Hazel, Olga and Enid had escaped the ferry and Dover without further incident. Colonel Bradly was likely responsible for their easy escape. Hazel had overheard him telling the authorities that the military unit responsible for dealing with the IRA assailants was classified and that he would take responsibility for the mess. The drive to London had also been uneventful. Olga was sleeping again, her capture and drugging meant she was still exhausted. Hazel was starting to hook up and IV line for her mother. Sextus watched her doing so.

“Where did you learn how to do this?”

“Mom taught me.”

He smiled.

“Your Latin is slipping.”

“I know so many languages they get muddled.”

“Of course, they do.”

He switched to English.

“Would you prefer this?”

Hazel nodded. She tapped down the line and the needle and hung the IV.

“A doctor said she was dehydrated… I figured I’d try.”

Sextus picked up his daughter’s hand and looked at the blue veins. He put the hand down and stroked the top of it.

“I’ve seen this before.”

“Where?”

“When Chronos would first try to channel chaos his hands would get purple veins in it, but they looked black if you didn’t look closely. What happened?”

Hazel gasped.

“She has channeled chaos before. That usually means she needs to drain a vampire, or use some of your blood but she’s mortal…”

Sextus stroked his beard.

“Of course. The Pogrom. That his how she did it. She used a combination of death and chaos mixed in blood magic.”

“Grandfather what is happening to her?’

“Well, she’s mortal she shouldn’t be able to use blood magic. Its like she’s tapping directly into the source to warp reality.”

Hazel sat down on a stool that her grandfather had put behind her. He sat on the bed and fixed Enid’s hair. He was reminded of when she was near death when he brought her from her home village in Rome. Hazel shook her head.

“I do not understand.”

“I can try to explain…”

“Please grandfather?”

He glanced to the couch where Olga was sleeping. Hazel shrugged.

“I already told her half the truth.”

Sextus shook his head.

“You are not bound by our Covenants but still I think you may be making a mistake trusting her.”

“You have to trust someone if they are really your friend. If it goes badly then… well it proves they weren’t. Do not change the subject Grandfather.”

He sighed.

“I have not even told your mother about the real history of the first creation.”

“Grandfather soon you will be gone and then we never learn it. I am here, I am asking. Maybe we can use what you know to save mom from further suffering.”

He stroked his beard and nodded.

“So, at the beginning.”

“Before the big bang.”

“Ah yes the human theory. I suppose you could say that. There was nothing in this universe. Then the primordial entity formed. The first consciousness. God if you wish to call it that. Really trying to understand its mind… its pointless. Then the first son formed. Call it a distraction. Perhaps God has a parent who spoke to him, who knows. The first son was Chronos. The Black Son, the great deceiver. He was the opposite of everything God was. God wanted only order in his creation, the black son was the embodiment of Chaos, or change. God wanted the perfect system. Perhaps he had tried before I do not know. So, he tried to uncreate Chronos. Problem is…he could not. God can never destroy. He can only create.”

Hazel nodded most of this she had heard from her mother.

“God was frustrated. If Chronos was made in error in the briefest instrument of distraction. His next creation was deliberate. A form of control. He created the universe. All energies of creation would flow through the universe, but they remained unfocused. God was so focused on keeping Chronos from running rampant he couldn’t focus on building his perfect system. He created myself and my brother. He named me Romulus; He named my brother Remus; Our final brother Erebus came last each one of us was weaker then the last. Each had a role to play in creation. I was the embodiment of Order. Erebus the embodiment of death, finally Remus the embodiment of Life. We formed the four pillars of creation with Chronos. Forcing balance to come into existence. Between us we could build. Once forced to balance against the rest of is Chronos fell in line. We crafted the first creation. Atlantis.”

“But Chronos is…the Black Son, he was a violent megalomaniac.”

