Temporal relations

Hiloria was sitting in Sofia's room when the girl yawned and opened her eyes. She stared around for a moment, and then her eyes focused on Hiloria, who smiled.

"Good morning, Sofia. Did you sleep well?"

"I did, Sister Hiloria." Sofia said with a nod. "I feel good. I think." She qualified.

"May I approach?" Hiloria asked, still working hard to be gentle and patient.

"You could have hurt me." Sofia would not meet her gaze. "You could have done all kinds of things to me. You did not. I don't… I don't know what to think."

"I know the feeling." Hiloria admitted. Sofia stared at her and Hiloria shook her head. "Sofia, something very odd happened to me last night. I need to touch you."

"You could just do it." Sofia said weakly. "You could have while I slept."

"I did touch you while you slept." Hiloria admitted. Sofia's face hardened, but Hiloria continued. "You scared me." Sofia's eyes bulged but Hiloria continued. "You said something to me in your sleep last night that confused me a great deal." Hiloria nodded as Sofia jerked. "What do you remember from before the evil humans?"

"What?" Sofia obviously hadn't been expecting that question.

"It is very important, Sofia." Hiloria said sadly. "I cannot speak of what I saw and I do not know how it happened. But what I do know is that you and I are connected in some way. Can you feel my mind without me pushing?" She asked as she focused on Sofia, who gasped again. Hiloria smiled as Sofia stared at her. You can.

"This is- No!" Sofia said weakly. "This is wrong!"

"Is it?" Hiloria did not move. "May I approach you?" She paused and spoke a single word into Sofia's mind. Daughter? She was not expecting Sofia to scream.

"NO!" Sofia recoiled away from Hiloria, backing all the way across the bed until she slammed into the wall next to it. "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

"Sofia, Sofia..." Hiloria was on her feet and at Sofia's side in an instant. "Easy, girl. Easy." She took Sofia in her arms and held her as the young human started to cry. She didn't know what she was doing, but it felt right as she rocked Sofia gently. "Do not speak. Do not try to explain." She cautioned as Sofia opened her mouth. "There are so many ways this can go wrong. We must be very cautious." The girl looked startled and then nodded. This was no nine year old. Not a chance. "We need corroboration of where you came from. You hid it well, from everyone." Sofia flushed in shame, but Hiloria just hugged her. "You had a perfectly valid reason. No one would have believed you."

"I can't remember it all!" Sofia was crying into Hiloria's shoulder as the hybrid held her. "It is all jumbled, confusing. I know I know you. I feel for you. You are my mom. But I am not- You are not- This makes no sense!" She was fighting for control as Hiloria held her.

"I know you are not nine years old, Sofia." Hiloria said gently. "We need to find out where you came from and what you really are. I know you are scared. I am too. I fear what we will discover. I truly do." She hugged Sofia again. "But you are not alone. Do you trust me?"

Sofia stared at Hiloria and then her face settled. I do.

Then come.


An hour later

Hiloria held her hand as Sofia slowly relaxed on the padded table. She was humming along with Milodi who stood near one wall, singing a soothing tune softly. As Hiloria had hoped, the two had hit it right off. Then again, if what Hiloria feared was true, then Sofia likely knew Milodi. Somehow. Kriso stood beside Milodi, his face severe.

Hiloria hadn't explained much to anyone. She had to obey the Elder's command not to speak of this. But she also had to help Sofia and maybe herself in the process.

The Priest nodded to the sole other occupant of the room, who nodded back as he stepped forward. She knew the hybrid in Trooper armor wasn't just a Trooper. She wasn't going to ask, even when he had introduced himself as 'Jones'. Special Resources troops rarely gave names, but this was an extraordinary case and it was likely not his real name. She had no idea why Kriso had snickered at that name. He had refused to explain.

She did not like the device on Sofia's left wrist that would medicate her as needed. That was the hand Hiloria held, for all the good it would likely do. The drugs bothered her on a number of levels, not the least of which was the girl's casual acceptance of said drugs. No, not acceptance. Resignation. Had she given up? Hiloria also did not like the metal circlets that both she and Sofia wore now. The energy she could feel pulsing from them felt wrong.

"Sofia? We are ready to begin." 'Jones' said with a nod to the girl. "Right now, the most important thing is your comfort level. We do not want to hurt you. If anything hurts or feels odder than usual, say so. Quickly."

"This thing is cold." Sofia said weakly, waving her unencumbered hand toward her head. "It… It feels wrong." Hiloria gave her hand a squeeze of agreement, and Sofia relaxed.

