To the Moon and Back

Acid, prologue

When she was small, Rina ran away from home to go to school. She liked animals and she liked science and so she found herself in the biology department, where she fell in love with the golden boy of the department, a grad student named Sridhar.

It was not happily ever after. They dated and broke up half a dozen times during the year. During their last argument, she threatened to report him to the department heads for sleeping with a student. He slapped her and she stormed out, but she never did tell anyone. He gave her an A in the class.

When she was looking for an internship with Baron Pharmaceuticals two years later, she was surprised to find him on the interview board. After a wink and a nod, she was not surprised that she got the call back. They picked up where they’d left off and, though he never hit her again, their screaming matches sometimes ran late into the night. His work also ran into the night… and slowly began creeping into her time with him.

She was well and truly bored by the time the new security guard waltzed into the department, pulling extra shifts to supplement a cop’s salary. Somewhere between the snogging and the shouting, she decided that this handsome new face might be just what she needed to spice up her life. Lisandro was available, both in terms of time and of emotion, in a way that her scientist simply never was. She drifted back to the scientist several times, but always ran into the cop’s waiting arms during the rough patches.

The rough patches were getting rougher. When Lisandro showed her the box and the ring and promised happily ever after, she told him yes without hesitating. She decided to go tell Sridhar right away, maybe to make him jealous, maybe to make him understand it was over for good. Even she wasn’t quite sure, but she smiled as understanding and anger dawned in his dark brown eyes.

He raged at her. That was predictable.

He drew a gun. That was not.

Her quick-witted, quick-fingered, quick-thinking cop drew his own gun and did what instincts and training had taught him to do. He shot his rival, and she began screaming before the ringing had died in her ears. Blood splattered on the floor.

“Oh my god, Lisandro! What the hell did you do?”

“I shot the man who pulled a gun on you. I told you I wouldn’t let anyone threaten you.”

Rina smacked him in the arm. “I didn’t think you meant that literally! That’s just a thing guys are supposed to say. You can’t just go around shooting people!”

“I can, actually,” he said with a shrug. “That’s one of the fringe benefits of being a cop.”

“Help me get him up on the table,” she said, her arms hooked through his armpits as she tried to hoist the body up. Her dress and coat were quickly becoming soaked in blood, but she wasn’t worried about that right now.

“Maybe I should just shoot him again. In the head this time.”

“You may not. Shoot. My boss. Okay, Lisandro? We have to fix this before anyone else finds out.”

“Fix it? Rina, there’s probably a hole the size of a fifty-cent piece through his lungs,” he insisted, exasperated.

“So we have to work fast. Now so help me god, if you do not pick him up and put him on the table, I will give you back your ring and never speak to you again.” Lisandro did as he was told, then, unceremoniously dropping the scientist on the table.

Rina unconsciously smoothed out her dress and stared at the blood that came away on her hands. She shook her head and forced herself to focus. She checked him over quickly. “No pulse, no breath. I need to get him stabilized. Lisandro, I need you to do CPR on him while I prep for surgery.”

“What?”

“You do know how to do CPR, don’t you?”

“Yes, but–” he sputtered, “I expected to be kissing you today, not him!”

“And then you shot him. Suck it up and lock lips, Lisandro.” Rina sliced the front of Sridhar’s shirt open and prepared to intubate. She was able to restore a heartbeat and carefully give him anesthetic as she prepared for surgery.

Opening him up and removing the bullet were easy enough, textbook procedures even for a biochemist. After that, Rina found herself at a bit of a loss. The lung was damaged and collapsed. She excised the most damaged part of the organ, but it didn’t help.

“… I have no idea what I’m doing in here, Lisandro,” she finally admitted after an hour and a half of surgery. She closed his chest and stitched the skin shut. Exhausted, she rested her weight on the side of the table. “I’m going to have to do something drastic.”

“More than the major chest surgery?” Lisandro asked.

“Sridhar was lobbying to get a human specimen for his pet project. It’s supposed to provide for tremendous regenerative capabilities as well as… um, other effects. He didn’t really go into the details, but he had the raw materials all prepped.” Rina fished in Sridhar’s pocket for his keys and hunted inside a metal cabinet, pulling out a smaller box and opening it.

“Looks like he’s going to finally get even closer to his work,” she said with a small smile on her lips that made Lisandro nervous. He was starting to think Rina was more than a match for him.

“This is definitely because you want to help him, right?” Lisandro clarified. “Not some twisted desire for revenge? Because I could still shoot him.”

“If you kill him, Lisandro, my career is over. The department head was never terribly fond of me anyway, he’d love an excuse to fire me. But if I can carry this project off on my own, Baron won’t let him fire me!”

He was definitely nervous now. “This isn’t about Sridhar anymore, is it?” Rina was pulling the IV out of his elbow and wiping it down.

“Help me strap him down. Judging by the last test subject, this isn’t going to be pretty.” She didn’t much like the way Lisandro was looking at her, as if she’d suddenly offered him cute, fuzzy kittens for dinner. If the man wanted to kill Sridhar that much, why was he worrying about this?

Rina turned the tape recorder on as Lisandro tightened the last strap. “Now administering first dosage. Subject is currently sufferent from a damaged lung due to puncture wound and is breathing with assistance.” She pressed the first needle into Sridhar’s skin and the faintly glowing liquid disappeared into his veins. Lisandro flinched sympathetically.

Checking the clock, Rina made a note on paper and waited for the first signs of reaction. After several minutes, the scientist began to pull on his restraints and gasp for air. With his wounded lung, he was quickly coughing and spitting up blood. Rina started to reach for him and hesitated. She could do nothing now that she’d set this in motion, nothing but follow through and narrate for the benefit of science.

“First reaction at ten minutes in. Rapid breathing with difficulty, likely due to wounded lung. Now administering second compound, regressed sample bloodstone B.” This one was red and from a considerably larger needle. Lisandro grimaced.

