Enid was falling of course. Her armor’s shimmering blue wings deployed and slowed her descent. She managed to land on her feet on a grassy slope. She looked around herself and realized she was home, or at least she was in the Scottish Highlands. She let her helmet collapse into her armor and she breathed in the air. The sun was shining on her face, even with the imposed mortality it caused she was still grinning ear to ear. She was so busy soaking in the air of her homeland she wasn’t paying attention to her gift screaming at her an attack was coming. The punch caught her on the side of the face.
“That’s for trying to leave me behind!”
A bunch caught her in the other side of the face.
“That’s for being an uber bitch to Amee!”
Another hit Enid in the gut.
“And that was just cause!”
Enid was knocked out. When she finally came to her face was a bloody mess, when she looked to see who had unleashed the flurry of blows she saw Hazel’s angry ice blue eyes. Enid spit out some blood.
“You should be in the 29th century.”
“And you should be in a jail cell!”
“You are grounded.”
“You let Aunt Maria put me in a cell!”
“To stop you from sneaking through the gateway and getting stuck in the past again. You were supposed to have a life!”
“You’re my mom. I’m not going to let you commit suicide by fallen angel.”
You deserved that, dear.
Enid lay there in the grass of the highlands staring up at the sky holding her gut. Her daughter had learned the ways of hand-to-hand combat well from their stay in Japan. Part of her was proud, the other part was regretting not raising a more lady-like daughter.
“Where are we anyway?”
“Not in NAFTA, and not in school where you should be.”
“Mom, it is done, I’m here get over it.”
“I might once I stop bleeding. God damn it, Hazel.”
Enid sat up rubbing her jaw and spit out more blood. The damage would vanish with darkness but she’d be in pain until then which she guessed was several hours away based on where the sun was. At least it was sunny. She pushed mass of red curls back and looked at their surroundings and nodded. She held her side again, Hazel was shifting back down to human form after healing her broken fist and arm after her punch to the armor.
“Shifting to half-wolf form was reckless. Punching me? I’m your mother.”
“You deserved it. And my arm and hand were broken.”
“Both which could easily have been avoid if you didn’t punch me!”
“I was going to go for the nose but I didn’t want to break it. Its already bent enough as it is.”
Enid shifted to the side and pushed herself up. She winced her daughter had done a number on her even through the armor.
“I swear come nightfall I’m going to throw you over my knee and spank your disrespectful ass kid.”
“Still worth it.”
“And I was in such a good mood.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m home, or at least where I was born.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know the highlands. And that rock formation there is the weeping widow, which means there should be a baily, a castle or ruins there. So, we’re sometime before the year five hundred. But that doesn’t matter to you because I’m dropping a beacon and I’m going to throw your ass back through the portal when it shows up.”
Hazel pointed at some smashed bits of metal on a stone.
“You mean those beacons?”
Enid’s eyes went wide.
“You did not!”
“I did.”
“You are in so much trouble!”
Enid was on her feet and chasing after her daughter who had shifted to wolf form. The chase lasted several minutes until Enid was winded. She lost Hazel who vanished behind a rise. Shortly afterward she heard her daughter scream. Enid drew Lucius and started running again, no care for her pain or her exhaustion. If it was something bad enough for Hazel to scream things were bad. Enid was running through a depression between two rock formations and came out from behind them and saw Hazel standing in the middle of an iron age village. The only thing seemingly moving were some carrion birds and wild dogs. Hazel was frozen in the center of the village. Enid rush to her and was forced to hold her breath. Two girls, one about eight, one about Miko’s age before she died were dead and rotting on the ground. Boils coming out of their arm pits. Black veins on their face. The birds had gotten to their eyes. Enid grabbed her daughter’s arm and pulled her out of the village doing her best to hold her breath. Hazel had been in the midst of battle but she’d never seen dead children, especially not dead children that were picked at by ravens and common buzzards. Enid had, but it really never got easier to see. She sat Hazel down on a rock and hugged the teenager to herself patting the back of her head.
“Shh, we’re out of there. Shh.”
“What… happened to them?”
“Based on the boils? Bubonic Plague.”
“Are we going to get sick?”
“No, we’re both immune, but we could be carrying fleas that are infected. We’ll need to spray ourselves down with something to kill them, so we don’t spread it. I’ll go back after nightfall. The whole being dead thing will help with the needing to breath and therefore choking on the stench of rotting bodies. See if anyone survived, the Black Death is a horrific way to die, and is even more disturbing if you’re the last person alive in your village because your immune system fought it off. It is almost a hundred percent fatal without antibiotics.”
