A/N: I freely admit that my main is power weaver (downstate bros, unite!) and sometimes condi weaver or even healer weaver (it works!) so Taylor will be the same. Kinda. There are a lot of stuff from the game that doesn't translate well to 'reality' so I modified a few things... Have fun reading and praise Joko!
After some ribbing from Anise towards Logan about his vanity, they simply walked in silence through the Seraph headquarters that was suspiciously empty, until, using some hidden pathways, they reached the jail that the governing bodies of Divinity's Reach used.
Apparently, according to Logan, it takes too much time to maintain a separate jail for every branch, so they simply built one and everybody used that, except for the really dangerous captives. Those got some really fancy cells that Logan couldn't talk about. While Taylor was intrigued and wondered how those special cells would compare to the famous anti-parahuman cells on Earth Bet, she held her tongue, knowing it would do no good asking about.
Walking down the stairs towards their target, Taylor was really glad she was on the side of the angels because this damp, dark place was really not to her liking.
Once again, the part of the jail they were heading for was suspiciously empty, making their 'infiltration' a child's play.
They settled into a jail cell in one of the bigger chambers, that had adequate lighting, the three of them sat down or in Anise's case leaned against the wall (and Taylor suspected if it weren't for the disguise, the woman would be sipping from some wine) and resolved to wait until Serentine showed up.
Hopefully…
They couldn't really talk, as they didn't know if the corrupt commander had some way to listen in or observe the space, and they didn't know enough about the bandits to successfully fake a conversation between them. So, they simply settled on acting morose and defeated. Hopefully, that would be enough to fool Serentine.
They had been there barely an hour or so when they heard the first sound.
At first, to Taylor, it seemed to come from the walls. Clanking, and the sound of something metallic hitting the stone, but as it became louder (and came closer) so did it became clearer, allowing Taylor, Logan, and Anise to pinpoint its origin.
They all watched from their positions in the jail cell as the grate leading to who knows where, began to shake a little, then raise before several soldiers that Taylor saw at the inn, when Serentine made her debut, crawled out of the hole left behind.
They ignored the three of them, intently looking around the room, looking for anything suspicious, then while one of them went back to the opening, and without a word hit the side of the hole in a pattern, the rest took up the perimeter around the opening leading into the chamber.
Following the signal, the next one to crawl up the hole was Serentine herself, in her resplendent Ministry Guard armor, followed by even more soldiers.
Taylor watched as the dour woman patted herself down, getting rid of some kind of imagined dirt before raising their head and looking at the three of them, disguised as the bandits, with contempt.
"Ted, I knew you were an idiot, but seriously…"
Logan, acting as Ted, simply hung his head in pretend shame.
Serentine huffed and looked at Anise and Taylor. At first, Taylor thought that the woman was fooled by their disguise as she said nothing else about them, before continuing berating Ted. They listened to her tirade for a few minutes while the soldiers around them watched stone-faced and Logan pretended to be cowed.
Winding down, Serentine took a deep breath and shook her head.
"Anyway, you are finished here, Ted. So, I'm going to do my thing one last time, and you are going to move your operation somewhere else. Maybe the Wizard's Fief? Doesn't matter. The point is, you need to the vanish for a time." She turned to the soldier standing next to her. "Open the door, and let's get out of here!"
"Yes, Ma'am," came the crisp reply, and the soldier immediately began acting on the order.
Taylor watched as the soldier opened the door leading to the jail cell, then motioned for them to get up and get out, still stone-faced.
So, she got up, trying to portray tiredness and lethargy, and stepped out of the cell, while also readying her magic, in case Serentine figured them out.
Plus, it's not like they didn't have enough information to arrest her, so at this point, it didn't even matter if they got discovered. The only reason they bothered to keep up the charade for so long was because Logan and Anise wanted to see if Serentine implicated anyone else.
