Phoenixes Story snippets and ideas

Code Vein – 3


The next day was strange, everyone just kept staring at her. Some of those stares, especially from some of the older male students, left her feeling very uncomfortable. Surprisingly, the house gossips, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, were absolutely brilliant.

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Early morning, before breakfast, Professor McGonagall leads Harry up the stairs to the second year girls dorm. As she opens the door, Harry looks around curiously before averting her eyes, as the girls are all in the process of getting up and dressed.
“Girls, sorry to interrupt your morning, but I would like to introduce your new dorm mate.”
All the girls stopped what they were doing, and swivelled to face the two of them, with Fay even poking her head around a door that presumable leads to the bathroom, a toothbrush in her mouth. Suddenly uncomfortable, Harry tries to step behind the professor. However, McGonagall puts her hand on the small of her back and pushes her forward.
“This is Harry Potter, she’s moving from the boys dorm after being involved in a magical event that has left her as much a witch as the rest of us. Be gentle with her, as she’s new to this. One of the professors will be taking her to get the necessary foundation garments and changes to the school uniform at the weekend.”
Lavender, with a towel wrapped around her, walks over from where she was brushing Parvati’s hair and stands up straight next to Harry. After turning left and right a couple of times she says, “Well, we’re about the same size, so you can borrow some of my clothes until you’ve got your own. We can’t have a witch as pretty as you are walking around wearing those rags. Fay! Hurry up in there so that Harry can shower.”
Silently McGonagall leaves, as a confused Harry asks, “Stays?”
Lavender nods, “Uh huh, they’re a support garment, though Granger has a training bra from the muggle world. They do the same job, however once we’re older we’ll learn support charms. My mum says that they feel like you’re wearing stays, so that’s why we have to wear them now.” She lifts a lock of Harry’s hair, “I love your hair, it’s a pity it’s dead straight, as until we learn styling charms the only thing we can do with it is braid it or leave it long.”
“I’m done, Harry can take the shower now.”
“Go on, do you have a large towel?”, Lavender indicates the towel she has wrapped around her.
Harry shakes her head, “No, sorry. I, uh.”
“Parvati, grab one of your towels, mine are being cleaned.”

Once Harry finished her shower, Lavender brushed her hair for her and Parvati showed her how to brush Lavenders hair. All the while they talked about fashion, makeup, and, unfortunately, boys. Once she was dressed and down at breakfast, they were the ones that stood up to McLaggen, a 2^nd year creep that Harry had heard the girls on the quidditch team complain about a couple of times. This also happened when Malfoy came over to chat her up in his smarmy way.

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Potions was also odd, as Professor Snape didn’t seem to be as abrasive towards Harry as normal. Finally she was done with classes for the day, and slowly makes her way to the headmasters office on the 3^rd floor. Going up the spiral staircase feels odd, like she should be in trouble, but she knows she isn’t. Finally, she reaches the top and, before she can knock, the headmaster calls “Come in Harry.”
As she walks through the door, Fawkes trills happily to see her, and Harry smiles, “I’m glad to see that Fawkes is up and about.”
The headmaster nods, “Indeed, he was most disgruntled to find himself lying down this morning. However, I don’t think you are here to chat. I have set up a desk by the window there. I hope you’ll forgive me if I seem short, I have a lot of paperwork to do, and I need to cover Lockharts lessons as well.”
Harry looks around and spots the desk, with the sorting hat sitting on it. As he does, the sorting hat looks at her, “Well, come on and put me on already. I hope you know how to meditate, as we’re doing these lessons in your mind.”
Shaking her head, she sits down and places the sorting hat on her head, closes her eyes and takes the two of them to her mother.

“Are you really Godric Gryffindor? Why are you in the sorting hat? What happened to the other founders? What was life like back then?”
Godric laughs and ruffles Hermione’s hair as she gets close enough, “You remind me of Rowana young wizard. Now, I am supposed to be tutoring Miss Potter on the things she should have learnt in the first two years.” Hermione looks downcast at that, “However, I don’t think there’s anything stopping me from tutoring two people instead of one. Come, let us find the Matriarch of this place and we can begin.”

As they walk over to her mother, Harry can almost see literal stars in Hermione’s eyes. When he reaches Cruz, Godric bows, “My lady, would you care to join us as I instruct the children in the ways of magic?”
Cruz laughs, “Certainly kind sir. It will be a most welcome distraction, much like the children have been while they’re here. Hel, we sound like someone from the middle ages.”
Godric laughs, “Nay fair lady, we sound nothing like English from that period.” Standing, he puts a hand on his chest, “Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. þa cwæð he, ‘Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon.’”
Cruz shakes her head, “I’ll be honest, I have no idea what you just said.”
“It was a passage from Aelfrich’s ‘Homily on St. Gregory the Great’, it was quite popular at the time we build our school. Anyway children, it’s time we started, and I’ll start the same way that we did when the school was founded.”

Godric takes a few steps away before turning to face Harry and Hermione, “The first and most important lesson you need to learn about magic, is that you are only limited by your own thoughts and will. While you are here you will be taught the basics of witchcraft and wizardry. However, we are not ignoring sorcery or battle magic, you will be expected to partake in the exercises that will expose those talents. Yes Hermione?”
Hermione puts her hand down, “Um, what’s sorcery and battle magic?”
Godric strokes his beard, “Ah, yes, you don’t have the basic knowledge that was common in my era. Simply put, there are four major ways of performing magic, all of which have some level of overlap. Sorcery is the foundation of all magic, and it is what our children exhibit as they’re growing up. A sorcerer can use their magic purely on willpower, intent, and desire. Most of the famous magical artists were sorcerers, as it is a skill that is strongly linked to creativity.
“Next we have Battle Magic, which is magic channelled through your body and weapons. Someone, like myself, can use their magic to make impossible leaps, cleave through things that our weapons shouldn’t be able to, shrug off blows that would fell a dragon, and even spit fire from our weapons.
“Following that, is witchcraft. This encompasses working with the natural world through animal husbandry, gardening, and potion brewing. Don’t be mistaken for thinking that there is no magic in this craft, for while it may not be as obvious as the other three. There is true magic involved. The accomplished witch can heal the direst of injuries with a potion brewed from the right plants and animals, they can send you into an enchanted sleep, and they can ensure full and bountiful crops.
“Lastly, we come to wizardry, the study of magic itself and the application of magic through rigorous study and development of spells.”

Hermione frowns, “Wait, I’m sure that we use spells in Herbology, and Potions has all sorts of reaction tables.”
“Indeed, I believe I did say that there was overlap. What you need to remember is that first lesson, you are only limited by your own thoughts and will. Tell me, what is a wand? You bought one because it was required for your schooling, but what is it?”
Harry is about to speak while Hermione is deep in thought, but Godric raises his hand, “Hold young sorceress, the wizard needs to work this one out for herself.”
After a few minutes Hermione looks up, “According to Spellman’s syllabary, a wand is a magical focus made from magically reactive wood and core that comes from a magical creature.”
“Miss Granger, what is the key part of that definition?”
“A magical focus?”
“Indeed, now what does focus mean?” Hermione takes a deep breath and Godric continues, “I don’t mean the various dictionary definitions. What do those definitions have in common?”
Hermione’s mouth opens and closes as she runs through all the definitions in her head, “To concentrate or bring to bear?”
Godric nods approvingly, “Indeed, and it is absolutely required for wizardry, where knowing exactly how much magic, what type, and even how focused it is, is important. However, there are applications of magic where that focus makes it much harder. The first spell you ever learnt here used to be a teaching aid.”

Holding out his hand, a glowing ball of light appears floating over his hand, and easily illuminates the area, “Now do the same with your wand.”
“Erm, I can’t as my wand didn’t come with me.”
Godric sighs, “Miss Potter, if you would.”
Harry materialises her wand and casts a lumos, a brilliant point of light appears at the end of the wand, though it doesn’t illuminate nearly as much as Godric’s light does.

“Miss Granger, which of these two lights would you prefer if you were tidying up a room?”
Hermione looks between the two lights, “Er, your one sir.”
“How about if you were inspecting a carving for flaws?”
“I guess Harry’s one, as it would throw sharper shadows.”
“Indeed, the lesson here is that sometimes less precision is better than more. A lesson that took Rowana nearly 2 decades to learn after we started the school. Oh, she was a wizard without peer, but she’d often come up with massively elegant solutions to problems that Salazar or I could fix with a mere thought. Now, I’m going to have both of you start on the exercises we gave to the students who were older when they were discovered. They should allow you to get in touch with your magic, and loosen it up so that you can perform focus-less magic.”

At dinner, Ginny Weasley shyly approaches Harry, “Excuse me Harry.”
Harry half turns to face her, “Can I help you?”
“I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life.”
“You’re most welcome, I’m just glad I could get there in time. How are you doing?”
“I’ve got lots of blank spots, but I think I’m doing ok. Erm, could we be friends?”
Harry takes one of her hands, “I don’t know, friendships take time to develop, and I’ve only ever had one friend before.”
“I know, Ron won’t shut up about how you’re best friends.”
Harry shakes her head with a sad smile, “It’s not Ron, it’s Hermione. Ron needs to do more growing up before he has a chance of being a friend. However, I’m certainly willing to try. I also know about the debt, and your father has been very helpful with my understanding of that.”
Ginny nods firmly despite the tears in her eyes.

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It’s only a few weeks later when the Mandrakes they were looking after finally mature, much to Hermione’s relief, as Godric has worked out how to visit on his own. An unfortunate result of which is that he and Cruz are starting to do adult things together. Much to Hermione’s frustration, Godric’s only answer to ‘How do you do it’ is ‘I just do’. Privately, Harry was sure she was more upset that this was something that couldn’t be found in a book, only done.

Either way, she found out from Madam Pomphrey when she was going to administer the restorative during one of her weekly check-ups. She used that information to let their house mates know, so that there would be friends around while the draft worked its magic. This was actually to cover the fact that Harry needed to bring Hermione back to her body.

 

Ranma sekirei


There was, Ranma reflected as he, well currently she, slowed her descent down the side of the skyscraper to survivable levels, a certain sense of irony that she was the one who was kidnapped. Cradled in one arm is a young girl with long blond hair, wearing a hospital gown, and who is thankfully unconscious given the screaming she’d been doing 5 minutes ago.

Below, she can see jackbooted thugs boiling out of the main entrance of the skyscraper. Making a split second decision, she times her next touch carefully, and pushes hard off the side of the building. Angling herself across the road to another skyscraper, putting a little chi into her jump allows her to make the impossible distance, where she uses her momentum to run sideways across the glass frontage. Reaching the corner of the skyscraper, somewhat lower than she started, she pushes off to the next skyscraper. Behind her, the sound of a helicopter becomes apparent as it crests the top of the building she just left. Cursing slightly under her breath, she redoubles her efforts to escape. Seeing some shorter buildings in the distance, she quickly diverts her course away from skyscraper central to an area that’s likely to have some alleyways and buildings that she can actually roof hop across.

Alighting on the ground, to the screams and shouts of the pedestrians, Ranma takes a moment to orientate herself in Tokyo before cursing. ‘Why did they bring me all the way to Minato Ward?’ Shaking her head and spitting out a mouthful of flame red hair, she takes a moment to reposition the girl in her arms before launching to the top of a nearby building and heading towards the closest ward, Meguro. Some discrete thefts from washing lines later, as well as stolen cup of tea from a small café, and Ranma is a young man carrying his sleeping imouto to the station. Overhead, the black helicopters fly past without stopping, by the time they turn back Ranma has entered the subway and is heading north to Nermia Ward.

It is around 20 minutes later that the young girl wakes up briefly and looks up at Ranma with her deep green eyes.
“You are my Ashikabi.”
“Wha… mumph”, before Ranma can say more, the young girl kisses him on the lips, massive green wings rising out of her back, to the shock of everyone else in the carriage. As if nothing had happened, the girl then moves around on his lap and goes back to sleep.

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“Ma’am! Number 108 has just been winged.”
Sahashi Takami looks over at the operator, “Did we at least get a fix on her location?”
“No Ma’am, she’s in the subway.”
Takami pinches the bridge of her nose, “What about 109?”
“She disappeared from our sensors before 108 boarded the subway.”
“Tell me we at least have CCTV footage?”
Another operative shakes his head, “No Ma’am, they were moving too fast and unpredictably to locate them.”
“Ancestors help me! Does anyone have any good news?”

The door to the operations centre clicks closed in the silence and Miyajima coughs, “Um, that probably means that now is a bad time to say that 109 escaped with a Jinki then.”
Takami spins around, “Why in the hells was a Jinki even here?”
Miyajima crosses her arms, “Why do you think? 109 has never been regulated, so I was tasked with seeing how much regulation she needs. Which, as you well know, requires the use of a Jinki. I was coming here to tell you that 109 needs to go to the island, as I don’t think she’s a Sekirei in the same way that Miya isn’t a Sekirei.”
“Shit! How did we miss that?”
“I don’t know, what I do know is that her Tama has never been used.”
Takami stalks towards Miyajima, “What did you do?”
Miyajima shakes her head, “What do you think I did? You’re a regulator, you do the math. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say.”

Takami fumes as Miyajima turns and leaves. Suddenly she spins around and shouts at the operators, “What are you all looking at? Find that Jinki or else!” For emphasis she raises her omnipresent clipboard. Hurriedly everyone turns back to their consoles.

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An hour later, Ranma carries a sleeping child into the Tendo home. As the door closes with a soft click, Akane looks up, “Where have you… been? Nani?”
Ranma shakes his head, “It’s a long story, where’s everyone else?”
“Baka! They’re out looking for you, where have you been all week?”
Carefully, Ranma lays the girl down on some cushions, and struggles to disengage her grip as she murmurs, “No onii-chan, don’t let me go”, in her sleep.
“It’s been a week? Last I remember I was heading home from Ome overland as it was a nice day. How are you doing after Jusenkyo?”
“How do you think I’m doing Baka! You missed our wedding!”
Ranma scratches his head, “Huh? What do you mean I missed our wedding?”
“We were supposed to get married last week, and you ran out on me.”
Ranma raises his hands, “Now hang on! I don’t know about no wedding, and there’s no way I’m going to marry an uncute tomboy like you.”

Ranma only has a moment to roll backward before a mallet smashes through the floor where he was sitting, “Stay still and take your beating like a man!”
Ranma jumps over a wild swing as he shouts, “What are you doing?!”
“Stay still and let me beat you, you damn baka! You think I’m not good enough to marry?”
Sleepily the girl on the cushions looks up, “No beating up onii-chan.” As she says that, vines quickly grow through the cracks in the floorboards and latch onto Akane, wrapping her up like a mummy.
“Ranma! Get me out of here so that I can beat you!”

Ignoring Akane, Ranma crouches down in front of the girl, “Are you awake now?”
The girl nods, “Yes onii-chan.”
“I’m Ranma, and the tomboy over there is Akane, what’s your name?”
The girl smiles, “I am Sekirei 108, Kusano, and you are my Ashikabi.”

“Oh My!” Ranma looks up to see Kasumi standing in the doorway looking at the damage and the trussed up Akane, who has a faint red aura around her as she glowers impotently at Ranma.
“Boy! Where have you been?”
“My manly son has returned!”
“Arien will take Shampoo on a date now.”
Ranma sighs when everyone that’s piling into the room stumble to a halt at the sight of Kusano, “Everyone, meet Kusano, a girl I rescued while I was rescuing myself.”
Pulling himself together, Genma looks at his son, “You’ve been slacking boy, there’s no way that you should have been kidnapped.”
“Says you!”
Cologne pogos into the room and takes a seat, “I think we should hear what son-in-law has to say before we start the normal entertainment.”
“Well it was like this.”

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“I’m glad you’re save son, and thank you for coming to visit.”
Ranma blushes as Nodoka, his mother, pulls him into a hug, “Ah, it was nothing. I just needed to get out of the house for a bit.”
“No matter, you still came to see me. Now be careful and try to avoid cold water.”
“Yes mum.”

Once Nodoka lets go, Ranma scratches the back of his head, “Hey, mum. As it’s a nice day, I’m going to walk home rather than take the train. I need time to think.”
“I’ll let your fiancé know if she calls.”

Around 30 minutes later, after a freak shower, that she is passing through Musashimurayama when a scythe comes out of nowhere towards her. Despite being the pre-eminant martial artist of her generation, and possibly the world, there’s still not a lot she can do when an attacker comes out of nowhere. Despite this, she’s able to roll with the blow and face the black haired assailant. Her top fluttering down to the street below.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?”
“You face Sekirei number 14, and I will remove you from the game before you can threaten my Ashikabi.”
“It’s not like it would take much to threaten your guy, at least I have boobs.”
“Why you!”
“Why me, urk!” Whatever Ranma was going to say next is cut off as a wire saw loops around her neck. Flipping over, in a modified cartwheel, she uncrosses the wire even while she’s leaping over the head of the assailant behind her. Ducking down, she slips out of the garrot and under a claw swipe from a third assailant.
“What, it takes 3 of you to attack poor little me?”
14 swipes her scythe at him again, “Just stand still so we can terminate you.”
“Nah ah, not happening, you need to do better than that.” Privately, Ranma’s worried, as all three of the women are almost as fast as the old ghoul. On top of that, they seem to be accustomed to working with each other in a fight. It’s only the last year and a bit of near constant fighting between himself and the fiancé’s and rivals, culminating in fighting Saffron, that has allowed him to keep up with the three of them so far. Unfortunately, while Ranma Saotome doesn’t lose, sometimes it takes more than one fight for him to win. Such is the case today, where number 14 manages to catch his temple with the haft of her scythe while he dodged back away from both the blade and a lunging metal claw. This sends him cartwheeling over the edge of the building, to land face down unconscious in the street below.

Ranma wakes up suddenly as a searing pain scorches her back between her shoulder blades. Reflexively, she kicks out at other occupant in the room, kicking the weird crystal out of their hands. Leaping over the head of the middle aged woman, she deftly hits a couple of shiatzu points and knocks her out.

Taking stock of her situation, she realises that she’s in some sort of hospital. Though she’s never seen a hospital room with so much high tech gear before. Looking down at herself, she realises that she’s wearing a hospital gown rather than her normal clothes. Quickly pulling a change of clothes out of her hidden weapons space, Ranma gets dressed and takes the crystal and a clipboard full of notes.

As she opens the door to leave, she hears the clear sounds of an alarm going off, as well as booted feet heading in her direction. Shaking her head, she slips into the Umi-Sen Ken and leaps up to the ceiling where she finds that it’s a high quality suspended ceiling. Smiling, she pushes up one of the well concealed tiles and slips into the small gap, the tile being pushed back into place just as the guards arrive at the room. Silently she curses her father for her knowledge of how to sneak into and out of buildings like this, even though it’s proving useful.

She carefully makes her way around the corridors until she comes to the door for the stairs. Making sure that there’s nobody around, she slips out of the ceiling and is about to open the door when she hears a young girl scream. Before her conscious mind has even processed the sound, her body is already bouncing off the wall and down the corridor towards the scream. As she’s heading down the corridor, she disables a few groups of guards that are obviously still searching for her, before bursting through a door into a similar room to the one she woke up in. Sitting on the bed is a blond girl with wires attached to her head, chest and arms. Off to one side is a grey haired woman working on a computer of some description.

Swiftly, Ranma knocks the woman out just as the girl starts to scream again. Not knowing how to fix this, she rips the wires off of the girls body and picks her up.
“It’s ok, I’ve got you, nobody’s going to make you scream again.”
The girl looks her in the eyes before they roll back into her head, and she passes out. As she steps through the door, a large group of guards rounds the corner accompanied by a white haired woman, with bandages wrapped around her legs and arms. A tattered black kimono covers any other bandages she may be wearing. What catches Ranma’s eye are the gauntlets she’s wearing, that have scythe-like barb-tipped claws at least 6” in length. At the sight of those, Ranma executes the Saotome family secret technique and runs towards the stairs, quickly followed by the woman, and slowly followed by the guards.

As the door comes into view, she doesn’t even slow down. Instead she fires a Móko Takabisha at the door and blows it off its hinges. Co-incidentally, she also knocks out a group of guards that were just coming down the stairs. As she’s making her way up the stairs, it becomes clear that the woman with the claws doesn’t have the same experience that Ranma does with parkour like movement. A frantic 15 minutes later, where they’ve been trying to use the lifts to cut off her escape, she finally arrives at a floor before the security guards. Kicking the door off it’s hinges, she darts out and down a corridor where there’s a glimmer of daylight. There’s a ding behind her, and a shout as the claw wielder takes up the chase again, and starts to gain rapidly. Desperately Ranma slides under a claw swipe before bouncing off the wall and down a corridor that leads to an office with an external window. A Móko Takabisha takes care of the door, and she launches a pair of Móko’s at the window, sending spiderweb cracks through the entire thing. Vaulting over the desk she turns to protect the girl she’s holding from the glass and sees the woman slide to her knees just as Ranma breaks through the window.

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Takami pauses the video and turns back to the audience, “What happened Haihane, she was in the perfect position to catch and you dropped to your knees?”
“We were on the 110^th floor Ma’am, and it just hit me.”
Minaka Hiroto, head of MBI, and ‘guardian’ of the Sekirei, steeples his fingers, “What I want to know is how she did that.”
Takami shakes her head, “We detected no flares of her tama during the entire time she was loose in the building. Coupled with her apparent ability to climb around the floating ceiling without making any sound, this made it impossible for us to triangulate her location in the building. In fact, a few times we lost track of her tama completely.”
“What about outside?”
“The security team is still putting together the footage of their escape, it should be done tomorrow.”
“Well this is an interesting twist to the game, do we know where 108 went after they split up?”
Takami nods, “Nermia.”
Karasuba swears, “Shit, that’s the place where we have virtually no coverage. I’m going out for a walk.”

That said, she stands up and picks up her nodachi before leaving the room.

 

Ranma Sekirei – 2


Like normal, Ranma wakes up to the feeling of cold water hitting her face. It only takes her a few seconds to realise that she’s not in the Koi pond. Instead, Genma has thrown a bucket of water over her face. The reason for this becomes apparent as he realises that someone is lying next to him.

Kusano opens her eyes and looks at Genma, “You’re a poo head, why did you do that?”

In a panic, Ranma scrabbles off the futon, only for Genma’s foot to catch her under the chin and launch her into the Koi pond. Unseen by Genma, Kusano starts to cry at the violence happening outside the window.

Meanwhile, on the lawn, Ranma and Genma are fighting like normal. This goes on for a few minutes until Ranma pushes a bit of chi, and something else, into a double handed strike. Genma doesn’t have time to raise a block, dodge, or even redirect, before he’s sent flying backwards with a collapsed sternum and crashes through the boundary wall and the wall of the house on the other side of the street. Ranma just waits for him to stand up and attack, and she waits a few moments more. Finally, she lowers her guard and starts to walk over to where he went.
“Otousan, come on, I didn’t hit you that hard.”
As Ranma picks her way through the hole that Genma made, she sees him lying against a broken sink, cold water spraying all over the unconscious panda. After making sure that he’s still breathing, she grabs a leg and trudges back to the Tendo’s home.

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Minka looks up from his seat as one of the operators pops up in a window on his computer, “Sir, we’ve just detected 109’s signature.”
“Tell me you know where she is.”
“She’s very close to 108 in Nermia sir, beyond that we don’t know.”
Minka smiles, “Excellent, send out a message to all the current Ashikabi’s, include the profile information we have. Tell them that she’s a special release, how’s the rest of the schedule going?”
The operator nods, “Certainly sir, we are releasing numbers 72, 88, and 100 later today, that will leave another 30 to release over the next few months.”
“Delay the release for a couple of days to give the others a chance to catch 109.”

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“Ashikabi, Sekirei, Ashikabi, Sekirei, Ashikabi, Sekirei…”
Ranma sits, sulking as Kusano pours hot and cold water over his head under the watchful eye of Kasumi. Genma is propped up against a wall, bandages wrapped tightly around his ribs.

It’s into this scene that Akane stomps down the stairs into, “Pervert! how could you do that to a child!”
“What did I do?”
“Ranma no baka! Urk!” Kusano’s eyes glow green and Kasumi’s spider plant shoots out and wraps Akane up like a mummy, with her hands held over her head holding the mallet.
“No attacking my Ashikabi meanie.”

Everyone turns to stare at the young girl, as Nabiki tromps down the stairs, past Akane and into the kitchen. A minute later she comes out holding a mug of coffee and stops, staring at Akane.
“Akane, what happened?”
“Mmmph!”

Ranma looks around the room at all the silent people before quickly dashing to the kitchen, “I’m just going to prepare breakfast, be right back!” A moment later he darts back in and grabs the still warm kettle and pours a little over his head.

For once, breakfast at the Tendo household is a quiet affair, with neither Akane, who is being hand fed by Kusano, or Genma, due to his ribs, causing any problems for the other diners. The only minor disturbance was actually caused by Kusano.

“Onii-chan, why do you eat so fast?”
Ranma stops with his chopsticks full of rice half way to his mouth, “Hey old panda, why don’t you answer this one?”
Genma coughs painfully, “Well… you see… it’s speed training, if he can’t eat fast enough then he deserves to go hungry.”
Kusano puts on such a serious expression that it’s comical, after a while she looks up at Genma, “You’re a poo brain. You steal food from your child and call it training.”
Ranma gently puts his hand on Kusano’s, “The old man is often an idiot, but his training techniques did work.”
“Na ah, you poo brain too. You like Akane?”
Ranma looks wildly around the table and then back to the child next to him, “Um, ah.”
“See, you poo brain. Mutsubi says that love is the most important thing, if you love don’t lie about it. You keep lying.”
“But, I have other fiancés”
Akane stills as he says that, and gets a chopstick full of rice up her nose for the trouble as Kusano continues, “Then you strong Ashikabi. I don’t want to share when I’m older, but you’re strong so it be ok.”
Ranma chokes on his rice as Nabiki turns a calculating eye towards the young Sekirei.

“Hello the house!” Dr Tofu’s voice from the front gate cuts through the tension in the room like a knife, and Kasumi smoothly stands up and glides to the door, smoothing her skirt on the way.
Opening the door, she bows and blushes faintly as the Dr’s glasses steam up, “Please come in Dr, we were just eating breakfast, if you would like to join us.”
Tofu laughs as he pulls a skeleton from somewhere, “Don’t worry, Betty and I have already eaten. Please, just show me the patients.”

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Shampoo cycling along the rooftops, delivering food for the lunch rush, when out of nowhere the wheels of her bicycle are shredded by a multitude of bladed strings. As she leaps off the cycle onto a nearby chimney, a woman with short blond hair, and slender build lands on the roof she was just occupying, hanging from her fingers are loops of string. Landing next to her is a tall, curvaceous woman with long dark green hair, and pale blue eyes; in her hands she holds a quarterstaff.

As Shampoo sizes up the two newcomers, the green haired one speaks up, “109, my Ashikabi wishes to add you to his flock. Come quietly and we will ensure that you arrive unharmed…”
“Shampoo not know what you talking about. But Shampoo already have Airen.”
“Then, we will need to terminate you for the sake of the game. Know that you are facing #16 Toyotama.”
The blond adds, “And I am #31, Sai.”

With that, the two leap to the attack, even as Shampoo pulls her Bonbori from her weapons space and leaps backward.

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On the other side of Nerima, Kodachi Kuno has just finished ‘discussing’ the upcoming Martial Arts Gymnastics competition with some students of Kolkhoz High School. While she is winding up her ribbon, a faint clapping sound can be heard from behind her. Turning around, she sees a slim teenage boy with brown hair and hazel eyes, wearing an expensive suit. Behind him is a tall man with messy silver hair and grey eyes. Held loosely in one hand is a sheathed straight sword.
“HoHoHo! What can the Black Rose do for you gentlemen?”
The teenager bows, “I am Mikogami Hayato, this is #05 Mutsu, and I would like you to become one of my Sekirei.”

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Over in Edogawa, a young woman desperately jumps off a building and lands, sprawling, on the floor in front of a young man with a yellow and black bandana, a huge backpack, and an umbrella. As a lightning bolt flies down from one of the two women still on the rooftop, the man steps in the way and raises his umbrella to deflect the lightning bolt. The woman dodges and both of them look at the bandana lodged 3” deep in the brickwork before nodding to each other and leaving.
“We’re just giving you a breather Ebinuma, we’ll be back when you don’t have a handy knight in shining armour to step in.”
The man steps back and looks down at the now named Ebinuma, who is a young woman with black hair, grey eyes, and a tattered blue Yukata. The woman also seems to be breathing heavily, and her eyes are dilated. Concerned, he kneels down and bends over to have a closer look. As he does, she loops her arms around his neck and pulls herself up into a kiss. Wings of mirrored light leaping out from her back and surrounding the two.
“You are my Ashikabi, and I am Sekirei number 47, Ebinuma…”
She trails off as the man falls over backwards with a dazed expression and blood gushing from his nose. Worriedly, Ebinuma lifts the boy off the floor and kneels behind him, cradling his head between her breasts. This doesn’t actually seem to help, as the nosebleed flows even more freely, even as she dabs at it with her sleeve. This situation resolves itself when the cistern of a toilet in the building behind them overflows, and a trickle of cold water pours out of the overflow pipe straight onto the mans head. At this point he turns into a small black pig.
Frowning, Ebinuma looks down at the pig in her lap, “I wonder if this happens to all Ashikabi?” Shrugging, she hefts the backpack onto her own back, and picks up the umbrella with a little effort.
“Wow, this is heavy, lets find somewhere to stay. I know, #6 told me about an inn in the north, we can go there.”
Ebinuma promptly turns east and starts to walk in the wrong direction.

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“Takami Ma’am, we’ve just lost #47.”
Takami spits out the tea she was drinking, “What? How can we lose one of the Sekirei?”
“I don’t know Ma’am, she was in Edowaga fighting with Numbers 11 and 12, we have cctv footage of an unknown male stepping in and helping her. 15 minutes later she starts walking towards the coast and then disappears.”
Another operator calls out, “I’ve got her MBI card on satellite, she’s currently in the Himalayas in Tajikistan!”
“Check that again!” Takami shouts.
“I have triangulation with 5 satellites, she is 200km northeast of Chikhok”

 

Ranma Sekirei - 3


Ranma trudges up to the gates of Furikan High School, her hair plastered to her face and her silks sodden with water. Glowering next to her is a damp Akane, who got caught in the splash as the washer woman threw out a bucket of water rather than the normal ladle that she normally does. Unknown to Akane, adding to Ranma’s discomfort is a trickle of liquid seeping down the inside of her leg, along with a slight cramping feeling in her abdomen.
“Ho fair maidens, I am glad to see that the evil sorcerer Saotome has released thee from his grasp for a moment. I, The Blue Thunder, wish for you to date me…”
Ranma growls, “Not today Kuno, go and annoy someone else.”
Kuno instead draws his bokken and steps forward, “I strikkkeeeee”
Almost faster than the eye could see, Ranma covers the distance between them and launches Kuno over the school with a kick to the belly. As she stalks into the school and heads for the boys toilets Akane look around in confusion.

A few minutes later, Ranma approaches Akane’s friend Sayuri, “I’m really sorry, but do you have any spare hygiene products, as I wasn’t expecting that to start today.”
Sayuri nods and hands over a tampon and pad. Once Ranma’s left again, Akane asks, “What was that about?”
“She didn’t expect that time of the month to come today.”
Akane’s eyes widen, as she has never known Ranma to have a period, when the curse isn’t locked. Even during the cat tongue she was period free for the entire 3 months. “I wonder why she didn’t just change back to a guy.”
“Because it didn’t work.”
Akane spins around, mallet at the ready, and Ranma just takes it out of her grasp, “Baka, what did you do that for?”
“You pervert, how dare you.”
“Hey, it’s not like I wanted this. ‘s not like a jock like you would understand anyway.” Ranma snatches another mallet out of her grasp, “Hey, are you slowing down in your old age?”
“Ranma!”

Somehow, they manage to get to class on time. As Ranma sits down, Daisuke drapes over her shoulder, his arms hanging over her breasts, “You don’t feel like being a guy tod…oooohhh.”
The teacher, Hinako Ninomiya, looks over as Daisuke crumples to the floor holding his stomach, “Miss Saotome, what do you think you are doing?”
Ranma shrugs, “He touched my boob and it’s that time of the month.”
“Oh, carry on then.”

By lunchtime, the entire school knows that Ranma has PMS, and to keep well clear.

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A bruised and battered purple cat scratches at the door to the Nekohaten until Cologne opens the door and it limps in. Seeing the state of her great-granddaughter, Cologne picks her up and carries her to the kitchen, where she pours some hot water over her head. Where the cat was, Shampoo now sits, one eye already swelling shut, with a massive bruise running the length of her face. Her clothes have been cut to ribbons, and she also has numerous shallow cuts and bruises all over her body. As she breaths in, she winces as one of her ribs doesn’t move right.
“Granddaughter, what happened?”
“Two women wanted to take me to someone they called an Ashikabi to join their flock. I told them I already had an Arien, so they attacked me with intent to eliminate me.”
“I see, this is troubling. How capable were they?”
Shampoo wilts, “Better than me, almost as good as Arien.”
Cologne nods, “That word, Ashikabi, seems familiar. I’ll send a letter back to the village to check out histories.”
With that said, Cologne turns the sign to closed and starts to tend to Shampoo’s wounds.

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A few days later, Kasumi is voted to be the person to approach Ranma about her female form.

“Ranma, could I have a word?”
Ranma stops her kata and turns to face Kasumi, “Sure, what can I do for ya?”
“We have noticed that you have been a girl for almost a week now.”
Ranma shrugs, “Yeh, what of it?”
“Your father and my sister are worried about the fact it doesn’t seem to be bothering you.”
Ranma cocks her head to one side, “What? Are they afraid I’m going girl?”
“I would imagine so.”
Ranma shakes her head, “Na, it ain’t that. It’s just that this form doesn’t feel wrong anymore. Whatever they did to me while I was unconscious changed something about this form, made it whole in some way. That an it’s been quiet since I got back from wherever. I ain’t seen Shampoo or Ryoga, and Kuno’s just an annoyance.”
“Oh my, I did have one other thing to ask you about.”
“Oh?”
“Kusano, I don’t feel it’s right for her to be sleeping in the same room as two grown men.”
Ranma looks down at herself, “I ain’t exactly a man here.”
“I can see that, but my point still stands.”
Ranma looks out of the window to watch Kusano working on a flower bed by the Koi Pond, “I know, but she’s so young. I can feel that she needs to be close when she sleeps, and I need to protect her ya know. It’s also not like we have any other rooms here. I also don’t want to take her to see Mum, she’s doing better but she’s still not ok with my curse.”
Kasumi nods seriously, “I understand, however, that doesn’t change how inappropriate it is.”
Ranma thinks for a moment, “How about this, we kick pops out into your fathers room, and I promise to sleep as a girl.”
“That would not be appropriate.”
“Less appropriate than Kusano sleeping in the same room as pops?”

The door to the dojo slams open, as both Soun and Genma try to squeeze through at the same time, “No son of mine is going to sleep as a girl!”
“You are engaged to Akane, it’s inappropriate for you to be sleeping with another woman in your bed!”

Ranma looks up, “Oh look, practice. Kasumi, discuss it with the girls and let us know what you decide.”

With that Ranma grabs the two men and throws them out the back door, away from Kusano, before leaping after them, a faint battle aura forming around her.

Kasumi sighs, “Come in Akane, you too Nabiki.”
The two girls come through the door, “Sit!”
Obediently both girls sit on the floor, though Akane takes one longing look at the fight going on behind the dojo as she does so.

“Nabiki,” Nabiki looks startled to be addressed directly, “Kusano is off limits. She is too young to handle the fallout of your schemes, do you understand?”
“What? I would never.”
“I know you care about the family, but sometimes your antics leave unfortunate collateral damage. As such, you will ensure that Kusano is not involved in any of these antics. Am I clear?”
Nabiki swallows, “Very.”
Kasumi smiles, “Good, with that out the way, what do you think of Ranma’s suggestion?”
Akane scowls, “That pervert just wants to sleep with a girl.”
“Now Akane, that’s just unkind. Ranma did rescue her, and it has proven quite impossible to stop Kusano from joining Ranma in bed.”
Nabiki looks alert, “What do you mean sis?”
“Surely you are aware that I set up a futon for her in my room?”
“I, uh, yeah.” In truth, Nabiki has been avoiding Kasumi’s room for the last few days, ever since she experienced being tied up by Kusano for being nosy, and as she had never had any cameras in her sister’s room, this left her unaware of the changes inside.
“Well, Kusano thinks she’s been sneaky when she leaves. Though she’s much like Akane was at that age and can’t help giggling.”
“I was never like that!”
Kasumi just smiles sadly at Akane, as it’s true that after their mother died, she stopped being like that, “That is beside the point at the moment. What of Kusano’s sleeping arrangements?”
“Why don’t we just move the panda in with Grandfather Happosai, after all, he is one of his disciples.”
“That; is a very good idea, I will…” Kasumi cuts off as there’s a loud splash followed by a childish scream of rage. As they all turn to look, they see a panda being wrapped up in plants as he’s climbing out of the koi pond. Kusano is standing with her arms apart and her drenched summer dress, one of Nabiki’s old ones, plastered to her skin.

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As if Fate had been listening to Ranma and decided to screw with him, the quiet time comes to an end quite spectacularly.

Ranma and, despite Ranma’s better judgement, Kusano, both get off the train at Nishi-Kokubunji Station in order to buy Kusano some clothes while they’re waiting for the train to Ome to see his mother. As they leave the station a call of “Leave me alone you despicable louts! Forasmuch as I enjoy a brawl, thou art behaving in a most unseemly fashion!”
As Ranma looks up, a blond woman wearing a short white dress with a long black open front over dress jumps over the road from the station roof to the shops. Following her are the Sekirei that attacked Ranma over a week ago. Ranma looks up and then down at Kusano in indecision, indecision that is solved when Kusano holds up her arms to be carried. Swiftly picking her up, Ranma launches them up to the roof tops and takes up the chase. After all, a Martial Artists duty is to protect the weak, even when the weak might normally be able to defend themselves. It has absolutely nothing to do with wanting payback, honest.

