Season 6 Episode 1
God's Children
(Pretty major rewrite starting in Episode 2 – sorry. I hit a huge snag and decided it was way too complicated to try and have time running differently on different worlds. Now all worlds run at the same time and the time dilation Duke and Audrey experienced in the Barn was a result of the Barn's impending implosion.)
"And I will spend the rest of my life trying to repay that debt."
Duke heard those final words faintly through the roaring in his ears. His chest heaved convulsively, as his body reflexively tried to suck in oxygen but Nathan's grip remained iron tight. He felt Audrey's hand on his – heard the pain in her voice – and he saw the Guard symbol on Nathan's arm. His eyes rolled and he went limp, consciousness fading as Audrey's sob echoing in his ears.
And then he was in a lush green meadow, buttercups and daisies flowering all around him and a gorgeous blue sky above the face above his. A strange woman was just pulling back from him – her lips had been on his. Blue eyes, deeper than the sky above them twinkled merrily at him and hair the color of a roan horse flowed down one side of her face like a veil. Freckles sprinkled her cheeks and snub nose.
"That's better." She said in a voice huskier than he expected given her youthful features. It was one shade away from sultry, in fact. "I might have cut it a trifle close there." She continued as he blinked and tried to collect his thoughts.
"What…?!" Then he remembered what had happened. "What are you doing? Nathan has to…"
"Nathan has to think he killed you – at least for a while." She interrupted him. "Because then Croatoan thinks you're dead. But you weren't the only trouble collector that's ever been designed, you know."
"Uhhh, no, I didn't know." Duke sat up cautiously. He felt remarkably well for someone who had just been throttled and smothered.
"I healed it." The woman said airily.
"What?"
"The damage." She took his hand and turned his palm over, revealing the red cut on it he had made before Audrey had talked him back to himself. Her hand brushed gently over it and a green glow followed that touch. When the glow faded his hand was without a sign of injury. "I healed you. It was a near thing, though. I had to breathe for you until your body remembered that function. Like I said, I cut things a little close."
"Who the hell are you?" Duke demanded carefully, suddenly feeling a certain sympathy for Audrey's hostility that long ago day when she'd awakened in his bed with no notion of what had happened.
The woman giggled cheerfully.
"Ahhh, there's the Dread Pirate Duke I've been looking forward to meeting." She exclaimed with satisfaction. "You can call me Grace."
"You don't understand what you're doing. I need to –"
"You need to listen for a minute." Grace cut him off – not without a certain brusque sympathy.
"Okay…" Duke arched a sardonic brow. "Enlighten me."
"Audrey and Nathan think you are dead – they're very sad about it, in fact. They have a simulacrum of you to mourn over and bury. You, however, are quite alive. Croatoan knows nothing of this. He believes you dead because he can sense Audrey's grief – and because there is nothing left of the connection to your mind he used to control you."
"And just how did you accomplish that?"
She vanished from before his eyes and her voice came from behind him. He surged to his feet and whirled to find her twirling gaily in a circle, red hair flaring around her head like her long, loose skirt flared around her legs.
"All God's children got troubles, Duke." He heard her say to the sky. She seemed to be quite pleased with herself.
"You used a trouble to whisk me away from my death?" He asked skeptically.
"Well, we call them skills. And I'm very skilled." She smirked suggestively. "Besides, I didn't whisk you away from your death. You did die – for a few moments, at least. It was the only way to free you from Croatoan."
"That was very – kind – of you, but I have to help my friends now." Duke declared, his face stiffening as he realized even now he couldn't just walk away from Haven, Nathan, or Audrey.
"I know." Grace stilled suddenly, her face growing as serious as Duke could have hoped for. "But I have to teach you a few things first."
"Who the hell are you?" Duke asked again, his voice growing hard. Three swift steps brought him to her and he grabbed her fiercely by the shoulders and gave her a remarkably restrained shake, considering how frustrated he'd grown.
"I'm like you, Duke, created to collect troubles for a Troublemaker. I'm from another world, like Mara, but not her world. There are a few people like you and me and a lot more who help us to fight the Troublemakers still wreaking havoc on unsuspecting worlds. We've been watching you but you Crockers have been in Haven and under Croatoan's direct observation for generations. We've never had the chance to act – until now."
Duke blinked and his grip on her shoulders loosened.
"Why were you watching me?"
"We've been watching your family, Duke. We know now what the lineage of a trouble collector looks like and we recognized what Croatoan was doing right from the start." Grace answered but Duke was experienced at spotting half truths and his expression hardened as he caught hers. Grace caught it and she quickly elaborated.
"We weren't aware of Croatoan's influence on this world until after Mara had been captured and put in the Barn. The solution wasn't tenable, we could tell that much, but we weren't prepared to expose ourselves to the people of Mara's world so we watched and waited for an opportunity."
"Do you know how many people have died?!" Duke's fists clenched in barely suppressed rage.
"We've helped where we could without revealing ourselves." She replied defensively. "But we didn't dare take the chance of exposing ourselves to either Croatoan or his homeworld."
"Why?"
"We're a small group of people. We have skills – like your troubles only we control them – but we lack the population and resources of their world. If they chose to attack us we would be defenseless."
"So you protected yourselves at our expense?"
"We would do no one any good if we were destroyed." Grace replied, her chin rising in irritation. "This is not the only world that has troubles and Croatoan is not the only troublemaker."
"So why act now?" Duke asked suspiciously.
"Because I could do so safely. Because I couldn't stand by and let you die. Because you are your world's best chance at defeating Croatoan once and for all." Once again Duke sensed an evasion and his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"What do you mean by that?" Duke demanded skeptically.
"I mean with your help your friends can contain or neutralize Croatoan. Without you the outcome is less likely to be positive."
"What is it you want me to do?" Now his voice reflected the suspicion on his face. Grace's expression radiated sympathy, which only increased Duke's discomfort.
"I want to teach you a few things and then I want you to make sure that Nathan and Audrey face Croatoan together. If they do, Haven will be saved. If they don't – more than Haven will fall to Croatoan's mad ambitions."
"How can you know that?"
"I've already told you that I'm Skilled. Sometimes in pivotal moments I get visions of the future. I've seen two outcomes to this day. You are the fulcrum, Duke."
"That's all you want? To teach me skills that will let me help Haven?"
