Chapter Fifty-Two: Stealing Moments.


The bonding process put a smile on Nyssa's face. The first rays of sunlight came into the room and caused Nyssa to snap back out of a process where she slumbered. To be perfectly honest, Nyssa could not remember how she got into this bed from the one she was in with Harry last night.

The skilled assassin and now the holder of the Tengu Medallion kicked up out of bed. Nyssa grabbed Harry's shoulder and smiled when pushing herself up and out of bed. The Daughter of the Demon spent the next couple of minutes adjusting to the sunlight which poured into the room. She had new abilities. A part felt a bit stronger and a far bit better to take the world.

"Slept well?"

Time passed with Nyssa snapping out of her thoughts to come across her beloved's smiling face. The Daughter of the Demon slid forward and turned around to come face to face with Harry. Nyssa put a hand deep on Harry's waist and smiled at him.

"Always."

Nyssa would have wanted to do more other than sleep. She leaned in closer and touched Harry's lips to hers. The kiss lingered for a long moment. Despite wanting it to last forever, despite Nyssa wanting to do more, she swung her legs out of bed. Nyssa stepped over to move towards the dresser and scoop up some clothes.

"Sara and Kara should be on their way soon," Harry said.

The skilled warrior turned around with a flicker of a smile spreading across her face. "Then, I won't be too long to do so."

Harry moved to the bathroom on the opposite side to get cleaned up. Normally, he would share a shower with Nyssa. Today, business came before pleasure. No matter how much Harry wanted to indulge himself in Nyssa after the passionate exchange they had last night, Harry needed to be reasonable. Three girls held the medallions and one, well she was going to decide to take hold of her medallion soon.

'Three down, four counting Gwen,' 'Harry thought. 'Two more to go.'

The powerful wizard slipped on a casual shirt and a pair of pants. He made his way past the staircase into the sitting room. Kara already popped up, dressed in a red tank top and a pair of blue jeans. Her blue jean jacket sat across the table. The medallion rested on her neck to draw attention to the girl.

Kara jumped up to great Harry with a warm hug. She stepped back to allow Harry to take his place on the couch.

"Sara's on her way," Kara said.

'Yes,' Sara confirmed. 'Laurel's covering for me thankfully. It's good to have her in the know. There are already a lot of people asking questions about where I've been. And there was a creepy guy outside of my father's house.'

'Did you get a good look at his face?' Harry asked.

Frustration mounted if Sara's prominent sigh was any indication. The girl on the other end of the bond link answered in negative.

'No, Dad ran him off,' Sara thought. 'He didn't recognize the man. Never got a good look at the man's face, but I'm pretty sure whoever he answers to isn't exactly the most savory of people.

Kara stood up to meet Nyssa. The two fellow medallion holders embraced the moment they met each other in the center of the room.

"Welcome back," Kara said.

"I'm glad to be back."

The two parted ways and awaited their third medallion hold, out of the ones who claimed the medallion, any way to show up. The doors opened and Nyssa stood up to greet Sara at the moment.

Sara was not the one who walked through the door. The person who walked through the door lingered in the doorway with a smile on her face.

"Shado, welcome," Harry said. "Sorry, we were just waiting for Sara."

"No apologies great one," Shado said. "And I'm glad to see a third medallion has been claimed."

Shado gave Nyssa her congratulations in a hug. Nyssa took much more from the other woman by planting a very hungry kiss on her lips. Shado allowed her to do it, knowing that until her body got used to the medallion, Nyssa would be on a trigger which would need satisfaction constantly.

"I, with the help of Miss Mercer, have uncovered a way to locate the Merfolk medallion within the next few days," Shado said. "The ritual will have to be done on the full moon to ensure it is pulled off to a high level of accuracy."

Harry found himself not completely surprised. Most rituals would need to be pulled off upon the full moon to be completely accurate. The doors opened to stop Shado's speech. Sara made her way in and smiled. Nyssa moved over to allow Sara to take her spot between herself and Harry. Kara sat on Harry's right side, while Sara sat on his left side. Shado stood in the back of the room.