“We believe the people of Mu used bloodstones, stones made from the blood of their gods, to capture or control nature spirits and elementals,” Rina explained for his benefit as she inserted the second needle. “This produced bloodstones with a deep red color not unlike a garnet. This is one such stone, forcibly reverted to liquid form.”

“Now what?”

“Now we wait and see if Sridhar was right.”

For the first hour, Rina simply watched Sridhar sleep. His breathing gradually became less labored and more regular. The surgical incisions on his chest knit shut, leaving thin, almost shiny scars on his dark skin. She meticulously noted and photographed the changes.

Finally she checked her watch. “He’s been stable for two hours now, Lisandro, I think we can… Lisandro?” He was asleep in a chair, his head laying on edge of the lab counter. She smiled at him and pulled a blanket from the cabinet to drape over him.

She heard a low, deep noise behind her. Rina stood up and turned back to Sridhar.

“Subject is… he’s growling,” she said, confused. She wondered if she’d skimmed over something important in Sridhar’s notes. “What kind of nature spirit did Sridhar use?”

Sridhar began to writhe in the restraints, pulling on them. She soon realized something more disturbing was happening in front of her. She stepped closer, hoping to find the problem. His eyes snapped open, red and faintly luminous. Rina jumped back, swallowing hard.

She forced herself to narrate to keep from screaming. “His fingers are elongating, the nails growing into claws. His body as a whole is shifting… the skin is hardening into a shiny, almost… scaly surface. . And there’s, yes, oh god, that’s a tail. His teeth, his face… That’s… a dragon? He’s turning into a dragon?”

The dragon on the table — she had difficulty thinking of it as Sridhar now — pulled harder on restraints that were now ill-sized for its body. One leather cuff snapped and the dragon reared forward, clawing at Rina.

“Lisandro!” she screamed. She heard a crack behind her, then gunshots. The dragon screamed.

“Rina! Get down!” Lisandro ordered as he reloaded. She did as she was told and more shots followed. The monster collapsed back against the table and, when Rina finally dared to look up, there was only Sridhar there. He was bleeding, naked, and his left arm looked badly damaged. It was almost pathetic, she thought.

Even as she watched, the pair of bullet wounds in his chest knit shut into neat little scars. His arm was torn, chunks appearing to be missing out of it, and it was bent, well, wrong. The skin was pulling together over twisted muscles.

Sridhar’s eyes opened again, still red, but this time there was intelligence behind them.

“Rina… What the hell…” he shook his head. “What happened to my arm?”

“It’s broken.”

“That does explain the massive, stabbing pain, yes. Where are my glasses? Why am I tied down?”

His attitude infuriated Rina. “You pulled a gun on me. Why do you think you’re tied down?”

“Your dear cop boyfriend, perhaps?”

“Good guess.” She realized the tape recorder was still running and quickly clicked the record button off.

He looked at his twisted arm, which was quickly sewing itself together as best it could. “What the hell did you do to me?”

“I instated your little pet project,” she said, smiling. “On you.”

“You did what? You bitch, that wasn’t ready,” he snapped, trying to reach for her with his useless arm.

She laughed at him. “Still violent, Sridhar? Don’t you ever learn?”

He growled. She squeaked and jumped back. “Don’t you learn, Rina? Taunting a specimen? Starting a project without a clear hypothesis? Maybe I should have made you study more and fuck me less.” Lisandro came up behind her with his gun trained on Sridhar and grabbed the scientist’s free arm, holding it to the table.

“This isn’t going to work. I see that now, I guess I’m not really surprised. There was one thing I did pay attention to, though.” Rina bent over, digging into another cabinet.

“And what was that?”

“How to put down a dangerous specimen.” She loaded the tranquilizer serum into the needle and smiled as she approached him. “Now, shall I tell your boss you decided to try the experiment on yourself? I think that will make a very believable story.”

Sridhar glared but didn’t resist anymore. He knew a losing battle when he was in it, but he also knew the project and its goals far better than she did. He could be patient.

After he was asleep, she and Lisandro carefully sealed him away in the spare basement room and practiced their story for the director. It went over without a hitch and she and Lisandro were recalled from Lake Tahoe. She edited her notes and published as if she’d observed him experimenting on himself. She dreamed of Sridhar sometimes, nightmares that left her to wake screaming, but she assured herself that he’d been locked away safely. She was the toast of the academic scene, happily married, and now raising her daughter. Her new project was moving along quickly. But something kept drawing her to the house in the hills, to the basement, to that door.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Maybe it was just that she always wanted what she didn’t have.

“Mom! Are you down there?”

She turned and started back toward the stairs. “Don’t come down here, the stairs are weak. I’ll come to you, Emma.”

Gimme Shelter, 1991

I was eight when my mother told me we were going on a trip and I should pack. She was dressed a little nicer than usual, so I put on my cleanest shorts and a plain t-shirt before I put some underwear and a book and my toothbrush in my backpack. She hardly said anything as we left, and we were on the bus before I realized she didn’t have any luggage.

We ended up in the doorway of an old stone building on the edge of Chinatown. Mom told me to stay put until she got back, and then she went inside, disappearing into a door inside.

I stood there for a while. Half an hour felt like forever to me, then, and it didn’t help that all the old people inside were standing there without moving. At least, I thought they weren’t moving at first. After a few minutes I realized they were, just very slowly.

I started imitating them, but I wasn’t very good at it. I’d forget to move and then look up and they’d be in a different position, and then I’d rush to catch up. I fell over a couple of times, too.

The third time, I scraped my knee and took my time getting up. When I stood, I realized there was a Chinese woman standing almost on top of me. I jumped and almost ran, but she spoke before I could.

“Young man, would you like to come in?” she asked. I must have nodded, because she ushered me inside.

