she looked at the other four people.

A few of them shrugged as a few more glanced around as if they had no clue.

"You did," Jane answered her. "You invited me to go out to eat with you. Karen was standing right there." Jane turned to Karen and asked her, "You heard her invite me, right?"

Debbie and Karen were notably getting upset as the conversation progressed.

Karen replied, "I don't know when Debbie was supposed to invite you, but I didn't hear a thing." She turned to Debbie and questioned her, "Maybe you invited her before. Did you invite her earlier in the day and forgot about it?"

"I think I would remember inviting someone," Debbie told her. "I don't even know your name but that doesn't matter. I wouldn't care if you came, but my car is full now with the five of us. Maybe next time you can come."

The five of them started out the door as Jane watched them leave. She had flashbacks of when she was a child. She clearly remembered children on the playground who would invite her to join in on their game and when she would start playing with them, they would look at her like they had no clue why she was joining in. Even the different foster parents Jane had over the years would sometimes look at her like she had broken into their house, and she was either there to vandalize their stuff or steal their food. Most of the time that unperceiving look went away before it became a serious problem but one time, Jane had to convince one couple to call the child welfare place to prove to them that they were her foster parents instead of the police. Because people were always forgetting her, Jane never made any connections over the years, and it troubled her deeply, but she tried to keep an optimistic outlook on her future. She knew one day she would find someone who would connect with her and remember her and that one day, she would find the perfect man who would love her and marry her.

Jane rushed out the door after her co-workers and yelled at them, "I have my bike with me. I can ride it to whatever restaurant you're going to. Did you hear me? I can..."

She watched as the group of five made their way to the parking lot and either they didn't hear her or they pretended not to. Jane gave up, knowing trouble only followed if she persisted, so she headed for her bike and rode home. Jane gave herself a pep talk as she rode along. There was always tomorrow... She could try and connect with someone tomorrow.

The town, the publishing house was located in, was small and on a mountain. Jane rented when she first moved to the town but after about a year, she made enough from her illustrations to put a down payment on a small cottage in the woods and live there by herself. Many times she thought about getting a dog to help with the loneliness, but her long hours away from her home prevented her from ever going through with it.

Jane stopped by the grocery store before heading home and carried a small bag in her backpack as she pedaled her mountain bike. When she reached home, she parked her bike just inside the door, grabbed the bag from the backpack, entered her kitchen, and made herself some homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. She ate her supper, watched a little TV, and then headed to bed.

Tomorrow was Saturday, and she would have the day off to... to... She would find something to do with her time off. She put her pajamas on as she heard a rainstorm move in outside. She also noticed that the temperature inside the cottage had dropped a little. Jane was about to get into bed when she heard a knock at her door, so she cautiously went and answered it without opening the door.

"Who is it?"

"You do not know me. I am an old woman," the voice on the other side replied. "I have lost my way, and it is cold and rainy out here. Could I come in and dry myself?"

Jane had heard many stories over the years about strangers showing up and killing everyone in the house and because of those stories, she was reluctant to let the person in. Jane moved to the window beside the door, pulled the curtains to the side, and saw the old woman who was dressed in a long, hooded purple robe with a gray shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her clothes were soaked, and she was shivering. She hated to turn the old woman away, but she was also afraid to let her in.

"Did your car break down?" Jane asked, and then she said, "I can call a tow truck for you?"

"I was walking. Would you please let me in?"

"I'll call the police for you, and they can come pick you up and take you wherever you need to go."

The old woman said, "I would prefer to come in and dry myself just a little while. I will be no trouble, and I can offer you a rose as payment for your troubles."

Jane heard how cold the woman was and the desperation in her voice, and then the old woman started to cough, and it sounded bad. Jane decided she couldn't turn her away so against her better judgment, she opened the door and let her in. The woman came in and seemed to float across the floor, and Jane also noticed she wore a half mask that covered the left side of her face and all of her forehead. The white mask looked like it was made of porcelain. Jane tried not to stare as she showed her to the kitchen table, then she got the old woman several towels to dry off with, and she even plugged in a hair dryer to help dry her clothes and long gray hair. The woman gratefully gave her a long stem red rose that had yet to open, and Jane filled a glass vase with water and placed the bud in it. Jane warmed up the tomato soup and toasted a couple of pieces of bread for the old woman. The old woman gobbled the hot meal down gracefully, and then Jane decided she couldn't send her off into the rainstorm to get soaked again, so she offered her the living room couch, and the old woman gladly accepted.

The two of them sat at the table, and Jane noticed over the course of the night the old woman peered at her unlike anyone had peered at her before. The old woman looked at her as if she recognized her and this made Jane feel accepted and not so isolated from the world.

The evening progressed, and it came time to go to bed, so she tucked the old woman in on the couch, then Jane went to bed and for the first time, slept through the night without dreaming the dream. The next morning, she awoke to find that the old woman had left and there was a note on the table written on some old parchment, and Jane read it.

You do have a kind heart, but your kindness only makes your world that much sadder. Take care to keep the light in your heart for it is the only thing that will save you. It is the only thing that will save us all.

Jane thought it was a little odd as a thank you note but didn't linger on it too long. She found the rose sitting on the counter in its vase, and the bud had still to open.

The cottage was quiet in a lonely way, so Jane decided that she would go for a bike ride. She ate breakfast, put on brown cargo shorts and a red t-shirt with the Flash logo on it, then prepared a small picnic for herself. She grabbed an extra t-shirt, placed it and the lunch in her backpack, and grabbed her bike. Jane opened the door and noticed that it was very foggy outside and that she couldn't see more than an arm span in front of her. She rolled her bike out across her gravel driveway and decided just to wait there a few minutes to see if the fog would start to break, but it didn't, so she turned around and headed back for her cottage. Jane would have to wait until the sun rose higher in the sky and burned away the fog. She rolled her bike in the cottage's direction for a long time, and then she stepped off the gravel road a few feet and decided to pause as she never came to the structure or the wooden fence that surrounded her cottage. Now that Jane thought about it, she didn't remember ever passing her fence as she left the cottage. Jane decided that she shouldn't keep going and get herself lost or fall off the mountain, so she waited a while for the fog to let up. It seemed like a whole hour went by as she waited. Jane removed a sandwich from her picnic and took a couple of bites, and then the fog finally started to lift. She no longer stood near the gravel road, actually, it and the cottage were nowhere in sight, and trees she didn't recognize surrounded her. Jane wondered where in the world she could be.

She wrapped up the partially eaten sandwich, put it back in her backpack, and then thought about what she should do next. Jane removed her cell phone, but she had no signal. She was on her own, nothing new. Jane couldn't believe how lost she had gotten in so little time, and she decided she couldn't stay there, so she would climb higher up the mountain that way she could figure out where the town was and then go from there. Jane turned her bike and pushed it up the mountain.

Chapter Three

Once Upon A time

A large oak door with ancient script inscribed within it led out to a large elongated cliff that overlooked most of the mountain and the valley below. Near the edge of the cliff, a pedestal the size of a large boulder and made of jagged green crystals held the coveted prize. An eagle's claw made of black steel rose from the crystals' center with its claw reaching for the sky and in its talons, it held a blue gem the size of a grapefruit. For centuries, the coveted prize known as the Tear of Poer had led adventurers, thieves, power mongers, and the like into its dungeons below to seek fame, riches, and/or power. The gem had led thousands to their deaths as they fell prey to traps and monsters. Few survived the first five levels of the dungeon and even fewer had made it past level seven, but three brave souls urged on by greed, power, and heart made it to the thirteenth floor and the final level.

A commotion could be heard on the other side of the large oak door. It was the sounds of battle, one of steel, claws, teeth, and muscle but also one of conjuration and magic. The commotion grew louder as the three brave souls fought the most powerful and final monster. A loud explosion shook the large thick door, and then all fell to silence. A metal bolt could be heard unlocking from within, then the door creaked open, and the three brave souls stepped out to claim their prize. The dungeon had taken its toll on them, marking them with scars from monsters and steel, and they were physically and mentally tired. They heaved for their exertion but pressed on to claim the coveted prize.

A female crimson battlemage from the desert elf tribe was clothed in a hooded red cape, and she held a sword in her right hand and wielded a magic sphere the size of a baseball in her left; the magic sphere still zapped and discharged from her last attack in currents of red energy that swirled around its crystal mass. She took up the middle position of the three brave souls as they moved as one beast towards the Tear of Poer. A woodlands elf wizard with a black beard and a hooded robe to match stood to her left and carried a staff with an ax blade attached. The top of his thick black hair smoldered after receiving a parting gift from the last monster. A werewolf in his semi-form (half man and half wolf) stomped across the cliff on his two hind legs as his claws and teeth dripped with blood. The werewolf stood to the woman's right, and he reverted to his giant wolf form which was the easiest of the three forms to possess.

They stopped before the mound of green crystals and peered at the Tear of Poer. The three of them hated each other but over the countless years, they were unable to go the dungeon alone, so they made a pact. They banded together to clear the dungeon and when they cleared the final monster, they would fight each other for the prize until there was only one victor. Without a word, they separated from each other and prepared to defeat the other two.

The female crimson battlemage known as Red Northlands Fury charged her magical sphere, and red energy crackled around it, then moved through her body, and also charged her sword. The woodlands elf wizard known as Woodsman Of The Sacred Oak lifted his staff, and the ax blade glowed purple. The werewolf, Lykos Of Steel Teeth, faced them as his eyes glowed yellow, and then he bared his large teeth and growled at the two. Each one waited for the other to attack first.

Far below the cliff, Jane emerged from the forest and found the entrance to the dungeon. She peered through the two open doors into its dark foreboding opening and decided she wouldn't dare enter. Jane did need to find a high place to see where she was. The fog completely lifted, and she had walked for about two hours. She was about to continue on when she heard a loud howl and an explosive sound like thunder. A different type of detonating thunders followed, and the ground beneath her trembled. Angry shouts came from above, so Jane lifted her head, drawn to the sounds of the fight. She couldn't see on top of the cliff, but she did glimpse an object glinting in the sunlight right before it hit her in the eye. She cried out in shock and covered her right eye with her hand as a great pain shot throughout her body. The sting was so bad Jane thought she lost her eye. She searched the area around her eye with her fingers and discovered no blood, so her panic lessened. Jane didn't know how long she reeled in pain but as suddenly as the object had hit her, the pain completely disappeared.

When the assault from the sky first occurred, she let go of her bike, and it fell to the ground. Jane bent down, grabbed its handlebars, and straightened the bike back on its wheels. She thought it best to leave the area before anything else fell on her, and she still needed to find something she could examine her eye in. She thought about her cell phone and that it had a mirror app, so she started to pull it out of her pocket when she felt as if she wasn't alone. Jane turned around and saw a man, a woman, and a huge dog quickly running toward her. They all looked like they had been in a fight that none of them were winning, and their unusual clothes caused her to take a double-take.

"There is a female here," Red said when they were still some distance away from her.

"The female appears to be a lowlands elf," Woodsman stated, and then he pointed out, "Look how rounded her ears are. Though, I do not recognize her garb."

Red told him, "Get her attention before she leaves. We need to speak with her."

"You, there, female," Woodsman called out. "We are looking for the Tear of–"

"Do not tell her that," Red snapped at him. "She does not need to know what we are looking for."

"How are we to ask her if she has seen it if we do not tell her what we are looking for?" Woodsman questioned.

"Like this," Red replied, and then she said, "You, there, female. Have you seen a shiny rock that may or may not have fallen off the cliff?"

Lykos sniffed the air while the other two of them talked, then moved, and circled Jane. He smelled something familiar about her. Actually, he smelled two things that were very familiar to him. He started to warn the others when the woman reached down and petted his head.

"You're such a huge dog," Jane told him, and then she said to the others, "I don't know what it was, but something did hit me in the head. Oh... I didn't introduce myself. I'm Jane, and I seem to be lost."

"I am Woodsman Of The Sacred Oak," the woodlands elf wizard said as he puffed out his chest. He motioned to the female crimson battlemage and stated, "The ill-tempered creature beside me is called Red Northlands Fury, and that fleabag wolf over there is Lykos Of Steel Teeth.

Jane looked over their costumes and questioned them, "Are all of you going to a fantasy convention or something?"

"Convention..?" Red repeated. "The crimson battlemage convention is not until the end of the year. I am surprised you have heard of it."

"I actually haven't," Jane replied. "Oh... Since you're here, can you look into my eye? I got something in it earlier."

Red paid no attention to her, waved away the female's inquiry, and said, "You seem fine."

"Thanks," Jane told her. "Maybe you can help me with something else. I can't get a signal out here," she said, and then she questioned them, "Do any of you have cell phone reception? I can't call out or text."

Woodsman leaned to the female crimson battlemage and whispered, "She must be talking about the Great Warlock CellFone Ception. Maybe she is an apprentice of his. Look at the bolt she boasts on her garb. She may be a very powerful magic user, apprentice of the Great Warlock CellFone Ception or not."

"If this is so, we should talk no more of the Tear of Poer in front of her," Red whispered back to him, and then she told her, "We are unable to assist you, and we should be on our way."

"Wait!" Jane uttered. "At least, direct me towards the nearest town."

"AaBack is on the other side of the mountain," Woodsman told her. "There is a path over there," he said as he motioned with his staff. "Just follow it down."

Woodsman and Red started in the opposite direction, searching the ground around the dungeon, looking for the large gem that eluded them.

"Thanks," Jane said, and then she pushed her bike towards the path. She walked about ten feet when she heard the most marvelous and amazing thing.

"Jane," someone called after her.

Her heart thundered in her chest. Someone remembered her name. She couldn't recall a time when someone remembered her name beyond a few seconds. Had the miracle she always prayed for finally happen?

She turned, overcome by joy and exclaimed, "Yes?"

The woman and the man searched the ground a great distance from her, and they had their backs to her, so they couldn't have been the ones to speak unless they were playing some sort of joke. Jane wondered if she imagined that someone called to her. She may be a bit dehydrated and tired from pushing her bike up a rugged mountain. She shrugged, then turned, and headed for the path again.

"Jane, wait. There is something I need to tell you."

She turned again, completely sure she heard her name. The large dog moved toward her and spoke again and this time, she saw his lips move.

"Jane, heed my words. I don't know how you happened into this world. Maybe you came here as I did. It does not matter. You must listen to me very carefully. You're in danger here. It would be better if you didn't go down to the village, at least not the village of AaBack. The others don't know what you truly are, but I can smell you. I know what you are, and you must not let anyone else know."

She peered at the large dog and the only thing she could think of to say after his warning was, "You spoke. You actually talked. Is this some sort of trick?"

"It's no trick," Lykos told her, and then he whispered, "I was once what you are, luckily a werewolf bit me and changed me or they would have killed me. I could bite you and change you too but only on a night when the moon's full. We're weeks away from that. It would be better if you went into hiding until then. You could go into the dungeon and hide. We have cleared it of the monsters, but you would still need to be wary of the traps."

"I see your lips moving like on a movie or video, but how are they doing it out here?" she questioned. "Are you some sort of 3D projection? No, you can't be. I touched you. How are you talking?"

"Jane, you must listen. Your life depends on it. Don't go down to–"

"What is going on here, female?" Red interrupted as she and the woodlands elf wizard walked over to them. "I thought you were going to go down to AaBack and look for your master, Great Warlock CellFone Ception."

"I think you misunderstood me," Jane stated, and then she changed the subject by asking, "Did you find the item you were looking for?"

"No, we did not," Woodsman replied. "We believe someone may have run off with it. Did you see anyone else down here?"

Jane replied, "I didn't."

Lykos sniffed the air again, and he realized the other thing he had caught scent of earlier was the Tear of Poer. He remembered the woman said that she had gotten something in her eye, so he took a step forward and peered into her brown orbs. At first, he saw nothing but as he gazed closer with his enhanced werewolf vision, he saw the Tear of Poer embedded deep within her pupil. He wanted the gem as badly as the other two and as he glanced in their direction, he realized the woman was in greater jeopardy in her current situation.

Lykos scanned the area, and then he asked, "Are those troll tracks?"

"Where?" Red uttered. "I see them now. They are. I am going to follow them."

She took off into the forest as Woodsman shouted, "I am coming with you."

Lykos waited a few moments, and then he told Jane, "If you are to make AaBack before dark, maybe you should be on your way."

"Oh... You're right."

"I'll walk with you a bit," he said. "Just until you can see the village."

"Thank you."

The two of them headed for the path and followed it down.

Jane waited a few minutes, then turned to Lykos, and questioned him, "Do you know who I am?"

"I know what you are," he answered. "I tried to explained to you earlier that you're in mortal danger."

"No, I don't mean that. I'm not sure what you were talking about earlier, but I want to know if you know my name."

"I do. It's Jane. Why do you ask?"

"I can't remember a time when someone did remember me. It's like I've been cursed, but I would have to say that all of this is weird. I'm talking to a large dog... or I guess you said you were a werewolf. Talking to you in itself is very unusual. I think I'm dreaming. I'm having a weird and yet amazing dream."

Lykos considered what she had told him, and then he said, "You were cursed before you came here. Our arrival here is very rare and among the stories I've come across, I've never heard of one who's been cursed before coming here. I need to look into this anomaly a little more before we go through with making you as I am now. There is time. The full moon happens once a month, and it will appear again in about three weeks."

"Umm... You keep talking about making me a werewolf, but you never asked me if I wanted to become one. What am I saying? This is all a dream and if I'm dreaming, does it mean I secretly want to be turned into a werewolf? I don't think so. I think I would want to be turned into a unicorn before that," she said, giggled, and then added, "Isn't that childish?" She thought about it some more, laughed again, then returned to the subject by repeating, "I don't want to become a werewolf."

"You'll change your mind when you understand everything," Lykos told her, peered ahead, then turned back to her, and said, "I must leave you now. You can see AaBack in the distance. Go to the bakery and speak with the Muffin Man. Make him give you a job. His shop is located on..."

"Let me guess," she interrupted. "Drury Lane.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"It's my dream," Jane told him. "And my world was full of fairy tales before I came here."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm an illustrator, so I have to do extensive research before I start a drawing."

"I didn't mean that," Lykos said. "Why did you mention fairy tales?"

She answered, "I guessed your story after I heard each of your names, and so I know which character each of you really are."

"Who are we?"

Jane replied, "Everything's different, way different, but I'm sure. The woman's Little Red Riding Hood. The man and you were easy. He's the woodsman, and you're the wolf."

"You can see. I've never met anyone who picks up on curses."

"You mean there's more to it?" Jane questioned.

"There is. Try to figure it out," Lykos told her. "I have a feeling you may be more than you appear to be."

"It's my dream," she said. "I'm supposed to be the hero."

"A hero, huh? Maybe you will be," Lykos stated, and then he said, "The Muffin Man will work you hard, but he's fair. Remember don't leave his shop until he gives you a job."

"Okay. Anything else I should know?" Jane questioned.

"You aren't dreaming. I thought the same thing when I came here. The sooner you believe that the sooner you can come to terms with your new reality. Remember it isn't safe here in the World of Grimm. I would tell you more but as you will find out, curses place certain limitations on the bearer." He caught another glimpse of the Tear of Poer in her right eye and knew her destiny had been written much different than his.

"Before you go, do me one favor," she said.

"What's that?"

"Say my name once more. Say my name every time we meet."

"I will, Jane. I will," Lykos spoke, then turned, going after the other two he sent on a wild troll hunt.

She watched him leave and wondered about everything he told her. Jane didn't feel like she was in a dream but this world couldn't be real; it was all too crazy.

She started down the path again, heading for the village. Jane thought about dream versus reality. It was crazy enough if it was a dream but reality... Guess she would find out once she arrived at AaBack.

Chapter Four

The Muffin Man

A sign lost to time and equally lost to a few weeds announced to Jane that she had reached her destination with the faded word AaBack on one posted sign and on the posted sign below it was written Village of the Yeahmun Slayer. Jane noticed that the name AaBack had large spaces between the upper case A, the lower case a, and the word Back like a child had written them who didn't know how to space properly. She also considered that maybe there had been other letters or words there at some time. She rubbed her hand over the area and felt there had been something there before, but she just shrugged it off and continued on.

She wondered what a yeahmun was and then mounted her bike now that there was level ground she could ride on, and she pedaled to the village. Jane quickly found Drury Lane and the bakery, parked her bike, and then entered the shop that delightfully smelled of fresh bread and pastries.

"Hello," she called out. "Muffin Man?"

"What do you want?" a deep voice asked from behind her.

She turned, looked down, and found a red-bearded dwarf with blue-gray eyes wearing a white apron and chef's hat with Tasty Dwarf Bakery written on them. Jane realized her dream was only going to get weirder, so she might as well get used to it. She remembered her first mission and told him, "I've come for a job."

"If that is what you seek, you have come to the wrong place," the dwarf told her as he passed her. "I have all the employees I can stand."

"Really, I was told I should get a job here and to take no for an answer. I mean not to take no for an answer."

He stroked his red braided beard as he gave her a once over, and then he said, "My latest delivery guy never showed. Can you travel great distances in a short period of time?"

"I can."

Muffin Man peered at her again, and then he said, "I'll hire you on a trial basis."

"You have a deal. Will I be delivering your wares?"

"You will," Muffin Man told her.

"You mentioned he was your latest delivery guy. Do you have a problem finding loyal workers?"

"No, they are usually the ones who have a problem. They have a problem keeping their lives. The last two were eaten, and the one before them disappeared on his way to a delivery. He was one to mess with female magic users, so Bob probably got turned into something."

"Oh," Jane exclaimed as she made a face, and then she asked, "Is anyone else hiring in town?"

"Yeah, the witch in the forest is looking for someone to help lure children into her gingerbread house."

She quickly put her hand out and said, "Good to work for you, boss."

"Boss, huh?" the dwarf remarked as he scratched his pudgy nose. "I like the sound of that."

She dropped her hand after he didn't shake it, and then she asked, "What kind of pay do I get?"

"A couple of muffins from the bakery and one halfpenny coin a day plus tips."

"A halfpenny. Will that get me a room?"

He laughed before he answered, "Maybe five hundred of them if you don't mind living down in a smelly sewer with even more smellier giant rats."

"That does put a pickle in things," Jane spoke. "All I have is a credit card, and I'll need a place to stay with a warm bed and a bath."

"You can stay in the loft of the old barn out back," he told her as he threw his thumb over his shoulder. "As for a bath, there's a bathing house next door. Cost you two pennies."

"A bath every four days?" Jane muttered to herself. "I hope tips are good or that this dream ends before I start to stink."

Muffin Man said, "Well, let's get you started."

"Right now? I was hoping to begin tomorrow. Isn't it a bit late for deliveries?"

"No, you still have a few hours before it starts to get dark. Do you think because you work for a bakery all your hours will be in the wee morning?" he questioned her and then went to the back of his shop.

"I thought it was much later than that, but I guess with dreams..."

He returned with a brown paper bag and a clipboard, and then he told her, "There's a castle on the hill above this village. Make the delivery and get the owner's signature. This is very important. Get his signature. Without it, I can't bill him, and you need to be back before dark if you want this job."

"Got it," she said as she took the paper bag which contained a wooden box. Jane placed them in her backpack and grabbed the clipboard and quill, and then she asked, "The address."

"You don't need one. It's the only thing up Tall Hill Road except for maybe a dragon or a troll."

She noticed the writing utensil and inquired, "Don't I need ink for this quill?"

"It's enchanted with infinite ink so don't lose it and to answer your next question, yes. The cost would come out of your paycheck, and it would take you ten thousand years, working seven days a week to repay me if you do lose it so don't." He looked over her unusual garb and questioned her, "You do have a weapon, right?"

"Ah... nooo... Do you think I'll need one?"

He exhaled loudly as he shook his head and mumbled, "The younger generation. Never prepared." He went in the back room, then returned, held out the weapon, and said, "Here."

She took the wooden club with a leather strap at its end and examined the teeth and claw marks all over the wood.

"The last two delivery boys carried that," Muffin Man told her as he folded his small arms and nodded as if approving of the choice. "Should make you a fine weapon."

Jane laughed at how her dream was turning out, and then she remarked, "Great weapon... It worked wonders for my predecessors."

"Better hurry," he told her, and then he warned her, "Don't want to be on Tall Hill Road after dark."

"Maybe you should show me where I'll be living before I go," she suggested.

"No, I'll wait. I don't want to go through the hassle if you're only going to end up dead."

"Great pep talk, boss," Jane replied with a smile, attached the club to her backpack with its leather strap, then ran outside, and glanced at the sun that was well on its way to end its day trek.

She mounted the bike and within minutes, started pedaling up Tall Hill Road. The road went through a dark forest teaming with life, but it didn't bother her with the assurance all of it was a dream. Jane passed an old woman who looked just like the one who had come to her cottage, but she wasn't wearing a half mask. Jane braked and glanced back, but whoever she had seen had disappeared. She wondered if her eyes played tricks on her, and then she pedaled off. Once Jane was out of sight, the old woman emerged again on the road and looked in the direction Jane had pedaled off into.

The old woman mumbled to herself, "And so it begins..."

Large iron gates opened out as Jane rode up to them, and she braked again as she got a sense she wasn't alone. Jane peered through the opening and noticed a path but saw no one there. She thought she was just imagining things just as she imagined she saw the old woman on the road. Jane guessed this was the place she needed to make the delivery to, rode through the gates across a stone path, passed a large walled section of the estate she couldn't see into with the sign Hedge Labyrinth, and stopped at the entrance of a castle. Jane dismounted, put her kickstand down, readied the clipboard, walked up to the large wooden doors, grabbed the eagle head knocker, and struck three times. The booms rang throughout the castle and then as she waited for someone to answer the door, she glanced down at the clipboard to see who the delivery was for. Her heart skipped a beat as a torrent of emotions rushed through her when she read the name, the Beast. Whenever she worked on an illustration for one of the versions of the fairy tale, she always got choked up. The tale told of Beauty who won over the heart of a cursed prince and in the end, he won over her heart. No wonder her dream brought her there. Of all the places, this was where her heart belonged.

Earlier that day...

The Beast walked by a hallway mirror in his castle and reluctantly gazed at his appearance. The grotesqueness of it made him reel from the reflection and quickly head to a different part of the castle. He had to lay his eyes on something else to rid his mind of the horrible image burning within it. The Beast entered a large room void of furniture where paintings of different females hung all about. Each of the portraits was of a beauty and had been painted when they at some point over the years had been a guest of his castle. He gazed at them, partaking of their loveliness until the ugly image of himself was swept from his mind. The Beast walked around the many portraits, basking in their exquisite appeal. Each of them had been worthy to be his Belle and even though they were afraid of him when they saw his face, once he hid his appearance from them, his charm gradually won them over. He remembered the last night he spent with each as the offering of their kiss was placed on his desperate lips. Hope had caused his heart to pound rapidly in his chest as he embraced them, but the reality that he had once again been foiled by an unattainable solution brought with it a devastating disappointment and then an unreasonable disgust. He couldn't bear to look upon them in the flesh again. With his enchantment sadly unbroken, a heavy heart quickly dissolved the charming spell he had over them, and they left his presence forever. The Beast couldn't understand what went wrong. Each of these females could have easily been his Beauty, and they were all eventually willing, so why couldn't any of these exquisite females break his curse?

His stroll turned into a pace as he sought the brush strokes of oil and color, searching for a reason behind the numerous failures. Belle after Belle looked back at him with their lovely faces and portrait sitting smiles. For the first time, he noticed something about each. They were missing something, something he should have noticed before. He scrutinized the canvasses, looking for that trait he missed countless times before on his endless quest to find release from his accursed form. A madness set in as his pace turned into running, and he dashed about the Gallery frantic to find the one thing that might free him. He paused at one of the female paintings as the answer finally struck him. It was their lips. He walked from painting to painting as the answer calmed him back to his normal self. It wasn't that their lips were somehow flawed or there was some sort of imperfection in them; it was just... they were all missing an allure. A strong pull that had drawn him in a lifetime ago and caused him to steal something precious. Each of these would-be Belles was missing it. If only he had discovered this sooner, he wouldn't have wasted his time with the counterfeit Belles and focused on finding his real Beauty.

The Beast paused in the center of the Gallery and gazed upon all of them which was a mixture of princesses, countesses, and other royal maidens. It saddened him that each one had come so close to being his Beauty, but a small thing like fleshy brims corrupted the exact elements needed. He was determined not to give up. She had to be out there.

He headed out of the Gallery and pondered his earlier trip to the mirror. It had been ages since he gazed into it, but a force compelled him to peer into it again as that same force compelled him to visit the Gallery. Some sort of magic was at work here, one that gave him a sense that hope had arrived that day. It was hard for him to understand just what kind of sensation possessed him. The best that he could describe it as was that someone precious in his life had been taken away from him a long time ago, and they had mysteriously returned. The Beast knew of no such person, so he let those joyous sediments trickle from his mind as he headed out back. He needed to attend to his daily practice.

The present...

Back at the front of the castle...

