I do NOT own Kim Possible
Voice throwing: Remember Ron can throw his voice.
Time: A week later.
Jenny,... Willow,... A Talk With Snake,...
Ron peeked in on Jenny. She was alone, strapped to her bed, staring at the ceiling. He watched and saw her sigh. Obviously the girl was bored. Who wouldn't be, forced to lay in the same position for days at a time. He'd been talking with some Global Justice counselors and their verdict had been the same. She was still a suicide risk. She might smile, laugh, and engage in conversation, but she still had the memories of what she'd done. As a basically good person it had to haunt her. He sighed and walked in.
"Morning." He said.
"Morning." She answered, looking at him, hope in her eyes.
"Want to get a bite to eat?" He asked.
She nodded, eager to get free even for a few minutes.
He unlocked the cuffs. "No movements faster than two kilometers per hours." He said and turned his back. There was nothing in the room she could use to harm herself with and the slow speed she could move at wouldn't let her hurt him or even herself. There was a screen where she could change into her clothes and that was it. Even with changing she would have to move her arms very slowly or risk getting put to sleep. A few minutes later she slowly stepped up beside him.
"Ready." She said.
"He pulled out the remote and pushed a few buttons. "Five kilometers per hours." He said. It would let her move at an almost normal speed, but nothing fast. If she tried to throw a punch or a kick she would be asleep before it could land. It was pretty effective at keeping her from hurting anyone, though it wouldn't prevent suicide attempts. That was why he had to keep an eye on her all the time when out of her room. Or Kim, or Shego. One of the three who could go hand to hand with her if she did get free of the devices within her body somehow.
"How's the new mutator coming along?" She asked.
"DNAmy is testing it now. If all the tests go smoothly then we will try and capture Willow this evening."
"I wonder how she manages to control the need?" Jenny wondered out loud, unable to help herself. It was a question she asked pretty often. She expected him to put a device in her mouth any day that would, at the press of a button, keep her from talking. He seemed to use an awful lot of devices.
Ron shrugged. "All goes well you'll be able to ask her tomorrow."
"If she doesn't end up like Sara."
"She won't." Ron assured her. "She doesn't have the same burden of guilt Sara does. Not that either one of you are at fault for what was done."
"Maybe." She answered.
"Your sister has started a new mural." He told her, pulling out the Kimmunicator and handing it to her.
She pulled up the file marked mural4 and opened it. "Beautiful." She said, awestruck.
"Not sure what the theme is." He admitted. "Perhaps you can figure it out."
She stared at the display and pondered, but nothing came to mind. They reached the cafeteria and she reluctantly handed the Kimmunicator back.
Ron looked at the menu and sighed. He wished his schedule allowed him time to cook. "How about we split a pizza with the works?" He asked the girl by his side and she nodded eagerly.
She sat and ate. It was good to be able to eat without help, even if that help was Miranda. Sure she had to use her fingers to eat with, not being allowed a fork or knife, but that was the way she always ate pizza anyway. You would have to be crazy to use a fork and knife for finger food. She ate happily, taking sips of hot chocolate prepared by Miranda, between bites of pizza. It was good.
She ate the last piece of crust, her powerful jaws making short work of the part most people threw away. Sitting back she stared at her hands, thinking. With the push of a button her movements could be restricted. She understood that. After all, even if there had been an alien inside her, it had still been her hands that had hurt over two hundred people. Nineteen of them permanently. With that sort of record they couldn't just let her run around free. But sometimes she wished for a normal cell where she could pace and move. But what sort of cell could hold her? She sighed. When he came and took her to lunch like this she nearly cried at being able to move, even if she had to keep it so slow.
"You won't be restrained like that forever." He said.
"Think they will put me back in one of those cells in that prison?" She wondered.
"Hope not. The thing that did the mutilating is dead. There's no reason to punish you over it."
"It was peaceful though." She said. "When I woke up I knew a lot of time had passed, though I'm not sure how I knew it."
"I like peaceful." He said. "But after a while it gets boring."