They finally catch up when the person they were chasing runs out of roof, and the three Sekirei following her manage to surround her.

“…to fight, our Ashikabi just wants strong Sekirei.”
“There is more chance of a snowball surviving a volcano than there is of me being willing to be winged by an over-evolved monkey.”
Putting Kusano down on a nearby roof, Ranma leaps into the circle to stand behind the blond, “Is this a private party, or can anyone join in?”
#14 looks at him, “We’re not supposed to attack humans or Ashikabi, so I’ll give you one chance to leave.”
“No, I don’t think I will. Not after you put my sister in hospital a week ago.”
“Then your sister shouldn’t have tangled with us, last chance!”
“I don’t think a boy like you has much to offer me, maybe I should take on one of the others. At least they’re real women.”
The blond says over her shoulder, “I don’t need your help monkey brains.”
“Hey, who said I was helping you, I want payback from the boy over there and his cheating friends.”
#14 screeches, “I am not a boy!”
“You sure look like one, no hips, flat chest, wide shoulders. Yep boy, I bet if I checked I’d find you’re tucking.”
“Why you!” #14 leaps forward to attack with her scythe and Ranma deftly takes to the air, pushing of the haft as he launches a kick at her head. Behind him the other two leap in to attack the blond. As they do, she calls out “Get back you foul varmint, Water celebration!” and fires a jet of water at one of them while dodging the other.

Ranma’s ability to pay attention to the other fight quickly dissolves as #14 attacks with sharp while swings of her scythe, utilising the entire length of the haft and blade to good effect. Though, the fact that Ranma won’t stay at roof level is giving her fits. Finally, Ranma sees an opening and steps inside her guard, “Kachū Tenshin!”. #14 goes flying off the roof as hundreds of punches catch her in the torso within the span of a second.

Seeing their companion fall of the roof, one of the others disengages to collect #14 while the other one switches target to keep Ranma busy before. As she does, the blond fires a water blast at her, sending her off the roof in a different direction. When the water dies down, a busty redhead wrings out her soaking top, “Whacha do that for? They were retreating!”

As Kusano starts to hop over to them, the blond pokes Ranma in the boob, “Doth my eyes deceive me? Pray monkey brain, by what are you known?”
“I’m Ranma Saotome, best martial artist in Nerima, who are you?”
“Number 9, Tuskiumi.” She replies absently, her breathing starting to become heavier, “No, I refuse, I will not be winged by an over evolved monkey!”
With that last statement, she leaps off of the roof.

 

Harry Potter and the Tuath Dé – 3

A month after Harry’s disappearance, Petunia and Vernon are finally able to return to England with Dudley. Grunning’s has been really good and allowed them time to grieve, after a farmer found ‘his’ body, a week after his disappearance, while digging out a badger set. As the set was uninhabited, the police turn a blind eye to just why the farmer was digging it out. The autopsy report says that he probably crawled into the set when he couldn’t find his way home and went to sleep. He had frostbite in all of his extremities, though they hadn’t had time to discolour before he finally passed away.
Despite crying herself to sleep in Vernon’s arms for a week after the discovery, Petunia’s health quickly improves as she’s able to sleep more regularly, and she no longer gets random bouts of weakness. By the time of the funeral in the local chapel, even Vernon sheds a tear for his lost nephew.

A visit to this village would become a yearly occurrence for the family in the future. Even after Grunning’s opens up a Canadian branch in a few years time, and promotes Vernon to branch manager. With Petunia able to look after Dudley more effectively, he grows up to be a very different person than he could have otherwise.

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In Dunblane a Harry Danann, son to Morgana Danann, is registered in the local registry office. If the systems were better linked, automated flags would be raised, as the birth of both the deceased Harry Potter, and Harry Danann are identical apart from the mother. Instead, a copy of the birth certificate is posted to the new address, while the central office is notified by fax machine of the new resident of Dunblane. The local Council, Town hall, and Doctors also get the paperwork required to have had Morgana on record for years.

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In the Ministry of Magic, functionaries are running between departments trying to identify a massive surge of magic across the UK and Ireland that has knocked out all of their detection grids, including those they use to identify illegal entry into the country. In all the turmoil, nobody would notice a minor change to a sealed record and the book of names in Hogwarts, as the name Potter becomes Danann, and always was Danann.

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Unfortunately for the wizards, the goblins of Gringotts are not so lax. They also recognise the alias of those they used to call Gods and Rulers before they retreated from the world. This triggers a similar level of panic to that in the ministry. However, in this case it’s a structured panic to ensure that the Potter accounts are complete, accounted for, and most importantly, completely above board.

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Several years pass as Morgana becomes a reclusive pillar of the community, one who everyone assumes earns her money from stocks and shares, with an interest in Celtic history. Her son, Harry, is known as a mischievous little tyke with a good heart.

Every year she would host a feast at her home for Samhain, where she would prepare historically accurate dishes, seating, and entertainment. This was always well attended, as it was open to the whole village. Even though spaces were, by necessity, limited. She was also active in the local re-enactment scene, and her most ardent student is her son, who she home-schools.

Much to the consternation of the local churches, the Danann’s are very much not Christian, not even giving the nod towards the religion that most others do. Instead, Morgana would hold classes on the ancient religions of the Celtic people, and even religious ceremonies. All based on archeological records that she either found personally through digs that she authorised, or found by other experts in Scotland, Ireland, and strangely enough Brittany in France.

For Harry, growing up as a child of Danu, was fraught with excitement and peril. Not least because of the innate connection he now holds to the mist. There is also his aptitude with things like poetry, blacksmithing, and farm animals, while being average for his age at everything else. His ability to talk to the local snakes has been a source of hope for Morgana.

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“Evie, that’s not fair!” Harry sulks at Ephis, who is currently the last of the fae that he hasn’t tagged yet.
Ephis looks down from the sword point that she hid on, “I know you can fly, I’ve seen you do it before. So all you need to do is tag me and we can go in for ice cream.”
“But then you’ll just fly away again.”
“Then you know what to do, your mother has shown you often enough.”
“I’m not playing anymore.” Harry pouts and sits at the base of the statue.

9 years ago Ephis would have gone to comfort Harry, 5 years ago she’s have flown down so that she could see how he was doing. But now, after being part of the Mórrígan’s household for nearly a decade, such instincts have been tempered by the experience of living with a war goddess. Instead, she takes the opportunity to change her hiding place from the sword to behind a chimney pot. The excited chattering of the other fae that Harry has already tagged alerts him to the fact something’s changed. Looking up he notices that Ephis has moved and throws his hands in the air, “Oh come on!”

Holding his hands out, his form shrinks down into the form of a small brown Linnet. Wearing this form is always so uncomfortable, and leaves him very much aware of the fact he has taken the place of his mother’s sister in the pantheon, something he has yet to tell Mórrígan. As he’s flying around looking for Ephis, a shadow crosses the sun and he desperately dodges to one side as a barn owl swoops through the space he was just occupying. Swiftly returning to human form, he stands on the air and shouts, “Hey, what’s the big idea!? You could have killed me doing that!”

Ignoring his outburst, the owl instead swoops around the courtyard and, with a couple of beats of its wings, rises up to Harry’s level before landing on his shoulder.

“Oh, you’re domesticated. Why would anyone want to domesticate such a magnificent species.” The owl puffs up it’s chest in pride, “Come on, Mum’s at her roundhouse today. Ephi, games over due to outside interference! I’m going to find Mum!”
Cautiously, Ephis pokes her head around the chimneypot, and seeing the owl on Harry’s shoulder, flies down to take her position on his other shoulder. Now that she’s there, Harry approaches the gate in the centre of the courtyard and concentrates on it. Over the next few minutes mist forms in the gate, and then the clearing his mothers roundhouse occupies first becomes visible, and then gains focus as if approaching it through the mist. Once it is completely clear, Harry lets out an exhausted breath. His mother can do this with nary a wave of her hand. As he starts to walk through, a veritable rainbow of fae fly past him and into the clearing, before heading off to their own homes in the mist. One of them gets caught by one of the omnipresent guards outside the entrance.

As Harry walks forward, he holds out a hand to one side and a bronze sword materialises in his grasp. Seeing this, the guards hold their hands out, palms visible, and take a step away from the door. When he was younger, they’d have tested him, but his mothers lessons were as thorough as they were painful. Given that they were exceedingly painful, with mistakes brutally punished and then corrected… Each of the guards had, at one point or another, been part of his lessons in warcraft. Just like the game he’d been playing with the fae, after the local children stopped wanting to play once he got too good at both the hiding and seeking. Oh, he still had human friends, but they wouldn’t do anything vaguely competitive with him. That didn’t stop them from egging him on at the pool table when their parents took them all tenpin bowling in Stirling every month.

Suddenly he stops just inside the house, sniffs the air and sighs, “I’ll come back later mum! An owl arrived with a letter, so don’t take too long.”
Mórrígan calls back, “It’s ok, come on through. I’ve put everything down now.”
Harry blushes, “Mum!”
“Oh Harry, I have no idea where you got this prudishness from. When I was last living amongst mortals, you’d often have 3 or 4 generations living in the same room. Most nights there would be at least one couple having sex.”
“Mum!”
“Anyway, you said that the owl has a letter.”
“Yeah, it’s weird, it’s a domesticated owl.”
Mórrígan comes through one of the hangings, and the owl takes one look and tries to flee. Her hand flashes out and grabs it gently by the wings, “Welsh descent then, from Arianrhod’s get. Fear not, I am not here to take you as my own. I believe you have a letter for my son.”
The owl bristles, as though someone stepped on it’s grave, before it turns it’s head to face her and hoots softly.
“Harry, hold out your arm.” When he does, she places the owl down, and releases her grip. Deftly she removes the letter and opens it, reads it and then nods.
“Harry my son, it seems your fate has arrived. You are to start at a school for mortal magic in September. Do you wish to go?”
Harry turns to look at Ephis, “Will you come with me Ephi?”
“Of course, where else would I be? I am sworn to you after all.”
Harry laughs, “I know, but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t the other way around.”
“I would never presume such.”
“Then yes, I would like to go. I might be able to make some friends that I can see as equals.”
Mórrígan shakes her head, “Friends I’m sure you’ll find aplenty, equals I’m sure will be in scant supply. I will also ensure that you have the supplies you need to keep up with your modern subjects.”
“But Mum! You know I hate math, it doesn’t make sense.”
“This is why you need to work on it, much like your nature rebelled against learning the arts of war. Math and science are both weaknesses that we share, and so we must work to overcome those deficiencies in our knowledge. For have I not been studying right beside you?”
Harry slumps, “You have mum, but it’s so hard.”
“If we only ever do what comes easily to us…”
“…We become complacent, and will be caught off guard when faced with a challenge.”
“Indeed.” She holds out her hand and a velum letter appears, which she attaches to the leg of the owl. A wave of her hand opens a portal to their mortal home for the owl to fly through.

 

Sir Rupert stares up at Princess Susan in shock. In her hands she’s holding a halberd rather more competently than he expected.
“Princess, I have been sent to rescue you.”
“No you haven’t.”
“Are you questioning my word?”
Susan shakes her head as she carefully backs towards the next left hand bend where he would be at a disadvantage against her polearm, “Not at all, I know that you are a true and honourable knight. I am questioning the word of my father.”
Rupert tries to step forward and bring his shield in to the side of the halberd, “You father has ever been a just king, always looking out for the welfare of the kingdom.”
Susan watches for an opening, and when he tries to side swipe her halberd again, she swiftly steps back around the corner, then lunges for the shield with the point of the halberd, too late, Rupert sees her twist the head so that the axe catches his arm, causing him to drop the shield even as his armour saves him from injury. “Yes, the welfare of the kingdom, not the welfare of his own daughter. I left on my own after he had my last betrothed killed because it is unbecoming of a princess to marry a dragon.”
“A dragon that had been terrorising the nearby villages.”
“Only because they not only moved into his hunting area, but they also slaughtered his last mate while she was laying. Under orders of my father, I might add.”
Rupert cautiously tries a few probing attacks, trying to move the princess away from his shield as the numbness in his arm starts to fade, “I do not know what prompted him to make such orders.”
“I do, copper, there was a rich copper vein in their territory. And now he wants to marry me to a monster.”
“I’m sure he only wants what’s best for the kingdom.”
“Oh, of course he does. And if you try to go for your shield again, I will stab you, mentor or no mentor. What he hasn’t taken into account is that the monster has already had 8 wives, and every. Single. One. Of. Them. Is. Dead.” Susan punctuates the last sentence with a series of jabs.
“Princess, please, I am only doing my duty.”
“And I am doing mine. I will not return till the harvest moon. That’s when the betrothal agreement expires. Then I will return and do my duty to the kingdom, all of the members of the kingdom, not just the humans.”
With a sigh, Rupert steps back and pulls a small crossbow from his back, “You leave me no choice princess.”
As he brings up the crossbow, Susan breathes in and then out in a massive gout of flames, the string snapping before he is able to pulls the trigger. Falling backwards, he clutches his face and screams as Susan walks over and kicks his weapons away.
Kneeling down, Susan pinches Ruperts voice box, strangling the cry as she leans down to his ear, “It took me months to talk Myrgir down, and I got to know him. Did you know he went to the college and was qualified as a scribe and historian? I negotiated the betrothal, and we consummated the relationship. Then you killed him. It might not have been love, but it could have turned into a love match and you killed him. Did you never wonder why there are no half dragons?” She laughs, “Well, now you know. Oh, and just so you know, part of that betrothal was to allow the kingdom access to the copper vein. But no, my father would rather I marry a monster of a human than a noble person that happens to be a dragon. For what it’s worth, thank you for teaching me everything you could. Goodbye.”
The last thing Rupert feels is the weight of the halberd’s axe falling on his neck and cleaving it from his body.
Susan sighs as she stands, what a waste, at least she won’t need to go hunting for another week.

 

Buffy the Tenno


Buffy gasps as she regains consciousness all of a sudden. Holding down her panic as she’s been trained to do, she reaches out to examine her surroundings. Good news, she’s not restrained; bad news, she’s in a padded box. Worse news, someone’s taken her amp.
Closing her eyes, she concentrates on her body, feeling how it moves and her senses. She’s lying on her back, which means gravity. She’s not wearing her Tenno armour; someone has put her in some flimsy fabric clothing. Knocking on the walls and surfaces of the box reveals a slight difference in sound from the top, as well as an organic rather than metal sound. Taking a deep breath, she realises that the warm feeling isn’t the temperature, it’s the air.
“Void damn it, I need to chance it.”
Carefully pulling on the void, she pulls it around her and slips through the barrier between the world and the void. A flex of her will sends her hurtling skywards, and she releases the void reflexively when she sees the moon floating in the night sky.
“Oof” Buffy is pulled out of her shock by the ground as she lands on ground, hard. As she lays there, she stares at the moon, “When did they fix Lua?”

After a moment, she starts to make out the sounds of screaming, and some brrr’ing noise that seems like it should be familiar. Cautiously, she gets to her feet and looks around. As she looks behind her, she freezes as she spots a headstone with a written epitaph on it. What causes her pause is that the language looks familiar, as if it was something she dreamt about many years ago. Another scream breaks her attention, and she turns towards it before heading out in an economical jog.

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By the time Buffy gets to the nearby civilian outpost, the screams have stopped, and the brrr’ing sounds have moved off elsewhere. Cautiously, she moves along the road made from some sort of black stone. As she does, she looks at the strange dwellings, as they’re illuminated by the scattered fires. Their walls so thin they wouldn’t provide any protection against even light weapons, let alone the standard weapons used by the Grineer. Even so, something tugs on her memory, like déjà vu. As she comes across the first ground vehicle, that feeling intensifies, even as she reaches out to one of the unbroken viewing panels and snaps it between a couple of fingers, the clear material shattering into small cubes. Brushing her fingers off, she frowns as the wound doesn’t seem to be healing at the rate she expected. Once she has time in a safe place, she’ll need to mediate on the Vazarin school, as she has no warframe or amp.

Slowly, she makes her way down the street, her senses alert. As she’s looking around, she bumps into one of the ground vehicles, and an alarm starts blaring. Crouching down, she looks around cautiously just in case the noise attracts any Grineer, or worse. From the nearest dwelling, a human man exits holding a gun, and shouts at her.
“By the Queens!”, Buffy exclaims as she holds her hands to her forehead as the words trigger a searing headache. As the man shouts at her again, and fires his gun in the air, she stumbles away from the dwelling as a ringing pain shoots through her head.

A short while later, she’s moved away from the residential part of the outpost, to some sort of storage area. The large buildings and wide spaces inviting aerial assault, and she still can’t see any signs of a shield protecting the outpost, Orokin or otherwise. As her headache is starting to clear up, her sense of déjà vu is becoming stronger. Off to the right, in a large open space between buildings, she can hear a male talking. Shaking her head to try and clear it of the lingering pain, she makes her way into the space, her presence masked by the light of a large bonfire. By the fire, there is a group of people that could be some sort of new Grineer clone, or maybe infested humans. Either way, they seem to have caught a corpus with a high quality body prosthetic. Around the group are some two wheeled ground vehicles. As she sneaks closer, the leader says something, and four of the group go to the ground vehicles and start them. As they do, the source of the brr’ing sound she was hearing becomes apparent. The leader then takes a small gun and points it to the sky. As he does, Buffy notices the chains wrapped around the arms and legs of the corpus. Before she can do anything to help, he fires, and the ground vehicles accelerate in opposite directions. As the chains go taut, they pull the corpus’ arms and legs off, as her body collapses to the floor, and her power fails.
As Buffy stands there in stunned silence, the people notice her in the flashing of the lights mounted on the ground vehicles. As the leader says something, and the members of his group turn to her with body language the easily speaks of violence, Buffy raises her hand and releases her control over her void energies, only for nothing to happen. Realising that she hasn’t finished recovering from whatever was done to her before she ended up in the box, she turns and runs from the group. It seems like she’s easily about to out pace the once on foot, however, two of the ones on ground vehicles have taken an alternative way through the outpost to reach her. As they make their way down the road, the reason for the black stone becomes clear. Ducking beneath their makeshift weapons, Buffy desperately looks for a way out. Spotting some stacked pallets against a wall, she gathers her void energies, and void jumps through one of the strange people, and then hops over the wall. There, she lands in a cluttered alleyway, that looks like it should be impassable to the ground vehicles she’s seen. Hopefully they don’t have any air vehicles.

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After a short walk, she runs out of impassable alleyway. There, she cautiously listens to her surroundings for the brr of the ground vehicles engines. Hearing them off to the right, she turns left and almost walks into a group of armed civilians. A tall man, with short dark hair and fair skin carries an axe. Then there’s a woman with red hair carrying a crude crossbow, and the last two women are unarmed and look to have bleached their hair. Why would they bleach their hair, why not just… As she takes in their faces, her headache returns full force.
As she shies backwards, cringing inward, the one with the red hair says something and then she says her name, “Buffy. Buffy?” Each word is like a hammer blow to her head.

Desperately, she turns and runs in the opposite direction, taking the first left that looks like it’s impassable to ground vehicles. Is this another one of Teshin’s memory tests that he’s dragged out of the pits of Mercury? No, Teshin’s dead. He died buying time for her to get to the Lotus. Skidding to a stop, she looks around at the small courtyard she’s run into. Looking up, she sees a roof she should be able to void jump to. Pulling in the void, she releases it to no effect, as a flash of a rickety tower stabs through her mind. Unable to focus enough to use her void training, Buffy instead finds some cover that should hide her from the entrance. There she crouches down and cradles her head.

It's only a few minutes later when the civilians catch up with her again, and they start talking to her again.
Buffy tries to say, “Are you all idiots, get to cover.” Instead, it comes out as a pained mumble, as they keep saying her name. She doesn’t notice as the conversation abruptly moves away from her to the group of people that she ran from in the first place. However, when they start to fight, it draws her attention, as it’s something she knows how to do. As she brings her focus to bear, her headache fades to the background, until, finally, it’s light enough for her to act. Smoothly she steps between the man and an enemy with a basic club, raising her arm to block the strike on the wielders wrists as she’s been taught. As the attackers grip is loosened by the block, she reaches up and wrenches the club away, before kicking the attacker into a nearby wall. Ducking down, under a whirling chain, she brings the club round behind the chain wielders knee, causing him to crumple to the floor. Before she can take advantage, another attacker lunges at her with a knife, forcing her to dodge backwards, away from his comrade.
Instead of running, the civilians instead join in the attack. Which, in any other situation would be laudable, but right now, with the void damned headache, it’s reducing her ability to manage the battle. Bringing her club up between the crossbow wielding woman and a chain wielding attacker puts her out of position, and so she takes a punishing blow to her ribs. Then the damn woman has to shout something followed by her name, which sends a spike of pain through her head once more, and the club falls from her suddenly limp hand.
While she’s distracted, the others surround her and start to beat on her as the leader casually heads towards the civilians while talking. Desperately, she reaches through the pain to release a contamination wave that knocks the attackers around her off their feet. Quickly grabbing the club again, she brings it around and slams it into the side of one of the attackers to the loud crack of broken ribs. Smoothly following through with an overhand strike on the opponent behind her, the club crushes straight through his head as though his natural resistance didn’t exist. As the surviving followers back up with the sudden turn around, Buffy lunges for the leader, catching him around the head with a quick swing. As the leader crumples to the ground, Buffy knows that she hasn’t killed him, as she didn’t feel the crunch that indicates something important broke. However, the civilians should be able to take care of him now he’s down.
Turning back to the followers, she quickly runs off after them, only to stop as she rounds a corner and spots a rickety tower made from scaffolding poles. As it comes into view, a memory takes her to the floor with pain. She’s standing on that tower, speaking to a girl on the verge of womanhood, in the same language the civilians were using. Below them, a void portal opens up between, between… Slamming her fist on the floor, she swears as the memory slips away. That’s the second time that tower has appeared in her memories, maybe if she confronts them there, she’ll be able to break through the block. The same way she did with Teshin’s test in front of the Queens.

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Standing at the top of the tower, Buffy looks at the metal plank that over hangs the smooth stone floor below. Breathing slowly and deeply to stave off the memories, she looks around for places she can void jump to if the whole thing falls down. Once she’s sure she can get to safety, she carefully makes her way to the end of the plank and looks down.
There’s a flash of memory, and she’s watching drops of blood falling to the ground below, before sparking a void portal, which grows halfway between the plank and the ground. Then she runs off the plank and dives into the portal.
Then the memory starts again, a bit earlier, and she standing in front of a girl that looks so familiar. Looking behind her she watches the sun rise, before turning back to the girl. As she turns away again, the girl says, “Buffy, no.”
As she steps away, Buffy responds, “Dawnie, I have to.”
Then the girl, Dawn?, says “Buffy?” Wait, that’s wrong, she didn’t say that.
Confused, Buffy turns around to look back at the ladder down, and the girl from the memory steps out from behind one of the supports wearing a red jumper with a sparkly fleur de les on the front. Blinking a couple of times as the incongruity between what Dawn was wearing in the memory, and what she’s wearing now, sends her mind reeling.
As Buffy’s looking at her, confused, Dawn says her name again followed by some words that feel like they should make sense. Then the girl steps towards her, causing the tower to shake. As it does, the memory comes back again stronger than before, so Buffy turns around to look at what’s happening.
While she’s lost in the memory, Dawn tries talking to her, but Buffy doesn’t understand until she says, “Buffy *** Dawn, **** sister.”
[AN: conversation paraphrased from Buffy season 6, episode 2]
Eventually, the memory plays its course, and Buffy is left looking at the skyline, her memories of this life starting to come back. Hesitantly, she says, “Is this Demios?”
Surprised, Dawn reflexively asks, “What?”
Turning around, Buffy looks in Dawn’s eyes, “Is this Demios? Have I been swallowed by a Jugulus?”
Dawn reaches out, “No! Buffy, no! You’re here, with me. Whatever happened to you, whatever you’ve been through. It’s over now. You’re…” Dawn shrieks as the tower lurches with an ominous squeal of metal.

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As the tower stabilises again, there’s a touch of hysteria in Dawns voice as she calls out, “We have to get off this tower.” However, Buffy is lost in memory again, and turns back to look at the scene below.
Pleading, Dawn calls out, “Buffy, I need you to live! You told me to be strong, and I tried, I really tried. I promise that I’ll do better. Just, please come back to me.”
As she steps forward, her weight causes the pressure to release on one of the supporting brackets, and it slips off the bolt it was bracing just before it moves into tension. As it falls to the floor below, the whole tower lurches, and Dawn desperately clutches at a support as she slips to her knees. As she screams, Buffy turns around with an unfamiliar look on her face. A couple of quick steps later and she scoops Dawn up in a bridal carry, before turning around and running for the plank again.
Dawn screams as Buffy suicidally jumps off the plank, and then everything goes grey for a moment, before jumping several times. When the world comes back into colour, Dawn is shivering, and her lips and fingertips have turned blue. However, they have landed on one of the nearby factory roofs. As Buffy turns around, Dawn can’t help but look back as the tower collapses in on itself. Once the rubble has settled, Buffy steps off the building, and Dawn lets out another shriek as the world momentarily goes grey again.

Once they’re back on tera firma, Buffy puts Dawn down. As soon as she’s standing again, Dawn turns to Buffy, and blows on her fingers. Buffy says something she doesn’t understand, but Dawn doesn’t care. All that matters is that her sisters back again. That’s when the adrenaline from the tower drains from her, and she starts to cry happy tears.
Reaching out, she tentatively touches Buffy’s cheek with her hand, “You’re here, you’re really here.”
Buffy smiles at her, before taking both her hands, and putting them under her armpits. Dawn doesn’t care, she’s got her sister back, so she just leans into Buffy’s chest with a smile.

 

Buffy the Tenno – Episode 2 – part 1


Buffy looks at the dwelling silently while Dawn continues to talk beside her. The language she’s using coming back slowly. As she’s thinking, Dawn takes her hand and leads her into the house, where she’s again hit by a sense of déjà vu. Was this her mothers house? But what about Veldé, wasn’t she her mother? If this was her mothers house, then the kitchen diner should be through here.
Like a little duckling, Dawn follows behind Buffy, and turns on the light, “…well, except for the computer stuff, that’s Willow’s obviously.”
Willow, that name seems familiar, and this seems to be the same. Buffy turns back to the hall, and sees the photo on the table. She has to pause as memories assault her, Veldé succumbing to void sickness, at the same time her mother, Joyce, that was her name, Joyce, is telling her about her cancer. Apart from the hairstyle, they could both be twins. Carelessly, Buffy lays the photo on the table before void jumping up the stairs. As she’s looking at the room around the room, Dawn comes up behind her.
“Um, yeah, this room was mums, but it’s the biggest room in the house so Willow…”
Buffy interrupts, “and Tara.”
“Yeah, they sleep here now.”
Buffy makes her way around the bed to the other door, that she knows should lead to a corridor. As she opens it, Dawn squeezes in front of her, so Buffy pauses to think. Once she’s ordered her thoughts, she carefully enunciates, “So, what else has changed?”
“What? In the house?” Buffy shakes her head, “Oh, um, well Giles left today. It’s funny, sort of, that you came back the same day.”

Another name slots into place, like a key in a lock, and she remembers training in a library. An older man with glasses and greying hair.

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Buffy comes out of her memories as Dawn dabs a damp flannel on her face. In the mirror behind her, Buffy sees a face she hasn’t seen for centuries, ever since they were rescued from the Zariman and she had access to proper hospital facilities. As she raises a hand to touch the mirror, Dawn brushes a wound on her knuckles and Buffy winces. Pulling her hand away, she tries to think back to where she could have got that injury.

While she’s thinking, the sound of the front door slamming open brings her instincts to the fore and she spins into a wary crouch. Belatedly, she says, “What was that?”

When a voice floats up the stairs threatening to kill Dawn, Buffy takes her cue from Dawn and relaxes. Though, she follows a little slower, as she has to remember where the stairs are. As she gets to the top of the stairs and starts making her way down them, the person at the bottom trails off.
While she’s trying to remember who the man in the leather jacket, and white, spiky hair, is. He notices her knuckles.
“What happened there?”
Buffy lifts her hand to look at her knuckle and try to find the words to explain it when Dawn cheerfully says, “Oh, we’re going to fix that.”
Spiky, yes, Spiky feels almost right, takes her hands gently, “Coffin, she clawed her way out of a coffin.”
Buffy nods to herself, that would make sense, she probably did it before she came back to herself.
Mistaking her nod for agreement, Spiky softly says, “It’s ok, I’ve done it too. Dawn, get some bandages, and iodine.”
While Dawn is running off for the supplies, Spiky leads Buffy to a sofa, and sits her down as he kneels in front of her. As he’s inspecting the wounds, Buffy asks, “How long has it been?”
Spiky looks up, “187 days yesterday, 188 today. Well, I guess today doesn’t count, does it. How about you?”
Buffy blinks at how short a time she’s been gone, before looking down at her hands, “Longer.” Though the answer doesn’t really do a thousand odd years and change justice. She’s about to clarify when Dawn comes bouncing back in with a bottle and some bandages. The three of them settle into silence for a while as Spiky dabs at the wounds on her knuckles.
The silence is broken abruptly when the 4 civilians from the street come bundling through the front door. As they crowd around her, Spiky gets up and moves out of the way, before unobtrusively leaving the home. Buffy follows his move out of the room, before focusing on the people in front of her. The red head must be Willow, and that would make the woman standing by her Tara. The man is something ander, but the actual name escapes him. The other woman, there’s something odd about her.
Buffy leans her head to one side, “Are you human?”
“…pizza.” Willow trails off as the four of them register the question.
The woman throws her hands in the air, “Buffy, you know me. Anya, ex-vengeance demon. You know, the one that was sent after Xander here, and is now engaged to Xander.”
As Buffy tries to remember what an engagement is, it becomes apparent that she’s taken too long to answer as the four of them start bickering again. She’s getting tired of not being able to follow what’s been said. That’s it, that’s a way to resolve this.
“Tired.”
Xander looks at her, “What?”
Anya nods understandingly, “She’s probably still jetlagged. Well, jetlagged from hell anyway.”
Buffy looks at them uncomprehendingly as they again start bickering good naturedly, eventually she repeats herself, “Tired.” Before standing up.
As she does, they give her more space, and she can see Dawn standing by the kitchen door. Walking over, she carefully asks Dawn, “Is my room?”
Dawn nods enthusiastically, “Yes, your room is still yours.”
Buffy nods, and walks up the stairs slowly, as she tries to remember which door was hers.

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It’s nearly an hour later, and Dawn is getting ready for bed.
“Dawn,” Dawn shrieks and turns around to see Buffy standing in her doorway, her eyes are glowing white with some sort of energy. The same energy is crackling off of her fingers.
“Um, Buffy, you’re scaring me.”
Buffy gives her a half smile, “I’m sorry Dawn, I didn’t mean to. I wanted to warn you not to come into my room while I’m sleeping. I can only control this energy while I’m awake.”
“Buffy, what do you mean?”
Buffy raises her hand and looks at the energy playing across her fingers, “I was gone a long time, and things happened over there. I just… I want you to be safe. Part of that means not being around me when I can’t control this energy.”
Dawn eyes the energy warily, “I can do that.”
Buffy smiles, “Good girl.”
As Buffy turns and leaves back to her own bedroom, Dawn sits on the bed and seriously thinks about talking to Willow about what just happened. Then she remembers that she needs to walk past Buffy’s room to get to Willow and Tara’s room.

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Buffy silently returns to her room, and walks over to the mirror that’s framed by numerous photo’s. As she’s looking at herself again, and noting the evidence that void energies are running uncontrolled through her body, she spots herself sitting on the bed in her capsule suit. Turning her attention from the mirror to the photos, she allows herself to smile as each one sparks a memory. Memories that are coming easier now, with less pain.
While she’s looking at them, the people in the photos are all replaced with skeletons wearing the same clothes.
Sharply, her gaze returns to the mirror, “Are you doing this?”
She looks up from the bed and waves, “Hey kiddo, miss me?”
“I asked a question.”
She waves her hand in the air, “Not me, but they do owe me.” Her smile turns wide, and filled with far too many teeth, “And I will get my payment.”
“Don’t hurt my sister, or I will find some way to hurt you.”
Instead of answering, she just jumps off the bed and disappears, leaving Buffy alone in her room once more. With a sigh, Buffy looks at the wounds on her knuckles, and the play of void energy over her hands. Of course there was a catch with her void energies, if only she’d understood the catch before she tried to change the school she was focusing on. Ah, well, eternalism sucks, and she did what she did.

Turning back to her room, Buffy surveys the furniture, before nodding to herself. After that, it only takes a few short minutes to move the bed into the corner of the room, leaving herself plenty of space to meditate properly between the dresser and the bed. In the centre of the cleared space, she drops into Seiza and begins meditating on the teachings of the Vazarin school. The way of the protectors and healers. As she does, void energies swirl around her, sparking out at the furniture and walls, leaving ghostly impressions that slowly fade. All of Buffy’s wounds and abrasions slowly start to heal, until even this body’s oldest injuries have been purged. As she finishes her meditation, the void energies reach a crescendo, before finally cresting and settling down into stillness. A peaceful smile takes over Buffy’s expression, as she finds herself centred for the first time since she was pulled back here.

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While Buffy is meditating, Willow and Tara are woken violently as the picture above their bed is shattered.
Looking up, Willow sees a figure standing at the end of the bed. Coming to full wakefulness, she exclaims, “Buffy!?”
The figure speaks in Buffy’s voice, “Do you know what you did? You’re like children. Your hands smell of death. Bitches! Filthy little bitches rattling the bones! Did you cut the throat? Did you pat its head?” It then picks up the crystal ball, and throws it at the picture above their heads, raining more glass down into the bed.
On the edge of panic, Tara says “Oh my God, oh my God.”
Relentlessly the figure continues, “You were stained. You still are. I know what you did.”
As the initial stages of her flight or fight response pass, Willow rolls out of bed and turns the light on. As soon as she does the figure vanishes, as though it had never been there.
Tara hurries out of the bed, and over to Willow. Together, they both make their way to Buffy’s room, where she’s still meditating. Sharing a glance with each other, they make their way back to their bedroom.
As Willow closes the door, Tara walks over to the crystal ball and caresses it to reassure herself, “Maybe we just dreamed it.”
Absently Willow replies, “Maybe.” Then she shakes her head before walking over to Tara’s hands, “No, wrong… Wrong brains.”
Tara’s eyes light up in understanding, “We can’t both have dreamed it?”
“Right.”
“So, did you understand what it was saying?”
Willow shakes her head, “No, you?”
Tara’s about to answer when the pictures on the wall begin to shift and shake, as though something’s passing underneath them. Once it’s passed out of the room, Willow looks back at Tara, “Right, I’m calling Xander.”

As Willow leaves the room Tara turns around and freezes as she sees herself sitting at the vanity, brushing her hair.
“Willow!”
Her doppelganger turns around and puts its finger to its lips, “Uh, huh, let’s keep this private, between us.”
Tara turns around and heads for the door, “Willow!”
“She can’t hear you.”
Tara turns back, and in a shaky voice asks, “What do you want?”
The doppelganger tilts its head to one side, “To make a deal. You stole something of mine, so I need it to be replaced.”
Tara shakes her head, “No. No! Buffy isn’t yours.”
“You’re right, but she does owe me, and now she can’t pay what she owes.”
Tara’s expression firms up, “I don’t know what hell you come from, but I don’t make deals with demons.”
The doppelganger gives an exaggerated sigh, “Well, I tried. I guess I’ll ask Dawn next, or take her back.” Standing up, she starts to make her way to the other door.
Stepping forward, Tara raises a hand, “No wait.”
Her doppelganger turns around and looks at her expectantly.
Hesitantly, Tara raises her hand, “I’ll do it, I’ll pay the price.”
The doppelganger gives her an unnaturally wide smile, before holding out its hand, “Shake on it?”
Nervously, Tara holds out her hand, and the doppelganger slams its own hand into hers in a firm grip. As it does, white void energy sparkles down its arm and into Tara, searing through her nerves and bones. Tara can’t help it, she screams loudly, and watches helplessly as a portal opens and a shade of herself is sent through into a war-torn world.
As the portal closes, Willow comes rushing in with the house phone glued to her ear. Tara’s doppelganger winks at Tara before letting go of her hand.
Hysterically, Willow shouts down the phone, “Xander! it got Tara.”
A moment later, both Dawn and Buffy hurry into the bedroom. As they do, Dawn hurries over to Tara, while Buffy stops and stares at the doppelganger.
The doppelganger looks back and waves at Buffy, “Hey kiddo, this one paid my price. That one is still paying her own price. See you around.” With that, it fades away.
Both Tara and Buffy both look at Willow, and Tara asks, “Willow, what did it mean you’re paying your own price?”
Softly, Buffy looks down at Tara, “She couldn’t see or hear him.”
Willow looks between the two of them, “What do you mean, what couldn’t I see or hear?”
Buffy looks up and, speaking in her native language, answers Willow, “The man in the wall, the one between worlds, he who lives in the void. Or, Wally as we Tenno call him.” Continuing in English, she frowns, “More importantly, what is the price that you’re paying Willow?”
Willow stumbles and drops the phone, “I’m not… We, I, paid the price when we cast the spell.”
Buffy nods, “Well, either way, there’s nothing we can do about it now. I’m going to bed, you should too Dawn. You’ve got an early day later. Tara, don’t forget you can talk to me when you’re ready. Just remember that meditation will help.”

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The next morning, Dawn is rudely woken up by her sister knocking on the door, “Morning Dawn, time to get up.”
Dawn cracks her eyes open and looks at the window, “Buffy, it’s not even daylight yet, go away.”
“No, you’ve got your exercises to do, and then we’re training.”
“Huh? What exercises?”
“Dax and Tenno exercises. Now get up, unless you want to be a kubrow breeder when you grow up.”
“What was that?”
“Dawn!”
“I’m getting up, I’m getting up.”
“I’ll meet you in the yard in 10 minutes, don’t make me come and find you.”

