Alma Mater (Heretical Edge Fanfic)

Tamahori · Oct 19, 2019

A chance meeting due to Kushiel bringing her daughter to her project leads to Sariel breaking two girls out of hell, and Felicity Chambers comes to Crossroads with a very different helper.

Disclaimer: While Alma Mater should make sense without having read canon Heretical Edge, reading it without reading canon first is not advised.

Being surprised by the twists and reveals is a key part of the Heretical Edge experience, and Alma Mater spoils more twists than most Peggy Sue fics, and faster.

Please read canon first. It's really good.

Alma Mater

Ambush 1.01

[Saturday, August 5, 2017]

Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, which means it's still not very big because Wyoming. It's still large enough to have an urban area, though, and for all that Forbes named it the best family-friendly small city in the west back in 2010, the back alleys might not be the kind of place a teenage girl wants to go wandering.

So of course I had been wandering through them, what do you take me for; wise? In my defence I had good reasons at the time.

Which is how I found myself in a dead end between buildings with a couple of very dodgy individuals following me. "Hey baby, we just want to talk."

I gave them a rather fixed smile, "Ah, I'm just looking for a way out if that's okay with you?" I was really hoping they were just muggers; there were far worse options that could have decided to follow a skinny blond sixteen year old down a dark alley.

The talkative one of the two walked up to me, moving in close enough that I put my hand up to stop him getting closer. He looked down at that then back at me, "Hey babe, don't worry; we're just looking for a bit of fun." He leaned in towards me, pushing against my raised hand, "Besides, it won't hurt for long." His smile widened, revealing inhuman fangs.

My eyes went wide with shock. Vampires? Wait, I had been chased into an alley by vampires? That really happens? Okay, this was much worse than muggers.

I managed to stammer out, "You don't need to do this; I won't tell anyone anything." My choice of an old Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt today was feeling decidedly ironic.

He seemed a little surprised, but only a little. People seeing something like him for what he was during the event wasn't that rare, and he'd be expecting me to forget the details the moment they were out of sight. For a moment I considered playing along; I knew for a fact I couldn't catch vampirism off him for several reasons, and most of my other options involved dead bodies.

Stay calm. The question isn't can we beat them; it's how much do we reveal by doing so. You have time to choose what to do.

That was easy for her to say. I can't be sure I can outrun both of them, and they've seen my face; I can't risk stories getting out. It's go along or ...

He misread the horror in my eyes as being afraid of him rather than for him. "Don't worry sweet thing, you might even enjoy it … " He gave me a look up and down that almost had me hitting him there and then, "On second thoughts, maybe we should have some other fun first … don't worry, you'll enjoy that too."

Okay. Going along with this was no longer an option.

I'm sorry, Felicity. I didn't want you to have to do this so soon.

Feeling sick at what I was about to have to do, I managed to force a smile. "I thought the shirt would be a warning."

It took him a moment to react, then he glanced down and it was his turn to have his eyes go wide, "Chris, I think it's a … "

I needed that moment to will myself to take the next step. I felt and ignored the mental offer from my partner to take over. I'd made the choice, so it would be my finger on the trigger.

Since he'd put himself in contact with my hand I took advantage of that and let the energy inside me uncoil. The snap of enough electrical current to not just stop his heart but outright cook it slamming into him was oddly muted and there was only a pale glow around my fingers for a moment. The thought that I was definitely getting better at control of this helped distract me from the sick feeling of what I'd just done.

Vampires are fast, fast enough that to normal human perceptions they seem to teleport and they have the reaction speed to match. The moment I killed the man in front of me Chris was moving in something that would have been a blur to anyone normal.

As his fist lashed out at me I moved, flicking to one side just as fast as he was, getting clear of the wall so that I had some room to work with. He spun to face me and snarled, "Heretic!"

I forced a grin, "One of these days somebody really needs to tell me why people keep calling me that." I flickered forwards, lashing out with a punch to the head that he shifted slightly to dodge. If I was being a proper superhero I should have had some cheesy one-liner here but I was trying really hard not to think about what I'd just done, and what I was about to do.

He came at me and it was increasingly clear he knew a lot less about how to fight than I had learned from my few years of self-defence, "Fuck you bitch."

Krav Maga isn't much of a defensive style so much as an offensive style, either you're putting somebody down or you're running for it. I threw a couple more strikes to distract him and he totally missed my foot lashing out to take his knee out. If they can't walk, then they can't chase you, or fight back nearly as well. That's one of the early things they teach you. More thoughts to distract myself from what was about to happen and I needed the distraction, I could feel myself trying to lock up.

He screamed and tried a few more frantic blows but nothing that could stop me from grabbing him by the head. All I could say was "Sorry." Another muted crack that I knew I'd be hearing in my nightmares and he was gone.

My name is Felicity Lillian Chambers, and I'm a magical girl that fights monsters.

Dammit, there were three.

What? I turned towards the alley entrance to see another figure looking at me with wide eyes, revealing his nature a moment later as he turned inhumanly fast to run. Shit. I considered letting him go but he'd seen too much. There was no way I'd easily catch him, but I did have other options.

I moved my hands though a couple of quick circular motions leaving trails of crackling energy behind and brought two fingers up to aim at his back in a move I unashamedly stole from a cartoon. It was stupid but it helped me focus and when it came to ranged attacks with this I needed all the help I could get. My aim was lousy.

All this became a moot point a moment later as he reached the t-intersection at the far end of the alley we were in and let out a faint glurk sound as he ran into a sword neck first.

The owner of said sword walked around the corner a moment later, giving the vampire a quick look to confirm that yes she had just taken his head off before looking over at me with a raised eyebrow and my fingers complete with crackling aura now pointed at her.

That's not a vampire.

Ah, it seems the school has found us.

I didn't release the charge but I did move my wrist to point up at the sky, "Ah, hi. Just to check we're not about to fight are we?"

I guessed her age at her mid-thirties, and her features were sharply aristocratic, with high cheekbones, blonde hair tied into a tight braid, and piercing green eyes. She wore a pitch-black suit with an equally dark shirt beneath it, and a thin red tie. Her hands were covered by dark red gloves, one of which was still holding her sword which she had lowered to be beside her, "I would hope not Miss Chambers. I came here to talk to you, not fight you."

I let the charge dissipate, "I'll be with you in a moment." Then I walked over to a dumpster and, trying to be as controlled and professional about it as possible, threw up into it.

When I straightened up a damp cloth was handed to me which I took gratefully and used to wipe my face, "Ah, so I don't think I've met you, but you obviously know me."

This would be the first real test for the bracelet I was wearing. It had belonged to my mother so it had a lot of emotional significance for that reason, but in this case the important came from the carefully laid enchantments on it, the ones that we really hoped would be fooling the lie-detection powers the woman I wasn't supposed to know about was using on me.

She gave me a small smile, "My name is Virginia Dare and I am the instructor of both fencing and American History in Crossroads Academy, a school that trains people to fight monsters and protect bystanders from them. We've been following you for a little while and were going to introduce ourselves in the near future… " she looked around at the alley, "I apologize that I did not step in much faster, you've never killed somebody before have you?"

You should have let me take over.

I don't get a choice in this Theia, you know that. It was always going to be when, not if, something like this happened.

It will get easier.

I know, and that scares me.

I slowly shook my head letting the shivers come, "I … I've killed creatures before, that's all I was expecting to find on this trip. You get some weird things that … people just seem to see them as cats or dogs or rats and … "

She gave me a sympathetic nod, "We should probably go somewhere else to talk. There is a cafe nearby we can have enough privacy, we should certainly get out of this alley." She looked around, "I will ensure things are cleaned up. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble."

I let her guide me out and it mostly wasn't faked. They were evil, they were going to mug me and rape me and probably kill me but … they were people, and I ended them. I started shivering more and she put an arm around my shoulder as we left the alley.

About 10 minutes later we were sitting in a quiet cafe, my hands clenched around the large mostly empty glass of lemonade she'd gotten for me. The coin sitting in the middle of the table was apparently ensuring nobody else would listen in or pay too much attention to things like the panic attack I'd just finished having.

Just breathe Felicity, just breathe.

Her voice was still calm and soothing and I got the strong feeling she was honestly concerned for me which was nice, "It's alright that you feel terrible, you've been through a very traumatic experience."

I blinked, "Not as traumatic as theirs … " huh, I could still make jokes. I guess that was a good sign. I think that was a joke. "Ah … you said I wasn't in trouble. Are you some kind of supernatural police?"

"We are the closest equivalent, though we're not government backed. They are no more aware of the magical world than the rest of the public. We're not really police, we are hunters. We find Strangers like those vampires that prey on humanity and destroy them."

I looked up at her, "What about the other ones? There are a lot of other non humans around, they don't seem to bother anyone else and I don't bother them. I tried talking to a few but they leave as soon as they work out I can see them … and what's a Heretic?"

I am honestly curious how she's going to spin this.

She might try telling the truth.

That would be novel.

She gave me a considering look, "That is a simple question with a very complex answer. You're aware of the people that call themselves Alters, their own name for anything that isn't human, and you just had your first encounter with what are called Nocen, literally evil ones. Another term useful to know is Bystanders, our term for the vast majority of humanity that isn't aware of Alters and can't see them even if they walk in front of them, a phenomenon we call the Bystander Effect."

Lords … she's going with the truth. I did not plan for that. Every good magical girl needs a talking animal, or in this case a snarky voice in my head with a pronounced tendency towards the cynical.

I nodded slowly, none of this was actually news to me but it was important she believed it was or questions would come up like 'how did you know' and I was pretty sure 'Well, I have a fallen angel in my head and she tells me things.' wouldn't go down well. "Okay, it's good to know the terms. Are all vampires 'Nocen' … those were vampires right, with the fangs and everything?"

"Ah, no. Nocen refers to evil individuals or groups, not normally entire species. They were Nocen because they were evil, they just also happened to be vampires." she paused to think "All Alters have some form of special power, or several. Vampires have their speed for example."

"And those weird lizard things from a couple of weeks ago could breathe fire." Those things had been a pain to fight, unreasonably tough critters that I'd had to resort to stabbing and then electrocuting the knife blade.

She smiled, "Ah, that's what you were after that time, we were not quite sure. So, humans have one special ability, if they get the blood of an Alter inside them this sometimes grants them some of that Alter's powers, and more can develop over time. It also makes them immune to the Bystander Effect and lets them use magic like that coin. The most widely used term for these people, like you and me, is Heretics." She paused for a moment. "On that note, we've not been able to work out how you gained your powers."

This was the biggest hole in the whole scheme. She seemed to be above board but I was a long way off trusting her enough with 'I did a blood-sister oath with my adopted younger sister who turned out to be an Alter', and we didn't have any way to fake an encounter with something so 'weird mystery' was our best option. "I don't know. I mean I woke up one day and things were different. I tried showing dad what I could do and it's the first time I've ever gotten anything past him."

A blink was as far as she went for showing surprise. "That's unexpected. You really have no idea?"

I shrugged, "Some really weird dreams but nothing clear enough to describe something from. I'm sorry I can't help more … since then, well, I started seeing other things and ended up seeing if I could find out anything more because the Internet didn't have much to say, ran into some really weird and aggressive critters while trying to figure out my powers and " I spread my hands out then paused, "Which means either something happened and I forgot, or somebody snuck into my room to do this and that's very creepy."

Technically there is an Alter that watches you while you sleep.

You're my sister, that's totally different.

She nodded, "Indeed it is." She looked a little less certain for a moment, "I need to explain to you why most Alters are afraid of you."

Oh, this should be interesting.

"I had been wondering about that. Having a sweet little old lady, scales or not, run away from you like you're going to murder her is a bit … disconcerting."

Virginia winced a little, "I can imagine. The problem started with how Natural Heretics, like you and myself get our powers. In my case it was by surviving when the place I grew up was destroyed, many Natural Heretics have similar stories. Their first encounter with finding out that another world exists is hostile and traumatic, it's very easy to think that all Alters are evil after that."

"But … I've seen Alters that just seem to want to live their lives, not hurting anyone."

She nodded, "Yes, and a lot of them do, but there are enough Nocen out there that are monsters, that use their powers and effective invisibility to do whatever they want, that somebody who runs into them on a regular basis could think the others are just waiting for the right time to attack. A serial killer doesn't spend all the time killing people, but they are still a killer that needs to be put down."

That made a horrible kind of sense.

"More recently the situation has become worse because it's not just Natural Heretics anymore. There is a kind of Alter called a Reaper, they 'feed' off death, they don't kill people they just hang around where death happens. But there is another version of them, a nocen called a Hangman. They do not wait for death to happen, they cause it, and when they kill something they absorb their powers, similar to how we got our powers in a sense.

"A man named Hieronymus Bosch was attacked by and managed to kill a Hangman and became a Natural Heretic in the process but also gained their power to kill other Alters to take their abilities in turn. Later in his life he created an item we call the Heretical Edge from the remains of the Hangman which allowed the creation of what are now just called Heretics, people that are no longer affected by the Bystander Effect, can use magic … and if they kill an Alter will gain some part of one of the Alter's abilities. It's not nearly as efficient as a what a Natural Hangman Heretic gains but is still allows somebody to become very powerful over time."

I wonder if she knows that it's not the truth of what really happened.

Yeah. I have a feeling that 'The secret behind his genius was being possessed by the Greek God of the Forge' might not play so well with the All Alters are Evil Camp. At this point I didn't know if she was deliberately choosing to give me the 'public' version of history or I might myself know more than she did about the history of her own organisation. It said something that 'there is a magical world under the surface that normal people can't see' was only the first level of a mess of conspiracies and secret histories. Thanks to my sister I knew far more about them then I honestly wished I did.

I asked the obvious question, "This means that Heretics can be created that don't have the same messy history of most Naturals. Shouldn't that make them more likely to not feel the urge to attack Alters on sight?"

A sigh, "You would think that, but the Edge and Crossroads Academy were founded by people with histories that told them all Alters, or as they call them Strangers, are evil. And they have passed this onto their students. Worse yet Heretics created by the Edge sense Alters on sight, and the 'ping' is two-way, so the Alter knows a Heretic has found them and far too often their only option is to run, or fight back."

Theia's mental voice was sad, When my people set a system up we set it up well. Indoctrination, the reaper ping, everything set up to make sure the 'us or them' mindset is as strong as possible.

This was an old argument between us, You are not your people Theia, this is a system that's been running for hundreds of years, thousands if you count the Bystander Effect, you're not even 30. Yes, the voice in my head is older than me, there is an interesting story behind that. For the time being let's just say I have something in common with Hieronymus Bosch.

I gave her a level look, "And you work there. You're one of the people training Heretics to go out and kill everything non-human. This sounds like something I should be fighting against."

Her face was calm, "Yes it is, and I want your help to fight it from within. You were already a candidate for Crossroads before you became a Heretic, now you are certain to be brought in for your own protection. We need you, there are very few of us that know the truth, that know things must change. We're doing our best to find others that will understand, that have friendly relationships with Alters or otherwise know that not all Alters are the enemy. With enough people we can change our society from within, turn Crossroads into the force for good it should be."

Ya know, that she had this attitude would have been useful to know a few years ago.

A few years ago I was still a Bystander and thought you were just my imaginary friend.

If we'd known this Tabbris and I might have bonded you and dad quite a bit earlier. If I'd known this back when Tabbris and I were in Crossroads pretending to be human we could have done things entirely differently.

Does this mean we should trust her with the truth?

Not yet. We don't know that she doesn't have somebody else in her head. My people are far too good at hiding.

When I was seven years old my mother ran out on dad and I and I swore I would never forgive her for that.

When I was ten I got a younger sister and unknowingly picked up a guest in my head.

When I was thirteen a desperately lonely girl got a voice in my head that slowly convinced her that maybe she'd been wrong about her mother.

Six months ago I became a Natural Heretic and was told the truth that my mother was taken from me, probably by the worst person in the world and somebody I had no hope of winning against.

I needed more power, I needed allies, I needed Crossroads. So I let her talk me into what had been my goal since before I started going out hunting monsters.

"When my mother became a sheriff it was so she could protect people. I'm pretty sure she'd want me to do the same here. I'll come to Crossroads."

So this is my first really big fanfic, I hope people enjoy it.

Current plan is that chapters will get posted here once a week at around 0600 UTC Saturday, and then posted to AO3 a day later to take advantage of anyone pointing out typos.

Tamahori · Oct 19, 2019

Ambush 1.02

[Saturday, August 5, 2017]

So when Virginia was asking if I wanted to come to Crossroads she apparently meant right away, at least if only for a quick visit.

I got to see my first portal, which was honestly a lot less interesting than I expected. She took us into an alley and opened a door that should have led back into the cafe but instead led into a fairly plain room which we stood in for a few moments before heading out though some more doors and corridors, finally coming out the front entrance of a distinctly odd building shaped like an eight story tall lowercase T, the cross-stoke at the sixth story.

So we just walked through a lot of security that didn't see me and I'm pretty sure they didn't see the bracelet. One would hope so because otherwise some really awkward questions would come up.

Given you've apparently walked through this place in your own skin and they didn't notice, it's hardly a shock you managed to do it while hidden in my head. Theia had had a physical body once. I had a long-term hope we could get her back into it at some point, for her sake, but there were some major … complications there that would be a pain to work around.

Yes. Almost the most secure location this school has and I managed to walk right through it without them noticing a thing. The rest of my people can do the same, Don't trust any school provided security further than you have to. Always the lessons, but she was right. This was enemy territory and my only defence was to not get caught in the first place.

Virginia stopped once we were outside and pointed back at the building we had come from, "We call this the Pathmaker, its main function is to create portals like the one we just used to get here." Then she gave a wave of her hand indicating the area in front of us, "Welcome, Miss Chambers, to the island that we call home."

I had seen pictures, even shared some of Theia's memories of her time here. They did not measure up to the reality.

We were on the side of a grass-covered mountain that overlooked an absolutely breathtaking beach, what looked like a small six-story palace at the top of the mountain with walls of white marble and gargoyle statues on the roof. Other buildings were scattered around, of comparatively mundane brick and wood. The distant beach looked like a utopia. The kind of impossible perfection you saw when people took pictures of the most beautiful beaches in the world and then photoshopped them to take out all those little imperfections. The way the clear blue water lapped up against that white sand, the idyllic palm trees, a paradise that couldn't exist in the real world.

Theia's tone was soft, I missed this place. It was nice here.

Weren't you and Tabbris hiding from your own species in a place full of people that would kill you without hesitation if they realised neither of you were human?

The past six years in your head where I haven't had to worry that the slightest mistake will get me or somebody I care about killed are still a bit weird. Being back here is oddly relaxing.

Your mother really fucked you up.

That is the truth.

Wide cobblestone paths led between the buildings and she set off towards the palace at the top of the mountain. Past the palace and visible in other directions was a red brick wall that seemed to surround the entire school with a thick jungle beyond it. The sounds from the jungle were oddly muted by the environmental dome I wasn't supposed to know about yet. The same thing was keeping me from getting overheated by the tropical sun that should be cooking me right now. Magic was awesome and getting to learn it was one part of coming here that I had no regrets about.

As I followed after her she spoke up, "Now that you're here I should explain things."

Ah, here comes the official story. Take notes, there will be a quiz later.

"The term we call ourselves, Heretic, comes from two sources. The root term is a Greek word meaning 'choice', and we are the ones that choose to follow this life, to go through the training, to separate ourselves from society and put ourselves between those that would destroy us for following forbidden teachings and the monsters that would consume the world. By definition our teachings are heretical because the talk about things that most people find it impossible to remember let alone accept."

I nodded, "And the monsters?"

"They go by many names and take many forms. Collectively we call them Strangers. To Bystanders they don't exist, even looking at one they won't see it for what it is. Their minds filling it in to be something normal, something horrific but mundane. Sometimes ghost memories will survive, from this we get legends like vampires, aliens, demons, but the truth is something far different."

I had to stop for a moment, "Yeah, I kinda picked up on that the vampire had a heartbeat ... before I ..."

Breath Felicity, just breath.

Virginia gave me time to collect myself, "We have several therapists here, I can arrange for you to talk to one before you leave today, it could help." She sighed, "I wish I could say this is the last time you will have to do something like that but we exist to stop them, no matter what form they take be it harmless to look at, or horrific. They are all Strangers, all the enemy of everything we care about. The moment they know what you are, what you can do, they will either attack or run so they can do their damage elsewhere, and you will need to be ready to destroy them at the first opportunity."

It's depressing how easily she can say that. Theia's tone was morbid. I can understand it though, under the right situation you have to get very good at believably saying things you don't believe.

This was the 'truth' that almost everyone else here was taught: that everything non-human was an enemy, either an immediate threat or waiting for the moment your guard was down.

It's a sad life thinking everyone, everything, is the enemy.

Not everyone, not anymore. And we can find your old friends here, Sarah and Sandoval.

Speaking of people that would have killed me if they knew what I was.

We'll have to see if I can talk them around a bit. I've got a family legacy in that area to live up to.

Joselyn Chambers, nee Atherby. I'm not sure if mom was the founder or just a very active member of the group Virginia was asking me into, but she had been a student at this very school a century ago. A Heretic that knew that not all Alters were the enemy. She had protected them when she could, brought others to her side, and saved as many people as she could. She had been so good at it that they had not only banished her from here, sent to live as an ignorant Bystander stripped of her powers, but had removed everyone else's memory of her as well so her mission would be lost with her.

As far as almost everyone knew my mother was just another Bystander. But thanks to my sisters I knew the truth. She was a hero and I was going to do my best to live up to her example. Starting with finding Theia's oldest living friends and convincing them that just because the girl they had known as Alyson wasn't human didn't mean she was bad. I had to start somewhere, and getting Theia her friends back was as good a start as I could think of.

While thinking about this I'd been following Virginia in silence and she'd been willing to give me some space to think about what had happened in the alley. "I … I might take you up on that at some point. Not today, I think I need to think about this myself before I talk to anyone else."

She nodded, "The offer will remain open. In the meantime the Headmistress wished to meet you. If you do join us here you will be something of a special case. You're far from the first Natural Heretic student we've had, but they have always had unique factors to their situation."

Does she know about mom?

Almost certainly, there is no way they would have sent someone ignorant to meet with you.

The massive doors at the front of the palace started to swing open as we approached. She gestured to the building, "This is primary academics. You will have your basic math, science, and other such lessons here. It is also where the faculty offices are." Which explained why we were here, though given how much the building stood out there was no way the Headmistress wasn't based in it.

The palace, or Primary Academics, didn't get any less impressive on the inside as we walked into a large entryway with expensive-looking leather couches along both walls, divided by gold-plated suits of armor that stood at attention with alternating swords and spears. Overhead a series of elaborate chandeliers provided the lighting. I didn't even want to try and guess at the cost of this place, and that was before we got to the enchantments that were undoubtedly layered on it.

Virginia led us into the building, past corridors lined with mirrors and doors that led into empty classrooms, up several flights of large stairs till arriving outside a door simply labeled 'Headmistress'. Virginia smiled, "You'll like this bit." Then she knocked on the door.

The door itself dissolved before my eyes, like a waterfall that gradually stopped to reveal the room beyond. Okay that was honestly cool.

I've never actually been here, she always came to see me. I have to say, it's not bad.

That was an understatement. We walked into the massive room that was far bigger than should have fit here. My first exposure to a large scale expanded space effect. The ceiling itself stretched up thirty feet above my head, sloping into a dome shape. Across the dome I could see a holographic globe of the world, rotating at a slow, steady pace. Here and there random flares of green, yellow, or red would pop up at various spots, and once in awhile, the flare would turn gold before disappearing.

Strategic planetary reports, I assume the gold flare means Heretics dealt with it.

Meanwhile, the room itself was divided into two equal levels. On the level I was on, the floor was covered in a thick, soft white carpet. The walls were wood with several paintings that seemed to be an equal mix of brilliant artists that were probably worth thousands if not millions of dollars, and the kind of amateurish stuff that could have come straight from my family's fridge while I was in preschool. I was willing to bet a bunch of them were just that. Theia had given me first hand memories of how the Headmistress was around children like her and my younger sister.

The upper level was accessible through two different sets of stairs that led to a sort of landing that ran all the way around with a waist-high guard rail and open space in the middle that allowed someone to see the domed ceiling from the lower level. Against the walls of that upper level I could see bookshelves. Lots of bookshelves, all heavily laden with their contents to the point of sagging a bit.

We have got to get on her good side so we can read some of those.

Not wanting to break in?

The list of places in this school I cannot break into is very small. This room is the top of that list. She'll have set up the security here personally, if we can trust her then this is probably the safest place from the Imperium in the school. If we can trust her.

That was the question, and I had a missing mother that made me reluctant to take that step without a lot more proof.

The woman in question was standing in front of what had to be her desk on the lower level at the back of the room, about sixty feet away. It was directly in front of a series of floor to ceiling windows that stretched the entire eighty foot width of the room. Each window was about four feet wide, and each displayed a completely different view. One showed the middle of a jungle, while the one directly next to it showed a busy street in what looked like New York City. Meanwhile, another showed an alley that looked very familiar.

If she's willing to bring us in this far do we want to tell her about mom's note?

I think it might be worth seeing her reaction.

She gave me a smile, "Hello Felicity, I am Gaia Sinclaire and I run Crossroads. I'm very glad that you agreed to come and talk with me." Ignoring the desk she led the three of us over to a table with three comfortable looking chairs already in place. "Please have a seat. I understand Virginia has already apologised but I would like to add my own that we allowed things to get to that point." She nodded to the window showing the alley where the bodies and damage had already been cleaned up, "We were monitoring the situation but things moved unexpectedly quickly."

Huh. I'm pretty sure they didn't expect you to move that quickly. She was plenty close enough to kill all three vampires before they got past threats.

But not before I …

Don't blame yourself Felicity. They chose to put you in a situation where you had to defend yourself.

I felt Virginia take my hand as I started to have another small freak-out and guide me into the chair. "Just breath, deep breaths … there, that's better." She said as she sat down next to me which did help. I expect I wasn't the first student of hers she'd had to help though a moment like this.

The headmistress waited for me to get myself together before talking, "We can speak freely here. I just want to introduce myself and make sure you understand what we are asking of you."

I took a few moments then looked at her, "You want me to go through classes where I'm going to be trained to kill anything non-human and not let on that I'm not a racist? I think I get that bit. I'm guessing it's going to be dangerous too, if most Heretics are happy to kill any Alter that gets in their way I'm going to assume they don't take well to traitors?"

She didn't noticeably react to the bluntness of my description but just nodded, "Yes. Normally if they found out your real thoughts they would banish you by putting you through the same process we use to grant powers in reverse, stripping you of any powers you had acquired, wiping your memory of your time here, and making you a Bystander again. They can't do that with you because you're a Natural Heretic, the most they can do is strip the powers you would have gotten here."

And good luck trying to wipe your mind and make it stick. I dare them to come up with anything I can't fix afterwards.

Her slight smile faded, "There is a very real chance that if you are caught you could be killed."

Well, I couldn't say she was sugarcoating it. "I assume you two are at the same risk if I get caught and they find out how I got here?"

Gaia nodded, "Yes, we are putting a great deal of trust in you but I'm willing to take that risk." She gave that a moment to sink in, "There is an option you can consider. We do train up some Natural Heretics that choose not to go through the Heretical Edge. They are considered to be throwing away a chance at power by most here but there are also advantages. Mainly you are comparatively invisible, you'll not have the ability to detect alters on sight, but they won't be able to tell you by sight either."

I'd known that was technically an option, I hadn't expected her to offer it though. She was being a lot more open about everything that Theia and I had expected, though Theia would be the first to admit she had a low opinion of people. Still, if she was going this far, then I could throw them a bone of my own.

"I'll have to think about that. I've got a question of my own though. Your name is fairly unique, but I've seen it before. When my mother disappeared the very last thing she wrote for me was 'You can trust Gaia.' in a place I wouldn't find it till years later. I don't suppose you might have any reason why your name might the one thing she wanted to make sure I'd find?"

There was a long pause as they looked at each other.

Ha! We can surprise them.

The headmistress was the first to speak, "Magic is a vast and amazing thing, you can do impossible wonders with it and terrible acts. To use a random example it is possible, with massive amounts of effort, to use magic to hide a concept, be it an idea or a story."

I gave her my best raised eyebrow, "Like the Fidelius Charm from Harry Potter?"

