Ne’lix woke up from an astoundingly vivid nightmare where he’d been brutally killed. He rubbed his chest just to make sure there wasn’t a knife sticking out and rolled into a sitting position on his bed as he rubbed his eyes. In a daze, he made his way into the bathroom, relieved himself, and then stripped down and hopped in the shower. After a long hot shower, he stepped out, grabbed his towel, and dried off. As he was dying off he noticed that a piece of paper was taped to the bathroom mirror.

Ne’lix hung his towel, picked the note off the mirror, and opened it.

“Ne’lix,

Last night wasn’t a dream. Like I said, you get to come back now. Watch your back today

Adam”

Ne’lix quickly read the note. When he set the note down it dissolved into nothing. Ne’lix remembered that Adam could see everything that his nanites could see. Putting that to the back of his mind he finished getting ready for work then made his way downstairs and across the plaza, he lived near to the portal facility. Once there he made his way through the checkpoints, to the portal that led to his office building. From there he went to the elevator that lead to his office.

As Ne’lix stepped out of the elevator he noticed two police officers talking to his assistants as he heard a voice come over the radio.

“56 to Dispatch, No sign of missing person at the address reported”

The police officer on my left turned away from his dayshift 2nd assistant Madison Stoll as he reached for his mic. Ne’lix must have caught the police officer’s attention out of the corner of his eye because he focused his gaze on him, brought a picture in his hand up then looked back at Ne’lix.

“Excuse me, Sir, are you Ne’lix, the Manager of this Office?” the police officer asked.

“Yes, that’s me, I’m Ne’lix. Can I help you?”

“Have you had any issues today sir, anything you need to report?”

“None that I can think of, is everything okay?” Ne’lix said.

“Hold on for one second Sir, I need to call this in.”

“34 to Dispatch” the police officer called over his microphone

“Go ahead 34,” dispatch said through the speaker on his vest.

“I have the missing person in front of me. Say again, I have the individual reported as missing in front of me. He just arrived at his office.” The police officer said.

“Copy 34, logging the anonymous tip as false. Please notify when back in the field”

“Copy Dispatch, will notify when available,” the officer said then turned to Ne’lix as he twisted a knob on his vest, and the voices coming from the speaker on his vest reduced in volume, “Thank you for your patience sir. We’d received an anonymous tip that you were missing.”

“No problem, as you can see I’m here,” Ne’lix said.

“Do you have any questions, sir?”

“No, I’m sure you had access to my apartment because of the position I hold here, just thank your fellow officers for their diligence, and have a very nice day,” Ne’lix said

“You too sir, Ralph let’s let the assistants and Mr. Ne’lix here get back to work,” the first officer said as he, then the officer named Ralph turned and walked out of the office.

***

Adam’s Thor Aspect watched Adam as he zipped around the solar system dropping his nanites off. Reviewed Ne’lix’s interactions with police as he arrived at work and then started researching Ahrem’s path as he’d been asked to. Once Thor was sure Ne’lix was safe for the moment he focused his attention on Eloise, the assassin, to see what she’d been up to this morning. This of course was not exactly how Thor reviewed the three individuals as he monitored them. His mental capacity would monitor all three individuals at the same time and miss nothing. What he was doing now was an in-depth review of what the nanites recorded.

***

After Eloise had called in the anonymous tip she went to work. She made sure to arrive within her normal window of arrival. Eloise grabbed a cup of coffee and then made her way to her desk. She was sipping her coffee looking out of the office she was in which overlooked the hallway anyone arriving through the portal would take. She heard footsteps and looked up. As her mind registered what she was seeing, she froze and looked again. Yes, Ne’lix was walking by her office. It took a few moments but Eloise was able to relax her muscles, set down her coffee, and stand. She made her way to the bathroom and went into a stall there. She sat down on the toilet and then activated her ability Annulled Trace. Once her ability was active she cast telepathy and requested a mental conversation with her direct superior within The Agency. After a few moments, she felt the mental link solidify.

Yes, – Eloise’s supervisor Mao thought to her questioningly

The target is alive, I say again, my target is alive – Eloise thought to her

You reported that you had killed him. The scryers backed up your claim, what are you talking about that he is alive?” – Mao responded, agitation leaking through the link.

