Maxine had been staring at the door to Emily's room for the last ten minutes. She had been thinking of a safe place to reveal her male clone to her, but could only think of two places. One was the shadow world and the other was Orianna's room.

However she didn't want to have a audience when she revealed her male clone to Emily. Thus she decided to use the shadow world for that purpose. But it would add another person that knew any specifics about her hideout. She wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but she trusted Emily enough to take her there. She just wished she hadn't told Patrick about the shadow world in the past. It had been a poor choice on her part, but she didn't have a reason not to trust him at the time. Hopefully he has completely forgotten about it. Because if he remembers about it and reveals that I have the ability to travel to a place devoid of color, it would really narrows down the planets that my hideout could be on. It would only be a matter of time before they found it.  

Maxine reached up and knocked on the door. Emily answered it very quickly. "I was wondering when you were going to knock on the door," Emily said.

"You knew I was out here?" Maxine said.

"Yeah, the guys put up some tiny surveilence cameras in the hallways to see who comes to visit us," Emily said, "They said they spotted you standing outside the door about ten minutes ago. Is there something bothering you?"

"You could say that," Maxine said, "Can I come in?"

"Yes, of course, you can," Emily said as she stepped aside to let Maxine in. 

"Thanks," Maxine said as she walked inside and looked around inside to make sure no one else was in the room before turning around to face Emily, "You were right when you said that something was bothering me. In fact, it's something that I have been wondering how to tell you for quite some time, but I figured it would be easier for the both of us if I simply showed you."

"Show me what?" Emily asked.

Maxine suddenly hugged Emily and whispered into her ear, "Show you this." In the next instant, she created a portal beneath them and transfered the both of them to the shadow world. She narrowed the portal down to the size of a needle after passing through it and did it fast enough that there was no possible way that Turan could have followed them through. They exited at a spot near the mouth of the cave, so she wouldn't have to create an additional light source.

When they parted from their embrace, Emily looked around and asked, "Where are we? Is this what you wanted to show me?" 

"Not entirely," Maxine said, "As for where we are, I'm not entirely sure. It might help you understand if you looked outside." 

"Alright," Emily said cautiously as she moved to look outside and gasped at what she found, "What?! There isn't any color here!"

"Yeah, I know, but we are still in color. It's as if this world was leeched of almost all of it's color, but that isn't why I brought you here," Maxine said and had her male clone come out of the shadows, "This is." 

"You have a brother now?!" Emily said in anger and surprise, "How many other secrets are there that you have kept from me?!"

"Only those that relate to my fighting abilities, but this isn't my brother. It's my male clone," Maxine said and had her male clone speak in sync with her as she explained herself, "I have the ability to make flesh and blood clones, but they are unable to operate independently from my main body. Were it not for my two bloodlines improving my ability to multitask, I would not be able to control them as smoothly as I am now. Believe it or not, I'm talking with Orianna at the same time right now."

"I don't understand how this is possible," Emily said disbelievingly as she took a step back, "How and why did you even make clones of yourself in the first place?"

"I made my normal clone as a stand in for my daily life in the off chance that someone tried to kidnap or attack me and my male clone was originally a decoy to draw anyone looking for 'Guan's child' off my trail. I discovered from Hellen that it could be used for reproductive purposes," Maxine said with a slight blush on her face, "As for how, mom, I mean Hellen, guided me through most of the process."

"I see," Emily asked, "Why havn't I seen anyone else in your clan with clones?"

"Because there are far fewer people with shadow essence in my clan than I thought and if you don't have shadow essence, you need various expensive resources to make a clone. To make matters worse, the clones they are able to make don't have any cultivation. It's just not worth the effort to build their clone up from scratch when they could simply make themselves stronger with the same resources," Maxine said, "I don't have that problem. I can change the essence within a core to match my own and create a clone with just a couple liters of my blood."

"That sounds like one hell of a cheat," Emily said, "It's like having a bunch of extra lives."

"Yes and no," Maxine said, "There is a limit of how many clones any person can make in their lifetime. Although that limit is different from person to person. I havn't tested my upper limit yet, but I have a feeling that I can make maybe one more."  

[That's unusual. You should be able to make more. Many more as a matter of fact. It's been proven that on average cultivators can make up to eight clones depending on their soul strength,] Hellen said to join in on the conversation, [I guess it's possible that both of your two bloodlines are restricting you in this aspect.] Wait, since I have a fused soul wouldn't that mean I have double the normal soul strength or at least close to it? That is one heavy restriction per bloodline. 

"You mean I can have up to eight extra lives like in those old platformer games?" Emily asked Hellen.

[In a manner of speaking, but it isn't an absolute thing. If, for instance, you are killed without you realizing it, you won't be able to transfer your soul to a clone and thus you stay dead regardless of how many clones you have. It's an another reason why most people do not bother with them that Maxine wasn't aware of,] Hellen said, [However Maxine uses a unique method to control her clones from long distances without having to place even a fragment of her soul in them. Unfortunately, her method isn't something just anyone can replicate since it requires the use of either spatial or shadow essence.]  