She nodded, "Similar. The idea is that you take an idea that you don't want anyone to know about and you wrap it in a massive spell, anyone that wasn't part of the casting or specifically excluded from it will forget everything related to the idea you hid. People that were part of the casting can't tell anyone that doesn't already know the idea, the magic will prevent them remembering, it's like a very focused version of the Bystander Effect. I've always assumed spells like that were inspired by it."

Technically the other way around. The Bystander Effect is the ... second largest Mnemosyne Spell that I know of. Tabbris is named after the caster of the largest.

I was going to have to ask her for that story sometime.

It was Virginia's turn, "Somebody covered by the spell can still learn things separately. They just can't directly be told."

I looked at the two of them, "So hypothetically speaking you might have known mom but a spell is stopping you talking about it."

Gaia gave me a small smile, "I couldn't possibly say."

Virginia looked up at the globe above, "On a totally unrelated note, the school records in the security room are protected from all sorts of magical tampering. A prevention to stop students or anyone else interfering with them, though any records are only unaltered in the room. They are however closely monitored."

It was my turn to give her a look, then I nodded. It was time for a question I didn't know the answer to, not for sure, "You've looked into my background … my mother apparently left dad and I for another person. Without going into how you know anything, do you think that's what happened?"

"No" Gaia's tone was firm, "There is not a chance that she would abandon you like that."

Virginia was nodding, "None at all."

Theia had been telling me this for years but the absolute certainty from both both of these women that had worked with mom for most of a century was comforting.

I told you. Joselyn Atherby, or Joselyn Chambers, she would never abandon her family.

She'd never told me why she was so certain, because she couldn't. The Mnemosyne spell they had just told me about wasn't the only one in effect, and Theia hadn't managed to get past the other one yet. Assuming there was only one. People seem to throw those things around annoyingly often where my life is involved.

I slowly nodded, "Okay … then somebody took her. Somebody that could force her to lie to me, but still leave a message to find you. Somebody I assume related to her perfectly mundane history."

"Yes. We don't know who, there are sadly too many options." Gaia's reply was careful, which was good because I was honestly pissed off. These were the people that were supposed to keep her revolution going but they were also, I assume, supposed to look after her. Stop her, for example, getting kidnapped by the most evil necromancer on the planet.

I leaned back in the chair, thinking out loud, "Mom had enemies, lots of them … she got herself banished and wiped from people's memory … you were very willing to trust me with your plans." I looked at the two of them, "Mom was part of this, yeah I know, you can neither confirm or deny … what I want to know is where were you? Somebody took her, somebody from the history that doesn't exist came and took her. Why wasn't she watched?"

Gaia was picking her words with more care in front of my anger, "Somebody that had caused problems on a large scale would be watched by several groups … To get past them, the enemy would be skilled and powerful. We're not perfect." Her regret was obvious, hers and Virginia's.

I think they honestly did do their best. Fossor is … the Empire has been trying to wipe him out for a long time, among other things I think Hades takes him as a personal insult. Fossor is hard to stop when he gets going.

Then they should have been better. I wasn't ready to let this go yet.

"I … I assume suspicious events around a student's parents would get investigated? And if something weird has already happened, like missing mothers or unexpected Natural Heretics, there might be extra security?"

Extra security was honestly going to be a problem, but I had a part to play here.

Gaia's nod was firm, "We will investigate to the full extent of our abilities and ensure your family is protected."

I slowly nodded, "Good … they're all I have left. I don't have a choice about getting involved in this, " I waved a hand at the room, "They can still stay out of it."

It looked like the anti-lie-detector bracelet was working because both of them took that blatant fib at face value. Also the training in my family had given me in advanced untruths. My younger sister especially was disturbingly good at it, which made a sad kind of sense and at least she never used it on us. I think … I hope? I needed to talk to her at some point about that.

Virginia gave me a comforting smile, "We will make sure of that. They will be safe."

I couldn't help the slightly doubtful look I gave her, but I pushed the feelings down, "How will this work? My … double agent thing?" Well, triple at this point.

Gaia took over the conversation, "Virginia will be your contact. It will be much easier for her to contact you than myself. For the safety of all involved I will not tell you who else I have around here unless it becomes directly useful." She thought for a moment, "With one exception … Klassin Roe is one of the school's therapists. You can trust him, fully. Among other things he takes patient confidentiality very seriously. It may be good for you to talk to him at some point."

"Ah … soon. Just not … now. I need to think about some of this … Don't worry, I can keep it keep it hidden from dad. I've had to get good at that lately."

"If you are quite sure." Gaia nodded slightly, "We will use our standard cover story, that you've been provided a full scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. I apologize but we'll have to modify the memories of your family so they recall this having been set up for some time. Given your situation I feel that starting training early would be useful, so you'll be making early trips to your new school on the weekends to get to know it. This does mean that you'll need to stop your current hunting trips."

I gave an entirely real shudder, "I think I'm not going to want to do those for a bit. Not after … "

She had an understanding look, "If you want you can head directly back home now, but otherwise I've arranged for someone to give you a tour of the campus, two daughters of one of our teachers that will be in your year."

You don't think that will be …

How many twin girls of your age that happen to be related to teachers do you think they have here? I've been wanting to see them again.

I'm glad. I know what they mean to you. It will be nice to get to meet them myself and not just in your memories.

"I think I'd like that … and a walk around might do me good right now."

"Very well. I thank you for agreeing to come to the school, and to help us. Virginia can introduce you to the Masons."

Yep, it's them.

I don't know how I feel about this.

Happy. You should feel happy.

I'm not … good at happy.

Well, at least one upside. Compared to helping my sister put her life back together, trying to fake out an entire society of monster hunters was feeling easy.

Tamahori · Oct 19, 2019

Ambush 1.03

[Saturday, August 5, 2017]

Oh. They've grown. I knew they would have but I hadn't … it hasn't been that long has it?

It's been seven years, Theia.

I'd gotten memories of Sarah and Sandoval Mason from Theia, but as I said, it had been a while. The memories I had were of a pair of nine year olds, not a pair of identical and honestly quite pretty brunettes my age, with long straight hair and the same kind of brown eyes as me. They were probably about four inches shorter than me, putting them at an even five feet. I say them because if, it hadn't been for their behaviour I couldn't have told the difference between the two of them.

They were talking to Virginia, who obviously knew them well and was, based on Theia's stories of them, presumably giving them orders not to fire up the Heretical Edge to show me it or something equally crazy as we stood outside the front doors of the palace. Sorry, Primary Academics … still looked like a palace to me, even more so now that I'd seen the inside.

One of the twins was doing all the talking while the other was almost hiding behind her. Based on Theia's stories, I was guessing the one speaking was Sarah, though Theia had never described Sands as shy.

Oh. Oh Sarah, what happened to you?

Wait. That's Sarah at the back? But … you described her as being like me, but more so.

She was … What happened to her?

This was really not good. I kind of felt like I half knew them already and I had been looking forwards to meeting those who had been so important to both my sisters. To see Sarah like this hurt … worse was that these were some of Theia's oldest still living friends. Don't ask about the not-living ones, I honestly wish I didn't know the full details there. Theia was very protective of people she cared about, and not always good at 'restraint' or 'limited use of force'.

It said something that her helping me beat my bullies up at school had been useful in teaching her how to hold back.

Seriously though, once Theia got past the shock...

I am going to find who did this and destroy them!

Yeah. That.

Virginia gestured me over. At some point I was going to have to get used to calling her Professor Dare again, but after somebody helps you through a panic attack like I had at the cafe, you end up on first name terms.

"Felicity, this is Sandoval and Sarah Mason. Sands, Scout, this is Felicity Chambers, recent Natural Heretic who will be joining Crossroads when the school year starts."

I ignored the voice in the back of my head who was 'having a moment' and gave my best smile, "Hi, my friends call me Flick. So I'm guessing you're used to this place?"

Virginia gave us all a smile and then headed back into the building while Sands grinned, "Call me Sands, and she's Scout. We grew up here, dad teaches English Literature. Welcome to Crossroads, Professor Dare said something about you fighting vampires?" Beside her, Sarah managed a small smile in greeting.

I winced a little, "Ah yeah … I was out looking for weird critters and ran into … well, it got messy."

Sands sobered up, "Anytime Strangers are involved things get bad." She elected to change the topic, "So what have you seen so far?"

"Not a lot, Virg … um Professor Dare told me about the Pathfinder when we got here and we came directly to um, Primary Academics? I have to say, this place is amazing."

Sands grinned, "It really is, still sounds like we get to show you all of it. Come on, student accommodation is this way. Are you staying on campus?"

"No, just visiting on weekends till the start of the school year proper … and I don't think anyone told me when that was."

Sands led us directly across the grass, "It's a month away, well, five weeks for us first years. They start us later than the rest. So this is where you'll be staying when you start here properly … "

Theia had shown me pictures and even shared memories of this place, but it just wasn't the same. Everything was perfect from the weather to the scenery and the facilities the twins showed me around were beyond top-notch. Even the entertainment systems in the commons area were the latest thing out in the Bystander world. Magical Britain this place was not.

"And this is the Lighthouse. I'm guessing the professor told you about the Edge?"

The building in question was a tall slim lighthouse right on the edge of the mountain looking out over the beach far below. "The Heretical Edge, your way for making somebody into a 'reaper' Heretic? Is there really a head in that thing?"

I don't know how hard it was for the Empire to catch that, but I got the impression they lost quite a few people in the process. There are things worse to fight than a pissed off Reaper, but not many.

Sarah snickered a little while Sands nodded, "I'm told so, never seen it myself. We just call ourselves 'Heretics' as opposed to Natural Heretics like you."

Sarah leaned over to whisper in Sands ear. I had yet to hear a word out of her myself, a far cry from Theia's stories of Sarah being the more talkative one of the pair.

Sands looked at her then back at me, "Ah, I know it can be rude to ask, but … "

I shrugged, "We don't know. I don't even know how I got bonded, or whatever you call it when it happens. I literally woke up one morning with powers, which based on what I've heard today, implies some Stranger snuck into my room and mixed its blood with mine, and that is exactly as creepy as it sounds." I gave a not entirely faked shiver.

Tabbris walked up and did a blood-sister thing fair and square.

I'd just thought Tabbris was being cute at the time, and it wasn't like the Bystander effect let her warn me. Still, even if I'd known I wouldn't have said no, though it had taken a little to get used to the idea I wasn't strictly speaking entirely human anymore. On the upside, Tabbris wasn't just my adopted sister anymore, and that by itself would have made it all worth it.

The two girls looked at me, looked at each other, then back at me, Sands saying, "Yeah, that's pretty damn creepy." She led us into the lighthouse, "So … on the subject of being a Natural Heretic … "

I smirked, "I seem to have gotten an insanely good sense of balance." I proceeded to turn around and start walking up the spiral stairs backwards so I could talk face to face, "I'm pretty sure my reaction speed is up, and I can get really fast and stronger for short periods, but it tires me out. The big trick though is electricity." I held up my hand in a V for Victory, and let an arc of electricity climb up between the fingers like a Jacob's ladder.

They exchanged another look, "I'm guessing more than just some flashy effects?"

I nodded, not bothering to turn around, "How do you think I managed to kill two vampires in close combat?" There was nothing at all fake about my shudder this time. "I can also throw lightning bolts if I try, but my aim is pretty bad." The fact I had pretty much the same powers as the Natural Heretic 'Alyson Holt' had used during her time at Crossroads was a risk, but one we had to live with.

The lightning was a real giveaway, but it was the best power of Theia's I could use. I couldn't rely on just my inheritance from Tabbris because I really didn't want Theia's species thinking I'd gotten my powers from one of them.

Especially when I had.

The two people I was talking to were also the people I was hoping might make that connection. If there was anyone in this entire school I wanted to be able to tell my secrets to, it was them. Theia deseved to have her friends back.

I turned around as we reached the top coming out onto a wide platform with an amazing view over the entire area and an old light in the middle, "So this is where the magic happens?"

Sands nodded, "Yeah. We've been given specific orders not to try and use it … and it's locked anyway." Sarah rolled her eyes a little at that last bit.

Bet you I could get past that.

We will let them infuse us with unnaturally stolen powers by way of Hephaestus's creation in their own good time.

I took a long look at the Edge, then wandered over to look out at the view which was well worth it. "Normal Earth must seem very drab if you grew up here."

Sands shrugged as she walked over to look out at the view, "You get used to this place. The world is a big place … Scout and I try to keep up to date on Bystander stuff too. This place can be a hell of a learning curve to get used to."

I nodded, "Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming." I decided to go and jump on a conversational land-mine. I needed to know for sure, for both my sisters' sakes.

I turned to face them, "So your dad is a professor here, what does your mom do?"

From seeing what Sarah was like I'd known something bad had happened, the way both of them closed up made it pretty clear that Larissa had been involved.

I will miss her. She was good to us.

I was already starting to wilt a bit from their reaction, I mean I'd had a bit of hope but …

Sands quietly said, "She's not with us anymore. Stranger attack."

I wilted more. I'm sorry Theia. "Sorry for bringing it up. My mother is gone too, just vanished when I was seven, I really don't know if she's alive or not." Admitting that last bit hurt … and what was worse was that mom being dead could honestly be a better situation than some of the other options.

The two of them blinked at me and for the first time Sarah said something loud enough for me to hear, "Never forget them."

I nodded, "Never."

I'm getting very tired of losing the people I care about Felicity. So very tired.

There was a very long pause and I grabbed for a topic change, "So, is there a firing range around here I can throw lightning bolts at? Want to laugh at how bad my aim is?"

The wooden target broke in half as my bolt slammed into it, both parts catching on fire briefly before the firing ranges magic restored the entire target to an intact state, helpfully noting on a display next to us exactly where I hit.

That may sound impressive, but a quick look at the display showed that was both my fifth shot and the first to even hit the target. I gave my hands a shake. I always got a tingle in them after I'd been throwing a lot of power around. Theia told me it was just psychosomatic but that didn't stop it happening.

Stop rubbing at your hands, you'll give yourself a complex. Also we are going to be doing a lot of target training in the future now that you have somewhere to practice properly.

The twins were giving me a very long look before Sands carefully asked, "Were you just lightning-bending?"

Theia?

Did I not mention Sandoval was the one that introduced me to that show?

No, no you did not. One might think you set this up deliberately.

There was a mildly guilty silence in my head after that. "Yeah. I know it's kinda silly looking but it really does help me focus." I raised a hand up, pointing with just one finger this time and fired another bolt with none of the fancy-lead in. It lashed out as an unstoppable bolt of energy … and missed the entire target by a good couple of feet to slam into the backstop, leaving no trace. "And I need all the help aiming I can get."

Sarah just nodded at my show of terrible aim, which the display was helpfully reporting in annoying detail.

Sands was giving me a very considering look, "So just lightning and speed and the balance?"

"I think the balance is just to keep me from tripping over when I move too fast. I can make myself stronger too but only for short bursts." The boost was one of the signature tricks of Theia's species, but 'getting fast and strong' for a short period was pretty wide-spread. The vampires I'd fought for example could do the same thing at the risk of getting really hungry if they pushed it.

Sarah leaned over to whisper in Sands's ear for a moment before Sands nodded and said, "We've seen somebody with powers like that in the past, another Natural Heretic. The theory is she was a Stardrinker Heretic, and it matches with the lightning and speed … mostly. It's the best theory anyone came up with."

Huh. They did find something close enough to my displayed powers, I had always wondered. A Stardrinker could work, powerful enough to fit with my cover story of almost all of the Heretics I was living with getting killed.

That said a lot about the culture we were about to become a part of. The easy way to explain a couple of children showing up at Crossroads with no family … Strangers got them. It was, I expected, depressingly common.

"Huh. Are they still around? I might want to compare notes. That was my flashiest trick … I'm playing around with a lightning aura thing, but right now it's got an annoying tendency to trash everything that isn't me … and I mean everything, so strictly for emergencies right now." I wasn't kidding about everything either, I still missed that top.

Sands frowned, "No. We don't know if they are still alive … there was an attack, no body was found but..." She gave a 'what can you do' shrug, "If you ever run into a Natural Heretic named Alyson Holt, she can probably give you some tips." Sarah leaned over to whisper in Sands's ear, "And be polite. She's got much better aim than you do."

Damn right I do.

I blinked at them, "You two are great for making sure I don't get overconfident … I'm not even being sarcastic here, it's honestly useful. I'm still trying to switch gears from 'new superhero' to 'monster hunter going after really dangerous monsters'. I think I was prepared for the wrong genre."

Sands managed a small smile, "Yeah, this is Crossroads. Around here horror movies are study material."

"I'm going to assume they give us a lot of training. What's that old saying, the more you sweat the less you bleed? I think I'll be doing a lot of training, I kind of like not being dead."

I got a serious look from Sands, "Good. That's an important lesson to learn." Sarah leaned over to whisper in her ear, Sands blinking and then nodding, "Speaking of lessons, could you possibly help proofread something for us?"

"And you're saying the two of you did this yourself?" I had finished reading the pamphlet, almost a small booklet really, they had handed me. It called itself the Bystanders Guide to Heretic Society and that was exactly what it was. Centered more on Crossroads, but it was full of little bits about how their society worked, with a focus on the differences between it and most Bystander backgrounds. It was honestly pretty useful, especially for me because it gave me an excuse to know some things I'd already been told by Theia.

I think Sarah did most of the writing, it feels like her style more than Sands, but both of them were involved.

Sands nodded, "Yep. You're the first Bystander to read that version, so we really need to know if it makes sense. We want to have it ready for when this year starts so we can unofficially hand it out to the Bystander-kin."

I flicked back to the maps of Crossroads in general and the buildings we got taught in most of the time that filled up the last few pages. "Unofficially?"

Huh, they rearranged the training rooms since I was here.

She frowned, Sarah looking even more annoyed, "There is pushback from the staff member in charge of this kind of thing. He thinks the idea is good but wants a 'proper' one done officially by professionals and not by a couple of students. Also there are arguments over how we present Eden's Garden. On the other hand most of the rest of the staff are behind it, dad's fully on board and the Headmistress approves."

I flicked back to that section, "Eden's Garden, that's the competition?"

There was a nod, "The school prefers people not know about them too soon. We think that's stupid because you never know if you might run into somebody from there. Also we tried to keep to known facts and stay away from the more crazy rumours about them actively working with Strangers against humans or experiments trying to create hybrids between Strangers and Heretics."

Yeah, because you totally can't cross-breed a human and an Alter.

That wouldn't fit in with the 'inhuman monsters' situation my people set up. Also the Edge won't accept a hybrid, Hephaestus made very sure of that. Among other things, you don't want to be empowering warriors that might be more loyal to their Alter parent than some abstract concept of 'all Strangers are evil'.

Theia's species had been doing what they did to shape Heretic society for a very long time and were annoyingly good at it. Much as the idea of bringing it all down the way mom almost managed was a nice one, for now I had to focus on getting good enough to protect my own family.

"So you managed to investigate them?" Theia, do I officially know anything about them yet?

Ah, no.

Oops. I need to get better at that.

Yes you do.

Sands smirked, "While we don't officially interact much, in practice our people run into their people, so if you get people into a storytelling mood you can find out all sorts of things. Apparently they live on this giant city-sized tree, I'd like to see it someday."

You've never been there have you?

No, though I'm curious about the place. I've seen pictures, the tree is something else.

"So if I ever do run into somebody from there?"

She frowned, "It can be kinda random. The American Revolution was a side effect of the last time us and them seriously fought and for some people the war never ended. I think for most of them we're just a different faction fighting on the same general side." Sands gave a small shrug, "I guess be polite and don't start a fight, but be on guard in case they start one."

I nodded, "So what's next?"

Sarah gave her sister a poke and pointed, the two of us looked to see a very upright looking man in a suit walking our way. Both of the girls were frowning, Sands saying, "Oh, him … I'm guessing he's here to talk to you. He's … you'll see."

He gave a smile that felt more perfunctory than real, especially compared to the other two staff I'd interacted with. "Miss Chamber, I'm Professor Peterson Neal, Head of Student Affairs. I apologize that I couldn't greet you when you arrived. You weren't expected to come here today."

Ah, Larissa's replacement. I'm … unimpressed.

The twins had gone distinctly expressionless while I gave him a nervous smile, "Ah yeah … after Professor Dare rescued me from the vampires I guess she thought it was best to bring me here right away."

"Indeed. Well, I can escort you back to the Pathmaker while we get to know each other. As a Natural Heretic that's chosen to join us you're in a bit of a special category." He gave the other girls a polite nod, "Thank you, Sandoval and Sarah, for showing her around the school." He wasn't quite dismissive of them but I got the feeling he had a job to do and wanted to get it done.

I gave the girls a quick 'see you around' before following after him as he walked off, "So am I still going to be getting to come here before the school year starts?"

He nodded, "Yes, it's a bit unusual but almost by definition Natural Heretics are special cases. You are planning on going thought the Edge yes? Some Naturals elect not to which we do allow but certainly do not recommend." I could tell he had a low opinion of such a choice.

Ah we have a solid party-line loyalist here.

I gave my best thoughtful look, "I'm not so taken with this idea that I'll be sending out a 'notice me' signal anytime I run into a Stranger but on the other hand I need more options or I'm going to get killed the first time I run into anything that's as fast and strong as I am and tough enough to survive my lightning. So I guess I get to become one of your kind of Heretic."

He gave me another smile, this one seemed a bit more real. "Good. A well-rounded set of powers will keep you alive, it's a very dangerous world out there."

Huh. I think he is concerned about your survival, just … not good at showing it. Still a poor replacement for Larissa.

"Yeah, I kinda got that idea." There was nothing fake about my shudder. If I can avoid having a hostile vampire that close to me ever again I'll be happier.

"So I'm told you don't know the source of your powers? That seems … unusual."

I shrugged, "Oh, it's downright suspicious. Unless I managed to have a Stranger bleed on me without me noticing, something snuck into my room and deliberately gave me powers. Shenanigans are occurring and I fully intend on finding out what and why."

Judging by the odd look he gave me I was pretty sure I'd just thrown his script off by how direct I was being about it. Heh.

After a moment he commented, "Ah yes, you have been taking after your father in becoming an investigative reporter. Sadly we don't have a school newspaper here."

I shrugged, "Annoying, but I'll have to try and keep my hand in," I gave him a look. "It occurred to me that a freelance reporter can show up in all sorts of odd places to look into strange happenings."

He stopped as we got to the entrance to the Pathmaker, giving me a long look before nodding approvingly, "Yes, that would be a good cover. I think Miss Chambers you could have a bright future ahead of you. We've arranged to have your family's car moved to just outside your town and will open a portal to there. Your family have been given memories that indicate you'll have a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school, and will be doing some day visits. Feel free to talk about the existence of the school but avoid mentioning any of the supernatural aspects of course."

He gave me a more serious look for a moment, "This is mostly for their protection. Trying to force information past the Bystander Effect can damage people if you try too much, or make them think you're insane. There have been some unfortunate cases in the past, so for everyone's sake, be careful what you say."

He gestured towards the entrance to the Pathmaker, "This way if you please. Let's get you home."

And now you get to explain 'vampire attack' to dad.

And here I'd been thinking I'd be less stressed once I got off the island.

Thebes Berg · Oct 20, 2019

Tamahori said:
It's been seven years Theia.

Comma before Theia.

Tamahori said:
I'd gotten memories of Sarah and Sandoval Mason from Theia, but as I said it had been a while. The memories I had were of a pair of nine year olds, not a pair of identical and honestly quite pretty brunettes my age with long straight hair and the same kind of brown eyes as me. They were probably about four inches smaller than I did, putting them at an even five feet. I say them because if it wasn't for behaviour I couldn't have told the difference between the two of them.

Comma after I said;
Comma after my age;
They were probably about four inches shorter than me;
I say them because, if it hadn't been for their behaviour, I couldn't have told... (Past ureal conditional: If ... past perfect ..., ... would have + past participle ...

Tamahori said:
They were talking to Virginia who obviously knew them well and was, based on Theia's stories of them, presumably giving them orders not to fire up the Heretical Edge ~~to show me it~~ or something equally crazy as we stood outside the front doors of the palace.

Comma after Virginia

Tamahori said:
Based on Theia's stories I was guessing the one speaking was Sarah, though Theia had never described Sands as shy.

Comma after stories

Tamahori said:
She was … what happened to her?

Capital W.

Tamahori said:
This was really not good. I kind of felt like I half knew them already and I had been looking forwards to meeting these two that had been so important to both my sisters.

those who had been

Tamahori said:
but after somebody helps you through a panic attack like I had at the cafe you end up on first name terms.

Comma after café

Tamahori said:
Beside her Sarah managed a small smile in greeting.

Comme after her

Tamahori said:
well it got messy.

Comma after well

Tamahori said:
Sands sobered up ~~herself~~, "Anytime Strangers are involved things get bad." She elected to change the topic, "So what have you seen so far?"

Tamahori said:
I have to say this place is amazing.

Comma after say

Tamahori said:
Sands lead us directly across the grass,

led us

Tamahori said:
well five weeks for us first years.

comma after well

Tamahori said:
Theia had shown me pictures and even shared memories of this place but it just wasn't the same.

comma after place

Tamahori said:
which based on what I've heard today implies some Stranger snuck into my room and mixed it's blood with mine and that is exactly as creepy as it sounds.

which, based on what I've heard today, implies some Stranger snuck into my room and mixed its blood with mine, and that is exactly as creepy as it sounds.

Tamahori said:
On the upside Tabbris wasn't just my adopted sister anymore, and that by itself would have made it all worth it.

Comma after upside

Tamahori said:
wanted to be able to tell my secrets to it was them, Theia deseved to have her friends back.

wanted to be able to tell my secrets to, it was them. Theia deserved to have her friends back.

Tamahori said:
the way both of them closed up make it pretty clear that Larissa had been involved.

made

Tamahori said:
Among other things you don't want to be empowering warriors

Comma after things

That's a pretty interesting premise. I'm sad this Felicity lost her cheerful disposition.

The Game · Oct 20, 2019

There aren't many HE fics around, so finding this is a nice change of pace. I'm looking forward to seeing what exactly has changed.

Tamahori · Oct 21, 2019

Thebes Berg said:
Some typos I've noticed.

Thanks for pointing them out, I think I've got them all.

That's a pretty interesting premise. I'm sad this Felicity lost her cheerful disposition.

She's had to deal with a lot of truth about how things work much earlier than in canon. She's trying to get back there, though it doesn't help that the Voice In Her Head That Tells Her To Kill Angels tend to jump between dour and whimsical, sometimes at random. Theia is in a much better state than canon, but not great.

The Game said:
There aren't many HE fics around, so finding this is a nice change of pace. I'm looking forward to seeing what exactly has changed.

It's been interesting to see what people have guessed at.

Tamahori · Oct 25, 2019

Ambush 1.04

[Saturday, August 5, 2017]

It won't be that bad. He already knows what happened … in general.

Weirdly, that doesn't help much.

I was standing at the front door of my house. Getting back hadn't been too involved. Professor Neal had opened a portal to just outside my hometown of Laramie Falls and next to where dad's car had helpfully been left for me. And by helpful, I also mean a bit creepy.

Right, now I just needed to act like everything was totally normal and I just went to Casper because it was more interesting than the Falls. To be fair it was, both in general and in critters to pick fights with. And I was just finding ways to delay myself now.

I took a breath, forced a smile, and opened the door.

I didn't even make it inside before the first ambush.

"What time do you call this?"

You'd have thought that was my father Lincoln, but no, it was my nine year old sister Tabitha with her amazing 'parent voice'. I took a look up at the sky, "It's still light outside, I don't see the problem."

She just looked at me. She had a really good glare. I would need to resort to stronger measures.

I held up my bribe, "So I might have just possibly picked up some really nice dark chocolate while I was in town, 70 percent cacao." How she could eat that stuff and like it, I did not know.

She raised an eyebrow.

I held the bribe out, "Forgiven?"

There was a long pause before both of us started giggling and she grabbed the bar. I … I needed that.

So it was in a brighter mood that I entered the lounge. Dad just gave me a raised eyebrow, he'd been the one whom Tabitha had learned it from after all, "You remembered to fill it up?"

"Yes dad, it's good to see you too. Everything went fine."

He smiled, "Dinner is in the oven. So how does the new school look?"

Ah yeah, false memories put into my family's heads. Another bit of creepy about this. "I really like it, cutting edge facilities, great programs … no school paper though, so I'm trying to work out if that's a deal breaker or not."