She raced across the land she knew so well. A sudden turn in the trail she was following led her to a small clearing with a brook running through it. Panting, she dropped down beside it and took a drink. It was good, but the banshee was demanding misery and she sighed. She had put it off as long as possible. If she didn't want to waste her mental and spiritual energies on suppressing the need she would have to kill something. She rose from the ground again and leapt across the brook. Her long strides took her back into the forest and she hunted. A rabbit, hard to see, being white on a small splotch of snow, caught her eye and she gave chase. The banshee's need filled her and made her want to throw up. She ignored it and ran around the rabbit, blocking it in whichever way it tried to flee. She could feel its panic and the banshee inside her felt something that wasn't quite joy. For joy she knew it would want people, but the rabbit would help satisfy it.
She circled the rabbit again and again, until she made a sudden turn inward and grabbed it from the ground. It went still in her hands, frightened. She clenched her hands and it made a noise that she didn't know how to describe. Her fingernails went to work and soon it was coated in blood. She licked it from the terrified animal, making sure each time it saw her teeth and would think it was about to be eaten. She cursed the banshee as she did so. Should she ever get the chance she would tear out its heart. But Snake said that was impossible. That the banshee was a part of her. She played with the rabbit until it went into shock. She let it fall to the ground and offered prayers begging for forgiveness from the gods of her people. She wondered if she believed in gods. For things like the banshee to exist they couldn't be kind ones.
She turned and raced across the forest floor again. Coming to another clearing she stopped and stared upwards. It felt as though she was being watched and the sensation came from above her. She would have wondered if it was a god she'd made angry if there hadn't been a more rational explanation. It had been there since she'd returned to her land. She figured it must be people from the base she'd escaped from. Sighing she wondered how they felt about so many of their people being hurt. Probably pissed, she thought to herself. And given the things she'd seen in the base they were quite capable of making a bomb. She formed that image in her mind and thrust it at the banshee. A plane dropping a ten megaton nuclear bomb and turning her to less than dust. She grinned as she felt it squirm. Still the need drove her and she raced across the landscape again.
She froze. Something was wrong. The need drove her and in her mind she yelled, shut up. The banshee went quiet as it realized she sensed danger. She remained still and studied the sensation of the wind on her skin. It felt wrong. What was it, she wondered to herself. The way it was blowing wasn't quite right. She watched the branches of a fir tree and saw them twitch slightly into the direction of the wind. That was it, the wind currents were wrong. She turned and ran as hundred of small objects dropped around her. She pivoted on her left foot and twisted around behind a tree. A hissing sound she recognized filled the air. It was the sound she'd heard just before things had went dark and she'd woke up in that prison. A place of ice magically sustained amidst fiery heat. It had been almost enough to make her believe in the gods of her people.
She raced through the forest and the objects dropped around her. Look on the bright side, she told herself. At least they aren't using a ten megaton nuclear bomb. She ran through the densest part of the woods she could find. The objects, that she realized must be grenades of some sort, shot needles. They were fragile enough that the foliage offered some protection against them. She ran into a stand of dense fir trees and the cover should have prevent those above from spotting her but it didn't seem to help. Snake had taught her many things and she had broken into many cabins to steal stuff, including books. She wasn't illiterate whether it came to just reading or even science. The aircraft above her were cloaked, and they had infrared scanners. Hiding in the forest wouldn't be enough.
Turning she kept running, dodging, speeding her reflexes through the use of her mental and physical energies. She hated to waste those energies on anything other than keeping the banshee under control but she was desperate. She ran through the woods, following paths no one but a person born to the forest could have ever hoped to find. It led her to the edge of a lake and she dove into the ice cold water.
She could naturally hold her breath for a long time, and with the techniques Snake called Tai Shing Pek Kwar she could extend that time. She kept far beneath the surface and swam along the sides where the ground leaned out over her. It would hide her from above. She swam for fifteen minutes before she came to a small cave beneath the lake. She swam in and upwards. There she took a deep breath and rested for a short while. The entrance was well hidden and she doubted they would find her here. She would wait for a few hours and leave.
