R: Ultra Evolution

Book 29: The "A" Word

Half an hour after their title win, Freja and Astrid were posing for photos with Rio and their newly acquired titles. But through all the smiles, posing and laughing, there was an undercurrent of tension still running, as Astrid kept looking over her shoulder, looking at Belle apologetically as she tried to look disinterested, and then looking at an empty spot where Rio had walked up from. But it wasn't Rio who she saw missing.

While the shoot was ongoing, Blair sneaked away, only to be commandeered almost immediately by a local journalist. 'Blair, we all saw the footage earlier, you challenging the LFD CEO Declan Akaba to a duel.' Sarcastically, she responded 'Good for you.' 'Why did you challenge him rather than going after the LFD Championship - are there team orders in play from the Dynasty?'

'No team orders, I'm duelling Astrid in a couple of weeks, but we never had any conversation about it being for her title, because right now, I'm not looking for titles, gold isn't my priority. I'm trying to enjoy duelling, and I do that by searching out strong opponents, and then beating them. Having a title would get in the way of that because I don't get to choose my challengers. And that's exactly what I'm going to do against Declan, I'm going to face a strong opponent and I'm going to beat him, and that's all there is to it.'

As she left the interview, she saw Freja and Astrid facing down Caprice and Myka as cameras flashed, with a hostile Astrid telling them 'You lost fair and square, get over it' in a manner far from recognisable as herself. Surprisingly though, Caprice told them 'I agree, you got us. Freja, you were better than we expected, and Astrid, you were… there I guess' she taunted, which almost led to the Norwegian going for her, only for her diminutive partner to hold her back.

'What do you even want?' 'I mean a rematch obviously, but that can wait, I can have that whenever I like. What I'm actually here for is to tell you that I heard about what Maddy went through, and thought it would be nice to send some support to her, just wanted to tell you I hope she's doing ok.' The mention of her friend riling her up, Astrid flew off the handle and got right into the stylish duo's faces, telling them through gritted teeth 'Maddy doesn't need either of your stupid wishes.' She then turned to Myka, and stated 'Especially you.'

Pushing back, Myka responded 'Just because I can't stand her doesn't mean I wanted her to get fucking abused, Claude's a prick and when I get my hands on him I'm going to wreck him. And we all know he did it, because let's face it, it's totally on brand for him. But if you don't want to believe me, I'll happily smack it into you.' 'You really think you can? Just because you're a wolf don't mean that you're tough.' 'That her excuse? Or let me guess, was everything "for the revolution"?'

Astrid wound up a punch, only for Phil to hold her back, and Freja stepped between them. 'For someone who just lost, you've got a big mouth. If you want to run your mouth, be prepared to have it shut, and if you want to get these titles, then you can find us, any time, any place, tell us and we'll be there. If you're lucky you might last long enough to see your chances go up in flames.'

By this time, security had arrived, but they didn't need to guide Caprice and Myka out, as they walked away of their own accord, while a still steaming Astrid continued to be held back, with Phil having hold of her shoulders. 'Let me go.' 'Do your talking in the field, don't let your fists do it. If you go after them, they get what they want.' Freja then tapped her on the back, and stated 'Let's go', which Astrid acquiesced to, and somewhat reluctantly, walked away.

The next day

Due to the late finish, Astrid and Freja had stopped at the base overnight, and the next morning, Astrid was keen to keep herself busy by cleaning her room there. As she did, Kris stumbled upon the sight and appeared confused, as he saw her hoovering while quietly humming to herself. 'What are you doing?' 'Cleaning' she replied in a matter-of-fact manner. 'No, I meant why are you randomly cleaning the entire base?'

'I'm not, just a couple of rooms, because Maddy's probably going to come back here when she returns in a couple of days, and I want everything to be perfect for her when she does, because then she'll be happy again and everything will be back to normal. And surely that's what we all want?' 'I mean yeah, but don't you feel like this is a little bit overboard?' She responded by looking at him, completely confused, her long blonde hair fluttering in the gentle breeze caused by the open window.

