Cahethal Learns About Tabbris During Year One


    For the most part, the Seosten known as Cahethal (Demeter to the previous primitive societies of Earth) was not prone toward making emotional displays, no matter what actually happened. Annoyance, anger, fear, love, all of it was kept inside where such things belonged. She had witnessed far too many of her colleagues and, dare she say, friends, completely lose perspective with what they were attempting to accomplish by allowing their emotions to overtly rule them. It was not that she did not have emotions. She simply knew that the threat they faced, that of the total annihilation of all life in the universe at the hands of the Fomorians, was far more important than those feelings. If her people failed, there would be no one left who could stand against those creatures.


    So, she pushed the emotions down inside and did her job. She did what she was good at. Namely, keeping the Eden’s Garden experiment and training ground running, so that her people could have properly-prepared, combat-ready Heretics to use on the frontlines. Granted, that had become rather more complicated and difficult in recent months, given the intense push from the Seraphim for the lingering problem of the human Liesje’s anti-possession spell to finally be dealt with. The fact that the Hannah Owens-turned Avalon Sinclaire situation had still not been resolved, and the girl was running around free, was a very deep sore spot for the Seosten. They had had centuries by this point to finally put an end to the threat of that spell being used against them, and had still yet to manage it.


    Technically, finding and killing that girl was not even her job. It was Manakel’s. She was simply to provide support. Yet the question of whose responsibility her continued survival was became blurred when it came to Felicity Chambers. Chambers, the daughter of the old rebellion leader, Joselyn, was Cahethal’s responsibility. At least to an extent. It had been her job, originally, to ‘recruit’ the girl as a host. The plan had been for her to take the girl over, find out anything she knew about her mother’s disappearance, and then split her time between her current host, the Victor known as Ikita, and Felicity herself over the next few years. Felicity would be brought up and trained to be her next primary host, allowing Ikita to be retired. Some had thought she should send the powerful Eden’s Garden Heretic body to the frontlines, but Cahethal had made a deal with her host that she would be allowed to simply have her memory erased so she could retire peacefully. Some of her people might be fine with breaking such agreements, but Cahethal stuck to them. Especially when it came to a woman she had spent so much time with.


    But, of course, it hadn’t ended up being that simple to deal with the Chambers girl after all. Cahethal had first thought it would be such a non-issue, that she hadn’t even gone to the house herself. She sent one of her subordinates, a Seosten who should have been able to handle the information retrieval and initial job of preparing the girl to be Cahethal’s future host. It was a nothing job, one that could not possibly have been simpler. Or so she had thought.


    Upon hearing that her subordinate couldn’t possess the Chambers girl, Cahethal had dismissed the claim as absurd and assumed the woman had made a mistake in some way. She went to the house herself, only to find that it was true. Felicity Chambers could not be possessed. The initial reaction to that, from the homeworld, had been for the girl to be killed. But Cahethal had resisted that, exercising her own prerogative to continue to investigate and see what happened. As she had told her superiors, killing the girl without having any idea why she was immune to possession wouldn’t solve the issue.


    And now, after years of wondering, after she had allowed the girl to be taken to Crossroads, after… all of that, they finally had the answer. They finally knew exactly why the Chambers girl had been immune to being possessed. The mystery that had plagued the back (and sometimes front) of Cahethal’s mind for years had finally been answered.


    She wasn’t immune to being possessed, she had already been possessed. A very small child Seosten had been possessing her that whole time. They had been fooled and beaten by a toddler. That was what it all amounted to. There was nothing overtly special about the Chambers girl, not in that respect anyway. She had simply already been possessed.


    After sitting silently for several long moments, Cahethal rose from the desk where she had been going over the reports and inspecting the offered memories for herself, a process which involved transferring the memories from the crystals that they had been copied into, over to her own mind. The small, unnaturally-green eyed woman stepped over to a window that overlooked the busy city below. From the corner of her eye, she could see her host, Ikita, slumbering on the couch next to the door. A door which remained closed, though she could hear the bustling work beyond.


    This was an anonymous office that no one in Eden’s Garden knew about. The two floors below this office were full of ordinary human employees performing various science experiments for her. Not that they knew anything about their employer. Nor were they likely to find anything new. Still, over these many years, Cahethal had come to find that humans had a knack for accidentally stumbling over interesting things. So there was always the possibility.


