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"I feel like we've been miscast in a horror movie." I remarked as Donna and I walked down the stairs, our unhurried pace at odds with the slowly increasing sound of the burning roof.

"Into what roles?" Donna asked.

"Any roles," I shot back, the two of us coming to a stop at the base of the stairs. "I mean, I know these guys might have some magic hidden up their sleeves, but they're just throwing a bunch of torches." I planted my hands on my hips and sighed. "I feel like going toe-to-toe with Dagon might have skewed my perception of what's threatening."

"Jacob, we still need to deal with them." She pointed out. "We can't just let them burn the building down."

"Right, right. Well, we can go out there and beat them all up, and then question them. It'd be nice to get some straight answers."

"Maybe, but if we reveal ourselves now and some get away, it will be a lot harder to pin the rest of the cult down."

I thought about it for a moment before a basic plan formed. "Ok, we go out the front and make a break for it like some scared civilians and split up. They'll probably split up to follow us, we can lose them and double back so I can put out the fire. Then we can find one by their lonesome and pick them off, questioning them so we can find where the bigwigs are."

Donna thought about it for a moment, but the groaning above us hurried her decision along. "Well, if we are in a horror movie," she said, walking up to the front door. "I guess we can play our part for a little longer." She then yanked the door open in an awkward motion and stumbled out onto the porch. Donna let out a reasonably convincing scream at the sight of the crowd of spooky robed people before bolting off to the right.

...she's having some fun with this, I thought as I stepped out after her, and after a pause ran off in the other direction. The group hesitated for a moment before they split up to follow us, chasing us through the yards of other houses. Of course, they were just normal humans, so it was pretty easy for me to lose my tails in the growing dark of night, and I got back to the house just as the fire really started to get out of control.

I didn't have time to be subtle, so I jumped above the building and turned my arms into freeze cannons, blasting the roof as I fell. I crashed through, but I also put out most of the flames in the process. I had the rest of it put out in about a minute, but between the crash landing the damage the fire already did, this house was getting torn down one way or another.

I heard shouting getting closer, no doubt the cultists realizing their fire had suddenly gone out. I pulled my Mask back so I could throw up my optical camo, and I took to the air. Let's see, who looks like a talker? I thought as I searched for an isolated robed figure. I managed to spot one a few houses down, lagging behind the others who were headed to the now extinguished house. Just as the ones in front of the person turned a corner, I dove down and came to a halt right before them. One and grabbed their collar while the other clasped over their mouth, and I shot us into the air.

The wind from our accent threw back their hood, and I was greeted by the sight of the young man Donna had been talking to earlier that day, Michel I think. He thrashed in my grip for the first few moments before he realized just how high we were getting and then started grabbing my arm for dear life (his flailing managed to find the invisible limb).

We came to a stop far enough above the town that I was sure no one would see us, and I decloaked. "Now, I think this is a nice spot for a little talk." I said, pulling my hand away.

"By Ariale!" Michel swore, looking around wildly.

"They're not here right now, so I suggest you focus on me."

He didn't respond right away, spending a few more seconds to panic in my grasp. I considered pulling a Batman and threatening to drop him, but that wouldn't work if he actually had a 'deranged cultist' mindset. Fanaticism and all that. So I waited for him to calm down a bit and answer me. "What is… how… who are you?"

I suppose it made sense he didn't recognize me, he only saw me for a few seconds and I had a much more human pallet at the time. "I'm the man who has half a mind to take this place apart brick by brick. Now, if you'd be so kind to indulge me...?"

"I… I won't tell you anything!" He yelled back. "Do what you will, my sacrifice will only serve to further the Sleeping Goddess's awakening!"

...He's not the best at this. I thought, arching an eyebrow. The young man at least had the presence of mind to realize what he let slip, and his face flushed red as he clamped his mouth shut. I thought for a moment what to say next. People with that sort of zealous fervor usually want to talk about it, I just had to lean into that. "Oh please, like you would know anything important." I said with a huff. "We've been watching this town for months, learning all about your order. By this point I probably know more about the Sleeping Goddess than you. You're just a little runt they string along to do menial work. No, I just want you to clear up some minor details before we close this operation."

