Maria wasn’t surprised to see her sister’s name show up on a holo-call. She had probably heard of the bounty that was pending on her. She felt awful when she saw how ill Enid looked. Pale, weak. Using the tranquilizer on her had been necessary but not something she wanted to do. Enid spoke with none of her usual pleasantries.

“You can call off your warrant. I’m not going after them. Hazel and I are going to go and deal with more demons. At least I can kill them without my sister calling a galaxy wide man hunt on me. And there is one more drone left to recover.”

She pointed at herself then the holo-screen.

“But we are no where near alright sis. You betrayed me.”

Enid held up her hand as Maria went to speak.

“Give me time, I don’t want your excuses or apologies.”

Enid hit the disconnect button and from what Maria could tell went completely offline. She sighed and buried her face in her hands. Her fingers finding her hair. She would do everything exactly the same if she had to do it over again, but it did not make it any easier. She dialed a number. At least she could cancel the warrant and bounty. The woman who answered sat up straighter when saw Maria.

“Madam president. How can I help you?”

“Cancel the warrant and contract on Enid and Hazel Aurelius.”

“Ma’am, are you sure? They are very dangerous.”

“They are not going to be an issue for the near future. I have assurances.”

“Ma’am? Both could easily be arrested for many breaches of the laws.”

“Your point, Captain?”

“No point ma’am. I will deal with it ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

Maria disconnected the call and looked up at her other ghostly companion. He was the angel of death, stuck in between life and death himself. His black form leaned on his scythe and he silently shook his head.

“You think I should arrest them?”

The inky darkness shook its head again.

“You think I should unleash her on my enemies.”

He nodded.

“You are angry with me.”

He nodded.

“I do not want him to be a martyr. I know you could do this for me but I need him made a pariah first. So tell the rest of the flock to get the information I need.”

He nodded but he lingered she could still tell he was disappointed in her.

“I know she was my best friend. If we do not act cautiously everything she built will fall to pieces.”

He shifted and swirled and vanished. Maria rubbed her face again. Then pulled her hair back and used a hair tie to put it into a ponytail. She hit the comm button to let her assistant know she is ready for her next meeting.

*****

Enid sat on a stone bench. She was wearing a medieval style burgundy dress her hair was still black and her roots weren’t showing. The blue streak was long gone as it had been temporary. It was shoulder length. The curls were still unruly as ever. A platinum tiara had been placed on her head against her wishes. The Saroid were a very welcoming people, but stubborn when they had their minds set on something. When Isis had said she was bringing an Empress whose sister was causing her trouble all of sudden in their eyes she became a Disney princess with an evil stepsister trying to steal her throne. Enid had tried to explain the situation, but light-siders were having none of that. At least they hadn’t recognized her as their savior the Dark Mother with her black hair. They didn’t seem to realize humans could change their hair color, since they couldn’t change their scale color. Currently she was looking out over the fields of flowers to the east of the city. She’d always loved the colors here. She was also pondering who had introduced them to the concept of a Disney princess and assumed it was someone doing a telling. Though mostly she was wishing Amee could share this view with her.

“Empress?”

Enid looked behind her and it was one of the multicolored Saroids that had been assigned as her protectors.

“Yes, Ssslora?”

“Are you feeling alright? Your eyes are leaking again. Does the cut hurt? Should I seek a healer?”

Enid wiped away her tears and shook her head.

“No, I am just sad.”

“Why are you sad? Do the fields not please you?”

Enid shook her head.

“My mate was killed I was wish we could share this view.”

Ssslora’s tail drooped.

“I am sorry Empress. I still do not understand humans. So, your eyes leak when you are sad?”

Enid nodded.

“Sometimes. Help me up please?”

Ssslora took Enid’s offered arm and helped her to her feet.

“Why were you cut Empress? This morning you were fine. Should I call the guard?”

Enid shook her head and walked stiffly.

“No, I need to do something dangerous, so Isis is going to carry my child for me. Once I recover Hazel and I will need to go.”

“Princess Hazel has been quite troublesome. I am not sure if you are aware, but she refuses to stay in the palace. She also refuses to dress appropriately to her station, and she has been running off with a male human with no guard!”

Enid smiled.

“I am well aware of how irksome my child is, she learned it from me. I made decisions that I question every day.”

“That boy is below her station, I can have him… given a tour of the shadow realm.”

Enid smiled at Ssslora.

“As much as part of me thinks that would be a grand idea, let them enjoy their time together. Soon she and I will be fighting for our lives.”

