Chapter 44

For a long while now she'd been silent and unable to look at him; her whole body straining between rigid disbelief and defeated nothingness. There was nothing he could do except watch and hope beyond hope she wasn't going to completely reject him. He knew this would never be easy for her, but two of the three people he now was needed her not to reject him. Sighing heavily he scooped her rigidly limp body up into his arms and Jumped them both back to their own reality and the safety of the Northern Palace. He then gently placed her down upon her bed and, without meaning to, kissed her forehead.

Still she didn't respond, leaving him only to feel the distance growing between them.

'You look good like that,' Jay's voice suddenly sounded from behind him. 'Seriously, you should have made the change sooner.'

Glancing round he saw Jay's translucent form grinning at him. Laughing slightly to himself, he flicked his gaze admiringly towards the nearby mirror.

'I do look good, don't I,' he couldn't help but admit.

'Yup,' Jay's eyes slowly studied him, 'I'm glad you did this for me SK.'

'What are you two, gay?' Duke's voice sounded to the other side of him, making him gasp.

Turning towards where the voice had come from he was almost horrified to see the translucent form of Duke watching him with an almost sulky kind of arrogance.

'Can't you do anything but gawk SK?' Duke folded his arms tightly. 'Or are you really that surprised to see me?'

'I… I…' he stammered, before glancing towards Jay, 'I don't understand.'

'You're the one who drew what was left of my spirit into you; surely you didn't think I was just going to become some little voice in the back of your head.'

'He's got a point there SK,' Jay smirked and lowered his head, 'I mean, he is just like me now.'

'What,' SK half staggering backwards.

'You told Catilin yourself that he was part of your evolution.'

'No, I said what was left of Duke was used to form the hybrid. I didn't… I mean…'

'Oh come on SK, why do you think I've been able to appear to you?'

'I thought it was because I hadn't finished my evolution yet. I thought…'

'We are someone new now SK,' Duke sighed heavily, cutting him off as he did. 'Or rather, you're someone new and we're just a part of that.'

'But if you're both a part of me… I mean, am I always going to be able to speak to you like this or…'

'We don't have the answer for that yet,' Jay shrugged, 'as far as we're aware you're the first Hybrid being in existence so there's nothing for us to go off of.'

'How… I mean, surely there have been others.'

'No, this is something completely new,' Duke sighed, 'the combining of souls like this has never happened before, but…'

'But what?'

'I don't know,' he shifted his gaze away, 'I get the sense this isn't the last time it's going to happen either.'

'How do you know that,' SK frowned at him.

'Because I'm a part of you now SK and you know it,' he glanced back up at him. 'You are now the sum total of three lifetimes of knowledge, four if you count what Jay gained from Octan. You know everything we know and we know everything you know.'

'If that's true, then why are the two of you here like this?'

'Oh well that's easy,' Jay rolled his eyes, 'it's too much knowledge for one person; we're here to cushion the blow.'

'What?'

'We are you and not you at the same time,' Duke tilted his head thoughtfully. 'We're here to keep you sane, but right now neither of us know if this is a permanent arrangement or not. It could well be that what we know will eventually feed into you, creating a single consciousness capable of handling all that knowledge.'

For a few moments SK just stood there, absorbing everything he'd been told. There was something so strange about the idea of being three people and he wasn't completely sure he liked it.

'Well if it is permanent you'll get used to it,' Jay placed a hand on his shoulder. 'We all will in time.'

'Yes, but you at least have a head start on us,' Duke rolled his eyes, 'you had Octan.'

'Octan wasn't exactly a part of me you know. Not like we are with SK.'

'You know what I mean.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean, but that doesn't make what I've said any less true.'

'Well whatever. What I want to know is when we're going to go get Kasey.'

'What?' SK frowned.

'You know, my daughter,' he shot him a look, 'she's still where the Teen left her.'

'Oh, right…'

'We are going to get her, aren't we,' Duke's tone became insistent.

'Are you really sure we should be the ones to save her,' he felt more than a little anxious. 'I mean, things are a little confusing right now and I don't want to scare her. Plus I feel like there's something else we should be doing right now.'

'She has to find out sooner, or later,' Jay shrugged, 'it might as well be sooner.'

'And you know I agree with that,' Duke nodded.

'Fine, we'll go.'

At his words the images of Duke and Jay melted away. Sighing heavily he then Jumped himself to where he knew Kasey would be. Once there he stared around the cave area for her.

'Kasey,' he was half amazed to hear his voice mimicking Duke's, 'Kasey sweetie its okay, you can come out now, we're going home.'

There was no movement from within the cave and anxiously SK began to explore.

'Kasey hunny, it's Daddy,' the words poured out of him before he could stop them. 'I'm here to take you home now, to see Mummy. You want to see Mummy, don't you?'

Still there was no indication anyone else was in the cave with them. As he continued to make his way round his foot brushed against something on the ground. Looking down he spotted three broken dolls lying with a kind of pitiful sadness below him. Inside he felt his heart turn slightly, as strange emotions ran up through him.

'Kasey did this,' Duke's voice breathed from beside him. 'She must have been angry when she found herself all alone.'

'Where do you think she would have gone?'

'I don't know,' his translucent figure knelt down to examine the doll remains. 'There were four.'

'What?'

'There were four dolls,' he glanced up. 'The Teen gave her four. Told her they were the four of us.'

'And she's broken three.'

'Mummy, Daddy and Ulk Teen,' Duke swallowed hard, 'she believes she's the only one left now.'

'And that's a bad thing.'

'Worse than you might imagine,' his whole being tensed. 'The Teen taught her to blame Mai for everything, so she's going to make Mai pay for this.'