Michel fixed me with an indignant glare, but he still kept quiet. So I kept talking. "The actually important guys took Channing, so what I'm wondering is if you lot were left to watch if anyone came to the house, or if you were just going to burn it down anyway and took your sweet time." His jaw clenched a little harder, so I pushed a bit more. "Not that it matters too much, you failed to catch our agents here just like at the county clerk's office. No wonder they put you on loser duty-"

"That was the Lorekeeper's fault!" He suddenly shouted. "It was her job to keep outsiders away from the secrets of the order! And she was punished for her failings when her maze failed!"

That about confirms Clerk Fowler was the one who led us into the trap, I mulled. "Alright, fine, but what about the house then? You not important enough to deal with the traitor himself-"

Michel sneered. "You think scum like Channing was one of us? He was a useful tool, nothing more. Once we learned he betrayed us during the fire-" Michel stopped, cutting himself off before he could give away anymore. Looks like this was going to be a bit touch and go.

It was then I got a call on the comm. "Jacob, is that you up there dangling another man over the street?"

"Yep," I subvocalized back. "I found a straggler I could pick off. Did you find your own interrogatee?"

"I hadn't gotten to that yet. I might as we join you."

A few moments later Donna joined us, her hair already starting to blend in with the night sky around us. Michel looked at her, transfixed at the sight. "You… you bear the same power."

She tilted her head. "Michel? I… wait, the same power as what?"

"The sacred stones," He said in a sort of rapturous tone, his reluctance to talk all but forgotten. "The ones that will awaken the goddess. If you're here, that must be a sign that the time is now! I will be able to see her ascension!"

Donna stared blankly at him before shaking her head. "Michel, what's been happening in this town? Why are you all doing this?"

"For the glory of our goddess! She will bring us into a new age, and we must pave the way for her! The ritual tonight will now be the first step towards paradise!"

Distress grew on her face at that answer. "But, is all this kidnapping and murder worth it? How can you be ok with that?"

"Any act is worth the cost to bring our goddess-!"

"Michel, I don't care! I don't care about any of that stupid goddess stuff! " Donna shouted over him. She then moved closer and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Please, just tell me what happened at the orphanage. Why were they taking in so many kids? What did they do to you?"

All of a sudden, all of the fight and zeal simply left Michel, replaced with uncertainty. Not just that, he seemed to be completely at a loss at what was happening, looking between Donna's face and her hand. As his distress grew, I started to think that Michal never had anyone show genuine concern for him before. "T-That's-" he sputtered out. "That's not important. The orphanage was fine. They always had kids being adopted or taken. So, so they always needed more kids. We learned a lot there."

" 'Taken'? What do you mean taken? Didn't you ever question-"

"No! No questions!" He yelled a hint of hysteria in his voice. "Good children don't ask questions! If they do it too much they become bad children and they get taken. They gave me the Nectar and I took my punishment and I'm good now."

"Michel, are you-?"

"I'm good now!" He screamed, and I could see that his pupils had become pinpricks. His breath was coming in short gasps and he trembled in my grip. He was having a panic attack. "I'm good, so I can be adopted! I don't have to go to the back room! I don't have to go back! I don't-!"

I pushed Donna back before reaching out to Michel's chest and shocking him unconscious. "He would have hurt himself." I said with a sigh. And it was unlikely we would have gotten anything more out of him. With nothing else for it, we dropped back down to the ground, setting Michel's unconscious body against a fence.

Donna folded her arms tightly against her chest while she looked down at him. "How could they do this to kids?" She muttered. She looked at me. "This whole thing with the stones and sleeping goddess… do you think this was part of Nyx's plan?"

I thought for a moment. "I don't know." There weren't many stories about Nyx, so I wasn't sure what her personality was like. "My gut says no, the primordials didn't really have cults like this. Does the name Ariale mean anything to you?" She shook her head, and I frowned. There wasn't anything about it online either. "That aside, we now at least have a vague idea of what's going on down here. Horrifying as it is. We really need to bring in some more people to handle this, if just to make sure no one slips away."

"Agreed, but that doesn't change that they're going to be gathering tonight. I don't know what they're going to be doing, but I want to stop them."

"Fair enough, but we'll have to find them first."

Donna thought for a moment. "I was able to sense the… starstone in Channing's wall. If they have more of it, there's a decent chance I'll be able to sense it from farther away." She sighed. "Though I don't like the idea of randomly searching an entire town."

"There's a few obvious places we can check first, but we may have to go inside some buildings to be sure." I said.

