Satan laced up his ice skates, because here comes another chapter!
Chapter Seven: Reincarnation
In front of them stood a girl who looked no older than six. She wore an emerald green shirt, brown shorts, and black shoes, along with a sky-blue scarf that went down her back. Her skin was tanned, and her eyes an eerie yellow. What really stood out to them, however, was her purple hair, which was separated into many tendrils, the same tendrils that had pulled them from the sand. They retracted swiftly into her head though, leaving her hair roughly waist-length.
The group stared in silence, but the girl had no qualms with acting first. She dashed forward and used her hair to spring herself upwards, grabbing onto Leigh's neck. "Hope, Hope, Hope! I finally found someone!"
Leigh stumbled back, desperately gasping for breath. "H-help…"
"Hey, get off her!" Kurtis grabbed the girl and pulled her away.
When she saw him, she tilted her head. "Max? I think that's your name?"
"Max? What? No! That's my dad's name!" Kurtis gave the rest of the group a bewildered look. "How does she know Dad?"
"I have no idea," Leigh said, rubbing her neck. "But she thought I was Mom, apparently."
"Let me try something." Courtney stepped towards her. "Do you recognize me?"
The girl looked at her intently, and then brightened. "Brandi, right?"
Courtney shook her head. "That's my mother. Maybe she knew our parents when they traveled together?"
"This girl very much reminds me of someone written in Teknisk Wereld," Shane mused. "But there are too many differences for me to say they are one and the same."
Nobody had a chance to respond, for the girl caught sight of Lance. "You're the dragon guy! Dragon… um… Draken!"
"Yeah, definitely knew our parents," Lance said. "We should bring one of them to Teknisk Wereld and ask to help clarify who she is."
"That seems like the best thing to do now," Chasity agreed. "Why not have two of you leave to find them? The rest of us will wait here."
"You're that girl who was in a coma!" the girl broke in. "And you got older! Why? Everyone else here is younger! Isn't that how it should be?"
Chasity blinked. "Apparently she has seen me too."
"How about Courtney and I go to look for someone?" Leigh suggested. "You can all wait here with her."
"Sure," Shane said. "You two go ahead."
"Aw, we have to stay with the crazy girl?" Dennis complained. "Next she's probably going to think I'm a stuffed animal!"
"Toy!" the girl said happily while leaping for Dennis.
"See what I mean? Ahhh!" He flew higher to try and avoid her hair, which snaked after him.
"We'd better leave while she's distracted," Courtney muttered to Leigh.
"Good idea." Leigh began to input the command onto her Duel Disk.
This caught the attention of the girl, and she ran over to Leigh at once, clinging onto her leg. "No! Don't go, Hope! It took me so long to find someone!"
"I'm not Hope! And I'll be back soon, really!" Leigh pressed the button on her menu to leave, as did Courtney.
As they vanished, to everyone's surprise, the girl disappeared as well. They stared at where the three had stood until Jin said, "Unexpected!"
"That backs up my theory even more," Shane said.
"If you do not mind me asking, may I inquire as to what your theory is?" Arcadia said.
Shane nodded. "As illogical as it might sound, I think she might be…"
…
When Leigh woke up in the real world, she was amazed to see the girl still gripping onto her. "How did you get here?"
The girl let go and smiled at her. "You brought me here, of course!"
Courtney stood up. "I don't understand at all, but maybe your mom can clear things up." She called, "Aunt Hope! Are you here?"
No response came. Leigh sighed and said, "I guess she's out. Could you get Larka? She might know."
"Sure. You guys wait here." Courtney went out with Naomi cautiously following.
When she was gone, the girl began to hop excitedly around the room. "Oooh! What's this box?" She pressed a switch on the television set, and it turned on, showing a commercial for Meow Mix. "Wow, it talks!"
"Hey, you can't go around doing things like that!" Leigh turned it off hurriedly. "That's a TV, and you shouldn't mess with it."
"Okay!" Seeming undisturbed by the chastising, she jumped on the couch and began bouncing on it. "Whee!"