    The rest of this floor, meanwhile, was taken up with other species running more advanced testing. Those might end up with something new and useful.


    But for now, none of that mattered. The only thing on her mind was… the girl. Both girls, actually. Felicity Chambers, and… the Seosten child. After all this time, they finally knew precisely why Chambers could not be possessed, and it was all because of a Seosten child.


    Yes, she was not one to be prone to emotional displays. She did not indulge in open anger or fear, particularly in front of others. Yet here, with her host asleep and various walls and magics blocking her from the sight of any who might have borne witness, Cahethal allowed herself to relent somewhat. After all, this was quite the momentous revelation. She had tried for years to understand what was so special about Felicity Chambers, and had overlooked the single most obvious and basic explanation. And so, in this moment, she did express a clear outward emotion.


    It started as a smile, faint as it might have been. Looking out over the busy street, the Seosten woman smiled just a bit. The corners of her mouth curved up, gaze dropping a bit more introspectively. Her shoulders gave a very slight heave, as a quiet, “Heh” escaped her.  Slowly, Cahethal shook her head, as that single “Heh” became two. “Heh heh…”


    Her eyes closed, arms wrapped around her stomach, as she dropped her chin and lost it. There, cocooned in the office and far from anyone who might have found out about this reaction, Cahethal did the only thing she could do upon discovering the truth about the Seosten child who had fooled them all for so long.


    She laughed, as long and hard as she had ever laughed at anything in her life.


    ******


    What Do Average Seosten Loyalists Think Of The Truce With Earth?


    His name was Cavenrel, of the Sehkseit Choir. Born two hundred and fifty years earlier by universal reckoning, he was a fairly small man by Seosten standards, standing only five feet, eight inches tall. He was also quite lean, his body tightly corded with muscles while remaining almost scarecrow-thin by outward appearances, loose clothes hiding his true build. His black hair was cut short, with a thin green stripe running down the right-hand side, a couple inches off from being dead center. He wore red and orange fatigue-like clothing, to blend into the desert sands of this world. Sands which even then were kicking up in a storm behind him as he opened the door leading into a hole-in-the-wall bar, where an assortment of his fellow soldiers and a few civilians were holed up, waiting out the winds.


    Walking through the bar, he ignored the furtive glances from the locals. He knew there was a mix of hope and fear throughout the town. Most of the people of this planet had been evacuated, but a few remained. This town was one of the holdouts. The civilians here had to keep helping to supply the soldiers, both Seosten and the many more other troops they had brought with them, as they fought the Fomorians. There were much larger-scale battles going on up in space, both near the planet and throughout the rest of the system. But there was also plenty of fighting happening down here, in the dirt. The Fomorians were trying to swarm over the planet, while the Seosten and their assorted soldiers, drawn from all across the universe, were doing their level best to stop that from happening.


    The man moved to the table where his closest friends, four other Seosten troops of around the same age and experience, sat. He joined them while calling out toward the bartender for a drink of the house special. Then he tapped the table with two knuckles a couple times, a good luck habit his group had become accustomed to whenever they ordered a drink. No one remembered who had started it, but they were absolutely certain that not doing it right after ordering a drink would result in disaster.


    Once the proper ritual was observed, he took in his companions. Reysiel, the auburn-haired woman with a quick smile and even quicker temper, Fayaza, the tall, heavily-built man with silver-blue hair and a calming demeanor, Tarwan, the blond, intensely athletic and competitive man who stood only two inches taller than Cavenrel himself, and Murzael, Tarwan’s near-identical twin sister.


    “Caven!” Reysiel immediately blurted while slamming her fist down onto the table, “Tell these idiots that this truce with Rysthael is a mistake. We should be going over there right now to deal with this.”


    Before Caven could respond, Tarwan spoke up. “Exactly. My dear sister and the big lug over there have lost their minds. They think the… what do they call themselves, Earthlings? They think the Earthlings should get a chance to ‘prove themselves.’”


    Beside her brother, Murzael cleared her throat. “What I said was, they went through a lot to even get this truce, so we should give it a chance. Obviously what we were doing wasn’t working out.”


    “Wasn’t working out?” Reysiel interrupted, voice hot as she shook her head at her friend. “How can you even say that? Do you know how vital those humans are for the war up here? Having those bodies to possess is like… it’s the only reason we’re holding out. And you want to let the humans take those away? Do you have the slightest idea how fast those monsters out there would overrun us if the supply of human bodies dries up?”