"And I'm pretty sure they'll notice if we show up."

I hummed in thought, my eyes shifting between her and the man on the ground. "You know… I'm pretty sure this robe is in your size."

By my reasoning, given how much money and influence this cult apparently had, they wouldn't be headquartered in any random building. At the very least they would need a decently large space for both gatherings and collecting all the stuff that had been acquiring illicitly. And given what happened at the clerk's office, we started our sweep by flying by all the government buildings in town.

It didn't take too long before we ended up at city hall, and Donna immediately sensed the same thing she did back at Channing's. It was a short but spread out building, done in the Federal-style with columns and a dome in the center. We slipped in through a side door near the offices, finding the whole place empty and dark. It had become night by the time we got there, but I would have thought there would be at least one or two late workers. Still, Donna had donned Michel's robes and I had fashioned my own from my Mask, so we should have been ok if we ran into someone. Moving deeper in we followed Donna's sense for the magical rocks, and soon enough we came to the building's central rotunda.

Peeking out from a hallway just before it, we saw the large circular space had several columns around the edges and a mural on the dome overhead. The windows along the rim of the dome would normally give the space great natural light, but at the moment it was only dimly lit by a set of torches affixed to the pillars. What didn't appear to be part of the architecture though was a circular band of red-gold metal laid in the center of the space, about 20 feet across. There was also a pile of chains made out of the same metal, though most of my attention was drawn to a bound and hooded man kneeling in the center. I was willing to bet that was Sam Channing.

He wasn't alone, of course. Around the outside of the circle were a handful of people wearing robes, though theirs were much nicer than what the others had been wearing, and embroidered with similar Minoan patterns that I had seen before. None of them were talking, instead they seemed to be waiting for something.

Donna and I watched them for a minute or so before another group of robed figures came in, about 2 dozen of the regular sort from the direction of the main entrance. The two of us looked at each other and came to a silent agreement before we stepped out as they passed us, forming up at the rear. No one seemed to notice our addition.

The group spread out around the circle, leaving the two of us behind a few figures facing the more important cultists. Subvocalising, I asked Donna "Which way are the stones?"

Quiet enough that only I could hear, she replied "There." I looked towards her to see her looking up. Following her gaze I looked up at the dome covering the rotunda, but all I saw was a mural of a landscape. Wait… looking at the center I saw a seam bisecting the mural. And looking closely at the sides I saw rollers attached to the sides. The mural was just a canvas, and could be pulled aside. The rocks were behind it.

Finally a voice spoke up. "I don't like being summoned like this, Alan." The crowd on the other side of the circle parted to reveal a new figure, this one I was able to recognize as she left her hood down and I had looked up her profile. The mayor of Willowbrook was a stately, tanned skinned woman in her early thirties and dark hair done up in a braid. At the moment her expression was one of stern focus as she settled her gaze on a particular individual. "I know that I can be lax with you, but I expect you to inform your High Priestess of just why you summoned a conclave before telling me the reason."

The figure in question bowed, and when he spoke I recognized the voice. The sheriff. "I'm sorry Alice, but I felt this couldn't wait. I just found out that Sam here's been a naughty boy. You remember that fire 16 years ago?" She nodded and he continued. "Well, turns out those rumors of the baby surviving were true. And he's the one who arranged for her to slip away."

"What?" The woman said in shock. "How? Why? I know that he got flaky the last few years, but he still worked with us back then."

"It took a bit to get it out of him," He nudged one of the chains on the floor. "But I think he started having second thoughts around that time. Didn't like all the 'necessary measures' we have to take to bring the new world about. Probably didn't like how messy our 'reacquisition' of the girl went either."

Alice sighed. "Well it's not like we wanted to do that either. If the headmistress hadn't gotten sloppy, if we realized just what the girl was before we let her be adopted..." She shook her head. "If the girl's still alive, we need to find her."

"No need, she's in a motel in town. She's part of the pair that tripped the safeguard in the county clerk's basement. Her telling me about how she came from here is what made me look back into it. I'm having some people go around to pick her up right now."

We're on a time limit then, I thought. And the group that just came in clearly aren't the ones that were at Channing's. Just how many people are in on this?

The mayor nodded to herself. "Good, good. With her in our hands we can finally move forward and tie off the last loose ends."