However, when they fully stepped out of the jail cell and into the light coming in from the only window high up on the chamber wall, Serentine suddenly called out to Taylor, disguised as Della.
"Hey, peasant, didn't the report say your hands were cut off by that bitch?"
Taylor froze.
"Er, they got…reattached?" She managed to spit out, hoping it would work, while avoiding looking at Anise who was obviously laughing at her, while Logan was making the 'Really? That was your best idea?' face.
Before Serentine could comment on the ridiculousness of that statement (while it was possible to reattach limbs according to Taylor's knowledge, it required either an incredibly talented healer, an asura with a penchant for mad science or divine miracle, nobody would waste either of those on a simple bandit) one of the soldiers spoke up.
"Ma'am! I think those are illusions!"
"What?"
Taylor's blunder forgotten, Serentine's eyes widened as she exclaimed in surprise and growing horror, as Anise began chuckling and slowly lowered the illusion covering them.
Watching the horror settle in on the soldiers and Serentine's face as Logan appeared in his resplendent armor, pointing his sword with a stern face at them, while flanked by the unflappable Countess Anise, and Taylor, with her staff's head theatrically churning with lightning.
"That's enough, Serentine! You and your compatriots are under arrest!"
There was a terse silence, as Taylor watched as Serentine's eyes flickered around the room in panic, looking for a way to escape the situation, before finally settling back on Logan, as the soldiers around her, as if following an unseen signal began to get into combat stances.
"Really, Logan? Always thinking you're smarter and better than anyone…" exclaimed the corrupt woman with a sneer on her face. "But here and now, I'm in power. So, say goodbye to your lives! Guards – take them out!"
Logan just shook his head.
"Ever so brutish, Serentine…" Then he glanced at first at Anise, then Taylor. "Let's go, ladies!"
Taylor just smirked, while between two blinks, Anise vanished from sight.
The fight that followed couldn't, in any conceivable way, be called a fair fight. With Anise causing chaos from the shadows, beguiling soldiers to attack each other, or simply miss their targets, Taylor blasting everyone with lightning and shielding Logan with air shields, and the Captain soaking up the people's attention it took them only a hot minute to take care of everybody.
The last one standing amongst their enemies was predictably Serentine, who made sure that there was always a soldier between her and them.
Taylor watched as Logan simply knocked the woman out, while Anise reappeared from who knows where, then looked around the chamber, filled with unconscious and bleeding bodies of the Ministry Guard and not a small amount of detritus caused by their battle.
She couldn't help but speak up.
"Gods, I hope it's not me who has to clean this up…"
The only answer to her sarcastic statement was a quiet chuckle from Anise and a full-on belly laugh from Logan.
Once again, sitting in Logan's office, once again with Anise leaning against the wall, Taylor sitting in a chair, and Logan behind his desk. However, the atmosphere differed from before. Instead of the oppressing stress, they were surrounded by relief and satisfaction.
Finally, an entire group of bandits was behind bars, their ring leaders captured, and the mastermind behind it was also arrested.
All in all, great results.
Taylor watched as Logan stared at his desk morosely, and couldn't help but ask.
"What's wrong, Logan? Shouldn't we celebrate?"
Logan sighed despondently before answering.
"I'm truly happy, Taylor, and rather thankful for the results we've achieved and for your and the Countess' help, but now that we are here I can't help but think what comes next…"
"And that is?" asked Taylor, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Paperwork," came the stoic statement.
"Paperwork?"
"Yes. The bane of every official. The ever-demanding beast of bureaucracy…"
"I see…" replied Taylor hesitantly, scooting a little farther from the desk. Based on her father's stories about bureaucracy and the look on her friend's face, she wanted to be nowhere near where the black art of paperwork would happen.
"Ignore the drama queen, young lady," interrupted Anise with a quick chuckle. "Your next task is to follow me, to begin your proper education."