Ron sat and waited within the cargo hole of the Global Justice jet. He had had his suspicions about Willow from the start. In the footage they'd had of her maiming people he'd seen her twice strike blows that resembled those of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. From the angle of the shots it had been hard to tell. Then there had been her ability to control the alien within her to some extent. If she'd studied the mental aspects of Tai Shing Pek Kwar she might have the ability to do that. It had been just a suspicion on his part, but as he saw the girl race through the woods he knew those suspicions had been confirmed. She was another student of that ancient art. She'd been caught in their trap once before when her energies must have run low, but she wouldn't be again. Her hearing would tell her where the grenades were coming from and her reflexes would let her put obstacles between them.
Then she had went and disappeared. The jets had covered the area several times in the last hour without finding anything. That was to be expected. She knew the land and a place like this must have hundred of caves that didn't appear on any map. Unless they got very lucky there was no way they would catch her. And it wasn't like they had many tranq-grenades left. They were down to around ten percent of what they'd started with. Plus they might not even work on her. So long as her mental and spiritual energies weren't depleted she would be able to remain aware and cleanse the drugs from her body.
He entered the place of the cyan light, the center of his being. He had felt Sensei calling and he too desired to talk to his teacher.
"There is another student of Tai Shing Pek Kwar?" He asked the old man.
Sensei nodded. "I can sense her." He said.
"How?" Ron asked.
"We who are the teachers can sense each other across short distances. The teacher she carries is weary."
"Weary?" Ron asked.
The old man nodded. "That is all I can tell you. We can only sense each other from this distance. Closer and communication is easier."
"Can you help me find her?"
Sensei nodded. "I can. She is close."
Ron left the center of his being and sighed.
"What is it?" Shego asked, looking at him.
"Tell the pilot to drop me off."
"Here? With an alien possessed girl wandering around?" She demanded.
He smiled at her. "Yes here. Where there's an alien possess girl wandering around."
She sighed. "Why?"
"I can find her." He answered.
"Then tell the pilots so they can bomb the area."
"Won't work." He told her. "Only got her last time because the area had been swamped with people and they had her worn out running from them. Plus she's seen the grenades now and knows what to look out for. There's no way we can capture her the same way again."
"Hrmph." She said.
"Ron..." Kim started.
He sighed. "Look. We will probably fight and you can watch. If you see her tearing me apart then intervene. So at worse I will get a few cuts and broken bones." He wondered how he knew they would fight. The girl could control the alien within her somewhat so a peaceful conversation wasn't out of the question. Yet he knew they would fight. The knowledge came from within him. From Sensei. He blinked. No, not fight. They would spar and see who was the strongest.
The jet landed and he jumped out. He turned and walked in a direction that called to him. Eventually he reached the edge of a lake where he sat and waited.
She felt Snake call to her and she entered the smoke tainted light again. "Chilly swim." She smiled at her friend.
"Go back to the surface." Snake told her. "There will be someone there. Spar with him."
Willow blinked. "But there are people dropping grenades there. We should hide here a bit longer."
Snake shook her head. "It's time to see how well I've taught you. Win or lose, I'm proud of you." She gave her pupil a rare smile.
"I'm not sure I can spar without losing control." She admitted. "Either I will be slow, or the need will make me hit to hurt."
"I'm aware of that." Snake told her. "He won't be weak."
"He?"
Snake nodded. "The one waiting at the edge of the lake above us."
"How do you know there's someone there?"
"Because he carries a teacher too." Snake answered.
"Teacher?" Willow wondered. "I've always called you Snake. And you are a teacher. Is that another name for you?"
Snake nodded. "It is."
"And he has someone like you too?"
"He does." Snake answered.
"Why must we fight then?" Willow asked.
"Not fight. Spar. But you must give it everything you've got. The results will mean nothing to you, but it is the way my people decide rank."
"Your people?"
Snake smiled. "He has seen many battles. Do not hold back. It would disrespect him and his teacher."
Willow gulped. "Why even meet him. Why not just keep running and hiding like we have been."