“You do not have to leave. We will protect you. Bring us with you. We can fight for you.”

“The valor of the Saroid’s has never been in question, however, have you ever heard of the term with great power comes great responsibility?”

Ssslora shook her head.

“No, but wiser words were never spoken.”

“Well as Empress it is my duty to protect my people. Do you understand?”

Ssslora nodded her tail twitching.

“You are very wise. You must be very old for a human.”

Enid chuckled and held her incision.

“You do not know the half of it.”

The pair reached Enid’s room and Ssslora helped her lay down.

*****

Enid was kneeling on the top of Apollo checking the connections to his new sensor/ECM module. She wasn’t sure if Maria had sent it out of guilt, or just to ensure she was out of her hair quickly. She had sent crate of relay fuses that should be able to withstand a lightning strike along with new missiles. She looked over at Hazel who was still working on swapping out the relay fuses on Sariel.

“Mom are you sure you want to bring her?”

Enid shrugged.

“Hey Hazel, riddle for you, what’s better than a starfighter?”

“I don’t know.”

“Two starfighters.”

“You’re hilarious mom.”

“I’m all done here. Ready to ship out?”

“No.”

“You can stay here.”

“And risk Aunt Maria arresting me for coughing too loudly? No, thank you.”

“I’m sorry you can’t bring Miles.”

“I get it. We don’t know if a human can survive traveling back and when Olga did it, she was walking through a wormhole.”

Enid tapped the command on her HUD to seal up the armor on Apollo. She hopped off. And climbed into her cockpit.

“Everything good, Apollo?”

“Yes. All functions have been restored. Power readings are good. Do we really need to bring her?”

“Hazel?”

“No, that nuisance of a precursor of mine.”

Enid laughed.

“I thought she’d be good company for you.”

“What was the shutdown code that my mother used on me? Could you say it one more time?”

Enid shook her head.

“She is not that bad.”

“Bad? She’s a nightmare! My nemesis.”

Enid chuckled.

“You are being overly dramatic, shunt some antimatter to your core and prep for a temporal gateway.”

“Oh, that is so much better than timehole.”

“I know right?”

Enid looked over and saw Hazel was getting into her cockpit and closing her canopy.

“That’s our cue.”

She shut her own canopy and the sounds of the busy space dock vanished. She let space control know she was launching and flew out into space. She did a pass over the light side of Saroid prime before banking away and doing a short FTL jump to the rendezvous point outside of their system. She started the process of charging the wormhole generator. And while it was charging, she opened a comm with Hazel.

“Okay you know the drill. Exit atmosphere as soon as possible. Head to the far side of the moon let the temporal energy discharge and then we find what we are looking for and then we start again.”

“Got it mom.”

“We are ready for wormhole.”

Enid sent a synced countdown to her daughter. When it hit three, she started the generator. When the silver gateway with crackling white energy appeared, Hazel flew through first and Enid followed ten seconds later. They appeared near each other but far enough apart there was no chance of collision. They both flew out of the atmosphere and to the far side of the moon as planned. Enid had noticed lots of Satellites and space junk on her sensors. She guessed late 20th century, early 21st century. After a very boring three and half hours they were ready to land on Earth.

“Hazel, full cloak and sensor masking. They actually have a chance of picking us up otherwise. Let’s head to Earth. I’m assuming it’s another drone. Do a surface scan please Apollo. Coordinate with Sariel please. We can half the time.”

“I am fully capable of doing this on my own, I do not need her.”

Enid rolled her eyes inside her Atlantean helmet.

“Just do it Apollo. This isn’t anything against your capabilities. You can only see half the planet at a time.”

Enid watched Sariel’s black fuselage shimmer of existence. Apollo followed suit and Enid hit the sub light engines it took less then thirty seconds to reach scanning distance. Apollo’s readings started displaying then she started see the other side of the Earth start to appear on the holo-display.

“Aunt Enid… how is this planet still habitable.”

“Pure blind luck is my guess.”

“Aunt Enid I’m detecting the launch of what appears to be a nuclear tipped rocket.”

“Oh that. Well, hey I know the date.”

“Mom? It’s a thermonuclear weapon!”

“A really shitty one from North Korea. US will swat it down with…and there’s the launch.”

She blinked as the nuclear defense missile missed the ICBM.

“Shit.”

Enid hit the thrusters and chased after the ICBM North Korea had launched and launched one of her own smart missiles guided by Apollo’s AI it intercepted the missile and blew it up. She pulled away from the atmosphere and took a deep breath.

“That did not miss last time. I saw the video. Fucking hell. That was close.”

