Chapter Twelve

Almost the same instant Sage lost consciousness, Hali found herself being slammed back into her own body, though not quite so forcefully. As with any situation of this nature, Hali's body always responded with equal alacrity. Though it seemed only her astral form had been damaged, such was not the case with one who lived more as spirit than body. Even as she again felt the confines of her body taking control once more, so too did she feel the pain. Looking down, Hali could see rivers of blood pouring down her arms and pooling in her lap from the mortal would that Sage had struck her. Though she knew she would survive, it was still a deadly situation she found herself now trapped in. She had mere seconds to use her last remaining energy to heal herself. But if she used all her energy, she would not be able to erase Sage's memories. Worse, she still had this physical evidence to hide before she could even take off after Sage.

So many options reeled through her fuzzy, weakening mind that Hali for a moment found herself overwhelmed by the pressure of the moment. Yet, an instant later she found herself falling backward onto the floor unable to support herself any longer. The weakness dug into her mind and body with a vengeance. Already her heart was slowing with the lack of blood and inability to sustain life within this mortal body. Her decision made for her, Hali set to simply surviving the next few moments.

Closing her eyes, she gripped the nearest objects she could and clenched her teeth shut. Knowing the speed with which she now healed herself would cause great pain in the mending of the flesh, she braced herself. Summoning the last remaining power her body could give her, she began to heal herself. With excruciating stabs of pain and icy lances, the cut flesh of her muscles and skin began to pull themselves together and mesh once more. With each motion her energy weakened ever further. With a final gasp of pain and determination, Hali sealed the last few centimeters of the wound and released what little was left of her energy.

Relaxing for the span of only a few heartbeats, Hali focused on not losing consciousness. Yet, already she could feel her immeasurable powers returning to her once more with the renewed life of the healing. But she had lost so much during the astral traveling and the massive loss of life's blood that she wondered if it would be enough for what she knew she would have to do. For just an instant Hali wondered if she shouldn't have just let her body die. After all, without her body there were no foreseeable limits to her powers or their sources.

Yet, as she moved to pull herself to some semblance of a standing position, she knew she had made the right decision. Already she had fought hard enough to keep the life she now had. She wasn't about to throw it all away now. Her life as a person, as a human, meant too much to her now—even if there was anything more for her out there. This was the life she knew, this is the life she would keep.

Looking all around, Hali found it hard to believe she was even still alive. The blood that had spilled from her chest had formed a great puddle on the floor of her bedroom. Thankfully she hadn't made enough noise to attract the attentions of the others within the house, but it was not over yet. Not only did she have to find a way to change her clothes and clean up this mess without waking the others, but she would also have to get to Sage.

With a combination smirk and frown, Hali thought about her love once more. Yes, she would have to erase his memories. Though she wasn't sure just how much he did or didn't understand it was still too risky for him to know what she was. For what he had seen was her true form, Draconis. In that form there was nothing that could best her; but in that form she was also the most vulnerable—for many reasons. In any case, Sage would pay the price for his eves dropping. Apart from being out cold for at least a little while, he would certainly suffer one amazing headache, especially after she got to him.

Deciding not to leave Sage out in the snow until he got hypothermic, Hali resumed her position on the floor beside the pool of already drying blood. Brining herself to focus once more, she sought for Sage's consciousness. As expected, she found him away from the house in his favorite spot in the forest. Thankfully for her, he was still unconscious. Though she had been able to erase memories in the past, it was a skill she never fully mastered. For her it was a taxing test of meticulousness that more than just drained her psychically.

Ever so gently she entered his mind, now drifting aimlessly in dreams. Overlooking all else she saw, she probed gently for his most recent, most disturbing memories of the last several minutes. Yes, those were the ones now connected with the dreams and nightmares he now found himself trapped in. Frowning irritatedly at the added problem of having to disconnect his dreaming consciousness from these memories, she ever so carefully summoned no more than a trickle of her power. Yet even the fine honed ability she had for controlling the flow of her power, it was all that much more dangerous. The slightest surge of her power could obliterate several weeks' worth of memories at the very least. Already these memories were tied even more tightly into the very core of his thoughts and concerns than she cared to admit.

