Alma Mater (Heretical Edge Fanfic)

[Tamahori]

Also, did she check for possession because of the 'imaginary friend'?

Click to shrink...

That was exactly why she was checking for possession. It finally occurred to them to see if the reason they couldn't possess Flick was 'somebody got their first'. However that's also come up a negative now, so obviously its that Flick has the prototype of whatever Sariel used to protect Larissa. I mean that was their old theory anyway, but having 'Theia' show up made them want to double-check that because it was possible she has the least subtle Seosten infiltrator ever, but nope.

Sariel is feeling happy right now and has no idea why.

 

[Tamahori]

Reconnaissance 3.05

[Friday, September 8, 2017]

Dad was a very good reporter and he'd reported on a lot of what I'd once thought were the worst things in the world. He believed that people needed to know about these things, that he could drag them into the light and educate people about what was really out there. To say the least he'd not been overjoyed when he found out just how much more was going on out there in the world and how much of it was literally impossible to tell people about.

It was dangerous, what he'd done. There was a reason that when he decided to mostly retire from that kind of thing he'd moved to the middle of nowhere. Somewhere that it wasn't worth the effort for gangs and other criminals to track him down. Theia and I were pretty sure that even if some had they would have tripped over the various people watching over our family and either been sent away or just vanished.

The irony of him then marrying mom, who had people after her on a scale that made anyone after dad look like a joke was not lost on us. Some things you kind of have to try and laugh about or you won't stop screaming.

The point of all of this is that dad never got rid of his case notes. He hid them, but not well enough that I didn't find them when I was twelve. Even then I'd known what I wanted to be, a reporter, just like dad. The kind of person that could look at the worst of the world and keep their cool, write it down and record it so that they could tell people, shine that light into the dark places so people would know.

I hadn't been ready for what I found, I really hadn't, but I'd made myself look at them, to get used to them, so I would be ready when I ran into that in the real world. And then I'd met Theia, and more recently gotten a bit of an idea of what her mother had put her thought. That had been worse, apparently being thousands of years old gives you a lot of time to come up with truly horrific ideas.

As I stepped out into the projection of the crime scene I couldn't help but think this was the kind of thing I'd been training myself for. To be able to look at something like this and not be impassive, but to be able to see past the horror and understand what had happened. When I was younger that was so I could understand and report it, pass that understanding to the readers. Now it was so I could know what had done this, who had done this, and help end them.

I knew all Alters weren't evil, that with a few rare exceptions there was nothing inherent in an Alter's species that made them go out and be evil. That just made me all the more determined to find the bad ones, the Nocen, the ones that made Heretics think they were justified in what they did and remove them. Because something like this? This was willful evil, somebody had chosen to do this, and my only worry about Crossroads going after them was that no innocent Alters got caught in the crossover.

None of this had made me ready for what I saw when I stepped into the projection.

The projection itself was perfect, it was just like we were outside, we could see the surrounding area, the sky overhead, and of course the station itself. The only oddity was the door we'd stepped out of hanging right at the edge of the parking lot. I wished it had been less perfect as I looked at the poor girl on the ground with the gas nozzle duct taped into her mouth.

I could feel myself wanting to throw up and managed to keep it down but it was a close thing. Theia was being quiet but I could feel her focus, analyzing everything in a way I couldn't bring myself to do yet. This wasn't as bad as I felt after the vampires, but it was close.

Deep breaths Felicity.

Beside me, I heard Koren gasp the words, "Oh my god….", then she caught my arm and squeezed. I looked over to see her staring at the dead girl. Her eyes were wide with shock, and I saw a bit of dampness leak through the corners. Koren worked her mouth with a small, barely audible whine, and I could almost see the bile making its way up her throat.

So that's how normal people react to things like this. Theia's tone was honest curiosity.

Wincing, I turned to grab the girl's arm, turning her away from the scene and bending her over slightly even as her body started to heave. I helped support her as she threw up, finding myself repeating Theia's words once she finished, "Deep breaths, just close your eyes and focus on breathing. In, out, ... "

Koren spat a couple of times to clear her mouth and was following my instructions. She finally opened her eyes again, shuddering a little and giving me a confused look, "You've done this before?"

"I've been on the receiving end of this before. Feeling any better?"

She seemed to come back to herself and pulled away with a mumbled, "I'm fine." Her face was flushed with embarrassment, which stood out a lot against her naturally pale skin.

My voice was quiet, "No you're not, this is a really messed up situation and you're having a normal reaction to it. You should have seen me after that vampire fight I was in, I threw up a lot."

"Here," the voice of Professor Dare spoke up, and I saw her offering a glass of water to Koren, along with a napkin for her face. "If you need to take a break, you can go back through the door and sit down for a few minutes." Raising her voice then, she added, "That goes for everyone. Go back to the other side and give yourself a break if you need it. No one is going to shame you for it. The fact that seeing something like this makes you sick is a good thing, and is not to be mocked. Any person that I see doing something like that will be in my office every day after classes for the rest of the month."

Once that was acknowledged, the blonde woman gestured. "Look around, trust your instincts and see what you can find. You can touch things in here and move them around. The scene can be reset by the lead investigator, in this case that would be me, so do not worry about disturbing things. Look around as much as you like and then we will all discuss what we believe happened here."

I looked around, "So normally the first thing I would do is check any security recordings … do we have access to those?"

Smiling faintly, Professor Dare gestured. "The PAWS system automatically copies any recordings within the area and will play them accordingly, yes. I suggest you look inside the office for that."

Sands is not dealing with this well, Sarah is ... doing quite a bit better.

I looked over to confirm what Theia had picked up from a glance, Sands was just staring at the girl's body, unable to look away. A moment later Scout shifted to look at me and subtly put herself between her sister and the corpse. I took a breath, "Sands, Scout, do you want to check the video? I'll be along in a moment, I just want to confirm something here."

They vanished off into the station proper and I walked over to the dead girl with the gas nozzle pushed into her mouth and secured with what looked like an entire roll of duct tape.

There is no way she did that to herself, it's not physically possible.

Yeah, I picked up on that.

I had no idea what I must have looked like, just standing there next to the other students around her. Theia had, when she'd been in her own body, gotten very good at hiding her reactions as a self-defense mechanism. I'd picked up some of that by osmosis, dad has said that I got this disturbingly blank look when I was trying to hide my reactions and be 'professional'. Apparently it was enough that the other students shuffled out of the way, so I suppose it had its uses.

Where did the blood come from?

The girl, no, her nametag read Denise and could do her the respect of using her name, Denise's clothing was splattered in blood but what little I could see of her was unmarked aside from the blood. I really didn't want to have to check more closely ... maybe I didn't have to.

I looked around to see our teacher had decided to keep a watch on our group, "Ah, Professor. I assume the actual investigators did forensics. Was Denise injured?"

Professor Dare shook her head, "No, her only injuries were some damage to her teeth around the nozzle and of course the drowning."

I had to pause for a moment to deal with the mental image I got from that. This was so horrific.

This is a very involved way to kill somebody. You don't do this casually unless there is something very wrong with you, not even most nocen would do this if it wasn't personal.

"Thank you." I headed into the store, not so much for more information but I needed to be anywhere but where I could see poor Denise. Behind me I could hear some sounds that made me think I wasn't the only one to get an image they didn't want from that.

Inside wasn't much better, there was a trail of blood across the room to the back coolers, where the second body lay in a heap. Remnants of both the glass of the coolers, and their contents covered the body, mixing with the blood. I ignored him for the moment and went behind the counter.

More blood. That's not shooting or stab wounds, that's what you get when somebody is beaten bloody. Thiea knew entirely too much about that. She wasn't wrong though, and I could even see a few teeth that had been knocked free by what could have only been a savage beating.

Professor Dare had drifted into the store by this point, answering questions from various people. I waited till see was free and then asked, "The blood and teeth there, was that from Denise?"

"Yes." Either she wasn't affected much by any of this, or her professionalism mask was a lot better than mine. I honestly wasn't sure which.

One of the other students blinked, "Teeth ... oh, oh ick." They weren't wrong there either. I think by this point Theia was helping me stay focused.

I got out from behind and started to think about what must have happened. Robber had come in with a gun, tried to rob the store ... got shot in the back several times. I walked over to look at him, he hadn't fallen into the coolers, he'd collapsed in front of them, the damage to them had been entirely from the bullets passing through him.

Six shots, no misses so either at very short range or highly trained. No signs of him moving, trying to get away or turn ... so either somebody emptied the gun as fast as they could and still managed to hit with everything, or he held still while being killed. That kind of shooting is possible even for a well trained Bystander let alone some Alters, but it's odd. Also check his hands.

Theia's forensics skill was distinctly specialized into two areas. You want her to get fingerprints or examine gun residue and you were out of luck. What she knew about was far too much on what various forms of damage looked like on living and dead bodies, and how to not leave any forensics. I wasn't going to doubt her painfully acquired skills in those two areas. She was right about his hands too, bruised, and covered in blood in a way that looked like he'd been hitting somebody.

I looked for the Professor and before I could even ask she answered my obvious question, "Yes residue from firing the gun was found on her hands. No she didn't have a notable background in shooting." Which was pretty much what I wanted to know and showed how much checking proper investigators would do.

I thanked her and moved more towards the middle of the room to think. I was distracted a bit when the twins showed up, Sands taking the lead, "So the footage is mostly missing, there is a twenty minute gap from when the Stranger arrived to when they left. Strangers will do things like that to recording gear, either just kill it, or make it really fuzzy. But we did find their car in the footage and got the license plate number Professor."

Dare's head dipped in acknowledgment. "An excellent use of resources and well-spotted, Miss Masons. You've done well so far. And… precisely what the investigators assigned to this case have already found." She gave a smile at their collective wince. "Do not feel bad. The fact that you've done precisely what the Runners on this case have done should not be a cause for embarrassment, but pride. Our investigators know their jobs. Of course they would think to do exactly what you just did. Be proud that you thought the way that they do, not ashamed that you have not single-handedly created a whole new avenue of investigation."

The professor moved off to help Travis and Rudolph over by the cash register. The two of them had apparently found Denise's purse.

"I don't think she was a planned target, this is ... somebody was messing around here with mind control."

Sands asked with honest curiosity, "Why do you think that?"

I waved a hand around the room, "The robber walks in with a gun, then tries to beat Denise, the shop assistant, to death to the point of damaging his hands. This is despite having a gun." I waved towards the parking apron, "And I'll note that despite all the damage Denise has no damage on her now so something healed her up, including replacing teeth. Then she takes the robbers gun and empties it into his back, which he just stands there for. Finally she goes outside and then somebody wraps her up in tape because she couldn't physically do that to herself, not with her hands being the first thing to get taped up."

Just take a breath Felicity.

Talking about the sequence had made me think about it and I was feeling ill again. "So yeah ... somebody came in, spent twenty minutes torturing I'm guessing both of them using mind control, and then just leaves. This doesn't feel personal, this feels like somebody having fun, getting these people to hurt and kill each other just because they could."

There is a reason that Crossroads and Garden Heretics find it easy to believe that all Alters are Nocen, you don't need many like whoever came here to make them think they are all like this.

Let's call this one what they were. A Stranger, something that hurts for no reason but it can, this wasn't an Alter or a Nocen, this was a Stranger.

Felicity, why did you just pick those items up?

I looked down to find myself holding a candy bar and a bottle of orange soda.

Sands smirked, "You need a snack for when we get back?"

My tone got very calm, "Professor, I think I may have found something."

Apparently the twins knew that kind of 'something is wrong, so we're going to be extra calm now' tone because they shared a worried look. Dare knew it too, "What is wrong Miss Chambers?"

I held up the items, "I have no idea why I just picked these up. I don't even like these flavors, nor did I notice I was holding them till Theia told me."

Dare's face got that same slightly forced calmness as she pulled and item out to check me, "There ... may be a trace of something? If it's there it's very subtle ... ah, this wasn't Theia?"

