I stare at Luke, with a look portraying reticence. "What... What makes you think that?" I question him sternly.

"Well, you haven't positioned the contact lens in your right eye properly," he replies, keeping his ground as he slips cautiously towards the exit into the living room. He nearly escapes too, but I manage to follow his movements and get there beforehand.

"Not so fast, a-archetype," I jeer, gripping the door knob tightly with one hand and adjusting my contact with the other.

"Release Clyde. Now," Luke orders in a rigorous tone.

"NO!" I scorn back. "I need to fulfil my purpose. He will - will only get in the way; and you are...to play your part by c-constructing my computer...computerised form here. You have been provided enough equipment." I point to the countless machinery that surrounds us. I have recalled the time when Bronwyn told me about Aaron's old gadget-collecting hobby, and how he keeps the majority of his gathering in the garage for convenience. This is of massive help to me, as you would of guessed. That is the real reason why I led Luke here of all places.

"You will be kept - kept hostage until it has been completed. Bronwyn and Aaron shan't hear you or know about you if there is a sound-proof field and security lock activated. If I find ANY, any faults, which I expect will NOT occur from the likes of a-a genius such as yourself, then you will be - be eradicated from the face of this...pitiful planet, quicker than you were brought into it."

"You're not going to find any faults," Luke tells me. "Because I'm going to get out of here and put an end to what you're planning-"

Whilst he is saying this, he is attempting to make his way around me.

I pull his hands away from the door, flipping him over and forcing him into the nearest wall.

"You really want to die, don't you...Luke Smith?" I whisper coldly in his earshot, clenching his shirt collar. But I do not want him dead yet. He must be alive, for the creation of the server. Knowing that I am making him struggle to breathe, I loosen my hands slightly. "Don't think that just because I am y-younger than my father, I am not - not capable of the same abilities. We are all the same."

"We will stop you however capable you are," Luke insists.

I chuckle at his ambition. "Whatever. I'd better get going, and you'd better get started."

With that, I let go, shoving him into a shrouded corner of darkness. As I open the door, he charges towards me, another pathetic attempt at a getaway, but I shut it firmly behind me before he can pass through, enabling the sound-proof field and security lock.

{He'll find a way to escape and get back to the others! We're not afraid of you!}

Great. It's Clyde again.

Get back to the others? More like go crying to his little accomplices, 'oh, she's a big baddie and she's planning to crack the Earth in half!' I snort. Actually, that's all you children do, isn't it? Suck up to each other. Rely on each other instead of looking after yourselves, get in the way of work, try to make just that measly little effort as long as YOU'RE ok. Sarah Jane will have known she'd have had an easier time without you whippersnappers on her shoulders all the time. But she's become too attached to the lot of you to admit it.

{You're only saying that because there's one of you, and more of us, and you haven't been able to do anything for how long you've lived until now,} Clyde protests. {If it weren't for that earthquake, you wouldn't even be here. But look at us, Seraphine! You're jealous of how much we've done as a team of humans in just under a decade!}

Why am I wasting my time with such a simpleton?

I would say that's enough of your idiotic babble, I scowl. I will not let anybody with the same foolishness as you test my patience. Good night. As soon as I say this, I have knocked Clyde unconscious with a voltage wave, hopefully lasting for another few hours so that he does not bother me until much later on.

When I return to the living room, Aaron lifts his head up from the table, asking me what I was doing in the garage without his permission. I tell him I was in there just for a bit of peace and quiet. We then engage in an unneeded quarrel until Bronwyn chips in. I am sent to my room. In a way, I do not mind. It means I have some time to myself so I can decide where to go next with my scheme once the girls find out both boys have vanished.

It would be great if tomorrow was the day I triumph.

"Luke's vanished too?!" Sky exclaims that Saturday morning, spitting out her Coca Cola.

I sit and watch in contentment as her and Rani express their anxiety of the situation. Nothing is more heart-wrenching to the overload of pain a sibling would get, even if they usually appear to rival each other, when their brother or sister has faded from their lives for a chunk of time. That is what I have heard. To make things even more excruciating for them, Luke and Sky are the kind of siblings that avoid any sort of dispute, so I'm guessing the kind of pain Sky is experiencing is of massive quantity.

But so? At least she has not had to suffer underground for most of her life, or go through any of torture to that of a Xylok child. Her perfection sickens me. Yet it will help me greatly once the day darkens to night.

"Nope!" Rani flustered, in a state of pandemonium. "They've took him! They took Clyde and now they've took Luke! That should of been an immediate warning, when Clyde went walk-abouts - BUT OH NO OF COURSE NOT." She took a furious sip of her drink, and got up from behind Sarah Jane's old desk to roam the attic in her dismay.

I decide to look up from my book of anthropology, joining the commotion to see if I can gain anything from it. "Who are 'they?'" I inquire.

"The Fire Spirits, of course!" Sky tells me, all 'matter-of-factly.' "Who else could it be?"

Me. HURR DURR.

"That is one theory," I reply, remaining civil.

"Yes, it is," she flaunts, proceeding into her little skip of joy, following her stressed mother.

Must. Not. Strangle.

"We will find Luke and Clyde, won't we, Rani?"

Rani faces us again at the sound of Sky's voice. "Well, I sure hope so! If we can find those Fire Spirits, then yes. Both Luke and Clyde will return like nothing happened. These monsters are extreme pests, they are. That's it though. We've come across worse, haven't we?"

Sky smiles, nodding strongly in agreement. "Yeah. These 'Hello Kitties' are nothing compared to what we've faced before!"

Hello Kitty? How dare you insult me like that. I am much more sophisticated.

