After giving her response and waiting for a few days to fully recover, Maxine ascended to Earth's magnetosphere while in her full-hybrid form. That high elven woman said I should just fly up here to meet her and her master. Thankfully, daddy gave me the artifact that he promised that he would. He said it was rated to shield me, even if I'm thrown through an unstable portal, and I'm a little curious as to why he insisted that I come up here in this state. Knowing him, he's probably going to do something unpleasant to ensure that a certain someone keeps their word.

Once she was in place, she looked around carefully with both her eyes and spiritual sense. For several minutes, she couldn't find any trace of them, but when she finally did, she rolled her eyes. Guan had his left hand wrapped around a high elf woman's throat and the spatial assassin was approaching her from the opposite direction.

[This isn't what we agreed to,] the spatial assassin growled via spiritual sense.

[I'm aware of your deal with my daughter,] Guan answered, [But this measure is just to ensure you do exactly as you said that you would and my daughter will not walk through that portal until I confirm it's safe enough. Remember, if you kill my child, I will kill yours and after, I will kill you in the slowest and most painful means at my disposal. Now, give my daughter the return artifact.] Wait, what?! That high elf woman is this prick's daughter?!

Without much warning a small bracelet was thrown at Maxine and she caught it with her tail. She swiftly examined it. It had a silver hue with a flowering vine pattern covering it's surface and it had a single blue gem with an intricate spatial array engraved within it. When she gave it a closer inspection, she found that the flowering vine was actually a beautifully hidden shielding array. She had gotten another bracelet from Guan earlier that was gold with a shield-like symbol on it. I like this silver one more for it's appearance and judging from the array within that gem, it's a single use item.

[It's beautiful,] Maxine commented.

[It didn't seem right to give an ugly artifact to a young woman,] he replied before glancing at the high elf woman in Guan's grasp, [I'll create the portal now. Just be sure to release my daughter, afterwards.]

[I am a man of my word,] Guan answered calmly. That he is.

As he formed the portal, the assassin explained, [That bracelet is the shielding artifact and the embedded gem will return you to this timeline. You just need to send a small thread of your energies to activate the return array. While that artifact can shield you from taking damage from within the pathway, it cannot protect you from anything else that you might experience. I can imagine the whole experience will be very unpleasant. Your current form should mitigate that somewhat. Although, you should expect nausea at the very least.]

[And at worst?] Maxine asked.

[Disorientation, temporary blindness, temporary loss of muscle control, loss of consciousness, uncomfortable sensations and you might soil yourself,] the assassin replied. I wish I hadn't asked.

[Your 'daughter' didn't mention that before,] Maxine stated.

[I didn't tell her that because I didn't think it was important enough to merit a warning,] he replied, [Now, I just need you to pour some of your energies into this portal to set it's destination.]

Maxine did as she was bid and asked, [Now, what?]

[Now, you can go through this portal and I suggest you put on a breathing apparatus before you do so,] he answered, [And you will release my daughter.]

[I will after I've confirmed she's arrived on the other side,] Guan answered.

Maxine faced the portal for a moment before sending Guan a message, [Be sure to send his daughter far away before you kill him. She should never have to witness how he will die.]

[I was going to,] Guan answered, [Now, go through that portal. It's rapidly draining his strength.]

[Alright,] Maxine answered, [See you in three months then.] Maxine looked at the other Earth through the portal for a moment before closing her eyes, putting on her breathing mask and plunging herself into the portal.

She was only in the portal's passageway for only a few seconds, but those few seconds were a nightmarish experience that she never wanted to go through again. She felt several spots that expanded her flesh roaming across her body. Simultaneously, she was jerked around so violently that she thought that she was thrown into the Devil's fourth dimensional washing machine on the rip and tear setting.

When she reached the other side, she opened her eyes to find she was blind, and she couldn't feel her left arm. Thankfully, she was only experiencing slightly nauseous and after a quick pulse of her spiritual sense, found to her relief that her left arm was intact. Ugh, that sucked and I'm willing to bet that he made the trip through rougher than it needed to be. At least, this bracelet held up like he said it would. But I REALLY do not look forward to the return trip.

Carefully, she sent her spiritual sense out and mentally sighed in relief when she saw that she was heading towards Earth. Although, she was moving a little faster than she felt comfortable with in her current state, so she tried to slow herself down only for her energies to behave sluggishly. That's not good. I can't push my energies out enough to stop my approach. Only slow it down. Another fucking side-effect of travel between timelines. Well, I hope I regain control of my energies quickly. My scales can probably hold up against re-entry, but I rather not find out.