"That's all I want right now, yes. After you have set your friends on their paths I hope that you will return with me to Sanctuary and join us – but that has nothing to do with events at this moment."
Duke paced back and forth a few times; fighting his conviction that everything he tried was doomed to failure and a stubborn hope that this time he could make a positive impact for Haven and his friends. He was also wondering just what Grace was hiding from him because he could tell there was something more.
"Teach me." He finally declared, coming to a halt in front of Grace. His suspicions had to wait, he decided, because Audrey and Nathan still needed him. Grace smiled, not in triumph but with deep relief.
"Arrange yourself in a comfortable position, Duke, and relax, however works best for you, and center yourself."
Duke took several slow, deep breaths and she could tell when he was settled in his own mind.
"Now look inward. You can sense the troubles in your blood, like this. Identify them."
Her presence was suddenly in his mind, showing him what he had never realized he could do. She was silent while Duke studied himself according to her instruction. Finally he opened his eyes in a mute request for more guidance.
"Most of the troubles your family has gathered are nothing but harmful – you need to deactivate them like this." Duke had a vision of black balls of aether being enclosed in secure white boxes and stacked in a room. "But some will have useful applications… These you must arrange and compartmentalize within your mind – like so."
Duke absorbed the information eagerly, adapting the information to conform to the yoga practices, inventory at the Gull, shipping techniques, anything he was familiar and comfortable with.
"Very good." Grace complimented him as he neared the end of his mental organization. "Now, if you will permit it, I have a few skills to offer you that you will find helpful."
Duke's eyes sprang open in surprise at that information.
"You can do that? You can trouble people too?"
"Granting a skill is not the same as giving a trouble, Duke." Grace replied sternly. "This isn't going to be something that latches on to your emotions and erupts uncontrollably."
Duke looked decidedly unconvinced but nodded an acceptance anyway. He was committed now to doing whatever he had to if it would help Haven and his friends. Grace took a small knife from a pocket in her skirt and pricked her finger. A ruby drop of blood welled up and she took Duke's hand in a tight grip and pressed that drop of blood to his wrist. His eyes flared silver and Grace was in his mind again.
"Telepathy." She showed him the simple mental image of a radio receiver she used to trigger the ability in herself. "Concealment. Teleportation."
With each she showed a simple image to aid in conscious control of the ability: a radio for telepathy, a cloak for concealment and for teleportation, much to his amusement, the shimmer of a Star Trek teleporter. When she finished Duke practiced the three abilities until he was satisfied that he controlled them.
"Now I just need to get back to Haven." Duke told her, challenge in his posture and voice as he anticipated her refusal.
"No you don't." She contradicted him. She continued as he bristled with suspicion and anger. "You never left, Duke. We're in a secluded section of the park. Just open your eyes."
Duke obeyed and in a flash of déjà vu saw Grace's face rising above his and knew that her lips had been on his a moment before. Her red hair was confined to a braid now but otherwise she was exactly as he had first seen her. His eyes glowed silver from the blood she had shared with him moments before and, unsettling to him, so did hers. It brought back memories of Wade and his addiction to troubled blood but Grace's expression was serene. She rose easily to her feet from her kneeling position beside him and offered him a hand to help him up. He waved it away and easily got to his feet, waiting a moment for the rush of euphoria and strength to fade.
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Duke demanded.
"I created a sort of virtual reality in your mind to interact with you, Duke. It allowed me to heal you and train you without drawing attention to us. It also allowed me to work with you in a shorter period of time. We think faster than we act so the virtual mindscape is a great time saver. You're fully awake now, though." Grace told him calmly.
"I'm going now - I have to help them."
"Speak mentally to all you interact with, Duke – it will give you an air of mystery and authority that will help, and I advise you to use the cloaking skill to avoid being seen by any but a select one or two." She told him silently. "Also…" She gestured and the jeans and flannel shirt and tan jacket he wore transformed into black jeans, a black shirt and a black wool jacket.
Duke looked down at himself and then at her.
"Don't you want to look your best for them?" She asked silently but with a smile tugging her lips.
Duke gave a minuscule shrug and walked away from Grace, similar smile on his face. Grace vanished, only to reappear in the bell-tower of the church. She settled herself comfortably to wait while Duke wrapped up matters in Haven.
Several hours later Duke appeared in the bell-tower beside her, joining her silently in gazing down over the town of Haven as aether vanished from person after person and the cloud of aether in the sky thinned and disappeared.
"You only showed yourself to Dwight?"
"He was the only one who wouldn't be hurt more by my reappearance and subsequent disappearance. He has Lizzy to take his mind off of things." Duke said quietly.
Grace could feel the emotions battling each other for supremacy: Loss of this home and friends, relief that his role in Haven was ended, crushing guilt and a conflicted joy that they were free of the troubles.
"Why isn't the barn taking our troubles?" He finally asked.
"Do you want it to? Or do you want to help others still?" Grace asked him instead of answering the question.
"I'm tired." Duke said simply.
"I know. But you must still want to be a force to help others because only you could be preventing your barn from taking the skills and aether within you. Are you ready to come home with me, Duke?" Grace turned to face him, all hint of mischief and merriness gone from her face. "Haven is for God's Orphans but Sanctuary is for God's Children. People like you and me. Do you understand you belong with us now?"
"No." Duke said. "I don't understand that at all. But I'm curious. Can I come and make my decision then?"
If Duke had a single driving quality, it was curiosity. He might think it was the acquisition of money but that was just a means to an end. What he really loved was learning new things, experiencing new things. He didn't have such an eclectic body of knowledge by accident – it was thanks to his driving curiosity.
"None of us are bound to Sanctuary, Duke. Come, stay, go, decide to stay and change your mind - it doesn't matter. Your options are always open."
"Why would you want me? I'm a killer. I've been a monster."
In reply Grace sent an image to Duke's mind. It was her, standing in the ruins of a small settlement, wooden buildings on fire, wooden palisade blown into matchsticks. Her eyes were black as night and her red hair flared around her head in the light and wind of the flames around her.
"Because you are one of us, Duke. And because we have a purpose and you need a purpose right now."
Duke searched her face carefully then took her hands and nodded.