Once again reminded of what the older woman promised her, the words were caught in Taylor's throat. It took her an entire minute to find her voice, while Anise patiently waited for her, with Logan moping in the background.
"Uhm, would it be a problem if I went home for a spell to talk to my family?"
"Not at all, my girl. While I would like to see you properly educated, we are not in a rush," answered Anise with a gentle smile. "Sometimes I forgot about people…" Trailing off, she shook her head and then continued. "But, sure. Go ahead, talk to your family and we shall meet later."
Taylor gave her a thankful smile and a small bow of her head. "Thank you, Countess."
Anise glanced at Logan, then back at Taylor. "No problem." She then motioned towards the door. "How about we leave poor Captain Thackeray to his duties, and I will tell you where to meet me after you are finished?"
"Hey, I'm here…"
Taylor nodded. "That sounds perfect, Countess." Then she stood up and began heading for the door. "Good luck, Logan!"
Anise followed her with measured steps, steadfastly ignoring the whimpering Seraph behind the desk.
"Don't leave me here…"
Opening the door, Taylor was surprised to see that already, there were several military officials ready to report, clerks, holding reams of papers and other assorted people standing outside of Logan's office. She nodded at them, then beat a hasty retreat.
Taylor bade goodbye to Anise at the gates of the Seraph Headquarters, watched as the mysterious woman walked away before vanishing behind a corner, then relaxed with a great sigh.
Her entire body uncoiled, tension draining away, and she could feel as if an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders. While in the grand shame of things, this bandit group was probably nothing, but to her, and to her second family, they were a great threat. So, now that it was gone, she was unbelievably happy.
So, she almost skipped out of the courtyard of the Seraph headquarters, and barely used any magic to make herself faster, knowing that there was no need to rush back to the inn and she could take her time and take in the city.
She even stopped for a quick snack at a stand that sold small cat-shaped cookies, and she continued to munch on the delicious sugary confectionary until she reached the entrance to the Salma District.
Making sure there was enough in the bag for the rest of the people back at the inn, she hastened her steps a little. Now that her objective was finally in sight, she was feeling a little anxious.
Intellectually, she knew nothing really happened to them, and Andrew was healed by the medicine, but she still had an irrational fear that while she was away, something horrible happened to them.
So, almost running, Taylor rushed towards the big inn building, and literary slammed the door open upon her arrival.
The people in the inn fell silent as the door opened, and Taylor found all eyes directed at her, but she only had eyes for two pairs.
The owner of one pair was standing behind the bar, cleaning his enchanted glass, and favored her with a warm and welcoming smile, while calling out to her.
"Welcome back, Taylor!"
Before she could respond, she was, however, glomped by a blonde missile, talking a mile a minute.
"Hey, Taylor? You just vanished, and we were so worried! What did you do? Why didn't you bring me with you? Were there any hotties? Did you fight again? Was Thackeray there?"
Taylor knew Petra could talk like that for hours, so she simply returned the hug, relishing in the feelings it brought to her, before, somewhat reluctantly, separating from her.
"How about you bring me some food, and I will tell you what happened?"
"Deal!"
And with that, Petra turned around and run back to the kitchen, presumably to fetch some food for Taylor. She simply nodded at the regulars, then headed directly to the bar and Andrew.
Sitting down on her favorite seat, a steaming cup of tea was instantly placed in front of her. Taking a long whiff, she looked up at Andrew and spoke up.
"Thank you."
"No problem, Taylor. Least I can do…"
"Don't talk like that, Andrew. We are family…" answered Taylor in a low voice, blushing a little.
"Indeed," replied Andrew with a chuckle. "We are, after all, a family."
Happy at hearing that, Taylor raised her cup and took a big sip, luxuriating in the feeling of the warm liquid warming up her body.
The moment she placed her cup down, another sound marked Petra almost slamming down a bowl of stew next to her, with a flew slice of bread, while at the same time taking a seat next to her.