Dad wrinkled his nose, "Yeah, that's not a good sign. Might be safer for the staff though, I recall some of your special reports."

Really, you put out one special report showing the lunch-lady stealing tacos on Taco Tuesday with pictures … I realized I was smiling.

Good times, good times.

Yeah. I'm going to miss the paper.

The principal won't.

Dad was just looking at me, "I know that smile, I have never realized being an investigative reporter was genetic."

Lincoln Chambers was a very good reporter, with the awards and trail of crimes and corruption exposed to prove it. Both my parents were hard acts to follow, not that I was going to let that stop me.

Tabitha wandered in, nibbling on her chocolate bar and held her fingers against an unremarkable bit of the wall for a bit. She nodded. "We're secure."

Dad relaxed a bit, "Okay, having two sets of memories is really weird." He shook his head and walked over, "Are you okay? Vampires?"

I gave him a confident smile. Or tried to, it lasted all of a few seconds before I threw myself into his arms, "I was so scared dad." I buried my face in his shoulder and realized I was crying.

A moment later I felt Tabbris wrap her arms around the two of us, I wasn't even sure what I was saying at that point, some mess of sobs and how scared I was and how horrific it was to kill people.

Just let it out Felicity, let it out.

When I needed them the most, my family was there for me.

"I'm really not happy about this. I knew things like this would happen but not … not this soon." Dad was dealing with this about as well as could be expected.

"Nobody expected it this soon, if it helps, Felicity handled herself as well as could be hoped for in combat. Even with three to one odds, she was never in real danger." And that was Theia speaking through my mouth, which I'll admit never stopped being a bit weird. Right now, it was a lot easier to let her do the talking, I was feeling drained after the crying.

Finding something else to focus on for a moment, dad asked, "And did you have to pass on exactly what their threat was? I wouldn't have minded but I'd rather Tabbris didn't need to hear that."

Tabbris and Theia's people had some really nifty communication spells, but they were also fairly complex to set up and neither dad or I were up to casting them ourselves yet. This meant that while there had been a communication channel to home all day, it was a link between Theia and Tabbris. So if I wanted to tell dad something, I had to tell Theia, who told Tabbris, and then Tabbris could pass it on in person. Which was why I'd pretty much ignored it all day, letting Theia pass on anything important, like 'hey, some Heretics are going to show up and mess with your memories'.

This did mean that everything passed on went through my nine year old sister.

Tabbris was looking annoyed, "It's a bit late to hide things like that from me dad."

Dad winced, "I'm just … sorry. I … I'm your dad, I want to protect you from things … all of you, and I can't, and it's driving me a bit crazy."

Tabbris sighed, "Sorry, it's just … it's just that shouldn't happen to anyone." More quietly she muttered, "I'm glad you killed them."

We have issues about rape. I got suspended once for putting a boy in the hospital over a prison rape joke - and the whole family took my side.

It wasn't like I just hit him right away. He made the joke, I told him it wasn't funny, he gave me shit about that and I was pissed off enough to tell him my adopted younger sister was conceived via prison rape.

So he made a bunch of jokes about that.

Looking back, Theia had more than a bit to do with what happened next. Don't get me wrong, I was fully onboard with beating him till he couldn't stand, but she knew how to make it hurt.

If dad hadn't gotten involved and been about as angry as I was, I might have gotten expelled. As it was, they compromised on two weeks out of school for my excessive reaction to extreme provocation.

Every day off, Tabbris brought me breakfast in bed.

Dad changed the topic. "Are you feeling any better?"

I looked up at the ceiling as I took my body over again, "I … I don't know. Theia said the Edge makes it a lot easier to do things like that … at the time, I thought that was horrible, now? I kind of wish I had it already."

Theia borrowed my voice again, "I wish you had somebody other than me to monitor if that changes you too much. I'm the worst person here for making decisions about acceptable force." Theia had made a point of cultivating a different tone and accent from me, so even if it was my throat and mouth, you could tell the difference between which of us was talking if you were listening for it. We'd also practiced so people couldn't tell the difference, if for some reason she needed to pretend to be me when I was too busy, or based on today, freaking out too much.

Dad slowly nodded, this really wasn't the best day for him. I almost felt like us sisters were taking turns to see who could be the most trauma inducing. "Remember Flick, at the end of the day, Joselyn wouldn't want you risking yourself to save her. If, at any point, you need to pull out of this, we will find a way."

I did appreciate it but this wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation. "It isn't just mom, it's Tabbris and Theia's mom, it's all of us. We're too much of a target, even only counting mom's history. Staying out of this was never an option. Besides, there are upsides to this. Apparently, they have really good therapists, including one I can tell at least some of the truth to."

He blinked, "That's still something I'm getting used to. I didn't think they would headhunt you for being on the right side quite this quickly."

Theia smiled, "I have to say the plan has gone wildly better than I thought possible. We haven't even started at Crossroads and we're already part of Joselyn's revolution."

I muttered, "If they were supposed to be helping her though, they could have done a better job."

Dad still twitched a bit when we shifted like this but he was getting better at dealing with it. To be fair, seeing one person shifting expression and tone of voice this quickly must be weird, especially when I got into arguments with myself. Tabbris was used to it, but she'd been used to me doing this for the years where dad and I just thought Theia was my opinionated imaginary friend.

It had been a lot easier for all involved when Tabbris bonded me. Theia could tell me the truth and have me remember it, because we had some real differences. It was a relief to find out that I didn't have some deep seated fondness for skirts and being domestic because that so wasn't me.

The few months after Tabbris bonded Dad, while I was still wandering around being an ignorant Bystander, had been pretty weird too. Probably weirder for him than me though. But now, we were all in the know and we got to have a four way planning meeting with three bodies. Theia and I had already agreed that if we got a line on a Nocen that could give duplication powers, it would be target number one.

Finally, dad sighed a bit, "So the plan is still on then."

There was a long pause and then we all nodded. It wasn't a great plan, to be honest it wasn't even a good plan, but it was what we had.

"I know you're not happy about this."

Dad just gave me a look. He and I were alone in the lounge, Tabbris was up in her room and Theia was having a nap, so for once, it really was just the two of us.

Eventually he sighed, "The worst part is that I can't think of a better option. I wish I could join you but … " Somebody needed to look after Tabbris. If he let them know he was a Natural like me, then they'd expect him to join as well. Larissa had managed to smuggle Tabbris through Crossroads once, but we weren't willing to take the bet we could do it again.

The problem wasn't even the Heretics. It was the people that really ran Crossroads, the angels. They didn't take well at all to rogues running around, like both my sisters for example. Theia was safely inside, me but Tabbris had to make do with the Tabitha Diana Chambers identity and the disguise spell she used all the time, and that wouldn't be enough if she was around the school. She was only safe as long as they didn't know she existed.

Technically she could have hidden inside dad, but aside from the question of 'what happened to your daughter', that was no way for a kid to grow up. No, it had to be this way.

I closed my eyes to try and force back the tears, and failed. "I'm sorry dad. This is worse than when we lost mom isn't it."

There was a really long pause. We had a rule inside the family. No lies. We were surrounded with lies, and hiding ourselves in them, so our rule was that we told the truth to each other. Maybe not always the whole truth, but never any outright lies. Eventually he said, "Yes. Even when I thought she'd just left us without a second thought … that wasn't as bad as watching you walk into that place and knowing I can't do anything but be here for when you need me."

That just kind of hung there for a bit. I'd kind of known it, but having it said outright, yeah. "So just to check, I'm still not allowed to drink right?"

"If I'm not going to let this drive me to drink, then you're not allowed to either."

"Didn't you take up drinking more after dealing with Theia? Wait, it's Theia, enough said." I loved my sister even before I thought she was a real person, but she was an infinite mess of issues. I felt bad about the vampires even with what they were planning to do. If I ever got the chance to kill Theia's mother? All I'd feel was relief.

As bad as that joke was it, managed a slight chuckle from him. "If there was just more I could do. It's hard, it's really hard."

I looked over at him, I wasn't the only one who had been crying a bit, "How are the investigations going?"

He snorted a little, "At least that's keeping me busy, running an investigation to disguise another investigation." Dad had been looking for mom for years, he'd mostly believed something weird was up and even while still a bystander had found enough that, when Theia had pushed me to look at his notes, I realized that the 'mom just walked out on us' story didn't make sense. Which said something given how bitter I was over her betrayal at the time.

Now, he knew about the real world, so when he went to investigate, he could look for the real threats out there. The trick was that we knew he was - the entire family was - being monitored. So he had to make it look like he was still trying to do his old doomed investigation while using that to hide the real one. It was honestly educational to watch, especially when I was going to do some of the same tricks at Crossroads.

Of course, he had an advantage I didn't, "Well, at least you can keep track of it all."

That got more of a smile, "Don't get me wrong, being able to do the things you can do would be fun but I'm not unhappy with what I got." When you bonded with an Alter, you got some of their powers, either a small bit of everything or a bigger share of some of their powers, the rest growing in over time. I got Tabbris's ability to boost and her superhuman gracefulness. Dad got her perfect memory and a superhuman capability for magic. That made it a lot easier to keep all of his real notes in his head.

I had to keep mine in Theia, which worked, but I bet his mental notebook wasn't nearly as prone to snark and colorful commentary.

"Still no sign of Tabbris's sister?"

"Not yet, her parents hid themselves well."

In this case, I wasn't talking about Theia or me. Tabbris had two older direct siblings, twins. Unlike Tabbris, they had been the result of a loving marriage which had been torn apart when the people we were hiding Tabs and Theia from found her mother. We were pretty sure that Tabbris's half-human half-sister was still on Earth, but we didn't even have a name for her. Once again, I want to point out how much I really hate memory spells when they mess with my family.

Dad sat up, "We're going to win this, Felicity. Joselyn didn't know how to stop, and we don't either."

I gave him my best raised eyebrow, "We're up against several world-wide organizations of brainwashed superhumans backed by a multi-galactic empire." I wasn't challenging his statement, just making a comment.

He shrugged, "Yeah, but we're Chambers, and worse yet, there are four of us."

I nodded slowly, "When you put it that way, it really doesn't seem fair to them." I smirked, "I've never liked fair fights."

Crossroads had no idea what was about to hit them.

Theia

The garden was peaceful at night. A night-vision spell the only thing that stopped me from tripping over everything in the darkness. It was tempting to just sit down and enjoy it, but I had a reason to be here and a conversation I'd been avoiding for far too long.

Even after only a few months of being able to really talk to her, it was weird to be alone in our body. Felicity was asleep and we had a deal where the other could use it for private time. It had taken less than twelve hours for her to push for that arrangement once she knew I was real, not even a full day. I wasn't sure I would ever really understand that. I was literally an invading body-stealing alien and she was concerned about my mental well-being.

It said a lot about her that it took everything I had to argue her down to only one day a week where I got to call the shots on what we did, and I think I only managed it because that came with me getting to choose what we wore. The thought of fighting an empire of angels, infiltrating a school of non-human hating inquisitors, or taking on the scariest necromancer ever, didn't bother her as much as having to wear a dress dis. It was truly a pity, she really had the legs for a skirt.

And her father, our dad, backed her in this insane plan to let a crazy person run around in his daughter's body. I was pretty sure it wasn't just because I loved to cook, and both of them didn't get much past heat and eat.

I had a family that loved me and cared about me, and sometimes that was very frightening. I've failed those I cared about so often in the past, I didn't want to fail them too.

I loved them so much it hurt. And I was starting to understand just how unconditional their love for me was too, which is why I was out here, because I thought somebody hadn't realized it yet.

Finding a stump to sit on, I didn't have to wait long before somebody came to meet me.

The squirrel which popped up to chitter at me wasn't a surprise, she'd want something which dealt well with darkness and most birds didn't. Besides, it was an adorable little thing and I didn't miss the chance to pet it for a few moments. "We need to talk, and I don't speak 'chitter'."

I had to fight to keep my face straight because if I let on just how adorable it was to have a squirrel sulk at me she'd get upset, and worse yet, I might not get to see her do it again.

The next bit was familiar, the translucent white figure that emerged from the squirrel and rapidly expanded and solidified into my littlest sister. Tabbris ignored me for a few moments to give the squirrel a quick scritch and a couple of nuts, the little thing scolding her briefly before taking its food and scampering off. I didn't begrudge the wait.

Always do right by your host. Words that we try to live by, a simple kindness that made us renegades to the rest of our species.

The rule didn't apply to enemies of course, were not stupid about it. I suppose you could say the Imperium followed the same rule, but for them, almost everyone else was an enemy. We looked for allies, they looked for slaves, and in the end that was all the difference that mattered. So even if it was just a squirrel or a bird, you always made sure you treated them well.

I took a moment to sit on the intense burst of jealousy I always felt when I saw Tabbris step out of someone. She was a perfect little angel and her powers all worked fine. I was the broken one with the broken powers. With Felicity and me, it was 'till death do us part', be it mine or hers. I was hoping for mine but the sad fact was that I would likely be free of her quite literally over her dead body.

When that happened I would do all I could to make sure whoever killed her paid.

"Um, you okay Theia?"

I let out a long breath, "Just thinking." I gave my head a shake, "It's going to be only you and dad soon."

Tabbris nodded, sitting on a log, "He's learning magic well though, and we've got all the house defenses. We'll be safe."

"That's not what I'm worried about … well, not the main thing I'm worried about." I took a deep breath, this wasn't easy. Perfect memory meant I still remembered Tabbris as a baby, or a toddler, or an adorable little girl. I hated arguing with her, but this needed to happen. She needed to understand.

She gave me a look. I'd gotten distracted again, I wasn't not good at talking to people, even family.

"You need to show this to dad."

"The garden? He knows the night-vision spell already."

I shook my head, "I mean the squirrels and the birds and the cats. What you do out here for fun."

That got me a confused look, "But he knows I can do this."

"He knows you have the power, he doesn't know you have fun with it. Maybe you can convince him to let you try and tame a fox. I know you've always wanted one." A bit of bribery never hurt.

Tabbris thought about that, then shook her head, "It's weird. It's not normal."

I let out a sigh, sometimes I hated to be right. "He's our dad, he isn't looking for us to be normal human girls. He doesn't even expect Felicity to be normal and she's mostly human. He deals with me not having my own body. Do you really think he's going to love you less because you use your powers to enjoy yourself?"

I slid off the stump to kneel in front of her, getting on her level. "You remember his phrase? 'Love is a muscle' … this will just be giving him more things about you to love."

Tabbris was looking doubtful. "He deserves to have a normal daughter, he's got so much else going on."

Dammit Tabbris, why did you have to be so much like your wonderful mother in all her self-sacrificing glory. "He deserves to have an amazing daughter." I reached out to boop her on the nose, "And you're amazing. You need to let him see more of it. And he's going to need the distraction with us away. You need to show him what you can really do … his little demi-goddess."

"Do you really think we can rescue her? Find them?"

The change of topic threw me for a moment before I realized she was thinking about her mother too. "Mom? Yeah. I don't know how long it will take but, yeah. If we have to break the entire Imperium to do it, we'll get her back. You need Mom back and … I want her back too. I owe her so much." And let's be honest Theia, we don't want to let Mother win. She'd destroyed enough lives already.

"And we'll find the rest of your family, no matter where in the multiverse they got scattered to, we'll find them."

Neither of us looked at the lonely memorial stone in the corner of the garden that just read 'Korsmea', but we knew it was there. A reminder that it was too late for some of Tabbris's siblings.

Tabbris gave me a solemn nod, "Okay. When you to head off to Crossroads full time, I'll show him. I'll introduce him to Miss Chitters."

I nodded back, "You should show him the rest too."

"What, the other animals?"

I could keep trying to explain or I could show her. I was never great with words, especially not compared to Felicity and Dad.

So I punched her.

It was a serious punch too, to anyone without superspeed, my fist would have blurred and I had enough strength behind it to put a decent hole in one of these trees.

Her response was instinctive and instant, flickering out of the way while she parried the blow. Coming to a halt a moment later, eyes huge in the darkness, "Hey!"

I sat down on the stump, hiding how happy I was that she'd parried that so smoothly and without having to fire any of her prepared haste spells if I judged correctly. "He knows you can do what Felicity and I can do, but he doesn't understand it. You need to stop hiding bits, besides, he might get the boost at some point and you'll need to show him how to use it."

"But -"

"But nothing. He loves you, he even manages to love me and I'm … me. You need to let him see the real you … he deserves that, and he's not going to reject you for it. You know you can trust him."

Tabbris flickered over to give me a painfully hard poke in the chest, "Don't put yourself down." Then she frowned at me, "Do you really think so … you think he doesn't just want Tabitha?"

I kept my tone firm even as I wanted to just hug her, "No, he wants to know his real daughter. He wants to get to know Tabbris, and you should let him. Including letting him see you properly more often. I get your urge to look like you're related to Felicity and Dad, but looking like yourself is good sometimes too."

There were good reasons for that disguise. It stopped her from looking like her mother, looking like an angel, and from looking like the Tabitha Holt who had been at Crossroads years ago, but getting her to drop it was a fight these days.

She gave me a scowl that was much more adorable than she realized. "That's not what his daughter looks like."

Dammit. Again. Okay, time for the big guns. "It's what Mom's daughter looks like."

She winced and I had to hold back my own cringe.

"He wants to get to know his daughter. All of her. Can you really tell me that he's going to stop loving you because of what you look like? He's our dad. He's everything a dad should be." So much more than my biological father certainly. That man only ever gave me two things, life and my superpowers. It was Lincoln that showed me what a real father was supposed to be, what a real parent was supposed to be. The less said about my monster of a biological mother the better.

I finally relented and gave her the hug I'd been wanting to give her from the start and she tightly hugged back, "It will be okay, you'll see. He loves Tabitha, but he loves Tabbris too, you just need to give him the chance to know her."

"I'll try. He's … he's dad. He'll still want me … he will, won't he?"

This I could say with total confidence. "He'll always love you. You're his daughter. We're a family, and we're never going to let anyone stop us from getting the rest of of our family back."

She gave me a determined nod back, "We'll save them. We'll save them all."

That was my sister. The best little angel in all the worlds. Look out universe, we're coming for you.

The Game · Oct 25, 2019

So, what exactly does Lincoln know about 'Tabitha'? I guess he doesn't know about the possession, but anything else? I mean, it's pretty ambiguous.

(Also, I really thought that squirrel was someone else.)

Tamahori · Oct 25, 2019

The Game said:
So, what exactly does Lincoln know about 'Tabitha'? I guess he doesn't know about the possession, but anything else? I mean, it's pretty ambiguous.

Lincoln knows everything Tabbris can do, I mean he could pick these powers up in the near future, he needs to know about them. Note that even just between Flick and Lincoln they still call her Tabbris.

The problem is Tabbris has spent most of her life pretending to be Tabitha Diana Chambers, and not herself. Deep down she's convinced that Lincoln loves 'Tabitha' not 'Tabbris', and it's taking some effort for Theia to convince her he loves every bit of her.

So 'raw capability' he knows, he doesn't know quite how much she uses Possession for fun, because she doesn't like showing him. He also doesn't know just how dangerous she is in a fight (trained by somebody trained as an assassin along with what her mother sent her in the Dream Mama construct) because she's trying to be 'normal little girl' around him far more than she should.

Tabbris is in a much better situation overall than canon, but it's still far from perfect.

(Also, I really thought that squirrel was someone else.)

Tabbris tends to use animals most of the time, though these days they have a policy that as soon as practical she should jump in and out of Lincoln. In most emergency situations he's a better recall point than someone like Miss Chitters who might have managed to get eaten by something in the meantime.

Tabbris and Theia don't know The Calendar exist, though they would both be very curious about them if they did know. Though Tabbris would be upset by all the dead animals involved. I mean she'd understand, her older sister has SPS, but she'd be a bit sad about it.

Tamahori · Nov 2, 2019

Ambush 1.05

[Saturday, August 12, 2017]

Flick

When I got to the training area somebody was already using it. That wasn't too unusual. With less than a month before the start of the school year Crossroads was starting to really come alive, not that the place ever seemed to sleep.

The other person already there though on the other hand...

Theia, is she an angel?

I don't think any of us would be wandering around openly like that. You'd have to be me to be that crazy. I'll admit though she looks and moves like one of us.

If I didn't already know what Theia really looked like I'd probably be more distracted because wow. The thing about angels is that they did a lot of messing with their genetics. It's where things like perfect memory and the super-speed came from, but another thing they did was make themselves amazingly beautiful. Theia was no exception, her mother was a noted beauty even among angels and Theia took after that vile woman in looks a lot more than she was happy with.

Whoever they were they looked like an angel, in every sense of the word. Even sweating from being in the middle of an intensive self-training session she looked like the cover of a magazine, including all the photoshopping. She stood several inches taller than me, her hair was long and pitch black, her skin flawless. Plus there was the fact that, well, to put it bluntly, she was stacked. From the way she was moving it didn't seem to be giving her back-problems which was itself proof she must have some kind of powers going on, not to mention an amazing sports bra.

I bet if I hadn't told you that you were bi already you'd be having some really confusing questions about yourself right now.

Um yeah.

Tight training clothing did not help. She finally noticed me looking at her and gave me a raised eyebrow that managed to pack a truly amazing amount of scorn into it. If Tabbris was here she'd be taking notes. My little sister did not suffer fools gladly.

Thankfully my mouth managed to find an acceptable excuse before my very distracted brain could come up with one, "What style is that? It looks brutal, do they teach it here?" Thanks mouth, owe you one.

On the good side that's not an angelic style I'm familiar with. But that doesn't mean much.

She managed to raise the eyebrow a little bit more, adding just the right note of 'really' into her expression. Eventually she bothered talking and damn if her voice wasn't as good as the rest of her, "It's a custom style, it doesn't really have a name."

"Huh, I only know Krav Maga, and I'm guessing bystander styles don't count for much around here."

That got me a more careful look, "Parents didn't train you in anything else?"

I stepped into the training area and started warming up, "This is only my second visit here, I was a Bystander until recently. I became a Natural Heretic in some really weird circumstances and had no idea what was going on. Ended up going out and beating up weird creatures for a bit, Professor Dare caught up to me when I got into a very unplanned fight with vampires."

That got her attention. "You were fighting vampires?"

That wasn't fighting vampires, that was an execution. Theia's 'tone' was distinctly approving.

You're not helping.

"I didn't mean to. I was looking for more weird animals that liked going after people, then I ran into muggers with fangs that " I had to pause, "Well, I wasn't going to give them what they wanted and I didn't think they would accept no for an answer. They were as fast as me so I couldn't run so … "

Her voice was quieter, "The professor saved you?"

"Kinda … I killed two of them, she got the third as he was running. Then once I finished freaking out told me about Strangers and this place and … everything." I started my warm-up again, going slower and more carefully.

She studied me for a bit, "What are you a Natural of?"

"We're not sure, current guess is something called a Stardrinker. I can do things with electricity and can make myself really fast and strong for short periods … but that's just a guess." I looked over at her, "So you're what, second or third year?" She blinked at me, "Fourth? You move like you know what you're doing and..." I tried to work out how to say it, "Nobody can look that good while training without something special going on."

She's got my attention, and no offense but most humans don't look that good.

I could see her closing up a bit, "It's complex. I'm first year, but already active."

I shrugged, I had enough secrets to pry into already, "Cool, you can tell me what I'm doing wrong then. I really don't want to get eaten by a monster, that would really suck." I paused thinking, "Oh, I'm Felicity Chambers, or Flick works."

Ooo, there is a story here.

Okay, so I didn't want to pry into it … at least not right away.

The suck line managed to draw something that could almost be a smirk to her face, "Avalon Sinclair." She studied me, "Your form is okay, but if you really have super speed or strength you need a style that can use it. Bystander styles are built for human limits." she pondered for a moment, "What else have you fought?"

Another voice joined the conversation, "I'd like to know that too."

I looked over my shoulder to see a large solid looking man standing at the edge of the training area. Avalon straightened up, "Professor."

He waved a hand, his tone calm, "Relax, we're not on school time yet. Felicity was it? I'm Ulysses Katarin, I'm the main combat teacher. Why don't you tell me what you remember and we'll see if we can't work out what you beat up."

Should I call him sir?

While this place is more military academy than anything else, they tend to operate like a University. Professor works fine.

I gave up on the idea of trying to warm up for the moment. "This is just the things I fought? I did see other … odd entities around, but if they didn't seem to be going after people I didn't go after them … nobody had told me about Strangers at that point."

Avalon frowned at that while Professor Katarin just shrugged, "There is no such thing as a safe Stranger to be around humans, but for the time being let's talk about what you fought."

Ah, hardliners. I hate it when I see the Empire's plans working so well.

"Right, so first thing I ran into was some wolves … I mean they looked like normal wolves but they were fast. Almost as fast as I can get or the vampires could move. I found them attacking a delivery driver. He thought they were wild dogs of course."

"Fast wolves? Not specific enough to know what they were then, I'd need to see them. Professor Pericles might have more luck. He teaches Stranger Knowledge. How did you fight them?"

I noticed Avalon was listening in, "Ah … yelled at them to distract them from the driver who got back in his truck thankfully. They decided to have a go at me, that was my first real fight so … it could have gone better."

You did okay for your first time Felicity.

I'm just glad you were ready to step in if things had gone more wrong.

"I'd like to say I used my training, dodged them and hit them, but to be honest I managed to kill the first one when it tried to bite me." I let some sparks crackle around my hand, "I blasted it on reflex before it had time to do more than bruise me, at that point the rest obviously decided they didn't want any of that and left." I shrugged, "Not exactly a glorious start."

Avalon suddenly spoke up, "I've seen worse first fights. You're alive. It's dead. You won."

The professor gave her a glance, but then nodded, "For your first time it sounded like you did okay. Saved the Bystander, didn't get badly injured. You did okay kid, but we can teach you to be better. More importantly you're aware you got lucky. Overconfidence kills."

Yes, it does doesn't it. You best tell them.

I winced, "I kinda found that out. Next time I was out I ran into some kind of lizard that breathed fire … and was tough, or at least insulated enough for me to not be able to kill it just by tagging it. That was … a discovery."

Professor Katarin pondered that, "Could be a Fire Skwaror … " both of us gave him a look, "I didn't name it. They're fairly tough, did you have to run?"

"I did think about it, there wasn't anyone directly at risk but, I had no idea where it was going to go."

Avalon spoke up, "How did you kill it?"

I pulled my survival knife out of the sheath I kept at the back of my waist, "This is my second knife. The first one I trashed by first managing to stab the, ah, Skwaror in the head … that didn't stop it, but when I dumped enough current into the blade I managed to fry it." I blinked at them looking at me, "I might have panicked a bit."

You did not panic. I would have taken over if you panicked, that was a very controlled lashing out you did. I was rather impressed.

It wouldn't have worked if you didn't force the current down the blade and into it.

The principle was sound, I just made sure you hit. And you know how to do that yourself now.

He gave me a considering look, "Sounds like it was a learning experience." Then held his hand out, "May I?"

I handed the knife over, "Yeah, I learned that you don't just assume the same trick will work on everything. Also I learned I really need to get better weapons."

He snorted, studying the knife before handing it back, "I would say you probably want to get something better than that, but we'll deal with that. One of the things you'll go through early on is weapon selection. We have a wide range of different weapons and we'll find the one that matches you. Once you bond with the weapon it will be yours for life, getting more powerful as you do. Blades, guns, bows, you'll find almost anything and you'll know when you find the one that fits you."

I am looking forward to that. I want something stabby and maybe shooty as well.

I blinked at him a bit, "So like Wand Selection, but with teeth?"

Avalon let out a snort while the professor smirked, "It's almost annoying the effort we have to put into keeping up with things like that just so we get those references."

Stabbicus Maximus! Oh, and the next thing you fought where the lightning throwing chimera critters.

Thanks. Even if I didn't have perfect Angel memory yet Theia was willing to fill in … most of the time. She refused to help me with tests which I still thought was totally unfair.

"Ah, after that was… well it wasn't a classic chimera, but like a big cat but with scales and bat-wings. I don't think it they could fly but it used them for impressive jumps and it could form a ball of lightning above their wings and throw that at me. Sneaky thing too."

Professor Katarin pondered that for a moment but it was Avalon that spoke up first, "That sounds like a Lightning Chimera sir?"

He nodded, "Lesser version … I'm assuming you would have included 'car sized' if they weren't a lesser one. Dangerous for a novice, more so in packs."