“Stand in the back and do as I do,” she said and then she was gone back to the other side of the room. The class went on seemingly forever, while I did my best to follow along. When the class finished and the crowd of older people cleared out, the woman came back over to me.

“You want to learn to fight?” she asked me, but she used the same tone my mom did when she already knew I’d broken a glass or left a lizard in the bathtub.

I shrugged. “Maybe.” It was a sullen kid’s answer, but she must have heard something more in it.

“You can stay here and I will teach you,” she told me a moment later. I looked at her more carefully, then – even at eight, I knew to be careful of strangers and anyone who wants to help you. She was older than my mom, but not by too much, and she was only a few inches taller than me. She was intimidating, but instinctively I felt she was safe.

“You’ll do chores for your room and food and you can attend any class. You’ll stay clean and do nothing to endanger the school. Understand?”

“Yes,” I said, swallowing hard.

“Welcome, then. You may call me Sycorax.”

“I’m Horatio,” I told her. “Don’t you have to ask my mom?” I looked around and realized my mother wasn’t actually anywhere to be seen.

“That woman and I discussed this some time ago,” Sycorax said as she led me through the studio to a narrow stairwell. She showed me my room, a small one at the top of the stairs with a low bed and a chest.

“The water closet is across the hall,” she said, pointing. “You’re to go no further down this hall unless I give you permission. Otherwise, you may do as you like downstairs.” I nodded and she left, turning left into the forbidden hallway. I stared at the empty doorway for several minutes, wondering if this was real.

Apparently it was. This was home now.

Under Pressure, 1997

Horatio stretched downward, letting his arms hang limp and his back relax — or tried to, anyway. A persistent knot in his shoulders refused to give way and let him settle comfortably into the position. He grimaced, wiling the muscles to relax with little luck.

“Something wrong?”

“Ah, no, sifu.”

“You always make faces like that?”

Horatio sighed. The only thing he hated more than having a problem was drawing attention to it. “I can’t get my shoulders to relax, sifu.”

His teacher studied him for a moment, letting her eyes unfocus, then smiled. “Your problem is you have your wings bunched up tight. You must spread them.”

“What?” Horatio asked, wondering if this was some kind of metaphor.

Instead of answering, she reached down and movied… Horatio felt her fingertips graze his back and the muscles there spasmed suddenly. They settled into a relaxed state and Horatio was able to let his hands slump properly to the floor.

“We will discuss after class,” she said before walking to the next student.

Friday Night

“Where are you going, Emma?”

“Out.”

“I need you back by midnight.”

Emma grunted as she pulled on her boots. It might have been agreement. It might have been a fight with the leather.

“Did you hear me?”

“Yes, I heard you.” Emma zipped the second boot and stood. “I’ll be back when I feel like it.” She disappeared out the door.

Rina opened the door, watched her go and frowned. “Where did I go wrong?”

“Probably shortly after she was born,” her ex-husband said as he came up the hallway from the other direction.

She looked for something to throw at him and settled on a glare. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s my weekend with Rose, remember?” he walked past her and into the apartment. “Rose, honey, are you ready to go? Remember, you wanted to go to that museum thing tonight.”

“Museum thing?” Rina asked with an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s important to her. You know how it is.” He considered that for a minute. “Maybe you wouldn’t.”

“I’m ready to go,” Rose announced before her mother could answer. “See you Monday, Mom.” She kissed her mother and left just as quickly as her sister had, accompanied by her father.

Rina shook her head and looked at her empty apartment.

“Guess there’s no one to interrupt my work,” she said to herself. “Excellent.” But if there had been anyone around to hear her, they would have known she didn’t mean it.

Raid

1

“Team beta, are you in position?”

Emil had always enjoyed corporate raiding.

“Beta in position, sir, waiting for signal.”

If gave him the rush and the sense of danger that was missing from his safe upbringing.

“Prepare to move on my word go.”

It was a challenge, but it was something he truly excelled at. He liked playing dirty when he knew his opponents were dirtier, and the “Market Manipulation” department was really just a vague euphemism for the dirtiest work.

“Go.”

But something was wrong from the first step on this job. He could sense it as they stormed down the stairs from the roof entrance. The place was too well-lit, too clean, smelled too nice. What the hell? Skinny women in white screamed. Half the people they passed were lying in beds, neatly lined up along the sides of the rooms. Following the orders he’d been given, Emil led his team through the halls and to the power core in the center of the building.

“Horatio, this doesn’t look right,” Emil said over the radio to the leader of beta team. “I’m seeing mostly scientists and nurses, not even security personnel. What’s going on?”

“Just follow orders. Shoot to kill. Don’t let them get to you.”

“I’m not–” Emil started to argue, but the radio cut off. He sighed and kept going, the noise lost amid the shouts and chaos. Nothing about this sat right with him. He found the location he’d been given for the control room and kicked the door open, rushing in with his unit. Emil hoped, perversely, for a threat. If there was a threat, this wouldn’t be so bad somehow.

A young doctor threw himself between Emil and the equipment in the center of the room. This was not what I meant, Emil thought, thinking darkly of getting what one wished for.

“Move!” Emil shouted.

“I won’t let you hurt the patients!”

“I’m not going to hurt anyone. I just came for the circuit crystal!”

“This building is powered by the crystal. What do you think would happen if you removed it?”

“Let me take it or I will be forced to shoot you,” Emil announced, trying not to think about the question he’d been asked. He’d killed when his life depended on it before, but not without reason. Not like this, and he didn’t want to start. He had to complete the mission, though. He couldn’t let his father down. His heart was shaking, but his hand was still. Move, he thought silently at the doctor. Move. Don’t make him shoot.

There was a sudden crash and Emil looked away long enough to see that it was beta team breaking down the other door. The doctor, thinking he had a distraction, dove at Emil.