When no one answered her first attempt, Jane raised her hand to grab the knocker again when a loud commotion from another part of the estate whisked her from her thoughts, and she moved around the castle to find the source. She walked across a grassy lawn and nearly stepped on a small flower. Jane pulled her foot back and then knelt to look at the tiny yellow rose that was no bigger than her pinkie. She thought how cute the flower was, and she was tempted to pick it, but then Jane remembered the trouble it caused in the fairy tale. Jane straightened and walked a little further, and then she started to hear frantic clanging, went around a corner, and found an open air circular structure supported by columns. The structure surrounded a grassy area where a man stood with his back to her, and he wielded a rapier, fighting another rapier. She saw no one else there, so either the man fought a magical sword or an invisible enemy. The duel continued, and then Jane realized the fight was only a practice one for the man with the rapier would pause, retake his stance, and start again with his cuts and lunges.

Jane moved to one of the columns drawn forward by an urge to get a glimpse of the man. He had to be him; he had to be the one character that always won her affection no matter what version of his story was told. Jane continued moving until she saw his face and as she thought, he was the Beast, a magnificent gorgeous Beast. He had blond shoulder-length hair like a lion's mane, blonde fur with patches of brown, cupped lion-like ears, and a lion-like nose. He wore no shirt as he fenced, and a medallion of a beastly creature hung around his neck. The round gold medallion glinted in the sunlight, and she froze as her heart fluttered and a sense of nostalgia hit her. Jane put a hand on the left side of her chest as the muscle pleaded with her to remember something, but her mind refused to give up its locked away secrets.

She wanted to move closer but resisted his allure. She saw how noble and princely his appearance was and how graceful he moved. Jane remembered in his story, Beauty was afraid at first of his cursed appearance maybe even appalled. She, though, Jane couldn't get past how gorgeous he was. She loved the way his mane glimmered in the sun and his ears... She wanted to touch them and rub them like a cat's. Was that wrong of her? Was it wrong of her to think of him like some pet? She decided she wasn't thinking of him in that way. Jane blushed. Far from it... She thought to herself, look at his mouth... Those lips... She rubbed her finger over her own lips. If a kiss was all it took... She hugged the nearby column as she spoke, "I'd break his curse any day."

Jane put a hand to her mouth. Had she really said that out loud? She looked around, hoping she hadn't said it too loud. Another thought crossed her mind. She just put herself in the role of Beauty. Jane laughed at the notion but then she thought since it was her dream anything was possible.

"He shall be angry," she heard a male voice speak in a whisper.

Jane looked in the direction she had just come from and saw no one. Many stories of the Beast included invisible servants, so she thought nothing of it.

"Why will he be angry?" she questioned.

"Because you have seen him," the invisible servant replied. "I am amazed you are not screaming or running away in terror. Could it be that you have poor vision?"

"I can see fine," she told him. "And he's the most handsome man I've ever seen, but I can understand not wanting to be spied on. I'll go back to the front of the castle and use the door knocker again. I have a delivery for the Beast."

The servant said no more to her, so Jane wasn't sure if the servant had left or not, so she headed back to the front of the castle without another word, hoping if she did head right for the servant, he would at least get out of her way. When she reached the corner that would take her away from her magnificent view of the Beast, she turned and looked at him once more. He finished his sparring and headed into one of the buildings with what sounded like a few men who must be other invisible servants.

When she was nearly back to the front of the castle, Jane saw two people standing just outside the front door. From her distance, she thought they were a woman and a child but as she walked closer, Jane realized the shorter one was a goblin wearing black armor. The woman with him was tall and very thin with red hair, and she wore a tight-fitting green dress. The woman lifted her hand which held an emerald cube the size of a Rubik's Cube, then spoke some words of enchantment, a wave of magic shot out from the cube, and it covered the castle and all of the estate. The wave of emerald magic washed over Jane and rustled her hair a bit, and then Jane heard several thuds as if a few of the servants, who had been following her, had collapsed to the ground. She didn't feel any different and wondered if it was magic, why didn't it affect her. The goblin rammed into the front door and forced it open, and then he and the woman went in. Jane rushed to the front door to find it had been shut again and that it was locked or blocked by something, and she couldn't get in. It would appear the Beast had some unwelcome guests.

Chapter Five

And So It Begins

Frantic to help the character who filled her scrapbook, Jane found a side door that wasn't locked, and the door creaked open as she entered a kitchen area. What was left of a fire burned in a hearth where a pot of soup hung cooking. Bowls, utensils, and half rolled out dough laid on top of a table. She heard angry voices in the distance, moved toward them, bumped the table, and knocked a spoon to the floor. Jane froze, wondering if anyone else heard the clang, but the angry voices never skipped their tempo, so she followed them until she came upon an open door.

"Did you tie him up good and tight?" a female voice questioned.

"Yes, Mistress Ceress. He won't break those bonds," a male voice replied.

Jane crept forward until she could peek around the door and there she saw the female and the goblin. They had the Beast tied up in a chair at the head of a long table. The chair had been pulled out a great distance from the table. Jane glanced around the dining room but didn't see anyone else there. The table was fully set as if more than a dozen guests were expected for a party.

"Tell us!" Ceress shrieked. "Tell us where you've hidden it."

The Beast growled back at her, "I will not tell you!"

The goblin removed a short sword, and then he yelled, "Tell us or I'll gut you!"

The Beast snarled, "I will not tell you where the rose is!"

"Cut off a claw," Ceress commanded her minion. "Maybe a little pain will change his mind."

Jane knew she had to do something. This was her dream, so she stepped back from the door, unslung her backpack, removed the club, and stood there wondering exactly what she would do with the weapon. She guessed she would figure that out as she went, so she tiptoed to the door. Jane mustered her courage and then rushed in with the club held high and yelled with all her might. The screaming female startled the enchantress and the goblin, and they shuffled back from the Beast, then they glanced at each other bewildered by the strange female, and they readied for combat. Jane swung, hitting the goblin on the head, and he hissed at her and swiped his sword. Jane jumped back, evading the blade.

The goblin complained to the enchantress, "I thought you said your magic would take care of all the servants."

"I did," Ceress replied. "I also told you all the servants are invisible. This female is no servant. No matter who she is, I'll get rid of her."

The enchantress lifted her hands as she chanted an incantation. The goblin removed a bow he had strung around his chest, then he pulled a special arrow from the quiver on his back, which looked like to Jane had a small pencil on its end as an arrowhead, and he knocked the arrow.

The Beast peered at the female who had her back to him and that same sensation that drew him to the mirror and later the Gallery came over him again. He tried to see her face, but it eluded him and then for some reason, he felt that he should save her, so he pressed against his bonds. A franticness overcame him with dread as a sensation that she could be the one leapt into his mind. He roared his frustrations as his arm muscles bulged, and the bonds tensed from his attempt at freedom. He yelled, "Get out of here! This is none of your affair!"

For the first time, Jane turned and stared into the Beast's gaze. His eyes... They were exactly like the ones in her drawings. They were a feral blue-green and full of anger. His anger... She wondered if it was a concern for her or was it something else that brought out his rage. Jane nearly dove head over heels into his gaze if the goblin hadn't of screamed at her. She turned her attention back to the intruders.

The Beast's heart skipped a beat as the female turned to him. He focused on her lips, and they enthralled him as his thoughts grasped at a memory he'd long forgotten. A sense that he should know her struck him, and he knew without a doubt she was the one. His Belle was standing right in front of him. The Beast lifted his eyes to gaze into her face, but she turned from him. He continued his struggle to free himself from his bonds and once he was free, he would save his Beauty from the two intruders.

Jane lifted the club to attack again just as the goblin pulled back his string and Ceress cast her spell. The emerald magic hit her club and turned the weapon into a viper. The angry reptile snapped at Jane's face, and she threw the poisonous snake at the goblin, and the viper bit his warty nose.

The goblin let up on the string and didn't shoot the arrow as he squealed in pain. He dropped the bow and arrow, lifted his arms, and ran about the room with the snake still attached as he yelled, "I'm melting! I'm melting!"

"You aren't melting!" Ceress shouted at him as she readied another spell.

The goblin stopped and said in relief, "I'm not?"

"No," Ceress answered him. "The burning sensation you're feeling is the poison surging through your body. The viper is known as the Eight Step." She grinned before she added, "I believe you have taken seven."

The goblin's eyes bugged out like pitted olives, his face paled, and he fell dead.

Ceress stared at him a few seconds, and then she said, "Maybe it was called the Seven Step." She shrugged, turned to Jane, and said, "I planned on double-crossing him anyway after we got the rose. You saved me the hassle." Ceress looked her over and then questioned her, "You seem like a worthy adversary. What is your name?"

"I'm Jane."

"I am the Enchantress Ceress," she replied and then glanced out the window at the setting sun. "It looks like I did not get the information I needed before the change."

"Before what change? Are you a werewolf?" Jane questioned her.

"You do not need to worry about that," Ceress told her as she glanced at the emerald cube she held.

"I do if you're going to turn into something that's going to bite my head off."

"I am no werewolf but do not let your mind be placed at ease. I still intend harm to you." Ceress gave the female a once over, and then she said, "I do have a feeling you are more than you appear if my magic has no effect on you." She bent, picked up the goblin's bow and arrow, knocked it, drew back the string, and aimed at her as she said, "If I am right, this should kill you. I would have liked to have chatted with you some more, but I have a rose I need to pluck."

Jane grabbed a plate from the table to hurl at the lady, but Ceress released the arrow before she threw it. The arrow struck Jane, piercing flesh and bursting her grasp on the reality she believed surrounded her. The wound caused her to drop the plate, and the white china shattered into pieces when it hit the floor as Jane's perception of her dream fragmented into distorted pieces like a funhouse mirror. She looked down at the arrow embedded deep into her flesh. Pain rushed through her body, more pain than she thought possible from a mere pencil. Blood flowed and as the crimson liquid dripped to the floor, Jane came to a horrible conclusion. She wasn't dreaming. The world she stumbled into was as true and real as the one she came from. Jane collapsed to her knees as she looked at the enchantress who laughed at her, gloating over her victory. Jane turned and glanced at the Beast. She saw pity in his eyes, the kind of pity one would give to a stray dog who had been killed by a car, and his pity frightened her. She was going to die. She was going to die, and no one would care.

Moments earlier...

The sunset, taking with it the day, and then the Beast beheld the most beautiful thing. He saw what was not always visible, and it laid not that far from those lips that beguiled him with their captivating seduction. He and not the other saw the symbol of what could only be their redemption. The thing he beheld broke the curse of despair and placed hope back in his heart. The female who was trying to save him from the enchantress was also the one who could save him from his affliction. The Beast's enthusiasm didn't last long. He witnessed the arrow hit his Belle, and then the freedom that was within his grasp faded with each labored breath his would-be savior took. He had to do something. He had to free himself. He had to save this female named Jane.

The End

# AaBack's Grimm: A Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #2

Friends Reunited:

The Janus Beast, The Rose Beauty, And The Cursed Duckling

AaBack's Grimm: A Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale

#2 Friends Reunited:

The Janus Beast, The Rose Beauty, And The Cursed Duckling

Kristie Lynn Higgins

2015, 2018 ©

Riding A Flying Carpet painting created by Viktor Vasnetsov

Cover of a German fairy tales book created by Carl Offterdinger

Two pink Prince-de-Bulgarie roses painting created by Frans Mortelmans

The Threatened Swan painting created by Jan Asselijn

White-Bear King Valemon created by Theodor Kittelsen

Wounded Lion painting created by Raden Saleh

The Wounded Eagle painting created by Rosa Bonheur

Illustration from The Water-Babies, illustration created by Warwick Goble

Chapter One

Reality Is Not A Happy Ending

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived a woman named Jane who existed in the real world and who felt set apart from those around her as if a curse loomed over her. One day, she had a dream where she was swept away to a fairy tale world of werewolves and dwarves. Jane's goal was simple, deliver some bakery goods, get a signature, and return to her make-believe job at the Tasty Dwarf Bakery with enough tips to take a bath.

Jane arrived to make the delivery only to meet the man... er... the Beast of her dreams. She tried to make her delivery, but an elf enchantress named Ceress had other plans for the Beast. Jane attacked the enchantress to save the Beast, but an arrow ended her attempt and cut short her belief that she was merely dreaming.

The present...

Blood trickled to the ground as Jane held her wound and stared at the hardwood floor where she knelt. She had been content in her belief none of the places or people she encountered were real for many of them were weird and/or frightening and yet, it also made her sad, knowing at any moment she would wake and reality would whisk her away from the fantastic and yet scary World of Grimm. All of those carefree thoughts and emotions invoked by her misguided belief in that she was only going about a whimsical trek vanished as terror set in.

Her intense panic increased its thunderous pounding as if to beat apart her chest the more she thought about her plight. The seriousness of her situation sunk in and abducted her courage. Everything she experienced up to that point was real including the arrow in her flesh. Jane had gone about her day as if everything was some silly mindscape. If she had known everything was real, she wouldn't have charged in like it was a zombie video game that she could pause or reset if things got too hairy. The werewolf had warned her. He told her she wasn't dreaming and the sooner she started believing that, the sooner she could come to terms with her new reality. Her new reality was that she had an arrow in her arm and a woman, who could cast magic, stared down at her with a glee-filled murderous intent.

The arrow thankfully had missed its mark by a few inches and hit her left arm. She glanced back at the Beast who appeared shocked by her unwavering gaze. He couldn't see her wound from his position in the room, but he could see her eyes. Jane also put his life in danger. The one who had given her hope that she would find love one day, and she played up this situation like a giddy school girl with a crush. Her crush wasn't of a man on a poster but a living, breathing, and in danger Beast.

"Foolish woman!" he yelled at her. "Run while you still can!"

He didn't even know her, and he already cared about her safety. Jane had been stupid and if she didn't put her fear to the side, she would get them both killed. With what strength she could muster, Jane stood to her wobbly feet and glanced back at the door to the kitchen. The enchantress seemed to be in no hurry to end her as Ceress, who still held the bow, moved over to the dead goblin. He had been her minion, and she searched through the arrows in the quiver on his back as if looking for the right accessory.

Once she finished looking through the quiver, Ceress said, "I guess that was the only special arrow."

She moved over to Jane who backed up until she ran into the dining room table, not knowing what the enchantress wanted to do to her next and still too afraid to do anything about it. Ceress saw the fear in her eyes and relished in it as she reached over and pulled the arrow out. Jane cried out for the pain. The absence of the shaft caused the blood to increase its flow down her arm. Jane grabbed a cloth napkin from the table as the enchantress walked away from her a few paces. Jane tied the napkin around her arm as Ceress turned and faced her again. The Beast could be heard struggling against his restraints.

"It would seem my aim was quite a bit off–" Ceress stated. "–but don't worry. I won't miss this time, not from this distance."

Thoughts about escaping rushed through Jane's mind like a log caught on a swift river as the enchantress drew back the string and like that log which rushed over a huge waterfall to be dashed on the rocks below, her thoughts went no further than the aspiration to flee and the panic-filled conclusion, I'm going to die! Her body wouldn't obey, and her mind refused to give aid or another recourse other than a frenzied, And there's nothing I can do to change that!

Ceress aimed again. She was usually an enchantress for hire but this particular job was personal, and she allowed herself to enjoy it more than usual. Ceress considered every possible scenario that could arise, but the one scenario of a woman showing up never entered her mind. It would be an added bonus to take the head of one such as she, but first she needed to complete her first objective, and the simplest way to do that was to make the woman dead. The sun dipped below the horizon outside as twilight shown across the land and just before Ceress released the string, a black tattoo of a swan magically appeared on the woman's right cheek. Time slowed as the marking shimmered in a dazzling display of hope before the one who was tied to the chair. The fairy had given this gift to Jane long ago as a defense mechanism to help safeguard her, and it kicked in seemingly for the first time as it sensed the death of the one who the mark branded. Some would call it a curse, and it would be the second curse Jane bore but at the moment, it was a blessing. A puff of smoke surrounded Jane and caused the enchantress to pause as the last rays of light vanished from the land and night began to rule. When the white smoke dissipated, a small yellow duckling stood in her place with a wounded wing. The baby bird squawked and ran around in a circle twice before she ran into the kitchen, dragging her wounded wing as she left the tied napkin behind where it fell from her arm.

"This is better than I thought," Ceress spoke as she started for the kitchen. "It looks like I'll be having duck tonight." She turned to the Beast, paused, and said, "That is as soon as you tell me where the rose is!"

Jane ran to the back of the kitchen, flapping her wings a little delirious because of what had happened to her and when she was about to scream, she saw her reflection in the spoon that had fallen to the floor and poof! She was a woman again, bleeding, confused, in pain, and incensed. She put her right hand to the wound and fisted her left. Jane noticed the fireplace where the pot of soup hung, so she grabbed a poker and stomped back into the dining room. Jane charged the enchantress with her weapon held high.

Ceress turned just as she struck, and Jane hit her on the collarbone. The enchantress stumbled back as she lifted her hands to protect herself.

"You reverted!" Ceress uttered and then winced in pain before she screamed, "How did you turn back?"

Blind with rage, Jane ran at her and swung. The enchantress' arms received the brunt of the attack, and she fell to the floor as Jane raised the poker to inflict the death blow. Ceress realized her grave mistake. She should have killed the woman when she had the chance but instead, her inaction allowed the woman to quickly recover from her affliction. Ceress would die before she took her revenge.

Jane looked into the fear-filled eyes of the enchantress, and her anger vanished. She lowered the poker as she felt a little queasy, and then she shouted, "Run!" Jane motioned to the other door with the poker and yelled, "Get out of here or I'll kill you!"

The elf enchantress crawled away, then lifted to her feet, and fled from the castle. Jane walked over to the dead goblin, dropped the poker, grabbed the short sword from his cold grasp, and moved toward the tied up Beast. She felt dizzy and saw stars as she walked, but Jane pushed forward, knowing she had to release him or they both might be in trouble if the enchantress returned.

Jane didn't know what she should say as she approached him, so she muttered, "I have a delivery for you... from the Tasty Dwarf Bakery."

The Beast watched her, unable to turn away from her and hide his face. His ghastly appearance didn't seem to bother her in the least as she continued toward him in a slow determined trudge. The Beast noticed her wound and saw the blood seeping from it, and then the fear he had of her seeing his cursed form turned to the terror of what he beheld as he realized who... no, what she was. He glanced at the blade she held and froze as an animal would, hoping a predator would pass them by. Her face paled as she lifted the short sword, and he tensed waiting for the blow. This woman's presence wasn't like Ceress' presence. The Beast could tell this woman had intentions for him, but he also sensed that they weren't malicious. She stabbed the blade into the chair's arm, cutting the bonds of his right side and then with focused determination, she pulled the blade out and stabbed the other chair's arm, cutting the ropes that bound him. She stared deep into his eyes when she finished. No one had gazed at him like that since he took on his accursed form. A warmth seemed to come from her smile and that warmth was aimed at him.

Jane couldn't believe it as she clung to consciousness. There they were... Those eyes from her drawings... How could they belong to this magnificent man who lived in a realm that shouldn't exist? She smiled at him again but this time, she felt as if they had known each other for a lifetime. She reached out her hand to touch the side of his face as she found herself saying, "I need your signature for the delivery."

Before she touched what must have been soft fur, she collapsed, and he caught her as she landed on his lap, and then she remembered no more.

Chapter Two

The Recurring Dream While In Grimm

For the first time ever, Jane's recurring dream changed. The colors, sounds, and sensations of touch in the world of her mind fancy became more vivid and alive than they ever were before. She experienced the dream the same way as before, seeing each scene as if seeing them for the first time.

Even the start of her dream differed. Jane held the hand of her foster mother as she took her to the neighborhood playground. It was a Saturday and many children played there. A little girl and a little boy, who were four like her, made fast friends with her, and they played for a good while, longer than young Jane could ever remember playing. Her little heart filled with joy at making new friends who lived very close to her foster parents' house. The little girl even complimented that she liked the white swan on her black t-shirt. The little girl and little boy ran over to a sandbox to make castles, and Jane joined them but in the middle of making a huge castle, the children forced Jane to leave the sandbox. They told her they didn't play with children they didn't know. Jane ran to her foster mother to be comforted, but the woman forgot she was under her care and kept insisting Jane find her own mother, so young Jane fled to the nearby woods heartbroken. Adult Jane remembered that this event had occurred in her past.

Young Jane ran through the woods for a long time, and then she came upon a bronze door that was opened but just a crack. Jane walked around the door but there was nothing on the other side but the woods, and the same door that opened in. She went back to the other side and opened the door the rest of the way out and as soon as she did that, the bronze door and her woods disappeared. Young Jane stood in a dense scary forest she didn't recognize with loud and boisterous animals squawking and roaring all around her. Everywhere she turned, the direction seemed to take her toward a darker and more dangerous path. Jane didn't know which way to go and decided on the path that was the least scary. She slowly made her way through the thick underbrush for hours and began to believe she'd never find her way home. Jane came upon a large root and sat on it, giving up. She was tired, thirsty, and hungry and just wanted to go home. She was near tears when about three dozen little fireflies appeared. She realized they weren't little but a great distance off and flying her way through the darkness like tiny candlelights of blue.

The fist-size fireflies flew around her as they sang to her, taking away her fear, loneliness, and despair with their enchanting song. The wordless chorus they sang was filled with deep meaning as if their souls somehow touched her own soul. The song was called Saah'Mee which meant Soul Heart in their language. If Jane could remember the time when her life began as a baby, she would have said the song reminded her of being held in her mother's arms. She watched the fireflies as they danced about in the air, then their song changed, and an amazing thing happened. They started playing lightning tag. Blue currents surged around one of them several times, then they shot the charge to another firefly, and the charge circled the new firefly and then shot to another. Six to eight charges in different shades of blue surged about at the same time. It was a wonder to behold. Jane wanted to play too, but she was afraid the currents would hurt her, so she tried to stay out of their way. One of the currents struck her hand, and it tingled a bit, but it didn't hurt. Jane giggled as the neon-blue swirled around her fist, then she pointed at a firefly, and the current leapt to the next participant of the game. The lightning tag went on for about ten minutes, then one of the fireflies came really close to Jane, so she stretched out her hand, and the firefly landed on her palm. Jane gasped in awe once the creature was close enough for her to get a really good view of it. She peered at the tiny female creature which wasn't a bug but a fairy. The fairy flew up to her face and peered into one of her eyes, and Jane held very still as she did this. Jane didn't even blink. The female fairy pulled away and flew up into the air a short distance, and then she and the other fairies flew ahead of Jane, heading toward a small bright light that broke through the dark canopy. The fairies beckoned her to follow them to the light, so Jane climbed her way over roots and pushed her way through shrubs and bushes until she broke free of the forest.

She shielded her eyes from the bright sun as her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and then once her eyes adjusted, she turned back to the forest but only one fairy remained, hovering just between the trees and the clearing. Jane walked back over to the female fairy.

"Thank you," Jane said. "I couldn't find my way out. Do you know what direction I should go in now?"

The fairy pointed behind Jane, and she glanced in the direction and then turned and faced the fairy.

"I wish I could play some more with all of you. Maybe I can come back tomorrow, and we can play. I would like it if we could play again. It's hard for me to make friends."

The fairy flew over to Jane, kissed her on her right cheek, and then flew back into the forest. Jane felt a tingling sensation on her face as she stared at the forest, wondering if the fairy would return. The fairy never came back, so Jane turned and walked in the direction the fairy had motioned to. She came upon a small pond and gazed at her reflection. Dirt and leaves covered her from head to toe, and the way the forest debris covered her made her look like a little mud elf with pointed ears. Another thing caught her eye. On her cheek where the fairy kissed her was a black tattoo of a swan like the one on her t-shirt. The tattoo sparkled blue and then faded away. Jane rubbed her cheek, but the tattoo never reappeared.

The sound of laughter caught her attention, and Jane followed the voices through the clearing, past a large oak, and beyond a small stone fence. The air smelled clean like mountain air, and the song, the fairies sang to her, played in her mind's ear as she hummed the tune aloud. She walked over a hill and into a small meadow valley. A little boy and a little girl played there on grass so green it seemed fake. The memory of being shunned by the previous girl and boy still lingered, so Jane started down the hill near tears. She stopped and stood still as the boy and girl turned to her. They stared at her for a long time as if trying to figure out what she could be, and Jane feared they would run away or even worse, pretend she didn't exist. Their appearance gave her a sense that she peered into the world of a picture book as the boy and girl stared at her equally as curious. Jane looked down at her dirty self and wondered if they could even tell she was a girl. Jane wanted to run to them but feared repeated rejection, so the endless game began again. Would they let her play with them? Would they forget her in the end?

Adult Jane took notice of the blond boy who had the air of a prince and also something familiar about him. She spotted a medallion around his neck of some sort of beastly creature. Jane looked closer and saw that the beast was chimera-like, consisting of a lion's head and body with three sets of eagle's wings and four talons. The creature gripped a crown in its teeth. Adult Jane wondered if this boy could be the Beast and if it was him, could she have met him when she was younger?

Fearing the worse would happen, young Jane nearly turned around and started back up the hill, but the girl with long black hair and a flurry white dress with red roses vining all over it, called to her as she held out her hand.

"Come here, little elf. Come here and play with us. There is nothing to fear."

The boy also held out his hand as he said, "Yes, come and play with us. Come and play with us and teach us a bit of your magic."

The tears wrought with dejection that had been ready to flow trickled down her cheek as one single droplet of immense joy as young Jane ran down to them and grabbed hold of their hands. She was so happy she couldn't speak. Jane turned to the girl and noticed a mark under her left eye similar to the one she had seen on herself when she looked in the pond. Jane's mark had been a black swan, and the girl's blue mark was in the shape of a double lightning bolt. Jane pointed to the mark, and it made the girl shrink back a bit as she covered it with her hand.

"It is awful, is it not?" the girl questioned.

Jane shook her head as she found her voice and replied, "Pretty."

The girl turned to the boy and told him, "She is so cute. We must keep her. Speak to your father."

"I will think about it," the boy told her. "First, let us see what this elf can teach us."

He moved to a different part of the meadow and bade them to follow him. Jane gladly did as she held onto the little girl's hand, and they ran after him. A small throne was set up there along with what looked like a tiny royal court. The boy sat on the throne, and the girl with Jane in tow went and stood before him. The little girl released Jane's hand and curtsied to him.

"Now you do it," the little girl told Jane. "Bow like the males do."

"But I'm a girl," Jane told her.

The little girl took a step back from her, examining her unusual clothing.

"I guess you cannot be the knight then," the girl told her.

"I can still be a knight," Jane replied. "I'll be a girl knight."

"It will be up to the prince," the girl said, then turned, and faced the boy, waiting on his decision.

The little boy leaned on his elbow which rested on his tiny throne as he mimicked what he had seen his father do. He eyed the little elf carefully, and then he declared, "I have never heard of a girl knight before, so I will be the first to have one!"

The little girl cheered and so did Jane, and soon the boy joined in.

"What does a knight do?" Jane questioned them once they all stopped celebrating.

"A knight of the realm is a protector of the kingdom," the boy told her.

"Can a knight have friends? Before I completely agree, I want to make sure I can still be friends with both of you?"

"You wish to be friends with us?" the boy questioned. "I have never had a friend before."

"Isn't she your friend?" Jane questioned him as she motioned to the little girl.

"Her?" the boy uttered as he turned to the girl. "She is my court sorceress. My father has a wizard and his father before him had a battlemage. I chose a sorceress. She is to amuse me and protect me."

"I am only a sorceress in training," the girl added. "I have many years of training before I can take the title sorceress."

"Oh..." Jane spoke, thought about it, and then said, "What you are isn't important. What's important is that you're friends. I saw how well you play together. You're friends."

"I guess I have always had a friend," the boy said. "Are you asking me if I want to have two?"

Jane grinned at him as she spoke, "Maybe I'm asking you to be my friend." She went over and grabbed the girl's hand, "I believe us girls are already friends." She turned to the girl and asked, "Am I right?"

"You are so cute," the girl said, and then she answered her, "Yes, little elf. We are friends."

"So..?" Jane inquired as she faced the boy. "Do you also want to be my friend and in return, I'll be your friend?"

"I understand now," the boy stated. "A friend is not something I possess but something I share. My mother told me I should try to share more. Yes, is my answer. I will be your friend and you will be mine."

"Come here," Jane told him. "We need you if we're going to do a group hug?"

"Group hug? All right, I will come and try this group hug," the boy told her.

He came down from his throne, and Jane grabbed both of them in a loving bear hug as she instructed them to do the same. They stood there for a few seconds, and Jane got a sense of the family she always longed for. She had a big brother and a big sister who would always look out for her.

The children continued to play and when the girl sorceress and Jane were hiding from the princely boy as they sat among the tall flowers, the girl sorceress examined the little elf more closely.

"You are very ordinary. Your appearance has nothing that stands out for good or for ill."

"Why did you say such a mean thing to me?" Jane asked as unintended cruelty tainted the joy she experienced that day.

The girl sorceress said, "My mother once told me to speak the truth always."

Jane stated in return, "You're right. We should always speak the truth, but sometimes it shouldn't be uttered."

"What do you mean?"

"What you said to me was very mean and hurtful," Jane replied.