I nodded, "This was about large dog sized, but there was only one of them. Managed to jump me by surprise, but … I can feel electricity so I picked up it firing." I managed a bright smile, "So it turns out I can redirect lightning bolts, guess how I found out." I paused for a moment, "Pity about the car I redirected it into, those things pack a punch."

He blinked a me, "Well I guess it was educational for you. You didn't dodge?"

"I only knew it was there when it was already launching the bolt, I did the redirect on pure reflex. I hit the car because that's the way my arm was pointing when I got hit." And a lot of help from the voice in my head.

One of these days we need to practice that with a real lightning bolt.

Have you ever done that with a real bolt?

No but the theory is sound. Father once deflected a capital ship electron lance, and those make natural lightning bolts look like a static shock.

I continued, "It kept sneaking around, had another go at me. I dodged that one, then I managed to 'feel' it powering up just before it fired. Seems they have to hold still to shoot, so I hit it first. It's lucky that I could let its charge attract my bolt because there's no other way I would have hit it. I don't know if that overloaded it or something but there was a big zap and it fell over."

Professor Katarin gave me a raised eyebrow, "Big zap and it fell over."

I could feel myself blushing, dammit. "Sorry, I haven't had formal training in monster hunting terms yet. It stopped moving, so I blasted it a couple more times, and since it was smelling unnervingly like burnt chicken at that point I figured it would be safe to check the body to make sure."

Avalon's smirk became more pronounced, "When you're made into a proper Heretic you'll get a kill aura, when you start glowing you'll know you killed it."

Hah, she doesn't mention the other side effects of killing something.

The professor gave her a glance but nodded, "There are very rare exceptions, but that's a good rule." He thought for a moment, "What did you do with the bodies?"

I blinked a bit, "Oh. Heavy duty rubbish bags and I stashed them in my car. Got rid of them on the drive home … I live in a mountain range, there are all sorts of places where you drop something to make it vanish." That hasn't been my idea but Theia was the kind of person who thinks about 'so if I have to hide a dead body, where would I put it?' … which to be fair is kinda disturbing.

He nodded, "Was there anything else you fought?"

I winced, "Just the vampires … I would rather not talk about them if I don't have to."

Apparently I was looking like I felt about that memory because he just nodded, "I've read Professor Dare's report, you did well there. Very efficient."

I couldn't control a shiver, "It shouldn't be that easy to kill people … or things that people-shaped."

Avalon's expression got hard, "They aren't people, the're monsters. Never make the mistake of thinking they're people." Before I could say anything else she grabbed a bag she had nearby and stalked off towards the buildings.

I looked over at the professor who gave a small shrug, "Not my story to tell. Don't take it personally though."

"Huh. I've had worse first meetings. So … "

He snorted, "Finish warming up, then I'll find out just what it is you know. From the sound of it though you should fit in fairly well to the other first years, you've got a bit of a head-start but not enough to really complicate things."

If I wasn't holding back I'd show him head-start.

We're trying to be low-profile.

He looked me over, "So, Krav Maga?" I nodded. He nodded back and did a pretty good Morpheus, "Show me."

Didn't I tell you this place was great?

"So I'm just going to die here if that's okay with you two?"

You are not allowed to die, then I'll have to walk around under my own power and I'm far too lazy for that.

Love you too.

"So you met Professor Katarin then?" Sands sounded amused.

I opened my eyes from where I was lying on my back next to picnic blanket the Mason twins had set up, "I'm going to assume he's always like that?"

Sarah snorted a bit while Sands smirked, "Pretty much … we haven't had to deal with him too much until this year but I've heard stories."

"He wanted to know what I knew … how well I could fight normally, how well I could fight while going fast. Apparently I'm 'pretty quick' even by trained Heretic standards, and then he wanted to see the lightning in action. I don't think I've ever been this tired before."

Well, this just proves we need to train more if you think that was pushing it.

I submit that the 'training' you went though wasn't normal even by your people's standards.

I've read about military basic training which is harder than what you just had. We need to step it up, I wonder if Avalon the probably-not-an-angel will want to train with us, she seems to take it seriously. I hoped not, I didn't need two people that enthusiastic about training in my life.

"Sweat, not blood." was Sarah's comment.

"Oh yeah, I get that, I don't want to get eaten by monsters either but … gah. Well apparently we're all about 'that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' here."

Sands snickered, "Welcome to Crossroads. Ah, she made it … "

I sat up to see who Sands was waving to. It was some girl I didn't know, around our age, blond and with what I can only describe as a 'surfer' look. Huh. I wonder if the surfing around here was any good, I'd never been surfing, or near oceans really so I was curious about it.

The new girl walked over to us, Sands standing up to do introductions, "Flick, this is Roxa Pittman, another of the Bystander-Kin starting in our year. Roxa that's Felicity Chambers, don't expect her to get up. She just spent an hour having the combat professor find out what she could do. She's a Bystander-Kin too."

I held up a couple of fingers, "Two hours thank you very much. Hi, call me Flick if you want, or Felicity, either works … " I decided that was enough being energetic and flopped back on the grass, "So I'm not the only one brought in early."

Sands and Roxa sat down while Sarah was unpacking food from the basket. Roxa seemed amused by my state, though not as much as the voice in my head, commenting, "They're letting me stay here already, my home situation is a bit … non-existent right now so..." She shrugged, not seeming bothered by the admission.

"I'm doing weekend visits, not sure if that's normal or not."

Sands waggled a hand, "Kinda … any of the Bystander-Kin will come here at least once to have a look around the place, so you might get to meet some others before the start of the year. You're a bit of a special case."

Roxa gave me a puzzled look at that, I held a hand up and then let some electricity crackle over it. It was the first thing Theia had ever taught me for using her special powers. Her version was a lot fancier of course, looking more like a floating plasma globe without the glass, really pretty. I gave Roxa a smile, "I don't know if they told you about Natural Heretics yet but long-story-short, I already have some tricks."

She blinked at that for a bit, then grinned, "Cool."

Sands nodded a bit at that reaction, "Yep, you'll fit in here just fine."

I thought of something, "Wait … so you grew up around the place and have Heretic parents, so I'm guessing that makes you resistant to the Bystander Effect, and I'm a Natural Heretic." I looked over at Roxa, "How are you remembering what's happening here?"

Roxa smirked, "Professor Pericles gave me some medicine when he met me, apparently it will wear off in a bit and I'll forget all of this again if I don't join fully, but until then."

It's useful stuff. Alternatively somebody good with mental magic and enough power or skill can just switch the effect off on somebody. Mom could do it if she wanted.

I thought for a moment, "Okay, so if they can do that … why all the fake memories for dad? Why not just give him this stuff and ask him if he's okay with me going to Crossroads?"

Because any sane parent would say no?

I want to know their answer.

There was a bit of a pause before Sands said, "I've … never really thought about it. I expect it's a historical thing, somebody our age being treated like an adult is fairly normal for history and the people that run things are … old."

Roxa spoke up, "Why seventeen? That another tradition thing?"

Sands answered, "That's to do with magic. If you're too young and try to cast magic you … well, it can kill you. By the time you're our age you've got enough control over your energy for it to be safe. Age varies between people but this is the point they can be sure they won't have somebody accidentally kill themselves. Growing up in a Heretic household you get taught that one early, it's our version of 'don't put a fork in the power socket'. They also teach us not to put forks in power sockets too."

What they didn't mention is that that was a human specific problem. Tabbris had been throwing spells around since she was four under Theia's careful instruction.

I put a hand up, "I've done that recently, but for me it's a quick way to recharge. Hard on the fork though." I blinked at the look everyone was giving me, "Powers are awesome?"

Roxa laughed, "I think I'm going to like it here."

"So what do you girls think you're doing?"

I looked up to see what I assumed was a teacher standing over us. He was tall and broad shouldered, with long, shaggy hair that was such a dark blond it was almost brown. He wasn't as big as Professor Katarin, but my first guess on what he taught would be combat.

Sands looked up at the man and said in a dry tone, "Anything we feel like old man, you got a problem with it?"

He squinted down at her, "You've got a big mouth little girl. Does your dad let you get away with talking to people like that? Look at the example you're setting for the new people."

"Pffft," Sands made a dismissive noise and waved her hand. "He's old. Who cares what he thinks?"

I could see Roxa was on edge and I could feel Theia updating combat options … she was aware of 'flight or fight' but didn't see how the 'flight' option applied to her. I made a guess based on the casualness and Sarah looking amused, "Professor Mason I presume?"

He broke off from his argument to give all of us a broad smile, "Yes, and you would be Felicity and Roxa?"

It had been long enough that getting to my feet was only sore rather than downright terrible. Once I stood up I held my hand out to shake his, "Hi. Felicity Chambers."

The professor had a nice smile, "Liam Mason, I teach English Lit. My girls have told me about you."

"Only good things I hope."

"Well, apparently your aim isn't very good." His tone took any sting out of it.

I looked over at the two traitors, who were looking completely unrepentant, "Well, as soon as I work out how to reliably do a light shock they can help me with target practice."

He shrugged, "It will teach them to dodge, fine with me." Ignoring a 'DAD!' in the background. He then shook Roxa's hand for another bit of introduction before turning back to me, "I can escort you to the Pathmaker, Professor Dare was going to escort you but something came up."

A short bit of waves and 'see you next weeks', one quick trip and I was again in the Pathmaker waiting for it to connect me back to where I'd left the car.

You're being very quiet. And shouldn't you already know who he is?

Don't trust him.

Hardliner?

Worse. Remember how your mother's operation had to suddenly go high profile?

When mom had first started out with 'hey, let's not just murder every Alter for not being human' thing she had first been doing more of an Underground Railroad. Smuggling Alters away from where the Heretics were active to where they could be safe. Then somebody had betrayed her to the hardliners and Underground Railroad had turned into Civil War. Wait.

You're telling me that it was him?

Yes. He's the person who revealed Joselyn's operations. He's the traitor.

But he seems so nice?

There was a long pause, and the next bit felt like pulling teeth, He is. He's even a good father and from everything I saw husband … but you can't trust him. Under all of that he's as hardliner as they come, and I'm quite sure he's not affected by the spell. He knows who you are and who Joselyn was. He'll be one of the people they are using to watch you.

My mental tone was careful. You know that means we can't fully trust the twins then.

Hers was bitter. I know. Gate is open, we should go.

I'd been distracted enough to miss it. As I walked out I had a lot to think about, and once again found myself wishing Theia could physically stand in front of me. Because right now she really needed a hug.

We'll find a way to solve this. You'll have your friends back.

Don't make promises you can't keep Felicity.

I won't. And I promise you, you will have your friends back. Because this was one promise I was damn well going to find a way to keep, no matter what.

Tamahori · Nov 8, 2019

Ambush 1.06

[Saturday, September 2, 2017]

"Better Chambers, though you still need to get better at watching your environment."

For all it was grudging, Avalon's borderline complement was appreciated. Professor Katarin had 'suggested' that we train together. I was pretty sure that it was mainly because with lowish levels of boost I could kinda keep up with her much better skill levels. I could tell Theia was frustrated we were having to keep to what I knew. She really wanted to see if she could win a bout vs Avalon without boosting.

I was curious how long Avalon had been doing this but I'd very quickly learned that you did not ask anything about her, and especially her history. I could live with that for the time being … I wouldn't be my father's daughter if I didn't want to find out but it wasn't like I didn't have secrets to keep myself.

She gave me a considering look, then nodded, "Break time. Get some water."

I let myself relax a bit, "Careful, you almost sounded friendly with that last bit."

That got a snort. I was making progress, give me another year and Avalon might express some emotion that wasn't 'way too determined'.

She gave me another look, "Keep this up and you might manage to not embarrass yourself too badly in your first official hunt."

I smirked, "God forbid I make the school look bad." That was probably one of the other reasons that the professor had us training against each other. Both of us had been in real combat vs Strangers. I had no idea what kind of combat that had been for Avalon, see 'don't ask about Avalon's past', but given how vampires were a hot-button with her, I could make some guesses.

Once I'd gotten some water into me I asked, "Have you seen Sands or Scout around?" Damn, I'd almost called her Sarah. It was a hard habit to break, especially when Theia still called her Sarah. Speaking of that.

You're being very quiet.

I have a bad feeling.

I did too. Especially as Avalon paused for a bit. "They became Heretics on Tuesday. I haven't seen much of them since then … when you go through the process you get a vision. Sometimes they can be … intense. I don't know anything more than that."

I gave the nearby buildings a thoughtful look, I wasn't entirely sure where they lived. They had always found me when I was visiting.

Focus on the problems we can solve.

I gave a mental acknowledgement, resisting the urge to physically nod with long practice and put my bottle to one side, "Right. So, any chance you can show me that throw you used?"

She nodded, and I have a feeling she understood exactly what I was doing, not saying a word as she got ready to fling me around the training area again.

The library had quickly become one of my standard places to hang out. Not only did I have an urgent need to learn as much as I could, but it was a good cover for me to know things that I'd gotten from the sarcastic encyclopedia that lived in my head.

It didn't hurt that she had fond memories of this place from before.

There is something maddeningly familiar about that girl.

I didn't have to ask who. The school year for everyone that wasn't a first year had formally started a week ago, so even on the weekend the place was bustling but the library was still fairly quiet. However since we only had one set of eyes between us I was looking directly at the girl in question, a kinda cute blond girl focused on the Stranger Knowledge section of the library. She looked about our age, but that didn't rule out second year.

Eh, new school, new people, may as well get to know people. I didn't make friends easily, I'd had abandonment issues after mom and then lost my best friend because her family moved away when I was eleven. After that, well after that I developed an imaginary friend that would never leave me and stopped trying to get too close to real people that weren't family. This was a new start and a new Flick. I had superpowers now and was training to be an awesome monster hunter, I could handle talking to people.

"Hi, I'm Flick. What year are you in?" Okay, good start Flick, going better than meeting Avalon by perving at her or Virginia and the nervous breakdown.

She gave me a startled look but recovered quickly, "Oh, um, first year. I mean I will be, I haven't started yet."

Huh. "Oh cool, same here. Felicity Chambers, Bystander-Kin." There was another name I'd been told for us from Sands, who disapproved of it. Silverstone, which was a reference to the main actress in the movie Clueless. To be honest I'd been called worse things, when your best friend is black in an almost entirely white town … well, things are said and it can get kinda ugly at times. The boy that made jokes about Tabbris wasn't the only kid I'd resorted to violence on for things they said.

Given my targeting, I think dad had agreed to let me take Krav Maga classes because he wanted me to win any resulting fights. He didn't approve in a general sense, but he had to admit I'd never gotten into a fight that wasn't either self-defense, or against somebody that badly needed it. I don't think of myself as a violent person, though given I'm going to a school that's going to teach me to become a full time professional murderer, I really should admit that ship has sailed.

She gave me a slightly shy smile, "Vanessa Moon. Are you staying here or just visiting before the year starts?"

"Visiting. I got picked up while fighting vampires, so I think they are hoping this will distract me and keep me out of trouble. Which is crazy talk of course, getting into trouble is how I distract myself."

That got me a look, "Fighting vampires?"

"I'm a natural heretic, ah that means … "

"That your genetics got combined with a Stranger and gave you their powers." She blinked a bit at my reaction, "I've been here for a bit, I've been reading the books."

I slowly nodded, "Yeah, about half a year ago. So I was … well, I was expecting weird animals like I'd run into before, not actual vampires. Got picked up by Professor Dare and invited to join. So, what's your story, if I can ask."

She shrugged a little, "I'm living here currently, they thought it was better than the foster home I was in."

If I was the suspicious type I would find it interesting how many of the Bystander Kin come from … backgrounds that won't ask too many questions, though from what I recall that's a minority even of the Bystander Kin.

If nothing else, being around Avalon and the twins was good practice for knowing when not to push somebody on a topic, "Well there are worse places to be than here. You met Sands and Scout Mason yet? They've been playing tour-guide for me."

She nodded, "Same here. They have made themselves the unofficial Bystander-kin guides … have you seen their booklet?"

I nodded, "I think it's getting bigger with every revision. I assume you're another beta reader for it."

She smiled, "Apparently I'm good at proofreading. Huh?" She looked up and I followed her glance to see Roxa heading over to us.

I don't like her expression.

I'd met Roxa several times and she was generally cheerful. Today she was not happy. She didn't waste time when she got up to us, "Sands wanted to talk to you … give you a heads up on … it's better if she tells you."

If something else has happened to Sarah, I may be forced to change the plan. I've always wondered if I can set this place on so much fire that even they can't repair it.

I didn't bother trying to talk her down. I liked the twins, both from Theia's memories and the weeks I'd known them. The world was a confusing place filled with conspiracies and mysteries and wonder, and sometimes it's very hard to know what you should do. So I had established some simple policies to work off.

One of the basic ones was: You mess with my family and friends, you're messing with me.

And I'll find a way to make you regret it.

Sands was looking distinctly not her normal self, and worse yet there was no sign of Sarah. I love my sister, but I hate it when she's right because it's normally very bad news.

Before we could say anything Sands gave a weak smile in greeting, "So, you might want to sit down. Scout is okay but … she had a really bad shock and … " She shook her head. "Okay, starting at the beginning."

We sat down with some exchanges of worried looks before Sands continued, "I think I've told all of you our mom was killed by a Stranger. Scout was there when it happened, she was still Sarah back then. Mom and Sarah took a boat trip out to see a whale pod, I … I was tired that morning." She paused with a painful look of guilt, then pushed on, "The boat never came back, Dad and Aunt Virginia went out to look and found Sarah on an empty boat. There was damage, signs of a fight, but no trace of mom or anything else."

Larissa was one of the first people to ever be kind to me. Felicity? Am I cursed?

No. You're my sister, your amazing, and we're going to protect our friends. That's why we're here, so we can get better at protecting what's ours.

Sands gathered herself again, "They couldn't find anyone on the boat to start with, but while searching around and calling out for them dad heard crying and found Sarah hidden under the cot. He tried to get her out but she was screaming and just screamed more when he tried to talk her down … she got worse every time he called her Sarah, so he called her his little scout instead. It was an old nickname, she … we got into a lot of things when we were younger, and she used to be the one leading."

I remember that. I had to try and slow them down sometimes. Me as the voice of reason. Something is wrong with that.

Mental 'voice' or not, I could hear Theia not crying, but getting as close as she normally got. Sands was wiping away some tears too, "There had been a Stranger on the boat, it took mom, tried to take Sarah … she hid and it was calling out for her, using her name. Then she heard mom calling out for her while it hurt her, tortured her. I don't know if was really her or a trick but … after that she couldn't stand hearing her own name. So that's why she's Scout now, just Scout."

I was crying too, crying on behalf of Theia because she couldn't. Her upbringing had damaged her. She didn't cry when she was sad. Sometimes she'd cry if she was happy, but never when she was sad. It was one of her mother's many crimes.

Sands wasn't looking at us, I don't think she was looking at anything outside her head right now. She shook herself, "I don't talk about this but … we went though the Edge on Tuesday, you get a vision when you go through it. Scout … she saw the boat again. So she's … she's trying to deal with that. It's not been easy on either of us. I thought you deserved to know why Scout wasn't around."

She gave us a more direct look, "And please don't bring this up when she's around. Just … don't." She nodded a little at our general agreement before sighing and sagging against her seat, "I guess that's something we all have in common. We all lost our mothers, one way or another."

I blinked at the other two, I knew Roxa had been living rough when she was picked up and Vanessa was in a foster home but no details beyond that.

Roxa was the first to speak up, "Mom died when I was really young, I never really knew her." She seemed remarkably unbothered by it, "Don't ask about my father, very much not in the picture."

Vanessa blinked, then very quietly said, "I was seven … there was a home invasion, they somehow took everyone but me, I … I have to believe they are still alive but..." Vanessa seemed anything but unbothered, but she was dealing with it.

I guessed it was my turn, "I was seven, mum was the local sheriff, youngest they had ever had." I didn't try to disguise the pride in my voice at that last bit. I just wished I could tell people how amazing mom really was. "Then she pulled somebody over and vanished with him … last I ever saw of her was her packing her bags and telling me she'd be back soon and … I hated her for a long time." It hurt to admit that, but it was oddly freeing to say it as well.

You were so young and your world got shattered. It's okay that you were angry.

"It never made sense though, dad's an investigative reporter, one of the best. There were oddities … her weapon had been fired enough to empty the clip, and her car and gun and everything was just left behind." I looked at the other girls, "Maybe it's just me wanting to believe in mom but … I think something happened, and I'm thinking it was this place's kind of something. I'm going to find out what happened." I managed a smile. "I've got a lot of my dad in me, and he never could leave a story to rest."

Roxa blinked, "I'm not sure if I should envy you or not … at least I know for sure. But you get the chance she's out there … " She put a hand out, "I hereby call the first meeting of the Sisterhood of the Lost Mothers. May we find our certainty, one way or another."

I need to learn her secret to not letting her past mess her up.

I think I do as well.

I put my hand out on hers, "Never forget them."

Vanessa was next, "Never stop looking."

Sands just looked at us, then wiped her eyes and put her hand on top, "Never stop hoping."

There was a long moment before Sands asked, "Scout's allowed in this right?"

We pulled our hands back, "Yeah. I think she's earned it more than most. If you want to tell her about my story you can." I gave the other two a questioning look, getting a casual nod from Roxa and a more subdued but still firm nod from Vanessa.

There was a long moment of quiet before Sands managed to force a small smile, "Oh, and you three just volunteered for me and Scout's bystander and general first year support squad. We're not the only people who have had a bad time, and … mom would have wanted us to help anyone we could."

Larissa would be so proud of them.

I'm going to make sure you get to tell them that yourself at some point.

Don't … thank you Felicity.

"Hmmm, something from the Feris family certainly, but I must agree with my colleague, not enough to go on. You killed it a bit too fast to find out what it was, but I can't criticise you for dealing with a threat quickly."

Professor Zedekiah Pericles looked old enough that he should be dead. He'd apparently missed the memo though, and his boisterous voice and energetic moment was a reminder you really can't judge a Heretic by how old they look. He apparently ran the Development Track which was all about creating amazing magical tools and weapons. Mainly weapons.

Theia was mildly scornful of the apparent selection here, apparently the Imperium she was hiding from had all the best toys. Though she was pretty sure there was more than a bit of the Empire copying all the good ideas off the Heretics.

I managed a smile, "I mainly panicked … in my case panic meant shock to the face."

It was weird to be talking like this after the intense, and oddly cathartic conversation of an hour ago, but I needed a change in speed. Going over the things I fought in more detail with the Professor who, among other things, also taught Stranger Truths 101, aka Intro to Monsters, was … well, it was a change of pace at least.

"Well, you'll want to keep a bit of a watch on that, shocking a fellow student because they startled you is something to avoid. Blasting Strangers that get into hand-to-hand with you is certainly a useful ability to cultivate."

And we will be cultivating that young padawan.

Throwing lightning around? We're a lot more Sith than Jedi I'm thinking. I'm drawing a line though, no red-bladed lightsabers.

The Imperium calls them luxensis … and you can change the colour of the blade.

Wait, you have lightsabers! No we are not raiding the Imperium for weapons no matter how cool one would be, besides, any of the locations you know about are far too well guarded.

Fine. Anyway, you're much more of a yellow blade type.

Theia's fondness for science fiction, given that she was literally being an alien from outer space, always bemused me. She said she just liked stuff where the good guys won.

"Professor … how do I get used to fighting … people shaped Strangers?"

"Ah, the vampires?" His tone was sympathetic, "It's not always easy, and in some ways it probably shouldn't be. When you've been though the Edge you'll have a sense that tells you when you're facing a Stranger, which will help. Not all Strangers show up to that, the standard term is Undoc, but in those cases you must be careful because you also won't get the reaction from a Heretic, including Naturals like yourself." He sighed, "Some people can be a bit too … trigger happy."

"Do people like me normally get picked up when you find us?"

He nodded, as enthusiastic about that as everything else. "Of course, it's dangerous to be out there without any support. We have specialist teams that normally deal with it. You were a special case because you we're already on our books as a normal student, which is why there was a Professor checking in on you. If you'd had your misadventure a week earlier I would have been the one rescuing you."

He's nice, did you know him from before?

Only in passing. He always gave me room which was appreciated. The twins liked him. I'm pretty sure he was associated with your mother. I've looked up what I can of the records of her new life, his name is listed as attending doctor at her birth.

So he's rebellion?

Very likely, though if Gaia wanted us to know she'd probably have said.

I decided to answer some curiosity, "Professor Dare wasn't there to try and pick me up. Were you planning on talking to me before the school year?"

"Oh indeed. There was … debate about your situation, but every expectation was that we would have been aiming to meet up with you the following week."

That made sense, "And then vampires happened."

"It was a useful lesson for us that no plan survives contact with reality, and even we can mess up." He lost his smile, "We never should have let those vampires get anywhere near you. Virginia was staying back enough she didn't realise what they were until around the same time you did, and then it was too late. I'm sorry for that."

It had been long enough to get me some distance from things. I still wasn't happy about it but it didn't make me cringe as much. "I'm just glad I remembered how to fight. From the sound of it, they wouldn't have lasted long regardless, but … " I gave him a shrug.

He nodded, "Well, if you ever need to talk to somebody about it, my office is always open, and I'm sure the same is true of Professor Dare's. Once you formally start we'll strongly recommend you talk to one of the counselors."

"Yeah … I guess it gets easier."

More nodding, he was enthusiastic about everything, "Yes. Which may not be the best of things, but it does. We need to be the shield against the darkness, and that means destroying anything that would threaten humans."

I like the phrasing. He's totally working with Gaia isn't he.

I told you so.

"I will do my best to make sure I go after things that are threatening humanity … that's the point of this place, right? To protect people."

He smiled, that moment of perfect 'we know what each other means and aren't going to say it'.

"Thank you for your help with things Professor. I look forward to your classes once school starts for me."

"Remember my door is always open if you find some parts of the course hard to deal with."

Ah yes, the bit where I might end up having to kill innocent people to keep up a cover.

I couldn't fake a smile, "I can see there being some problems for me in the future."

He gave me a grave look, "Rest assured we will do our best to limit any such issues."

"Yeah, we'll see how that goes."

"So, two more days before I start."

Dad nodded, "The good news is you're not going in cold. You've got people you know, friends, at least two teachers who are helping."

I looked up at the ceiling, "What happens when I end up having to go after an innocent Alter though. I'm sure they'll do their best to only put me up against Nocen or critters, but … they can only go so far."

Theia asked, "What would your mother do?"

I thought for a moment, "Subvert her entire team so that if we get into a situation like that we can let the Alters escape."

Dad smirked, "That's Joselyn. It's going to be weird when we rescue her … I've never really met her have I?"

Theia replied, "I've never met her personally, but everything I've seen makes me think the important parts of her, that bits that make her Joselyn, were all there. She still had her personality, it was just powers and memories that were missing."

"I still think that Joselyn Artherby, leader of the Heretic Revolution will be a different person from who I knew … " Dad get a soft smile, "but I look forward to the chance to get to know her." He looked over at the so far silent member of our group, "And I'm looking forward to getting to know your mother as well."

Tabbris had been very quiet while the rest of us were talking. She blinked at dad's comment and nodded firmly. It was one of our other family rules. It wasn't 'would we rescue them' it was 'when'. Also Tabbris's mother had been caught by the Imperium because she was trying to help my mom … so it wasn't just for Tabbris and Theia's sake we were doing it. This was personal for us as well.

I took my mouth back, "Oh, Sands was wanting to see my pictures of you. I'm wondering if she's getting suspicious."

My little sister considered that, "We could take some more pictures … ones that look a little bit more like Tabitha Holt?"

I hadn't brought it up but she was, unusually for her, not wearing any disguise spell at all. I had forgotten how adorable she could be in her real face, long pale blond hair and the biggest blue eyes. Theia had said she was going to talk to Tabbris about things but I hadn't expected it to be that effective. Dad hasn't mentioned anything, just given her a hug when she walked in and I could see her relaxing at it. I'd given her a smile and I think that helped too.

I looked over at Dad who nodded a bit, "Don't be too obvious, but I'm not against the idea." Hair colour was the more notable differences, Tabitha Holt had almost the same hair colour as Tabbris, Tabitha Chambers by contrast was a dirty blond similar to me, verging on brown. Huh.

I sat up, "Don't change the disguise. We should take some pictures outside and arrange things so the light makes your hair look lighter. Suggest what we want."

Dad was nodding, "That's a better idea. Have you figured out what you're going to tell them yet?"