My nose wrinkled a bit and I spoke in an accent not my own, or to be fair Theia's real one either. "I dislike snack-food in general Professor Dare, so I would not have grabbed it. The best comparison I can give is it felt like the few occasions that Felicity has gone sleepwalking."

Technically this wasn't the first time she'd heard Theia, but this was the first time she'd talked directly with my older sister and she took it pretty well. Both of the twins were listening with obvious interest, while other students were looking confused. As for the sleepwalking, that had been another useful cover when Theia needed to do something while I was asleep and got caught at it.

The Professor nodded, "I will have this checked. I'm curious why those items."

Koren wandered over, "So Flick is apparently crazy, but she's also onto something." She'd grabbed a paper that two other students had been examining, both of them following along after her with some confusion and annoyance. She ignored them to hold the paper up, which reported the last thing Denise had sold before she died, the exact same orange soda and candy bar I was holding.

I got my voice back to say, "Huh. Professor, I think there are shenanigans afoot."

And we know what happens when shenanigans are afoot.

It has been a bit since I went full annoying girl reporter on somebody.

One of the boys that had followed Koren had to ask, "Why did it sound like somebody else was talking there?"

I rolled my eyes, "I have an imaginary friend, but they do cool things like spot ambushes and used to let me see though the Bystander Effect, so it's a useful kind of crazy." It's amazing how just going straightforward with your response could throw off somebody that was about to make fun of you.

Koren was frowning at her bit of paper, "So you really hadn't seen this? You were behind the counter."

The same boy spoke up, "She couldn't have, Travis and I were in the way the entire time she was looking around." He shrugged when everyone looked at him, "Hey, I took this track for a reason, I can notice things."

The Professor spoke up, "It's possible that there is some kind of link between Miss Chambers and either the entity involved, or one of the victims. I'll ask the Runners to do a more detailed scan of those items in case there is something they can find."

I absently said, "I'm guessing the Stranger ... they were the one carrying the items. Robber wouldn't have a reason to buy stuff, and I don't see why this would be something tied to Denise."

Koren blinked, "Who? Oh, you mean the dead girl?"

"Her name was Denise, show some respect." I handed the two items to the Professor, "I think I'll take you up on that offer to step out for a bit, if I stay around here much longer I'm going to start screaming and not stop for a while. Ah ... Professor, we don't think it was ..."

She shook her head, "This isn't his style, his casual cruelty is different." She had a tone that made sure nobody was going to ask a follow-up question.

As I walked out Theia asked, Some other time you should ask her about her encounters with him. She might be willing to talk to us, given the history.

Not now, I'm ... I need to just sit down and not think for a bit.

I hope they find whoever did this Denise, I hope they can find you some closure.

---

[Saturday, September 9, 2017]

"So all of this is in a giant cave?" Mary sounded fascinated and I couldn't blame her.

Sands nodded, "Yeah, more like a really huge tunnel but you get the idea."

Scout switched to another picture on the large TV, normally used for gaming, that she'd co-opted. We were having the first unofficial 'Bystander's Guide to Crossroads' meeting, down at one end of the common area next to the cafeteria.

On the screen was a picture of a large street with buildings to either side. But beyond those buildings and above them was the rocky, dirt walls and ceiling of the cavern Mary had been asking about. This was J Street, the 'missing' street in Washington DC, buried beneath the city and the 'capital' of Crossroads Society.

Harper, and yes I'd finally gotten around to getting Sands to give me a rundown on who the other Bystander-Kin were, grinned at the picture, "That is so random."

She wasn't wrong, the place looked… eclectic. That was the best word I had for it. The buildings looked like they had each been plucked from a very different time period before being tossed down next to one another. There was a very modern looking tall glass office structure right next to what looked like an old west saloon. Beside that there was a building with a bunch of pillars out front and one of those naked statues that the Romans and Greeks liked so much. I even caught sight of a long log house like there would have been on the American frontier. Every type of building was represented somewhere along this enormous, twisting tunnel.

And the people. Oh God, the people. I had thought that Crossroads personnel looked pretty modern, given how long a lot of them had lived. But this place more than made up for it. I could see people of every possible type of clothing style. There were cowboys, samurai, Victorian-dressed people, a few with clothes out of the 1920's, 50's, and even the 80's, and more. All over the area in the picture there were people that looked different. It was like… it was like there were a whole bunch of movies being filmed somewhere nearby, and all the extras had wandered off set.

It's a place I'd like to visit sometime, with any luck we'll get the chance.

That got a laugh from Sands, "I always think Bystander cities look very plain. They'll probably take us on a field-trip there by the end of the year, but I figured no issues in giving all of you a preview."

Koran spoke up, "Hey, Avalon, Eden's Garden is different to this though, right?"

The group was mostly Bystander-Kin, with a few interested or bored Heretic-Born watching, including Avalon. She gave Koran a cutting look which totally failed to set Koran on fire but then relented a little, "We have everything in one place, the Tree is our … their version of J Street, Crossroads, and where most people live. It's not just city sized, it holds several cities in its branches." Her expression was wistful for a moment until she caught herself and went back to her normal impassiveness.

A new voice cut across, "If you miss it so much you should have stayed there."

I looked up to see another Heretic-Born that had decided to butt in, he was one of the other students in my year, a thin and aristocratic looking guy with hawkish features and a thin nose with a golden stud in it that was shaped like a heart.

"Zeke, do you have to?" Sands had a tone of tired annoyance.

He ignored Avalon to look at Sands with an odd expression, "I still don't know why you're spending all your time playing with the Silverstones."

Unexpectedly it was Scout that replied, "Mom would have wanted us to."

Apparently he didn't have a good reply for that, or Scout talking threw him off enough that all he could do was give an annoyed humph and walk off.

Sands shook herself, "So, anyway, if Scout brings up the next picture, this is the Runner HQ, the Crossroads central police station … "

I settled back to listen and watch, and wished all my problems could be solved with a simple topic change like that.

 

[Tamahori]

Reconnaissance 3.06

[Tuesday, September 12, 2017]

That's close, a little bit tighter on the curve there, like this.

Theia took my hand over for a moment to show the error I'd made in the symbol. A lot of magic was about drawing symbols that had been given meaning by the people that had created the spell and then putting power into the symbol, but it required exacting precision. Perfect memory helped a lot which made it annoying I hadn't gotten that yet. It did mean that dad could pick up spells fast though.

The thing to understand is that magic is weird.

So you could just wish an effect into existence if you focused hard enough. As I'd mentioned before Theia's father could do this on the fly but for the rest of us that was a quick way to getting no result or something bad. The safer way to do that was to use an object and 'wish' the effect onto it. The object gave the magic something to anchor to and you could take your time building up the effect, also if things went wrong you exploded the object not, say, your brain.

It was slow, really slow, hard to do, and unreliable. Even most trained Heretics didn't use what they called Shapeless Magic. It was the marker of somebody that was a serious magical expert and probably went deep into Development Track. Crossroads didn't try to teach it till the third year, and Theia saw no reason to try and speed up that process for me.

The weird thing though was that magic could learn. If you did a shapeless spell repeatedly it would become a known spell inside magic itself and not only would you find it easier to do but so would anyone else that followed the same method you used. It was like there was some kind of transuniversal spellbook and anyone could add spells to it if they tried hard enough, which was as I said, pretty weird.

The next step after Shapeless was what Heretics called Directed Magic, which was a bit of magic that had a 'theme'. For example, if you wanted to have an object trigger an effect when you threw it into a room, but the specific effect was something you changed on the fly then it was directed. It was a spell that gave you a framework but let you play around inside that framework. As a result it was faster, more efficient, and even if somebody could do Shapeless, a Directed spell that did what they needed was better. This was a second year course for Crossroads.

Finally, if you keep using a very specific spell enough that magic learns that you get what the Heretics call Forged Magic. This was a single spell with a single effect, there may be a bit of flexibility but generally it did one thing. The first spell we'd been taught was a magical Flashbang, you cast it on some object, designate people you don't want to be affected, and then throw it and fire it off and everyone else gets hit with the flash. Being able to pick the list of safe people is an example of how far the flexibility of a directed spell can go, and not much further.

Even an experienced mage, like Theia, would still use Forged spells when she could, because they are by magical standards fast and easy. By magical standards of course, you still needed to be exactingly precise, feed energy to it the right way, and all sorts of other factors, and they took time to set up.

What I was working on was a pretty simple example of a forged spell, and not one that Crossroads would ever teach. The anti-possession expulsion spell, the same one that Nemesis used to unintentionally torture my sister with. The same one I was hoping to get to use on her at some point and see how she liked it.

Okay, that looks correct. Now charge it up.

As spells went this one was extremely direct, draw out the symbol and dump energy into it. Finally for the first time it took the energy and fired, glowing briefly on the bit of wooden board I was using and then vanishing. Yep, this bit of wood was clear of any angels, this was a chunk of board we could trust.

Probably.

Very good, now we're going to do it again until you can get it correct consistently, and then we can work on your speed.

I bit back a sigh, she wasn't wrong. I picked up the Field Engraver, a nifty little device that looked like a marker pen and let you draw on almost anything, and got to work. Even better the other end of the engraver could wipe anything it had written, useful to clean up the many failed attempts.

To be honest, if I had to use this spell things had already gone wrong, which is why I was trying so hard to get it right.

Things going wrong is a given, it's how you react to them that tells if you'll survive.

---

[Saturday, September 16, 2017]

"Avalon, down!"

Avalon didn't even ask and just dropped as a line of lightning flashed over her linking one of Shiori's gloves to its airborne disc. The disc hit a wall and flipped to stick flat against it, maintaining the line of electricity. A moment later Shiori let the beam vanish, eyes wide, "Shit, oh hell, I'm so sorry Avalon."

Now that things were safe Avalon stood up again, her tone dry, "Well, we've confirmed that you can create a beam while the discs are airborne … " her tone got somehow more dry, "We just need to work on making sure you know where the beam will end up when you do so."

I commented, "Or at least if you're going to hit somebody on our side with it, make sure it's me. I can take it."

Never let it be said you're not a team player.

Scout facepalmed while Sands was looking almost as horrified as Shiori. "So, you can do the same thing dad's weapon does, just … it's a lot harder when it isn't guided. Sorry Avalon."

Avalon shrugged a little, "Nobody got hurt, we just need to learn from this in the future."

We were having an impromptu and somewhat off the books group training session. We kinda had permission, our respected team mentor had approved this. Okay, Deveron had said "Yeah sure, whatever, knock yourselves out." and that totally counted.

This wasn't just Avalon teaching the rest of us what she knew about fighting, it was also trying to learn how to work as a team and try out new ideas.

For all I'd not thought too much of it I'd rapidly learned that Vanessa's whip was remarkably hard to dodge if you were even a little bit distracted and once it was around you, you were about to take a quick trip to the ground. It also hit really hard, Theia was pretty sure the weight at the tip was doing something interesting with kinetic energy. And having your clothing suddenly acting like a solid chunk of metal had a remarkable ability to stop you in your tracks.

What we'd just finished trying was a suggestion from Sands. Her father's weapon was normally a sword but could break apart into a drone and a gun, the gun able to fire beams of electricity to wherever the drone was, through anything in the way. So of course she'd wondered if we could mimic that, and the answer was a very firm … kinda.

I held my hands up, one towards the disc on the wall, the other towards Shiori, "Well, the good news is the other idea worked fine."

Shiroi blinked, then held her hands up. The gems in her glove's palms flashed and the line reformed between her and the disc, then another line reached out from the disc to me and finally a third leading back from me to her other glove. This had potential though there were some rules to it. The discs and gloves wouldn't activate until she created a line between her gloves and a disc, and until they were active I couldn't link in either, so we always had to make sure the first connection was between her and one of her discs. Still given that it let her treat me as another endpoint we had plans to try and make use of that, which was what this practice session was about.

