Dust to Dust Ch. 04

Dusty felt sorry for the girl. "But Kalinicia – "

"As I said, she doesn't blame anyone. It took her a while to come to grips with what happened, but she knew that Kelik was a target anyway. There wasn't anywhere where he would've been any safer. But it doesn't stop Eliza from worrying."

Dusty sat back, looking a bit glum. "Do you worry? About Terillia?"

Vicky smiled back, but a bit whimsically. The girl wasn't going to be playful tonight. She couldn't blame Dusty. "Yeah. Between her and my sister, I really freak out sometimes. I used to think that I was the bad-ass back in high-school and college, but I don't hold a candle to my sister anymore. It's weird getting left behind. I mean, I love 'em all but – "

"Family is family." Dusty looked around. "I guess that's why my dad worries so much. I wish he wasn't having to go through this. He's a good man. He just wants to help everyone understand both our worlds. He's not even planning on DOING anything with the knowledge. Not like . . . like what they did to Ash."

"You're really worried about her, aren't you?"

"Yeah, and it's dumb. I mean, she frigging invulnerable. I know everyone thinks she's cold and all, but when I talk to her . . . when she talks about who she used to be . . . I think she's still a good person in there somewhere." Dusty gripped her hands. "And it sucks that her 'reward' for helping us might be death."

"It's the last resort," her father said, returning to the outside area. "I don't want it to happen. But I've got a feeling that even if I were to refuse to help, she's already got Eliza to agree. I figure we don't have much time – " It looked like something occurred to him. "I wonder – " He looked over at Kalinicia. "Valar said that when he used the Gem . . . the Ocean's Heart . . . on that madman, he saw it as purging an 'impurity,' correct?"

Kalinicia nodded. "Yes. The Ocean's Heart is about cleansing."

"When we were thinking of what happened to Ash as an 'exchange,' this might not have been the right train of thought, but now . . . Ash's talent was thrust upon her, not exchanged for something else like I first thought. Wouldn't that make the talent itself an infection, almost by definition?"

Kalinicia didn't need much time to think about it. "Yes. Actually, that makes a great deal of sense. Her new physical makeup would be considered a symptom of the disease."

"So what would happen to her if she was 'cleansed'?"

Kalinicia shook her head. "I am not sure. My understanding of the elements is insufficient."

"Can we get a hold of Martha VanHouten?" Dusty asked. "She teaches this sort of stuff."

The group hurried inside and activated the communication orb. This time, they tried to get a hold of VanHouten directly, but she was already over at Valar's offices. So after one more communication was placed – "

"Yes?" Valar said when he appeared. The now familiar faces of Katrina and Martha VanHouten also came into view.

"Hello Chancellor Valar," Kalinicia said.

"Ambassador," came the reply. "It is an honor and a pleasure to see you again."

Dr. Trendenfall spoke up. "I think we may have an idea for helping Ash, but it requires some input from the professor." He explained everything that had come up in the conversation he had had earlier.

"We had actually been thinking of something along the same lines," Martha replied. "I believe that we could use the Ocean's Heart to cleanse Ash's talent, but – " The woman paused, looking uncomfortable.

"What?" Dusty asked.

"If it worked, it would restore Ash to . . . to the way she was when she was changed."

"Isn't that what we want?" Dusty asked, looking around. She saw her father blanching.

"When she was changed," he said sadly, "she was in the process of being burned alive. Depending on how far gone she was – "

Valar nodded. "She might already be too far gone. We could bring her back just to watch her die."

"And what's frustrating is that either way would be just fine with her," Dusty said, tears in her eyes.

"We could maximize her chances of survival," Valar said, "by using the Heaven's Eye to mend her after she's been restored. If we had a shaman wielding it . . . someone with a medical background – "

"How about Lady Msabdteelfinclor?" Allyson asked.

"Eliza's mother?" Vicky chiped in.

"She is a potent shaman, but not the most powerful sorceress," Valar said. "And do YOU want to ask Eliza to bring her mother into this?"

Dr. Trendenfall. "I realize that everyone seems to hang on Eliza's every word, but this isn't about her. If this woman would be willing or able to help – " He stopped and shrugged his shoulders.

