Apollymi didn't take the news well to say the least. She managed to vaporize several rooms of the palace at Kalosis before Xedrix and Sabine calmed her down. She then spent the better part of the day brooding over how she could stop them from succeeding in their plan to ultimately stop her from destroying the world.

Sabine sat at her feet fretting that her akra would go berserk again and destroy everyone in the palace, herself included. She stared up at Apollymi's beautiful face and was surprised when a decidedly wicked and extremely deadly smile spread against the Destroyer's face. "Bring Xora to me."

&&&&&

Alicia smiled and tossed the paper airplane she'd been folding across the desk at Peter. "That doesn't work for me. You gotta get on the bandwagon here buddy."

Peter laughed and tossed the paper airplane back at her, "I'm just saying, a pretty girl like you should get out and have a little fun. You can't spend your whole life sitting at home reading books."

"Peter, I don't spend my whole life reading books. I do have friends and I do have a life outside of work. Trust me when I say that my life is plenty exciting."

"Fine, fine, I won't say anything else. So did you look over those files for the prenatals?"

"Yeah, she looks good. I'll walk over and take a glance at her after lunch. You wanna grab a bite with me?"

Peter shook his head and reached for a folder on the top of a teetering pile, "No, you go ahead. I really have to get these out of here before La Pierre hunts me down." He waved her off and she smiled as she headed for the door, "Oh, remember the meeting tonight."

Alicia waved as she left the building and walked out into the bright midday sunshine. She headed across the zoo's main campus towards the gift shop and cafeteria. She grabbed one of the pre-made salads from the line and sat at one of the tables in the atrium. She sat watching the families enjoying their trip to the zoo. The innocence of the children always made her smile. Someday soon she hoped that she would be able to enjoy the same smiles with her own child. Of course that would mean that Ash would have to figure out how to get his soul back.

That dilemma was a bit overwhelming to tackle on such a beautiful day so she dropped her salad bowl in the trash and walked back out to the zoo. She was walking around the outside of the cat enclosure when she spotted a familiar face. "Hello Wren," she smiled and waved at the young man. He had been present at the tiger enclosure so much that she'd become friends with him. He really knew a great deal about the cats and she honestly enjoyed talking to him. "How's it going today?"

"Hey Alicia, it's okay so far. Gotta take Maggie out for dinner tonight, got any ideas?"

"I'm the wrong person to ask Wren, remember, still new to town. You should ask Peter, he'd know. He's quite a ladies man from what I hear."

"Okay, I'll ask him. When are you going to come over? Maggie would love to have you visit."

"Soon, I promise," Alicia said as she waved and wandered off towards the office. She'd just rounded the corner of the habitat when a huge whooshing noise heralded the appearance of something that Alicia had never seen before. It stood over six and a half feet tall and could only be described as demonic. Huge leathery wings spread from its back and it hissed in anger at her.

Alicia had no idea what to do other than escape from this thing somehow. She backed up as far as she could before the thing lunged at her and she fell to the ground as a scream escaped her. The demon, or whatever it was, dove towards her spreading its wings to slow its fall and shrieking like a banshee. She scrabbled backwards to try to get away from the thing but it kept coming at her.

Suddenly something slammed into her from the side and the world folded in upon itself.