"The Scryer reads your brainwaves and it is highly intrusive." Jones sounded apologetic. "There really is not any other way for anyone other than a psionically gifted being to see what you saw. You hid the truth from them."

"I didn't have a choice!" Sofia pleaded.

"No, you didn't." Hiloria said quietly, giving the distraught girl's hand another squeeze. "Even the Elders are worried about the repercussions of this. What happens in here is for our ears and the Elders'. Those are their orders, not mine. No one else is cleared for this. I wouldn't have even exposed Sister Milodi and Brother Kriso to this except they already have been. Is that understood?" she commanded, and all three of the others nodded. "I am forbidden to speak of it, but Sofia is not. If what I fear is true, you will understand shortly." She reached out with her mind and Sofia let her in, the girl smiling as Hiloria's mind enveloped hers.

"Calming agent administered." 'Jones' said as he tapped controls. Hiloria could feel Sofia relax even further. "Sofia? I need you to think back. It may hurt, it may not. If it does, say so and we will try something else. What is the very first thing you remember?"

"First? Cold. It was cold." Sofia's eyes were closed and her face was scared. Hiloria held her limp hand. "I was cold. I remember… I am cold."

"Focus. Good. Keep that in your thoughts and you will remain there. Do you know where you are?" 'Jones' asked quietly. "What do you see?" An image appeared on a screen nearby, a view from two eyes. Bare metal walls.

"I do not know this place. It is familiar. Not in a good way." Sofia replied, her tone listless. "Something… Something warm has wrapped around me. I look up. I see her face. She smiles at me." The view from Sofia's eyes turned to show Hiloria's face, smiling at her. But the Priest looked awful. Older, tired. In pain?

"Who?" 'Jones' asked quietly. "Who do you see?"

"Sister Hiloria." Sofia was crying softly. "She is holding me, but she… She is hurting. Why is she hurting?" She pleaded as Milodi gasped. Hiloria held up her free hand for silence and Milodi nodded an apology.

"Where are you?" 'Jones' asked. "Can you see where you are?"

"A cell? The walls and floor are metal." Sofia said in a monotone. "Cold, hard metal. Bare metal. One wall is not metal. It is...blue? I can see through it, but I know, somehow I cannot pass through it. It is Sister Hiloria holding me. But it is not this one here. Is she talking to me? She is. It is in my head and she is so nice. She says she loves me." Milodi clasped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. Hiloria felt her eyes burn, and Kriso? He was a statue. "I love her. She says she is my mother and I am beautiful. Am I?"

"You are." Hiloria said in a very quiet voice. "It is okay, Sofia."

"No." Sofia said weakly and then she started to cry. Then she was all but babbling even with the drugs. "No! Mom! No! No! Don't take me! No! Let me go! She is hurt! Can't you see she is hurt?"

"Sofia, what is happening?" 'Jones' kept his tone calm, Hiloria had no idea how. She was anything but calm.

"They hurt her. She fell over and now she cannot get up." Sofia said weakly. "The blue wall is gone, but I cannot move! They are coming. She is screaming at them. Mom! No!"

Hiloria reacted on pure instinct. She threw herself into Sofia's mind. There was no resistance. Sofia was crying hard as Hiloria pulled her mind close and held it tight. It felt so right. She saw what Sofia did.

But what Sofia saw was so wrong!

Hiloria stared out of very small eyes at a scene out of nightmare. The room was a cell, small and bare. She saw herself lying on the floor. Both of the other her's legs were gone at the hip and the maimed hybrid wore nothing but some medical monitoring gear. The other her wasn't bleeding, but Hiloria could sense a wrongness in the broken hybrid. A decay? No. It was something she couldn't define.

All that paled as Sofia's small eyes slid to the two forms who entered the cell. A male and a female. Both wore the helmets of Templars. The female, Hiloria did not know. The male, she did! Marric Shüller stood over the fallen, broken Hybrid as the female reached for Sofia. The 'then' Sofia screamed, and her hands slammed into the female Templar's hands, who recoiled as if in pain. Sofia's hands… They were not flesh! They were blue energy!

"After all this time." Shüller's voice held triumph. "We have done it. We have our victory."

"You have won… nothing!" The maimed Hiloria gasped out savagely. "I will not… let you… hurt her."

"You cannot stop us, alien filth!" The Templar's weapons shimmered into life, and he raised them as the woman tried to grasp Sofia again, and Sofia fled back. "Just grab the brat and we can end this."