Valar nodded. "I'll ask her," he promised. He liked the fact that someone else was willing to defy Eliza's potential wrath. "It may not happen anyway. Trying to get permission to access two Gems and bring them together to be used by sorceresses who have never experienced their power – "

"What do you mean 'sorceresses'?" Vicky asked. "If Alyidana . . . Eliza's mother . . . were to use one, I figured you would use the other."

"No," Valar replied, looking at professor VanHouten. "Professor VanHouten here understands the rules at play here more so than I. It is she who would wield the Ocean's Heart."

Martha gulped. "Me?" While a highly competent sorceress, messing with the Living Gems was an unknown for her, and unknowns in magic were risky.

"I trust you," Dusty said. "No one could do better."

"And we need to hurry," Dr. Trendenfall said reluctantly. "Every day, it seems her memories are becoming less sufficient to sustain her."

"I'll get to work immediately," Valar said. "I can probably secure us permission to use the Ocean's Heart, since it is being kept on Terra."

"And I'll get in touch with some friends in high places," Tom McBride said. "See if we can work on getting permission to the Heaven's Eye. Make things easier for Eliza."

Katrina raised her hand, waiting for permission to speak.

"Yes?" Valar said. He admired the girl's politeness.

"If Ash is cleansed, what happens to the energy she took?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks. No one had thought of that.

"I mean," she continued, "while emotions are non-transferable, that energy she took CAME from somewhere. Will it not need a place to go?"

Valar put his hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to blush. "Very insightful," he said before looking back at his colleagues on Earth. "So what do you all think?"

Dr. Trendenfall was deep in thought. "Laws of symmetry," he mumbled. "The magic came from a node, so – "

"It should be able to return to the node," professor VanHouten said. "But that node – "

Dr. Trendenfall shuddered. "I think Ash may be in for a homecoming."

The communication orb de-powered and everyone wandered outside again, enjoying the cool California night.

Suddenly, lights on poles (that Dusty hadn't even noticed) turned on and started twirling. Just then, a member of Kalinicia's security force hurried up.

"Ambassador," the man said seriously, "suspicious and possibly hostile vehicles have been seen approaching the compound. Mr. Trendenfall's security forces just sent us notice."

"Not again!" Wyrm complained. "Every friggin' time Eliza leaves . . . This MUST be their reply to what she's doing in Mexico!" He was quite nervous. Last time, he had just lost an arm. And if anything were to happen to Kalinicia . . .

"Everyone inside!" Allyson shouted, covering her child with her own body and rushing into the main building. Everyone else was close on their heels.

"Kalinicia," Wyrm shouted as he headed to his terminal, "get in your transport and – ."

"No time," she replied. Secretly, she hoped it was the Purity. While not exactly a warrior sorceress, she had been aching to take out some vengeance on someone for the death of her grandfather. "My security and I will defend this compound."

Wyrm shook his head, but he knew that he should have expected this. She was too much like her grandfather . . . stubborn and proud. He looked at her security chief. "What's your guy's locator squawk code?"

"Why?"

"Just want to make sure our defense grid doesn't put them in the targeting matrix." Wyrm grinned as the man quickly stammered the code. Anyone like Hybrid Security, with their money and resources, was likely to have some very unpleasant security measures.

Allyson handed her child to Vicky with a distraught face. "Get to the bomb-shelter," she ordered the young woman before looking around. "All non-combatants, go with her. Kalinicia . . ."

"No!" the girl shouted.

"Yes! You are the Terran Ambassador and I will NOT allow you to be harmed on my watch!"

"No!" Kalinicia restated, crossing her arms.

Allyson gritted her teeth, then talked into her communicator. "Thug?"

*|| Yes? || (click)* the troll responded. He was still out by the pit where his trolling was kept. And like Allyson herself, she knew that Thug would not let anyone harm his young.

"Stay hidden until I call you. They probably think you went with Eliza."

*|| Understood, || (click)*

She looked at Kalinicia. "Please, go downstairs! You're the most potent magic-user we have, and I may need you to keep anyone from getting in there. Do whatever you have to do!"

Kalinicia nodded. It still felt like running away to her, but she would do as asked . . . as long as she was actually be allowed to help.

Allyson went to a cabinet and pulled out a heavy repeater gauss rifle. She saw that Dr. Trendenfall has been whisked downstairs along with Vicky by Mr. McBride, with Wyrm in hot pursuit. He had a master control station down there as well, so he could monitor the automated defenses without missing a beat. Then Allyson noticed Dusty . . . she was standing in the middle of the room with her feet frozen to the floor. This wasn't her world . . . fighting wasn't something she knew or understood.