“Not at first. Among all of us he reveled in the ability to create at his whim. It was his chaos that made Gaia, or the universe female. She was the first woman. All of the brothers were smitten. The black son condensed the universe into a physical being. The first baby. No one understood why. I believe he was in love. I was jealous of this child he created. So, I created another female baby using some of the genetic material from the Universe. Of course, they were both Atlantean. God was so angry with us that we would make the universe a physical entity. Most of his wrath fell on Chronos. He could not uncreate us, but he could weaken us. He pulled energy from all of us and built the Pillar of Reality. He forced each of us to kneel beside it then ripped the power of creation he had granted us.”

Hazel gasped.

“I was not…troubled. Chronos, Erebus and Remus were, however. So, I was the lone brother who chose to stand in defense of what we had created. Hence the other three brothers were banished along with any Atlantean Chronos had turned to his side. He tried to take the Universe with him… but I built a matrix to hold the pair of female Atlanteans near the reality core. Or Pillar of Reality.”

He sighed.

“War came to Atlantis. I was outnumbered. I begged God for help. I then pulled the energy from Remus and Erebus because I was older and thus more powerful than them. Robbing them of their ties to Life and Death. The Reality Core could not channel all of the energies of creation, so in Universe I placed life. In my creation, I placed death. Now I could wield all three against the army that threatened Atlantis. My last failsafe was the Temporal Bomb. If Atlantis fell it would freeze everything inside it in an instant of time. Then I did some I am still wondering if it was the best choice. I infused myself with the energies of both life and death. I became the first Vampire. My physical form was perfect in all ways but it lacked the ability to deal any damage. After this I created armor and weapons I armed the people of Atlantis. I told them that the creator wanted the city defended at all costs.”

Hazel glanced at the pack that held the Atlantean armor and weapons. She looked back to her grandfather. He nodded.

“When the forces of Chaos attacked… it was a slaughter. Brother slew brother. Erebus was the only member of their triumvirate to fall, by my hands. I was invulnerable to all of their attacks because of my transformation. They retreated. Remus did not. He fell to his knees, and he pleaded with me to allow him to return to Atlantis. He swore loyalty to the city and surrendered the power of life for all time. In exchange I turned him. Making him the second vampire. We would be brothers two-fold. Peace would be short-lived. Chronos created Bloodseeker to try and counter my transformation. He armed his forces and they returned. They were much more effective the second time and in the end Chronos was able to launch an attack directly at the reality core. My failsafe went off and Atlantis was frozen. Remus, Chronos and I were about to battle for the fate of our creation. God intervened. He built a prison and threw Atlantis and all of us in it. Its what you call Limbo now.”

Hazel nodded.

“He left myself and Remus to wallow in Atlantis, built a marble building and trapped Chronos inside it. Then he started again. The first of his new creations was another embodiment of the Universe. This one much more capable of handling its energy.”

“What happened to the baby?”

Sextus smiled.

“Nothing. The universe was so…much one physical form wasn’t enough to hold all of it. Even the new one wasn’t. They shared a consciousness I guess you could say. The baby would be the tip of the ice burg, the next embodiment of it was the rest of the ice burg and the entity called the Universe would be the rest of the world attached to it.”

Hazel rubbed her temples.

“Grandfather…that makes my head hurt.”

“It is a strange concept to understand.”

Hazel nodded.

“Shall I go on?”

“Of course.”

“So, this new physical embodiment of the universe was the first Angel. Beyond an Archangel. Then he created Lucifer, the light bringer to craft the first stars in the universe. His twin Michael was created to be God’s sword and shield. Then Gabriel, God’s herald. The Raphael… you get the picture. He created Angels in place of us to craft reality on his behalf. They went along happily doing so. God was well on his way to the perfect system. However, he started to realize that it could never grow on its own.”

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“How do you know grandfather?”

“He spoke with me often. Advised me of his concerns. Because I had created the Atlanteans.”