I snorted, "Don't be silly. Of course not. If I have a better idea of how much they know, or think they know, I can work it out then."

Theia piped up, "You are better at improvisation than most people I know sister."

Tabbris shrugged, "I just want my friends back. And I want Theia to have her friends back." I could feel Theia getting ready to argue the point and then Tabbris gave us a glare the moment my mouth opened.

Don't try to fight a battle you know you can't win.

I did my best not to smile at the vaguely annoyed Latin muttering in my head.

Yeah. I think I was as ready as I was ever going to be. It was time to go to school.

Tamahori · Nov 15, 2019

In Enemy Territory

[7 years ago]

The first time Sarah Mason found out about the new arrivals into her life was when her father Liam took her and her twin sister Sandoval aside "Girls, we're going to be having somebody stay with us for a little bit."

The two nine year olds looked at each other then back at their father, Sands the first to talk, "Who?"

"Your mother had some friends." That wasn't a surprise, mama knew a lot of people, "and they were attacked by Strangers. They managed to call her for help but..."

Even at their age the two girls knew they lived in a world were bad things could happen to people, every now and then some old friend of the family would just not ever show up again. Sarah quietly asked, "Did the Strangers get them?"

Liam nodded, "She got there in time to save the children. She's with them now while the doctors check them out. They don't know anyone but her so they are going to stay with us for a little, are you going to be okay with that? They'll have their own rooms but you're going to have to help a bit with them. They've been through a lot."

Sands spoke for both of them, "Of course we can daddy."

And that was how Alyson and Tabitha Holt came into her life.

Audrey frowned. She didn't know who the new girls were but she recognized those expressions.

After taking a quick look around the waiting room Audrey stood up and carefully made her way over sit down across from the new girls. She made sure to move slowly and keep her hands visible. The expression on the younger teenager's face was entirely too familiar.

The toddler just looked confused and lost, wide eyes trying to take in everything. She was also far too quiet, like she didn't want to attract attention, or a monster.

The older girl, fourteen at a guess, was in what might look like a defensive huddle with the toddler held close. Audrey knew that posture, that way of holding a sibling, ready to lash out at anything that might be a threat and then run like a nightmare was chasing you. She'd seen it in the mirror. And if the teenager wasn't carrying at least one holdout knife she'd be shocked.

The moment Audrey had moved towards them the teen had locked onto her, tracking her as she got closer and not relaxing when Audrey sat down.

They sat there in silence for a bit, the teen's eyes scanning the area, the toddler locked onto Audrey but still not saying a word. A kid that knew that silence was safe and sound was dangerous. Anywhere else she might think abusive family, but there were worse things that could happen in a place like this.

After a bit to let them get used to her being there Audrey finally spoke, "They'll let you stay with her when they do the medical checks."

They were sitting in the waiting room for what was officially Crossroad's medical wing, though it was really more of a very small hospital. Audrey had been told the main hospital was even more impressive but she'd never been unlucky enough to go there. The only logical reasons for them to be there was the same reason she was there, getting checked over.

The teen gave her a confused look. Audrey smiled back, "I'm here because my sister is being checked over … when we first came here she didn't want to be away from me, and I wasn't willing to let anyone get her away from me, so they always let us stay together when they were checking either of us. They won't try to split you up … they probably don't want you to try and stab somebody."

The other girl looked at her for a long moment, their gaze locked into hers and almost painfully intense before she finally spoke, her voice having the rough tone of somebody that had screamed until they couldn't scream anymore. Audrey recognized that too. "How long ago?"

It was easy to guess what she was asking about, "Nine years ago, Stranger attack not that I knew what they were then … " She absently rubbed the scar on her chin, "Crossroads only found me a year ago, I'm still in first year now. I'm Audrey, and Lisa is off getting poked at."

The teen just sat there for a bit, giving her that same intense look. Even now, looking tired and in shock she was pretty, undoubtedly she'd be beautiful when she was in a better state. Audrey still couldn't rule out a more mundane kind of abuse.

Finally the other girl spoke, "Alyson … she's Tabitha."

The toddler finally looked away from Audrey to give Alyson a look at the sound of her name. Alyson managed something that was almost a smile as she hugged Tabitha closer for a moment.

Audrey kept her tone calm, "Well it's good to meet you Alyson." When the other girl looked back at her with a sharp movement Audrey gave her a smile, "I promise you it does get better … it can take years, and the pain never goes away, but you get better at dealing with it."

Alyson's expression was unreadable, but finally she nodded slowly, "I hope so … everything hurts."

Audrey sighed, "Yeah, and it never really stops but … you keep moving, you find a way to tolerate it. And you make sure you're there for the people important to you … "

Another glance down at the toddler in lap, "She's all I have left."

"Yeah, so you look after her, help her get through it and she'll help you. Having friends helps."

Another of those sharp movements, Audrey was reminded of having one of the predatory bird based cyberforms looking at her, the same quick movements and focused intensity. "I … haven't had good luck with friends … and my friends have worse luck around me."

More than just a lost family. A lost everything.

"Well, you keep moving, you keep living. And you try to make new friends … because it's harder to do it alone."

Alyson kept looking at her for long moments in an honestly unnerving way, before finally nodding. "I'll try."

"That's all I ask, and hey, maybe we'll see each other around." She heard her name called out and looked up to see her three years younger sister coming out of the doctor's office. She thought for a moment about doing introductions but figured Alyson was probably at her limit for 'people' right now.

Keeping her movements slow she stood up, "I'll see you later."

Alyson just nodded, but Tabitha gave her a sudden wide smile and waved. If that wasn't the cutest kid she'd ever seen she'd eat her sword.

Giving a smile back she headed over to see how Lisa was doing. Trick was to keep moving and make sure you look after the important people, the rest would sort itself out.

Alyson didn't talk to either Sands or Sarah much to start with, not that either of them were talking much either.

It made sense in Tabitha's case since she was all of a year old and not really doing the language thing yet, but that didn't stop her trying and generally being an adorably cute little bundle of giggles. She very occasionally had the weirdest ability to sneak off the moment people weren't looking, but Sarah's mother Larissa could always find the girl.

Alyson was different. She was a few years older than the twins, but for the first few weeks didn't seem to want to talk to anyone except Sarah's mother.

The twins had been taken aside by their mother to explain it to them a few days in.

"Is she okay mommy?" Sands was the first to ask.

Larissa shook her head, "Not right now, but we're hoping she will be soon. You were told about her family?"

Sarah nodded, "Strangers got them."

Her mother winced a little at that bald declaration but nodded, "Alyson was close enough to get some blood from the creature on her, and that was how she managed to fight it off long enough for me to rescue them. But it also means she saw everything that happened. It's why she's so … cautious right now."

That was an understerstatment. Alyson didn't like having people near her that weren't Larissa, especially Liam … she was starting to get a bit more relaxed around her and Sands.

Sands's eyes went wide, "She has powers?"

Sarah's thoughts went in other directions, "She needs hugs … but she doesn't seem to like being touched."

Larissa nodded to Sands, "Yes, she has powers. She's still working out how to use them so don't pester her about them … I think she's getting better about the touching thing. Some of it is from the powers, she can give people shocks if she's not careful."

Sands's eyes were still wide, "Cooool … I mean bad, but … cool."

Larissa smiled, "It's just important that you make sure to give her some space but … don't be too distant. Helping her with Tabitha would be good, she's more relaxed around her."

Sarah gave a suspicious look, "Is this a way to get us to do babysitting?"

Sands shrugged, "I like Tabs … I just wish I knew how she got out of the bedroom that time. Hey, is there any chance she got some blood on her too? Can it even work that young?"

Larissa frowned, "It's possible, but I hope not. She's far too young to be trying to deal with powers. Look, just be nice to them, they have both been through a lot and will need support." She pulled them both into a hug, "I can trust you with this, right?"

Both girls were happy to agree and neither paid much attention to their mother's nervousness about the situation.

Once they got to know her Aly was kinda fun. Weird though, very weird. Both girls had learned to spot the signs that she needed some alone time, or when she was starting to stress out. Quickly they had found the fastest cure for Aly starting to have a freak-out was to put Tabs in her lap. The little girl, only barely a toddler, had gotten good at picking up on it too and would latch on to Aly like the world's most adorable blond limpet and refuse to let go until her brunette older sister calmed down.

Aside from that though Aly was pretty fun to be around though, even if she had the weirdest upbringing. Larissa had explained that Alyson was originally from one of the colonies that didn't have much contact with Earth, which kind of explained why sometimes she'd get confused by normal things like pizza and TV. She was still very shy though, in contrast to Tabitha who wanted to make friends with everyone.

Sands of course wanted to know about the powers. They weren't that impressive compared to what the Heretics they lived around could casually do but it was different coming from a girl that wasn't that much older than them and almost seemed younger at times. Also very willing to show them off once she calmed down, which in Sands's eyes made her the best guest ever.

"Okay, I think I've got it this time." Alyson was holding an incandescent light bulb in her hand, both of the twins and Tabitha gathered around.

Sarah looked at it doubtfully, "Just don't explode this one, we're just lucky mummy didn't catch us last time." Also lucky that Aly was apparently fast enough to have noticed the bulb starting to go and put it under the chair before it had time to finish exploding. The speed thing she seemed to have well in-hand … the electricity, not so much.

Sands was, in Sarah's opinion, leaning way too close to the possibly explosive light bulb, "Don't worry, it will be fine … "

The bulb flickered a bit and then lit up with a constant glow, the light reflected off the wide eyes of all the girls watching, Tabitha pointing at it, "Glowy" Nobody had told Sarah how old Tabitha was but she seemed to pick up words really quickly.

Aly bit her lip as she watched the glow, "Okay … it's just about trickling power into it … " there was a sudden brief flash and then the bulb failed as the filiminet gave out. "Okay, a bit more careful than that … it didn't explode this time though."

Sands was gleefully bouncing where she sat, "Getting better. Hey, let's go outside and you can practice your aim again … I want to see you throw lightning bolts some more."

Alyson's power seemed fairly all or nothing at times, though Sarah had to admit that fit Aly herself pretty well. She seemed to jump between emotions pretty quickly and was really bad at 'calm' unless she was holding a sleeping Tabitha. Everyone had learned to be careful about making too much noise at times like that. When it came to guarding Tabitha's sleep, Aly had a death-glare that even mommy and daddy didn't want to be on the receiving end of.

Alyson gave a small smile, "Sure, I need to work on my aim."

Sarah relaxed a bit, Aly was having one of her good days. There were more and more of those lately and less bad days, but when they came the bad days could be hard, like the times when Aly would just start shaking, or when she didn't want anyone getting close enough to touch her.

A few minutes later they were down one of the training ranges, Aly was lining up on the targets and Sarah had somehow ended up on Tabitha wrangling duty. At least for all her ability to wander off sometimes Tabitha seemed to have a good grasp of 'don't touch, dangerous' and 'don't run away outside', happy to stay close to Sarah.

Just as Alyson was about to try firing Sands interrupted, "Do the full thing."

Aly rolled her eyes but took a stance. She'd gotten dragged into them watching Avatar the Last Airbender and while she generally thought the entire series was a bit silly and really didn't get the jokes, she had been rather taken with Azula. Especially when Lightning Bending had shown up.

One thing about Alyson was that she took to martial arts like a natural, even if that was mainly sparring against mommy, and she mimicked the sequence from the cartoon perfectly, even down to the trails of electricity in the air as her arms swung around, then she put a pair of fingers out and thunder roared over the area as a bolt of lightning linked her to the target.

Sarah took her hands off her ringing ears, shaking her head a little. It was fun but so bright and loud. A quick check confirmed that Tabitha had also put her hands over her ears and was giggling in excitement. Tabitha always seemed to take weird bits of powers and magic in stride.

Sands was checking the readout, "Hey, that was almost a bullseye this time, you're getting better."

The older girl leaned over and give another one of her small brief smiles, "I think I need to get better at lower power … I need to learn how to not explode light bulbs … or other things."

Sarah was getting better at spotting the signs of Aly getting into one of her darker moods, fortually she had prepared for this. A slight nudge sent Tabitha toddling over to apply hugs. Fortunately she didn't need to pull out the big guns for this, besides they were currently out of ice cream which was a great tragedy that she'd already explained to mommy in detail about how dangerous that was. Mommy seemed a bit more doubtful but Sarah was sure she could talk her around.

"Sarah, Sandoval, I need to have a talk with you about something serious, okay?" Had she found out about the light-bulb trick? Or the cooking experiments? They had cleaned up the kitchen after that one! All of it even!

Sarah and Sands exchanged looks then back to mommy, Sarah taking the lead, "What's wrong?"

"Mommy just needs both of you to keep a secret, okay? For Alyson."

The girls exchanged another look, Sarah asking, "From who?"

"From everyone except us and Alyson. It's really important."

Sands spoke up this time, "But you said we're not supposed to lie." Sarah nodded firmly, they were good girls, and mommy had never told them not to try cooking, just that they couldn't use the stove, which they totally hadn't.

"This is for their protection, especially Alyson's. I never wanted to have to explain this to you but the reason Alyson is like she is isn't just because of what happened to her family, It's about her birth family too."

Without looking, the twins took each other's hands. Alyson had always made it clear that she wasn't directly related to Tabitha, none of which got in the way of how much the two were devoted to each other. She also got really quiet the couple of times anyone had asked about her birth family, a really uncomfortable kind of quiet that even Tabitha hugs and ice cream didn't cheer her up from.

Larissa picked up how serious her daughters had gotten, "Sometimes parents can be bad people that hurt their child, not for anything the child did, but because they are really bad parents."

Sands's eyes were wide, though Sarah managed to work out the implications quicker. Her voice was soft, "Alyson's first parents … they were bad people weren't they?" That got a look from Sands, who's eyes went even wider as they thought it through themselves.

Sarah was still thinking it through, though it was Sands that beat her to the next question, "Um … mommy. Are her parents still looking for her?"

Their mother shook her head, "No, but it's important they don't get any hint she is here. They think she's … gone, and it's important they keep thinking she's gone. We just need to not tell people about some things she can do."

Sands asked, "Like what. I think everyone has seen her using powers."

At the lack of argument Larissa relaxed a little, "People need to not know she can do more than lightning and being fast. I know she was helping you cook earlier." Both girls looked guilty for a moment, then tried very hard to not look guilty. Larissa couldn't help a small smile, "It's okay, I'm not angry."

Sarah relaxed a little, then worked it out, "She can do heat and cold too, she's trying to see if she can use that for ice cream." This was important research they were doing!

Their mother nodded, "Yes she can. You need to not tell anyone about that. And if she doesn't talk in English, don't tell people about that either. She grew up speaking a different language and it's a dangerous hint to where she grew up. We need to hide that, for her and Tabitha's sake."

Sands's tone was careful, "Even from daddy?"

Larissa's expression was complex, "Daddy is a good person but … sometimes people can be good to some people and bad to others. If you never see their bad side then you might think they are a good person. Alyson's parents are like that, and they have friends that don't know what they are really like … daddy sometimes talks to some people that might talk to them." She got a bit of a pained expression, "Sometimes daddy isn't as good at keeping secrets as he should be, he can be too trusting of the wrong people. It's better if we don't tell him."

The two sisters looked at each other for a long while. On one hand, daddy, on the other hand they didn't want anything bad to happen to Tabby and Aly. Reaching agreement they nodded to each other then looked back at mommy and nodded again, Sarah saying, "Okay we won't tell anyone."

Sands blinked, "Is this why Aly doesn't like daddy?"

Sarah thought about that for a moment, then nodded to herself. Aly had never been comfortable around daddy, early on she'd just get very quiet if he was around. These days she'd talk but she was never relaxed if he was in the room, and she'd gotten good at knowing when Aly was being polite to hide how stressed she was.

Larissa winced a little, "She … knows he might talk, so yes. I'm going to talk to her about hiding things better." She saw their reaction, "Don't worry, if you keep it quiet you can keep experimenting, though if you managed to make ice cream, I get to have some okay?" Then she crouched down and both of them came in for a hug.

Adult stuff was complex Sarah had decided. But hugs were good and simple, so she'd stick with those for the moment.

"NO!"

Audrey was still turning around to see why the normally very quiet Alyson had shouted when the teenager in question moved, seeming to almost teleport to grab her Lisa's wrist. It took Audrey few more moments to realise what had happened, Lisa's hand held just above the rune Alyson had drawn up earlier and then left to one side.

Lisa squeaked at Alyson suddenly just being there, trying to pull her wrist out of Alyson's unmoving grip.

Audrey put one hand up, keeping quiet to not set off the somewhat unstable Alyson any more than she already was, "Ah, I think I missed something?"

The Mason twins had gone a bit pale, Sarah the first to speak, "There is an age limit on people casting magic. If you're too young you can't reliably control the energy flow."

Audrey frowned, "And that means?"

Lisa had stopped trying to fight out of Alyson's grip when it obviously wasn't working and was just giving Alyson an annoyed look. Audrey took a mental note of that, sure Lisa wasn't exactly strong but the way Alyson's hand didn't even quiver despite Lisa's best efforts implied some super-strength to go with the speed.

Sands's tone was careful, "Ah … it means you dump all your personal energy into the spell, and die. Mum and dad were always very clear about that."

Audrey and Lisa both went whiter than the twins had. Alyson let go of Lisa's wrist once it seemed that the girl had gotten the point, then picked up the paper with the rune on it and carefully tore it in half. Her voice was back to it's normal quietness, "It was my fault, I shouldn't have left this sitting around."

Lisa gave Alyson an odd look, "Wait, you're my age. Why is it safe for you?"

Alyson shrugged a little, "I'm a natural, apparently the thing that I got powers off also gave me really good magical control. They checked … don't use me as a baseline, um, for anything really."

Audrey frowned, "I don't recall that being mentioned in magic class." She was only in first year at this point but that seemed an important thing to know.

Sands thought about it, "I guess it doesn't normally come up. We don't normally have anyone that young that doesn't know. We got told it when we were young."

That really did bring home the massive difference between somebody who really grew up 'in the knowledge' vs people that used to be bystanders like Audrey and her younger sister.

And then there was Alyson.

She understood the girl's caution and general twitchyness. For her and Lisa the loss of their family to a Stranger was almost a decade ago, not something you ever forget but time had given some … distance to it. For Alyson it was only a couple of months ago, and Audrey knew from bitter personal experience it took a lot longer than that to get over it.

Beyond that though Alyson was just … odd. Apparently from one of the off-world colonies, and that Crossroads had those was still weird, Alyson still would sometimes be confused by bits of modern day society, even the Heretical culture version of it. It was funny, the existence of smartphones for example didn't throw Alyson, even if the user interface took a bit for her to get the hang of, but she recalled how surprised the girl had been that you could play games on them. Just the little things were odd for her.

Sands looked around the group, "So … anyone want to try our latest attempt at ice-cream?"

It turned out to be the perfect topic change and a few minutes later the entire group was sitting inside the Mason's kitchen having some of the smoothest ice cream Audrey had ever encountered, "Okay, how did you get it this good? Did you use a spell and can you teach me?"

Alyson blushed a little, "It's not a spell … just a matter of taking care."

Audrey did her best to ignore the little smirks the twins were trying to hide. There were things being hidden here, she had managed to work that out, though she was pretty sure most other people hadn't noticed anything. The circle of people that Alyson would interact with was vanishingly small. Audrey had only gotten into it by being one of the first people Alyson met at Crossroads.

For the moment she was willing to let it go, though the temptation to try and work out what was really going on was strong. But she looked at all the happy girls in the kitchen, and decided to let it go and enjoy the moment. Some things were more important than curiosity.

Sarah glared at her mother. She was still upset over Alyson and Tabitha having to go away then she saw her mother's expression. Something had happened.

"Sarah, Sands, I need to tell you something important. It's another secret, and it's really really important you keep this quiet."

Sarah looked at her sister then back at her mother and nodded, "Okay mama."

Larissa took a breath, "I'm here to tell you that safe house Alyson and Tabitha were at was attacked and destroyed, probably by some relative of the Stranger that attacked them before." Before the girls had a chance to react to that she quickly went on, "That's a lie. They are both safe and well."

It was Sands that talked first, "Mama, did you do that to hide them. Make people think they are dead?" Sarah thought about the Bystander detective shows she'd watched with her sister, that was totally a thing that could happen, right?

"You are such clever girls. Yes, and this is why it's important that you not tell anyone. When it's safe I can let you talk to them again, but that's not going to be for a long time. It's okay if you think they are still alive. No bodies were found, and while everyone officially thinks they are dead they do think it's possible that Alyson fought off the attackers, and then took Tabitha and ran away from everyone."

Sarah had to admit that did seem like something Aly would do.

"So it's okay if you think that's what happened. But you must never let anyone know that you know for sure they are safe. I'm going to need you to both be very brave about this."

Sarah said, "You need us to look if we're being brave, don't you?"

Sands gave her a confused look, then blinked and nodded.

Larissa gave both of them a tight hug, "I'm sorry to make you do this my brave girls, but it's important."

When they let go Sands looked like she was only just managing to hold back tears. Sarah gave her a quizzical look and Sands said, "We're not going to see them for a long time … years maybe. I'm just thinking about that a lot."

Yeah, that did it. Aly and Tabs had to go away and they wouldn't get to see them for ages. By the time Larissa took them out to meet the others neither girl was having trouble looking like they were trying hard not to cry.

But they knew the truth. They knew their friends were still out there, and it was just a matter of when they would see them again.

Special thanks go to @pheonix89 who created Audrey and Lisa Wilson and allowed me to use them in my story.

Tamahori · Nov 23, 2019

Infiltration 2.01

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

"Nervous?"

I gave Sands a raised eyebrow, "Yes. Leaving aside that I'm about to let a weird magical machine powered by a decapitated monster-head make permanent changes to me, it's … " I glanced at her sister.

Sands turned to see Sarah giving her a flat look. Sands blinked, "You have a point."

"Oh, you wanted to see more pictures of the brat?" I handed my phone over to Sarah, "I got some yesterday, she was pleased to know she apparently has a fan-club at my school already."

There was a brief scuffle as Sarah refused to give up the phone as I turned to go up the stairs the normal direction as we got to the platform at the top of the lighthouse.

Standing on the platform were the other fifteen Bystander-kin for this year, seven boys, eight girls and a scattering of ethnicities which was a change after my almost entirely white school. Most of them were strangers, small s, to me though I recognized Roxa and Vanessa. Technically Sarah and Sands weren't supposed to be up here but their class let out early and they wanted to at least keep me company till the teacher got here.

We know him.

There was another student, in uniform, who looked up when he saw the three of us and rolled his eyes. "Took your time didn't you?" Then seeing the Mason twins he smiled, "Ah, perfect. Right, this is your problem now. I've got places to be." He didn't even wait for a reply and just headed for the stairs, smirking at my wide-eyed look, "Try not to trip over anything while distracted, the paperwork is a pain."

Ignoring the 'HEY!" from Sands he bounded downstairs before anyone could stop him. I blinked a few times, "Okay, who the hell was that?"

And seriously, who the hell was that?

One of the other students, an African-American boy, spoke up, "He said he name was Deveron, didn't explain much though."

Remember the person monitoring our house? The one that tried to wipe your memory of him.

There was a bit of smugness in that last bit, Theia and Tabbris's mom was an expert in mind spells and considered other people's memory spells to be polite suggestions. Theia wasn't anywhere near her level yet, but had been taught some tricks. She couldn't do anything about at least one Memnosyne spell already in effect on me, and the rest of the planet, but getting anything else on me to stick was apparently going to have a much harder time. If nothing else Theia had a hell of a 'home ground' advantage going on with my head.

Sands was frowning, "He's second year, supposed to be explaining things. I don't get it, he's normally one of the really good students, top of his class."

The one that looked younger on his second visit?

Whoever this Deveron was he had been spying on my house for years, well before I knew about Theia. The weird thing was that he'd been a grown man the first few visits but on his last one, only a few months ago, he looked student age.

Of course 'spying on me' didn't tell me much. At best guess there were upwards of five different groups spying on my place off and on. Mom had a hell of a rep.

Heh.

Yes. He's probably not Eden's Garden. Nothing else is ruled out at this point though.

Just to start with we have two different Heretic organisations, remnants of mom's group, Gaia who might be running her own operations, Theia's species, rogues from Theia's species, a necromancer, and god knows who else. This Deveron could be with almost any of them.

The necromancer was one we were sure on, Theia and Tabbris have been having to ward the house against ghosts for years. Thankfully there were so damn many groups trying to monitor me that anything we did everyone else assumed was one of the other groups messing around. The idea of all these groups trying to tiptoe around each other would be funny if it wasn't my family they were spying on and had managed to miss a Stranger kidnapping my mother!

While I'd been having my little moment Sands had been trying to answer a bunch of questions from my confused classmates to be, though Roxa was helping by pointing out that the twins were 'good people' and 'super helpful'. Even better I'd been still facing where Deveron left so any glaring would look like I was angry about him, and to be fair I was.

If he turned out to be another person that had failed mom ...

I shook it off and walked over to the not quite argument, "Look, I don't know why that asshole bailed on us but we've got two experts here in explaining stuff to Bystanders like us. So the way I figure it, we're better off than when we started."

One of the other girls, pale with long brown hair drawn into a braid spoke up, "Experts. Really?"

She did a double-take as me, Vanessa, and Roxa all nodded rapidly in one of those unplanned bits of synchronisation.

Sands smirked, "I'm Sands, this is my sister Scout. Our mother used to be the head of Student Affairs for the school and we've had to help with people with non Heretic, or at least non-typical Heretic backgrounds in the past, so working out how to translate 'crazy Heretic stuff' to 'normal world' has become a hobby for us. The teacher should be up soon to do the proper introduction but we can answer some questions you'll have."

Larissa would be impressed and proud.

Sarah leaned over to whisper in Sands's ear. Sands nodded, "Oh, if you could introduce yourself when you ask a question, it would be helpful for us getting to know who everyone is."

The brown haired girl put a hand up, "I'm Koren, Koren Fellows. First question, " she pointed at Sarah, "does she ever speak or is this like Penn and Teller?"

Sands looked confused at that but Sarah smirked, quietly saying, "Yes … but not much."

From stories I've heard if you want a real Penn and Teller vibe you want to go back to mom and her brother. He did all the talking, and I get the impression she did most of the thinking.

The African-American boy that had talked earlier spoke up again, "I'm Columbus, this is my sister Shiori," pointing to a cute asian girl, "so I'm getting that a bunch of you know each other?"

Roxa took over, "Oh yeah, I'm Roxa. Anyone that doesn't have a safe home-life when they find you they bring here. In my case I was living in a tent on a beach when Professor Pericles found me." She looked over with a questioning look, "Vanessa?"

The blond girl shrugged, "Foster family, not one I was close to."

I gave the group a smile, "Felicity Chambers, or Flick. My family is great, but I'm a bit of a weird case so they were having me come here on weekend visits. Probably to keep me out of trouble, I got picked up by Professor Dare while fighting a couple of vampires … in my defence I didn't start that fight."

A guy with obviously dyed red hair and obvious tattoos spoke up, identifying himself before moving onto his question, "Virus, I mean Russell. You got into a fight with a vampire?"

"Three technically, though Professor Dare got the third one while he was running for it. So there is this thing where if a Bystander gets a Stranger's blood in them it can give them powers … I'm given to understand that, " pointing at the Edge, "is an artificial version of the process. So I've already got powers, that's going to let me pick up more."

"Bull, Pericles said vampires are like really dangerous." That came from a hispanic boy with long curly black hair.

I smirked then boosted hard, going fast enough to look like I almost teleported in front of him, tapping him on the nose. "They are. Just as fast as I was just then for a start, plus strength and a few other things. Point of this place is to give us powers to match it." Most of the room had jumped back when I pulled that stunt and he was giving me a wide-eyed look.

Once he'd had a moment to catch up with things I did a one-handed cartwheel backwards to where I had started from. I have to say the sense of balance was probably one of the more fun bits of the powers I had. It was interesting to see how people responded, most of the room was startled though the twins, Vanessa, and Roxa had seen me showing off before. Vanessa was giving me a really odd look and a native american looking girl seemed to take it in stride.

Sands snickered, "Don't worry, we'll all be getting to do things equally weird in the future. Flick just has a head-start but the rest of us will catch up, that's what the Edge is about."