10 minutes later, Dawn cracks open the door to the yard, and watches as Buffy completes a kata of an unusual martial art in the faint light given off by the lantern by the door. Once she finishes, she turns to face Dawn, “Come, kneel, we start our practice by meditating on the school we’re practicing with.”
Looking around cautiously for any vampires, Dawn makes her way down to the lawn before sitting down in the position she uses to meditate with Tara and Willow.
As she does, Buffy pushes her over backwards, “No, kneel. I am teaching you to fight, and you leave yourself vulnerable like that. Watch me.”
Dawn pushes herself back into a sitting position, “What? I don’t understand.”
Buffy consciously pulls herself out of her frame of mind, “Watch me, we meditate in the, warriors stance. Sorry, I don’t know the English for this position. Not vulnerable like this, as stand backwards easy, as is roll forward. Watch.”
As Buffy demonstrates, Dawn lets out a soft “Woah, cool.” Once she’s kneeling uncomfortably, Dawn asks, “Why am I doing this? You’re the Slayer.”
Buffy shakes her head, “Grineer and Corpus, don’t care about Slayers. The infested care even less about non-infested. You’re my sister, so also a target to my enemies. As such, you should know how to defend yourself, and kill if necessary.”
Dawn looks worried for a moment, and then glosses over the ‘and kill’ bit, to focus on something much more mundane, “Buffy, why aren’t you speaking properly?”
Buffy looks up at the stars that are still visible in the lightening sky, “I had a life Dawn. I’d moved on, and had a second childhood. I’ve lived a very long time, and this life is a very tiny fragment of that. When I’m training you, or meditating, I’m using what I learnt in this life. Mum was there too… Void damn it, and damn the souls of those that ordered it.”
Dawn reaches over when tears start to fall down Buffy’s face, “Buffy, it will be ok.”
Buffy looks up at Dawn and her eyes flash with void energy, “I know it will Dawn, because I won’t lose you the same way I lost mum. For today, as you’re a neophyte, we’ll just kneel here and talk about the Vazarin school, the philosophy behind it, and what it means. I think I remember something about you being a key, and you were made into my sister to protect you.”
Dawn nods slightly as tears start to form in her eyes, “That’s true.”
“Hey, don’t cry. That doesn’t stop you being my sister. It just means you may be able to use some of the Tenno adaptions to this school.” Buffy’s eyes take on a distant cast, as her words come out slow and halting as she’s translating on the fly, “I see a cresting wave, wide in the ocean, the Vazarin Way. We were trained to Counter The Enemy and move with an opponent’s attacks in order to nullify them. We maintain constant awareness in order to defend against all aggression.
“This school, and especially the Tenno adaptions to it, are all about protecting people. Being the bulwark behind which the vulnerable can hide while they recover. The Tenno adapted aspects of this path begin with Mending Unity, which allows those that are fighting and working with us to learn from each other, and the situation we’re in better than we would normally. Once you gain an understanding of the heart of this school, it will show in everything that you do. From there, you can branch out in different directions. Whether as a healer, channelling the void to erase injuries. As a bulwark, increasing the effectiveness of your armour using the void, and further using the void to heal your own wounds as fast as I used to heal. To provide protection to you and your allies. Or finally, to ensnare your enemies, and buy time for your allies to regroup. But first, you need to understand the lessons, and how the movements work together.”

Buffy talks for nearly two hours, as Dawn’s legs first start to hurt, and then go numb from kneeling in the same position. As the sounds of movement start to come from inside the house, Buffy smoothly rises to her feet, before demonstrating the healing ability of the Vazarin Way, and helping Dawn to her feet.

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It’s late morning and Tara is sitting with the others in the yard when Willow brings up what happened last night, “Guys, I think whatever happened might be caused by Buffy?”
Tara looks a little more alert as Xander asks, “What do you mean?”
“Well, I was on the phone with you when Tara screamed, and Buffy was meditating.”
Tara shakes her head, “No, they were separate things. Anya was being possessed at the same time I screamed, remember.”
Xander suddenly looks pensive, “That was bad. Very bad. Very, very, very bad. Bad.”
Anya start rubbing Xander’s back, “He’s all traumatized.”
Willow looks between the three of them, “Well, whatever it is, it’s not the-the traditional haunting, because it… It’s not limited to one specific place, and there’s not, you know, a dead person.”
Tara shakes her head, “Not anymore.”
Anya pipes up, “Oh, I bet it’s a hitchhiker.”
Xander shakes his head to clear his thoughts before looking up at his fiancé, “A hitchhiker?”
Anya give a small nod, “Um, standard way to travel through dimensions. Some demon thing sees someone moving between worlds and grabs on for the ride.”
Willows brows furrow in confusion as she looks at Anya, “You mean, like, some hell beastie rode in with Buffy? Like, we’re responsible for this?”
Remembering what her doppelganger said last night, Tara places her hands on the arms of the deckchair she’s using, “Assume crash positions.”
Anya shrugs, “I think we shouldn’t have brought Buffy back. I knew it was gonna end badly. I should’ve said something.”
Xander rolls his eyes as he looks at Willow, “Ok, fine, but what are we going to do. I mean, I’m feeling the need for some vigorous doing, you know?”
Willow looks up, a little hope in her voice, “It’s ok. We-We just kill the beastie, and all is good. We’re rolling in puppies. Right?”
Xander double takes between Willow and Anya, “Can we do that? Kill it?”

Along with everyone else, Tara’s head swivels around to look at Buffy when she asks, “We killing something?”
Something in her expression gives her pause, but Willow sits up, and with a cheerful voice says, “Buffy! You’re not supposed to be up.”
A slight crease of Buffy’s eyes shows the amusement she’s feeling at that statement, but before she can answer, Tara asks, “H-How are you feeling? Are you ok?”
Buffy makes a wry smile before asking, “So what are we killing?”
Anya takes the bait, and moves the conversation past the uncomfortable question, “A demon, you brought back from hell with you.”
Buffy runs through all the things that could have followed her from the origin system, and only has time to say “Oh.”
Before we can say anything, Willow fills the silence with, “It’s not like she’s making it sound. A little haunting-type stuff. Boo-scary. Everything’s normal.”
Tara, thinking that Buffy has enough on her plate already, adds, “You shouldn’t worry about it.”
Buffy looks around the four of them, before saying in an upbeat voice, “Sure, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Tara, nods, “We will. And Buffy, it’s good to have you back.”
Xander puts on a smile, “Yeah, all we need to do is kill this thing, and then we still have you back.”
After everyone else joins in with their own platitudes, Buffy turns back to the house, before looking over her shoulder, “Well, let’s get to work.”

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Not for the first time that day, Buffy looks up from a book she’s struggling through, and tries to guess what these virtual strangers want. She knows they were her friends, and that they’ve been together for a few years. But there’s been so much between then and now. She’s not sure that they want the blood soaked soldier that’s been trapped in the body of a teenager for the last 900 years, with the brain development that implies. She’s seen the glances that Dawn’s been giving her since their session this morning. But she’s lost her mother twice, and she’ll be damned before she loses her sister too.

She’s looked around, and everything is so primitive here. It’s even worse than a New Loka compound, the extremists that believe everyone should live without technology. Does she even have the Implants that she earned before Ballas took over after Margulis was executed, and wiped all of their memories. Then again, it’s peaceful here. She can see it in their faces, and how the buildings aren’t fortified. Hurriedly, she closes the book as a spark of void energy jumps between her finger and thumb, leaving a brown spot on the page she was holding. Looking up, she looks around and wonders if any of them could actually help her find the materials she’d need to cobble together a basic amp to regulate her void abilities. As she does, she realises that the only people who could are either dead, or Giles, who isn’t in this country anymore.
“I miss Giles.”
Everyone looks up at her, and she winces. Fortunately, Willow smiles at her, “It’s ok, he’s coming back. I phoned him earlier.”

Another spark arcs between her fingers, and she quickly hides them behind her back, “I’m er. I’m going out on patrol.”
Immediately, most of her, friends? Stand up and walk towards her, Xander being the one to voice there concern, “We can join you, if you want. You don’t need to go alone.”
Buffy doesn’t look back, she just says, “No, I need to go patrolling.”
Dawn calls out something behind her, but Buffy concentrating too much on holding the void energies, that are overflowing her ability to manage, to hear.

 

Buffy the Tenno – Episode 2 – part 2


Once Buffy’s outside, she lets her feet guide her on an old route she used to follow on her patrol. Most of her focus is on a moving meditation, trying to control the void energies, and prevent them from exploding uncontrollably while she’s in a civilian area. Eventually, she makes her way into one of the many graveyards on the outskirts of Sunnydale, this one bordered by trees and the woods behind it.

It doesn’t take long for some acceptable targets to find her. A group of vampires spread out to surround her, one of them clearly covered in grave dirt, so a newly risen.
“Well, lookie what we have here. A little girl coming to pay her respects.”
Buffy looks each of them in the eyes, and smiles as they shuffle when they see them glowing with power, “If I was you, I’d look for an easier target tonight.”
The one covered in grave dirt steps forward belligerently, “Why would we do that, when everything we need is right here.”
Buffy shrugs, “Well, I warned you.”

As the new vampire leaps at her, she raises her left hand, palm out, and just, lets go. A crackling beam of white void energy shoots out and punches straight through the vampires chest, and Buffy turns her arm so that the beam starts cutting through the other vampires that are surrounding her. As the last one explodes into dust, she points her hand to the heavens and waits until her void reserves have emptied, and the beam shuts off on its own.

Now that she’s drained, Buffy curses, under her breath, at the lack of control Tenno have with the void beam. Along with her lack of amp. Especially, the one that she spent so long putting together. Idly, she wonders if the Lotus made it through the portal without her. As she does, she rubs her chest where Ballas stabbed her, just before she herself fell into the same portal. Funnily enough, that’s the last thing she remembers before waking up in the coffin.

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As she’s wandering the graveyard, lost in thought, she comes across a group of mausoleums that look familiar. Looking around, she spots one that triggers her déjà vu, and she’s sure she’s been inside it before. After weaving her way through the graves between her and the entrance, she experimentally pushes the door, only for it stay shut. Rapping on it with the back of her knuckles, she considers how solid it seems to be. As she knows that she can’t, couldn’t, void jump through the bulkheads that the Corpus and Grineer used. With a shrug, she lets the void envelop her in its embrace, becoming very much invisible to those outside the void. Leaping forward, she pushes herself through the void, and makes it most of the way through the door before she’s pushed back out again.

Ah well, it was worth a try. Probably means that it will successfully dissipate a void blast or two if she needs to vent. Founders only know, the local vampires wouldn’t protect any bystanders. Taking a step back, she starts to really look at the entrance, as people would have wanted to get inside at one point. It doesn’t take her long to find a slightly lighter section of stone, where a concealed catch sits. Pulling the catch down, the door swings open with a good shove. Beyond the door is a set of stairs leading down into the darkness. At the bottom, there is the faintest glimmer of light spilling from under a door. With a small smile, she makes her way down the stairs, and the door closes on its own behind her. At the bottom of the stairs, she makes her way through the door and stops in front of a coffee table. As she’s looking at the coffee table, trying to remember just why it’s so familiar, something enters her space.
From behind her, Spikey’s voice calls out, “You should be careful, you never know what kind of villains got a knife at your back.”
Buffy turns around with a dark chuckle, “Hey Spikey. You couldn’t kill me even if you had me tied up.”
“Are you so sure of that?” Spike rushes forward faster than a human would be able to react, covering the intervening space in the blink of an eye. As he gets within arms reach of Buffy, he slams into an invisible shield.
Buffy nods as she lifts her left hand, “Yes, you’re dead.”
“Christ Buffy, what happened to you?”
Buffy looks down, “You’ve hurt your hand.”
Spike looks down too, “Hmm, you’re right.”
Buffy smiles and activates Squad regeneration. After a few seconds, Spikey’s hand starts to heal rapidly, “I don’t know where to start.”

Spike paces away from Buffy, unsure of what to say. When he reaches one of the stone risers around the crypt, he turns back, “You can sit down, I’ve got furniture.”
Buffy looks down at the black sofa, before sitting down while shaking her head, “You know, I think I’ve sat down more in the last day than I have in the last three centuries.”
She watches as Spike sighs and walks over, before perching on the corner of a wooden table, cabinet, stand, something. That’s when she notices the large box with grey glass on the front. Similar to the one at home, and she looks at it curiously.
Spike looks down at where she’s looking, “Oh, do you like my TV, it was a bargain, I even have satellite.”
“Is that what it is? What does it do?”
“Buffy, are you ok?”
Buffy’s eyes snap up to Spikes, “What do you think? I had a life Spikey, I was making a difference. Granted, I’d just been stabbed through the heart, and then floated into a void portal. But still, I probably wasn’t dead, maybe I was. Who knows. But they pulled me out of the void back here. Here to another life.”
Spike raises his hands, “Hey, it wasn’t me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re back, and I’m not going to let them try to undo that. But the first I knew about you coming back was when you came down the stairs.”
Buffy forces herself to relax, “I know, but my memories are still coming back. Even if I did remember everything, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of my life. Void damn it, I’m over 1,000 years old, and I’ve been awake for nearly 600 of that. How’s 20 year old Buffy summers supposed to compare to that? Depths of Demios, I don’t even remember your names. I’ve been calling you Spikey because that’s what your hair looked like last night. On top of that, I don’t have any of my equipment, so void energies keep building up dangerously inside me.”
As Buffy starts to cry, Spike perches on the sofa next to her, and awkwardly pats Buffy’s back, “Hey, my name’s Spike, so you were pretty close. It was picked because I used to use railway spikes to stake out my victims.”
Buffy starts to laugh hysterically, “Oh, Spikey, you have no idea. You’re like a saint next to me. I’ve slaughtered thousands upon thousands. Innocents? When I had to. Both during the war, and after I woke up. Where I lived, life was between a rock and a hard place, and the Tenno. We fought to keep it there, while the other two factions warred with each other, and wiped out any other factions that looked like they might be getting big enough to challenge them. Assassination, espionage, spying, slaughter, recovery, kidnapping, you name it, I’ve done it all in the name of keeping the peace. Then what happens? The remnants of the old war team up and try to take over the solar system.”
Spike grabs his knife, “I could kill you, if you wanted. Send you back.”
Buffy shakes her head, “It wouldn’t work. I’ve died, so many times. Each time, we just get back up again. There’s only one Tenno that was awake, and has ever died. And I killed him.”
“So, what, you’re a monster now?”
Buffy gives a low chuckle, “No, I’m not a monster. I’ve seen true monsters. We killed, because the alternative was worse. They didn’t just kill, they experimented on their own people. They twisted people, and combined them in ways that broke them. Then they sent them to die against us. It’s just, how do I fit in here? Where do I even start?”
“Hey, don’t look at me. I don’t exactly live in paradise here either.”
“I know, but you also didn’t expect me to behave in a certain way.”

The two of them sit there in silence for a while. Eventually, Spike fills the silence with, “Hey, Willow’s getting powerful, isn’t she.”
Buffy shrugs, “Honestly, I don’t know. What does powerful mean? The Grineer Queens, well Queen now, control an entire race from their asteroid citadel, and are still alive because they take over the bodies of young humans.”
“I guess. But you’re mortal now.”
Buffy laughs, “I’m not going to bet on that until I die and don’t get up again.”

After another long moment, Buffy sighs, “I should probably go, as I need to meditate and get a bit of sleep, before training Dawn in the morning.”

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Tara’s hugging Dawn, trying to reassure here that they have no plans to end the spell they used to bring Buffy back from the dead. Behind her, Willow is still reading the entry on Thermogenesis, and how certain spells can create a demon. Suddenly, Anya speaks up, “Hey, Willow, why are you smiling. It’s inappropriate.”
Tara turns around and lets go of Dawn so that she can concentrate on Willow’s explanation, “No, no, it’s good. The effect, it’s temporary. It will dissipate on its own.”
Xander looks at Willow, an interested gleam in his eyes, “So, what? We just have to wait it out?”
Willow nods excitedly, “Yes, exactly. When the energy of the spell dissipates, so will it. The only way it could possibly survive is if it killed the subject of the spell?”
“So, what? It kills Buffy, and bang, it’s got its own body?”
“Yes.”
Tara opens her mouth to say something, as what happened in their bedroom last night makes it feel like Willow’s wrong. However, at that moment, Xander’s eyes go white and, in a growly voice, he says, “Thanks for the tip.” Before he collapses.
Suddenly, there’s a who lot of activity, and what she was going to say goes out the window as Xander and Anya are hurriedly looking for their car keys.

A few minutes later, it’s just her and Willow left in the shop, so Tara ventures, “Willow, I’m not sure that’s…”
Willow takes her hand and leads her into the back room, “Come on Tara, we need to start a spell to enable Buffy to fight it. Otherwise it’s going to kill her.”
“Willow, I don’t think…” Tara trails off, as she falls back into following Willow’s lead.

Less than a minute later, the two of them are sat, cross legged, facing each other and holding hands. Closing her eyes, Tara easily sinks into the trance they use for casting spells together. As she reaches for the magic in the world around her, another energy wells up from inside. Frantically, she tries to fight that power, and draw on the pure magic of the world around her. Even as she does, the words of her family creep into her mind, and the trickle of magic she was managing slows to a halt as her fears of becoming a demon latch on, and she takes this new energy as proof they were right. Suddenly, Willow snatches her hands away, and Tara looks up instinctively as Willows eyes go black just before her head snaps back and she says one word, “Solid”.

As Willow collapses, Tara shoves her worries back into her subconscious so that she can look after Willow.

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Buffy opens the door to her home and looks around. The whole place feels empty, as though everyone else is out. Subconsciously, she relaxes, as centuries of living alone on her Orbiter have taught her that solitude is safety. As she makes her way up to her room, her fingers absently trail along the banister, and take in the texture of the varnished wood. A simple luxury that only the upper echelons of the Corpus could have afforded, let alone had back home. The best that anyone else could have had, is a hologram overlaying a metal banister, assuming they could even afford somewhere with so much space. As she reaches the top of the stairs, she looks into the bathroom and plays with the taps for a few minutes. Another simple luxury that is almost non-existent in space-based habitats.

Walking into her bedroom, Buffy takes the time to really look at what’s there. As, as much as it’s her room, it is very much the room of a stranger. Slowly, she makes her way to the mirror that’s almost covered in photos, wedged in both sides of the frame. There, she takes a better look at her face. A face that’s a couple of years older than she remembers. Though her height hasn’t changed. Reverently, she takes a photo from one side that has Veldé hugging both Dawn, and herself. Now, in the solitude of the house, she allows herself to cry for the mother she lost twice. The second time, when she had to kill her herself, after she went mad from void sickness.

As the first tear lands on the photo, Buffy tenses as something enters the area of her Mending Unity. Carefully putting the photo down, Buffy turns around to face the door, her hearing straining to hear the sound of one of the doors or windows open. She’s caught off guard when a ghostly white shape charges at her, knocking her back slightly as is passes by her.
As she recovers from the blow, she manifests a Guardian Shell, the same invisible shield that she used in front of Spike earlier.
A voice whispers, “You don’t belong here.”
The incorrigibility of the statement catches her off guard, and the apparition reappears, and passes through her shield as though it didn’t exist, knocking her back into the hall, and against the door post into the bathroom.
As she makes her way back into her bedroom, the thing calls out, “Did they tell you, you belong here?”
Buffy can’t help it, she starts to laugh, “I don’t belong here, and neither do you. However, only one of us is going to be leaving, and it’s not me. Now, lets see if you’re immune to the void, or just able to bypass my shield.”
As it’s currently invisible, Buffy scans the room for the threat, her right hand held ready with a glow of void energy surrounding it. As her head moves, so does the shield, always protecting her from dangers she’s looking at.
As soon as the apparition reappears, she launches a Void snare, and dodges to one side in case it doesn’t work. She watches dispassionately, as the white spectre is dragged into the vortex, before it disappears, and reappears behind her. As it envelops her, she muses, “So, you can be affected when you attack me, but you’re not quite here. Depths of Demios, that’s annoying.”
As the spectre hits her around the face, Buffy blinks as she lands on the floor before starting to laugh, “You can’t even hurt me can you. Oh, you can knock me around, but you’re no stronger than a civilian. Well, lets find out how smart you are.”

With that realisation, Buffy slowly makes her way out of her room, and down the stairs. Taking extra care not to allow herself to be thrown about, so that the house doesn’t suffer. Her own void enhanced regeneration and toughness more than a match for the attacks levied against her.
As she’s halfway down the stairs, Dawn, Xander, and Anya, all bundle through the front door together. Buffy looks up cheerfully, “Oh hey guys, I’m just heading out…”
Buffy frowns as the three of them look at her with a combination of confusion and alarm, a frown that deepens when Xander says, “Buffy! We here to help you. Watch out!”
“Why me? Get out of the way!” Putting action to words, Buffy dodges under a blow that would have sent her sprawling down the stairs, and void jumps out of the house. Turning back, she shouts, “Over here!”

There’s a sense of grim satisfaction, as the spectre rises up out of the ground in front of her. Just as she’s about to manoeuvre around it, so she has a clear shot down the street, the spectre coalesces into a physical, white, humanoid. Not willing to look a gift kubrow in the mouth, she swiftly dodges to one side before raising her left hand and letting go of the void. A beam of crackling white void energy shoots down the street for around 20 yards, before it loses cohesion, and scatters into nothing. The spectre providing only momentary resistance to the beams progress.

[AN: By default, the operator has 100 health, and they are pretty much a baseline human in the warframe universe. The void beam, on the other hand, does 2,000 points of void damage per second. That means that it takes 1/20^th of a second (or 0.05 seconds) to kill an unarmoured human. Without being overloaded on void energy, an operator has 100 energy to start with. The beam can be sustained for around 10 seconds before the operator’s void energy is exhausted.]

As the beam peters out after a few seconds, Xander clears his throat, “Um, Buffy? Remind me never to piss you off.”
Buffy chuckles as she walks past him, patting him on the shoulder a couple of times, “No worry, you civilian, attacks for enemies only.”
Xander looks at Anya and Dawn as Buffy closes the front door, “I don’t know if that’s supposed to be reassuring, or worrying?”
Dawn looks back at the street, “Reassuring, I think.”
At the same time, Anya says, “Worrying, definitely worrying.”

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The next morning sets the routine for the next few weeks, with Buffy waking Dawn at around 5 in the morning in order to learn the Vazarin way, with 30 minutes of meditation at the start and the end of the lessons. She is unrelenting in the schedule, even when Dawn has stayed up late the previous night.

Tara continues to do magic with Willow, even though it’s getting harder and harder to not draw on this new energy inside her. Not that Willow seems to notice, as her ability at witchcraft continues to grow.

One day, just after winter has broken, and the trees are starting to show the new growth of spring, Buffy looks up from a book she’s struggling to read.
“Dawn, should you be in school?”
Dawn looks up with a slightly guilty expression, “Uh, maybe?”
Buffy smiles wryly, “I think I’m supposed to say something like, ‘Those who fail to learn History, are doomed to repeat it in Summer School.’”
Dawn looks down, “But I prefer learning from you.”
Buffy puts her book down before walking over and kneeling beside Dawn. Taking her hands in her own, Buffy looks her in the eyes and says, “Dawn, I’m not going to stop teaching you. But I can’t teach you the things you need to know here. I can teach you to write in Orokin or Corpus script, I can teach you the language of the Origin system. I can even teach you math, sciences, and philosophy. But I can’t teach you about what you need to know in this world. Demios’ heart, I can barely remember most of it, and reading is still like trying to translate ancient Greek.” Dawn giggles at the comparison, “Dawn, I’m serious. I’m a warrior, Jupiter’s moons I can’t even go shopping without an escort, as I’ve punched out how many people now, because they bumped into me unexpectedly?”
Dawn giggles again, “Six, if you only include Xander once. But, Buffy, you’re so much better at teaching these things than they are at school.”
“Dawn, I’m not going to stop teaching you. I’m not going away again. But, Dawn, school isn’t just about what you learn in class, it’s also about what you learn from each other. Willow, Tara, Xander, and maybe even Anya, have all learnt those lessons already. Even I learnt those lessons. But they’re not things you can learn from books, or even people like us. As we don’t remember the lessons, we just live with the results. Out of that will come your own friendships and social circles. And that is probably the most important thing to learn in life.”
Dawn nods glumly, “Ok Buffy.”
Buffy smiles brightly, “Great, then you can start again tomorrow. Now, can you help me with this book? I’ve been trying to read it for the last two weeks.”
Dawn laughs as she reaches over the table, and pulls the book towards her. As she opens it, she laughs even louder, “Buffy, this book is written in Spanish.”
Buffy looks confused, “Really? But it’s using the same letters.”
Dawn looks up at her, “Really?”
Buffy nods and starts drawing out some alphabets, “Really. This is Orokin script, this is Corpus script, and this is Grineer scratch.”
Dawn looks at the last one, “Wait, why did you call that one scratch?”
“The Grineer don’t usually keep written records, instead everything is given orally. Their scientists use either Orokin or Corpus when they want to record stuff. So, Grineer scratch is used by the grunts to indicate important information on walls.”
“What? And everyone uses one of those three languages?”
Buffy shrugs, “Two really, as the Orokin are more or less extinct. Pretty much everyone uses Corpus, even the Steel Meridian, they’re Grineer that have broken their built in loyalty to the Queens.”
“Why?”
“Universal communications. The Corpus control the market on computers and media, so the only language people are exposed to is the Corpus one.”
Dawn shakes her head at the idea there’s only one language.

 

Buffy the Tenno – Episode 3


Buffy stalks down the stairs, seeking the sound of that infernal dripping that’s been interrupting her meditations for the last couple of days. Each incessant drip reminding her of traversing the Grineer tunnels on Neptune, or Earth. Finally, she finds the accursed thing, and stares at it while she tries to remember if she’s ever worked with plumbing before.
While she’s doing that, Dawn comes down the stairs, and calls out, “Do you want to call a plumber?”
Buffy spins around at the sudden noise and brings her left arm up, before slipping over in a puddle of water, “Dawn! Don’t do that, I almost killed you.”
Dawn looks confused, “What did I do?”
“You snuck up on me. Now, what did you want?”
“Um, I wanted to know if you wanted to call a plumber?”

Buffy looks down at her hands, as they start to shake, “Um, what’s a plumber?”
“They’re people who know all about plumbing, and come in to fix problems that people are having with their plumbing?”
“Come in, you mean, into the house?”
Dawn nods, “Uh huh.”
Buffy shakes her head violently, “No, no way. How many times have I almost killed Xander because I wasn’t expecting him?”
Dawn smiles at Buffy, “Oh, only three times.” Before adding, “This week.” Under her breath.
“Exactly, I can’t, I just can’t. I need an amp.” As Buffy starts to hyperventilate, Dawn hurries upstairs.

A couple of minutes later, Tara comes down, and carefully walks towards Buffy from the front, before crouching down and slowly pulling her into a hug, “It’s ok, Willow’s phoning Xander, and he’ll call the plumber. You can take Dawn to the park and get some ice cream while the plumbers here.”
Buffy shakes her head, “No, no, I can do this.”
“Are you sure?”
Buffy nods, “I’ll-I’ll wait in the kitchen while Xander shows him the basement.”

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Buffy watches the door to the basement pensively, Xander’s been down there a long time, and there’s been a lot of banging, “Hey, um, Willow?”
Willow looks up, “Yes Buffy?”
“Do you think Xander’s ok? I mean, they’ve been down there a long time, and he’s just a civilian.”
“Oh, Buffy, he’s fine. They’re probably just taking a long time so they know what the problem is.”
“Oh, ok.”

Ten minutes later, Buffy stands up from the counter, “Right that’s it, I’m going to check on them. And if that plumber has hurt a hair on Xander’s head, I’ll…”
Willow quickly takes hold of her left arm, “No, Buffy, they’re fine. Listen, they’re coming up the stairs now.”
As Willow says that, Buffy can hear Xander’s voice on the stairs to the basement. A moment later, he comes through the door, followed by a middle-aged man with a serious expression.
Xander smiles, “It’s ok, the leaks fixed.”
The plumber grunts and shakes his head, “It’s only a temporary fix Miss. I’ve turned your stop cock down, so you might have pressure issues upstairs. But the pipes are rotting. You’re going to need a full copper refit, otherwise, next time it will be more than just a drip.”
Buffy nods, “How much coprun will I need to get that done?”
The plumber looks surprised, so Dawn pipes up, “She means how much will it cost.”
The plumber nods, “It’ll be $60 today, and the young man there has an estimate for the rest of the work.”
Buffy’s eyes brighten, “Oh, I’ve got that. Um, wait right there.”

Buffy carefully walks out of the kitchen, without losing sight of the plumber, and then flees upstairs to get her purse. It then takes her a couple of minutes to double check that she’s got three 20’s, as she’s still confusing English numbers with those of the Origin system. Then she’s back, and places the money on the table, before moving towards Dawn, while keeping the table between her and the plumber.
“There you go, $60, I counted it.”
The plumber picks up the money with a nod, “It’s a good thing you didn’t try to fix it yourself, as that drip was caused by the pressure in the rest of the system. You’d have probably burst the other pipes.”

Once Xander’s shown the plumber out, Buffy looks at the estimate with Xander, “2,000 credits, that’s not too bad. We should get that done before it will cost more. I remember that mum left us some wealth so that we could survive until I… I… I did something.”
Hesitantly, Willow says, “Um, Buffy, you can’t actually afford to do that.”
Buffy looks up sharply, “What do you mean we can’t afford that?”

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Buffy looks up from the note pad that she’s been using to keep track of all the bills that have accrued since she died. The picture they paint is a bleak one.
“So, Willow, this is everything right?”
Willow doesn’t seem to notice Buffy’s tone of voice, “Uh, huh, yeah, you see, what with all the hospital bills, and everything. The, erm, money that your mother left you, is kinda running out.”
“Willow, this was Dawn’s house while I was dead, don’t you care about that? What if the money ran out and the taxmen came? What would Dawn have done then? How would she live without an arm or a leg.”
“What?”
“Reclamation Willow. If you can’t pay your debts, they come and take it out of your body. Hell, I met a sweet kid, and they reclaimed his whole body for debts his parents owned when they died. I can’t remember his original name, but once I cleared his debt Eudico managed to scrounge up some parts, but they couldn’t get any arms, so after that he was called Legz. You live here, why couldn’t you have, I don’t know, done some spells for people, or used your computer skills for different jobs?”
Willow looks taken aback, “But, that’s barbaric. They’re not allowed to do that here.”
Buffy wipes her face with her hands, “You’re right, this is a different world. I’ll-I’ll see how much money we have left, then maybe I’ll see if there are any assassination bounties.”
Anya looks up from the desk, where she’s doing her own sums, “Oh, good plan.”
Xander raises his hands, “No, no, bad idea. They’d arrest you and then you’d be put in jail and you’d never see Dawn again.”
Buffy adds, “Espionage? Sabotage?”
When Xander shakes his head at each option, Buffy sags, before her eyes brighten again. Quickly, she gets up and grabs a world atlas from the shelf. Stabbing her finger down on a place in the middle east she says, “I know, we could take a shuttle here, and find a couple of Auron seams. That would solve the problem.”
Anya shakes her head, “Great idea, but you can’t afford the plane ticket.”
Buffy slams her hand on the table, which makes an ominous cracking sound, “Void damn it.”

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After Buffy’s picked Dawn up from school, the two of them make their way to the bank. While she’s waiting in line, Buffy mutters, “They’re all civilians, they’re all civilians. They’re not going to attack you. Stay calm.”

All of her muttering comes to naught, as, while the cashier is checking the account balance, there’s a scream from behind them, and a tinkle of glass. Spinning around, the two of them see a grey skinned demon that looks a bit like a humanoid shark, with gill like markings on his cheeks. As she watches, it throws off two security guards, before tossing a customer through the glass of a cubical office. Buffy puts on a smile and confidently walks over to the demon.
“Hey, I know it’s frustrating in here, but you just need to be patient.”
As it turns towards her, it growls, so she puts on her best smile, “Hey, if you’re a civilian, then deposits are that queue, withdrawals are that queue. Otherwise, Slaying is this queue.”
When it sends her flying through a window with an uppercut, she smiles as she rolls to her feet and activates Guardian Shield, covering both herself and Dawn, “Oh, good, you’re not a civilian. That means I get to kick your arse.”

Launching back into the fight, she exchanges blows with the demon, while trying to manoeuvre into a position that she can safely shoot it. While her shield protects her, from being hit, she can’t say the same about having bodies thrown at her. As she dodges out of the way of another customer, she hears Dawn shriek. Quickly looking over at her, she’s relieved to see that the debris hit the shield and not Dawn. That moments inattention is enough for the demon to get in, under her guard, and lift her up around her hips.

As Buffy’s trying to get some leverage to break the Demons hold, one of the security guards fires a gun at the demon, which seems to have no effect.
“Put the lady down.”
Buffy goes flying as the Demon throws her at the security guard, taking them both to the floor. Picking up the gun, Buffy quickly evaluates it before throwing it to one side, “These things never help, try a shotgun or a rifle next time.”

Scrambling to her feet, she races after the demon, who’s heading for the entrance. As she does, she gets a face full of customer. Once she gets past the civilian, the Demon has disappeared, and she sighs, before making her way over to Dawn to ensure she’s unharmed.

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After the Magic Box has closed, Tara gently takes a book on demons from Dawn while Anya and Xander are discussing something about their engagement, “No Dawn, leave the books alone.”
Dawn pouts, “But I want to help.”
“Dawn, you’re not old enough.”
“I am so old enough to help with research. Don’t you think I’m mature enough?”
Tara shakes her head as she takes the books back to the table, “Dawn, I think you’re very mature for your age, but you’re still only 15.”
Dawn puts her hands on her hips, “Yes, teen, as in teenager. You know, if you don’t let me look at the pictures, I’m gonna learn everything I know about demons on the street.”
Knowing a losing argument when she hears one, Tara just nods and hands Dawn a book, “Knock yourself out.”
Dawn takes the book, “Thank you.”

Opening the book to a random page, Dawn looks at the picture for a moment, “Um, that’s a weird place for a horn…” As her brain catches up with her eyes, she closes the book, “That’s not a horn.”
Tara’s about to say something when Xander interrupts, “Look, I still don’t get it. I mean, what kind of a demon would rob a bank?”
While he’s speaking, Dawn opens the book randomly again, only to stop and stare at a picture of the demon that attacked the bank.
Anya shakes her head, “The kind that wants money.”
“What do you even call that?”
Dawn blinks as she processes Xander’s question, lifting the book, she turns it around, “What, you mean this? It’s got an apostrophe. I think it’s M’Fashnik.”

As the four of them are discussing the pronunciation of the name, Buffy and Willow walk in from the back door. When she notices them, Dawn holds up the book and smiles as she says, “This your guy?”
Buffy smiles, “You do research now? Great job.”
Tara frowns, “Don’t-Don’t you think she’s a little young?”
Buffy looks surprised, “Why? She’s 15. She’s older than I was the first time I had to kill someone.” Then mumbles, “Both times.”
Willow comes to Tara’s defence, “That doesn’t mean that Dawn should be doing this.”
Buffy looks at Willow with a ‘did you really just say that’ expression, “Willow, do you remember who used to help Giles with the research in the Library?”
Willow sags, “Oh, yeah.”
Buffy smiles brightly, “Great job Dawn, you should keep it up. As until I get you trained up, knowing what you can fight, and what you should run away from is vitally… important…” She trails off as the front door of the shop opens, and Giles walks in.

The two of them stare at each other for a long moment, Buffy at one of the few people she’d trust with her back in this life. Giles at someone he never believed he’d ever see again. At some unseen signal, they both start walking towards each other, until they meet half way in a hug.
As his walking, Giles softly says, “Dear God. You’re alive. You’re here.” As Buffy hugs him tight, he shakily adds, “And you’re still remarkably strong!”
Buffy looks up at Giles and blinks for a second, before letting Giles go, “Uh, sorry.”
Giles looks down at the girl he spent so long mentoring, and even protecting on occasion, “Willow told me, but I didn’t really let myself believe it.”
Buffy chuckles, “Try it from this side, one minute I’m being stabbed in the back, the next I’m here.”
Giles chuckles in response, “It’s a…”
Buffy smiles, “A miracle?”
“Yes.”
Buffy shrugs, “Something like that, yes.”

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After a brief, and uninformative, conversation with Buffy in the training room. Giles returns to the shop front, only to be greeted by an enthusiastic Anya, “Giles, I’m so glad you’re back.”
Smiling down at the Ex-vengeance demon, he replies, “Yes, well, it’s certainly unexpected.”
“You can’t have the shop back.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You signed papers.”
“I did.”
Satisfied for now, Anya lets Giles go, and he looks over at the table, “And do we have information on this new demon, that I suddenly find so desperately interesting?”
Dawn smiles proudly, “I found him, look.”
Giles takes the proffered book, and glances at the page, “M’Fashnik.”
Dawn looks at the others with a triumphant expression, “Like, M’Cookies.”
Missing the context, Giles absently responds, “No, quite different actually.”
Tara looks surprised, “You know it?”
Giles continues scanning the entry, “Hmm, by reputation. They come from a long line of mercenary demons. Causing murder and mayhem for the highest bidder. Course, now the question is, who’s powerful enough to control one of those things?”

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It’s nearly 11pm when Giles manages to get Willow alone by chance as he’s going into the kitchen for some water.
Willow smiles as she sees Giles, “Hey Giles, did you have a good talk with Buffy?”
Giles resolutely makes his way to the sink, and in a level voice replies, “Yes, now she’s back.”
Willow cheerfully replies, “Yeah, isn’t it awesome?”
“Quite.” Giles glances back at Willow, “Tell me about the spell you performed.”
Willow sounds a little surprised as she replies, “Oh. Ok, first of all it was so scary. I had things crawling under my skin, and then a snake came out of my mouth. But I managed to keep it together, even when a group of demons interrupted the spell. So, what do you think?”
Giles turns back to face her, “What do I think? What do I think? I think you’re an irresponsible little girl that’s playing with things she can’t understand.”
Offended, Willow responds defensively, “What, so I’m the bad guy now? I brought her back when nobody else could.”
“Really? Did you ever think if you should have brought her back? Do you even know where she was? I was the one that did it, and you’d have done it too if you were there.”
Controlling his anger, Giles bites back, “No, I wouldn’t. I’d have stopped you if I was here. You’re lucky to be alive now. Hell, we all are. You have no idea what you could have done, you could have opened a portal to hell, you could have annihilated the planet, you could have got yourself and your friends killed. And for what?”
Willow pushes to her feet, “But I didn’t, I controlled it, I guided the magic, and I made it work.”
Giles shakes his head, “No, you got lucky. When I left, I thought you were the responsible one. Instead, I find that you’re still just a child, playing with things she doesn’t understand and believing it makes her better than anyone else. Well, here’s some news for you, there are other people out there that could do what you did. But you wouldn’t want to meet them.”
“That’s because they’re bad guys, and we stop bad guys. I’m not a bad guy.”
“Oh, you poor deluded fool, thinking that it’s that easy.”
“Well, maybe it is that easy.”