"I only spoke the truth," the girl sorceress insisted.

"Did you mean to make me feel bad? Did you mean to say you don't like the way I look? Did you mean to say we're not friends anymore because of how I look?" Jane asked as she turned and peered at her with her big brown eyes. Her lower lip curled up in a pout and near tears, Jane added, "It's how it sounded to me."

The girl sorceress peered at the little elf as she considered what Jane told her, and then the girl sorceress replied, "I did not mean to hurt you. We are friends." She thought about it some more, and then she said, "My mother and you are correct. The truth is always to be spoken, but sometimes it does not need to be uttered. I am sorry."

The girl sorceress reached over and gave the little elf a hug. Jane in returned hugged her back. They continued playing as Jane forgave the girl sorceress for making her feel bad. Joy again overshadowed everything within Jane's heart as she played with the princely boy and the girl sorceress. The part of her recurring dream that had always been fuzzy was now clear. The boy and girl accepted her, and young Jane wished with all her heart that she could stay in those joyous moments forever. The neighborhood she stumbled into wasn't that far away from her own. A forest separated them but maybe if she convinced her foster parents, they would drive her over here to play with her new friends. The boy and the girl were her friends and in a sense, they were also her family. Jane believed they would never forget her as the others had. Jane believed she would never fade from their memories as she had countless times before with everyone she encountered. She was also the knight of the realm and that gave her a sense of purpose. Jane would always protect her friends.

They played a mock version of the kingdom's court for a long time. The boy called in actual servants and had them pretend to be evil warlocks or trolls, and he even made one pretend he was a fire-breathing dragon. The girl acted like she used her magic against their adversaries, and Jane and the boy attacked with invisible swords. Later, a few servants came out and set up a small table, and they served the children sandwiches and tea. The girl sorceress commented on how much she enjoyed the tea, so Jane asked if they could have more and the prince granted her wish. Once they finished, the prince decided he wanted to be adventurous, so he led the two girls beyond the meadow valley and found a patch of dancing wildflowers. The dream moved on and the girl gave Jane the flower ring which turned into a silver ring, and the boy stole a kiss from her lips, making her heart flutter. Their love and affection flowed into her so much, Jane thought her chest would burst open, and it made her believe wholeheartedly that their bond couldn't be broken by time or distance.

A storm forced the children to seek shelter, and the dream moved rapidly from that point on. They walked around the temple-like structure and saw all the statues within, then Jane scuffed her knee, and it slightly bled. A trickle of red plasma ran down her leg and with it, the love and affection she felt from the boy and the girl vanished. The girl grabbed the boy's hand, and the boy turned and dragged the girl after him as they fled from Jane into the storm. The image of their terrified faces haunted her as Jane woke, screaming.

"Don't leave me!"

The dream didn't fade but stayed with her this time. Jane also remembered that she had the earlier version of the dream every night since that day she met the princely boy and the girl sorceress. She felt like crying for the child version of herself who lost so much when her friends turned their backs on her. Adult Jane couldn't understand why they were so afraid of her. She hadn't done or said anything that she could remember. The more she thought about the dream, the more Jane realized she hadn't been in another neighborhood but another world. Jane still couldn't get her head around the fact she was somehow transported to the World of Grimm. She glanced around the large soft canopy bed she lay in as an invisible servant moved away from her carrying a wooden box with bandages hanging out of it. The servant left the bedroom. Jane turned to the window and saw tiny birds sitting on the ledge singing to the morning sun as if she was in the Snow White fairytale, and somehow she accepted her situation as if this was the norm.

She went back to her thoughts. Jane couldn't believe how many times she had the dream over the years. She experienced a lifetime of heartache and pain but there was also joy and affection within the never-ending cycle. For the few moments she was able to hold on to the dreams in the past, she had longed to return to the world she had visited even with its suffering as long as she was allowed to relive the fun and happy moments with her friends. Adult Jane now believed she had returned to that world and that the Beast was the boy in the dream. The Beast was the prince who made her knight of the realm. The medallion was the proof. She only had to compare the boy's with the Beast's, and she would have her answer, but she didn't know what she would do if the Beast was him.

Jane glanced around her room again and wondered how she had gotten there. Last she remembered she... She must have fainted. Jane did have a vague recollection of being picked up in strong arms that were soft, and she also remembered the smell of the forest. The Beast must have carried her to the bedroom, but who bandaged her arm?

The door to her bedroom opened, and a female invisible servant spoke to her, "Good morning." A tray seemingly floated in and landed on a nightstand beside Jane, and then the female servant stated, "I was told to tell you that the master who roams the night knows what you are." The female servant sounded a little nervous as she continued, "He and I will keep your secret as long as you leave after you have had some breakfast. Do not return to this castle and the occurrence that happened last night will not be spoken of. The master is grateful that you rescued the Beast from Enchantress Ceress but being the thing that you are, the master wishes for you not to associate with the master who monopolizes the light. The master who roams the night grants you your life and believes he has repaid you for the bravery he witnessed when you rescued the Beast."

"I'm not sure I understand," Jane told her. "Is the Beast the master who roams the night or the master who monopolizes the light or is he neither of them? What secret do you refer to? And did you call me a thing?" she questioned, and then the door to her room opened and it shut as Jane finished with, "I have... no... secrets..."

She waited for a reply and when none came, Jane questioned, "Is anyone there?"

No one answered, so she picked up the tray and ate the breakfast of eggs, toast, and tea. Jane got out of bed when she finished, found a water basin and towel, and freshened up. She examined the bandage on her left arm and there wasn't as much as a blot of blood on the outside and as she moved the appendage about, she found that the arm didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Jane found her backpack, the clipboard and quill, and the club which was no longer a snake, sitting on a chair. She grabbed her things, left the bedroom, followed the hallway to a set of stairs, and then went back to the dining room she had been in the night before. She saw no one within, and she didn't hear anyone within. Jane followed the hallway and peeked in several rooms until she came upon a study with a book shelf full of books and the Beast lounging in a chair beside a fireplace. He wore a princely garb of purple, red, and gold, and the book he read was entitled Narcissus, Love Of Self. She stayed at the entrance and knocked on the open door. The Beast looked up from the book he was reading, and Jane noticed something she hadn't noticed before. His mane seemed shorter and not as full as it did last night. Small patches of white feathers stuck out of it, and smaller versions of the white feathers speckled his fur here and there. His eyes also seemed different. They were blue and eagle-like.

"You caught me reading one of my favorite books but more importantly, you are awake and not only that, you are not trembling before me in terror. Are you blind or perhaps nearsighted?" he questioned her.

"Someone asked me a similar question, and I'd have to say that's an unusual question to ask me," Jane stated, and then she replied, "I'm neither."

"Are you perhaps cursed with rose-colored perception? I did come across a fair maiden once who was and let me just say that relationship did not work out in the end. Curses are funny things."

"My view of the world's not distorted in any way," she answered.

"The other nice thing about curses is the one who is cursed cannot speak of their affliction, so I can at least believe what you say since you are able to say it."

"Huh?" Jane uttered, and then she spoke, "I'm not sure I understand. It kinda sounded like you were talking about Fight Club."

The Beast inquired, "Is that some sort of gladiator tournament? I do not allow such barbaric rituals in my kingdom."

"I was referring to the first and second rule of Fight Club but never mind that," she answered, and then she asked, "Did you tell one of your servants to pass along a message to me from you?"

"What makes you believe I have servants?" the Beast questioned as he lifted both hands, gesturing around himself. "Do you see any?"

"No, I don't see them," Jane replied. "I saw you dueling with one yesterday or is it I didn't see you dueling with one yesterday?"

"You were quick to pick up on that fact." He noticed she had her things, and he questioned her, "Are you leaving?"

"I am," she replied. "I hate to ask this of you..."

"Ask me anything, up to half my kingdom, and I will grant it to you," he told her with a grin which made her think he was lying.

She took a few steps into the study, lifted the clipboard and quill, and asked him, "Could I get your signature? I know technically I didn't make the delivery and now that I think of it, I'm not sure where the pastries ended up."

She amused the Beast as he held out his clawed hand, and Jane placed the clipboard in it. She peered at his medallion as he reached up, and she saw the beastly creature was an eagle with three sets of wings holding the sun in its beak. The image was different, and a surge of disillusion flooded her soul. Maybe he wasn't the princely boy of her reoccurring dreams.

The Beast signed the clipboard with the enchanted quill, returned it to her, and said, "Up to half my kingdom and this is what you asked for."

"I'm easy," Jane said and blushed, realizing the other meaning associated with the phrase. She hoped such phrases weren't used in his world and tried to think of something else to say to move away from her self-embarrassment. Jane spoke with a smile, "If you're in the giving mood, maybe you could give me a good tip."

"Somewhat bold. I like that," the Beast spoke, then raised his voice, and ordered, "Get her a good tip."

A pouch soon materialized, and Jane took it from the air.

The Beast stood, set his book on the chair, and bowed to her as he said, "I also give you my gratitude. I wish there was more I could do."

"Maybe you could answer one of my questions."

"Ask," he commanded.

"Who is the master of this castle?"

"I am, of course," he replied with a hint of mischief, and then he inquired, "Did you think otherwise?"

"I wasn't sure," she told him and then gazed at him again with the fondness she always had for the drawings in her scrapbook. He may not be the prince from her dreams, but he was bits and pieces of the one she had drawn. Jane wondered if she somehow created a Frankenstein Beast, and then she chuckled to herself over the silly idea.

The Beast felt a bit uncomfortable under her searching gaze. Most people wouldn't dare look him in the eyes, and he could no longer see the faces of his servants, so her gaze was terrifying and yet tantalizing.

"Well, I better be off," Jane said. "My boss probably thinks I've been turned into something or I've been eaten. If I don't hurry back, he may give my job and home away."

"I would like one thing from you," the Beast told her as he moved closer to her, took her chin tenderly into his clawed hands, and leaned in close. He wasn't about to let her leave with such a hold on him.

"Umm..." she uttered as she melted into his touch. Jane thought surely he wasn't going to kiss her but that's exactly what he appeared to be doing. She questioned him as her heart pounded in her chest, "What's that?"

"Tell me your name."

"It's Jane."

"Jane," he said with a smirk. "The name suits you well."

He released her chin, went back to his chair, picked up his book, and sat, going back to his reading. The enchantment she seemed to have over him was broken as he put upon her a spell of his own.

Jane stood there a few seconds still caught in his spellbinding touch, then turned, and strolled out as if walking on pink cotton candy. She was giddy all the way to her bike. Jane placed the clipboard and quill in her backpack, mounted the bike, and headed toward AaBack. Maybe it didn't matter that he wasn't the prince from her dreams. Maybe he only had to be the prince from her imagination.

The Beast lifted his gaze once she left, wondering if he should have questioned her while she was there. The swan tattoo he saw last night was no longer visible, but he was sure he saw it; he was sure he witnessed the sign of hope. He needed to find a way to have her return again without exposing his desperation.

* * *

After leaving the princely Beast in his study, Jane felt like she was floating over the terrain as she rode her bike just like those kids did in the movie E.T. when the alien used his ability to make their bikes fly. In reality, both her tires were on the ground but her heart soared, thinking she had found the princely boy now grown into a handsome man. She pedaled back towards the Tasty Dwarf Bakery and had yet to leave the Beast's estate when she heard a song. It was Saah'Mee, the song the fairies sang to her to comfort her when young Jane became lost and afraid in the dark forest. Adult Jane braked and then dismounted from her bike and followed the enchanting Saah'Mee, hoping to come upon the fairies she had met so long ago. She came upon the wall she passed when she first rode into the estate and noticed an old rusted gate with an equally rusted large padlock. Jane pulled on the padlock, and it held firmly in place by design and by the corrosion of time and unless she wanted to break in, she wasn't getting in. She turned to head back to her bike when she nearly stepped on a tiny yellow rose. Jane didn't remember it being there when she walked up to the gate. She knelt down to it and could have sworn it was the exact same tiny rose she had nearly stepped on outside the castle.

"Hello there. You're so cute, I could pick you but don't worry, I won't," Jane said and then thought it would be funny to ask it, "Aren't you the little rose from before? You look just like–"

The tiny yellow rose nodded its head or one would say unopened bud as if answering her.

"I am in the World of Grimm, so I guess anything's possible," Jane spoke in a carefree tone which was spawned from her lovestruck heart. She had never felt so high on life and had never been so enthralled by the possibility of love. It was such a great feeling.

The rose lowered its head and stalk, and then it inched toward her like a worm. The roots of the plant were still underground, so the rose inched forward and then dragged the rest of its body forward, leaving a trail in the dirt. Jane straightened as the tiny yellow rose inched its way past her to the gate and then vined its way up to the padlock. The tiny rose didn't lift its entire body out of the dirt and climbed up with its roots and all. No, it magically grew up the rusted gate bars as dozens of tiny yellow open buds sprung up from the vine as it went. The main bud was twice as big as the other buds and when the main bud reached the padlock, it maneuvered several of its thorns within the keyhole and picked it open with a bit of added magic. The padlock fell to the ground, and the gate opened in as the fairy song grew louder and more welcoming. Jane turned her attention to the padlock as the yellow rose crawled unharmed from it as its elongated thorny vine shrunk until the rose returned to its previous stature of a flower on a tiny stalk.

Kneeling again to it, Jane told the pinkie-rose, "You're so cute." She put a finger out toward it to pet it, then paused, and asked, "You don't bite, do you?"

The pinkie-rose inched over to her finger and rubbed up against it like a cat rubs up against someone's leg. Jane scratched the back of the bud gently with her nail as if scratching the back of a cat's ear. Jane would have knelt there all day, petting the delightful creature, but the pinkie-rose perked up as if it heard something, and then it disappeared into the ground like a mole down its hole. Jane straightened and stared at the tiny tunnel, missing what would have been an interesting pet but maybe it was more than just a plant-cat, plant-mole, plant..? She didn't know what she should call it and decided to go back to the gate the tiny yellow rose had unlocked for her.

The gate opened to an overgrown path and led to what looked like the start of a maze made out of rows of hedges that were ten feet tall. Jane went no farther than the open gate. It had been locked for a reason, and she didn't have permission to be wandering the estate. Her actions could upset the Beast, and she didn't want to upset him, she wanted... she wanted him to... Her mind drifted, and she allowed herself to venture through her imagination for a few moments before she brought herself back to reality or at least the reality of the World of Grimm.

The fairy song increased its hold on her. Jane twirled the silver flower ring on her little finger as she stared at the enticing maze ahead of her, drawn in by the song and the feelings it induced. She took a step to go in but then drew the foot back out. Jane wasn't sure if she should enter as a tug-of-war began in her mind. She considered how the Beast would react if she traipsed around his property like some thief breaking into things she shouldn't, and she also considered how hard the tiny yellow rose worked to open the padlock for her. Jane could discover a horrible secret about the Beast or maybe she could discover something that would lead her to break his curse. Jane felt like she stood there with her arms stretched out as uncertainty pulled her in one direction and then the other. She might have stood there all day being stretched out by her indecision if the call to her soul hadn't bade her forward.

The fairy song grew louder, inviting her to hurry as if some urgent matter needed her immediate attention. Jane took a step forward and glanced back as if expecting some sort of alarm to go off. None did, so she took a few more steps forward, then walked to the first fork, and stood there, trying to decide which way to go. If the size of the front wall was any indication, the maze was very large. Maybe a quarter of a mile by a quarter of a mile. Jane thought she needed a way to keep track of which paths she tried so she wouldn't get lost, and she started to go back to the bike to grab the clipboard and quill when she saw the light of one of the fairies in the distance and immediately with excited joy, she followed that path. The fairy flew faster, and Jane chased after the tiny winged person. Jane laughed as if she was young Jane again playing lightning tag as she raced after the fairy.

"Don't go too fast or I'll lose you," she yelled after the fairy and then laughed again. "Wait up!"

The path ended in the middle of the maze and into a square section with only the entrance she came in. This area of the maze was different from the rest of the maze. Vibrant green hedges and grass paths made up the maze she transversed through to get there, but this square section appeared to have been neglected for years. A closer inspection also told Jane this place had once been a beautiful garden. The remains of flowering plants in brittle-brown and death-black filled the entire area and dampened her joyous mood. Jane looked all around for the fairy, wondering why the tiny winged person brought her there, but she didn't see her or him anywhere. She still heard the fairy song but couldn't tell which direction it came from. Jane decided she shouldn't be there and started to head back when a sensation she couldn't describe swept over her. The sensation became stronger as bits of it came to light; its warmth and its familiarity she understood, but the core essence of it eluded her. Jane turned around and faced the dead garden, twirling the silver ring on her left pinkie again as the sensation drew her back to the dead garden. The song the fairies sung faded until there was only one voice singing the enchanting melody and once the song fell to this one voice, the happy feelings the melody invoked in Jane's soul became ones of sadness and abandonment. Jane wanted to reach out to this person or creature, wrap her arms around them, and let them know they weren't alone. Her heart cried for them and she knew at that moment, she had to help them. No matter the cost she had to help them.

Jane continued to search with her eyes, and she couldn't see anything within the garden but carcasses of dead flowers and vines. She knew something had to be there and once her heart joined in on the search, Jane caught a glimpse of something. In the midst of the garden, a large clear curtain with shimmers of rainbow draped over something large. Jane wasn't sure how she knew it was a magical curtain that hid something from the rest of the world, but she did know that whatever was under it was the creature or person she wanted to help.

The enchanting sad melody lifted from the curtain and floated around the garden with a voice so sweet it nearly brought tears to her eyes. The single voice sang of a past she... yes, the voice was definitely a she, and she sang of a past she longed to return to.

Chapter Three

The Rose Beauty

Long before Jane entered the Hedge Labyrinth...

The one beneath the magical curtain heard all that went on around her. A few years back, one she had been very close to put the finishing touches on her proverbial coffin by taking away the last thing she had, the ability to see the world around her. The curse that was linked to her allowed her to know the positions of the moon and sun but nothing else about her world. She was permitted to know the days that went by and the years that went by, and so she longed for death, caught in a curse she had no way of breaking, not when she was so isolated. She decided today would be the day but in her current form, she had no way of taking her own life, so as the moon hung in the sky above, she removed her roots from the ground, determined to slowly starve herself to death.

The fairies came, those pesky creatures, as the moon neared the horizon, and she heard them flying around her garden tomb and whispering to one another. She thought they came to mock her powerlessness. She thought they came to cheer on her demise, but then something very unexpected happened as the sun came up over the garden. The fairies began to sing. The song wasn't one of victory like she once heard when the first Wicked Witch of the West died, freeing the realm of her tyranny. The song was one of hope. She recognized the melody; it was Saah'Mee, and it slowly took away her fear, loneliness, and despair as the fairies continued their enchanting chorus. The fairies sang out the song with no words, and their souls touched her own soul, telling her forgiveness was possible, she only had to seek it. She remembered a time when her life was still good and filled with joy and happiness. The fairies beseeched her to join in with them, and she relented and lifted her beautiful voice, and they all sang together.

The chorus swept her up in its entrancing wordless meanings, and she realized her life turned out nothing like she envisioned it. The wishes and expectations of her childhood were eventually trampled on and crushed to dust by those she trusted most. She wished with all her heart she could change the person she had become, and the song that came from her heart was no longer one of hope but of despair. After a while, she also realized she sang alone, but she continued with the chorus as something she could hold onto until death came and took her from this world.

Movement in her garden distracted her, and she stopped the song. Someone stood in front of her, then they walked around her, and ended up in front of her again. Had the betrayer, who she betrayed, come to put her out of her misery or only add to it? The magical curtain lifted off of her, and she saw the most beautiful thing, the morning light. There was also a female from one of the elf races standing before her, but she couldn't take in enough of the sunlight. She basked in it and reveled in it, and then she decided today wouldn't be the day, and she placed her roots back into the ground, drawing nutrients from the dirt again. The person she envisioned herself becoming when she was a child fled her mind as the person she had become took front and center again. She would teach this servant a lesson for meddling in things that didn't pertain to her.

The curious looking female elf folded up the clear magical curtain and set it on the ground. She wondered when such a creature came to work for the master of the castle. She also wondered if some new punishment was coming that could be crueler than the magical curtain. She sensed something about the female elf. Some magical power emanated from her as if the female elf possessed a great power but had no control over it.

Jane stood in front of the giant red rose that was a head taller than herself, but she was still some distance from the plant, not knowing if it was dangerous or not. The plant was beautiful, and Jane saw a lady's face within the open red petals. The solo had ended, but she was sure the rose was the one who sang it and if that was true, the rose was the one who she vowed to help. She needed to find out, so she introduced herself.

"Hello, my name's Jane. I heard the fairies singing and followed their song into the maze. I actually wanted to meet them again, but I guess they're gone." Jane paused to see if the giant rose would respond and when she didn't, Jane asked, "Can you talk? Can you tell me your name?"

The giant rose peered at the strange female elf a little more curious about her than before. She spoke of the fairies and those pesky creatures rarely made themselves known to those not of their race. What was different about this female elf? Could it be the power she sensed emanating from her? She would wait to see before she decided what to do with Jane.

"I cannot tell you my name," the giant rose told her. "The curse that binds me here prevents me from uttering it."

"Oh... I'm sorry," Jane spoke as she took a step closer to the giant rose. If she stretched out her hand, she was still about five feet from her. "I'm finding out many are cursed in your world," Jane told her as she looked closer to the faint hint of a face within the red petals, and Jane noticed a mark of a double lightning bolt on what seemed like a cheek. Now she understood why she was there as she twirled the silver flower ring, but that would mean somehow the Beast was the prince from her dream and this giant rose was the girl. Jane needed more information, so she asked, "Why were you covered with that curtain, Erosa?"

"Why do you call me Erosa?"

"I hope I didn't offend you, but it seemed like the proper thing to do. Do you want me to call you by a different name?"

"No, it is fine and to answer your question, the master of the castle was punishing me," Erosa replied. "I can be a very naughty rose."

"The master of the castle... I keep hearing about him. One of the Beast's servants spoke of him and warned me to stay away from the castle from now on."

"Are you not one of the Beast's servants?"

"I'm not. I'm the new delivery girl for the Tasty Dwarf Bakery, and I need to get back before I'm fired. Before I go..." She wasn't sure how to pose her next question as she asked, "I heard your song, and I was wondering... Could it be..? Is there anything you need?"

"Why would you believe I need anything from you?"

"Didn't you call me here?" Jane inquired. "Or maybe the fairies called me here, but I still get this feeling you need my help. Are you sure you don't want me to do something for you?"

"No, I do not need anything from you," Erosa replied, then she thought about it, and she stated, "If you could take that magical curtain with you, I would appreciate it. I hate that thing and looking at it... well... it is not pleasant."

"I can do that," Jane replied as she went over to the clear cloth, folded it up, and then placed it in her backpack. She knew there was so much more she could do for the giant rose, so Jane repeated, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Erosa thought about her query as she glanced around the dead garden, and then she answered, "I need nothing else, but do come back and visit me. It does get lonely here."

"You do need something," Jane replied with a smile. "You need a friend, and I will come back," she promised. "I'll come back today if I can. I want to talk to you some more, but I have to get back to my job."

The female elf ran out, and Erosa watched as she went. Jane was a very curious creature. The master warned her to stay away from the castle, and the fairies led Jane to the dead garden. Erosa also wondered why a smidgen of hope crept up in the back of her mind when she spoke to the female elf. A lovely butterfly landed on her petals, one of orange with black stripes, and it also had a mark of an ax imprinted on each wing as Erosa chuckled to herself. It would seem that life around the estate was about to get interesting. The butterfly crawled toward the center of her petals, and Erosa whipped one of her thorny vines up and sliced the butterfly in half. Its lifeless carcass fell to the dirt, and she gathered it up with her roots and dragged it underground. She believed life around the estate was about to get very interesting.

* * *

Jane left the Hedge Labyrinth with a new sense of purpose. She believed she rediscovered the princely boy and the girl sorceress from her dream. She didn't come right out and tell them because she wasn't a hundred percent sure they were them. Jane also wasn't sure if they would remember her and if they did remember her, would they only remember being afraid of her? Jane headed for AaBack on her bike, turned on Tall Hill Road, and left the estate behind. She rode for a few minutes, and then she started to hear something in the woods following her very close to the road. Jane thought about what the Muffin Man had told her about trolls, dragons, and orcs, and her imagination took it from there. She pedaled harder, increasing her speed and whatever hunted her also increased speed. She neared the downward slope of Tall Hill Road and knew if she could just make it to there, she could outrun whatever chased her. She was ten feet away from the start of the slope when a large dark shadow jumped out from the woods, landed in front of her, and blocked her escape. Jane braked hard and dropped the club in the process.

A large wolf stood there, and it took Jane a few seconds to realize this wolf was the werewolf she met earlier who told her to insist on a job from the Muffin Man.

"You scared the living daylights out of me!" she yelled at him. "Why didn't you say something while you were running through the woods?"

"I wanted to make sure we were alone before we spoke and now that I know we are I'd like to talk to you," Lykos answered.

"About what?" she asked as she got off, then picked up her club, and pushed her bike over to him.

"Do you believe now? Do you believe this world is real?"

"Yes, I do. I can't believe I'm saying it, but yes, I do."

Lykos told her, "After we spoke yesterday and once I was able to rid myself of the other two, I went and did some research."

"Okay... What did you research and what did you find out?"

"It's both good and bad," he told her. "I believe the gem we were after called the Tear of Poer has embedded itself in your right eye. It will protect you and keep you safe, but it will also put you in danger if Red and the Woodsman or any others seeking its power figure out that you have it. They have already started to suspect." Lykos glanced around the area as if searching for any who might be spying on them, and then he continued, "My research into the Tear of Poer has told me that the only way to take the gem out of you is to make you cry, and it has to be tears of extreme sadness to flush it out of your system. Do you understand?"

"I think I experienced its protection earlier. I turned into a baby duck right before Sorceress Ceress had a chance to kill me."

"It may have been the Tear of Poer, but it doesn't sound like the protection it offers, so it may have been something else that protected you then."

"Something else? Like what?"

Lykos answered her, "I should also tell you a few rules that govern the World of Grimm that I slightly went into the last time we spoke. You might have noticed already that many are inflicted by a curse or two. The one who's cursed is unable to speak about the curse and the cure."

"It's kind of like Fight Club."

"Exactly," Lykos replied. "The first and second rules of Curse Club is that you can't talk about Curse Club."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" she asked him. "I thought you wanted the Tear of Poer, but you sound like you want me to keep it."

"I do for now. My werewolf form protects me and if you are to survive here, you'll also need something."

"I still don't understand. Why do you care so much about what happens to me?" she questioned him.

"There is a horrible curse that covers this realm within the World of Grimm. I can't tell you what it is... Remember the first two rules of Curse Club?"

"I do," Jane replied.

"It's important since I can't tell you about this horrible curse that you be very observant of the world around you. I have searched for a way back to our world and haven't found one. I was hoping the Tear of Poer would be the key, and it still may be, but it is only part of the key. I don't care if you have the Tear of Poer until I need it so keep it safe for me, Jane."

"I can't tell you how great it is to hear my name spoken by another person," she told him. "I feel like I'm no longer cursed."

"I would also suggest that you don't tell anyone else about the curse you believe is on you. Knowing someone's curse can give a person power over them."

"I'll remember that," she told him. "And now I'm not sure it was really a curse. I was able to tell you about it."

"Curses are funny things," he told her. "Even the one who is cursed sometimes doesn't know all the rules to the curse that's upon them." Lykos moved out of her way and took a few steps into the woods as he said, "I'll leave you for now. Tell no one you spoke with me. Most people hate werewolves. Also be aware of what's going on in this realm. You must discover the curse I can't tell you about so that you can keep yourself safe. Even if you do have the Tear of Poer, I don't know if it can keep you safe from what plagues this realm."

"I understand. My second mission is to figure out this mega-curse."

Lykos nodded, then without another word, he disappeared into the woods, and Jane pedaled down to AaBack.

* * *

Jane dismounted her bike, leaned it on the corner of the shop, and then rushed into the Tasty Dwarf Bakery to find Muffin Man talking with a faun. Muffin Man looked up when the bell to his shop rang and had a surprised yet pleased expression on his face. He finished his business with the faun and then waved her forward.

"By the Mines of Moria! You are alive," he stated. "And I don't see any missing limbs or other appendages."

"I am alive and in one piece," she said. "Nothing ate me, so I can keep delivering for you."

Muffin Man spoke, "I am glad to hear that nothing ate you, but you were supposed to be back last night. I do not think I can hire you."

"I do have a good excuse for being late," she stated, then handed him the clipboard and quill, and told him, "And I did get the Beast's signature."

"His signature and not one of his servants?" Muffin Man questioned as he took the items and looked over the top paper. "It is his signature. Did you receive it from him in person? Did you faint or scream? Customers frown upon such reactions."

"I did faint but only because I had been..."

The bell on the front door rang as an old witch a little taller than the dwarf came in. She wore all black with what looked like pieces of candy all over her outfit, she had a pointed hat, and she carried an old fashion broomcorn broomstick.

"One moment," he told Jane, walked over to the witch, and questioned her, "What can I do for you, you old bitty?"

