Sarah straightened her hair and pushed herself off the vanity. Content there was no signs of the fight she had with Enid or apparently her own powers she started towards the door. Her movements were stiff. Her chest was still very sore. Even her shirt brushing against it made her wince. She opened the door and was greeted by one of the president’s security detail and a short brunette. The woman was rather plain looking. She was wearing an inexpensive suit jacket and skirt, both black. Like every portrayal of an FBI agent Sarah had seen in movies. She flashed a MANA badge.

“Ms. MacCloud we need to discuss the incident on the plane for our MANA after action report.”

Sarah stepped back to let her in the room. She was followed by Abby who had been hiding beside the door. The agent glanced at Abby who smiled at her. Sarah sensed some barely hidden antagonism between the two. Sarah sat down on the bed doing her best to hide the pain which wasn’t enough to conceal it from the MANA agent. She raised an eyebrow.

“I’m Agent Talil. I investigate incidents involving underage supers and power use. This is the second time you’ve gotten our attention in the last two weeks.”

Agent Talil pointed at Sarah’s chest. Even trying to conceal it Sarah was nursing it and trying to make sure her shirt wasn’t sitting on them.

“I was under the impression there was no physical interaction between you and the suspects. Was there some part of the encounter that wasn’t caught on video?”

Sarah shook her head. Abby intervened at this point before Sarah could respond.

“Ms.MacCloud is undergoing hormone therapy, one of the symptoms is sensitives breasts. You can verify this with her medical records from the school.”

Agent Talil looked at Abby.

“I will remind you, I’m here to question Sarah, not you.”

Abby smiled very sweetly.

“I will remind you that as per an agreement with the Imperial Council, and her grandparents, I am acting as her legal representative during this questioning.”

Abby looked at Sarah.

“Which is one hundred percent voluntary, Sarah. You don’t have to answer any questions if you don’t want, and I recommend against it, as your legal counsel.”

“Yes, she does, this is not voluntary.”

“Actually, no it is voluntary. You see during the events you are investigating Sarah was a vampire, therefore any cooperation with MANA is voluntary. One of our Seers has already investigated the matter and has concluded that Sarah acted within the laws regarding vampires.”

The agent’s eyes narrowed, and she looked between Sarah and Abby.

“What you’re suggesting is not physically possible, she is either a vampire or she is not.”

“That is incorrect. During afterschool lessons supervised by her Dorm Mother, Sarah has been having issues controlling her powers as you’re aware. Sarah turned herself into a vampire using her powers. She had challenges turning herself back which it would seem she has overcome, but during the time of her flight, when it was after dark, she was technically a vampire and therefore under our laws. Which when it comes to power use are… much more realistic than yours.”

“She used her normal powers during the event!”

The agent’s voice raised slightly. She was sounding fairly incredulous at this turn of events. Sarah was quite confused; How did Abby have all this information? Then she realized… Maria was a vampire and followed every single rule to the letter. She winced and held her mouth because wincing made the wound inside hurt. The agent pointed at Sarah’s mouth.

“You were in a fight.”

Sarah shook her head.

“No, I put my vampire tooth through my lip. It didn’t heal all the way. It hurts.”

Abby shook her head at Sarah.

“Remember Sarah, don’t answer any questions.”

Sarah blushed. The agent tapped a few times on her tablet and looked at Sarah’s ankle.

“This is all too convenient. She’s got life signs now.”

Abby smiled again.

“It is the truth. She had no life signs at the time of power use. She also used her powers while wearing a limiter. Both of these things prove our point. She was in fact a vampire at the time of power use. She could not have used her powers to toss those two people around if she were a mortal at the time. The limiter would have prevented such exertions. Both the power of mental compulsion and telekinesis have been exhibited by various vampires over the eons. The one that comes to mind is Enid Aurelius, her uses of it are well documented.”

“You lied to the media about them being supers.”

“Yes, at the request of the Headmistress and the Imperial Council. It was an easier story then: She was a vampire at the time. And MANA was eager to make a show of arresting her, and how embarrassing would it have been for you to have to release her after a worldwide broadcast of arresting her? Your leadership is quite thankful for our intervention. I guess you haven’t checked your email yet.”

Agent Talil’s lips were a tight flat line as she typed notes into her tablet. Then reviewed some notes.