"Get down from there!" Snatching her away, Leigh scolded, "Don't jump on the furniture! Mom'll blame me if it gets ruined!"
"But it's fun!" the girl said, squirming in her grasp.
"Leigh, I found her!" Courtney's voice came from the door, and then she and Larka entered the room.
When Larka saw the girl, she froze, staring at her. Then she whispered, "Angela?"
The girl let out a joyful cry and flung herself at Larka, who quickly wrapped her arms around her. "Mommy!"
"Huh? Aunt Larka, you have a daughter?" Courtney said in confusion.
Larka shook her head, still gripping tightly onto the girl. "No, but I know who this is, as hard as it is to believe. Her name is Angela, and she was the core of Teknisk Wereld. She died fifteen years ago…"
"Mom said you mourned greatly over someone you lost then," Courtney recalled. "That must have been Angela. I never brought it up for fear of your reaction. But how is she back now?"
"I have no idea," Larka answered, her eyes shimmering. "But I'm grateful that she is… so grateful…"
"Me too! I didn't like being dead! It was really lonely!" Angela said. "But I remembered what you said, that you'd find me again, so I waited and waited for a really long time!"
"Yes, I knew we'd meet again, somehow…" Larka trailed off as they heard someone from the front.
"Larka? Are you there?"
Larka brightened at the voice. "Zack! You have to come and see this!"
Zack walked into the room with a curious look, and then stopped in shock. "Is that…?"
"Daddy!" Angela leapt from Larka to Zack. "You came too!"
"Angela?" An astonished smile spread out on his face. "It really is you, isn't it?"
"Yep, it's me! I've come back!" Angela said excitedly.
"Yet you're so different," Zack said. "You look like a child now, and act like one."
"What did she act like before?" Courtney asked.
"Cold and robotic. She wasn't even supposed to have emotions," Larka explained. "She showed some on occasion, but it was a rare occurrence. Now, she can't seem to stop showing them!"
"Angela also appeared to be a young adult," Zack added. "So this is certainly a surprise."
"How did she even come back to life?" Leigh said.
Shaking her head, Larka said, "I have no idea. I think I'll call Katrina and ask her. She should have some idea of what happened."
"I'll get the phone for you," Courtney offered. She left the room to do so.
"Also, why did she call you Mommy and Daddy?" Leigh asked.
"Because they are!" Angela cut in. "My mind's telling me they are!"
"It seems she was programmed to call us that," Zack said, appearing amused. "All the more evidence Katrina was behind it. She knew how close Larka was to Angela, and that I cared for her as well."
Courtney came back holding the phone. "Here you go."
"I'll put it on speaker so all of us can hear." Larka dialed the buttons swiftly and waited as the dial tone sounded.
Katrina's voice soon came from the phone. "Katrina Bifrost speaking."
Taking Angela back from Zack, Larka said, "Katrina, this is Larka. Were you responsible for bringing Angela back?"
"So you found her!" Katrina said, sounding pleased. "That's a relief. I was wondering where she had wandered off to."
"She is with us now," Zack replied. "Though she is quite different looking."
Katrina laughed. "I thought you might like that! My grandfather and I had an interesting idea for her. When you first met her, she had been designed to be completely based on duty. But with you and your friends protecting her, we thought this time, Angela could have a chance to grow up. She's reentering life as a child, with the chance to learn and develop at her own pace."
"That's wonderful!" Larka said happily. "And from what Angela is calling us, I assume you want her to live with us?"
"That's the idea, unless you're against it for some reason."
"Of course we aren't," Zack assured. "We would love to have her stay."
"We may need to call her in a few times if Teknisk Wereld is ever in danger again," Katrina warned. "Otherwise, she's all yours. I thought she'd be happiest with you."
"How did you bring her back?" Zack inquired.
"Remember the data you brought me? I found Angela's core data inside it. I was astonished, and with Grandfather's help, we were able to restore her completely, even her soul! It took us fifteen years though, and I have no idea if we could do it again. Keep her safe, okay?"