There was a long, long moment of silence that existed only in Emil’s mind, and then there was the loud crack of the gun and the shattering of the equipment behind the doctor. He had pulled the trigger instinctively. The doctor fell, bleeding. No one else moved.

Emil looked over at the leader of beta team. Horatio nodded and grinned, and Emil tried not to notice the bloodstain on his uniform as he stepped forward to the control. The panel had been shattered by his shot, but the crystal inside the console was untouched. Picking it up, Emil tried to keep an eye on the other people in the room.

“I’ve got it,” he told Horatio. “Let’s go.” Without waiting for an answer, he went out the way he’d come in.

Outside the building, Emil and his teammates climbed into one waiting black car while Horatio and beta team climbed into another and took off for the airport. Emil was driving faster than he really needed to, speeding between rows of garish lights. He pulled into a drive-through and ordered fries and burgers for the boys and coffee for himself.

“Emil?” Corim asked, grabbing fries as he passed the food into the back seat. “You eating anything?”

“No,” he answered as he took off driving again, drinking the coffee and steering with one hand. The boys in the back dove into the bag, but Corim continued to watch the driver.

“What was that mess?” Corim asked. “Why were we–”

“I don’t know!” Emil snapped, then sighed. “Sorry.” He pushed harder on the gas. It was late and traffic was light enough that Emil thanked Seattle for being a hick city as he wove through the few cars on the road. He turned onto whatever street interested him, seemingly at random, and left the GPS stuttering to find a new path to the airport every few minutes.

No one else spoke, but Emil thought he could hear them all thinking about what he’d done, shooting that young man. He knew they were good men, regardless of what they did for a living. They couldn’t like it any more than he did.

Despite his detours, he arrived at the airport just as the the taillights of Horatio’s car were disappearing into the parking lot.

“That was a good mission, Emil,” Horatio said as Emil stepped out of the car. The younger man said nothing, but pulled on a black sweatshirt and turned the hood up against the cold wind. While the other men pulled their equipment out of the cars and checked to make sure they left nothing behind, Emil took a few steps out onto the dark tarmac.

Horatio persisted, following him. “Tight and fast, right in and right out. You got the objective with no trouble. You ran it well, everyone followed orders.”

“Just shut up, okay?” Emil said, more harshly than he meant to, but this time he didn’t apologize.

They were both silent as the small plane was loaded. “Your hands are shaking,” Horatio finally pointed out.

“This wasn’t right.”

“Are you kidding? It was perfect.”

“Was that guy dying part of the plan?”

“What? No! But we had an allowance for that sort of thing built in. You planned it well.”

“Stop making this my fault,” Emil turned to the plane. It was ready to depart and everyone else had boarded. He looked up at the sky, but the airport’s lights made it impossible to see the sky.

“You’ll be up there soon enough,” Horatio said, walking past him. “Come on. Home first, angst later.”

Emil sighed.

“I’ll buy you one of those doubleshot-head-explody-coffee-things you like so much,” Horatio offered.

“That doesn’t make it better,” Emil answered, but he started walking toward the plane.

“It doesn’t have to.”

“I’m going to talk to my father about this. There’s something wrong about all of it,” Emil insisted as he sat down. “This was a bunch of researchers!”

“Yeah, and your father’s company has a bunch of researchers too,” Horatio pointed out as the plane began to taxi. “You know how easy it is to look good on the surface. You’ve seen how we do it.”

“We could have–” Emil started, but his voice failed.

“Could have what? That guy was going to attack you, Emil. If you hadn’t shot him, I would have.”

“He wasn’t armed!”

“You don’t think he was armed. You didn’t check. You have no idea if he could have hurt you without a gun. Even a fluke attack can sometimes get through. You were trained to fight by members of the Dragons, Emil, and I know you were taught better than that.” Horatio was right about that much, and Emil knew it. The older man used to be a member of the Dragons, and he knew as well as anyone how the security force worked. Like Market Manipulation, the Dragons did what was necessary to get the job done. The difference was that Dragons worked defensively, even though they had a broad definition of defensive, while Market Manipulation worked outside the company.

Emil just didn’t want to think about it. After a few minutes speaking to his men, many of whom asked questions he couldn’t answer, he decided he needed rest. He fell asleep easily on the plane.

–

Emil looked for Horatio when they arrived back at the company’s private airstrip, but the man was gone.

“He said he had some errands to run and left,” Corim told Emil when he asked.

“Errands? That’s weird, why didn’t he–”

“Emil!” a voice called, interrupting.

Emil looked up to see a blond young man in a dark suit. “Leon!” He ran over and hugged him.

“I’m on duty,” Leon said, hiding a smile in his business-like face. “Not allowed to hug.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Emil smiled back. “Are you my security detail for the night?”

“Yeah, I asked for your shift tonight. No one else wanted it anyway.”

“I can’t imagine I’m much fun to guard,” Emil snickered. “You and Horatio were the only two I never snuck off on, and he’s not in the Dragons anymore anyway. Did you bring your bike?”

“Of course.”

Emil turned back to his team. “Good job tonight, guys. I’m going to talk to my dad about this mission. Hopefully we can figure out what’s going on, okay?” They nodded.

“Be careful, okay? I have a bad feeling,” Corim told Emil.

“I’ll be fine.” Emil pulled on Leon’s spare helmet and climbed on the back of his bike. He dug through the bike’s saddlebags until he found his goggles and put those on too as Leon started the bike.

“Ready?” Leon asked, revving the engine.

“Sure thing,” Emil answered, sitting behind Leon and putting his arms around the blond’s waist. Leon raced the bike out of the private airstrip and onto the main road. They were in the hills overlooking the valley below, on a road that hugged the side of the mountain.

