Did you miss me? I was never done with this story. Not at all. My life is its own private freak show of horror and missed opportunities etc. I've been up the wall because of my computer and the busyness that is my life.

But here it is – new chapter in time for the part where they're trying to anesthetize the viewers of Degrassi into forgetting what we love about the show.

Hope you love the looooooooong awaited chapter. I definitely don't own Degrassi. Just the inability to know when to shut up. I own Saarasha.

Chapter 4

My name is Alliyah Bhandari and I am interrupting Eli's story and what will essentially become Clare's story to tell you how we made the jump. After Clara Beth's death Eli went berserk. He attacked everyone and everything that crossed his path that he took a dislike to. Those in charge –The Pre-Existent Ones- sent volley after volley of assassins to take him out. But he had to live you see. He had to be alive so that he could see Clare again…and so that she could rip his heart out. The world was a savage garden of twisted irony and intrigue that revolved all around him. He chose when to enter in, what lived, what died, what he saw and heard….he lived in a savage garden of twisted irony- and he was its Jester King.

1999

I sat on a bed watching Clare. She was deathly pale and the blood that had been spilling down the front of her dress had long ago coagulated. There was no steady rise and fall of her chest to reassure me that she was only sleeping and that she'd soon be up and be the Clare that I loved and knew better than anyone else. She was gone.

I looked down at the floor that was covered in her blood and wondered if I had miscalculated and had done her in too soon, and in so doing ripped out my own heart and taken the best friend I would ever have away from me.

Suddenly the sound of sharp painful breathing filled the room. Her chest rose sharply and she breathed in- a painful gasp. Crap. I guess I had punctured a lung. Her eyes shot open and she looked at me. I breathed a sigh of relief. Her gaze was filled with a terrible loathing and she fought to catch a breath and rise off the bed at the same time. She looked at me and it seemed her will to rise intensified.

Finally she shot off the bed and lumbered towards me. I smiled at her as she doubled up her fist and planted it square in my jaw.

"Alli Bhandari you bitch! How could you stab me?"

I guess I should explain how that came about. To truly grasp what happened here you have to travel with me to the beginning. I am Alliyah Bhandari. I am subkin. I am the daughter of a human and a djinn.

My mother was created before the earth was new and the moon controlled the tides. At least that's the way that she likes to begin her stories of her birth. She lived as a human girl, and then was made to endure the painful djinn birth. She struggled against her owner, managing to kill him and gain her freedom. She traveled the world outside of India. She went to Greece where she was revered as an oracle. She's very spot on at predicting the future. I've inherited some of that from her. Eventually she made her way back home where she became revered as a god. I have to admit it's kind of weird to see statues of your mother with many many breasts. Yet that's how she knew she'd be a good mother. She was a nurturer from the beginning. My father was one of her followers and it was his devotion, his pure love that touched this very jaded being and caused her to give up her immortality to be with him.

It's very romantic and very not practical. At least to my way of thinking. However, if not for their love where would I and Savtaj be? While giving up her immortality my mother did not give up all her powers and so they trickled down through the womb to me.

I was the daughter of a very very powerful former goddess/djinn/oracle. The subkin that attended my birth were the type that could not be summoned, they were so powerful, and they came and went under their own power. They marked me at my birth as a boon to my mother who they loved after their own fashion. You could not see the marks with the naked eye, but they were very visible to subkin. I could go anywhere unmolested at least by subkin, but not by humans. Thus was the advent of Clare.

I was on the playground at school crying as two mean older girls took the chaipattie my mother had made for my lunch and threw it on the ground. They were laughing at me when this auburn haired tergament showed up and laid into them. She didn't hit them or anything; she just threatened to let the teacher know what they were up to in a very nice/nasty manner. Soon they had run off. She turned to me, "Wanna share lunch with me? I have turkey and Swiss sandwiches if you want."

I was surprised to see that she was as small as me. She had long curly reddish hair that was up in a ponytail and she was wearing glasses that did little disguise the startling beauty of her eyes. I smiled at her.

"Thank you. I'm Alliyah. Alliyah Bhandari."