Jane's jaw nearly dropped to the floor as she heard him disrespect a customer. The old witch didn't seem to notice as if it was the norm.

"I need to make some repairs to my house. Could I purchase some gingerbread dough off of you?"

"I do not have any made right now, you old hag," he answered her. "I will have some sent over to your place once I make a new batch."

"Thank you," the witch said as she handed him a half cent.

Muffin Man inquired, "Are you adding an addition to your house?"

"No," the witch replied. "I believe a yeahmun was at my house and destroyed part of it."

"Are you sure you did not actually lure some children to your house, you ugly harpy, and they ate it?"

"Yes, I am sure," the witch told him, and then she informed him, "A weapon forged by the yeahmuns struck my house."

"Yeahmun weapons are very powerful and rare, but anyone can wield them," Muffin Man told her. "Was there any other evidence of a yeahmun at your house?"

"No, only the weapon."

"I would not worry," he told her. "It has been years since a yeahmun invaded AaBack." Muffin Man glanced at a photo on the wall of himself and two other males, and then he told her, "Remember, yeahmuns are very rare."

"And very scary and extremely dangerous," the witch added. "You should not belittle my fears."

"I do not, you depraved, dog breath, child-eater," the dwarf told her as he went behind the counter and placed the half cent in a cash box. "I will start on the dough once I finish speaking with this female."

"I will be expecting the delivery before the day is over and make sure whoever you send is careful when they come," the witch said, turned, opened the door, hopped on her broomstick, and took to the air, zooming out of the shops' area of AaBack.

"I need to check on my muffins," the dwarf told Jane as he headed into the back. "I will return shortly."

"Was it necessary to call that elderly lady names? She seemed to be a nice customer."

"I never called her any names," Muffin Man shouted from the back. "I am nearly always polite to my customers."

"I'd hate to see if you were rude," Jane muttered to herself as he walked to the back.

She stood there for a while and then curiosity got the better of her. She had to know what the dwarf had been looking at on the wall, so Jane went over, spotted a photo which was a Polaroid, and she saw that one of the persons in the photo was the dwarf, there was also a tall elf with long pointed ears, and a man with a t-shirt of a gray tundra wolf howling at the moon. She wondered if the man wearing the t-shirt was Lykos.

Muffin Man came back to Jane and inquired, "Where were we? Ah, yes... We were talking about the Beast's signature." He lifted the clipboard he'd been carrying and examined the autograph again. "I am impressed that you got it even if you did faint, but the stipulation of our agreement was that you would come back last night. I am sorry, but I cannot hire you."

"I did agree to that, so I guess I can't argue," Jane told him, greatly disappointed she wouldn't have a place to stay or any sort of income. She removed the weapon from her backpack as she said, "Here's the club you let me borrow."

He took it from her, examined it, and saw what looked like scales all over the wood as if the marks had been burned into the club. The teeth and claw marks that riddled the club were gone. Muffin Man was about to ask her what happened to the club when she interrupted him.

"I do have a question. Do I have to share my tips?"

"No, the tips are yours to keep. Wait one moment. You fainted at the sight of the Beast, and he still gave you a tip." He rubbed his red beard as he thought, and then the Muffin Man stated, "You were there all night. Just what did you do at the castle that you had to stay through the night?"

"What do you mean? What do you think I was doing?" she questioned, then thought about it, and insisted a little embarrassed, "Oh... No... Like I told you, I fainted and I didn't wake till this morning. Nothing happened."

"Good. I do not want the Beast to conjure up any ideas about the services we do not actually provide," Muffin Man stated, and then a pigeon landed on the side window sill outside and tapped on the glass. The dwarf said, "Hold on a second, someone is placing an order."

He went, opened the window, and took a small piece of paper from the bird's mouth. The paper magically tripled in size as it left the bird's beak, and then the pigeon flew off as the dwarf read over the note.

"Looks like the Beast has sent in a late order for bear claws. Elf-shot! And he insists that someone named Jane be the one to deliver it. Who in the realm is this Jane! Pompous rich prince! Always making ridiculous demands!"

"I'm Jane," she told him. "Didn't I tell you my name yesterday?"

"You did not, and I did not ask," he told her. "In this line of business, I have discovered it is best not to befriend the delivery people. They tend not to last too long or they turn out to be someone or something they don't appear to be." He crossed his arms as he thought about his predicament. "Now what do I do? I have already fired you."

"Hire me as an independent delivery girl," she suggested. "I'll work as you need me, and you don't have to commit to keeping me on." She added, hoping to entice him into the deal, "It'll also give you time to look for another delivery person."

Muffin Man didn't answer her right away but turned his attention back to the letter. "The Beast goes on to say he would greatly like to thank the Tasty Dwarf Bakery for having such a brave delivery girl. If it had not been for Jane, the Beast may have lost his life." Muffin Man peered up from the paper and questioned, "Exactly what happened last night?"

Jane began her tale, and she went into great detail but left out the part of watching the Beast duel with no shirt on, turning into a duckling, and discovering the tiny yellow rose and the giant red rose in the maze. The dwarf intently listened and didn't interrupt her once and then when she finished, he seemed astounded by the occurrence.

"I see," he said. "You do have a good excuse for not coming back last night and to think I never even noticed your bandages."

"Do we have a deal?" she questioned. "Can I work for you as an independent delivery girl?"

"I believe you can," Muffin Man replied. "We will try it out for a week and see how it goes at the same pay rate of course."

"Of course," Jane replied. "As long as I can still live in the barn loft for free."

"Yes, of course. I will box up the bear claws. Why not grab a muffin or two? There is also milk in the glass bottle over there. It comes in fresh every morning."

She went over, grabbed two muffins, ate one, drank some milk, then put the other muffin in a bag, and placed the bag in her backpack. The dwarf returned, handed her a box of bear claws, and gave her back the clipboard and quill with a new invoice paper on top.

"Your first delivery will be to the hideous witch who lives in the gingerbread house," Muffin Man said as he handed Jane a paper bag. "She is to receive this dough. Her invoice–"

Jane interrupted him, "I thought you still needed to make the dough."

"I do have a bit of magic," he told her. "I can bend time on inanimate objects so making things in the bakery takes no time at all."

"Oh..."

"As I was saying," he began again. "The old bitty is to receive this dough. Her invoice is the top invoice, and it also has directions to her house and then after that, return to the Beast's castle and deliver his bear claws."

"Yes, boss," Jane told him. "Do I need to hurry back?"

"No, those are the only deliveries for today. I will have our messenger pigeon find you if any delivery comes in later."

"Okay. I'm off then."

"One other thing before you go," Muffin Man stated as he handed her the club. "Take this weapon with you. It is yours now. Somehow it has been imbued with some sort of magic."

"What do you mean?" Jane asked him.

"See the markings on the club? They look like snake scales to me. Did something unusual happen to the club when you used it?"

"An enchantress turned it into a viper before I threw it at the goblin," she told him. "I don't think she intended to enchant it, but I think she intended to take me out with my own weapon."

"Whatever the enchantress' intentions were, the weapon is imbued and as its owner, you will need to name it."

"How do I do that?"

"Lift it over your head, think about the weapon, and call out the name that first comes to your mind," he told her.

Taking the club, Jane lifted it above her head, and then she thought about the club and what happened at the castle. The image of the viper with its mouth wide open repeated in her mind, so she declared, "Your name is Snake Bite."

The name of the club appeared in the scaled wood as if it had been engraved there.

Muffin Man warned her, "Be careful with the club until you have discovered by what it has been imbued with."

"I will, thanks."

She attached the club to her backpack with the leather strap at its end, then went outside, mounted her bike, and easily found the gingerbread house that was just outside of AaBack in the nearby woods. Jane went and knocked on the front door, and the old witch opened the door enough to stick her hand out, and Jane handed her the bag of dough.

"Did you see anything your ride over?" the old woman questioned her.

"No, not a thing," Jane told her as she gave her the clipboard and quill next.

She took them, signed the clipboard, and handed them back. "Wait there, I have something for you," the old witch told her, left, then returned, and gave Jane a coin.

"Thank you," Jane said. "Umm... I'm not familiar with this coin. What is it worth?"

The old witch glanced back at the coin and said, "The farthing? Takes four to make a penny."

"Oh... thank you," Jane told her. The tip was generous, considering the old witch paid a halfpenny for the dough. Jane started to walk toward her bike when she turned back and asked, "Isn't it a little scary living out here in the woods alone?"

"It is," the old witch told Jane. "Many things more terrifying than myself prowl about."

"You're not that terrifying," Jane told her. "You seem kind of sweet to me."

"Are you saying sweet enough to eat?"

"No, silly. I'm talking about sweet and considerate. Do you have any family?"

"I cannot speak to that."

"Oh, that's okay." Jane tried to think of something else to say and when she couldn't, Jane stated, "I guess I'll be off now."

"Wait, I want to show you something so that you can report it back to the Muffin Man."

Jane wasn't sure she wanted to go inside, but the old witch came out and led her to the back of the gingerbread house. Jane walked over to a scooter that had been rammed into the back of the house with its front wheel and handlebars, and she discovered that some sort of green gelatin covered the scooter.

"I incapacitated the weapon that attacked my home," the old witch boasted.

"Is that what this green gelatin is?"

The witch nodded.

"Was there a rider?"

"I did not see one only the ghastly weapon. Yeahmuns have to be responsible."

"Can you describe what a yeahmun is?" Jane inquired.

"I can. One came to AaBack a long time ago. Yeahmuns are hideous creatures who..." The old witch paused as if she fell asleep, then she appeared to wake, and she stated, "They are hideous creatures."

Jane questioned after the vague answer, "What do they look like and exactly what do they do?"

"Yeahmuns look like... Yeahmuns are hideous creatures and they like to..." The old witch paused again and drifted into what appeared to be sleep, but Jane thought maybe it was some sort of enchantment. The old witch pulled out again and repeated, "Yeahmuns are hideous creatures."

"You said that before. Do you know you keep repeating yourself?"

"I did? You must be mistaken. I went into great detail about yeahmuns and never repeated myself once," the old witch told her with a bit of irritation. "It is not my fault you did not pay attention."

Jane muttered to herself, "Maybe I'll ask the Muffin Man later." She then told the old witch, "I better get going. I have another delivery."

"Wait, there is something else," the old witch stated. "Yeahmuns are not always hideous to look at. They can disguise themselves and blend in with normal people."

"Normal people like you?" Jane inquired.

The old witch nodded.

"That tidbit of information could come in handy, thank you," Jane spoke as she started to head back to her bike. She got a sense she should help the old woman with something, but she wasn't sure what it was, and her excitement about returning to the Beast got the better of her. "Have a nice day," Jane yelled over her shoulder as she rushed back to her bike.

"Have a nice day?" the old witch repeated her words. "The deary actually bade me good-will. Could this mean something? I also do not remember her belittling me in the least. I believe this moment should go into my diary."

Chapter Four

A New Calling

After arriving at the front door of the castle, Jane grabbed the eagle head knocker and struck three times. The door opened, and she heard a male servant bid her to enter. She walked in and found the Beast waiting for her in the entry. Jane lost herself in his large blue eagle-like eyes and didn't say anything as she came in and stood before him. Her heart fluttered, and she couldn't help but get a sense of the princely boy from her dreams and the character from her drawings. She would have stood there forever, gazing at the Beast if the servant hadn't of cleared his throat.

"I have your bear claws," she told the Beast, after remembering her job. Jane walked to him and held out the box.

The Beast felt the intensity of her stare again, and it once more made him uncomfortable and drawn to her at the same time. His gaze moved to her lips which possessed the same aura as they did earlier that morning. He wondered if an additional hex had been placed upon him and would he be able to accept the conditions of this new addition. The beautiful image of the black tattoo swan came to his mind again, and he decided he could endure.

The Beast told her, "I actually do not have a sweet tooth. They are for another who has an insatiable craving for pastries."

"Oh... It's nice of you to order for him," Jane told him as she lowered her arms and held the box to herself.

"Nice has nothing to do with it," the Beast told her. "If I do not cater to his every whim, life in the few moments we share is intolerable. It is merely easier to order him pastries." He motioned to his left and stated, "My servant will take the bear claws."

The box of pastries was whisked from her hands, and Jane followed the box with her eyes as it floated away. It soon disappeared down the hall. She turned her attention back to the Beast as the fluttering of her heart quieted a bit. Lykos told her many were cursed in the realm, and she knew of the Beast's curse, so where was the Belle of his story? He didn't seem like the one to hide himself away in his castle, and he did mention a lady with rose-colored perception. The Beast had to be looking for the one to free him. Those thoughts filled her mind along with the reason why she was in the World of Grimm. She wondered what sort of purpose she could have here, then realized she had been staring again, and snapped out of her I can't believe he's standing right in front of me gaze.

"Could I have your signature?" Jane questioned as she held out the clipboard and quill and tried not to be all stalkerish with her eyes.

"You are in a demanding mood today," the Beast told her as he stepped closer to her. "What other things will you demand of me?" He took the clipboard, then signed with the quill, and handed them back as he questioned, "Will you also demand a very good tip?"

"Ah..." she started, not used to anyone flirting with her if that was what the Beast was doing. Jane replied, "Tip as you see fit."

He stepped forward again, took her empty hand, and clasped it in his furry one. The Beast held on to it for a good while as he gazed deeply into her brown eyes. Of all the creatures who could look upon him with no fear, it had to be her or at least this version on her, this ordinary version of her. He took his other hand, placed it on top of her hand he held, and then he gently slid his fingers over her palm, leaving a silver coin behind. She never once took her eyes off of him. Her gaze never wavered and didn't show the slightest hint of revulsion.

The Beast took a step back from her, and it troubled her that he was leaving her even if it was only the distance of a foot. Feelings welled up within her. She wanted so much, so much from him and so much for herself, and it was so overwhelming that she had to push the majority of her desires from her mind and focus on just a few of them. She wanted to help him in his predicament, not that there was anything wrong with his gorgeous form, but she could only help him if she was the Beauty of his story. The joy that filled her essence trickled out of her soul as she remembered the fairy tale. Beauty was a very attractive woman with a heart to match who could see past the prince's altered form and still love him. Beauty... Jane didn't see herself as an alluring creature, so how could she be the Belle of his story? He would have to look past her surface self and see her as she was within. Jane pulled herself from her thoughts. She was getting ahead of things. Maybe she was only there to help him find his Beauty. Maybe she was only meant to be a minor character in his tale.

"Thank you," Jane said as she pocketed the coin and never looked at it. "Umm..." The maze on the estate came to mind as she decided she needed to focus on other things, and Jane thought she would try to get some information if she could without giving away that she entered the maze only because a tiny yellow pinkie-rose opened the padlock for her. Jane began, "Do you have roses on your estate? I thought I smelled some earlier today."

"Roses..?" he uttered as his flirtatious demeanor changed to one of agitation, and then he added, "No, I detest roses so there are none on my estate or anywhere in the castle. You must have smelled some other flower."

"I must have," she stated, then thought she couldn't let go of the maze just yet, and said, "Maybe you can at some time take me on a stroll through your gardens. I bet with an estate this big you must have a hedge labyrinth or two."

"I am afraid I will have to disappoint you again. There are no labyrinths on the estate. I do have a grand butterfly garden I would like to show off to you at some time. There are over a dozen different species that visit the gardens."

Either the Beast was lying to her or... or she didn't know what else it could be. The mention of roses really upset him so maybe there was something to it. A rose was always very important to the character's fairy tale and now that she thought about it, didn't the old woman who came to her cottage offer her a rose to thank her for taking her in out of the storm?

He interrupted her thoughts when he questioned, "Why do you not join me for brunch? You must be hungry traveling all this way twice in such a short amount of time."

"I am starving, and I finished my deliveries for the morning, so I see no reason why I can't," she replied and then considered it would also give her more time to question him. Jane needed to find out if the Beast and the giant rose were the princely boy and girl sorceress from her dream.

The hustle and bustle of daily castle life went on around her, and Jane also saw evidence of servants at work as she walked through the hallways of the castle... of the estate... of the castle-estate. She saw feather dusters flapping about like wings, cloths sliding up and down banisters like slides, and trays full of an array of things hovering about like silver magic carpets flying at different heights. She wondered how the Beast managed to go about his daily life without running into one of his servants or how the servants knew where the other invisible servants were.

Clouds speckled the light blue sky, and a few sparrows flew overhead, greeting the late morning with their chirping as the Beast took her out to one of the balconies. The balcony overlooked a fountain of an eagle with its wings spread, shooting water out of its beak.

"This is the Butterfly Balcony," he told her. "And as promised, the garden is below."

She saw dozens of butterflies fluttering about hundreds of different flowers. After a few minutes, he took her down to a patio below the balcony. The two of them sat at a round table that could easily seat six people. Juices, breakfast breads, fruits, and cheeses were piled on large silver platters. A silver pot of tea and china cups and saucers were on the table. The table had another great view of the garden.

"Help yourself," the Beast told her, then he waited until she put a few things on her plate, and then he put cheese and bread on his.

An invisible servant poured them some black tea and held up a cup of sugar cubes to Jane.

"Three please," she told the servant, and three cubes, one by one, plopped into her tea. Jane cut into some cantaloupe, took a few bites, and then said, "This is very good."

The Beast watched her and as they neared the end of the meal, he commented, "You have been kind of rude to me."

Jane looked up wide-eyed, then wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin, and asked, "How's that?"

"I asked you your name, but you never asked me mine."

"I didn't? I'm sorry. I assumed your name was the Beast. I have been very rude."

He looked hurt at the mention of the title as if the name was fouler than one of the three pigs wallowing in slop.

She saw how it affected him, and she apologized again, "I'm sorry. It was the name on the delivery sheet, but I guess to you it might only be a cruel reminder of..." Jane stopped herself and then apologized for the third time, "I'm sorry. I did it again. I don't know when to shut up. I can get–"

"You are right."

"Huh?" she uttered.

"You are right about me," he told her as he stood and walked over to the edge of the patio. He gazed at the garden and said, "Of all the curses that could have befallen me, this one that transformed my handsome appearance into this... this–" he spoke as he turned and faced her, motioned to himself, and continued, "–grotesque form is second only to one other."

Jane placed her napkin back on her lap, and then she said, "I don't know what to say. I know how it feels to have people see you but not really see the real you, though, I don't know if mine comes anywhere near the level of yours. I can say I understand how it feels not to be able to talk to anyone about it. I can say I understand how it is to be surrounded by people but still feel absolutely alone."

"Can you really understand what I am going through?" the Beast questioned her as he walked over to the table and stood beside her. "Can you understand how much this form disgusts me? How I wish more than anything to be rid of it and have my old body back?"

The Beast peered at her but this time, he wasn't drawn to her lips but drawn to a question. He considered that she may have a curse similar to his. Was Jane his Beauty in an unremarkable-guise?

A multitude of answers came to her thoughts that she could tell him, but only one of them was true to her heart, so she spoke it, "I don't see you as grotesque."

She peered at him with those adoring eyes of hers again, and the Beast shrunk back from the affection they proclaimed unsure if what he beheld was real, and he was also unsure how to respond to something so sincere. The affection that made him shrink back also compelled him to seize the uncorrupted adoration he felt from her and never let go. The conflicting emotions raging within him only stoked the fires of determination within his heart that no one would ever deceive him again. He wouldn't be enchanted by her; he would put his own spell upon her.

The Beast knelt beside her as he started his performance, and then he graciously stretched out his arm and took her hand in his as he questioned her, "How do you see me?"

Jane peered down at him as her heart fluttered in her chest like a butterfly desperate to break free. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, but was it true? Did her heart only listen to her imagination or did she truly love him? What did she know about him? He may be the princely boy from her dream but even when she considered the boy, she realized that she knew very little about him. Jane couldn't lie to the Beast, so she had to come up with something to tell him.

"I'll say that I don't see you as hideous or something to be afraid of, but how I do see you, I'll keep to myself a little longer," she stated and then added, "I'm bashful by nature."

His performance depended on an answer from her, not a delay for another day. He held in his annoyance, released her hand, and went back to his seat. His charm didn't work on her this time. The female elf he couldn't quite figure out won the hour but not the war. He would have to rethink his approach if he couldn't put his own spell upon her. Maybe he didn't have to win her over, maybe he only had to drive her away. The Beast couldn't allow himself to be taken in by someone like Jane. Should he ruin his reputation for being charming? No, he knew of something better; he knew of someone better suited for the job. The Beast would make sure to snuff out the care she had for him if that was what he saw and not be entrapped by this peculiar female elf. He only needed a way to set up the trap, so he waited. He reconsidered the swan tattoo and the possibility that she may be an extraordinary person. If she really was the one to set him free, the one he had in mind would see through the shroud that cursed her, and he would have his answer.

Jane finished her breakfast as she thought about how his curse deeply plagued the Beast. It hurt her to see that he couldn't see his own handsomeness. After some time went by and they were both drinking tea, Jane questioned him, "If you're upset about your curse, why don't you get someone to help you end it? You know like a Hex Breaker or someone like that."

"What do you mean? Why would someone help me?" he asked.

Jane thought about it, and then she answered, "Umm, I don't know... Because they want to be helpful, they're your friend, or maybe for money."

"A friend..." the word seemed to slither from his mouth. The Beast diverted his gaze to his teacup as he stated with animosity, "I had a friend once... actually two... and both of those relationships ended poorly." He considered his past a little longer, then decided he needed to focus on the present, lifted his eyes, and told her, "I can understand someone doing it for money or favors from powerful people." He paused, and then he asked, "Is that what you are offering? Are you offering your services as a Hex Breaker?"

"Me..?" she uttered, then pointed to herself, and uttered again, "Me? I don't know... I probably do know every fairy tale that's ever been written. I might be able to figure out how to break the curses but then again, what if the stories are different? Like with your story, where are the roses?"

"I am not sure I understand what you are saying when you talk of fairy tales and stories, but I am willing to hire you."

"Really?" Jane spoke, thought it over some more, and then said, "You do understand I have no experience? Are you sure you want to hire me?"

"Yes, on one condition," the Beast interrupted. "I want you to complete a test for me."

"What kind of test?"

"I want you to return tonight once it is dark and at that time, I want you to talk with me. I want you to figure out my real name."

She asked, "Why do you want me to wait until tonight?"

"You will understand once you have returned," he answered her. "If you can claim my real name from my own tongue, I will hire you... that is of course if, after tonight, you still want to work for me."

Jane had been contemplating how to help her friends or at least the two people she believed were her friends. If she became a Hex Breaker, her title would allow her to ask unusual and difficult questions without drumming up suspicion as to why she was doing it. If it ended up the giant rose and the Beast weren't the girl sorceress and the princely boy, then she would be the only one disappointed. She would keep her beliefs to herself until she was a hundred percent sure but even if they were the two children, would they remember her? Should she also figure out why they ran away from young Jane in fear before she told them? So many things to figure out, but she did have an answer for the Beast.

"Okay, I'll do it," Jane told him. "Starting today I'm an amateur Hex Breaker along with an independent delivery girl. I'll take you on as my first client, and I'll come back tonight to take your test." She paused and then questioned, "What would a job like this pay?"

"What would you want?" he asked.

She had no real idea of what money was worth in the land, so Jane went by what the Muffin Man was paying and questioned, "What about four pennies for expenses for each full day I work and two if I only put in half a day? And once I break the curse, you can give me some sort of bonus. Does that sound fair?"

"I believe that is fair as long as you pass the test and still wish to work for me."

"It's a deal then. I'll see you tonight," Jane said as she stood, started to leave, then paused, thinking of the girl sorceress, and asked, "Could I trouble one of your servants for something?"

"Yes, go ahead and ask," the Beast replied.

She questioned, "Is there any way I could get some tea to go?"

"To go where?" an invisible servant asked.

"To go with me of course, silly," Jane said as she chuckled.

The servant told her, "I believe I can put some in a glass jar."

"That would work, thank you."

Jane waited and a few minutes later, a glass jar with a metal lid floated out to her, she took it, placed it in her backpack, and stated, "I'm off then, and I'll be back tonight."

"One moment," the Beast spoke as he clapped his hands, and a chest floated into the area. He told her, "These belong to you."

She looked at the chest and didn't recognize it, so she asked, "What does?"

"These are the armor and weapons of the goblin that you slew in the robbery attempt last night. They may be of some use to you or you can sell them. My servants rigorously cleaned all the items."

The chest landed on the floor, and Jane went over, opened it, and looked into the chest. She removed the goblin's sword and sheath, and then she questioned, "Are you sure this is okay to take?"

An invisible servant told her, "Yes, it is the law of the land. Once a foe has been utterly defeated, what belongs to them belongs to the victor."

Jane drew the short sword and examined the three-foot long double-edged blade. The steel had a blue tinge to the metal and something was written on it. Jane examined the goblin engraved name PapyrKut, and then she chuckled.

The Beast told her, "I believe the sword is magical, but you will not be able to unlock its potential until you can read its goblin name."

"It's like my club then," Jane said, and then she blurted, "I believe the name of the sword is paper cut."

"You can read the goblin language?" he uttered and then said, "I am shocked that you admitted to knowing one of the wicked languages?"

"Goblin language?" Jane exclaimed as she pointed to the blade. "It's written right here in English."

He examined the script she pointed to, and then he said, "I am not sure what English is but that is written in the goblin language."

"What do you mean you don't know what English is? We're speaking it right now."

"Jane, we are speaking my tongue. We are speaking Elvish. In my kingdom, Elvish is the common language," he said.

"I always thought it would be nifty to learn Elvish, but I never had the time, and I always wanted to learn Klingonese too, so I don't know which of the two I would pick." Jane paused, and then she said, "As for knowing one of the wicked languages, maybe knowing other languages is part of my curse."

"No curse comes with gifts," the Beast explained to her. "You should know that and since you spoke about it, I doubt it is part of some sort of curse."

Jane examined PapyrKut's sheath which was made from a dark brown skin with scales which were much much larger than a snake's scale. She told the weapon, "For a goblin sword, you're very lovely." The blade twinkled with her comment as if it was pleased, then she smoothed her hand over the blade and said to the Beast, "I'll just take the sword and sheath for now. I won't be able to carry the rest of the stuff on my bike."

"I will have the rest of it delivered, and I will give you the chest as a gift."

"Thanks," she said as she sheathed PapyrKut. "I'll be on my way. Thank you for brunch, and I'll see you tonight."

The servant who waited on them waited until she left, and then he questioned the Beast, "Are you sure it was wise to invite the female elf back here tonight. What about the master?"

"I did say it was a test," the Beast replied as if his statement was answer enough. "A test cannot be easy. It has to be difficult and trying if it is to be a true test."

* * *

Rushing through the maze without the help of a fairy guide to show her the way, Jane followed the hedge walls, remembering every turn as if she had done it a hundred times before. Saah'Mee serenaded through her heart as Jane hummed the tune, and she hurried to meet her friend again. She somehow stumbled into helping the Beast, the princely boy, now she needed to convince the giant rose, the girl sorceress, to allow her to try and break her hex also. She had no idea where to start with a plant enchantment. The Beast's curse could be connected with a kiss or maybe a rose. Jane considered maybe the giant red rose was somehow linked to the Beast, and maybe their curses had something in common. She found the hidden garden where the giant rose resided, and her thoughts went to the item she carried thoughtfully in her backpack.

"Erosa... Erosa... I've come back like I promised, and I brought you something!"

"You do not need to yell. I can hear you," Erosa told her with a hint of welcome hidden under her irritated tone. She perceived Jane entered the maze the moment she crossed the boundary line where the gate stood, and a sense of joy filled her. Erosa wondered why she didn't perceive this peculiar female elf before when she entered the maze the first time. Could it be she had been so obsessed with her own death that she ignored her ability to rule and govern the Hedge Labyrinth?

The female elf rushed through the entrance into the dead garden with a big smile on her face, and it brightened the gloom and misery of the dead garden. Erosa's own heart smiled back; it had been so long since she felt like smiling, but she kept all of this to herself.

"What did you bring me?" Erosa inquired, trying not to sound too excited or overly curious to see what it was.

"I brought tea," Jane replied as she removed her backpack. She unzipped it and pulled out the glass jar filled with the brown liquid as she said, "It's black, and it's unsweetened. I'm not sure if you even want it or not, but I thought if you would like to try to see if you can drink it, it might be something nice to have besides the rainwater. You might even consider it a treat."

The thought of tea filled Erosa's mind with jubilant delight, but she wasn't about to let this female elf know just how much she was looking forward to tasting the brewed water again. Erosa decided she would toy with Jane a bit first and questioned, "How do you propose that I drink this murky water? Are you to pour it on the ground? You did call it a treat. Do you think me a pet? Do you expect me to lap it up from the ground like some dog?"

"I'm sorry," Jane replied as her demeanor saddened. She didn't think her gift through, she only thought her friend would enjoy it. She admitted, "I hadn't thought that far ahead. Do you want it? If you don't, I can take it back with me to the barn loft and have it later."

"I did not say that I did not want it," Erosa quickly replied, fearing she might lose her special treat. "I merely asked how you suggest that I partake of it and not look like some lowly animal doing so."