    Fayaza finally spoke, his deep voice even and calm despite the way it rumbled. “No one said the supply of bodies is going to dry up.”


    “Are you kidding me?” Tarwan demanded. “You really think the humans and other Earthlings are gonna keep sending bodies out here? They’re protected from the Fomorians, remember? Their planet can’t be invaded. Not anymore. So they’re safe. What makes you think that they’ll volunteer to keep sending us the human bodies we need? The whole universe could be overrun by those Fomorian fucks and it wouldn’t affect Rysthael–sorry, Earth at all.”


    Murzael shook her head while taking a sip from her own glass. “So now you think the humans will just sit back and let the Fomorians overrun the universe and kill everyone? That’s a pretty harsh judgment, Tar.”


    “It’s just basic common sense,” he insisted. “Their planet is protected and safe, and…”


    “And we’ve been using them this whole time,” Reysiel finished for him. “So why wouldn’t they tell us to go blow it out our exhaust port? After everything we did to set up that supply chain of human soldiers and bodies, why wouldn’t they tell us we’re on our own the very second they get the chance?”


    Finally finding the chance to speak up, Caven asked, “Assuming you’re right, what are you guys saying the solution to that is?” He kept his voice even, not wanting to give away any of his own feelings on the subject. This happened often. The five of them were all friends, but Reysiel and Tarwan tended to disagree with Fayaza and Murzael a lot. They kept it to healthy debates most of the time, save for a few occasions where blows had been exchanged. But even those were generally in good fun. Just soldiers working out aggression and such. They disagreed, but they were basically family. Literally, in the case of the twins, Mur and Tar.


    “The solution,” Rey insisted, “is that we go in there and handle it. I’m not saying we burn the place down or kill all of them or anything, I’m not a complete psychopath. But we need to take control. We need to go in, disable that Bystander spell they’ve got going, and tell the populace we’re in charge and that we’re going to protect them just like we protect the rest of the universe. But to do that, we need to recruit them.”


    “Exactly,” Tar agreed. “Do you guys have the slightest clue what we could do if we took hundreds of thousands of human soldiers, powered them up as much as we can, and slammed into the Fomorian lines with them?”


    “Most of them wouldn’t have the power you’re thinking of,” Faya pointed out in that same even tone. “Remember, we can only make a couple hundred Reaper Heretics every year, and even those won’t have any powers built up. They need time to grow and get stronger. Otherwise if we just bond them to other species, what’s the benefit of them over… that species? They’re adaptable, but the second we bond them to something, that’s it, that’s what they’re bonded to forever. Until you add in the Reaper bonding so they can get more power, but again, that takes time. The only immediate thing we’ll get out of that is more bodies to throw into the fire.”


    “That’s just more reason to start right now,” Tar insisted with a glance toward Rey, who was nodding at him. “If we want to end this war, hell, if we want to survive it, we need to go to Earth, and start building up. We need to stop being quiet and secret about it and just go in there and tell them what’s going to happen next. I guarantee if we put the effort in, we can get more than a couple hundred Heretics powered up. Throw some resources at it and boost that Reaper or something. The scientists can handle it, we just have to get them the human resources to work with.”


    Faya shook his head. “What makes you think we have the resources to spare for a prolonged campaign there? If we do let the humans know the truth and then say we’re forcibly recruiting them to go be soldiers for us, they’ll fight back. I’m not saying they’ll win, but with the rebellion that’s already there, especially Auriel’s people, it wouldn’t be as simple or as quick as you think to bring Earth under control. Wouldn’t it make more sense to work with them and come to an arrangement? If the Heretics on Earth are aware of our situation and agree to actively send people to the front, we could end up not only maintaining our current supply lines, but increasing them.”


    Rey laughed, head shaking. “Oh come on. Like we said, do you really think they’re not just going to hole up on their safe planet and let things play out? What incentive do they have to get involved?”


    Mur gestured. “They’re not idiots out there, you know? If the whole universe falls and they’re all by themselves on that planet, the Fomorians are going to turn all of their attention toward breaking that spell and getting to that planet. No spell is completely perfect. They’ll find a way through if they have to. And if there’s no one else left, they won’t stand a chance. They’ll be overrun in hours. And believe me, the people in charge there, Auriel especially, know that. It’s in their best interests to help with this war.”


    Tar opened his mouth to say something about that, before turning to the newest arrival. “Come on, Caven, what do you think?”