“I told him that what was lacking was sentience and free will and that based on my experience with love that he should make two genders. He didn’t understand love at first. It was… a symptom of Chrono’s chaos. He started to understand that there was no perfect system without chaos. He requested the Universe, Seraph to create some place where love could blossom, and his newest creations could thrive. She created the Garden of Eden within his new creation. There he took hints from his first daughters form and created the first woman. She looked like an Atlantean and actually had much of their power. Then he created the first man. He named them Lilith and Adam. Lilith refused to submit to Adam who was in many ways her inferior. He was quite angry and cast Lilith out. Remus and I had been freed of our shackles. God ordered us to protect these new humans, so we did. When Lilith was cast out… we fell in love. You know Adam and Eve… but what you may not know is that Lucifer did not corrupt them. That was Chronos. From his prison he whispered to Eve. She broke the rules, tricked Adam into breaking the rules and they got cast out too. God angry at the rebellion threw the Garden of Eden into Limbo and left these fledgling humans to fend for themselves. Now I say Adam and Eve here, but he made an infinite variety of sentients of different shapes and sizes, each had its own garden crafted by Seraph. Each fell to Chronos’s whispers.”

Hazel nodded.

“Lucifer was next to fall. Chronos whispered to him. Told him that if God can cast out these new favored children how long before the Angels suffered the same fate. Lucifer rebelled and many other angels did as well, including Seraph. The later cut God deeply. For if the Universe turned against him he would need to abandon this creation and move on. Lucifer and Seraph had a relationship. It was predictable she would follow him. With her at his side Lucifer managed to breach the prison holding Chronos. His rebellion started in earnest. Angel against angel. It hit a snag, however. Jealousy. Chronos loved the Universe first. The rebellion fell to infighting. Seraph, inspired by Lilith’s own beliefs that she was not subservient to a man left the rebels in disgust when both Lucifer and Chronos declared she was their property. I was given a mission by God to slay Chronos with his own blade. I did so. Or thought I did. God was happy enough that he let myself and Lilith live our lives without his further interference. With Chronos out of the way and Seraph against the rebels they lost. They refused to ask for forgiveness. God was quite angry he was about to order them executed. Lucifer made a mistake, but it turned to end in his favor. He demanded Seraph be executed with them as she was his. God would never have done such a thing, but the words angered Seraph and before God could stop her she crafted a realm of suffering and damnation, Hell, she cast all of the fallen into this pit.”

Hazel’s eyes went wide.

“God knew this was no act of loyalty to him, but one of wrath. He was also frustrated with her because he could not reach Hell. This act created a new balanced reality. Now souls that were filled with darkness would fall into the pit, and souls filled with goodness would go to Heaven. Those that were of no specific vein would find themselves in the land of the dead. A creation made by Chronos, but none realized it save God. God knew Chronos was not dead yet and sought his end. So as penance for her rebellion, denying him being able to punish the rebelling angels and forever altering the cosmology of the afterlife without his permission he demanded she deal with this threat once and for all. To this end she was cast into the mortal shell that Chronos had crafted.”

“Hold up, are you saying the Universe like…everything in space was put into a human shell?”

“No, an Atlantean shell.”

“Okay.”

Sextus continued again.

“You see, the real reason for this was Chronos had made another attempt on the reality core. Mostly on the children. I stopped him with his sword. Remus was told to put the children into human woman’s wombs. To keep it secret I erased his memories. So now, Seraph, The Universe, was out in the world and so was the other child. One was effectively an avatar of life the other death. We now know that Enid, is the Avatar of Life, and Mariana-”

“Aunt Maria.”

Hazel corrected him.

“Alright, Maria is the Avatar of Death.”

“Okay so what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I’m guessing your mother, this version of Enid is now the reality core.”

“What do you mean?”

“Blue is the color of Order. Black is Chaos. Purple is Death and Green is life.”

“But you’re umm Order aren’t you?”

“Not once I give it up…and based on… well it seems I gave it up and your mother took it. Maria must have given up hers, and when she killed Chronos she took Chaos. It seems however that she is out of balance.”

“What?”

“All forces in creation are balanced, channel one too much it starts to corrupt your body. I never tapped into Order, but I saw it happen with Chronos. His physical body started to decay rapidly as he used it.”

“So how do we fix it?”