'No, I don't see why it would be? Do you not want things to be perfect?' 'Of course I do, but this? This ain't it, this is trying to fix things that don't need fixing. You really think she's going to care if there are microscopic dust mites on the carpet or the bed's not immaculately made?' As he said this, she smiled and stood the hoover up against the radiator, before starting to plump up the pillows on the bed. 'Thanks for the reminder, I need to get these bed sheets washed later.'

As Kris continued to protest, Astrid started hoovering again, until it started to make an unusual noise that she didn't recognise. As she looked down at it, she saw a blood-stained bank card partly consumed by the machine. She stopped for a moment and just stared at it, almost as if she was reliving the days past, before she quickly snapped out of her apparent trance and picked the card up, before burying it at the bottom of a neatly-organised bedside drawer.

Seeing this, Kris approached her. 'Hey, I know you're missing her, but I think you need to talk to someone, because this isn't normal.' He was expecting a feisty response, but instead she just quietly brushed him off, telling him 'I'm fine', before finishing plumping the pillows and walking away, as her confidant got his phone out. 'Hey Jana, you might want to come over here, Astrid's just seen the bank card she used, and she's not reacted well. Erm, hiding it and then refusing to talk about it at all. K, see you in an hour.'

His phone call was interrupted though by a loud tannoy announcement declaring 'Club meeting in 5 minutes in the Great Hall', followed by Rio moaning 'I wish people would turn this fucking thing down when they're done with it.' Having heard this, Jana told him 'I'll let you go, I'll be there as soon as I can. Just try and keep an eye on her, make sure she's not doing anything totally out of character.'

After the call, Kris instinctively dashed back into the now vacated bedroom, and after thinking for a moment, took his shoes and socks off before carefully walking over to the neatly stacked bedside drawer, and delicately remove the crimson-tinged bank card from there, swiping it into his pocket with one hand while keeping the rest of the pile steady with the other, before letting it come to rest, almost perfectly from where it had been, before he hastened out of the room, whipping his socks and shoes back on as he did, totally undetected.

Having completed his stealth mission, Kris came down the stairs just in time for the meeting, as Rio walked out, getting a cheer as she placed her title belt on the rostrum in front of her. 'Right, I know you're all busy so this is a quick one, because we have a couple of announcements. Firstly, after some consultation, I can confirm that as of tomorrow, Blair will be Co-Interim-President with me. No rules will be changing within the club, and you will be answerable to Blair as you would be me, and we will be running operations jointly. Any questions on that?'

As she asked, it was Kris himself who asked the question 'So what does that look like? And where is Blair anyway?' 'Firstly, Blair isn't here because Ally has an appointment today, and she's getting her ready for that. As for how the presidency situation will work in practice, we're still working that out, it will be a case of just working it out on the fly. Rest assured things will get more efficient around here, I know it's not been easy, but we'll get through it together.'

As Rio moved on to her next point, Astrid quietly left the meeting, unnoticed by anybody aside from Freja, who looked behind her but opted to not draw any more attention to the situation. 'Now the second piece of business, I can confirm that we have received a communication from Maddy, she has confirmed she is safe and well at a retreat up in Scotland. We don't currently know when she's going to be back, but we obviously hope it's sooner rather than later. Thank you all for'

Before she could finish, a couple of indistinguishable voices came from the back. 'What about Dino-Guy?' Laughing, Rio responded 'I presume you're talking about Hassleberry. The truth is that you know about what we all do. We approached him with an offer a couple of weeks ago, thank you Jodi for that, he has taken our offer but he is currently considering his options with the agreement that he will arrange to meet me face to face when he has decided. If I know anything else, you all will.'

As this concluded the meeting, Dakota ran straight up to Rio. 'Hey, can I have a word?' 'Not really, I'm kind of quite busy since I'm on my own today.' 'It's just I'm thinking of moving back home and I was wondering if there's anything I can do for the club while I'm over there' 'Look, if you want to move then move, it's nothing to do with me, and right now, I don't have the time to be dealing with you relocating' Rio snapped back, clearly stressed at running the club single handed for one more day. Infuriated, Dakota walked away, muttering under her breath as she did.

