Chapter 2

"I have no destination in mind."

John Druitt teleported away from Helen, the creature screaming with delight in his mind as they left the trappings of matter behind them. They were together again, free to go where they willed, murder whoever they chose. John closed his eyes in despair. He didn't know what would happen without a destination. Would it hurt? Would it end? Did he care?

His eyes opened as his body hit solid rock. He was lying on a rocky surface like that found along a coastline or on a mountain side. The ground was level but he couldn't see more than a few metres away in any direction as he was engulfed in thick pale fog. The mist swirled around him, disturbed by his unconventional invasion into its realm. Nothing was visible but the rocks he rested on. He looked up at the fog above, were they clouds? An electrical storm appeared to be raging above. He couldn't see lightning but flashes of blue light sporadically illuminated the encompassing grey. There was no accompanying muffled thunder, no sound but the noise emanating from his chest, his rapid heart beat and ragged gasps for breath.

He scrambled to his feet and stared up at the only other sign of life. A flash of lightning cracked up in the hidden sky. The creature was missing from his body, expelled again. He guessed that was it, responsible for the lights in the sky. The Ripper, they had been separated again, but for how long and where the hell was he?

"Hello?" He called, his voice hoarse. He tried again not expecting an answer and received exactly that.

Where was he? He had to be up a mountain. He wasn't going to attempt a teleport with that malevolent parasite nearby. He'd have to walk down the mountain the old fashioned way, if it was indeed a mountain.

He began the trudge into the unknown, tripping over stones and slipping on wet rocks. He considered it strange that he didn't feel cold, there was no wind just boundless fog. What kind of a mountain was this? Time lost it's relevance as he marched on not paying attention to his path his mind focused on one thought, Helen. He thought of how he had left her and how recent events had reignited long absent hope. It wasn't the loss of the creature for that short time which had freed him from his despair, but seeing her again with his own unclouded vision. A goofy smile crossed his face. This was getting to be a habit, losing the creature. If only he could keep it that way. He'd climb down this mountain, this unusually level mountain, must be a plateau, march to the nearest town and get on the first plane back to Helen. No more teleporting.

Out of the corner of his eye illuminated by a blue flash of light he caught a glimpse of something which was not rock or fog, two things he was fast becoming an expert at identifying. He turned toward it, if he could see it, it couldn't be far.

It was another person. Sitting cross legged, eyes closed in some kind of meditation. Rather more calmly than he would have expected himself to feel he sat down in front of her. Her eyes remained closed.

"Ashley?"

He leaned over and gently nudged her. She didn't respond, her mind far away while the rest of her remained in a trance on a foggy rock.

He sat opposite her mirroring her crossed legs and waited, taking in every detail of her as though for the first time. After all, it was the first time without the creature. High up above electricity flashed through the grey. Despite his elation at stumbling across Ashley an ominous sense of foreboding crept up on him, this was no mountain.

As he stared at his daughter, her nose twitched and John sat up straighter in anticipation. She was coming back from wherever she had been. She opened her eyes.

"Hi." Ashley seemed unsurprised to find her father sitting right in front of her in the middle of a thick fog on a god forsaken rock.

"Hello," he said unable to prevent a smile from overtaking his entire face.

She stretched like a cat, yawned and moved her head from side to side stretching her neck muscles. She peered intently at him as though not believing he was really there. A phantom perhaps, or a dream. He didn't fade away into the mist as the other dreams had, just sat across from her with a happy grin on his face. She leaned over and poked him in the arm to see if he was as real as he looked. He was.

"Huh," she muttered. A small smile was quickly replaced with a worried frown. "As happy as I am to see you, and I never thought I'd say that, you do realise you're dead?"

"I don't feel dead. Do you?"

She looked puzzled.

"I don't know. I don't have anything to compare it to."

"You don't seem very surprised to see me here."

"No I don't," she said serenely, albeit mildly puzzled. "I suppose it was inevitable, you had it coming."