    “What do I think?” the man echoed, leaning back in his seat before taking a sip of the drink one of the waitresses had dropped off moments earlier. “I think we should wait and see how the humans work out their own little civil war. And in the meantime, we have that new access to Tartarus. So we’ll get our own enhanced soldiers, just like the Olympus.”


    Head shaking wistfully, Rey noted, “Can you imagine what it would be like to be selected for the new program?”


    “Well, you don’t have to imagine, if you don’t want to,” Caven informed her, and the rest of them. “See, I just came from the communications hub, and my great-great-great grandfather–well we’re not really related, it’s more of a thing where his father knew my–never mind. The Olympian Radueriel, he says he can get us a spot in their new tests.


    “So what do you say? Forget the humans, who wants to become super soldiers ourselves?”


    ******


    Liam Questions His Choices


    “No, no, no, that can’t be right.” As he said those words, Liam Mason shook his head with a mixture of disgust and disbelief. The man, who could have been a rugby player in another life given his build, wore a dark suit that looked uncomfortable on his broad frame. His dark blond hair was tied back in a short ponytail, though he was considering cutting it. But that was a decision for later. Right now, his gaze remained riveted on the papers that were spread out over Gaia’s desk–no, his desk. It was his desk in his office. Just because it had been hers before, just because–well, her tenure here at Crossroads was over, wasn’t it? She had thrown away her reputation, her authority, everything she had in order to indulge these–


    “What can’t be right, sir?” The voice came from the side of the large room, where Patrick Dinast stood. The black man wore the same incredibly crisp (it always looked as though it was freshly ironed) dark suit, black tie, and red shirt that he had worn every time Liam saw him. Which was a lot, now that the Committee had assigned their former representative to be his assistant.


    And his watcher, Liam was pretty sure. He wasn’t anywhere near Gaia’s level of skill, power, resources, or any of that. Which was no accident. After the Gaia fiasco, the Committee wanted to make sure the position of headmaster was one they could control more thoroughly. It wasn’t quite a puppet position, but it was certainly closer to that than it had been a year ago.


    Gesturing to the papers, which were a mix of actual newspapers, partial clippings, computer printouts, and more, Liam answered in a flat voice. “These are all the reports I could get people to gather about unexplained deaths, disappearances, tragedies, everything that we either know were caused by Strangers, or can reasonably assume. I compared them to the past twenty years.”


    “To prove that the Rebellion has caused there to be a greater number of those events through their interference,” Patrick noted. His eyes flicked from the table to Liam as he lifted his chin fractionally, interpreting the man’s reaction. “But you’ve run into a snag.”


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    “A snag,” Liam echoed, snorting audibly. “You could say that.” Cracking his knuckles, he turned away from the desk to face his ‘aide’ fully. “The numbers are down. Not drastically. Not even really substantially. But they’re not up, not so far. I compared the same time periods. From July through January in every year for the past couple decades. The best I can say is that it hasn’t had a tangible effect.”


    “And, with any luck, they won’t,” Patrick replied smoothly. “It takes longer than a few months for changes such as that to be visible, Headmaster Mason. Particularly as, lest we forget, they are still actively fighting those they deem to be… evil.” He said that last word in a tone that made it clear that it made him feel childish. “Between that and our own heightened patrols, it is not as though the monsters of this world suddenly have free rein. Those who would take advantage are, I believe, assessing the situation and how best to utilize this situation. The death of Fossor would have contributed to that as well. It has left a power vacuum which an assortment of dangerous individuals are likely debating and or fighting amongst themselves to fill. There could be any number of small wars happening within that underworld that we know nothing about.”


    Liam absorbed that, thinking silently for a moment before meeting the other man’s gaze. “I suppose that’s one problem we have. We lack intelligence. I mean, we don’t know anything about that world. When we see the monsters, we kill them. We don’t talk to them. We have no idea how organized they are, whether they have any sort of leadership, what–”


    “Are you saying you wish we took the time to get to know the creatures?” Patrick’s voice wasn’t dangerous or reprimanding. It likely never would be, when directed toward Liam. But the implication was clear.


    “Not in the least,” Liam retorted sharply. “You know where I stand on that. And so does the Committee. I’ve made my position clear repeatedly… and lost friends and family because of it.” Somehow, his voice managed to make it through that without cracking. “I just…”


    Patrick immediately understood. “You thought that gathering evidence to present to your family might convince them to change their minds, and return. And now the suggestion that you may have to wait much longer for the data you’re anticipating to appear has upset you.”