“I can’t believe I screamed.”
“Oh, my baby girl, it is alright to be scared, it was very disturbing. Even I was horrified.”
Enid continued to hold Hazel close gently rubbing the back of the girl’s Atlantean armor. Hazel was still shaking.
“Shh, its okay your mom is here.”
“I am really sorry I punched you mom.”
“Maybe I deserved it, its alright. Sometimes you just need to punch something or someone. I get the urge.”
Enid sat there with her daughter holding her until the sun started to set and she felt death take hold again. The injuries inflicted by Hazel’s strong blows vanished quickly.
“Stay here, I’ll go see if anyone survived. I have enough antibiotics if its not in their blood I have a good chance of saving them.”
Enid kissed Hazel’s forehead. Hazel wrapped her arms around herself and watched her mother vanish around the rock formations. Enid found the village how they left it; she purposely avoided the center of the village by the well she had no wish to see the dead siblings again. She started in the far side and made her way through the various round houses. It could have been her birth village if it were closer to the ocean. Each home was the same, the plague had hit the village so quick and so hard the dead hadn’t been buried properly some of the bodies were fresher than others, all had signs of the plague. Her keen vampire hearing heard the cry of a baby. She started running in that direction. Hazel had been closer, and she saw her daughter approaching with her helmet on the pair reached the entrance to the round house that the cry came from.
“Hazel go back.”
“No mom, I just realized you shouldn’t be alone here anymore then I should be.”
“Why do you never listen to me?”
“Because I watch you ignoring what I say all the time.”
Enid shook her head and pushed the door open. Inside was a woman who still drew breath and a baby boy. Enid rush to her side pulling out one of her Atlantean tablets, they were not as good as modern scanners, but they also just charged by existing. The woman lacked visible signs of the plague but she had blood poisoning. She wasn’t long for the world of the living and there were no miraculous cures from the 29th century to save her. Once an infection was this advanced it was a losing battle. The woman stirred from her fever dreams looking up at the red-haired vampire whose pale white skin gleamed in the light of the full moon. The woman started to back away from Enid.
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“I am sorry, I cannot help you.”
“Are you one of the sidhe? Will you take my child to the fair folk realm? Save him from this nightmare?”
Enid reached down and took the woman’s hand. The woman squeezed Enid’s hand tightly as if making sure she was real. She closed her eyes, her lips moving in a silent prayer to the Gods and to the Fair folk.
“I will. I will feed him from my own breast and make him strong. He will be a warrior legend like the Tuatha, fair mother.”
Enid kneeled down and pulled the woman onto her lap so their eyes could meet. Hazel had the baby in her arms and was rocking him. Enid could see tears in her daughter’s eyes under her helmet.
“Where is your husband?”
The woman weakly pointed to a covered body on one of the straw piles, she looked up at Enid.
“What is your name Sidhe?”
“I am often called the Dark Mother, dear lady.”
“Did my spell work, is that why you’re here?”
Enid smiled at her.
“Yes, I heard your plea for your child and I came, if I only I had come sooner and could have saved you.”
The woman smiled at Enid.
“What will happen to my when I die?”
Enid held the woman close.
“Gods willing you will join them and watch your son grow strong.”
“Will you raise him as your own?”
Enid shook her head making her red curls bounce.
“I am sorry, I cannot I have been given a task by the Tuatha de Danann, however I will feed him and keep him strong until I find someone worthy to raise him. He will be well cared for.”
The woman shifted and tried to get her hair from her face but her hands were two weak. Enid gently pulled the tangled sweat soaked hair to the side.
“I do not want to leave him.”
“No mother wants to leave their children. But it is better for you to leave then them to pass away before you. The grief is terrible.”
“Have you lost a child?”
“Just recently, my daughter…I held her in my arms…”
“I am sorry, for your loss Dark Mother.”
“And I am sorry for all you have lost. But do not fear for your son, you have my word I will treat him like my own until I find a good mother for him. My milk mother considers all human children to be her children. Perhaps she will take him in.”
The woman’s head turned to her baby one last time, then her eyes closed and a few hours later her organs gave out. Enid stood afterwards and used the Atlantean tablet to scan the baby. She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
“He is free of the infection.”
“That’s good right?”
“Yes. May I?”
Enid slipped the tablet into her pack and took the baby as Hazel offered him. Enid made her way out of the home and back out past the rocky formation where the scent of death wasn’t so pervasive. Enid rocked the baby in her arms. Hazel looked at her mother.
“How are we going to feed him?”
