It had been a week since Tanis, Uncle, and Tas had arrived. Today was the day that Father was supposed to come with Sindri. It was 12:02 in the morning, and I hadn't slept a wink yet. Abe had fallen asleep beside me around ten, and was still asleep. He looked so peaceful, no worries playing across his blue face. I had told myself several times that I could send him away. I could transport him somewhere else, anywhere, as long as it wasn't here in a few days.

No, he wouldn't want that. The over chivalrous creature beside me would just come right back. Well, I could see where he was coming from. He lost his first wife without even knowing it, and the second person he had opened his heart to was about to die. If I had been in his place, the grief would be too much, and I would prefer to join those who I had loved.

Then the object of my thoughts began to stir. I looked over at him to see his blue and black eyes blinking down at me. "You haven't slept yet, have you?" he whispered. It was more a statement than anything.

"No." I whispered back. "Father and Sindri will be coming today. And that means my mother will be following suit soon afterwards." He opened his mouth to speak, probably to reassure me that we'd win, but I covered his mouth with my fingers. "You should go back to sleep, though." I quickly replaced my fingers with my lips.

It was supposed to be a quick kiss goodnight, but then Abe ran amuck with it. He deepened it as he rolled on top of me, but supporting his weight on his forearms and knees. I didn't resist; for I was too tired, worried, and fearing the end to care. Then one thing led to another, and soon Abe was getting dangerously close to breaking just about all the rules I had to follow.

"Abe!" I whispered. By now, he should know better.

"Cara, I've read you lately; I know what you're worried about. Don't you think that, since we all know we're going to die, we should make up for time that will not be available?" He whispered as he leaned back onto his knees to look down at me.

I pulled my shirt back into place as I sat up to be slightly more even with him. "Because: rules are rules. You'd think someone as cultured and tentative as you would know that."

He nodded, but then smirked. "You don't like the rules, though. You've done everything you can to break them."

"I haven't broken all of them. I don't drink, my hair has never been completely down, and I will not continue with what you were after a minute ago." I poked him on his exposed blue and black striped chest to prove my point.

"You're giving yourself away with your thoughts." I looked down at the bed, knowing that he was right. I had thought about it, and I wasn't afraid to break that rule. "So I think I have won our little debate here."



He leaned back down and trapped my lips with his. A shiver went down my back as Abe deepened the kiss and slid his hand beneath my shirt simultaneously. My fingers were sliding slowly down the planes of his smooth chest, causing him to shiver slightly. My hands reached his uniform pants as his reached my leggings. Abe quickly untied the strings on the sides as I unhooked the button and lowered the zipper. We separated for a moment se we could quickly pull down our own pants. It seemed that in a fraction of a second, Abe's cool legs were against mine. We still hadn't broken any rules yet, for we were still separated by a layer of clothes, but that was undeniably where it was going.

Then a jolt ricocheted through my head. I grasped Abe's shoulders to stop him. He immediately pulled away from the kiss and sat up slightly. "What is it, Cara?"

"Father and Sindri are here, and they don't have good news." Abe nodded as he rolled off of me and searched for his pants. I hopped off the bed and crossed to my dresser. I rummaged around for my battle clothes, finally pulling out the brown leggings and red with black hemmed tunic.

When I turned to walk into the bathroom to change, Abe snared me around my waist and pulled me against him. "I love you, Cara. I always will." He spoke louder than our previous whispers.

"I love you too, Abraham. I think I always have, but I know I always will." I turned around and kissed him quickly so I could dart into the bathroom before the tears came.

After a few minutes, I was standing in the library with Tanis, Sindri, Tas, Uncle, and Father. Bahia and Abe were going to get Liz, Abe, and Krauss. "Cara," My father spoke louder than his usual hiss. "Your mother is only a few hours behind Sindri and I. We need to finalize our plans."

Then the large wooden doors of the library opened for the B.P.R.D. team. Hellboy wore a gleam on his face that spelled out his love of violence. "So, how many evil, magically powered behinds do we get to kick today?"