I let the lines vanish, "So we have one solid win out of that."

That almost got her to smile a bit, which was good. She was still so fragile after her vision. Apparently this intense shyness wasn't normal for her either, according to Sands who had been talking to her brother Columbus. Her edge vision, whatever it was, had scarred her, and none of us were wanting to push her on, least of all me because the last thing I wanted to talk to anyone about was my vision.

Still, she was looking if not happy at least closer to her new normal self than the shock and horror of almost hitting Avalon, so mission accomplished. Shiori relaxed a bit more as Vanessa came up next to her. From what I could tell that general studious quietness was normal for Vanessa, she also didn't talk about the details of her vision but she had said it was a happy one. Right now she was also the perfect roommate for Shiori, good at just 'being there' without needing something from you.

Pay attention.

Ah, Avalon was getting ready to talk. She was leading the training sessions of course, she knew more than any of us, well, more than any of us that had physical bodies. "Right, so we can use that, we just need to get betting at keeping track of where everyone is." She thought for a moment, "Let's practice defense and attack some more, Sands, Scout, and Vanessa on defense, the rest of us will be trying to get to Scout. Sands, I want to see you trying out longer weapons more, polearms and the like, keep us back so Vanessa can bring us down and you or Scout can finish it."

We started getting into position when the door slammed open and a scrawny guy in a Crossroads security came in, "HA! I've caught you."

Oh goddammit, Professor Katarin is going to kill us.

"I knew if I looked enough I'd find the team that was trying to kill the Headmistress's daughter! But you can't fool me! Call me obsessed will they, but no, I knew that if I looked around enough I could find the evil backstabbers that would attack other students. Shame on you, shame on you all!"

I'm sorry, what?

There was a long pause as we all just looked at him, trying to process this. Especially Avalon.

I finally had to look over at her, "Ah, Avalon, are we training to kill you? I mean you're running this session, if you're training us to kill you then you have to tell us. I'm pretty sure that's a rule."

Avalon's tone was indescribable, "No, I'm not training you to kill me."

There was a longer pause as the guard blinked at us, apparently recognizing Avalon. "Miss Sinclaire?"

She raised an eyebrow, just looking at him.

He paused for a moment then started casting something, pausing a moment later as the rest of us almost on reflex pointed weapons at him, "I just want to verify she's who she says she is … " apparently he'd managed to get enough done to satisfy him, "Commendable reflexes though." He looked around, "Are you supposed to be here?"

I got my staff down from 'blast him though the wall' position, though to be fair he was presumably an experienced Heretic so it probably wouldn't have worked. "Ah, well you see somebody's apparently trying to kill our teammate so we wanted to get better at protecting her. We have permission from our mentor. Deveron Adams."

The security man frowned, "Oh, him."

Avalon was the one to ask the obvious, "Who are you? How do we know you're not one of the people after me?"

He blinked at that, now that I'd gotten a better look at him he was … nothing impressive to be honest. He had a scrawny, narrow face and long, stringy brown hair. I guessed his age at around forty or so. "Wyatt Rendel, Crossroads Security … and you don't, so you should be more careful, you never know who could be after you." He nodded to himself as if Avalon's question was the most sensible thing he'd heard today.

I like him, he's both amusing and correct.

After a long pause where none of us really had a reply to that he nodded firmly again, "Well carry on then." He followed that with a surprisingly neat about-face and marched himself back out of the room.

There was another pause before Shiori asked, "Did that just happen?"

Vannessa replied in a bemused tone, "I think so?"

I couldn't help scratching my head, "I mean he's not wrong, there are unknown people after Avalon, so we should be on our guard at all times."

Constant Vigilance.

Thank you Professor Moody.

Sands frowned at the door, "I've heard about him, he's a bit … odd. Paranoid, thinks everything is out to get him, from what I've heard from people."

Scout was as quiet as ever, "Sometimes everything is."

Everyone gave her a look at that, but she just shrugged at us and didn't explain further. Even Sands apparently couldn't read her.

Avalon shook her head, "Okay, we had a defense to practice."

Paranoia is just having an accurate assessment of the situation.

Sadly I couldn't even say she was wrong.

---

[Sunday, September 17, 2017]

I smiled at the message from dad on my phone. Sure we could relay to each other though my sisters but this somehow felt more direct and personal, even if we had to filter the conversation to avoid topics he wasn't supposed to be able to know about.

"Good news?"

That was Sands, the team were having another impromptu picnic on the lawns, not far from the Lighthouse.

I shook my head, "Not as such, but no bad news either. Things are going well back home … oh and Tabitha sent more pictures for her fan-club." I handed the phone to Sands so she could take a look, joined by her sister and, for a change, Vanessa.

Sands asked, "Do you know anything about her birth parents?"

I waggled a hand, "Not much, her mother is in prison somewhere, Tabitha was conceived there and … they weren't going to leave a baby in jail. We don't know many details but it apparently wasn't a good situation even without the prison thing. Dad has tried to backtrack it, for Tab's sake, but it's been really hard … " I blinked like an idea had occurred to me, "Weirdly hard, like when he tried to find my mom. I'm starting to wonder if something weird is going on there, I honestly kinda wish my family was running into a lot less weirdness."

I wish we hadn't ended up having to drop into your life.

Theia, I wish you hadn't had to deal with the crap you've been though, Tabs either. But I've never regretted having you two as sisters, not for a moment.

Shiori went for a topic change, "So is it just me or is the fact we react like that to killing things really creepy?"

There was a pause before we all replied at once, "Yep." "Yes." "Totally" "Oh god yes."

It's funny, it's almost like somebody made the Edge to addict Heretics to killing, I can't think why somebody might do that.

Yes Theia, I know, the Imperium sucks.

Avalon commented, "It can get addictive, it's something to watch out for. People who get too many kills too easily can go kill crazy. We, I mean the Garden, call them Weeds. They grow fast, choke off everything around them, and if you don't get to them fast are hard to deal with." She blinked at my worried look, "I'm pretty sure the fight vs the Peridles was enough of a fight to not be a risk."

Sands winced, "We call it 'going savage', you can help somebody if they haven't gotten too bad … if they have though, all you can do is find something really dangerous, point them at it, and stand back."

More than a few of them 'vanish', they are powerful weapons in our hands, and the insanity isn't an issue if they aren't in control.

I'm depressed that that makes sense.

I thought on that, "I'm assuming this is a guide to why you probably shouldn't build your magic power-granting device around something that's crazy and kills things for fun."

Vanessa frowned, "I'm guessing they didn't think they had a lot of better options."

"Listen. Strange monster heads built into lights distributing powers is no basis for a system of monster hunting."

That got me blank looks from half of the table, while Vanessa and Shiori burst into giggles. That was the first time I'd seen Shiori laugh, it was pretty cute.

Sands gave me a vaguely annoyed look, "I'm going to have to do more research aren't I."

Vanessa smirked, "So, movie night?"

I nodded, "Movie night."

---

[Wednesday, September 20, 2017]

"Chambers, what are you doing?" Avalon's tone was just this side of incredulous.

I looked over from where I was putting a poster on the wall on my side of the room, "So, it turns out that you can get posters of famous Heretics. I mean it shouldn't surprise me really, and I've been doing some research into a few of them, some of who are really cool. I mean you have to admit, it's better than some rock star or sports person."

"Chambers. That is a poster of my mother."

I looked up at the Gaia Sinclair poster, a very nicely done picture of her in front of the palace they still insisted on calling Primary Academics. "Yeah, Theia is a huge fan as it turns out … so, think I could get her to sign it?"

She rubbed her hand over her face, "No, I'm not letting you do this. Having my mother looking down at me all the time would be creepy."

Okay, you win the bet. I thought she'd take longer to crack.

I told you.

I sighed, "Well, I guess I can see that. I hope you don't give me grief about the other one though." I held up a still rolled up poster, "I mean finding a Gabriel Prossor poster is not easy, it took some serious effort by Sands and Scout to … "

There is no way she hasn't killed at least one vampire for that speed.

The poster had almost teleported out of my hand and was now being studied by Avalon. She finally looked up and, god help me, she blushed a little at my look, "Ah … this one is going on my side."

The great Avalon Sinclair is a fangirl?

I'm not judging. If I could get a poster of Lancelot I would totally have him up there, he's amazing. He did so much damage to our operations on Earth before they managed to finally kill him.

I managed to keep a, mostly, straight face. After seeing her actually do an embarrassed blush there was no getting around the fact that I had a hell of a crush on my roommate. Thankfully Theia could keep me from doing anything too stupid, it helped that Theia was mostly straight … the rest was 'it's complex and I'll tell you when you're older'. "How about the back of the door as a compromise?"

Avalon narrowed her eyes a bit, "Agreed. But I'm still not happy with a poster of my mother up. It's … weird."

I started to take it back down again, "Okay, I'll grant you that. She is pretty cool though … I don't know if you've got contacts but Theia is also a huge fan of the Knights of the Round Table … I don't suppose you could get one of Sir Percival? The Masons said it's hard to find good pictures of him, at least ones where he's not dressed way too modern for the right effect."

She narrowed her eyes even more, "You're messing with me, you and Theia."

I finished rolling up the poster and nodded, "You need to relax more, and I need to get this back to the person I was borrowing it off." I followed her quick glance, "Don't worry, the Prossor poster is ours, I … didn't realise you were such a fan."

My roommate got a lot more serious, "He's always been a major inspiration to me. He … he's important." In an obvious attempt to change the topic she asked, "Why the Knights of the Round Table?"

"Theia has always had a thing about them, I'm not entirely sure why. She may be in my head but never ask me to explain everything Theia does. Or anything she does really … "

I'd be offended if it wasn't true.

I did know the reason of course. Camelot had not only been entirely real, but also the center of anti-Imperium resistance on Earth for the short time it existed. It said a lot about how powerful Arthur and the people he gathered around him were that they went up against the might of one of the Imperium's most elite forces and almost won. They forced the Imperium to pull out all the stops to beat them.

In many ways it had been the breaking of that force. One of their most powerful members, and one of the few I'd be honestly happy to see, had left over the outcome of that fight. Over the next few centuries the rest of them had been split off and sent to where they were more needed. It hadn't been a sudden thing, but in many ways you could point at the Battle of Camlann as the single point that saw the beginning of the end for that group staying together.

So of course both my sisters were huge fans, and if it didn't hit me nearly as hard, I was quite a fan too. I was hoping to meet Sir Percival at some point.

"Chambers, you are a very strange person."

I grinned back at her, "Do you want to know the really terrifying thing?"

She gave me a look.

I smiled wider, "This has been me on good behaviour. At some point I'm going to start really causing havoc."

I don't think she believes us.

She will learn, oh, she will learn.

---

[Sunday, September 24, 2017]

"Just in here." Sands guided me into one of the school's gardens, one with a decent sized grove of trees.

Ooo, I know where we're going.

Huh. A treehouse, an actual old fashioned treehouse … with a bunch of magic to make people not notice it's there.

Some of my wards are still running, I don't think the twins could have maintained them. Larissa's work?

I climbed up the tree and ducked into the small single room to find Scout and unexpectedly Vanessa waiting for us.

Sands explained, "We built this when we were kids … our friend Alyson helped us put some spells to give more privacy and mom upgraded them later before … " she trailed off before shaking her head, "This is probably about as private as we can get without sneaking out to the jungle."

That makes sense. I got the feeling of her studying the room. They should still be solid. She didn't sound as sure as I'd like, or for that matter as she would like.

I gave the three of them a look and parked myself on a pile of cushions like the others had, "Okay, so this feels ominous."

They looked at each other then back at me before Vanessa took a breath, "I'm trying to find somebody and I think you know more about her than we do … what do you know about Sariel?"

Oh fuck me sideways.

 

[The Game]

Wyatt makes a perfect entrance, as usual, and...

Oh, dear.

 

[pheonix89]

🍿
I've been waiting to drop this one on people...

