Four months, three weeks, twenty two days, nine hours, and fifty four minutes before Sententia.

"Just like I promised," the man said as he gestured to an unconscious woman.

Reaper smiled as he came up and looked at her.

"Excellent Ark," he said as he turned on a small communicator by his ear, "Helene, would you bring Cat out please? We've got her replacement."

An unintelligible reply came back on the communicator. He switched it off with another smile.

"Check her medical records?" he asked.

"Duh," Arkady said as he spread his hands out, "She hasn't even had a filing all her life. Perfect shape and youthful too. Now if we can just get Cat to go along with it-"

He stopped speaking as Helene came in supporting a young woman. The woman's hair was dead and dragged on the floor. Her skin clung almost desperately to her bones. This wasn't obvious in anywhere but her face, because other than that she was completely covered. She even wore gloves. Cat giggled.

"I can't explain myself, I'm afraid sir," she said, "because I'm not myself you see!"

"Cat?" asked the second man.

She looked up at him and giggled again.

"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," she said, "but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"

"I tried to stop her," she moaned, "but she keeps sneaking drugs when I can't see. I'm sorry."

Reaper took a deep breath.

"How much?"

"I think Cat's been on heroine for weeks. Whenever I ask her she says-"

"I could tell you my adventures -beginning from this morning," said Cat, "but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."

Helene shot a helpless look at Reaper.

"Cat," Reaper said gently, "we're going to move you now. You need a change. Now just touch the girl over there, okay?"

Almost immediately Cat's face went from detached to downright terrified.

"No," she whispered, "I just got the screams to stop, please no!"

"Cat," said Reaper firmly.

"NO!" she screamed as she tried to break from Helene's grasp.

"God damn it!" snapped Reaper.

He grabbed her arm. Cat instinctively flinched but he pulled her forwards anyway.

"Please Neil, please!" Cat begged.

Ignoring her he yanked off her glove and threw her hand on the woman's forehead. In almost a flash the space formerly occupied by Cat was the husk of a brunette, near mummified. The unconscious woman now had long black hair. Reaper picked her up bridal-style.

"I'm taking Cat to bed now," he said.

"Impressive," said a woman as she walked into the room.

Arkady and Helene tensed as they glared at the woman. Reaper held Cat tighter.

"Who the fuck are you and how did you find us?" he snarled.

"Tsk tsk," the woman said, "You are actually quite easy to find. As for who I am, I am Georgiana Lockwood. But you can call me Georgiana. I am what you could call a…solicitor. You see, I was a friend of your mother's."

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Kraken had never been terrible talkative. So Vanya shouldn't have been surprised that he said very few words to her. After all the years that had passed between them she had expected an angry outburst at least. Instead he had coldly told her that she was at his hideout, what had happened, and that she couldn't be moved right now for lack of better medical care.

"If you really want to go somewhere else," he said, "Then I'll have to carry you again. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience on the way here, so I'd rather not."

There was a lot that they should talk about that he wasn't saying. There were so many questions that should be asked. Not just questions, but regrets, concerns, and anger. Vanya hadn't left the Academy on very good terms with any of her siblings, least of all Kraken. He hadn't wanted her to leave.

It had taken her months to realize that he didn't want to be alone in that damned house. After that she had wished she could say something to comfort him. However, by that time she had realized that she couldn't go back. She had left for good and Hargreeves wouldn't allow her back anyway. It wasn't as though she had tried very hard though. Then there was a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had used to come up whenever he was mad at her. Now it was near consuming her.

No, she really didn't want to talk at all. It would simply be too painful. She was glad he didn't want to. Or did he? Sometimes he got a look on his face that practically screamed he wanted to say something. Then his face would become unreadable again. It took awhile to realize that he wasn't talking because he knew she didn't want to.

That thought had shocked her. Vanya had never really been understood that well by anyone. To the kids at all of her schools she was a freak for being one of the Hargreeves. At home she was a useless girl who couldn't do anything. No one had ever given any sort of indication that they knew her well enough to read her. That thought made her feel happy. How odd.

In the hours that Kraken had gone out to do whatever it was he did at night she started thinking about her mixed feelings after seeing him. After an hour or so two things hit her. The first was the realization that she was in love with him. Back thens he had only been eighteen, quite young to know anything about the world and far too young to hold any sort of knowledge about relationships. She hadn't been really social so she couldn't have known then. So it sort of made sense that she realized it now even if it was twelve years after the event had actually occurred.

The second thing was the realization that he hadn't forgiven her. Twelve years had passed but he still held a grudge. If he couldn't forgive after twelve years then he most likely wasn't going to forgive her at all. Hence a very happy and a very sad thought were mixed together. Both of them were her fault. That was when she started crying.

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Spaceboy frowned as he looked at the monitor. Flying saucers were gathering at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. He had sent them a code asking what they were doing there. The reply was almost instantaneous. They had claimed that they weren't there to fight or invade. When he asked what they were there for then the reply had taken several days. It had finally come a few minutes ago.

"Ben?" he called.

"Coming!" the robot called as he jogged up.

"Does this mean anything to you?" he asked as he tapped the screen.

The robot went up and looked at the screen.

"No idea," Ben answered.

"Neither do I," sighed Spaceboy, "That's what worries me."

Both of them turned back to the monitor. The reply was seventeen words;

"We're here before all the good seats are taken. We know it's early, but Sententia is popular."