"With my life," Larka said firmly.
"I knew you two would make good parents. Angela, if you're there, have a good time!"
"I will!" Angela answered. "Bye!"
Once Larka turned the phone off, she asked them, "How did you meet up with Angela anyway?"
"There was a mean guy attacking them!" Angela exclaimed. "They were about to die so I-"
Leigh hurriedly covered her mouth, resorting in the rest of her words being muffled. Seeing Larka's odd look, Leigh explained, "She's exaggerating. We just found a random monster in the desert and Angela helped us fight it off. That's all."
"If you say so," Larka said doubtfully.
Any other thoughts she had were cut off by the phone ringing. Surprised, Leigh picked it up and answered. "Driger residence." She brightened. "Oh, Lilian, hi. You want Courtney? She's here, hold on." Leigh handed the phone to her.
"Lilian? Yeah, it's me. What? Mom's ready to come home? That's great! Yeah, I'll go back home and wait for you there. Okay, see you soon, bye." Hanging up, Courtney told them, "Lilian wants me to help look after Mom after she's back. I have to leave now."
"That's fine," Leigh said. "I'll go back to Teknisk Wereld and tell the others to quit for the day. Have a nice time."
"Thanks, I will! See you guys later. Come on, Naomi!" Courtney went to the door with Naomi following her less than eagerly.
"We should leave too, so we can get Angela settled in," Larka said.
"Come visit again soon," Leigh said. Larka nodded, and then she left with Zack and Angela. Once they were gone, Leigh sighed in relief. "That was close… Angela nearly gave everything away. Better get back to everyone else now." Lying down again, she activated her Envoyant Machine.
…
"Angela? You're serious?" Lance said incredulously.
"Her abilities and knowledge match with what we know about her," Shane stated. "I have no idea why she is a child now, or why she displays emotions, but it makes sense otherwise."
"If she was made of data, it could probably be manipulated to make her different." Ace shrugged. "Not that I'd know personally."
"At least Hope should know what to do with her," Chasity said.
"Right. That's why I'd like to bring up another point," Lance said.
"What is it?" Kurtis asked.
"The Enslaved are getting to be more and more dangerous," Lance said. "And we could potentially be in danger in real life, as Shane brought up earlier. So why not do what our parents did? We should all get together in real life."
"Whaaa?" Jin said. "Are you serious?"
"I see where you are coming from," Shane replied. "However, that might be difficult to do. We would have to give excuses to our families, and find out how to pay for flights to wherever the meeting location is."
Lance grinned at that. "My dad can handle the flights, at least. He's a pilot, and if I told him about you guys, he could get you to South Carolina. That's where most of us live. And we could just tell our parents that we've made some new friends, and we were hoping to meet up with them. There's only so much time we have in Teknisk Wereld, after all."
"Yeah! They don't even have food here! Not that I eat anyway…" Dennis muttered.
Shane tapped his gloved arm absentmindedly. "My mentor is reasonable. I suppose I could convince him to leave for a short visit."
"I don't even have a family to speak with," Ace said. "Even better, I already live in South Carolina. It would just be a matter of finding you all."
"While these are valid ideas, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves," Chasity stated. "So far, there has been nothing to indicate there is any danger in real life. We should only do this as a last resort."
Arcadia spoke up. "If you do not mind me interjecting my own opinion, I must agree. It would take much effort to do this, and if there was no solid reason for doing it, we might later regret it."
Ace gave him a quick look, but whatever expression he had cleared before they could identify it. "Yeah. I'll go with that too."
"All right. We should keep it in mind, though. Thanks for the idea, Lance," Shane said.
"Hey, anything that can help, right?" Lance said.
Leigh appeared beside them in a flash. "Sorry for the wait."
"No big deal," Kurtis said. "What'd you find out?"
After she detailed what had happened, Dennis said, "Looks like Shane was right."
"Dad mentioned once that they used to say that a lot about Will. He and Shane should meet some time," Leigh joked.
