Balm sat in the back room of the palm reading shop she had purchased as a front for the drug business she was setting up. She would pay her fake psychic well to tell doom and gloom fortunes to desperate teens who would take anything to save their futures.

She held up a glass vial full of bluish liquid to the light and looked at the tiny particles suspended in the fluid. The particles were the actual drugs. It was fentanyl. The blue liquid was what it was laced with —magic. The fentanyl would mask their feeling of being controlled by Beryl.

It was a perfect crime. She would dose a town full of hormonal teenagers with the drive to succeed academically at all costs with a drug promised to help them achieve their dreams. What it would really accomplish is to push them to obey her, and she would have them searching for Endymion. The only hitch in the plan was finding a man that you didn't know what he looked like.

She shook her head and went back to preparing for tomorrow. That would be a problem for another day.

Petasos frowned at the mask she was holding. It was empty of the corrupting spirit it had born. She thought about how at least that part had gone to plan.

She had found the vessel just as Beryl had instructed. The redheaded woman was in the ally way and, oddly, to Petasos, interested in what was genuinely a South African tribal mask.

As the woman studied the mask, Petasos mumbled the incantation to release the spirit trapped in the mask. Without hesitation, it possessed her immediately. Just as Beryl had told her, it would.

She had followed the instructions perfectly. Once that was done, she let the woman leave. It would take a few hours for the spirit to take hold fully, and then the woman's will would be forced to do as the spirit commanded.

There would be absolute chaos.

That was the plan, at least. The problem was that nothing happened. No matter what kind of attacks that Petasos looked into, none of them were the work of the evil spirit.

She was terrified of what Beryl would do to her.

"I'm trusting you with a lot! I just want the truth," Yuki said, standing in front of half a dozen people he didn't know. "It's my daughter's life I'm worried about. I won't risk her."

Motoki held up his hands in surrender. "Which is why I'm here. I'm completely human, and I trust them."

"You don't have a daughter. You can't possibly understand all the work I put into protecting her. I joined that stupid group, The Order, solely to keep her safe. My whole life has been about my family."

Usagi cocked her head and smiled at Satoru. "Truth?"

"Absolutely. He's stopped lying now that he knows he can't. He's being honest. He doesn't trust us. Not because of what you are, but because he won't trust anyone with his daughter's welfare except for his wife. Right?" He asked Yuki.

"Yes." Truth.

Rei sighed in mild frustration. "I can't help her if you don't tell us where she is."

"The truth first!" Yuki demanded.

Usagi laced her fingers with Mamoru. "Her name is Beryl, and she's worse than Diamond. She's the one that killed Mamoru in our past life and the reason Rei was killed. There are others too. I don't know why she needed a vessel or who she's a vessel for, but her intent is destruction. We want to save Reika. It ensures our lives too."

"Or you could kill her along with the spirit to save yourselves," Yuki said.

"Truth," Satoru chimed in.

Yuki looked at him in shock, "That's what you're doing? You admit it?"

"No," Satoru replied. "I was merely letting them know you were telling the truth."

Rei rolled her eyes. "You have two options. One, that thing possesses your daughter and eventually destroys her, or two, you let me help you!"

"I have to protect her. I would do anything for her."

"Then do this!" she screamed back. "Do anything —including trusting me! I. Can. Save. Her!"

Jadeite let out a chuckle. "She's amazing and the only one who can save her. If she fails, who cares? She's your only hope anyway. You aren't missing out on a better offer. She's all you have."

Reika stepped out into the clearing in the woods, guided by her mother. She was grateful for the assistance. She had nothing left in her beyond what she had to fight off the spirit. Her sweet mother had taken care of all of her needs leaving her to fight and barely be able to keep her own mind.

She felt the darkness shift inside of her mind, and sweat beaded up on her forehead as she worked not to let it take over. "Please help me," was all she was able to whisper before she sagged into her mother's arms as she fought to maintain consciousness.

Yuki crossed the clearing quickly as he pulled his daughter into his arms and kissed her damp brow. Then he looked at his loving wife. "You've been amazing."

She gave him an exhausted smile. "I hope it's enough."

He caressed her cheek. "You are always enough. I brought help —I hope." He looked at the group nervously over his shoulder.

Usagi walked over and laid a kind hand on his wife's arm. "You have been so brave." She then looked over at Rei. "Now."

"Now, but-" Satoru started to protest.

Rei cut him off, saying, "I've got this."

She then walked over, joining Usagi, except she placed her hands on both sides of Reika's head gently. "You should be proud of her. She's fought against something most would lose to in the course of three hours." She then muttered her spell and felt the evil fleeing Reika.

Mamoru held out his hands and clutched in his right one was a black lacquered box with the word ukuvala written on it with inlaid coral.

"What does it read?" Yuki asked.

"To seal," Reika slurred out, exhausted. "It's Zulu." She might be tired, but she was a brilliant scholar.

Rei sighed in relief as she watched the evil spirit head directly for the box. "Ukuvala," she said, sealing it in the box. "It's a South African spirit. We needed to use its own language."

Reika dropped onto the grass and cried in relief. "It's gone. I can finally rest and stop fighting. I'm exhausted."

Motoki watched as her father picked up the beautiful woman and carried her back to his car. She was going home.