"Did I miss anything? "Sara asked.

"I was informing them of the ritual to locate the Merfolk Medallion," Shado told them. "It can be found on the full moon. And it requires the blood of three of the holders of the medallions."

Harry's surprise became less at this bit of news. Many rituals pointed to some usage of blood. So, naturally, this ritual would be no different at all.

"So, it will need the blood of Kara, Sara, and Nyssa," Harry said, making sure he knew this was right.

"Will my blood cause complications due it being different?" Kara asked.

"It shouldn't," Nyssa said. "You are the holder of the medallion. And I think we've figured out that our blood is more unique than the blood of most other people."

Shado picked up where Nyssa had left off. "It will need Harry's blood as well to seal it."

Five days, it could be five days. Five days crept up before they located the woman who had the second to last medallion. Then, they could go from there.


Hailey sat out on a bench in a nice park. She could see the country side in Smallville from there. The nice open fields stretched out in every direction. The sounds of children at play brought a smile to Hailey's face. The leaves falling from the trees and the scent of freshly baked apple pie continued to deepen that smile. Hailey reached down and caught one of the fallen leaves.

It might have been at the end of its life cycle but it looked completely beautiful. Hailey thought autumn was an appropriate season. Times have changed and Hailey could hardly wait to see how much everything changed around them.

Her mother and sister finally reunited with each other. Hailey met one of her cousin's for the first time, one of the two which she bothered to remember. A specter might have loomed over the family. Hailey refused to live in fear at that specter.

'He's going not going to get the better of me,' Hailey thought.

Haunting dreams came into Hailey's mind about what could happen if the Dragon failed to acquire all seven medallions and unite his generals together. She tried in despair not to focus on the bad things. Despite that being there, there were some really real fears.

'Harry won't fall,' Hailey reminded herself. 'He's better than good. He's simply amazing. Nothing will allow him to fall. Nothing at all.'

Speak of the devil, and he shall arrive. Harry stepped a few inches next to Hailey and sat down on the bench next to her. Hailey could feel Harry's presence near her. He did not even need to touch Hailey to allow the younger of two sisters to feel the presence.

That was true power no question about it. Hailey gave him an acknowledgment of knowing the powerful sorcerer's presence.

"Nice day out, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Hailey said. "It's the perfect day to just get your thoughts together. And unfortunately, I have a lot of them to get together right now."

"The visions?" Harry asked.

To be perfectly honest, the visions were something which came in handy when it was something Hailey could understand. Hailey felt the visions could be a problem when they bombarded her mind with a random stream of consciousness until she was pretty sure her ears started to bleed.

"They came in handy once, I guess," Hailey said. "I don't think that we would have located Holly without them…okay, you might have, I know. Guess, I could have jumped the gun."

"Maybe," Harry told her. "Maybe not. You went with your instincts. Most people don't realize is your instincts are actually not the worst thing to go with. It's just when you start questioning your instincts is when the problems start arising."

Hailey answered with a very evident nod and swallowed a lump in her throat.

"I'm just glad they worked out for the better," Hailey said. "And Mia…she didn't ask too many questions to complicate the issue. And that issue is complicated enough, wouldn't you say?"

Harry would have to agree. He put a hand firmly on Hailey's shoulder. Hailey dropped her head off to one side to rest in on Harry's shoulder. It took Haley approximately a minute of having her head on Harry's shoulder to realize what happened. She pulled away from Harry and looked on with an embarrassing smile.

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize," Harry said. "You're just confused and frustrated."

Hailey decided not to do what she really wanted to do to Harry right here and right now. She envisioned a perfect world surrounded around him.

"Yes, that's for sure," Hailey said. "My older sister's back and she's more broken than the visions will end up making me if I don't find a way to get them in line."