Shane shook his head. "From what I read, Will was a lot smarter than me. I'd feel inferior if I met him."
Looking around the area, Lance asked, "Hey, where's Courtney? Did she stay behind?"
"Her mom is coming home from the hospital, so she had to," Leigh said. "I was thinking we could stop for the day and meet up again tomorrow."
"Where should we meet?" Shane asked.
"I'd like to see the forest, personally," Leigh said. "Would that be all right?"
"All of the areas are dangerous at this point, so why not?" Chasity said. "We'll meet at nine Eastern time."
"Sounds like a plan," Ace agreed before vanishing. The others followed his lead.
…
Though Zack and Larka had been unprepared to have a new family member, it was surprisingly easy to get her settled in. Since she did not have to eat, they were fine with food supplies. Not having another bed threatened to be a problem, but that was solved when Angela declared that she wanted to sleep with them. Recalling how Angela had suffered loneliness for so long, they agreed to her request. Having control over how her clothes looked eliminated the need for any others as well.
"Really, I can't think of anything else we need," Larka mused as Angela bounced on the bed.
"Great patience," Zack said dryly.
"Very funny." Larka grabbed Angela before she could land again. "Angela, would you like to meet some more of your old friends?"
"Sure!" was her happy response.
"Did you have someone in mind?" Zack asked curiously.
"Yes. I was hoping to speak to you and Max at the same time about something," Larka explained.
That was what led them to driving to the officials' headquarters, Zack handling the car since Larka was still uneasy with the concept of driving. She doubted she would ever get used to it. The entire trip, Angela kept looking out of the windows in obvious fascination at the scenery.
With only a couple of odd looks at Angela, the three of them soon came to the front of a door with a plate labeling it the office of The Trinity: Max, Zack, and Larka.
"Amazing how far we've come as officials, isn't it?" Larka said.
Zack nodded, and knocked on the door. Max opened it a moment later, and blinked several times.
"Sorry for the abruptness of our visit," Larka said, smiling at his reaction.
"Is that… Angela?" Max managed to say.
"Max!" Angela exclaimed, before looking confused. "Why do you look older now?"
"Vice versa for you," Max said, letting them enter before shutting the door. "So this must be the project Katrina was talking about."
"That's right. We were reunited with her earlier today." Larka briefly summarized what had happened.
"That's pretty amazing. Glad to see you again, Angela," Max said.
"Me too!" Angela answered. "I missed everyone! And I'm going to get to make a lot of new friends too!"
"New friends?" Max asked.
"Yeah! All the people I met in Teknisk Wereld, I'm going to travel with them!" Angela announced.
Larka gave her a surprised look. "You never mentioned this before. Why do you want to?"
"I really feel like I should go with them," Angela said simply. "That's all. It feels like the right thing to do."
Zack frowned slightly, but did not speak. Larka responded by saying, "Angela, could you go outside for just a minute? I want to speak to Max and Zack alone."
"Okay!" Angela bounded outside, leaving Larka to close it.
"Something wrong?" Max inquired as she sat down.
"Yes. Earlier today, Angela mentioned that she met with your children and their friends when a man was trying to kill them," Larka explained. "Leigh was quick to assure us that she was exaggerating, but it worries me nonetheless. I think they may be in danger."
"That is troublesome," Max agreed with a grim expression.
"Angela's words now only make it more likely," Zack stated. "It is very likely she wants to help them because her protocol tells her to. It is possible either they or Teknisk Wereld itself faces peril."
"It sounds like they don't want to tell us about that though," Max said. "Should we confront them on it?"
"I have another idea," Larka said. "How about I follow them?"
"You certainly are capable of doing it without being detected," Zack said.
"You're willing to take the risks?" Max asked.
Larka nodded. "Not only do I care about all of the children, but now that Angela is here… It's my duty to keep her safe. I almost feel like a parent now. It's something I've always wanted, to have a child…"
Zack put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to smile gratefully. Turning over the words in his mind, Max said, "Okay then. Keep an eye on them for a few days. But if you get a gist of what is going on, tell us. Those are my children out there too."