Taylor pulled the bowl in front of her and slowly took a bite, knowing how annoying it was to Petra, who was fidgeting next to her.
"It's good. New spice blend, Andrew?"
Catching on, Andrew answered with a smirk.
"Oh, yes. I have been experimenting…"
However, he couldn't finish the sentence because Petra interrupted him.
"Hey, that's not funny! It wasn't funny the first time, and it isn't now! Now, eat, then tell us what happened!" she exclaimed with a playful glare directed at the other two.
Taylor and Andrew looked at each other, then began laughing, Petra joining a few seconds later.
As Taylor began eating her meal, which had a rather nice seasoning, she couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. Even the hole that her missing father left behind was forgotten for a while, as she basked in the love and caring of the two individuals who had taken her into their lives.
2011. January 3rd – Earth Bet
Danny didn't really care for Mondays.
He didn't really care for much, nowadays, but Mondays in particular still managed to wrench him out of the sea of apathy that his life had sunken ever since that fateful day.
So, when he got back home from another fruitless workday, he wanted nothing more than a warm meal and to go to sleep, hoping that the next day would be better.
Sadly, it never was.
However, when he got home, instead of the meal that he got used to, courtesy of Taylor, he was met with an empty and cold building, the only light on the landline, blinking red, that they had a voicemail.
Putting down his bag and hanging up his old coat, he automatically approached the phone and pressed the button that would play the message.
"Mr. Herbert, this is Janice Thomson from the Winslow School administration, and I'm calling to inform you that your daughter… Tanya Herbert, has not shown up for school. Additionally, we also want to make sure that you know that your daughter, Tiffany, has damaged her…"
He heard nothing more of the message. Instead, he turned around and began heading to Taylor's room, a cold pit forming in his stomach.
The no dinner, no lights, and now the call from the school painted a rather worrisome picture. Taking the old, creaky stairs two at a time, he tried to call out to his daughter but found that a lump formed in his throat that prevent him from speaking. Taking a quick look into the other rooms and the bathroom, he found no trace of Taylor, so he continued towards her door, which, as always, was closed.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm down his churning stomach, and the panic bubbling up in his soul, he slowly opened the door.
The moment he didn't see what he suspected, instant relief filled him, but then upon closer examination that relief vanished into the wind as if it never had existed. Instead, it was replaced with such dread, he couldn't even move for a second.
Then, as if a spell was broken, he spent the next minute and hour first tearing through Taylor's room, looking for her or a clue where she had gone, then going through the entire house, constantly yelling her name, or pleading for her to come out and stop hiding.
In the end, he was once again too weak to do anything, and found nothing aside from dust, dirt, and more dust. Exhausted both physically and emotionally, crying, he ended up back in Taylor's room, holding a picture that showed her, Annette, and Danny having a picnic and beaming at the camera.
He didn't know how long he sat there, wallowing in the pain of losing his wife, and now his daughter. The idea of calling the police barely even appeared in his mind. After all, why would Taylor want to come back to him? A weak man, who couldn't even save his wife, or provide for his daughter.
A man who failed every day, and had done nothing.
Then he stood up, clutching the picture frame so hard the glass on it cracked, to do something, anything that would make this situation better, but then he sat back down, feeling despondent at the realization that he couldn't really do anything.
Not now, not in the past, and probably not in the future…
This continued for an unknown time, Danny's circular thoughts coming back to his failures, always pointing out something new. How, he didn't notice this, didn't notice that…
How he was too weak and impotent to notice Taylor was in some kind of trouble. After all, why else would she vanish?
And if she didn't vanish of her own accord, but was taken, that what could he do?
He was simply a paper-pusher at a dying union. He had no political, financial, or personal power. With the state Brockton Bay was, the police probably wouldn't even bat an eye if he reported her daughter went missing…
The picture frame had long had fallen from his hand, laying on the ground, his family looking up at him with their beaming faces, but in their eyes, he could only see the accusations.
