This chapter jumps around a bit with p.o.v. since the events are supposed to be happening at roughly the same time.
San Diego was just what she remembered, for the most part, and really that was the problem. Places like the San Diego Zoo and Old Town would conjure up fond memories that weren't hers. It had been a mistake to go there, no matter how wonderful she thought the city was it wasn't her city. It was Bree's. It was where she was born and where she had lived for eleven years. Alice was born, if you could really consider such a thing a birth, on an island off the coast of England. She had been alive for two years and had spent most of that time hidden away in a school in Arizona.
Alice loved California, really she did, but that was because Bree loved California. When Alice realized this she was finally able to admit something she had been denying for a long time. She hated herself. The Doctor had made her human but that didn't change the fact that she was just a copy.
Everything that made her who she was had originally been Bree's. The way she looked, the way she thought, the way she felt, the way she reacted, all Bree. But Alice couldn't bring herself to hate Bree for that. She wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Bree. If anything she hated her manufactures for the technology they had developed. If it had just worked like it was supposed to… she wouldn't be around to hate the circumstances that had given her life.
She hated herself. She didn't hate Bree. The only time she ever felt like a real person was when she was around Bree, as messed up as that sounds. Alice's mind was an exact copy of Bree's which meant that they knew what the other one was thinking. They had clicked immediately. Bree finally had someone that understood her. She loved her family and friends and they accepted her, but they didn't understand.
To them she was unusual, quirky, and maybe a bit insane, and they didn't have a problem accepting it, but Alice was the only one to see the reason behind the madness. She was the only one who understood what it was like to have something extra inside of your head and Alice really loved the relationship she had with Bree, but it left her conflicted.
On the one hand she had started life as Bree Louise Smith, before she had picked a name for herself. She had enjoyed being at the monastery, except for the parts that were completely terrifying, where she had just been one of two Bree Smiths. Bree1 and Bree2 had both been Bree and now Bree2 was still Bree while Bree1 was now Alice, and she didn't like being Alice. Maybe on some level she longed for the hive mind that the flesh had in its base state. That she had once had in her base state. The feeling of oneness and the connection to all the other gangers that hadn't been completely severed until the Doctor had made her human.
On the other hand, she was tired of being seen as Bree's copy. As a human she wanted to been as an individual, not a pale reflection of someone else. Bree was the original, or more accurately, fourteen-year-old Bree was the original, but not even the one that had been able to keep the name Bree fit that mold anymore. She had become a darker version of herself and Alice hadn't. She had grown up in her own way. She wasn't a copy anymore. She couldn't be a copy anymore, it wasn't fair to either of them.
Bree had learned how to fight and how to run. She could shoot and stab and slash and punch and kick and cast offensive and defensive spells and run as fast she could while her enemies were still recovering. Alice had learned how to fight and how to hide. She could punch and kick and cast some offensive and defensive spells and distract her enemies with illusions while she slipped away. She couldn't copy Bree anymore, but she could complement her. Two heads were better than one right? And Bree could use the back up, but Alice would have to learn more first. An experienced wizard, like the one her parents had hired to follow her, could dispel her illusions. She needed to work on that and on her hand to hand before she could help Bree. Bree had given her life and saved her, and Alice wanted to return the favor, but first she needed to find a teacher.
Bree picked Star City as the place to start her search for a teacher for a number of reasons. Firstly, the laws regarding the use of magic in front of the non-magical population were lax in any city a member of the Justice League called home. Secondly, her parents didn't have as large of an influence in Star City as they did in other cities. Thirdly, Star City was in California and it was hard wired into her brain to loved California and nothing would change that. Lastly, and most importantly, Bree had never been to Star City.
It didn't take long for her find a teacher. After asking around Star Cities magical district she was directed to a Japanese immigrant named Megumi Fujimoto who was supposed to be "the best of the best" and was said to be tough on her students with no patience for slackers.
Megumi was an old woman with deep wrinkles and silver hair cut into a neat bob. She was on the short side, coming up to Alice's chest. She taught illusionary magic along with a fighting style that made use of it out of her house. The style had supposedly been taught to one of Megumi's ancestors by a kitsune that the ancestor taken pity on and saved it from a hunter.