"You are still a fool, Templar. Her name is Sofia, not 'brat'." The Hiloria in Sofia's memory said snidely. He lashed out with his crystal gauntlets and she fell still. She wasn't going to rise again even as blue energy swirled around him.

"Well, you are dead." Shüller laughed coldly as Sofia screamed. "What? No!"

The present time Hiloria stiffened as the form that might someday be her was suddenly glowing green. It fell apart into a myriad of small glowing motes as another Hiloria appeared in the corner of the room. This one was also maimed, but her hands were limned with blue fire.

"How the hell?" Shüller snapped and then shook his head. "Nice trick, Advent filth."

"Sometimes it pays to have friends. Not that you would know about such, fanatic." The spectral Hiloria said quietly. "Sofia, come here." The perspective changed. Had Sofia ducked under the Templar reaching for her? Then she jerked and pain flared as Shüller slashed at her. Sofia screamed and the watching Hiloria screamed with her daughter as shared pain seared her too.

"No!" Both Hilorias and the female Templar shouted that as one.

"Don't hurt her!" The memory Hiloria said with real fear in her eyes. "You do not know what you are doing!"

"I am saving humanity!" Shüller slashed again and this time, the female Templar blocked his attack. "What are you doing?"

"Can't you feel it?" The female Templar demanded. "The offspring's power is growing exponentially! We will not be able to control it!"

"I can!" Shüller seemed to be all but frothing at the mouth. "I will fulfill my destiny. No one can stop me! Not the Elders, not Geist, not even the mighty Commander of XCOM himself!"

"What are you- No!" The Templar blocked the next attack with her own body. She fell in a heap between the mad Templar and Sofia, who had reached the maimed Hiloria now. The human woman looked at Hiloria, her helmet rent. A blue eye that was visible through the hole and it was sad. "I am sorry."

She tried to pull herself to Hiloria, but she fell and lay still.

"So am I." The spectral Hiloria held Sofia now, but the present Hiloria could feel power expanding in the girl. Incredible power, far beyond her capability. Maybe beyond the Elders' capability, as blasphemous as that thought was. There was no way Sofia could control such. Nothing Hiloria knew of could. "You have no idea what you have done, you stupid human." She gasped as electricity coursed from the mad Templar's hands into her. She fell to the floor, still putting herself between Sofia and the Templar.

Wait. How had the female Templar made it all the way to Sofia? She was holding Sofia, but gently!

"Girl, listen to me." The woman spoke as the memory Hiloria screamed in agony. "You have to release the power. You cannot hold it. I didn't know. I didn't understand. Now I do. He will kill us all."

"Die, you Advent filth!" Shüller slammed the other Hiloria and she literally came apart in a haze of purplish-blue energy.

"Mom!" Sofia screamed and raw power flew from her. Shüller spun and his posture was amazed as the power flared through him. Then he jerked as if he was a puppet whose strings had been cut.

No… The present time Hiloria gasped as the Templar disintegrated. He simply ceased to be. Sofia had killed him! More than killed him, she had destroyed him! Sofia, no… No.

"What have we done?" The female Templar was still alive even as Sofia turned her eyes on her. "Forgive me. I didn't understand."

"DIE!" Hiloria could only stare as the hands that were raised in front of her, flesh and blood hands now, limned with coruscating blue fire.

Stop! Everything did as a blue form coalesced into being in the middle of the cell. Sofia's mother was crying. Sofia, stop. You must not do this. You must not perish here. You. What is your name? She demanded of the female Templar even as blue energy flared from her and the Templar gasped as her wounds healed.

"My name is Greta." The Templar bowed her head. "I didn't understand."

That does not excuse what you just did. The spectral Hiloria said savagely. What he just unleashed.

"What?" The female Templar -Greta- sounded punch-drunk. "He didn't. It wasn't ready!"

The weapon was ready. He used my energy, my flesh and blood to prime it. Hiloria said sadly. The controls were not ready. He needed her in place to focus it. It would have drained her utterly, killed her, but he didn't care. With his death, it began its activation sequence. Some kind of fail-safe. Unguided, it will kill everything.

"No!" Greta pleaded. "We have to… I can..."

You cannot stop it and I have moments to exist on this plane. The weapon will kill everything on the planet no matter how well protected. Just as he planned all along, although he probably planned on focusing the power, on aiming it himself. Now? Only distance will protect from the pulse. Everything with psionic potential in its range will die, the other Hiloria said sadly. I may be able to… I don't know if I can do this. Come here. Both of you. She commanded and the Templar crawled to her. The spectral Hiloria seemed to become more solid and her voice solidified too. Sofia's view was moving. Was she shaking her head? "Sofia, come here. I need some of your power. I do not know if this will hurt or not. Sister Milodi was sent to rescue the moon base that X-Com attacked. People there may survive this. No one else will."