Harry wrapped an arm around Hailey's waist. Hailey pushed herself against Harry and smiled at the warmth coming from him.

"How is she doing by the way?" Harry asked. "I haven't heard from her in a couple of days?"

"Fine. She's fine. She went off with mother and they had a lot of catching up to do. And I had the chance to leave but I wanted to stay in Smallville to figure out a couple of things."

Harry understood why Mia decided to leave with Charlotte to help and why Hailey stuck around with Harry. Those two things were very obvious. What was less obvious was exactly how these visions were affecting Hailey?

"Back to these visions?"

Intense breathing caused Hailey to come around. Harry was holding her in tight and made the teenager feel a little bit more relaxed.

"You're just going to have to come to terms of your abilities," Harry said. "And first, we need to understand what triggers these visions."

Hailey nodded. She had been struggling to figure that out.

"I have some meditation exercises we can go through. But first, relax, and take a deep breath. Focus on something very pleasant."

The younger girl lapsed in a dazed state when Harry helped her relax and become one with herself and her mind. Finally, Hailey would come to terms with these abilities.


Talia moved back and practiced the sword motions against the practice dummy. It was more of an exercise to keep herself occupied during those slow moments than an exercise to do anything practical. The dummies just sat there, did not fight back. Talia whipped her hand back a couple of inches and then came across the dummy one more time. Talia envisioned the enemies coming around her. Talia made some motions and more dummies flickered into the room. The rune stones carved on the wall allowed the dummies a small level of defensive capabilities.

'They haven't returned yet?' Nyssa asked.

'Unfortunately,' Talia thought. 'This is a fact-finding mission. If they haven't run into HIVE, they should be back a little bit later.'

Talia knew better than to say that things had gone according to plan. Those words were the ones often last spoken by fools. She closed her eyes.

'The training area is decent,' Talia commented. 'And Harry did an adequate job in putting everything together. It's just that….well….'

The Daughter of the Demon bounced into the air and slammed the sword into the shoulder of one of the practice dummies. The dummy healed through magic, showing only a gash where Talia's sword had driven through it. Talia moved back and turned around.

'Nothing can beat the rush of fighting a human adversary?' Nyssa asked.

'Precisely' Talia thought.

She did want to discount anything Harry did. Just that, actual human enemies, and skilled ones could be better than practice dummies. One of the dummies blocked the shot and knocked Talia back a couple of inches. Talia readjusted her footing and came back at the attacker.

The swipe of the sword came through the chest of the practice dummy. Talia moved back and went in for another attack. The Daughter of the Demon kicked back a notch and jumped up before bringing another attack into the chest plate of her adversary.

"Cease!" Talia yelled.

The practice dummies snapped into place. Talia took a deep breath. They were going to need a little bit of fine tuning.

'I'll try and program them with some better fighting skills next time,' Harry offered. 'Of course, there's only so much that you can do when they're objects and not actual people.'

Talia inclined her head in affirmation. The sound of several figures arriving outside of the door caught Talia's attention. She reached towards the sheath to pull out a sword. Three women dressed in black approached the other side of the door.

Three knocks, in succession, and in an equal planned rhythm followed by each of the women saying a passcode in Arabic in succession. You could never be too careful. Once everything had been done to her liking, Talia reached in and pulled the door open.

Enough space allowed the three women to step into the training room. They descended to their knees before their mistress. Talia extended a hand towards them and motioned for them to rise to a standing position.

"Report."

"We have checked out the reported facility," one elite guard member said. "By the time we had a chance to be there, they were all gone. They cleared it out."

Cleared it out, or moved everything to a nearby facility, Talia figured about as much. The Daughter of Ra's al Ghul spent some time looking at the women.

'Darhk is, unfortunately, one step ahead,' Talia thought. 'We won't be able to rest until he is in the ground where he belongs.'

No matter how much Talia hated it, it was hard to deny the fact Darhk slipped away. He might not have been the main authority of HIVE. Obviously, though, he had a lot of power and there was no use in denying it.