We have so much fun planned!

 

[The Game]

Wait! Hol up. If Flick knows that Camelot was Anti-Imperium, shouldn't she be trying to talk to Percival? He's literally the only other person that she knows of that knows about the Seosten. Or she already plans to but it hasn't come up?

 

[Tamahori]

Wait! Hol up. If Flick knows that Camelot was Anti-Imperium, shouldn't she be trying to talk to Percival? He's literally the only other person that she knows of that knows about the Seosten. Or she already plans to but it hasn't come up?

Click to shrink...

It's been a while so she doesn't know what he's like now. Also it's hard for her to just casually get in touch with a Committee Member.

Worst of all, she knows for sure one of the Committee is being controlled by a Seosten, she even knows who the Seosten is, she doesn't however know who Jophiel's host is (nor any idea at all what that relationship is really like). So she can't rule out that Percival is the host in question, it would be the kind of bitter irony that some of Sariel's old crew are prone to.

 

[pheonix89]

And the only committee member she knows is not compromised is ... Ruthers.

 

[Tamahori]

Seeking Family

[Monday, September 4, 2017]

Vanessa Moon remembered everything.

She couldn't remember much from the most early parts of her life when everything was just shapes colour and noise, but there were fragments of it from back when her brain wasn't developed enough to be remembering much of anything.

Anything since then though was available to recall as needed.

Vanessa could remember back to when she still had a family, a twin brother and a loving mother and father, and how happy things had been then.

She could certainly remember the day ten years ago when her family was torn apart, when a man named Puriel showed up at their door and tried to take her mother away. The first time she'd heard the term Heretic, when her father had pulled a sword out of nowhere and shattered the orb Puriel was going to kidnap them with. When Puriel had revealed that he and her mother weren't human, and when the shattered item had dragged not only the attacker but the rest of her family away, scattering them across the universe.

Vanessa had never stopped wanting them back, never stopped looking. But it wasn't until Heretics came back into her life, offering her a chance to go to a school called Crossroads and fight monsters, that she finally had some leads.

It was obvious to her that she wasn't entirely human, her mother hadn't been so she couldn't be. It explained her perfect memory, her brother's Olympian grade physical talents even at the age of seven.

She had been worried the Edge would reject her, and what might happen. But it had accepted her instead, showed her a vision of her parent's wedding, the joy and happiness they had for each other, between Stranger and Hunter.

They said Strangers were evil, that they were monsters. But Vanessa's mother wasn't a monster. Vanessa's father hadn't married a monster. Vanessa and her brother weren't half-monster.

Crossroads was wrong, it was that simple. There were probably monsters out there, creatures worthy of everything bad said about them, but that wasn't everything. That wasn't Vanessa's family.

And she was going to find them.

---

[Wednesday, September 6, 2017]

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

Vanessa had never been much of a people person. She was never comfortable around others like her brother had been. Tristan took after their father who could make friends with anyone. Vanessa took after her mother who had seemed to have that same talent but, looking at her memories in hindsight, Vanessa was pretty sure her mother was a lot more like Vanessa, just better at faking it.

Sure, Sands and Scout had said people should feel free to ask them questions, but these weren't exactly normal questions she had. How do you ask people brought up as Stranger hunters about your family of Strangers?

She wouldn't take the risk except that Sands had talked about an Eden's Garden Heretic named Haiden rescuing her mother. The same name as her father.

Vanessa had already checked what she could of the public Crossroad's records, none of the Haiden's that showed up in the school rolls matched her father. That didn't mean he was from the Garden, he could have been one of those other groups, a Natural Heretic like Flick, but it was the closest thing she'd had to a lead in years.

The Mason twins and Vanessa were sitting in a quiet corner of the campus, Sands being the one to have asked the question of course.

They seemed to have picked up on her tension, Sands giving her a smile, "Look, if it's something that's really big then you could take it to one of the professionals."

Vanessa shook her head, "No this is … personal." Now or never, "You said your mother got saved by a Heretic called Haiden. Do you know his last name?"

A quick glance between the sisters, then Sands said in a more careful tone, "Holt. His name was Haiden Holt. Why are you wanting to know?"

Well, Vanessa had already started. "I think he's my father." Having a Heretic as a father, that was safe right? Even from the opposition group? "I don't suppose you have a picture of him?"

Both of the Masons shook their heads, Sands explaining, "Mom only knew his name because she decided to look him up after finding out she'd been saved by a Garden Heretic when she was young. It's hard for us to get solid information about them."

Vanessa had told this story before, but this was the first time for people that might believe it. "I told you my family was attacked when I was young. It was by somebody that looked human but wasn't. Dad pulled a sword out of nowhere to fight with, the thing attacking us called him a Heretic. Whatever it was they took all my family away but couldn't get to me … because of something mom did." That was even mostly the truth, just leaving some bits out.

That would be safe, right?

Sands seemed to accept that, "So you're trying to find out who he was to find out what happened. That makes sense, our team seems to have a bit of that. Looked human but wasn't … Bystander Effect would have covered up most of what we could go on. You said your mother did something to save you, do you know if she was also a Heretic? If it was a spell then she could have just been an Adjacent. What was her name?"

It was so freeing to have somebody listen to Vanessa's story and not tell her she was crazy, not tell her something horrible like she was repressing abuse, to just listen, accept it and want to help. Vanessa replied without thinking, "Sariel."

The twins froze.

It was just a name. Did they know something? Without even thinking about it Vanessa let her hand drift closer to where her whip was stored.

It was Scout that spoke first, "She knows." Then the normally quiet girl reached behind herself and, moving with care, took the camera case she stored her rifle in off and placed it on the ground, pushing it away a bit.

Sands looked confused for a moment, then her eyes widened, "Oh … yeah." She followed suit, taking the sheath of her weapon off her belt and putting it to one side, "We're not going to attack you Vanessa."

For a long moment Vanessa was caught between fight, flight, and just general panic. "You … you know."

Scout spoke again, "Sariel saved my life, on the boat."

Sands nodded, "And it was her and Haiden that saved mom." She was giving Vanessa the oddest look though, a weird kind of fascination.

Vanessa slowly moved her hand away from her whip and tried to slow her breathing down. Then she caught up with what Scout had said, "Wait, you've seen her? Since she was taken?"

Scout smiled, "Mom and her knew each other, they were friends. She's trapped somewhere, can escape for short bursts, we don't know how to signal her."

Mom was alive. Maybe not well, but alive. She was alive.

Sands leaned a bit closer, "So it really can happen … you're half human, half Stranger. And a Heretic. Huh, I guess those rumours about Eden's Garden are true." She seemed like she wasn't sure if she should be fascinated or vaguely horrified.

Scout gave her sister a look which caused Sands to sit up, "Ah, yeah. Look, I'm still getting used to this Strangers Aren't All Evil thing, and we can't trust dad because … he'd take it badly. We're looking for her too, your mother that is, and your other sisters."

"I … don't have any sisters?"

"Yeah, about that? We need to tell you about Alyson and Tabitha Holt."

---

"So I've got sisters. Huh."

Vanessa was well past the point of being able to give a useful response. In the last half hour she'd gone from 'nobody believes me and I have no leads and if anyone did they would kill me' to this.

Scout gave her a sympathetic smile and a hug. Sands was also looking sympathetic, "I kinda know the feeling … having my sister tell me that she's only alive because mom was friends with a Stranger … really caused me to have to think about things."

Vanessa shook her head, organised her thoughts. "I still don't know what mom was though. I'm assuming my memory is from her, I remember everything that's ever happened, perfectly. And Tristan was impossibly acrobatic for somebody his age, so those are probably both from her?" She paused to think, "I could always see Strangers, nobody would believe me when I told them, but I could always see them." And the less said about the other results of telling people the better. Let the past remain the past.

"Teleporter." was Scout's addition.

Sands nodded, "Tabitha picked up things really quickly, never forget anything either, I mean I'm not used to kids her age but she learned to walk really quickly. And we think she could teleport, never saw her do it but sometimes she'd vanish when we're sure she didn't get past us and mom could always find her so we think she was teleporting to mom.

"That's what happened on the boat, Sariel teleported in to meet mom and Scout and when she saved Scout it was by grabbing mom and the Fomorian and teleporting them both out with her. We … we don't know if mom is alive or not but ..." She trailed off.

For some reason even that name, of the creature that had attacked them, gave Vanessa a bad feeling. She'd read enough to know they were very bad news, but this felt weirdly personal. "Flick moves like my brother did. That same kind of grace and precision."

"Yeah. We don't think Alyson is the same species as your mom, but they could be related because Alyson moved like that too. She never did anything that might have been a teleport, but she could just be hiding that. What she did have was short bits of superspeed and lightning powers."

Vanessa picked up on it instantly, "You think Flick is an Alyson natural."

"Yeah, and we think her adopted younger sister is your younger half-sister. It fits. We don't know if Flick knows about Alyson or what her sister is but we think she might and … well, she's obviously not going to risk telling anyone here."

Scout held up her phone with a picture on it, four girls standing together. Two of them were obviously younger versions of the two girls Vanessa was talking to but between them was a brunette in her mid-teens holding a blond toddler in her arms. The older girl had an uncertain smile while the toddler was beaming at the camera.

Vanessa couldn't be sure, she knew exactly what her mother looked like but she was comparing an adult to a girl not far past babyhood. She was glad of her memory though, she didn't want to forget that picture, these were her sisters, her family.

Scout fiddled with the phone then brought up another picture, now it was somebody else she recognized: Felicity standing in a garden with her arm around a girl, maybe eight, that was hugging her back. It was obvious they cared about each other. And this time Vanessa was sure, the little girl was her sister. Sands was looking between the photo and Vanessa, "Yeah, I can see it. Around the eyes, and Tab's hair used to be the same colour as yours … I think it still is, but she's using dye or maybe magic."

Vanessa fell back on the grass laughing, "I … I have sisters. And mom is alive, trapped somewhere but alive. Thank you."

"I wish we had any idea about your dad or brother."

It's taking you through the portal, and it's broken so it could take you anywhere! Any world, any of them! Her mother's words from a decade ago.

"They were scattered, sent to different planets. Mom, dad, Tristan, the man that attacked them. He was trying to take her back to her people, I don't know if they caught her or she's stuck somewhere else. I know so much more than I did before but… the library has been no use." She was annoyed. Books had failed her, books had never failed her before.

Scout sighed, "Hidden knowledge."

"Yeah, me and Scout have been looking. There is nothing even close to what Alyson or Tabs were. The abilities show up separately, but never in one species. Alyson was not a Stardrinker, that we're sure of, and we don't think Flick is either." Sands snorted, "She's not fast enough for one."

"Not fast enough? I can barely see her when she moves."

"Yeah, if she was a Stardrinker you wouldn't even see that, they go so fast they may as well be teleporting. Also Alyson could make things hot and cold … we worked out how to use it to make ice cream. Mom told us to help her hide that she could do that, mom knew what she was and it really wasn't a Stardrinker."

"Dad always called my mom an angel … I'm wondering if he was being literal. She didn't have wings though, not that I ever saw. We need to ask Flick … but if we're wrong then we're risking Tabbitha."

Scout shook her head, "No risk."

Vanessa frowned, then nodded, "Yeah, you're right. I mean I knew mom wasn't human, so I knew what they said here wasn't … complete."

Sands agreed, "Yeah, make Flick choose between her family and here, no bet on which way she'd jump. Assuming her imaginary friend isn't …"

There was a long pause as all three girls shared matching appalled expressions.

Sands finally said, "No fucking way. She couldn't be that obvious and get away with it."

Vanessa's tone was awed, "She's getting away with it so far."

Scout added, "Fits the pattern."

Sands thought on that, "Shit, it does. Mom smuggled two Strangers right through the middle of Crossroads and got away with it … and now Flick is …"

Vanessa finished the thought, "Talking to one of those Strangers, out loud, while walking around school. And everyone is putting it down to an imaginary friend. No wonder Theia could see through the Bystander effect."