Rani laughs, restored with spirit and optimism. She spins round to face the chimney. "Mr Smith, I need you!" she declares, then turns to me as the fanfare plays. "Seraphine - you and your father are going to scan as much space you can possibly cover for those hotheads!"

"Noted," I proclaim.

Rani proceeds to give Father his orders once fully intact. Obviously, he gets straight to it, with not a question asked. I am curious of the said chemistry that was between him and late Sarah Jane. I do not remember Father being the kind to let any women boss him around - maybe Sarah Jane reminded him of Nova, my mother. I do not know, nor want to, for that matter. It disturbs me enough to think about how Sarah Jane felt about this.

"Have you found anything yet?" Sky pipes up during the search.

Father reaches 100% a few seconds afterwards. "I believe there are not a single trace of Fire Spirit entity," he states. The girls are overwhelmed with distress.

"Then what took them?!" Rani exclaims.

"It must be incorrect!" Sky wails.

Father rigidly interrupts their deplore. "Let me finish." An alert comes up on the screen. I immediately recognise it. "There may be no Fire Spirits, however, I have picked up something else which you will be grateful for."

A human DNA monitor report. I analyse the results.

"It's for Luke and Clyde. They are actually very close. Infact..."

"SCAN COMPLETION!" I announce. "THERE ARE INDEED, FIRE SPIRITS IN THE AREA."

The humans look back at me in synchronisation. To Father. Then back at me again.

"It - it indeed appears that Luke and Clyde are nearby," I elaborate. "This is because the Fire Spirits have returned. They must have brought the boys with them, for whatever reason that is."

Rani doesn't know whether to be pleased or not, remaining uncertain. "Mr Smith has clearly told us there are no Fire Spirits, Seraphine."

I need to think on my feet here, and I need to do it effectively or 'I will be in hot water,' as I remember Bronwyn once saying. "They... well... must have... an invisibility field... object. Keeping them off certain... certain radars."

"How come you can sense them, then?" Rani interrogates.

"... Selective? Father is, as you know, the greatest - greatest search engine in this g-solar system. They would not want to be found out by him." I relax, pleased how this has turned out. "Like I said... certain radars. Not all." I don't think Father likes what he is hearing, but he stays quiet nevertheless.

Sky grabs the bolt on the door. "Where are they?"

I fiddle with the seam of my dress as I decide where to send them. I need to consider that Luke needs to spend a while on the machine so it will function superlatively. I do however, need Sky back in time for the deadline I've set myself.

"The - the abandoned - abandoned park down by S-Simkins S-Street." I had passed there once on the route to school. Simkins is not that far from Bannerman Road. Luke and Clyde could of easily been there. "Bring the Fire Spirits back to the attic. I-I know how we can sort this out once and for all." I wink at Rani. She knows what I'm talking about. The ESPAC. She winks back, and smiles.

The duo bolt out of the attic straight away, before anyone can get another word in edgeways. Saying that, I could hear Father trying to fit into the conversation at a few points, when he wasn't silent, ingesting what was going on. It is pretty annoying taking in human activity on a daily basis. It must be much harder when you're not in a disguise to aid you. Great. I can't wait for that.

So instead of addressing the others, he addresses me.

"Yes, Seraphine. Who else could it be, other than Fire Spirits?" he asks sternly.

I fold my arms. "Well, there are many different - different creatures in this universe. It could be...Daleks... Cybermen... Judoon... OR - it could just be other humans. Because being c-kidnapped by humans is actually more likely to happen than being c-kidnapped by aliens. It is their planet, after all. Plus they are very stupid with their h-hatred for one another."

"Don't be bitter with me, young lady," Father snaps. "I know that you are the real person behind Luke and Clyde's sudden disappearance. Do not tell me otherwise."

He fires a containment vortex my way, but I deflect it, giving it Sarah Jane's aged desk chair as a new target. The chair remains in a mid-air position, partially floating before the wooden floorboard beneath its legs.

"Why did you do that?" I rebuke, nursing the shock of pain that has gone through my arm from resisting the virtual mass.

Father would probably roll his eyes right now, if he had any. "You may be my daughter. But your plot is the same as mine was. Again, do not deny."

"I wasn't."

"I was checking, that's all." He brings up a familiar piece of scenery on the screen. The meteorite.

"You would like to free our kind from the crust. The only way to accomplish that is by splitting Earth in two. By doing so, you are an obstacle for me to overcome in fulfilling my purpose. The motive has changed, Seraphine. My purpose is now to protect this planet. It should be yours too. The Xylok are fine, they have adapted to the underground environment. Because of how much humanity has evolved, we can survive through the technological waves in the atmosphere."

No. This isn't valid. It is not a data point. I have always been told that our freedom was essential for the universe. How much more improved it would be, if those simpletons were gone, us as a replacement to their sinful ways. I cannot comply to this new piece of information. It is incorrect. We must have our liberty.

Father has become a traitor. That group of foolish ape descendants. They have made Father become disloyal.

"It's not - it's not fair," I defy. "They have changed you. With that virus. You must trust me. We need to save our race, whether humanoids live or not. They do not matter."

"Seraphine-" he tries.

"Oh, for the l-love of the Ancient Lights," I say. "Please do not attempt to converse with me. You are not my father anymore."

I force myself to burst into tears, making an exit at full speed and tumbling down the stairs. But once I reach outside, the crying coverts to laughter, at the fact I have almost done it. My plan. It is falling into place. Once they return, Sky will be mine. When they are not paying attention, that 'angel' will flutter into my trap. The revolution will finally take place. I do feel slight guilt for playing around with Father's heartstrings, but WILL he be proud when I've done it. I know so. I cross the road and go back to the garage to tell Luke his time is running out. Although he at first refused to obey to my orders, he appears to of done a decent job so far.

I look forward to how it will come out in the end.