"So your saying that you've been visited by these ladies, one including Helen of Earth for some time now and that they have been giving you gifts; swords, a mirror that you can spy on your enemies and clothing." Tommy said, he was standing at the front of his tent. "And that obviously they can possess you to do their bidding. That is crazy!"
"It sounds crazy and I know that I look crazy but it has been happening!" Angel exclaimed. "And to tell you the truth them ladies have been driving me crazy! As if I don't have enough on my shoulders with my father trying to get me now I have them! Shoot my brains out and put me in the ground I know it sounds crazy but I am not lying!"
Angel had changed into a more suitable pair of clothing, blue t-shirt and blue jeans with her expensive brown boots. For the past three hours she had been sitting in Tommy's tent, with the other Rangers all around her, listening to her as she told of seeing in her sub-conscience Helen of Earth and several other women; including one who claimed to be the half-sister of Master Vile. Jason had brought out the book title The Vile: A Chronicle of the Vile Family which he had stashed away and had thumbed through the pages. The book had indeed listed a half-sister to Master Vile named Dione, and it had mentioned that Master Vile said she was dead.
"The book says that Dione is dead." Jason sighed. "But..."
"My father claims that she is, when he doesn't even know himself!" Angel exclaimed, she had been smoking cigarettes like crazy since they had started their talk and she stubbed the one that she had in between her fingers out on her leg. "I am only telling you what I was told. Dione told me that after my father killed Dione's full sister, and the younger of his half-sister's, Dione banished herself."
"The book does say that Dione had a daughter." Jason said. "And that that child had a child and that child had a child."
"Then Master Vile excused himself and went off to better activities." Angel said, she tossed her arms up. "My father was answering through his teeth! He lied, he doesn't know what happened to Dione and personally, I don't think he cares."
Angel spoke further with her friends, telling them about Perniceie and Azura, then about the man with the gray hair. Kat placed her hand on Angel's back when she started getting excited, her coughing started slow then got torrential. Kat took away the cigarette that she had just lit. Angel gave her a look then took the cigarette back.
"It's a hard story to believe..." Aisha said gently.
"I got possessed didn't I?" Angel asked, she puffed the wrong end of the cigarette. "How else can I explain it? I've gone crazy and started changing my voice to scare people?"
Angel had a point, as much as they all felt awkward about admitting it she did have a point. How else could she explain it? Kat patted her on the shoulder again then gently took the cigarette away. Angel didn't fight to take it back, she just sat hunched in her chair. Suddenly she stood up and went to a box at the end of Tommy's tent, she took out a notebook then came back.
"Read this, this is the babbling of your classic buddy who needs a waistcoat with tie back arms." she tossed the notebook at them then left the tent.
The rest of the night went by quickly, Angel just sat on the mountaintop looking out on the camp, a half empty cigarette pack in one hand and a half bottle of wine in the other. She wasn't much sure of anything anymore, her last shred of sanity had near severed after finding out that she had been possessed, the run from her father had not helped matters either. She had told all that she knew, had even given her journal that she had taken, along with the two swords and mirror, from the cave to the Rangers. If they believed or not, all she knew was that with the combined weight of her father chasing after her and Dione and her crew messing around with her mind, she was tottering on the brink of insanity.
The next few days were rather lonely for Angel, she stayed by herself up on the top of the mountain, only coming down for meals and collecting her journal, the two swords and mirror which she placed back in the cave. She didn't speak much to the Rangers, she made sure to distance herself from them. After a week Kat got real worried and followed Angel into the jungle. She stayed behind her, out of sight and earshot. Angel had been disappearing to two areas the past week and a half, the top of the mountain where she could barely see her and to another place that was secret. The beaten path she stepped on gingerly, softly. She thought she had lost Angel when, suddenly, she tripped and fell down an embankment.
"Figured I was being followed." Angel sighed. "What is it you want?"
"Angel!" Kat exclaimed. "I was just worried and..."
Kat looked around, they were at the edge of a beautiful waterfall, the waters that fell made a foam near the base, the rocks around the lake were almost smooth and were white in color, the grass around the rocks was green and soft. A deer was drinking from the lake, when it saw her it flicked its tail then ran off. Angel walked over to a large white rock and sat down, with her hand held out she moved the water back and forth, a gentle wave sent the water crashing into the fall before it came back. Kat stood up and walked over to her, she placed her hand on her shoulder gently.
"Ya'll think I'm crazy don't you?" she asked.