"Don't you wish contact with your own kind? People to talk to? Even with me here it must be lonely."
"Well. Sometimes." Willow admitted.
"Then spar and talk."
"If I lose what will it mean to you?" Willow asked, worried.
"It just decides a rank that ceased to have meaning many thousands of years ago." Snake said, sadly. "I will be proud whether you win or lose and nothing will change."
Willow gulped and left the place of the tainted light. She turned and dove into the water. The banshee within her stirred and she wondered what to do about it. She broke through to the surface and climbed out of the water. A short distance away she saw a man with blonde hair waiting. They both stood and face each other. When he bowed she followed suit.
"I can't control what I might do." She warned.
"What do you call the thing within you that drives you to mutilate animals?" He asked.
She blinked in surprised. How could he know about the banshee, she wondered. "Banshee." She answered.
"A fitting name given this is the land where the banshees dwell." He mused. He pulled off a glove that looked like a gauntlet and dropped it to the ground. "And the banshee is the reason why you can't control what you do?"
She nodded, wondering if the gauntlet was a weapon of some sort.
"You've done much better than the other two possessed by a banshee. Though they call it by different names. One just calls it the thing inside, and the other had her mind broken. There is no way to know what she called it. There was a third but she had her banshee removed before she was born."
She felt the banshee inside her recoil in shock. "Removed?" She asked.
He nodded.
"Snake told me it couldn't be removed. Just that if I learned enough I could contain it." Willow said, disbelieving him.
"The banshee was placed there by artificial means and can be removed by such means."
"If it was put there then who put it there?" She demanded.
"Not who. What." He told her. "And you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just say an adult form of the banshee. Though their real names are Lorwardians."
The banshee recoiled in shock again and she knew the man was telling the truth. The banshee had flinched when the man had mentioned it had been placed there by artificial means and that it could be removed by such. "Why would Snake say it couldn't be removed?" She asked.
"Probably because she doesn't know the technology exists to do so. Without the technology it would be impossible."
"Can you remove it from me?" She held her breath.
"We can. It's been removed from all of the other girls. You're the last one. We decided to keep you until last because you weren't hurting people. Between them the other two have hurt over eight hundred people, over two hundred of them with permanent injuries."
She gulped. "Eight hundred?"
He nodded. "So you can see why you were left until last. Other than one boy, and the people at the base, you haven't hurt anyone."
She nodded. That made sense. "If we spar I might not be able to keep my hits from doing damage."
He smiled. Then he burst into flames and a ball of fire erupted from him striking a nearby cliff. The cliff exploded and then collapsed downward. The flames vanished. "I will try not to get too badly hurt."
She blinked and nearly fainted. She felt the banshee also recoil in shock again. She hoped Snake didn't lose too much rank if she lost. She took a stance and he followed suit.
She attacked fast, hoping speed would let her get in an attack before he could react. Her hand flashed forward and hit him in the chest. He stumbled backwards and she followed with trying to swipe his feet from under him. Her own feet got swiped out from under her first. She flipped back up.
Ron studied his opponent. She was fast given the banshee, as she called it, within her. But she was holding back, afraid to hit too hard. While he knew this wasn't a real fight he also knew one of them was supposed to force the other to submit. He wondered how he knew that. He tripped her and moved backwards.
She attacked again, on the lookout for more fire. He back away from her attacks ignoring the punches she landed on his chest again.
"Stop holding back." He said. Then he moved forward and struck her a blow that sent her flying. He moved towards her and struck again before she could reorient herself. He did this four times before backing off.
She gasped and it finally struck her that she wasn't fighting a normal person. The fire should have told her that. She didn't have to hold back. She attacked, using the speed advantage she had to land attack after attack, forcing him back.
He felt the blows land on his chest and ignored them. They hurt but he had the toughness of comet powers to match the speed the banshee gave her. It was speed versus durability. He watched her fourth attack as she repeated the same attack again. He was ready and grabbed her wrist. He twisted, flipping her, bringing his foot up for a kick.