"You," Tanis spoke from the corner by the fire. "Will not be fighting anyone. You and your team will be helping Tas, Caramon, and I protect Cara. We cannot allow her mother to get her. Raistlin and Sindri will be fighting the Queen."

"No!" I shouted. "Father and Sindri are not powerful enough to fight the Queen. I have to help them!" I took a step toward towards Tanis.

But then a restraining hand was placed on my shoulder. I looked up to see Abe looking pleadingly down at me. "Cara, please."

I hung my head in defeat. "Alright."

So it was set. We all ate a quick breakfast and then went to our respected posts. Sindri and Father in the lobby where my mother would appear, Tanis and Caramon in the entrance of the library wing, Liz, Krauss, and Hellboy at the door to the library, and Tas and Abe in the Library with Bahia and I. I was 

fastening on Bahia's armor when Abe came to sit beside me on the floor. "Don't worry, Cara." He whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arm around my waist.

I nodded as I shooed Bahia away and leaned against his chest. Listening to his even heartbeat, I tried to relax. After a few minutes, a white-hot pain shot through my brain. I let out a small shriek, and then Abe brought me closer to his chest. "The Queen is here." I whispered. My eyes stared unseeingly at the floor.

I could feel the battle of magic in the lobby, and Father and Sindri were losing. An idea suddenly came to my head. I could confront my mother alone after some finagling. I looked over to Bahia and met her eyes. She almost instantly understood what to do. I turned to face Abe, not meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry, Abe. Please forgive me and don't try to avenge me."

"What…" before he could finish, I pressed my lips on his. Concentrating on a disabling spell, Abe was soon unconscious. I carefully laid his limp form onto the ground. Bahia had made quick work of knocking out Tas.

I ran to the door, stopping only to pick up Bahia and mutter some quick invisibility and intangibility spells. We walked through the doors and down the hall without Hellboy, Krauss, or Liz even noticing anything was amiss. When we came to the elevator and the third row of my guards, I dropped the spells and sprinted for the elevator platform. When Tanis and Uncle ran after me, I raised a grey wall that blocked their path. 'I'm sorry.' I mouthed to them as the elevator rose.

When the elevator platform reached the lobby, I released Bahia and threw up a wall to protect Father and Sindri. Bahia took to the air, corralling the two mages behind the wall into a room and shutting the door behind her as she too flew in. I quickly barred the door with a locking spell before I turned to face my mother.

She could have chosen one of many forms; a five headed dragon, an indestructible warrior, or a temptress so beautiful that no man could resist her: not even my father. She had chosen the form of a warrior; one so terrifying, that anyone, even someone with the girth and valor of my uncle, would pale at the mention of her name. Anyone but me. It suddenly occurred to me how odd this was. I: the gangly young woman with the strongest of ties to a world that shouldn't have magic, and I was the only one strong enough to stop the Queen of Darkness. It also occurred to me that if I defeated her, either I or my half-sister, Zeboim, would take her spot as the high dark deity of my home world. But I knew I wasn't going to win.

"My, my; it is my little Cara Anwen. You have grown into the quite the young woman. You are twenty and three now. Your father was two years younger than you are now when you were born. Not that he knew you and your brother were even born. He did not care for you while you were a young child. And after he snatches my children from me, he banishes you from your home and sends you to this wasteland to snuff your potential." She cooed at me as she took a few fluid steps toward me.

I took that many steps back and prepared to raise my shield again. Sure, the residual amounts of my father's curse in my skin protected me from some spells, but it would do nothing against even the 

simplest spell casted by my mother. "Father has cared for Damian and I ever since he saved us from you. He sent us here to protect us. And you still took my brother away from me! You are anything but my mother!" I spat at her as I ran. I circled her quickly and gathered my wits and the ring that hung around my neck. "Neish, gadoll, hie…" before I could finish the banishment spell, my mind felt like it was going to explode. I crumpled to the ground as the light spun around me. I didn't understand: I had the power to cast the spell, and I had been holding the ring extra tight to ensure that.