A nod from Sands, "You really have to respect the audacity."

"Chutzpah." was Scout's comment.

Vanessa snorted, "Yeah, pure chutzpah." She smirked a little at Sands's confused expression, "Yiddish word, kinda like audacity but … more so. So, can we talk to her?"

Sands bit her lip, "I … don't know. I mean what if she doesn't know … what if she doesn't believe us fully, and talks to the administration to prove we're wrong about Tabitha and Theia. I mean we know that standard checks don't pick up Tabs, but nobody was trying to check 'is she a stranger'. It's … risky."

Vanessa was so close, she could taste it. Flick had to know more than she was saying, more about who Vanessa's mother was, what her mother was. There had to be a way. "We need a way to talk to Theia without Flick being involved."

They thought on that for a bit, Scout summing it up as "Tricky."

Sands blinked, "Oh, another fact. Sometimes when she was stressed Alyson didn't speak English, mom told us to hide that too. We didn't work it out till after they had left but the language she would use was Latin. I mean that could be from your mother?"

Vanessa thought on that, "Maybe? I should learn latin … I wonder if Flick speaks it, because if she doesn't and that is Alyson linked to her …" She looked at the others, "You've already been doing an investigation, right?"

Sands grinned, "Yeah, so this is what we've worked out so far …"

---

[Saturday, September 9, 2017]

Vanessa and Sands looked up as Scout climbed into the tree house, Sands asking, "Did you get it?"

Scout just held up several sheets of paper.

Sands sighed, "Okay, so just having you ask for it was better than my plan. I liked my plan, it was fun, and I had the duplication spell all ready."

Her twin rolled her eyes and handed the paper to Vanessa who just glanced at each side before handing them onto Sands in turn.

That earned Vanessa a long look from Sands, "Okay, I'm honestly envious of that. Does it help with spells too?"

The blond girl smirked a little, "It's pretty cool at times, and yes, it really does. Want me to summarize?"

Sands looked down at the papers, "Yeah, I'm still going to read it but you're probably quicker to describe it."

What she was holding was the essay that Flick and Avalon had been required to fill out after their unplanned fight. Sands had worked out a plan to sneak a copy but Scout had pointed out she could just ask for a copy in the interests of learning from the fight. Given the whole 'we need to train up properly' thing there apparently hadn't been any good reason to say no.

Vanessa looked up at the ceiling, gathering her thoughts. "So Avalon and Flick killed a hell of a lot of bugs, whoever set it up knew at least some of Flick's abilities and had planned for them. Flick got at least as many kills in as the trained Eden's Garden student with a bunch of powers." Vanessa looked back at the others, "Some of it sounds a bit like that fight you described Alyson as being in, with the Daesimalo, though nowhere near as polished, but without seeing it … Flick really knows how to fight though. It wasn't just bolts, some superspeed martial arts, widespread attacks, and even an area blast around her. Nothing like that lightning wall you described though."

Sands frowned, "That sounds a lot like what Alyson was like early on …"

Scout commented, "Lightning was new, heat and cold too."

Sands nodded, "Yeah. A bunch of the stuff Alyson could do she was used to, the speed especially, but her lightning tricks, she was still learning them when we met her. For a while she was afraid to touch us because she might shock us. Flick doesn't have that, but she's using some of Aly's early tricks. She's learning slower though, Alyson was with us for less time than Flick's been a Natural and she was throwing lightning walls around."

Vanssa thought for a moment, "In the report Flick said that control is more of a problem for her than power. She was sure she could have killed everything in the room in one blast if she'd chosen to, but couldn't because everything would have included Avalon."

Sands considered that, "Not the same as Alyson, after the first month she had much better control, but was still building up power. Some things were hard, like light-bulbs, but once she worked out how to throw a bolt she never had any problems hitting targets. Still, this is what I'd expect if Alyson was teaching her … and then there was that investigation."

Even remembering it made both Sands and Scout look a bit ill, though it was Scout that commented, "Theia can control Flick sometimes."

Vanessa looked puzzled, "Control her?"

Sands nodded, "Yeah, she spoke through Flick's mouth, though I guess that could have been with permission. Didn't sound like Alyson did, different accent, Theia sounds kinda English, Alyson had a really weird accent when we first met her and started sounding kind of American later on. Copying people I think."

Scout noted, "She has Alyson's stare."

"Yeah, so we told you a bit about the investigation. Thing is while Flick was looking at any of the really horrible stuff she had this look she gave it, I've seen some of the older Heretics do it too, kind of looking through things. Alyson got exactly the same expression when she was looking at something that really bothered her … used it on da a bit. Flick either got that off Theia, or maybe Theia was controlling her while they were doing the detective thing, so she didn't freak out. There were things that Alyson would freak out about but not blood, if somebody got injured around her she just got that 'look' and helped clean up."

That got the twins a questioning look causing Sands to look defensive, "Look, we messed around a lot with things we probably shouldn't have sometimes, we might have gotten injured in the process … a bunch of times. Alyson knows a lot about first aid, magical and non-magical. It's the same look Flick had though, her 'I can't deal with this right now so I'm going to ignore it until the crisis is over' look."

Vanessa's tone was cautious, "Whatever she went though, it wasn't with my mom, right?"

"Yeah, our mom was always very clear about that. Whoever Alyson's original parents were they were … bad. I'm not going to say monsters because, that's gotten more complex for me lately, but bad people. Your mother got her away from them, somehow, and then got her and Tabitha out of wherever she is."

Vanessa couldn't help a smile, "Rescued a child, and somehow faked her death from what you said, and then got her and my other sister here, while trapped somewhere herself. Mom is awesome."

Scout suddenly sat up, "Exploration."

Sands thought for a moment and then nodded, "Doh, that's why you're in Exploration Track aren't you. Your family is out there and you're going to find them."

Vanessa nodded, "Yes. Turns out I was looking in the wrong place, though I'm hoping we can find a route."

The twins looked at each other, nodded, then looked back at Vanessa, "Well, you'll have our help when you find anything."

"Because she might know where your mother is?"

"That, and because mom cared about her enough to save her kids. Even if we can't find ours that easily, we can help get yours back. Sisterhood of the Missing Mother and all that."

Sands shook her head, "Anyway, we were thinking that there are records not in the standard library, so …"

---

[Tuesday, September 19, 2017]

"I still can't believe you described that movie as a 'unique historical look at the time of Camelot'." Sands glare at Vanessa thankfully failed to set her on fire.

"You can't say I was wrong. It's certainly unique."

Scout just said, "Liked it."

"Feh." Sands gave one of the runes on the wall a quick look, then nodded. "So, now that we can talk …"

Vanessa flopped down, "Mom is in prison and conceived a child there … was it me or was Flick implying it wasn't by choice?"

Sands joined her, "That was my feeling … I'm sorry."

Vanessa closed her eyes, "She's alive, that's the important thing. Anything else I can deal with. I also have a sister and regardless of where she's from she's my sister, that's the other important thing. Two sisters."

Trapped could have meant a lot of things, imprisoned meant somebody was keeping her there, probably keeping Sands and Scout's mom there too … get rid of the wardens, break them out. It wasn't much of a plan, but everything had to start somewhere.

She shook her head, "So, no luck getting into the secure records?"

Scout's comment was, "Too many guards."

"Yeah, that Wyatt guy was hanging around every time we tried. This was easier when we didn't have to worry about student curfew. But Scout and I were talking and we had a worrying thought, because the thing is that Alyson could have gotten through that. She was good with security, really good, she did the first wards on this place."

"What's so special about them? You said your mother had to reinforce them?"

"She needed to maintain them, but she made a comment once that she couldn't replace them. It's not just making this not show up to people we don't show it to, it's also got anti surveillance tricks and and doesn't show up on Crossroads Security, despite being inside the dome. I don't know how Alyson managed the last one, we even still show up as 'in the school', just not here."

The blond thought about that, "I'll be honest, with how good you said she was at fighting, she sounds like a spy or an assassin. And we think she's now talking to Flick in her head … they checked for possession but not communication spells?"

Sands shook her head, "No, they called it a possession check but it's a lot more comprehensive than that. They keep the full list of checks secret for a reason, but I know they do check for things like magical communications channels. If Alyson is somewhere else and talking to Flick as constantly as she seems to, they should have picked it up."

Vanessa smirked, "Except she's a Stranger that can get through a medical check, and an expert in breaking security systems."

Sands flopped back on the pile of cushions that covered most of the Treehouse's floor, "Yeah, that would explain it. What bothers me is that if Aly can do this, who else can? Mom was really worried about people working out who Aly really was, and I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't Crossroads she was worried about."

Vanessa's smile vanished, "Mother's people … who are they?"

Sands gave her a serious look, "I think we need to find out, and not just because of your mother and our friends."

"So we talk to Flick?"

"Quietly."

The other two looked at Scout then nodded, Sands saying, "Next chance we get we bring her here and we ask her what's going on. There is something really weird going on here, and I think it's a lot bigger than we know about. We need answers and there is only one person we can get them from."

For the Mason twins Crossroads had always been home, and now home wasn't feeling so safe anymore.

 

[Aylor_Aivo]

I enjoyed reading it but TBH this chapter seems pretty slow/unnecessary. It seems to be in a bit of a weird fanfiction spot where, if we didn't already know everything that got revealed it'd be destroying the dramatic tension/telling the reader a whole bunch about characters when it doesn't feel like Flick's earned that info yet, but because we've already read the source material it's just an infodump of things we know already. There was a bit of side-characters being smart and figuring stuff out but because it was a flashback there was next to no dramatic tension. Honestly it seems like the whole thing would have been better as a single scene and the once/week release format caused it to be stretched out far too long.

 

[Tamahori]

I enjoyed reading it but TBH this chapter seems pretty slow/unnecessary. It seems to be in a bit of a weird fanfiction spot where, if we didn't already know everything that got revealed it'd be destroying the dramatic tension/telling the reader a whole bunch about characters when it doesn't feel like Flick's earned that info yet, but because we've already read the source material it's just an infodump of things we know already. There was a bit of side-characters being smart and figuring stuff out but because it was a flashback there was next to no dramatic tension. Honestly it seems like the whole thing would have been better as a single scene and the once/week release format caused it to be stretched out far too long.

Click to shrink...

This is a fair criticism. I think the Vanessa interlude does serve a purpose in getting a look at how some of the characters are interacting and how they approach problems, and more importantly showing that while Flick is running around other people are paying attention and working out things themselves. But it did end up being lighter than I'd planned in terms of overall material.

I agree that the chapter per week does make it harder than it would be otherwise (though in my defence Cerulean has totally done things like this to us too) but that's pretty much the maximum rate I can reliably get chapters out, and that may be pushing it a bit sadly.

I'm glad you did enjoy it though.

 

[The Game]

I'm looking forward to seeing how Vanessa reacts when Flick tells them that Puriel is Theia's gene-donor.

 

[Tamahori]

Reunion 4.01

[Sunday, September 24, 2017]

I took a few seconds to think with a backdrop of some remarkably foul swearing in Latin from Theia.

Step one, make sure everyone was who they seemed to be.

I boosted hard, Theia lending her own to the effort as I gave her control of my hands. For this we needed exact precision and she grabbed the field engraver from our pocket.

While the others were probably watching me blur, I grabbed the wrist of the nearest, Scout, and Theia quickly drew the anti-angel expulsion rune onto her skin, powering it up the moment it was ready. Then I moved to the next and the next.

The runes were still cycling when we finished and I kept an eye on the group while Theia wrote out an even better privacy ward on the wall, something that humans were really not supposed to have access to.

Finally we dropped out of boost and I let myself fall back onto the cushions as the other three were yelping in surprise and pain. Even if you don't have somebody inside you just the drawing of that rune really smarts and I could only assume speed-drawing it didn't make it hurt any less. Obviously I'd never tested it on myself, but dad knew it and Tabbris, crazy girl that she was, had been determined to prove it worked, so I was familiar with their general reactions.

