Chapter Seventeen – Aftermath (Sunday, January 22, 1995)
“She killed my son, I’m bringing her in now,” Russell yells out, sitting on a large red chair in Ozma’s office.
Pacing back and forth, Victoria laughs before saying, “That’s the first time you ever mentioned Robby as your son.”
“It’s a matter of principle and why are you here anyway?”
“Because I’m on your side, why are we waiting?” Victoria asks, looking at Ozma who is sitting at her long wooden desk.
“We wait,” Ozma replies. “I have my reasons and if your foolish son got himself killed then it’s his own fault. I told everyone to not engage her until I gave the word but we might be ahead of schedule so it’s not a total failure.”
Victoria shrugs, “So we piss the princess off and we get results, good plan.”
—-
A female news report with short black hair stands in front of the ruined house where Robby once lived. She is surrounded by other reporters from various news stations, all covering the same story, “Last night this home was engulfed in flames. Causes are still unknown as authorities are trying to reach the residents. One body has been found within the debris.”
The screen switches over to the newsroom where they are reporting on the disappearance of Teresa and are asking anyone for information on her last location. It shouldn’t take them long to tie her and Robby together.
—-
Tom walks into Zar-Q’s computer area, dripping in sweat and his brown hair in a ponytail, “Are you ready to move your stuff upstairs?”
“Hey Tommy, I’m ready when you are. I haven’t been able to get these computers back online since yesterday so I haven’t bothered to turn them back on.”
“Do you guys need any help?” Kyle asks in the doorway.
“Sure,” Tom answers. “We’re going to use a portal to get everything upstairs.”
—-
“Are you feeling better?” Celestria asks Taryn, slowly opening the door.
“Yes, thank you, I’m just a bit shaken,” Taryn stretches and steps away from the bed. “How is Anya doing?”
“I’m not sure. Kyle went to see her late last night but she didn’t say much,” Celestria sadly replies. “There’s a change of clothes in the closet for you.”
—-
I slowly open my eyes, not wanting to move. What if I just stayed in this tiny room for the rest of my life? I feel terrible and the last thing I want to do is face anyone, especially anyone from here. I sit up in my bed and look down at my clothes, which have spots of blood still on them. I fight back the tears as I teleport to my bedroom on Earth. I toss off my clothes as I make my way into the bathroom and into the tub. I turn the dial as far as it can go, giving me the hottest water as possible.
“All you have to do is allow me to take control and I can make you feel so much better.”
“Leave me alone.”
“Don’t deny what you felt last night, you enjoyed it”
“You didn’t have to kill him.”
“Of course I did, it was fun. It’s been a long time since I had a chance to take control.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
“Trust me; you won’t be able to fight me forever. Eventually I’ll take over.”
“Heh, good luck with that.”
—-
“Any word on Anya,” Tom asks.
“No,” Kyle answers, lifting up a computer tower to take through the portal. “I just don’t know what to say to her. Taryn’s even shaken up about it and she wasn’t there at the explosion.”
“Give her time and she’ll come around,” Tom says with a smile.
“Hey guys!” A familiar voice breaks the uneasiness of the conversation.
“Miles, thank goodness you’re here,” Zar-Q says, walking over. “Do you think you can help me set up the computers as we bring them in?”
Miles being thirteen years younger than Zar-Q yet he just might be what the team needs as far as getting the computers officially up and running.
—-
I eventually step out of the tub and for several minutes I stare at myself in the mirror. Who am I going to end up being once everything is all said and done? In my past life Saturn was able to gain full control and it wasn’t until her host body killed herself before my past self could be free. It seems now that even death didn’t fix the problem.
I walk into my bedroom and pick up the clothes with Robby’s blood on them. Fearing that the police might stop by here at some point, I toss the clothes into a small waste basket along with a small fire ball. I put on a pair of jeans and a black baby doll shirt as the flames burn away a terrible night.
I then hear a knock at the door. Canceling the fire spell, I walk over to my door, opening it to find my uncle.
“Is everything alright? You didn’t come home last night; I was worried especially when I heard the news about your friend being missing.”
Of course, he’s either watching TV or reading a book; it was only a matter of time before he knew. Lying I answer, “We saw her at the movies but she was with her boyfriend. That was…the last time I saw her.”
Teresa and I had pretty much nothing in common but she was still my friend. Part of me wished that she had just vanished and she ended up in a better place but I know better than that.
“I’m sorry I hope they find her safe,” he says. “Do you want any lunch?”
“No thanks, I think I’m just going to take a walk,” I say, walking past.