"I'd like a purpose." He agreed, just the slightest hitch to his voice revealing a wealth of need to Grace's experienced ear. She sensed, however, that curiosity drove him as well. He wanted to know what she was hiding – and he would, soon enough…
"Purpose, family, redemption..." She paused, her eyes darkening with remembered pain. "The other reason I came is because we share similar backgrounds. I know what you are feeling right now because I went through something similar. Not all God's Children did."
"How old are you anyway?" Duke asked curiously, suddenly realizing the image she had sent him was from an entirely different era."
"Younger than Audrey – but not by much. But that image wasn't just from a different era. Like I told you, I'm from another world, Duke. It has similarities to yours but it isn't this place."
The sorrow and depression that had colored Duke's expression lifted slightly as he digested that answer and was intrigued.
"Oh yes, Duke – a very long life awaits you if you desire it. And it will be filled with new discoveries. There are a multitude of worlds connected by the Void. We've only explored a fraction of them."
"Then let's go. Let me see if it's a home you offer or not."
Grace grinned, the same merry grin Duke had seen in the very beginning, but now he was alert to the sorrow shading her eyes.
"Yes, Duke, let go home."
She teleported them back to the park and then Duke followed Grace through the thinnie she produced right in front of them, apparently another of her skills. They emerged in the Void, which Duke thought was remarkably substantial for a place called "the Void". Grace caught his thought and she laughed lightly.
"It was once a living and thriving dimension." She told Duke as she led him swiftly through the wooded environment. "Something happened, though. We suspect it was something slow because some life has adapted and still thrives – like these plants and a few other lifeforms."
"Crabs with human eyes?" Duke asked, remembering Jennifer's description of the creatures she had seen.
"Yes. They exist here. You should avoid them if possible. They are rarely aggressive but if they choose to attack they have a painful, and frequently lethal, poison in their tails."
"So what about the trees? Are they going to try and eat me or something?" Duke gave the vegetation around them a wary look.
"Not as far as we've found. We don't spend very much time here. The chaos that aether emits is not healthy for higher lifeforms. Well, it's not healthy for lower lifeforms either but they have less capacity to go mad and embark on a mission of mass destruction."
"Yet Croatoan and William were here for centuries, weren't they?"
"And neither of them were what I would call "well balanced"." Grace noted dryly. "Croatoan was not originally the monster he became. His and William's exile was exceptionally foolish. It was generous of your Nathan to grant William the means to return to his homeworld but I would not be at all surprised to find we need to deal with him sometime down the road."
"You think he's insane?"
"Not exactly insane. Aether is the essence of chaos. Chaos can be a bountiful source of energy but it is the opposite of serenity. So this world, which is imbued with aether, is neutral at best and destructive in the main. Even though William's people seem to withstand this chaos better than your own, I believe they are more susceptible to the negative mental effects. I strongly suspect that is why Mara, who had aether incorporated into her very body, was such an unstable individual."
"That makes a lot of sense. She was the smartest person I've ever met, barring Charlotte maybe, but she was fickle and immature and utterly lacking in empathy as far as I could tell." Duke said slowly, remembering his time with Mara – the woman who was almost-Audrey and yet basically her opposite. He hated her, he loved her, and no one had ever hurt him so deeply, not even his mother, not even the loss of Jennifer.
"Even her mother was affected, I suspect." Grace noted, oblivious to his emotional turmoil. She ducked into a nearly invisible opening in a granite cliff face. "I cannot otherwise explain where her plan to place her daughter in that device and spit her out with altered memories every so often would have come from. Any thinking being would realize this could only promote anger and resentment, not healing or understanding."
"How would Charlotte have been affected?" Duke wondered.
"Originally she came to the Void with her husband, researching aether and exploring the worlds which are accessible through this place. Here the boundaries between worlds are permeable – in part because aether seeks new worlds to devour. That is the nature of chaos, after all."
"How do you know all of this?"
"One of our people was able to see the past. All he required was an object that had been handled often by the subject. He was curious about Croatoan and Mara and spent a long time seeking to understand what created them."
"That sounds like a handy ability."
"Not here in the Void it isn't." Grace countered with a distant sorrow. "He too was affected by the chaos of aether. We lost him."
"I'm sorry." Duke told her awkwardly.
"It was a long time ago. We have reached the entrance to Sanctuary but before we enter I must be frank with you."
Duke braced himself and Grace caught it and was saddened. She wasn't sure how he'd take her revelation, even though she knew he was expecting the other shoe to drop but what really made her sad was the fact that he was waiting to be betrayed. He didn't fear betrayal, he simply expected it.
"I didn't just save you to save Haven." She admitted to him. "I also saved you because I need help – help I believe you are uniquely qualified to provide. Something is wrong in Sanctuary and I am not sure who I can trust. You, when you are trained, will be at least as Skilled as I – possibly more so – and I am hoping you will help me discover what or who is wrong in Sanctuary."
"Why does everyone keep thinking I want to help?" Duke asked, not for the first time.
"I've seen your heart, Duke." Grace said with unassailable logic. "You are a protector, no matter how much you may wish otherwise."
"So, you want my help – and you don't want your friends on the other side of this thinnie to know about it?"
"Exactly."
Duke heaved a heavy sigh as he looked at Grace's hopeful expression. A small smile touched her lips as she sensed his capitulation – he suspected he was going to grow irritated by her ability to sense his response before he made it but he nodded his head and her smile grew.
"Thank you." She sighed in relief and held out her hand for Duke to take. "You cannot step through this portal without touching me."
"I thought you said I wasn't going to be bound if I came to your sanctuary." Duke went from casually interested to deeply mistrustful in an instant.
"You won't," she said patiently, "but I do not posses the ability to allow you free passage. That person is on the other side. If she declines to grant you passage I promise I will bring you back through the Void to wherever you wish to go. Will you trust me just a little longer?"
The hand she held out to him remained steady but she made no further effort to influence his choice. Duke looked at her skeptically but finally reached out and took her hand.
"I am placing a block to this conversation in your mind, Duke." Grace told him as they started through the thinnie. "There are other individuals in Sanctuary who can read minds and we don't want them to know we're suspicious. This will deflect them from your memory of this conversation."
Before Duke could decide whether or not to be offended by her high handed meddling with his mind they emerged in a meadow high above a small town with brightly colored buildings clustered together below them. Duke's first impression was that they had emerged in Lookout Point above Haven.