"For your first lesson I have a very simple task for you to complete." Megumi stated after Alice had finally convinced the woman to take her on as a student. She led Alice to the back yard. Part of the yard was separated from the rest by a brick wall with a single visible opening.
"All you have to do is get to the other side of this maze." Megumi continued.
"Okay." Alice replied. She took five or six steps into the maze and promptly ran into an invisible wall.
"Oh, I almost forgot, here's a little tip: Don't trust your eyes." Megumi chuckled. Alice turned to glare at her but found that the opening had disappeared.
Alice sat on the ground, leaning on one of the brick walls that made up the maze. She wasn't just resting, she was thinking. It was obvious from the get go that the maze was constantly changing, or at least it appeared to change. Even though she had been told not to trust her eyes it was very difficult not to. Seeing is believing after all and humans are very visual creatures.
So she had closed her eyes, put her hand against the wall and felt her way around. She quickly found herself back where she had started, having walked around in a circle.
After feeling around some more Alice determined that she wasn't in a maze. She was in a walled off section of the backyard that contained six freestanding walls arranged into two rows of three. All she had to do now was find the outer wall and feel for the opening.
Once she was out Megumi had her do it again, only this time the walls inside the not-maze had been rearranged. And then Megumi had Alice do it again and again and again and the last time Alice had to go through the walls hadn't just been rearranged, they were moving. And that was just day one.
"Think it's broken." Alice muttered as she gingerly poked her nose.
"Nonsense. You'd had to be hitting the walls much harder for it to break." Megumi replied, handing Alice an ice pack.
"Tell me what you did wrong on your last walk through." She commanded.
"It took me too long to figure out that the walls were moving." Alice replied, putting the ice pack up to her nose.
"You relied too much on your sense of touch and you expected the walls to stay put." Megumi responded.
Alice frowned. "I couldn't rely on sight." she stated.
"No, you couldn't rely on what I was showing you. Tomorrow you will learn how to take back your sight." Megumi stated.
The next day involved the maze again. Megumi had Alice sit in the middle of the maze and close her eyes.
"Now what do you feel?" Megumi asked.
"Uh… A light breeze?" Alice answered uncertainly.
"Wrong." Megumi replied. "You're using the wrong sense."
Alice scowled. "You asked me what I felt, not what I heard, saw, smelled, or tasted." She stated.
"You need to use your sixth sense." Megumi replied.
"Like the movie?" Alice questioned dryly.
"Magi have six senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing and magic." Megumi explained. "That is what you need to use."
Alice blinked. "You want me to use my magic to feel?" she clarified.
"Yes. Now close your eyes and focus on the energy inside of you." Megumi ordered. Alice did so.
"Once you have it, push it outward." Megumi instructed.
"Shouldn't I have my wand out for this?" Alice asked. Megumi snorted in distain.
"No. You rely too much on that stick already. Western wizards are all convinced that they can't do anything without their wands, this is a weakness. Wands are just tools. They make the work easier but are not necessary to get the job done." She explained.
Alice didn't reply and tried to do as instructed. She pushed her magic out enough to feel the blades of grass and the dirt. Megumi smacked the back of her head and Alice's magic withdrew.
"What was that for?" she exclaimed.
"You need to push it into the air, not the ground!" Megumi reprimanded.
"It wants to go into the ground!" Alice replied.
"The magic inside you came the earth and when you push it out it naturally tries to connect you to nature, which can be useful, but it's not what you're learning now." Megumi replied. "Now do it again."
Alice frowned and closed her eyes again, this was going to take awhile.
It wasn't until halfway through the next day that Alice was finally able to do as Megumi had instructed. It had been difficult to fight against her own magic, but Alice was adaptable. Not because Bree was adaptable, Alice had her own kind of adaptability. The Doctor had made her body human, but her magical core, the invisible part of her that refined the energy her reserves took in was still that of a ganger.
Gangers had the ability to grow and change like no human could when pushed, Jenny had proven this, never mind how monstrous the result was. Alice's magical core had retained this quality and so she was able to force her magic to change. She reached out and felt what Megumi had wanted her to touch, a layer of magic over the surrounding area.