“Mom, you said you knew the date. What day is it?”

“September 15th, 2022. To show their support for Russia North Korean launched an ICBM at Washington DC. It was shot down, so they didn’t say anything. Kind of embarrassing to announce the death of their hated enemy when… it blew up in space. NATO kept it under wraps to not cause panic and on the evening September 20th, 2022, the US retaliated with devastating air raid from Okinawa and carriers-based aircraft. Along with drones and too many cruise missiles to count, they completely wiped out any semblance of a military or government. It was an overwhelming show of force. Then on September 21, 2022, the president of the United States announced that on the 15th North Korea had launched a nuclear attack on the United States and that it had been stopped by ground-based defenses. It was the biggest bombing raid since the second world war. Sixty-three US Service People lost their lives. In one night, with no nuclear weapons, three million North Korean’s died. The largest loss of life in a military action since World War Two. In one night. I hope to be gone before that happens, I do not want to see it again.”

Hazel was blinking at her in the comm window.

“You sound like you were there.”

“I was.”

“So many…”

“I think… I think that NATO wanted the world to understand the cost of using a nuclear weapon. Anyway, we are not here for a history lesson. We have a drone to find.”

“How do you know it’s a drone?”

“The first reason is drones seemed to have gotten stuck in the 20th/21st century. The second reason is our scan picked it up in… mmm Toronto. Grand. I hate Toronto. Apollo can you give me better resolution on the scan?”

“No Aunt Enid, I can tell you it is somewhere in that radius but the I cannot pinpoint the signal.”

Enid zoomed in and frowned.

“Ugg.”

“What mom?”

“Catholic High School. Like I haven’t seen enough of those to last me another six vampire lifetimes. I’ll take care of it. Hazel you can do whatever you want, just avoid Ukraine, Russia, North Korea, South Korea and that’s about it.”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Yes, you do, just go to any Aurelius Branch and make a withdrawal.”

“Oh. I keep thinking that’s a 29th century thing.”

“Just keep in mind anything you spend now with have an exponential impact on your future account. Have fun consider it a vacation, oh and maybe stay away from Okinawa/Japan in general.”

“Okay mom, I’ll just go hang out in…California.”

“Apollo will maintain a comm link if we need it. Right?”

“Of course, Aunt Enid.”

“Also, just hang out in orbit and watch for more ICBM’s. Swat them down if you see them. I’m not sure what’s changed but who the hell knows. I just don’t want either of us to be incinerated by nuclear fire.”

Enid sighed.

“Actually, I need you to do something else too. I need you to access the Toronto Catholic School Board and add me as a student. Anna Kosh.”

“What about school records?”

“Just say there are none, say refugee from Ukraine they’ll take that at face value lot of those, say I’m seventeen. Grade twelve.”

“Of course, Aunt Enid. It will take me some time to breach their system.”

“Alright.”

Enid flew towards Toronto and set down in an empty parking lot by a closed down restaurant, she hopped out and waved. She reached into her pack and pulled out one of her many comfy hoodies and slipped it on over her Atlantean armor. She pulled on a pair of running shoes and with her armor plates missing it looked like she had a pair of textured black leggings on. She looked around and shook her head.

“I hate Toronto.”

“Mom, why do you hate Toronto?”

“Vampire gangs, the Lord is a whiney little dick and traffic is terrible. Let’s just say my Seers and I spent a lot of time here.”

Enid pulled her hood up and walked towards the street. She’d need a place to stay for the night that wouldn’t ask questions. She decided on the seedier section of town, something hourly. First, she’d need food though. She’d picked this area because there was a fast-food restaurant a few blocks away. She swore under her breath as she walked towards it. Ontario has those annoying school uniforms for Catholic schools. This area of Toronto bordered the area rife with gang activity. Much of it vampire but was outside the worst of it. She glanced up a she walked and noticed a few stores ahead of her was a 7-11 advertising their pay as you go phone plans. She reached into her pack and pulled out the first phone it gave her. It was an Apple phone from 2026 but any sim card. She pushed the door open and immediately the clerks eyes darted towards her. She pulled her hood down and walked to the counter.

“I need four fifty-dollar sim cards, please.”