"Technically, I don't control them over long distances. I create a tiny portal in their shadow to remove any time lag," Maxine admitted.

"Those are still extra lives," Emily stated, "Can you teach me how to make a clone?"

"No, I would have to ask Guan to teach you how," Maxine said, "Although be warned, he may try to teach you something wierd." 

"Wierd how?" Emily asked.

"He may teach you how to make a male clone," Maxine said with a slight blush on her face.

"And why the hell would he teach me something like that?!" Emily asked.

"Hellen may have told him that I wouldn't have children unless it was with you," Maxine answered as she felt her ears burning from embaressement.

"Do you really hate men that much?" Emily asked.

"I don't hate them. I just can't stand the thought of having sex with one," Maxine answered honestly. Having lived as a man in my past life hasn't helped matters. 

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"Then don't have sex with one. If you really want a baby, have artificial insemination performed on you," Emily said.

"I would, but artificial insemination has abysmal conception rates. Add that onto the fact that the higher my cultivation becomes the harder it is for me to become pregnant. It just makes more sense to do it the natural way, even if I find the whole process disgusting," Maxine said grumpily, but her expression softened as she continued, "But if you were a man, I wouldn't find it that repulsive at all. In fact, I might even enjoy it."

[That could be arranged, temporarily speaking,] a man's voice resounded in Maxine's head via spiritual sense. She only heard this voice once before, but there was no mistaking who it was. It was Guan. How the hell did he manage to reach me? I have a portal leading to here and to Earth in my main body's shadow. Did he seriously send his spiritual sense through both? That would take an insane amount of control.

[Who are you?!] Emily asked fearfully, [And what do you mean by that?]

[I'm Maxine's real father, Guan,] Guan said gently, [And what I mean is that I can create a potion to invert your gender for half a day.] 

[Hellen didn't mention anything like this,] Maxine said as calmly as she could manage. 

[She wouldn't have. It's something that I have recently created. I was inspired to create it after observing a peculiar variety of frog unique to Earth that can spontaneously change it's gender. After observing this metamorphosis, I was able to deduce how to created a potion that can induce a similar transformation in humans. Although this change is temporary as humans were never meant to switch genders like that. I advertised it to a few female couples wanting a child to test it's efficacy. That was a mistake. Those girls just couldn't help, but spread the word around that I could make those kind of potions. I was swarmed with requests for it. To deter them, I had to demand rare herbs as compensation. Unfortunately, that approach backfired and every last single one of those ladies came back with rare herbs within a month. I couldn't exactly turn them away after they went to the trouble of collecting those herbs. On the positive side, those rare herbs increased the progress on my experiments to revive Hellen,] Guan rambled and his tone changed to a very happy one, [Oh! That reminds me. I need you to open a portal to your mother's grave.] 

[Do you mean that...?] Maxine asked hopefully.

[Yes, I have succeeded. All of my current test subjects are healthy and do not appear to be deteriorating. In fact, they are getting increasingly more energetic. These results made me confident that I can ressurect Hellen,] Guan said.

"What's going on?" Emily asked and Maxine realized that Guan had cut her from the conversation just after he told Maxine to open the portal to the shadow world.

"Guan is going to revive my mom," Maxine said with tears of joy in her eyes as she created a portal directly to Earth to the shadow world. Within a second, Guan was emerging from it. He wasn't wearing his mask and was smiling. She hated to admit it, but even with the scales along his jaw, his smile was charming.

Guan didn't even spare them a breif look before moving further into the cave. Maxine followed directly behind him while retreiving the golden bracelet that contained Hellen's soul from her main body. Guan would need it depending on how quickly he could reconstruct her body. 

"How long will it take?" Maxine asked, but was ignored as he unearthed Hellen's remains with a wave of his hand. So she tried a different approach that she knew would get a reaction out of him, "Daddy, please. Tell me." He shuddered breifly at hearing those words. 

"I never thought I would to hear you call me daddy," Guan said softly, but he seemed to recover quickly, "It will take a month for her body to be rebuilt. Any faster or slower and the revival process will fail. Fortunately, this process doesn't need to be watched too closely. However it cannot be disturbed under any circumstance. So, I would still appreciate you to keep a portal open from this cave to Earth, so I can monitor it." Guan did something to cause Hellen's bones and core float into the air. A rectangular vat appeared beneith Hellen's bones before they were lowered into it and a hole appeared in the air releasing a strange green liquid. Based on the smell, Maxine knew that it had at least twelve different herbs and all of them were extremely rare. She saw an almost instant reaction as Hellen's bones began to look whiter than they had before. 

[Are you really able to give me a body again?] Hellen asked with barely contained excitement via spiritual sense.