She rolled from the kick and stood up. She was realizing just how much faster she was, but the same attack would just let him predict her moves. She raced in and went to throw a punch but instead pivoted around and struck for his head. A head which burst into flames sending her flinching backwards.
He spun around and struck while she was still flinching from the plasma. She went flying backwards. He knew this match demanded they use every physical asset they had which, while excluding weapons, did include things like banshees and comet powers. At the same time he knew it was a balancing act. They weren't supposed to seriously hurt each other. He sighed. It was a weird way of sparring. Not a real fight, yet not a sparring match of the type he was used to.
She moved in and struck for the chest again. Something inside her twisted though and the punch became a slash that sliced through his skin. She gasped at what she'd done and taking control of her legs, forced herself to walk backward, staring at his chest. She blinked when he just wiped a thin trail of blood off it and moved to attack her. She dodged his attack and slashed again, forcing him to retreat. She followed, using her nails as weapons like she'd done so many times on the animals of the forest.
He retreated and she followed. He took several major cuts but he sealed them immediately. Most of her blows he blocked. He flared enough plasma around himself as she slashed again to give her a minor burn, but not enough to cause major damage. She drew back and he followed, launching attacks of his own. She dodged and parried all his attacks with her speed. It was like trying to spar with the wind, futile.
She looked at the slashes she'd given him and gulped. Yet he wasn't flinching from them. She was faster and had nails. He was slower, but more durable, and would sometimes call something like fire around him. She slashed again and he backed away. She wondered why he was sighing.
He sighed again. He could surround himself in plasma so she couldn't hit him. That would stop her attacks, but it also meant she would back off to a distance where he couldn't touch her. Stalemate. So to win he couldn't go all out with the comet powers. Just enough to make her wary of attacking. He flared it briefly round him as she attacked again and she drew back once more. Of course her own speed made her nearly untouchable to his own attacks. How to overcome that, he wondered.
It was infuriating. She had the speed to win but that fire would sometimes flare up and protect him. Her fingers were getting painfully burnt. She didn't want to expend valuable energy blocking the pain. At least she could dodge and parry most of his attacks. He couldn't touch her, but she wondered about that cliff he'd destroyed. He hadn't tried anything like that yet.
He flared the plasma once again as she attack, giving her another minor burn. He moved to attack and she danced back out of the way. He thew a ball of plasma at her and she dodged, panic in her eyes. He threw another and she backed off.
She jumped back, keeping her distance. She'd seen what those fireballs could do to cliffs and she certainly didn't want them touching her. Still, they seemed different, slower and less intense. She guessed those types wouldn't blow up a cliff. She moved in and slashed open his arm as he tried to block the attack. Once again the cut seemed to heal in seconds. Only a thin trail of blood came out before it closed. She could do something similar, but not with that speed.
He waited for her to moved in close and, as she was committed to her attack, curled his tongue and threw his voice. She hesitated in her attack for a second and he grabbed her wrist. He twisted it and kicked out. It took her a mere second to get loose but in that time he'd kicked her twice.
The sound of a small animal barking in her ear had made her hesitate in her attack. She'd paid for it as he managed to get her wrist and deliver two kicks to her ribs before she got free. She back off wondering where the sound had come from. There were no dogs nearby. She pushed the thought to one side and moved in for another attack. This time she heard the word 'Snake' being whispered in her ear. Once again her attack was blocked and he got her wrist. She was flipped and two more kicks were delivered to her ribs. They were getting tender.
He watched her back off, wary and confused. Throwing his voice was a trick he hadn't used in a long time. With the other two girls they'd been taken down with synthodrone traps. And in his few fights with them the opportunity hadn't presented itself. He stared over the girl's shoulder as though something was there and the spooked girl whirled around, trying to look behind while keeping him in sight. He threw plasma and two balls of it hit her and knocked her off her feet. She climbed back up and dodged the next two. She stood off for a bit looking at him warily.