"There has to be something we can do!" Greta begged.

"There is. Freely offered. Freely given. One life, for all. I love you, Sofia." Hiloria said sadly as she reached for Sofia. Sofia was crying as her mother pulled her close, held her gently. Incredible energy flared from Sofia into her mother who seemed to drink it in. "Sofia, Greta. You are our only chances. Stop Shüller."

"But he has already..." Greta froze and her voice turned terrified! "No… No, that is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible, Templar." The other Hiloria said with a smile as energy expanded from her hands to hold both Sofia and the stricken human woman. Both of them wavered and vanished in bursts of psychic energy. The spectral Hiloria turned to look at the watching one. Is it, sister?

I… The watching Hiloria slumped a bit and then nodded. No. Nothing is. She is my daughter. Our daughter. I will care for her.

Shüller will do anything in his power to get hold of her once he realizes she exists. The other Hiloria warned. Anything at all. She is his dream. A weapon that cannot be stopped.

She is more than a weapon! Hiloria snapped, hugging Sofia's crying mind to her own.

You know he is not the only one who will think that. With that, Hiloria was back in her own body, holding Sofia's hand as the girl sobbed her heart out. She knew without being told that the other had used her last life force to do what had to be done.

"Did you see?" Hiloria asked as she gathered Sofia up and held her tight as she cried.

"We did." 'Jones' actually sounded shaken. "By the Elders, this is a mess."

"I didn't mean to, Mom!" Sofia pleaded as Hiloria held her. "I swear I didn't mean to be bad. I woke up in the forest. I wandered around and those… those people found me. I thought they would help me, but they didn't. They didn't. While they had me, I couldn't think straight!" She laid her head on Hiloria's shoulder and the hybrid just held her as she cried.

"We will help you." Hiloria promised. She looked at the interrogator who nodded. She reached into Sofia's mind and eased the girl into sleep patterns. "I did that. I sent her back in time." Awe and horror matched wits in her tone.

"As humans say: 'Oh shit!'." Kriso was pale and Milodi was praying hard. "She was energy that manifested flesh. That was… Hiloria, that in and of itself was incredible."

"I don't know if he did it, I did it, she-, whatever." Hiloria snarled at her inability to articulate. "I do know Sofia destroyed him utterly and that set off his weapon, whatever it was."

"She is a weapon. I have to report this." 'Jones' said slowly. Hiloria made a face, and he nodded. "I do not know what my superiors are going to do, but I do know they will not react well."

"She needs control." Hiloria said sadly as she held Sofia's small form. "I don't want to do this. I don't. But she is incredibly dangerous, far more so than I thought. She does not want to be, but she is."

Mom… Sofia's sleepy mind silenced everything. Do what you have to. I trust you.

"I thought you were asleep?" Hiloria asked, worried.

Almost. I love you, Mom. Sofia said sadly and then she was gone from Hiloria's mind.

"I love you too, Sofia." Hiloria sighed and nodded to the others. "Report what you must to your superiors." She said to 'Jones' who nodded. "I cannot speak of it."

"For very good reason." Kriso was still awed. "If that Templar finds out about her… He will hunt her."

"Could the Chosen help?" Milodi said softly. Everyone stared at her, and she flushed. "Never mind. That was a stupid question."

"They would not react well to such a thing. They will see her as a threat to themselves or worse, something to be used and thrown away." 'Jones' sounded sick for a moment. "What will you do?" He asked Hiloria who nodded.

"I will teach her everything I know about controlling power. I think what she did was instinctive, in response to him killing..." She swallowed hard and Milodi moved to lay a hand on her arm. "...her mother. With control, she will be far less of a threat." Hiloria held the slumbering girl gently as she started for the door. "With the link we share, she will learn very quickly."

Milodi and Kriso moved to flank her as the door opened and she moved to it.

"But for now? I am taking her to Renas." Hiloria gently stroked Sofia's head. Her tone was sad but proud. "It is time she joined Advent. A control chip will help her significantly."

"I will do my best to help her acclimatize once the chip is in." Milodi said quietly. Hiloria nodded her thanks. "She is a good kid, Hiloria."

"She is not a kid." Kriso warned.

"She is to me." Hiloria replied without heat.

"She is and always will be my daughter."