"We managed to acquire a book from one of the other facilities," an assassin offered.

Talia took the book in hand and flipped through it. More information regarding some of the same things they knew. Still, it confirmed a couple of things, one of which was the amount of information HIVE acquired on the Merfolk and Phoenix medallions. Also, information on the Tengu Medallion, which they were a step too late.

A figure came up the steps in front of her. Talia inclined her head and viewed her sister standing at the landing. Their eyes met for ten seconds before Talia turned her attention completely to the assassins waiting.

"Leave us."

They left Talia and left enough room for Nyssa to climb up the steps. Both women might have been on better terms lately, but there was still a sense of competitive spirit between them. Talia had been pretty pleased though Nyssa had the medallion on.

"I see you are enjoying the effects of the medallion."

Two skilled warriors moved to the center of the room. The dummies shifted down into the ground just enough to give them a center ring to hone their skills in. Both of them circled around each other. Neither backed down from each other. They refused to take their eyes off of one and other.

"I admit I was disappointed at first," Talia said. "But, I can't help and think this is something you wanted. I know that you think yourself to not be our father's favorite child."

"No," Nyssa said.

Nyssa really did wish to convey to her sister the darker side of Ra's al Ghul in due time. Until this moment came, she would have been facing off with her sister. Both women moved to the center of the ring. Nyssa held the blade out to block her sister's attack. Both of them pushed back with Nyssa coming back and landing behind her sister. Talia immediately moved in.

"Much more challenging than fighting a practice dummy."

Two attempted attacks had been blocked. Nyssa pushed Talia onto her back and then stepped back to allow Talia plenty of room to maneuver. Talia sprung back to the attack and the two of them engaged in a sword fight with each other.

"I should hope I'm better," Nyssa said. "And you need to keep your eye on the ball of this happens."

Talia found herself bombarded with some pheromones which caused her to drop the sword. Nyssa stood with her arms to her side. Her sister frowned and reached down to pick up the sword. It had been very hard to ignore the buzz in her body.

"You've learned some new tricks. Very impressive, but it doesn't matter. You're still going down."


Gwen swung back and forth against the pull-up bars in the gym. She drew in a very deep breath. Gwen dropped down onto the ground and moved over towards the bench to take a seat. The blonde would take a deep breath after a long workout. She rustled through the bag and pulled out a bottle of water.

The medallion stuck out of the top of the bag and practically taunted Gwen. It called to her and dragged Gwen's mind completely in. She knew all about being destined to hold the medallion. Gwen just could not bring herself to pick up and hold it. She dug through the bag with a frown and held it up.

'So tempting,' Gwen thought.

It was hers and that scared Gwen, to be honest. Spiders never were something Gwen felt very comfortable around. The thought of just controlling them made Gwen a little nervous. It was nothing big, to be honest. Gwen thought maybe putting the medallion on them would cause her fears to fade. Or just make them just that much worse.

'We have a fifty-fifty shot here,' Gwen thought. 'You should take the plunge. What's the worst that could happen really? Do you turn into a Spider-Girl with four arms and many eyes? What are the chances of that happening?'

Gwen kept her eyes locked firmly on the medallion. Many questions went through the mind of the young girl. Very few answers came along with those questions. Gwen only briefly paid attention to the sound of someone punching away at a bag off to the side.

The someone stopped punching away at the bag. Gwen did not fully react to the person who joined her until Rose sat down on the side of the bench. She only gave Rose the briefest second of acknowledgment. Rose put a hand on her shoulder.

"You're still going back and forth on that thing, aren't you?"

"Yes," Gwen said. "We all know that the spider medallion is meant for me. We can't argue about that. Still, there's just something about it that's keeping me from putting it on."

Rose squeezed Gwen's hand to get her attention.

"You're not being decisive about what you want. You should either take the medallion or don't take the medallion."