Having accomplished her goal Alice grinned proudly, then fainted. The effort she had expended forcing her magic to change had exhausted her.
Over the next few days Megumi had Alice practice tearing down illusions again and again. Alice had graduated from sitting with her eyes closed to identifying and removing an illusion while walking by and Megumi still insisted that she could do it faster.
"You know, most students would have complained by now." Megumi commented after Alice had, once again, exited the maze
"Really? About what?" Alice questioned.
"I haven't actually taught you any illusions yet." Megumi pointed out.
"I figure it's easier to go along with your teaching plan than it is to fight with you." Alice replied. Megumi gave her a calculating look.
"Fine, fine. You've become quite skilled at tearing down passive illusions, let's see how you do against dynamic illusions." She stated before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
Alice had been taught the difference between passive illusions and dynamic illusions. It was really quite simple. Passive illusions stay put. Dynamic illusions move. A brick wall where there isn't really a wall is the most common passive illusion. All a wall does is sit there and the same goes for an illusionary wall. No one really questions whether or not it's a wall they just see it and think "oh, I can't go that way" and move on. The same goes for other stationary objects.
Moving objects are an entirely different matter. You have to keep the movement looking natural and consistent otherwise your target will catch on that something's not quite right. A caster with enough skill and confidence can salvage the illusion by turning it into a hallucinatory experience. Of course a skilled and confident caster would be unlikely to make such a mistake in the first place.
Dynamic illusions were much harder to tear down than passive illusions since the magic moved along with the illusion making it much harder to grab. The dynamic illusion Megumi wanted Alice to tear down was a cat. Anyone who has ever tried to catch a cat that doesn't want to be caught can tell you what slippery little devils cats can be. Megumi's illusionary cat was no different and Alice was force to chase it down in the maze while tearing down passive illusions and avoiding mud puddles left by the previous night's rain. Megumi's lessons had gone from repetitive to downright mean. By the end of the day Alice resembled a mud creature more than a human being.
Bree followed Ranma's story on the news in the days after his parents were arrested. Genma was being held without bail since he was a flight risk, Nodoka was being carefully watched since she had been carrying around a sword to decapitate her son with for more than ten years, and the whole family had been ordered to get therapy, separately that is.
There were interviews conducted as reporters visited Nerima. Everyone wanted to know more about the mysterious Eris and a description of her was being passed around. Bree decided to go to Harajuku to do some shopping.
At the end of her shopping trip Bree had adopted a new look. Her hair was done up in pigtails held in place by grinning Cheshire cat barrettes. Half of it was dyed magenta and the other half was purple. She was wearing a pink and purple striped shirt, a skirt with alternating pink and purple layers, fingerless gloves (one pink, one purple), pink and purple striped stockings, and purple boots, and she was carrying a heart shaped messenger bag that was bigger on the inside.
Since she was in Harajuku she didn't really stand out that much, to humans anyway. To spirits she stuck out like a lighthouse in the dark. Some of them remembered her scent for her last trip and came after her, others got caught up in the thrill of the chase, which led to Bree's current predicament.
"I'mgonnadie. I'mgonnadie. I'mgonnadie." Bree chanted as she ran for her life. The spirits chasing her were entirely inhuman. Spirits with eel like bodies with a single giant eyeball replacing their faces, spirits with more limbs than she could count, spirits with masks instead of faces, and many more that she couldn't get a good look at because she was too busy running away.
Something made out of smoke wrapped around her ankle, tripping her. The spirits began shoving each other out of the way to get at her. She quickly shifted into her animagus form to slip away while they were distracted, seconds later she was snatched up by something with tentacles.
"Myaah!" she cried out in terror. Her fright turned into confusion as she began falling. She landed on her feet and looked around in confusion. Four boys, one with slicked back hair, one rather ugly one, a short one in black, and one with red hair. Bree blinked, she knew these people from somewhere, didn't she?
…
Oh, they were the boys she tricked into fighting Ranma! Yuusuke, Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara. Once again the spirits were quickly dispatched.