The Target just walked by my desk on his way to his office upstairs, I can confirm this personally – Eloise stated

Understood, remain on site, and follow standard protocols. We’ll look into it and be in touch – Mao thought to her as she dropped from the connection

Eloise ended the link, deactivated Annulled Trace, and grabbed some tissue. She discarded it into the toilet then flushed as she stood, fixed her clothes, and stepped out of the stall. Eloise washed her hands and made her way back to her desk.

***

Thor received reports from nanites in Trix’s office and focused his attention there. Three individuals had teleported into the office. A woman that reminded Thor of Kate Beckinsale from the movie Underworld and Trinity from the Matrix franchise. Lots of leather and a long coat. She looked to be in charge. There were also two men with her but they were in standard business suites that you might see in a 007 movie. The reason the nanites had flagged them was that when they entered the office none of them had nanites in them. That fact was being remedied as the nanites in the office infiltrated and flooded their bodies. As the entirety of Vrax had been infiltrated it wasn’t very hard to accomplish. Thor watched as the woman went to the computer inserted a wand that allowed her instant and complete access to the drive and then downloaded everything onto the wand. The men made their way around the office looking here and there, tearing things apart, and making a complete mess of the office. When they looked to be done they both moved in front of the desk and waited for the woman to finish. A hard drive eradication program was loaded and started as the woman stood and looked at the men inquiringly

“Nothing,” the first said

“Nothing,” the second said.

“Fine, let’s go,” the woman said as she came around the desk. She pulled out a device and pushed a button and was teleported or translocated to the space station in orbit above North America in the same dimension that Adam was in zipping around the solar system in. The three appeared in a room that was not dissimilar to the way the transporter rooms on the Enterprise had been set up. There were outlines on the floor and even a terminal. As yet, the nanites had not made it to the station but now that didn’t seem like it would be a problem as my nanites were spreading out from all three of them even now.

The woman turned to both men and said, “Return to your normal duties, I have a report to make. If I need you I’ll call for you.”

Both men nodded and walked out of the room. As they exited the room they turned right. The woman nodded to the technician manning the computer terminal and walked out behind the men then turned left heading in the opposite direction. At the end of the corridor was an elevator. The woman entered the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor.

The nanites inside here were having an issue. There was almost no problem with their infiltration of the woman’s body. The nanites were able to enter every cell of her, except for her brain. The nanites had no such issues with the two men so this must either be a spell of some sort, which Thor doubted, or an ability. An ability that didn’t allow nanites to enter brain cells. That sounded like a very handy ability. There was probably an ability that would prevent someone’s whole body from being taken over. For now, Thor was only able to get information from the nanites that made up the rest of the woman’s body. He was hoping her name would drop soon. Thinking of her as just the woman or a woman was tiresome.

The woman stepped through an open set of double doors and walked forward until she stood before the man sitting behind the desk. There was a window that looked down on Earth behind him. As the nanites spread out into the office they discovered that the window looked outside the station and that it was made of transparent aluminum which ensure there were no structural integrity issues. As the woman stood there and waited Thor had his nanites spread and infiltrate everything they could. The man continued to look at his screen, tapped a few keys then looked up.

“Katja, back already? I take it things did not go well?” he asked.

“No Director, they did not. As far as I could determine there was nothing in that terminal nor did my two assistants discover anything.

“That’s fine, this threat to the emperor has been dealt with. The threat of this Ahrem child that Trix was looking into must still be dealt with though,” the director said.

“Didn’t he disappear out of that system they discovered him in?”

“Yes and no. Our sensors tracked him moving faster than light towards the edge of the solar system and lost him near Pluto. Our sensors on the outside of the Helios Sphere didn’t detect him so we think he may have dropped in on Pluto,” The Director said.

“How long until we have a ship in orbit?” Katja asked.

“The ship is already there and has been surveying the planet from orbit. While the planet isn’t very big, there is a huge area to scan. The captain of the Akmen, that’s the name of the ship. The captain thinks we should have a full scan done by tomorrow.”

“What would you like me to do until then?” Katja asked.

The elimination of Trix will require a replacement. No, we are not putting you in such an irrelevant position. The Emperor ordered the actions we took earlier today because he believe Trix thought she was the actual head of the Vrax Empire. In the past, she’d even gone so far as to threaten people here and across the government. The Emporer was done with that air of superiority she had. Where is that superiority now?” The director asked.

***

Thor relayed all of this information to Adam as he zipped around the Solar System. While they were one entity when he separated like this he’d been noticing that his biological self was more prone to emotional outbreaks and noted when Adam seemed to be getting angry. It was quite obvious when Adam started mumbling to himself.