While this was occurring, Lydia approached Freja, who seemed far more chilled with her than the previous times they had spoken recently. 'Hey Fre, well done for winning the other day.' 'Thanks, glad I had Astrid on my side, she really labbed out most of that duel.' 'Not like you didn't play your part though. So proud of you, you know that?' 'Thanks' she replied, before accepting a hug from her sister.

'Hey, I was thinking, why don't we go out at some point, just us two for a day out, like we used to? No strings attached, just you go where you want to go, maybe we'll go get a couple of cocktails like the wild kids we are.' Unsure, Freja gave the diplomatic answer of 'Sounds nice, we'll just have to see what time works for the both of us and go from there, but I'll have to check later, because I'm still trying to get this baking right but we're somehow out of eggs, probably this new high protein diet that Kris is trying. You want anything when I go?'

Somewhat miffed, Lydia tried to talk her sister out of this choice. 'Can you not just go later?' 'No, I'm starting early so I get a second go at it when something inevitably stops me doing it the first time, who knows, maybe an earthquake will suddenly hit North Shields' 'Or maybe someone else will try and drown themselves' Lydia quipped, before she saw Freja's unimpressed face as a result of her gag. 'Not funny. I know you don't care about Maddy anymore for whatever reason, but I do. Now I really need to go.' As she walked off, Freja stated under her breath 'I know what buttering me up sounds like.'

North Marine Park, South Shields

Having finished cleaning all the west wing bedrooms at the base, Astrid had decided to take some time out by going to the park for a little bit of landscape drawing. Sitting down on a slightly rusty park bench, she swung off her purple rucksack and plucked out a large green sketchbook with the Norwegian words "Elsker vår mor og all hennes skjønnhet" (Love our Mother and all her beauty) stenciled onto the front in rough, childish-looking writing that resembled ancient runes, along with a sharp calligraphy pencil.

As people started passing by, she drew their figures, their features and the landscape that they were illuminating. But as she started to draw, her hand slipped slightly on an early line, and instead of removing or correcting the line, she savagely ripped the page out of her book and threw it into the bin besides her. She tried again, getting halfway through drawing a young woman and her clearly beloved toddler, but then started to lose focus, and after her soft, sweeping lines became more ragged and pronounced, she again tore the page off.

She continued trying, but page after page would be started, then error strewn, and then discarded viciously. Every time she drew a new line, it would be a guessing game whether it was the right one, and her normally peaceful, even cheerful demeanour while drawing was replaced by a frustrated and exhausted figure, unable to find any form of solace or relaxation from her favoured hobby.

With this not working out, she decided to disregard the human figures, and focus solely on the landscape. This appeared to help as she took a deep breath, took in the scents of life, and started to shade a sky atop the page. But it wasn't the pale, peaceful sky which was the situation at that time, rather a darker, somewhat stormy sky, more a reflection of her state of mind than the playful park she had chosen as her muse.

As she finished shading this gloomy sky though, her pencil accidentally slipped, and created a rip in the delicate paper. Frustrated, Astrid slammed her book down, and folded it up into her rucksack before flinging the bag onto her broad shoulders, and storming off without a second thought, not even stopping for a moment to acknowledge the high-quality pencil which she had left sitting on the bench.

In Washington

'No!' Ally shouted, being nothing but the most stubborn and brattish that she could be on an important day. It was the day of Ally's Autism diagnostic assessment, and Blair was desperately trying to get her to dress smartly, as she had been for the previous hour. 'Please, just put the dress on, it's not even that girly.' 'No.' 'Why not though?' 'Don't wanna.' 'We need to look like we're taking care of you.' 'I'm not wearing it.' 'Please.' 'No.'