Why didn't you save me?
Why did you ignore me?
Why did you do…
Why did…
Why…
Why?
Why?
WHY?
Then, as he sank deeper and deeper into self-loathing and despair, he mercifully passed out.
When later, after who knows how much time, he woke up everything felt weird.
One, he felt better than he remembered feeling in a long time.
Two, he knew exactly where he was.
And where exactly everything was.
He knew exactly where every article of clothing, book, paper, pen, or dust bunny in Taylor's room was. He was aware of what filled every square inch of the room, and his room, and the guest room, and the entire house.
However, this knowledge didn't help him at all, as it only drove home one very important fact: Taylor was nowhere in the house.
Danny got up and began walking towards the bathroom, knowing that there were exactly six toothbrushes in the bathroom. Two next to the sink, two in their packages in the cabinet, one in the trash, and one fallen behind the cabinet. He walked up to the sink and opened the tap, letting the cold water flow a little as he stared at his dirty reflections on the mirror on the wall above the sink. In his reflection, he saw his puffy eyes, a beard that was overdue for some trimming, a place face, and pure exhaustion.
But at the same time, he also knew where exactly all his boxers were, where each and every book was in the house, how many blades of grass were in the garden, and in their neighbors' garden, and how many ants were making currently a home under their porch.
He washes his face, hoping that would help clear his thoughts, but instead more information started streaming into his head.
How many pebbles are on the road in front of the house.
How many quarters he has in his desk drawer.
How many different insects were in the wall.
The information just keeps coming, preventing him from putting together a coherent thought. With a dazed look, and feeling the confusion deep in his bones, while also trying to keep down the panic that was threatening to erupt any second, he steeled himself, let the cold water flow (the chilly January weather helping) until the sink was full enough, then dunked his face into it, hoping the shock would help him get his bearing.
Surfacing from the cold water, he shook himself, but the information still kept coming.
The entire content of his car. And the neighbors'.
The underground piping system.
The contents of the neighbor's kitchen.
Everything.
He knew everything, yet at the same time, it was beyond useless, because even though it seemed he knew everything, he didn't know the only thing he wanted to know at this moment.
Where Taylor was.
But he knew what the neighbors on the other side of the street were eating for dinner.
Or what the rats were doing in the sewage.
Or how many cables were buried under the street in front of his house.
How many birds were flying over his house.
He repeated the dunking, trying to prevent the information from overloading and overrunning his mind. But the information just – kept – coming.
It took him several repeats of the cold-water shock before he could let go of the sink, trembling from the cold, stress, panic, and everything that happened, and think somewhat clearly.
Looking back into the mirror, he saw he was even paler, the little hair on his head drenched, as was his shirt, but finally, the information stopped coming. Now it was in the back of his head, a constant buzz that he could query any time if he wanted to know something.
This allowed him to finally think through what the hell actually happened.
He knew things he shouldn't.
He was a parahuman…
Then he began to laugh, but the laugh was not happy. Instead, it sounded demented…
Here he received a power that would allow him to know where his daughter was, keeping an eye on her, even potentially help her, yet it was supremely useless because what he had gleaned in the short amount of time, only worked on things he came into some kind of contact with after he acquired the power.
So, no Taylor.
He turned around, leaving the bathroom as his demented laughter turned once again into sobbing, heading for the liquor cabinet.
He needed something that would allow him to forget what happened this day.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow he would deal with all of this. But for now, he wanted to forget everything.
After waking up the next day with a hangover for the ages, after drinking all the alcohol he could find in the house, and he could find all of it, thanks to his new power, and taking a relieving bathroom break, drinking at least a gallon of water he called in to his office and took off the rest of the week.