“You’re asking which one of us is going to perform the mother’s milk spirit ritual.”
“Well, yes.”
“I’ll do it.”
“But mom, you’ll be stuck as a mortal.”
“Based on…the village we were just in and the fact there was a plague, I think I know what time we’re in and its probably better if I don’t have access to my vampiric abilities.”
“Why mom?”
“Because we’re near where I was born and there is a good chance my biological father is alive right now, so the temptation to…harm him or modify his behavior with them would be a serious risk. If young me doesn’t suffer through everything I did, then you will never be born. And as your Aunt Maria pointed out, sometimes my ability to think before I act can be emotionally compromised.”
Hazel sat on the rock she motioned in the direction of the village.
“Are we going to bury them first?”
“No, I need to be cautious, while I’m a mortal I can be infected with stuff, but when I turn into a vampire my body eradicates it, and the baby…”
Enid sighed.
“Whose name we forgot to ask, will need milk very soon, based on his mother’s infection he probably hasn’t eaten in a couple of days. So I’m going to…sanitize the village with a demonfire.”
“What mom? Why would you use demonic powers?”
Enid gave her daughter a strange look then realized the girl probably had no knowledge of the weapon she spoke of.
“It’s a modern weapon. It will… burn the whole village and turn the ground to glass. It will kill most of the fleas, burn the bodies…make it like the village never was. But it will stop the plague from spreading. Then we’ll have to spray ourselves down with a toxin that kills insects and check the baby very carefully for fleas. Its mostly the hair we have to worry about. So, you’ll go to wolf form so we can spray that too. Then You’ll help me perform the ritual and we will try to find a village that isn’t mine.”
“So I get to meet your father and mother?”
“My father is not a man you want meet, he was a vile piece of shit before Sextus fucked with his mind, and my mother died in childbirth, if we were going to the village, you might meet Lilith who was in many ways my mother. She is the one who used to sing that lullaby I taught you. Also like 3 or 4 year old me will be at that village and I should be nowhere near me.”
“Why not?”
“I have no idea what interacting with my past self would do to reality, who knows it might just end everything. Its not like there is a time traveling rule book.”
“That sucks I would love to meet your mother at least. I guess based on what… what I’ve heard about what your father did you I would have a hard time resisting eating his heart in half-wolf form.”
“And if he doesn’t… abuse me then I don’t become me, and if I haven’t been born yet, I’m never born… God damn it I hate time travel.”
Enid rocked the baby and sighed.
“We should take care of the village.”
Hazel reached for the baby and Enid passed him to her. Enid stood up and started walking to the top of the rock formations that shielded the village from the winds of the highlands. She looked back at Hazel.
“Are you coming?”
“Why?”
“As sad as the occasion is, this will be a fireworks show you might never have the chance to see again, I only have a few of them left.”
Hazel stood up and started picking her way to the top of the rise, holding the baby close. When they got here she tickled his belly and bounced him gently while she watched Enid pull the rocket launcher out of her pack and then the Demonfire missile case. She could read the English clearly on the box and there were a lot of danger handle with care signs. Enid pulled the missile out and loaded the launcher then pulled out a range finding laser and marking the edges of the village.
“This doesn’t seem very fast mom.”
“Well being precise is very important with this weapon. If you’re off by more then a few meters you’re feet are going to get very hot, very fast.”
Enid started entering the specs for the dispersion into a spreadsheet on her holo-tablet. She mused about how much easier this was then the last time she launched it and had to calculate it in her head. She entered the height and range onto the display on the launcher and looked at Hazel holding the baby. She then put the launcher down and reached her hands out for the baby. Hazel gave her a look and handed the baby over. Enid motioned to the launcher with her head.
“Pick it up.”
Hazel looked at Enid and picked up the launcher.
“Mom?”
“Its time I taught you how to use modern weapon systems. You’re old enough now. Put it on your shoulder and look at the targeting screen. Angle it so the screen shows a green dot at the center. Hold it steady and press the trigger.”
“Mom, are you sure about this?”
“No, but its time.”
Enid ensured she wasn’t behind her daughter but was glancing at the LCD once her daughter had the right angle.
“Time to launch.”
Hazel pressed the trigger after a few seconds of hesitation and stumbled backwards as the Demonfire rocket left a trail of smoke into the air then shot straight upwards. She stared at it for several more seconds. Then looked to her mother.
“Mom, what did I do wrong?”
“Nothing, just wait for it.”