"I'm Clare Edwards. Are you okay?"

I shyly nodded at her. "Do you wanna be friends?"

"Best friends?"

I smiled. "Deal!"

We hugged and I pulled back in shock, but she didn't seem to notice. She grabbed my hand and half dragged, half skipped me back to where she was sitting so she could give me half her lunch. I ate my sandwich guardedly, but as is the manner of five year olds the invitation to play pushed everything out of my mind until I returned to my mother.

"Mummy Mummy! Something weird happened today at school."

"What was it my pet?"

I told her all about the girls that had been mean to me and how Clare had stood up to them. It was a little frightening to tell my mother things because her emotion shone clearly in her eyes. They had turned red as coals of fire when I told her how the girls had been so cruel to me, but had gentled into a merry blue blaze when I spoke of Clare. A smile broke out on her face and then a frown.

It's good to have a mother that can see the future. She saw exactly my problem with Clare.

"Umm…Alliyah…I know you are a good girl, so why would you…."

I watched my mother disappear inside her mind for a little. Checking probable future outcomes as my father would say. I waited for her to come back with my answer.

"Yes Alli. You will do the thing that you saw. But all will be well. A little was revealed to you at this time. But I have inquired and I know you will know the end of the thing in time and you will see that it will all be for the best. "

"The best?"

"Yes my darling. The best."

I walked away from my mother replaying the scenes that had entered my mind when I had hugged Clare on the playground.

She was destined to be my best friend. The best friend I ever had. I saw her sticking by me even when I had lost my path and loving me anyways. The only thing I couldn't understand is why when we were sixteen; I was going to have to kill her.

2010

Clare and I were walking up the front steps of Degrassi when I sensed him. He was trouble with a capital T. He made my ex Johnny DiMarco seem like a toddler with a tantrum. I could also see that he and Johnny's boy Fitz were going to cause me and Clare nothing but endless grief if someone didn't intervene.

As per usual he was attracted to Clare. She was a trouble magnet. I can't tell you how many times I've had to run in to keep her from being devoured or beheaded or dismembered or just kidnapped. There were these two creepy werewolves she met at church of all places that had wanted to cut and taste her because they had some red head fetish left over from the fifties when they lived in New York. I wasn't having it.

There were the mermaids that tried to kidnap her at the beach. They had taken one look at her baby blues and determined that they would make a nice ornament in the world's most macabre eye-ball necklace. Let's not even talk about the nymphs that were visiting from Greece when we were fourteen and had taken one look at her maturing body and decided Clare should also be a free and frisky transmographic woodland creature. Those things are worse than pimps when it comes to recruiting. I was very sure that my best friend did not want to be the love slave of some randy satyr not matter how much of a good time he was promising.

So of course this vampire pulls up in a black hearse and walks out with a face that only Botticelli could imagine and pins his green eyes on my best friend and I have to catch her because she's suddenly gone weak in the knees. I look at him closely but I don't pick up that "I will lay you all" vibe that incubi usually give out. So he was a regular vamp, and like Fitz very very very old, because the young ones, they don't make it in the sunlight. Little known secret, there are no vampires that sparkle in the sunlight at though they had been attacked by arts and crafts herpes, I mean glitter. So take that.

What's stunning me is that he's just as taken in by Clare as she is by him and if vampires could go pale, he'd be whiter than he already is. I'm not even touching him and I'm being assaulted by images of him and Clare, but it's all confusing and making no sense.

I see him and Clare, only she's dressed in white and lying on a bed with diamonds and pearls threaded through her hair. I see her dressed in yellow tied to a chair with a gag over her mouth, but the time is wrong and it looks like it takes place in the past. Then there's Clare again dressed like Taylor Swift's grandmother in a long gingham dress looking at a picture and crying. Finally I see the two werewolves from Clare's church, but they're younger and sitting down over her broken body, eating the insides. I'm a little scared.

He looks at me startled and I realize that he can see what I'm seeing when I look at him. His lips form the word "Seer" and something else that I couldn't quite make out. I knew he knew what I was to the core. I realized two things. One he was Clare's soul mate and the dreadful second thing was she had to kill him.