"Not Haven." Grace answered his unspoken thought. "Where Haven was "Haven for God's Orphans", we are Sanctuary. Well, to be precise, this is "Sanctuary for God's Children". It's a tad pompous so I prefer Sanctuary."
"As if you're here enough to call it anything." A mocking voice came from behind them.
Duke turned to see a modest building just a few steps away. A woman with skin the color of mocha and an exuberant mass of curly hair framing her face stood grinning broadly at Grace, who returned her grin just as broadly.
"Tehani!" Grace exclaimed gladly. "Meet Duke."
"You succeeded!" Tehani observed cheerfully. "Matthis owes me a forfeit."
"There are still people in Sanctuary who bet against me? When will they learn?"
"Never, I hope. Hello, Duke." Tehani said, moving down the wooden stairs of the building with her hand outstretched. "Word of advice: Never bet against Grace completing a mission."
"Grace's mission was to rescue me?" Duke asked doubtfully, automatically accepting the handshake.
"That was her secondary mission. Her primary mission was to ensure that Croatoan was defused."
"He lives." Grace said sourly. "He's within a new Barn."
"That's troubling." The smile faded from Tehani's face.
"He's powering the barn." Duke offered consolingly. "He chose to remove himself and the aether from Haven to please Audrey."
"You have news indeed." Tehani observed seriously. "This calls for a meeting."
"Feed us while you're setting it up, would you dear? I don't know about Duke but I suspect he's as famished as I am."
"I could eat." He admitted.
"There's chowder and biscuits in the kitchen. Help yourselves."
Tehani preceded them into the building which turned out to be a home. She disappeared through a doorway directly to the left of the entrance but Grace led Duke through the living room to an airy kitchen behind it. A sturdy oak table with simple wooden chairs took up the center of the room with a wood stove and a perfectly ordinary refrigerator along one wall and a large double sink and cabinets taking up the back wall. A huge picture window showed the back yard, fenced with a white picket fence and containing several brightly colored birds.
"Tehani keeps chickens and goats." Grace told Duke, noting his gaze. "Her quiche is amazing."
Grace dished them up and they ate in a companionable silence for a while.
"The meeting will most likely require your input." Grace finally said, breaking the silence. "Some will undoubtedly have questions for you to answer. After that you will be offered sanctuary – or not."
"Wait – what?" Duke asked her incredulously. "You made it sound like me being part of all this was a done deal – not that you ever explained what "this" actually is."
"I believe you will be welcomed." Grace assured him quickly. "But I cannot promise. I may have let my own desires influence my words."
"You want me here?" Duke decided that it was best to pretend he didn't know just how much she apparently wanted him in Sanctuary.
"I believe you belong here. If there is no place for you here then I will have to question my own presence in Sanctuary for I was influenced to far greater harm than you. Granted my Troublemaker was much less stable than yours."
"You've lost me." Duke admitted after trying to decipher her comment.
"She does that – especially when she's trying to tell someone things she knows she isn't supposed to yet." Tehani said wryly from the doorway. She gave Grace a stern look which Grace shrugged off.
"I see no need for secrecy. He will be told anyway."
"We have procedures, Grace. If I didn't know you as well as I do I would fear that the Void was affecting you."
"I have always been thus." Grace said blandly.
"I know."
"You know, I'd really like to know what's going on." Duke said, starting to grow irritated.
Grace got up and gathered their dishes. She washed them quickly and stacked them to dry, wiped down the table, and then turned to Tehani. Duke's temper simmered.
"Are they ready?"
"Yes." Tehani studied her friend for a minute and then sighed a little. "Try to be cordial this time. Many of them are new and do not know you as I do. I don't wish for you to be tied down in an evaluation. They make you so cranky."
"I'll do my best." Grace promised. Tehani looked unconvinced.
"Come, Duke, let us go meet the council of Sanctuary."
"Right…" Duke rubbed his face, suddenly tired; tired of the day, tired of being judged, tired of expectations, tired of everything really. He started when Grace laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"The day is almost over, Duke." She told him compassionately. "I will give you a bed for the night in my place when we finish here."
"I'm starting to worry I'm going to be locked up when we finish here." Duke told her frankly.
"You've done nothing wrong. I might get locked up," she admitted with a depreciating smile, "but you are still welcome to use a bed in my place if I am. Tehani has access and will guide you if I am detained. Let's go face the music."
Seeing no alternative, Duke shrugged and followed the two women out of the room. Tehani led them into the door she'd taken when they first entered the house. It led to a 10' x 20' room with several comfortable looking office chairs, two long tables, and three walls covered with what looked like flat screen televisions. A different face peered down from each screen.
"Grace, you've kept the council waiting –" began an elderly man irritably.
"Sorry, Therman." Grace cut him off casually. "Duke and I were starving. I thought it only polite to feed him before throwing him to the wolves – metaphorically speaking."
Duke blinked – she approached his level of disrespect for authority.
"Did you complete your mission?" Therman demanded, his ire clearly growing.
"Sort of…" Grace hedged uncomfortably.
"Define "sort of"." Therman glowered at her, pressing his fingertips together before his face.
"Croatoan is now locked away in a new barn. All the troubles on that world have been removed by the barn, with no further loss of life. Croatoan powers this barn – voluntarily, of course, which bodes well for his eventual rehabilitation."
"And Mara?"
"Mara was erased by her mother. An overlay personality, Audrey, was placed in control of their body. She also entered the barn as the power of her love for Nathan Wuornos and Haven was required to catalyze the aether in Croatoan." Grace's responses were brisk and businesslike.
"And this gentleman?"
"You know perfectly well that he is Duke Crocker. He could not remain on that world, particularly not after all believed him dead. I believe that it is imperative that Croatoan not realize he lives – or he might be tempted to resume his path of revenge and destruction."
"Why does he live? Why did you intervene?" Therman asked pointedly.
"You mean, aside from the fact that he'd just laid down his life to save the people he loved and a hell of a lot of people he didn't even know?" Grace questioned, losing a bit of her professionalism. "That would be because he was needed to guide a satisfactory outcome. The people of Haven didn't know me and certainly wouldn't have responded to any direction I could have offered. Duke they knew and trusted – and it worked."
"You were sent to destroy Croatoan." This was voiced by an elderly woman with distinctly Asian features.