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Outside, the back door, Buffy stands, watching the moon with a wistful expression on her face. Her thoughts are running over the conversation she’s just had with Giles about how her mother handled all of the stuff she’s now responsible for with no special powers. Absently, she squashes a cigarette butt that lands on the decking by her foot.
“Hey Spike.”
“Slayer. Are you ok?”
“Yeah, just looking at the moon.”
“Did you hear all that?”
Buffy looks down at Spike, “I did, and it’s nothing I hadn’t guessed already.”
“They must seem like children to you.”
Buffy sighs and sits down on a step, “Innocents. Innocents, not children. We-We could never grow old, never mature. It wasn’t so bad, as we didn’t know any different.”
“How did you handle it?”
“Same way as everyone else, one day at a time. Take your fun where you can, and try to leave the universe a better place than you found it.”
Spike sits down beside her, “What about your friends?”
Buffy chuckles, “They all think I’m broken.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not at all, I come from a different culture, a different society. There were colonies, did you know that. Dotted all over the place. From a few hundred people to tens of thousands. And they all existed in the gap between the rock and the hard place. If the Grineer won, they’d have been exterminated. If the Corpus won, they’d have been exploited until they were little more than slaves. We-We were the protectors of that gap.” Buffy waves behind her, “They’ve never seen anything like that. They couldn’t comprehend just how important that space could be, and how careful you have to be with the power you wield. One false step, one push too far, and the whole thing starts to fall down around you. Then you’re left rushing from one crisis to another until things stabilise again. Except, during that time, you’ve lost something precious and irreplaceable. Maybe, if you’re lucky, in time, something equally precious will take its place.”
“You must have seen so much of that.”
Buffy nods, “And caused more than my fair share too. It’s why I’m pushing Dawn so hard. I don’t want her to be helpless if I make a mistake, and she becomes a target again.”
“You know they’d all crawl over glass to help you, don’t you.”
Buffy laughs, “That’s the problem, they wouldn’t stop to think about if they should crawl over the glass. Apart from Giles, I don’t think any of them understand the price of power.”
“Too bloody right.”

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It’s nearly 5am when Dawn softly walks down the stairs. As her foot lands on the squeaky step, Giles looks up from the sofa.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he says softly.
Dawn looks over in surprise, “No, I just woke up and noticed the time.”
Giles snorts in amusement, “So, what has you downstairs so early?”
“I figured I’d get a head start today, rather than letting Buffy dribble cold water over me to get me out of bed.”
“And what’s she doing getting you up so early?”
“She’s training me. Wherever she was, it was really bad, and she wants me to be prepared.”

Just as Giles is about to respond, someone violently rattles the door handle. Concerned, Giles looks at Dawn, “Um, that door is locked, isn’t it?”
Dawn steps backwards cautiously, “Uh huh.”
“Good, because I’d…” Giles is cut off as the demon from the bank breaks the door by kicking the door open.
As it does, it knocks Dawn over backwards, and the Demon backhands Giles across the face. Knocking him sprawling into the living room, where he lands on the floor and doesn’t rise again. Stepping around he door, the Demon looks down at Dawn, “You’re not the slayer, but you’ll do to start with.”

As it leans down, Dawn screams, only to peter off as a ball of light explodes above it, pulling it into the air by a vortex of energy. Coming down the stairs in her exercise clothes, Buffy smiles at Dawn.
“Great idea, terrible execution. Hiding behind something is a great way to catch an opponent off guard, however you had no idea what you were going to face.” Buffy ducks under the struggling demon, and helps Dawn to her feet, “Now, come on, lets head out to the street where there’s plenty of space for a proper fight, and I’ll show you how some of those motions in Vazarin work in reality.”
Struggling above her, just out of reach, the Demon growls, “I’m going to kill you.”

Buffy ignores him as she ducks down underneath his reach, and out into the street, tugging Dawn with her. Leading Dawn across the street, Buffy returns to the centre of the road just as the vortex ends, and the demon lands heavily on the floor. What follows is an increasingly frantic hand to hand fight, as the demons strength and toughness is more than a match for anything that Buffy can deal out barehanded. The fight is interspersed by periods of instruction while the demon is caught in a void snare. Something that seems to just make the demon even more irate.

Eventually, the demon comes to the conclusion that he should be attacking Dawn rather than Buffy. At that point, the fight finishes with a beam of crackling white light that takes nearly half a second to burn through the demon and appear out the other side. As the light of Buffy’s void beam dies away, Dawn finds herself shivering from more than just the cold. Buffy walks over to Dawn and pauses, momentarily, as Dawn flinches. Shaking her head minutely, she carries on, and pulls Dawn into a hug.
“I’m sorry I put you through that Dawn. But you needed to see just why I’m training you, and how what you’re learning is used in an actual fight.”
Dawn looks up at her, tears in her eyes, “But, you were toying with it.”
Buffy tucks a strand of hair behind Dawns ear before kissing her on the forehead, “I know honey, that’s because I’ve had so much practice. If I’d had my training and experience before, it would have been just the same then. It was also cruel of me to draw out the fight that much, and I’d normally just end it immediately, and move on to the next threat, or the objective. But, I hope you also saw how this school wouldn’t have allowed me to actually beat this demon without a weapon. Nothing I was doing was having any effect on it. It also wouldn’t help you to defeat something like that. What it will do is help you to survive, either to run away, or until help arrives. Do you understand?” Dawn nods mutely, “Come on, let’s get you inside and you can show me how to make hot chocolate again. Then we can do some meditation after you’ve finished your hot chocolate.”
Dawn buries her head in Buffy’s chest, “I’d like that.”

As Buffy leads dawn back to the house, she pauses at the beginning of the footpath as the whole household seems to have crowded onto the porch, and Spike returned at some point in the fight.
Carefully dabbing his head with a hanky, Giles asks, “Buffy, what was that?”
Buffy looks back at the Demon that’s slowly evaporating into hell stuff, “What? That? That was me Demonstrating how the Vazarin school is used in real combat.”
Willow looks affronted, “How could you, that was cruel.”
Buffy looks askance at Willow, “What, like pulling me back to this life was cruel?”
Willow opens her mouth to reply, but Spike speaks up first, “No, I think he meant that attack at the end.”
Giles nods, “Quite right, that was no magic that I’ve ever seen.”
Buffy laughs, “That wasn’t magic, that was raw, unfocused, void energy. Now, I’m taking Dawn inside to make hot chocolate, we’ll be in the kitchen if you need us.”
Putting action to words, Buffy pulls Dawn into the void, and jumps through the wall of the house to the kitchen.

On the porch, Giles removes his glasses and starts cleaning them, “Well, that was mildly unexpected.”
Spike laughs as he heads back into the house.

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The next day, after Dawn’s gone to school, Buffy is sat looking at the money that’s left in her bank account compared to their running expenses. Giles is sat on the sofa chatting to her, when the phone goes.

Buffy looks around the room curiously, “What’s that noise?”
Giles sighs, “It’s the telephone Buffy.”
“Oh, right, I knew that. Silly me. I’ll be right back.”
A minute later Buffy comes back listening to the handset, “Hey, Giles.”
Giles looks up, “Yes Buffy?”
“Do you know anyone called Angel? As he says he knows me.”
Giles sighs, “He’s a vampire, and he used to be your lover.”
“Oh, right. Hi, Angel. Sorry, my memories a bit patchy… No, not at all. It’s more like trying to remember that restaurant that your parents took you to when you were six… No, I appreciate that your parents didn’t take you to restaurants when you were six, but I think mine did… Yes I know what LA is, it’s a nearby city… No, I’m not going to just come and see you… You do remember that Sunnydale is on a hellmouth don’t you?... Yes, and that’s also why I’m not going to come and meet you half way… No, this isn’t a negotiation, if I start disappearing, who knows what will start popping up and trying to take over the world, or this corner of it… Fine, Mindy’s at 11 on Saturday.”
An uncomfortable Giles looks at Buffy as she takes three tries to hang up, “Buffy.”
“Sorry about that Giles, Angel wants to meet up to make sure I’m ok.”
“Maybe we should talk about where you were, before you came back.”
Buffy wave airily, “Oh, that’s simple, I was there for a very long time, and the last thing I remember before being pulled back here, was being stabbed through the back, and floating through a void portal. It might have killed me. Might not have done too. Probably both if I’m honest. But I ended up in a coffin before I could find out.”
“Yes, well, I’d like to know if it was a hell dimension so that we can look out for demons following you.”
Buffy laughs, “You don’t need to worry about that. It wasn’t hell, wasn’t heaven either. It was just, elsewhere.”

After she’s put the phone back, Buffy returns to continue trying to work out her sums.

 

Buffy the Tenno – Episode 4


Later that day, while they’re all eating together, Giles smiles at Buffy, “Buffy, I’m very proud of you for not rushing off to be with Angel. Instead, you very maturely dealt with the bills.”
Buffy shakes her head, “Nah, ah, it’s just common sense. Angel wanted to meet me somewhere that I’ve never been before. I remember that he’s tried to kill me on a few occasions, so there’s no way I’m going anywhere that he could have set up as an ambush. Thanks for the nudge on who he was, by the way. I honestly hadn’t remembered him. Anyway, we’re going to meet up at Mindy’s on Saturday. It’s a public place, and I’ll have time to scout it out first.”
Willow looks surprised, “Oh, that’s unexpected.”
Buffy just smiles at her beatifically.
Giles coughs, “Yes. Anyway, do you have any thoughts about what you want to do going forward?”
Buffy nods, “Yes, I’m going to get a job. I went to the Library earlier, and there’s a couple of places that do apprenticeships that might be useful in the future. So I’m going to be looking into those tomorrow. If we’re careful, we have enough money to pay all the bills for the next couple of months. Willow, that means that you need to pay for your own internet. I don’t mind paying the line rental, but I’m not paying $100 a month so that you can use the internet. If you’re not happy paying me that, you’re welcome to get your own phone line installed, but I refuse to go into debt for someone else.”
Willow looks up at Buffy in alarm, “But what a-about all the research we do on demons here?”
Buffy smiles, “My mother had an old computer she used to use, I pulled it down from the loft and it still turns on. So Dawn can use that for her homework, and we can use that for research too, even if it is running something called Windows 98.”
“But-But I can’t afford that.”
Buffy just looks at Giles with sparkling eyes. Giles sighs, “I think that Buffy is trying to point out that she can’t afford it either.”
Willow looks down at her food, “Oh, right.”

After a couple of minutes, where everyone’s eating in silence, Giles looks up again, “More generally, do you have any thoughts about what you want to do with your life?”
Buffy chews thoughtfully, “Honestly, I think that being the Slayer is going to be a full time job here. So, I’m going to try and get training and experience in a wide range of things that will support that, and allow me to earn a living too. Metal working, electronics, programming, general science and physics especially. Maybe even as Tara if she can teach me a bit of magic.”
Tara smiles shyly, “I’d be happy to teach you.”
Willow smiles broadly, “Oh, I can teach you too. I know lots about magic.”
Buffy looks over at Willow and shakes her head, “No offence Willow. You’re a great friend, but you’re a little too advanced for me. And I’d need someone gentle to teach me.”
Giles looks surprised, “Buffy I, had no idea you were interested in magic.”
Buffy shrugs, “I don’t remember being interested before. But I’ve died since then. And, you know, dying sort of changes your priorities in life. I mean, if I knew more about magic, would I have had better options than jumping to my death?”
With a muttered, “Yes, quite.” From Giles, the table settles into an uncomfortable silence after that reference to her death.

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After dinner, Buffy looks over at Dawn, “Hey Kiddo, let’s go and get your homework done.”
Dawn smiles at her, and puts her plate by the sink, before heading to the desk in the living room.

While Buffy’s explaining a particularly thorny problem, in Orokin, translating to English, Dawn suddenly asks, “Buffy, would it be ok to go out with some friends at Halloween?”
Buffy shrugs, “Sure, just make sure you have a weapon as part of your costume, and we’ll add it to your morning practice.”
Dawn looks up at Buffy in surprise, “What? Just like that?”
Buffy looks confused, “What, did you expect me to say no?”
Dawn looks a bit embarrassed, “Well, yes. That’s what Willow and Tara normally say.”
“Dawn, you’re 15, not 5. It would be hypocritical of me to stop you going out with friends given what the three of us did at your age. When I was your age, the first time, Mum didn’t know what I was doing every night. So, I used to sneak out, a lot. I have no doubt that you would be able to do the same if I said no. On top of that, if you’ve got any friends you trust with this side of your life, don’t be afraid to invite them around. As the only reason I’m still alive, both goes round, is because I had friends I could trust.” Buffy looks down at her hands, “Of course, the first time around, I didn’t want to be the Slayer either. It took me a few years to realise that it wasn’t going to let me go, so I had to just learn to live with it.”
Dawn puts her hand on Buffy’s, “Do you want to talk about it?”
Buffy shrugs, “Maybe during meditation one day. Now, I think we were looking at the components of a cell.”

After a while, Dawn asks, “Buffy, how comes you know so much about this, but you know virtually nothing about evolution?”
“You have to get pretty good at cellular mechanics and gene manipulation when you’re breeding Kubrow and Kavats. I missed out on most of my formal education last time around, so what I know, I know well. But that knowledge was driven by interest and necessity.”
“So, why not join Willow and Tara at university?”
Buffy shudders, “People. You know how I had to wait outside the double meat palace last time we got burgers? Well, that’s because I knocked a couple of people out, and broke an arm the last few times I went in there. So, they banned me.”

Once Dawn moves onto her English homework, Buffy starts doodling in one of her notebooks. Eventually, Dawn notices and asks, “Buffy, what’s that?”
Buffy looks down at the drawing, “It’s a kind of bo staff, one that I think I could actually make here. Honestly, I’d prefer a sword, but none of the ones I’ve looked in the armoury are remotely good enough. And the ones I can remember the designs for need material that doesn’t exist yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t exactly head to Jupiter to harvest Oxium, which is a lighter than air crystal. Same as I can’t harvest interstellar asteroids to find Tellurium crystals.”

Once Dawn finishes her homework, Buffy ruffles her hair, “Well done, you barely needed my help. Well, I’m off for my patrol.”
Dawn smiles at her, “Have fun, can I phone my friend?”
“Sure, just, don’t spend too long on the phone. That reminds me, once I’ve earnt some money, we’re buying you a mobile phone.”
“Buffy! They’re expensive.”
“I know they are Dawn, but it might save your life one day.”

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Later that night, Willow and Tara are laying in bed, when Willow asks, “Do you think there’s something wrong with Buffy?”
Tara turns over to face her, “What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s that magic she used yesterday.”
“Well, we did bring her back from a hell, so maybe she had to learn how to channel it to survive.”
“What about that stuff with Taxmen?”
Tara shrugs, “I’ve never read about any demon like that, or Corpus.”
“Do you think she’s evil? Did I bring back an evil Buffy?”
“No, no. Maybe she would have become evil if we didn’t bring her back. But you stole her from the Demon that was going to do that.”
“I did, didn’t I. It’s just, she’s so violent now. I know she had to be as the Slayer, but it’s worse now. And look what she’s doing to Dawn.”

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Downstairs, at a similar time, Giles is on the phone to a contact in a British coven, “Yes, yes, I didn’t expect to be here either… She’s alive… I know, but she knows things… Would you… I just need to know she’s not tainted… I don’t want the council involved unless she is… I look forward to hearing from you… And you.”

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The next morning finds Buffy on the streets, heading to the industrial area where she met Dawn a few weeks ago. As she reaches the outskirts of the area, she pauses to watch trucks and lorries passing in and out on their way to or from the few surviving businesses. Taking a deep breath, buffy makes her way down the road, past rows of derelict factories. She’s almost all the way through the district, and into the commercial district, when she starts to hear the sound of a hammer on metal.

Pausing for a moment to orientate herself to the sound, a truck drives past before turning into a small factory complex making the task moot. Following the truck, she turns off the road into a complex of factory buildings. As she clears the edge of the first factory, she enters a large courtyard style parking area. Around the edges of the area are individual small factory units. Looking around, the truck that just passed her is parked outside a unit on the far left. There, she can see a couple of burly men lifting a wooden sideboard out of the workshop.

A shower of sparks, and the sound of a grinder on metal draws her attention to a double width car garage, where a black man is grinding away at the rust on the fender of a car. Slowly, she walks around the edges of the courtyard, looking through the open shutter doors. She’s almost made an entire circuit of the area when she spots someone working on a metal lathe as the light sparkles off the spinning work. Curiously, she walks in, and as her eyes adjust to the darkness, she spots an anvil near the back of the unit, with some other equipment nearby that she can’t identify. Looking around, the interior, her eyes pick out half a dozen people working on different projects, until she comes back to the lathe worker.

Cautiously, to make sure she doesn’t disturb anything, she makes her way over to have a better look at what they’re doing. As she watches, a rectangular block of metal is turned into a cylinder, before the worker stops and starts removing one of the jaws of the lathe. A sudden, bright flash of light sees the worker swear as he drops something behind the machine. Turning to look deeper into the factory, he shouts, “Kyle, you bastard, put up the damn screens!”
Kyle turns back with a welding mask over his face, “It was just a single tap weld! Stop your complaining.”

As she’s watching them, someone taps her on the shoulder. Spinning around, she brings her hand up in a strike, only for the large black man to block it with his forearm, “Easy there girly, I just wanted to know watcha doing here.”
Buffy relaxes her stance sheepishly, “Sorry about that, I was looking for a job.”
“Well, why don’t ya come up to my office, and you can tell me what a white girl like you is doing looking for work ‘round here.”
Buffy nods, and starts to follow the man up a flight of stairs on the other side of the workshop, “I’m Buffy.”
“Nice to meet ya Buffy, I’m Mike. Quite an arm you’ve got on you?”
“Sorry about that.”
Mike opens the door to the office, to reveal a small reception with a white, middle aged, receptionist. “Ain’t no skin off my nose, you ain’t the first one to take a swing at me. Won’t be the last either. You serve?”
Buffy glances at the woman, and then at the windows, and the two doors, “Ah.”
Mike follows her gaze before nodding, “This is Millie, our receptionist and sales rep. On account of some people don’t like dealing with black men.”
“Oh.”
“Come on, my office is through here.”

Once Buffy’s perched on the edge of a chair in Mikes office, Mike looks at her with an appraising gaze, “You saw combat.” The way he says it, makes it more a statement of fact, than a question.
Buffy nods.
Mike nods thoughtfully, “I thought so, I’ve seen that look far too often. Mostly in the mirror. What did you do, join up straight out of high school?”
Buffy nods, “Something like that.”
“So, why are you here? You can’t be more than 20, and there’s no way you’ve finished your first tour.”
Buffy looks out the window overlooking the workshop floor, in a dead voice she says, “Mum died of cancer last year. My sister’s been living at home with some friends, until I got back a few weeks ago.”
Mike nods, “That would do it, bet they just discharged you without pension too.” Buffy nods absently, “So why come here, you’re still young you could go to college, get a job serving food.”
Buffy looks back, “I don’t want to kill anyone. There’s too many people at the colleges.”
Mike nods, “What did you do? If you’re allowed to talk about it.”
Buffy shrugs, “Assassination, extermination, espionage, retrieval, whatever was needed.”
“Shit, at your age? They recruiting young these days.”
Buffy shakes her head, “I was the best, so there was no one else. And I guess, I just kept surviving.”
“That don’t make it right. Look, why are you here, I mean in my workshop not just this area.”
Buffy stands up and walks to the window so she can see the tools on the floor, “I heard the sound of a hammer on metal, and I know metal. Maybe I can learn to make things rather than just destroy them.”
“You ever worked with metal before?”
Buffy shakes her head, “No, but I’ve read about it. It looks different to what I imagined.”
Mike nods thoughtfully, “Ok, I can give you an apprenticeship, but I have a full rota for the morning shift. That means you’ll be on the late shift. Will you be alright staying after dark?”
Buffy nods, “That’s fine. There’s nothing in the dark that scares me anymore.”
“Well Buffy, this is Sunnydale. I don’t know what you saw out there, but this place will max your weird-shit-o-meter like nowhere else. Now, do you have any problems with working with… minorities?”
Buffy shakes her head, “As long as they don’t hunt, kill, or eat, civilians, I couldn’t care less.”
Mike nods, “Well, that gives me some idea of what you used to do. Come by on Friday at 4, and I’ll introduce you to my partner. Your shift will be 4-10pm daily, and you’ll start Monday, if everything goes well on Friday. We can only pay you minimum wage until you’ve got some training under your belt, but you’re welcome to use the machinery when you’re not working.”
Buffy turns around, “Thank you Mike.”
Mike smiles, “Don’t mention it, and welcome to Mikes Machining. Let’s go talk to Millie to get you signed up. While you’re doing the paperwork, I’ll give you a list of books you need to read.”
Just as they’re leaving, Buffy belatedly asks, “What exactly do you do here anyway?”
Mike laughs, “Pretty much a bit of everything. Precision turning, iron mongering, welding, engraving, you name it, if it has something to do with turning a block of metal into something, we’ve probably got the equipment to do it, and have done it in the past. There’s not enough business here to survive otherwise. Cities like LA, they have enough people that they can afford to have shops that specialise. Not like Sunnydale and the other nearby towns. Of course, the main reason we’re still in business, is that property is dirt cheap here.”

As a more cheerful Buffy leaves the workshop, Mike looks at her full name with a frown, “Millie, make sure that Razial knows that the Slayer starting an apprenticeship with us. I don’t want any accidents on Friday that are caused by us. I thought she was too young for the forces.”

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With a smile on her face, Buffy turns her feet towards the town centre, and the public library there. Yes, the necessary clothing will put a dent in the finances until she gets her first paycheque, but after that, they should be able to get the plumbing fixed with the last of mum’s money. Of course, that assumes that Willow comes up with the money for her internet usage. As she reaches the road for the Library, a black van goes past in the other direction. Unnoticed by Buffy, it pulls into a nearby parking lot, before turning around and following her at a distance.

Half an hour later, Buffy is holding an armful of books from the list, while looking at other books in the same section. As she’s browsing, a young man bumps into her from behind, and the only thing that saves him from a reflexive attack is the armful of books clattering to the floor. Swearing at the inconsiderateness of some people, Buffy picks up the books, and makes her way to a table so that she can flick through the introductory chapter of a few of the other books that looked relevant.

Sitting down, she picks up a book on smelting, and opens it to the contents. She’s read a couple of lines when she catches sight of a young woman sat on the other side of the table to her, typing notes on a laptop with a few books open beside her. Startled, she stands up abruptly, knocking her chair over. When everyone in the research area stares at her, she mumbles, “Sorry, I didn’t see you arrive.”
The woman smiles at her reassuringly, and returns to her own work.

Picking her chair up, Buffy sits back down and opens the book again. As she starts to read again, she gets through another couple of lines before looking up in alarm as the woman disappears, along with some of the people that were reading nearby. Grabbing the books on her list, as well as the one about smelting, she hurries to the counter, only to stop in horror as the clock above the counter starts to move forward rapidly. Reflexively, she pulls the void around her so that she can take stock of the situation, and the clock returns to its normal speed.

Carefully, she looks around for anything that could be causing this. Conscious of the fact that she has a limited time she can spend wrapped in the void, even if it’s less limited than normal as she doesn’t have an amp bleeding off excess energy. Not seeing anything around her, she starts to check her clothing and books, just in case someone got something on her. There, on the back of her wrap, is a tiny dot of something. Growling to herself, she picks it off her top and looks at. Her growl changes to an expression of pleased surprise, as she realises that it’s a piece of complex electronics. Quickly, she opens a couple of the books she was holding, searching for the antitheft tags they put inside them. Heedless of the damage she’s causing the covers, she rips two of them out and hurriedly sandwiches the device between the two stickers. Cautiously letting go of the void while she still has just enough energy to return to the void if it didn’t work, she breathes a sigh of relief when time keeps passing like normal.

Checking out the books takes a bit longer than expected, as the librarian tuts and moans about people not respecting their books as she carefully replaces both the antitheft sticker, and the checkout sheet. Then she needs to show the inside of her purse, as the alarms go off as she’s walking out, to the mumbled complaint about stores not removing their own tags properly.

On the way home, she frowns at a black van that’s taking up a back alley that she often uses as a shortcut, before taking the long way home with the library books.

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As Buffy gets home, she’s about to close the door when she sees the school bus pull up to the curb. She smiles when she sees Dawn get down from the bus, along with another girl the same age. Dawn looks surprised when she sees Buffy there, “Buffy, you’re home?”
Buffy smiles, “I am, and I got a job too. But, enough about me, who’s your friend?”
Dawn smiles, “This is Janice, my best friend from school.”
Buffy smiles at Janice, and then steps aside as a Sunnydale welcome. Once they’re inside, Buffy closes the door, mentally noting that she needs to thank Xander for repairing it. Turning back to the children she smiles again, “Hi Janice. As Dawn mentioned, I’m Buffy. While you’re here, there’s a couple of ground rules that you need to be aware of. First of all, never approach me from behind. If you need my attention call my name, or approach from the front. I’ve had a… rather traumatic past, and I react violently when touched unexpectedly. The second thing is that homework is always done after dinner.”
Janice looks at Dawn questioningly, so Dawn replies, “See, I told you she was cool now. Come on, I’ll show you the house.”

As the two of them head into the kitchen, Buffy takes the books to the desk, before sitting down to open the mail. A few minutes later, Buffy says, “Dawn, I think Giles is going to need that pen later.”

As she turns her head, Dawn looks around guiltily, while Janice looks surprised, “Dawn, come with me. Janice, I’m sorry about this, but I need to have a word with Dawn here. Would you mind watching TV while we chat?”
Janice shakes her head, before turning on the TV.

A minute later, Buffy leads a sullen Dawn into the yard, where she kneels down and waits for Dawn to kneel down opposite her.
“Dawn, what was that?”
Dawn tries to bluster, “What was what?”
“Taking Giles’ pen from his bag. If you hadn’t looked guilty I’d have probably assumed you needed to use it. But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there.”
“It’s a nice pen.”
Buffy nods, “I have no doubt it is. But it’s not your pen. Why did you take it?”
Dawn sulks, “Nobody’s ever noticed before.”
“Dawn, what do you think would have happened if someone had noticed before?”
Dawn shrugs, “They’d have told me off?”
Buffy shakes her head, “They’d have stopped trusting you. You’d have found things that you used to be able to just use, were suddenly put away. There’d have always been someone watching you. And, if the wrong person saw you, they might have hurt you badly.”
“Would that have been so bad, at least then I’d know they wanted me around.”
“Dawn, since I got back, have I ever given you any indication that I don’t want you around?” Dawn shakes her head, “So, what’s going on?”
Dawn tries to meet Buffy’s eyes, but ends up looking at her bellybutton, “Mum died, and then you were so busy saving the world, and I tried to keep up, but…”
Buffy takes her hands softly, “And then I died, and everyone seemed to be too busy to take care of your needs?”
Dawn sniffs, “Yes, and I tried to get them to pay attention to me, but they were always told me to go away. So.”
Buffy nods understandingly, “Dawn, you are my sister, and my student. I’ve already lost mum twice, so I’m not going to lose you because I can’t take the time to look after you. Do you understand?”
Dawn nods, “But, you said you got a job.”
Buffy nods, “I did, and I was going to talk to you about it later, before I spoke to the others. I’m supposed to meet the people I’ll be working with on Friday, so I’ll pick you up from school. I want you to come with me because I’ll be working from 4pm to 10pm on weekdays.”
“But what about your research time?”
“I can do that during the day if I have to. I’ll also move our homework time to before breakfast, so that you don’t lose out. But I want you promise me that you’ll try to stop stealing. If it helps, imagine what it would be like if you stole from the demon that broke in last night, and he caught you. What do you think he’d have done? Now, if you’ve stolen anything from Janice or her family, I want you to get it and give it back to her with an apology.”
Dawn looks uncomfortable, “But, what if she doesn’t want to be friends after that? I’m not saying I’ve stolen anything from her or anything.”
“Then you cry and accept that that is the price you paid for stealing from her. Now, go on. In you go I’m going to mediate for a minute.”
Dawn slowly makes her way back into the house and pauses at the stairs for a moment as she watches Janice watching TV. She takes a step towards the sofa before looking back to the yard door, and walking up the stairs. A couple of minutes later, she comes back down and sits on the sofa next to Janice.
After a couple of minutes Janice asks, “Are you alright?”
Dawn lets out a shaky breath, “That was horrible. She didn’t raise her voice once, but still made me feel miserable.”
Janice nods, “Yeah, like, I hate it when The Mominator does that to me.”
Dawn puts a hairclip, with an embroidered butterfly on it, into Janice’s hand, “Here, this is yours. I’m sorry, I, um, took it from your dresser.”
Janice looks down at the hairclip, “I wondered where that went, I thought I’d lost it at school.”
“Well, I took it. I’m sorry.”
Buffy smiles as she void jumps back into the yard, before turning around and walking back in.

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The next couple of days are a lesson in frustration for Buffy, as first of all, she’s attacked by three demons, in broad daylight, while shopping for steel toecap boots. Then on Friday, she’s trapped in a time loop at a clothing store that Anya recommended, until she bought something. The problem being that the store sold absolutely nothing suitable for working around metal or fire. On top of that, almost everything was outside her budget. In the end she bought a hairclip with a flower on it, before storming off to find a store that actually sold hard wearing clothing.

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Dawn walks up to a grumpy looking Buffy that’s standing at the gates to the school, “Hey Buffy, are you ok?”
Buffy grumps before she says, “I’m fine, just frustrated because I’ve just spent the last 32 hours in a shop, only to be forced to buy a hairband.”
Dawn looks at her sister levelly, “32 hours, really?”
Buffy sighs, “No, not really, it was more like 5. As I was appallingly slow on the uptake, and didn’t realise I couldn’t break the time loop until I bought something. Here, I think it’s more your thing than mine anyway.” She hands over a small plastic bag.
Opening the bag, Dawn squeals when she sees the hairclip, “It’s great, thank you.”
Buffy smiles, “You’re welcome. Now how’s Janice?”
Dawn looks down, “She didn’t sit with me today.”
Buffy crouches down and lifts Dawn’s chin, “Hey, I’m sure you’ll make up. It would have been worse if she found out on her own. Now, come on, we’ve got a fair walk ahead of us, as we’re going past the mall.”
“Ugh, can’t we take the bus?”
Buffy indicates the traffic jam of parents picking up their children in their cars, “How long do you think we’d need to wait for the bus?”
“Fine…!”
Buffy ruffles her hair, “Cheer up, we can afford to buy an ice cream on the way.”

40 minutes later, Buffy and Dawn walk into Mikes, 5 minutes late. As she pushes through the side door, Buffy winces as she sees Mike and a figure wearing hooded robes, presumably his partner, waiting for her.
“Sorry I’m late, I needed to pick Dawn up from school, because none of my friends were going to be at home when the bus got there. Dawn, this is Mike, hopefully my boss unless I’ve screwed up already.”
Mike exchanges a glance with his partner before looking back, “This is Razial, my partner. Before we take you upstairs to meet with your co-workers, we need to know if the Slayer is safe to be around for the supernatural elements of Sunnydale.”
Buffy’s eyebrows rise, “Well, that all depends on the supernatural elements. If they’re not hunting, killing, or eating civilians, I don’t have a problem with them.”
Dawn looks at Buffy in shock, “Buffy!”
Buffy looks down at Dawn, “What? It’s true. Well, true now. I fight against the darkness to protect the innocents. I can’t go picking and choosing who those innocents are, otherwise I’m the one bringing darkness.”
“But demons are evil.”
Buffy shrugs, “So are many humans, and I don’t go around killing them. Or do you think I should go out and kill Anya, Spike, and Angel?”
“No, they’re not evil.”
“Have you ever listened to Anya talking? She’s still very much evil, but it’s now a more human evil. The only reason Spike isn’t cutting a swathe through the world is because of a microchip in his head, and the only reason Angel isn’t evil is he’s got someone elses soul inside of him.”
Mike coughs, “Quite. Anyway, I’ll hand over to Razial now.”
Buffy flushes in embarrassment, “I’m sorry. Um, before you go, on days that my friends can’t watch Dawn for me after school. Erm, would it be alright to bring her to work?”
Mike waves to Razial, “That’s up to my partner, he’s the boss after 4pm, and I’m just the partner.”
Razial pulls his hood back to reveal his reptilian appearance, blood red eyes, and prominent fangs, “I have not killed or eaten a civilian since I met Mike in 78.”
Buffy shrugs, “Cool, anyway, I’m Buffy, and I hope we can work together.”
Razial looks at the two of them, Dawn, who’s now hiding behind her sister, and The Slayer, who’s standing there without a care in the world, “You do not fear me?”
“I’ve seen worse, killed worse too. And you’re not tense, or ready to attack me.”
“Are you so sure of that Slayer?”
Buffy lifts her hand, and relaxes her control over the void for a moment to allow it to crackle between her fingers, “Look, if you were a threat, you’d be dead already. You’re not, and I grew tired of fighting just because a few centuries ago. If you don’t give me a reason to fight, I won’t give you a reason to die.”
Razial nods once, “I’ve got it from here Mike. Come on, let’s meet the others and they can get to work.”

Buffy and Dawn follow Razial up the stairs and into the reception. There, rather than Milli from earlier, a succubus sits behind the reception desk. Around the room are half a dozen people, a mix of Demon and Human, all chatting together. A plate of cockroaches is sat next to a plate of cookies.
When the door swings closed behind them, Razial addresses the room, “Good evening everyone. This is the new apprentice, Buffy Summers, and her sister Dawn. Buffy, this is Vhesthine, our receptionist, and sales rep. For similar reasons to having Millie on during the day. Once you’re up to working on commissions, she’ll be the one with your work list. I won’t introduce the rest, as I’m sure you’ll get to know them once you start working here.”
Buffy nods, “So what will I be doing, if I’m not doing commissions?”
Razial give a tooth filled smile, “To start with, you’ll be cleaning up the floor and the equipment. Once we’re sure you know how to maintain the equipment, we’ll start you on the basics, and you’ll be prepping stock for the others. We may even get you making nails for the Joes across the way, as they’re always needing those for their carpentry.”
One of the demons looks at Buffy intently, and then backs away to the wall, “She’s the bloody Slayer, please don’t kill me.”
Razial gives the Demon a stern look, “Not in here she isn’t. Out there, she’s the Slayer. In here, she’s just Buffy the apprentice. If you can’t handle that, then there’s the door. And you treat her sister just like you would any of the other children that you’ve all had to look after occasionally.”
The demon sags against the wall, “Yes boss.”
Razial shakes his head and turns to Buffy, “Be aware that you’ll probably get that a lot, as The Slayer is, what did Mike call it, oh yes, The Bogeyman for most Demons.”
With that proclamation, the workers all grabbed a work order from Vhesthine before making their way downstairs. It’s only a few minutes later that Buffy and Dawn leave too, as Buffy has to go over her details again, this time with Vhesthine. And Vhesthine makes sure that Dawn has the late shift contact details for the workshop.

As they step out of the workshop into the evening sunshine, Dawn leans against the wall with a relieved sigh, “Phew, that was scary.”
Buffy pulls her sister into a hug, “I know it was, but you did well. We, that is the Scoobie gang, have given you a very skewed perspective on demon kind. I know I wasn’t expecting that, and I remember going to Willy’s bar a few times. But, do you know one thing I was forced to learn in the Origin system?”
Dawn shakes her head, “No, I don’t think you’ve talked about that before.”
“Come on, lets walk and talk. In the origin system, when I first woke up after the war, everything seemed so simple. The Grineer were the bad guys and we were the good guys. I knew they were the bad guys because they were the ones trying to capture me in order to dissect me. Then I fought my way through their bases, until I found the coordinates of the Venus solar rail. Once I got to Venus, I found out about the Corpus, and debt slaves. That’s where I met Legz, and was introduced to Solaris United. I helped them to disrupt Corpus operations on Venus to the point where the overseer had to backtrack on his heavy handed tactics. However, before I him to that point, he called in all of Legz debt, and reclaimed his whole body. All he was left with was his brain, and that was only until his next life support payment was due. Anyway, once I freed them, Legz got a body back, and he now makes, made, MOA’s. He died, 300 years ago when his brain ran out, and he couldn’t afford the gene therapy to refresh it again. From there I moved on to Mercury, where I found out that the Grineer mine there, and that’s where many of the solar systems resources come from.
“When I found the keys to the route to Mars, I returned to Venus and ventured into the ‘Dark Sector’. That’s where I first encountered the infested. A bioengineered plague that takes over organics and robotics alike. Suddenly, everything was turned on its head, as the Corpus and Grineer were both fighting against the infested, and each other. That’s when I decided to visit the Ancient Tenno Relay near the Venus Solar rail, and met the representatives of the main six neutral factions. There I was confronted with Grineer that were free, and Corpus that weren’t Corpus. This was before I regained my memories and awareness as a person. So, this was the first time I was ever confronted by the fact that every faction is filled with individuals, and just because most members of that faction behave in a certain way, doesn’t mean they all do.
“That, in Mikes, was you coming across the same thing outside the few people you know.”

As Buffy finishes speaking, Dawn quickly looks back and tries to look like she was paying attention, “That sucks.”
Buffy laughs, “When did you stop listening?”
Dawn puffs out her chest, “Who says I stopped listening.”
Buffy just ruffles her hair, “Come on, the magic box is here, and I want to talk to Giles about the demons that attacked me, as well as the time loop.”
Dawn stops outside the door, “Now that you’ve got a job, are you going to stop paying attention to me?”
Buffy turns around and pulls Dawn into a hug, “Of course not. There will be times when I honestly can’t pay attention to you. Such as when I’m at work, and I have to concentrate. But there will never be a time where I won’t come for you if you’re in trouble. I don’t work on weekends, so we’ll have those together. And I still want to do your homework with you, even if it means doing it after training.”
Dawn just nods sadly.