Emil loved the view from up here, especially from the back of Leon’s bike. The light from the stars above faded into the lights of the city below; he could tell it was late because most of the smog cover had dissipated. In the center was his father’s building, a lighthouse in the darkness.

Much as it made him uncomfortable even to think it, the other reason he liked this ride so much was because he got to spend it with his arms wrapped tightly around his best friend, a young man he’d known since his earliest memories after his father found and adopted him. They’d grown up together and Emil didn’t want to think that his feelings for Leon were anything more than friendship.

Pushing the discomfort to the back of his mind, Emil studied the view and smiled. Soon he would be home and he and his father could have a good talk.

–

Meanwhile, Horatio was just arriving at that same building. He parked his own bike and dialed the president’s cell phone.

“Your son is fine, sir. He lead well. But I’m worried about his attitude.

“He is questioning your judgment, but that–

“Put Market Manipulation in my control? Sir, I hardly think–

“As a matter of fact, I do have a better idea. A mission that could act as a test of sorts for him…”

–

“Dad, can I talk to you?” Emil asked as he poked his head into his father’s office. Leon was standing behind him, unsure what his friend was up to.

The older man smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Of course, son!”

Emil smiled. His father seemed to be in a good mood tonight, that was always reassuring. He stepped inside, gesturing for Leon to wait with him.

“I was wondering about the raid tonight… Mysi Medical didn’t seem like a threat to us at all. I don’t think they’re even working in the same fields of research we are.” Emil rested his weight on the edge of his father’s large wooden desk.

His father shook his head. “I’d hoped the rumors about you were wrong, Emil.”

“Rumors?”

“That you were questioning me, sowing dissent.”

“Dad, I’m not– well, I guess I am questioning you, but I’m not sowing anything! I just want you to tell me we’re doing the right thing.”

“I can’t have someone questioning his orders out in the field, Emil. If I say Mysi Medical is a threat because they have a circuit crystal, then they are a threat. I’m going to relieve you of your command.”

“That’s not what I meant! I completed the mission!” Emil shouted. Leon slipped in the door behind him when he heard the yelling, wondering what was wrong.

“Yes, Horatio told me. He also suggested I give you a special mission to redeem yourself.”

“Sir, Emil is totally loyal to you and to the company,” Leon interrupted, stepping up behind his friend. “This is unfair!”

“So you’re questioning me as well, Leon? What would your father say?” the president asked.

“Something clever and noble about doing the right thing, I don’t doubt,” Leon answered quickly.

“If you’re so devoted to Emil, you can go with him! I’m sure the Dragons will get along without you for the time being.”

Leon’s face fell. “But…”

“But nothing! Get out of here. You’ll be leaving in the morning!” Emil looked at Leon and shrugged apologetically. He certainly hadn’t expected his friend to put his own career on the line for him. Emil started to say something more to his father, but the look on his face made it clear he wouldn’t get anywhere tonight. He sighed and turned to leave. He could hear Leon’s footsteps following.

2

“Oh, Emil, you’re back!” the blonde girl shouted when she saw him coming up the hall. She ran to him and hugged him, but Emil shied away from her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, falling into step beside him and Leon. “Did something go wrong?”

“I’m starting to think something’s wrong in the state of Denmark, Rosaline,” Emil said finally.

“Oh, don’t start with the Hamlet references,” she said, standing on her toes to give him a peck on the cheek. “I don’t want to go crazy and drown myself in the pool or something.”

“It’s nothing, Rosaline. Just a side mission for the two of us,” Leon spoke up. “Then we’ll come back and his dad will calm down and everything will be fine.”

“It had better be,” Rosaline said, sounding unimpressed.

“I have to go early,” Emil said with a weak smile. “I’m sure everything will be fine. It shouldn’t be a long mission.”

“Alright. But if you don’t come back safe, I’ll finish my project on resurrection just so I can kill you myself,” she said with a grin.

“I love you, too,” he answered, feeling better already.

“And you,” she said, turning to Leon, “had better bring him back safe or I will never speak to you again.”

“What else would I do?” Leon asked. She looked at him oddly, but didn’t answer.

“You boys get to sleep then,” she said finally, giving Leon a brief hug and then lingering in Emil’s arms. “I’ll be down on the firing range for a while if either of you can’t sleep.” She turned and swept out of the hallway.

It seemed to Emil that she took his calm with her. “What kind of mission do you think he has in mind?” he asked when he could no longer stand the silence.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Leon answered with a shrug.

–

In the morning, a manila folder was waiting on Emil’s bedside table. Without stopping to read it or even to dress properly, he darted into the hallway. He ducked his head into the room his guards normally used. The bed was mussed and the air was thick with humidity.

“Are you awake?” he called from the hallway.

“No, I’m showering in my sleep,” Leon called back. Emil stepped inside to find him exiting the bathroom wearing a towel, his blond hair dripping in his face. Emil was suddenly aware that he was only wearing his boxers and one sock; the other must have fallen off during the night.

“You got one too,” he commented lamely, pointing to the folder on Leon’s bed.

“Yeah. You read yours yet?” Leon asked, shaking the water out of his hair.

Emil shook his head. “I came right over here.”

“I’m not surprised. You clearly didn’t take the time to dress,” Leon commented, turning away and looking back into the bathroom.

“Well, no,” he admitted.

“We’re going up to Veil, Colorado.”

“We are?”

“We’re looking for a medium. Apparently they’re known for it. Changed the spelling of the city and everything. Christopher’s going to outfit us for the ride. He’ll be downstairs at ten so you’d better get ready,” Leon ordered without looking at Emil.

“Right. I’ll see you in ten minutes?” Emil said, standing up.

“Make that fifteen. I need a shower.”

“What? I thought you just took–”

“I need a cold shower,” Leon said through clenched teeth.