"Why would a bunch of spirits go after a cat?" Yuusuke questioned. Bree didn't even get the chance to look in her direction when Kuwabara got in her face.
"Hey kitty, kitty." He cooed. Bree, now thoroughly disturbed, backpedaled until she ran into a wall.
"Get your ugly mug back here Kuwabara, you're freaking it out." Yuusuke reprimanded.
"How do you know you didn't scare it!" Kuwabara yelled.
"I haven't been anywhere near it!" Yuusuke shouted back. Now Bree could have transformed back into human form and explain everything, or she could slip away while they were distracted. The group seemed to have a hero complex and would likely try to help her… So running away while they were distracted it was then. Before she could bolt she was picked up by the scruff of her neck. She was soon looking Hiei in the eye. Irritated, Bree responded in the only way she could think of. She bit his nose.
Hiei responded by dropping her and then kicking her into a wall. Slightly dazed Bree got up and found the Kuwabarra had started yelling at an indifferent Hiei. Bree changed back.
"You're a bastard, you know that shorty?" Bree grumbled as she rubbed the back of her neck with one hand and held her ribs with the other. Yuusuke and Kuwabara stared in shock, Kurama looked surprised and Hiei may have lifted his eyebrows slightly.
"You bit me." Hiei replied.
"You picked me up by the scruff!" Bree exclaimed.
"You're a cat!" Kuwabara, having finally found words, exclaimed.
"No, I'm a human that can turn into a cat. There's a difference." Bree replied, still holding her ribs.
"Wait a minute, Eris?" Yuusuke questioned.
"That's the name I gave you." Bree stated dryly.
"I thought your hair was blue now." Kuwabara said.
"She's obviously changed it since her description went up on the news." Kurama deduced.
"Yeah. Big shopping drip today. Forgot about the "all you can eat" sign hanging above my head." Bree said.
"How can you forget about something like that?" Yuusuke asked incredulously. Bree shrugged.
"Been pretty busy, what with the kidnappings and all." She replied.
"You mean the people who were chasing you." Hiei stated.
"Them, then the drug dealers in Columbia, though they won't be doing that again." Bree replied.
"We need to talk." Yuusuke stated.
"Thought you'd say that. Here's my answer. No." Bree responded.
"But you're in danger!" Yuusuke exclaimed.
"I'm aware." Bree deadpanned. "Now it's getting late so I should be getting back before my cousin freaks out and calls they police."
"And what's going to stop anyone or anything that comes after you from hurting your cousin?" Yuusuke asked.
Bree glared. "No one I care about is going to get hurt. I made sure of that." She growled.
"What about the people you don't care about?" Yuusuke questioned.
Bree shrugged. "Not my problem." She answered.
"Well I have a problem with it!" Yuusuke exclaimed.
"Then go to London and cut the bastards off at the source." Bree replied.
"What?" Yuusuke questioned dumbly.
"If you care so much about people you can go London and get rid of them. Though I highly doubt it'd be as easy as you seem to think it will be." Bree told him.
"Whys that?" Yuusuke replied.
"Well, the werewolves for one thing, and the Dementors, and the fact that they've infiltrated the government… Oh I almost forgot the worst part. Their leader split his soul t pieces so that even if his body was destroyed his spirit would linger until he got a new one, which has already happened once already, but if you still want to help I know some people you could contact, just don't try to help me, your guaranteed to fail." Bree explained.
"What makes you so sure of that?" Kurama asked.
"I'm the one who guaranteed it." Bree replied. "There is a shop in Tokyo, the woman who runs it can grant any wish, but it is a shop so naturally there has to be compensation, something of equal value to the wish. I made a wish, the price was named, and I agreed to pay it. I'm still paying it, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."
"So what did you wish for?" Kuwabara asked.
"It's obvious, moron. She wished for her family's safety." Hiei replied.
"Family and friends, actually." Bree corrected.
"So what did you pay?" Kuwabara questioned. Bree smiled. It didn't reach her eyes.
"Every pain that would have been inflicted on the people I care about will instead to inflicted upon me." She stated.
The boys looked stunned.