"Mostly." She looked to the sheriff, who continued. "Back then a member of the adoptive family came around, a woman. I know the chief back then gave her the runaround, but I can't remember much else… well, we have it on file back at the station. And it's been enough time we can clip that off without suspicion."

"See that you make the arrangements." Alice said cool. "For now, let us deal with the one who sought to hinder us." She threw her hood up, and the other well-robed cultists took this as their cue to step into the circle, standing equidistant from one another. The mayor raised her arms up and called out "Let us rejoice in the name of Ariale, and feel her love for the home she has created!"

The inner circle began to chant in a language I didn't recognize, and the air became heavy. I saw the people around me relax, and I felt that all too familiar wave of nostalgia wash over me. This time I was ready for it, and with a bit of force of will I pushed it aside. I looked aside at Donna, but for whatever reason she didn't appear to be affected. "Ok, I think we have enough." I commed. "Time to take them down."

"Channing." She whispered.

Right, he was still in danger. We could probably get to him before anyone could do anything, but if we had the time… "Circle around to the other side. I'll make a diversion, you get him out of the way. Then we make with the punching." She hummed before slowly moving away from me, carefully slipping behind everyone so no one noticed. A minute passed before the chanting ended, and everyone slipped out of the languid state they had been put in.

Except… I didn't feel the pressure on my sense of self get weaker. If anything it got stronger. I blinked in confusion, having to put more and more effort to keep the nostalgia at bay. No one else looked to be feeling this, and if it got any worse I would start glowing from all the energy I was putting into my defense. If this didn't let up-

All of a sudden, it did. I nearly stumbled forward from the whiplash, but I caught myself. As I tired to figure out what the hell just happened, I heard the mayor say "Now that the rite has been observed, we can begin-"

"Not quite."

The new, if familiar, voice spoke loudly enough that it drew the attention of everyone in the rotunda to the speaker. Which happened to be right behind me. I turned to see Wendy standing close, dressed in normal clothes and looking up at me with that familiar grin. I hadn't even noticed anyone coming up behind me, but then the cloak form my Mask was taking meant I couldn't use blindsight to see my surroundings. "Uh-"

She made a small motion with her hand, and I heard the clink of metal behind me. I suppressed the urge to dodge and a second later the chains in the center shot around my arms and legs, lifting me a foot in the air and pulling me spread eagle. The other cultists pulled away while Wendy walked closer. "I'll admit, I know you were spooked last we met, but I didn't expect you to try digging deeper. But, it's been quite some time since I felt anyone resist me. It left an impression."

"Bow before the Vessel!" The mayor called out, and all the cultists fell to their knees.

I couldn't see Donna, but she was probably preparing to intervene. "Hold." I commed her. "They're all focused on me, move into position. I'll let you know if I need help." Out loud, I put a little nervousness into my voice and said "Well, heh, I guess trying to deal with things rationally has some downsides. Curiosity and all that."

"We'll see if you fare better than the proverbial cat," Wendy remarked, walking around me. I found myself turning along with her until we were facing the circle. "But I'm curious, what do you think is going on in my Willowbrook?"

I awkwardly shrugged in my restraints. "Small town with a dark occult secret, worshiping some kind of eldritch being or another in exchange for power. And I'm guessing said eldritch being is you, in some fashion. Though if so you seem to be awfully awake for a 'sleeping goddess'."

Wendy laughed, a light tone that echoed through the rotunda. "For me, this is sleeping. A waking dream through which I need a host to act. A far cry from what I used to be. From what I should be."

"And that is…?"

She spread her arms, and I saw the air around her her body shimmer. No, it was more like something was surrounding her, the ethereal form of a woman with ivory white skin dressed in a woven dress that cut out the hips. The dress had a corset piece that went up to the sternum and let the breast hang free, and she was adorned with an elaborate gold headpiece that swept back her black hair. "I am Ariale, goddess of the Delphros."

"...Delphros?"

The image around her faded, and she sighed. "I hate how no one alive remembers the true name of my people. In this day and age you would know of them as the… Minoans." She made a displeased noise. "The gal of naming my people after that bastard king of Greece."

I took a moment to process this before I said "And you work as a waitress?"

She blinked before giggling. "I've always loved meeting new people. And the diner sees the most new traffic through town these days. If nothing else it helps to keep abreast of what's happening in the outside world."