“How do you explain the glowing eyes then? She exhibits the same outward signs when she accesses her normal powers, as seen in her last unlicensed encounter. Was she a vampire then too?”

The agent’s final words were in a mocking tone, almost daring Abby to make an excuse for this discovery.

“Also recorded by Enid Aurelius a symptom of her own telekinesis uses on occasion. This can all be verified by Maria Aurelius. In the end it doesn’t matter. Her intervention in the event in Munich was sanctioned by a Class Sigma protocol, MANA asked her to intervene, if not directly they did so by removing all power use limitations. In this case, if she were a licensed super, she’d be getting a medal from the Russian president.”

The agent smiled at that.

“But is not a licensed super.”

Abby returned the smile and tapped her holo tablet, then on the screen and swept her hand across it so the hologram was viewable by both sides. It was the Earth Gov legislation regarding licensing of vampires. Where it clearly states they are excluded from it.

“The legislation is clear. Vampires do not require licensing. It does not specify that the subject must permanently be a vampire. Tell me did you see any power signature spikes when she was on that plane?”

Agent Talil frowned and tapped through a few screens on her tablet which was very much the solid kind and a few years old. The agent looked at Sarah directly in the eyes.

“You are claiming to have been physically a vampire at the time of this event? That is your story?”

Sarah nodded in the affirmative. She had decided to take Abby’s advice and say nothing. The agent seemed frustrated. Abby motioned to the door.

“I believe we have answered all of your questions to the extent they need to be answered Agent Talil, if there is nothing else? Sarah is quite exhausted from her ordeal. Now that she has managed to make herself mortal again, she is quite tired and suffering from all those nasty aches and pains mortals who are going through puberty suffer from. She has a big week ahead, let’s not make it any worse hmm?”

Agent Talil held up her finger.

“One last question. If this all happened as you said, and you’d only been a vampire for a few hours: How did you know how to use the vampiric abilities then Sarah?”

Sarah looked at Abby. She knew it was probably the fact she had a very old vampire who was slowing taking over her body. She didn’t exactly want to say that to a MANA agent, or an agent of the Imperial Council. Based on her dream the precipitated her vampirism, Enid had threatened the entire council’s lives. Abby nodded to Sarah and spoke.

“Using vampiric abilities is like breathing is for you Agent Talil. Even a freshly created vampire can use many of them. For example, I could make myself faster than a normal human, twice as fast roughly and could see people’s auras. Which is why I can see you’re still grasping at straws to find something to arrest Sarah for, but the fact is: The law is on her side, and so is your organization. I suggest you retreat before this becomes an unsanctioned witch hunt.”

Agent Talil folded the cover over her tablet and put it in her purse she didn’t acknowledge Abby further her focus was still on Sarah.

“We’ll be waiting and watching. You’re reckless and sooner or later your luck, or the patience of the people covering for you will wear out.”

Abby let Agent Talil out of the room and closed the door. She turned to Sarah.

“I already knew you were a vampire when you got in the car. Even without the phone call I would have known by your aura. Next time instead of hiding it you should tell an adult. I suppose you did when you told Maria Aurelius. She older than all the vampires in Moscow combined. I don’t know why the Imperial Council is so protective of you, but the Agent was right. Our influence is substantial, but it only goes so far. You need to stop pressing MANA’s buttons. Get some sleep. I think that’s about it for this investigation, but they’ll be watching you whenever you’re not at the school. You can count on that.”

Sarah nodded. Abby put her hand on the door handle and glanced back at Sarah.

“I don’t know how you flipped back and forth but I’m envious. Giving up the freedom and control that comes as a vampire… you have willpower, I’ll give you that.”

Sarah watched the door close and put her face in her hands. She was sure she could never do the vampire thing again. It was too easy to give into the power and arrogance that came with it. She also knew what Abby told the Agent wasn’t the truth. The only difference in her powers as a vampire was that she had access to all of it. She wasn’t just some PL 8. She couldn’t delude herself. She had access to all four energies of creation and everything in between. When she was a vampire, she also saw no limits to what she could do with them. She could feel the life force flowing through those two would-be hijackers, she could have snuffed their lives out with a thought. Isis had been right. They should be scared of her. Sarah realized that she had good reason to be scared of the power she wielded.

“How did you resist using it?”

She looked around. She wasn’t expecting an answer, but one came a few moments later, it was Enid’s voice but there was no visual manifestation.