There was a loud bang that echoed across the rock formation that made Hazel jump, Enid had been expecting it so was less surprised, then a rain of fine beads started raining from the sky. Hazel looked at her mother again, Enid pointed to the village. Hazel learned forward as little sparks of light started to appear all over it and then suddenly there was a flash and ground turned molten. Hazel leaped back from the wave of heat that suddenly rushed towards them. The round houses started sinking into the molten earth. Hazel blinked at her mother.
“Who would make something so terrible?”
“People with more brains than sense, they were banned by the world governments.”
“How did you get them?”
“I knew a good arms dealer. Look, they have a place, just not in warfare. This village can no longer spread the plague.”
“Did you ever use them before?”
“A few times, once to get a Fallen Angel out of some possessed ground, and once I dropped some wide area bombs from a fighter.”
“You used this on people?”
“No, animals, there was… there was pandemic, lots of people got sick, it made a jump to some animals… there were hectares of infected land, hundreds of thousand animals, land, and people’s remains. I suppose there could have been civilians in the area if they didn’t evacuate. All very infectious. The United Nations asked the US to use some from their weapons disposal site. They needed a volunteer.”
Hazel looked at her mother.
“So you killed people with this?”
“I may have, I have killed vampires with it. Look, if the choice is a few hundred civilians or three billion lives, the math is very easy.”
“Mom! They were innocent.”
“Something you haven’t grasped yet, my beautiful daughter is that, sometimes there are no good choices, only varying level of bad ones. If you can’t save everyone, you need to choose the option that saves the most lives. Here, take the baby, I’ll clean up our mess and we can get ourselves sprayed down with some bug killer and then we do the ritual.”
*****
Enid rested on a moss-covered rock. She was using her Sarah face. She’d shifted before they performed the ritual that would lock her into mortality until she stopped nursing the baby. Both she and Hazel were wearing dresses and shoes more appropriate the time by now. Her Atlantean armor wasn’t exactly conducive to easy nursing. She had her dress down and the boy who had no name as of yet was so hungry this was the third time she’d had to feed him during their walk.
“Mom, that was the second burnt out settlement. It’s been almost a day and I’m exhausted. You must be worse. You know exactly where your village is, we need someplace warm, safe there are wolves and I’m so tired I can’t protect us at night.”
Enid looked at the baby whose grey eyes met hers. Enid rocked him gently.
“I’ve already been heading there, we’re only about half an hour away. I thought it might come to this which is why I used my Sarah face. With the plague ravaging the area there is a good chance they will be resistant to letting us stay. I may have to have sex with someone to pay our way. I don’t have much in the way of iron age trade goods in my pack. I have MRE’s but I’d rather not use them if we can avoid it.”
Enid pulled Lucius off her back and reached into her pack with the free hand that wasn’t holding the baby. She attached the holo-web to the sheath and waved her hand over it. She offered to Hazel who took a few attempts to find it. She slipped it over her shoulders and refastened the buckle with some difficulty.
“Keep him hidden. Blades like that don’t exist here.”
“They don’t exist anywhere mom.”
Enid switched the baby to her other breast he started to cry but then latched and she rocked him gently.
“Point taken. My father, he kept slaves, mostly captured women from his raids. My mom was one. He may want… he used them as concubines… Just, do not hurt kill him. Under any circumstances.”
“I get it mom.”
“He… liked younger women, I will say you’re my daughter and that you’re of more value with your virtue intact.”
Hazel laughed at the statement and Enid shook her head.
“I really do not want details. Your…personal life in that manner is yours, as long as you’re being safe. I’m just saying, he will not lay a finger on you.”
“I’m a big girl mom, I know how this works.”
Enid shook her head.
“If there is one time to listen to me, it is now, please, he does things… things you won’t heal from, but I will, eventually, just let me handle it. This isn’t my real form and next time I take it whatever he does will go away. Hopefully Lilith will already be there, I can tell her who I am, we can pass the baby off and ditch this time. There are no demons to find here, the gateway is just a random toss into the timestream. Just do as I say here, remember if we change anything, I’m never born.”
Hazel looked at her mother’s fear filled eyes.
“Then let’s leave the baby and get out of here.”
“No. I will not abandon this child after I promised his mother I’d look after him.”
“Mom, you told me, you have to save the most lives, how many people have you saved? If anything strange happens here then they all die, what is one child to that.”
Enid frowned as her daughter used her own words against her.
“We’ll be fine.”
Hazel threw up her hands and adjusted the invisible Lucius. The baby was asleep now after drinking his fell. Enid fixed her dress and lifted her hand up. Hazel pulled her mother to her feet and the pair started walking towards Enid’s home village.