"I couldn't do that without destroying Duke as well. Up until the moment he believed Duke dead Croatoan was tightly linked with him. His death would have backlashed onto Duke."
"So now we have a potential time bomb on our hands. What happens if Croatoan has another change of heart?"
"Then we can always destroy him then." Grace suggested with a certain dark practicality and not very well hidden relish. Duke suppressed a smile at her obvious dislike of the man who had tormented him. "This way not only saved Duke, it also removed all the troubles and aether on that planet. All we have to do now is make sure no one opens another thinnie there. They can develop in peace."
"And just what are we expected to do with your stray?"
Duke was growing very angry by now. His mouth opened but Tehani gave his arm a warning squeeze and he subsided unhappily.
"What you did with me." Grace looked around at the other faces. "When I came here with Willem you gave me a home. You offered me a purpose and a chance at redemption. Duke is no different than I. In fact I would argue that he's a far better candidate for the position of Cleaner than I was in those early periods. Certainly the body count from his actions never approached mine."
"You propose that we offer him a place and a position, then?" Therman questioned skeptically.
"He belongs here, yes." Grace was adamant.
"Duke Crocker, do you desire a place in Sanctuary?" Therman asked, turning the focus of the meeting to him.
"I have no idea." Duke answered honestly. "I can't say I'm impressed with your hospitality so far. I only came because Grace thought I'd be welcome here. If she was wrong then I'll take my leave."
"And go where? You must realize you can never return to your homeworld."
"I'm sure Grace could help me find a place to settle down. She promised to escort me where I wanted to go if I chose not to stay here. And since you guys seem to be bigger jerks than the ones running Haven, I'm beginning to think this isn't the place for me."
Grace drew in her breath as if to speak but bit her lips and held her tongue when Therman held up a hand for her silence. Duke could tell it was a struggle for her to control herself.
"If you two would wait in the next room, the council must confer." He told them, his face unreadable.
Grace leveled a glare that should have melted something and then spun on one heel, leading the way back through the door. They hadn't even sat down in the comfortable chairs in the conference room.
"Pigheaded, pompous, pissant, piles of putrescence…" Duke heard her muttering heatedly as she stalked over to an easy chair and threw herself down.
"So, it's going well then?" Duke asked blandly.
"They'll welcome you or they'll lose me." Grace growled fiercely. "They're idiots if they don't realize what an asset you'd be as a Cleaner."
"What's a "Cleaner"?"
"Croatoan isn't the only egomaniac messing with aether and your planet isn't the only one that has been troubled. There are countless worlds that touch the Void. Cleaners, like me, work to eliminate troubles and those who create them. Sometimes it's quick and easy. Sometimes it takes centuries. Sometimes what we set up as solutions, like the Teagues and their Guard organization, turn out to work against us."
"The Guard helped a lot of people." Duke admitted reluctantly.
"Creating a town where the troubled were concentrated was a mistake. It focused Mara and Croatoan's attention on you. Willem regretted that move but by the time he realized his mistake Haven was already too well entrenched. Then again, the troubled seem to congregate whether someone sets up a system and a haven for them or not." Grace was distracted into brooding about troubled populations.
"Something like the Roanoak Colony?"
"That was the direct result of Croatoan's tampering." She allowed herself to be diverted. "He tried out his first troubles immediately following his banishment there. He discovered the energy he could draw from the troubled when he returned, desperate for a cure after a sting from one of the crabs in the Void. Even after all these years the sheer magnitude of coincidence that was required to create Croatoan baffles me. How could something so fundamentally flawed survive for so long?"
Duke shrugged slightly. He had no illusions that life was ever going to be fair. It was actually somewhat humorous that someone as old as Grace might maintain the fantasy that there was justice available in this screwed up universe.
After a wait long enough to see Duke dozing on the sofa, Tehani appeared at the door and gestured them in.
"Grace, the council is not pleased with the outcome of this mission. You will be expected to check regularly on Croatoan for any signs that he is returning to the dark path he was on." Therman began ponderously. Grace let out an angry huff but said nothing.
"As for your protégé, we will allot him six months probation to demonstrate his ability to fit in with our community. If, at the end of that time, he has proven to be a productive citizen, then he will be granted full citizenship."
Duke had his poker face on, revealing nothing.
"Tomorrow I will expect you both to report to the Center – you to fill out and file your reports and Duke to begin orientation. You will be his mentor, Grace, and will train him as a Cleaner."
"What if I don't want to be a Cleaner?" Duke asked in a scrupulously neutral voice.
"Our community has a limited number of job opportunities." Therman answered him seriously. "You are a fit for only that of Cleaner. Based on your personality scan, however, I am confident that Grace is correct – you will make an exemplary cleaner. I suspect that you will find the work –" Therman paused, searching for the right word. "—therapeutic – or perhaps I should say, redemptive."
Duke nodded once, his face thoughtful rather than angry.
"This meeting is adjourned. I will see you tomorrow, Grace." Therman said firmly. The screens began blanking out and Tehani, Grace, and Duke left the room. Grace gave a small sigh of relief as the door closed behind them.
"That went pretty well, don't you think, Ani?"
"Any council meeting that doesn't end with you undergoing an evaluation is a good one in my book. Now take this young man home, get some rest, and bring him back for a better dinner tomorrow – you hear me?"
"I do, dear." Grace laughed briefly and then hugged her friend and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "C'mon, Crocker, let's get horizontal for a few hours. I'm beat."
A small yellow vehicle waited outside, just large enough to transport the two of them. Grace and Duke got in and Grace said: "Take me home."
The doors to the vehicle shut and Duke suddenly realized that there was no steering wheel. He grabbed convulsively at his door handle when he realized no one was controlling the car. Grace sighed and leaned her head back.
"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. It'll take us to my doorstep."
"Tell me you have a bottle of scotch – or something alcoholic." Duke grumbled mildly.
"I do." She told him, closing her eyes. "And I have a kitchen and a bathroom and bed you can help yourself to. Don't stay up too late – you'll want to be rested for tomorrow."
Grace's spare room proved to be both comfortable and strangely bland. The colors were all brown and taupe except for a few accents in navy blue. The double bed, one that would look at home in any bedroom in Haven, was comfortable and molded to his long frame when he stripped down to his briefs and collapsed on it. The curtains over the window had been drawn before he entered so he had no idea what kind of view awaited him, and he didn't much care.
