"Anything to report?" asked the man on the far side of the room.

"Actually I do Mister Castaway" said the other man, producing an envelope from his pocket and depositing it on a nearby desk.

Without turning around John Castaway reached down and picked up the envelope. After a few moments of examining the contents he tossed it back on the table in disgust. "Has it been verified then?"

"Yes sir" said the other man, "there is no evidence of tampering".

Castaway paused for a moment to consider something before speaking again. "I want her alive" he said at length.

"Sir?"

Castaway spun around and leveled a withering glare at the other man. "You heard me" he snapped, "As much as I hate we need whatever information that creature has".

"Understood sir" said the man who promply spun on his heels and headed for the door.

"Don't worry brother" said Castaway causing the man to pause, "once I'm finished with her you can deal with the monster as you see fit".

"Thank you sir" stammered the man.

"That's all for now brother, you can go" said Castaway. As soon as the door closed he picked up one of the objects from the envelope, a photograph of Elisa taken the night before gliding over the city streets. "That form suits you miss Maza" muttered Castaway, "a fitting punishment for someone like you. Still we can't have anyone else share your fate now can we?" With a flick of his wrist Castaway tossed the photo into a nearby fireplace.

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Elisa couldn't help but fidget once she had finished explaining things as best she could. After all she was the sole focus of five pairs of eyes.

"That's, quite a story" stammered Brooklyn, not sure what else there was to say.

"I still don't understand" put in Angela, "this seems impossible".

Lexington had been listing in not saying a word, a contemplative look on his face. But when he heard Angela speak he snapped out of his reverie. "I wish it was impossible" he said, "but something similar has happened before, remember Talon? And the clones? Sevarius must have saved some DNA from the cloning experiments and done the same thing to Elisa that he did to Derek".

"But why would he bother?" asked Broadway.

Breathing a sigh of relief at no longer being the centre of attention Elisa thought about what they were discussing. The same thing that hap happened to her had happened before? She didn't know why but the thought almost made her blood boil and she had to resist the urge to take off and hunt this 'doctor Sevarius' down right that moment. But common sense held her back, there was no way she could do anything on her own, and besides that name, Derek was it?, sounded so familiar to her.

Elisa tried to discard the thought but it kept nagging at her until she spoke. "Guys?" she said catching everyone's attention, "who's Derek?"

It was the others turn to fidget uncomfortably. "You don't remember that either?" asked Brooklyn.

Elisa shook her head slowly. "The name sounds familiar" she admitted, "but I have no idea why".

The others looked at each other before Brooklyn spoke up again. "Elisa" he said, "Derek is your brother".

Elisa just stood there staring for what seemed like an eternity but was really only a few moments. "What…?" stammered Elisa before she staggered forward clutching her head. She only vaguely registered the shouts as somebody caught her and lowered her safely to the ground. It felt like the inside of her skull was on fire. She heard someone screaming and, before passing out, realized it was her.

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Elisa was back out over the city drifting toward the tower. Feeling puzzled she picked up the pace. How had she ended up out here?

When she landed Elisa opened her mouth to call out to Goliath and the others, but when she saw the castle she snapped her mouth shut. Gigantic trees had sprung up everywhere in the courtyard. Confused Elisa wandered forward into the trees.

Looking around she spotted a small clearing and in the cleaing she saw herself, her human self, argueing with one of the people from the picture of her family. It must have been her brother judging by his appearance. As she watched Goliath jumped in an put an end to the argument saying something about how lucky they were to still have each other.

The whole scene felt so familiar to Elisa. It was almost like she was observing her own memories from a distance. Wait, thought Elisa, that's exactly what this is. I'm watching my own memories. Looking back up she saw the forest was gone leaving the castle as it was supposed to be.

Looking around Elisa spotted several figures up on the battlement's. Curious now she climbed the steps to find her human self speaking with, what was that thing? It looked like a gargoyle but it had a catlike body and it's wings were all wrong.

"Cross your heart…" the other Elisa was saying.

"Hope to…" said the gargoyle like creature before a look of horror crossed it's face.

"Derek?" said the other Elisa moving towards the thing, "Derek is that you".

"Don't look at me" Derek practically wailed hiding behind his wings before taking to the sky.

"Wait!" shouted Elisa reaching toward him and, without thinking, taking to the air after him. The world seemed to blur around her like running paint, swirling around and around until it reformed into what looked like some sort of underground complex. Landing on an old set of subway tracks Elisa once again saw her human self speaking with Derek, but this time there were others that looked similar to him.

Elisa went to move closer but she found she couldn't move, her limbs felt like they were turning to lead and the world began to run and dissolve around her again. "Derek" she called trying to reach for her brother before everything went black.

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Elisa stirred feeling the castles cold stone under her. "I think she coming around" someone said.

Elisa forced her eyes open to see seven pairs of concerned eyes looking down at her. Forcing herself into a sitting position Elisa heard something hiss in protest and, looking down, found a familiar looking cat staring back at her. The same one that Hudson had been holding earlier if she was right. She gave the little creature a small smile before picking it up and getting to her feet with the others help.

"What happened" groaned Elisa rubbing her throbbing head with her free hand.

"You fainted" said Goliath, "Elisa, are you all right?"

"I don't" Elisa began before letting her arm fall to her side. "I need to see him".

"Who?"

"Derek" she said, "my brother, I, need to talk to him".

Glancing at the glowing horizon Hudson shook his head. "Tomorrow night lass" he said, "ye won't make it before sunrise".

An image of Broadway turning to stone in mid air and landing on a pile of sacks flashed through Elisa's mind. She grinned at the portly gargoyle and nodded in agreement.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Broadway asked nervously.

"No reason" said Elisa, "I just remembered something funny right now is all".

The worried expressions of the others melted at Elisa's happy expression.

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Chapter 4. about a week ate but hey, it's out. Besides i have a reason, my moniter burned out so i needed to drudge up my laptop and remotely access my other computer through the network just to finish writing this chapter XD . I was going to make it longer but the idea I had for the next scene isn't fully formed yet and I figured I should end the chapter on a happy note instead of another cliffhanger. Once again a big thank you to all of my reviewers. I think I'll answer some questions to that effect actually.

Worker 72: Her money or not I guarantee that Demona will be none too pleased :D

Japyra: thanks I'll keep that in mind.

Anyway see yall later.