 

Jedi Master Fay frowns as she meditates between a rare natural phenomenon, and a raging waterfall. The phenomenon is a waterfall pouring from a crack in the rock above the ledge she’s sat on that has zero turbulence as it passes through a gap in the floor to the river below. The planet she’s on is an uncharted oddity that is in a stable, perfectly circular, orbit around a black hole. The light from the accretion disk replacing that of a sun. Mere minutes spent here will see days pass in the wider galaxy. By some quirk of nature, or possibly engineering, the entire planet is a void in the force from outside its orbit, while inside the orbit it glows like a sun in the sky.
Nearby, on the more solid ledge of the mountain, is a nanny droid looking after the two clones the force near demanded that she commission. Both of them babies just over a year old with none of the learning chips that are routinely installed to interface with the accelerated learning machines. Her gaze strays over to the two babies, one a boy made with the same template as the clones another Jedi Master had already commissioned. The other cloned from her own cells.
“Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.”
Fay’s head whips around to look at the waterfall at the deep base voice that has spoken so slowly. Instead of a fall of mirror smooth water she is instead looking down a garden path at street of homes designed for easy access to ground vehicles.
Beside a low wall a human woman wearing square glasses, an emerald cloak, and clothes in an unfamiliar fashion asks just as quickly, “How did you know it was me?”
As her hand is reaching for one of the dedicated recording devices she keeps on her, an old human with both hip length silver hair and beard, wearing a purple cloak over some sort of lime green robes. Her eyes dart up to his face, and the half-moon spectacles sitting on his long hooked nose as he answers, “My dear Professor, I’ve never seen a cat sit so stiffly.”
Fay clicks the recording device on and carefully puts the device on the floor as the woman slowly shakes her head and says, “You’d be stiff if you’d been sitting on a brick wall all day.”
Shaking her head, Fay takes out a large comm device that looks like nothing more than a flat metal slab with some grooves carved into it, and unfurls the screen from the top before linking the recording device and her ship’s general computer together. Her eyebrows rise as she realises that this isn’t just a force vision, the recording device is capturing the same things that she’s seeing. With that realisation she sets the computer to trying to identify the language while she instead studies the image she can see while the two humans talk.
Standing up, she takes a couple of paces from one side to the other before grimacing as she realises that she can see more as her angle changes, obviously this is a portal, not just a force vision. Grimacing, she adds the feed from the comm device to the recording and carefully moves both herself and the device to different sides of the portal so that she has the best possible view on the otherside.
A while later, a three wheeled ground vehicle drops out of the sky onto the road. A giant of a near human steps off carrying an incongruously small blue bundle in his arms.
Dumbfounded, Fay watches as the old human takes the bundle from the giant and places it in front of the portal. Inside the bundle Fay can see the face of a human baby. As she’s staring at the child, the old man does something that makes the pillars on the street light up, and then just vanishes.
Suddenly the force screams at her to do something as the portal begins to mist over. Darting forward with force aided speed, Fay puts one foot through the portal and leans down to pick up the baby off the doorstep, her comm device dropping to the concrete step with a clunk as she does so.
As she forces herself to step back through the portal Fay grits her teeth as it feels like she’s been torn in two. A moment later, both feet are back on the same side of the portal, along with the baby. A couple of seconds later the alignment of the planet and the black hole has shifted enough that the falling water is no longer glass smooth, instead it is full of turbulence.

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Lily’s eyes flick open in surprise at waking up, and she can’t help the yelp of surprise as she slaps herself in the face rather than just gently touching her face. A moment later she starts to scream as a giant metal head leans over her.
As she screams, a human woman with elfin ears walks over and picks her up, before cradling her in both arms. Lily’s cry cuts off in surprise when she raises her hand to ward off the giant, and she sees how stubby and unformed it is.
“What the hell?”
The woman holding her smiles as she says something in an alien language that Lily can still understand, “Thank the force that worked.”
Rather intelligently, Lily says “Huh?”
The woman continues, “Though I didn’t know you were so developed.”
“What are you talking about?”
The woman turns Lily to face the bed she was lifted from. There she can see Harry sleeping beside a baby that looks deformed. Pointing at Harry the woman says, “You were both possessing that baby. I fear the other soul is too dark to survive.”
Lily reaches her hand out towards Harry, “Harry!”
The woman smiles, “Is that his name? It’s nice. My name is Fay.”
Lily nods, “Lily Potter, where are we?” Her expression turns sour, “Scratch that, where’s the bathroom…” Before she turns bright red, “Nevermind, I need to be cleaned.”
Fay turns away from the bed with good humour, “We are on my star ship, which itself is on an unnamed planet orbiting a black hole, in an unknown star system of the Unknown Regions.”
Lily concentrates on processing that information as she suffers the indignity of having her nappy changed.

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As the screwdriver lifts off of the floor in front of her, Lily pushes herself to her feet and starts to dance with joy, “I did it! I did it!”
From her own place, where she’s playing with a 3 year old Harry and some stuffed animals, Fay smiles, “You did well in reaching for the force.”
Lily shakes her head before falling over, “Ow! Stupid body. That wasn’t the force, that was wandless magic. The same thing that’s allowing me to stay sane in this body.”
Fay shakes her head at the familiar territory, “There is no such thing as magic. I could feel you reaching for the force.”
Lily sticks her tongue out, “No I wasn’t, I was reaching in for my magic. If I had my wand I’d be able to easily prove it to you. Stupid half remembered occlumency exercises.”
With a smile, and eliciting a fit of giggles from Harry, Fay levitates the stuffed animals and has them start dancing together, “It was the force. If you accept my guidance, then I can teach you how to access it as easily as I do.”
Lily rolls her eyes, and falls over again, before pointing at one of the toys and screwing her eyes up in concentration. A moment later the toy turns purple and Harry claps his hands in happiness, “It’s magic, and if you accept my guidance then I can teach you how to use it without a wand. Oh Merlin that was tiring.”
With a smile Fay stands up and picks up Lily, “First of all, let’s get you to bed before you pass out on the floor. Afterwards we can teach each other, and try to persuade each other through the results rather than with words.”
Lily nods as she fights to keep her eyes open.

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Five standard years after she picked up Harry, and two local years after the same event. Fay and Lily are sat under the same waterfall along with a battery of sensors and drones.
From her position on Fay’s lap, Lily grimaces at the collected technological devices. The grimaces is for just how quickly she’s got used to their presence and operation. Something that she can only put down to her young body.
Above her, Fay says, “Lily, I believe it’s starting.”
Lily turns her attention from the floating devices to the turbulent water of the mini waterfall as the main waterfall behind them lessens in intensity. As the two of them watch, the turbulence of the water smooths out, until it’s like looking at a pane of glass. After several minutes, there’s not even the occasional ripple in the water, and suddenly it seems to mist over and a scene that Lily’s seen far too many times appears between one blink and the next. That of the front garden outside Privet Drive at night.
Seconds later, Lily bursts into tears as the memories of being turned away from Tunie’s house after yet another attempt at reconciliation failed.
As Fay holds her tightly, a scouting drone zips through the curtain of water, without crashing into the wall behind it, before zipping upwards into the sky followed by a second drone. They will be heading to what Fay called the Lagrange points on opposite sides of the planet, before deploying solar panels and monitoring the EM spectrum and Hyperspace communications from the planet.
“Lily, are you alright?”
Lily sobs, “Yes Fay, I’ll be fine. Privet drive just has lots of sad memories. Mum died of cancer while I was in my 7th year at school, and Tunie never forgave me for ‘letting her die’. Dad died a few years later when Death Eaters found out where I used to live, and then it turned to hate. I tried to apologise, to reconcile, anything to get my sister back, but she kept turning me away.”
Fay nods, “Such is the way of the heart. Accept that this has happened, and let it go. That was then, this is now, and we live in now.”
Lily sniffs, “I know. I thought I’d already put it in the past. But these things can still catch you unawares.”
“And provide a path to the darkside if you’re not careful.”
Lily rolls her eyes, and her head, “You keep saying that.”
Fay looks down at her new datapad when it beeps, “It seems that the probes have detected a timing signal from your planet. Though the only hyperspace signals they can currently detect are coming from this portal. Looking at this, the other side of the portal is behaving like it’s moving at 96.8% of the speed of light. This gravity from the black hole above us is at 90% of the speed of light.”
Lily looks up and slaps her hand onto Fay’s cheek, “Fay, you know I don’t understand that stuff yet.”
Fay kisses the hand gently, “For every 10 years you spend on this world, around 22 years would occur in the wider galaxy, and for every 10 years in your world nearly 40 years would pass in the wider galaxy.”
“So why isn’t the portal open all the time?”
“That, Lily, is why we sent the droids through, and why we’re leaving sensors here.”
Tipping Lily’s face up so she’s looking at Fay, Fay asks, “Better question, why aren’t you asking me to go home?”
Lily sighs and looks wistfully back at the portal, “I don’t know if it’s safe. I don’t mean the portal, as you’ve obviously stepped through so it’s survivable. But my community, the magicals, we were in a civil war when I was killed by the leader. Your recording says that my last ditch defence killed Voldemort, but that thing… Fay, when I said I delved into dark magic I meant it. I think I know what Voldemort did and that’s why a bit of him survived in Harry. Sirius, one of our friends, helped me with some of the books from the Black library, until James told him what I was doing. Then he cut me off. There’s a dark ritual called the horcrux ritual that allows you to attain a form of immortality at the cost of an innocent life. It works by splitting your soul and placing part of it into an object. After James forced me through the cleansing ritual three times three times, I developed a ritual that would grant someone else a form of immortality for as long as my soul remained on this side of the veil. Rather than murder, it required a willing sacrifice. If we went back, Harry would be unprotected because you used to the force to remove the possessions.”
Fay nods, “I’m not going to apologise for that.”
Lily shakes her head, “I wouldn’t ask you to. I’d much rather watch him grow up and be part of his life, even if his father can’t be here.”

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Open yourself up to the force and let it guide you.”
Tentatively Lily reaches out to the magic surrounding her, only to recoil at the oily feeling, “You know what? No, I’m not letting that stuff inside me. It feels disgusting.”
Fay looks at Lily with mild censure, “Lily, I have been practising your instructions. This is how you use the force.”
Lily shakes her head, “Fay, it feels oily, like I did after experimenting with Dark magic when I was looking for ways to save us from Voldemort. I’m not going to feel like that again, especially after James force me to use a cleansing ritual from the Potter Grimoire once he found out what I’d been doing. I know you want to start teaching this to Harry too, but I’m not going to allow it if it means letting that in.”
Fay’s eyebrows furrow as she looks up at her student, “What do you mean?”
A 5 year old Lily sighs, “Dark magic leaves a taint on the soul. I don’t mean magic that the Ministry of Magic deems dark, I mean actual dark magic. Magic to do with manipulating souls and dominating them. In our world, most of the dark magic was performed through rituals because it took too much time to do it with just your wand. That’s why rituals were banned by the Ministry despite the fact that the only way to rid yourself of the taint of dark magic was also through a ritual. It was also the only way to bind familiars too. Knowing what I know now, I can’t say they were wrong to ban them, as there are far more dark uses for rituals than there are light.”
Fay cocks her head, “What does the taint do?”
“In small amounts, virtually nothing. You’re more likely to make morally questionable decisions, your negative traits are slightly amplified, that sort of thing. Once you start gaining more taint, it begins to bleed over to your body. Red or yellow eyes is a classic symptom, but far from the only symptom.”
Fay nods, “It sounds like falling to the darkside.”
Lily nods, “Yes, I remember all of those warnings you’ve been preaching at me before you let me even try this step. Same as all the meditation.”
“Indeed.”
“Right, well how about this. You’re starting to come along with symbolic magic and Arithmancy. My occlumency is finally good enough that I can remember that ritual properly. I’ll need the help of a droid to draw out the array, as I don’t yet have the coordination needed to do it. We’ll also need to mix a pound of silver, um, around 453 grams, into a gallon of water, that’s around 4.54 litres. If I remember right, one millilitre is one gram.”
Fay raises an eyebrow, “Silver?”
Lily nods, “It’s partially symbolic, because silver purifies things. A lot of magic works like that. There’s a lot of words and chanting that traditionally go with the ritual, but it’s really there to ensure that you’re doing things at the right rate, which is every seven seconds while you’re pushing your magic into the array. If you’re doing it right, then each cup of water will turn black until there’s no more taint to remove. It will also feel like someone’s taken a grater to your skin, and then rubbed salt into the wounds.”
A couple of days later, Fay is looking doubtfully at the engraved circle that’s been laser cut into the floor of the cargo hold, that of two equilateral triangles at 180 degrees to each other. The lines have then been filled with pure silver and polished down to lay flush with the floor. Drawn into the spaces between the lines are a series of different glyphs that will direct the ‘magic’ into the ritual. In the central hexagon is a simple bucket with a ladle full of water that is impossibly holding silver in suspension. Something that Lily prepared for her under the supervision of a droid.
With a sigh, she drops the simple robe she wore after she used the sonic shower and steps into the circle. With a gasp she steps out of the circle again as the ever present feeling of the unifying force was stripped from her, which makes the bucket of water even more impossible. Taking a deep breath, she steps back into the circle where she has only herself and the living force for company.
From the arms of a nanny droid, an exhausted Lily asks, “Are you ok Fay?”
Fay settles down on the cold floor in the centre of the hexagon that lies at the centre of the ritual circle, “I will be fine. It was just a surprise.”
Lily nods, “I activated the circle while you were in the shower as this is your first time doing magic.”
“I cannot feel the unifying force in here, only the living force.”
Lily sounds surprised when she says, “That’s the first time you’ve mentioned a difference.”
Fay looks out of the circle as she moves the bucket around, “I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before.”
Lily shakes her head, “Nope. Merlin knows our conversations would have been easier if you had. This circle is a seal, it is designed to keep things in or out. In this ritual it is designed to keep things out so that the only thing inside the circle is you and your magic. I’ve taught D12 the chant I used, so whenever you’re ready to start you can begin to pour water over your shoulders.”
With a serene expression, Fay lifts the ladle and pours the water over her shoulder. As she does the droid starts to chant and Fay has to tear her eyes away from the black sludge that rolled down her chest as her hand dips back into the bucket with a slight tremor. By the third ladle full her hand is visibly shaking, and by the 10th she’s leaving more water in the bucket than she’s successfully spilling over herself.

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Fay wakes up with a groan in her own bed. A moment later there’s a cry of “Mama!” and Harry has jumped onto her belly.
Turning her head weakly, she looks down at the floor of her cabin, and Lily who says, “He came in halfway through your when you started to scream. I told him that you were sick and this was part of your medicine.”
Fay opens herself up to the force for a moment, and then quickly leans over the bed as she dry heaves. As she does, Harry looks at her in concern, “Mama are you sick?”
Breathing heavily, Fay nods, “Yes, I’m unwell. I’ll be better soon.”
Lily looks at her knowingly as the nanny droid hands Fay a cup of water, “I did say no magic for 3 days after the ritual, didn’t I.”
Fay carefully sips from the water before nodding, “You did, sithspit that was horrible.”
Harry bops Fay on the nose, “You said a naughty word.”
Shifting awkwardly into a sitting position, Fay looks down at Harry, “I did, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done.”
Harry hugs Fay, “That’s ok, you’re sick mama. Just get better so that you can look after baby mummy and me.”
Lily sighs at her own appellation, but smiles anyway, “That’s what we were doing. But it’s like when you broke your arm and we had to make it straight again. Mama needs to do her twice more, the next one is in three days. Until then she’s not allowed to use the force. Can you look after her until then?”
Harry nods seriously and wags his finger in Fay’s face, “No using the force until you’ve finished your medicine.”
Fay shoots Lily a look before looking down at Harry, “I promise I won’t use the force until I’ve finished my medicine. But we will be travelling to another planet while I do, as I’ve felt the discordance in the force growing, and I don’t want us to be caught unawares.”
Harry jumps up and down beside Fay, “Can we go to Coruscant. Can we go to Coruscant?”
Fay shakes her head, “No Harry, we can’t go to Coruscant. There’s something wrong there, but I don’t know what. How about we go to Queyta, it’s out of the way and the Skakoan people are quite nice. If you’re willing to wear a pressure suit, we could even visit the inside of one of their cities.”

 

Just over a week later Fay has finished her third cleansing ritual, and the water ran completely clear after just a couple of scoops.
Ruefully she looks down at Lily as she helps Harry into his new pressure suit, “You were right, I feel light in a way I haven’t for decades or longer.”
Lily nods as a droid helps her with her own suit, her fingers not yet nimble or strong enough to do it herself, “It took me four cleanses to be completely clean, the others were because we’d already gone past three, and we were using seven in the ritual. It’s quite soothing when you don’t have any gunk to get rid of. If you’re going to keep using the force rather than magic, then we should make a routine of doing it once every seven or thirteen days.”
Harry looks at Lily, “Mummy, what’s 13?”
Lily smiles at Harry, “It’s 10 plus 3 honey. It’s the next magically important number after seven for our style of magic.”
Fay frowns, “Why not 11, as that’s the next prime number.”
Lily shrugs, “European superstition mainly. Different cultures have different numbers after 3, 5, and 7. For example, in China you will never ever see the number 4 turn up in any spells that aren’t supposed to kill someone. Some people like to say that magic is alive.” Fay opens her mouth to speak and Lily continues, “It isn’t, but magic users are alive, and all living creatures have at least some magic, and that has an effect on everything to do with magic. One wizard said that ‘Magic is the process of imposing your will on reality’. It’s not really true, as we can’t just want big things to happen. You’ve already seen Harry’s accidental magic. That’s about the extent of what you can do without making tools and frameworks to do magic with. How have you been getting on with finding your own magic?”
Fay smiles with amusement, “I have found the living force inside me.”
Lily huffs, “That’s not the same thing at all. Your magic is deeper than that. Your magic is part of your very soul, and it’s why every living creature has magic. Even plants can have magic, and when they do it does strange things to them. I have been practising your teachings too, though my body is too young to survive the rigours of a cleansing ritual just yet. Same as Harry’s too young too, so no working with the unifying force until he reaches his first magical majority.”
Now dressed, Harry runs to the door ramp, “Can we go and see the city now please?”
Fay and Lily share a glance, before Lily grabs a belt, “Almost little man. But first you need a special belt. Fay, I’m going to turn this belt into a portkey, that’s a magical transportation spell that will teleport everyone that’s touching the belt to the ritual circle on the ship. The trigger phrase will be ‘Home sweet Home’, but it will only work if the person that says it is in contact with the belt.”
When Fay looks at her skeptically, Lily smirks, “Tell you what, we can use it to return to the ship once Harry gets tired.”
Fay shakes her head as Lily concentrates on the belt and says, “Portus.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel any different. I don’t think it worked.”
Lily just rolls her eyes and buckles the belt around Harry.

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Fay groans on the floor of the cargo bay as numerous red icons blink on the HUD in her pressure suit. At the same time, Lily is helping Harry to remove his helmet as he wobbles around.
As Harry’s helmet comes off he says, “Baby Mummy bad, time for time out.”
Lily shakes her head, “No Harry, I was teaching you how portkeys work. Will you be able to do that again?”
Harry shakes his head, “No, never.”
“Not even if an evil droid is pointing a blaster at you?”
Harry uncertainly looks back at Lily, “Um.”
“That’s why you have the belt, so that you can get home if something bad happens. It’s not there to get out of boring stuff. Now go with Nanny and get cleaned up.”
Harry nods and runs over to the nanny droid as Lily walks over to Fay.
As Harry leaves the room, Fay manages to push herself into a seated position and take her helmet off, “What the kriff was that?”
Lily kisses Fay on the cheek, “That my love, was a portkey. A magically enchanted item. One that is made with a spell that can only be created if you understand the underlying arithmancy, unlike apperation I hasten to add, which just about every witch or wizard can learn to do if they can focus.”
Fay shakes her head, “It was like being spun around the planet on an ascender, and then dropped in the cargo bay.”
Lily nods, “It’s not a bad analogy that, as it’s sort of what the magic is doing. Except it’s also pulling you out of the normal three dimensions at the same time so that you don’t bump into anything. I wish I had my school books, it would make this so much easier.”
“What about all of the errors that appeared on my suit?”
Lily grimaces, “Yeah, magic does that. Places with high levels of ambient magic, like my old school, stopped even simple calculators from working. I’m not sure if that would apply to prosthetics or not, but honestly I wouldn’t want to chance it on anyone we care about. Remember, magic does what we want it to, it’s not using the universe to accomplish something. Now, while Harry and I have our naps, your homework is to mix a gallon of purifying water.”
Fay sighs dejectedly, “Yes Master.”
Lily pokes Fay in the chest, “Less of the Master there. Professor Potter is acceptable. If we had wands, you wouldn’t even be touching that, as it’s fairly advanced potion making despite it’s simplicity.”
Fay shakes her head, “Why is it advanced?”
Lily looks through the door that Harry left through before taking two steps backwards and sitting on the floor cross legged, “Most potions use parts of at least one magical plant or animal in them. The simplest potions use exclusively magical ingredients. What this means is that the potioneer doesn’t need to provide any of their own magic in order to transform the potion from something that is likely to be highly toxic into something beneficial. Many of the oldest herbal remedies are actually potions recipes without the stirring instructions. On top of that, silver is almost magically inert. It is very hard to enchant silver to do anything, but if you can, then you’ll have produced one of the most potent magical items it’s possible to make. That’s why goblin artefacts are so sought after.”
Fay looks confused, “Sorry, goblin?”
Lily chews on her lip as she reviews the last few seconds of conversation, “Oh, right, goblins. They’re one of the species on Earth, and their known for their craftsmanship, war like nature, and most recently as bankers. They have made a magical alloy that we call goblin silver, and it’s harder than the strongest steel without being brittle. It is also used almost exclusively in goblin enchanting, and their weapons are well known for taking on the traits of anything that doesn’t destroy them out right. Acids, poisons, dragon breath, and more.”
Fay shakes her head, “That sounds a lot like the rumours of Sith Alchemy.”
Lily shrugs, “I don’t know, this is the first time you ever mentioned Sith.”
Fay sits thoughtfully for a moment, then dry heaves as she habitually reaches for the unifying force. “Sithspit that’s bad. How did I never notice how much the darkside is covering the force?”
Lily sighs, “I’d imagine it’s because there’s not really that much there. If you allowed yourself to reach out the way you used to the feeling could go away. And it’s better to get past that now than in an emergency.”
Fay shudders, the memories of the cleansing ritual still fresh in her mind. None the less, she opens up her senses to the force and grits her teeth against the oily feeling. As Lily suggested, the feeling is just a thin layer over the force. Suddenly inspired she asks, “Lily, do you think you could design a circle that will keep only the dark side of the force outside the circle?”
Lily shakes her head, “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s far easier to keep everything out, and I don’t have access to the books or notes I used to make my last ritual. Anyway, Sith.”
Fay nods, “Yes, Sith. They are, or were, a loose collective of force users who believed in embracing your emotions and passions. By implication, that also meant that they willingly drew on the dark side of the force. I don’t know of any who didn’t end up drawing on it exclusively, however I was a padawan a few hundred years after the end of the last Sith war, so while it was still fairly common knowledge the details were scarce.”
“Sith war?”
“Yes. Despite being a loose collective, they still ran an empire and they attacked the old republic. I have the records in my computers if you want to read about it.”
Lily nods, “I might do that.”
Slightly alarmed, Fay looks down at Lily, “Lily, we’re going to have guests in a few days time. There’s something important that needs to be done here.”
Lily holds her forehead in both hands, “Of course there is. I’ll have the astromech droid help me make us some bracelets that I’ll turn into emergency portkeys. The activation phrase will be ‘Beam me up Scotty’”
Fay looks at Lily curiously, “Does that have some cultural significance?”
Lily nods, “It does. I’m sure that it will be in the data the droids transmit back when the portal opens again.”

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Fay stands on a cliff overlooking a lava flow that is currently host to a chemical. As she’s joined by three other Jedi, a sense of dread falls over her. Turning around she looks at the three masters, “Knol ‘The Fire Eater’, Jon ‘The Hunter’, Nico ‘The Freeman’. I see I’m not the only one that felt drawn here.”
The bothan, Knol nods, “Fay. Indeed, though there should be a fifth.”
Fay nods, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Knol tips her head to one side, “Odd, do you know why?”
Fay shakes her head, “It just feels off.”
As she’s speaking, a famous human Jedi staggers up to the clifftop and Master Nico turns to face him, “Ah, Master Kenobi. Our little squad seems to be complete.”
Knol turns to face Kenobi while Fay is trying to remember who Kenobi is, “Finally, you Coruscant Jedi take your time, don’t you?”
With a sigh, Fay admonishes Knol, “Sheath your fangs master Ven’nari. Obi-wan has faced many trials recently… Indeed, I sense that you are still ill.”
Kenobi shakes his head, “Just the lingering effects of the confederacy’s new weapon. I feel fine. But this is quite a strike team Master Fay, I’m not even sure I’m needed here…”
Fay places a hand on Kenobi’s head, “You’re the only one who has first hand experience with this new weapon. Your insight will be…”
Fay trails off as Lily walks out from behind a rock wearing her pressure suit and says, “Unneeded.”
As the other four Jedi all turn to face Lily and draw their lightsabres, Fay sighs, “Why are you here?”
Lily crosses her arms, “Fay, did you really think you were the only one who could read the force? You’ve been teaching me for years.”
“Lily I…”
“Left without word on a doomed mission.”
Rather tartly, Knol asks, “And who are you to say the mission is doomed?”
“Because you’re all going to die without help, and your deaths will ultimately cost more lives than this mission will save. More importantly Fay, it will mean that Harry and I die. While my student looks to the future, Jedi Kenobi, will you tell me why you’re here?”
Kenobi looks surprised as Fay does sink to the floor in meditation. Quickly rallying, he says, “The confederacy has a new weapon they call Swamp Gas, an illness that indiscriminately strikes down anyone it comes in contact with. This lab has the antidote.”
Lily nods, “And are they expecting you?”
Kenobi shakes his head, “No, this is a confederacy lab.”
Lily nods seemingly thoughtfully, before shaking her head, “No it isn’t. It’s just in the outer rim. Fay has already been here for over a week without hiding who she is, so just given them a call and ask them to deliver a sample to her ship.”
Nico looks at the island, “The dark Jedi are already here, I can feel them skulking in the shadows.”
Lily rolls her eyes, “Fine, tell them that you would like them to place the sample outside the sealed areas.”
As Kenobi turns away to talk into his communicator, Fay’s eyes flick open, and she looks at Lily, “You’re right. Even if we succeed here, it would be a Corellian victory.”
Knol shakes her head, “What is the life of one person when weighed against the lives of millions?”
Lily looks at Knol skeptically, “Really? How many people are alive and, more importantly, free today because of your actions? If you die here trying to get a cure that the Republic will be able to produce itself in several months, how many lives will be lost because you’re not there to save them, or to save the people who would then save them? I fought in a war before Fay found me, and every loss hurt because we all had irreplaceable skills. There’s more that I’m concerned about, but this isn’t the place to discuss that yet.”
Kenobi turns back with a grim face, “Nico was right, the Sith are already here and they were pretending to be Jedi. I’ve told them to start evacuating, but we have to stop them from getting the antidote, otherwise the war will become worse than it already is.”
Lily looks at the lab with a sinking feeling, “I’ll go ahead and try to get the antidote first. You lot do what you’ve been trained to do.”
As Lily disappears with a loud crack of noise, Fay finds herself the centre of attention, and Kenobi demands, “How did she do that?”
Fay grimaces as she shakes her head, “Would you believe, magic?”

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As red alert symbols flash on the inside of her pressure suit, Lily nervously brings up her occlumency and sinks into it as she makes her way into the lab from the balcony she apparearated to. Already, she can see air speeders taking off from the sides of the lab, as the skakoan workers abandon the floating death trap.
Shaking her head to bring her focus back on her own task, Lily has to agree with the workers that, based on what she’s seen and read since coming to this planet, getting between the two types of force user is a quick way to an ingnomous death. However, her own force vision was clear about the fact the only way she and Harry would survive is if she joined in.
As she passes a vacated desk, she picks up a stylus and places it on her open palm before whispering, “Point Me” while concentrating on the antidote. As the stylus spins above her palm, she takes a couple of deep breaths to recover from the wandless magic, before following the corridor that the stylus is pointing at.
Several minutes later, she walks into the synthesis lab and quickly ducks down beside a table as a woman with white skin and an armoured humanoid male stand beside a row of test tubes.
Gripping the stylus like a wand she braces herself against the table as she silently casts a switching spell on a nearby test tube and the one that the woman is reaching for.
As the light headed feeling passes, Lily quickly grabs the correct vial and secretes it in one of the pockets on her suit. With the vaccine secure, she touches the control for the built in comm device, only to swear under her breath as it fails to activate.
As she’s slipping out of the room she winces as she hears the sound of an explosion on the other side of the lab.
Again using the stylus as a wand, she carefully runs through the full wand motions of the messenger variant of the patronus charm that Dumbledore developed in the war. As her patronus appears she starts to slide down the wall in exhaustion, “Find Fay. Tell her that I’ve got the real cure and I switched it for a decoy.”
As the fox disappears through the wall, a series of explosions rocks the lab and a large crack appears in the floor at the end of the corridor. Reaching for her bracelet, the words to trigger the portkey die on her lips as a sense of danger floods through her at the idea of just leaving. Groggily, she pushes herself to her feet and forces herself to head for the stairs.

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With her head still ringing from the explosion, Fay watches dumbly as a glowing white fox appears and says something about the cure. A couple of minutes later the wild fire that’s boxing them into the lab starts to recede and Kenobi asks, “It’s stopped? Are you holding the fire back?”
As Fay shakes her head once more to try and clear it, Nico shouts, “No! Master Ven’nari is pulling it in!”
A moment later, Knol crawls out of the smouldering wreckage of the synthesis lab, only to disappear as a bracelet hits her in the forehead, leaving only her lightsaber on the floor.
A surprised Kenobi loudly asks, “Is she gone?”
Shaking her head to try and clear it faster, Fay opens her mouth to reply when Nico instead answers, “Yes, I can’t feel her in the force anymore. Now we need to pursue that witch.”
Numbly Fay points at a couple of patches of lava that are rising through the cracks in the floor, “And devise an escape plan. The facility has been compromised, we’re sinking.”
Pointing with his lightsaber, Nico shouts, “She went this way! Let’s move!”
As the others run off after the Sith, Fay pushes herself into a staggering walk, only to stop as Lily staggers out of the smoke and picks up the fallen lightsaber. Pausing in confusion, Fay waits for Lily to catch up.
With a childish giggle, Lily leans heavily against Fay, “I guess you didn’t get my message then?”
Fay shakes her head to try and get rid of the ringing in her ears, before pointing at them with her finger. “I’ve still not recovered from the explosion!”
Lily shouts back, “You need to open yourself up to the force! I’ve got the cure, we just need to let the others know.”
Stupidly, Fay stares at Lily as she tentatively opens herself to the force for only the second time since she finished her cleansing rituals. Once more the oily feeling of the darkside makes her shiver, but with it comes a clarity of thought as her centuries of experience uses the unifying force with her living force to heal her wounds while she forces herself not to recoil from the feeling. “Thank you, how did you know?”
Lily looks up at her, “Because I can’t stop my own Merlin damned connection to the force. It keeps pushing me with nudges and warnings. Can you carry me? As I’m feeling exhausted, and I keep thinking that we need to catch up with the others before they do something stupid and get themselves killed.”

As Fay picks Lily up on her back, and starts to jog after the others, Lily waves Knol’s lightsaber around in one hand. “You shouldn’t wave that around like that, you could kill someone.”
Lily nods sleepily on her shoulder, “I know, it just feels a bit like a wand, like the core is in there but the rest of the device is getting in the way.”
Gently, Fay takes the lightsaber from Lily’s hand, “Try to get some sleep while we catch up. I’ll keep you safe.”

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In the end it takes Fay nearly two hours to catch up with Kenobi on the surface after needing to double back at the site of a cave in, or because lava has flooded the route that they took. Not that the combatants seem to have fared much better, as the Sith and the armoured man seem to have been forced to backtrack almost as much by the three Jedi flanking and out manoeuvring them.
Now however, Fay gently lays a sleeping Lily down behind some rocks with Knol’s lightsaber, before walking serenely out of the smoke as the Sith corners Kenobi.
As the Sith raises her twin lightsabers to strike Kenobi down, she calls out, “See, where you are now false Jedi?”
With ease borne from centuries of practice against hostile opponents, Fay slips into the Sith’s mind and first extracts her name, “Asajj Ventress, you are no Jedi. You are simply hatred and bile given form.”
As Asajj spins to face Fay, Kenobi uses the distraction to leap out of the way of the armoured fighter’s attack. As Asajj lunges to attack her, Fay levitates some rubble to catch her in the face, only for the test tube she’s holding to go flying over the edge into the lava.
As she finally makes her way into the deepest part of Asajj’s mind, Fay gives her a sad smile, “Goodbye Asajj Ventress.”
Panting, Asajj fights against Fay’s mental intrusion, “I feel you in my head, stealing my memories and my name.” Dropping to her knees she pants out, “But I am in your heart, you fear me. You know your time is almost ov…”
With a groan, Asajj’s eyes roll up in the back of her head and she collapses to the floor.
Grimacing, Fay walks over to help Kenobi against the armoured foe, the Gen Dai, bounty hunter Durge, only to be caught by an explosion as one of Durge’s missiles lands not feet away from her at the same time a red light hits her from behind as she tries to dodge.
Some time later she comes around at the same time as Kenobi, only to see that they appear to be the only people left on the small, sinking, spur of rock in the lava pool. As he searches Asajj’s corpse, he collapses to his knees and starts to sob, “We failed. After all that we failed.”
Lily’s voice comes from a nearby rock, “I wouldn’t say that.”
Kenobi looks up sharply, “You!”
Lily nods, “Yes me, I managed to switch the cure with a random test tube before they blew everything up. Fay and I were trying to catch up and tell you that.”
Fay narrows her eyes at Lily, “Lily, did you shoot us?”
Lily nods and lifts the lightsaber, “Stunning spell. Knocked you unconscious, and made it look like the rocket blast did it. Having a focus, no matter how bad, makes all the difference. I put this one under a medical stasis too.”
Fay looks down at Asajj’s body with wide eyes as her force sense tells her what she’s just realised, “She’s not dead?”
Lily shakes her head, “No, but I’m running dangerously close to lethal magical exhaustion, otherwise we’d all be back at the ship.” At Fay’s blank look, she adds, “Your bracelet.”
Kenobi finally catches up with the first thing Lily said, and his eyes light up, “You have the cure? I need to get it back to Coruscant.”
Lily holds up the vial and shakes her head as she takes off her helmet, “I have conditions, otherwise I will just destroy it.”
Kenobi glances between Lily and Fay in disbelief, “What?”
Lily smiles tiredly, “I’m glad you asked. As you can see, I’m a clone. I’m more than that, but the important thing is that this body is a clone. You’re using clones as slaves in your army, so my first demand is that you remove the chip that Fay said they’re all fitted with. The second demand is that they become conscripts, and get paid accordingly. The final demand is that you do not communicate the fact that anyone but you and the armoured person survived this mission.”
Kenobi shakes his head, “I can’t do that.”
Lily smiles, “Sure you can, you’re a high up general and your army has medical droids. You can just tell them to remove the chips during routine medical exams. If you don’t, then I’m not going to give you the cure, as I refuse to stand by and watch a new slave class being brought into existence. I couldn’t do anything about House Elves because they were already an established part of my society, but I can do something about the clones.”
Kenobi shakes his head, “They’re not slaves.”
Lily cocks her head to one side, “So they’re droids then?”
Kenobi shakes his head vehemently, “No!”
“What happens if they disobey an order?”
Softly Fay says, “They can’t, the chips won’t let them. I agree with Lily, though I think Lily should amend her demand to every clone you are in command of, and that you will do your best to persuade the council to make it an unofficial order. Without the darkside tainting my vision, the clone army seems to be…”
Lily adds, “A monkey’s paw? It was a mythical magical item from my home that would grant you your wish, but in such a way that you regret making the wish. Pass it off as Fay’s dying force vision if you want.”
Fay shakes her head and points to the shrinking edge of their spur, “We should have this discussion when we’re not in danger of dying.”
Kenobi looks at the distant shore with a grimace, “I don’t think we can jump that.”
Lily just lifts Asajj’s limp hand up, “Fay, hook the bracelet around her finger, and Kenobi, make sure you’re touching the bracelet.”

 

Asajj slowly comes to, lying on a hard metal floor. As her memories flood back in, her eyes snap open and she reaches for the force, only to freeze as there’s nothing there.
Rolling to her feet, her quick eyes take in the fact that she’s in the cargo bay of a ship before she registers the design on the floor. Shivering, she stares at a Dathomire magic circle and she starts backing up until she hits a wall. Spinning around she screams when she realises that the wall is nothing of the sort, it is in fact the inside edge of the circle.
Desperately she reaches out for the force again and again, only to find nothing there as she sinks down in the centre of the circle alone again. Just like she was after her master died.
“Hello?”
A child’s voice makes her head snap up, and stare at the human boy that’s holding a plate of cookies.
“I heard you crying, and Nanny,” he indicates the droid behind him, “helped me bake some cookies. Though she only ever lets me eat two at a time, unless they’re big cookies, then I might not even be allowed a whole one.”
Asajj stares at the child that’s rambling about some sort of confection, despite the fact that no witch she’s ever heard of would let a child anywhere close to a ritual circle, let alone a male child. “Child, can you let me out of here?”
The child shakes his head, “Uh huh. Baby Mummy said that you can leave whenever you want, you just need to leave the icky stuff behind. Mama cried the first few times she was in the circle too.”
“Where is your Mummy?”
The boy smiles, “She’s still asleep with Mama. They collapsed after the man left, so I told Nanny to put them to bed. Would you like some cookies?”
Asajj’s hold on her temper breaks and she screams, “No I don’t want your stupid cookies. Now let me out of here!”
As the boy drops the plate and runs, she slides down the invisible wall that’s preventing her from leaving the circle and sobs, “Let me out of here” as memories of reading about the victims of the witches perverse rituals chase through her mind.