"No, never Angel!" Kat exclaimed. "I'll admit your story is strange but it has to be the truth. You wouldn't..."
"You don't know me so you don't know what I'd do and what I wouldn't do." Angel responded.
Angel sat on the rock, pushing the water back and forth with her hand, for quite a time. Kat stood by her side, talking to her, trying to reassure her. Although it was true that they didn't know her they had spent enough time around her to know that she wouldn't pull the wool over their eyes. She was in a hard spot, Kat said, and she needed help otherwise, she would indeed go crazy. They sat in quiet afterwards for a few minutes before Angel stood up. She was about to leave when, suddenly, a sound of laughter came from the waterfall, a voice followed soon after.
"She isn't crazy." they heard from the falling water. "We're here to help her."
"Wh...who are you?" Kat asked, her eyes were wide, Angel beside her was shivering violently. "Who are you, tell me! Show me who you are!"
The voice from behind the falls didn't say anything, it went totally silent, the falling water even seemed to lose sound. Angel had just calmed down, her shivering had stopped, when a hand landed on her shoulder and she screamed. Kat turned around, standing behind Angel was a unique-looking woman. She looked human but she wasn't, her skin was slit in two colors, one side of her body was darkly tanned while the other was bleached white, she had slightly elongated ears. Her eyes were moss-green in color, the pupils a light gray and tiny. The hair that the woman had was long, it almost touched the ground it was that long, and it was as black as night except for the ends and the bangs which were blonde. She was wearing a dark green dress, the skirt was of ripped design with the hem being black, she had dark green gloves that reached up to her elbows on her hands.
"Azura..." Angel gasped, she had a hand on Kat's shoulder. "What do you want?"
"Just to help." the woman named Azura answered, she placed her hand on Angel's trembling shoulder. "We all do."
"We?" Kat repeated. "There's more of you!"
Screaming was heard from the camp and Angel and Kat forgot all about Azura. They ran through the path, Angel in front of Kat by nearly a yard. When they shot through the bushes directly in front of the trail they saw what had made the people in the camp scream. Standing by a hill was three woman, one looking like a feminine Master Vile. Azura must have followed them because she ran right into them, Kat yelled in surprise them backed away from her. She could now see why Angel had been acting so strange and had been saying she thought she was going crazy. The women, they were real, they were not a figment of her imagination.
"It is time that we started helping out more." the woman that was in front of the other two on the hill said.
They all calmed down after the lead woman of the bunch explained what was going on. Angel didn't say a thing, she sat on a stump with her arms folded around herself. The woman named Helen, Angel's mother, was comforting her, patting her on the back and hugging her and telling her it was okay. When the lead woman, the one that looked like a feminine version of Master Vile, finished Tommy stood up and spoke.
"You've been driving our friend to the brink of insanity!" Tommy said sternly. "Why should we accept your help when you've done so much harm to Angel? What has she done to you to deserve being used?"
"We haven't used her!" the woman named Perniceie claimed.
Perniceie really did look related to the woman that led the group, only she had slightly elongated ears that stuck out from the sides of her head, her body was evenly split in two colors. One side of her body was purple while the other was black. She had long white hair, the ends and bangs were brown, she had hazel-colored eyes with tiny black pupils. Perniceie was wearing something like what Angel had worn on the day that Master Vile had chased them from the mall. She was wearing a unique two-piece Arabian belly dancer costume; the bra was light purple with sequins of gold and the pants were near see through, the fabric color was the same as the bra piece but was shinier, the band around the waist was black with gold designs on it, her feet were bare and human-looking. Perniceie's waist was fully open to the air and held quite a bit of muscle, the skin was smooth. A see-through veil was placed over her hair, it fell back and nearly touched the ground.
"Really? Then her saying that she was going to be used in a revenge plot was a fabrication of our imagination?" Tommy said. "You have been using our friend and it has hurt her!"
"But we hah..." Perniceie started to say.
"Calm it Pern." the woman named Dione said suddenly, she was running a hand through her hair. "My daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter have had nothing to do with Angel's trances. I am to blame."
Dione, that was the half-sister of Master Vile that had been claimed to be deceased; according to Master Vile she was Jason remembered the book saying. She did looked like Master Vile quite a lot! She had ears like Master Vile, only more feminine and slender, no earrings were hanging from them. Her face was gentle and smooth, one side was light blue while the other was yellow. Her thin lips were lipsticked the opposite colors of her face, the left side being light blue while the right was yellow. She had white eyeshadow on her eyelids and black mascara around her eyes. She was wearing a long flowing, but tight, maroon dress that had black ties and bows on it, she had maroon colored high heels on her feet which had bows on the side. Her hair was unique! It was long, as long as Azura's, and was a deep purple with gray and white mixed in. Her eyes were white while the pupils were small and black.