    Liam started to deny that he was upset before pausing. He glanced away, working through a myriad of thoughts before replying. “Yeah, I’m not happy about it. I miss my girls. I miss my wife–hell, I missed her for years, years and then she shows up and she just… leaves again? How could she do that? How could she come back and then take the girls and leave? I don’t–” He cut himself off, realizing he was dangerously close to treating Patrick like a therapist. “Never mind. You can head out now. I won’t have anything for you until tomorrow.”


    A few seconds of silence passed while Patrick was clearly deciding how he should respond, before giving a short nod. “You have my number if anything changes.” With that, he pivoted and headed for the door, pausing just long enough to say, “Teenagers rebel, and these two haven’t seen their mother for a long time. Give them a little time, a little growth, maybe some hard lessons, and they’ll come back.”


    Liam wasn’t sure he believed that. Hell, he wasn’t sure Patrick believed it. But he remained silent and simply waited until the man had left. Once the door closed behind his aide, he gestured, using a wood-control power to make the nearby chair slide out so he could slump down into it. His voice was a dark mutter. “Headmaster. Who are we kidding?”


    Not for the first time that day (let alone over the past months), his thoughts drifted back to that night, to the confrontation with Larissa and the girls. What could he have done differently? What could he have said that would have convinced them to wait, to stay, to believe him?


    Nothing. Not to Larissa, anyway. She was–the time she had spent wherever she was during the time she was gone had changed her too much. That much was obvious. Painful, but obvious. But Scout and Sands, the girls–of course they had chosen to go with their mother. Patrick was right about that much. They’d been away from her for so long. To get her back and then have the chance to leave with her and their friends… yes, of course they’d left. But if he’d been able to say the right thing, or find the right argument, maybe he could have made them change their minds by now.


    Of course, thinking about the different things he could’ve said to convince them to stay also made the man think about something else. It was a thought he would only indulge here alone, without anyone around to see his expression or guess what he was thinking. It was a thought he only rarely allowed even then. What if he had gone with them? What if he had just…


    No, no he couldn’t have done that. It was unconscionable, utterly absurd. He couldn’t set aside his morality to keep his wife and daughters happy any more than he could have set it aside to keep Joselyn and the others happy back in the old days. These creatures were monsters. They enslaved and killed people, and he couldn’t pretend they didn’t just to keep his family together. Staring down at the newspaper clippings told him that much. Even if the number of attacks had yet to notably rise, they still existed. How could Larissa and their girls look at what these monsters did and think that they could be civilized and reasoned with? Just the other day, he had accompanied a group of students on a hunt that had ended up exposing a nest of creatures beneath the nursery of a hospital. They were taking the infants for food.


    If he lived another ten thousand years, Liam was pretty sure he would never understand how anyone could see something like that and think these monsters should be left alive. The very thought that Larissa was allowing things like that to be around their children made his fists clinch. With a muttered curse, he swept a hand out. A small tornado appeared in the middle of the table and sent the papers flying in every direction. They were worthless. Larissa wouldn’t listen to them anymore than she would listen to anything else. She just wouldn’t listen.


    If he had gone with them, if he had pretended to listen to their ridiculous arguments… no, no he wouldn’t have been trusted. For a moment Liam thought he might have been able to show his family how terrible this whole concept was from the inside, but the others never would have allowed him that sort of time. The second he started trying to gently point out the flaws in the Rebellion’s thinking, he would’ve been out of there.


    Damn it! Why wouldn’t they listen?! The thought filled his head as he put both hands against his forehead and slumped down to the floor with his back to the desk. He was the headmaster of Crossroads, and none of it mattered. His family wasn’t here. His wife, his children, the friends he’d had for so long back when he was a student, they were all… they were all gone, in one way or another. They were gone, and he was here, amongst people who were on his side, but whom he had no particular friendship with. There was no one he felt drawn to, no one he could sit with and reveal these thoughts to. They either saw him as the unapproachable headmaster, or as a convenient mouthpiece for the Committee. The respect that Gaia had commanded with the position… he would never have that. Not when he couldn’t even keep his family together.


