The bright light lessened and Kara found herself lying on the floor of an all white room. She looked down and around and didn't see Ullir anywhere. She stood up and used Detect Presence to send a pulse of it out and met... nothing. No people, no walls, no ceiling, and nothing below the floor. She thought that was very odd, since she could clearly see the room around her, and her panic over Ullir not being there intensified.

"Calmness is a virtue." A disembodied female voice said to her.

"What? Who... who is that?" Kara asked and tried to detect whoever it was.

"You have grown up hearing about me and learning my teachings, yet you do not know who I am?"

Kara gasped as she felt a strong Presence nearby, similar to what she felt when the circle of light had engulfed her and Ullir. "You... you're... no, it can't be. How can... am I dead?"

The voice chuckled. "No, little one. You were just caught up in an experiment that I and a few others were conducting."

"Experiment?" Kara asked. "What kind of experiment?"

"The nature of it isn't essential knowledge; but, I will tell you anyway." The disembodied female voice said from beside her. Kara turned and saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Her long flowing and wavy golden hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her back to end at her waist. She wore a very flattering long white dress that showed off her ample cleavage and slits on both sides of her hips showed off her long legs.

Kara closed her eyes and dropped to her knees and started to rock back and forth. "The Goddess Chaiya." She whispered, then repeated it over and over.

Chaiya touched the top of her head to stop her. "Child, do not debase yourself before me. You have been a faithful follower for all of your life. You may gaze upon me without fear."

Kara shook her head. "No, I... I'm undeserving." She said. "I've done something that I swore I wouldn't do, and then... then he..."

"I know." Chaiya said and stroked Kara's pink hair. "Do you want to atone for your mistake?"

"How?" Kara looked up at her with tears in her eyes. "What could I possibly do to make up for what I did?"

Chaiya smiled at her, and Kara's heart filled with awe to have received it. "I have been gathering followers on a world very different from any that you know." She said. "I needed to have a stronger connection there to investigate... well, that part you don't need to know just yet."

Kara blinked her eyes at the goddess.

"My followers have used their inherent energy to call for my help, which will let me put more of my Presence there... if I send them some help."

"I'm to be that help?" Kara asked.

"Now that you are here, yes." Chaiya said. "Will you help me by going to that world?"

"I'll do anything that I can to help you." Kara said and wiped at her tears.

"Then stand and receive my blessing."

Kara stood and saw that she was barely up to the woman's collarbone.

"Kara Moor, I bestow upon you a taste of my power." Chaiya said and kissed her forehead. "You will have skills appropriate for that world, as well as an enhanced metabolism to let you heal even faster than you normally can."

Kara felt energy flow over her. Inside her chest where the abundance of her Presence was, appeared a new reservoir of energy. She was about to ask what it was for, when Chaiya spoke again.

"You will be a part of the group I am sending; but, you will not be the leader." Chaiya said. "You will use your sword and newfound abilities to defend the leader at all costs."

Kara nodded. "I won't fail you."

"Be sure that you don't." Chaiya said. "If you do, the consequences could very well end up making..." She stopped talking and sighed. "Protect him with everything that you are."

"I swear upon the Goddess Chaiya... ah, I mean... I swear to you that I will."

Chaiya smiled. "Then wait here while I retrieve the rest of my emissaries." She said and vanished. With nothing else to do, Kara sat down on the floor in the lotus position and started to meditate.

“By the Goddess, I just met the Goddess.” Kara said, and shook her head. She cleared it of all other thoughts, even the very difficult ones about Ullir. She calmed herself down and concentrated, because she needed to discover what the new energy reserve she had received from the Goddess actually was.

*

Jessica got out of bed and looked at the bright morning sky out through her bedroom window. She sighed, because she regretted that someone she had fallen in love with couldn't see it with her. She took a shower and dressed in her best dress, did up her hair and makeup, and tried not to stare at the bags under her eyes from her occasional bouts of hysterical crying. She had a tendency to break down at random times, for no particular reason, and bawl her eyes out.

Jessica had been like this ever since she had been released from her kidnapping. Two years had passed since her kidnapping from the tour group bus and she was now nineteen. She hadn't learned the other people's names until after she had been released, because talking wasn't allowed and had been punished severely when it happened. Only one of the men with them had even dared speak up when the kidnappers had tried to force themselves on her and the other girl that had been taken.

Jessica closed her eyes and tried to remember his face, the man who had put his own body on the line for her. He was moderately handsome and had brown eyes and hair. He had taken countless beatings for her and the other girl and did it with a smile. It had touched her heart deeply that someone she didn't know would do that for her. As time went on and things started to look bleak, they were shuffled from place to place, and then she had seen that man be blindfolded and taken from them for several hours. When he came back, he had given her the warmest and biggest smile she had ever seen.