“It was simple, I chose not to. Didn’t always work out for me though. There were a few times I got angry and things didn’t go as planned.”

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“What do you mean?”

“Suffice it to say, on the scale they’d use, PL 17 events.”

“How did you control it?”

“I didn’t at first. I gave in to it. My daughter. No not Eyre. I know that’s who you were thinking. No, it was Hazel. She told me how worried she was about what it was doing to me.”

“Hazel, she’s trapped with Isis’s daughter.”

“And my two youngest, my parents and my starfighter.”

“Can we rescue them?”

“Not like we are. The forest is very dangerous, and we can’t do it on Earth Prime. Which I think is a ridiculous name but apparently this is the one where all the excess divine energy ended up out of an infinite number of universes. If you open it the pocket universe… it will kill you. Also, you’d need to do the vampire thing. The creatures outside the shield would ignore you and even if they didn’t, you’d be immune to their spell plague.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the energies involved in breaching that barrier would destroy our body. We need a conduit or something. I guess Lucius is right. Didn’t think that shit through.”

“You don’t sound that stupid. I mean…”

“Gee thanks.”

“What I was trying to say is based on what Maria has said about you and what I’ve heard about you, you wouldn’t have left your children trapped. You would have had a way to save them.”

“I very much could have but I only had an instant in time to reorder the universe before Seraph took over. The beginning of the process is clear as day to me, the end is muddled. If I hadn’t reordered everything, they would have died anyway…”

“If you reordered the universe…creation…everything then could you not have left yourself a hint near the end?”

“The kind of thing you’d…we’d need to do that would be so dangerous that I couldn’t hazard someone bad getting their hands on it. Like it would need to be able to break the laws of creation I put in place. That is the one place that exists everywhere and everywhen. I remember… I remember trying change it so it didn’t, but I couldn’t even with all of Seraph’s power. Not even God could open it if he tried. Only Seraph could and even if she wasn’t ‘sleeping’. I doubt she’d do it. She doesn’t experience emotions like you and I.”

“How can that be if we’re her?”

“Sure, our emotions have an impact on her but… she’s eternal. She sees everything, knows everything. What are a few lives to her who watches over an infinite number of living creatures that are sentient? Sure, they mean everything to me, but to her, it’s always big picture.”

Sarah nodded then looked around.

“I like it better when I see you.”

“That takes a lot of spiritual energy. Also interacting so much risks me taking over all the sooner so let’s limit it hmm? Just ignore me until you need something really important. And by really important I’m not talking about heart-to-heart conversations. Take some painkillers and go to sleep kid. Doctor’s orders.”

“You’re not a doctor.”

“That is in fact incorrect. I was at one time a licensed pediatric surgeon, and I also have a medical degree from the 29th century. I’m shutting up now. Go to sleep.”

Sarah sighed and curled up on the soft bed. Her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep. She was hoping to wake up in the morning the fall sun streaming into the room but that was not her fate this night. She opened her eyes, and she was sitting on a rock at the edge of an oasis. The moon was at its apex and full. Arrayed in front of her was a group of what appeared to be a desert tribal people. They were dancing in circles around a fire. One of them was different than the rest. Her hair was almost white. Like Sarah’s she was pale the rest were dusky skinned and dark haired. She was taller than Sarah and looked like a barbarian woman. She was muscular and her shoulders were broad. The group seemed to be celebrating something.

The dancing settled and one of the elder women turned to where Sarah, or Enid sat and held her hands out palms up. The rest turned and mimicked the elder woman save the fair-skinned girl. The song was in a language Sarah should not have understood but she did… spoke of a mother of darkness and mother of light. It was almost a chant and Sarah recognized it as something similar as she’d heard when she was younger. One of her friend’s mothers had been wiccan and she’d heard the mother chanting it with a group of friends. It was about Gaia the earth mother. The source of life. Where all life came from and returned to in the end. Sarah touched her cheek. She felt tears on them. This dream felt like the rest. Real. She was breathing in the crisp air of the desert.