“Oh. Um. Fifteen minutes.” Emil backed out of the room, blinking. He’d been okay with it when Leon told him about his crush, but every once in a while an awkward moment cropped up. Emil suddenly felt quite guilty for not being dressed.

He rushed to make up for it and headed for the door.

Another Scene About Moving

“I don’t want to move to America,” Keiki complained.

“I thought you were going to practice your English,” her father asked. He’d taken her out to the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo, figuring it might help her get ready for the transition, but she’d been in a bad mood for the entire meal.

“My English is fine. I’ll have to practice it all the time soon enough.” She poked at her french fries.

He watched her for a long minute, and finally decided he couldn’t just keep leaving her alone with her thoughts. “Are you upset your mother didn’t make it?”

“No. She’s always busy.”

“Then?”

“What do you expect? You’re moving me to yet another country where I have to start over again. I have friends here, even if you don’t like them. Minako-”

He cut her off; he didn’t want to have another argument about whether or not Minako was a good influence. “Do you remember Helen Eberly?”

“From London? Yeah.”

“Her father’s the one who talked me into coming out there. So you’ll know somebody.”

Keiki considered it. “I haven’t talked to Helen in years.”

“Maybe you should change that. Maybe it’ll make you feel better.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I could feel worse.”

Proposal

“Get up. Edwin, get up!” He jerked awake, but it took him a minute to recognize the voice speaking to him as his fiancee.

“My dad’s coming over,” she said as she pulled him off the couch. “You have to get out of here. You know how he gets.”

“You mean calling me names and threatening to set me on fire from the molecules out?” Edwin asked, yawning.

“You know Daddy,” she said with a shrug and a smile as she threw his things into a laundry basket and spirited them away into her bedroom. “Are you going to be back tonight? I’ll be free around five.”

“I’ll call you,” he said, pocketing his wallet and cell phone. He gently moved his guitar case into the hall closet, figuring Catherine’s father wouldn’t see it there. “You going to tell him?”

“Tell him?” she asked, making it obvious she hadn’t planned to. “Oh! About the engagement.”

“I guess that’s a ‘no,’” he sighed.

“I just don’t want to upset him.”

“I’ll tell you what– let’s run up to Vegas this weekend and get married. Then, when you tell him, at least he can’t do anything about it,” he laughed. She looked thoughtful.

“You know, that just might work,” she said after a minute.

“Kitty, I was joking, we can’t just…”

“You said your parents are in Vegas, right? I could meet them?”

“If you wanted to, but…”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll leave tonight.”

“See you later, Kitty,” he said, half-hoping she’d go through with it and half-hoping she’d change her mind before her father killed him. He worried about what her father Jonas would do when he found out. Edwin smiled despite his fear as he stepped out of her apartment and into the dry Phoenix air.

Subversive Elements, 2011

Kalei woke confused, in a strange bed, to the sound of shouting outside.

“No, Mother! I like this one! You can’t have her.”

“Now be reasonable, Emma. What would happen if I let you keep every stray you brought home?”

“I don’t ask to keep everyone, Mother. Just this one.”

“She was that good in bed?”

“Mother!” Kalei recognized that voice as the girl she’d met at the club last night, M. Short for Emma, apparently, but that made her sound like she should be in one of those romance novels her English teacher kept trying to pass off as literature, so Kalei decided she preferred the short version.

“I have everything ready to go and you’ve suddenly decided you want a pet? Honestly,” the other voice was saying. M’s mother, obviously. The way the woman spoke was a bit worrying to Kalei. She pulled the sheets aside and realized she was naked except for her socks. Embarassed, she stood up, looking for her clothes, and pulled her blonde hair out of her face.

“She’s all skinny anyway. She wouldn’t be any good for the kind of stuff you do.” Kalei almost had a minute to be bothered by that before the dizziness and headache hit her. She sat back down immediately. Hello, hangover. Whatever that absinthe stuff was that M had given her, it must have been strong enough to do a number on her. She made a mental note to stick to beer and wine coolers in the future.

“And why can’t you bring me home nice girls? Always it is these bar girls and sluts.” Kalei was definitely offended by that, and fought off the headache long enough to find her pants and her sweater. This was too weird for her. She was getting the hell out of here.

“I don’t bring home anybody nice because nice girls don’t come up to fuck you after a first date! Maybe if you’d let me have a normal relationship–”

“No!” Kalei was surprised by the vehemence of the other woman’s voice. Of course, nothing else in the conversation had made much sense to her either.

“Besides,” M said, more quietly, “Kalei is a nice girl. She was a virgin.”

“Kalei, hm?” she thought was the reply, but it was hard to hear.

After several minutes of apparent silence, the other woman spoke again. “Considering her mother, I’ll give her a chance. But if you want to keep her, she’s going to have to work.” Work? What the hell? Apparently Kalei had gone from a pet to a farm animal in this woman’s mind. She didn’t think that was much of an improvement. Where the hell were her shoes?

M’s voice dropped even more when she replied, and Kalei was unable to hear what they were talking about now. She had found one boot and had just finished lacing it up when M came back in the room.

“Oh, good, you’re up,” the taller girl said, smiling. Today her black hair was pulled back into a casual ponytail and she was wearing baggy jeans and a company t-shirt that was much too big for her. Kalei found it hard to believe that this was the same girl she’d followed home last night like a kicked puppy.

“I’m just on my way out,” Kalei told her, trying to pretend she hadn’t heard the arguement. Maybe, if she just ignored all of it, M would somehow let her go.

“Why don’t you stay for breakfast? My mom’s making waffles,” M said, casually pulling Kalei’s other boot out from under the bed and handing it to her. Kalei wondered if the waffles were part of whatever the evil plan was. She guessed they probably were not.

“Belgian?” she asked, considering, as she bent over and pulled her shoe on. Maybe investing in some shoes that were faster to put on would be a good idea. Just in case this happened again, which Kalei promised herself it wouldn’t.