The guy I booped looked like he was about to say something when a familiar voice came from the stairs, "That's an acceptable summary Sandoval. Though I'm curious why you are here, and where is Mr Adams?"

Sands looked over at Professor Dare, and Mr Neal coming up the stairs, replying to the professor's question, "Professor Nimbles let his class out early so we were walking Flick over and as soon as we got up here Deveron told us they were our problem now and bailed."

Putting her hand to her forehead, Professor Dare sighed. "You may have been raised within the Knowledge, but you are still first-year students. Deveron is in his second year and is well aware of his new responsibilities. Still, there are worse people he could have left here."

Mr Neal spoke up, "I remind you two that your proposed new course has not been authorised yet Miss Mason."

The twins looked studiously innocent, Sands replying, "We've just been answering questions. No paperwork."

One of the girls asked, "Paperwork?" But Professor Dare was rolling into the introduction speech. Most of it was stuff I already knew, what Bystanders were, the official story on what Strangers were, and where the term Heretic came from. She delivered the speech well though, Mr Neal seemed mainly just to be staying out of the way.

Is it just me or is he paying a lot of attention to us?

It's not just you. I thought they would at least be more subtle with the monitoring.

So not Empire?

Oh, he may well have one of us inside him. He is after all a replacement for the woman who was specifically targeted by us to be taken over as a spy.

The story behind how Larissa Mason met Tabbris's mother, while she was still an Empire loyalist, was fascinating and in places horrible. Hopefully it would make a good story someday when I managed to find Tabbris's older siblings.

Dare had finally gotten to the good bit, "That is why we are up here. Because to truly understand what these creatures are, and to become immune to their memory alteration, you must see the light."

With that, she shoved up on a lever attached to the light in the middle of the room. Suddenly, I was blinded as the thing grew painfully bright. All around me, I heard the others crying out as well.

"Look into the light!" Professor Dare called. "Do not close your eyes, and do not look away. Look into it and receive the gift of truth! This is what gives us our power, our skill, our ability to fight these invaders and stop them from taking our world. The light illuminates the truth and will ensure that you are never again blind to the invaders. This is how we survive. This is how we choose. This is how we retain our memory of these monsters, and see them for what they truly are."

"This… is the Heretical Edge."

Oh. It is a skull. It doesn't look happy.

And then I was somewhere else.

I found myself sitting in a car seat and it didn't take me more than a moment to recognize where I was. It may have been ten years but I knew this car and as I looked over at the blond woman in a sheriff's uniform I knew the driver.

"Mom?"

For a moment I almost tried to touch her but I'd been told about this by Theia and I knew this was just a memory. Here I was nothing more than a ghost. In the background I could hear Professor Dare's voice echoing like thunder and telling me the same thing but I didn't care.

I was with mom again. It might only be a vision but I'd take it. I rested my hand just above her shoulder, not wanting to risk a touch that would break the illusion that she was really here. I could feel tears running down my cheeks, "Some day mom, we'll be together again. I'll find you ... if you don't rescue yourself first."

There was a sudden drawn breath from the back seat and I looked over to see Theia, eyes wide looking at us both. She'd been able to visit my dreams as long as I'd known her and I guess this was just another dream. "It's mom, she's here."

Theia looked like she always looked in my dreams, an almost ethereal figure a few inches taller than me despite only looking about fourteen, with brown hair and eyes and the almost shockingly beautiful looks that was typical for angels. Something was wrong. Theia looked almost panicked. "Oh lords ... Felicity, I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry."

What was she talking about, things were fine, I was with mom and the vision was ... going to show me when an ancestor encountered a stranger.

Oh no. No no no.

This was it, this was the night I lost mom.

I don't want to see this. Please don't make me.

Theia could tell I'd realized and reached out to take my hand. At least we were solid to each other, "You're strong, strong enough to see this. Visions are ... significant."

A car rocketed past us, blaring its horn as it went well past the speed limit. Mom blinked then shook her head and muttered, "Damn tourists." She started the siren and took off after it, "Don't worry, baby. I'll make this quick."

"No you won't. Oh god mom, why did it have to be this?" Theia gave my hand another squeeze.

Mom reached out to touch the small photo she had of me taped to the dash. I remembered that picture, I was grinning like a loon in it. Memory was all I had of it, it had vanished with her. I looked at the back seat again, "Remember this, every little detail. If we have to go through this than I don't want to lose anything."

It was redundant, she'd never forgotten anything since her mind was developed enough to really grasp what it was seeing, but she nodded. She'd be my camera in this place no camera could be taken.

We pulled to a halt behind the car that had stopped by the side of the road and had even turned the engine off. Mom was looking at it for a bit with her 'I don't trust this' expression. Theia's flatly delivered statement "Trap." was unneeded.

Mom called in that she'd stopped and the car's plate. I didn't need Theia to remember that one for me. It was burned into my mind from dad's notes and the years he'd been looking for her. She opened the door and stepped out, Theia and I followed by just walking through the car. What was solid to us in this vision seemed to be as little as it could to let us get to where we needed to be.

"That's him isn't it?" The man looked so ordinary, like just some guy, like an accountant or something. Average brown hair of average length and hazel eyes. He was even a bit overweight with a noticeable paunch. He didn't look like the man who'd caused the Black Death, the most scary and powerful necromancer ... anywhere really.

Theia nodded, "That's him. I know him from reports and that's the same man I saw pretending to be your dentist."

Yeah, the dentist. That's a story for later, but it's how we knew who probably took mom, and resulted in a pile of dead innocents, which is apparently par for the course when he went anywhere. In this case I guess the town got lucky, all he killed was a bit of me and dad.

Even before he talked I wanted him dead so much I could taste it. And right now anger was the only thing keeping me from breaking down.

"Sir, can you tell me where you're going in such a hurry?" Mom sounded so calm, so confident. Youngest sheriff the town had ever had, possibly the state, and she had earned it.

He just looked at mom for a bit, looking her up and down in a way that made me want to hit him even more. When he spoke it was relaxed and calm, "You see? I told you that you'd look very good in a uniform, Joselyn. And here we are."

Mom stepped back, moving her hand closer to her gun. It wouldn't be enough, Theia's people had been trying to kill him off and on for a long time, and it had never been enough. Heretics, from all factions, had been trying even harder, and it was never enough. "Excuse me? Do… we know each other?"

He chuckled then frowned and shook his head. "No, this isn't nearly as much fun if you don't understand what's happening. You're nothing now, nothing like you're supposed to be." He let out a long sigh and shook head head again, "You need to remember, or it won't be worth the trouble."

Theia spoke up, "If she was who she was supposed to be you'd be on fire and this area would be a crater."

Mom managed to get out "Remember wh–" and then he summoned up a pair of ghosts with a flick of his hand. Weak things, I knew enough tricks to be able to stop them even without Theia's help. But they were enough to grab mom's arms and hold them out to lock her in place.

The hardliner Heretics had been the ones to leave mom like this, in a state where an old nightmare could just walk off the street and take her. She should have been powerful, near unstoppable, if not able to kill him because it seemed nothing could, able to fight him off, force him to retreat.

"What th—let go of–" Mom was trying to fight her way free but it wasn't working. Seeing her like this hurt even more. "You're… you're not…" Mom's voice cracked a little, and her head tilted back, eyes widening with realization. "You can't be—this isn't… real, this isn't real. It can't be. It… This isn't–"

That was the Bystander Effect. Something to keep people unable to see, unable to fight ... unable to work with the Alters in a way that would make both better. A thing to limit our entire race. A curse laid on us by the Imperium that Theia and Tabbris had run from.

Thousands of years of limiting humanity, and I still didn't hate them as much as I hated this man.

He got out of the car properly, stopping to sprinkle some ash so he could stand on it.

Theia pointed, "That's his only weakness. The Heretics managed to hit him with a curse, they banned him from setting foot on Earth without being badly weakened." She sighed, "Of course he found a workaround, he just needs to be able to sacrifice people purely so he can walk around. His casual willingness, and ability, to do that tells you everything you need to know about him."

Mom managed to pull herself free for a moment and I had to hold down the sudden burst of happiness as she opened fire, hitting him four times in the body. I knew it wouldn't be enough.

He stumbled ... there was no injury, no blood, just a destroyed shirt, but he stumbled. I needed to remember that. He was immune to damage, but not to being pushed around.

Mom went into even more shock, "No… That's not…". Push too far and most people would get shut down by the Bystander Effect like mom was going, or stop even being able to see the impossibilities. Mom was tougher than most though, trying to shoot him again but the ghosts had grabbed her once more.

He produced a small red stone, a quarter sized ruby, and grabbed mom by the chin, ignoring her threats - forcing it into her mouth before making her swallow it. Then he stood back and just waited.

Theia grabbed onto me, holding me tightly as I watched mom go through convulsions, crying out in pain as whatever spell stone or drug he'd forced on her had its effect. I knew she lived through this, but it hurt to see her like this. The anger wasn't enough anymore and I could barely see through the tears.

When mom got herself back under control the ghosts let go and she looked at him with recognition. "Fossor."

Fossor, possibly the greatest known necromancer, a man who had killed entire worlds, who left a trail of death wherever he walked. And the man who was about to walk off with my mother.

He sounded pleased, "There we are. You see? This sort of thing is so much better when you're more than another clueless, blind sheep, isn't it? Much more amusing."

Mom gave her gun a glance where it had fallen and he just chuckled. "You know better now, Miss Atherby. There's no point. That human weapon is incapable of hurting me, and you have nothing else. I have restored your memories, not your abilities. I don't wish to lower myself to fighting you. But I do want you to understand what I am about to take away from you. Or rather–" He gestured at mom's car and the door popped open, the photo of me from the dash flying over for him to catch. "–who I am taking away."

Wait, what?

But he was after mom. It was always mom he was after, he came here for her, the great Joselyn Atherby, leader of the revolution, the woman who brought Heretic society to its knees.

It was her he was after, right?

"Theia?"

She just held me as I watched mom attack him with a scream, grabbing the photo back and smashing him into the car, unleashing a set of attacks that would have been lethal or at least crippling to a normal human.

It didn't hurt him at all.

He was laughing as he grabbed mom by the arm and slammed her up against the car, holding her in place as he gloated. "My beautiful creature, you are feisty. I wonder if your child will be the same once I've had the opportunity to… educate her, to bring her up in my image. What do you suppose your old enemies and friends will think of her then?"

"No! Fossor, no! Not—no! Not Felicity!" mom jerked against his grip, still furious before blurting, "Me. Take me instead. Take me instead."

Oh god no. No, NO! Don't do it, please mom, don't do it.

"Theia, we have to stop her, she can't do this ... she can't, please ... please."

The only thing holding me up now was Theia.

"You?" Fossor sounded amused. "What would I want with you when I can raise your daughter to be my perfect weapon? Why would I want to risk all of your annoying attempts to rebel when she can be much more easily molded?"

And for a moment I even found myself agreeing with him. Not mom, don't take mom.

Mom went quiet, still. Then she softly said "I'll take an oath spell. I know you know how to do that. I will obey you as long as you don't harm my child. I'll go with you, I'll do… I'll do anything you want. Anything. Just leave Felicity alone. Please. She's a child, she doesn't know anything about any of this. If you take her, I'll find a way to track you down. You know I will. But if you take me, there won't be anyone looking for you until you're ready. You can have me, Fossor. I'll take the spell, I'll take the oath. Take me, not her. Leave Felicity. Leave my child alone."

He stopped to think about that, reaching out to touch mom's face. "Take the great rebel leader herself, hmm?" He tilted his head before nodding. "You'll take the oath of obedience, and I will cause no harm to come to the child, Felicity. Understood?"

"Yes," mom spat, staring at him. "That's the deal."

I'd hated her for years until Theia and Dad talked me around, blamed her for walking out on us, blamed her for giving me a hug, telling me she'd be right back, and then just walking off to a stranger's car.

She'd done it for me, she'd sold herself into slavery for me. It had always been for me.

When the vision ended I was still screaming.

Tamahori · Nov 29, 2019

Infiltration 2.02

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

Shiori

My mother was a Stranger.

My mother was a vampire.

There had been no other way to interpret my vision, me as a baby being given to the adoption agency. My mother forcing the agency to take me, with her powers. My mother is a monster.

Oh god. I'm in a school full of monster hunters. I'm being trained to be a monster hunter, and I just found out I'm half-monster.

I don't want to be a monster.

What if I hurt somebody. What if I hurt Columbus.

What if they find out and they hurt Columbus.

I was forced out of my panic by screaming. The blond girl, Flick, was having a total breakdown, screaming and sobbing. Professor Dare was holding onto her, trying to get her to calm down, while the other teacher was just looking a little lost.

Had she found out her mother was a monster too?

"Felicity, deep breaths, what happened? Did it take you back to your fight?"

The vampires, she'd already killed two, and I was going to be in the same year as her. Though if Professor Dare thought this was a reaction to her reliving it, how bad had it been?

Flick came out of her panic with an almost horrifying abruptness, like somebody had slapped her, giving Dare a hollow look. "He took her, he took mom … he wanted to take me but she gave herself to him instead … it was to save me, I hated her for years and she did it all to save me … " her voice getting higher with each word.

The professor's voice was slow and calming, this can't have been the first time she'd done this. I really wished I had somebody do that for me. "Deep breaths, just like before .. " okay, this wasn't the first time she'd helped Flick though something like this. That fight must have been really bad. Flick seemed so calm, so confident before when talking about it. "Who took her, do you know?"

The name Flick said didn't mean anything to me. "Fossor … she called him Fossor, she knew him. He had … ghosts … he wanted me, he took her but he wanted me, she said she'd swear to serve him if he just left me alone … it was my fault, it was all me … all that time, it was me … "

It didn't mean anything to me but it obviously meant something to the others. The twins gasped while Professor Dare went as white as a sheet. "Oh god no, not him … "

The other professor, the man I didn't recognize looked like he'd been punched. He shook it off and looked around, a gap having formed around him, Professor Dare, and Flick as everyone gave them room. He seemed almost a little lost looking for a moment then walked over to the twins. "Sandoval, Sarah, I need to go with them. I don't have time to find … look, you two probably know the tour better than anyone, guide them around, give them the talk … stay away from controversy."

The looked at each her for a moment then nodded, and surprisingly it was the quiet one that spoke up, "Look after her."

He paused, and then nodded, stepping back over to the other two just in time for Dare to do something and abruptly the three of them were just gone. No portals, no Star Trek flashiness, just one moment they were there, the next moment they weren't.

There was a long moment of silence, broken by Sands, "Well … fuck."

Theia

Futuō.

Void take it, why didn't I see this coming. It's Joselyn Atherby, she'd do anything for her children. She's like mom, not even thinking about risking her life or staying in torment if could get her children away.

Why Flick though … because he thought it was funny? It's Fossor, half the shit he does is because it amuses him to do so, how do you predict that?

I still should have seen it coming.

Oh Felicity, I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to go through that.

It's not fair. Felicity's mother is in the hands of Fossor, Tabbris's mother is in hell … my mother was a monster that deserved every bit of both of those punishments and she … she was doing just fine. Powerful and respected.

Sometimes you just want to burn the whole multiverse down.

I was doing what I could to help Felicity but she was in so much pain. She'd been so angry, so understandably angry at Joselyn, and now it was all turning to guilt. You can't blame yourself for things like that … you can't. I … I'm still learning that. Lincoln … dad, was doing his best … it wasn't Felicity's fault what happened to Joselyn, it was Fossor's. It wasn't my fault what my mother did to me to try and fix my condition, it was hers.

That didn't stop it feeling like it was your fault though.

There was no way for me to stop Felicity feeling like this that didn't involve violating her mind, and that was a line I was never going to cross. I felt bad enough for what I did to force her out of it long enough to tell people what happened. They needed to know, this was too big a secret for Felicity to sit on, far too big, far too painful. And besides, there was always the chance they might manage to do something about it.

I mean it was possible. Sure, Fossor has been active for thousands of years and among other things had the Imperium after him, with resources that made the combined power of every Heretic on Earth combined look like nothing, managed to not only not die but thrive. But Heretics had hurt him in the past, mostly with that curse they managed to get onto him in the seventeenth century. Maybe they could manage it this time.

We were in Crossroad's small hospital wing. This brought back memories, I'd first met Audrey here while Tabris and I were getting checked over. Two Alters right in the middle of their best medical science and magic and they had no idea. When the Imperium set a group up, we didn't take any chances.

I knew my thoughts were jumping around but I needed it, I needed to think about something else and not get pulled into Felicity's pain. She needed me to be strong for her.

Dad isn't taking it well.

That was Tabbris, via the mind-link.

Has he hit the drink yet?

No, he's just swearing a lot. He's trying not to get too angry for my sake. He's … he's in pain.

We all are sis, we all are. Just be there for him.

I can do that. Give my love to Flick.

I will. Make sure dad calms down soon though, they may well send investigation teams to look around again.

I think it's a bit late. I'll tell him. Take care of yourself as well sis.

Tabbris did anger better than I did, I'd tried to train myself out of that for a long time. It's kinda funny in a way, normally having your daughter go in a screaming tirade about things is considered a problem. The one time I lost it the rest of the family viewed it as a good sign. I guess I did have a lot of suppressed issues to work though.

"Here, drink this. It will help."

A nurse, not somebody I recognised. He must have started working here after my time. I had to mentally nudge Felicity to get her to respond and help keep the shaking out of her hands so she could pick it up. For the last half hour I'd been dealing with things like walking too. Having to remember to move our body like her, not like me. I was glad we'd practiced, even if I hadn't had something like this in mind.

Just drink it.

I … I don't know what to do anymore.

We sit down, we recover, we get our bearings back, and we go on. It's what we always have to do. You can make it through this.

I want dad … I want to go home.

They would probably let you take some time off if you asked.

I … I'll think about it.

We looked up as two people came into the hospital room, Professor Dare and a very tall and almost dangerously thin man, an ill-fitting green suit loosely draped over his nearly skeletal figure. He was looking at us though emerald-tinted sunglasses with apparent fascination.

Felicity managed to pull some of that dangerous curiosity that's such a core part of her together, Do you think he knew mom?

Odds are for it. Though it could be the other thing, but bets are anyone they send in at this point is at least somewhat in the know.

Huh.

She just sounded so drained, it hurt to see her like this. She's Felicity, she's the passionate one of us, the active one. I'm the crazy voice in her head that's trying to make sure her curiosity is more dangerous to everyone else than her.

Left to myself I'd dig a hole, pull everyone I cared about into it, and fill it in behind myself. I knew what we were up against. I knew we couldn't win ... Felicity didn't see that as a reason to give up. Neither did dad or Tabbris. And that's one of the reasons I loved them so much.

So Felicity not being her normal 'storm the gates of heaven' self ... I'm not supposed to be the proactive one here, it's not my skill-set. I do murdering things and hiding bodies and snark and setting shit on lighting, fire, and ice, sometimes all at once. We have a deal, she does the talking and investigating and optimism, I do paranoia and stabbing things. It's a good breakdown, it works for us.

I think I want to go home too.

Professor Dare gave us a careful smile, "Felicity, this is Runner Tribald Kine, he's one of the Bow Street Runners, our police force."

There was a long pause and I was getting ready to nudge her when Felicity finally nodded, "You want to ask about ... yeah." We took a deep breath, "Okay, I think I can do this."

The runner's hawkish face softened as he smiled, "We can take this slowly, but it's important people know what happened. If you can describe what happened, in your own words."

"Right, I always wanted to be a reporter." Another deep breath and I could feel her pulling herself back together, my brave little sister, "I can do you one better if somebody gets the sketching supplies from my luggage."

Are you okay with this?

Of course, tell me what you want drawn and I'll do it.

"Okay Mr. Kine, my vision started with me in mom's police car ..."

Shori

"Sorry about that, Flick's a friend so … yeah." Sands shook her head, "So we're going to be giving you a quick tour of the school, but first we wanted to welcome you to the Heretical World."

All of us looked at the twins. Columbus was the first to speak up again, "Doesn't the school handle stuff like this?"

Sands nodded, "The school is great about introducing you to the school, but Crossroads is more than just a school, there is an entire society here. Both our parents were Heretics, our dad is one of the teachers, we literally grew up here. The only reason we know much about bystander culture is because we both made an effort to find out, so unlike most people in your year we know how weird this place really is."

Koren was next, "What was that about controversy? And this being unapproved?"

Looking around the room nobody seemed quite as put out as I was feeling. There was one really gorgeous guy, if you were into guys which I wasn't, looking a mixture of ill and pissed off, but he was probably the worst. Nobody else seemed to have taken it as badly as Flick did though.

Sands rolled her eyes a bit, "Okay, so we've been pushing for formal handouts for the Bystanders. Generally people are in favour of the idea but there is a lot of debate over the details. There are topics that aren't … secret as such, but they would prefer you get used to this place before you run into them. We think that's bullshit, but when you're dealing with senor Heretics they can get pretty set in their ways."

Even I was wanting to know what these secrets were now and I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one. Sand's sister, Scout? Yeah, Scout, though that other guy had called her Sarah, leaned over to whisper in Sand's ear.

Sands blinked, "Ah yeah. So there are some other things you should have been told but people were distracted. Professare Dare has this whole speech but I'm not even going to try and copy it. Long story short, we've been turned into Heretics by the Edge. You're not Bystanders anymore, you can remember about Strangers, see things for what they are, use magic, all the fun stuff. You've also got a sense that will let you detect a Stranger by sight, even if they otherwise look human. It's two way though, they see us and they know we're a Heretic instantly, and at that point they will try to kill you."

So even if I ever ran into mom again she'd be wanting to kill me on sight. Yay.

"The big upside though is powers. With Flick … " she paused and glanced over at where the three had vanished for a moment, "with Flick she's a Natural. You get Stranger's blood in you and you get some of their powers, more can show up over time but you can only get powers like that from one Stranger ever. That's what all Heretics used to be like before the Edge got created by Hieronymus Bosch."

Another girl spoke up, she looked middle eastern and a little bit on the plump side, "Wait, like the artist?" She paused for a bit, "Oh, I'm Mary."

Sands nodded, "Yeah, the artist. He was a Natural of a creature called a Reaper that can kill other creatures for their powers. Managed to kill it and, well, bits of it are in there apparently." Scout helpfully pointed at the light. "What the Edge does is it makes us like them, we don't get any cool powers to start with but anytime we kill a Stranger we get one of their abilities. Only a bit of to start with and the only way to get it better is to kill more Strangers with the same power but it does mean that our potential is open-ended. Along with all the training and education what the school does is get us into situations where we can fight Strangers and get powers off them, so things like what Flick was doing."

A caucasian girl with pink hair put a hand up, "Hi everyone, I'm Harper, I'm sure were all going to be great friends. So, what can she do? I've seen some things from the adults but it's a bit different to see somebody in our group with tricks like that." She paused for a moment, "Um, I understand if you don't want to talk about your friend right now or it's secret or something."

There was another of those glances between each other then Scout nodded a little, Sands saying "She's pretty fine with people knowing what she can do, likes to show it off actually. She's got that speed trick, but her big thing is electricity, she can even throw lightning bolts." You could tell they were worried about their friend but … I'd dealt with stress by remembering the good times, so I got that.

I snuck a glance at Columbus who was listening with fascination. He was loving this, getting to be a real life superhero, just like the comics. I guess it wouldn't be proper comics if we didn't have at least one hero hiding a dark secret.

I don't want to be a monster.

Harper nodded, "Okay, that's pretty cool."

Sands nodded back, "Powers tend to be, but you have to fight to get every last bit." She got more serious, "This life is dangerous, our mother used to be the Head of Student Affairs, a trained experienced Heretic with a lot powers an experience under her belt. Six years ago she was killed in a Stranger attack. The teachers here get really serious about things because people die, there are a hundred students in our year and not all of them will still be alive when we graduate in four years. Scout and me really would like it if all of you were still with us when we graduate."

"None of the stuff we're about to tell you about is going to save your life, but it's going to make it easier to be here, to interact with people like us that grew up in the knowledge. It's the things you don't need to spend time trying to figure out so you can get better at learning to survive." She shared another of those almost telepathic glances with her twin, "In the end it's not really about killing Strangers, it's about saving Bystanders, saving each other, and saving yourself. If you're dead you can't save anyone else."

Protecting people … I could do that.

While we were all dealing with that Scout got what looked like a deck of cards out of her pocket, then proceeded to unfold it several times, the block opening up in some impossible ways till she had a slab of wood about the size of a coffee table book and still as thick as it had been at the start. Everyone stopped to watch that, especially when she put it down in front of her like a desk and left it sitting in the air, just solidly in place despite no apparent support. I saw a small smile sneak across Scout's face as she watched our reaction.

Sands nodded to her sister, "We have some handouts. We're still trying to get them made part of the standard pack for bystander-kin but politics is happening. I am required to note these are not authorised by the school or the Crossroads Committee in any way. Even if several teachers and the Headmistress really like them." We were mainly watching as Scout proceeded to follow up her previous act by flipping the top of the hovering 'desk' open and reaching into it Merry Poppins style, pulling out a box that couldn't have possibly fit in the maybe one inch thick slab, closing it up again and putting the apparently normal box on top. It was somewhat anticlimactic as she opened that to pull out a bunch of small booklets, walking over to hand one out to each of us.

The Native American girl pointed at the impossible floating storage box, "I'm guessing that kind of thing is normal around here too?"

Sands nodded, "That specifically is a custom job that Da made for us when he heard about our plan. But the whole 'bigger on the inside' is very common around here, from storage boxes, weapon sheaths up to architecture. There are quite a few buildings around here that are quite a bit larger inside than outside, it's another one of those things you never think about when you grow up here but." She shrugged.

"It's not 'Harry Potter Magical World' bad, but for a start, did you know Crossroads has several off-world colonies? Some of them are the size of a decent city in population numbers."

Mary blinked, "Wait, really? Other planets?"

The smirk got wider, "Yep. Portals to get there, no spaceships. Think Stargate, not Star Trek. But they are out there, we've been to a few. The important thing is that I was almost 15 when I realised that for Bystander-kin this would come as a surprise. That's what I mean when growing up in our society means you take things for granted."

Theia

"And that's when the vision ended … and things got a bit fuzzy after that."

Runner Kine nodded, "That is one of the better witness reports I've gotten." He seemed impressed. He'd probably be less so if he knew how much I'd been helping track bits for Felicity, she was still having trouble focusing.

He looked down at the sketch-pad, "I'm impressed you did that while talking … I do have other questions of course."

I finished up the last bits of the, by my standards, somewhat rushed sketch and gave our hands back so Felicity could hand it to him. She managed to give him a painfully wan smile, "It's helping distract me … that's him, that's the man I saw. That's Fossor."

He looked down and nodded. I should hope so, if there is something I take pride in it's my artistic skills, and being an angel means not having to worry about taking reference photos. I like art, Larissa got me started while trying to get me some hobbies, and I ran into this concept of art therapy. I think one reason I like it is that it's mine, it's not something I learned back home or was formally trained in. It's not something to make me a more loyal angel or a better killer, it's just something I can do for me.

I think that's why Felicity always feels bad about claiming my talent there in a way she never feels about about using my elemental powers. Those are just something I inherited after all. Thank you father for giving me one single useful thing in my entire life.

He let Professor Dare see it, who winced and nodded, before putting it in his folder. Huh … he had the kind of recognition that comes from 'I've seen pictures', she had the kind of recognition that comes from having personally seen him. She's fought him in the past, at some point we'll need to ask her about it.

"So Felicity, just to confirm. You've never seen him before now?"

We pondered on that before she said, "I … he seemed familiar. Like I had seen him somewhere before. I'm not sure where though ... sorry."

That got a slight eyebrow raise, "If you remember do tell me. Now I know this will also be uncomfortable, but I need you to tell me about what you remember from when you last saw your mother."

I could feel the wince, mental and physical. That was far too close to remembering the years where she hated Joselyn. And if she'd felt guilty about that before, that was nothing compared to now.

You were young, you had no way to know the truth. It's not your fault.

"That doesn't make it right Theia, I should have known, I should have trusted her ... " there was a long pause as Runner Kine and Professor Dare blinked at us, "Shit, I said that out loud didn't I."

Yes, you did. It had been a couple of years since Felicity last talked out loud to me without meaning to. I'd let my guard down, stopped being ready to catch her. Stupid. She's was as stressed as I'd ever seen her. Still, we planned for this.

The runner carefully asked, "Who is Theia?"

Felicity sagged a bit in her chair, "You've got reports on me. Does that include my shrink's?"