***

I zipped around the solar system reviewing what my nanites had found. I was specifically looking for any population settlements. While this planet was Earth, unlike the Earths I normally dealt with there was no life on this one. Even the seas were dead. There were trace amounts of oxygen on the planet but nothing that would sustain life. So far my nanites had found nothing on any of the other planets as well. The only sign that there was any kind of sentient life was the space station that was orbiting the Earth in this Universe in geosynchronous orbit.

I reviewed the data coming in concerning Ne’lix, Eloise, Katja, her director, and anything else I could learn. I even checked in on Anna to find her enjoying herself on her vacation on a beach somewhere that hadn’t been fully infiltrated by my nanites. I needed to let my nanites do their thing and that would take time so I came to a stop on the opposite side of Pluto from the station. Then I willed myself into the Astral Plane.

I found myself floating in a gaseous void filled with gases of every color. I also felt myself being pulled towards something bright off in the distance. I made sure I still had the ability to control my movement then released myself to be drawn along by the light. As I looked around I realized I wasn’t alone and my True Sight spell showed me the outlines of people as they were drawn along beside me. I cast a spell to identify these individuals. They were all designated as Basic Souls but no information was given other than creature type from my spell. I was sure I could create a stronger version of the spell if I wised but at this point didn’t feel that it was necessary.

I floated along with all the souls until I entered a region that I can only describe as a tunnel. A tunnel wider than the Earth and longer than I could see. As I was floating down the tunnel some souls floated towards the top of the tunnel while others floated towards the bottom. I found myself being pulled off to the side where a humanoid figure stood next to a door.

“Mortal, the tunnel of The Divide is not for you,” a man with blue skin and white hair stated then waved through the door. “You may use this door to exit this region of the Astral. When you feel the tug ignore it and you will not be drawn here again until it is your time.”

“If I might be so bold as to ask, what is the Divide and what does it do?” I asked.

“That is for those that have passed to find out,” he started to say before he froze.

Bored with this conversation already I mentally attacked and dived into the mind of this creature. Once the attack was underway I also reached up and touched him to allow my nanites to invade his body. Sure I didn’t need to kill everyone but sometimes I just wanted to know some stuff without wasting time. It was a weakness, I know, but I needed to get a handle on this Cosmos’s layout.

As my nanites invaded and mapped his mind I held him and wiped his memory of the last couple of minutes and the next few minutes as well. Then, I stepped to the door and passed through to find myself back in the Astral plane in another location. I pulled up my mapping function and zoomed it out until I could see where I’d been, where the blue man was, and where I was. Unfortunately, there was no scale but it looked like I was very far away from him. I looked around quickly to see if anyone or anything was nearby and found myself alone except for the gases. I released some nanites into the void around me. They found material to infiltrate and utilize but it was nothing like the realms of chaos I’d encountered before. The material was sparse and spread out, unlike the thick liquid-like substance that raw chaos was. No sooner had I thought about Chaos than my perspective shifted and I found myself looking at a wall of chaos.

That was surprising, but not unexpected. It looked like thought and will took you where you wanted to go in this version of the Astral. Good to know. That didn’t surprise me. The first thing that surprised me was the group of beings laid out in a semi-circle behind me. There were humans, orcs, dwarves, elves, dark elves, gnomes, and even a prismatic dragon. Well, the creatures looked like creatures from my fantasy games anyway, I didn’t really have the time to figure it out. Why? Because the second thing that surprised me was when a man in black robes standing in front of me said, “Finally, a worthy sacrifice,” when the final thing that surprised me was when a gigantic tentacle, the size of a planet whipped out of the broiling chaos. This tentacle was at least the size of a planet across as that part became visible as it left the Chaos. This made the tentacle incredibly long as it snaked from the base becoming smaller and smaller until the last 5 feet near the tip wrapped around me and drew me from where I was standing into the chaos.

As I was pulled into liquid Chaos the people behind me rejoiced. My nanites were already infiltrating the creature and dropping into the chaos around me as my adaption ability modified my sight and I was able to see through the liquid normally. I followed the tentacle until I found the Jupiter-sized monster it was attached to that had many eyes, tentacles, and mouths looking at me as it drew me towards itself. I willed myself to stop. When I did and I could feel the tentacle straining against me I cast a version of the Tongues spell that would allow me to converse with any creature, looked directly at the creature, and said, “We need to talk.”