    Deeper, even more hidden thoughts emerged then, no matter how much he tried to keep them away. What if he didn’t simply pretend to believe the lies about these monsters? How different would his life have been if he actually believed them? What if he had gone with Joselyn back in the day? Or what if he had gone with his family over the summer? They were wrong, of course. There was no question about that. And yet, what if he had allowed himself to believe those lies just to keep his family together? What if he chose to stay with them because he actually thought they were right?


    His first thought was that more people would have died, more innocents. And yet… would they? At least in the short run, it was obvious that there weren’t that many more victims. Not over this past year. So how much of a difference was he really making by staying in this place? He wasn’t a terribly effective headmaster, his presence wasn’t changing the course of the war, or the education of these students. He did his best, but he was under no delusions about being irreplaceable. If he himself was not here, there would be someone else in this office.


    So, what if he wasn’t here? What if he had gone with his family, just to… just to prioritize them? Would that have been so bad? Would it have been impossible for him to live with himself if he just believed their claims and stayed with Larissa and the girls? His family would be together then, at least. Maybe they could have been happy like that. Maybe he could have…


    No. Even as the thought came to his mind, Liam pushed it aside. No, he had responsibilities here. Shoving himself back to his feet, the man made a sound of disgust at his own weakness, at his own selfish desires. Putting aside his morals, ignoring what he knew to be true just to keep his family together? How could he ever do that without looking at every single victim of one of those monsters and wondering if he could have saved them? Or taught someone who would have saved them. It was wrong. They were wrong, and he couldn’t indulge it.


    No matter what it cost him, no matter what he lost, Liam Mason knew what was right. And he could never turn away from that.


    ******


    A Look At What Casey Is Up To


    It really shouldn’t have surprised Casey that the moment she wanted to talk to Dakota Coalbright, the girl went completely MIA. Well, MIA probably wasn’t the right term. From what she had been able to put together by eavesdropping on others, or just asking questions, they had always known where Dakota was. Or at least, in general terms. And she hadn’t been in immediate danger, aside from being locked in an extra-dimensional vault with a killer.


    Okay, it was just possible that her standards for what constituted immediate danger had changed somewhat over the years. But either way, the other girl had been incommunicado for a bit. First because of that whole vault thing, and then while she was being debriefed up in the Fusion school. Which Casey didn’t attend or live in specifically because she had requested to stay down here on Earth. Mostly because to do the things she needed to do in order to track down Jones, she needed to be able to actually go places. And she was pretty sure asking for field trips every weekend without actually explaining what she was doing wouldn’t go over that well with those people. It was hard enough to slip away and do her stuff when she was already here on Earth. Doing it from the Fusion school would’ve been impossible.


    That said, it was probably a little ironic that after deliberately avoiding that place in order to carry out her plan, she now needed to go up there in order to finish it. She had to talk to Dakota, had to convince the girl to help her with this last part. And had to convince her not to tell anyone else about it. Yes, they were pro-Alter, but Casey wasn’t sure how they would react if she told them she was trying to track down and talk to a Reaper. She wasn’t sure how they’d react to anyone saying that, let alone someone they would see as a little kid.


    She could explain the truth to them, could tell them everything… but that was another problem. If she told them about being a full Natural Reaper Heretic, that she gained every power and every memory from everyone and everything she killed… they would treat her differently. There was no way they would let her run around doing her own thing anymore. They’d lock her up. Not as a prisoner, but as someone they had to protect, even more than they did a normal girl her age. She would never be able to go out and do her own thing, and she was pretty sure they wouldn’t let her find Jones. They probably wouldn’t understand that she was different. They’d believe Casey had just been a little girl when she met her and didn’t know what she was talking about now. Or… or any number of things.


    The point was, telling them would complicate everything, both in Casey’s life in general and in trying to find Jones. She couldn’t let that happen.


    Which meant she had to go up to that station, find Dakota, explain what she needed, and convince her to keep quiet about it all without actually letting anyone else know what she was really up to or what she was capable of. She had to be an ordinary little Eden’s Garden Heretic trainee.


    Thankfully, it wasn’t that hard to ask to go up and look around the place. The principal of the Fusion School really wanted as many to join as possible, especially younger students. So she basically had an open invitation. Which did mean that Casey had to go through a whole tour and spiel of what they did–okay, calling it a spiel was far more dismissive than she actually felt about the situation. It was a school on a space station! In the sun! That was freaking awesome. She wanted to attend. But… but it would make everything else too hard.