The trained soldier rushed over, grabbed the girl by her shoulders and shook her. "Downstairs . . . now!" she shouted.

Dusty nodded and ran, ashamed at her apparent inability to do anything under pressure. As soon as she got downstairs, the door locked behind her. She went over to where Wyrm was monitoring things.

"About twenty heavily armed men," he said, glancing from one video feed to the next. "No . . . thirty. There's one group just keeping Kalinicia's men pinned. The rest look like they're trying to find a way in." He checked another monitor. "Damn! They used THAT trick back in the old days."

"What trick?"

"They started a bunch of car and building fires . . . it'll tie up the local authorities for a while. We can't anticipate much help for at least ten minutes."

"Why . . ."

"This is the way it works. We hit them, they try to hit back." He grinned. "And a couple of them just located Thug . . . or were located BY Thug!"

Dusty stared at the projection. The troll had smashed one attacker against a tree, then tossed the other in his grasp into the pit.

"Wait, isn't his . . . trolling . . . down there?"

"Yep!" Wyrm chuckled. "Don't worry . . . trollings are born with regenerative ability. And waking one up from its nap . . . I actually feel sorry for that guy." They watched as dust came billowing up from below camera level . . . then an arm came flying up . . . then part of the torso. And all the while, Thug looked on proudly.

|| Muncher, || they heard him say. || That's a good name for you! ||

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On the surface . . .

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Allyson Murgo, much to her own embarrassment, was excited. While she loved being a mother, she realized that it put a cramp in another thing she loved to do: blowing things up. She had taken up a position on the roof, scanning the grounds with her rifle scope. She was also keeping track of when the motion and IR sensing perimeter defense guns went off. It gave her a good deal of situational awareness.

"Okay Wyrm," she whispered into her communicator. "Gimme some eyes here."

*They've already lost five. (click)* There was a pause. *I think the majority of the others are navigating the west wall . . . and two more have gone around back to keep an eye on Thug (click)*

"That'll slow 'em down," Allyson said. "The back is really rough terrain." She saw something that made her smile. Someone bad was poking his head over the wall, trying to find the defenders. She leveled and squeezed, putting a nice sized hole through the man's temple. Then she ducked and crawled to another area of the roof. She always tried to avoid shooting from the same spot twice.

Shots rang out and puffs of dust and brick spouted up from the ledge around the building. These guys weren't going to let her pick her shots. She hated it when they were smart. "I could use some help here!" she shouted into her comms unit.

A rapid burst of fire came up from where Kalinicia's guards were hiding. That gave her just enough time to kneel and hurl a smoke grenade over the wall. 'That'll muck with them. All we gotta do is hold on for a few more minutes.' But in the middle of a fire-fight, minutes seemed to last much longer than normal.

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Down below . . .

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Wyrm noticed movement after Allyson tossed her grenade. The police were actually on there way, and he was willing to bet that between the smoke and the time-crunch, these guys would make a move soon. Sure enough, they jumped the wall and started to haul ass for the main building.

"Crap!" he said. "Allyson – "

*I see 'em, (click),* came the reply. *I don't have all my grenades, dammit! I need something to slow 'em down! (click)*

Dusty stared at the screen. 'All Valar needed was to be able to see me to use his telepathy . . . You don't need actual proximity to have effect,' she thought. Suddenly, all those drab lessons she had taken began to make sense. She looked at the info feed that was showing the field the enemy was running though. She concentrated really hard and . . .

"Oh my goodness!" Kalinicia said, looking over the girl's shoulder. She and the others watched as the grass under the enemy's feet began to sway and then grow. Dusty was already sweating like a boxer in round ten, as this was harder than anything she had ever tried before. Grass to most people was just pretty, but running through really tall grass was nearly friggin' impossible. When the ambassador noticed how hard Dusty was concentrating and the toll it was taking, she placed her hands on the girl's temples and allowed the young woman access to Kalinicia's own magical energy.

"Woe!" Dusty said. It was like the mother of all head-rushes: she'd never had access to that kind of mojo before. And Kalinicia wasn't even supposed to be that powerful, she wondered what it would be like to tap into someone like Valar or Eliza?!

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Outside . . .