"Of course," Larka said as she and Zack stood. "I will do all that I can."
When they went outside, they found Angela talking to Captain Lapis Roman, who looked bewildered. She turned to Larka and Zack as they came and said, "I see the Guardian is back."
"At long last," Larka agreed, picking up Angela. "We'll be back at work tomorrow, Captain Roman."
"Sounds good. See you then," she said before walking away. Larka and Zack left as well, heading back home.
…
The first thing Brandi did upon arriving home was hug Courtney, who enthusiastically returned it. Mana was also joyful at her arrival, while Naomi watched her nervously from afar.
"So how were your first few days in Teknisk Wereld?" Brandi asked as she sat down on the couch.
"They were really fun! We made some new friends and have had some great duels!" Courtney mentally told herself that at least she was not lying, merely leaving facts out.
"That's good to hear. And it looks like you've gotten a very cute Soul Monster," Brandi said. Naomi blushed at that.
"I sure did! That's Naomi, a Harpy Girl. Say hi to my mom, Naomi, don't be shy!"
"H-hello," Naomi stammered before hiding behind Courtney.
Though Courtney was exasperated, Brandi did not seem concerned. "She just needs time to get to know me, that's all." She paused, and then asked, "Have you heard anything from your father?"
Courtney had been afraid she would ask that. Biting her lip, she shook her head. "Nothing."
"It's been three months since he left for Asia for that photo expedition, and he's a month late getting back," Brandi said worriedly. She hid her concern though as she stood. "If you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap before I start dinner. Can you hold out for a while?"
"Sure. Rest well." Courtney watched her mother leave. When she heard her door shut, Courtney quietly followed, stopping outside of her room.
From inside, she could hear Brandi sobbing heavily. Her heart panged at the noise, and she drifted back into the living room, which Mana had already exited from.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asked.
"My mom's really upset about Dad," Courtney said gloomily. "I'm worried about her."
"Well, she's been at the hospital all this time, right?" Naomi said, her voice free of stammers due to Courtney being the only one there. "Maybe she was lonely. You're here to help her now."
"That's true," Courtney said. "But I can't tell her now about wanting to quit gymnastics. That would only add to her concerns."
"Oh…" Naomi shook her head, not knowing what to say.
"Maybe some other day." Courtney sighed and leaned back, feeling far more tired than she thought she should.
…
Though Kurtis seemed as carefree as ever, instantly diving into a video game upon getting home, Lance noticed that Leigh appeared depressed. She kept pulling out her Soul Card, looking at it, and then putting it back, only to look at again minutes later.
"What's wrong?" Lance asked as he came over.
Leigh looked up at him. "It's my Soul Monster. I was wondering why it did not come out when we were in danger earlier."
"I can answer that one!" Dennis interrupted, flying down from above. "It's because Ace, and then Angela, had complete control over the situation. Usually a Soul Monster only comes out when they are absolutely needed."
"I wish it wasn't like that," Leigh said mournfully.
"Hey, don't feel bad. That just means your Soul Monster is very brave," Lance told her. "It must be, if it's waiting for you to be in danger, because that means it'll risk everything to save you."
"Yeah, I bet you're right," Leigh said, smiling at the thought. "Thanks."
"Your monster will be just as brave as me!" Dennis declared, puffing out his chest.
Lance laughed in response. "You are pretty brave for a little guy. Still, it was my idea to throw you at Dark Scythe."
"Don't think I've forgiven you for that!" Dennis said, pouting.
Kurtis poked his head from his room. "Would you guys please quit being so noisy? I'm trying to concentrate on my game!"
"Because a game totally needs concentration," Dennis snorted.
"It's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, so of course it does!" Kurtis left in a huff.
"We do have more productive things to do than just sit around here," Leigh said. "How about we look through more of Mom's books?"
"Sounds good to me," Lance said. "Know thy enemy, right?"
To be continued…