    Maybe after she found Jones, depending on… depending on how that went. One way or another, a lot of things were going to change once that happened.


    Once the tour was over, Casey and several other Eden’s Garden students who had come up with her were allowed to look around on their own, within the areas where Fusion students were able to go. They were encouraged to find others in their age group and talk to them about what it was like up here. Casey played the part of being unsure what she was going to do, but very enthused about looking around. Which, again, she definitely wasn’t faking. In fact, she had to remind herself that she was here on a mission. It was way too easy for her to get distracted thinking about what it would be like if she was actually a student up here.


    With effort, she managed to push those thoughts out of her mind and asked around about Dakota. Unfortunately, nobody she asked knew where the girl was. A few pointed one way or another, but nobody’s directions panned out, and Casey didn’t want to push the issue too much. That would lead to attention, and to questions, both things she wanted to avoid.


    But that was okay, she had another plan. After giving up on asking around about the other girl, Casey moved to a restroom. She hadn’t been able to do this before coming up here because the spell she had in mind was short-lived, and wouldn’t have lasted all the way through the tour. Stepping into a stall, she locked it, then dug through her pockets, coming out with several small pouches before finding the one she was looking for. Untying the cord, the thirteen-year-old blonde girl emptied the contents into her palm. Three tiny crystals, two coins with intricate runes inscribed on them, and the most important part, several small hairs that had been taken from Dakota’s brush back in her motel room where she had been staying while working to make those vines give off fruit again.


    A moment and a couple words later, and the spell was activated. The hairs disintegrated, and Casey looked around before seeing a glowing cloudy haze somewhere upstairs and to the left. Good, Dakota was on the station and within range. She had been afraid she’d have to wander around for awhile before getting close enough.


    For the next half an hour, nearly the entire length of the spell, Casey carefully made her way through the station while doing her best to look like an ordinary tourist, an overwhelmed teenage girl just trying to see everything she could. But in the end, she finally got to the right apartment. It only took a moment and a couple more powers to assure herself that Dakota was alone in there, at least for now. Which was an opening she took advantage of by ringing the buzzer.


    As she opened the door, Dakota blinked that way. “Uhh…Casey? You came up?” The two of them had been paired together a few times down at the Eden’s Garden rebel area, by sheer virtue of being the same age.


    Adopting a cheerful smile, Casey nodded. “Yup, up here on a tour. You know, just checking the place out and…” She trailed off, abandoning her casual voice now that she had double-checked that Dakota was alone. “Can we talk inside?”


    “Uhh… okay.” Shrugging, the dark-haired girl, who was basically the same age as Casey, stepped back and gestured for her to enter. “I’m sort of just hanging out until Carnival gets back from therapy right now. I… sorry, did you wanna talk about something?”


    “Oh, uhh, I just wanna ask two things,” Casey replied. “First, who’s your favorite Ninja Turtle?”


    Blinking uncertainly, Dakota offered a hesitant, “Um, Donatello, I guess? Why? Wait, you didn’t come all the way up here just to ask me that, did you?”


    “Nope,” Casey replied, “but it was important. Especially if you would’ve said you don’t like the Turtles, then I would’ve known I couldn’t trust you.” She dug through her pockets once more before coming out with a small Donatello action figure. “But see, I made one out of each of them, and one for Splinter too, just in case.”


    “Hang on, is there writing on that thing?” Dakota asked, leaning closer to squint at the figure, which did indeed have red runic symbols drawn over it.


    Casey nodded. “Yeah, that leads to my second question. See, this thing is a secret spell. If you promise not to tell a secret and then activate the spell, the other person will know if you break the promise and tell anyone. I have to tell you something very important, Dakota, and I… I need your help. It’s really important. But I don’t want you to tell anybody. I promise it’s nothing evil or bad and you won’t have to hurt anybody. The spell won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, and it won’t stop you from saying no you don’t want to help me. I just… I need your help to find my friend, and I know that for you to do that, you need to know stuff I don’t want anybody else to know about me. So if you do tell people, I want to have a head start so I can leave, because… because they’ll treat me differently if they know the truth. Truth I haven’t told anybody before. But… but I need your help. I can’t do it without you, I don’t think. Which… which means I have to tell you about it.


    “So, can you keep a secret?”