“Well if she were a vampire she’d just heal from it eventually our could use blood to do so. Right now I don’t know. I have always suspected she was one of the children… but I knew once I met her in Gaul. The reason her body doesn’t age and heals rapidly when she isn’t a vampire is she’s Atlantean. Those are all things that Atlanteans exhibited. And…she is also an Archangel.”

“People keep telling us that but if she was an Archangel why is she so weak?”

“It may be she needs to believe… I do not know. All we can do is make sure she we maintain her food and water supply. Her body will hopefully recover in time.”

Hazel sighed and looked down at her mother.

“She saved us. Created a bubble around us. Stopped a gas explosion.”

“Is this the first time she’s done something like that?”

“Umm, she…summoned a staff and parted several miles of water.”

“How did that affect her?”

“The veins were bad. Reached her face. But her eyes didn’t turn blue, not like this time.”

“How did it look when she used it?”

“Her eyes glowed blue, and it showed up around us.”

He stroked his beard again.

“There is nothing more you can do. Go get some sleep, I’ll sit with her.”

Hazel hesitated and her grandfather shook his head.

“I have been watching over her for a long time. I can handle another night.”

Hazel nodded, gave her mother one last glance before heading to her room. The bed was extremely comfortable so she slept well past when she meant too. When she finally pulled herself out of a deep sleep she was confused about her surroundings at first. She was so used to waking up in the tower at the Retreat that she would probably take a while to get used to being somewhere else. She pulled herself up. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the room in the daylight. It was like the rest of the castle her grandfather owned. It looked like it was pulled right out of the middle ages, not that she’d ever been there, but she’d seen movies. Finally, she pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs to the room where she knew her mother would be waiting. She heard Olga and Sextus talking, she couldn’t make out the words specifically and they got quiet when she walked in. Olga looked well rested and her bruises from her beatings from the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques were gone. Sextus stood up and hugged Hazel tightly.

“There’s my granddaughter.”

Hazel blushed and fixed her hair.

“How’s mom?”

“About the same, veins are gone.”

Hazel released her grandfather.

“She’ll want to leave when she wakes up. So, uh.”

Hazel rubbed the back of her neck.

“Could we like get some…blood?”

Sextus laughed.

“At least you are straightforward. Something I wish I could say of all my many children.”

Olga blinked at the pair. Hazel pulled out five bloodstones and put them down on the bed. One after the other Sextus picked up and as he did so each began to glow. Hazel put them in the pack, she hugged him again.

“Thanks.”

“In a rush to see your boyfriend?”

Hazel blushed.

“Maybe, but we never know we’re going to end up.”

“Let’s give your mother some peace, you must be hungry.”

Hazel nodded. He motioned for Olga to follow. They found themselves at a large dining room table and sat close together. Within fifteen minutes plates of sandwich fixings were placed out. Hazel grabbed two buns and started to put mustard on them. Sextus spoke while he prepared his.

“So, when you left Gaul you didn’t end up when your version of your mother was from?”

Hazel shook her head. Olga was staring at the pair. She’d heard Hazel’s words before but now this old man who seemed quite intelligent was buying into the madness. There was definitely more to this family then she understood. Anna…or Enid as she now knew her real name butchered six people while almost dead. She wondered what she was truly capable of. She started to craft her own sandwich.

“No, we ended up in…I think she said Norway? I am not sure, it was a village like mine, but they used better weapons. We raided England. Then we ended up in Egypt, I think Egypt was next. That’s when you saw us, I guess for the first time. Then uh Japan. I don’t know we eventually ended up in the 29th century. Aunt Maria was able to build a time portal with technology… she was using a piece of the Reality Core? Yes, I think you called it that, to target Limbo but well…we just bounced. She can target mom with it, but we have no way of telling her to turn the gate on.”

Hazel blushed at the last statement.

“That last part isn’t entirely true is it?”

“Well…there are beacons but I smashed them.”

Sextus raised an eyebrow.

“Why?”

“I broke some laws… to follow mom back. She wasn’t in her right mind. I mean after Miko was killed. She kind of lost it…”

“And she would have sent you back.”

Hazel nodded.

“That was reckless.”