He'd looked over her shoulder like there was something there and she'd foolishly fallen for it. At least now she knew while those fireballs hurt they weren't the sort that would bring down cliffs. The banshee was behaving other than trying for the occasional mutilating stroke. She had managed to keep from slashing at his throat. She was just guessing at the rules but she didn't think that would be allowed. She studied him and he studied her back. Her wrist and hand hurt along with her ribs. She guessed his slashed arms and chest hurt. Tai Shing Pek Kwar might allow him to stop the bleeding instantly, but she didn't think it would allow him to actually heal the slashes instantly. But then she hadn't heard Snake mention Tai Shing Pek Kwar being used to throw fireballs either. So who knew.
He moved to attack and she retreated so he drew back again. She still had her speed advantage.
She sighed. She was too fast for him too attack so it was up to her. But getting in close the last two times hadn't went well. She raced in to slash at his chest again, meaning to make it a feint and slash his arm when he blocked. "Willow." She heard come from right behind her and she tried to ignore it, but it still made her pause for a split second. It was long enough for him to grab her wrist again. This time as she was flipped his hand burst into flames burning her own hand and wrist. She yelled and pulled back, only managing to escape after she'd had two kicks to her ribs once again.
He hated doing it but a minor bit of plasma when he had hold of her hand would hinder her attacks. And he could tell she'd gotten used to the voice throwing trick now. She'd tried to ignore it, but people still reflexively reacted when they heard their name called. It had probably been his last chance for the trick to work and he had had to make the best use of it.
She gulped and looked down at her hand. It wasn't serious, but to fight now she would have to expend mental and spiritual energies blocking the pain. She did so. And moved in again, this time determine to ignore any sounds that she heard. She slashed at his arm and it connected. Blood started to run out, but once again it immediately stopped. She backed off and paused for a second before racing in for another strike. This time she stopped short and pivoted around him to strike at his back. Fire surged around him and she aborted her attack. It seemed like any attack behind him would immediately cause that shield of fire to rise. Too bad. She sighed and a loud bang roared in her ears. Reflexively she twisted around and felt herself being tossed to the ground as two more fireballs hit her. She'd been tricked again. She rolled to her feet dodging the next two. They'd hit her chest and she started using her mental and spiritual energies to block the pain there too.
He watched her move closer. She was using her mental and spiritual energy to block pain to her chest and hands. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he knew it. She pivoted, making a try for his back again, but it was a feint. She pivoted around from his back and slashed at him. He flared plasma just in time to force her to flinch back. He charged her, but she danced back out of the way.
She cursed inside. That shield of fire was pretty effective. She sighed and wondered how to attack him. Her mental and spiritual energies reached a certain point and she knew the fight was over. She bowed and he did the same. She'd lost.
'Sit beside him.' She heard Snake instruct her and she sat, with her legs crossed, in front of him, with their knees touching. They rested their hands on their knees so the tips of their fingers touched. Then she was in the place of the tainted light again. "I'm sorry." She told Snake.
"It's okay. Other than animals you've only rarely fought. He's fought many times. You did well. Better than well." Snake told her.
Ron sat in the center of his being with Sensei.
"Doing that seemed pretty pointless to me." He told his teacher.
"To you yes. To us no. Or at least thousands of years ago it would not have been pointless." The old man sighed. "But that was long ago."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"Ask later." He was instructed. "For now open your mind and focus on the girl called Willow."
He shrugged and did as ordered. He blinked when Willow appeared in the cyan light along with a young looking woman who was dressed in the skins of a medicine woman. That he guessed was Snake.
She blinked as the tainted light disappeared to be replaced by a cyan light that was beautiful. Before her sat the man she had just fought and an older man who she assumed was to him as Snake was to her. She watched as Snake turned to face the older man and bowed, showing him respect. She knew if she'd won the fight it would have been the other way around. The meeting would have taken place within her center of being and the old man would have bowed to Snake. She felt shame at her loss but Snake turned and smiled at her. And this place is much more beautiful, she thought to herself.
She turned towards Snake. "He claims the banshee can be removed." She said.
Snake shook her head. "I told you it is a part of you and it is impossible to remove. It's within your very genes."
Willow turned back to the man and looked at him questioningly.