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Lily smiles as she wakes up in James’ arms, and sighs in pleasure as he pulls her tighter against his chest. A moment later, her eyes snap open as the hardness of the bed filters through her consciousness. Looking around, wakefulness quickly replaces her sleepiness as she realises this is Fay’s room.
“Fay, are you awake?”
From further up the bed, Fay’s voice says, “I am now. Though I am somewhat surprised to be here rather than a bacta tank.”
“How long do you think we’ve been asleep?”
Fay works her top arm free of Lily’s grasp and reaches up to touch a panel on the wall by the bed, “Just shy of 36 standard hours according to this.”
Lily pushes herself off the bed with a cry of, “Knol, we need to check on her.”
Fay pushes herself into a sitting position with a confused yawn, “Oh, excuse me. I don’t remember the last time I slept. We sent Jedi Master Knol to the city before we gave Kenobi the cure.”
Lily nods and fails to snap her fingers, “I remember now, I asked D12 to change the symbols in the circle to those needed for an exorcism, and it took you three tries to activate it before we both passed out. What do you do instead of sleep?”
Fay shrugs, “Meditate on the living force, and recently magic.”
Lily yawns widely before shaking her head, “Come on, we should see how our guest is doing and let her know why she’s here.”
Fay shakes here head, “Why is she here?”
Lily looks at Fay with a serious expression, “To give you a reason to practice dissolving silver, and to find out if there is still a person underneath all of that darkside gunk. She called herself a Jedi remember. But first I need to use the fresher. Oh, and while I remember, you said you were going to explain what was special about the lightsaber.”
Fay picks up Lily and settles her on her hip as she heads for the fresher herself, “Lightsabers need a special type of crystal to work, most commonly a Kyber crystal or rarely a Kunda stone. While they can be made, Jedi tend to seek out their own crystal as part of their journey towards becoming a knight.”
“Well Ollivander, the wand maker, told me that the wand chooses the witch. Given that I must have gone through at least 20 different wands, I can quite believe it. So we should probably try to find some natural ones.”
Politely pulling the door mostly closed, so that Lily has privacy but they can still speak, Fay muses, “Well, I got my first crystal from Ilum, but the Adega system was also popular. I hear that the Jedi Order has recently reestablished trade with Dantooine…”
Lily’s excited shout interrupts Fay, “There, we’re going there.”
Fay sighs, “Well, that’s a couple of weeks travel as it’s on the other side of the galaxy, and we’ll need to go round the deep core.”
Walking out, Lily steps to one side so that Fay can go in, “I think you said that silver was cheap here, so we should stock up before we leave. We should also check on Knol before we go.”
Pointedly, Fay says, “We can stock up easily enough, but it’s going to take the droids a couple of days to repair your pressure suit.”
Lily winces, “Yes, well… It seemed like a good idea to disguise my features from everyone, and that was the only reliable thing I had to do it with.”

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Lily and Fay both walk into cargo hold with a tray of republic ration cubes and a container of water. There they see Asajj lying against the inside edge of the barrier as if it was a solid wall.
At the first sound of their footsteps, Asajj returns to alertness and rolls to her feet, only to stagger slightly as she brushes against one of the invisible walls of her prison. Spotting Fay, she adopts a servile stance, one that once allowed her to get within striking distance of a warlord, “Master Fay, you must release me before the witches come back. Do this and I promise to serve you loyally.”
Eyes sparkling with mirth, Lily looks up at Fay to see what she’ll do.
For her part, Fay looks at Asajj curiously before saying, “Will you forsake the dark side of the force and let go of your hatred?”
Asajj nods, “Yes, yes, I’ll do it, we just need to get out of here before they catch you too.”
“Will you keep my secrets?”
“I’ll keep your force damned secrets, just get me out of here. I’ve heard stories of what the night sisters would do, and we don’t want to be here when they return.”
Fay smiles serenely, “Do you promise to defend those who cannot defend themselves.”
“Jedi, does it look like I have a choice? I promise, now get me out of here!”
Fay nods and levitates a bucket of water and a ladle from a dark corner, along with a small packet of silver powder. “Then I will release you before any night sisters come to perform rituals on you.”
Stirring the powder into the water, it takes Fay several minutes to successfully mix the powder into the water. As she does, Asajj’s eyes widen in terror and she presses herself into a corner of her hexagonal prison, “You’re a witch?”
Lily shakes her head, “No, she’s a Jedi. I’m a witch, and that is an exorcism circle. It is designed to both isolate and contain dark energies to weaken evil spirits that are possessing people. The potion that Fay is making is a suspension of silver in water. When it touches your skin I would imagine that it will feel like pouring red hot metal over you as it pulls the the tainted… I would have said magic, but there is more than just magic here so I’ll go with energy. The only way out of the circle is to be free of the taint of dark magic. I don’t know what Fay has planned, but the exorcism ritual will involve D12 here,“ she indicates her nanny droid, “walking around the circle sprinkling the water into the centre every three seconds until you pass out, or he runs out of water.”
Asajj starts to laugh hysterically, “You’re a witch?”
Fay stands up, and staggers to one side, as she finishes mixing the water. Picking up the bucket she walks into the circle, “Over the last few years I have been forced to confront some truths that I have held for centuries. Lily comes from a world with very little force, but where they are born with magic.” As she enters the inner circle she lifts the bucket, “I have gone through this process myself, and I believe it will be easier on you if you take the ladle and apply the water to your own skin. Once you start you need to do a scoop once ever seven seconds, or in time with D12’s chanting.”
Asajj grabs the bucket and upends it over her head while growling, “Just give me that and get this over with!” before screaming in agony.
Almost immediately the water turns into a black sludge that soaks into Asajj’s clothes and starts to sizzle and pop as the woman screams. A second later she drops to the floor as if her strings were cut and Lily rushes over the boundary of the circle.
“Get her clothes off!”
Fay shakes her head as she grinds out, “I can’t, it’s taking everything I have to hold her mind away from the pain.”
Gritting her teeth, Lily grabs a bit Asajj’s arm and uses the weakest cutting charm she can along the whole sleeve. As she winces while peeling the cloth away from the arm, Lily can see the light cut running along the arm showing that it wasn’t weak enough. Casting another charm at the fabric on the woman’s chest she winces at as the tainted sludge burns her fingers.
It doesn’t take long before the woman is completely naked on the floor, her soiled clothes having been pushed up against the edge of the inner hexagon.
Staggering towards the door, Lily falls backwards into the hexagon as the magic of the circle prevents her from leaving. “Heh! I guess we get to find out if I’m strong enough to survive an exorcism ritual.”
Fay slumps down on the floor beside Lily and leans against the barrier, “I could teach you to use the force to purify the darkside instead, given that I’m stuck here too. What about Asajj?”
Lily shakes her head, “Honestly, I’m surprised she’s still alive. Everything I’ve ever read says that much silver water should have caused her to catch fire or melt.”
Fay shakes her head, “It took everything I had to hold her mind away from the pain. Cut off from the force like we are, I don’t think her mind would have survived if I hadn’t. Out of interest, why didn’t anyone try this on the Voldemort person that killed you?”
Lily looks up at the ceiling, “Two reasons, the first is politics. All rituals were outlawed, but before that, this ritual was illegal unless performed on someone that was confirmed to be possessed. Much like the pure blood exemption to a lot of laws governing law enforcement, that one existed to prevent wizards from stripping someone of the benefits of rituals like Re’em’s Blood, that were dark enough to stain you, but weren’t really considered dark because it didn’t use people as the sacrificial component. The second is that the original participant needs to be willing or unconscious as it takes a while to activate the ritual circle. Once it’s activated, it draws it’s magic from the person in the middle, but until then it’s just a pretty picture on the floor. Also, it’s only as strong as the symbols and lines that make it up. Which for us is plenty strong enough unless the participant has a blaster or lightsaber. But at home we used wooden floors and chalk for the symbols. Anyway, what was that about using the force to purify the darkside? D12, could you bring us another bucket of water and packet of silver please?”
“Lily, what are you doing?”
Lily takes the full bucket from D12, “There’s no point both of us being stuck in here, and you can’t do the exorcism ritual for another three days. Asajj needs at least that long to recover, but we can’t leave it any longer without breaking the sequence.” She toes a solidified lump of silver water, “I expect that she’ll need 3 * 3 * 3 cleanses. I pray to the gods that she doesn’t need a 28th, as I’ve never even heard of someone surviving that many, let alone the full 81 treatments that arithmancy would demand.”

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Asajj wakes up shivering and naked on the cold metal floor of a starship cargo hold. The tears falling down her face are just from the pain and the cold, and nothing to do with the nightmares that plagued her sleep, of the warlords slaughtering her parents, and of the same warlords murdering her master for daring to defend the helpless.
As she starts to push herself into a sitting position the voice of the witch says, “I’m sorry about your clothes, but we had to strip you in order to save your life.”
Asajj springs backwards against the invisible barrier that’s holding her inside this prison, only to crouch down in surprise as she spots the young witch leaning against the barrier on the other side of her cell. With a snarl she says, “I could kill you.”
The witch nods, “You could, though I’m not going to just let you do it. I’m Lily by the way, and you probably know Fay by reputation. She’s the one who did the most to save your life by the way. My son, Harry, baked some more cookies if you want one.” She indicates a plate, before picking up one of the confections herself and starting to eat.
Asajj launches herself across the small cell with her arms outstretched, only to land face first on the floor as her arms and legs snap together, “Let me go! I’ll kill you!”
Lily rolls her over onto her back before checking to see if she broke her nose. “No, not while you’re still trying to kill me. That was a body bind jinx by the way, a simple schoolyard spell that can be easily countered by any halfway competent witch or wizard. It will wear off in around an hour.”
“Why are you even here? Are you mocking me?”
Lily thumps on the invisible walls of the cell behind her as she chews on a cookie, “Nope, not mocking you. I’m as trapped here as you are, because my body isn’t strong enough to handle a cleansing ritual. Given your stunt yesterday, I doubt you’re strong enough to handle it either.”
Asajj sneers, “I can handle any torture you care to inflict on me, even the strongest acid.”
Lily shakes her head, and breaks off a bit of cookie to feed to Asajj. “That wasn’t acid Asajj. That was a purification potion. If you threw the bucket at Fay it would do virtually nothing. If you threw it at me, it would probably kill me from the shock. Throw it at a Dark Lord, and they’d probably burst into flames. Especially in a circle like this one.”
Asajj tries to bite Lily’s fingers, but only succeeds in getting a mouthful of cookie. Quickly chewing and swallowing to avoid the indignity of choking, she spits back, “You could have fooled me.”
Lily chews a bite of cookie herself at the same time as she feeds Asajj another bite of cookie. “You know, you’re not the only one that has lost people and then delved into the dark arts in order to both cope and try to find a way to get back at the people that did it. I was 18 when my mother died of cancer, and my sister started to hate me. 19 when I was embroiled in a war against a Dark Lord, not only because of who I married, but also because I was born to non-magical parents. That’s when I started looking at the darker spells, the ones that taint your soul. Not a lot, but enough. To start with they make you feel sick when you use them, but it doesn’t take long before you start to feel good. Even if you’re only using the dark stuff when you think it’s right. It wasn’t until we were told that Voldemort was after us specifically that I started to dive into the really dark stuff. That’s when James noticed and forced me to undergo a cleansing ritual. Do you know what it taught me?”
Sarcasm drips from her lips as Asajj says, “No, why don’t you tell me.”
Lily smiles and puts a larger bit of cookie in Asajj’s mouth, “It taught me that the dark taint blinds us. In months of searching for a solution I didn’t find anything, no matter how much I tainted my soul. In the last few weeks before the Dark Lord found us, I not only found, but also modified a ritual so that it was completely light, and had it implemented ready to go at any point. The difference? The cleansing ritual that James forced me to undergo after he found my research.”
Asajj snorts, “What’s your point?”
“The point is that you get tunnel vision,” At Asajj’s blank look, Lily continues, “You become so focused on your goal and the power you have available that you forget that other solutions exist. Take your recent attempt to get the cure from that lab. You could have done that in a dozen different ways, and most of them would have left the lab still available if you needed it in the future. If we hadn’t called ahead, you’d have also killed 100’s of highly skilled scientists and technicians, as it stands you did kill the people that developed the cure. So why do it the way you did?”
Asajj snarls, “You know nothing, it was the only place that Swamp Gas could be studied safely outside Confederate control.”
Lily shakes her head, “Do you really believe that? Or is it just the only place that the Jedi knew existed. Don’t look at me like that, it’s clear from the holo’s that this war isn’t the Republic against the Confederate. It’s the Jedi and their slave army against the Droids. They’re the only people who are everywhere, where’s all the other people? The only place they’re ever shown is on ships or the planets that supply equipment.”
From the door, Fay asks, “You really believe that?”
Lily looks over, “How long have you been there?”
Fay shrugs, “Long enough to hear you talking about that mission.”
“Yes, I asked Plex to compile news reports and sort them into three groups. Ask him for the details whenever you want. I know the war’s only been going on for a few months, but even so, I think there were only three reports where visibly non-clone, non-Jedi troops were involved, and they weren’t the local population on the republic side. The confederacy is doing better with the occasional sighting of someone commanding the droids that doesn’t have their own lightsaber. I don’t know if it means anything, it just struck me as odd that the only members of the republic army are Jedi or clones.”
Asajj laughs, “Ha, you can’t even be consistent with what you call them. You just called them slaves before you knew the Jedi was there.”
Lily looks back at Asajj, “I’m hoping that the Jedi will be working to make them conscripts rather than slaves. At least that’s the agreement I have with Kenobi. At least as conscripts they could desert or ask for better treatment. Slaves, whether mechanical or organic, don’t have that luxury. That’s before you start on the Jedi. Fay says that they’re not warriors, they’re peacekeepers, diplomats, and scholars, so why are they the only generals on the planetary battlefields?”
Asajj laughs as she said, “I told you they were false Jedi! Why else would they be fighting like that?”
Lily sighs, “Asajj, I’ve been living with Fay for four years on a world where we can’t get easy communications from the rest of the galaxy.”
Fay adds, “Lily, it’s been nearly nine years out here.”
Lily grimaces, “I forgot about that. So yes, nearly nine years. On top of that, Fay isn’t exactly your normal Jedi. So, what’s a true Jedi like to you?”
Asajj stares at Lily for a long time, so Lily takes a bite from a fresh cookie, and puts a bit in Asajj’s mouth. Eventually Asajj asks, “You’re serious?”
Lily nods and continues to eat the cookie, occasionally feeding a piece to Asajj. At the same time, Fay leaves and a faint shiver goes through the floor as the engines start up.
Eventually, Asajj says, “They’re saviours. They see a problem and they step in to help, and sometimes that means fighting against people who want to take without giving back. But they always seek to build not destroy, to bring peace and not war, even if that makes those in charge afraid of them.”
Lily nods, “That’s a lot of expectations to place on people. Did you place those expectations on yourself too?”
Asajj shakes her head violently, “I’m not a Jedi!”
Raising her hand with the cookie placatingly, Lily concentrates on her transfiguration lessons, and turns the bit of cookie into a butterfly, “Neither am I. I’m a witch, and I can teach you how to use magic too. But you have to let go of the darkness. It’s ok to grieve, be angry, and hurt, but you can’t let yourself be tainted by darkness.”
As the butterfly flies off and lands on Asajj’s ear she angrily snaps back, “Who says I was grieving?”
Lily looks down at her sadly, “You did when you were dreaming. You don’t have to talk about it. Though we’re both going to be stuck in here together for at least the next 10 days, so I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
Asajj flicks her head to try and dislodge the butterfly that’s checking to see if her ear is a flower as the ship makes the jump to Hyperspace towards Dantooine.

 

Chapter 4

​

On shaking legs, Lily pushes herself to her feet and staggers over to Asajj where she’s curled into a fetal ball on the floor of the Hexagon. As she’s doing that, Harry runs into the circle carrying a couple of towels and crying, “Mummy!”
Wanly she smiles at her son as she takes one of the towels, “Harry, would you be able to help clean Asajj. Gently!”
Harry nods and rushes past Lily, only slowing down at her warning and gently scraping off the gelatinous gobs of tainted liquid, being careful not to let any of it touch his skin.
This was the forth gruelling session, and the first one that didn’t knock her out less than an hour into the six hour ritual. A modification she made to account for the fact that there were two of them in here, with D12 splashing each of them alternately every three seconds instead of each person being splashed every three seconds.
As she makes it over to Asajj’s side she leans heavily against the inner barrier, only to stumble as the barrier doesn’t even impede her movement. The only reason she doesn’t fall is D12’s swift movements to catch her. Looking up, she weakly smiles at the droid, “Thank you. And thank you for doing this.”
D12 looks down as he steadies his charge, “No thanks are necessary. Ritual: Exorcism has been classified as a medical procedure.”
Lily places a gentle hand on the droid, causing him to glitch slightly, “I know you did, but you’re still a nanny droid, my nanny droid.”
D12’s eyes glow a cheery yellow colour, “And Little Lily needs a nap.”
Lily nods, “I do. But I need to make sure Asajj is comfortable first.”
D12 scoops Lily up in his arms, “Nanny is watching Harry as he looks after patient Asajj.”
Lily can only nod weakly as D12 successfully takes her away from the ritual circle for the first time since she rushed in to strip Asajj’s clothes. Not that she remembers the first time, but Fay said that she had to argue with the droid until she said that Lily was sick.

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Lily doubles over with a groan as Harry lands on her stomach shouting, “Mummy! Mummy! It’s daytime, can we explore the farm please?”
Lily groans, “What farm?”
Harry turns around and sits on the bed as he chatters excitedly, “The Jedi one that we landed next to. Mummy took me with her yesterday, but she wouldn’t let me explore until I had a belt. I don’t understand, I was already wearing my belt.”
Lily climbs down off her bed and smiles up at Harry, “She wants me to make your belt special, like I did on Queyta just in case there’s an evil droid. Now have you brushed your teeth?”
Harry sucks in his lips to cover his teeth, and nods while saying, “Uh huh.”
“And would Nanny agree with you? Go and brush your teeth you little tike.”
Harry jumps off the bed with a squeal and runs out of the room shouting “Yes Mummy” behind him.
After taking the time to use the fresher herself, Lily clamps down on her urge to reach out to find Fay with the force, and instead quickly looks around the few living spaces on the ship, before ending up in the cockpit.
“Fay.”
Fay turns around from where she’s running some checks on the ship with a confused expression, “Lily, how are you feeling?”
Lily smiles, “Better, though I think it will be some time before I’m in top condition again. I just want to check something with you.”
Fay nods, “Go ahead.”
“Am I the only one who feels like we’ve landed in the eye of a hurricane?”
Fay shakes her head, “I don’t know what a hurricane is, but I believe it’s a type of storm from the context. And yes, I feel it too.”
Lily looks out over the rolling plane ahead of them with a shudder, “Could we move the ship into the mountains and borrow a landspeeder?”
Fay shakes her head, “The mountains are several hours away by speeder. I was going to tell Plex to take the ship deep into the mountains if Harry appears onboard without us. I feel like we should send the ship there when we go into the caves.”
Lily nods, “I agree, though I don’t want to go into the caves until we’ve confirmed that I’m clear of taint.”
Fay nods, “I don’t blame you. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re walking around now.”
Lily shakes her head, “Honestly, I’d still be asleep if Harry hadn’t jumped on me. Now I’ve been up a for a bit, I don’t think I can put the portkey on his belt today.”
“Maybe you should ask one of the agricorp workers to be a tour guide today, and do it tomorrow if you feel up to it.”
Lily nods, “That sounds like an idea. What about you?”
Fay indicates the computer beside her, “P1 3X has been reporting some errors on the ship, so I’m going to be chasing those down to make sure they’re not serious.”
Lily looks confused, “Who?” before she winces as she processes the rest of the sentence, “That’s probably us then, as these cleansing rituals are very magically intensive on the participants, and that magic has to go somewhere. That and magical dwellings tend to be, odd.”
Fay looks at Lily intently, “Odd how?”
Lily looks at the floor, “You know, little things like rooms that don’t quite match their external dimensions. Stairs that go to different floors, extra rooms, rooms that move around, that sort of thing.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this before?”
Lily winces, “Because I didn’t think of it. Besides, it normally takes decades for it to start happening to a house. But houses are on planets, and we’re on a spaceship.”
Fay snarks, “Anything else I should know about?” In a conciliatory tone she immediately follows up with, “That was unfair of me, as you have a decade of experiences to draw on, and we’ve only been talking about the academic and practical side of things.”
Lily waves her off, “I get it, I really do. There’s that storm like feeling, and if magic is doing anything really funky to the ship, it could prove deadly. Right, I’m going to take Harry exploring with a guide.”

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Lily allows herself to smile as Harry runs down the ramp and turns towards the farm buildings nearby. Breaking into a run herself she easily keeps pace of the child, even though she’s not catching up.
As she round a large shed, she slows down as Harry runs up to a green skinned humanoid male with what appears to be octopus legs instead of hair, and overly large eyes.
Slowing down to a jog she catches up with the two of them, “Harry, you shouldn’t just run up to people.”
The man chuckles, “It’s quite alright, it’s refreshing to have children like yourselves running around here.”
Lily smiles at the man, “It’s nice of you to say so, but it’s still rude. Harry apologise to the nice man.”
Harry looks up at the man with wide eyes, “I’m sorry.”
The man smiles as he crouches down, “That’s ok, you know better for next time. Now, I know I saw you around yesterday, but is this your sister?”
Harry shakes his head, “No, that’s Baby Mummy.”
Lily sighs, “I thought he’d got past adding baby. Sorry. I’m Lily, and yes I’m this one’s mother. There was a, call it a force accident, and I ended up in a cloned body when he was one.”
The man smiles, “I can’t feel the darkside on you, so I’ll accept that. I’m Forri, what current brings you to our part of the ocean?”
“We’re looking to get some lightsaber crystals, and this felt like the right place to go.”
Forri nods in understanding, “The caves are a short hike towards the mountains. Are you going today?”
Lily shakes her head, “While there’s a storm brewing, I don’t think we need to hurry, and I’m still recovering from… a bout of sickness. We probably won’t leave for four or five days. I was hoping that someone would be able to show us around and tell us about what we’re looking at, as neither of us has been to a farm before.”
Forri nods, and makes an approximation of a smile, “You’re in luck then, as we’re between seasons here, and there’s only the jogan fruits that need picking. Not that we export those as there are plenty of planets that produce them in far larger quantities than we do. While we are part of the agricorps here, the purpose of this farm is really to provide a contact point between the local government and the few Jedi that want to use the caves. The last thing the council want is for another dispute to break out causing us to lose access to those crystals.”
Lily cocks her head to one side, “Oh?”
“Oh yes. You see 3,000 years ago the Jedi used to have an enclave here…”
Harry and Lily both follow Forri as he spins a historical tale of the area and the crystal caves, including a visit by Revan.

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Bitterly, Asajj looks up as Lily comes into the cargo hold with a happily bouncing Harry who’s carrying a couple of jogan fruits.
“I suppose that’s it. Now you’re free and, you’re going to leave me alone to die here.”
Lily walks in to the circle and sits down beside Asajj, “What’s the matter Asajj?”
Asajj picks up an unresisting Lily, and places her on her lap, “You weren’t here when I woke up.”
Lily shakes her head, “D12 put me to bed yesterday, and Harry wanted to show me around the farm today. He even picked those fruits for you. You know we landed the day before yesterday, so what else is going on?”
Asajj squeezes Lily tight, “You left like my parents did, like my master did. I was alone.”
Lily looks at Harry, “Harry honey, can you take the food to the galley and then go and find Mama? Asajj needs some Mummy time.”
Harry looks upset for a moment before he sees Asajj’s face, then he smiles, “Yes Mummy.”
As the door closes behind Harry, Lily reaches up to touch Asajj on the cheek, “Asajj, how old are you?”
“I’m 18 standard years old.”
“Christ, you’re not even an adult. When did your master die?”
Asajj buries her face in Lily’s hair, “’Ve years ago.”
“You poor thing, you’ve been forced to survive on your own since then. No wonder you’re like this.”
Asajj shakes her head, “I’m strong, I showed them, I hunted them all down and made them pay for murdering my master.”
Lily squirms around to hug Asajj, “You’ve been hardened Asajj, and being hard isn’t the same as being strong. You shouldn’t have ever needed to be strong, but the world isn’t kind like that.”
“I am strong, I have the force and that’s all I need.”
Gently Lily lifts Asajj’s chin so that she can look her in the eyes, “Asajj, all of us need more than that. We need friends, family, and a community. We need people to help hold us up when we’re not strong. To keep us grounded, and to make us laugh.”
Asajj shakes her head, “You’re not coming back are you.”
Lily frowns, “What do you mean?”
“This punishment. You’re free now.”
Lily’s eyes widen in realisation, “Oh! You think that you’re going to have to face this alone. Sorry to say this, but you’re stuck with me for the next five sessions, as I need to finish the set of 3 * 3. Even after that, if you want me to I’ll be here as you go through any other cleansings. Though I’d be very surprised if you need more than 9 cleansings, especially at the moment.”
Asajj shakes her head, eyes wide, “Why?”
“Why what? Do I need to do another five sessions? Would I stay with you? Three times three?”
Asajj nods, “Yes.”
“You’ll need to let me go, as I need to get the datapad that I’ve been making my notes on.”
Reluctantly, Asajj lets Lily go, and ignores the single tear that tracks down her cheek as she leaves.
Almost as soon as the door closes, it opens again and Harry walks in carrying a plate with cubed fruit on it. As the door closes behind him, he walks into the circle with Asajj and holds the plate out, “Mama helped me cut up the fruit, as she said that you couldn’t get the skin off yourself. Will you mediate with me?”
Asajj forces a smile as she takes a cube of fruit, “Sure, though you won’t be able to feel the force in here.”
Harry shakes his head, “Mummy doesn’t want me to feel the force until I’m 11. Don’t tell her, but I think she’s scared that I’ll get trapped in a circle like this if I do.”
Asajj nods, “So why are you meditating then?”
Harry beams a smile as he takes a piece of fruit and starts to chew. “She said I need to find my magic, and that it’s inside, and then deeper.”
Glancing up at the nanny droid that accompanied the boy, Asajj looks back down, “Sure, you’ll have to tell me how to do it though.”

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A few days later, Asajj painfully pushes herself into a seated position after the latest ritual. On the other side of the exorcism circle Lily sits smiling proudly at her.
Asajj tries to put a little heat into her voice as she says, “What are you looking at?”
Lily smiles, “A strong and healing young woman. How are you feeling?”
Asajj coughs and spits out a gob of black slime she must have accidentally inhaled while she was screaming, “Like hell, you know that.”
Lily nods, “I do, but you’re also sitting up rather than shivering on the floor. That’s an improvement.”
Asajj nods, “I am, I still hate you though.”
Lily shrugs, “Ok. I’d probably hate me too if I’d forced me through this. I know I came close to hating James when he forced me to do the cleansing ritual. But it was either do that or do this.”
Asajj’s eyes betray her curiosity as she asks, “What’s the difference then?”
Lily points at the circle, “The seal only stops energy from coming in, not people and energy from leaving. And you have to ladle the water over yourself. It’s also quicker because of that, but harder because you have to pour the water over yourself every seven second until you run out of water, or you pass out. It’s what Fay was trying to offer you when you dumped the entire bucket over your head. I have to say, you’re looking healthier too, I can’t see your ribs anymore, and your eyes aren’t sunken.”
Asajj rolls her eyes, “Thanks, I think. I’ve been mediating with the squib, and I was wondering. Would you be able to teach me how to turn cookies into those insects?”
“You mean butterflies? I could, but I’m not going to accept until you’re free to leave, as it wouldn’t be fair on you. But, on the subject of requests. Fay and I are going to go into the caves tomorrow, given that I didn’t have anymore taint to be removed today. Would you be able to look after Harry, and maybe help him with his studies, while we’re gone?”
Asajj sneers, “Why not one of the farmers?”
Lily looks Asajj in the eyes, “Because I trust you. You probably haven’t felt it as you’re isolated from the force in here, but it feels like a storm’s coming. I don’t dare reach out to find out what’s going on, as I have no wish to be trapped in here again. But something’s coming.”
“You’re really just going to let me go?”
Lily nods, “Once you can walk out of the circle, we’ll drop you off on a populated planet that isn’t hostile to you. At that point you can walk away, or you can come with us and I’ll teach you magic.”
“Why though?”
Lily walks over and sits down in Asajj’s lap, “Because now that we’ve cleaned off all the gunk, I can see the vulnerable young woman that you really are. If we don’t give you the choice, then both we and you will always wonder if you stayed because you wanted to, or if you stayed because of what we did to you. No matter the result, the fact of the matter is that it was torture, even if it has been classed as a medical procedure by the droids.”
Asajj nods, “Sure, I’ll look after the squib, he’s grown on me.” She points at a datapad by the wall, “Besides, your P1 astromech droid gave me that when I asked.”
Lily frowns, “Do you mean Plex?”
“Is that it’s name?”
Lily shrugs, “I guess so, it’s what’s stencilled on it’s chassis.”

 

Chapter 5

​

Wearing their pressure suits for anonymity, Fay and Lily both walk across the plain toward the hills that hold the only entrance to the crystal caves. Overhead their ship passes them only a few 10’s of meters above the hills, as it heads for the mountains and somewhere that it won’t show up on most scans.
As the two of them find their way to the cave entrance, Lily looks around curiously, “Fay, I’m sure that Forri said the predators around here were aggressive, how comes we haven’t even seen one yet?”
Fay puts her hand on Lily’s head, “That, my little padawan, is because I’m using a force ability to make us seem like we’re friends with the local animals. It’s a weaker version of a technique I use to defuse violence, though it doesn’t work on droids.”
Lily nods, “It seems like a useful ability, though one that could be badly abused by people with the wrong motivations.”
Fay nods in agreement, “Indeed, and the Sith are said to have their own versions of the skill I used to disable Asajj. Only they use them to dominate the minds of their victims. The fact is that both this ability, and the one I use to forstall violence, need a serene mind to use otherwise your own emotions will disrupt the technique.”
Lily nods, “That’s one thing that using the force has over magic, spells all tend to be very targeted or take a lot of concentration from the caster to maintain. Even transfiguration, which was James’ area of expertise, is a once and done thing, and if you want it to do something you didn’t, intend you need to re-transfigure it.”
Switching on a head mounted flashlight, Fay makes her way into the cave, “I’ve been meaning to ask, are transfigured creatures alive?”
Lily shakes her head as she switches on her own flashlight, “Not unless they were alive to start with. They don’t have a soul as their entire animating force comes from the magic the caster put into the spell. When the magic runs out, so does their life. One avenue of research I looked at and discarded was the creation of life using ritual transfiguration, there’s at least one magical creature created this way. The quintaped was the result of one such ritual, although the popular stories say that they were transfigured wizards, the ritual books used them as a cautionary tale about not understanding exactly what you’re doing. I considered using that magic to make homunculus, bodies that rely on magic for their very survival. I’d have used them as a decoy, but they take months to create, time I didn’t know if I had.”
Fay nods, “That is both reassuring and disquieting to know, as the Sith have used the dark side of the force to create new life through mutation and alchemical treatments.”
The two of them pause their conversation as they come face to face with their first kinrath, an arachnoid almost the size of a human. Stepping to one side, they allow it to pass up the corridor towards the surface for a dozen meters, before it taps the floor a couple of times and slowly makes its way back towards them.
Looking up at Fay, Lily asks, “Will we be safe here? As, until I get a focus, I’m not going to be that much use with my magic.”
“I should be able to keep their attention off of us, but these creatures are especially simple minded, and while that usually makes them easier to influence, that only goes so far. How are you going to get a focus down here?”
Lily pulls a few crude wands out of a pocket on her leg, “I picked up a branch from one of the jogan trees yesterday and had Plex shape it into wand blanks for me. If I can find a suitable crystal here, I can cut a sliver off and put it into the blank as the core.”
Fay shakes her head, “I can’t see how a wand can make that much difference to your magic.”
Lily smiles behind her helmet, “You’ll see. Shall we continue?”

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After nearly 10 miles of walking, and occasionally being carried while napping, through the twisting, turning, and occasionally cramped tunnels dug by the kinrath; the tunnel eventually transitions from mud and clay to the granite of the mountains.
As they walk through the natural caves, they start to see glittering crystals occasionally growing out of the walls and glowing with their own inner light.
With a smile, Lily removes one of the gloves from her suit, and runs her hand over a crystal, “They’re pretty.”
Fay nods, “They are, and they grow over thousands of years through the power of the force. If it’s anything like Ilum, once we reach the main caves, they’ll be thousands of crystals dotted throughout the caves. You’ll need to meditate on the force in order to find the one for you.”
Lily groans, “I’ve only just finished purifying the taint in the exorcism ritual. I don’t think I can survive another just yet. I think I’ll wander around till I find one that feels like a slight match and make a temporary wand. I can then use that to harvest slivers of the other crystals and find a better match in the future. It’s probably not the way Olivander would do it, but it’s a quick and dirty method for wand craft that Fleamont taught James and I, before he died. He thought it might be a necessary skill because of the war. A skill he said he was taught in the Grindelwald war by some old wizards. It means bleeding on the core before you seal the wand again, but he said it would make a serviceable wand until you got to a wand maker to get a perfect match.”
Fay frowns, “Why would you make a temporary wand? Surely it’s a waste of resources.”
Lily shakes her head, “I don’t mean temporary like that. The wand will last for as long as any other wand. It will just never be quite as good as a wand made by a professional. My wand was 10 ¼ inches, made from willow, with a unicorn hair core. Whippy and good for charms. You should see if any of the crystals here call out to you too.”
“What difference would that make?”
Lily caresses another crystal as she thinks, “In theory, magic is as limitless as the soul. It can do anything you could possibly imagine, but the same is true of our bodies, or the power runs on the ship. However, without a focus, using magic is exceedingly difficult and exhausting. Um, like trying to power the engines without a cable would use vastly more energy. However, using a focus, any focus really, is like connecting the generator and the engines with a crowbar. It gives your magic a path to follow, and allows you to direct it in the outside world. A magical wand, that’s even a passable match, allows you to do things that would otherwise be too exhausting to even contemplate outside a ritual. You’ve made the silver solution, and you know how hard it was.”
Fay shakes her head, “I could have simply refreshed my strength with the force, making the task trivial.”
Lily nods, “I’m glad you didn’t, as it would have defeated the purpose of using it as a way to help you find your magic.”
Fay shakes her head, “I have to confess that it’s less to do with that, and more to do with the revelation about how much the taint of the darkside on the force has affected my thinking. I can think of several moments, before I took Harry through the portal, where I perhaps didn’t look deeply enough into problems I was dealing with because I was confident in my abilities and the visions the force gives me. It has left me a little unsure in my own judgement.”
Lily turns around and reaches up to take Fay’s hands, “Fay, you can’t do that to yourself. I’m only 26, and I know I don’t have all the answers. Merlin knows Professor Dumbledore didn’t either, but he seemed to think he did. From everything you’ve ever said, you’ve always done your best and sought to be as fair and even handed as you could be. Knowing how much the darkside tainted your perceptions doesn’t change the fact you were doing your best. That’s what the cleansing rituals are for after all. They won’t help if you revel in dark magic, or live off the darkside, as there comes a point where you can’t even make the potion anymore. But for people who are actively trying not to stain their souls…”
“Lily, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with self doubt, I doubt it will be the last time either. It just takes time to get past it, this time is just hitting me a little harder than before, as I’m fairly sure I would have died on Queyta, and I know that Master Knol would have done. No matter what some people think, Jedi aren’t infallible pillars of knowledge and truth. We are called to act as voices for the living force.”
“Fay, given our discussions on what to teach Harry and when, I think it’s safe to say that we are going to continue to disagree on just what the Jedi order is. I’m going to do my best to make sure that he has the best life I can give him, and has the chance to choose his own path in the future.”
Over the next hour, the two women continue to talk about the things that have been happening since they left the planet, and by extension the portal, for the wider galaxy.

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After nearly an hour of touching different crystals, Lily stops in the middle of the largest of the crystal caverns and her gaze turns toward the ceiling as a queer expression crosses her face.
“Fay!”
Fay looks up from a formation of crystals that sing to her senses, “Yes Lily?”
“Would you be able to lift me up to that cluster of crystals there?”
Fay puts a hand on the crystal that’s caught her attention, as her other hand gestures to draw on the force and lift Lily off the ground. As she does, the crystal she’s touching glows brilliantly for a brief moment, before it splits with a loud crack, and a long sliver of crystal breaks away from the corner of the larger crystal.
As the sound echoes through the caves, it’s joined by a similar crack from the ceiling. The two sounds combine to the point it almost sounds like there’s a cave in. As the last echoes of the cracks fade into silence, the sound of skittering feet rapidly takes its place.
As Fay deflects the attention of the first few kinrath that pass through the tunnel, she lets Lily down to the floor and warningly calls “Lily!”
Lily pulls her attention away from the missing part of her soul, that she’s holding in her hand, and reaches for one of the wand blanks while looking up, “I just need a moment!”
Fay shakes her head, “I don’t think you have a moment, we need to run as I think we’ve triggered some sort of reflexive response.”
Lily licks her lips and ducks behind a stalagmite, “Just give me two minutes and I’ll be done.”
“Lily! I’m not a guardian, and I can’t stop this many creatures while they’re panicking without bringing the cave down on our heads.”

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Hands shivering, Lily ignores Fay and concentrates on the grain of the wand blank and chants the words to a transfiguration spell that will open it up along the entire length from the inside.

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On the other side of the cave, Fay snatches up the sliver of crystal that broke away in her hand, and begins to climb the nearby wall, while the trickle of fleeing kinrath turns into a flood as they try to climb over each other in their attempt to flee into the tunnels.