"You honestly thought you could simply banish me, my child?" her laughter was like a bell to most, but it was poison to my control over my emotions.

I struggled to my feet and prepared to try the spell again. "I can, and I will." I hissed.

"Hold for a moment, little one. I am not here to kill you. I was rather fond of you when you were a child; for a female half breed would be more useful than a male one. I came simply to make you an offer. All you have to do is give up your powers, and I will leave you alone for the rest of your life here on this miserable world. I will also not change directions to attack your friends. And you do not have to give your powers to me, simply surrender them in general." She cooed again. But she seemed to be chastising me for jumping to conclusions.

I thought about her offer for a miniscule amount of time. For the first and only thing that came to mind was Abe. I could live through this, and we could live together. He couldn't use the excuse that I would no longer live as long as him, because that part of me was in my genes. So was seeing spirits, so I could still be slightly useful to the B.P.R.D. "Alright." I whispered, but I knew my mother heard me.

An evil smile spread across her face. She muttered a quick spell just before an almost electric current shot down my spine. I gasped as I fell to the ground. My mother stepped forward until she stood in front of me. The sensations going through me were like that when I had healed Abe, but not as bad. Soon the pain was gone, but my mother was still smiling. "Thank you, my child." She quickly kissed my forehead on my birthmark, causing it to burn like fire, before she disappeared in a small black cloud of smoke.

I tried to move, but I couldn't feel anything. After lying there for a few minutes, I finally blacked out.

I awoke to find my head was no longer lying on the cold marble floor, but resting on someone's lap. And that same somebody was probably the one who was running their hand along my hair to my shoulder. I could hear a jumble of voices, but I couldn't pinpoint or identify any of them. Then the person whose lap my head was on whispered in my ear. "Please, Cara, my love, wake up." It was Abe.

I focused all the energy I could muster into opening my eyes. I couldn't see very much because my vision was blurred, so I blinked a few times. Finally my eyes focused on Abe. His face was just a few inches from mine, and his cool breath was tickling my cheek. "Abe…" I breathed. A small smile instantly crossed my face when his eyes lit up about three shades of blue.

"Cara!" he cried, but not too loud. Before I could say anything, his lips were on mine. As far as either of us was concerned, no one else was in the room.



I broke away after a bit and found his eyes again. "Abe, I'm sorry about that stupid plan I had." I couldn't raise my voice above a whisper, no matter how hard I tried. Before he could interrupt, which I knew he would, I continued. "And I gave up all of my magic so the Queen would leave me and everyone close to me alone."

"I know." Abe said simply. "And you barely gave up anything." He reached into the pouch of his gun belt and pulled out the ring that usually hung from the gold chain around my neck. "I stole this and replaced it with a copy this morning while you were changing." He explained, probably having seen the confusion on my face.

"But, how did you know?" I gasped. How could he have known what my mother would ask for? If he didn't know that she wasn't here to kill me, then he would have led to the speeding up of my demise by taking away almost all of my magic.

"Your father knew and 'told' me when we met in the clearing a few months ago. He knew that the Queen simply wanted to take care of the competition. So I came up with a plan, since I knew that you'd try to take on the Queen by yourself to protect everyone else. And now here we are." I stared dumbstruck up at Abe, who looked about as apologetic as I had felt a few seconds ago.

"Am I that predictable?" I joked, having regained some strength in my voice.

He nodded. "Do you trust me?" he asked me.

"Of course, I do, Abe. Why did you ask?" he was really starting to confuse me now.

Before I could say anything else, Abe slipped the white gold ring onto my right thumb. There was a flash of light as I felt the energy flooding back into me. "I ask to see if you trusted me so I could trust myself to help you keep your powers under control."

I smiled at him before I leaned my head up to find his lips. He met me half way as he carefully lifted my shoulders so he could be in a more comfortable position. I broke away and began to try and sit up; Abe helped by resting a reassuring hand on the small of my back. I looked around the room to see what I surmised was my father explaining to everyone else what had happened. Bahia was lying on the desk against the wall in the lobby, twitching in her sleep. Abe shifted behind me and hooked his arms around mine and lifted me off the ground to my feet. "Hey!" I shrieked slightly. Abe chuckled as he moved one of his arms to my waist and released the other.