He was in no condition to drive or even work. Plus, what was the point? It was not like he had anybody to support…
Originally, Danny didn't plan to do anything aside from wallowing in the despair he was feeling while trying to drown out his power that was showing more and more information into his brain, but the knowledge of the random dust bunnies, small insects that kept wandering around the house, and around him, started driving up to him a wall ten minutes after he returned from the grocery shop with a case of the cheapest beer with the highest alcohol content and settled down in front of the TV watching some inane show.
Reluctantly, he got up and began his hunt for dust bunnies.
That hunt led him to clean the living room, which in turn resulted in cleaning the rest of the first floor, which allowed him, using his new powers that not only marked things but also somehow made him capable of thinking faster and better, being able to quickly decide to keep something or throw it out.
And the more he cleaned and organized, the better he felt.
He still felt like shit, and his soul felt like it was ripped to pieces, and every time he looked at a picture that contained Annette or Taylor, he started sobbing. But at least his power stopped nagging him.
He finished his first day with his new power where he started it, on his bed drunk, after getting another call from the school about Taylor missing, and something about her locker.
In no mood for that, he simply told them Taylor was sick, so she won't be going the school for the week. Danny knew, at this point, it was wishful thinking that this situation would only last a week, but he didn't have it in him to acknowledge the fact that maybe Taylor would never return.
Instead, he drank more beer, and once again welcomed the black oblivion.
The rest of the week was spent in a similar fashion.
Going over the house, cleaning every nook and cranny, discarding unwanted items, and having an occasional breakdown when he found something that belonged to Annette or Taylor while drinking himself stupid every night.
For example, behind several books that belonged to his departed wife, he found a stash of money, with a paper listing several ideas for gifts for him, in Annette's handwriting. That was the last thing he did that day. The rest were spent clutching the piece of paper and drinking until he couldn't remember.
However, he definitely noticed that compared to the first night, it took him more and more alcohol to get blackout drunk. His power helpfully telling him exactly how many cans of beer and other alcohol could be found in the trash.
Sadly, by Saturday, Danny ran out of things to clean, organize, or throw out.
He went through the attic and the basement, throwing away everything he knew they didn't need or was simply so old it turned into trash. Then he organized everything there, neatly labeling all the boxes, scratching that really annoying itch in the back of his head that he had begun associating with his power.
So, he reluctantly headed for the last bastion of chaos and disorganization on his property: Taylor's room.
After his initial rampage through the house looking for clues, he refused to step back into the room, as seeing her unattended room would make Taylor's absence even glaring.
Danny went through the room just as he went through the other rooms, cleaning everything and organizing what could be organized, though he made sure to only throw out what he could clearly see was trash, as he didn't know what his daughter would find important.
By the time he was cleaning her wardrobe, he couldn't contain himself.
With tears in his eyes and promising himself he would apologize to Taylor later, Danny sat down unceremoniously on the floor and pried up the loose floorboard that, according to his power, hid a stack of notes and notebooks.
Reading the chaotic mess he found, answered a lot of questions that surfaced in his mind since that day, but it brought up even more questions.
Why didn't he know about it?
Why did Taylor hide it?
Of course, deep inside, he knew the answer, but vocalizing would mean that he had failed beyond belief, and Danny didn't know if he could take that right now. So, for now, he suppressed those feelings and directed his thoughts and anger at those animals who did this to his daughter.
When he had reached the part where Taylor wrote about the flute, he was so angry he had to stand up and leave the room because he was afraid he would destroy something that was important. Instead, he headed for his room, where he spent an hour raging about the school, the world, and himself, which culminated in him throwing a punch in anger and punching clear through his closed door.
Staring at his fist, which looked undamaged, and the splintered hole in the door, he instantly calmed down, the realization that he was a parahuman dumping gallons of metaphorical cold water onto his head.
Fearful of his strength, and the thought of what kind of damage he could do with his newfound strength, instead he left the notes in Taylor's room, and went to get drunk again.
A week later, after Danny had a nice conversation with Winslow, telling them that Taylor would return when she would return, and please stop harassing them, and taking an extended leave from work, he was still on the sofa.