He lay in the bed, body aching with exhaustion and mind racing, and stared blankly up at the ceiling. The drink Grace had given him sat neglected on the stand next to the bed, condensation wetting the cork coaster it sat on as the events of, not just the past day, but the past few months ganged up on him. He felt a sudden stab of anger at Grace for saving him – if he'd truly died he wouldn't be facing this moment. He wouldn't be wondering if he even wanted to go on without Jennifer, Nathan, Audrey and the few other people he cared about.
Jennifer's face formed in his mind's eye – smiling, then frowning and he knew she was unhappy that he would even consider death. He shrugged a half-hearted apology to her memory.
"You don't understand." He muttered to her. "I've lost it all. I'm lost now."
"Don't be silly." He heard her say gently. "You'll never lose me. And you won it all for your friends, for Haven."
"No I didn't." He argued stubbornly. "Nathan lost Audrey – she went away in the Barn with her father."
"But he saved her first." Jennifer pointed out with that special gift she had for seeing what was most important. "And he still has Haven and everyone you three saved. He'll be fine, eventually. So will you, if you let yourself."
This last was offered as sternly as Jennifer's quiet voice could manage. Duke smiled with a mixture of tenderness and loss, visualizing her so clearly.
"That's better." Jennifer whispered. "Take Grace up on her offer of a purpose, Duke. Heal. Love again – there's someone out there for you, I promise. And I'll always be with you too."
He felt a whisper of cold on his cheek, like the breath of a kiss from a December storm and his eyes closed, anger and grief and worry submerging under the weight of the day's efforts. Dying could really take it out of a guy.
In Haven Dwight went home to his daughter, marveling at her presence and grateful to Duke for helping make it possible for her to stay. He knew others were hurting and grieving but at this moment there was nothing left in his heart but love and gratitude that his daughter had been returned to him. Gloria, Vickie and little Aaron were home together, the realization that the troubles were gone just starting to sink in. Vickie was sketching Aaron as he struggled to keep his eyes open – he was up way past his bedtime but neither woman wanted the evening to end. And Nathan sat on the couch in his little house, looking at the picture of Audrey he'd rescued from the police station and wondering if he could keep his promise to her to go on. They'd won and yet it was so empty without her and without Duke. He needed to process Duke's death, and the fact that he had killed his friend, but it was overshadowed by the aching loss of Audrey. Not even the ability to feel the evening breeze coming through his open window could distract his mind from the fact that the two people he loved best in the world were gone.
"Tomorrow's another day." He finally sighed, putting the picture down on the coffee table in front of him. "Still have to explain what happened here in Haven the past few months. Still need causes for the deaths that won't bring the government alphabets down on us, even if we don't have Troubles anymore. I just wish you were here to navigate the road ahead with me, Audrey."
He took the pillow she'd used from the bedroom and laid down on the sofa, holding it to him like a stuffed animal. It smelled like her and the scent soothed him more than it hurt. Slowly his eyes slid shut and he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of Audrey and Duke.
The next day started off in a whirl of activity. Grace provided coffee and fruit and croissants and then she sent him into what originally looked like a closet, ordering him to strip before she closed the door. He pondered that for a moment but curiosity got the better of him and he obeyed just to see what was going to happen. What happened was a bar of red light which came from all four corners of the tiny white box he was in. The bars of light started at his head and moved down along his body. When they reached the soles of his feet they vanished and a section of the blank white wall in front of him turned into a screen with a menu.
Duke studied the options and quickly realized that this was an offering of clothing. The menu was easy to master and Duke made a selection of comfortable, warm clothing. Simple blue jeans, sensible hiking boots, a sleeveless undershirt with a soft blue long-sleeved knit over that. His tan jacket would do if the weather turned out to be less clement than he'd seen so far.
Clothed and feeling a little less vulnerable, Duke joined Grace in her kitchen. She wore another long, flowing skirt. It was made of a light cotton-like material and navy blue at the bottom that lightened in shade until it was almost white at the waist. Her shirt was also cotton, a loose white smock with long sleeves that could have doubled as wings if she raised her arms. She also had on a blue sleeveless vest that fell to mid-thigh. She examined Duke's clothing and nodded with an approving smile.
"Excellent choices – shall we?"
Walking down the streets of Sanctuary Duke noticed differences between it and Haven. Many of the buildings were the same and some of the people looked similar, or identical, to people he'd known in Haven but there were variations as well. There was no lighthouse. Where the Church on Green had been there was a building that could have been anything, from a warehouse to offices – although the lack of windows argued against offices in Duke's mind.
Grace led them through town to a building that looked exactly like Haven Memorial. Duke stopped, his suspicions flaring. Grace managed to sigh and smile simultaneously.
"Yes, it's a hospital – it's also houses our Cleaning operation. The doctors here will wish to examine what skills you carry and how well you've mastered them. We have rooms that are specifically constructed to allow you to practice some of the more destructive skills safely. Sometimes you will be able to practice other skills on human volunteers. Being housed in a hospital increases the safety factor."
Duke could find nothing to argue with in that explanation and followed Grace through the glass doors silently. She was well aware that his suspicion hadn't abated, however.
"We go our separate ways here, Duke." Grace warned him silently as they approached a desk identical to the admittance room in Haven Memorial. "If you need me just call out for me with your mind – I'll be listening for you."
"Mr. Crocker? Please come this way."
The young woman looked like Vickie Dutton but seemed more confident than the woman Duke remembered. With one more uneasy look at Grace, which elicited an encouraging smile from her, Duke followed the slender blond.
Grace sighed again and turned to the receptionist.
"He's waiting for you, Grace." The man told her nodding in the other direction.
"Thanks, Samuel." Grace nodded back and strode down the other hallway, making her way unerringly to Therman's office.
He smiled warmly when she entered the room but her grim expression never lifted.
"What was the meaning of last night?" She demanded before the door had even shut behind her.
Therman took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked enough like Vince Teagues to have been a close relative but his salt and pepper dark hair was cut short to his head and he lacked Vince's vibrant complexion. He looked like Vince's younger brother who had been office bound rather than an active outdoorsman for the majority of his life.
"That was Tehani's call." He told Grace, surprising her into silence. "She said Duke would resist a warm welcome and if we wanted him to stay we'd have to make him work for it. You know she's the best we've got at assessing newcomers."