"I don't think that there's a choice about taking the medallion or not taking the medallion. Every time I come close to this thing, it keeps calling to me. It's weird when you really think about it."

It was a very rough spot to be in. Gwen figured there was some kind of expression about how great power and great responsibility come together.

"I'm actually trying to figure out what I should do," Gwen said.

"Are you going to ask what I would do? "Rose asked. "Or are you going to ask what I think you should do?"

Both of those questions sounded a bit loaded. Gwen had been saved the ability to answer by Rose jumping in.

"I would be even more suspicious than you are about a medallion trying to compel me to slip it on. I know it's safe. You know with Harry, Kara, Sara, and Nyssa all having the medallions without any consequences, it's safe. But, still, I'll be afraid that my mind is not strong enough. I don't have the will-power enough."

"I don't think my mind isn't strong enough," Gwen said.

"I didn't say you did," Rose said. "I'm just saying what I would think. It's a good thing I'm not up for one of those medallions."

Rose always stood very close to the edge about ready to slip off. The abyss stared at her. The bond with Harry stabilized her to some extent. Still, the serum in Rose's blood stream caused a very primal part of her to rise and threatened to claw its way out.

"You're not me," Rose said. "Therefore, only you can decide whether or not you can handle the medallion and its power. Are you afraid of spiders? They aren't going to hurt you. Well, other than the really poisonous ones."

Gwen gave Rose a sidelong gaze as if to say she was not helping. Rose just responded a little smile.

"Okay, I'm not the best person to give you smiles and hugs, and tell you everything is going to be alright," Rose said. "You know something, I really not. Especially when I can be one really paranoid bitch."

She touched a hand on Gwen's and gave her a smile in response.

"But, I'm sure those scary spiders are going to be nothing to worry about if you put that medallion," Rose said. "I wouldn't do it. I don't think that I can handle the power. However, you can handle the power. At least, it looks like you can handle the power."

Gwen wondered if it was time to stop being motivated out of fear and start doing things. The medallion clasped gently against her hand with several deep breaths coming from the girl. Yes, she could do this. Yes, she could do this. Gwen kept repeating that in her head like a mantra.

'Yes, I can do this. Just put it on.'

Yet, Gwen could not do this just yet. She heard someone appear next to her. Gwen stood up straight to come face to face with Harry.

"You're still struggling with your fears?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Gwen said. "How can you tell?"

"I see the look in your eye of someone who isn't really being that decisive," Harry said. "The medallion is not going to leave you alone until you put it on."

Gwen sighed, she came to that conclusion a fair amount of time ago. Her heart stammered a little bit. Why would she just not put the medallion on?

"Don't put it on just yet," Harry said.

The brainy blonde jumped in surprise. Her full attention had been turned on Harry with Rose sliding off of the bench to give a significant amount of space for them.

"Why not? I thought you said it wouldn't leave me alone if I didn't put it on."

"Yes, I did," Harry said. "First you need to face your fears."


Prisoners very seldom had any sense of when time passed. The seconds, the moments, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years, each instrument of time just ground by very far. A redheaded woman dressed in rags pressed her face against the cell.

The cells were barren other than a few paintings. One of them depicted the conquering of Atlantis by the new rulers. Every time the prisoner woke up, the image of that painting taunted the woman. Every single time, every single second, out of every single day it taunted the woman.

Not as much as the woman's jailer taunted her. Every few days, without fail, the jailer would come and mock the once proud woman. The taunts kept digging into her mind. How it was her betrayal which caused Atlantis to fall. The last image of the former king was a sense of anguish. The former King fell when defending his people to the very last breath. Right before those warriors put the king down to the ground.

Somewhere in the place, whispers pointed to the fact that the former king of Atlantis had been kept. Hardly a surprise if it was the case. The redhead closed her eyes in sad remembrance. Not like she would be able to get out to verify the rumors anytime soon.