****
I don't say anything when I get home. My mother is waiting for me with a cup of tea and I know what this means, even though we've never had this talk. She knew it was coming and so did I. She gestured for me to be seated.

"The Jester King has enrolled at your school."

That's who that was? A chill raced up my spine. All subkin know of the Jester King. These are the horror stories that they put us to bed with at night in my world. Any little creature t hat decides to step out of line will be met by the Jester King. It's a cruel slow death at his hands He doesn't care at all, practically heartless. He would chew me up like meat in a second, no matter who marked me. He wasn't a Pre-Existent one….just a stupid Original. But rumor had it he had the ability to kill a Pre-Existent if he so chose.

There are vampire levels if truth be told. You had your run of the mill vampires that were almost human. Other than good eyesight, some speed and superhuman strength they are no different than anyone on the street. The incubi and the succubii are a little higher up on the food chain. They are extremely sensual and sexy vampires. I think they are just giant whores but that's me. Then are the Originals. They claim their origin before the start of most world religions. They are daywalkers, who can control and read minds and move objects. They can start fires and become invisible and a host of other things that make it challenging to remain alive if you ever meet one. Then they are the Pre-Existents. They are the creators of the Originals. They are the gods of old. Men of renown. Which has me wondering how the hell Fitz got into that group. The boy is a straight fool. Yet I wouldn't mess with him. I mean for all that I hate Fitz he used to be worshipped as the god Set down in Egypt. Or so I heard…I could see that boy in charge of some serious chaos.

I wonder why one of the most powerful beings in the subkin world would enroll at my school. Almost unlimited power and you want to go to high school. Was he high? My mother shook me just then brining me back from my own thoughts.

"Is there any reason why a Pre-Existent and an Original are trying to run around the halls of my school?"

"Fitz is the Jester King's maker."

"Shut-up. Fitz made the most powerful vampire alive right now?"

"One of the most Alliyah. One of the most."

"Sorry. That doesn't explain why Fitz is at Degrassi with his protégé."

"The Jester King is on a mission to kill Fitz."

"Finally. I like this guy. So why is Fitz at Degrassi? It can't be to hide out."

"It's more a matter of leverage."

I must have looked confused because she took a deep breath and said "Clare."

"What? What does she have to do with all of this?"
My mother sighed and looked at me. "You know how it seems that every subkin you cross paths with wants to either take her out or make her disappear?"

"Yes."

"Well it's only because your friend was born to destroy our kind. Well to police our kind. Obliterate. Wipe out. Make null and void. I have to admit. I've been tempted to kill her a time or two myself."

"I don't get it. She can barely keep herself out of danger. How is she going to do all that?"

"Well she's an avenger. Her kind of spirit is born out of two things. Deep despair and betrayal. She's actually the reincarnation of a girl named Saarasha."

"What/?"

"Yes. Um. About that. The Jester King's real name is Ejaan. He and Saarasha were born in the same time period. They were destined to be married but he was turned by Setmenkil or Fitz. Mind you Ejaan and Saarasha never officially met. They would have on their wedding night, but not before. She was younger than him and not a first daughter. She wouldn't have had reason to come across him. But Set interrupted all that. Saarasha went insane when she discovered that Ejaan was dead."

"So ancient Clare…wait insane?"

"Yes. To make matters worse he actually killed her. In his defense he thought he was doing the right thing. Ejaan eventually met her again as Clarjhone. Something in them recognized each other and they fell in love. But there are stricter rules binding vampire and human relations than those binding djinn and humans."

"So they didn't end up together then huh?"

"No. Fitz killed her before Ejaan's eyes."

"Why? Why couldn't they just let her be turned and then…."

"No. For vampires humans are just food. So Ejaan falling for Clarjhone would be like you falling in love with your chicken sandwich. An abomination. They didn't know they were meant for each other. I want you to remember that."

"So after who knows how many years he's just getting his revenge now?"