"It's within her genes." Ron answered. "But it was placed there artificially, and can be removed the same way."
Snake blinked. "How do you know it was placed there artificially?" She asked.
"A student studying genetics a few decades back found a device." Ron explained. "It melted a few days after she found it, but not before she'd made detailed sketches. She managed to replicate some of it functions and found it allowed species to be merged and unmerged. That's what was done to her." He pointed at Willow. "It's not a genetic abnormality. Her DNA has been merged with that of another species."
Snake blinked again. "Which species?"
"A Lorwardian. Or at least that's what two others we've found like her had been merged with."
"You know about the Lorwardians?" Snake demanded.
Ron looked at her. "For over four years now I've entered this place and learned from Sensei. We don't talk much. I come here and we spar and I leave. At first I thought he was the teacher I studied under at a school in Japan. But the thing is, he's always here. Day or night, no matter what time, he's always here when I am. And he's different from that teacher. His emotions are sort of off at times. What are you and Sensei really?"
Snake and Sensei looked at each other. Thought they didn't speak Ron could tell they were talking. They turned back towards him and Willow.
"How do you know about the Lorwardians?" Snake asked again.
"Their ships have been observed around our world. Three years ago we captured one."
"You captured one of their ships?" Snake and Sensei asked together.
Ron nodded.
"What do you know about the Lorwardians?" Snake asked.
"A few decades back we received two messages from space. We call them the WOW-2 and WOW-3 signals. They were meant to be deciphered. Each message consisted of a series of pulses, much like a series of ones and zeros. When shown as a grid of a hundred and twenty-eight by a hundred and twenty-eight we saw a simple circle. The next such set showed a triangle, the next a square. That told us how they were to be interpreted. The rest of the signal, in each case, showed a world being attacked and demolished by the Lorwardians. Worlds with a population of ten billion were reduced to less than a hundred million over a period of decades."
"They still exist." Snake smiled. "They were made by the AeAeOiOi many thousands of years ago and were meant to give warning to upcoming species. A futile gesture though. Even if a race saw the signals they still would not be able to resist the Lorwardians."
"Explain." Ron demanded.
Snake stared at Sensei for a second and then started speaking. "Around thirty thousand of your years ago my race, the TiRGiTBiT developed technology and ventured into space. We were fortunate and found the AeAeOiOi less than a hundred light years from our own home world. They were roughly at the same level of development as us. For centuries we explored the stars and cooperated. The types of worlds we desired were vastly different and there was no need for conflict. Though my species allowed personal combat war was something we had both long since abandoned. We thought all species were the same. What purpose could there be to war when there was an entire universe to explore? Mystery upon mystery to discover.
"We were wrong." Sensei spoke. "After two hundred years we ran into the Lorwardians. Between us, we and the AeAeOiOi had over two dozen worlds. But worlds are fragile things to species that can travel the stars. The Lorwardians targeted each of them and destroyed them. We were unable to trace them back their own home world and even if we had we were not equipped for war. Our ships saw the way they treated emerging species but on our worlds they used weapons that wiped the entire surface clean. We assumed that while the emerging races were toys to it, we who could travel the stars were seen as threats."
"So we perished." Snake said. "Our ships scattered but were hunted. The AeAeOiOi made a number of probes to warn the emerging species. They would travel through space, keeping silent, then send the signal, and then flee that position to find a new place from which to send the warning again. It was the only way to keep them from being destroyed. They would constantly move so they could never be found."
"What are you?" Ron asked.
"We are programs. In our society our young were implanted with a teacher that would teach them the basics of our culture. They would never be alone and would always have a friend. If they had questions we would answer them, need of guidance and we would guide them. Of course they had parents too, but we were to supplement them."
"Do you know how to travel the stars?"
"No. If were to have all the knowledge of our species included in our programs there would be no room left for the awareness of those we were to guide." Snake answered. "On our home world there would have been databases we could have accessed. We ourselves hold only basic engineering and agricultural knowledge with some medicine."
"Do you know the Lorwardian language?"