Unfortunately, she wasn't recovering fast enough. Thankfully, she was able to slow her descent towards Earth. She was still going way too fast, so she turn around so her cape of snakes and quills could take the brunt of the heat from her re-entry.

Within moments, she could feel the temperature increasing as the thin air tried to impede her descent. The temperature quickly climbed and she grit her teeth against the searing pain. Thankfully, she was slowing down much faster than friction alone would accomplish and the intense heat didn't last long. But the scales on her cape of snakes were still severely burned.

Maxine swiftly swallowed a couple nutritional pills to speed up her regeneration. By this point, she had regained her vision and tried to get a fix on her location. Sadly, all she saw was a dense forest for in all directions. When she expanded out her spiritual sense, she sighed in relief since she spotted a few familiar landmarks. What she didn't like was the fact that she was roughly two miles south of a large encampment with high walls. So, I guess that prick aimed me towards Missouri on purpose, but who would've guessed he'd put me so close to General McKenzie's base camp. This could be either good or bad. I avoided this place like death because of how nasty the rumors about him were. On the upside, even if those rumors are true, I'm powerful enough that it shouldn't matter. And it looks like I'm going to make contact in a small clearing.

She swiftly changed out of what was left of her clothes and into her leathery combat armor. She spread out her spiritual sense a few seconds before impact to see if anyone was nearby and to her surprise, there was a rather sizeable patrol less than one hundred feet from where she was going to impact. Shit. I have no idea how these guys will react to a weird looking female 'beastkin' falling out of the sky with the force of a fucking meteor.

When she hit the ground, she was stunned for a couple seconds as she thought she might, but thankfully, she wasn't injured. Good. I'm not injured and I've almost regained complete control over my energies. Now is a good as time as any to give my grandparents a reason to come to this Earth. I just wish I didn't have to use up so much of my energy in one shot to make it clear that they have a living relative here.

"Sophie, check it out," Maxine heard a man with a very deep voice say.

"James, I'm not going to 'check it out,'" a woman said in response, "I could be a giant mole and all of you know that I fucking hate rodents." Maxine no longer paid attention to them as she finally regained full control of her energies and began her plan before she gradually gathered her energies.

"I'll check it out," a familiar man's voice said as he very quickly got closer, "What the hell?!" Maxine looked over her shoulder at the man and felt like she knew him from somewhere. But she couldn't quite place where from. He had dirty blonde hair and he was wearing forest camo. But from his perspective, Maxine was literately glowing with black, silver and white light.

She didn't wait for him to recover as she rapidly gathered her energies for her attack and spread out her spiritual sense. She quickly targeted all of the stronger essence beasts that were appeared to be actively hostile towards humans. Once she was certain that she had targeted all of the beasts like that on this continent, she levitated a few dozen feet above the ground, lifted up her arms and began unleashing thousands of energy bolts into the air.

The three that talked earlier and the rest of their group was looking at Maxine with awe and fear, but they quickly recovered. They unsheathed their weapons and surrounded her, even as she hovered in the air. She didn't want to spook them and she revealed how much that attack had taken out of her as drifted towards the ground. Ugh, that move drained more than half of my total reserves. At least, this makes it easier to sell being exhausted.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Command, we have a situation," James said without taking his eyes off of Maxine, "A new type of beastkin with immense power has been spotted a couple miles south of your location. Please, advise. Over."

While he was receiving orders, Maxine's feet reached the ground and she didn't have to act that much as she stumbled towards the man with the dirty blonde hair in exhaustion. Surprisingly, he rushed forward and caught her before she could fall. She looked at his face and she finally realize why he looked familiar. He was one of the boys that had tried to ask her on a date while she was still in middle school.

"Mike?" Maxine said unconsciously before realizing what she had done and used that moment to act like she passed out. I hope he's the same kind of guy in this timeline as my own. If not, I have enough strength left to escape and find a less secure place to recuperate at while I'm in this timeline.

"You know her?" Sophie asked incredulously, "Why the hell didn't you mention that you knew a new type of beastkin?" Maxine chose this moment to begin reverting back to her base form.

"An actual fucking shapeshifter?!" one of the others exclaimed in surprise before James spoke, "Command has ordered us to bring her back to base and resume our patrol. So, who is going to escort Mike and little miss shapeshifter back to base?"

"I'll do it," Sophie said.

"Alright, then. See you two back at base in a few hours," James said, "The rest of you get back in formation. We've got a job to do."

Mike shifted his hold on Maxine to put her in a princess carry and started to walk North. Maxine did her best to remain limp, but wasn't happy to be carried by a man.