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Allyson Murgo was now sitting on the edge of the building. All the fun had gone out of the fight, and she found herself wishing she had a fruit smoothie and a small popcorn to watch the happenings with. She wasn't sure how it happened, but the well manicured lawn of Hybrid Security had gotten agitated and then ate the attackers.

"Well, I guess they're still twitching," she mumbled, looking at the balls of vegetation on the ground. When the police arrived, they actually had difficulty extracting the attackers in order to arrest them.

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Down in Mexico . . .

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Colonel Corbin was watching as the last members of the Purity were loaded onto a prison transport. His own losses had been minimal while the Purity . . . The seasoned veteran actually shuddered. He had seen sociopaths . . . killers . . . warlords . . . Rarely had he witnessed anything as brutal as what Ash had done.

The woman, or whatever it is she was, had waded through the ranks of the enemy like the Reaper's scythe, cutting them down wherever she found them. From the moment she had first faced those flames, she had turned incredibly cold. Running . . . begging . . . crying . . . nothing had worked. She had just kept killing until Eliza had gotten in front of her and had ordered her to stop. Then Ash had simply put her guns away and stared at the carnage she had wrought as if she were looking a mediocre painting in a musty museum.

Eliza was standing aside, talking things over with Veronica. They had just gotten word about the attack on the compound.

"Vicky says everything is okay though," Veronica was explaining.

"Okay?" Ash asked as she walked up.

Eliza glared at the woman. "The compound was attacked while we were gone."

"Is Miss Trendenfall unharmed?"

Veronica was feeling edgy. Eliza had assured the bodyguard that her charge would be in good hands, and she wasn't sure how Ash would react if that weren't the case. And Eliza would never back down so . . .

"Yes, she's fine," the blond hybrid said. "Apparently, she even played a major role in the defense."

Ash cocked her head. "Not surprising. She is actually quite capable . . . just unfocused."

Veronica picked up on something odd. It was made more odd by the contrast with her recent "bloodthirsty" actions: it was fondness.

"And I think we may have a treatment for you. They seem to have devised a plan but – "

"But what?"

Veronica looked pensive. "I'm not sure you're going to like it. It involves going back to Chimera Pharmaceuticals."

Ash looked unchanged. "When do we leave?"

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A week later . . .

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It had taken a lot to get all the permissions and clearances to access the old Chimera facility. Ash had almost expended all her favors, so Eliza had to call in a few, as had Dr. Trendenfall.

Dusty had insisted on coming along, and she was feeling awkward. It was nice to see professor VanHouten, but the teacher was on edge. She had been given access to the Ocean's Heart several days earlier so she could synch up with it.

And she had gotten to meet Alyidana Msabdteelfinclor, Eliza's mother. It was a strange contrast . . . Alyidana was more like Veronica than Eliza. She was diplomatic, charming . . . and yet her daughter was well reknown for her straight-forward mannerisms and tendencies to pick fights. She had been working with the Heaven's Eye, and occasionally chiding her daughter about not visiting more and making her mother wait on the wedding. Dusty hadn't seen Eliza actually look as bashful as when she was being prodded by her mother. Dusty realized she missed that kind of banter. She wondered if the hybrid realized how lucky she was to still have a mother.

Valar was there . . . Katrina was there, and was dreadfully excited as this was her first trip to Earth . . . Eliza and Veronica were both there of course, while Tiny was guarding the door. There was also a full brigade of Colonel Corbin's men on the perimeter of the complex.

There was something stale and horribly wicked about the air in those corridors. Dusty didn't like it. None of them did. They walked through the lobby and through the dusty and decrepit halls. The World Council had sealed this place off decades ago with force walls and razor wire. Bad things had happened there . . . things that no one wanted to remember.

Dusty knew when they were getting close, as Ash's steps became more purposeful. Then when she reached a set of double-doors, she stopped.

Ash's memories were on overload. She knew every nook and cranny of this place, even after forty years of absence. She pushed her way through the doors into the lab she had escaped into and she stared at the spot where the lead scientist's body had been found.

"He was the first person I ever killed," she said softly. But the others heard it. Ash looked to the end of the room. There was a window of some sort down there, covered with dust and cobwebs. Everyone watched as Ash strode towards it. As she wiped the dust away, a glow emanated from the room beyond. "Here," she said. "I died here." She wasn't sure why she had phrased it that way.