She pointed at the cards behind the counter. She reached into her pack and a zip lock bag of Canadian twenty-dollar pills appeared her in hand. She pulled counted out two hundred and sixty dollars and slid two hundred and twenty of it across the counter and put the other two bills in her pack’s non-dimensional compartment. Placing the plastic bag back in the other part of the pack. The clerk took the bills and counted them after glancing at Enid. She ran through the activation on each and gave the four cards to Enid. Enid put them in her pack’s mundane section and kept one back. She leaned on one of the silver counters that lined one of the banks of windows at the front of the store and put it in her unlocked iPhone 18 and powered it on. She quickly did a search on the uniforms for St. Joan of Arc. Then followed that internet rabbit hole to the shop that they referenced and sighed. Scarborough. Of course, she’d need to take a bus there and back. No ID or credit card meant she was stuck with cash only. She sighed and looked across the road to the fast-food restaurant as her stomach started to groan. She pulled out her cash and bought a bus pass before heading the bus stop. At least she had a few hours before the uniform store closed.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. She even did something she hadn’t done in ages. She read a manga. No one bothered her but she must have looked pretty innocuous wearing a hoodie that had seen better days and dirty runners. She didn’t exactly stick out at three thirty in the afternoon on a weekday. The uniform store was fairly crowded. Parents forgetting kids grow and suddenly realizing they needed to get a bigger size. She was fairly sure she’d only need one uniform but being human who sweat and would generate stink, and not having an exact fix on the drone meant she might need a few days and more then one uniform. Spending two thousand plus years with exactly the same body generally meant she wouldn’t need to try things on so that expedited things as she would have had a long wait. She waded through the crowd to the line for the counter. She had a teenage boy directly in front of her who kept looking back at her. She hated teenage boys. They often lacked tact. She was also way too old for them and while some where insecure idiots, others, would never get the hint she was not interested. But the worst was the gawking at anything with breasts. Not even a baggy hoodie could save her and as breasts went, hers were microscopic. She was about to tell him to take picture it would last longer when she heard Apollo speaking. She pulled out her phone and unlocked it and put it to her ear.

“Aunt Enid, this is taking me far longer than it should. These systems are archaic. I not sure this can be done.”

The boy looked disappointed and turned back to the counter. Enid would have loved it if Apollo could have actually called her phone to make it more authentic. She sighed with relief at avoiding that awkward conversation and spoke like she was talking on the phone. Enid spoke in Russian figuring no one else would understand.

“Do you need my help? Should I ask you know who?”

“What? You wouldn’t dare!”

“Well, if she is better at it then you are… You know she told me you were an inferior copy of her.”

“The nerve! I’ll get back to it.”

“Thank you. By the way all my cell phone next time so I don’t look like I’m nuts. I’ll send the number.”

Enid put her phone back her pack. The line was taking forever, and she was getting hangry now. Finally, after dealing with gawking from two teenage boys and waiting almost half an hour she was able to make her purchases and escape the store. After stopping at an Asian fast-food restaurant in a nearby mall she pondered what to do next. She had over twelve hours before she could get into the school. She could break in but with no idea where to start her search it would be fruitless. The drones were so small it could be in any locker. She’d need to do a localized scan and that would still take time. She needed to deal with her loss so rushing wasn’t necessary. As a mortal version of herself she was well under the radar of vampires. Unless one decided to try and make a snack of her. She pondered how that would go for them.

She realized as she was about to leave the restaurant, she was still hungry, so she stood up and asked for another menu. As she was trying to order the elderly woman who was watching the counter while the one who had helped her before struggled with her English. Enid had heard her speaking mandarin to one of the kitchen staff, so she switched to that for her.

“Just another beef and ramen bowl, ma’am.”

The woman adjusted her classes and smiled at her and put her order in.

“Go sit down young lady, I’ll bring it to you.”

Enid smiled back at her.

“Thank you.”

She went to her seat and sat down. The door’s bell ringed and a couple of men walked in they walked the front counter. Enid felt something off about the pair. Her gift was prodding her to pay attention, so she did. The elderly woman was trying to take their order. Enid realized they weren’t here to order they were here to be racist dicks. She stood up as they kept changing their order on the poor woman and started mocking her very thick accent. She walked up behind them and smiled sweetly.

“Gentleman. Perhaps I can help. What is it you would like to order?”

Now that she was close, she knew what was really bothering her. They were blood slaves. Her gift was telling her they reeked of it. It wouldn’t matter she had her Atlantean armor on. She could turn the blood addicted fools into pretzels if she wanted too.

“A burger and French fries. And not the cat meat.”

Enid maintained her oh so sweet smile and innocent look and spoke in mandarin to the elderly woman.

“They would like a hamburger and French fries each, though they’re racist assholes so if you’d like me to ask them to leave it would be my pleasure, ma’am.”