"No. We never managed to capture, or even destroy, one of their ships. Their technology was slightly greater than ours and whereas we were not equipped for war they were."
Ron sighed.
"They will do to your race what they did to ours." Snake warned. "Other races they toy with for amusement. But those that dare the stars are destroyed utterly. That you captured one of their ships will make them see you as a threat."
"Yeah. Sort of had that figured out." Ron said. "Of course the alternative wasn't all that great either." He looked at the two programs. "Just why did they merge their own young with human fetuses?"
"As far as we know they never did that with us." Snake answered. "We could guess but it seems you know as much as we do about the Lorwardians."
"How did your programs get into humans?"
"We were supposed to be a gift." Snake answered. "Many worlds hold life but few contain intelligent life. Worlds are sometimes harsh and that life can disappear. In your genetic history we saw that your own species had come close to extinction a number of times. We were gifts to teach some of you how to train your bodies and minds to survive those threats. To make sure you grew and prospered. Only a chosen few would ever possess one of us and they would be required to keep us a secret from their society. That way you would develop your own individual cultures. But in times of need those few with a teacher would be there. We did this before we encountered the Lorwardians. After that we stopped, unsure whether it was better to remain in a hunter/gather stage and then fade into extinction, or rise and be tossed down again and again by those monsters."
"What of the ability some of us have to manipulate the electromagnetic fields around us?" He asked, wondering if they knew of the origin of comet powers.
Snake and Sensei looked at each other again. "Where did you hear about this ability?" Snake ask.
"A while back a comet hit the earth. Those affected by the comet developed weird abilities. Some could shrink, other could make clones of themselves, other could throw plasma."
"Oh." Snake said. "Interesting. The AeAeOiOi had similar abilities, but how they could come to exist on your world tens of thousands of years later I don't know." She paused before continuing. "Maybe an attempt to carry on their legacy. A sublight vessel, that would not be detected by the Lorwardians, to aid those of other worlds."
Willow blinked. The talk of aliens and wars and ... She felt overwhelmed. Handling the banshee had been enough for her. "My energies are running low." She finally said. "Soon the banshee, or Lorwardian, or whatever, will be free."
"How do you usually control it?" Ron asked.
"Right now I'm suppressing the compulsions, but that takes a lot of my energy. When I see people I access my leg muscles through nerves that control involuntary functions. I force myself to run away. When I'm far enough away I smash my legs so it can't get back to them."
"Wow. Harsh." Ron said. Then he recalled something. "You've done that since you were eleven?"
Willow nodded.
Ron stood and bowed to her, leaving Willow speechless. She saw Snake smile at her.
"Your pupil is amazing?" He told Snake.
"I know." Snake answered, watching as the mentioned pupil turned red.
"Can the banshee hear us in here?" He asked.
Willow shook her head. "No. My thoughts are private, I think, so it can't see or hear us here."
"Do you want it removed?"
"Yes." The answer came swiftly and without doubt. But then she paused. "Would Snake remain?" She asked.
"I think so." Ron answered. "Only the alien DNA would be removed. Since Snake is a program I assume she doesn't consist of any foreign DNA?" He looked at her.
"I would most likely remain." Snake answered. "I'm just a program running on the part of the brain you do not normally use. I would be seen as a part of you."
"Good." Willow said. "But right now I need some way to stop myself from hurting people."
"There are drugs on the aircraft I came on. They will keep you unconscious."
"We should hurry." The teenager said.
His inner world faded and the two of them stood. He pulled the Kimmunicator out of his pocket and asked Shego to have the jet land, with drugs ready to put the girl to sleep. In less than a minute they were aboard the jet and two medical personnel were inserting an IV into Willow's arm.
Willow entered the center of her being one last time before letting the drugs pull her under. Her mental and spiritual energies were low, but during the sleep they would rebuild. Tomorrow she would be allowed to wake and they would talk again while she kept the banshee pinned. She had an idea, but it would be very dangerous. She sighed and waved at Snake and let herself be pulled under by the drugs.
End of Chapter.
Wonder what Willow's idea is.
Seems the girls aren't the only alien gifts.