Click, click, click occurred followed by several steps. Mera stretched her neck back when a door opened. Two guards came into the room. One of them wielded a huge spear in his hand. The other did not wield anything other than the hook that he had a hand.

"Stand tall," one of them said. "Your queen is here to see you now."

Mera's face contorted for a moment. Saying that her treacherous sister was now the Queen of Atlantis churned every nerve ending in Mera's stomach. What she would have done to have five minutes.

A woman who resembled Mera, the only difference being purple hair, stepped into the picture. She dressed in the same elegant robes with Mera formally wore. The rest of the royal family of Atlantis emblazoned across her robe. She wielded a magical spear which had been passed down from ruler to ruler.

"Mera, aren't you glad to see your darling sister?" the woman asked.

Nothing other than a burning gaze shot from Mera's eyes at the woman who stared her down from the other side of the cell. Mera would have liked nothing better than to right all of those wrongs.

"Any past between us is no more after you put me inside of this cell," Mera said. "You are delusional if you think you are the rightful Queen of Atlantis after you bullied them all into submission. You disgust me, Hila."

Hila only just smiled and pressed the staff against the bars of the cage. It was completely out of reach for Mera. Otherwise, she would have taken the staff and humbled her sister with it. The two guards on either side of Hila growled until their new queen just smiled.

"Dear sister, you forgot who you were," Hila said. "You forgot the what happens when you forget who you are. You can be fixed. I may have to break you first. You will be fixed though."

Hila moved away from her sister. Now, the tides had turned and she had been the one unwilling to look in Mera's eyes in thinly veiled disgust. Breaths rippled through Hila's body when not turning her attention to the woman on the other end of the cell.

"But, yes, there is something else happening. I can feel it. I know there's a part of who feels it deep down. There's something happening. There's someone coming. And it cannot be stopped, no matter how much I would have liked it to cease."

Times like this, Mera questioned her sister's mental stability. She pushed against the walls of the cell and dropped down onto the cot. The inside of her mouth tasted like cotton from the cell's air.

"Tell me, do you feel him?"

"Who are you talking about?" Mera asked.

The cell bars rattled when Hila struck them. The purple-haired woman glared at her sister who stared back with no fear. If Hila was going to kill Mera, than the imprisoned Queen of Atlantis wished she would have gotten on with it.

"You know full well who you are talking about, my sweet sister."

Mera could only guess what insanity spewed out of Hila's mouth right now. The Queen of Atlantis dropped her gaze to meet the woman who was across from her. The anger flooding from Hila's eyes showed intensity.

"He's coming. He's alive. The Dragon has been sighted all over the world."

The disposed Queen of Atlantis heard the legends of the dragon constantly over the years. There was a huge part of her who did wonder about the truth of them. Her sister's discomfort raised Mera's morale.

Perhaps, a long stint in this prison caused Mera's mind to slowly break. Hila's burning gaze of hatred kept going into her. The staff clutched firmly in Hila's hand. Thoughts of blasting Mera most certainly spread through the mind of the very sadistic woman.

"I'll fix this."

Mera certainly figured that Hila intended to fix this. Fix something she thought was utterly broken beyond all repair.

"You've heard the stories of the Dragon, "Mera said. "He's all powerful."

"No one man is that strong," Hila said. "No one man can stop the surface world from being overrun and half of it being sunk into the sea."

Mera could hardly believe what Hila said. Did the woman's obsession with power run this deep and this maliciously? Mera had no idea and it terrified her to think this was her flesh and blood. The familial relationship the two of them once had faded and crumpled into dust.

"You can't…."

"I rule now," Hila said. "I can. The days of you telling me what to do are over. The days of you telling anyone what to do are now over."

Hila's hands grabbed the edge of the cell. Her eyes bulged out when she drew ever so closer to Mera.

"Your beloved king had a soft spot for the surface world before I killed him. Well, guess what?"

The eyes of two sisters matched in burning hatred.

"Your beloved surface world dies!"


To Be Continued on August 27th, 2017.