Keeping this short. I'll just say the end is near and it will get here a whole lot faster with some encouragement. Take that as you will and enjoy!

Present Day: The Apartment

"Alek? Alek! ALEK!"

I heard my name being shouted and tuning into that voice brought the rest of the world into focus. The table. The apartment. The chalice rolling on the ground and Jas yelling in my face.

"What?" I responded at a louder than intended volume.

"Oh, thank Basset," she sighed in relief.

"What happened? Did I pass out?" It appeared that I was still sitting and that no time had passed. The only thing that had changed was this slight tingly that I felt just below the surface of my skin, everywhere.

"Noooo," Jas said slowly, "you didn't pass out, but you clawed out and just sorta froze, like your mind was somewhere else."

"Clawed out?" I asked and Jas turned her gaze to the table. There were two long scratch marks over a foot long, ending with my claws still dug into the wood.

"Bloody hell, I didn't even realize I did that." I retracted my claws and felt my eyes return to normal.

"Obviously." When I looked at Jas, she was staring at me with an intensity, like I was a sick child in bed with a fever. "How do you feel?" she asked me.

I looked down at my hands, the claw marks, and then outside. If I wanted, I could hear through the commotion on the street to the conversation in the apartment across the way. I could hear the water lapping at the Golden Gate. I could hear the heartbeats of any individual in the area. It was incredible.

Turning back to Jasmine, I responded, "Fine. Actually, more than fine. I feel this… energy that I have never felt before. It's intense." I paused, remember what happened moments before this new sense of power. With lightning fast reflexes, I retrieved the golden chalice from the ground. "What exactly was in here?"

Jas took that chalice from my hand, studying it. "Chloe tried to explain to me after the warehouse incident. And then again once she finished her research, but it's still hard to explain."

"Well, any explanation would be fantastic." I attempted to reign in my sarcasm.

"Then shut up and let me try." Jas said in her pride-leader authoritarian voice.

I took a breath and honed my new intensely powerful ears towards her. The tingling continued, like a constant surging dormant under in my skin.

Jasmine continued to gaze at the chalice, "The best phrasing that Chloe used was that the glowing blue liquid was… the 'Essence of Mai'."

"Excuse me?"

"The 'Essence of Mai', what makes Mai, you know, Mai? It's the life force that was blessed by Basset and exists solely in those descendant from Basset. It's the same energy that can be transferred between Mai, like what…"

I knew in the back part of my mind Jas was referring to the fact Valentine gave up her own life force to save Jasmine when Zane had attacked the two of them 10 years ago. She still felt guilty about her mother's sacrifice, but there was more information to be processed regarding the glowing liquid.

I flexed my hands, studying my skin which showed no change since drinking the liquid, but suddenly Jasmine's wording did make sense. I did feel stronger and in a way, less normal human. "Let me see if I have this sorted, drinking that made me more Mai?"

Jas gazed at me a moment, consider my interpretation of the facts, "Yeah, I guess that is one way to put it. Do you feel more Mai?"

"Actually, yes, I feel this sense of power under my skin, like a constant flow of energy. Do you feel like this always?"

Now Jasmine's look turned from slight awe to somewhat concerned. "No, I would have never described it like that, maybe we should get you to a…"

But I interrupted her before she could suggest medical care, "Wait, if I was only one-half Mai because of my parents, then currently I'm technically one-point-five Mai. Right? Like more than being fully Mai?"

"That would make sense," Jas nodded her head, "I've never heard of anyone possessing more than 100% of a life force, except for the Uniter of course, who has nine."

At the mention of the Uniter I was brought back to the reality of what this gift from Chloe meant. "Hold on, didn't this chalice drain Chloe's life when we saw in at work in the warehouse? Does that mean that she died to give this to me?"

My own guilt sank to the bottom on my stomach with the realization. I was supposed to protect and preserve the lives of the Uniter and had instead consumed one… yeah, consumed was the best word to describe the process.

Jas set the chalice down and reached for my hand again, "Yes Alek, it does mean that Chloe died to fill the glass, but she would not have made the sacrifice unless it was for a noble cause." I could tell she was trying to comfort me, but her attempt was falling short.

"But what if I'm not worthy," I tried to argue.

"You are!" Jas refuted, "because you were more Mai than any warrior I knew before drinking the chalice, and I know Chloe thought so too."

"How would you know that?"

My cousin's eye widened in a brief moment of panic before she settled one what she was going to say. Only I knew her so well that I could recognize that it was a lie she was about to tell me.

"Because she would have sent the package to someone else if she had not thought you were worthy Alek, duh."

"No, there's more that you're not telling me."

My new enhanced Mai abilities picked up on the subtle increase of her heartbeat. With one prolonged look into her eyes, Jas broke, "Fine, it shouldn't matter if you know now since you actually drank the thing, but I got a letter from Chloe right before the package arrived. Basically, she said that it was vital come back to San Francisco and follow the instructions of the package."

I stood up from the table, the chair fell to the ground due to the sheer force of my new strength. "And why would you ever believe her?" I questioned, feeling a sense of betrayal from my own cousin.

Jasmine stood up, not quite reaching my eye level but still filled with the power of an equal match, "Because sometimes you are ignorant to the fact that Chloe, your Chloe, is still the Uniter and I swore to protect and serve the Uniter. And despite how remedial the task feels, getting you to drink from that chalice still falls under that idea of serve."

"She died to fill that chalice!" I yelled. I knew that Jas's argument was a solid one, but my heart fell more to the protect rather than the serve when it came to Chloe. Even if it meant protecting her from herself. Especially when it meant protecting her from herself. I thought Jas was on the same page was me when it came to those issues, but her next words stunned me.

"That's what she is supposed to do! She's the Uniter and the Uniter dies!"

"Not yet!" I tried to argue, but deep down I knew my next statement was a selfish one, "Not this young before she was the chance to do more."

"Like what?" Jas had raised her voice as well and the kitchen had turned into an all-out shouting match. Once again, I was thankful Jasmine had cleared the apartment for Chloe's visit.

"Like come back to me!" It wasn't until the words had left my mouth that I realized they were true. There was still a part of me that truly thought Chloe would return, especially after the past couple of days and all the time we spent together.

Jas looked at me a moment, really studying the pain I must have been displaying on my face after blurting out the desires of my heart… yet again.

"Sometimes the Uniter must die young," she all but whispered.

"Why would you say that?" I responded in the same tone.

"Because," Jas pulled a slip of paper from her jacket pocket and dropped it on the table, "it says so in the letter."

I looked from the piece of paper to Jasmine, back to the piece of paper. My eyes focused on the last line of text in that perfectly curly handwriting. I did not want to believe it. I wanted to fight it with everything I had, to find Chloe and restore the balance. I was not supposed to have the extra life, she was. At the same time I felt there was something in the air, something that Jas and Chloe understood that I still resisted. It said so in the letter.

Thank you, Jas, I'll never forget you, even when the time comes for me to become one.

Cryptic? Or just dumb. If the ending to this chapter was dumb, please let me know. It's not sitting right but I was eager to post and I didn't want to end it like all my other chapters where someone storms out. Please let me know.