"We do try to show some discretion, we knew you had been visiting one for a bit, but haven't been into her files."

We nodded, "Ah, then you don't know about Theia. It's going to be easier if you look at her records, I give you permission or whatever … " Felicity sounded tired, "Long story short, Theia is my imaginary friend."

This wasn't the way I wanted them to find out.

There were worse ways … and give me a bit and I might manage to think of some.

There was an even longer pause, before Professor Dare spoke up, "There are some other checks we'd like to run if that's okay Felicity."

Ah, time to check to see if Felicity was crazy or possessed. I wasn't sure if I wanted them to succeed or fail, on the one hand it would blow our cover, but if they came up with a way to detect a possessing angel … well, some things are worth having a cover blown.

This is probably going to be fairly boring.

A nap sounds good right now.

Then I'll watch over you. We'll get through this sis.

I'm glad you're here for me. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't.

You're tougher than you give yourself credit for, but I'm glad I could be here for you.

By all accounts Fossor couldn't be killed. But the Empire had trained me to be very good at murdering things, and I'd just found a really good target to practice on.

You hurt my sister Fossor, and someday I'm coming for you.

I would like to thank @Icoret for allowing me to use the team he created for his excellent fanfics Forcefields and Therapy and Rapiers and Family Drama. This is not really a crossover, but Mary and the rest of her team may show up in the background occasionally and will be off having their own adventures.

The Game · Nov 30, 2019

Tamahori said:
Hi everyone, I'm Harper, I'm sure were all going to be great friends. So, what can she do? I've seen some things from the adults but it's a bit different to see somebody in our group with tricks like that.

Already digging for info huh? Wonder if she'll show herself properly before everything goes FUBAR.

Tamahori said:
"That doesn't make it right Theia, I should have known, I should have trusted her ... " there was a long pause as Runner Kine and Professor Dare blinked at us, "Shit, I said that out loud didn't I."

Oh dear, whatever Seosten are in Crossroads right now might do a double-take on that one. At least it wasn't Tabbris possessing Flick or that little slip of the tongue would have spilled just about all the beans in a single micro-second.

Tamahori · Nov 30, 2019

The Game said:
Already digging for info huh? Wonder if she'll show herself properly before everything goes FUBAR.

She likes to know what's going on, and at this point I don't have things plotted out far enough ahead to know when she's going to blow her cover or not. But she'll be watching, assessing, and better at keeping her cover than many of the Seosten agents running around, let alone any of the lesser spies.

Oh dear, whatever Seosten are in Crossroads right now might do a double-take on that one. At least it wasn't Tabbris possessing Flick or that little slip of the tongue would have spilled just about all the beans in a single micro-second.

There is a reason Theia and Flick have gotten into a habit of not using Theia's full name, or a large range of specific names in general. Tabbris is about the one exception there, and that's because they want Tabs to retain that link to her mother.

The Seosten will be running their own checks, but Theia knows ways to mess with some of the, and her very nature messes with some others.

Tamahori · Dec 6, 2019

Infiltration 2.03

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

Shiori

"Wait, this has a section on dating?"

I looked over at my brother, he'd obviously been reading further into the booklet than I had. It seemed fairly easy to read but I was having a hard time focusing on things.

Columbus's question drew a slightly confused laugh from the rest of us and people started paying more attention to their booklets. Sands nodded, "Yeah, that's probably the big thing that causes the most confusion and hurt feelings. So, because of dangerous lifestyles it's not uncommon to see some fairly extended family groups. This also leads to a lot more polyamory than in the Bystander world, especially when people are closer to our age."

Columbus raised an eyebrow, "Polyamory? Really?"

Sands nodded, "If you're going to date any of the Heretic-born, make sure you have a talk about things like that. It's fairly normal for some people to be dating several people at once, and not consider it cheating, they may even be planning on making it a long term thing with several people. We haven't run into it personally, but we've heard stories of things getting really messy when one side viewed it as a poly relationship and the other person thought it was monogamous. Relationships can get messy enough already, so make sure you talk to whoever you're going out with and be sure you and them understand how you see things."

There was a shrug from Columbus, "That's not bad advice in general."

He got a smirk back, "We're still human, humans with weird powers and an odd lifestyle, but still all humans here. People are people regardless of what the Edge does to us. Remember that bit and you won't go too far wrong."

"On a related note, this place is very easy going on all sorts of things like that. You'll find it's very rare to run into anyone with issues around homosexuality or other lifestyles, or if they do they'll keep it quiet." She seemed obviously a bit baffled that anyone might have problems with that which was a bit relaxing. I had enough to worry about right now without people getting on my case over being into girls.

Though right now anything even resembling a relationship seemed like a really bad idea. It was going to be hard enough hiding things from Columbus.

Columbus blinked at that, then nodded, "Okay. So, what else do we need to know?"

Scout suddenly spoke up, startling everyone, "Teachers."

Sands nodded, "This school has more resources than some countries, and there are less than four hundred students here at any one time, less than a hundred in our year. The teachers really care about making sure people get the best chance they can at things, and honestly care about the students. I'm not sure what some of you might be used to, but here if you're having problems go and ask for help from the teacher or their assistants. Asking for help will not get you in trouble around here, knowing when you're not keeping up or are in over your head and asking for backup is one of the skills they need us to learn."

That was greeted with a mixture of interest and polite disbelief. I was more concerned, the last thing I needed right now were teachers paying too much attention to me.

"I'm serious. The next four years are going to be the hardest of our lives up till now, for most of us at least, Heretic-Born and Bystander-Kin alike. The teachers know that, all of us are going to need help at some point, and they are there for you." She exchanged a glance with Scout, "Also this life is high stress. The school has some really good councillors, and expect to be seeing them on a regular basis. It's normal around here, we're going to be dealing with things that would mess anyone up. Help is there if you need it, and trust me, you'll need it."

"Just be aware that if they tell you to go talk to a counselor, it's not a punishment or because they think you're weak, it's because they don't want people to burn out. Right, other important topics. Ah, age. So, Professor Virginia Dare, who brought us up here, anyone want to guess at her age?"

A hispanic boy with long curly black hair spoke up, "Hmmm, mid thirties, solid MILF there."

The crassness of the comment pulled me away from both thinking how much I could do with talking to a counselor, and how terribly bad an idea that would be. Did he really say that?

Sands just gave him a look, saying in a dry tone, "Oh, I can see you're going to be 'fun'."

Vanessa spoke up, "I'm guessing she was born August 18, 1587, Roanoke Colony, North Carolina."

Everyone just blinked at her, then Sands slowly nodded, "Ah, I think that was about right, " she looked over at Scout who nodded, then back, "Yeah, that's right. First English child born in the New World making her a bit older than America. That's more accurate than I was expecting, did you look it up in the library here?"

Vanessa blushed a little, "Wikipedia, and a guess that it was a trick question."

"Well, you were right, and if you look over at the wall there is a picture of our headmistress Baroness Gaia Sinclaire, who does really look like that despite being somewhere over eight hundred years old. Immortality, or at least not aging, is a common thing to get. Don't try to guess how old adult heretics are by looks, or even some of the teenage looking ones if they aren't at the school. There are heretics around that are thousands of years old, and some of them like looking harmless."

Sands pondered, "What else … so, sparring is a thing you'll see a lot of. You're going to be issued your weapons soon, there is a page about it, and those are going to be real live weapons that are intended to kill things. Understandably the school comes down on real fighting hard, minor roughhousing you might get away with but using powers on each other, weapons, that will get shut down hard. This place is training all of us to be really good at killing, and they need to know we'll be aiming it in the right direction. Seriously do not screw around on that front."

Another blond girl that looked like she should be on a beach somewhere spoke up, "I'm Roxa. What happens if you push it too far?"

"There are various punishments, and they'll have to talk to somebody if it seems to be anger control problems. Worst case … "

Scout quietly said, "Banishment."

Sands pointed at the light, "That gives powers, it can take them away too along with your memory of being here, make you a Bystander again. If you just can't make it as a front-line fighter then they'll find other jobs for you, nobody is going to force you to fight, but in the worst case, they can make you a Bystander again. I mean the absolute worst case is execution, but you need to do premeditated murder for that."

Or be part Vampire, I'm pretty sure that could get you executed. I … whatever else happened, if they found out I couldn't let them take me, I couldn't let Columbus see.

That made people go quiet for a bit. Sands said, "About the last important thing I want to say, because while it won't come up for a while here it's good to get into your head early, is that you can't always trust the sense. There are such a thing as what's called Undocs, undocumented Strangers. They don't show up to the sense, if they aren't human looking then you can still see them for what they are but there are human looking Undocs. It's rare but it can happen, just don't expect to see it anytime soon."

Shit.

"However if you ever think you're in the situation of facing an Undoc then make sure, really make absolutely sure. Natural Heretics don't show up on the sense, Heretics from other organisations don't show up on the sense. Remember, we're trying to save people, not kill people on the same side because we got freaked … always make sure of your target. You can trust the sense but it only goes so far."

She looked around, "Right, so who wants to see around the magic school?"

Theia

Wake up Felicity. They've finished.

I felt her grumply struggle to wakefulness. As I'd expected a bunch of the tests didn't need us to be an active participant, and the medical people seemed to feel that after the morning she'd had if Felicity wanted to sleep for a bit that was to be encouraged.

Did you stop me having nightmares?

Yes, I hope you don't mind. You weren't in much of a state for me to ask.

No, it's fine. Thanks.

She shook our head a bit to try and get us more alert, then blinked at the nurse that had been coming to wake us up. She must have been feeling better, she managed a dry tone, "So, is Theia some kind of evil possessing entity, or am I just crazy?"

I like to think I'm not an evil possessing entity.

He gave us a smile, I had to admit he had a nice smile, "There are no indications of any external entities. I wouldn't use the word crazy, imaginary friends are a well known thing. I'm not an expert though, ah." He looked up as Professor Dare came in. He gave another of those nice smiles and then walked over to talk quietly with her for a bit, and annoyingly used a privacy spell so I couldn't tell what they were saying.

It said a lot about Flick's state that she wasn't even trying very hard to listen in.

The professor walked over, "So the good news is there are no signs of intrusion. You don't need to worry that anything else is messing around in your head. I would like you to talk to one of our therapists, we were going to ask you to talk to him even before you mentioned Theia, you've been through a very traumatic moment."

I couldn't help but giggle at her certainty that I wasn't real. You should talk to them, it would make sense and … you need to talk to somebody other than just me.

Felicity grumbled a bit more, but nodded, "Okay Professor … heh, I seem to spend most of my time around you having nervous breakdowns."

She gave a sad smile, "I would be more worried if you weren't reacting to what has been happening. I will try to ensure my classes are less prone to dropping major trauma on you."

That got a nod from us, "Yeah, I'm liking the idea of less excitement."

"Very well, if you feel up to moving I'll introduce you to Klassin Roe. You can trust his discretion fully."

Translation, he's one of the Headmistress's people. Sadly he might also be one of my people, so don't trust him too far. Even assuming she knows about us existing they just proved they don't have a reliable way to find us.

"We'll see." was Felicity's muttered comment, and I wasn't sure if that was for me or the Professor.

Shiori

"So you get a few Naturals though here?" I had waited till we were walking to the next place and quietly asked Sands when everyone else seemed distracted by the admitally amazing view.

She nodded, "Yeah, I mean you don't see a lot of them. I'm pretty sure Flick is the only one in our year."

I gave her a nod back and let her get into a chat with another member of the group. Scout seemed to be giving me a look, but then gave me a small smile and answered a question for somebody else … by pointing out where to find the answer in the booklet rather than talking.

Okay so Naturals are a thing … I could claim that if something comes up, ran into some random person that got hurt and … dammit. I need to keep it together, for Columbus at least.

People had started to quiet down by the time we arrived at the dorms. They were four stories high, and shaped long rather than tall, with the end opposite us pointed toward the beach in the distance. They were placed parallel to one another, with a wide courtyard between them that had several benches and a fountain in the middle, and there was a glass-enclosed bridge connecting the top floor of each. I also saw a couple more gargoyles perched at the top of the buildings. In front of the doors we were standing at, there was a gold statue of a knight holding a sword at the ready.

"This is the boy's dorm," Sands informed us. "You can tell because of the statue. See, look over there." We looked the way she was indicating, and found a gold statue of a woman holding a bow and arrow standing beside the door of the opposite building. Then she gestured towards the door, "If any of the girls want to try and get in?"

Harper bounced forwards, "Sure."

The moment she got near the door the statue suddenly moved, grabbing her by the wrist. She didn't seem to be in any pain, just startled like the rest of us. The status was looking at her now, after a few moments it let go again, and watched her as she backed off.

Fast, but not Felicity fast, not vampire fast. Was I like a natural? Would I get that fast someday? Would I need to drink blood? What kind of monster was I going to turn into?

Harper didn't seem too thrown by, "That was exciting."

Sands smirked, "That is the most mild security system you'll run across at the school, and honestly a bit funny to watch in action. When we show you the Pathmaker later don't mess around with the ward line. It won't kill you but you'll wish it had, and even more so when security gets through with yelling at you." She pointed up at the building, "Four stories, four years. We'll all be on level one this year and then move up, fourth floor is co-ed and linked by the bridges you can see with proper apartments rather than just rooms. Once you're over 18 you can go into the other gender dorms, and partners can room together if they make a special request."

Malcolm blinked, "Wait, they are okay with that?"

Sands shrugged, "Once you're over 18, and use protection, which around here tends to be some pretty reliable spells. There is a bit about that on," she paused and Scout leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Page 8. I'm told that we don't have a lot of hangups about that compared to Bystander society." That boy that made the stupid comment in the lighthouse looked like he was about to say something which Sands cut off with, "Not a lot of hangups doesn't mean we don't have standards."

Great, I find a place where my sexuality isn't going to be a problem, and can't risk going near anyone because I'm a monster.

Columbus raised his hand, "Okay, so I got a question. This is a tropical island, why does it feel like a nice warm day at most, and why aren't we all sweating our asses off?"

The Native American girl spoke up, "I'm guessing magic? Oh, I'm Aylen, Aylen Tamaya."

Sands nodded, "There is an environmental dome over the entire grounds, it's why the school grounds are a big circle. It's also the reason we're not being deafened by that jungle out there, which is a real literal jungle, including some Stranger animals. Don't go out without an escort until you're better at protecting yourselves."

It really helped bring home what kind of place we were in when she was just blithely saying 'when' we can wander into a Stranger inhabited jungle and be more dangerous than anything out there.

"It's also the first line of the security, keeps track of people heading in and out, stops anything bad from getting it. This place is as safe as they can make it while still teaching us what we need to know, and that's part of it. It might seem like a pain in the ass but it's important. Of course Scout and I grew up with stuff like this so. The other useful thing it does is adjust the temperature to keep you comfortable. I could wear a tee-shirt and shorts while Scout wore a snowsuit and we'd be comfortable even right next to each other.

The Edge thing worked on me, I got the vision, that probably means I got the powers right? Is it going to protect me from being a monster, or just make me a more powerful one?

While I'd been distracted Aylen had asked if it was hot outside the dome which Sands had confirmed. "Hell yeah, It's like a ninety degrees out there by the beach today. Step outside the shield and you'll see how hot it can get here during the day. I think that's part of why they make us wear these uniforms, to make us not want to go down there while we're in class."

She continued, "Anyway, you should go and find your dorms, look for the door with your name next to it. You'll typically be paired up with somebody who grew up in the knowledge who can explain all the odder stuff, like the culture, but it's really easy for us to forget just how different this place really is from outside. Your stuff should be on the bed, tell me if anything is missing but I haven't heard of that happening, ever." She dug into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a big ruby-coloured cast-iron key. "There will be one of these next to your name, have it with you and your door unlocks when you get close enough, no need to actually use it on the door."

"Right" Sands waved towards the door, "Girls with me, everyone meet up at the fountain in … ten minutes should be plenty. If you run into your roommate be nice, you'll be with them for a while."

Everyone agreed and Sands led us into the other building, this time I we didn't have to dodge the statue, and the inside was really nice without crazy expensiveness the main building had been like when I was shown through it. Dark hardwood floor and walls, stairs to the right of the main entrance leading up while an open doorway to the left lead into the hallway proper. Doors lined both sides of the hall, with the little name-plates beside each door and envelopes attached to them for the keys. Between the doors were wall-mounted lamps and several paintings of various mythological creatures and warriors.

I found my room near the far end of the hall which had a window that looked down over the grounds that lead to the beach. Below the plaque with Shiori Porter on it was one reading Vanessa Moon.

"Huh. I didn't think they put Bystander-Kin together." Vanessa had come up next to me while I was looking at it. She gave me a shy smile, "I guess we're roommates then."

She had a really nice smile, no, not the time. I handed her her envelope and got my own key out. While she was getting her key I tried the door, which unsurprisingly opened for me with no issues.

The room was really nice. It was fairly large, about twice the size of my bedroom back home and the floor was a pretty white carpet that felt soft under my feet. There were two queen-sized beds on the opposite side of the room, their headboards each resting on either side of a large window.

To the other side of each bed there was a small dresser with a pair of drawers with a lamp and one of those old-fashioned wind-up alarm clocks sitting on top. On the left and right sides of the room there were closets. On this side of the room on opposite sides of the doorway I was standing in, there were a pair of desks with comfortable swivel chairs and actual computers that almost looked out of place compared to everything else I had seen so far.

I could see my bags on one bed and what I assumed were Vanessa's on the other. A quick check confirmed everything was there. At least I didn't have to worry about some dark secret in my luggage, unless they had magic for that. Did they have magic for that? Keep calm. They probably don't, if they have magic for that they would have detected me by now, let alone my stuff.

"So, I don't think I introduced myself properly before. Vanessa Moon, I've been living here for a few weeks but that was just a temporary place, this room is nicer."

"Hi, Shiori Porter … " Shit, what to say? "So, foster family?" No, not that.

She gave a small shrug, "They weren't bad we just … it was never going to be permanent. Um … " I knew that look, that was the 'your brother doesn't look anything like you look but I have no idea how to ask without sounding like a dick' look. I was very familiar with that look.

"Columbus and I are adopted, but mom and dad are great. I … never knew my biological parents." I had always been curious about them, and now I really wished I hadn't found out.

She nodded, apparently no better at small talk than I was right now. Normally I was better but yeah. "Ah, we should probably get back out there."

Vanessa nodded firmly at that as I gave us an out from trying to force this conversation to keep going.

Maybe she wouldn't be too bad as a roommate, less talking means less risk of something coming up, right? I could only hope she wouldn't notice anything.

Theia

"And since then she's always been … there I suppose."

I hadn't been paying much attention as Felicity explained the backstory behind when I started talking to her. Well, the 'official' backstory at any rate. I remembered Klassin Roe from my last time here, Gaia had wanted me to talk to him but I'd been avoiding that. Too many secrets … if I'd known the truth about her links to the revolution, and by extension his, I might have risked it. Though there was always the danger he wasn't his own person.

He hadn't changed his appearance any, still looked vaguely like the Fonz from Happy Days, or at least the same kind of 50's era greaser gangs. His black hair was always slicked back, he had those high cheekbones, and he actually wore a dark leather jacket along with jeans and a gray tee shirt.. And there might be somebody like me hidden inside him, looking out at us through his eyes even now.

He was very good at a calm and relaxing tone though. "So you've never seen her?"

We nodded, "Not directly, she isn't like somebody I see walking around, she's always just a voice … I know what she looks like because she's drawn herself for me. I … I get this is all in my head, but if I try to do art myself it's never as good as when I ask her to draw it." She looked down at a new sketch I was roughing out for her, "She was always so sure that mom didn't just leave … took her years to convince me … " she took a deep breath and reached up to wipe away some tears, "She always seemed to know. Used to tell me stories sometimes, fantastic ones but … well, I think I saw some of that stuff after I became a Natural.

"Some of the sketches she did … I mean I did via her … I don't know the right terms. Anyway, some of the stuff she's done in the past looks like some things I've seen since."

Come on Klassin, take the bait. You've read the literature on this kind of thing.

He blinked at that, "I would like to see some of those sketches if possible. Sometimes people can see past the Bystander Effect at least part way … and sometimes that can show up in weird ways as your mind tries to protect itself. Such as filtering it though a friend." He gave us a look, "You said you used to talk to Theia out loud … is it possible I could talk to her myself?"

We blinked and Felicity said, "I guess … she doesn't talk out loud often, it used to bother Dad … and, well, I had enough of a rep for being crazy already. If you want to though, I can try."

Oh this should be interesting.

Tamahori · Dec 13, 2019

Infiltration 2.04

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

Shori

"And this is what they call the Pathmaker," Sands announced. She held a hand up to stop us a few feet away from the entrance of the place, then pivoted around to face us. "Anyone wanna guess what that means?"

I'd been through this building but this was the first time I'd had a chance to get a good look from the outside. It was still weird looking and from here we could hear a loud, continual humming.

Mary was the first to reply, "Does it make those portals like the ones that brought us here?"

"Yup!" Sands chirped, head bobbing. "Plus it does some other stuff that uhh, I don't really know about. Trust me, Scout and me, we've tried for years to get someone to tell us about it, but they won't."

Koran was next, "And this was where you said the security was not kidding around?"

Scout nodded rapidly and Sands winced, "Oh yeah." She pointed, "See that line, that's the ward line, a magic circle. Yes really. The humming you can hear is a warning, it gets louder as you get closer so you've got no excuse for missing it. Cross the line and you'll get really sick. Like, face on the ground, expelling everything you've eaten for the past two days out both ends. Headache, nausea, dizziness, the works. I've seen it happen. It's really awful. Plus it sets off an alarm, everything closes down, it's horrible. You don't want it to happen. Just stay away from the line. It's bad news."

There seemed to be a bit of doubt about the 'magic circle' thing, but nobody was pushing the issue, though Koran especially was studying it as if she could work something out about it.

Aylen spoke up, "So, if Naturals can happen without the Edge, and this place has only been around for a bit, does this mean there are other groups of Heretics out there?"

Sands nodded, "There are a good number, almost all of them are made up of naturals like Flick, either just by finding people that survived or various ways to try and force the issue that range from dangerous to really dangerous."

Vanessa asked, "And that 'almost'?"

The twins shared a look for a moment and Scout shrugged befores Sands replied. "Eden's Garden, they, well there is a long story behind it but they are a breakaway group from Crossroads and it wasn't a clean break. Among other things it was somewhat responsible for the American Revolution, we were on the American side, the Garden was on the English side. They have their own version of the Edge that was made using artifacts stolen from us."

Travis was the first to say something, "Wait, you mean the American Revolution was because Crossroads had a fight with itself?"

She nodded, "One of the courses you'll do is in how Bystander historical events were caused by things from our world. Our relationship with Eden's Garden isn't good, a lot of the people from back then are still around and have long memories."

Travis seemed to have become the spokesman for us at this point, "What can you tell us about them?"

Sands waggled a hand, "There isn't much hard information here, when I say it's a deep grudge I mean really deep, so it's a lot of rumours. Everything from them actively working with Strangers or doing Heretic Stranger hybrid experiments on the bad side -"

Wait. What?

" … through basically like Crossroads, just a lot more intense about it on the good end. It can be a bit of a cold war at times, from talking to people that have talked to them they think we don't go nearly as hard as we should.

"For one thing they start with people a lot earlier than we do. So if you run into a Garden Heretic your age, in as much as you can trust that around here, they have been training as a Heretic a lot longer than you will have been." Sands smirked, "Though we train better … us losing a student in a year is bad news, they apparently have a lot of fatal training accidents."

A new voice spoke up, "So what is your view on it?"

People looked over at the new arrival and a bunch of us kept looking because wow. Another first year I was guessing, and must be Heretic-born because she had the uniform on … whoever she was though she was unreasonably good looking. She gave several of us especially the boys a flat look that caused me to look anywhere else.

A shrug from Sands, "They are Heretics and they fight Strangers. To use another personal story, when our mother was a kid she was attacked by a Stranger, and was saved by an Eden's Garden Heretic. Haiden just stepped in and saved her because she needed it, and even warned Crossroad about it so they could make sure she'd be safe if similar Strangers came after her again."

We thought on that, Travis asking, "Are they likely to fight us if we run into them?"

"Um, it depends on the person. For some people on each side the other side is almost as bad as Strangers. For others it's just a different faction and the important bit is that we fight the Strangers, so it really depends. Be polite, stay on your guard but don't start a fight if you don't need to. At the end of the day we're all Heretics, if a fellow Heretic is in trouble you help them, Crossroads, Garden, or other. Keep that rule and you can't go far wrong, we're here to save people, and that includes each other."

She looked around, "So, who wants lunch?"

Koren held up a hand, "Far be it from me to keep us from lunch, but there is an elephant in the room so I may as well ask. Who's Fossor?"

Almost everyone went quiet though I saw the new arrival's head snap around to look at Koren, "What?"

Our guides looked at each other, and Sands gave a pained expression, "Yeah … he's. He's the Stranger that makes other Strangers look safe to be around, a super-powerful necromancer that both Crossroads and the Garden have put serious effort into killing, and failed to make him die. Word is that if he shows up somewhere you run … I don't just mean students like us, veteran Heretics should pull back and call for backup if he shows up."

She paused as Scout whispered in her ear, "Rumour has it that Professor Dare has managed to survive fighting him more than once, so that's pretty badass."

Vanessa blinked, "He named himself after ancient roman gravediggers?"

The new girl replied, "Odds are they were named after him, he's old and very powerful. Why are we talking about one of the worst creatures on the planet?"

Koren helpfully answered, "One of the other girls in our class saw him in her vision, apparently he kidnapped her mother."

There was a pause as the other girl was looking over our group, then her head snapped around to Sands, "Where is Chambers?"

Sands winced, "I was going to find you later to tell you Avalon, it was Flick's mother that got taken. She's … she didn't take it well. I assume she's still in medical."

There was a longer pause, then Avalon gave her a curt nod, turned, and walked off toward the main building.

Sands blinked at the sudden departure, then looked back at us, "All I know is that she's been training with Flick, apparently Avalon is the only one in our year that can keep up with her in sparring, which means … yeah, don't piss her off." She was looking at that annoying boy in particular as she said that. "Today's probably going to be a bit weirder than normal because of the Fossor thing … it's a name that gets people's attention. Anytime he's up to something it tends to result in a lot of dead bodies. Stopping people like him is a large part of why this place exists."

Monsters, stopping monsters. Maybe monsters like me.

"Okay, we've got lunch now, and then a few hours to call home or look around yourself before we meet up outside the cafeteria at the dorms. If anyone has any questions we'll be at the seating area outside, and if you ever just need to talk to somebody about things we're available. We're not trained, but we know how to listen, and know who to point you to if needed. The people here really do care about the students, and they know we're under a lot of stress, so help is available."

Scout quietly spoke, "I'm available to talk to as well … just don't expect me to say much back. She does the talking mostly," nodding towards her sister.

Sands snickered, "I do the talking, she does the thinking, it works."

If I was going to talk to either of them about things it would be Scout … she was a lot less threatening. Not that I really wanted to talk to anyone about this … well, I did but I was pretty sure it would be a really bad idea.

Sands started walking back towards the dorms, "Anyway, lunchtime."

Theia

I was right, this was interesting. I didn't often get a chance to talk to people myself. To give him credit Klassin was taking the idea of talking to me though Felicity even better than dad did initially. Even when he thought I was just Felicity acting out.

"No, I don't know how we became a Natural, when she's asleep so am I. Being able to see the world for what it is doesn't help if our eyes are closed."

He nodded, "I was hoping you might have picked something up."

I shrugged with our body, "I'm as confused as Felicity is, I don't have a lot more experience with the larger world than she does. Laramie Falls is very quiet in both worlds."

"If I can ask Theia, what's the earliest you remember?"

Is this as weird for you as it is for me? I'm not used to having people just 'go with the flow' like this with me.

I like it, you deserve to have people take you seriously. Well, I guess he'd found a way to unknowingly score points with Felicity.

"I'm not sure, it's fuzzy … I remember Miranda but her leaving did seem to be the catalyst for me to become … me I suppose."

"You sound older than Flick."

Another shrug, "I feel like I'm older, though I believe we've just established I'm no more than five years old … hmmm. Felicity, do you remember the event with the dentist?"

