Same Story, but with a more secular beat....

Sigin

It seems odd that we'd been able to be more forthright with Aeryn-Pip than with the native Fred and Astra. However, if nothing else the gray girl is more travelled than both demifoxes. Seen more things and done more things that just was NOT possible (before now anyway) because Aeryn-Pip had the means of traveling amongst the stars. Rub elbows with a lot of different (alien) cultures.

Still all that said, we again cannot just out and out say exactly what the nature of our Quest is. Who we work for and such. Rather, we again tell the truth. The same story , but this time with a more secular beat to it. That and we already have revealed more to Aeryn-Pip than we had and could (and had rather intened to) with the demifoxes.

....

Somehow I fear we might have revealed too much, really. In the end, after we'd calmed her down a bit (she'd been a bit "cranked" at being "blocked" without a warning), she's making noises about wanting to join up with an Office . . . that wasn't as "stuffy".

No, not the Office we work for. Nor am I talking about the Angel's Office (that's the one she's calling "stuffy").

....

Is she for real?!

Chiana

"After all," my sister purrs, smiling slyly over at me. "Crichton told me this saying that fits so well here: 'Good girls go to Heaven but bad girls go . . . "

"Everywhere." I finish, interrupting her.

I'd kinda liked the other little saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me!"

Going back over the implications of what my....

....

You have just GOT to be kidding me! That's FAHRBOT! She's actually seriously thinking that joining up with the Demons after this would be fun?! I mean, after all, I gotta admit (if only to myself) there's a tendency of me getting into more than my fair share of interesting situations, but THIS!! This is another version of me, but I just CANNOT believe that she'd....

Do I ever come across like that to other people? I-I mean she's sorta like me. IS me, just from another universe/reality and...

Ah, drop it.

....

Hm, maybe she's not exactly clear about what she's actually contemplating? Who those who's she's thinking about joining up with, afterwards. Yeah, Betty had said sometimes I . . . . er . . . . My TV counterpart sometimes did things without fully thinking it through and....

Well, maybe she doesn't fully believe us, despite having put it down in "secular terms" and she having believe (I see) SOME of it. She'd said that she she'd noticed her wounds tended to heal a lot quicker than she had ever seen them....

Though she hadn't gone fully into details . . . .

Hey, didn't the Rules and Agents say that us Champions could recover from all wounds, but at a rate that's kinda like what you could from a non-leathal wound? That is, at a normal rate?

My sister had said she'd regenerated her wounds instantly. Yeah!

That and maybe she still needs to actually MEET a real Rule and Agent to fully understand what they actually are? I-I mean I sure as hezmana wouldn't have fully believed it if I hadn't....

Hm, maybe terming the Celestrials as sorta like god-like entities was a bad idea? I mean, back in the Uncharted there's always the tale of such things. Kinda more comonplace than Celestrials (shich gives a whole NEW meaning to the word, which makes you gotta wonder what meeting actual GODS would be like)!?

....

Well, if there are real dieties out there. Still trying to decide the matter (and haven't really had much frellin' luck getting enough time to really reflect on it)....

.....

Sorry, kinda got sidetracked. Yeah, my sister...

She thinks that the Demons won't change her immortality (unaging with almost instant regeneratoin) into my kind (unaging with a more "mortal" rate of healing).

Well, know how to head off THAT one, sister! Hm, maybe this truth stuff (used in moderation) works after all. Maybe....

"Okay, so you want to work with the Demons, eh?" I quip. "Demons like that Flagg you'd met on that iceberg in that Nexus place?"

Aeryn-Pip's smile contracts a bit when my words registers (finally) and sees I'm not selling her a line of dren! If anyone here she'll trust without having difficulty it'll be ME.

"Flagg's a Demon?" she squeaks, blinking as she remembers how it had been. Yes, can see that Flagg had rather unnerved her. Frell, given that the Low Men almost scared me grotless (and they're merely lowly henchmen for the guy).....

"Yeah, a minor one," I add, nodding slowly.

Yep, the smiles just evaporated. Hate to do that, but FRELL! You just gotta be kidding me! Join up with the DEMONS? Willingly?

Yep, in the end I make her understand what she's been thinking on doing.

"Besides," I finish up. "Would be rather nice having . . . . family around in the Clan. Not a sure thing, but it makes sense from what we've seen and heard so far."

Well, it's pure guesswork on my friends part, but it fits....

"No . . . that wouldn't be so bad," she says softly, thinking. "Not like I really have much to return to, back home. My Nerri's dead like the rest of my friends on Moya when the Sheyang boarded us. . . . John's plan backfiring, naturally."

.....

Okay. Well, at least she's entertaining joining Eternity Inc.

"Well, let's get it over with," my sister finally says, gesturing to the wand in my hands. "Believe that this Dark Tower's going to be the next thing I see, right?"

"If we're lucky," I whisper, after waving the wand and putting her back into block form.