“Yep, with whipped cream and fresh fruit and the syrup is imported from up north,” M said, hitting all of Kalei’s weak points.

Kalei could not resist the siren-call of fresh, homemade waffles. She finished tying her shoe and conceded.

“All right, show me the way to the waffles,” she said, following M out her bedroom door. Kalei vaguely remembered the way to the kitchen from last night, but found it easier just to follow. The living room they passed through was decorated in black and silver and managed to look nice while not resembling anything Kalei had seen in her life. The only thing that kept it from being neat were the piles of magazines and books on every available surface and the leather coat she remembered M wearing which was now thrown across the couch.

The smell of waffles was the first thing that attracted Kalei to the kitchen. Plates were already being laid out for herself and for M, she presumed, by a woman in a long white jacket.

“Here you go, girls,” the woman said, and Kalei sensed something hidden behind the smile she gave them. She picked up her fork and carefully stabbed her waffle a few times to make sure… well, she wasn’t quite sure what she was checking for, but the waffle behaved like any other waffle she had ever eaten.

“This is my mom,” M said, pointing with her fork. “She’s really much nicer than she comes off sometimes.”

“Don’t scare her.” She turned back to Kalei. “You can call me Rina, dear.”

“Rina?” Kalei asked with a mouthful of waffle.

“Like the weather, yes. My parents were hippies,” she smiled and shook her head. “That’s why I made sure Emma had a good, classic name.”

“Sure, Mom. Want me to get gussied up in a bustle next?” M laughed. Kalei found the mental image surprisingly sexy, though she was fairly sure Victorian women didn’t wear bustled skirts that only came down to mid-thigh.

“So, Kalei was it? Emma tells me you’re looking for a job in the army.” Rina sat at the table across from Kalei, her tone suddenly all business.

“Er, yeah, I was thinking about going into the military after I finished high school,” she answered, poking at the whipped cream on her plate.

Rina frowned. “How old are you, dear?”

“Eighteen!” Kalei snapped. She didn’t mean to sound whiny, but she was fairly sure she did anyway. The conversation seemed to be veering back towards unsafe, non-waffle topics and Kalei was reconsidering farm animals and other half-asleep thoughts she’d had earlier.

“Oh, good. I was worried, you look so much younger,” Rina said, switching back to her smiling voice. Kalei wished she’d pick one personality and stick with it. Even if it was the bitchy, businesslike one, it’d be far less creepy than the switching.

“Yeah, I get that all the time,” Kalei rolled her eyes. “Even at movies.”

“R-rated movies? Yeah, they’re pretty strict about carding for those,” M said.

“No. PG-13,” the blonde answered, embarassed. She wondered why they were even on this topic.

“Oh.” M said nothing, probably in a heroic effort not to say anything worse.

“It’s fine, dear, the important thing is that you’re legal,” Rina said, managing not to sound the slightest bit reassuring to Kalei.

“Legal for what?” she asked slowly.

“Technically,” M said, taking her plate to the counter for seconds, “everything we do is legal. The government just pretends it doesn’t know who we are.”

“That wasn’t an explaination.” Kalei stood up, eyed the last bite of waffle on her plate, and popped it into her mouth before turning away. “Breakfast was lovely, ma’am, but I think I’ll just be heading out now.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not an option,” Rina said, back in the quiet, creepy voice. “Emma, this was your idea, you explain the situation.”

“Mom, I don’t–” M said, hesitating, as Kalei headed for the apartment door. She didn’t see what look Rina gave her daughter, but there was a clatter behind her and just as she reached the door, M was grabbing her arm.

“Let go of me. This is creepy, M. Your mom is creepy. You are starting to border on creepy. Actually, that started last night with the tying up, but now you’re getting into the bad kind of creepy, and I’m officially creeped out. Emphasis on the out.” She tried to pull away from M, but the taller girl’s grip was tight.

Very tight. Painfully tight.

“Owww,” Kalei whined. “Stop it, M, that hurts.”

M leaned in close to her. “I need to tell you something very important, which will sound very unlikely to you, and I need you to believe me because your life, or at least your wellbeing, depends on it. Okay?”

Kalei stared at her for a minute. “I’ll listen. I can’t promise I’ll believe.”

“That’ll have to do,” M sighed. “Okay, here’s the honest truth. My mom’s a scientist. Technically she works for a private corporation, but everything she does is on defense contracts and super-top-secret and everything. Okay?”

“… okay.”

“You don’t believe me,” M observed with hurt in her voice.

“Would you believe you?” Kalei twisted her arm, trying to get free or at least reduce the pain.

“Yes,” M said indignantly. She loosened her grip slightly.

“You had a very sheltered upbringing, didn’t you?” Kalei sighed. “Okay, fine, your mom’s a secret government scientist. Like Q or something. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I’m part of some government program. Mother did a lot of gene therapy on me before I was born, my sisters too. We’re designed for different specialties.”

The matter-of-fact way in which she explained this, as if it was the simplest thing, made Kalei wonder.

“Mom has me bring home girls so she can use them for experiments,” M said finally.

Kalei’s eyes went wide. “So, what, you didn’t even like me? You just fucked me because Mama Frankenstein told you to?” She gestured over at M’s mother, who smiled cheerfully and waved at them.

“No! I mean, yes. I mean. I. I decided, when I got you home. I like you. I don’t want to hand you over to Mom and never see you again.” She looked like she was about to cry.

“Well, why don’t you let me walk out the door and maybe I’ll see you again sometime,” Kalei said, pulling again on her wrist.

M tightened her grip suddenly, and Kalei almost thought she felt something crack. “I can’t do that. I’m doing all I can.”

“M, please.” Kalei winced.