She took over, "The mass murder? Yeah, until today that was one of the most horrible things to happen near me … "

A Klassin's enquiring look I explained, "Not long after Miranda left there was a mass murder at the dentist in town, almost ten people horrifically killed. Felicity was at the dentist the day it happened, though we've always supposed before the event. There was a replacement dentist … he felt, wrong. Not as wrong as the nurse did but there was something very very wrong there … it was the first time I think I recall seeing, or feeling, something that Felicity didn't. We … made an excuse to avoid the dentist that day."

Felicity filled in, "I got sick … I think Theia helped there, sick enough that I couldn't stay there."

Klassin noted, "That event is in records as an attack by an unknown Stranger."

Felicity gave him a challenging look, "A Nocen you mean?" Ignoring the way I had suddenly flipped over the current page and was sketching something different.

He raised an eyebrow at what his patient's hands were doing but nodded, "Yes, a Nocen. But we never managed to work out what it was, they covered their tracks well despite the town being monitored."

My sister let some anger show, "Not monitored well enough."

He slowly nodded, "Not well enough, no. Ah, Theia? Is that you drawing?"

I nodded, "Yes, I'm testing something … I have a good visual memory … " I held up the sketch pad, it was rushed but still fairly clearly showed a face on top of a dentist's outfit, "That was the replacement dentist that day. At least as well as I remember, he stuck in my mind."

I felt Felicity swallow, "That's him isn't it. That was Fossor."

Klassin slowly nodded, "It's a close resemblance." The picture wasn't entirely accurate, I'd made it look a bit less like he really had, 'Theia' wasn't supposed to have perfect memory anymore than Felicity did.

Felicity shuddered, and I could tell it wasn't at all faked, "He said he'd never harm me … that didn't mean he couldn't contact me."

"Just take your time. The level of security in your town did go up after … but, he's been doing what he does for a very long time."

I had gone back to my other sketch which I was taking much more care with, "Felicity is of the opinion that people could have done better … whenever I started 'being' it was after Fossor's first visit, I never got the chance to know Felicity's mother, I think I would have liked to." I looked up with our head, "Of course I probably wouldn't exist in that situation, so it's interesting how things work out."

"You seem very comfortable with being … "

We shrugged, "A figment of Felicity's mind?"

"I was going to go with mental construct. It seems more polite."

We looked up at the ceiling for a moment, "God forbid we be rude to the long-running delusion."

Felicity commented, "I like somebody being polite about it. It's better than the alternative."

He nodded, "You've had issues over this in the past?"

Her expression was sour, "I already had problems with people over Randi, when it got around they I talked to myself … well." She sighed, "I thought I was past that bit and then … "

"It's not uncommon to fall back on old habits or reflexes after a massive shock Flick. She's been a source of comfort to you for a long time, of course you talk to a friend when you're stressed."

There was a long pause before Felicity asked, "So what happens now? Am I too crazy to let near other students?"

He snorted a little, "You would be amazed what counts as 'too crazy to let around the students'. Besides you seem perfectly stable, and so does Theia for that matter."

He doesn't know you very well does he.

No, he really doesn't. It was good to hear her starting to snark at me again.

He seemed to pick up we were having an internal chat, but we weren't making much effort to disguise it. He thought for a bit before saying, "I would like to keep having regular meetings with you, and Theia. There is no avoiding that you've just been through a massive shock, and even without that I wanted to talk with you anyway after the vampire attack."

We shuddered a bit, "It shouldn't be that easy to kill somebody … " she looked down at our hand, "Just one touch and that was it."

His voice was calm, "That's a good attitude to have, try not to lose too much of it. How do you feel about it Theia?"

I thought about that and decided to go with honesty, "I really wasn't bothered by it, they were a threat and we didn't have another option." I shrugged our shoulders, "I don't care about a lot of people Mr Roe, but those I do care about I'm very protective of. A pair of rapists are not part of the group of people I care about."

"And that they were vampires didn't come into it?"

Another shrug from us, "If they hadn't been vampires we could have taken them out without killing them and left them for the police … as vampires they were too fast to avoid, too strong to hold back against, and no jail could hold them. We didn't know about Crossroads and that would have been a death sentence anyway." I sighed, "I wish Felicity hadn't had to do it of course. As for them being vampires being a reason to kill them? I'm a figment of Felicity's mind, I'm in no position to throw stones."

That drew a chuckle, "I suppose that's true, though I think you understate your realness."

If there was one thing that mother had taught me it was how not to show fear even when surprised. Other emotions I wasn't very good at covering up, but fear, oh she'd inoculated me against that very well.

He continued, "You seem to have a somewhat independent existence, your own opinions on things, your own viewpoints, and Flick certainly sees you as real."

That got a raised eyebrow out of me, "I'm not sure if you should be encouraging me to hang around, but it's appreciated. Myself I tend to assume I'm … aspects of Felicity she doesn't like to admit to."

I'm always going to need you Theia, always. Now more than ever.

I'll never abandon you, not while we both live.

Now who's making promises they might not be able to keep?

This at least was old territory and it was easy for Felicity to pull up a grumble, "I do not have a secret hidden girly side wanting out."

That got a blink, "Pardon me?"

I took over, "Felicity and I have very different viewpoints on fashion, among other things … for my part I think she'd look good in a dress, she has … different viewpoints."

"I … see."

He shook his head a bit, "Very well. I think we're mostly done here but there is one other thing I should tell you before you leave."

"It's about your friend Miranda."

Shiori

That man from the lighthouse met us at the entrance to the cafeteria. "Professor Dare is still dealing with things but I can assure you that Miss Chambers is recovering and will be joining you soon. My name is Peterson Neil and I'm the head of Student Affairs." He had the feel of somebody working through a memorized speech. "The students in the first year are formed up into six person teams, three pairs of roommates. You'll go to class together and have special projects and other training exercises to be done as a group."

Huh, I guess that meant I was on the same team as Vanessa, that didn't seem too bad.

"Each team will also have a second year student that will act as your mentor, they will also handle introducing you to other aspects of our society, though I expect you've had some of that already." He gave a slightly annoyed look at the booklets some of us still had visible. "If you will follow me and please keep quiet. You'll be brought up to the front table until being assigned to your teams."

He lead us into a long corridor that ran the length of the building cutting it into two halves. On the right side were the common areas, games, hangouts, things like that while the left side was mostly the cafeteria with the kitchen down the end.

Oh god, I was about to be in front of the entire school, I was about to be in front of the headmistress, what if somebody noticed?

I managed to keep things under control as he led us into the back of the cafeteria which mostly had circular tables for small groups and some longer tables going from one side of the room to the other at the front. He led us all the way down to the front and got us to sit down at one of the long tables before heading up to join the other staff right at the front of the room. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking of Hogwarts, though no sign of a talking hat so far.

Yeah, mind-reading hat. That would have been just perfect right now.

There had to be a few hundred people in here. I could recognize the headmistress from the picture, watching the room with a cool collected expression I could only envy right now. What I assumed was the rest of first year were already at the table, Sands and Scout gave us a wave while that Avalon girl just looked vaguely bored with the whole situation. Just as we were sitting down I saw Professor Dare lead Felicity in and sit her down at the end of the table. The girl was still looking fairly out of it and running her hands over her face before looking around and giving the twins a small wave back.

Once we'd sat down the Headmistress stood up. I jumped a bit when she spoke because it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, magic I assumed.

"Thank you, Mr Neil." The tall, red-haired woman looked out over the crowd. She held the stoic look for a brief moment, then smiled broadly and even with all the stress I found myself smiling back. For a moment I thought everything was going to be okay, then my mind caught with itself. "My name is Headmistress Sinclaire. And welcome, all of you, to Crossroads Academy. Some of you are joining us for the first time, while others we have been privileged to know before now. All of you, in every grade, are very welcome here. We are pleased to have you.

"Now, I know everyone is very hungry. And Chef Escalan has truly outdone himself this time. So let's get through this quickly, shall we? First, to divide our first years into their teams." Looking up toward the back, she lifted a hand. "New mentors, please stand up." Throughout that collection of circular tables, about fifteen or sixteen slightly older students stood up. Most looked confident, though a few were clearly nervous.

Once they had stood, the headmistress nodded. "Let's do this as easily as possible, shall we? Start on this end, Mister Travers." She indicated one of the standing students. "Read off the names on your list, would you please?" To us, she explained, "When you hear your name, go and join your team mentor."

The boy started to speak, but it was a mumble and no one could hear him. Still smiling, the headmistress touched something inside her jacket pocket. When the boy spoke again, his voice spread through the room the same way hers had. "Uhh, Dastin, Roy and Scofield, Preston?" Two boys that I didn't know went that way, soon followed by four other students to make a team of six.

The teams were slowly called up and it seemed to take forever before we came up.

The headmistress called out "Deveron Adams?" Huh, that was the guy that had run out on us, I really felt sorry for whoever had him, though he really had the tall, dark, and handsome thing going on. His black hair was styled into a crew cut, and it looked like there was a vague hint of Asian genes in his otherwise Caucasian features. The tie and lapels of his school uniform were red.

"Ahh, let's see who the talent is this year." Deveron glanced at the paper in his hand. Unlike the others, he read all the names off at once without waiting. "Shiori Porter, Vanessa Moon, Felicity Chambers, Avalon Sinclaire, Sandoval Mason, and Sarah Mason. Let's go, chop chop, people. Some of us want to eat sometime today."

Oh great, I got the lazy mentor and I was in the same group as the girl who not only already had superpowers but had used them to kill vampires.

Fuck my life.

Mellithae · Dec 13, 2019

Tamahori said:
"Shiori Porter, Vanessa Moon, Felicity Chambers, Avalon Sinclaire, Sandoval Mason, and Sarah Mason.

Huh, different team. Interesting.

pheonix89 · Dec 13, 2019

Mellithae said:
Huh, different team. Interesting.

🍿 🍿

The butterfly has flapped its wings. The future begins to diverge...

The Game · Dec 14, 2019

Well, the teams have been shuffled, and probably some of the pairings too. Here's to hoping that the whole Vampire-Slayer thing doesn't scare Shiori too much.

pheonix89 · Dec 14, 2019

The Game said:
Well, the teams have been shuffled, and probably some of the pairings too. Here's to hoping that the whole Vampire-Slayer thing doesn't scare Shiori too much.

🍿 🍿
I am having entirely too much fun doing this.

As for your thoughts?

<mathematician>Yes.</mathematician>

Tamahori · Dec 14, 2019

Mellithae said:
Huh, different team. Interesting.

The funny thing is that Gaia has a totally different reason for doing this as compared to why several other groups will think she did this.

The Game said:
Well, the teams have been shuffled, and probably some of the pairings too. Here's to hoping that the whole Vampire-Slayer thing doesn't scare Shiori too much.

Shiori's viewpoint on being in the same team as the Vampire Slayer is pretty much summed up in her ending line for the chapter. And she doesn't even know about Avalon having major issues with vampires yet.

Shiori's life is utter joy right now.

Tamahori · Dec 21, 2019

Infiltration 2.05

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

Flick

When I got to our table Deveron was already lounging with his feet up on the opposite chair. Apparently I had gotten past grieving and detached and worked my way up to angry, though I fully expected I was going to cycle through this a few more times.

I made a point of picking the chair he was putting his feet up on, shoving them out of the way so I could sit down. I didn't know who he was, or who he was working for, I just knew he'd been spying on me for someone and given the way he was acting that made him a fair target right now.

That I was thinking that wasn't a good sign.

Theia, could you hold me back if I try to go overboard?

Felicity, if you're asking me to provide restraint, things are probably going to already be on fire.

Yeah, that was my sister. Her definition of 'acceptable force' was 'of course I was holding back, nobody died'.

The rest of the group joined us, Sands taking the seat to my right and Sarah inevitability sitting beside her, Vanessa sitting on the other side of me with Shiori next to her, who was looking distinctly nervous about something. I guess having me freak out earlier wouldn't have been good for everyone's mood, and if Shiori had had a bad vision ...

I wondered if Sarah and Sands got to use their booklets.

Avalon took the last chair, giving me a careful look. She must have heard then ... wait, I got called out with Avalon. She was my roommate? Huh, I guess that made sense given how much sparring we did together.

Linking his arms behind his head, Deveron smirked at me. "Something ruffle your feathers, birdie?"

I gave him my best Tabbris look, quietly saying "Given you skipped out on the tour, you're not impressing me with your mentor credentials."

"Meh." He shrugged, clearly not caring. "Sorry, guess I had something better to do. Didn't my substitutes do a good job?" The boy glanced toward the twins. "I left you two of them and everything, just to make up for missing me."

"Well, at least you did something right there. If I thought you did it deliberately I might have been impressed."

Yeah, I was in a mood alright. Also poking at him was a legit way to try and find out what was up ... that was my story and I was keeping it.

I would say tone it down, but honestly I'm enjoying this.

The next two mentors finished getting their students and the room went even quieter.

"Wonderful," Headmistress Sinclaire smiled broadly once more. "Now remember, these are the teams that you will have throughout the rest of this year. You will go to every class together, you will do all projects together, and you will train together. You will learn to rely on one another, just as the rest of our student teams have. Look at the people around you. These are the students who you will learn to count on to have your back, to protect and learn from each other."

All throughout the room, at every first-year table, there was an exchange of glances and a murmur of uncertainty. Before it could grow too loud, the headmistress continued. "But that's for later. Right now, you've all waited quite long enough. Let's eat, shall we?"

With that, she clapped her hands twice. As soon as she did, a plastic menu appeared out of thin air, landing on the table right in front of me. Everyone else had their own menu appear, and there were gasps all around the room.

Our table didn't cause any gasps, everyone but Shiori was familiar with it and whatever was eating at Shiori wasn't going to let something as minor as a teleporting menu pull her out of her funk.

Vanessa leaned over to explain how it worked to her roommate, circling her choices on the menu and then 'finished'. Huh, meatloaf, french fries, and mashed potato. Girl liked her spud. The menu vanished once she'd done so and was replaced a few moments later by the requested meal, which did make Shiori jump that time.

Deveon smirked, "How do you know I didn't plan it, how do you know I don't plan everything?"

Ah heck with it.

I gave him my brightest smile, I must have gotten it 'right' because I saw the twins and Shiori blanch a bit, "I've had a really bad day and I'm feeling very emotionally vulnerable right now. So if I lose my shit and blow you across the room I can probably get away without being expelled for it. And hey, you're second year, you've got powers, you'll probably live." My smile grew wider, showing teeth, "So if you're going to say things, make them useful mentor things."

I see no downsides with this plan, I'm here for it.

He gave me an unimpressed look with a raised eyebrow that I made a mental note to copy. He annoyed the hell out of me, but that was some quality eyebrow work there.

Look, I'm here to learn.

Shiori was giving me such a look, I made a mental note to tone things down a bit … a lot. I had a feeling if we weren't at a table she'd be trying to hide behind Vanessa.

Avalon looked amused in a 'too cool for school' kind of way.

And this is why I shouldn't let you work out reasonable levels of response.

I've been telling you that. Also with the day we've been having I really want to hit something right now and I don't care too much who or what.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "Sorry, I'm … I apologize for threatening you Deveron, I shouldn't have done it. It's … it's been a day." I looked over, "Sorry for being crazy and scary Shiori."

I could see the twins relaxing a bit, yeah, I'd gone way too far there.

Deveron shrugged, "Well I can't help it if my natural style makes girls get emotional around me, it's just my cross to bear."

"And now I'm back to wanting to hit you again … okay, ignoring you going forward, how did everyone else's afternoon go?"

There was a long pause, then Sands finally said, "Better than yours. We got to do a Q&A and use our handouts … Peterson had too much to do so he had to leave us to do the tour. It was actually pretty cool." She looked distinctly guilty with that last bit.

I managed a slight smile, "Then I'm glad something good came out of this."

Sands asked, "So you spent the day in medical?"

I shook my head, "Only about half of it, I was also being interviewed by a 'Runner'? And then checked for possession, and then talking to a therapist. He was pretty good … "

Avalon held up a hand, "Wait, go back to the checking for possession?"

Deveron was paying some attention now. Dammit, how do I say this …

Tell them a story. Distance it.

"Okay, so I'm going to tell you a story, it's about a girl living in a small town in Wyoming. Only child but has really great parents. Her father was a reporter who used to report on crimes and gangs in LA and decided that moving to the middle of nowhere would be a good idea, her mother managed to get voted in as the youngest sheriff the town had ever had, and the girl loved them both very much."

Even while talking I finished my order, something light because I really didn't have much of an appetite and everyone at the table had gone very quiet to listen, "Ah, you may want to eat while you listen, this could take a bit."

"So, when she was seven years old, her mother came home one night in a stranger's car, got out, quickly packed her bags, told the girl that she'd be right back, hopped back in that stranger's car and left. The girl swore never to forgive her for that, even stopped using her full name because her mother had loved that name so she went by a shortened version. She destroyed all the toys she'd ever gotten from her mother … even the ones she'd always really loved … because she was so very very angry."

I had to pause for a bit to catch myself, and dammit I was crying again. "Of course she didn't know about Strangers with a capital S, and oath spells … she didn't know it had all been to protect the girl."

Even Deveron was being quiet and listening, his standard smugness absent for the moment.

"But life goes on and she made a new friend … " I managed another small smile, "There is a really funny story about how they met but that's for another day. The two were really close, more so because they had a lot of trouble from other people over their friendship. You see this was small town Wyoming, white as far as the eye could see … and the girl's best and pretty much only friend was the only black girl in the entire school."

Shiori winced at that one … having Columbus as her brother there was no way she hadn't run into the same kind of ugliness I had on top of being asian herself. Almost certainly worse, I was white and still had enough friends in the local police to not have stuff from that direction. She didn't have that on her side.

"So they were best of friends and willing to face down anyone together, and sometimes had to. And then when the girl was thirteen she lost that friend too. The friend's mother got a job on the other side of the country and they had to move away … they didn't even manage to stay in contact properly, it was like the friend had just vanished. And she was already annoyed with everyone else in the school over how they had treated her friend so she was pretty much by herself. She buried herself in the school paper and among other things got the lunch-lady arrested, but that's yet another story for another time."

I could see Vaness mouthing, "Lunch Lady Arrested?"

"The girl didn't know about Heretics and a place called Eden's Garden. She didn't know her friend had been recruited by them to fight monsters and was largely out of contact with most people, she just knew that once again she'd been left alone."

That got the twins and Avalon sitting up, but they stayed quiet for the moment as I kept talking, "All this stuff, hidden from her by the Bystander Effect … or mostly hidden at least. It wasn't long after that that she needed to go to the dentist. Yeah, I know, weird tangent. Now she didn't end up going that day, she got to the place, even got into the waiting room and then she came down really ill, only got a glimpse of the actual dentist before she had to go home and spend the rest of the day in bed."

"This was lucky because later that day somebody came and murdered the dentist, all the rest of the staff, even some other customers. Ritual markings, the whole works … Crossroads investigated and put it down to a Stranger Attack. And that dentist she saw had been the very same Stranger, capital S, that had been in that car that took her mother away years before."

Sands finally spoke, "Wait, Fossor murdered your dentist?"

I nodded, "It turns out that Stranger had come to town all those years ago for the girl, he had a history with her mother." felt frowned, "The entirely mundane, pure Bystander mother … there is a part of the story there I don't know yet."

Deep breaths Felicity.

That got some more confused looks.

"So, the Stranger was after the girl, not that she had any value herself but him taking her would hurt the girl's mother. The mother couldn't let that happen, because she's the best mother in the world, and made a terrible deal." I had to blink away more tears, "She offered herself up, with an oath spell, to obey him as long as he didn't hurt the girl. That didn't stop the Stranger wanting to check in though apparently, and being the kind of Stranger they are he murdered a bunch of people in the process. Investigation afterwards showed that the murders had taken place before the girl got there, even the assistant she was talking to was already dead and being animated."

Deveron had a sick expression, I guess something can get past his reserve.

I shrugged a little, "But the girl didn't know that, she just knew she'd gotten sick and then some terrible things had happened that she'd been lucky to miss. She just knew people kept leaving her, she just wanted a friend that wouldn't ever go away. So like some kids do she made one, dreamed one up, gave them a name, a description, a history. None of it real of course, all in her head. But the funny thing was the new friend knew things the girl didn't, they could see things the girl couldn't, that no Bystander could. It was that friend, before they even had a name or a voice, who had somehow felt or seen something wrong at the dentist's and made the girl come down sick."

There was a really long pause after that then it was Avalon that spoke up, "Wait, you dreamed up an imaginary friend that could see though the Bystander Effect?"

Scout blinked, "Adjacent."

Shiori spoke up at that point, "What's that mean?"

It was Vanessa that answered, "I read about it, it's what they call somebody that isn't a Bystander or a Heretic. Somebody that can see Strangers and magic, apparently it varies from 'can kinda see past the Bystander effect' to 'just like a Heretic but without powers'. They can even use magic if they are taught it."

I commented, "Counting the girl, it would apparently be the third case of 'Adjacency Via Imaginary Friend' to show up in Crossroads records."

Sands slowly nodded, "So checking for possession."

I nodded back, "If you wanted to make sure something really was just all inside their head and not somebody tagging along to ride though Crossroad's defences."

Sands snorted a bit, "It would take something very weird to manage that. The security field is pretty solid on things like that, and there are extra checks in the Pathmaker, I don't know what they are but I know they are there." Right after that though I saw her and Sarah exchange one of their looks.

Heh.

I continued, "So anyway you have this girl and her imaginary friend, and finally the girl has somebody that will never leave her, and if that makes people at the school think she's crazy as well as everything else, because the girl wasn't all that good about not talking to her friend out loud for the first bit, well that girl had given up caring what they thought years ago. She just went along, did her thing, brought down drug operations running out of the local theater and other normal things you do in small town America when you're bored."

Of all people it was Deveron that said something, "This girl sounds like she escaped from Scooby Doo."

I smirked, "The girl might have taken after her father a bit more than her father was entirely happy with. Fortually her friend added some common sense to things, so instead of the girl getting a job at the theater and then somehow catching the owner out, the girl got her father involved, gathered up enough proof for a drug raid on the theater and got the entire operation shut down without the guy even knowing she was involved. Apparently the imaginary friend is her super-powered evil and cunning side and believes that the best kind of fight is the one where the other guy never even sees you coming before it's over."

Avalon who was giving me a weird look did manage to snark, "That is the best kind of fight. Fighting fair is for people that end up dead."

I nodded, "An outstanding question is just how long her friend had been 'around' … her friend never believed her mother had abandoned her. Always believed something had happened, and pestered the girl enough to look at her father's investigation, because her father had never given up either. And the girl found there were things wrong, her mother's car abandoned in the middle of nowhere, her mother's sidearm, found recently fired … other oddities. So she began to listen to her friend and her friends stories about things the girl couldn't see."

"And then one day the girl could see them too. How the girl became a Natural she and her friend don't know, but both of them agree it's very suspicious and 'somebody is up to something' but have no idea who, what, or why. Though they assume it's something to do with what happened to her mother. After that she did what apparently a lot of kids with powers do and went out to try and do the superhero thing, and got into fights with weird critters."

"Then one day she found vampires were real, and really didn't want to take no for an answer. And that's how she met Professor Dare and found out about a place called Crossroads. And she met some new possible friends, and other cool people, and then got given a vision that gave her more powers but also showed what had really happened … and she got interviewed by magic police, and the thing with her friend came out and … well, you know the rest."

I looked around, "And you should really finish eating because everyone else is almost done."

That managed to stop most immediate questions, though Shiori was apparently like me in not having much of an appetite tonight. She seemed really quiet, I wasn't sure how much of that was just her being shy, and how much was a bad vision, but her being with Vanessa probably wasn't a bad thing.

For her part Vanessa was the one to ask the obvious question, "What's her name? The girl's friend?"

I gave what was probably the first really genuine smile I'd managed since the vision, "Theia. Her name is Theia."

What little I ate of the meal was up to the normal high standard of this place but I was still too distracted to really enjoy it. This meant I was looking towards the front when the Headmistress stood up, not saying anything just waiting and letting her natural force of personality do the work. It didn't take long before everyone had gone quiet and was paying attention. I really did have to admire the approach, she just expected everyone to give her their attention and they did.

Mother can do that when she bothers too, she's a lot more arrogant about it though.

"Another wonderful meal provided by our dear Chef Escalan," She announced with a graceful smile and not towards the chef in question. This was the first time I'd seen him, a squat, portly man in a red and white striped apron with stray bits of straw-yellow hair stuck out from under his flattened chef's hat. He seemed distinctly unhappy to be here, but I couldn't argue with the quality his kitchen put out. I'd had to talk Theia out of plans to try and raid his recipe book more than once already.

Ignoring his ugly scowl with casual ease she pressed on, "I know that he enjoys feeding you students almost as much as you enjoy his concoctions. But alas, we must press on if we are going to meet our deadline for the evening." Clearing her throat then, she clarified, "Not a literal dead line, mind you. The team that was sent to clean up the last of those Thanatosis Marks from last year has assured us that the top floor of the academics building is now perfectly safe."

There were Thanatosis Marks here? Dammit, if I'd known I would have taken a look, I'm always interested in a new form of trap.

Remember what dad said about traps.

I know, check with you or him before I set up anything that can injure or kill people.

I nodded a little to myself. Theia was of the school of thought that killing the first person to touch one of her ward-lines was the warning shot for anyone following them.

The headmistress went through a bunch of the other rules, some of which I already knew. No going into the beach or the jungle while you were supposed to be in class, enforced by the environmental seal reporting on you, no fighting between classes, no food in the classroom other than drinks, and similar things. The Pathmaker was off-limits of course, enforced by the wards, and there was a curfew at elven on school nights. And of course no telling Bystanders about the truth.

Theia had already checked and the environmental seal would only pick us up if we wanted it to. She was pretty sure she could get a group though if we wanted as well, which just helped to remind me how much I couldn't trust this security of the school.

Finally, the headmistress smiled. "But enough of our rules. I assure you, we spend less time obsessing upon such things than some would assume given their placement at the start of each semester. For now, it is my pleasure to introduce four new faculty members this year. Professor Inisclic will be taking over for the unfortunately deceased Professor Memon in the general history courses." She indicated a thin man in a tweed suit that seemed to be paying more attention to his empty plate than the students.

"Next," the woman continued, "we have Professor Armstrong, who will be heading up our languages department for the time being, and Professor Carfried, who is filling in for poor Professor Tangle while she recovers from her recent ordeal." In turn, an older woman with a severe overbite, and a jolly looking younger guy in his twenties that looked too young to be a teacher both stood.

Is that normal for this place?

I'm not sure, I think it's worse than normal but not outstandingly so.

"Finally we have Professor Nevada who will be taking over from Professor Pericles. He is sadly leaving us to move on to bigger and greater things." She nodded to the elderly figure of Professor Pericles who bounced to his feet with his normal energy.

"I can't say how much I've enjoyed teaching so many at this school, but sadly all things must come to an end. Some of you may have been aware that I've been an applicant to join the Crossroads Committee for some time now. Due to some recent events that's gotten moved up, so it is with great regret that I won't get to teach this year like I'd planned."

That got a lot of muttering in the room and quite a bit of surprise. Even at our table the twins, Avalon, and Deveron were blinking at the news.

He reached down and pulled somebody up next to him, a girl that I was pretty sure had to be Patient Zero for the epidemic of ditzy blonde cheerleader types in pretty much every movie ever. She honestly looked more like a student than a teacher, including a bright yellow smiley face that adorned her white shirt. Professor Pericles beamed almost as much as she was, "I'm not leaving you in the lurch though. May I introduce all of you to Nevada, one of the best students I have ever had the privilege to teach." For her part Nevada gave the room a wave before both of them sat down again.

The headmistress gave him a smile of her own, "It won't be the same without you Zedekiah. Right, moving on, allow me to introduce your specialization instructors for this semester." Lifting her arm, the woman indicated several of the faculty who stood briefly to be counted, including Professor Dare and Nevada. "If you have any questions regarding your chosen track, feel free to speak with one of them after we finish here, or at any other time. Their job is to ensure that you are in the correct track for your skills and interests."

I looked across all the teachers that were going to show me what I needed to survive this new world I found myself in.

And I wondered just how many of them were already possessed by the enemy.

The Game · Dec 21, 2019

Ok, so there has been a Professor shuffle and Felicity has opened up about a little bit of her past. Of course since there's been a team shuffle and a teacher shuffle, it's safe to assume that there's been a Seosten shuffle.

Also, I'm looking forward to how Avalon's assassination attempts have been changed, if they have.

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