It's just that . . . things are never easy. Not for me . . . Not for anyone.

Well, at least we'd been able to keep a promise to her. We'd promised to explain it to her later and here we are, later....

Later that evening....

Elrondir

"So sis," I finally ask after Inquirer does her calculations from the subtle hints the dector wand gives off from the clicks it's now giving off. "Just how far off is the next target?"

We'd already figured out that it was quiet a bit far away and which direction it was from the clicking (quiet a bit of silence between each click), but Inquirer's hearing was the best of all of us. Having already gotten an idea how much time equals distance between clicks means she's the one to feel out how far we must travel next!

"It's . . . far," she says. "Same general area as where the ruins of Atlantis lay. Almost next door to the Door we need to take to Midworld, really."

Shit.

"Hey, what's the problem?" Chiana asks us, seeing our troubled looks. "I mean, shouldn't that be a good thing? Our target being right next to our exit? What's so bad with a bunch of ruins?!"

Artizza 1

"The place's cursed," I say softly. "Everyone knows that!"

"Ah, and I would know it?" Chiana shoots back, annoyed. "Kinda new to this magic dren, you know!"

....

Okay, count to three, Artizza!

.....

"Atlantis is full of ghosts and monsters left over from it sinking under the waves," Inquirer says. "Was a place full of people who were powerful mages without an ounce of morals. Evil people and powerful. Barely won out against one of the last remaining Atlan back on Terra Prime (re: 5400). The ghosts and monsterous undead remains of the Atlans aren't as powerful as the living one, but still...."

Still, we're going to be busy! Instead of having some leeway time where we could make plans AFTER picking up our next pair of targets (Inquirer had detected two targets close together with the wand), we'd have to run, fight, and hide our way to the exit all the way!!

"Gotta love it," I sigh. "And no rest for the weary!" Yeah, if we wait too long, then our Quest will be lost. See, if our last targets should get injured enough to, have been mortal to others, then our Quest was pretty much a flop.... Don't know what that means for the Key Component Carriers, but I'll bet nothing good.

And being that our last targets were in such a dangerous place?

We'd better be quick!!

"Frell" being subtle anymore, best we use our fastest mode of travel, dragonflight!

There were possible places to hide for a bit in the confines of that sunken city. Even air to breath since there should be a magical shileld (the magical equivalent of the high tech City Domes useful in keeping the weather elements OFF mucking up the buildings underneath) keeping the sea water out. It'd done that back on Terra Prime's Atlantis right until the end....

But that aside, eventually the undead would find ways to get at the living, and woe to us (and them)!

Hopefullly, Creator willing, the targets will be able to last until we get there (in a few days)! By then, they may have to start scavenging for food (whatever would be at hand in such a dreadful place) if their supplies run low. Force them out of whatever shielded site (maybe some kind of holy temple or whatnot)....

Shit! We got a LONG way to travel!!

And thus, when two dragons rise out from the forest surrounding the ruins of what is (sometimes) called Wallants, it's quiet a sight!

Being that the Champions already had a pretty good idea of the lay of the land, geographically speaking, meant they know where they're going. Still, the demifoxes WILL come in handy so when they DO need to land to get supplies no social blunders are made.

Just as well the Doctor's group got out of there. Several groups had been converging on their spot, anyway. One was the mage who'd tried putting the demifoxes into a timewarp so he could get to them later on and take from them the Crystallic (re: 1858).

This mage... See, it hadn't been the Demon who'd caused the timewarp, but some up and coming human mage with grand dreams. The Demon had come into the picture, taking advantage of the demifoxes' predicament (i.e. placing the Key Component and all that stuff). See, the Doctor and friends had been wrong about the nature of this particular world's Crystallic (re: 16696), it's destruction had freed them from the timewarp spell (just not in the manner the Champions figured).

Another group had been members of the White Hand, who'd somehow gotten word about the Crystallic. They'd known nothing about the true fate of Fred and Astra, but had heard rumor of the Dragon gem showing up in this area! Best to sweep it up and secure it before it fell into the wrong hands! Of course, it was too late to do anything about the Crystallic (it's gone). . . . but they didn't know that.

Next group just happens to be a bunch of Amazonian rangers, looking for their missing warrior princess, Astra. Figures. Happened several times in other reality threads, them having somehow tracked her down to the confines of Wallants, so they did here....

Not that they'd believe that the little demifox lass they'd eventually find was their missing princess, of course....

OH, let's not forget Duke Drederick, who's mage had found traces of the missing son after he'd failed to report back though the Dragon of the Southern Caverns was gone....

And then there was Moreau....

But, of course, all groups are taken aback by TWO dragons (with passengers) taking off into the sky like bats out of Hell. Even Moreau the dragoness is not foolish enough to try to take on TWO at once!....

1. Not to say that we've seen the last of these guys (maybe), but still....

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