"You said that Perniceie was your daughter," Jason said. "but..."
"Azura is my granddaughter." Dione spoke up, interrupting him. "Helen of Earth is my great-granddaughter."
Angel's eyes grew wide, she stopped rocking back and forth and stood up. The same as the Rangers, she looked at Helen then back at Dione, her index finger standing up like a pencil. She blubbered back and forth you are the great-granddaughter of before a lump formed in her throat. She felt dizzy, everything seemed so confusing to her. Dione was Master Vile's half-sister, Perniceie was her daughter with Azura being Perniceie's daughter and Helen... it made her mind do somersaults.
"Yes, Helen is my great-granddaughter dear." Dione spoke up. "Your father had sex with a member of his own kin."
"Oh I'm going to be sick!" Kat exclaimed. "Did he know? Oh gross!"
"Course not!" Helen exclaimed. "I didn't even know he was related until the night after the first of my twins was born."
"Bathilda?" Angel asked. "Twins? How can she and I be twins when she was nineteen when I was born?"
"My brother's magic seed, dear." Dione explained. "It could only fertilize one egg so it waited until Bathilda had released an egg then..."
"Bathilda... she's your mother!" Kat ran up to Angel and shook her hard. "Isn't she? Bathilda birthed you, she should be your mother not Helen!"
Dione explained that Master Vile's seed had separated the genes in the egg and had only used the genes of Helen, leaving Bathilda's genes out of the process. Bathilda had been carrying her own twin sister, not her daughter but her sister. Angel then spoke up about Chimera; that a being, such as a human, can carry two sets of DNA in it and thusly, it could be possible that for a rare amount of people to actually give birth to their own siblings.
"So what does that make me to Master Vile?" Angel asked, she had now gotten over her fits of shivering and shock. She had turned around completely, becoming the old Angel that she was. "His great-great-great half-niece or what?"
"His daughter," Dione replied. "regardless of the inbreeding involved, you are still his daughter."
"Bet Master Vile would need a smoke and a beer to wash this one down." Angel joked. "Made love to his own great-great niece and fathered a child through her. What a hoot!"
The laughing and jokes about Master Vile went on for near ten minutes, Angel mostly stayed out of it but she did make a few puns on the subject. After ten minutes passed she put a stop to it and went onto business. She started making a plan, one that involved Dione and her offspring. At first, Dione was adamant about not being included then, but by Angel's persistance and by Angel claiming that she was, indeed, at fault by trying to drive her insane with her visitations in her sub-conscience, she came around.
"Alrighty now," Angel said, she stretched up tall, her bones cracked as she stretched. "our plan is set. We'll get some sleep then head out tomorrow."
"We'll see you them dear." Dione said, she was very uneasy now. "Rest and sleep well."
Dione, Perniceie and Azura teleported out but Helen remained, she claimed that she wanted to spend some time with Angel and talk to her about some things. Angel, at first, didn't much like that idea but she came around when Helen insisted. Angel finished her plan with the Rangers, making sure that they all knew what was going on, then she ran off; with Helen of Earth, her mother, at her heels. The Rangers walked over to Tommy's tent for a further talk on the subject of the plan, and add in their thoughts about Dione, before Jason ducked into the tent he noticed that Helen was running to catch up to Angel, who was merely walking very fast.
Angel did a few chores and went around making sure that the elderly folk in the camp were alright, all the while her mother followed her, sometimes running to keep up. When she stopped by the stream and sat down, Helen did the same. Angel looked at the woman, in the memos from Bathilda it had been mentioned that Helen of Earth had strawberry-blonde hair yet here she was sitting in front of her had dark copper golden blonde hair. Also, Helen should have been dead a long time ago, the memos claimed that after Bathilda had been born Helen had passed away. With this thought in mind Angel leaned forward and pinched Helen's arm.
"Owch!" Helen pulled back and rubbed her arm. "Angel what in the world!"
"You are suppose to be dead." Angel said.
"Well I'm not." Helen rolled her eyes at her daughter.
"I'm guessing that Bathilda got quite a few things wrong in her memos." Angel replied. "She also claimed that you had strawberry-blonde hair."
"I've always had this shade of blonde hair," Helen grabbed her hair and pulled it up, it shone brightly in the sun. "but I can see the confusion. Neither of you were around me when you grew up."