As this conversation went around in circles, Jade walked back into the room with a bar of chocolate. 'It's the cereal crunch one, it's your favourite Ally.' 'I know.' 'So how about we have a deal - if I give you this, you get that on for Blair, and then we can go, because we're already late.' This shocked Blair, who looked over. 'What - it's 12 already?' '10 past actually, you've been up here for over an hour. And here I thought your shower took ages. So Ally, do we have a deal?'

Grinning, she nodded. 'Deal.' Jade then handed over the 100g bar and the youngster devoured it in seconds, briefly choking on it before Blair gave her a hearty pat on the back. 'That's why we only give it to you in squares - bite, chew, then swallow.' Smiling, Jade leant down to Ally, and asked 'Now will you get the dress on for us?' She smiled back, and grinning, cheerily stated 'No.'

Realising she had been played, Jade rolled her eyes, as did Blair, who cattily informed Jade 'That's why you get her to do what you want before giving her a reward. Have you seriously never seen a dog before? It's like that.' 'No, but I've eaten dog. Really not nice, there was this dodgy Korean guy when I was in Russia' 'I really don't need to know, thank you though.' Jade's phone then started buzzing.

'What's that?' 'It's my phone, Hannah's texted after I mentioned about the bribing.' 'And?' 'She just responded with four crying with laughing emojis. She's texting again though… calling me a "burke".' 'Helpful' Blair murmured, but there was one more message. 'Right, she says if Ally won't do what we want, we should see what she wants to wear and meet her halfway. Right Ally, what do you actually want to wear?'

She stood up, and waddling in her new purple ballet flats, she wandered over to the cream coloured wardrobe in the corner of the room and pulled out a cream coloured hoodie and purple shirt with black glittery stars on the front. 'Ok, the shirt is fine, but the hoodie hasn't been washed in over two weeks, so that's a no-go.' 'Well if I'm not wearing that I'm not going.' This led to a standoff, and Blair eventually gave in and phoned Hannah.

'Hey sweetie, still being a little… darling?' 'Yeah, she's got this cream coloured hoodie' 'Oh is that the one that Astrid said is her comfort blanket?' 'Yeah it will… hang on, why is Astrid not telling us that?' 'Ask her yourself, I'm not a go between. She said it's Ally's absolute favourite, it's a bit like Maddy's hoodie or your utility belt.' 'Ok, so what do I do then, because it stinks like all hell.'

'Just spray some deodorant on it, then if it's still whiffy when you get there, put a little more on, and you can just explain that she wouldn't come out without it, they'll understand. Now if you need anything else, you'll have to message Phil, because I'm just heading out with Skylar, he's getting his tetanus jab today. Which reminds me, talk to your GP about the flu vaccine for Ally, just before the appointment times get all booked up.' 'Ok, thanks, hope it goes well for you.' 'Ditto.'

Coming off the phone, Blair tried to make a deal. 'Right, if you'll let me give this a quick spray to make it a little less stinky, you can wear it. But in return, please can I wash it when we get home?' 'Yeah, just not with that washing powder you bought last week, because that stiiiinnnnks.' 'Ok, we'll drop off at the supermarket on the way home and you can choose which one you like.' After this agreement was reached, Ally happily got dressed, and they left the house exactly 40 minutes behind schedule.

At the base

Belle was sat on a chair in the medical bay, with Sakura checking on her foot. 'So how's it looking - can I take the boot off yet?' After staying quiet for an anxious few moments, Sakura responded 'It's looking quite good, you're a little bit further on than I expected, probably because you've not been duelling at all. You should be all healed up in a couple of weeks, I'd say 10-14 days. As for the boot, I'd quite like you to keep it on for another couple of days just for safety. If you come back in 48 hours, I'll reassess then.'

Nodding, Belle turned away as if to leave, but Sakura still had something she wanted to discuss. 'Belle, I know you're relapsing on your Schizophrenia. In fact, it's becoming quite obvious.' 'That bad?' Belle quietly responded, surprised at the subject. 'I know you're struggling, I know why you're struggling, but what I really want to know is why you're not doing anything about it, because I know you don't want to be this way.'