"That is why she lives right by the entrance." Grace agreed unwillingly. "And this "orientation" garbage…?"
"Val was not happy to be roped into that." Therman chuckled briefly. "She's just going to give him a basic physical and go over Sanctuary's layout and record as many of his skills as he's willing to share with us. If he asks she'll explain the history of Sanctuary."
"I've already given him the bare bones." Grace told Therman.
"That's good because we need to send you back out again. P357 has been visited by a troublemaker. I'm not sure who it is but they're experienced. These troubles are complex and very destructive."
"P357? I haven't heard of that world, have I?"
"No. Shyla found it while you were on P423."
"And are these are established troubles?"
"At least as long as those on P423." Therman confirmed.
"And the Troublemaker? Do you think we'll find them there?"
"Shyla saw no sign of the Troublemaker but she didn't stay very long. You know how skittish she is in the presence of troubles."
"Wise of her. All she can do is cloak her presence from the common forms of detection."
"We can't all carry multiple skills." Therman observed with a trace of irritation.
"I know, that's why Duke Crocker is so important."
"We agree. I just wish we didn't have to walk the fine line of making him work for acceptance here until he feels more comfortable."
"I guess my next move is a conference with Tehani." Grace decided. "Then I'll collect Duke and we'll head to P357. At least he can cloak and communicate mentally when he desires. Took to it like a pro."
"Be careful, Grace. Duke is untested. Even with Tehani's input we can't be sure how he'll react in the field."
"He'll be fine, Therman. He was tested plenty on Earth."
"Go, get ready to head out. P357 is heading towards a crisis."
"Is Shyla back? I'll need to debrief her about the inhabitants before we go."
"Yes, she's in her office."
"Okay, Shyla then Tehani, then I'll collect Duke and brief him."
"Give him this." Therman held out a pendant that looked something like an Asian symbol on a simple chain. "It will grant him access through all thinnies other than ours."
"He's trustworthy, Therman."
"He turned on his own people, Grace."
"He was being controlled."
"And until we know he can't be controlled by another Troublemaker he's on probation. That's non-negotiable."
"You know, Therman, there's no guarantee I can't be controlled by another Troublemaker either." Grace pointed out, stashing the pendant in a pocket in her vest. She closed the door behind her as Therman struggled for a response to that observation.
Shyla explained that the humans of P357 were in the very beginning of an industrial age and the society most affected by the Troublemaker was primarily matriarchal. She provided images of the people and their clothing, noting that Grace's flaming red hair would draw attention as would her fair complexion. Grace stifled her groan of dismay. She hated how changing her hair color made her scalp itch for a week. At least Duke would fit in fairly well with no alterations.
Once she had a handle on the situation on P357 Grace made her way to the office set aside for her use (which she barely visited) and called her friend Tehani.
"Duke and I have a mission already so talk fast – what do I need to know about him?" She opened their conversation briskly.
"Miffed at me about last night?" Tehani countered with a slight chuckle. "You'll realize I'm right soon enough. Your instincts on Duke are pretty good but he's not you. When you were freed from the control of your Troublemaker you were nearly consumed by guilt. You threw yourself into your task of Cleaner to redeem the damage you had a hand in. Duke is angrier. He would love to have an opportunity to take his revenge on Croatoan. He doesn't feel he can be a positive influence for others. On a very deep level he feels that he is cursed and everything he tries doomed to harm others – that's why he jumped on dying as the solution to Croatoan stealing the troubles within him."
"So, he's a bleeding mess under a façade of cynicism and attitude."
"I'm torn between pushing you two through the thinnie myself and keeping him here under the care of a mind healer until the worst of his self-hatred is addressed." Tehani said frankly. "But I think throwing him into work will ultimately be the most therapeutic. Keep your empathy on alert, though. He's one bad experience away from a total meltdown – and he is the most skilled person we've seen since Willem."
"I understand." Grace assured her friend seriously. "I still remember how I felt when Willem found me in the wreckage of my settlement and managed to talk me back to sanity. I'll watch him closely."
"If anyone can get him through this initial period of recovery, it will be you."
"What about Cenna? Should we bring her in before the mission?"
"Not now – he's not ready for that at all."
"Does she know about him?"
"I don't think so. I'll prepare her for him while you two are working."
"She'll be ready for him when we return, then. I'll do what I can to keep him from imploding or exploding in the meantime."
"You're such a mother." Tehani laughed. "When are you going to find the right partner and raise a few more red-headed rescuers?"
"When there aren't so many Troublemakers running around ruining lives. Now leave me alone and let me prepare for this mission."
"Grace, when you get back you need to visit Cenna too." Tehani said seriously. "No more putting it off. I know the date even if you're pretending you don't."
Grace didn't respond verbally but she did nod once before ending the conference. She left her office and stopped by the receptionist desk.
"Samuel, I need two kits for a mission. Here are the requirements." She handed over a page of Shyla's work to the receptionist. "We'll be back in an hour for them. Sorry about the short notice."
"Not to worry." Samuel told her pleasantly. "It's a slow day today. Your protégé is in the cafeteria with Valerie, by the way."
"Thanks, that'll save me a few steps."
"Eat something while you're down there." Samuel called after her as she headed for the stairs.
"Okay, Mom, will do!" She called back.
The cafeteria was in the basement so Grace ducked into the stairwell and took the stairs down. She never took elevators if she could help it; she had a touch of claustrophobia. It took her a few minutes to reach the cafeteria and a few more minutes to collect a salad and mug of milky tea. Val waved her over with enough enthusiasm to warn Grace that Duke was being difficult in some way. She seemed a little too relieved when Grace joined them at a corner table.
"Giving Valerie a hard time, Duke?" Grace asked with poorly concealed amusement.
Duke spread his hands in a "perish the thought" expression.
"Well, Valerie, don't take this the wrong way but I'm going to have to steal Duke away from you. We've got a mission."
"We haven't finished the paperwork Therman wants." Valerie argued with ill-concealed relief.
"Don't worry about it, Val, I'll make it right with Therman." Grace assured the young woman. "He's the one who gave me the assignment so he can just wait for his paperwork." Grace added with a conspiratorial grin at the other two people. Valerie's return grin was more sickly than cheerful but Duke's answering grin was appreciative.