Jane asked her, "Are you able to grab things? You can drink right from the glass jar if you're able to grab hold of it. If that's not possible, I'll try to think of something else."

"I believe I can grasp the jar," Erosa replied and couldn't help but toy with her again as she asked, "Now tell me how should I drink it. Will I simply pour it on my roots and cause myself to lap it up like a mongrel?"

"No, silly," Jane answered. "Use your mouth. You can, can't you?"

Her suggestion flustered Erosa, and she snapped, "You can see my face? You never said you could see my face!"

"What does it matter if I can see your face?" Jane questioned her.

"It matters because–" Erosa started, and then she decided that she needed to keep that detail a secret, so she stated, "It matters because you know that I am more than a plant."

"I know who you are," Jane replied. "I have known the moment I saw your lovely face again."

Erosa wondered what she meant by again as she said, "I would thank you for the compliment, but my mother once told me to speak the truth always."

She thought now would be a good time to leave a hint of who she was, so Jane said, "I told someone once we should always speak the truth, but sometimes it shouldn't be uttered." Jane waited, hoping to see some sort of recognition within the giant rose's face or to hear her say something that would tell her that maybe the giant rose did recognize her. Neither came, and Jane felt a smidgen of defeat.

"I am not sure what you are trying to say to me, but I will uphold what my mother taught me," Erosa spoke. "Now let us return to the matter of my tea."

"Of course," Jane told her. "We were talking about you drinking the tea with your mouth and since we are talking about always speaking the truth, I think now is also a good time to bring up something. It sounds like you're trying to pick a fight with me. I thought we were starting to become good friends, but you seem to only want to argue."

"You caught on to my game very quickly," Erosa said. "I guess I will have to find another game to play."

"After we have tea," Jane insisted.

"Are you going to partake tea with me?" Erosa questioned, noticing she was a little excited at the notion herself.

"I forgot to bring myself a cup," Jane said as she turned to the exit. "I could run back and ask for one, but I believe the servants or the Beast might ask too many questions, and I haven't exactly told them I've been in here."

"Are you lying to the Beast?"

"No, not really. I just didn't tell him. I guess that does mean I've been sort of lying to him. Now I feel terrible. I should tell him I've been in here and that I've met you."

Erosa told her, "If you do that, he will become upset."

"I guess I'll have to figure out a way to tell him so he won't be upset, and I just thought of something. I'll be right back." Jane rushed out and shortly returned with her bike's water bottle. "I can put a little tea in here and sit down and have tea with you or stand if you're not able to sit."

"Why would I want to have tea with you?" Erosa questioned her.

"Because any food or beverage is better with friends sharing, and I thought you decided to play a different game with me than the one where you try to pick a fight."

"I did say I would figure out a different game, but I have to say you do throw out that word friends a lot. I know that I never said we were friends."

"You're right. I consider you a friend, but friendship only works when both people have the same feelings," Jane said with a bit of glumness to her tone, but it was soon replaced with optimism as she spoke, "I'll restate my answer then. Food or beverage is better when you share it with friends or people you just met."

"I can accept that we are acquaintances," Erosa told her. "Now please serve me my tea."

Jane poured a little into her empty water bottle, then went over, and set the glass jar close enough for Erosa to grab it, but she didn't get too close. Jane stepped back when she was done, and Erosa picked up the jar with one of her thorny tentacle-vines. It was almost like the vine was a single finger wrapped around the glass. Erosa lifted the jar to her mouth within the red petals and took of the brown liquid, and it was as good as she remembered.

The two of them sipped on their tea as Jane remained standing. Erosa closed her eyes and remembered tea parties gone by, but the memories were bitter-sweet, so she didn't linger on them very long.

Jane waited until the giant rose finished half her jar, and then she spoke, "I did want to tell you that I have a second job that might interest you."

"Why would such a thing interest me?" Erosa questioned her.

"I'm a Hex Breaker," Jane stated. "I might have my first client, but first I have to pass the Beast's test tonight."

"If it is tonight, it will be an interesting test then," Erosa told her.

"If you're ever in need of a Hex Breaker, I can offer you my services," Jane said.

"Ask me again once you have completed the Beast's test."

"Okay. I've actually already started on his case, so I was wondering if you might answer a few questions for me."

"I might," Erosa told her, and then she noticed the distance the female elf kept between the two of them. Somehow the female elf must know or subconsciously know how dangerous it was to be near her. It must be fear she sensed from her now. Erosa continued, "But first I have a question of my own. Why do you not come a little closer? Are you afraid that I will hurt you?"

"No, I was afraid of stepping on your feet or I mean your roots," Jane replied as she peered at the ground around the giant rose. "I'm not sure how far out they go and how close to the ground they are." Jane lifted her gaze and questioned, "Is it okay for me to come closer?"

What Erosa had seen earlier wasn't fear but concern. Erosa wasn't sure that she liked the concern this female elf seemed to have for her and yet in a way, it was also somewhat comforting.

"My roots are well in the ground, so it is fine for you to come closer," Erosa told her and then urged her, "Come and stand before me while we talk."

"Thank you," Jane said. "I did feel a little awkward standing so far back." Jane moved forward and stood before the giant rose, and then she said, "The questions I have for you are concerning the Beast. I haven't been hired yet, but I'd like to go ahead and start the investigation. I know that his curse most likely concerns his appearance and that it might have something to do with something he did in his past if it's anything like the other fairy tales." She paused and then continued, "I believe he has to be kissed by one who loves him and that maybe a rose is also involved. Since you are a rose, I was wondering if your curse has anything to do with his curse."

The delight Erosa had over the tea evaporated as a sense of outrage rushed over her. She couldn't believe what she heard. The female elf spoke a lot of nonsense and things that Erosa didn't understand, but the female elf had already figured out how to break the Beast's curse, and she had only been there a day. It infuriated Erosa to think that the Beast's curse may be lifted while she was stuck in this horrendous dead garden with only this irritating female elf as company. She wasn't about to let this would-be Hex Breaker take away the only gratification she had left in this world. The only satisfaction she had was in knowing that the Beast was equally cursed as she. Erosa may be a prisoner of the dead garden, but he was a prisoner of his own vanity. She would make sure the female elf didn't break his curse, and she needed to act quickly while the female elf was distracted by her investigation.

When Erosa was hexed, she wasn't completely helpless to the world around her. Her curse came with a few things she could defend herself with. Twelve thorny vines covered in green leaves sprung out of her stem in curls, and she could move them about like tentacles. The thorns on the twelve tentacle-vines were two inches long and could slice and pierce like daggers. A thirteenth vine she kept hidden, wrapped around her large stem was thornless except for one large thorn at the vine's tip. The thorn was huge, a foot long but narrow, and it was very poisonous like a stinger of a deadly scorpion. The poison contained in the stinger thorn melted her victims from the inside out in a slow agonizing death. While the female elf talked to her, Erosa snaked the noxious vined down from her large stem and toward the ground, intending to eliminate the female elf and her ability to break the Beast's curse. Erosa thought the female elf would also provide fertilizer for herself and the lifeless garden.

"I cannot tell you if our curses are related," Erosa replied to her question.

"You're unable to tell me like in the case that the curse prevents you or you're unwilling to tell me?" Jane questioned.

"You will have to figure that out for yourself," Erosa told her as the huge stinger thorn reached the ground and started to slither toward the female elf like a viper on the hunt.

Jane realized she wouldn't get anywhere if she didn't convince the giant rose to help her. Jane thought about detective shows she'd watched and decided she needed something to give her in return for her help, so she asked, "What's the price?"

"What do you mean?" Erosa inquired as the serpent vine gradually slithered through the dead grass toward the female elf's exposed legs. Erosa had the vine approach it slowly so that the stinger thorn wasn't detected, and it could strike with no warning. Erosa questioned, "What is the price of what?"

"What must I give you in return for helping me?" Jane answered. "I could offer you my services for free in exchange for your help."

The stinger throne paused as Erosa thought of a world where she was rid of her curse. She would be whole again and free to do as she willed. She could walk... no run about on her legs and have use of her arms and hands. Her dark black hair would flow down her shoulders, and she could eat. She could consume all the delightful foods and drinks she enjoyed and most of all, she could have someone embrace her again in his loving arms. Erosa fell deep into her wishful thinking, but then she realized the female elf trapped her and used her own desires against her as if she weaved some sort of spell. Erosa couldn't let the claims of this female elf sway her from her murderous intent, and so the serpent vine continued on its deadly trek.

"I decline your offer," Erosa told her.

"Oh..." Jane replied, and then she said, "I guess if you don't want to help him, I can't make you." Jane thought about the way she had gone about questioning her friend, realized how it sounded, and then she said, "I'm sorry. I intended to offer my services for free anyway. I shouldn't have used the offer to pry information from you. Please forgive me."

The way the female elf spoke and her bizarre actions baffled Erosa. The apology seemed genuine and the offer to help her with her enchantment also seemed genuine, but Erosa had been fooled before by someone who confessed his love and his undying devotion to her. Sentiment couldn't be trusted, so anyone professing to care couldn't be trusted. The only things that could be relied upon were actions and words brought on by lust, greed, and the desire for power. Erosa saw none of those attributes in the female elf, so she had to be hiding something from her, something sinister or dangerous. She felt more certain of her decision to take the life of this pretender as the serpent vine edged closer. Erosa would be isolated again in her barren garden, but she could handle loneliness as long as the Beast suffered alongside her in his castle.

"I did not take offense in your offer so there is nothing to forgive," Erosa told her as the serpent vine reached its destination, and she prepared to strike. "I can understand wanting something for something," she said as the stinger thorn rose up behind the female elf like a deadly cobra and pulled its long and slender dagger-like head back.

Jane couldn't let herself off the hook that easily, and she stepped to the side away from Erosa and out of the stinger thorn's striking zone as she stated, "It was still wrong of me to do so. I would still like to offer my services as a Hex Breaker to you for free. You're like one of the first true friends that I ever made." She realized how it sounded, so she restated, "I mean to say you're like one of the first friends I've made since I arrived here."

"You consider us friends," Erosa uttered as if repeating a joke.

"Yes, silly, but maybe in your eyes we're not there yet," Jane replied as she moved back over to Erosa.

"I do not care what you claim. I am unwilling to help the Beast," Erosa said, knowing the female elf would take back her offer to help once she knew that fact. "He does not deserve redemption and therefore, he does not deserve to be released from his curse."

Hearing the anger and the passion of one who had been betrayed in her voice, Jane knew there was so much more to the giant rose and the Beast than she could possibly understand. She took the opportunity to find out a little about her, so Jane stated, "You sound like you know him very well." She started her investigation into Erosa's enchantment without her consent and asked, "Is he the reason why you are in this dead garden?"

Erosa made a face as if she wanted to scream something at her, but her mouth within the red petals seemed to be prevented from opening and stopped her from uttering her vexation.

"Finding out the truth may be easier than I thought," Jane told her. "All I have to do is pick my questions carefully, have someone who's willing to speak with me about the subject, and then all I have to do is pay attention." She clapped twice in victory, and then Jane spoke, "I'm right about the Beast somehow being connected to your curse, but what is your connection to him?" She thought about her recurring dream and said, "I think I know your connection to him, but why would you be transformed into a beautiful rose, and why would he be transformed into a gorgeous and handsome beast?"

The stinger thorn lowered itself back to the ground before it was spotted, and the serpent vine started to snake its way up behind the female elf's new position as Erosa listened to her ramblings. She was surprised to hear the female elf call her beautiful and the princely oaf gorgeous and handsome. Was the female elf cursed with rose-colored perception? No matter the answer... The toxin her stinger thorn would inflict upon the foolhardy female elf would melt away any desires she had of helping anyone. Erosa may even hear her swear at her and finally hear how this peculiar creature really considered her.

Jane put a hand to her chin as she thought out loud, "So much must have happened over the years, and I'll need to find out what did happen or I won't be able to help either of you." She turned to the giant rose and asked, "Can you give me some background on yourself?" Jane thought of her recurring dream again and asked a question she believed she already knew the answer to, "Did you work for the Beast at one time? Did you worked for him as some sort of magic wielder?"

"How do you know I worked for the Beast and that I am one who can cast magic?" Erosa questioned, and then she demanded as the serpent vine paused in its hunt, "Who have you been talking to?"

Jane spoke of herself as she said, "The person who told me about you knew you only for a short time, and it was a very long time ago. My connection actually knows very little about you and the Beast, so what they know is of little help."

"Your answer is not an answer," Erosa stated.

"Sorry about that. I wish I could tell you more, but I can't right now," Jane said as she sighed, getting nowhere in her investigation and feeling a little guilty for not being completely honest. "If you won't help me with the Beast, could you maybe help me? Can you tell me about the test the Beast wants me to complete? If I understood it, I might–"

The serpent vine reached its destination behind Jane once more, and it rose up behind her again like a cobra ready to strike. The poison that the stinger thorn secreted dripped from its tip, landed on the ground in little droplets, and melted patches of the dirt. Erosa aimed for the back of her neck and decided on the spot to strike; it was just below her ponytail near the base of her skull. She prepared to strike, thinking about how much agony the female elf would go through before death, then a split-second before Erosa struck, a puff of smoke consumed the female elf. A duckling emerged once the smoke dissipated, and it flapped its tiny wings and squawked as if startled by a vicious dog. The duckling started to look all around for danger, and Erosa dropped the serpent vine back into the dead grass before it was spotted. The duckling continued to search for danger but didn't see any. The duckling calmed down a bit, and the stinger thorn rose up slightly in her blind spot and prepared to strike again. The duckling was so tiny, Erosa had difficulty targeting her. A small puff of smoke consumed the little duckling, and then the smoke exploded out until it was the size of a person and once it dissipated, the female elf stood there stunned.

"It happened again," Jane uttered. "I'm still not quite sure what triggers it." Her face flushed red, realizing the giant rose saw her change, and she stated, "Sorry about that. I seem to turn into a...." She didn't utter duck, knowing her hex would prevent her from talking about it. "Sorry again. I forget I can't explain my curse. It looks like I need to hire myself."

Erosa let out a loud laugh as she spoke, "You who is cursed is trying to free others of what afflicts them!"

"Maybe," Jane replied after the ridicule. "But who better than one who knows what it feels like to be cursed."

"Fair enough," Erosa stated as she stopped laughing, and then she asked, "Where were we?"

Erosa needed to keep the female elf talking while she thought about the events that led up to the female elf escaping her murder attempt. The enchantment seemed simple enough, and Erosa had hexed a few with this particular curse. The female elf must turn into a duckling whenever the enchantment senses danger or maybe just the intent of harm. Erosa thought she would test this theory by trying to kill Jane a second time, but she needed to do so without such murderous intentions. She slithered her serpent vine towards the female elf again as they continued their conversation.

"We were talking about many things," Jane answered. "We were talking about the Beast's curse and about me helping you with your own curse."

"Yes, we were," Erosa stated.

The serpent vine rose up behind the female elf just as it did the two times before. Erosa carefully moved the stinger thorn towards the base of her skull, and she was within striking distance again, but then she paused. Erosa knew she wouldn't be successful; she couldn't eliminate her deadly intentions from her mind. If the female elf turned into a duckling again, she may realize what Erosa was up to and never return to the maze. Erosa would lose her chance to destroy the one who might free the Beast, and she would be alone again. Erosa's last thought shocked her. The thought was the opposite of her wishes. If the female elf discovered what she was up to or Erosa was successful either way, she would end up alone. She also realized she had come to enjoy the time she spent with the foolhardy female elf and if Erosa was to be honest with herself, she actually hoped she would return after their first encounter. The dead garden was a miserable prison. Erosa decided she couldn't go through with her murder plot until she could eliminate the murderous thoughts from her mind, so she lowered the serpent vine. The giant rose would wait until she could set those bloodthirsty thoughts aside and those thoughts of hope the female elf stirred within her.

Erosa replied, "I have given you my answer as to helping the Beast, but as for my own predicament, let me say this. If you can pass his test tonight, come and speak to me again. I will tell you at that time if I wish for your services as a Hex Breaker. More likely than not, you will fail the test."

"Way to boost my confidence," Jane told her.

"We are acquaintances," Erosa said. "I only spoke the truth to you."

"I do hope to upgrade our relationship to pals soon," Jane replied, and then she said, "I'm off to AaBack. I need to check in with my boss and get a little rest before tonight. I have a feeling I'll need it."

Chapter Five

Mirror... Mirror...

The Muffin Man told her there were no deliveries for the evening, so Jane when out back to the barn and went up in its loft. The place was dirty and dusty, so she spent most of her time cleaning it. She removed most of the old hay and by the time she finished dusting and sweeping, it was nearly time to head out. She noticed the chest the Beast gave her with the goblin armor inside had been delivered and brought up to the loft, so Jane went over to her backpack and removed the short sword and club she stowed inside the bag. Snake Bite wouldn't stay hooked on the outside of her backpack, so she thought it better to put it inside. Jane noticed something strange about her backpack as she removed the weapons; it should be overstuffed with all the things in it and weigh much more than it did. Actually, she believed it had gotten lighter since she arrived in the World of Grimm. Jane thought about one of her favorite shows Doctor Who and the main character's time machine.

She decided to test her theory on her backpack, went over to the back wall, picked up the slightly heavy chest, walked it back, and tried to place it inside her backpack. Normally, the chest would be too big to even go in, but as it touched the outside of her backpack's rim, it seemed to shrink. The entire chest went in, then Jane picked up her backpack, and it was as light as before. Jane removed the chest, opened it, and placed the club inside along with a few other things from her backpack, but she did hold onto the short sword. She put the chest back in her backpack, fixed the short sword to her back, strapped her backpack on over top of it, went down to her bike, and headed out for the Beast's castle.

The moon started its ascent as Jane reached the estate's main gate, and the last rays of sunlight stretched across the sky. The cool air blew across her as she braked and dismounted. She walked up to the front door which was lit up by two torches. Jane reached for the knocker and noticed it was different than before. The knocker was no longer of an eagle's head but a lion's head. Jane decided to make a mental note of this. It might be important to the test or maybe in figuring out how to break the Beast's curse. She rapped the metal knocker on the door, and soon it opened as if on its own. She thanked whoever opened the door, stepped into the entry, and then told them the Beast requested her presence. A matchbox lifted into the air, a match removed itself, struck its head across the box's strip, and a small flame came to life. The match moved over to a small table where it lit three candles on a candlestick. The candlestick lifted, and then Jane heard the voice of the head maid who had bandaged her arm, and she still sounded nervous.

"Come this way, but do remember, I warned you earlier," the head maid told her.

Still confused about her meaning, Jane followed the candlestick through several halls back to the study with the single bookshelf and two chairs, one on each side of the fireplace and there was also a desk with another chair and a couch Jane hadn't noticed the last time she was there. The Beast wasn't sitting in the chair beside the fireplace like he was before but lounging on a couch along the wall reading a different book. The book he read was entitled, Coping With The Monster Within. He stared at the text with a distant sad look on his Leo-like face. His appearance was different. The feathers she noticed during the day were gone, his mane and fur were longer, and his eyes were green and more feline than bird. His appearance wasn't the only thing that had changed. The medallion he wore around his neck had a lion on it with a moon in its mouth. She stared at him a little longer, getting a sense she was seeing the princely boy again. The fondness she had for the princely boy came back to her and made her determined to pass the test.

She cleared her throat and said, "I'm back like you asked. How is this test supposed to start?"

The Beast was so engrossed in his reading he didn't hear the woman enter, not that she was sneaking in. With his keen sense of hearing, he should have heard her when she first entered his castle. He sat up and turned, so he could peer at her and didn't respond to her questions as he spoke, "You have returned. You should have listened to what I told you."

"I believe I listened very carefully. You told me to come back tonight. Was I supposed to come back at a different time or has the test already started?" she asked and when he didn't answer, she said, "You didn't say this test would be easy." Jane paused to see if he would respond and when he didn't, she decided the test had started, and she needed to figure out his name so to break the ice, she asked, "How are things going?"

The Beast remained silent.

Jane stated with concern, "You're very quiet. Is everything okay?" Jane moved closer as she thought about what happened the night before, then glanced around, and whispered, "You're not being held hostage again, are you?"

He watched her as she went on and never moved his gaze from her, and then he stated, "I do not perceive what he sees in you. I do know your secret, so it has clouded my judgment. You should have heeded my warning and taken the opportunity to flee." The Beast took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of the woman and smelled something familiar on her. "You have been in the Hedge Labyrinth."

"I have," she admitted. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that and get–"

He interrupted, "You would be wise to never tell him of this. His fury will not be withheld from you. You would also be wise to never return to the Hedge Labyrinth."

For the first time, Jane felt uncomfortable under the Beast's stare, and she wasn't sure what she should say to him at that point. Before, he had looked at her with eyes that seemed surprised by her gaze, but they also had an allure about them. The Beast before her had no allure about him, and he never looked away from her with his piercing eyes as if he needed to remain on his guard. Maybe the test hadn't started. Maybe there was some sort of danger he couldn't tell her.

"I can't tell by your expression," she whispered. "Is someone here?" Jane cautiously glanced around as she asked, "Maybe someone who might have an arrow pointed at you or me?"

The Beast was amused by the woman's thoughts, and he stood and took a few steps toward her as he said, "You are persistent. Maybe that is what he likes about you. I am not sure, he did send you to me. Maybe he does not like you at all." He walked around her as if inspecting a filly he was considering he might purchase. "Do you know he never even told me you were coming? The head maid was all hush-hush around me, and she only becomes that way when she is threatened. I should have been wary of her secretiveness."

"He said?" Jane stated. "I'm not sure I understand. Are you talking about the master of the castle who roams the night that the head maid told me about this morning?"

The Beast ignored her question as he spoke, "I cannot tell. Is he excited you are here and that you might be her?" He grabbed her chin and examined her face, and his touch wasn't gentle as it had been. "Knowing him, he does not think that you are the Beauty to his Beast." His touch wasn't rough either but firm and unrelenting as he stated, "I still cannot tell. Does he wish for your death or does he merely want to toy with you? You spoke of a test... What is it?"

"Please let go of me," she demanded in a soft-spoken voice.

When he first touched her, Jane blushed, but it wasn't from his affectionate attention, no, it was created by a rising fear sounding a warning within her. The Beast was completely different than he was before.

"Tell me about the test," he insisted.

She stated, "You should know the test. You gave it to me."

"All I want you to do is simply tell me what I told you," the Beast demanded.

"I'm to discover your name."

"What were my exact words?" the Beast questioned.

"Is a forgetful spell on you?" she asked, and then she answered, "You said, 'I want you to return tonight once it is dark and at that time, I want you to talk with me. I want you to figure out my real name.' " She paused and then asked, "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"You do know that he sees you as nothing special. If he only knew the secret that I do, then he would know you are more than special. He would know what you are and run screaming to the village below and tell everyone. You should have heeded my warning. It might not be too late to do so."

"What secret are you talking about?" Jane asked.

He leaned close and whispered in her ear, "The one you revealed to me after you saved me." The Beast straightened and told her, "Wait until he finds out. If you think I am cruel, wait until he finds out your secret. You will see a side of me I have always tried to keep hidden."

"What secret?" she demanded, and then she asked, "Who's this he you keep referring to? Is he the master who roams the night? I don't understand your test at all." Frustrated and a little frightened, she snapped, "What do you want me to do?"

"I do not want you to do anything. I wanted you to leave. I wanted to show you my gratitude for saving me by allowing you to leave. I cannot help it if you did not heed my warning."

Jane pointed a finger at him and declared, "You are the master who roams the night!"

"It would seem you can see some things, but what is important to you eludes your reasoning."

She thought she already had the answer to the test and questioned, "Is your name the master who roams the night or the master?"

"It is not; it is merely what he calls me."

"The master who monopolizes the light," she thought out loud.

"Are you catching on to something right underneath my nose?" the Beast inquired of her a bit impressed, and then he stated, "I am curious... You mention passing a test. What is your reward if you pass it?"

"You should know. You will hire me to break your curse."

"You want to relieve me of my hex?" The Beast's voice rose over her agitated one as he demanded, "What fairness do you possess? What radiant presence do you emit? What is it about you that makes him think you are the one? What makes him think that you are the one to break this wretched curse?"

"Why are you so angry?" she questioned him.

"I am angry because you are not her! You are not even close to being her and yet you dare declare your intentions of taking this wicked enchantment from me! How dare you boast of your beauty! How dare you declare that there is some sort of connection or love between us! You are far from being the one! You are closer to being a murderous monster than the one I will cherish forever!"

The fluttering his presence induced in her heart became a roaring animal bent on shredding the muscle to pieces. Jane felt like he ripped her insides out and trampled them underfoot. The test wasn't anything like she envisioned; she wasn't even sure if it was a test anymore or only a way to lure her back, so he could belittle her and trounce the affection she thought she kept hidden from him. She began to doubt he was the princely boy. The Beast who lived in her fairy tale fantasy was only a figment of her imagination. Jane wanted to weep for what she lost but knew she couldn't, so she shouted back at him.

"You misunderstood what I said, but why am I telling you this? You should already know you hired me as a Hex Breaker. I never said I was your Belle! I never said that I'd personally be the one to lift your curse only that I would help break it!" Jane yelled at him and then when what he told her sunk in more, she yelled all the more, "I never said that you would fall in love with me and my kiss would release you from... I only said I would help you end your curse. If you don't want my help, why didn't you just tell me in the beginning? Why did you want me to come here and be cruel to me? All I wanted to do was help you. Was that wrong of me?"

He considered her own outrage and confusion, but as far as he knew, they were only for show. The Beast told her, "It was wrong of you to want to help me. I should remain in this cursed form for an eternity. I do not deserve redemption."

"It sounds like to me your heart does want it," she stated as she took a step toward him. "Why give me this test? What did you want me to see?"

"Did you consider that I wanted you to see the real me?" he questioned as he moved for the door, peered into the hallway, then turned, faced her, and asked, "Did you consider that I wanted you to see I do not deserve your help? I am a wretched soul and should be left to my fate."

"Why didn't you tell me all this earlier? Why did you ask me here tonight?" She started to leave, wounded by his atrocious teasing as she stated, "I think you only wanted to waste my time. I think you really don't want my help."

The Beast slammed his palm on the doorframe and blocked her escape as he emphasized, "I never asked you here. Have you not been listening? He did. The one you should really be afraid of. As I said–" The Beast moved closer and backed her into one of the chairs by the fireplace, and she fell into it with a plop as he stated, "–I believe he thinks you may be the one." He placed both of his furry hands on the chair's arms and caged her like a frightened bird. "Do you really believe you can end this curse?" He leaned in as if he would gorge on her neck with his sharp fangs and questioned her, "Do you really believe I do not know what you are?"

For the first time since this woman arrived, she looked afraid and terrified of him. He paused from his aggressive interrogation, wondering why he didn't notice it before. Why didn't he notice she had no fear of him? Everyone was afraid of him even his servants. Why not this woman? Could she be the one? His curse was more twisted than he imagined if she was the one.

Jane moved back from his face, not that she was disgusted at the thought of the beastly prince being so close. It was just that she couldn't bear playing into his cruel game. The Beast mistook her fright and outrage for disgust, and he snarled like a lion and as his anger crested, he forgot about the earlier thought that she hadn't been afraid of him. He growled at her, and Jane put out her hand to grab the armrest and inadvertently put her fingers on top of his. The Beast's demeanor completely changed from savage animal to a male elf who had forgotten the touch of another. He looked at her hand and wanted to grab hold of it but instead, he wrenched his hand from her fingers. The Beast grabbed a nearby vase and smashed it to the floor, causing her to jump and be frightened all the more.

He remembered the glimpse of a black swan tattoo on her cheek from the night before, and he told her, "Do you want to know why you are really here? He does want you to pass his test but that is because of what he saw. He saw a glimpse of it as twilight broke, but it was enough to bestow upon him hope."

Jane was afraid to ask as her heart pounded in her chest, but she went ahead anyway and questioned, "What did he see?"

"He saw what he thought was your curse mark during the few seconds left before the day was swept away." The Beast pointed at the spot where the tattoo resided as if it was a festering wound. It was now hidden from the world, but he remembered how beautiful it had been, how deceitfully beautiful. The Beast continued, "He believes you must be a beauty beyond compare and enchanted with this common form that stands before me, but I know the truth. Your curse turns you into a representation of your true self. I have seen your ugliness. You transform into an ugly duckling when harm is intended against you. You are no Belle. You are no goddess sent to save me. You are a pale shadow of loveliness. You are a wretched creature cursed beyond all others. You are a–"

"Why are you toying with this ugly duckling then?" she snapped as she fought back tears with all her might. Jane remembered the warning Lykos gave her, and she couldn't lose the one thing that protected her, so she wouldn't allow herself to cry. The monster in beast clothing wouldn't make her cry. Jane demanded, "Why did you have me come here?" She stood from the chair and looked at him directly in his feline eyes as she questioned, "If this is what you thought of me, why show me any kindness? If this is how you truly feel, why–"

"Because a part of me can. Because it is the truth and because a part of me bores easily." He fisted his hands as he admitted, "I know how dangerous you are and yet something about you amuses me. As for why I summoned you here..." The Beast stepped back as anger ignited from his inflamed expression, and he shouted, "I told you, I did not! Are you deaf besides atrocious? He did!"