She stared at him with a calm air about her, a lot had changed since she had seen him last, for both of them.

"You look different," she observed. His appearance was the same but there was something about his eyes, they held a smile she had never seen before.

"As do you," he countered. She seemed calm, focused, controlled. She smiled as she realised what was different about him.

"You're my father," she whispered in wonder. She could see it in his eyes, he was untainted, the creature had gone. He returned the smile. A flash of blue light caught her attention. "That's new. It's not done that before."

"I think it came from me. The thing inside me." He began to explain thinking that she wouldn't know about the creature.

"I know," she interrupted him calmly. "I saw it all. If I concentrate I can see Mom sometimes. It's more difficult some times than others but when I do get through I can see what's going on around her. I saw you. I've just been with her, she was sad." She looked sad herself at the memory. "How did you get here?"

"I tried teleporting without a destination in mind, I had hoped it would destroy the creature, I didn't expect this. I must have been thinking of you instead." She smiled at that. "Where are we? How did you get here?"

"I woke up on the rocks." She shrugged. "That's it."

"Have you explored? Is there anything here?"

"I've walked I don't know how far. There's nothing but rock and fog. It's a bit Phantom zone-ish."

"Phantom zone-ish?" he looked lost at the reference.

"Like off Superman. It's a prison for super villains."

"Oh," he didn't look very happy at the suggestion they were bad guys or in prison, or both.

Ashley gave him a frank look. She had murdered people and so had he, it could be the reason they were here.

"Have you ever seen anyone else here?"

"Just you. Every now and then the light gets brighter but its mostly just dull grey."

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't know."

"Are you cold? What about food, sleep, warmth?"

She shrugged. "I'd forgotten about those things." She looked at him carefully. "This is you then, the real you."

"It is."

"What's the real you like?"

"I have no wish to murder anyone"

"That's always good to know."

"Have you tried teleporting away?"

"I don't know how to."

"What about the powers the Cabal gave you?"

"I don't know how to work them. Maybe I have to get angry but I don't feel like that here. It's just me."

"This place must strip you down to the bare soul. Just you, no hangers on," he said in wonder, looking up at a flash of lightning. "What happens now? What do you do here?"

"Think mostly. I've been wondering about these weird powers we have. I don't think ours is teleporting."

"Its not? That must be where I've been going wrong all this time." He joked trying to get a smile. She was distant and seemed preoccupied. He wondered what this place truly was and what it did to people.

"I've had a lot of time to think here, I've not spoken to anyone for what seems like forever. I've had to focus my energy on thought rather than action for a change. It's been an experience," the last sentence sounded like the old Ashley.

"If its not teleporting then what is it?"

"I think it's a kind of energy manipulation. Teleporting is only one extreme of it. At first you didn't know what your power was so, you tried it as hard and as fast as you could and ripped through space and time. You just had to go for it, so you put everything into a teleport or you might not come out the other end in one piece. I think there's more to it than that I just need to figure out how to work it. Besides, you know more about teleporting than me. You can extend it to other people and objects. Clara had to take her clothes off to be invisible she couldn't extend her power. Otherwise it would be like Terminator and we'd have to teleport naked."

John frowned. "Terminator?"

"You know the film. You mean to tell me you've never seen Terminator?"

"I don't watch films."

"What about Alien or Predator? They even made a movie about you. It wasn't very good or realistic and they got the wrong guy." She cocked her head to the side. "And I've just realised why Mom refused to watch that movie. Haven't you ever been to the movies?"

"In my day it was called the theatre."

"I'm trying to think what you might like. Probably a classic," she mused. "Henry's got an awesome collection, thousands of titles. Maybe Citizen Kane."

"Can we focus on the original discussion?" he asked mildly exasperated. "We are in a cloud. With a malevolent electrical creature causing a storm overhead. We don't know how our power works but it's apparently not teleporting and we may both be dead or in a prison for all we know."

"Well if you put it like that," she returned her focus to their predicament but not before admitting. "It is good to see you."