Chapter 56

Tristan was just registering a strange sensation from Kaiba when she appeared. She wore a short black dress printed with pink flowers over a pair of black fake leather biker style trousers. Her feet were bare and her hair was clipped into place behind her head with an upside down butterfly crocodile grip. She had an almost deliberate stance about her, as though nothing about her appearance was accidental. This just made her appear even stronger and more self-determining. On face value he could have easily mistaken her for someone else, but the air surrounding her pointed clearly to one thing and one thing only.

'You're the one from last night.'

In reply she gave an amused half laugh, before wiping her hand in front of herself and changing Drake's appearance back to his human self.

'Why do you look like that,' Drake frowned at her, 'couldn't you have picked some other form to trick us with?'

'I doubt I could have tricked you with any form,' her eyes remained focused on Tristan, 'he would have recognised me for who I was no matter what I looked like, so I saw no point in disguising myself.'

'What do you mean no point in disguising yourself,' Taylor frowned, 'you can't honestly tell us that's your real form.'

'And just why not?'

'Because you look like my Mum,' Drake pouted. 'A little younger than her, maybe, but you still do.'

'Of course I look like your mother,' she rolled her eyes, 'I'm her Sen Khine, another Catilin Ashmar from the Circle of Six.'

'Do you have any proof,' Tristan slowly evaluated her.

'I don't need proof, but as it happens, yes I do.'

At that she pulled something out of the pocket of her trousers and threw it at Tristan. Catching it neatly, he stared down at it and was half surprised to find that it was a brown leather ID case.

'Balance issue,' he stared up at her without bothering to open it.

'Got it in one,' she casually folded her arms.

For a moment he hesitated, before swallowing hard and opening it. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find, but a feeling creeping along his spine made him apprehensive. Inside, along with the official Balance papers, was a small ID card. The person on it looked identical to the girl stood before them and all the details were registered correctly apart from her name. Instead there was a thick blue line running through where it should be.

'Oh you so could have faked this,' Drake commented, as he lent over Tristan's arm to study it. 'I mean, it doesn't even have your name. That's pretty careless, don't you think?'

'Clearly you need a few lessons on Balancer ID,' she smirked in amusement, 'the blue line is used to conceal our true names.'

'What?'

'It's true,' Tristan pulled a face, 'a Balancer's true identity is their most valuable commodity, so the Council go to great lengths to keep it under wraps; especially with their most valuable members.'

As he finished speaking, he tossed the ID case back towards her. She unfolded her arms and caught it perfectly.

'So what is your name then,' Taylor studied her, as they watched her place her ID back into her pocket.

'I told you, I'm the Catilin Ashmar from my own Realm. I'm from another part of the Circle of Six, but I'm not going to tell you which one. I'm also not going to tell you my birth name before you ask, since I know that's what you're going to say next. I'm only telling you I'm another Ashmar because, in this case, that identification means nothing if you don't know where I hail from.'

'I…' he stammered, before glancing towards Tristan for support.

'Is there anything you can tell us about yourself?' Tristan folded his own arms. 'Or anything we can call you other than Catilin Ashmar, we've already got one of those.'

'You could call me anything you liked and it wouldn't make much difference to me,' she laughed. 'I've gone by so many different names and titles over my short career it's hard to remember them all, never mind care what people use.'

'But you must have some kind of preference,' Drake sounded a little desperate, 'something we can call you that's easy to remember?'

'You're all talking as though you're expecting me to stick around long enough for you to need to call me anything at all,' she lowered her head slightly, 'what makes you so sure I will?'

'Because I can't see a Balancer, especially one as powerful as you appear to be, wanting hell to rise any more than we do,' Tristan suddenly felt a little more confident. 'You're here to help us stop Ni.'

'And what makes you so sure of that,' she smirked.

'Because you're not evil.'

'That doesn't mean I'm good you know.'

'I know, but… well lets just say I have faith in you.'

'Everybody always does,' she gave another half laugh, before turning away. 'You're right; I am here to help you in your war against Ni. Thanks to the damage Crovell has caused to his kingdom you have at least nine months before his army will strike. And in that time I plan to prepare you all for what you must face.'

'And what makes you think you can do that?'

'Let's just say I'm an expert on the Army of Sen Pay,' her smile was tight. 'They have weaknesses; you just have to know how to exploit them.'

'So you believe we can beat Ni,' Taylor's voice edged with confidence.

'I never said that,' she shook her head, 'I only said it's not all hopeless for you. There's a difference you know.'

'So there's just a possibility we could win.'

'Of course and I'm going to do everything I can to put the odds in your favour. But nothing is written in stone.'

Instantly Taylor and Drake began jabbering excitedly to each other, but Tristan was left with a strangely cold feeling running inside of him. For a few moments he carefully evaluated her, remembering what her first action had been upon arriving as though she'd only just preformed it.

'You made Drake a cat, didn't you,' he cut off the boys' celebrations.

'How right you are,' she smirked. 'I'm also responsible for giving your son his voice back and making sure Drake was the only one who could hear it for a long while.'

'But why?'

'Because I needed to distract you. To confine as many of you to static positions as possible.'

'Why?'

'Do you know how confusing it can get trying to predict how all of you will react,' she rolled her eyes. 'Or how complicated you can make things when you all are so uncoordinated in everything you do. It was much easier to keep you distracted so I could do what needed to be done.'

'What needed to be done,' Tristan felt a deeply concerned feeling move through him, 'I'm not sure I like the sounds of that.'

'I never said I wanted you to like the sounds of it,' she shrugged, 'I said nothing about being the good guy, remember?'

'We're going to have to be careful of you, aren't we?'

'Got it in one,' as she spoke a swarm of blue-purple butterflies encased her body. 'Kaiba's next door if you want to wake him,' her body slowly disappeared, 'see you soon.'