She whispered, "You mean the master who monopolizes the light?"

Jane had no more words for him and pushed past him, trying so hard not to cry. She ran into the hall and then through several more as she fled toward the front door as fast as she could. The door opened for her before Jane reached it, and she quickened her pace to escape the castle. Before she reached the door, a mirror caught her attention, and she halted several feet away from the exit. Jane turned and gazed at her reflection and knew if she left, she couldn't ask him his name. If she didn't know his name, she couldn't get the job as a Hex Breaker. Jane turned and faced the direction she had run from as her heart still pounded in her chest. If she ran away from the castle and the estate, how would she help the giant rose? If Jane gave in to fear and cruelty now, wouldn't she be leaving the giant rose to the loneliness of the dead garden?

She bowed her head, knowing she had only one option, so she swallowed her pride and fear and slowly headed back, not that her pride wounded her the most. She trudged back and gathered her courage so that her voice wouldn't shake and so that she wouldn't cry. Jane paused at the entrance to the study and saw the Beast with his back to her gazing at the fire. She couldn't see his face; she didn't want to see his angry face. Jane stared at his back a few minutes, searching for the strength to raise her voice to him, and then she said, "I... I have a few questions for you."

Surprise filled his tumultuous mind when he heard her voice, and he turned and questioned, "What would someone like you want to ask me? Leave me and never come back to this castle."

Jane wanted to run for the front door again as he barked at her, but she stood her ground. She fisted her hand as she replied, "The first question I have is, what is my name? I told you what it was this morning. Tell me, and I'll leave this castle and never return to it."

He remained quiet, and she wasn't sure if he didn't know her name or merely forgot about her like the others had done in her world. The Beast did seem to know her just not her name, and Jane believed things were starting to fall into place concerning the test she needed to pass.

"I'll continue with my questioning then."

"Proceed, but I do not have to answer you," the Beast told her.

"After everything you have said to me, after all the cruel..." She let the rest of the sentence drop and asked, "Why should I break your curse? Tell me why I should help you? What about you makes you worthy of my efforts or what about you is worth saving? I haven't seen one thing. I thought I did earlier, but I must have been mistaken."

He stood there dumbstruck by her inquiry. A part of him would say that the curse had been unjustly placed upon him but that was a lie. A part of him would claim his status as royalty put him above others and by his birthright, he should be free of the enchantment, but things like that didn't make him better than others only worthy of his hex. He couldn't see a reason why he deserved redemption.

"Why would Grimm be better with the old you in it?" she asked and then when he didn't answer her, she told him out of anger, "I think if you would have changed from the person you were before, your curse would have been lifted by now." Her anger seemed to be the only thing keeping her from crying, so she held on to it with all her might. "I have a feeling what stands before me is the real you. I'm not talking about your outward appearance. The physical you I see is majestic and grand but that is just on the outside. Your character and your soul must be very beastly and dark. From what I've heard and seen, there seem to be many reasons why I shouldn't help you, but I can't think of one reason why I should." She paused, and then she demanded, "Tell me one just one or don't you even have a reason?"

"I..." For the first time, the woman unbalanced him and set him off his game. The Beast couldn't understand what she had done to him. It was as if she hexed his tongue.

"You're silence tells me you have no reason. Just as I thought," Jane spoke as she glared at the Beast. She took a step into his study, forgetting the animalistic power he must possess and what he could do to her if he so wished it. Jane looked him up and down, and then she asked, "Are you some cruel animal?"

He was shot down by her accusation, so he roared at her and lifted up his clawed fingers as if to strike her down. "You do see me as hideous!"

"I'm not talking about your appearance!" she screamed back, and then Jane calmed herself and told him, "I'm talking about your heart. Who would want to help someone like..?" She decided to be kinder with her words and said, "...like the person I met tonight?" She thought about the mirror she peered into earlier, and Jane questioned, "Is this what he wanted me to see? He wanted me to see you?"

"He..?" the Beast uttered. "Do you understand?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "At first, I thought you were only messing with me, then I thought maybe you were his evil twin brother, but after standing in the hall... after looking at my own reflection," she said. "I believe you are his mirror reflection, a mirror-mirror version of him. You're the same person split into two, and I believe this is part of the curse that inflicts you."

He considered everything she said. The woman may not be a Belle, but her ability to see things was uncanny if she could figure out so much in such a short period of time.

"I'll take your non-answer to mean that I'm right," Jane spoke as she felt deeply scarred by the words this Beast had told her. Were his angry outbursts and brutal accusations really a part of the Beast who swept away her heart?

"If I am correct about everything I've said, answer my one question," she said and then asked, "What is your name?"

"Do you still want to know my name after everything I have put you through?" he questioned her. "Why would you want the position? Why would I let you take the position?"

"You have no right to ask me any more questions. Tell me your name," Jane repeated, and then she demanded with more force, "What is your name?"

He didn't reply.

"You don't want to tell me? Fine by me!" she yelled, turned, and started out. "I've done my part by just trying. I can't say I didn't do my best. You're the one who in the end decided to reject my offer to help you!"

"Faris'Lunar," he shouted after her. "As I am now, my name is Faris'Lunar."

She paused at the door of the study and spoke over her shoulder, somehow knowing things she shouldn't, "Faris'Lunar... It means knight of the moon." Jane chuckled and then added as she headed for the front door, "Some chivalrous warrior you are. I believe Moon Beast fits you better."

As the name was spoken from her lips, a burning sensation hit his hand, and he turned it over. A pale blue half moon tattoo appeared on his right palm, and where the tattoo appeared, his fur disappeared so that the tattoo could be clearly seen. The Beast had been named again since his cursed form, and he took part in the first step towards his redemption whether he wanted to or not. The first step would only be complete if his other half also received his new name and the one they both despised. Moon Beast quickly moved into the hall and watched the woman leave. He finally understood what his other half thought he saw in her, but he was wrong. She wasn't a Beauty bewitched. She was a wolf in duckling's clothing.

Jane marched toward the front door again as a Kansas-sized tornado of emotions whirled within her. The mirror she glimpsed before wasn't the one the queen peered into asking who was the fairest one of all or the one Alice jumped into and found herself in Wonderland. The mirror she found herself peering into was the one from Star Trek where one version of a person stood in one universe and another version of that same person stood in another. Jane believed somehow those two halves would have to come together to make the Beast whole again, but all the things she saw in Moon Beast made her hate him. She wasn't sure she wanted to see the two halves come together, not if Moon Beast was a part of him. She thought the master who monopolized the light would be better off without him, but could she help him while this other darker part of him existed?

Chapter Six

Decisions And Discoveries

Red Northlands Fury and Woodsman Of The Sacred Oak stopped just outside of the village as darkness dominated the night, and they peered at the sign lost to time and equally lost to a few weeds. AaBack was posted on the top sign, and on the posted sign below it was written, Village of the Yeahmun Slayer. Woodsman held a magical lantern they acquired with great difficulty and at great expense.

"We can test the Lantern of Illumination here and once we do, we will know if it is the genuine article," Red told him.

Woodsman took a step forward and lifted the lantern, and the green light that emanated from it lit up the posted signs. Letters appeared on the top sign and soon words were created within the sprawled out name of the village. The upper case A became All and the lower case a became are. AaBack wasn't the name of the village but a warning for all to heed.

Woodsman read it aloud, "All who enter are doomed! Turn Back! Village of the Yeahmun Slayer."

"It works," Red said. "Now the Lantern of Illumination will illuminate all that is hidden, and we will find the Tear of Poer and take back what is ours–" Red stated as the magic sphere she held crackled in red furious energy as she vowed, "–and if I ever see that werewolf again, I will murder him for betraying us!"

* * *

Jane made it to the bathing house before it closed and was able to rid herself of the dirt and grime of the day. She removed her bandage and found her arm completely healed. Whatever the head maid put on it must have done the trick. Jane put her well used Flash t-shirt and cargo shorts along with her undergarments back on. She needed to go shopping and purchase pajamas and at least two more sets of clothes to allow for laundering, but for now, she would have to deal with living the grunge life. Jane returned to the barn loft and slept little, tossing and turning on the bed of hay with a single blanket as her mattress and cover. It was her dilemma over what to do about the two Beasts that kept her up and when morning's light broke through the loft's window, she got up, freshen up a bit at the water basin, and then headed to the bakery. She had three deliveries to make before she took up the bear claws the Beast ordered. The trip seemed longer than usual, and her legs were starting to feel the burn of back-to-back mountain rides.

At the castle-estate...

As soon as morning broke, the Beast went out to the balcony where he could see the castle-estate's main gate in the distance, and he waited for the female elf to return. For hours, he waited for her to appear, but she never did and as 10 A.M. came, he thought she would never come. The master who roams the night wouldn't tell him what occurred the night before, nor would he tell him if she decided to take them on as clients or not. The Beast wondered if it had been an ill-conceived idea to allow her to see his other half. Maybe he should have warned her before she took his test to expect trouble, and his decision to let her go in blind may have cost him dearly. The more the Beast thought about it, the more anxious he became, thinking the female elf may never return and that he may remain as he was forever.

He turned and started to head inside and go to his study when he heard a guard shout who had been posted at the main gate. The Beast turned, and his heart lifted with hope when he saw the female elf ride in on her two-wheeled contraption. He wanted to run down to the front door and rush out to her to discover her answer, but he contained his excitement and waited for her to be brought to him. The Beast headed for his study, realizing just because she was there didn't mean she successfully acquired the other's name or that she would accept the position. He still needed to hear it from her lips, so he paced his study as agonizing minutes went by.

One of his servants brought the female elf to him, and she wouldn't look at him as she normally did. The female elf seemed to take great care in making sure that she didn't look at him. The Beast wanted to jump right into the conversation, but he maintained his manners and questioned her, "Would you like something to eat or perhaps you would like something to drink?"

"I would prefer to talk about the matter that we spoke of last night."

He didn't like the way she sounded and feared she would reject the position.

Jane told him, "I met with you last night, and I discovered something." She lifted her eyes and stared right at him as she accused, "You have lied to me. When I questioned you who the master of the castle was, you told me that you were the master which is true, but it's also not true. I can't have such tiny lies between us if I'm to help you."

"Does that mean you will–"

"Please don't interrupt me until I finish," she said, turning away from his excited and pleased expression, and then she admitted, "I'm having a hard time telling you this and can't answer any of your questions just yet." Jane paused and then continued, "I did as you wanted me to. You wanted me to take a test, but what you really wanted... You wanted me to see the other part of you that I'll also be helping." Jane put a hand on her own shoulder as she went on speaking to him with her back still to him, "He was so angry and annoyed with me, and I still don't understand the reason for it." Jane realized she'd gotten off track a bit, so she got back on the subject by saying, "You wanted me to discover your name, and I did find out the name of the one who roams the night, but that's not your name. Your name must be Faris'Solar which means knight of the day, and you must be the master who monopolizes the light."

Hearing her utter his name was the sweetest thing he had heard in years. The Beast didn't think she could pass his test, but he hoped. He hoped more than he realized as he stood there in stunned reveille.

The Beast said nothing to her, so she turned to him and inquired, "Have I passed your test? Do you wish for me to take on your curse and see if I can break it?"

"You have, and I do, and might I say, I am amazed he told you his name."

Jane didn't want to speak about Moon Beast, so she went ahead with the rest and told him, "I have conditions if I'm to take the job. I want complete access to every part of your castle and every inch of your estate. If I ask a question, you're never to lie to me. You're never to hide anything from me. I really hate it when people lie to me even if it is just a little."

"I agree to your terms. Are there any other conditions?"

"I never want to speak to your other half again," she replied, and then she asked, "Is there a way for me to ask him questions without actually being in his presence?"

"There is some time after the sun sets and the moon starts to rise and there is also some time right before the sun rises and the moon nears the horizon that the two of us can communicate with each other. I can ask him questions at that time but there is no guarantee that he will answer them. The two of us do not get along."

"I also want you to promise that you'll never hinder my investigation into your own or someone else's curse."

"I can agree to that," the Beast told her.

"If you accept all of my terms, we'll begin now," Jane told him.

She started to ask him a question when he stepped forward and took her into her arms. Jane didn't expect this and wondered what he was doing. She was tired and mentally drained, and it felt good to be held, so she stood there a few moments in his embrace.

"I am sorry," he finally spoke. "I am sorry I put you through what must have been a horrible ordeal." The Beast needed to give her a reason for his actions so that he didn't sound like a monster, and so he told her, "I needed to be sure that you were capable of seeing through the spell on us. I never wanted him to hurt you, but I see now by how you reacted to me he must have been very cruel to you."

"He was," she admitted. "I also thought he was going to hurt me. I've never seen someone so angry before."

The Beast stroked her head as he stated, "There is nothing to fear from me. The one you are afraid of is trapped in the darkness. Please, do not see him in me. I am nothing like him."

Jane knew it to be true. Moon Beast was nothing like his caring side who had her in his arms, and she wanted to stay in his arms forever.

"Thank you for the apology," she told him as she gently pulled away from him, and then she bashfully stated, "I better get to my questions."

"Of course," the Beast told her, wondering if he lost his alluring charm.

"How long ago were you cursed?"

"I have not kept track of the years since I was hexed, but I was cursed when I was a young man."

"Is Moon Beast part of you or an evil manifestation of yourself?"

The Beast couldn't answer her.

"I'll have to think of another way to ask that question, so for now I'll begin my investigation of the castle and grounds. I'm going to begin by walking your estate. Please allow me to do this by myself. I can't be distracted by you. I need to concentrate."

"Of course, but before you return to AaBack, do report your findings even if there is nothing to report."

"I will, oh, I just thought of another question that might seem weird to you, but can you tell me what my name is?"

"It is Jane."

She smiled as she closed her eyes. The World of Grimm was scary and confusing at times, but people remembered her. They saw her. They knew she existed. "Thank you. You don't know how good it is to hear someone speak my name."

"Since you brought up the subject of names, I heard you call the master who roams the night Moon Beast."

"I did. The name suits him better." She noticed how he reacted, and she asked him jokingly, "Are you jealous that I gave him a name and not you?"

"What if I say that I am?"

"I'll call you Sun Beast if that'll make you happy. You're the light, and he's the darkness. I would have to say Faris'Solar does suit you, knight of the sun." Jane thought it would be a good time to refer to their short time together as children, and she questioned, "Are you sure you aren't a knight and protector of the realm?"

"My position should be clear to you," he told her.

"Maybe I'll be the knight then. I can be a girl knight."

Jane waited for a reaction, but none seemed to come, so she turned and headed for the Hedge Labyrinth a little disappointed. It was so long ago that they met as children, she couldn't expect either one of them to remember her. It distressed her to think they may never remember her, and then she decided to put those thoughts to the side for now because she had an investigation to conduct.

Sun Beast moved to the door of his study and watched her disappear around the corner. He went back to his room and opened his left hand that had tingled the moment she had given him his new name. A tattoo of a bright sun was on his palm, and he knew at that moment he was right in trusting the ugly duckling. She had to be a swan under all those layers of ordinary and soon Jane would break his curse.

* * *

Jane felt a little better since speaking with Sun Beast and soon found herself nearing the gate of the Hedge Labyrinth. She started in when she bumped into one of the servants.

"I'm sorry. I didn't see you," Jane said, then thought her comment rude, and added, "I didn't mean to make fun of your curse."

The servant said nothing to her and when she heard them walk on, she entered through the gate and soon found herself standing in front of the giant rose.

Jane didn't wait for any sort of greeting from the giant rose, not that she ever offered one, and Jane blurted, "Erosa, I passed Sun Beast's test and have taken on the job as a Hex Breaker. You and I talked about me taking you on as a client also, and I would really like to take on both of your jobs at the same time. I have a feeling that the two of you or is it the three of you are somehow linked?" She paused and when the giant rose said nothing, Jane asked, "Have you decided whether or not you want to hire me?"

Erosa realized the foolhardy female elf was more cheerful than she expected her to be after encountering the master who roams the night, and she couldn't let that delicious encounter go unspoken, so she demanded, "Before I answer your questions, answer a few of mine."

"Fair enough."

"What do you think of the master who roams the night?"

"I don't like him. I don't like him one bit."

"What are your impressions of him? Is he worth saving?"

Jane hesitated. She didn't want to answer such personal questions, but then she considered if she wanted personal answers from the giant rose, she'd also have to confess all. She replied, "My first answer would be that he's not worth saving, but he is part of Sun Beast, so can I abandoned that side of him just because I don't like that part of him?"

"Sun Beast? Did you name the master who monopolizes the light?"

"I did, and I gave the other side of him the name Moon Beast," Jane replied, peered at the giant rose for a second or two, and then stated, "I guess I also gave you a name until you tell me your real one."

"You did give me a name. You gave all three of us a name," Erosa spoke somewhat concerned, and then she demanded, "Tell me more about what happened last night."

Jane started to catch on to what the giant rose really wanted to hear. She didn't want to hear about how Jane succeeded or that she might be able to break her curse, all the giant rose wanted to hear was how horrible the experience with Moon Beast had been. Jane's belief that they were friends couldn't be farther from the truth, and she realized that they may never be friends. If Jane was going to help both Beasts and the giant rose, it had to be because it was the right thing to do and not because they may be her friends from the recurring dream.

"Do I have to tell you?" Jane asked, embarrassed by what had happened to her.

"Yes," Erosa answered. "Tell me all the details or we have no deal."

"You'll answer all my questions if I do?"

"I will," Erosa replied. "Now tell me before I change my mind."

Jane reluctantly gave in and told the giant rose all that transpired the night before and how cruel Moon Beast had been to her.

"What secret does he know about you?" Erosa questioned her once Jane finished.

"I don't know. He would never tell me, and he acted like I should know," Jane replied, and then she asked, "Have I met your terms? Can I proceed with my own questions."

"After I have teased you a bit, you may," Erosa stated. "Now come closer, so I can witness your humiliation as I toy with you."

"You are very honest about your teasing, and I don't think I like this kind of teasing. Is this what makes you happy?" Jane questioned her as she moved forward and stood in front of the giant rose. She glanced around the dead garden and stated, "You're surrounded by misery. Are you sure you want to fill it with my shame and embarrassment or wouldn't you rather fill it with my optimism?"

"Do you believe you understand me, female elf?"

"It's Jane, and I probably don't. I can't understand what it's been like to be trapped here, but I do understand giving in to despair. You can't be happy here, and you seem to enjoy sharing your gloom or enjoy seeing other people miserable. Can't we just talk about things that–"

"If you mention friends again, I may vomit," Erosa told her.

"I wasn't going to," Jane told her. "I was only going to suggest we talk about both your curses."

"You do not know anything about me."

"You're right, so tell me one thing you'd like to do once you're free of your hex," Jane told her, trying to get her to focus on the possible life ahead of her.

"One thing... I can manage that. I would like to sit in a chair and eat cheesecake and drink coffee."

"How do you like your coffee?"

"Cream and sugar unless I am having something sweet to eat, and then I like it black."

"I also like cream and sugar in my coffee. Now we know one thing about the other. Our status as acquaintances is growing stronger."

Erosa laughed as she said, "I believe you tricked me into wanting to have my old body back more than I want to tease you. You win this round. Go ahead and ask your questions, would-be Hex Breaker."

Jane was pleased to hear the giant rose laugh, and so she went ahead with her investigation. "From our earlier discussion, I can guess that you're a sorceress. You seem very bitter towards both Beasts. I hope it didn't offend you to hear that. I would like to know if you're the one who cursed him."

Erosa considered how close the female elf had gotten in the short time she had been there. Erosa decided that she couldn't wait anymore and that she needed to eliminate the female elf, but how did she know that she was a sorceress? There were many types of magical users, but the female elf spoke her class by name. There was also the curse the female elf had upon her that protected Jane. Erosa would have to strike without thinking about how much she wanted her dead.

"The question you just posed is worth quite a bit," Erosa stated, and then she questioned, "What sort of reward would I get for answering it?"

"Reward..? Oh, I get it... A different type of game. I can play. What sort of reward would you want?"

"You will have to tell me something," Erosa replied. "What sort of..." Jane's face lit up in horror and distracted Erosa as she continued, "...reward is worth..." The giant rose continued to watch as the female elf's jaw dropped in astonishment. Erosa finished with, "...the answer to such an important question?"

"Worm," Jane replied.

"Worm..? Not exactly the reward I was thinking of," Erosa told her.

Jane lifted her arm and pointed at her in terror as she repeated, "Worm! There's a worm crawling on one of your tentacle-vines."

"Pest do occasionally crawl on me, so there is nothing–"

"It's huge!" Jane uttered and then spread her hands apart showing her as she told her, "It's two feet long!"

"You jest!" Erosa shouted, then turned, and saw the giant orange black-striped budworm making its way up one of her tentacle-vines towards her face. This particular budworm had teeth like a tiger and chomped them up and down as it inched its way towards her. "Get it off! Get it off!" she shrieked. "It is going to eat me!"

Jane removed her backpack, dropped it on the ground, then drew PapyrKut, and charged in to save her friend. Erosa whipped her twelve tentacle-vines about as she frenzied in terror. She tried to whip the worm off of her, but it held on like a hungry tiger holding on to its kill. Erosa tried to grab the budworm with her other tentacle-vines, but she couldn't pry it off. Jane shielded her face in fear of getting hit herself by one of the thorn-covered vines.

"Erosa, hold still! I'll get the bug, but you have to hold still!"

"Get it off! Get it off before it eats me!"

Jane realized her friend was too terrified to hold still, so she proceeded into the tunnel of angry vines with her short sword at the ready. She reached the tentacle-vine with the budworm, and she prepared to stab the bug, but the tentacle-vine thrashed about too much for her to hit her target, so Jane grabbed the thorny appendage with her left hand and felt something stab her finger. She attacked the budworm with PapyrKut, piercing it through its side. The bug wriggled about on the end of her blade, and Jane shrilled like a B-movie scream queen, turned, and swiped the sword down, flinging the budworm far away.

"Is it dead? Is it dead?" Erosa questioned.

Jane crept over to the budworm and when it wriggled again on the ground, she stabbed it several times with her short sword as she shouted, "Die! Die! Die!"

"Is it dead?" Erosa asked.

Jane stared at the creature in a hundred pieces and replied, "I think so." She stabbed it once more and answered, "Yes, it's dead." She walked back over to the giant rose and said, "I was so freaked out! That bug was huge!"

"I was more terrified. It was crawling toward my face to chomp it off," Erosa told her.

"No, I was more scared. I had to navigate through your thorny tentacle-vines and hit the bug with my sword while you wiggled about like some crazed octopus."

"I was more scared. Did you see the teeth on that thing?"

"No," Jane told her. "I only noticed an ax mark on its back, but the thing did keep squishing as I repeatedly stabbed it with my sword. I thought I was going to be sick."

The two of them stared at one another for a few seconds, and then they both started laughing.

"You should have seen you," Erosa started. "You were screaming like a deranged banshee and stabbing the dirt so hard I thought you had killed the ground, a ground that was already dead."

"Me..? What about you? You were all like get it off me! Get it off me!"

They laughed about it some more.

Jane looked at her finger as she said, "You even got me good with one of your thorns."

"Come here. I will heal it for you."

"Thank you," Jane spoke as she approached. "I don't think I've ever screamed so hard or laughed so hard."

"I also can not remember a time when I was so terrified and then filled with such delightful cheer and laughter. You are a peculiar female elf, and one I would gladly call an acquaintance."

"You're going to make me blush going on like that," Jane told her as she saw a few of the fairies fly into the dead garden from their hiding places among the maze. She smiled at seeing them, and then told Erosa, "If you're not careful, someone might accuse you of liking me just a little." She lifted her left hand to the giant rose just as the fairies began to sing. Jane thought they would sing Saah'Mee, but their song was different and one she didn't recognize.

"I will be careful. I have a reputation to keep," Erosa spoke as she tenderly took her hand with one of her tentacle-vines and then raised another tentacle-vine to cast a healing spell. The female elf... Jane... She decided Jane didn't need to die. Erosa would simply mislead her on her investigation, and then they could remain as acquaintances and have more of these enjoyable times together. It had been too long since she felt so happy or full of joy. Erosa paused before casting the healing spell as she stared at the cut on Jane's finger. Red blood ran from the cut her thorn unintentional inflicted, and the crimson liquid triggered a reaction within Erosa, a reaction that all those cursed by the monstrous curse were forced to react.

Within the castle...

"Master," one of the servants shouted out of breath.

"Yes, what is it?" Sun Beast inquired.

"I ran into Mistress Jane near the Hedge Labyrinth."

"Why bring this to my attention?" Sun Beast questioned him. "I told all of you she may go wherever she wills."

"She went into the Hedge Labyrinth."

Panic set in as Sun Beast uttered, "It is locked! How did she get in?"

"I do not know. Only that she entered the cursed place."

"I have to save Jane! Guards! Guards!" Sun Beast yelled as he rushed for the Hedge Labyrinth.

The Hedge Labyrinth...

Within the dead garden...

Erosa continued to stare at Jane's finger as an enchanted terror weaved it spell upon her and struck Erosa with fear that unsteadied her entire being. The one who created happiness and joy in her only brought deception. She wanted to lift her roots out of the ground and flee from the creature before her. Erosa froze like a rabbit before a giant troll as she moved her gaze to Jane's face. Did this monster realize she knew what it was? Jane still held her short sword in her other hand. Did she plan on hacking her into pieces just as she had done the budworm? Erosa needed to act quickly, so she uncoiled the serpent vine from around her stem, and it snaked its way towards the ground.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked. "You look pale. Are you feeling sick?"

"I am fine," Erosa told her in a nervous tone.

Jane realized the giant rose had started acting the same way the head maid had acted around her.

"Something's wrong," Jane insisted. "Did the worm frighten you more than you let on? I didn't mean to make fun of you if it did."

Erosa had to think of something to keep Jane in place while she prepared to strike her with her stinger thorn. She also needed to gauge the intention of this monster, so she told her, "I am very frightened but not of the budworm."

"What are you afraid of?"

"Have you ever heard of a yeahmun?"

Erosa watched her, but Jane never flinched or gave any indication Erosa had discovered her secret. Jane went on as if they were having a simple conversation.

"I saw the name on the sign as I entered AaBack, and the old witch who lives in the gingerbread house claimed one attacked her home," Jane told her, and then she questioned, "What is a yeahmun? Everyone seems to be afraid of them, but no one can tell me what they look like. Are they really that frightening?"

"They are more frightening than you can imagine," Erosa told her as the serpent vine rose up behind Jane.

"I'll protect you," Jane told her. "I am a knight of the realm after all and a very good acquaintance of yours. Call my name, and I promise I'll come save you." Jane glanced around the tunnel of vines she stood in as Erosa had yet to pull them back to herself, and Jane felt very close to the giant rose like friends should be. Memories of her time with the girl sorceress flashed through her mind and at that moment, she was so sure the giant rose was the girl sorceress. "Erosa..."

"Yes."

"I have a secret I want to tell you, but I don't know if you're ready to hear it or that you'll believe me."

Erosa was so sure Jane would blurt out her horrible secret right before she swung her sword and chopped her in half. She raised up her stinger thorn, aiming for the base of her skull and prepared to strike before Jane did.

"What sort of secret?" Erosa questioned.

"I don't have a contact who told me about you and the Beast. I know that you're a sorceress and that he's a prince because–"

"Jane!" the voice of Sun Beast called out in the distance.

Erosa realized he might try to stop her from killing the terrible creature if he didn't know what she was yet, so Erosa lifted a magical barrier that surrounded the entire maze. Sun Beast couldn't enter, and she could finish what needed to be done.

Jane said, "I think Sun Beast may have found out I came in here. Why don't you go ahead and heal me, and I'll go out to him? If you two don't get along, maybe the discussion would go better if I just talk to him."

"I better heal you fast," Erosa told her as she stared at the creature of her nightmares.

The giant rose saw everything so clearly now. Jane was no female elf nor was she any of the other races that dwelled within the World of Grimm. She was a monstrous creature who only claimed friendship to get close to her so that the creature could murder her and then devour her. Erosa needed to act quickly, so she pulled back her stinger thorn to leverage her strike with more force. She felt her entire being quiver from fright as she stood before the hideous creature of old. Never in a thousand years did she ever think she would come across another dreaded yeahmun. The fears Erosa remembered from her childhood raged back, and all she wanted to do was scream and run away, but she couldn't. The creature stood in striking distance and even if she managed to flee, Erosa heard that the creature was terribly fast and immensely powerful. She didn't stand a chance against it. Erosa had to act, and she had to act now so with all the fear and strength she could muster, she flung the stinger thorn forward, and it hit its mark.

The End- Click Here to continue the series.

AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale

#3 Dragon Scorned:

www.kristielynnhiggins.com/AaBack3.html

# The Missing Japanese Chin Mystery

Enjoy a sample of the following story. The sample is from an illustrated ebook but the images are not included in the sample.