[It is, my love,] Guan said with a tone full of warmth, [And you can finally be proper mother to our daughters.]  Maxine sensed them speak to each other via spiritual sense, but it happened so fast that she couldn't even understand what was said.

Once they stopped talking through spiritual sense, Guan finally took notice of Emily and turned to face her. "I believe this is the first time we have met," Guan said.

"It is," Emily answered him coldly, "You are the one responsible for everything bad that has happened to Maxine and Orianna."

"You are correct. It was my lack of judgement that lead them to suffer like they had. If I could, I would go back in time and tell myself to pick someone else to look after them, but I can't," Guan said in a steady voice, "All I can do is try to make up for my past mistakes. Although, neither Maxine or Orianna are giving me many opportunities to do so." 

"You could stop the war between the Kavros and Divine Marks clans," Maxine offered.

"No, that conflict will give you valuable experience fighting humans and you will need it," Guan said and it surprised Maxine, "I won't always be there to protect or deter those that want to bring you harm."

"But she could die!" Emily roared, "Don't you care about that?!"

"I do care, but you're mistaken if you think Maxine would die so easily. I know for a fact that she will be sending a clone instead of going herself and I doubt that anyone from the Divine Marks clan would risk my wrath by killing her," Guan said with certainty.

"How can you be so certain?" Emily asked and Guan simply raised an eyebrow as Maxine felt him send pulses of his spiritual sense at Emily. God, I hate being shut out of conversations.

Over the next few seconds, Emily's expression shifted several times. However her expression became that of horror more often than any other. I wish I knew what Guan was showing her, but judging from Emily's expressions, it's best that I don't know. Towards the end, Emily became enraged and Maxine knew that she was yelling at Guan.

Their conversation lasted for a full minute before Guan spoke again, "Maxine, your chosen companion is quite fierce when she wants to be."

"Umm, thanks," Maxine said uncertainly.

"It wasn't a compliment, but a warning. She will win many an argument when she decides to have her way," Guan said in an amused tone, "Regardles, I need to go back to Earth before my absence is noticed. Farwell, Maxine." Maxine couldn't avoid his hand as he gently brushed her cheek before he vanished from her sight. She knew that he had already left through her portal to Earth. 

"Guan is a monster," Emily announced.

"I know," Maxine agreed in a sad tone, and she quickly changed the subject, "So, what do you think about that potion of his? Do you want to use it?"

"What? You mean that gender changing potion?" Emily asked and Maxine nodded, "I don't know. Maybe. I just thought we would either adopt or one of us would use artificial insemination."

"But Guan's potion is there if you or I want to use it," Maxine pointed out.

"Yeah, it is, but the idea of either of us suddenly having a dick, even if it's only temporary, is disturbing. I'm not sure I will ever be comfortable with it," Emily said, "I'm not even sure how I feel about your male clone. But, fortunately, I don't have to decide on any of this right now."

"That's true enough. Afterall we are still teenagers," Maxine said and heard someone faintly calling for Emily through her portal, "I think they are worried about you."

"You did take me away without saying anything to them," Emily pointed out.

"I better take you back then before they send out a search party," Maxine said as she expanded the portal back to Emily's room at the mansion, "I need to inform grandma about mom's revival anyways. She will be pissed if I don't tell her and she finds out that I knew later." 

"Alright, let's go," Emily said as she fearlessly jumped into the portal. Maxine smiled briefly before she followed right behind her.

Once on the other side of the portal, she heard Patrick reprimanding Emily, "Emily, what the hell were you thinking leaving like that? Why didn't you tell one of us where you were leaving somewhere with Maxine? We were worried."  

"Stop yelling at Emily!" Maxine snapped at him, "I didn't give her the chance to say anything to you guys. So it's my fault that she left so abruptly. If you are going to yell at anyone, yell at me."

"Oh, I am well aware of the fact that you were the one that took her," Patrick growled, "But I can't exactly yell at the Kavros Clan's 'young miss' regardless of how much I may want to." Huh? Is he seriously thinking I would make this a diplomatic issue? Does he really think I am that petty? 

"I wouldn't have complained to anyone if you had. I would have deserved it," Maxine said, "Regardless, you know it's not Emily's fault."

"Fine, I will leave Emily alone," Patrick sighed, "Can you at least tell me where you took her?"

"My hideout and before you ask, I won't tell you where that is. Otherwise it wouldn't be my hideout," Maxine answered, "Now if you don't mind, I need to go find my grandmother. See you later Emily."

"Later," Emily said. 

Maxine turned around to leave and heard Patrick sigh in frustration as he went back to his room. I need to tell grandma about Guan's success in secret. A good place to tell her would be Orianna's room. As a bonus, it will save me a trip since I will be able to tell Orianna and grandma at the same time. Hopefully, Madam Neshan will let me talk to them in private and with any luck, Hellen will be revived before my clone is shipped off to fight in the war against the Divine Marks clan.