“Jen, take this,” Raven hands me a phone, one that is much smaller than Zar-Q’s model. “If you need me, just call. I promised your father that I would look after you. I didn’t know looking after a teenager would be so difficult.”
“Heh, yea, sorry about that,” I shrug, taking the phone. If he only knew.
“Be safe.”
—-
“Are you sure you guys don’t need any more help?” Taryn asks.
Tom and Kyle have both been working nonstop to get everything out of the catacombs and into the castle while Zar-Q and Miles tend to the computer system.
“I thought using portals would make the move easier,” Tom grunts.
“Imagine how they got all this stuff down here in the first place,” Kyle jokes and then to answer Taryn’s question, “We’re good but could you get us some water?”
“Sure thing,”Taryn gladly says, running out to get some water.
“Hey Cel, know any healing magic that could help us out?” Kyle wonders.
“I’m not using my magic just because you two can’t handle a simple move,” she laughs.
“So cruel,” Kyle adds, picking up a box of books.
—-
“What’s the Void?” I ask. I’ve read about it but I want to know more from the one entity that’s been there.
“Do you ever stop asking questions?”
“Tell me.”
Talking to myself in public on Earth might be a bit strange so I decide to return to Crystaltina and take a walk in the woods.
“No. Find out for yourself.”
“I don’t understand if we’re so connected, why can’t I get the answers that I want? Why do I even have to ask?”
“That’s because you already know.”
“I didn’t know that I could pull out items out of my ass.”
“No, I guess not. There’s a small part of the Void attached to you, a personal Void, if you will. You can toss items into it and pull them out when need be. It’s one of the reasons why you can teleport so well. There’s no official record on a teleporter because most cannot handle the requirements. Thanks to me, you can.”
I look up to find myself close to the castle which is now fully rebuilt. The grey marble and stone looks strong and the tip of the highest tower seems to go way up into the clouds. Wow did Tom and the villagers of Dorter pull this off, I will never know.
“Wow.”
“Don’t get attached, I’ll destroy it. Again.”
I close my eyes and teleport into the castle. Since I haven’t been here yet I’m not sure where I will end up within the castle. Opening my eyes, I look around. The halls are covered in random places with banners of yellow, black and red. I assume I need to earn a crest to go with those colors.
A lot of the rooms are empty but hopefully in time, that will all change. I can’t let Saturn destroy all of this.
“What’s your problem?”
“Can’t I get a little rest?”
“Why are you so bent on destroying everything?” I press my hand against the wall.
“Spoilers.”
Sighing, I decide to give up on questioning the crazy spirit within me and continue to look around. I know I shouldn’t be talking to her but I need to know what’s going on, even though she isn’t that helpful.
“Hey, I’m going to change real quick, I don’t think my shirt can get any more soaked than it already is.”
I stop in the middle of the hallway as Kyle walks out of one of the rooms, shirtless.
“Hey,” he says, confused to see me there.
“I was just looking around,” I utter.
“How are you feeling?”
“Oh you can’t be serious.”
“Pretty bad.”
“You are serious! Oh this is too funny.”
“If you want, you can help us move. Might take your mind off of what’s been going on,” Kyle tells me, walking past.
“Shut up!” I say, annoyed.
“We need to talk,” Saturn says.
“Shit! How the—‘’
“Okay,” Kyle cautiously replies.
“You need to relax,” Saturn tells me. “Did you think that rage was the only emotion that I feed on?”
This cannot be happening again. I knew I shouldn’t have come back here. I need to find a way to block her, to block everyone and my own feelings.
Saturn takes Kyle’s hand and they walk into one of the vacant rooms. The room is tiny, no larger than a broom closet. She closes the door and pushes Kyle against the wall with her body, my body. I need to find a way to gain control.
Then Saturn kisses him, deep. I didn’t even kiss my ex-boyfriend like that when we were together. Regardless, this isn’t fair, it’s not me. I use my hands that are against the wall to push my body away, saying, “It’s not me.” I stand there, looking at Kyle and then realizing that it is me. When did Saturn retract back into my mind?
“What are you talking about?” he slowly says.
“Well I wasn’t expecting that.”
My head beings to throb, “What the hell just happened?”
“I’m sorry,” Saturn says, looking at Kyle. “Anya is going through an identity crisis.” She reaches back into the Void and pulls out a small dagger.
“Saturn.”
“You remembered, how nice.” She then thrusts the dagger into Kyle’s side.
My hands begin to light up, a bright blue this time. I need to control myself and help Kyle but causing this room to light up isn’t the way. I force back the spell.
Kyle slides to the floor, holding his side.
“Come on, we’ve sparred worse than this.”
I bend down and take out a potion and hand it to Kyle.