Several days later, she had been blindfolded and taken away herself. She thought that it was all over, that she would be raped and tortured like they had always threatened to do to her. She had silently cried and let the tears flow, and she heard the other girl do the same. She waited anxiously for it to begin, when she was unceremoniously dumped out of the vehicle and had her blindfold removed.

"Embassy! Go!" The hooded man said and pointed. She had been confused and looked around, and the man pushed her violently. She fell to the ground and the other girl helped her stand, and they turned towards the people yelling at them. Two small groups of people were there waving different UN flags, so they started to walk... then they jogged... then they ran. She collapsed into the arms of a soldier and he picked her up, then they all entered different vehicles and were taken to the embassy. Once there, she looked at the others and realized something.

That man wasn't with them.

A few days after being treated in a hospital, Jessica had sat in the cold office with her mother as the television played the video of what they had done to that man. The torture itself was only a secondary concern for her, because she only stared at the man's face as it was happening. He kept a smile on his face, even though at times he yelled from the pain, then the man with the machete appeared and the video stopped before it showed what actually happened.

"They didn't want money, or weapons, or their countrymen freed from prison." The embassy representative said sadly. "What they wanted was notoriety."

"What does that mean?" Jessica had asked.

"It's something similar to being famous. What you just saw was the price to free you." The embassy representative said. "One life, given willingly on camera, to save the others."

Jessica had burst out crying then and her mother had held her for a while, then they had travelled back home. After several weeks in the hospital to recover, everyone returned to their normal lives. Except for her. She couldn't get over the trauma she had been through and what that man had done for her. He was her hero and she would never be the same without somehow making it up to him.

Jessica picked up the single flower she had and left her house, looking her best, and walked for nearly a mile. It took her to the edge of town and she walked over to the medium-sized park there. She didn't look around at anyone or at the trees or anything else as she went right over to the small stone pedestal with a vase on it and a plaque. It was in memoriam of her lost hero.

"Good morning, Marcus." Jessica said and placed the flower in the huge pile of them in the vase. "I know it's weird that I keep coming here every morning; but, I just can't get through the day without seeing you at least once."

A few people glanced over at the young woman as she caressed the edge of the plaque, then they went about their morning walks. Everyone knew about her and what had happened and left her alone.

"The movie they made about you came out last week." Jessica said. "It's a huge hit, and everyone is raving about it." She said and leaned over the vase as her tears started to flow. "I... I couldn't go see it, because... because I... I couldn't. I lived through it once and I don't want to do it again."

Jessica didn't wipe at her tears and just let them fall on the flowers. She had done this every day, and it somehow kept them alive and well. She thought someone was replacing them for her so that they would never wither, and she silently thanked that person for the favor.

"The royalty checks have been a godsend for everyone you've saved, especially me." Jessica said. "I've tried to go to work a few times and I just can't stop crying." She said with a smile. "For some reason, people are unhappy when a girl that's trying to serve them food is crying in front of them."

Jessica took several deep breaths and calmed down as her crying fit ended.

"Okay. Okay. I'm okay." Jessica said and took out a tissue and wiped her eyes. "I better get back to the house. Someone's coming over to interview me about the movie, again, and my mother said I needed to talk about it and not keep it bottled up inside." She leaned down and rubbed her fingertips on the plaque. "I wish... I wish that I could see you one last time, if only just to say thank you for what you did."

Jessica walked away from the small pedestal and to the edge of the park. She was completely lost in her thoughts and her dread for the upcoming interview, that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings or watched where she was going. She stepped right out into traffic without waiting for the signal. There was the sound of a car horn, the thump of flesh as it hit the pavement, and then nothing.

*

Steven worked the night shift at one of the busiest convenience stores in the city he lived in. He never asked why it was so popular, since that didn't matter to him in the least. What mattered was he could work all night and make great money and he didn't have to stock the shelves or do inventory. It was a bit riskier during the night shift, since most crimes happened under the cover of night; but, he had worked there for three years since graduating high school and he was now twenty-one. He hadn't had one robbery or drunk customer in all that time.

Unfortunately, that pattern had just changed. Three staggering men entered the store talking loudly, and he sighed mentally at the smell from them. He kept his mouth shut and tried not to take too many deep breaths as the men picked up various snacks and items. They brought them to the counter and Steven rang them in.

"That'll be fifteen sixty-five." Steven said and put the purchases into a bag. The man in the middle held out a twenty dollar bill and Steven took it and hit the button to open the register.

BLAM!