"My goddess," The mayor suddenly said, still kneeling. "Forgive my presumption, but should we not simply remove the interloper?"

Ariale looked to the kneeling woman, her expression almost motherly. "Now, now, it's been quite some time since an outsider has managed to get this close to us, and this one has taken my interest. I wish to indulge myself a little before I decide his fate." She gestured. "Rise. And remove the cover."

The cultists rose up, and one of them moved off to the wall to open up a panel and flip a switch. A moment later the two halves of the mural above us pulled away to reveal the dome behind it. Embedded in the dome were countless of the same night-like stones that Donna had found at Channing's, so many that it looked like I was looking up at the night sky. Except that there was something else up there too, a sort of reddish light that filled in between the cracks. It wasn't completely filled in, so the light flowed from one part of the dome to the other, swirling about.

Ariale looked upward, staring at the sparkling dome above us. "It's so wonderful, it's it? The very essence of a primordial. Just a few more sacrifices and I can bring it under my control."

"...So, you didn't put that there?"

She looked back at me with a flat expression, before she chuckled. "Oh Jacob, you really are the curious sort. No, I didn't put the night there, but this does relate to what you and your not-girlfriend have been asking about." She paused, tilting her head. "Where is she, anyway?"

"She's, uh, somewhere you'll never find her." I said as lamely as I could.

A bemused look. "She's probably back at the motel. We'll pick her up soon enough. After all, we can't get started without the guest of honor. She was the first time around too, but she had less manners back then."

"...What are you talking about?"

Ariale breathed in deep and turned away from me, twirling her curls while she reminisced. "That day 16 years ago was supposed to be my ascension back to proper godhood. I've spent millennia like this, ever since the fall of my people. Hopping from host to host, trying to sustain myself with whatever worshipers and sacrifices I could, until I settled here. And then Donna fell into my lap, a child touched by a primordial. It wasn't much, but after some divination I discovered that said primordial was weakened. Enough that I could draw her power for myself."

She turned back to me. "But she had been adopted by the time I realized it, so we had to take her back. It was a bit of a rush, and I was impatient, so we performed the ritual to claim the primordial's power in the basement of that building." She scowled. "Unfortunately, the primordial was not as weakened as I thought. Needless to say the ritual went wrong, and everything went up in flames. I lost my last host that day."

She perked up. "But, I've learned from my mistake, and a great deal of primordial's drawn out power still coalesced into something usable." She gestured upwards. "I've spent years infusing it with my own power, enough that it won't slip away from me this time." She fell silent, looking at me expectantly. "Well? Ask it."

"Ask what?"

"You know what, Jacob. The one last question you need to ask."

I thought about it for a moment. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Her grin came back. "Because you're smart enough to understand, and I wanted you to have some context before I made my offer."

My eyebrows slowly raised. "Offer? What, you want me to join your little cult?"

"No. Well, yes, but not like the rest of them." She gestured to the assembled people. "Don't get me wrong, they're all wonderful people, but they can be a bit dull. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between them." She leaned in close to me, grinning while her eyes sparkled like gems. "But you're different. Not only are you taking these revelations in stride, you actually resisted me today. You have a strong soul, like I have never seen. I want you… to be my consort."

That caught me off guard. "Huh?"

"Think about it, you can be at my side when I ascend." she purred. "And I can show you such delights that no mortal has dreamed of. Which will be all the sweeter when you take them willingly."

For several long seconds I stared back at the woman, before a thin smile formed on my face. "Ignoring all the human sacrifice... You tried to use the memory of my family against me. Piss off."

She threw her head back dramatically and let out a suffering groan. "Ah, why must the pretty ones be so stubborn... Oh well. I suppose sacrificing a soul like yours will get me something at least. But you deserve some special treatment, and this will take but a moment." Ariale walked to the center of the circle, stopping right next to Channing and holding her hand out expectantly. The mayor stepped forward, and from her robes she pulled a wicked looking dagger. It was curved and made of the same red-gold metal, along with having a bullhead pommel and snake crossguard.

Ariale raised her free hand, and the red energy above pushed in response. It collected in the center of the dome before being pulled downward, the whole thing looking like a cloth that was pinched in the middle. In moments there was a slow moving vortex of starstones, the focal point being a bright red orb just above her. She focused on Channing, and with a slow motion, she raised the dagger above her head.