"I suppose you are going to tell me that Bathilda is also alive." Angel reached over and grabbed a rock, she bounced it up and down in her hand slowly.
"No, sadly Bathilda is gone." Helen sighed. "Atlas was her biological father."
Helen explained slowly that Bathilda had the sperm of a different man to make her, one that was human so her lifespan was very different from hers, and Angel's she added quickly. She mentioned that Azura had not liked the idea at all about her and Atlas of Sclera marrying her. Atlas was pure human, Helen explained, and would sire mostly human children through her which would have a short lifespan.
"So what was it that made you go visit dear old uncle?" Angel snickered. "Besides the tribe in Egypt using women to profess peace in the galaxy bullshit that I was told."
"It was really Dione that wanted a spy in on Master Vile," Helen said, she watched as Angel bounced the rock higher in the air. "I was the only one that could do the job."
"Foe sham foe sham!" Angel laughed. "And then you came back pregnant and thinking that you carried his child so you banished yourself from..."
"I never banished myself!" Helen exploded. "I gave birth to Bathilda in Greece, yes, but Atlas was there. Dione decided that it was time for me to leave the surface and live with her, Atlas came too."
"So ya'll left Bathilda behind?" Angel dropped the rock. "Bathilda..."
"Was raised by one of Atlas' shepherds." Helen interrupted. "A lot of the details that you were told were fabricated. Made up."
Helen got hysterical then, with tears running down her cheeks she explained that Dione wanted her offspring near her, to be a family with her and since Helen was her great-granddaughter she had to go, Atlas went as well because he was her husband. She explained how she had made up a few letters and placed them in a box, telling her husband to tell the shepherd to hold onto them until Bathilda got older.
"So Dione wanted her family around," Angel leaned back. "yet she abandoned Bathilda who was basically her great-great granddaughter."
"No!" Helen exclaimed, she got to her knees and pointed at Angel furiously. "Bathilda wasn't Dione's family, she was Atlas's!"
"She was your daughter as well." Angel said, she stood up. "That would make her Dione's great-great granddaughter." Angel walked off a few feet then turned around, she was tired of the conversation but had one last thing to say. "Which would mean that you, also, abandoned her. And, thusly, you abandoned me as well."
Angel walked off, leaving Helen whose mouth had dropped in a surprised O. Angel had just about had enough of listening about Helen's explanations as to why Bathilda was abandoned and why Helen had lied so much. To Angel, her mother was nothing more than a liar and a cheat. She walked over to Tommy's tent and went in, Tommy was alone now, the fire in the center was low but it provided enough heat for him to cook the sausages that he had on two sticks.
"Thought you would be speaking to Helen," Tommy said, he leaned back. "you know, catching up."
"Nothing really to catch up on except finding out that she abandoned her daughter." Angel replied.
Angel told all that Helen had said to her, leaving no detail out, Tommy shook his head when she was finished and handed her one of the sausages, she shook her head no. Tommy had a good idea of how Angel was, she was a good person stuck in the middle of a situation that would make even the most sane person go crazy. On her left, she had her father and his family trying to get her, and on her right she had Dione and her family with their want for revenge on Master Vile.
"So who is crazier," Tommy said, he had just swallowed a bite from his sausage. "Master Vile or his sister?"
"Heh, personally I'd say it's his sister." Angel guffawed. "at least with my father I know what he's after. He's predictable."
"You know his plan which is to get you while Dione's is all over the map and still..." Tommy started to say.
"Not totally clear. Out there. A complete question mark." Angel finished for him.
"And, in a way, I trust Master Vile more." Tommy was surprised by his words. "He was chasing us, you more so, a week and some days ago and she didn't do a thing. She let it happen."
"I see where you're going and agree." Angel placed her hand on Tommy's shoulder, he shuddered at her touch. "She just let it happen. Probably knew all about it and was watching as we ran our asses off."
"You ran yours off." Tommy joked. "Probably not much left for your father to whip if he catches you again."
Angel laughed at his joke then got up and excused herself. The sun had set and a full moon, a blue moon, was out. Many of the people in the camp had cameras and were taking pictures of it, Angel just looked at it. The stars around the large, blue moon were small pinpoints of light, Angel saw the constellations Orion, Draco and Pegasus. Even though the night was very young, she walked over to her blanket. Helen of Earth, she saw from the corner of her eye, was sleeping on a blanket slightly above her. Yawning, not wanting to see her mother, she rolled over and went to sleep.