Vincent Smith did not normally have much involvement with the hiring of his dock workers. The dock workers were the lowest on the proverbial totem pole. They just needed to be able to move things from point A to point B. Normally he left the hiring of low tier to the HR department, but normally they didn't receive job applications from people whose lives they had ruined. This situation was not normal.
Dudley Dursley had applied for a job. The name had been immediately flagged since his father had been blacklisted.
The Dursleys had been forced to move to the slums after Vernon lost his job and found it increasingly difficult to hold on to a new one. He had been blacklisted by Lisa after everything about Harry's treatment while under the Dursley's roof had come to light. Because of this Vernon could only get the lowest paying jobs. He got fired from those due to his feelings of entitlement and Petunia was forced to support the family while Vernon turned to alcohol.
Petunia soon fell ill, partly because of her demanding workload and partly because of the squalid condition of their new home. Now Dudley was forced to take up the role of provider. He had taken a few seasonal work but5 was having trouble finding a steady job because of his limited education.
Vince decided to take pity on the boy and had him brought to his office.
Dudley Dursley was no longer the round bullying lump of fat he had been as a child. He had lost the fat and gained muscle in its place. He didn't bully anyone anymore; he didn't have time or the energy to do so.
When Dudley was brought into his office Vince stood up to shake his hand. Even though he walked with cane and had lost a lot of his muscle mass and had yet to completely regain it, Dudley was completely terrified of him. Vince's armed bodyguards, Ben and the newly appointed Chloe, probably didn't help matters much. Vince had Dudley sit down as he sat down himself.
"I understand that you've applied for a job with the company." Vince stated.
"Yes sir." Dudley replied.
"Your father can't hold a job and your mother is too sick to work, correct?" Vince asked.
"Yes." Dudley repeated.
"Your family used to be better off before your father lost his job at Grunnings and the abuse of your cousin came to light." Vince stated. "You can have the job if you still want it after what I'm about to tell you. I decided that it would be better to be completely honest with you know than to risk the consequences of you finding out later."
Vince pulled several files out of his desk and presented them to Dudley.
"What's this?" Dudley questioned.
"Every instance of abuse one Harry James Potter suffered at the hands of your parents. Or at least the ones that were uncovered." Vince answered.
"Why are you showing me this?" Dudley inquired.
"If your parents had not abused Harry than they would not be in the position they are in now. Your family's downfall after Harry was taken from your household was not coincidence, it was retribution."
Bree was, once again, running for her life. Spirits had gathered outside of her cousin's house, unable to enter thanks to the salt lines Bree had laid down. The left Blaire and Aaron alone when they went out, but the moment Bree had left the safety of the house they had gone after her. Now she was running toward the nearest magical district. She ran down an alley a through a wall.
The mass of spirits bounced off the wall and Bree was finally able to stop running. She slumped against a wall, not the fake one she had run through, but an actual wall, and panted heavily. After ten minutes had passed she got up and took a look at her surroundings. It was a residential district. The houses were all traditional looking but all looked a bit off because of the magical plants and yard decorations. The adults were all dressed in traditional clothing but the younger generation seemed to lean more toward modern Japanese style, like what you might find in Harajuku.
Bree quickly found Sunset Station which was part of a special subway system that catered to the magical population, despite this; it looked like any other subway. She took it to Sakura Station near one of the magical shopping districts. The streets were lined with stands and shops and the scent of various foods wafted through the air. Bree soon found the shop she was looking for, a shop the specialized in repelling spirits.
She picked up a simple bracelet made of wooden beads inscribed with kanji and guaranteed to hide your presence from even the strongest evil spirit. Afterwards, she visited other shops in an effort to restock some of the supplies she had left at the Hoover Dam. Before she knew it the sky had grown dark and paper lanterns rose into the air of their own volition to light up the street.
Bree returned to her cousin's house.
Days later Bree was getting uncomfortable. She had been had been staying in the same place long enough for the Death Eaters to catch up with her and she was getting restless. That night she told Blaire that she would be leaving in the morning.
"Where are you going to go?" Blaire asked. Bree shrugged.
"I don't know yet." She replied. Blaire frowned. There was a small explosion from the shed outside and Aaron ran past the window screaming and on fire towards the garden hose.