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Once the wand has opened all the way to the core, Lily stabs her thumb on the sharp point of the crystal and lovingly, if hurriedly, smears her blood along the entire length of the crystal, before placing it into the groove and cancelling the transfiguration. Over the next few seconds the wood closes over the gap, and then seems to compress down around the crystal shard until only the rough wand is remaining. Almost lovingly, Lily reaches down to the wand with her bare hand and picks it up.

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As she’s clinging to the walls, Fay curses and squeezes her eyes shut as the entire cave is lit by a fountain of golden sparks flying out from behind the stalagmite that Lily’s hiding behind. Suddenly she hears Lily shout, “Glacius Maximus!” and the temperature in the entire cave drops several degrees.
Once she’s able to see once more, Fay gasps as the dimly lit cave is now lit by a brilliant blue fire that’s stuck to the ceiling. Towards the tunnels she can hear the skittering sound of the retreating kinrath, while deeper into the mountains is a large icewall blocking off the caves deeper in.
Looking back down to the centre of the cave, Fay looks at Lily standing there holding a nondescript stick in one hand, and starts to revise everything they discussed about magic.
When Lily waves her stick, no, her wand, at Fay and levitates her away from the wall as easily as she’d earlier lifted Lily to the ceiling, Fay can’t help the yelp of surprise that comes from her mouth.
As she lands on the floor, the yelp of surprise turns into outright staring, as Lily conjures two armchairs, and a small table, with three stabs of her wand.
Impishly, Lily takes her helmet off and looks at Fay. “Well, come on then. Take a seat and I’ll help you make your own wand.”
Fay stares at the chairs for a long moment before walking forward on weak knees and gingerly sitting down in a chair. As she does, Lily pulls a second wand blank from her pocket and places it on the table. She then quickly glances at the wall of ice and the sound of scrabbling from the other side.
Gingerly, Fay pokes the table, “Is it real?”
Lily looks back and nods, “It is for as long as the magic lasts. I didn’t put much in these so they’ll probably be gone in a few minutes. Did you find your own crystal while I was looking?”
Fay fingers the thin sliver of crystal that has somehow survived in her gloved hand, “I think so.”
Lily smiles encouragingly at Fay, “While I’m opening up the wood, you need to take your glove off and smear some of your blood on the crystal.”
Fay watches spellbound as Lily runs her wand from the base of the blank to the tip. As the wand passes over the blank, the wood unfurls like flower petals opening to either side of the heart of the wood. At Lily’s pointed cough, Fay tears her eyes away from the sight and hurries to remove her glove.
Once her hand is bare, she looks at the crystal sliver with a little consternation, before Lily suggests, “Just use the sharp point of the crystal to cut your finger or thumb, you only need a couple of drops of blood.”
Once she’s done that, Fay looks up at Lily, “Now what?”
Lily smiles, “Place it in the wand, and I’ll seal it up.”
A few seconds later Fay finds herself staring at a rough wand that looks as though it couldn’t possibly contain the crystal sliver that she’d just placed inside.
Gently, Lily points at the wand and says, “Well, go on then, pick it up and give it a little swish.”
Hesitantly, Fay reaches out and grasps the wand and lifts it up. As she flicks it to one side, it feels like the living force inside her bursts into song before it flows through her and down the wand at the same time as a spray of green, red, and purple sparks explodes from the end of the wand. At the same time all of her control over her emotions, and connection to the force, comes crumbling down and she feels like she’s been cast adrift on a wave of exultation into the galaxy, with the planet floating below her.
An instant later the moment is over, and she comes crashing back to her body as the sparks peter out until she’s only holding her wand. She only has a moment to process the fact that it is her wand, before the force seems to shout a warning about the farm.
Looking down at Lily, Fay urgently says, “Lily, we need to go, as the farm’s under attack.”
At the urgency in Fay’s voice, Lily frowns at Fay’s wand, “You need somewhere safe to put your wand.”
A second later she points at Fay’s utility belt, “Don’t move, I’m just going to cast a spell on your belt.”
Jumping off her chair, Lily tugs open one of the pouches, and waves her wand in a complicated pattern over the pouch while she mumbles a spell under her breath. A few seconds later she grabs her helmet from the table, “Fay, put your wand in that pouch and get your glove on. I’ll apparate us as soon as you’re ready.”
When Fay doesn’t respond, Lily snatches the wand from her grasp and drops it into the now expanded pouch.
Fay almost snaps at Lily when her wand’s taken away, but instead takes a deep breath and forces herself to calm down, and push her emotions to one side. A moment later, her glove appears on her hand and she’s sucked into a tiny tube.

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Forri grimly ducks down behind the corpse of the bantha he was trying to lead to safety, before it was hit in the head by a heavy weapon. As the incoming fire lets up for a moment, he pokes his head over the heavy bulk and takes aim with his vermin rifle, trying to buy time for his coworkers to lead the other animals to safety in the barn, and grab weapons from the small armoury in there. Scattered across the farmyard between him and the attacking droids, are the remains of the farming droids that tried to buy them time to escape after they received the message from Master Windu that a detachment of 50 droids was heading towards them.
As he ducks back behind the dead beast, Farri muses that they should have probably just run for the hills rather than trying to save the animals. But you can’t be a farmer without becoming attached to your farm animals.
As he leans back over to return fire again, he hears a scream from behind him, as five droids shoot at someone. Clenching his teeth, he sights down his own rifle and takes three measured shots before another group of droids takes aim at him, forcing him to duck down once more. At least he got two of the soulless machines.
A couple of seconds later, he spots Liam waving at him from the ‘hayloft’ of the barn, and he crouches ready to sprint for cover, only for another group of five droids to round an outbuilding and open fire on the barn.
This process repeats itself over, and over, while the droids move from cover to cover, and they try to cut off all avenues of retreat. At the same time Forri and the others return fire to the best of their ability, while trying to prevent the droids from circling around the farm and surrounding them.
When all hope seems lost, there’s a massive crack of thunder over the farmhouse, and everyone, including the droids, turns to look. When Forri spots a woman and child on the roof, he can’t help it, he stands up and waves both hands at them, “Run you idiots, we’re under attack!”
Instead of running, the child raises their hand and points a stick at the tool shed. A moment later the shed explodes as though it was just hit by a turbo laser, showering the ground with large lumps of ferrocrete along with the mangled bodies of the droids that were hiding behind it. At the same time, the woman makes a force assisted jump towards the barn, and scoops up the person that was shot earlier.
Reacting to the change in the battlefield slightly faster than the droids, Forri shakes his head and runs back towards the barn, while taking potshots at the droids.
As he’s running, he stumbles to one knee when the rubble and tools from the shed grow legs and start attacking the droids. A second later the woman walks out of the barn and raises both hands in front of her. Across the entire farm, all the droids that are focused on the child lift into the air and start to flail around, before crumpling into balls of metal and dropping to the floor.
As he stumbles to the door of the barn in shock, there’s a quite pop and the child appears beside the woman. Then she says, “I didn’t know you could do that Fay.”
Fay chuckles and points at the rubble that’s running around, “There’s a lot that you don’t know child. Equally, I didn’t know you could do that.”
The child looks back and nods, “Blasting hex followed by a boatload of animation charms.”
Fay looks up at the horizon, “We’ve only bought ourselves some time, there are already reinforcements on the way. Can your magic do anything for the injured?”
The child nods, “I can at least make sure they’ll survive to get to medical treatment. If you can find some rope, I can turn it into a portkey to get us all to the cave entrance, but something that big will probably wipe me out.”
Forri startles when Fay turns to him, “You’re Forri aren’t you? Take some of the padawans and grab what food and medical supplies you have and bring them back here.”
Forri nods and calls, “Yes Master Fay!” as he immediately starts moving to obey the command.
As he’s running into the barn to get a couple of volunteers, Fay points at a couple more workers, “You two, scavenge as many weapons as you can from the droids. The rest of you find some rope and tie the bantha’s to it…”

 

Chapter 6

​

While the others work, Forri walks over to Master Jedi Fay and kneels down beside the child she’s tending to, “Master, what do we do now?”
Fay looks up from Lily’s sleeping form, “What do you think we should do now?”
Forri shakes his head, “I don’t know. We can’t stay here, as any scouts ships will immediately spot a group this large, and we can’t hide the bantha’s. Even if we could hide, it feels, I don’t know, wrong to do so. We’re not the only farm out this way, but the other farmers, they’re just civilians. At most they’ll have a vermin rifle or two, and a cellar to hide in if things get bad.”
Fay takes her helmet off with a hiss of air and looks Forri in the eye, “What of you,” pointing behind him she continues, “what of them. Aren’t you civilians too?”
Forri shakes his head, “None of us are Master. We were all padawans, I can’t speak for the others, but I just got too old before a master picked me.” When Fay doesn’t say anything, he looks down, “What about the child? Is she a padawan?”
Fay smiles gently, “I’d like to think she is, but no. The Jedi order could never accept her as a padawan, she’s too old.”
“Then how was she able to do that stuff? I’ve never heard of any one able to do that. The closest I’ve heard is the Dark Jedi that raised the Gungans she’d killed with swamp gas, and sent them against the Jedi.”
Fay shakes her head, “I hadn’t heard of that.”
Forri looks down, “They didn’t include it on the public holo’s as the Jedi council thought it would be too demoralising. But we still get the Jedi dispatches as we’re agricorps.”
As Fay’s thinking, Forri watches as she reaches into one of her pouches and pulls out a stick that’s at least five times longer than the pouch is deep. As she rolls it around in her hands she muses, “If you had a way of purging someone of the darkside, what would you do with it?”
Forri opens his mouth to answer, and then stops for a moment, “I think… I think that I would use it on those who fell through no fault of their own. Give them a second chance. I don’t think I’d want to give it to those who went looking for forbidden knowledge.”
Fay puts her hand on Forri’s shoulder, “In this, perhaps, you are wiser than I. As my thought was to hide it’s existence from the order so that it wouldn’t encourage people to explore things best left buried.”
Forri’s tentacles frame his face in thought, “Is this some forgotten force technique you’ve discovered?”
Fay waves the stick through the air, trailing red, green, and purple, sparks from the tip as though mesmerised by their appearance, “What? Oh, no. Not Jedi. I’m mostly convinced that it’s not even using the force.”
Confusion clear in his voice, Forri asks, “What else is there?”
Fay trails the stick in front of Forri’s eyes, “Magic.”
Forri shakes his head, “We were taught that there was no such thing as magic.”
Fay sighs and resumes rolling the stick around in her hands, “I have been reminded a lot of a scientific maxim. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I fear that in our ignorance, we Jedi have taken our knowledge of the force and all the ways we’ve ever seen it used, and assumed that means that magic does not exist.”
As she finishes speaking, Fay looks up and over at the worker that’s lying in stasis on a transfigured stretcher.
Forri turns to follow her gaze, “I thought that was just some sort of healing trance master.”
Fay shakes her head, “It’s a spell that Lily learnt in her own world, and I’ve seen her use twice. The first time I too assumed it was just a force ability that drained her because of her lack of training. But with a wand it seemed like it took her no more effort than creating the stretcher or blowing up the shed. Yet transporting everyone here and the animals exhausted her.”
As Forri is turning back to face Fay, he catches sight of one of the droid blasters, “Master, you asked me what I thought we should do. I think I have an answer now. We know where the reinforcements are going to be and we are well enough armed. We should ambush them before they can move away, and possibly kill our neighbours.”
Fay puts the wand back in her pouch and smiles at Forri, “Then that is what we will do. You know the terrain, so I will follow your lead and provide support if you need it.”

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After the battle, Forri juggles a data cylinder in his hands as he looks around the ruins of the farm he’s called home for the last five years. All around are the bodies of dead droids and another dead bantha, as their plan caught them completely off guard. Slap bang in the middle of the farmyard is the ship the droids arrived in. A standard troop ship rather than the massive droid unloaders that are used on the main battle fronts.
As Forri reaches up to rub at the bacta patch on his shoulder, Liam leans out of the ship and shouts, “Hey! Forri! We’ve taken control of the ship! Almost everyone else is leaving, are you coming?”
Forri looks back at the bantha’s and Master Fay, who is meditating serenely on what remains of the farmhouse roof. Then he looks down at the data cylinder that Fay gave him after they started talking about going to Coruscant. After a nearly a minute he walks over to the ship and holds out the data cylinder, “Actually Liam, I think I’ll stay here and see if I can’t go with Master Fay. Give this to the Grand Master for me. And I mean personally, not through an aide. If I remember, he likes teaching the younglings.”
Liam shakes his head, “Hey, it’s your funeral. I’m just looking forward to being able to make a difference in this sith damned war.”
Forri shakes his head, “I understand, I just don’t think this is something that will be solved on the battlefield. Look, I’m going to see if Master Fay will allow me to travel with her, and maybe take me on as a padawan. Even if she doesn’t, maybe we can turn this into a haven or something. Just remember to honour her request to stay anonymous.”
Liam smiles easily, “Don’t worry, we all know how to keep our mouths shut. Besides, she didn’t actually do anything when we took back the farm, so that will be easy enough.”
Forri looks back up at Fay before shaking his head, “I wouldn’t say she didn’t do anything. I’m not sure what she did, but it was something.”
Liam shakes his head as he pulls it back inside, “Yeah, whatever. Anyway, last chance to leave.”
Forri steps back away from the ship, “Thank you for the offer, and may the force be with you.”
Liam hits the button next to the ramp as he calls back, “May the force be with you!”
A moment later Forri watches at the ship ponderously takes off on its vertical repulsors before the ion drive kick in, and send it shooting into the sky.
“You did a brave thing there.”
Forri jumps as a voice comes from just below his left elbow. As he looks down, the child appears out of nowhere. “Where did you come from?”
The child removes her helmet, and reveals herself as the same child that was running around the other day, “Disillusionment charm, and a silencing charm on my feet. By the way, I’m Lily.”
Forri’s nictitating membranes flick across his eyes a couple of times before he ventures, “Um, pleased to meet you? I thought you were asleep back at the camp.”
Lily shakes her head, “Forri, it’s been hours, and this body is five. I just needed a nap. Beside, I portkeyed the old and injured back to the barn when Liam sent the message that farm was clear. That was 20 minutes ago.”
Forri frowns as he considers that he’d seen Yma helping to load supplies and just not questioned it. As he’s trying to think, he opens his mouth a few times before closing it again. Eventually he settles on, “Why didn’t anyone notice you arrive?”
Lily shrugs and turns towards the ruined tool shed, “That’s probably a question for Fay, but I’d guess it’s because you expect them to be on the farm. Come on, there’s lots of cleaning up to do, and even with magic it’s going to be a lot of work.”
Somewhat skeptically, Forri asks, “Magic?”
Without looking back, Lily pulls her wand out of her pocket and stops a few meters away from the remains of the shed. Deliberately taking her time, she moves her wand in the right gestures and says, “Repairo” while pointing at the shed. Almost immediately, the scattered rubble from the shed starts to roll and tumble back to the shed, before slotting right back into the place they came from, including a cloud of dust.
As the shed comes together, Lily turns back to Forri with a smirk, “Yes, magic.”

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Asajj looks up at the ceiling as tears track down her cheeks while her hand gently strokes Harry’s hair as he sleeps with his hair in her lap. Just like her master used to do for her in the early days. She even told the same force damned stories he did.
Instinctively, she reaches for the force, to allow it to pass through her and take away the pain in a wave of feeling. Instead, there’s nothing. Just her in this cage.
With her eyes closed, she bangs her head backwards against the force cursed barrier that’s surrounding her. “It’s Not Fair! Why did you have to leave me? Why did you die?”
A second later, a gentle hand touches her face as Fay says, “Let it go, it’s all in the past and he has returned to the force.”
Asajj opens he eyes to spit out an angry retort, when Lily’s voice comes from the doorway, “I disagree. Hold on to your memories of your master and try to make him proud of you. Live up to his memory and prove to the people that killed him that you are better than them in every single way.”
Fay glances over, “Lily, that’s not the Jedi way.”
Lily shakes her head, “I’m not a Jedi, and neither is Asajj. What I am is a witch and a mother. I also lost my father when he was killed by my enemies. I’m not suggesting giving into hate, quite the opposite.” More gently she continues, “Asajj, do you think your master, your father, would be proud of what you’ve done since he died?”
Asajj’s anger dies stillborn in the face of first Lily’s defence of her, and then that damned question. A question that hangs in the air as Harry wakes up, hugs Fay with a cry of “Mama!”, before getting up and running over to Lily and hugging her with a cry of “Mummy!”
With the moment broken, Lily smiles, “Well, I was going here to use the fresher and change my clothes while Fay checked our stores for a portable generator. However, it looks like I’m going to be doing that too.”
Fay has the grace to look abashed as she puts her hand on the inside wall of the exorcism circle.
Asajj dashes the tears from her eyes and frowns, “Why do you need a generator anyway?”
Lily coughs and looks down with embarrassment, “The farm’s generator was damaged in the fighting, and I got carried away with my repairs. Apparently generators don’t like being repaired by magic.”
Asajj forces a sound of curiosity into her voice as she asks, “Magic?”
Lily pulls her wand out of her pocket and waves it in her hand. Before she can do anything else, Fay warns, “Not until you’ve found the generator. And don’t use it on anything we might need later.”
Lily sighs before her eyes widen and she smiles as she runs over to a crate with hull repair plates in it. A tap of her wand has a few plates dance out of the crate as she sings, “Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo
Put 'em together and what have you got
Bippity-boppity-boo…”
As she sings she waves her wand in time with the music and turns the plates into a pair of armchairs and a wooden side table with a chessboard inlaid in the top, before having them dance into circle. A moment later a hand full of nuts and bolts turns into white and black chess pieces and they march into circle before climbing onto the table and settling down.
By the door, Harry laughs as he jumps up and down while clapping. At the end of the song Lily points her wand at him and transfigures his clothing into a little princes outfit.
Breathless and laughing, Lily turns to the two women in the circle, “I always wanted to do that. Anyway, yes, magic, no force required, and I think I’ve spotted the generator. D12 would you mind grabbing that crate for me please?”
D12 just remains standing by the wall where he was unobtrusively keeping an eye on Asajj until his heuristic models of the world were just broken. A moment later a stinging hex pings of his chassis and Lily shouts, “Worry about it later and help me move this crate.”
D12 shakes his head and walks over to pick up the crate, “Yes mistress.”
As Lily, Harry (chanting ‘Again! Again!’), and D12 leave, Asajj disbelievingly pokes one of the chairs experimentally, “Do you think she meant that?”
Fay walks over to the other chair and gingerly sits down in it, “Meant what?”
“The stuff about holding on to my masters memory.”
Fay pulls her wand out of her pouch again and rolls it around in her hands as if mesmerised by it, “Probably. Though I find myself knowing less about the universe than I knew yesterday.”
Asajj shakes her head, “More riddles, my master was fond of those too.”
Fay laughs self deprecatingly, “Not riddles. Just the truth. We like to say that anything is possible with the force. But none of us actually expect to be able to do anything. Same as we’ve never come across anything that other, more primitive, cultures call magic that can’t be reproduced with the force, or at least hasn’t been reproduced without the force. Even with what Lily was doing, I could sort of see how it could be done with the living force. I could even feel her reaching for the force while she was doing her ‘magic’.”
Asajj sits on her chair and laughs bitterly, “Well, this beats talking about feelings. What changed?”
Fay holds up her wand, “This did.” and touches it to a chess piece with a look of concentration. Over the next couple of seconds, the chess piece slowly melts as it changes colour from black to purple. When Fay lifts her wand away, she’s left with a misshapen purple rook.
Asajj snarks, “Wow, brilliant work there Master Jedi.”
Quietly, Fay point out, “We are both currently cut off from the force, and I didn’t use the living force to do that.”
Asajj looks at Fay’s face searchingly, “You’re serious aren’t you.”
Fay nods, “I find myself having doubts about a lot of what I’ve been taught, and I’m afraid of what I will find when I look further.”
Asajj shakes her head, “I didn’t think we were supposed to feel fear, or doubt. At least that’s what Master Dooku said.”
Fay shakes her head, “That’s not what the code’s about. It’s not about lacking fear, it’s about not letting fear control you. ‘There is no emotion, there is peace’ and ‘There is no passion, there is serenity’ they’re supposed to be goals to reach for, not a state of being. You can’t be alive and not feel emotion. But if you allow yourself to be ruled by your emotions you’ll never be at peace. And so the first line tells us that emotions are transitory, and when we understand that and stop them from ruling our lives we’ll find ourselves at peace. The reason it’s reiterated is that the third line is talking about making decisions. If we allow our passions to rule us, then we will make avoidable mistakes, we’ll be blinded by what we want to be true. It’s only when we can set those emotions aside for the moment that we can find the serene state of mind we need to see clearly and make the best decision we can.”
Asajj shakes her head, “My master never described it like that.”
Fay shrugs, “I am older than most, and I have had a lot of time to think about things. Despite everything that’s happening around Lily, I still believe that the Jedi code is the right path. That hasn’t changed, what’s changed is that I have been shown how arrogant I have been by assuming I am knowledgeable when I am in fact ignorant. Which, itself breaks the second line of the code, ‘There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.’ As that line demands that we seek to replace our ignorance with knowledge. Even if that knowledge is just that there is someone that can actually explain what we’re ignorant of.”
Asajj sighs as she plays with some of the pieces on the chess board, “My master, he rescued me as a toddler after the warlords killed my parents. He wasn’t even supposed to be on that planet his ship crashed there and nobody ever came for us. Then they killed him too, they shot him in the back and tried to kill me too. All because we were protecting the innocent and bringing an end to the fighting. Why didn’t anyone ever come?”
Fay leans over and takes Asajj’s hand, “You said he crashed. It’s quite possible they believed he was dead. Several hours ago, a wise man pointed out that this circle could be used to give those that fall to the darkside a second chance. I know that you’re somewhat older than the order allows for it’s padawans since the Ruusan Reformation, but then again I’m somewhat older than the average Jedi Master. If you wish, I could take you as my padawan, and make it official once you are free of the darkside.”
Asajj stares at Fay in disbelief as something she’s sought for so long, even when she claimed to be sith, is just offered to her as part of a conversation.

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On Coruscant, in a grand temple set apart from the rest of the city planet by deep ravines, the grand master of the Jedi Order shuffles quickly towards his personal quarters with a data cylinder grasped like a lightsaber in his tiny hands.
When he reaches his quarters he plugs the cylinder into the computer and reads through the documents with increasing levels of disbelief. Shaking his head at the absurdities it describes, magick that isn’t part of the darkside indeed. He selects the first video and watches as Master Fay first mix silver into water, and then hand the water to a droid who proceeds to splash it over a naked woman and girl in side a silver circle. For 6 hours he watches as they scream as the water turns into brown sludge that drips off of them to the ground.
At the end of that time he leans back on his haunches and begins to meditate on what he’s seen, and what it could mean to the order if this is indeed a light side force ritual.

 

“It’s strange,” I reflect, “how so much can change in so little time.”
As I break off a piece of lunch and hold it out to a monkey that has a beak instead of a mouth and nose, I amend it to, “Well for everyone else anyway. What do you think?”
The monkey just ignores I and snatches the bit of food from I fingers before running off.
After I finish eating, I sit down in a meditation pose and starts to look for the cracks in the world. It’s taken I three months to get to this point, but even with I missteps and mistakes just having a lunch where I doesn’t need to look over my shoulder, or use my new powers of cleaning and repair.
According to PHO, powers should be instinctive to use. Fat lot they know.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I slips through I memories. A few minutes later I fall into my own personal slice of winter New England coastline. The waves and sky over the ocean roiling in response to my agitation.
“Damn it!”
As I scream at the clouds, the rabbits and birds all flee for cover in the nearby forest.
A few minutes later I’m able to leave my bit of New England and return to my body. It doesn’t take me much longer to find my power and slowly spread it out as I look for the crack I used to get here.
Once I find it, I shudder as memories of the first time I fell through a crack happened, and I just kept falling until I passed out looking up at rivers of light flowing through the sky. As tears start to stream down my face, I slip through the crack onto a street a few blocks away from Winslow School.
As the faint strain of the end of lunch bell reaches my ears, I slump as I try to work out where here is.

Several minutes later, I manage to find my way out to the main road, and the gates of the school. As I look up at the large clock on the front of the school it ticks over to 10 minutes past the start of art class.
Shivering, I hunch my shoulders and walk into the school, wishing desperately that I was invisible so that nobody could stare as I walk into class late, especially The Trio or their hangers on. Wonder of wonders, as I walk into the classroom, absolutely nobody looks up, and Mrs French just kept talking. Slowly, it dawns on me that I am actually invisible.
I can’t help myself as I start to hyperventilate. I need to get away, to get somewhere safe where I can’t accidentally out myself. As I step backwards everything goes dark and I bump into something solid.
As I do, I can’t help but scream and drop down into a small ball on the floor.
After a few seconds my eyes adjust to the darkness, and it slowly dawns on me that I’m not in my locker. It takes even longer for me to uncurl from the floor and start looking around. As I recognise our basement I start to laugh hysterically.

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After a cold shower to clean off the dust from basement, I decided to make some more notes in my special notebook about the things I discovered today. After the living room light fails to turn on, I move one of the chairs over to the front room window so that I can take advantage of the afternoon sun.
As I’m writing, an ambulance drives down our street to Mr Persons, the old man that had a heart attack last year. As the siren turns off my pen drops from my suddenly nerveless fingers as I put the lack of power and Mr Persons heart attack together and get murderer.
As my heart leaps into my throat, I swallow hard and close my eyes to concentrate on my breathing as I try to bring my emotions back under control.
“Why did I have to get such a difficult power, why couldn’t I have had something simple like flight, or even something useless like bug control?”
I jump as I realise I said that aloud, and then I giggle softly as I make my way into the kitchen where we keep the candles and matches.
With some light, I make my way back into the basement and look for the camping gear we last used the summer before Mum died. When I come across Mum and Dad’s double sleeping bag I almost chicken out and turn myself in. Then I remember that my power killed all of the power, and maybe killed our neighbour. I can’t afford to be locked up by the PRT, as I could cripple them accidently.
With my resolve reaffirmed, I quickly find the camping rucksack and pack a few changes of clothes, the self help books I’ve been reading, an old camping guide, a pen, my notebook, and as much tinned or dried food as I can along with the small camping stove and matches.
With a heavy heart I leave out of the back door and jump the fence to our backdoor neighbour before heading to the trainyard.

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It was full dark by the time I managed to find my way through the north docks and into the abandoned parts of the trainyard. I am willing to admit that part of that was my reluctance to use the busses given my current emotional state.
As I look around at the spots of flickering yellow light that are visible in the darkness, it occurs to me that this is probably a good time to be here if I want to avoid attention. Not that here is where I want to camp.
“Ok Taylor, you can do this. Just find a sheltered area and then you can look for one of the cracks in the world.”
With my peptalk done I square my shoulders and walk away from the last street light and into the darkness. As I’m stumbling over the tracks and discarded sleepers, one of the candles floats out of my backpack and the wick burst into flame. With a smile I say, “Thanks dad” before continuing to make my way deeper into the train. After a dozen steps I turn to look at the candle that’s floating innocently near the ground. As soon as I do the candle drops to the floor, and I quickly pick it up before the wick can burn through the wax.
“What the hell?”
Shaking my head, I push my surprise to the back of my mind and continue to trudge on.
In the end it only takes me five or ten minutes to find an old cargo container that’s had the top ripped off. I grimace as I look inside, as even by candlelight it’s clear from the puddles and mould why nobody has claimed this container. Which, ironically, makes it perfect for my needs, as I have absolutely no intention of staying here.

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An hour, eight or nine cracks between worlds, and multiple trips to my personal slice of New England later. Including one rather than hair raising moment where the cracks opened up into a canyon and I fell past an ideal camping spot and had to make my way back to the stream I passed, I finally made it to somewhere I could safely test my powers without putting anyone in danger. Now all I need to do is make a shelter before it gets dark here.
On second thoughts, I should have a cup of tea… Damn it, I didn’t pack my teabags. Ok, hot water it is.
With a smile I unpack the camp cooker and pull out the little burner, along with the instruction book, out of the kettle. It’s only once I’ve got it all setup that I end up staring at the burner in consternation, as it’s completely empty.
With a sigh, I open the instructions and begin to read. Methylated Spirits! Why couldn’t they have printed that on the side rather than on the instructions that were in the middle of the stupid stove. Right, fine, I’ll just use the kettle to get some water, as I need to drink.

A few minutes later I’m laying back on my sleeping bag sipping water from the kettle. That’s when it hits me. This is the best damn water I’ve ever tasted. Even the air tastes good. Closing my eyes, I allow myself to sink into meditation as I visualise New England, and try to compare it to here. A moment later I find myself in my own little slice of New England, except it’s not winter, and the sea is calm.
“What on earth?”
As I look around, instead of the barren trees and snow covered grass, I’m instead standing in the middle of a spring meadow with flowers of every description blooming from the grass. The trees have that bright green colour of new growth and the sound of insects fills the air. I stand there stunned at the change. What’s going on? Is it something to do with the different cracks?
As I’m thinking, I find myself wandering into wood that no longer seems quite so forbidding as it did before. Peaceful. That’s the only word I have to describe what the place is like. Peaceful. It’s like summer camp before everything…
As my thoughts turn dark, so does the sky with clouds rolling in from out of nowhere and the smell of a storm filling the air. Suddenly this place doesn’t seem so peaceful and inviting anymore.
When I return to my body, I’m still lying on my sleeping bag, but my campsite looks like a tornado hit it. The grass is torn up, and my rucksack has strewn it’s contents all around me.
Swallowing hard, I say, “It’s ok Taylor, this is why you’re here. At least you weren’t at home when this happened.”
Out of habit, I glance at my wrist where my digital watch used to sit. Not that I’ve worn one since my powers killed the 3rd cheap watch I bought. With a sigh, I look up at the sky and try to estimate how long I was gone for.
Absently, I reach out for the camping guide and flick to the page on how to read the time by the sun. Right, hands and fingers. Raising both hands, I put them one of the other to make my estimate. Glancing back at the book I nod, three and a half hands would be around three and a half hours till sunset…
I glance back at my hands, that are both raised together in the sky, and then back at the book, which falls to the floor with a thud. Right, telekinesis. Stupid powers. Well, first of all, I need to make sure I’m safe to be around, then I can start working on everything else my powers can do.

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I ’ve been here two days now, and I don’t think I’m any closer to being safe around people than I was before. It seems like the only smart thing I brought with me is the camping book. If it wasn’t for my powers, I’d have had to risk going home already. As it is, I’m starting to get a handle on the telekinesis as it’s just so useful.
I pause in my writing as I glance over at the cheerful little fire I’ve got going, with a pot of water levitating over it. As I spot the steam coming off of it, I take a handful of noodles and drop them into the water while my pen starts moving once more.
I discovered a new aspect of my power while getting firewood earlier, apparently I can use it to cut things as well as light fires. On the subject of my camp, I haven ’t seen any signs of predators or civilisation since I’ve been here. Not that means much, as there’s still large tracts of the USA where you can walk for days without ever encountering a road or any other sign of humans. But the lack of planes is a little disturbing.

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Day 4
Apparently the wildlife has become more comfortable around me as I woke up to something that looks a bit like a rabbit rooting through my rucksack. I managed to chase it off, but it took the pack of spaghetti with it. I guess I ’m going to need to learn how to make snares. At least I’m now getting practice with my cutting power, as it seems to go through the tins easily enough. I’m currently warming up some ravioli, which will make a nice change.

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Day 5
It rained last night, and all the labels came off my cans. At least the books are fine as the rucksack is waterproof. I hate corned beef. Well, the tinned stuff anyway. Apparently the mystery can I opened was one such can. I think I ’ve also made a new friend, a brown and grey sort of cat. It’s mostly like a normal cat, but it’s got spines on the end of it’s tail. It came out of somewhere and started eating the corned beef while I was heating up some hot dogs and peas. It even let me stroke it while it was eating.
Anyway, I ’ve learnt a couple of things today. The first is that my ignition power even works on wet wood. The second is that wet wood produced so much smoke. And the last is that I’m going to have to head home soon, as I at least need a tent and some more food. I just hope the house isn’t under surveillance. I think the meditation and being out here is starting to help, but it’s lonely.

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Day 7
The animals here can teleport! I was checking my snares today and I found out why I haven ’t caught anything, despite sometimes looking like they’ve been set off. I heard something rustling near where my snare was, and found one of the rabbit things caught in it. I tried to use my cutting power on it, but before I could, pop, it disappeared. I do mean pop, like the sound you make with your finger in your cheek. I don’t think it’s the same way I teleported at school, but I think I felt it move. I’m sort of glad it got away as (despite the camping guide saying I should) I don’t really want to hurt anything.
Anyway, I found Spike sleeping in my rucksack when I got back so I figured I ’d wait till he wakes up before heading home. Anyway, I’m going to practice what the book calls conscious awareness, as that’s the meditation method that seems to be helping me cope with my emotions the best, as the book says to just be part of the world and allow the world to be part of you. Maybe I should check out the library and see if there’s any books on meditation, as this one mentioned a moving meditation. Maybe a martial arts book, as apparently there’s a few that can help with meditation.

 

Chapter 2

​

As Spike crawls out of my rucksack I finish writing the last few words in the back of my notebook. With a smile I grab one of the left over hotdogs from last nights meal and break a bit off.
“Here you go.” I hold out the hotdog towards Spike and wait patiently for him to come forward and snag it. As soon as he’s grabbed it, I gently toss the rest of the hot dog away from the stream and quickly pack the remaining tins and the cooker. While I’m hopeful I’ll be able to find the camp again, I don’t want to run the risk that I can’t.
All too soon I’m all packed and I heft the rucksack onto my back with a smile. Just before I start to climb towards home I remember the state of the shipping container I left from. Maybe sitting down isn’t such a good idea for this.
Shaking my head, I get to my feet, “Well Spike, I guess I’m learning to meditate standing up sooner than I thought.”
Of course, Spike doesn’t answer me. Instead he finishes the bit of hotdog and then disappears with a pop, only to reappear over by the rest of the hotdog. I screw my eyes shut and shake my head, as I’m sure I just felt him travel through the intervening space.
As I’m trying to clear my head, my notebook and pen float out of the pocket on the rucksack and I write.
Spike can teleport. Of course he can, why didn ’t I think of that.
With the thought now on paper I’m able to turn my attention to metaphorical the gaping canyon that keeps trying to drag me down, and away from home. As my awareness of it comes into focus I sway slightly on my feet. Then I start to climb towards home.
Unlike the time I did it a week ago, this time it feels like I’m trying to stuff myself into a dress I outgrew a year ago. Granted it might have felt like that then, but I was to focused on not falling further down the canyon to notice. It certainly didn’t feel like this when I succeeded at school.
As the stream fades out to be replaced by another breath taking vista, it occurs to me that I should really also be checking my slice of New England, as that changed too. Even as I think that, I know that I’m procrastinating, as I don’t really want to go home, back to Brockton Bay, back to The Trio and their taunts and bullying.
Rather than dwell on what awaits me at home, I instead try to find New England inside me.
Once I managed to find my way there, I look around in surprise. The changes are there, not as obvious as they were when I made it to my campsite, but instead of being in full bloom, it’s clear that many of the flowers and trees are still budding. Is that why it’s so hard to change? Because I’m trying to undo all of the growth? Or is it because I’m using the wrong visualisation?
Shaking my head, I go through the now familiar process of returning to my body.
As I continue to climb up the canyon, my slice of New England continues to become more wintery, until finally it’s back to the way I found it a couple of weeks ago. Rather abruptly, the canyon ends before I’m back in the trainyard.
Don’t get me wrong I can still feel it gaping behind me, waiting for me to forget about it and swallow me up. But I’ve managed to avoid falling so far. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I brace myself for the memories I know are coming. Then I try to find that state where I can feel the cracks in the world.