“How are you doing that? You shouldn’t be able to switch that fast”
“Drink.” I tell him
“Please, you think a stab wound would bring me down?”
“No, but you’re the one that dropped to the floor.”
“I wasn’t going to fight you,” Kyle tells me.
“Please, like I can’t handle you. Would you drink the potion already?”
Kyle finally drinks the potion, “I didn’t need it.”
I stand, “What now?” I help Kyle up from the floor.
“I know you told me about a voice in your head but when did it start taking control?”
I look down to the ground, “Yesterday. I—she killed Robby.” Kyle then places his hands on my arms but I push him away. “I need to stay away from you guys. I can’t risk something like this from happening again. What if she killed you? And yesterday, I could have killed Taryn.” I turn around, unable to look at Kyle anymore. “Oh and then there’s a small piece of the Void behind me where I can pull objects out of.” I can feel warm tears starting to swell up. “How are we supposed to stop her?”
“You can’t.”
“I don’t know,” Kyle slowly says. He tries to reach for me again.
I spin around, “Don’t. Until we find a way to at least suppress her, I need to keep my distance.” I turn back around and teleport away. I don’t care where I end up; I just need to be alone.
After changing into a clean shirt, Kyle returns to the group to tell them what’s going on and what needs to happen. Sighing, he finally says, “We need to talk, all of us.”
“What’s going on?” Celestria asks, puzzled.
“I’ll explain once everyone is here, even Josh.”
“This sounds serious, what happened?” Tom wonders, putting a box filled with books on the floor.
Thirty minutes later, Kyle, Celestria, Taryn, Tom, Zar-Q, Miles, and Josh are all in a fairly large room with nice sized wooden round table in the middle. It was Tom’s suggestion to make a meeting room similar to that of The Knights of The Round.
“Not to be pushy, but I’ve got like twenty minutes before I have to get back,” Josh replies. “Working undercover like this feels like I’m working two jobs.”
Before Kyle can speak, Celestria says, “Is this about who I think it is and are you sure?”
Kyle sighs and nods. He didn’t want to admit what is going on with me, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice. “In our past life, Anya was taken over by a powerful entity from another plane of existence. We’ve recently learned that this same entity lives within Anya of today.” It feels safer for Kyle to say ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. There would be too many questions, he assumes. “We’re not sure if the entity is intertwined with Anya’s soul or not but that’s the least of our problems right now. The issue is if Anya feels a strong negative emotion, she becomes dormant and the entity called Saturn takes over. Taryn has already seen what Saturn will do but we’re unclear of her intentions. In the past life, she only wanted chaos. What we need to do is to find a way to pull Saturn out of Anya. We also need to make sure that she stays calm and away from darker emotions.”
“Makes sense that Ozma would target you guys,” Josh says, standing. “I’ll see if the mages at New Vane have any information on how to ward off sprits and entities. I’ll also see if Ozma has discover any methods of extraction but I’ll bet her means will be more extreme. If this entity is as powerful as you’ve implied, then I’m pretty sure that’s what Ozma is after.”
“What we all need to remember,” Celestria speaks up, “is that Anya will need our support and we can’t treat her any differently than before but we need to be careful and watchful.”
Taryn, who looks sadden by then announcement says, “Did I trigger this?”
“No, this was bound to happen sooner or later so don’t think that you’re to blame,” Kyle answers.
“Ummm,” Miles quietly says. “I’ve known Jen my whole life and if something is bothering her, she’ll hide away.”
“I need to get back,” Josh nods to Zar-Q and he tosses a bottle to Josh. “I’ll find out what I can.”
Josh heads back to Zerron via a portal that will take him to another planet before making his way to the Portal Corporation. Josh makes sure that he never takes a direct route to and from Crystaltina.
Kyle replies to Miles with, “We just need to make sure that Anya knows that she doesn’t have to face this alone.”
“And don’t piss her off,” Tom adds. “Seriously though, I’ll ask the local mages about spirit extraction as well. I’m sure that I can also get a few stories from the regulars at the pub that might help us out.”
“Actually, you don’t want to piss her off,” Kyle cautiously says. “Well, that’s about it. I just wanted everyone here to know what’s going on so we’re all on the same page.”
After everyone went on their way or back to moving the stuff from the catacombs to the main castle, Celestria pulls Kyle to the side to have a quick chat with him.
“Why now?” Celestria asks.
“Anya told me about a voice that she kept hearing in her head. I think with the death of her friend, something triggered allowing Saturn to have to ability to take over her body.”
“Do you think we can stop her this time around?”
Kyle takes a moment before answering, “With what we know I think we can find a way to save her.”