Trembling physically from the exertion combined with the fear of making the slightest mistake, she began to single out each tie these memories had. One by one she slowly worked to sever them by convincing the rest of Sage's consciousness that these were useless and unimportant memories best forgotten. Only after several minutes and much persuasion with Sage's sub-conscious did Hali at last sever the final ties and begin to seal these memories away with layers of other, better memories of he and Hali together. At last able to release her power; she gave him a mental nudge that was just enough to bring him back into waking as though he had seen nothing at all.

Heaving a great sigh of relief, Hali opened her eyes. Still trembling and all but exhausted, she gathered her waning strength and set to cleaning up the blood from her room.

Aeons away two eternal entities of infinite power converged upon a single plain to discuss the events they had only moments ago witnessed.

"Master," the creature bowed reverently.

"So, she has already defied you for the first time," the Master spoke in a voice of sheer amusement.

"She is more human than I thought her to be," the creature confessed in total awe with his master. "But I am not finished. That was only the beginning—a test of her humanity. She loves this Sage as any mortal would, and more. That love and the love of her human life is what hold her to that world to closely."

"Yes, I know," the Master mused curiously. "Then why have you come here?"

"I have come for your permission, my Master. May I be permitted to use her as I wish? I will need more than I have now."

With a wicked grin the Master looked upon his eternal servant in the realms of the immortal and beyond. Fully he understood what his faithful creature intended to teach this one defiant being. Yes, she was a powerful one, more than she would ever know—unless they taught her otherwise. One way or another, they would teach her what she was. Even if it cost her the very life she so cherished…

"Yes, my pet. Do as you wish, but her immortal being is not to be harmed. Do what you must, but learn what she truly is first."

Here the creature's "expression" became one not unlike fear, if there was such a thing as fear for one as infinite as he. "You do not know?" he asked his master in open surprise.

Now the Master's entire being darkened. "No, I do not know—not entirely. She is more than even I had once thought. But we will know soon. And, if not, I will destroy her once more. Either way, she will be mine. As with all that I have created, she is mine."

"Yes, master. We are yours…"

With that the creature faded once more from his Master's presence. There was much to do. Yet, for the first time in either one's existence, they could feel the chilling grip of time. Time was an endless, petty thing with no meaning for one who is truly eternal. One possessing even a fraction of the power that these two beings held found time to be nothing, for it was easily made and destroyed as anything else in this infinite existence.

Still, as the Master of all Creation stood now gazing upon the one and only being to have ever defied him in any way, he could feel the chilling touch of Time itself. Or was it something else? Something more? No matter what it was or could possibly be, something chilling in ways he had never before known now gripped the very core of his being. Much as he now held the defiant one within his game-playing, eternal grasp, something now held him as well. Turning his eyes once more back to the myriad scenes before him, he wondered for the first time in all of creation if, perhaps, he had made a wrong decision.

As suddenly as the black thoughts had appeared, they were replaced with a laughter he had not felt since his days with the mortal Guardians and Hali. In all the infinite expanse of his existence he had never once known doubt before. Only in the presence of a single, defiant mortal had he ever questioned himself or his own intentions. Why he would do so now he could only wonder. Yet, he found that even gazing distantly upon this one mortal could bring such doubts. Perhaps it was time to let go of this one mortal and all her power. Being around her too much was rubbing off. Only mortals ever held such doubts or questions. Such things he had no need of—no fear of…

Then where had that distant echo of a laugh come from that was not his own?

"Well, maybe you should be a little more concerned about such things as mortality and your existence," Hali found herself saying in her whispery tone, not without a touch of malice mere, moments after she had begun to mop up the blood with a towel from her bathroom.

"Perhaps I am. But there are other things that take priority at the moment," Anubis stated from his position in a nearby chair.

Tossing her towel on the floor, Hali glared coolly upon the spectral form in her chair that had appeared mere minutes ago. "I do not know who you are or why you have come. All I want is to speak with you on certain matters concerning your living friends here in the house. My life and my residence here are none of your concern."

For a moment the specter remained silent in his musings of the girl before him. "Perhaps you're right," he said some seconds later as he rose to a standing position. "I have offended you, and for that I apologize. But you must understand that I am only concerned with the welfare of these five young men. They are more than just my friends."