"He must be experimenting with steam power again." Blaire sighed.
"Seems that way." Bree agreed, having grown accustomed to seeing Aaron on fire over the past few days since she had commandeered the kitchen table and a few of Aaron's tools in an attempt to build a sonic screwdriver.
"I'm okay!" Aaron exclaimed as he walked past the window and back toward the shed he worked out of, presumably to salvage what was left of his latest creation and figure out what went wrong.
The next day left with no particular destination in mind. Really, she knew that she shouldn't wander aimlessly, but she wanted to go to Yuko's shop and that was how she had found it last time. This time, however, she hadn't gotten anywhere interesting. She stopped to rest in a park and got soda form a vending machine. As she sat on a bench sipping the soda she looked around. It was a nice normal everyday sort of park. Nothing about it stood out at all, except for the cherry trees.
They weren't in bloom, it was the wrong season for that. In fact it wasn't even the trees that had caught Bree's eye in the first place, it was the shadows of the trees, one shadow of one tree. The shadow was going the wrong way.
It wasn't Vasta Nerada, she was sure of that. There would have been two shadows if it was. It was just one shadow. All of the other objects in the park had shadows going in the same direction, but the tree's shadow was off, more to the right than the others. It was odd, but not particularly exciting, so Bree left the park and continued wandering.
A cat had crossed Bree's path. It was gray with black stripes and had big yellow eyes. It walked a few paces away from her than turned and meowed at her expectantly. It wanted her to follow it, so that's what Bree did.
She followed down several darkened alleys until she pushed through something an found herself in another magical shopping district, not all that different from the last one she had visited. This time Bree had no idea where she was. As she looked around for a street sign she noticed two things. It was dark when just minutes before it had daytime and the shoppers that crowed the streets and when in and out of stores weren't human. She had followed a cat into a shopping district for spirits.
She turned to go back, but instead of an alley there was just more of the same street. Bree began walking and looking for an exit, instead she found the cat sitting in front of a small shop tucked between to larger store fronts. The cat went inside, Bree followed it once again.
The shop felt cramped, it was so filled with items for sale that there was barely room to move. It wasn't very well lit and the cat has disappeared in the shadows. Bree bumped into a table, knocking a small vial off of it. She caught it before to hit the floor.
"Good reflexes!" someone called from the darkness in the back of the shop. "You break it you buy it!"
A man walked out of the shadows. He looked human but had a foxlike face.
"That must be your entire marketing strategy then, with that way your shop is set up." Bree commented. The man cackled.
"Aren't you a cheeky one!" He exclaimed.
"Hm, but what's this?" he said, taking the vial from Bree's hand. "I thought I put this away, it's not for sale."
"Why's that?" Bree asked.
"The price." The man answered.
"How much is it?" Bree questioned.
"No money for this one, just something of equal value, and no one has been able to bring me something as valuable and this." The man explained.
"What is it?" Bree inquired.
"Phoenix tears." The man replied. "One or two drops can heal any injury. Drinking the whole vial and you could save someone on the brink of death."
"And no one has been able to bring you something od equal value." Bree stated. The man nodded.
"What about a story?" Bree asked.
"It would have to be some sort of great epic." The man replied. Bree grinned.
"I think I have just the one." She said.
Bree walked out sometime later with the vial of Phoenix tears in her bag. She was surprised to see that she had walked onto a rather normal looking street instead ending up back in the spirits shopping district.
The cat appeared again. Bree followed it. They went down several side streets and into another alley. The cat disappeared into a hole in the wall too small for Bree to fit through, as a human that is. She shifted into her animagus form and passed through the hole easily. She found herself in a forested area. The other cat a disappeared again so she sniffed the air hoping to pick up its scent. The odor she picked up wasn't what she was expecting. It was same creature that had been watching her in Columbia.
Something in the forest laughed before the presence of the other cat disappeared completely, leaving Bree alone with no idea where she was, and no way back. It started raining.
Aaron isn't just some random character with an amusing quirk. His work will get somewhere and, as any good Doctor Who fan can tell you, there will be clockwork robots in space.