Hazel blushed and shrunk in her a seat a bit. Her grandfather has the perfect mix of disappointment in his eyes and voice to make her feel like she was ten again. Olga looked at Hazel, finally understanding what she meant when she said stuck as a teenager mentally and physically.

“So, the Reality Core chunks can be used to target your mother too? Not just the core itself?”

Hazel nodded.

“I’m still learning science, but Aunt Maria was saying something about quantum entanglement like… the core is connected to all its pieces and mom through all of space and time.”

Sextus took a bite from his sandwich, he chewed and swallowed a few bites before putting down. He stroked his beard again and scratched under his chin.

“You know, I have a piece of the Reality Core. I wonder if we put in Enid’s hand if that wouldn’t alert Maria to your predicament?”

“I don’t know grandpa. Honestly that stuff is beyond me.”

“I’ll need to get it after dark.”

Hazel smiled at him and started devouring her sandwiches. Olga ate her lunch. She’d decided the best way to navigate this situation was to be quiet and observe. Alina had told the girls during their training that the best spies let people tell them their secrets without saying a word. Hazel went for a run on her father’s estate which was fairly massive as they go in Britain. Olga joined her the pair didn’t say much. Hazel hadn’t expected company and had started a play list to work out to. Olga was quiet because she was still sort of confused and in shock that this simple seeming girl had so much depth. She’d underestimated Hazel’s intelligence based on her size. After a nice supper the girls met up with Sextus he had a plain looking shard of black stone in his hand. Hazel looked at it with some confusion.

“Is that it?”

“Yes, unimpressive, isn’t it? To think it once held all of creation together.”

He had held it up to show Hazel but he had to catch it as it started flying towards Enid. He quirked an eyebrow.

“Interesting. So Hazel, if this works how long will it take?”

“Well… like instant? I think. I mean it might take Aunt Maria time to figure out what’s going on but like… were in the past so to us it will be instant because…”

She shrugged.

“I really don’t know.”

“I think you are correct now that I think of it. Anytime it takes her wouldn’t really impact us in this timeline. To us it would be instant.”

Hazel shrugged again.

“Are you ready to go home?”

Hazel hugged him tightly.

“I’ll miss you grandpa.”

“I will miss you as well Hazel. I couldn’t be prouder of the young woman you turned into. Well here goes.”

He opened Enid’s hand and let the chunk of reality pillar fall into it. The moment it touched her skin she sat bolt upright. Her now green eyes opened wide. She looked confused and almost instantly a shimmering gateway appeared in the room. Hazel looked at Sextus.

“I love you Grandpa.”

He smiled.

“I love you too Hazel.”

Hazel turned to Olga.

“Now is your chance, new life here, or see the future?”

Olga was staring at the shimmering gateway, the room beyond was metal and had numerous flashing lights on the wall. Hazel scooped up Enid and walked through. She smiled when she saw Olga standing beside her and looking confused. Maria was standing on the floor she blinked at Sextus. She waved at him with a sad smile. He waved back. The capacitors started sparking and failed. Klaxons started going off and red flashing lights were everywhere. Sextus was gone and Maria’s shoulders slumped. Damage control crews swarmed the area. A medical team pulled Enid from Hazel’s arms and onto a hoverbed rushing her to the station’s medical bay. Hazel, Maria and Olga were rushed out of the smoke-filled room. After a few minutes of standing in corridor outside the gate room Maria finally got over the shock of seeing her father and looked at Hazel then Olga.

“So… I have a feeling there is a story here.”

“Over pizza.”

Maria had her arms crossed then she smiled at her niece.

“I thought you said the pizza here tasted like cardboard.”

“Its better than no pizza.”

The trio started walking towards the commanders dining room. A medical staff member walked up and hit Olga with an air injector. Olga shoved her away afterwards slapping her hand on her neck.

“What did you just do?”

Maria motioned the med tech away. Then looked at Olga.

“T-Cell enhancement, so you don’t die of a disease you have no immunity to.”

Olga rubbed her neck and looked after the med-tech with more than a little suspicion. Maria put her arms behind the backs of the two.

“Let’s get some pizza.”