"So, who is she?" Sophie asked.

"I'm not sure. She looks very familiar, but I can't seem to place where I've seen her before," Mike answered.

"Weird," Sophie said, "Wait a sec. Could you pull out that picture of that girl you've been looking for?"

"Sure, one second," Mike answered as he shifted his grip slightly and handed Sophie something. God, I wish I could use my spiritual sense to see what they are doing. I can't risk that they will be able to sense me doing that with one of them quite literately carrying me. I can only feign unconsciousness for now to get a read on their disposition towards me.

"Holy shit," Sophie said, "If it wasn't for the different hair color and her mismatched eyes, she could be your girl's twin." Excuse me? His girl? I think I'm missing some key details here.

"What? Are you sure?!" Mike said excitedly, "Do you think she knows where Maxine is?"

"I don't know, but it's worth a try to ask her when she wakes up," Sophie replied, "Hell, she could be your Maxine. She knew you by name, afterall."

"I didn't consider that, but like you said, it'll have to wait until we get back," Mike said with a hint of nervousness as he picked up the pace, but Maxine could sense a small hint of hope in his tone.

A few minutes later, Maxine could hear sounds from ahead of them and chose that moment to open her eyes in order to check out the outside of the so-called camp. It was surrounded by 30 ft tall walls made of concrete and she spotted several cultivators patrolling the top of it. She only saw one gate from where she was and it had two massive steel doors that were wide open. However, a man in a heavily worn lab coat was practically bouncing on his feet in anticipation for their arrival.

"Is this the shapeshifter?!" the man in the lab coat asked excitedly, "Oh, it seems she's awake. Can you tell us your name, miss? And are you hurting anywhere?"

"No," Maxine answered in a very weak voice.

"We best give you a check up, just to be safe," the man in the lab coat said, "Please, take her to hospital. My name is Malcom Maverick, but most people call me Doc. And I didn't hear what your name is."

"Mana," Maxine answered weakly as they began walking. She spotted a couple large buildings ahead of them. She guessed that one of them was the hospital, but she doubted that it was just a hospital.

"I don't mean to pry, but have you seen a young woman that looks a lot like yourself?" Mike asked cautiously.

"My sister," Maxine replied. Technically, I'm not lying.

"Interesting, and where is she?" Malcom asked before anyone else could while practically bouncing with every step, "We could go pick her up for you."

"Dead," Maxine replied.

"How?" Mike asked in a trembling voice.

"Fire," Maxine answered and closed her eyes again as if she were too exhausted to continue.

"Could you be more specific?" Malcom asked with obvious curiosity, "Oh, it seems we wore her out. I can always ask her more questions later. First, I need to get Jessie to give her a full body scan. I need to know how her skeletal structure differs from our own. It might give us a clue as to how she can change her shape." At that moment, Maxine could feel Mike trembling and felt a few drops of water fall onto her face. Oh, shit. I didn't think he cared about me that much. We barely spoke more than a few words to each other. I only took note of his name because he stuttered a lot when he asked me out on a date.

"Can you give him a minute?" Sophie asked.

"Certainly, but try not to take too long," Malcom replied, but Maxine could hear the impatience in his voice.

"Thanks," Sophie said gratefully, before she got closer and asked in a gentle tone, "Anything we can do for you?"

"Yes, don't do any unnecessary tests on Maxine's sister," Mike said hoarsely, "I've heard the rumors around how you've been getting your results."

"She is our only specimen," Malcom replied calmly, "I wouldn't dream of harming her unnecessarily." Oh, great. This prick has shoddy ethics. The joke's on him though. My skin is too durable for any exploratory surgeries and even if they do, my acidic blood will dissolve any of his instruments too quickly for it to be worth the effort.

"Your idea of unnecessary and mine are two very different things, doc," Mike said angrily, "And I remember that the general was none too pleased with you the last time he caught you experimenting on cultivators."

"Yes, yes, I know. Non-invasive procedures only," Malcom said dismissively, "Now, could you bring her inside? I'm eager to examine a genuine shapeshifter."

"I noticed," General McKenzie said calmly. He sounds both a lot older and sterner than in my timeline.

"Oh, general! I didn't expect you to come for such a trivial event," Malcom said.

"Do not take me for a fool, Malcom," General McKenzie stated firmly, "If I didn't come here to remind you, who knows what you would've done to her to find out the secrets of her biology and make her an enemy in the process. We do not need any more enemies. We need allies."

"Understood," Malcom said neutrally.

"Good. Now, what's wrong with her?" General McKenzie asked.