Sarah began to realize the song was about her… Enid… Seraph. She was the source of all life in this universe and to her it would return. The cycle of death and rebirth. The energy constantly renewing itself. She pondered what Enid felt like at this moment. She recalled a great victory and… loss millions of dead in one night, her fault. Her choice. Was Enid showing her this on purpose? Was she trying to reinforce the amount of power she wielded. Or was this her searching for a reminder from their link? Where did she end and where did Enid begin. In the vision she heard a familiar voice. It was the man… Sextus Maria had called him, Enid’s adoptive father. The vampire emperor.

“I see it now.”

Sarah blinked. She realized this was thousands of years before Enid was born. Did he know?

“What?”

“The wolf-born. I see why they supported your cause. You are the embodiment of their mother earth. No longer even a vampire. I suppose you are what suits your needs.”

Sarah realized this was wrong, this is not how the conversation went.

“This isn’t how this conversation went…its wrong.”

Sextus raised an eyebrow.

“It is your dream, child.”

“No, it is a memory.”

“What are dreams but memories re-processed by your subconscious?”

“Why am I seeing this then?”

Sextus took a deep breath.

“Perhaps you are trying to tell yourself your powers aren’t all bad? Enid… she was scared of her destiny. What she knew, what she could see. She asked me to erase her knowledge of her ability. To my shame I did.”

“You can’t be here you’re trapped…”

“I am the third creation of God… I am awake in my sleep. Much like Isis I can see into dreams. Enid is dear to me, as is Maria. You are associated with both, of course I noticed you. Especially the first time you interacted with a memory of me.”

“I don’t need any more vampires in my head! I have four too many already.”

He chuckled.

“I assure you, I’m not in your head. I just used this… dream to speak to you. You have questions, I have answers.”

“Did you make me a vampire after the last dream?”

“No, child, that was you.”

“Can I rescue you?”

“I do not know yet. Enid was often short-sighted and rash to make decisions. However, where her family is and was concerned, she was never reckless. I suspect she had a plan, but she cannot remember it.”

“Can I be saved?”

“I do not see why not, just make Enid a new body. There is damage done and some part of her will always be part of you and vice versa but there is no reason it cannot be stopped with a separation.”

“As if I can make a clone out of thin air.”

“You were thinking you can create and end life at a whim before you fell asleep, why would you think creating a body for someone is out of your power?”

“I can barely grow a plant without something going wrong.”

“Well, there is that. And the power to create a whole new living being from nothing… something bigger than a mouse might kill a mortal. Would severely damage a vampire too. But if you recall from Enid’s memories, BMC created a clone of her in her original timeline. They also created beings with superpowers. Something you know from over-hearing Eyre speaking to Carly is happening on Earth-2. If they have cloned her and there is an empty soulless vessel just waiting for someone to take it over that would be a simple spell for Maria.”

“Except I cannot get to Earth-2. Its forbidden.”

“And you can turn into a vampire at will, you wield a fraction of the power of the being that recreated the universe. You can likely jump between dimensions fairly easily with a minimum effort.”

“Yea, so easy I’ll just open a portal to another dimension. Just like I take the train to the mall and get my hair done.”

“Nothing worth doing is easy. You asked if you could save yourself, I have provided my insight into the situation. That is all I can do.”

“Probably why you were a good parent.”

Sextus sighed.

“No, I was not a good parent. In fact, I was the worst of parents. I turned my children into vampires. A good parent would have let them live their lives…”

“I’ve been a vampire, it didn’t suck.”

“For one night, after countless nights I am tired. Or was tired, my wife, is alive so it is worth waiting for her, but eternity can wear on a person. For someone like Maria? What does she have to look forward too?”

“She seems happy.”

“She is content, but her soul is missing. She has no desire. She does what she believes she should do and shows the emotions she believes she should show because that is what is done, but you know she is not happy.”

“I wish I could fix her.”

“She will have to fix herself. The only reason she is walking and talking and not catatonic is she is a vampire. Amara… did not kill her as I asked. She knew my heart wasn’t in it but still death would have been a mercy for her.”

“No. I do not believe that. She can be saved.”

“I admire your zeal for doing the right thing. Just be careful you do not let your zealousness lead you down a dark path. Learn from Enid’s mistakes. Sometimes the right thing to do seems like the wrong thing to do.”

“That makes no sense.”

“One day it will child.”

“Why does it feel like I’m talking to my grandfather?”

“Because I am very grandfatherly. It’s the beard so my grandchildren told me.”

Sarah looked at Sextus.