The Missing Japanese Chin Mystery

#0 Prequel Horo-sha's Origin

Ronin: Have Sword– Will Travel Mystery Series

Kristie Lynn Higgins

Text Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Kristie Lynn Higgins

www.KristieLynnHiggins.com

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Prologue

Maji was a world fusing East and West cultures, during an era before the emergence of the steam engine. In this world, the sword was the ultimate weapon and brought order to the planet under the Emperor. The Shogun was the highest ranking military officer who was just under the Emperor in power. The Shogun along with the Shogunate, military officers with the title overlords, reigned supreme over the citizens of the one world empire. Each overlord ruled a clan, and each clan was made up of Samurai Houses. Each samurai or lord and their house owed their allegiance to only one overlord who was their master. The Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste, and they ruled over a province for their overlord in this social class system.

The empire was broken down into regions, which under the authority of the Emperor and Shogun, were ruled by the overlords. Regions were made up of provinces under the rule of a Samurai Lord. Provinces were further broken down into towns governed by governors.

The samurai families of the House of Shakudzuru, which bore the symbol of the Red-crowned Crane, and the House of Nishikigoi, which bore the symbol of the koi, were longtime allies. Their provinces bordered one another, and their house would come to the aid of the other against bandits or rival overlords and their samurai.

Maji was enjoying a time of peace and prosperity. Rivalries between overlords were fought with words and speeches on the floor of the Shogunate House and not on the battlefield. Bandits were still a problem but usually only in the remote areas. Peace seemed a thing of everlasting existence, and war was perceived as a mythical beast that only lived in the legends of the past.

Chapter One

Very Short Intro For One Troublesome Child

"Yoake, come back here!" a woman yelled, followed by the gleeful laughter of a little girl as she escaped her nanny/teacher.

Her tiny feet thundered across the wooden floor, fleeing the one who wanted to dress her. Yoake's laughter gave joy to all who heard it and filled their hearts with delight as if the sun had already risen. Her laughter was especially relished by her older brother and her older sister.

The little girl chased after the family dog and ran away from her nanny.

"Yoake!" Keiken'na yelled again after the precocious little girl. "Don't make me chase you! Come back, you troublesome child!"

Chapter Two

What Her Sister Thought

Dawn broke over the lush green land, bringing a host of yellow and orange hues. A tall white crane trimmed in black with a tuft of red upon its head walked the water garden of the Japanese-style castle-estate. The graceful Red-crowned Crane eyed an equally graceful red and white Koi within the pond it strolled beside. The bird started to stalk the fish when a shoji slid open and a beautiful older girl, dressed in a white kimono decorated by pale-blue Lunar-glow Moths, walked out.

She, who had just turned fourteen a few days ago, entered the outer corridor that wrapped around part of the main castle-estate and startled the crane. The bird flew away in a panic. The older girl peered at the rising sun as it peeked over the protective walls of her family's castle-estate. They were safe behind the fortress-like structure's high walls. A single gate entered the structure, and it was heavily guarded during the day and locked up tight during the night and guarded by the watchmen around the clock.

Her father was a samurai whose master was Overlord Tanaka and since her father was a Samurai Lord, she was among the nobility. She turned her attention to the red and white Koi within the pond, which was the second largest of all the Koi, as it swam among the others. She peered at this attractive fish as if she was a moth drawn to a passionate flame kindling deep within her soul. She, one named after the cherry blossom, envisioned her future with a husband she had yet to wed. Sakura saw children of her own, and she also saw herself sitting beside her husband. Her sister's gleeful laughter drew her thoughts away from the dream that was filled with her heart's desires and forced her mind to return to the reality of her responsibilities.

"Yoake, come here and let me brush your hair," Sakura spoke as she waved her half-dressed sister over to her.

Her younger sister moved and sat on the wooden floor before her, dangled her feet over the edge, and stared into their water garden. Sakura knelt behind her and removed a comb from her sash. The comb, that once belonged to her mother, was made from a mother-of-pearl shell that was decorated with a yellow daffodil. Sakura combed her sister's hair, a ritual she looked forward to every morning.

"Tell me about our mother," Yoake spoke as she tried to sit still.

"Our mother was very beautiful."

"I heard that you look like her," Yoake said as she fluttered her feet as if they were the wings of a butterfly.

"I do not think I can ever compare to her," Sakura spoke as she gently brought the teeth of the comb through Yoake's hair. They and their brother had their mother's violet-black hair. Sakura followed the comb with her hand and smoothed it down her sister's soft strands.

"Yoake, do you know that I love you?"

"As much as I love you," her younger sister replied.

"Yoake, do you know that I love you more than I love myself?"

She turned and peered at Sakura as if she didn't understand. Sakura put a hand to the side of her face as she stared deep into her eyes, eyes that revealed so much about the gifted child.

"I love you and our brother so much. There is nothing I would not do for you two."

"I love you too," Yoake told her, not really understanding the depths of her sister's affections for her.

Sakura finished brushing her hair just as Keiken'na, the nanny, arrived. She was holding their black and white dog, Fluffy. The older woman looked exhausted as if she had been running.

"You are such a troublesome child... clever... very clever but still troublesome," the nanny told her.

"Ke," Yoake called out to the woman, happy to see the nanny had finished her game.

"Do not call me that," Keiken'na told her. "I do not like to be called hair."

Sakura questioned as the nanny still panted from her run, "What did my sister do this time?"

"Why is one, who has equally tormented me with her pranks and clever ruses, inquiring of her sister?" Keiken'na questioned the fourteen-year-old.

Sakura answered, "I only wanted to know which of us sisters is the cleverest."

The nanny sighed as she thought about it, and then she answered, "I believe you're neck-and-neck right now."

"I will have to improve my games," Sakura spoke, implying future mischief. "I will not be outdone by one such as she. It will be a battle of sides. I, with my mother's hazel eyes and Yoake..." She tenderly grabbed hold of her sister's face and peered into her light green eyes that were green like a jade as she added, "...with her father's eyes. We will see in the end who is the cleverest." Sakura kissed her on the forehead and then released her sister as she spoke, "Now... tell me what my sister did this time."

The nanny glared at the fidgeting Japanese Chin in her arms as she answered, "She gave Fluffy her sash, and the equally conniving dog ran off with it. I had a time chasing it down."

The nanny, who was a disgraced priestess her family took in, finished dressing her younger sister, and then she took Yoake and the Japanese Chin to have their breakfast. Sakura started to follow them in but paused as she once again turned her attention to the pond. The largest of the Koi, a gold black-speckled brute, was belly up. The red and white Koi was feeding on it. She was bothered by this imagery and grimaced at what this ghastly omen might mean. Sakura fixated her eyes on the now dominant Koi and then entered her home.

Chapter Three

Father's Friend

Sakura ate breakfast with her sister and her brother, and then she walked to her father's office. She heard his friend, Reo, talking with her father, Haruto, so she waited outside and listened in through the room divider. The room divider as all the shoji in the estate consisted of translucent paper over a frame of wood held together by a lattice of bamboo.

Inside the office...

Haruto sat on a floor pillow on a slightly raised area in the middle of the room. His friend sat across from him and their swords rested on the wooden floor by their sides.

"I am sorry to hear that Lord Nishikigoi passed away," Haruto told his friend. "He was one of the great warriors of your clan."

"He was a brute," Reo spoke. "He was harsh to the people and he was harsh with me and my mother while she was still alive. I will change the way I rule."

Haruto wasn't sure what he should say on that subject, so he changed it by saying, "Speaking of which, I should call you, Lord Nishikigoi, now."

"Does that mean I have to refer to you as Lord Shakudzuru?"

"Not while it is just the two of us, old friend." Haruto smiled and then said, "Do you remember when we were still children and the two of us along with Suisen would play in the orchard?"

"I do."

Haruto said, "The three of us were inseparable."

"We were, and the three of us loved each other as brothers and sister. Time did change that... I have to admit that I have always been jealous of you. Suisen chose you to be her husband," Reo spoke, making light of it, and then he noticed it still pained his friend to speak of her. Reo asked, "How long has it been now?"

Haruto considered his question and answered, "Yoake is five now so five years. Suisen has been gone five long years."

Outside...

A servant came with tea, and Sakura told her, "I will take it in." She took the wooden tray with the cast iron tea set from the servant. Sakura waited until she left before she knelt and spoke through the room divider, "Father, may I come in? I have your tea."

"Yes, Sakura. Come in."

Reo perked up as she slid open the shoji and brought the tray in. Haruto and Reo sat on the floor, facing each other, and Sakura came aside her father out of the way and began pouring their drinks.

Haruto noticed the look Reo gave his daughter and said, "I have finalized the marriage agreement between my house and the House of Watanabe. Sakura is to marry their eldest son in two years when she comes of age."

"It sounds like a good match."

"You should select yourself a wife," Haruto told his friend. "Your parents are not around to make a contract for you so you are free to select your own wife. I hear that Chihiro has come of age."

"I am not sure we are a good match," Reo stated. "There is strife between our houses and speaking of strife... I hear Lord Gima has been whispering in our overlord's ear."

"What sort of things has he been whispering to Overlord Tanaka?" Haruto asked.

"Lord Gima does not believe you should be in charge of the silk production in the Ki Province."

Haruto said, "The Ki Province once belonged to the House of Gima. Our overlord is the one who decided to give the province to my father and since that time, silk production has increased by eighteen percent."

"Lord Gima boasts that in five years he can increase production by thirty-five percent if he is given the province," Reo stated.

"Why tell me these things? Our overlord is the final say on who manages what for him."

Reo replied, "I am telling you this because if Lord Gima can't convince Overlord Tanaka to return the province back to his family, he might find another means to resecure it."

Sakura finished pouring the two men's tea, and she said, "I heard that your father died."

"He passed peacefully away in his sleep last night," Reo stated. "His end was nothing like his reign."

Sakura took his comment to mean that Reo wished for a more deserving end for his father.

Reo glanced at her as she handed him a cast iron teacup with a crane decorating it. He took the teacup from her and told her father, "I believe one can only attain what they truly want if they are willing to shape sacrifices."

"Do you not mean make sacrifices?" Haruto questioned him.

"I mean–"

"Father?" Haruto's only son and middle child beckoned.

"Come in, Riko."

The boy came in and went and took his position by sitting beside his father. His older sister raised her eyes without raising her head to peer at them as the younger was seemingly looking down on the older. She glanced at her father who had kind light brown eyes, and then she peered at her brother who had inherited the same kind light brown eyes.

"Would you like some tea?" Sakura questioned her brother from her position set aside from the others, and she noticed the vacant spot next to her father on his left side.

"I am fine," Riko answered.

Reo peered at the boy and said, "You have grown two inches since last I saw you."

"Sakura believes because I am growing so fast that I will be taller than father."

"I don't know if anyone can be taller than your father," Reo commented. "Here, Riko... I brought you something." Reo removed a tanto or dagger from a pocket in the sleeve of his kimono, handed it to the boy, and said, "This once belonged to my father."

"Shouldn't you keep it?" Riko questioned him.

"No, I think it would be appropriate that you have it. My grandfather gave it to my father to aide him in his journey to become a man."

Riko grabbed hold of a tiger claw that he wore around his neck as he said, "My father gave me something similar. He gave me this claw from a tiger he killed in his youth." Riko turned to his father who he greatly admired.

"Honor me in the same way by taking this gift," Reo told him.

Riko glanced at his father, and Haruto nodded, so Riko held out his hands to his father's friend. Reo placed the small dagger in the boy's outstretched hands. Riko examined the tanto, and two Koi decorated the bamboo sheath. He removed the dagger and a Koi also decorated its blade.

"Thank you."

"You can thank me by allowing that blade to serve you in your journey."

Chapter Four

A Mother Remembered

Reo spent the afternoon with Haruto and his family. The two friends reminisced, and then Reo returned to his own province.

Sakura and her brother left their father's side, and Sakura asked, "Riko, will you go with me to visit our mother's grave?"

"Of course, I will pick her favorite flower before we go."

Some time later...

Riko held a bouquet of yellow daffodils as they made their way to their mother's grave. He had just joined his sister, and Riko looked all around before he asked, "Where is Yoake?"

"She is still too young to come, besides, Yoake does not remember our mother as we do."

"Do you still blame her for our mother's death?" Riko questioned his older sister.

"I do not blame her," Sakura answered. "How could Yoake be to blame? She was a baby."

"You wanted nothing to do with her the first year of her life."

"I was still a child then."

"Are you saying you are an adult now?" Riko inquired. "Do you believe you are ready to take on the responsibilities of a house?"

"Necessity has made me an adult," Sakura replied. "You will one day take over as lord in our father's stead. I, when I become a woman, must cling to my husband to find any position in this world."

"Father's choice is still a good choice. I am glad father selected him to be your husband."

"Selected him for me without consulting me," Sakura stated. "I do not see the man as the best choice. His house's standing is so beneath our house."

"If you want a house with better standing, I would say you could marry one of Reo's children since his house is equal with ours, but he still needs to marry and have children, so you would have a long wait."

"A long wait indeed," Sakura stated.

Sakura lit incense for their mother, Suisen, and then Riko laid the bouquet of daffodils on her grave. They both stood there in silence for a long time, and then they returned to the estate.

Chapter Five

The Night It All Went Wrong

That evening...

An owl greeted the night as Sakura sat in her room alone upon her futon. She had been lying down, but she had become restless so she got up and lit a candle. She stared at its flame as it flickered about, lighting up her dark room. All sound faded around her, not that everything had gone quiet. On the contrary, the castle-estate erupted with a loud distant commotion that gradually became louder and closer. She ignored the sounds as she focused on the candle and the flame. Time progressed as she was frozen in the moment. Only she, the candle, and the flame existed. Sakura waved her hand over the candle, causing the flame to bend and then straighten back up. She ran her hand through the small fire, and then she held her hand over the flame to see how long she could keep it there. The flame started to burn her when a voice called for her and pulled her back into the chaotic present.

"Sakura!"

Several minutes earlier...

Riko hurried to his older sister's room, carrying their father's longsword in one hand and holding tightly to his younger sister with his other hand. Their sock covered feet thundered across the wooden floor as fire devoured their castle-estate home. His sisters were in trouble. He had to protect them. Night made the terror only that more nightmarish as the screams of men and women drowned out their panicked thoughts. There were other sounds other than the desperate screams of those devoured by fire, there were sounds of battle as steel clashed with steel. Many men had entered their home and their forces had overrun his family's forces.

"Sakura," he called out as he entered his older sister's room. "Bandits have attacked."

Smoke burned his eyes and made his throat raw. The fire had yet to reach this area of the castle-estate, but its smoke made it hard to see and breathe.

"Sakura," Riko called out again.

"I am here. What happened?"

Riko replied, "I heard that someone opened the front gate and let our enemy in. They are killing everyone."

"Where is father?"

"I do not know," Riko answered. "I went to his room but only found his sword. There was also blood... lots of blood..." He held up the katana still sheathed in its decorative scabbard with a Red-crowned Crane decorating it. "We need to get outside. Everything is on fire."

Before they had a chance to flee, heavy footsteps were heard just outside and then three armed men appeared. Riko released Yoake, and she ran over to Sakura. In her panic, she ran into her older sister and dislodged their mother's comb from Sakura's sash, and the comb fell to the floor. Riko unsheathed his father's sword and faced the three bandits, but they were not bandits. The men were dressed all in black. They were Shinobi... trained assassins... bloodthirsty rogues...

His arms quaked as he had only practiced the blade and had yet to draw blood in a real duel. Riko glanced at his sisters, who he dearly loved, and grabbed ahold of the tiger claw necklace he wore, trying to find strength from it. He would protect them with his life. Riko placed both hands to the hilt of the sword, gave a mighty cry, and charged the three Shinobi. He attacked them, but they ignored his childish assault as if they had plans for him other than slaying him like they had slain his father.

The leader of the Shinobi moved out of the boy's aimless charge and then hit him on the rump with the flat side of his own sword. Riko turned and screamed at them. He again charged the leader of the Shinobi, but the ninja easily disarmed him, and then he kicked Riko in the stomach. The boy doubled over as the Shinobi laughed. Riko drew the dagger Reo had given him and sliced at the leader of the Shinobi, cutting him across the cheek. The Shinobi screeched in pain and then thrust his sword through the boy. Sakura screamed as the perfect world she had envisioned for her future self turned to ash as her family home turned to ash.

A ronin, a masterless samurai...

Chapter Six

Enter The Ronin

Twelve years later...

Ki Province under Lord Gima's rule...

A ronin entered the Town of Uken, walked to the local postings, and nailed up an advertisement on the erected wood wall just outside of the town. The stranger wore a roningasa, a conical hat made from bamboo with a tuft of bamboo sticking straight up like a tassel.

A barefoot street boy, who was about ten, noticed the runty ronin who was dressed in a shabby kimono and dingy hakama, traditional Japanese trousers. The ronin also wore zori, sandals made from straw. The street boy's yukata, a light cotton kimono, was even shabbier than the stranger's. The ronin had a katana with a Red-crowned Crane decorating its scabbard tucked in his sash. The boy could barely see his face because of the hat, but the ronin did have violet-black hair. The kid noticed as the Ronin hammered the posting up with a nail and a rock that the ronin's hands and forearms were covered in scars as if the warrior had seen a lot of action. The kid, who was endowed with the wisdom of the streets, went and read over the posting. He still needed work on his reading, but he managed to read the posting.

"Ha.. have sword– will travel..."

The kid looked over the ronin and saw an opportunity for himself. The boy said, "You must be new to Uken. I could help you out. I have a lot of connections here and–"

The ronin walked off, heading into the town.

"Hey, you, ronin! Wait up!" the boy yelled after the warrior. "You shouldn't let this opportunity pass you by. I might look like your average snot-nosed kid, but I pay attention. You could say I know how to play the political game here."

The ronin continued to ignore him as the boy walked beside him.

"You don't talk much but that's fine. I'm told I talk enough for three people, so... what about my offer?" he asked and waited on a reply. "You must be wondering what I want out of our partnership. I want food, a roof over my head, a blanket, and coin if you swing a job and complete it."

The ronin still continued to ignore him.

"Come on... Say something. Prove I'm not talking to some samurai's ghost."

The ronin paused and peered at the boy for the very first time. The boy still couldn't see his face very clearly under the hat, but the ronin's stare was intense. The ronin turned and continued on his way.

"I'm Riko," the boy shouted after him. "And one day I will be the governor of this town."

The ronin turned and peered at him curiously.

"What's your name?" the boy questioned. "I told you my name so you are supposed to tell me yours."

The ronin turned from him for a third time and walked away from him.

"Fine... I don't need to know your name," Riko told him as he chased after the ronin. "I can't call you, ronin, that might bring unwanted attention on you. I know... I will just call you, Horo-sha ( horo-sha means wanderer in Japanese )."

Thundered rumbled overhead as dark clouds moved into the area.

Riko said, "The first thing we need to do is find us a room. I know of a place that is cheap, and it happens to be behind a small kitchen so we can also get us something to eat." Riko's stomach rumbled as he spoke as if he could taste them, "They serve the best dumplings in the province, and they're cheap."

The boy's stomach rumbled again, and then the ronin stopped. The ronin's stomach rumbled, and then the ronin sighed. The ronin removed a leather money pouch and dumped its contents. Three copper coins were all that was left... Riko may be the person needed to make it through until the next job was done.

"Show me this cheap room," the ronin spoke.

"Right this way," Riko stated.

Chapter Seven

Dumplings

"Auntie," Riko shouted. "I've got a customer for you."

A woman in her forties peered out of the rustic kitchen with a few tables set up in front of it, and she snapped, "I'm not your aunt."

"Did I mention a paying customer?"

"Nephew! Welcome home," she uttered. "What can I get you two?"

"Two orders of dumplings and the room behind your place."

She looked over the ronin and said, "Let me see your coin first."

The ronin placed a copper coin on the table. She quickly picked it up and said, "Three days and nights in the room and an order of dumplings apiece for each day."

The ronin nodded.

"I'll get started on your order."

Gyoza:

Japanese fried dumplings

She headed into the kitchen as three men strolled in. Riko took one look at them and moved away from the ronin as they walked over to the counter that separated the kitchen from the eating area.

"We're here for the money," one of the thugs said.

The woman walked to her side of the counter and spoke, "I don't have it."

One of the men, who had a cut across his right eye and no longer had use of it, threatened, "You need to pay or we'll burn your house down."

She peered at the ronin to see if he would do anything, but the ronin only stood there. She told the thug, "Kaito, I don't have it."

"Kaito," the ronin repeated. "Your name is Kaito?"

He turned to the shabby looking ronin and asked, "What if it is?"

The ronin focused on the man's one eye and questioned, "Are you, Kaito, the night watchman who guarded the main gate to Shakudzuru Castle-estate?"

A flicker of terror sparked in his one eye, and then the thug answered, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You are him," the ronin spoke and placed a hand to the hilt of the crane sword.

"Kaito, do you believe this guy?" one of the other thugs questioned. "This ronin believes he's going to outdraw you. Doesn't he know that you're an iaijutsu master?"

"Iaijutsu master?" the ronin repeated. "I've never gone up against someone with a quick-draw technique."

"Kaito, do you believe this guy? He must not have heard of you or your quick-draw technique. They don't call it Lightning Strike for no reason."

"Maybe I should demonstrate it," Kaito spoke, hoping not to have to fight anyone today. The thug quickly unsheathed his katana, swiped up, knocked the ronin's hat off, and cut the ronin across the forehead.

A trickle of blood ran from the slight cut, and the ronin never moved during the attack, not that the ronin had a chance to.

"Did you see that?" one of the thugs with Kaito laughed out. "I didn't see that. It was so fast. Look how stunned the ronin is. No one's faster than Kaito when it comes to him unsheathing his sword. Move along ronin if you know what's good for you and let us conduct our business."

"I need to know what happened that night," the ronin spoke in a calm voice that gave away no emotion. "Are you the one who opened the gate for them? Did you let the ninjas in?"

"This ronin just don't pay attention," the one thug said. "We need to take care of him, Kaito."

"I just can't cut the man down," Kaito spoke. "Not unless–"

"I invoke the Rite of Charenji," the ronin declared.

The Rite of Charenji was a one-on-one duel that settled a matter between two warriors.

The ronin said, "If I win, you will answer all of my questions."

As the one challenged, Kaito could decline the fight but only under penalty of losing his honor, bringing disgrace to his family.

"I accept," Kaito answered. Also as the challenged, he selected the time and place of the duel. "We will fight right here and right now and if I win, you will give me that exquisite sword you have."

The ronin nodded and drew the crane sword. Kaito walked forward as the two thugs moved out of the way.

Chapter Eight

Lightning Strike

The two warriors faced each other. The Rite of Charenji might seem like a simple challenge, but both warriors knew they could lose their life during the duel.

Kaito prepared to use his Lightning Strike again but this time, his intention was to kill the ronin. Kaito unsheathed his sword as before... actually, Kaito unsheathed his sword a split-second faster than before and cut across the ronin. To him, it looked like the ronin reacted only after it was too late but the ronin's blade still came at him and cut him across his sword arm. Kaito stumbled back a few paces, believing they had both been severely wounded, but the ronin stood before him with only the small cut on his forehead he had delivered when he first drew his sword.

"Do you yield?" the ronin questioned. "Your arm is badly damaged. I doubt you could use your technique on me a third time."

"Kaito, take out this guy. Don't let him talk to you this way."

Kaito peered down at his arm and said, "The ronin's right... I can barely hold my sword. He used some sort of technique on me that has nearly rendered my arm useless."

The ronin warned him, "My next strike will maim you permanently. You will never hold a sword again."

"I concede defeat," Kaito spoke.

The two thugs with him drew their swords.

The ronin turned to them and asked, "Could either one of you best Kaito?"

"No, he's so fast."

"If I just defeated him, what sort of chance would the two of you have against me?"

The two thugs glanced at one another, and then they ran out.

"Tell me," the ronin began, turning to Kaito. "Did you let the ninjas in?"

"I did not," he answered as the kitchen woman started to tend to his wound. Riko also came out of hiding. Kaito said, "I was a loyal servant to the House of Shakudzuru. Asahi, the night watchman who was stationed there with me, suddenly attacked me and took my eye. If only I had perfected my quick-draw technique back then and then this wouldn't have happened," he spoke as he motioned to his face and the eye that was no more.

"Did Asahi also render you a mute?" the ronin questioned him. "Why didn't you sound the alarm?"

"Asahi threatened me. He told me he would tell everyone that I unlocked the gate."

The ronin said, "Asahi couldn't have unlocked the gate. There was only one key and father had it."

"Father," Kaito spoke. "Young master, is that you?"

The ronin grabbed the tiger claw and told him, "The young master died that night. The entire Shakudzuru family died that night." The ronin moved and considered striking down the former night watchman. The ronin yelled, "You are a disgrace to the House of Shakudzuru. Lord Shakudzuru died because you didn't sound the alarm."

Kaito got down on his knees and begged, "Young master, tell me how I can atone. I have lived with this disgrace for far too long."

In a calmer voice, the ronin said, "If you want to atone, leave this place and never come back and bother this woman. You were a proud guard of the House of Shakudzuru. How did you become a thug? When did gold or power become more important than your honor?"

"My eye–"

"Don't blame your eye as if it held your honor."

"I panicked."

"Own up to it. I know what fear is. I stood helplessly by as my siblings were slaughtered. I ran away, but I will not run away again. I will find out what happened that night. I will make all those responsible pay for what they did. Tell me where I can find Asahi."

"I hear he is now the bodyguard of the governor's wife who resides in this town."

"Where does this First Lady live?"

"In the estate on the hill that overlooks this town," Kaito answered. "The place is shut up tight. You won't get in."

"My home was also shut up tight and yet it burned to the ground."

The ronin turned and headed out of the kitchen, and the boy ran after the ronin.

"Where are you going?"

The ronin turned to Riko and replied, "I'm going to the estate that is on the hill."

"Kaito was right. You won't get in."

"I won't know for sure until I try."

Riko glanced back at the kitchen and said, "We should eat first. We can't storm a castle on an empty stomach."

"I thought this place was only an estate and when did you become part of we?" the ronin questioned him. "You hid away while I dealt with the thugs."

Riko said, "You have the sword, and I have the brains. I hid away so that I could keep my head."

"You are a smart kid, Riko. You remind me of myself when I was younger. We will only scout around the estate today. I will figure out a way into it by tomorrow. Run back and tell the woman we will return later so she will have our dumplings ready on our return."

Chapter Nine

Red-light District

The two thugs ran back to their hideout within the red-light district of the Town of Uken. A few of the women, who worked for the gang, were in the room.

They both ran in yelling, "Boss! Boss!"

"What is it?" the head of their gang questioned as he glanced up from the hand-copied book he was reading. "You know I hate to be disturbed when I'm reading my detective novels."

"It's Kaito. He was defeated in a Rite of Charenji by a ronin."

"Is he dead?"

"No, Kaito is still alive," one thug answered. "The ronin wanted to ask him some questions."

"Did one of the other gangs hire this ronin?"

"I don't think so. He just happened to be at the kitchen when we went to collect your money."

"Did the woman at the kitchen hire him?"

"I don't think so. The ronin seemed to mind his own business until Kaito's name was mentioned."

"Interesting, maybe this ronin only wanted to test his own technique against Kaito's Lightning Strike. How was this ronin's skill?"

"I've never seen a sword style like his. It was more unrefined than tempered, but he still managed to avoid the Lightning Strike attack and deliver a blow that incapacitated Kaito."

"That's not how I saw it," the other thug spoke up. "The ronin didn't avoid the attack but more like..."

"Go on," the boss urged him when he didn't finish.

"It was more like the ronin was a ghost and the blade passed right through him."

"Are you telling me you saw Kaito's blade cut right through this ronin as if he was more of an apparition?"

"No..." the thug replied as he shook his head. "Kaito did cut the ronin when he was showing off his technique before the challenge was made. I am saying it was more like Kaito's blade made contact but there was no damage. I'm pretty sure the blade sliced right through the ronin's kimono."

"Have you two been drinking? How many times have I told you not to drink until after you have collected my money?"

"Sorry, boss," they both said.

"Where is Kaito now?"

"We..." the one thug glanced at the other and said, "We left him at the kitchen and ran straight here."

"Cowards... Bring me this ronin as penance for leaving Kaito behind. Also, go see if Kaito is still alive."

"Yes, boss," they both replied.

Chapter Ten

Passing A Norimono

The ronin and Riko made their way to the Governor's Estate and passed a norimono also known as a litter that was along the side of the road. The norimono was a wheelless carriage of sorts with room for only one person to ride within its box. A single beam was inserted through the top of the norimono and then the beam was placed on the shoulders of the men who carried it to its destination. The litter appeared disabled as the beam laid on the side of the road with a large crack through it.

"The Housekeeper is expecting me and my apt mind for solving mysteries," an elderly samurai spoke to one of the men who had been carrying him. The elderly man held an abacus which was an oblong wooden frame with rows of wires along which beads were slid that was used for calculating. The samurai asked, "How long until it is fixed?"

"I sent my partner back for a new norimono to come and meet us. It should be here within two hours. It might be faster if you walk. The Governor's Estate is only another hour from here."