All three runes flared up … and then vanished. No posessors found, nobody to kick out. Which means there was nobody in there right now … or that it was somebody really good.

"The Hell? What was that?" Sands was, unsurprisingly, annoyed.

I held a finger up, "Anti-possession spell, making sure you don't have anyone riding along. Since all three of you are apparently still you, lets try this again and … could you please be very careful how you use that exact name because I don't know who might be listening for it."

There was a reason my family had gotten into the habit of never using some names. 'Angel' is generic, the real name of Theia and Tabbris's species is very much not, ditto for various famous members of the Imperium.

Apparently I was looking concerned enough that none of the others argued the point, Vanessa giving me a long look instead, "You know who she is? Do you know where she is?"

Okay, I have no idea at all what is going on here.

Scout was the next to speak, "Is Theia our friend Alyson?"

Okay, I have some idea what is going on here.

I couldn't help muttering, "I know I had a plan … why do my plans never survive long enough to even fail?" I sat up again, if they knew this much and weren't trying to report me to anyone then this was no time to hold back. "Yeah, Theia is Alyson, and my younger sister is the Tabitha you looked after for a while. She misses her friends too. Now, could you please tell me what you know and why you're asking."

Another collective look between each other then Sands went first, "My vision, it showed me the time my family picnic got attacked in the forest and Alyson helped save us, same power and you fight kinda like she does."

Ah, that fight. And to be fair this was part of the plan, so yay?

I'll grant you that.

Sands seemed to notice my pause, "So I'm thinking you're an Alyson Heretic, whatever she is, and she's the voice in your head … though how you snuck that past all the tests I don't know. Some kind of communication spell?"

Is this what it feels like when somebody is on the receiving end of dad?

Scout's voice was even quieter than normal, "Mom took me out on the boat to meet Sariel. Told me she wasn't human and that she was Tabitha's mother. A Fomorian attacked us … Sariel saved me, and somehow teleported away, taking mom and the monster. Vision showed me her name."

SHE'S ALIVE! Oh thank the lords, she's alive.

I found myself crying and wiped a tear away, "Sorry … feedback from Theia … it's the first hard proof we've had that her mom's still alive since before you met Alyson and Tabs." I shook my head and tried to stay focused, "Sure, last seen fighting a Fomorian but given who she is she's gonna survive that …" I looked over at Vanessa, "So what's your involvement in this?"

The blond girl blinked, "She's my mother. My father was Haiden Holt."

What?

What.

WHAT.

I sat there looking at her for a bit before Theia borrowed my mouth, "That's not possible."

They all jumped as my tone of voice shifted, though Scout was the first to reply, "Alyson?"

I felt a request and agreed, letting Theia take my body over fully for a bit. She shook our head, "Yeah I … need more warding. I would really rather do this outside the dome?"

Sands shook her head, "We never set something up out there, too hard to protect when we couldn't cast. And … look, I know it sounds crazy, but it turns out that humans can have kids with Strangers."

Theia nodded and brought the engraver out again, starting to write on the walls, "Alters, the polite name is Alters. Nocen if you're talking about the kind of people that deserve to have Heretics going after them … I know hybrids exist, but it shouldn't be possible for you to be a Heretic. Not a Crossroads Heretic, the Edge won't work on a hybrid, Garden apples do but not the Edge. It doesn't make sense … "

Vanessa sounded as confused as we did, "I'm sure she's my mother."

Theia put the last runes up, triggered them and then started drawing a pattern on the floor, "I believe you, I mean you even look like her, you've got angelic memory, the rest probably hasn't kicked in yet but … how did you get through the Edge? Is it letting hybrids in now? I should have realised it was you, stupid of me, but … hybrids can't be Crossroads Heretics, it's not possible, so you couldn't be the person we were looking for. So stupid."

Stop beating yourself up, and do you think there might be others?

Theia stopped for a moment, "Felicity is wondering if there might be others in the school." Then she went back to the complex diagram. She'd had this trick longer than I'd known her but it was a pain to set up and not mobile so normally it was not worth using. This wasn't a normal situation though.

"You were looking for me?"

Thiea nodded then started powering up the spell circle, "Of course, you're my sister." She paused for a moment sounding almost defensive, "Mom, I mean your mother, adopted me. Dad has been trying to hunt you down but your family covered their tracks well … and we couldn't look too close. The people that took her are almost certainly still watching you … they know who you are, what you are. They knew the Edge would work on you … filius caniculae!"

She sat back, "You're up Felicity." Before letting me have control back.

Sands pointed at the glowing circle, "I'm guessing the thing on the wall is privacy … what's that?"

"Illusion spell technically … remote controlled hologram." Then I triggered it.

This bit always felt weird, like I was in two places at once for a moment. Then I was firmly back in my own body and Theia was quieter than even when she was sleeping.

In the circle a figure appeared, slim with brown hair, a few inches taller than me, and Avalon level pretty. An angel.

Theia blinked away tears as she smiled at the twins, "Hi."

For a moment it looked like they were going to hug her before they remembered the illusion bit, though they still reached out, not quite touching, like I did with mom in the vision, and Theia raised her hands in response.

Scout was the first to reply, "Missed you."

Theia was crying again, "Missed you too."

Sands made up for not being able to hug Theia by putting an arm around her sister, "We never stopped looking. Mom said you and Tabs were still alive, we were going to start tracking you down once we finished at school. We never gave up."

"I knew you wouldn't. I always knew I'd be coming back here … I was scared that I couldn't see you again, scared you'd not want to see me again if you knew what I was."

Sands shook her head, "Scout always knew … I … well, she always was the sensible one of us, I just had to listen. You're our friend, I mean I still don't know what you are, but the important bit is you're our friend."

I moved over to sit next to Vanessa, "Theia doesn't have a lot of friends that are still alive. She might be catching up for a bit."

Vanessa was twitching like she really wanted to start asking questions but was holding it back. "I get that, it's just … after all this time looking."

"We have time, anyway, hi, I'm Felicity, natural Heretic of your younger sister which kinda makes us related."

"Does it really work that way?"

I waggled a hand, "Opinions differ, but I think it does. The change runs pretty deep, we're not the same people as we were before we saw the light, even on a genetic level."

While Vanessa processed that the others had just been looking at each other, all three with tears in their eyes. After all this time they didn't seem to know what to say.

Theia eventually broke the silence, "So, um, hi. I'm Theia, ah, not human if you hadn't caught that."

There was another moment, then Sands started laughing, followed by Scout and then Theia herself. All the stress, all the concern about coming to Crossroads. This moment made it all worthwhile.

A moment later Sands and Theia both started talking, stopped, started again, almost jumping around topics as they tried to catch each other up on things that had happened.

I gave Vanessa a look, "So, I'm guessing you have questions? Oh, and we'll need to get you to visit my place at some point, because you have a litlte sister that's going to stright up murder me if she doesn't get to hug you in the near future."

Vanessa seemed to be unsure where to start, "What … dad called mom an angel sometimes. Was she?"

"Hooooboy, so she's from one of many species that get called angels, though that's mostly public relations. She's … sorry, we've gotten into the habit of not using certain words, even in our own heads if we can avoid it, too much risk of people hearing." I looked up at the runes on the walls, if I could trust anywhere this was it, "The proper name is Seosten. They were very close to humans once but have been upgrading themselves for a very long time. Most of my abilities are standard for them, the speed, balance, things like that. Your memory is another standard thing. The lightning is a weird special case and not strictly my power.

"Seosten are … I mean I've only met two personally, both related to you, but I've seen memories of others. I don't think they are inherently good or bad people, but the culture that your mother was hiding from is pretty terrible. Your mother's history is really complex, but she's one of the best people I've ever heard of. Your father is pretty amazing too, I think she'd been wanting out of what she was for a long time, but it was him that made her think it was possible to leave, to be somebody she could respect again." I sighed, "There isn't a simple anwser to 'who is Sariel', she's complex.

"The most important thing though is that she loves you, she's never stopped loving you, and however we manage to find your family and get them back together she's still going to love you."

Vanessa smiled softly, "That I never doubted. There is nothing about Seosten in Crossroads though."

I shook my head, "There won't be … I know a secret conspiracy of Strangers having influence and control over Crossroads might sound crazy …"

"But Larissa was hiding Tabitha and Theia from their own people while here, they were invisible to every Stranger detection method, and Theia could break through Crossroads security like she had a back door to it. And you were checking us to see if we were possessed like you thought that was likely."

I paused to process that, "Okay, you three know more than I expected. Right. So the big ability Seosten have, and I assume it's something you'll pick up at some point, is possession. Step into any living creature over a certain mass, and if it's not too powerful you can control them." I couldn't help but smile, "Tabs has a bunch of pets at home she rides around in. In most cases Seosten don't have to control hosts either, they can sit in the back of their head and spy. That's why I needed to do the check."

Sands called out, "Wait, possession? What about teleporting? I'm sure Tabitha teleported a few times."

Thiea and I gave each other a confused look … being able to do that was kind of novel, before my sister blinked, "Oh, recall. So when we stop possessing somebody there is a bond left behind, a kind of trace. We can follow that trace back, just jump back into the person we were last in, or next to them, or do a kind of mental projection trick … only works for the last person you were in, but that's how we teleport. That's how mom was getting to Larissa - she was the last person mom ever possessed."

I followed up, "Tabs normally has Dad as her last point of contact just in case she ever needs to run away from something to him. Thankfully the few times she's had to use it the Bystander Effect covered things up. I'm guessing if she got too stressed when she was at your place, or too bored, she'd go to a safe place."

Scout looked like she had some questions about this, but wasn't bringing them up right away. Sands on the other hand was thinking before she said, "Wait, you're in Flick aren't you. You're not talking to her, you're possessing her."

Theia grinned, "Ten points for Gryffindor. And before you ask I've got a … call it a disability I guess. I'm stuck in Felicity, which is why this, " she pointed at the spell circle.

Sands narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean by 'stuck'?"

I spoke up, "Theia means that she can't exit me while I'm still alive, and yes, it bothers me that she can't get out and around and do her own thing. We normally have a time-share deal going on, but that's not practical while I'm here. Theia running around controlling my body would probably push me past the limit of 'too crazy for Crossroads'." I grinned, "It's annoying, because unlike me, Theia can cook."

The twins just nodded at that, then Scout suddenly pointed at us, "Ice cream!"

Theia smirked, "There is another reason for you to come and visit, I've gotten better at that since I knew you."

Sands snorted, "Like we weren't going to come anyway."

Vanessa asked, "Do you know where mom is? Where any of my family are?"

Theia and I shared a look before Theia sighed, "Mom is in a Seosten Imperium black site, I don't know enough of where it is to find it either. I lived there for a bit but nobody ever told me the coordinates. At least right before I came here the first time your brother and father were still at large."

"I … got the impression she was important to them. Like she was somebody special."

I couldn't help but laugh, "You could say that. Your mother was part of an elite force, super-soldiers, each put through a process that gave them unique special abilities … There is a chance you might inherit her powers, the best known being her perfect aim. She never missed something she aimed at unless something really weird was going on. Theia's biological father was another member of that force, and she inherited the energy control powers from him. That's not a normal Seosten ability."

Sands blinked, "Huh. So I'm guessing Theia is your actual name?"

Theia smiled and gave them a curtsy. She'd chosen to show up in the skirt version of the Crossroad's uniform, Hunter track of course. "Aletheia Sariel Chambers, at your service. Best to stick with Theia in general use. My full first name could be on a watch list."

Vanessa asked, "You have mom's name as your middle name?"

Theia nodded, "After she adopted me, though taking her name is human culture, not Seosten. We only use a single name. Tabbris has the same thing, she's formally Tabbris Diana Chambers."

Vanessa was thinking, "Angel of Freedom? And you're named after the Goddess of Truth?"