But before she could bring the weapon down, a silver lasso wrapped itself around her hand. Ariale snapped her head up to see Donna step away from the front of the crowd, tossing off her cultist robe with her free hand. The goddess's eyes widened when they saw the starlight hair stream out behind her. "You!" She yelled, and reddish energy started to flow off of her.

Donna then used the other end of the lasso to ensnare Channing before simply yanking him out of the circle. The man went flying with a scream and landed with a heavy thud a few meters behind everyone. He'd be a bit battered, but he'd live.

The cultists nearest to Donna started to move, but I wasn't sitting idle either. The ends of my arms and legs thinned, letting me easily slip out of my restraints and shoot into the air. My arms reformed into sonic cannons and I fired a low powered blast on either side of Donna, knocking the cultists away from her.

The cultists then broke into pure chaos. Some froze in place to stare, others screamed and tried to run, and a few pulled weapons. I only had a moment to analyze the mess; I didn't have time to deal with this cleanly. With an effort of will I tore the guns out of the hands of those that drew them and launched the firearms (safeties on) at the ones running away, knocking them down. I then swooped down and started circling the group quickly, knocking down any that tried to move away.

I had to keep these people from running off or interfering with whatever was happening in the center circle, but I also had to be careful not to kill anyone. As I picked the cultists off one by one, I kept half my attention on the pair of women in the center of the circle. Neither was moving, Donna still holding fast with her lasso and Ariale continuing to gather power around her. "Bold of you to strike at me here," I heard Ariale say over the din, her teeth bared in something between a grin and a scowl. "But you can't stop me. All I have to do is add my own blood-"

Even bound, Ariale flipped the knife around to press the edge against the inside of her wrist. "And I will gain control of your primordial's power, enough to crush you at least. But, I'm a forgiving sort, so if you help me-"

"Let them go."

Ariale paused. "What?"

"This town. The people. The power you stole. Let them go."

The goddess laughed. "You're in no position to-" she suddenly cut herself off, her expression twisting to one of confusion. Her hand started to tremble and the knife turned in her grip. Slowly, with the blade pointed upward, she moved the knife closer to the knot of red energy above her. "What?! No! How are you doing this?!" The woman yelled, her body shaking as she tried to get her arms under control.

"Let them go." Donna said again as she took a step forward, the Lasso of Persuasion glowing a brilliant silver in her hands.

Ariale growled, and her ethereal avatar formed around her once again. A heavy pressure settled over the entire rotunda, causing most of the cultists to stumble and a few to pass out. This made it a lot easier for me to subdue the rest of them, and in short order every normal human in the room was unconscious. I turned my full attention to the center to find the space awash with flashing red and silver lights sparking from the metal circle. Ariale had stopped her arms, but her body was still locked in place. "These are my people!" She roared at Donna. "They gave themselves to me willingly! Who are you, a mere fragment of divinity, to deny me my worshipers?!"

"You've warped their minds since they were children." Donna took another step forward. "You've ruined and taken lives, destroyed families, all because you wanted to be worshiped. You don't deserve any of it." She took one last step forward, now nearly face to face the goddess. The starstones around the shone brighter, and Donna's eyes lit up with starlight. "Let. Them. GO!"

Ariale strained against the force of Donna's will for a few seconds longer before she let out a scream of anguish and plunged the dagger up into the heart of the red energy. It gushed and flowed over her hands like blood, splattering across the floor before it evaporated into a bloody mist and disappeared completely. As it left, the night stones also 'dissolved' into dark clouds with sparkling lights. Rather than disappear they gathered around my teammate.

When the last drop of red vanished, Ariale screamed in fury and launched herself at Donna. The woman cleanly sidestepped the lunge before pulling on the lasso. It was enough to spin Ariale around and throw her off balance, just in time to see Donna's fist hurdling at her head. There was a thunderous crack that shook the entire rotunda on impact. Ariale crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

She took a moment to catch her breath before she bent down and started tying up the woman more thoroughly with the lasso. I walked over to her, and I spoke when she finished and stood back up straight. "You good?"

Her mouth pressed thin as she stared down at the unconscious blonde. "Not really. I mean, it's good we came here and stopped here, but this is not what I wanted from this trip. None of this is what I wanted."