    *******


    Check In With Robin/Judas/Stasia/Asenath/Shiori


    (The following takes place partway through the current arc, after an upcoming two week time skip)


    The side door of a bar slammed open, as a blue-skinned man went running out of it. He bounced off the brick wall of the building next door before pivoting to race toward the exit. Before he had gone more than three steps, however, a silver robot figure stepped into view, blocking that direction. Seeing them, the blue man spun back to run toward the back of the alley instead. He passed the door where he had come out of, but as he approached the chain-link fence at the rear of the alley, a figure hopped over it, not even touching the fence itself before landing smoothly and silently in front of him. It was a middle-eastern man with dark, spiky hair, an expensive-looking dark turtleneck and slacks, and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.


    Seeing that avenue cut off as well, the blue man spun yet again to head back through the door he had come out of. But that direction was blocked by a pair of Asian girls, similar enough in appearance that their relation seemed apparent. Before the man could react, the smaller of the two snapped both hands out, sending a pair of spinning metal discs flying that way. They embedded themselves in the wall to either side of the man, sending staccato bursts of electricity toward him.


    The man leapt. His blue legs seemed to sink down halfway into the ground before extending sharply, like a spring that had been pushed in and then released. He was launched halfway up the side of the building before bouncing off there toward the roof of the opposite building. He would land there, then jump–


    A fist came out of nowhere as he sailed toward the other roof and safety. It slammed into his face, making his head flatten out and extend to either side in a distinctly cartoonish fashion. The blow arrested his momentum entirely,  knocking him out of the air before sending him sailing back toward the pavement below. With a loud splat, he hit the ground on his back, flattening like a pancake, or like a ball of silly putty being thrown hard.


    With a groan, the blue man opened his eyes and looked around to see all five figures standing over him. The silver robot, the well-dressed man, the two Asian girls, and the slim, dark-blonde woman who had been on the roof waiting for him.


    “Hello, Tawty,” that woman announced in a distinct Russian accent. “We have been looking for you.”


    “Yes, we have,” the robot agreed, their eyes shifting from amber-brown to light pink. “Hope we weren’t interrupting anything. Looked like you were getting ready to go for a jog.”


    The eyes turned red. “We could give you a reason to get your steps in, if you want.”


    “Ohhh hehe… hey it’s you guys,” Tawty slowly managed after pulling himself together. He still laid there on the pavement, not daring to move. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow night.”


    “Is that why you booked a bus ticket for tomorrow morning?” the other Asian girl, the one who hadn’t thrown those electricity-discs at him, asked. “Sorry, Tawty was it? We haven’t met. I’m Asenath. This is my sister, Shiori.”


    “Heretic,” Tawty pointed out, his eyes on the other girl.


    “Don’t worry, I don’t like to kill people unless they make me,” Shiori cheerfully informed him. She put her hands out, and the discs snapped off the wall before flying back to her. “And I don’t think you’re gonna make me.”


    “That right, Tawty?” the well-dressed man, Judas, asked. “We heard you were leaving early tomorrow, so we figured you just forgot about our meeting. We didn’t want you to be all the way on the bus and then remember us. It would’ve just made everything so awkward. So we thought we’d track you down tonight and get that information you promised. You know, the info you told Inanna you’d have?”


    “We hope you still have it,” the still red-eyed Robin–Brawl in this form, noted with a hard stare. “Inanna won’t be happy if you make her go back on her word about finding Rasputin for us.”


    “That’s right,” Judas agreed, his own voice casual. “She’s been trying pretty hard to keep up her end of our deal. And that means you have to keep up your end. Here.” Reaching down, he took the blue man’s hand and helped him to his feet. “The location, Tawty. Where is he?”


    Looking around helplessly and finding no exit, the blue man finally heaved a long sigh. “Okay, look, I’ll tell you where Rasputin went, but you’ve gotta let me hide out in that hidden school of yours.” His eyes were on Shiori. “There are people who aren’t gonna be happy about me telling you anything, and I need promises. I gotta be safe. Hell, you aren’t gonna like hearing about where he is right now.”


    “You’ll be safe, I promise,” Asenath assured him, eyes not leaving the man. “You made a deal, now honor it. Where is Grigori Rasputin?”


    Tawty hemmed and hawed just a little more, but in the end, he told them what he knew. And it was an answer that made everyone present rock back on their heels. Stasia cursed loudly, while Robin and Judas exchanged glances.


    Asenath and Shiori looked at each other as well, for similar yet different reasons. “We have to tell her,” Shiori announced quietly.


    “We have to tell Flick.”