"I will wait," the elderly samurai stated. "And I will let you explain to the Housekeeper why I am late once we reach the Kawa Estate."

The ronin and Riko continued on and an hour later when they started across the last stretch of road before the estate's main gate, Riko inquired, "Aren't we getting a little close for a scouting mission?"

"I actually have an idea as to how to get us in," the ronin said.

They approached the gate, and the day watchman lifted his hand and commanded, "Halt. State your business here."

"I am here to see the Housekeeper. Tell her the apt mind has shown up."

The day watchman eyed the ronin's shabby clothes and spoke, "Wait here."

Chapter Eleven

Otetsudai-san, The Housekeeper

Some time later...

Kawa Estate...

The day watchman returned and said, "The Housekeeper will see you. You really should have made yourself more presentable before you saw her."

"Time is of an essence when it comes to mysteries," the ronin stated.

The ronin and Riko were shown to a large rectangular room. At one end, there was a raised platform with two levels above the floor. On the highest level, there were two chairs where Governor Fujita and the First Lady would sit. The chairs were empty as the governor and his wife were not there. An older woman with a streak of white hair through her black hair stood on the second highest level before the two chairs but off to the side. The ronin noticed twin maids stood beside the Housekeeper but not on the raised platform. The ronin also noticed one of them had a slight reddish mark across her neck. A man was also there with a Pomeranian sitting at his feet. The ronin guessed the man was a dog breeder. There was also another man there clad in armor and most likely the highest ranking warrior under the governor.

"I am Otetsudai-san, the Housekeeper," the older woman with a streak of white hair spoke, and then she motioned to the twin maids and said, "This is Kade, the lady's maid, and her sister, Kaden, the head maid." She motioned to the two men and introduced them, "This is Ikki, the Master of the Kennels, and Jaco, the captain of the guards." Otetsudai-san paused as she looked over the two, who had been presented to her, and then the Housekeeper spoke, "You do not look like Lord Tantei. You look more like a vagabond than the famous Samurai Detective."

"I am not Lord Tantei," the ronin spoke.

The Housekeeper glanced at the captain of the guards, and then she said to the ronin, "I thought you said that you were the Samurai Detective."

"I actually said I was the apt mind you were waiting on."

The Housekeeper informed the ronin, "I only want Lord Tantei."

"Lord Tantei will not be here for another two hours. His norimono broke down on the way here. You could wait for him or you could tell me your problem while you wait and just maybe I will prove myself to you before Lord Tantei even shows up. I will not charge you for solving one of your problems."

"One of my problems..?" the Housekeeper repeated. "I did not say that I had more than one problem."

"No, but I did notice that you have summoned two of your maids, the captain of the guards, and the Master of the Kennels," the ronin said. "Outside of someone being murdered, I am not sure how the four of them could be connected."

"You are correct that I have more than one mystery that must be solved."

Riko leaned to the ronin and whispered, "How did you do that?"

"Lucky guess," the ronin whispered back. "I had a fifty-fifty chance that I was right. Hopefully, it will pay off."

The Housekeeper eyed the ronin and the boy with him, and then she said, "I should have you thrown out, but I will test this apt mind you boast of. I have two mysteries for you to solve. The first mystery is that our lady's black pearl necklace has gone missing. It was last seen in her jewelry box two nights ago. I believe it was stolen by one of the servants. The second mystery is–"

"Before you tell me this second mystery, I believe I have already solved your first mystery," the ronin spoke. "It is my guess that Kade was admiring her lady's necklace and tried it on. Her sister Kaden must have walked in on her and scolded her. I believe there was a fight and the necklace was accidentally ripped from Kade's neck causing the marks I see," the ronin stated, pointing at the lady's maid.

Kade moved her hand to her neck to try and hide the marks.

"Kaden probably didn't want to get her sister or herself in trouble, so they picked up all the pearls but when they went to fix the necklace, they came up several pearls short. They have been looking for the missing pearls since."

The Housekeeper turned to them and asked, "Is this true?"

The twins fell on their knees and begged the Housekeeper, "Please forgive us."

The Housekeeper turned to the ronin and said, "You solved this mystery without questioning a soul. You do have an apt mind. Do you know where the missing pearls could be?"

The ronin motioned to a wall and said, "I noticed the dog painting you have of a Japanese Chin. I believe the dog might be the culprit. Someone will have to check its poop the next few days."

"You can't say that in front of the women," Riko scolded the ronin.

"I can't say what? Poop? Should I have said crap instead or maybe dung? I guess I could have used excrement or maybe even fecal matter." The ronin thought about it and said, "Oh... I know better yet... Feces or manure but when I think of manure, I think of horses or cattle and not a dog. I guess I could have just said number two."

Riko said, "I think stool would have been fine or just saying they only had to wait until the dog went to the bathroom."

"Actually," the Housekeeper started as she cleared her throat to interrupt their discussion of poop. "The female dog in the painting is a purebred Japanese Chin, and she has gone missing. Lord Saito is on his way here with his prize-winning male, and the two are to be bred."

"A purebred Japanese Chin," the ronin repeated, glancing at the painting of the black and white lap dog. "How long before Lord Saito arrives?"

"Five days from now," the Housekeeper replied.

The ronin said, "I will endeavor to have the mystery solved before then and have the First Lady's dog safely returned."

"What should I tell Lord Tantei when he arrives?"

"Tell him you have put this mystery to a contest, one apt mind against another."

"What is your name?"

The ronin glanced at Riko and then answered, "Horo-sha."

"Stay as our guest, Horo-sha," the Housekeeper spoke. "You and your apprentice."

"I accept your hospitality."

"Follow me, and I will show you to your room," the Housekeeper spoke, glanced at the twins, and said, "Kaden and Kade, you two stay here until I return."

Chapter Twelve

A Similar Accident

The Housekeeper showed Horo-sha and Riko to a room and once the Housekeeper left, Riko inquired, "How did you know about the pearl necklace?"

Horo-sha smiled as a memory from the past became vividly clear and then said, "I had a similar accident with my own mother's necklace."

Riko tilted his head and then muttered, "Why were you wearing your mother's necklace?"

Horo-sha ignored him and said, "We should use every hospitality that has been offered to us and take a bath. I bet they have a hot spring here."

"What about the other mystery? How are you going to solve it and still find Asahi the bodyguard?"

"I actually already know what happened to the dog. I just haven't figured out where the dog is."

"Really," Riko questioned.

"The Housekeeper said that Lord Saito was on his way here to breed his prize-winning male with their female. The only thing is... their female dog is no purebred. Did you notice the eyes of the dog in the painting? They are more Pomeranian than Japanese Chin. Her eyes have given away who one of her parents is. I believe Ikki took the First Lady's dog and either hid it or killed it so that a certain indiscretion wouldn't be found out. Ikki is probably afraid he'll lose his job or worse if the First Lady's dog is revealed not to be a purebred."

"Why didn't you tell the Housekeeper?"

"We can now freely move about the governor's estate and ask questions. I can get close to the First Lady and her bodyguard without arousing any suspicions," Horo-sha answered and motioned to their room. "We also will have a soft futon to sleep on while we are here. I also imagine food and a hot bath I can't wait to slip into."

Riko was also looking forward to sleeping on a futon and not the hard ground he usually slept on in some alley.

Horo-sha removed the bamboo hat and set it in the corner of their room.

Riko questioned, "What about Lord Tantei?"

"I imagine he is a smart guy. He can probably solve the mystery in a few days and prove that he is an exceptional detective." Horo-sha went to the shoji in the back, slid the divider to the side, and peered outside. "I was right. We have our own personal bath. Riko, stay in the room. I am going to get my bath first."

There was a knock from the corridor, and one of the twins opened the shoji and set some things in their room. Horo-sha thanked her, and the maid left.

"Why do you want me to stay in the room?" Riko asked.

"You are a boy, but I think you are too old to bathe with me," Horo-sha answered and then added, "After all, we are not siblings."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Riko questioned. "Are you one of those shy men who can't get naked in front of other men?"

"No," Horo-sha replied. "I'm just not a man."

Chapter Thirteen

What Do You Mean You Are Not A Man?

"What do you mean you are not a man?" Riko yelled.

"I am a woman," Horo-sha spoke as she readied her bathing items that Kaden had brought them.

"You can't be a woman," Riko insisted. "You were once a samurai."

"There have been great women samurai throughout our history," Horo-sha said.

"Only a few... but they don't count. They just took over the title from their husband when he passed on and they had no son to take the title."

"Look, Kaden also brought us a change of clothes. Good, mine was a little too full of holes and slashes," Horo-sha spoke as she put a few fingers through the cloth with a slash through it. "Kaito nearly made ribbons out of my kimono when he slashed me."

"Why would your clothes be full of slashes?" Riko questioned, and then the boy stated, "So he did cut you or at least your clothes. How did you survive his Lightning Strike?"

She put a finger to her lips and winked at him as she answered, "It's a secret."

"Fine... if you don't want to tell me," Riko spoke in a huff, and then he muttered, "Don't trust me." The boy made a face as he stared at her, trying to figure out how he didn't notice. Him... who usually noticed everything. If he let the tiniest detail elude him, in his world, it could mean a meal lost or a life lost. Riko said, "I want to go back to the question of how you can be a woman."

"I was born that way. Ok, I wasn't born a woman." Horo-sha motioned with her fingers as if she was pinching something to show its small size, and then she said as if speaking to an infant, "First, I was this little seedling of a baby..." Her arms exploded in a wide circle as if she was the rising sun, and then she continued, "...then I sprouted up into this little girl..." Horo-sha put both hands on her hips and stood their like some heroic statue as she finished, "...and then I blossomed into a woman."

"Are you some sort of plant?" he muttered.

Horo-sha ignored his comment as she insisted, "I wasn't keeping it a secret." She looked down at herself and said, "I guess I do dress more like a man. The clothing is easier to travel in and fight in when I need to." She grabbed ahold of her breasts underneath her kimono as she added, "And my femininity really doesn't stick out, but I wasn't keeping my gender a secret." Horo-sha peered at the boy and asked him, "Have I answered your question? Can I go get my bath now?"

Riko ruffled his dark black hair and said as if he would scream, "This is just making my head explode like a firecracker." He dropped his hands and said as if he was disappointed, "I thought you were this great samurai. I even witnessed you take on Kaito and win against his Lightning Strike. Did some great samurai teach you?"

"Not exactly," she answered. "I was taught the sword from a reluctant emotional samurai, but my skill is more of a... blessing."

Riko yawned and said, "I don't think I understand."

"It's fine. I really don't understand myself. For so long, I thought it was a curse as my blessing has some limitations to it."

She turned to the boy and for a moment, she saw her brother again. Horo-sha told him, "I'm really tired. I'm going ahead and getting my bath, and then I will go to bed." She mumbled as she watched Riko spread out their futons on the wooden floor where they would sleep, "My head hasn't laid on a pillow in so long. You can get your bath once I'm done."

Chapter Fourteen

A Dream And A Nightmare

Some time later after they had both had their baths...

The two slept soundly in their room. Horo-sha slept closest to the shoji that led to the small hot spring as she dreamed of owning her own hot springs resort one day. Her dream brought a smile to her face but then a different dream invaded her peaceful thoughts and brought with it the black hand of death and the guilt of surviving. She gripped at her cover in the throes of an ordeal of the mind and heart as a nightmare seized her. The specter of her past frequently visited her at night and brought with it horrors she wished to forget.

Twelve years earlier...

Riko, the son of the samurai, glanced back at his two sisters as their home burned around them. He placed one hand on his wound the ninja had inflicted and stretched out his other hand toward his beloved siblings as if to grasp them one last time. His face wrinkled with pain as he uttered, "Sisters!"

Sakura took a step toward him to grab his hand as his face ashened, but then he fell face down to the floor. She screamed, "You killed my brother! You killed Riko!"

"Don't scream at me!" the lead ninja yelled at her. "The boy cut me!"

"You killed my brother!" Sakura continued to scream. "You killed him! You killed my brother!"

The screams became louder and then were drowned out by the roar of fire as the room disappeared, swallowed by flames. A monstrous face appeared in the flames, a face like that of a demon-lion that haunted her memory both waking and those of dreams. Her heart thundered in her chest as the drums of war sounded all around her. She let out a scream.

The present...

Horo-sha sat up in bed as she screamed out, "Riko!"

"I'm here," the street boy spoke as the darkness of night still surrounded them. "Why are you crying out my name?"

She glanced around the area and saw no fire and smelled no smoke. Horo-sha pulled from her hellish dream and caused the tormenting specter to flee back into her mind. The dark phantom of history would not let her rest. She finally answered the boy, "I was having a nightmare and calling out my brother's name."

"The one who was massacred along with the rest of your family?"

"Yes," she spoke softly, "I will kill the one responsible. I will make him pay with his life. I will only get one chance. I will find the sole person responsible, and I will kill him with my father's sword." Horo-sha removed the mother-of-pearl comb with the daffodil on it as she thought of her sister. "I will avenge both of my siblings." She laid back down and told him, "Go back to sleep. There is much for us to do tomorrow."

Chapter Fifteen

Young Horo-sha

Horo-sha gripped her cover as she found it hard to return to sleep when the relentless specter was pressing against her skull to enter her dreams again. She turned over and thought about how she had arrived here, the choices she had made, and the people who had helped her.

About five years after the fire and massacre that took her family away from her...

Young Horo-sha held a bokken, a wooden practice sword, as she faced Hanju, a samurai, who had retired and spent his time teaching exceptional students or more like he was still looking for that exceptional student. The two of them faced off in a practice duel. Hanju was also armed with a bokken. She had already been practicing for over an hour. Her hands and forearms were bruised from earlier training sessions. Hanju held high his sword and charged his pupil. Young Horo-sha backed up a few steps and nearly fell down in her retreat, and Hanju easily stripped the sword from her.

Hanju frowned, then turned to the woman watching them, and spoke, "Keiken'na, she will never learn this. It would be better to tell her to give up. I have never seen a student with less raw talent than her. I don't know if I can teach her, Kenjutsu (or to say 'art of the sword' ). It would be better that she give up this idea of taking revenge."

Keiken'na sighed and then said, "You tell her that. I have tried."

Hanju turned to young Horo-sha and instructed her, "Give up and go home."

"I have no home," she told him. "It was burned to the ground."

He instructed her, "Go find you a husband then... and start your own family. He will provide for you."

"How can I start a family when my old family's ghosts are calling out to me from the grave? I am from the House of Shakudzuru. I am from a proud samurai family, and the blood of my father and siblings calls for revenge."

"You don't even know who is responsible for killing your family," Hanju told her.

"I already have a few clues, but I can't take my revenge until I can kill the ones responsible with my own hand. I need to learn the sword. It is the samurai way."

"Keiken'na, help me out here. I'm too old to argue–"

The priestess questioned him, "Is it that you are too old or that you are getting a little frustrated because you haven't come across your star pupil?"

"I can admit that I am frustrated. I have been retired three years and still have to find one who is exceptional for me to teach all my techniques to."

"Is that a tear that I see in your eye?" Keiken'na inquired of him.

"It is no tear," Hanju yelled at her as he wiped his eye. "Stop saying that I have a tear in my eye. My nickname is all your fault. I wanted to be known as Hanju, the Sword Crippler or Hanju, the Paralyzer but only your nickname stuck."

Keiken'na mumbled with a devious grin on her face, "Hanju, the Crying Samurai."

"What did you say, you disgraced priestess?"

"Nothing," she grumbled under her breath. She had been dismissed from her order long before she came to work for the House of Shakudzuru, but it still stung when people referred to her as so. Keiken'na questioned him, "What will you do now?"

"Now I will have to think about whether or not I will drop her as my pupil. I will give you my decision tomorrow," Hanju spoke, and then he left.

Young Horo-sha slowly walked over to her bokken and picked it up. She went and sat next to her father's sword which was beside Keiken'na.

"I will not give up," she said. "Even if the Crying Samurai drops me as his pupil, I will not give up. I will find me another sensei to teach me."

Keiken'na leaned over, wrapped her arm around her, and asked, "What do you think your greatest weakness is?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you are fighting as with Hanju, what is your greatest weakness?"

She thought about it, and then young Horo-sha answered, "I am afraid."

"Fear can be a weakness," Keiken'na said as she peered at the one beside her who she loved like she was her own daughter. Keiken'na peered at her own hand, and then she said, "Since I owe a lot to the House of Shakudzuru, I will grant you a blessing. I rarely use my gifts, but I will use it on you. I will ask the Creator of Everything to bestow a blessing on you to help you in your quest but first... I must teach you something. Hand me your father's sword."

Young Horo-sha did as instructed.

The priestess asked her as she held up the scabbard, "What do you see here?"

"A means to take my revenge."

Keiken'na told her, "Your father's sword has two sides."

"A katana isn't a double-edge blade," young Horo-sha insisted.

"Listen to me," Keiken'na instructed her as she unsheathed the blade. She ran her fingers along the edge of the sword as she said, "Your father's sword has a side that is very sharp, and it can take and defend lives." The priestess turned over the sword and ran her finger along its other side as she stated, "Your father's sword also has a blunt side that's dull and has no edge, and it can show mercy and forgiveness."

"I don't understand. Why would I want to forgive anyone who has wronged me?"

"We are all human and make mistakes. When someone wrongs us and the wrong is great, we become bitter toward them. Our own soul is hurt by this bitterness, and the bitterness will continue to hurt us until we can let go of these ill feelings toward the offense. If we forgive, truly forgive... we can work toward healing our soul."

"What if the person does not ask for forgiveness?"

"You still need to forgive them for your own sake," the priestess told her. "The one who hurt you can go through life not even thinking about the wrong they committed against you. You might be left alone in keeping the memory of the wrong alive. You might have to forgive someone who does not want your forgiveness or does not ask for it."

"I will consider what you have told me," young Horo-sha said.

"Do more than consider it. You should live by it and you will be more content for it," Keiken'na told her. The priestess sheathed the sword and set it behind them, and then she put her hand on young Horo-sha's forehead and said, "The One who made everything, give this child a blessing so that she can find her path in this life."

Young Horo-sha sat there and waited under the hand of Keiken'na for a long while as the priestess continued to pray for her in incomprehensible murmurs, and then she said, "I don't feel any different. Are you sure your gifts still work? It has been a long... long-long time since you used them."

"Sometimes, I wonder why I even put up with you," Keiken'na told her. "Maybe I will just take my blessing back."

"No... No..." young Horo-sha said as she jumped up. "I'll keep my blessing." She clasped her hands behind her back and then rocked back and forth on her feet. Young Horo-sha did this for about half a minute as Keiken'na watched her, and young Horo-sha did this until the angry look on the priestess' face vanished, and then she asked her, "What sort of blessing did you give me?"

"I do not know," Keiken'na replied as she patted the floor next to her. Young Horo-sha retook her seat as the priestess spoke, "Maybe the Creator will give me a dream and reveal the blessing to me."

"It would be helpful to know. Somehow, I have to convince the Crying Samurai that I am the pupil he has been waiting on."

Chapter Sixteen

An Irori

The next morning...

Young Horo-sha and the priestess sat around an irori within their small hut. It was a traditional Japanese sunken hearth and used for heating the home and for cooking. The irori was square shaped and cut right in the wooden floor, and stones lined the pit. It was equipped with an adjustable pothook called a jizaikagi, and the pothook consisted of an iron rod within a bamboo tube which was used for raising and lowering a suspended pot or kettle by an attached lever which was decoratively designed in the shape of a fish.

Keiken'na removed a small cast-iron pot from the pothook it was hanging from with a towel. She set the pot to the side, grabbed a set of chopsticks, grabbed a piece of seaweed from the miso soup, and tasted it.

"It's done. Eat up. There is much for you to accomplish today, and you will need your strength."

The two of them dug into the dried fish that had been grilled over the charcoal fire. They also had rice and miso soup for their breakfast.

They ate for a few minutes, and then young Horo-sha asked, "Do you know of a way for me to convince Sensei Hanju to remain my teacher?"

"I believe I do," the priestess answered her. "I had a dream last night, and I was shown what sort of blessing the Creator placed upon you."

Young Horo-sha's eyes twinkled as she questioned, "Will I become the most skilled samurai of all time?"

Keiken'na laughed and then answered, "I'm afraid not. Your skills will remain as they are unless you train."

"So by working hard, I will become the most skilled samurai of all time and kill the people who took my family away from me?" she questioned.

"As Hanju said, it is doubtful you will be an excellent samurai. You can become a good samurai with training, but your sword skills will not rise to fame."

"What sort of blessing did you give me if not to vanquish my foes with father's sword?"

"First, I must tell you that the blessing the Creator gave you also comes with a two-layer curse of sorts. The first curse or condition of this blessing is that once you have murdered someone, you will no longer have this blessing."

"One person," young Horo-sha spoke. "I can only kill one person." She had seen many faceless persons who could have instigated such an attack against her family. Young Horo-sha knew there were many but now that many had to become one, and she said, "It is fine. As long as I can kill the one person who ultimately was responsible for massacring my family, I will be satisfied. What is this second curse of sorts that you mentioned?"

Keiken'na removed a small dagger as she moved around the sunken hearth as if to attack her, and then the priestess said, "Let me explain."

Chapter Seventeen

Obsessed With The Hot Spring

The present...

Horo-sha and Riko rose early the next morning and as she had said, there was much for them to do. She suggested that they take turns having another bath. Riko believed she was obsessed with the hot spring for she took far too long to have her bath and he had to wait in the room with nothing to do, waiting on his turn which he decided to pass on. He had his bath for the week. Actually, he was happy as long as he had a bath once every two weeks.

The next thing they did was to go and have breakfast. They were served along with Lord Tantei and his entourage. None of those with the Samurai Detective looked too happy that the two vagabond intruders were there, and Lord Tantei kept glaring at her. They didn't worry about them for long for a large spread was put before them. Servants came in and set dishes on their small individual tables that were kind of like trays. Everyone sat on floor pillows. Riko had never seen so much food before. Their immense breakfast consisted of steamed rice, miso soup with clams, salted salmon, tsukemono or Japanese pickles, sheets of nori or dried seasoned seaweed, natto or fermented soybeans, quick pickles made from the long, thin, and spiny Japanese cucumber, and blanched spinach. Horo-sha and Riko ate and ate and even asked for seconds on the bowl of rice.

After they had been there for over fifteen minutes, Lord Tantei finally spoke to them, "I heard you solved the Case of the Missing Black Pearl Necklace."

"I did," Horo-sha replied through a mouthful of rice she was shoving in her mouth with her chopsticks.

Riko leaned over to her and whispered, "Don't talk with your mouthful. It's very rude."

She covered her mouth with her hand, and then she said, "It's been so long since I had to worry about my manners."

"I have not seen you before," Lord Tantei continued, and then the elderly samurai asked, "What house are you from?"

Horo-sha eyed him for a while, and then she answered, "My house has fallen into disarray, and its name has been wiped from creation."

"You are a ronin?" Lord Tantei uttered. "Does Otetsudai-san, the Housekeeper, know of this? Surely, she didn't pay one like yourself to come and–"

"I offered my services on the first mystery free of charge. I am a ronin and needed to prove myself. I will receive a fee if I can solve this next mystery."

"You mean if you can solve it before me," Lord Tantei corrected the ronin.

"I hear that you have an apt mind," Horo-sha spoke as she tapped her head. "It might have been mere luck that I solved the first case. It will be a real test to see if I can solve this next one even if I solve it after your apt mind has solved it."

"It will be a contest then," Lord Tantei spoke as a glint as bright as polished steel flashed in his eyes. "A contest of wit and deduction. May the best apt mind win." The elderly samurai felt an excitement he hadn't experienced in many years,

and he was feverishly motivated to start the hunt bound in the constraints of logic and hypotheses. He added, "I, Lord Tantei, the Samurai Detective versus the Gumshoe Ronin."

"I don't think I like that name," Horo-sha quickly spoke. "Gumshoe isn't as flashy as detective or even private eye," she added, stressing the second word of the second name she had suggested as she pointed at one of her peepers.

The elderly samurai was taken aback by the ronin's odd behavior. He tucked that bit of oddness in the back of his head for further study and asked, "Speaking of names, by what name should I call you?"

She glanced at Riko and then at the abacus the elderly samurai carried, and then she answered, "You can call me Horo."

Chapter Eighteen

Jaco, The Captain Of The Guards

Horo-sha and Riko made their way to see Jaco, the captain of the guards, to interview him. They found him among his men as he carried out the daily drills which included archery practice. They watched from a distance and waited until Jaco noticed them.

Riko questioned her as they waited, "Why are we here? I thought you would interview Ikki since he is the culprit."

"I don't want to make Ikki nervous. He might do something stupid like kill the dog before I've had a chance to figure out where it is or Ikki might kill one or both of us."

"That would be bad," Riko said as he envisioned the crazed dog breeder slicing and dicing him up in a fit of madness.

Horo-sha waved to the captain when Jaco finally noticed them. Jaco came and met with them.

"You have some questions for me?" Jaco inquired.

"I do. The Housekeeper informed me that you were the one who discovered the dog had gone missing from its kennel. Why were you the one who discovered this and not the Master of the Kennels?"

"As the First Lady's favorite dog, I was put in charge of its keep while its mistress was away. I locked the dog in its kennel for the night and upon my return, the padlock was gone and so was the dog."

"How many people had a key to the padlock?"

"Only I and Ikki, but the padlock could have easily been picked. I never thought that someone could effortlessly move

about our security, make their way into the kennel, and take the dog without anyone seeing them."

"Did you find anything unusual when you searched the dog's kennel?" she asked.

"No."

"I see," Horo-sha commented as she considered how she would find the location of the missing dog if the dog was still among the living. She decided she also needed to move her own investigation forward, so she asked, "When are the First Lady and her bodyguard supposed to return?"

"Why does that matter to your investigation?" Jaco questioned.

"Depending on why the dog was kidnapped, the importance of your lady's return could be very valuable information?"

"The First Lady and her bodyguard have already returned."

"Could you or the Housekeeper make arrangements so that I can speak with her?"

"Of course," Jaco replied. "If the First Lady is willing to see you."

She nodded and then turned to leave.

"One moment," Jaco spoke. "I do remember something from my inspection of the kennel. I found the flower of a red clover among the hay."

"Why did this catch your attention?"

"The red clover grows nowhere on the governor's estate," Jaco answered. "It only grows deep in the Midori Forest that is on the other side of the Yorokobi River that borders the estate. An herbalist used to live there in his hut, but he died a few years ago. The place is now abandoned."

Chapter Nineteen

The First Lady

Later that day...

Jaco escorted the ronin and the boy to the room they had first met the Housekeeper in, and the captain of the guards waited to present them to the First Lady. The First Lady hadn't come in yet. The room was very big and filled with many things.

Horo-sha looked around at everything while they waited. She had learned that Governor Fujita had gone to see Lord Gima, who now lorded over the Ki Province since the downfall of the House of Shakudzuru and the death of Lord Shakudzuru Haruto her father. It caused her great anguish to hear such things repeated, and Horo-sha wept deep within herself to be reminded of her family's demise. She also learned Governor Fujita wouldn't be back for some time. The captain of the guards stood off to the side.

Riko leaned to Horo-sha and told her, "Especially mind your manners in front of the governor's wife. I do not want to lose my head over something that you did."

Horo-sha nodded as she continued to look around the room at the many decorations. She noticed more than a dozen vases sitting on stands that were of great value. The vases reminded her of her own home when she still lived with her siblings and her father. Soon, the First Lady entered along with her bodyguard, who paid special attention to the ronin and the boy. The First Lady, who wore a kimono covered with gold moths, went and took her seat that was on the second level of the raised

platform. Horo-sha's heart thundered in her chest, and she found it hard to breathe.

The First Lady spoke as if she had better things to do than to converse with a ronin, "They say your name is Horo-sha."

She stared at the First Lady in disbelief.

"They say that you are here to find my dog, Yoake."

Horo-sha blurted, "You named your dog, Yoake?"

"Yes, what of it?" the First Lady asked, wondering what business it was of the ronin. The First Lady sat there waiting on some answers, and then she said, "You have not answered any of my questions."

Horo-sha found that disbelief and undeniable surprise had muted her tongue as so many things swirled in her mind. The black pearl necklace... the dog... a bodyguard that once worked for her family... and an estate far from her family's lands... How did this all fit in?

"If you will not answer my questions, I will not answer yours," the First Lady stated, waved for the captain of their guards, and said, "Take this rude ronin and the boy–"

It was like a miracle had happened, and the tongue that had gone mute exploded forth with one word, "Sakura..?"

End Sample-Click Here for the whole book.

The Missing Japanese Chin

https://www.kristielynnhiggins.com/Ronin.html
  1. Spring Spectacular 2020
    1. Table Of Contents
    2. AabiLynn's Dragon Rite #0
    3. Shades Of Gray #1
    4. Shades Of Gray #2
    5. Beauty Of The Beast #1
    6. Mortem's Opening
    7. Mortem's Contestant
    8. AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #1
    9. AaBack's Grimm: A Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #2
    10. The Missing Japanese Chin Mystery