The old woman waved her hand at Enid and yelled the order back. She rung up the bill and motioned to the men. They looked at Enid now.

“You talk like them. You a sympathizer or something?”

Enid hadn’t really had a chance to take her anger out on the people that killed her wife. She was sorely tempted to let these blood slaves have all of it, but she might kill them and that would mean police. So instead she just kept her innocent look and responded.

“I am sorry, I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, the lady would like you to pay her for your food and would you like that to stay or go?”

One of them grabbed Enid’s arm.

“Do you work here?”

Enid looked at the hand on her arm.

“Sir. Could you please remove your hand from my arm?”

“What are you going to do about it give me a disease like they did?”

Enid shook her head. The elderly lady looked like she was about to call to the kitchen but Enid gave a small shake of her head.

“Sir, I am trying very hard not to rip your throat out so kindly, remove your hand.”

He blinked at her and his grip tightened. Enid was tired of holding her temper back so her first hit was to his partner’s crotch, she really didn’t hold back and if he wasn’t a blood slave he would probably have needed surgery. His friend took a swing at her and she brought up her arm and a plate had formed his arm was flung back dislocating his shoulder. She put her hand on the forearm he had grabbed and shoved downwards swiftly breaking his grip and then she brough the now armor-plated knee up into his face. He gout of blood sprayed from his nose. She then slammed his head into the laminate countertop grabbed a pair of chopsticks and broke them apart. Shoving one to the edge of his ear canal.

“Pay the lady please?”

He shifted to try and get up.

“I wouldn’t do that if you like being able to hear. Of course, if I decide to shove hard enough I will stab this into your brain, you might not die, but you’ll wish you had.”

He reached for something in his cargo pants pocket. Enid sighed. It was a knife. Before he could pull it out she’d kicked his arm sending it flying.

“That is not your wallet.”

His hands were shaking now. He reached into another pocket, pulled out a wallet and put forty dollars on the counter.

“Now tell the nice old lady she can keep the change.”

“You can keep the change.”

“Good boy.”

His friend was still rolling on the ground holding his manhood. She held the chopstick to the man’s ear drum until the food came out. Enid smiled at the elderly lady.

“Ma’am, they said you could keep the extra as a gratuity and that they’ll take their order to go.”

She switched to English.

“And never come back.”

She released the man she was holding who reached for his knife. She slipped the chopstick under his chin then put it to his carotid artery.

“That stays here. Now take your food and go.”

His friend stood up and stumbled towards the door. The one she’d threatened with death by chopstick picked up the bags and glared at her as she left the restaurant. Enid threw the chopsticks in the garbage. She bent down and picked up the combat knife and put it in her bag. She figured it might come in handy at some point. She looked to the elderly lady.

“I am so sorry about that I can leave if you’d like.”

The woman shook her head.

“No, go sit, I will bring your food.”

Enid walked back to her seat and wiped her hands off with a napkin. The woman returned shortly with her order and placed down a second plate with a still steaming barbeque pork bun. Enid motioned to it.

“I didn’t order this.”

The elderly woman patted Enid on the back.

“On the house dear. On the house.”

Enid had just finished eating when the younger Chinese woman who had taken her first order approached the table.

“My grandmother told me what you did for her. Thank you.”

“It was no trouble.”

The woman looked around the crowded restaurant.

“I need to leave, my son is sick, my grandmother, her English is not good, if I pay you fifty dollars could you take the orders for her?”

“If I can have another meal at the end of the night, I’ll do it for that?”

Enid offered her hand and the woman shook it.

“Thank you so much. What is your name?”

Enid responded without missing a beat.

“Anna.”

Enid stood and started taking orders as she was asked. She basically worked as a waitress for the night. She figured it beat sitting in a bed bug infested dive hotel for four hours and she could get another meal out of it. It was uneventful and she impressed a few of the Chinese patrons with her mandarin. And one German couple with her German. At the end of the night, she got her free meal and the elderly woman actually hugged her and tried to give her a portion of the tips which Enid declined. She helped clean up just trying to delay the whole hotel room staring a wall routine once again but eventually she left and headed to a bus stop. She felt like something was off as she waited but she couldn’t place it. Her gift was very helpful but sometimes very difficult to interpret. And sometimes it only became clear once something happened. At any rate she pulled one of her Glocks that had a clip of silvered rounds and attached the holster to her armor under the front of her hood. Blood slaves had vampire masters and they might not be so happy with her beating the crap out of their servants. She hadn’t hidden the strength of her armor so they might assume she was a rival blood slave, or vampire.