“You know you don’t look like a billion-year-old vampire. More like a white Jesus. Why are you white even? Like didn’t life start in Africa?”

Sextus chuckled.

“I am Atlantean. We were all male, except for Enid’s original body and were all…different species and races. I could have just as easily been one of the dinosaur men. So, I just came out this way. Chronos came out differently. Remus was my twin… poor Remus. This is a sad night. It is the night he made an enemy of Enid. And it would one day get him killed.”

“Back up for… how could BMC have a clone of Enid on Earth-2?”

“She existed in this universe, and they have gotten super genes from somewhere. Something tells me there is more going on under the surface then you realize with MANA, earth gov and the other universes. You know BMC is Canadian and they signed the treaty.”

Sarah blinked. She did know all this and not from Enid. Just from reading newspapers and such.

“How can you know that?”

“I have a similar gift to Isis as well, I can read minds, worry not, I only see surface thoughts and when I mentioned BMC you remembered a few things you didn’t realize. Come to think of it, perhaps it was your DNA they used?”

“What?”

“You were responsible for two super events on Earth-2, would it not stand to reason they could have grabbed your DNA? Possibly cloned you?”

“That is a disturbing thought.”

“Yet a possibility. You need to stop pushing disturbing thoughts from your mind child. You are highly intelligent. If you would stop avoiding the truth… what you could accomplish is limitless. Don’t do what Enid did and ignore it for decades. If you look at things from other perspectives, you will be better for it.”

“If I don’t help her… and I am stronger I could destroy what is left of your daughter, why are you trying to help me?”

“Because Enid doesn’t want to win.”

“She’ll know we talked.”

“Not likely. You share some memories, but she can’t see your thoughts no more then you see her. In terms you’d better understand. Your two separate computers that share a database. What you’re processing she can’t see.”

“Why couldn’t she explain it like that?”

“I suspect it’s because she still thinks like a girl born two thousand years ago sometimes.”

Sarah looked back at the celebrating the wolf-born and pointed to the blonde girl.

“That’s Hazel, isn’t it?”

“That is my granddaughter. I see a lot of her in you. The two of you would make good friends.”

“If we can rescue her and you.”

“You should set your priorities. Like they say on airplanes. Put your mask on first.”

“So, find a way to fix Maria, then get her to fix me, then rescue people? How do we even fix Maria? Like… if she doesn’t want to be fixed? Also, she will never break rules.”

Sextus chuckled.

“Let me give you some insight into my daughter. She has always followed the letter of the law and my rules right up until someone’s life was in danger. Then that goes out the window. You cannot depend on emotional attachments right now, so you’ll have to appeal to the logical side of her mind. Imagine how you processed things as a vampire. It comes down to a numbers game. So, you’ll need to make a logical argument for her to get her soul back.”

“But how do we even find it?”

“Something she is fully capable of. The bigger concern is the soul transference spell from Atlantis to save yourself. It is in Enid’s Atlantean pack which is currently in Eyre’s possession. It resides in an Atlantean tablet, a duplicate of Maria’s spell book.”

“And how do we get to Earth-2? All the gateways are heavily guarded by MANA. I know I should be able to do it, but how do I know I’m going to end up in the right place? And once we’re there how do we even find a clone if one exists? Also, if I’m supposed to do it how do I even know if it’s the right version of Earth, Enid said there are an infinite amount of infinite possibilities”

Sextus pondered for a few moments.

“I suspect you’re going to require outside help. Whether she will or not… that is the real challenge.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Just a girl from the future and past.”

“Enid was quite…right when she said this place touches everywhere and everywhen. Your this girl has a unique… skill set. Power set? She is wasting her potential, however. Living out fantasy lives. I suppose it is how she copes.”

“I thought time travel was impossible… or Enid said it was but you’d get kicked to a different wild universe… or something.”

“Well, the rules don’t really apply to Serena.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Well, the only other being the rules don’t apply to is the person who controls and sees everything. And what is she? Follow my logic. Serena is only ever one place at once. She’s in denial and is your age.”

“Why can’t you just talk to a future version of her?”

“Let us just leave it at, that is impossible. I know it does not satiate your curiosity, but we do not have time to teach you the requisite background information. You’re about to be woken up. You may have an odd visitor in the near future. You’ll realize it is Serena when she shows up. You can trust me on that.”

Someone knocked on Sarah’s door ripping her from the memory.