"No. She was reborn…again. As Clara in Spain. She met up with him again, but managed to get herself cursed by a jealous gypsy brujé. So instead of loving Ejaan…it'd be a double edged sword…she would love him, but would be honor bound to kill him for what he's done."

My mother chuckled. That girl was a good faker. It was already Clare's destiny to extinguish darkness from this earth. She just twisted it a little to make her the one responsible for avenging Ejaan's cheating. But I always wonder…can it be cheating when your true half appears? The one you were meant for? They are very very rare because it would be foolish to doom humanity to such a fate. But when you find your own, well I think some allowances should be made."

"Was she ever anyone else? I saw two other girls in his past that looked like Clare."

"Hmm yeah. Clarabelle, a pretty little Texan gal with a heart as wide as the sea. She had her hand cut off by a robber whose picture she drew. Yet that boy was still head over heels in love with her…not to mention Clara Beth. That would be the last incarnation before this one. This has to be the final one Alliyah."

"Why now after all these years does it have to end here, at this time?"

"It's Ejaan. He's angry enough now to go after his Maker and he won't stop there. What I'm seeing is that he's already murdered the rest of the Originals. Well in his defense they were sent after him to take him out. Now he's going to kill Fitz and then go after the rest of the Pre-Existent."

I drew a deep breath. There were no more Originals? He was going after the Pre-Existent…and then w hat? They were the vampire law, without them there would be undead tyranny, unless…..

"Yes Alliyah. He is going to be their ruler, and then it will be too awful to imagine for the rest of the subkin. He doesn't know what he's about."

"How do we stop him?"

"You don't the huntress does. You have to get her to rise. In her current state she's too weak. Fitz could take her out in a heartbeat; in fact he's been waiting for Eli ever since he's seen Clare's face. She looks too much like herself for him not to recognize the others in her."

I looked at my mother in disbelief. "I have to get her to rise? What do I do? Shout subkin and then hope for the best?"

My mother frowned at me. "You know what you have to do Alliyah. You've known it since you met her. If Fitz kills her she'll stay dead. It's not enough of a betrayal to bring her back to avenge herself."

"You mean…"

"Yes. The timing is right. She's going to be sixteen in another two days. Between two ages it's perfect, the veil is thinned at midnight. You'll sleep over like you do every year, only difference you stick a blade into her heart exactly at midnight. The betrayal will shock her back and she'll come back ready to go."

"So w hen you convinced her mother that the two most uncoordinated girls in the universe should take dance and martial arts lessons you were preparing us for this?"

"Yes, I told you at the time I had my reasons. As soon as she forgives you it will give you a boost in power too and you'll be her second in command. You decided this the very first time you met her."

"I decided at five that I was going to serve as second in command to Clare? I didn't even understand the vision I had then."

"Alliyah pay attention. I said the very first time. Not now but before time. You'll keep the right subkin safe. That is why I am your mother. I always knew any daughter I had would help to save the world."

"Yeah. All I have to do is kill my best friend."

"You've known since you were five years old that you would have to do this Alliyah. At least now you know why."

"Tell me one thing mother. Did you know this when I came to you as a little girl?"

I didn't have to see her nod her head. I already knew. A trade off of being part djinn. No one had to really tell me anything. I turned and walked out of the room. Apparently I didn't have much time.

And so there we were too girls celebrating the sixteenth birthday of one of them. Clare looked so beautiful in the dress she wore to see a play that night. She was so excited. I watched her silently thinking about the ornate jewel-encrusted dagger that my mother had thrust into my bag. I hoped all would be well.

The time came far too quickly for me. We were laughing about something an actor had said when I noticed I had three minutes left with my best friend. I blurted out, "Clare look out!"

When she looked up at me in confusion I opened my bag and grabbed the dagger. She frowned because she couldn't see my hand. "Funny Alli – your makeup isn't going to jump out and attack me anytime soon."

I smiled sadly as I saw the clock leap to 11:59. Was that the time? I pulled the dagger out. Clare's mouth was a perfect O of shock and amazement. I plunged it straight into her heart apologizing as the clock struck twelve and I murdered my best friend on the dawning of her sixteenth birthday.