The only difference was that he stopped trying to get drunk because, after a week of drinking himself blackout drunk, the amount of alcohol he needed to get drunk was so financially prohibitive that he didn't think he could afford much longer and the house was pristine clean, and organized to the maximum.
He was sipping an expensive brandy, deciding if he couldn't get drunk, he might as well enjoy it and staring blankly at the TV while at the same time going over the items his power marked, organizing them, or examining them.
Danny had been doing this for the last days, trying to figure out what to do with his life. Seemingly, Taylor was gone, and he was a parahuman.
Should he join the Protectorate?
Should he just continue with his life as it was?
But what was the point?
Work in a dead-end job for little money, to come home for an empty house?
He was about to spiral into another self-loathing session when his power began blaring at him that something weird happened.
He immediately sat up, his melancholy forgotten, as he tried to parse what his power was trying to tell him.
Thanks to his power, he was aware of the entire three-dimensional place around himself for a good while (he hadn't yet measured it) so what was happening in Taylor's room was extremely weird.
Instead of his power telling what was in the room, it was telling him that some parts of the room were missing. However, the missing parts were randomly changing, as if whatever was obscuring it was moving around.
It took Danny several seconds to realize that instead of looking with his power, he could get up from the couch and take a look with his own eyes. That, and the thought that this could be a link to Taylor, caused Danny to jump up suddenly with the glass of brandy forgotten, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces and drenching the old carpet in brandy.
He run up the stairs, taking them two at the time, eerily reminiscent of the Monday he came home to an empty house. Slamming the door open, he was astounded.
The entire room was filled with shifting grayish-blue mist that crawled around, belying any limitations that the natural laws of the world would impose on such a mist, explaining how the obscured space his power was showing him kept changing.
Thought that didn't make it easier to comprehend watching the mist crawl up on a wall like an airy caterpillar, then after reaching the ceiling, falling back to the floor as misty rain, joining the increasingly bigger mist in the room.
As he took in the situation, trying to ignore it as his power kept yelling at him that something was moving around in the room that it couldn't mark, he tried to find the origin of the weirdly behaving mist.
As more and more mist filled the room, which oddly didn't leak out of the window, he found that in the middle of the room the mist, while still shifting, stayed in one position, keeping its shape.
The shape was circular, but as it was made of mist, he couldn't really say what it was or what it's and the mist's purpose was.
Curious, anxious, and fearful, as it was a really weird situation, he watched as the mist crept and crawled around the room, while the shape in the middle kept getting more and more solidified until it became a circular sheet of mist, then he began to hear a quiet buzzing sound.
The sound quickly grew louder and began to include some kind of rhythmic bell sound, which the mist responded to and it began to shift in phase with the rhythm of the sound. Every time a bell rang in the ether, as he still couldn't find the origin of it, the mist shifted, pulsed with it.
That lasted for a minute or two when a small rainbow spark came to life in the middle of the circular shape. The spark also began pulsing in tune with the bell sound, then from one second to another, it began to grow until it encompassed the entire shape, creating a surface of swirling rainbow-colored light that illuminated the entire room.
Danny watched as it pulsed, then between one pulse and the next, it grew to the size of a human, encompassing almost the entire space between the floor and the ceiling.
Then, without any fanfare, a foot, clad in a high-quality boot, stepped through the sheet of swirling rainbow light. The foot was followed by another, then legs clad in tight black pants, a belt which had several odd devices, containers hanging off it, then an upper torso, with a silken blue shirt, covered by a stylish jacket (as far as Danny could determine) finally ending in a very familiar head, covered with long, dark hair and dark green eyes that were looking at him with a warmth that felt uncomfortably familiar.
"Annette… no… Taylor?!"
The clearly adult woman smiled at him, as the swirling rainbow apparition and the mist around them slowly began fading away.
"Hello, dad. I'm home!"