“Listen to me and listen very carefully,” M said, her voice quiet and serious and suddenly reminding Kalei far too much of her mother. “You do not have the option to leave. You have the option to be what you were intended to be, which is my mother’s lab rat. Because I like you, and because I was willing to put everything on the line arguing that you have potential, you have a second option. Mother’s employers want to know if she can take someone who’s already grown and make them like me. I choose you to be like me. You can accept this or not.” Her eyes were flashing and her muscles were tense under the baggy clothing and Kalei was scared out of her wits.

She bit her lip to keep from crying, but she couldn’t find her words.

“Decide,” M demanded. “Now.”

“I’ll stay! I’ll stay. I don’t want to die yet,” Kalei sobbed finally, unable to hold the tears back once she let her voice out. She hated crying, and she hated herself for crying, and for having gotten herself into this situation into the first place.

“Oh, that’s just lovely,” Rina said from across the room. Kalei had almost forgotten that she was there. “Now why don’t you come back over here and I’ll make you another waffle.”

Kalei felt sick, but M’s hand was still solidly around her wrist and she could do little but follow the taller girl back to the kitchen. The food was in front of her almost as soon as she sat down and she poked at it listlessly.

“Your first treatment will be later today. I’ll have to do a physical first, of course, but you look healthy enough. You’re a little on the small side, but that might be a good thing. If you respond well, I’ll have Emma training you soon enough.” Rina was bustling around the kitchen in a motherly fashion that made Kalei even more sick.

“What about my dad?” Kalei asked. “Can I call him or something? He’s probably worried sick by now.” She looked around for a phone. M turned to her mother for an answer.

“You can call,” Rina said, “provided you tell him something nice and safe and non-threatening. Like, oh I don’t know, maybe you ran off with a nice lesbian girl and you’re getting married or you took a secret government job and you’re not allowed to speak to him now or something. And finish your waffle first like a good girl.”

“I can’t tell him that!”

“Why not? The second one’s even true, as far as these things go,” Rina pointed out.

“But–” Kalei hesitated, poked at the waffle, and ate it. “Dad’s had it tough since Mom left. He had to raise me and my brother by himself. I can’t just leave him alone, or let him think I want to leave him like that.”

“Oh, come now, this won’t be forever,” Rina chided as she took the plate away. “Would you rather tell him you walked into an army recruitment office while you were drunk and you woke up in boot camp?”

Kalei considered this. “Actually, yeah, I would.”

M giggled and her mother sighed. “Fine, but that’s all you can say.” Rina picked up the phone and punched several buttons before handing it to Kalei. The blonde looked at her questioningly.

“Security code. You need it to dial out,” Rina answered, the sharp, disarming grin returning. Kalei took the phone from her and stared at it for a long minute, as if it might bite her. Finally, after a severe look from Rina, she sighed and dialed.

The phone was picked up after half a ring. “Hello?”

“Er, Dad?”

“Oh, thank God, Kalei, it’s you. I’ve been worried sick! Where are you?”

“I did something kind of stupid, Dad.”

“Where are you? Are you in jail? Do you need me to bail you out?”

“No!” she snapped, and guilt for yelling immediately snowballed over the guilt she felt for the obvious worry in his voice. “No. I’m not in jail. I’m… in the army.”

“What?”

“I got drunk last night and I walked into a recruiting office and I woke up at boot camp this morning. Apparently I’m in the Army now. I don’t really want to be and I can’t come home until they let me, but I’m fine and safe, okay?”

There was only silence on the other end of the line.

“Dad?”

“The army? Are you sure?” he asked finally.

Kalei blinked. “Sure? Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

“Nothing.” He hesitated. “What about school?”

“I’ll finish later.”

“And you’re really in the army?”

“Yes! Geez, Dad, do you think I’m stupid or something?” She was letting her guilt get to her again, but better to have him mad at her than hurt.

“You are the one who apparently enlisted in your sleep.” There was more skepticism than sarcasm in his voice. He didn’t believe her. Well, fine, it didn’t matter if he believed her or not, and she’d find a way out of this before he worried too much, wouldn’t she?

Rina made a slicing motion across her throat. “I have to go, dad. My, uh, Sargeant is calling.”

“Kalei– wait–”

“Bye, Dad. Love you.” She hung up and tried not to cry again. M reached for her gently, but Kalei flinched away.

“Alright then,” Rina smiled. “Let’s get started.”

—

“Hey, Dad, was that Kalei?” Kato Takahashi asked as his father hung up the phone. “Is she grounded? Is she dead? If she is, can I have her stuff?”

“Don’t talk about your sister like that,” his father snapped. Kato looked at him in surprise. They made stupid, morbid jokes all the time, and he never reacted like that. Something must be wrong.

“Is there anything I can, um, help with?” Kato asked. His father shook his head.

“No, I think your sister’s just gotten in a bit over her head this time. She’s not going to be home for a little while. Listen, how about you go downtown and hang out with your friends. I have some calls to make.” He pulled a twenty out of his pocket and handed it to Kato, who stared at it. Something was definitely wrong.

“If you’re sure, Dad… I’ll have my cell if you need me.” The teenager put his cereal bowl in the sink and went to get dressed.

As he pulled on his favorite jeans and a t-shirt for his friend Zach’s band, Anarchrist, he wondered what had happened to his sister. He and Kalei fought a lot, but it was all stupid sibling fighting. They didn’t hate each other. When he came home shaking from something bad that Zach gave him, or she came home crying because someone called her names for walking with a girl, they looked out for each other. But his dad said she would be okay, and she’d be back soon, so he tried to believe that. There was no reason to think she’d be gone for good like his mother, right?

“Hey, it’s Trevor. Look, I need to call in a favor,” Kato heard his dad saying into the phone as he left the house. He tried not to listen. If it was important, he told himself, his father would tell him. He slipped his phone into his pocket and turned the volume on his iPod way up as he headed toward the train station.