He helped me walk over to the others, who seemed happy to see that I was awake. Tas was rubbing his neck from where Bahia had knocked him out, and the others were a little cross for risking my life. "I'm sorry." I apologized truly.

"We were all worried for you." Caramon chastising me in his warm voice didn't really have the full effect of someone like Tanis saying it. "Especially Abe and Raist here." He jerked his head toward his twin brother.



My father shot him a glare. "Did it not occur to you that he and I have the most reason to worry for her?" he hissed. This was a good sign, he hadn't yelled at Abe yet, and he just openly brought up our engagement. If he hadn't meant that, he would have thrown my uncle into that list.

"He, you, and I." I heard a familiar voice correct from the other side of the room.

I turned away from Abe so I could see him. "Damian!" I cried as I raced to the other side of the room. I stopped just before I reached him. "I know I'm not dead, so I'm not going to try and hug you."

We shared a laugh with each other. The two of us really were twins. We were both only nine inches above five feet, our hair a dark brown, our eyes a slightly hourglassed burgundy and brown, and our skin slightly golden. We were both thin, even though he was a bit bulkier and I was quite curved. Looking at his ghost, I could see all of the similarities we had and still held. "Well, for once, I'm glad you can't hug me."

I smiled at him for a moment. Then I felt Abe's cool fingers entwine with mine. "Damian, this is Abraham Sapien." Knowing that Abe was reading me to see my brother, I reversed the introductions. "Abe, this is Damian." When Damian raised an eyebrow and his face became his usual expression of confusion, I laughed lightly. "Abe can 'read' things; like we can with that spell, but without a spell. He's using it to see what I see, which is you."

Damian nodded before he shrugged away from the wall he had been leaning against and strode in front of Abe. He made himself look as intimidating as possible and stood at his full height, which was unfortunately a good seven inches shorter than Abe. It took everything bit of my will power not to laugh. "Now look here, Abraham Sapien; I may be a ghost but I can still make your life miserable. And if I can't, then Cara's and my father will gladly do so for me. So you'd better take care of my sister. But, I'm afraid to say that I trust you, we all do. You've helped Cara too many times for us not to trust you. Good luck with her temper, though." I glared at my annoying semi-older brother for a bit, before deciding he only meant well.

Abe nodded to my brother. "Thank you for your consent and warning, Damian. And it is good to finally meet you, for Cara has told and 'shown' me much about you."

"Likewise." Damian smiled. "Well, Cara, I best be going. I have to make arrangements for a special surprise for All Hallows Eve." He smirked at me, knowing that I hated to be kept out of the loop of things. "But first, I must talk to Father." He walked around Abe and I to the other side of the room. "Oh, Cara," he turned back to me. "I'll be visiting you soon, so don't start crying." Now I really started glaring at him, but that only made him laugh.

After the conversation with Damian was over and Abe had stopped reading me, the adrenaline that had been fueling my system wore off. I had to struggle just to stay on my feet. Abe saw this and took action for me. "Cara's exhausted; I'm going to take her to her room." I don't know if the others agreed, but Abe was soon leading me down the hallway to me room. After we were out of sight of the others, Abe suddenly plucked me from the ground and cradled me to his chest.



That was the last thing I remembered before I fell asleep.

Sorry this update took longer than usual, but we have both been trapped by the monster of eighth grade.

One more chapter to go! (But we are writing a sequel. To which a mini-spoiler is posted on our bio with information for "Young Justice")

Well, the Dark Queen has been tricked into leaving Cara and everyone alone. But how long will it last (hint, hint, clue, clue)? And Abe and Cara do get to get married. But what is Damian planning for All Hallows Eve? Find out in no more than a week.

As always, your opinions (reviews) are like Cara's powers to her mother. We reply any and all messages sent to us.

Sincerely,

C M + L W idkaname