"In that case…" Val waffled nervously.
"Get out of here, Val. I need to confer with my intern." Grace ordered her genially.
"What have you been doing to the poor girl, Duke?" Grace asked as Val made good her escape.
"Mostly just asking questions." Duke answered with a touch of mischief.
"And she doesn't know how much to tell you so now she's all discombobulated. Unkind of you to take out your frustration on her. She's a good kid." Grace said blandly around a mouthful of greens. She slid paperwork across the table to Duke. "Read this while you finish your meal. We have a job to do."
"What about orientation?"
"I told Therman I wanted you with me."
"And Therman gives you what you want?"
"Mostly. I'm the best Cleaner they've got since Willem retired." Grace answered with a remarkable lack of humility.
"Hmmm…" Duke's gaze grew speculative and Grace began to smile.
"Yes, I have no doubt you will be an excellent Cleaner and yes that will grant you a fair amount of leeway in our community." She answered his unspoken thought.
"So what's up with this mission? Why is it so urgent that we need to leave right now?"
"They haven't said, which tells me they don't actually know. P357 has only recently been discovered so we're going in with less than optimal intelligence. Generally this level of urgency means a precog has had a vision or a dream of disaster."
"What do you people care, anyway? So a world is destroyed – what's it matter to you?"
"To me personally it matters because I've been responsible for too many lives lost. I want to save any and everyone I can. To Sanctuary in general it matters because disaster means the potential for the Void to consume another world. Our top scientists speculate that if that happens too often the Void will reach a tipping point where it can consume all our worlds."
Duke's fingers drummed a beat on the battered table.
"Guess we better go clean up a mess then." He was clearly torn between relief that there was action looming and a fear that he would somehow curse this mission and doom an entire planet or more.
"Familiarize yourself with the people, Duke." She told him briskly, tapping the papers. "Then I need to report to imaging for a makeover. We'll both need appropriate clothing and then we'll pick up our kits from Samuel and head out. Oh, and before I forget…" She fished out the pendant Therman had given her. "This will get you through thinnies. Not the one leading here but all the others."
Duke's eyes widened briefly in surprise but he put the necklace on willingly and began to read the material Shyla had given Grace. Grace finished her meal quickly and they headed to a room few in Sanctuary even knew existed.
"Hey Steve." She greeted the tall, thin man behind the desk.
"No – Steve? Really?" Duke unsuccessfully hid a grin behind his hand.
"What's wrong with my name?" Steve bristled slightly.
"Nothing – it's just that a friend of mine used to call someone who looked a lot like you "Steve". He was a good guy."
"Steve, I've got to blend in with these people." She handed a picture to Stan's twin. "Can you help me?"
"Of course I can." Steve grinned at her. "But you're going to complain the entire time."
"It makes me itch!" She grumbled.
Steve stared at the picture she'd given him in total concentration. Grace's lips thinned as her skin and scalp began to crawl. Duke watched in fascination as her hair darkened to the color of a roasted coffee bean and her skin took on a darker hue. When he finally looked up she looked like she could have been Duke's sister, except for her blue eyes.
"No." Grace said firmly before Steve could speak. "You are not messing with my eyes. Blue may be rare but it's not unheard of with them so just leave it."
"Wouldn't dream of changing your eye color." Steve said hastily. "Lisa is in her office."
"Nice meeting you, Steve." Duke waved at the man as Grace stalked out of the room, twitching slightly in an effort not to scratch the multitude of itches she now had.
Lisa was in the room next door. She started when Grace entered the room but relaxed again when she recognized the changed woman.
"Need to be outfitted, I assume?"
"Yep – new world, new culture. Here's an info packet to work from."
Lisa looked at it then examined Grace and Duke. She fingered Grace's skirt and shirt and deemed them satisfactory in material but the skirt's colors she changed to shades of red and brown. The vest she held and the soft wool transformed into a very light and supple deerskin. The shape of the vest remained the same but brightly colored patterns made from dyed porcupine quills flowed around the hem.
"That'll do." Lisa decided, drawing in a few deep breaths. "Now for you…"
First she changed Duke's jeans into the same light deerskin that now made up Grace's vest. Similar patterns made their way up the outside length of the pants legs. Then his lightweight knit shirt became a cotton smock, gathered at the wrists by a deerskin cord. A leather belt formed around his waist as his undershirt vanished and on the leather belt was a hide pouch. Then Lisa disappeared through a door behind her and reappeared with two soft leather bags that could be slung over their shoulders.
"A change of clothing, nightclothes, and cleaning and repair kits for your stuff." She explained when Duke gave her a questioning look. "Samuel will have the rest of your gear at the receptionist desk – but he doesn't do culturally appropriate clothing."
"Samuel will have knives, flint, basic first aid supplies and that sort of thing for us in our kits." Grace expanded on Lisa's explanation, studying their new looks and nodding with satisfaction. "Thanks, Lisa, your work is perfect, as always."
"Why did you have Lisa change our clothes?" Duke asked as Grace led the way back to the reception room. "You changed mine in Haven."
"That was an illusion, Duke." Grace told him. "I suppose I could copy Lisa and Steve's talents but, frankly, I feel like I have too damn many as it is."
"I can understand that." Duke agreed bleakly.
"I know you can. Let's just kit up and go see what's happening on this new world."
Very shortly Duke and Grace exited another yellow vehicle in front of Tehani's home. They each had their soft leather bags slung across their bodies and long knives sheathed around their waists. They also had sturdy walking sticks.
"Leaving so soon?" Tehani called from her porch.
"Troubles don't wait for my convenience, dear." Grace called back. "We'll see you when we see you."
Tehani waved at them and Grace took Duke's hand. Holding Grace's hand Duke could see the thinnie in front of them. He had a moment to wonder if this was the right choice for him and then Grace pulled him through the green curtain into the Void.
"So," she said as soon as they were through the thinnie, "what do you think of Sanctuary?"
"I think you're right." Duke told her as they set off through the Void. "Something is wrong. It's nothing I can put my finger on but people just seemed off – more than them being new to me."
"I half hoped I was wrong." Grace sighed. "Thank you, by the way, for doing this. You barely know me and you don't know Sanctuary at all. You really do have a Cleaner's heart, you know."
"Don't tell anyone." Duke grumbled. "I have a reputation to maintain."