"Exhaustion as far as we can tell, sir," Sophie answered.

"Then, stop wasting time out here and find her a bed, soldier," General McKenzie ordered, "And until further notice, you two will be her bodyguards. I don't trust the doctor to behave himself." Maxine heard Malcom release a frustrated sigh before she was carried inside. Well, it seems the rumors in this timeline were wrong about you, old man. Still, I have a problem that I need to fix. How the hell am I going to explain how I know Mike's name?

Maxine was carried inside and laid down on a relatively clean bed before Malcom did a few tests. Thankfully, they had another cultivator scan her body before they attempted to draw her blood and found just how acidic and toxic it was. After that, Malcom simply left her alone with her two bodyguards.

She laid down for few hours before sitting up and hanging her legs off of the side. Before her bodyguards could say a word, she slowly transformed back into her full-hybrid form and looked at her hands as they changed into claws. "Damn it," Maxine cursed and donned a resigned expression, "Every damn time. For once, I was hoping to stay normal for more than a few seconds." I hope they buy this little ploy of mine.

"You can't control it?" Sophie asked incredulously, "That sucks."

"No shit," Maxine said as she turned to Mike, "Where did you bring me, Mike?"

"You passed out, so we brought you to our camp's hospital," Mike answered.

"I see," Maxine said cautiously, "Why does this place smell like a research facility?"

"Because it doubles up as one," Malcom said as he walked into the room and gave Sophie an angry glare before continuing, "I hope you don't mind if we do a few tests while you're here. We just want to better understand how your body works for the betterment of all humankind."

"If you so much as touch me, I'm ripping your arms and legs off," Maxine said angrily, but her tone softened when she looked at Mike, "Well, you're an exception, though. I thought your stuttering was kind of cute when you asked my sister out on a date. It's too bad that she was too afraid of you to give you an answer. Otherwise, you might've had a chance with her."

"How did you know about that?!" Mike asked in surprise.

"How do you think? Me and my sister shared nearly everything through our telepathic link," Maxine answered, "And I'm glad that I never mentioned it to those assholes in the lab coats. Maxine would've lost herself to madness much sooner had she been taken to that place."

"Could you elaborate?" Malcom asked as his eyes sparkled.

"I can, but I won't," Maxine said as she did her best to give him a suspicious glare as she continued, "I prefer not to think about what that those fuckers did to me." Letting them come to the belief that I was taken from my parents and experimented on is the best I can come up with. It's literately the only thing that I can think of to explain why me and Orianna weren't raised together. Afterall, I've never even heard of twins being separated at birth from a pair of parents that wanted children.

"I don't blame you. It sounds like you had it rough, even before everything went to hell," Sophie said sympathetically and frowned for a moment before asking, "But why are you so relaxed if that happened to you? If I were you, I wouldn't trust anyone, especially anyone that I just met."

"It's simple," Maxine answered, "Even in a weakened state, it would take you a lot of effort to even hurt me and now that I've recovered, you don't even qualify as a threat."

"Even with a thousand others to back her up?" General McKenzie asked as he walked into the room. Ah, someone must've notified him that I woke up via spiritual sense.

"The only thing that would change is how long it would take me to kill everyone," Maxine answered coldly while emitting a tiny fraction of her killing intent, "And I would still come out of that fight relatively unharmed."

"If you're that strong, why don't you help the rest of humanity?" General McKenzie asked without showing even the slightest sign that her killing intent was effecting him. The others, however, were sweating nervously.

"I've already given all of the help that I'm willing to give," Maxine answered and when she saw disappointment form on General McKenzie's face, she added, "But, your group is different from the others that I've met so far. Usually when I wake up, everyone freaks out when I change and they tries to kill me. It's rather nice to wake up to a non-threatening atmosphere. Do you mind if I hang around here for a few months?"

"Not at all. Stay as long as you like," General McKenzie said calmly.

"Thank you," Maxine said and gave them a hopeful look, "By the way, does anyone in this camp know how to make chocolate?" I'll get them help the same way that I got help for my Earth. Once the female cultivators in this timeline get a taste of chocolate, this Earth's future will be secured. And knowing grandma, she will either send Uncle Zeph, or come herself, to come looking for me after my little light show. Afterall, my previous surge of power wasn't nearly as extreme yet it still caught there attention and this time I pumped out enough energy to make it clear that we are closely related. Still, I'm surprised General McKenzie didn't pick up on my bullshit. He's normally very perceptive. Either that or he knows that I'm bullshitting and just doesn't want to risk loosing a potential ally by calling me out on it. Only time will tell.