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When I arrive back in Brockton Bay, the first thing I do is cough and retch at the smell of smog, urine, and trash. It figures that I can’t even return to the same spot.
While I’m trying to recover, a man grabs my rucksack and drags me out of the Alleyway into a dark street with several other men. When he shouts something in Japanese I start to shiver and resolutely look at the floor while trying to see a way to run away.
A moment later, a door to a house opens and men start to pour out, their features briefly illuminated by the interior light. As the men all line up on either side of the street my heart drops. Why oh why didn’t I spend more time trying to work out how to use my teleport power?
I watch helplessly as their boss steps into the doorway. He’s a big guy, but not so big that he would send people running when he walked down the street. He’s a little over six feet which still puts him head and shoulders above most of the gang members. Covering his face is an ornate metal mask, and despite the chill in the air, he’s not wearing a shirt. I have just enough time to register the sprawling tattoos that cover his body from the neck down, each one depicting a dragon from eastern mythology. Then he’s in the street and walking towards me. I don’t think there’s anyone in Brockton Bay that wouldn’t recognise Lung, the leader of the Azn Bad Boys, or ABB as they’re more commonly known.
“Who’s this?” When Lung speaks I’m surprised at just how deep and commanding his voice is.
The man holding me says, “I found her spying on us in the alleyway over there.”
I vehemently shake my head, “I wasn’t, I was just trying to get home, I promise.”
Lung shakes his head and starts walking past, “Kill her, we don’t have time for this tonight.”
When I hear the click of a gun being drawn I panic and I use my telekinesis to push everyone away from me as hard as I can. Everything seems to pause as Lung goes cartwheeling down the road. The man that was holding me has just enough time to let out a scream before his head slams against a brick wall with a sickening crunch. A second later the unopened cans float out of my rucksack and array themselves behind me.
From down the street Lung says, “That was a mistake girl. You should have let him shoot you. Now. I’m going to kill you myself.”
Eyes wide with panic, I turn to face Lung as he begins to run towards me, and I freeze. He’s only a couple of paces from me when I start thinking again, and I throw one of my cans at him as hard and fast as I can. The can makes a loud bang as it hits Lung in the stomach, and then most of it just keeps going trailing a spray of blood and ravioli. Lung just stops and looks at me stupidly as his legs give way. A few seconds later there’s a tink, ti-ti-tink, t-t-tink as the can hits the road.
As if that was a signal, suddenly everyone starts moving and drawing their weapons, a mixture of guns, knives, sticks, and more traditional martial arts weapons. I’m not afraid to admit that, at that moment, I peed myself. See, on some level I was aware of the fact that Lung wasn’t dead, and large metal plates were already sliding out of his skin to cover him in impenetrable armour.
As the first ganger raises a shotgun, I throw one of my cans at him. Not quite as hard as the one I threw at Lung, but still hard enough for it to burst with a loud crack as it hits his chest.
“I-I’m just going to go home now, nobody else needs to die. See, I-I wasn’t lying, I really do just want to go home.”
As I’m saying that, I start edging around lung to head west away from their territory. As I edge closer to the far edge of the gangers, they start to part to allow me through. I’m almost ready to run for it when Lung sits up and says, “Mother Fucker!”
That’s when I break into a run. It’s strange, you read about villains like Lung having super strength, but you don’t really appreciate what that really means until you see someone leap clear over your head to land on the road in front of you.
As I skid to a halt, I throw the last of my cans at Lung as hard as I can. This time, instead of punching through him, he braces himself and raises his arms to cover his head, and they pancake against his chest. Then he starts to laugh.
“I told you girl, you should have taken the bullet.”
Desperately, I try to push him with my power, but all it does is cause him to stumble backwards. That’s when he throws a stream of fire at me and I throw myself to one side, the smell of burning hair and nylon following behind me.
As I land heavily on the blacktop, Lung already has another stream of fire coming towards me from the other side. I quickly roll away from that stream, only to end up on my back and looking at Lung as he laughs while he walks towards me. Each time I try to turn over to scramble to my feet he throws another streamer of fire at me.
As his hand raises to point directly at me, everything seems to slow down. It’s a well known phenomena amongst those who have had near death experiences, and people think it’s the brain’s way of trying to find any way out of the situation. I don’t know if that’s true, but it suddenly struck me that it’s quite chilly out. That’s when I remembered that it’s winter in my own slice of New England, and fire needs three things to exist, Fuel, Oxygen, and Heat.
I can almost see the fire leaving Lungs hand as I try to bring my hand up to protect me, but my body is too slow, so I let go, as I’d rather fall down the canyon than burn to death here. As I do, frost seems to explode from me as all the water in the air instantly freezes. But it’s not enough and the fire punches through the hanging crystals so I screw my eyes shut and wish for it to get colder, so cold that the oxygen will freeze.
A few seconds later I open my eyes to stare into Lungs eyes as he lets out a breath that instantly freezes and turns into snow. As he struggles to take a breath, Lung hunches down and then explodes. I don’t mean explodes like you see bodybuilders do when they spread their arms wide, though he did that too. I mean literally explodes in a massive ball of fire that stops a couple of feet in front of my own feet. As the light from his burning body lights up the street it allows me to see the terrified faces of people looking out of their bedroom windows as hoarfrost creeps up their walls and along the road.
Lung deliberately walks towards me, one step after another, like he knows his won. I might have beaten his fire, but I can’t beat him. I’m looking him straight in the eyes when the canyon opens beneath me and I start to fall and I let it happen for a few seconds until I can no longer see him.
Then it’s a race to stop my fall before I find out what’s at the bottom of this canyon.

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As I come to a halt I lie back on the grass and look up at the white streams in the sky while my heart tries to pull itself out of my throat and ice boils off of my stomach. A second later I start to laugh, more than a little hysteria colouring the sound. I’m alive, I survived Lung. I take it all back, my power is great!
I don’t know how long I lay there, staring at the streams, but eventually I calmed down enough to start thinking again. That’s when I realise that Lung saw my face.
“Oh shit, that means I can’t go back to school. Even once I’ve got control of my powers and they stop trying to out me…”
I trail off when I realise I’m talking to myself, and not in the way people normally do. As I take a couple of deep breaths, my notebook and pen floats out of the pocket of the rucksack, and flips to a new page.
“Ok Taylor, what do you need to do. First of all, you still need the tent and your savings book. You should also pick up some books for entertainment and maybe a couple of packs of cards or dominoes…”
I trail off again as I start to concentrate on just getting my thoughts down on paper.

• Tent
• Savings book
• Leave a note for Dad so that he know’s he might be in danger
• Check shelves for any other survival books.
• Pack books for entertainment
• Find something that’s a bit less lethal than throwing tins of food at people. Maybe a quarter staff.
  • Use the computers in the library to find out how to make a quarter staff.
• Learn to teleport properly.
• Cooking utensils
• Something for hunting game with, just in case I can’t get back to Brockton Bay.
• Costume - Lung already knows my face, so I need to hid in my normal identity.
• Playing cards and a chess set for when I’m bored.
• Practice my invisibility.
• A book on building shelters.

As I write the last line, some sixth sense makes me look around, like I’m being watched or something. Deciding that I’ve stayed here long enough, I begin the long climb up the canyon. I hope nobody else fell in when it opened up for me.

 

Chapter 3

​

When I get back to Brockton Bay I have to rapidly let myself drop down the canyon again, as I almost climb out exactly where I left from. Only, this time there are gangsters walking around with torches. Why is it only now that it sends me right back where I started, instead of all the other times.
The constant tug of the canyon beneath me has me slapping my forehead, of course! It’s because cracks never run straight, while the canyon is a straight drop. With a sigh I turn west and start walking.
5 minutes later, I attempt to climb up again, and end up smiling broadly a I come out on a completely different street. Well, the first time I almost come out in someone’s house, but it doesn’t take much for me to walk a little further and pop out in the street. It takes me substantially longer to find a road I recognize.
I’m around half way home when the canyon closes up, and a tension I didn’t even know I was carrying eases. After that it only takes me around half an hour to finish walking home. Of course, I could have walked it faster if I wasn’t following the roads, but I’m not confident about my ability to navigate the cracks. I’m sort of aware of my note book coming out and writing in it as that thought crosses my mind.
- get more accurate with the cracks
As I get into our block, I pause for a moment as I notice that none of the street lights are on. Neither are the normal porch lights. Dad keeps saying how bad the city services are, but surely they’d have fixed at least a few of them in the last week. Shaking my head I continue through the darkened streets to my house. Well, my old house.
Given that it’s been a week, I fish my front door key out of my pocket rather than heading around to the back door. As I open the door, I keep my other hand against the door frame to stop the slight creak it makes if you don’t. Carefully, I close the door, making sure to hold the latch and the frame so that it doesn’t make it’s god awful crack that can be heard upstairs.
Rather than cutting through the living room, I carefully make my way down the hall and ease open the kitchen door. There I take of the rucksack and place it against the back door and flick the light switch. I frown when it doesn’t turn on, maybe I caused a bigger problem than I thought. As I’m looking around, a candle floats out of a nearby drawer and ignites. I quickly grab the candle and dribble a couple of blobs of wax onto the counter, before sticking the candle down. The last thing I want is to accidentally wake Dad and out myself. It’s best if he doesn’t know, that way he can’t accidentally let the ABB know, and they won’t hurt him to find me.
By the light of the candle I grab a glass from the cupboard and fill it from the tap. Lifting it up to my lips I take a gulp before grimacing at the taste. Gah! What do they put in this water? I should get a cantee…
That thought is cut short as the candle light flickers as though something passed in front of it. A moment later I grab my notebook and pen out of the air and firmly put them counter. Then I deliberately add a tin mug and a thermos to my list of things to acquire before I leave; by hand! Then I firmly put the notebook and pen in my hoodie pocket and down the glass of water.
With some extra hydration, my bladder makes itself known and I try to hold it as I light the grill. I guess we’re lucky in that respect, as we’re one of the houses that still has a gas cooker, even if it is older than I am. Apparently gas cooking and heating was very important back when the Docks worked, because of the constant brownouts.
Anyway, I don’t make it to the fridge to get some bread, instead I divert to the small restroom under the stairs. I can’t believe how much I missed not needing to use my cleaning power when I finished. I carefully put the seat down before I flushed the toilet, as I know how much sound carries in this house, and I don’t want to wake Dad. Then I open the door straight into a blinding light right in my face.
“Taylor?”
My Dad’s voice forestalls my first instinctive response and I straighten up, “Dad? You should be asleep.”
My dad, Danny Hebert, points his torch at the ceiling, illuminating the hall in a that weird dim light you get from reflected plaster.
Dad looks a little sheepish as he says, “I fell asleep on the couch waiting for you when you weren’t in. Mr. Person caught me as I got home, said they’d been a power cut this afternoon and his insurance company sent out an ambulance when his panic button base station failed to phone in. I didn’t want you to come home in the dark. Are you ok?”
I look down and towards the kitchen as my mind races, ‘Mr. Person isn’t dead?’ ‘This afternoon?’.
I obviously waited too long to answer, as dad asks, “Did they…?”
The half asked question hangs in the air like a loaded gun, ‘Did they dump me in a rough part of town again?’ Just like in January when I was found passed out in what used to be the South Docks and is now just the Downtown slums.
I shake my head minutely, “No, I, ah, needed some fresh air.”
Absently, I take hold of Patchy and squeeze him tight as I try to understand everything that dad just told me, along with the memories of waking up in South Memorial Hospital wearing a hospital gown because my clothes had been taken for evidence. That was after two days of IV antibiotics to treat sepsis. Not that it turned up anything, as my locker had been cleaned out by the time they got round to checking the school.
“Taylor, what was that?” Dad’s voice sounds a little faint as he interrupts my spiraling thoughts.
I look around, “What was what?”
Dad turns his torch onto Patchy, “That, it just came floating round the corner and you grabbed it.”
As I look down at the bear my brain stalls, “Uh, I can explain!”
Dad chuckles darkly, “Well, this’ll be good.”
I can’t remember the last time I heard dad laugh like that at anything, and so I say the first thing that comes to mind, “Dad, are you ok?”
Dad points his torch at the back door, and the rucksack leaning against it, “Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I, uh, wanted to, but after I killed Mr. Person, I…”
At that moment, all I wanted dad to do is hug me and tell me everything would be ok. Instead he turns the torch back to me, “Taylor, you are my daughter, and you always will be. I know I’m not good at talking about feelings, that was always your mum’s thing.”
I wince as my mind turns to the self help book I ‘borrowed’, a book that floats out of the rucksack to beside me. When he sees it, Dad looks sad, “Oh, Taylor. How long?”
I look down and mumble, “Since I broke the plates accidentally in January.”
“I’m sure I would have remembered that.”
I hung down lower into Patchy’s head, “I fixed them. It’s one of my powers.”
Dad yawns, “I need to be more awake for this.”
I quickly say, “We could talk about this tomorrow.”
Dad shakes his head, “Would you be here tomorrow?” When I don’t answer he shakes his head, “You got far too much of the bad parts of both of us Taylor. Plenty of the good parts too. Taylor, I’m not going to ask about what’s going on at school. When you’re ready I’ll be here to listen, but don’t run away. This is your home, and it always will be.”
I don’t know what it is about what dad just said, but something rubs me the wrong way and I shout at him, “I almost killed Mr. Person and Lung almost killed me! I’m not running away, I’m keeping you safe.”
Dad’s face turns ashen as I try to bring my emotions back under control before my powers go out of control. When he next speaks it’s almost in a whisper, “Lung. Taylor, why shouldn’t I call the PRT right now?”
That, more than anything else, quashes my rising anger, “I’m dangerous dad. My power, I can’t control it and…” I wave my hand at the dark light bulb, “when I lose control this happens. I did this accidentally when I teleported away from school. What if I did it on the Rig? How many people would die because of me? I can’t be around people dad, not until I’ve got control. That’s why I ran away a week ago.” I slide down the wall beside the toilet and squeeze Patchy tightly.
Danny shakes his head, “You haven’t been gone a week, I’d have noticed.”
I don’t answer as I’m too busy soaking Patchy with my tears as my fight with Lung, school, my fears, and everything else catches up with me.

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I wake up slowly and stare at the ceiling of my room for several minutes as I try to remember how I got into my own bed when the last thing I remember was crying into Patchy’s head. At some point during that process I realize that I’m not wearing my glasses, but I can still make out every single crack in the ceiling. A snorting snore to the side has me looking over to see dad sleeping against the bed like he did when I was 8 and I had nightmares about disappearing at night.
Come to think of it, maybe those scary tales about children being stolen away by the fae, if they didn’t go to bed on time, had a grain of truth to them. Maybe I can find mum’s old copy of Grimm’s fairy tales, the antique one from before they started sanitizing stuff. I’m almost surprised that my notepad doesn’t come floating towards me, until I realize that I’m only wearing my t-shirt and panties. Dad must have undressed me when he brought me to bed.
As that occurs to me it’s a trivial matter to reach out towards one of my desk drawers and have a notebook float out, along with a new biro from the box I keep there. After making a couple of notes about re-reading the Grimms fairy tales, and also checking at the library to see if there’s any way that I can avoid going back to school while keeping dad happy. As there’s no way I’m going back there. Not now, not ever. The Trio are bad enough, but now I’ve got the ABB to worry about. Notes made, I crawl off the end of the bed and consider kicking dad for being in the way of me getting out of bed. Instead I wave my hand to open my wardrobe door and pick out a pair of comfortable jeans and a clean t-shirt and hoodie. A pair of panties and socks follow from one of my drawers.
While I’m ‘enjoying’ my cold shower, the water stutters as dad flushes the downstairs toilet. Maybe I should’ve tried to use my ignition power to heat up the water in the storage tank.
Once I’m dressed I walk out of the bathroom to the smell of frying bacon and fresh coffee. With a nights sleep between me and the events of yesterday, I’m able to walk down the stairs with a slight smile. That smile drops away when I get to the kitchen and dad’s radio says, “There is a local advisory for North Brockton Bay. Elmwood road is closed for major repairs after an altercation between two unknown capes last night….”
The click of the volume dial catches my attention as dad reaches over and turns the radio off as he turns to face me with an unreadable expression on his face, “Taylor…”
I shake my head, “I’m not running away dad. I’m just going to the Library.”
“French toast?”
I nod, and take the peace offering, “Please.”
As he’s cooking the french toast I pull one of the double doors to the lounge closed so that I can see the bookshelf behind it. A bookshelf that has been mostly hidden for the last two years since mum died. It’s where I found the camping guide after all.
From the kitchen, Dad says, “You know Gerry?” At my silence he continues, “You met him once or twice when you’ve visited me at work. Big guy, burly, Black Irish?”
I poke my head back around the door to say, “Maybe?”
It’s one of the weird quirks about the house, you can hear a mouse sneeze if you’re upstairs, but if you try to have a conversation between the lounge and kitchen, nothing, nada, zilch. The other person might as well be saying nothing. But from the kitchen to the lounge, crystal clear.
“Rumor’s going around he found work. Guess who with.”
I shake my head, “Dunno.”
Dad turns back to the stove to flip the toast, “He’s going to be one Uber and Leet’s henchmen.”
I lean back to look around the door, “Really? They going to make him wear a uniform? Bright primary colors, Tron style?”
Dad chuckles, “Probably.”
My mood immediately drops, “We were supposed to talk about how the powers thing has influenced our lives last Monday.”
“Taylor, do you mean this Monday?”
“Dad, I can’t go back.”
Dad shakes his head, “Taylor, I can’t afford to send you to Arcadia.”
I shake my head and shout, “Dad, it’s not about the bullies!” Softer I say, “It’s not about the bullies. It’s about Lung. He saw my face dad. Lung saw my face, he was staring into my eyes when I escaped. I go to school and I’m dead. If I escape again then he’ll come after you.”
The door to the cellar opens with a bang as my backpack flies out towards me and I catch it with one hand. With the other I catch a slice of French toast as I’m stalking out of the house, the front door opening and slamming closed without my input. By the time I’ve made it to the bus stop I have time to regret leaving so quickly, because I left my purse in the rucksack. Instead, I turn towards Downtown, and the library and start walking.

 

Chapter 4

​

When I get to the library all the computers have already been taken by kids browsing PHO or whatever they do on them, so I’m at a loss for what to do. My indecision must have shown, because one of the librarians walks over.
“Can I help you Miss?”
I watch her eyes look over my ratty backpack and my burnt hair, and the way I curl in under her inspection. Hopefully before she can draw any more conclusions, I say, “Um, I was hoping to use the computers to find out if there’s anyway to get out of school.”
I hate the way her expression goes from disgust to pity almost instantly as she looks over me again. Then the moment is passed and she nods, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with any information about Home Instruction. You’d need to contact the Maine Department of Education for any schooling related queries. I’m also not allowed to advise you that Maine law can be found under number 344”
As I blink at her while giving a good impression of a goldfish, she says brightly, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Um, I left my library card at home. Is there any way I can borrow books without it?”
The librarian shakes her head, “Oh, no. I’m sorry, books in that section are reference books, and we can’t lend them out. You can take as many notes as you want, and if you note down the page numbers, we have a photocopier in the back.”
“Um, thank you. I’ll certainly keep that in mind.”
Before someone decides to kick me out, I quickly head off towards the 300’s. Once I arrive I have to stop in dismay at the nearly identical books covering three stacks of shelves. Even 344 covers three individual shelves on it’s own. All in all, it takes me most of the day to find the first law that mentions Home Instruction. After that it’s only another 45 minutes, and a sacrificed page from a school workbook, to look up the actually relevant laws, including the federal law that makes it possible. While I’m doing this I discover that juggling a couple of pencils in my backpack massively cuts down on things doing themselves for me.
When I carry the stack of three large tomes to the front desk, the librarian that helped me looks up and smiles. Seeing that, I immediately want to run as it’s never good when the teachers did that. Clamping down on my emotions, and pulling another pencil out of my pencil case, I walk up to the counter with a smile that looks more like a grimace.
“Um. Earlier you said that you could photocopy some pages for me. I think I’ve found everything I need here.”
One of the other librarian’s, a large white man, says, “I’ve got this Sue. Hey kid, this is going to take a while. Would you mind waiting by the computers, and I’ll bring the copies over once I’m done.”
I glance over and see that there’s a free terminal, “Sure, I can do that.”
Once the man’s taken the books from me, I scoot over to the computer and take off my backpack. Before I sit down, I slip the straps of my bag under one of the front legs of the chair so that nobody can run off with it.
With my bag now secure, I quickly open up a session and go to Lung’s page on the wiki, as I want to know about the people who are going to be trying to kill me. It’s a little disappointing as it doesn’t even mention that he can jump 20 yards from a standing start, or that he can set himself on fire. But it does give me a link to his known associates, Oni Lee and a new one called Bakuda.
As I read Oni Lee’s description I have to stand on the zip of my backpack as the urge to take notes becomes almost unbearable. Oni Lee is a teleporter, except, unlike me, he leaves a doppelganger behind for up to 10 seconds. I watch a video, that’s linked in the references, with a sort of sick fascination as he appears holding a grenade and pulls the pin before letting go of the spoon. It takes me a few seconds to realise that it’s playing the video on repeat rather than playing through the explosion, but still it’s terrifying. Especially so given it might be aimed at me.
Somewhat apprehensively, I click on the link for Bakuda, only to sag in relief at her description. She’s a Tinker that makes bombs. Scary, but not in the same way that Oni Lee is. Regardless, I keep reading as knowing she might be out to get me means I need to know as much as possible.
I’m just starting to look for information on Elmwood Road when the Librarian walks over with a sheaf of paper stuck together with a paaperclip. “Here you are, all done for you.”
I jump slightly at his voice, then I look up with a smile. “Thank you. I didn’t know you could do this.”
The man shrugs, “We don’t advertise it, and we only do it for reference books.”
As he turns away I flick through the pages of laws before putting them into my backpack. With my train of thought thoroughly ruined I turn back to the computer and try to remember what I was doing. When I come up with a blank, I open a new tab and start searching for moving meditations until my rumbling stomach reminds me that I haven’t had lunch and it’s now, my eyes glance down to the bottom of the screen, three in the afternoon. I quickly unhook my bag and log off the computer, before heading home.

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When I get home I search my pockets for my front door key in consternation as I’d forgotten that I’d stormed out without it.
“Stupid Taylor, you should know better than that.”
I shake my head at my own admonishment, before walking around to the back of the house, once more thankful that I’m unusually tall for a girl as I reach over the gate for the latch. As I walk past the old coal shoot I briefly consider whether I could squeeze down there if the backdoor isn’t unlocked, before reconsidering it. Even if I could get down there, I don’t know if the coal bunker is blocked or not, and I don’t want to find out what happens if I fall through a crack underground. A growl from my stomach sees me walking around into our tiny, overgrown, back yard. Though, at least we have one. The houses further into the docks don’t even have that where they’re squished together into back to back rows of houses. Or stacked on top of each other in shared tenements, where rumours say some families are living 10 or 20 to a building with only one bathroom and kitchen between them. Idly I pull one of the cast iron chairs off the tables with a grunt. As it lands on the flagstone with a bang I wince and use my repair power to fix the chip I just made.
When it doesn’t work the first time I frown and try to do the same thing I did with the cold last night, and keep making it stronger until it works. Finally, the chip in the enamel reverses and I straighten up with a smile. A smile that quickly drops from my face as I notice I didn’t just repair that chair, but I also repaired the table and the other two chairs, the fences, and the back of our back neighbours house.
Sheepishly I flee into the house and quickly make myself a sandwich. It’s only when I’m putting the butter back into the fridge that I realise that the power is back on, though the clock still isn’t working. My notebook flies out of my backpack and adds an entry to try and work out why the fridge still works while the clock isn’t working.
As I sit down at the table I notice that dad left me a note.
Gone to the office to call the power company.
I smile slightly at the note and grab my pen from midair before gently crossing out dad’s note.
Found some stuff on Home Instruction at the library. Going to practice not being dangerous to be around.
Note written I put the photocopies under the note. Then I finish my sandwich before looking around the house for the rucksack and my purse and keys. Purse and keys are easy, dad left them on my desk. The rucksack and books, not so much. I even check the loft for crying out loud.
I’m halfway down the stairs to the basement for a second time when I realise that my original notebook is also in my rucksack, and I sniff as tears prick at my eyes.
“Why dad, why?”
I mean, it’s not like I can’t understand it, he doesn’t want me to run away, but he’s taking away my choices. Patchy finds his way to my arms as I reach out to turn the basement light on.
As the overhead fluorescent tube lights up, so do my eyes as, from my vantage on the stairs, I can see a box with a pan handle sticking out the top. Using my telekinesis to lift the box down is trivial, and I feel like I’ve hit jackpot. In the box are gram’s old copper pans, and her plates. I grab the box below it and do a little dance, as it contains her kitchen utensils too. As I’m dancing, I spot the water container that dad used to use when we went camping. That goes on top of the boxes, and then I skip my way upstairs. My keys and purse join the box as I make my way into the back yard. Just as I’m closing the door, my backpack flies out to join me and I put the backpack over my shoulders.
Closing my eyes I try to find a crack to fall through and, don’t. I don’t mean I don’t find the crack, I mean I don’t fall through it. Almost like I’m a little to big to just pass through it. I frown as I consider that I’ve just fallen through it before. So what’s changed? I open my eyes to look around, and spot the two boxes I’m holding beside me. Could that be it?
Somewhat awkwardly, I sit down and stack the boxes on my lap while I hug them close to me. Then I try again, and woah, that was easy. Well, at least I don’t need to worry about people seeing me now.
My notebook flies out of my backpack as I start to think. Right, it felt like I just wouldn’t fall through the crack. Could I squeeze through, like I did when I was fighting against the pull of the canyon?
With the boxes levitating beside me, I find the next crack and try to move through it. I try twisting my mind in knots to fit through the gap, all to no avail, until, finally, I step forward in frustration and appear on the other side of the crack with the boxes. Wait? Why did that work when nothing else did? I mean, it’s not like I’m travelling in one of the normal three dimensions, so how did walking forward even work? I mean, it’s not like I have to do that for my telekinesis.
I glance at my notebook that’s dutifully scribbling down my thoughts. Mind you, it’s not like I actually control my telekinesis. It’s more like it’s an extension of my arm. An independent and eager part of my arm.
After that revelation I immediately try it again and, can’t find a crack. Right, deep breaths, I need to calm down and feel for the crack. I can’t just go for it gung ho.
“Come on Taylor, these things take time. Remember the book said that you just have to do a little better each day, and that the journey was more important than the goal.”
After my little pep talk I close my eyes and close my eyes to clear my thoughts while focusing on my visualisation. A moment later I’m standing inside my little slice of New England. Damn it!
You’d think that after nearly three months of practising this I’d be able to just calm my mind without falling in here.
Well, while I’m here I should do my observations. It’s still winter, and the ground is still frozen. I kick my shoe into the soil, maybe not as frozen as it is in Brockton Bay, where it’s positively arctic. Now to get out of here.
Once I leave my little slice of New England, I try to find another crack, with a calm mind this time. I find it, only it takes me nearly an hour to reproduce my stepping through the crack, as it seems to need a combination of my calm mind to find the crack in the first place, and the frustration I was feeling when I did it the first time. I’m never going to be able to do this quickly, am I.
Right, five more trips to go. But the next one is cold, so I’ll just do it the other way. I stack the boxes on my lap once more, then look for the crack in the world and fall through. I’m almost disappointed when I don’t feel like I’m falling again. But the cold is already seeping through my jeans, so I put it out of my mind and focus on feeling out the next crack.
And, there’s the canyon. With the canyon gaping open beneath me, holding the boxes in my telekinesis while falling to each world is trivial. When I get back to the same world that held my camp my brain stalls, as I don’t recognise any of the landmarks. I mean, I know I’m only 3 miles from the train yard, but really? A rocky plain? Not to mention it’s now midday when it should be late afternoon.
Looking around, it doesn’t take me long to find an easily climbable mound of rock, and that allows me to spot an even larger mound of rock. After what I’d guess was a good hour of walking and climbing, I finally spot a river and what looks like a tree line in the distance. If I’m honest with myself, that would probably be a better camp than my first camp anyway, as I should be able to use some of these rocks to build a shelter, or at least an oven. My stomach growls and reminds me that I didn’t bring anything to eat, and there’s probably an hour of walking to get to the river. I also wanted to try reproducing my teleportation too, and I’ve found that… Ok, I just don’t want to have to climb over all those rocks between here and the river.
It takes me longer to get down off the rock than it did to climb it, as I don’t want to break my ankle. Once I’m on level(ish) ground again, I start trying to do that thing I did before. I screw my eyes shut and take a step, I jump, I skip. I even try dancing. Nowt, nothing, nada, ziltch. None of it works.
It’s getting dark by the time I succeed. Well, I say succeed, but it’s more that I’m starving and getting desperate, and I don’t want to lose Grams cookware, and I just really want to get to my camp where I’ve got everything setup already. And I take a step to the side and I’m suddenly there.

 

Chapter 5

​

The next morning I wake up with the sun as my stomach complains that I haven’t eaten for over 12 hours. I must have fallen asleep almost as soon as I got here, as I don’t remember taking my backpack off.
Rubbing my eyes, I crawl over to the stream and dunk my face in it to wake up. Now awake I drink my fill, before getting up and doing my business behind a tree several dozen yards from my camp. Not for privacy, but so that I don’t have to smell it. Now feeling more comfortable, I move the two boxes under a tree and grab my backpack before frowning as the state of my fire circle filters through my head.
There’s already grass growing in the fire blackened earth, and the wood I left in the fire has moss growing on it. What the hell! I’m glad I didn’t leave any books here.
I look from the fire circle to the cardboard boxes and back again. Then I start to unpack the boxes and think as my stomach growls at me. Right, I’m going to need some way to protect the china. I blame my hunger for how long it takes me to remember my cutting power. When I do, I slap my forehead as it could have really helped me against Lung.
Cutting powers and telekinesis are cheating, as it only takes me a few minutes to cut down several stout branches around as thick as my wrist, and turn them into a makeshift box by driving short sections into the ground and then laying the other branches between the stakes. Ok, so I had to redo it three times because I forgot to add the stakes for the walls the first time, and then I forgot to interleave the walls the second time. But I did it, I made a storage box by a tree, so that Gram’s china can’t be broken. I even had a branch left over that I could pretend to be Robin Hood with. Hmm, maybe I’ll keep this branch, as the camping guide said that staves are useful for walking and other stuff, and a big stick is always useful as a weapon.
With Gram’s china and cookware in a safe place I grab my backpack and stick and start climbing the canyon with my stomach complaining the entire way. All I can think of is how good it will be to get home and grab something to eat. Or even to find a 7/11 and raid the sweets isle, but I’d rather not spend the money. Hmm, this stick is a bit big, how big were Robin Hood’s sticks?
Wonder of wonders, when I get to Brockton Bay it takes me a couple of roads to realise that I’m north of home, and on the right side of the commuter line to get home in 15 minutes, a journey that I do in 10 I’m walking so fast. Then I stop outside the house as I notice the light filtering through the curtains. Swallowing hard I take out my key and unlock the front door, there’s no point in trying to be quiet if dad’s waiting for me, so I just allow the door to close with a loud creak and click.
“Taylor, sit down.”
I wince as dad’s voice comes from the kitchen, and I drop my back pack by the door. As it lands it let out a yowl of protest I jump slightly before my power unbuckles the top and lifts a familiar brown and grey cat out.
“Spike?”
“Taylor!” I hurry through the lounge to the kitchen with Spike crying pitifully as he’s carried along behind me. I stop when I realise that dad’s wearing his glasses at the kitchen table, with my photocopied laws in front of him. On the stove is a pan with something meat based slowly cooking inside it.
At the same time dad is looking past me at Spike. “Taylor, did you pick up a stray?”
I bring Spike forward so that dad can see him, “Um, I think it’s more likely that Spike picked me. I fed him a few times at my camp, and he slept in the rucksack.”
“Spike…” dad trails off when Spike whips his tail towards me and launches a brace of spikes from his tail.
“OW!” I yelp as the spikes dig 1/2 an inch into my arm, “Fuck that hurt.” At the same time I drop Spike and he disappears somewhere.
I give dad a dirty look as he chuckles, “Spike. Taylor, we should take him to the PRT as it might be a Tinker creation.”
I shake my head as I gingerly start to pull the spikes out of my arm, “He’s not a tinker creation, I saw a couple of other cats like him by my camp. All the animals a weird there. Not as weird as the monkeys with beaks instead of mouths though. No birds though.”
“You’ll have to show me your camp some day.”
I put another spike on the table, “You want to see it?”
Dad shakes his head, “Taylor, I know you’re scared. I can’t say I understand, but I know that’s how you’re feeling. But you’re my daughter, of course I want to see it. But I don’t want you to feel like you need to run away. This is your home. That being said, if lung really is after you then you need to be able to leave in a hurry. That’s why I took the rucksack to Old Mike’s, you remember him? Runs the army surplus now.” I slump in my chair as my heart feels like lead, “Anyway he said that it was unsalvageable, so I bought you a canvas rucksack and a survival tin.”
I gape at dad as he drops that bombshell and lifts up a plain white book with the words, ‘US army survival manual’ emblazoned on the front. “Mike also said that this would be better than the camping book you were using. Taylor, I went by Elmwood on the way home. What happened?”
“Dad!” I hiss, “How could you, what if Lung was there?”
Dad nods as though I confirmed something, “Taylor, it’s my job to go to those sites.” He raises his hand as I open my mouth to object, “Taylor, I’m the spokesman for the Dockworkers Union. It’s my responsibility to find work for the rest of the union, and I can’t do that from the office.”
As he explains that, I feel like I’m 8 years old again and he’s patiently explaining something that should have been obvious, but I never even considered. Haltingly I say, “I was coming home from my camp and I ended up in an alleyway instead of the trainyard, the smell of it made me retch…”
Apart from getting up to turn the stove down, dad listens to me choke and sob my way through the story, even though I miss out the parts where I killed people.
When I’m finished, dad sits there with a grim expression on his face, “Taylor, I may never say this again, but I’m glad you have powers. If you didn’t, you’d be a Lobster Doe, or have just vanished.”
I know about the vanishing, as there’s rumors that the ABB deal in human trafficking, but, “What’s a Lobster Doe?”
Dad takes a large stack of printing off the chair and puts it on the table, “A Lobster Doe is the morgue identification of an unknown individual that is pulled up with a lobster pot by the fishermen. It happens two or three times a year, and every time it does we get asked if we’ve seen anything. Their face is always smashed in, and the teeth removed, and the finger pads cut off too. Not that the lobsters usually leave those untouched. Cause of death is almost always unidentifiable. This is the paperwork for the Wards. I don’t mean the forms, I mean the stated mission goals, contracts, and resources. I want you to read them before you are put into a position where you have to rely on them.”
I shake my head, “I don’t want to put anyone in danger. That’s why I can’t go into the Wards.”
Dad looks down, “I know honey, I know. And I can’t force you into the Wards, you’ve already proven that you’ll just run if I try.”
I reel back as if slapped, have I really done that?
He continues on relentlessly, “So I’m going to treat you like an adult on this. And part of that is knowing what your options are before you need them. I’m going to trust that you are the same little girl that your mother and I raised to have a good head on your shoulders. God knows I haven’t been a good father since then.”
I shake my head, “You’ve been great dad.”
Dad shakes his own head, “Did you know that Alan bought me that self help book, and I never even opened it until today?”
I stay silent as he stands up and walks over to the kitchen door. When he comes back, it’s with a green canvas rucksack. “I’ve put $50 into the survival tin. It’s there just in case you every have to run and I’m not around. It should be enough to get you to New York.”
“Dad…”
Dad turns away to serve up food, “Taylor, I’ve lived through the worst this city has ever had. We never had to run, but I knew people who did and it’s never pretty. I’d rather you joined the Wards, I think any parent would. But even then it’s not risk free. I hope plain beef and biscuits is ok, only someone took all of the noodles and cans.”
As he turns around with two plates I nod and swallow hard, “Why?”
Dad doesn’t answer me as he digs into his food, and my rumbling stomach reminds me that I haven’t eaten for too long either.

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Sunday morning, I’m rudely woken up by Spike dropping a dead rat on my chest. A dead rat that is full of spikes.
“Spike! Eww! How did you get in here!”
As I’m looking around my room for an open door or window, Dad barrels through the door holding a baseball bat, only to start laughing when he spots the rat.
“Dad! It’s not funny.”
Dad leans against the doorframe, “Oh but it is Taylor. Only you could attract an alien cat that behaves just like any other cat.”
I humph, “Teleporting cat, please.”
Dad smiles at me again, “At least we won’t need a cat flap. I’m heading to Lord’s market to restock on basics today. Would you like to come?”
I frown for a moment as we never go to Lords Market for basics, then I put a smile on my face, “Sure, I’d like that.”
Dad nods, “I’ll be leaving at eight then, need to get there early for the best deals.”
I glance at my clock, which still says 1:20, “Um, how long’s that?”
Dad smiles indulgently as he deliberately looks at his watch, “In around an hour.”
I nod, and then wave my hand at him, “Shoo, shoo, some of us need to get up. And take the rat with you.”
Dad shakes his head as he comes in to grab the rat and scritch Spike on the head, “Good boy.”
“Dad! Spike’s a cat, not a dog.”
Dad just smiles as he leaves the room. With dad out of the way I slip out of bed and grab my clothes before heading to the shower. Oh hot water, how I missed you. I admit, I spent a decadently long time in the shower, but in my defence, it has been a week since I could make enough hot water to do more than wash my face and hands.
With my towel around my chest, I actually look into the mirror for the first time in months. I mean, sure I glance into it when I brush my teeth, but I don’t look at myself. I’m tall and gangly, and my mouth is so wide it makes me look like a frog. No, I have plenty of reasons to avoid mirrors. But today I wanted to see what the librarian was looking at when she decided to help me.
As I look at my hair in the mirror I stifle a sob by biting down on my knuckle. My hair is ruined, it looks like someone’s melted a some nylon thread and stuck it all over my hair. No wonder she was helpful, I’d pity me too. If I have to cut it off, I’ll never be able to grow it back into the same style mum had her hair.
Wait, maybe my repairing power will work on hair. I close my eyes and concentrate on fixing my hair. I can feel it working. After a few seconds the feeling stops and I open my eyes and gasp. I think I might have over done it, as my hair is falling in luscious waves that turn into ringlets somewhere past my bum. On the plus side, there’s no burnt patches. How on earth am I supposed to manage hair this long?

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Danny pulls into Elmswood Road and pulls over when he spots the cordon. Grabbing his clipboard and hi vis waistcoat, he gets out of the car, before walking over to one of the PRT guards that’s sitting in the back of a van drinking coffee.
“Hey Steve, what’s the damage?”
Steve looks up, “Oh hey Danny. The protectorate think this one’s going to stick around for a few weeks. Some of their technicians were taking measurements with old fashioned thermometers and drills as it’s doing something funky with electronics.”
Danny nods, he knows that the technicians are PRT scientists that are on permanent duty to aid the Government Sponsored Heroes, aka the Protectorate. “So what happened?”
Steve sighs, “Danny, you know the rules. Though you’re in luck, and I can’t give too many details, but the PRT is worried about this. According to witnesses, the ABB found a white runaway in an alleyway and Lung ordered her to be killed. She then managed to fend off a large chunk of the gang and hold off Lung with her ice powers long enough to escape. We don’t think she’s dangerous, but we do think she’s in danger. Can you spread the word that we’re looking for her. Hopefully we can find her before Lung does.”
Danny shakes his head, “Shit, and you’re sure she got away?”
Steve nods, “The ABB was still searching the streets when Armsmaster and Dauntless arrived. You’re looking for a High School aged white girl with long hair and a fire damaged rucksack. I mean a proper rucksack, not a school backpack.”
Danny makes a couple of notes on his clipboard before looking up, “Christ, that could describe Taylor. Don’t you have anything better?”
Steve shakes his head, “I know, but we don’t. We’re not sure if it was a power interaction, or just part of her power, but all the nearby phones bricked themselves. Anyway, once the heroes arrived the fire brigade came and put out the road. That’s why we’ve got the mini glacier here, and why we’re stuck on guard duty for the next few weeks until it melts.”
Danny looks around the corner of the van to see a pile of ice around 6 feet tall. Danny can’t help wincing as he imagines Taylor being at the centre of it. “Thanks for the info Steve, you’ve got my number, could you let me know if you pull out early. I think I’m going to go home and check in on Taylor.”
Steve nods, “I get you. It’s one thing when they’re in costume, but this was just a girl trying to live her life.”
Danny nods and waves as he walks away.