The sound of the gun going off was so loud that Steven's ears stopped working. He dropped the twenty dollar bill and reeled back from the source of the sound, then covered his ears as he watched one of the men rifle through the cash register and take everything. He had been told repeatedly not to fight back to try to stop any robbers, which irked him, because they were right there in front of him. They took the money and ran from the store, and Steven hit the robbery alarm.

The doors locked and the counter was covered in a shutter and Steven answered the telephone when it rang. He told the police what had happened and said that he couldn't hear anything they were saying because he was deaf from the sound of the gun going off. He said that he was fine and hung up, then he started to feel weak and lightheaded. He sat down on the chair behind the counter and closed his eyes to wait for the police to arrive and went to sleep.

He didn't even realize that he had been shot.

*

Josh hadn't had an easy life. He had been picked on his whole life, all seventeen years of it, and had just entered his last year of high school. He was relieved that he wouldn't have to suffer through any more bullying by the guys that had graduated the year before. At least, that's what he had thought. When he left school that first day, they pulled up in a car, shoved him in the back seat, and drove off.

“You thought we'd forget about you, didn't you?” One of the three guys said and punched him in the stomach. Josh bent over from the pain and threw up on him. “Ah, shit! These are my new jeans, you bastard!”

He punched Josh in the face and his head rocked to the side and hit the window, which stunned him for several minutes. The smell of the throw up was strong and they had to put the windows down.

“Dammit, how much ass did you eat today?” The driver asked when he saw Josh shake his head and started to come to.

“I... I didn't...”

“Naw, you did.” The guy in the passenger seat said. The three of them had their heads out the window to try and get a breath of fresh air. Josh didn't mind the smell, since they had been making him throw up on himself for years. This was the first time they had to stick around for it, though. It made him smile slightly, and the guy beside him saw it. He punched Josh in the arm, because that was all he could reach while leaning away, and that gave Josh an idea.

He wasn't sure what he was thinking, since he had never fought back before. He sat up and shoved himself between the two front seats and grabbed the steering wheel.

“HEY!” The driver yelled and yanked it out of Josh's grip.

It was the worst thing he could have done.

The car veered across the center line of the highway and into oncoming traffic. A large dump truck was coming the other way and tried to steer out of the way, and the two vehicles hit head on. The three bullies had their heads partially out the windows, so when the car suddenly stopped, all three of them had their heads crushed and died instantly.

Josh wasn't so lucky. He was thrown through the windshield of the car, which tore at his face, his shoulders, and his chest, then the top of his head hit the thick heavy grill of the dump truck. He was conscious as the impact snapped his neck like a toothpick and dented his skull. The rest of his body hit the grill and it broke his back, both of his arms in three places, and his hips as his legs were thrown forward.

The dump truck pushed the car off the side of the road and rolled it over, taking Josh's mangled body with it. The dump truck hit the soft dirt on the side of the road, tipped over, and rolled right on top of Josh and the car.

*

Jessica, Steven, and Josh woke up in an all white room. They were spread out on three soft beds about ten feet apart.

“That really hurt.” Jessica said as she sat up and rubbed her arm where she had landed on it. “What happened?” She asked and looked around, then saw the other two. “What's going on?”

“I'm just asleep.” Steven said and opened his eyes to look at her. “You don't look like my normal dream girls, though.”

“Ugh.” Jessica scoffed and looked at the other guy. “What about you?” She asked Josh and he didn't say anything. “Come on. If you know something, please tell me.”

“I... I'm pretty sure that... what happened to me must have killed me.” Josh said.

“Yes, that is unfortunately true.” A woman's disembodied voice said.

“Hey, who said that?” Steven asked and sat up.

“I did.” The Goddess Chaiya said as she slowly faded into view.

“There's my dream girl.” Steven said. “Hey, sweetie.”

Chaiya smiled at him. “I believe you've mistaken me for a fantasy.” She said and made his bed disappear. Steven fell to the floor with a grunt and Jessica laughed a little. She caught her breath, because she hadn't laughed once since her kidnapping, and she looked at the very beautiful woman that wore a simple white dress.

“What's going on?” Josh asked. “If I died, does that mean... are... are you god?”

“Not in the sense that you mean.” Chaiya said. “I am the Goddess Chaiya and I watch over several hundred worlds in my domain, and administer over several thousand others that have chosen to follow me and my teachings.”

Jessica, Steven and Josh stared at her like she had three heads.

“Unfortunately, your planet was abandoned by my brethren centuries ago and no one has been shepherding you along at all.” Chaiya said, sadly. “Your world is far below the rest of the universe. I don't normally recruit followers from such an undeveloped world; but, I've made exceptions in your cases this time.”

“Why?” Jessica asked.

“I need your help.” Chaiya said.

The three of them stared at her and didn't know what to say.