"So it would seem, which is why I have allowed you to stay and talk to me," Hali told him softly. "And there is not much time before they will awaken. So we need to hurry."

At this Anubis cocked a single eyebrow as if in amusement. "For one with so much power, you are more than a little concerned with their impressions of you."

Leveling an icy gaze upon Anubis she stated coolly, "And how do you think they would feel if I were to tell them that you were hiding your continued existence from them. If it is as you say and you were all once friends, I don't believe they would take very kindly to that."

"Very astute. But I am not here to pass threats. I only want to learn more of you. You seem to pose no threat to them, but I still have questions of your…activities," Anubis told her delicately as he eyed the blood covering the floor.

"Simple, this was the results of a mishap during astral traveling, something you should be all to aware of at this point," she told him, returning to her towel.

"That is understandable and I won't ask what happened. That is your business. But I do want to know where you gained such knowledge—and power," he told her meaningfully.

"I'm not what we are here to discuss. What I want to know concerns Sage and the armor his astral form possesses," Hali hissed, disgusted with his questions. "Being in the immortal form, I'm sure you've seen it. Your eyes are not the eyes of a mortal anymore. If you didn't know before you died, you know now."

Now standing mere inches before her, Anubis slitted his eyes dangerously at her. "And what do you know of the armor? What is your interest in his power? Is that why you have come here?"

"Your threats do not concern me, young one," Hali whispered, allowing Anubis to see through her eyes only a fraction of the power she held. "I asked a simple question and I want an answer."

Dropping his threatening stance, Anubis retreated a single step more out of respect than fear. "I can only tell you that he possesses a mystical armor meant to defend the good of mankind. The rest is not for you or any other to know without their explicit permission."

"So he is not the only one?" she asked curiously. "Do all of them possess it?"

"That I will not tell you."

Heaving a weary sigh, Hali resumed her cleaning. She was both too tired and too frustrated for these games. If not for the fact that she used all but a fraction of her powers on Sage and astral traveling, she would simply take the information from Anubis's mind. But already she was using the last of her powers just to keep herself conscious and moving.

Even I have my limits, she thought tiredly, longing for the freedom of the immortal form once more.

"As you wish," she stated aloud for Anubis. "But know this, I will find out one way or another. This is not over."

With an expression filled with pity and sorrow, Anubis nodded to her sadly. "You cannot even begin to understand what it is you have begun in being here. With all your powers you are still blind to what it is that comes your way. And I fear that you are not the only one involved. Not anymore."

Glaring at him with mixed surprise and fear, Hali moved to stop him as he started to fade from her view. But without using her powers, there was nothing he could do but grasp icy, empty air. She was alone once more. Alone in the darkness of her unforgiving prison created by her own thoughts and deeds. Yet again, it was she alone who had imprisoned herself…and the innocent others that were forever becoming her endless well of blood and guilt. And her only consolations were the foreboding words of those that could see what she could not…and the darkness yet to come.

But it wasn't over yet, nor would it be until she gave up. Until then her dance with destiny and destruction would go on. And, in the end, she would stand undefeated. Of that she was certain. For she had come to love this life and this world in all its bitter existence. She would defy this as all else, and she would survive. This was her world and her life. No one would take that from her, nor would they take from her the ones she had come to view as her last hope for a life in this world.

Gazing down upon the congealing pool of blood and the blood that now covered her hands she blinked back five tears. Sage. Kento. Ryo. Rowen. Sai. How far would she go to hold to her life as a mortal? Would she sacrifice them in the process? Did she love them enough to let them go? Were those five unshed tears all that they would come to mean to her…as had all the others that she had ever loved?

As if a blizzard sweeping across the desolate lands of an unseen world, Hali felt her tears freeze into nothingness as the void of unfeeling defiance consumed her once more. For all the questions of the future and her life that she held within her, she knew one thing to be certain above all else.

Never would she give in or give up. Even without hope for anything better than what she had already known in lives gone by, she would never give up her mortal life for the eternal existence of her spirit that beckoned her in all her power.

Never.

And with that thought, she resumed cleaning the blood that seemed to stain her hands forever. And not just her own…