"...I'm sorry." I said. "Well, there's going to be a lot of taking this place apart to figure out everything that happened here. So maybe I can-" I stopped when a bit of motion caught my eye. "Donna, are you making it do that?"

She turned to follow my gaze, and saw that the cloud of night around her had started to clump together. "No..." she said, and reached out towards it. On contact I expected her to absorb it, like she had with everything else of Nyx's power, but this time something different happened. As her fingers brushed it, the metal circle around us glowed and a silvery thread suddenly connected with her hand. It traced down her arm until it touched her heart.

There was a pulse of light, and the night sky before us took shape, folding down into a much smaller space. It didn't fully form, remaining a sort of nebulous flowing curtain of the night, kind like a robe. Still, I could make out the basic shape of a human woman, and as she drifted closer I saw constellations draw together in the shape of a face. "Donna," The voice was a whisper that came from all around us. "I'm so happy to finally meet you, though I wish the means were not so fleeting."

Nyx was… oddly less than what I was expecting. Gaia had been an entire world compressed down into the shape of a person, but the being hovering before us looked to be simply a piece of the night sky given form rather than the whole of it. It gave me the impression that we were looking at a shade of sorts.

"Nyx?" Donna said, a number of emotions crossing her face. "You seem..."

"Lesser." The entity finished. "I am but a piece of a whole, brought forth by actions of you and the other. Would that I could stay, but this form cannot sustain itself. I am already slipping away." As the shade spoke, I could see the bits of itself dissipating around the edges.

"But I have so much to ask! What happened to you? Why do I have some of your power?"

Nyx drifted from side to side as she spoke. "I do not have time to explain fully, but I will tell you what I can. My daughters said they would tell you of my end, when you would meet them. The method I chose was the simplest solution: I would disperse myself, once again becoming unformed essence like I had been in the earliest days of my existence. I would cease to have what mortals would consider a 'self', but I would leave nothing for the taint to hold."

"So… how do I factor into this?"

"Because before I did, I sought you out. I would never return to myself without something to anchor me to the world. And for that, I would need an existence with a sense of self, that would not be at the whims of the higher world. A human soul."

"...but, why me?" Donna finally asked. "Out of anyone you could have picked, why chose me?"

Nyx didn't answer right away, the nebula that made her core shifted in shape before she said. "It… is not something I fully understand. I asked my daughters to find someone who could hold a piece of my essence and not be overwhelmed by it, and you were the answer. You are a unique soul, Donna Troy. In the many threads of fate you follow, you are always true to yourself." A laugh, accompanied by a rain of stars. "In one thread we saw the role of the Phoebe forced upon you by the other Titans, and yet you still persisted. That is when I decided on you, infant though you were."

Donna looked between the shade and the bound figure of Ariale, her expression darkening. Before she could say anything, Nyx said "I chose you to avoid becoming something like that. The fragment of my essence would grow in strength as you aged, but never overwhelm you. And at the end of your mortal life, it would have been released and I would have reformed." A whisper of what sounded like wind. "But that, it seems, was not to be. The cult of Ariale found you, and stole you with the intent of draining me through you. Enough of my power was collected that I briefly became aware, and I rebuked her. But now, I can't say what it has done to your soul or the crystalized essence bound to it..."

"What do you mean?"

The dissipation that had been occurring around the edges of Nyx picked up the pace, and the shade shook its head. "There is no time, and I have something far more important to tell before I slip away. The part of me attached to your soul, it remembers… your parents."

Donna stood up straighter, her eyes going wide. "You know who my birth parents are? Please tell me!"

Nyx had shrunk down, and her voice sounded far away. "You father left just after you were born, but your mother… she loved you so very much. It devastated her to leave you at the orphanage, but she was mortally ill."

I could see Donna's eyes become wet, and she looked down at the ground. "Ah, I see. I… figured it was something like that. Wish I knew a little more though,"

What remained of Nyx's shade took a more definite shape, an arm reaching out to Donna connected to an upper body and a head. The hand cradled against Donn's cheek pulled her view up to see a smiling face made of stars looking back at her. "Dorothy Hinkely. That was your mother's name. I am sorry for the part I played in your life's tragedies, but remember that you were, and are, loved."

She then faded entirely, but at the starlight strand pulled back into Donna's chest one last thing echoed in the air. "So long as you remember this, you will always know who you are."

=====A=====

A/N: Good lord, this chapter fought me tooth and nail.