"Mom tends to be pretty pointed with her name choices. There are reasons that she picked the name she did for me, mostly related to being offensive to my unholy bitch of a mother."

Sands held up a hand, "Wait, Sariel gave you your name? What was it before?"

"I … didn't have one, it's a not very nice story and we can talk about it some other time. So, that elite force Felicity was talking about? They arrived on Earth about three thousand years ago and subverted Greek culture of the time by taking on the roles of existing and new gods. I'm the biological daughter of Zeus and Hera … the legends about Hera being a really bad parent are pretty accurate it turns out."

Scout spoke up, "Three thousand … how old are you?"

That earned a laugh from Theia, "Seosten have an average lifespan of eight to ten thousand years … Sariel is about three and a half thousand years old." She looked over at Vanessa, "You may end up living a very long time even if you don't kill something that stops your aging. As for me I'm … " she had to stop and think about it for a moment, "I'm not sure on my birthdate in your calendar, so let's just say almost thirty." She looked down at her mid-teens self, "And yes, I probably still look like this, our aging slows down a lot after puberty. Tabbris is already grumpy in advance about that."

Vanessa was apparently still trying to process the age thing, I guess we'd hit her with a lot of shocks, then her gaze suddenly sharpened. "Mom was a greek goddess … Tabbris is named after her … you mean my mother is Artemis?"

Theia nodded, "The huntress that never missed a shot. The legends say she was the protector of girls, but honestly she'd protect any child that got near her. She saved me from my parents and they were pretty much her worst enemies."

That got a small smile from Vanessa, "I knew she was amazing. I … well, I know more than I did, and I've got more family. That's a start."

I spoke up, "You have an uncle running around, probably on Earth. Apollo, who went rogue from the Imperium a long time ago and has been causing them havoc ever since … you can probably get an idea of how much they hate him for what they did their best to do to his birth name in myth, Lucifer."

Vanessa blinked, "My uncle is the devil?"

Theia didn't so much grin as show a lot of teeth, "When my people call themselves angels, the demons start looking like the good guys, so hail Satan. Most of those stories about him under those names are bullshit." She considered for a moment, "I guess you could say that it was just the loyalist Olympians getting back at him in some ways, Apollo wrote or at least modified most of the legends about the Olympians. While making my father out to be a rampaging letch was hilariously inaccurate, he was very much on the ball about how bad at parenthood Hera was."

Sands was just looking between us again, "I'm still getting over the fact I'm sitting in a room with the children of gods … most of the Crossroads histories assume the legends were about a mixture of Naturals and Strang … um, Alters. Any good stories are things the Heretics did and anything bad is blamed on Alters."

Scout sighed, "Propaganda."

I nodded, "There is a lot of it going around."

"How … " Sands took a breath, "Are my mom and da good people?"

Oh boy. I picked my words carefully, "They always did what they thought was best. I can't speak for Larissa before she met Sariel, but she was willing to trust a Stranger that needed help, and go to amazing efforts to help smuggle a couple of children out of hell."

Theia muttered, "I wasn't technically a child, I was in my early twenties."

"A couple of traumatised children and even trust them around her own family when it was the only way to help them. So yeah, your mother is very good people."

Sands's voice was quiet, "You're not saying anything about Da. He … mom told us not to trust him. If he'd been on that boat he wouldn't have trusted Sariel would he, and Scout would be dead?"

Theia and I were almost painfully quiet. There really wasn't anything I could say.

Sands just let out a quiet, "Oh." Before Scout pulled her into a tight hug.

I considered for a moment then got up and moved over to them, "Theia, you can borrow the body for a bit."

The illusion vanished and I felt my body leave my control as Theia tentatively went to hug the others who latched onto us tightly.

Eventually the twins let go and Theia reactivated her image. "I … Liam's a good man in most ways and a good father, and that says a lot of good things about him because I've seen the alternative but … He believes in what Crossroads says, he really believes in it."

I sat down again, "So, let's look at the good things. You have your friends back, Tabs is going to be really happy, and we found Vanessa."

Theia tapped the side of her head, "I have this nifty communication spell I use to stay in touch with Tabbris, who if she could recall to any of us would have by now. She's wanting to meet you a lot."

Vanessa gave a sad smile, "I'm really looking forward to that, I just wish I knew where to start looking for everyone else other than 'out there somewhere'."

Theia returned a small smile of her own, "There is one other bit of good news, that recall thing I was talking about. We always have a recall link. If our current host is unavailable, or we've never grabbed one in our life, the link points back to somebody we're related to." Her smile got bigger, "And it always starts with the opposite gender parent."

Vanessa's eyes went wide, "You mean …"

I nodded, "Another reason for you to meet Tabbris, she can teach you about possession and how to project just your mind to your recall target. How would you like to talk to your dad again?"

 

[Tamahori]

Reunion 4.02

[Sunday, September 24, 2017]

"So, thinking of having a nervous breakdown?"

Vanessa looked at me, "I'm guessing that was your reaction when you first found out about all of this?"

We were sitting at one end of the treehouse to gave the others some room. I didn't even need to listen to them to know that Theia was currently passing on messages from Tabbris, the way she was waving her arms around was very typical for my little sister when she was excited. Theia wasn't an arm waver, though she could be a pacer.

"Kinda … for me I first got my intro to this in a very weird lucid dream. Even without that spell we have ways of seeing each other." I gave a sad smile, "Theia was in my vision with me. If you thought my reaction was bad, think what it would have been without her to give me support while I was watching it."

Vanessa winced at that, "I'm guessing she was running your body afterwards?"

"Somewhat, I don't think I could have managed to walk in a straight line if she hadn't been helping. I was mostly checked out for large chunks of that day … it wasn't him taking mom that was the worst bit, it was that he came for me and she gave herself up instead. I hate that man so much I don't even have words for it."

She nodded, "I feel like that about Puriel. He took everything from me."

I didn't even need to be looking in Theia's direction to know she'd just winced. I did look up to catch her asking for a pause and turning to face us looking nervous. "Vanessa … I haven't told you everything about my biological parents."

Vanessa frowned, "I know you don't like them and they were bad to you."

"Mother was … bad enough I'm not going into details. Father was … I only saw him a few times, distant doesn't begin to describe it." Theia shook her head, "My father was the man who came to your house and tore your family apart. My mother runs the black site that's holding mom." She cringed a bit in advance.

Vanessa just sighed a little, "Theia, are you your parents? Have you done those things?" She leaned closer to the image, "You're my sister and we're going to get her out of there. Am I wrong?"

Theia swallowed, "But …"

I had to speak up, "I think you're just going to have to give in, Vanessa's spent most of her life on a quest to get her family back together, and that includes you now. Does she look like somebody that's going to back down and stop accepting you?"

There was a long pause before Theia finally said, "No … she looks like her mother, and Sariel never gave up on me either. I miss her, I miss her so much."

Vanessa gave Theia a sad smile, "I miss her too. We'll get her back, we'll get all of them back."

I couldn't help myself, "You have my staff."

Scout spoke up, "And my rifle."

Theia grinned, "And my collection of totally bullshit superpowers."

Sands looked at us, "Um, and my total confusion as to whatever you're referencing this time. Let me guess, movie night again?"

Vanessa couldn't help but ask, "How is it that Scout gets all these references and you don't?"

"We don't do everything together … she's not big on going to social events, so if I'm going to something she stays home and watches stuff."

Scout shrugged, "I like movies."

Sands grinned, "Scout has had to write up summaries of some of them for the teachers so it's easier for them to keep up with what people are talking about. Da started it and it spread from there." Her smile faded again as she thought about her father.

Theia sighed, "I really don't like Liam but that doesn't mean he hasn't been a good father. He even did his best for me. He loves you and he wants what he thinks is best for you but that might not be what you think is best for you."

Scout's voice was even quieter than normal, "If he'd known he'd have killed you and Tabitha."

For somebody that would insist she was terrible at being comforting, Theia wasn't that bad, "Maybe not personally, I think he would have just made sure to get us away from you, but probably informed people that would kill us. He would be doing it to protect you though, that's what we would believe right to the bottom of his heart. He just doesn't question certain assumptions … ever." Another long sigh, "Still, I kinda like him. He's nice. I'm the last person that should be saying 'don't throw away your family' because I threw away my biological family as fast as I could, but Liam isn't … that. He really does love both of you."

Sands gave us a sad smile, "I know." She shook her head, "So, power of Zeus, how's that working out for you?"

None of us argued about the change in topic.

Theia shrugged, "It doesn't suck. I don't have a lot of good to say about father but his powers are pretty good, I've got a fraction of them now but the rest will come in over time … a little bit like being Bonded I guess … sorry, Natural Heretic."

Vanessa asked, "Bonded, that a Seosten term?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I keep having to remind myself not to use it myself, though I do like it more than Natural Heretic as a term, Tabbris Bonded has a nice ring to it."

Sands looked between Theia and me, "So when Flick is throwing lightning that's you really doing it?"

I waggled my hand, "Theia provides the power, I'm the one that fires it off. It's … okay, so Theia's possession issues have two problems. The big one is that she can't leave, but the other major problem is she can't give me any control. If we weren't cheating she'd be running around pretending to me, and I'd be the invisible friend." I gave Vanessa a grin, "Your mother thought that would be a bit sub-optimal so she came up with a work-around."

Theia smiled, "Mom is one of the finest experts in mind-magic in the Imperium. She created a kind of virtual copy of herself that lives inside Tabbris to act as a trainer and a cut-down version of that for me to act as an index for that spellbook I need to give you some bits of. But the important thing here is that she built a possession spell for people like me called Ouroborus."

Theia gave them a moment to think about that and it was Sands that worked it out first, "Oh! You mean while you're possessing Flick, she's possessing you?"

Theia gave Sands a delighted look, "Yes. More exactly she's possessing the bits of me that control her body, so when she wants to move she reflexively tells me to move her but it's fast enough to not be noticed. Anyway, what wasn't planned because when mom built this I didn't have these powers, was that it seems like the bits of me that run the body are right next to the bits of me that run my Olympian power. And that's how you get Felicity throwing my lightning around." She paused to look over at me, "Badly."

I gave the ceiling a look, "We can't all be naturals. Also I don't get feedback from the powers nearly as clearly as Theia does. It's there but it's fuzzy, practice is helping"

Vanessa was looking thoughtful, "So she just built a spell for this?"

Theia nodded, "Yeah, well, built it and cast it on me. I've got the full notes and instructions here," she tapped her head, "but it's too complex for me to cast at this point. She's also working on some ideas for safe ways for me or others with my condition to eject. That was a work in progress at the time we left though, she's a genius though."

Vanessa frowned, "So if something breaks that spell though you can't fix it?"

I nodded, "If that happens Theia knows how to impersonate me well enough, especially with me giving advice. That gives us time to try out some backup plans, and we do know some options for a forced ejection that are just very dangerous rather than fatal."

I kept my tone light, but I'll be honest that it's a bit of a fear in the back of my head.

I really was fine with Theia having the body for a day a week, and could see going up to more without issue. I could just take it easy, watch the world go past, sigh at her insistence that I look really good in a dress, and see her somehow manage to use my hands to create amazing food and not set the kitchen on fire. To be honest I often spent large chunks sleeping, one of the points was to give her some private time as well, and it's a good way to catch up on missed sleep.

A key thing that made it okay though was knowing that it would end. Knowing that the next day I'd be back in charge. I always felt bad that Theia was stuck in the background once more, even if she always said she was fine, but it was just good to know that it was temporary. To be stuck like that and know I wasn't getting back in control for some unknown amount of time? I'll be honest, I'd had nightmares about it.

Getting to the point of being able to cast the spell herself was a major goal for Theia but there was a lot of difference between a thirty year old mage and an over three thousand year old archmage. In her area of specialty Sariel was a once in a generation master, Theia would probably never be close to as good as Sariel. Of course she didn't have to create the spell, just be able to cast the horribly complex thing, which made it a lot more achievable.

Scout asked, "How careful do we need to be? With the Imperium?"

Theia frowned, "A lot … I won't go into the full details now but I've got access to back doors into most Crossroads security systems, deep level design holes that the Imperium put there. I shouldn't have been able to get through medical when I was here, there are ways to tell Seosten from humans, but nothing in Crossroad's medical systems or spells can. What does that tell you?"

I could see the look of realization. Vanessa bit her lip, "We'd worked a lot of that out, though we'd thought the medical bit was just you being close enough to human. They couldn't find you in Flick so they can't find a Seosten in anyone … how many are there?"

I blew out a long breath, "Taking over powerful people is hard, unless you get them before they became powerful and got a home-ground advantage. I'm very sure that the Headmaster is clean, but I'm assuming at least one other teacher or high ranking staff member is possessed. One of them, one of Sariel's old crewmates, showed up in my room in the first week, while Avalon and I were asleep, to check if I had somebody in me. We have a way to fake out the spell, so she thinks I'm clear, but she was in my room. Oh, and it's the Goddess Nemesis, second best assassin the Olympus had, too. So yes, they are here."

The other three were looking at us with wide eyes. Yeah, they got it.

I forced a smile, "So, some good news. I'm immune to possession, I have a Theia. Vanessa is immune, because possession reacts catastrophically to first generation Human hybrids. I mean it's fairly safe for the hybrid, aside from getting a Seosten exploded over them, so that's two of us that are covered."

Theia pondered, "If they try and get into either of you two, " she pointed to Sands and Scout, "They would need to be going deep background. Anything less subtle and there is no way the other sister won't notice something going on. To be safe though we might want to make a habit of regular checks. Sorry."

They both winced a bit but nodded. Sands asked, "So is there anything else we need to know right away?

I got my phone out, "Well if you're this far in. How much do you know about large scale memory spells, like a smaller version of the Bystander Effect?"

Sands frowned, "I know they exist … are we under one?"

"Us? No, the aftereffects of one but this one predates us, though Larissa would have been in her last years at Crossroads when it went off. So, we all know there is something weird going on with my mom, right?"

Vanessa, "And you know more about it than you're letting on. How well do memory spells work on people with perfect memory?"

Theia grinned, "Not well, you have to know to get it. It's even harder if you've had training from an expert at mind-magic. Though we're not immune, " She sobered. "The stepping-stone, when it shattered and threw our family across the multiverse. It messed with Sariel's memory, one reason it was hard to find you is that we didn't know your name. She knows she has children and a husband, she remembers everything you did together, but she can't remember exactly what you look like or what you were called. But she's clinging onto knowing that you exist, knowing that you're out there and she loves you, it keeps her going."

Vanessa was crying again, silent tears, but she was smiling too, "Can she be healed?"

Theia nodded firmly, "Yes, just not where she is. Once we get her out that will be a different matter." She tapped her head, "I've got her notes in here. She made sure of that."

"So anyway, on the subject of things hidden with memory spells." I help up my phone with the picture I'd taken in the Athletic Accolades Hall. "If you wanted to know what my mother looked like, that's her in the middle of the front row,"

There was a long pause before Sands softly swore, "The hell … your mother graduated Crossroads almost a century ago? And they hid it?"

Scout stated, "Banished."

I nodded, "Yep, she managed to piss off the powers that be so much they banished her and then wrapped a memory spell around her that hid that she'd ever been anything but a Bystander. A really big memory spell, one that several powerful Heretics had to give up their power for."

Sands blinked, "What were they hiding? What was that important?"

I put my phone away, "What's the biggest secret that Crossroads is sitting on, the one they try to train all of us to never think about?"

Vanessa said, "That Strangers aren't all evil."

Theia pointed, "And ten points for Ravenclaw."

"Yep. Mom worked out that while she was still a student, and by the time she graduated she was running a kind of Underground Railroad. Get the non-dangerous Alters away from hostile Heretics, leave the real threats to humanity, or other Alters, to get killed. The secrecy didn't last though, it turned into a revolution, and then a civil war. And she was winning! Slowly but surely, more Heretics were finding out that there were two sides to the story."

Theia added, "Larissa was on the fence about joining when she finished her training at Crossroads. I don't think she'd decided for sure, but then the Mnemosyne spell took the option away."

Scout was frowning, a dangerous glint in her eyes, while her sister was just looking shocked.

I continued, "So they caught mom in the nineteen sixties and I'm not sure how they did that because there is yet another Mnemosyne involved covering that up. Theia knows but I forget every time she tells me." There was some quiet latin swearing in the background which I ignored, "But that didn't stop things, it had too much momentum, too many people believe in it. So they pulled a spell together and erased her from history, and everything she'd done. The revolution ended overnight because suddenly everyone on the other side didn't remember being anything but loyal to Crossroads or Eden's Garden."

Vanessa looked ill, "But if they were around their allies when that happened … "

I gave her a sad look, "Allies, friends, even family … I don't want to think of what happened shortly after that spell went off. But that's why my mother was living as a Bystander, then dad met her, they moved to a small town and … well, I guess Fossor still remembered, and holds a grudge like nobody else."

Theia snarled a little, "That wasn't a grudge, my mother holds grudges, that was Fossor being a petty shit and trying to take you and Joselyn as a slave just to show he could. This could be part of some big long-term plan, because he has those, but it's probably just because he can and nobody can stop him. That's why he does most things." She snorted, "For all I despise my own people, at least they have a point in what they do, not worth the evil they unleash, but at least it's aimed at a goal that's not just 'make me more powerful and hurt a bunch of people along the way because it's funny'."

I nodded, "Crossroads is wrong about most Strangers, but they are so right when it comes to Fossor." I pushed my hatred down, "Anyway, I think you now know most of the big secrets I'm sitting on. There are a few others but they aren't just my secret to tell. Meanwhile I'm going to have to work out a good time, and excuse, for all of you to come visit me because I need to fend of Tabs working out a way to smuggle herself into Crossroads. Because she will try if we take too long."

Theia rubbed her hands together, "So, there is something I've been wanting to do since I got here and I could use your help." She grinned at the twins, "I want to break into somewhere we shouldn't be, it will be like old times."

Sands gave a cautious look, but she was trying and failing to hide a smile, "Where do you need to get into, Gaia's office?"

Theia winced, "Oh lords no, one does not simply break into her office, its doors are guarded by more than just Crossroads Security. There are traps there that do not sleep and the Headmistress is ever watchful. No, I need to break into somewhere much easier. I need to get into the records room behind main security."

Vanessa held a hand up, "I dread to ask, but why?"

Theia got more serious, "Remember how there are things I can't tell Facility or any of you because you won't remember? Assuming I can't get us all off planet, then that room is one of the places that should be able to bypass the normal rules. Also I really want to poke through some records."

The twins exchanged a look, then Scout nodded, "Need a plan."

Theia smiled brightly, "I'm sure we can come up with something, and we have Felicity along now, who also gets up to things like this on a regular basis. Ah, we are going to cause so much havoc."

I couldn't help but grin, "Theia told me so many stories about you two. It's so good not to have to hide that I know you … seeing you that first day at Crossroads was weird." I looked over at Vanessa, "And that was before I knew you were going to introduce me to the other person I was looking for."

Theia, "Sarah, Sandoval, having seen what you've done and what you're still doing for other students, how much you're doing your best to help them. Larissa would be so proud of you, so very proud. You've lived up to everything she could have hoped for, you found me, you found Vanessa, you've done everything she could have hoped for and more. And when we find her and get her back she'll tell you that herself."

She looked away from the twins who'd started crying again and looked at Vanessa, "And you. Look at you, you've kept going, kept looking, never given up. Found your way to somewhere you can get even better, looked out for help and found it against all possible odds. You really are Sariel's daughter, I know for sure she'd be proud of you too."

And now Vanessa was crying too. This was the time I most wished I had a way to let Theia out in her own body. When Vanessa finally came to visit us Tabbris was going to try and kill her with hugs, and the twins. There would be a lot of attempted hug murder going on.

The fact that Tabbris hadn't already shown up was all the proof you needed that she wasn't a teleporter.

Once everyone had calmed down a bit I had another question. "On the topic of things where I don't know what's going on, do you two know anything about our totally useless Team Mentor? Because Crossroads isn't the first time I've met him, he's spied on my house at least twice. Tried to wipe my memory of it both times" I nodded towards the circle, "however certain people have strong views on people getting to do that to me."

Theia let out a snort, "Please, that was amuteur hour. Just enough to work on a Bystander kid. To make things weirder, the second time we saw him earlier this year he looked like he does now. But the first time we saw him he looked like an adult, early twenties at a guess, but I'm sure he was the same person. That was a bit over a year ago. I can draw you a picture later if you want."

Sands looked thoughtful, "We don't know what is going on with him. Thing is last year he was a model student, did well in all his classes, friendly to people, just generally a good guy. That's how he got tagged to be a mentor this year, but since he came back from holidays he's this barely component asshole. The staff have been trying to work it out, councillors have talked to him, no luck so far. I think they left him as our mentor in the hope he'd improve."

That was weird, and suspicious as hell. "I mean it's useful for getting permission to go off and do things but other than that he's kinda useless. I've been assuming he's working with somebody that used to know mom, the way he looked at me was … " I didn't have Theia's memory but some things stuck anyway, "It was personal. Not in a creepy way, but like this is personal for him, not like he's just spying on me as a job."

Theia was pondering, "I don't think he's been taken over by one of us, if they took him over to get closer to us, because several of us are probably on a 'people of interest' list, especially Vanessa, they would want to pretend to be a good mentor so we'd involve them in things. Not go out of their way to drive us away. My people are evil, not stupid."

Vanessa gave us a look, "So we need to break into Crossroads Security, and also work out who our mentor is being a spy for, along with working out who else has been taken over by body-snatchers, and also work out how to find were our parents are, several of whom are on other planets. Why are you all smiling?"

Theia's grin widened, "Because we're getting the band back together. We're on a mission from god, or at least a goddess."

Sands brightened, "Hey! I get that reference!"

It was almost like having Miranda back. Time to get to work.

 

[The Game]

More revelations and the gang's next objectives are set. But I don't think the revelation that 'The Seosten have a Humongous Space Empire' ever really set in. And why didn't the memory spell on the rebellion make the twins forget about Flick telling them?

 

[pheonix89]

More revelations and the gang's next objectives are set. But I don't think the revelation that 'The Seosten have a Humongous Space Empire' ever really set in. And why didn't the memory spell on the rebellion make the twins forget about Flick telling them?

Click to shrink...

Because that's not how that one works.

That one was a one-and-done on the planet, plus it blocks the casters from telling anyone who doesn't know.

 

[Tamahori]

More revelations and the gang's next objectives are set. But I don't think the revelation that 'The Seosten have a Humongous Space Empire' ever really set in. And why didn't the memory spell on the rebellion make the twins forget about Flick telling them?

Click to shrink...

What @pheonix89 said.

Flick could fairly freely in canon tell people about the Revolution and her mother, and people she'd told that were involved in it even found their memories starting to come back. It's a fairly fragile spell as such things go.

By contrast the spell that hides the existence of Flick's older siblings is much more aggressive.

 

[The Game]

stuff

Click to shrink...

more stuff

Click to shrink...

Wow.

It seems I have to re-read the whole thing over again if I forgot about that little factoid.

 

[Tamahori]

It seems I have to re-read the whole thing over again if I forgot about that little factoid.

Click to shrink...

My personal theory is that the Revolution Eraser is trying to cover so much stuff without having the kind of power backing it that something like the Bystander Effect (powered by the potential magical of every living Bystander) does that it's stretched paper thin at the best of times. So poking small holes in it isn't hard.

The spells that hides Flick's older siblings, or the spell that Deveron is using to hide himself, or the one Manakel uses in canon on the other hand is trying to change and hide much much less so is much stronger.