Sitting down again, Belle admitted 'I've got this medication, it's an antipsychotic, I think it's called Pimozade or something like that.' 'Pimozide? Damn they've got you on the strong stuff.' 'Yeah, the stuff that makes you feel like a total zombie when you take it.' 'So… you've not been taking it?' 'Not since I was in Canada, I feel totally sub-human when I'm on it, and while the whole situation sucks at the moment, it's better than not feeling anything. Plus it was causing me to have trouble sleeping, I'd just be waking up angry but I wouldn't be able to explain why.'

'I get why you're saying that, but you realise you need to be taking it, you're a danger to yourself and everyone else if you're not' 'You can't force it down me. I've been off it a couple of times before and been fine, I'm not going back there. I can't feel like that again, I need to feel like a real person.' She then got her phone out and showed Sakura a picture of her with longer, brunette hair straggled around her, with sunken eyes and an expressionless gaze.

'That's me when I was taking the amount they told me to, I took it because they told me I was a freak, I needed fixing, but I didn't, I just needed help. But nobody wants to give it to me, so they just load me up on drugs and call it a day. Because I'm not "normal". You can tell me to take them, but I'm not doing, because I flushed them all down the toilet two weeks ago, so I can't go back there and be that… ruined teenage girl who should be enjoying time with her friends, but is instead stuck at home totally broken and drugged up to the eyeballs.'

As Sakura shook her head and tried to stop her, Belle stormed out of the medical bay, and went straight up to her bedroom. Several minutes of nothing passed, with Sakura being concerned enough to leave the bay door open as she dashed upstairs to keep an eye on her, only for Belle to push her way past, carrying a large gift bag sealed by a small slither of sticky tape down, and placing them down on the kitchen countertop, where Freja was pulling a crispy cake out of the oven.

'Well at least I didn't get interrupted this ti…' She then saw the gift bag, and Belle went to walk away as soon as their eyes met, only for Freja to run to stop her as soon as she saw the card and two large bars of chocolate in the bag. 'Belle, you know Astrid's not replacing you, right? I still want to team with you as much as ever, it's just waiting for the right time… waiting for me. Because I think I'm the problem.'

Belle stared at her for a moment, before walking away, as Freja looked at her smoky sponge, and put her fist straight through it in frustration, before immediately swearing and putting her hand under the cold tap. And while she was trying to cool this down, Jana walked by, just stopping right next to her, waiting for the pint-sized prospective baker to heal her hand before alerting her to her presence.

'Is… now a bad time to talk?' 'Why would it be, nobody else cares whether it's a good time. I'm sorry, that wasn't' 'It's fine, sounds like you're going through a lot. I'm just here because Kris called me, he said that Astrid's struggling a bit, and I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help? Just I think I know kind of why she's having issues, but I needed to what it from the person who spends the most time with her, and even though they're dating'

'Oh don't worry about that, he broke up with her weeks ago.' 'Did he?' 'Yeah, it was while Maddy was still here, but he didn't tell her initially because of the whole situation. Apparently he told her that he just didn't feel it anymore and didn't think she actually cared about having a relationship.' 'How did she take it?' 'I mean she was totally surprised, but I don't think it was the biggest thing for her, she's not really mentioned it much. Thing is, she does love him, it's just he wanted it to be way more outward than she did.'

'So how's she coping with the whole Maddy situation?' 'Honestly? She isn't' was the frank response. 'She's not even slightly coping, she's completely losing her head, and she's not got that steady confiding hand to help her.' Grimacing, Jana told Freja 'Well this is awkward… I went to see Maddy yesterday to drop some clothes off, and apparently she's told the staff there that she's staying for another couple of weeks at least.'

This left Freja incredibly concerned. 'Well I need to abandon this baking then and try to find something that will help her, because she's not going to take that news well. As far as anyone's concerned' 'This conversation never happened, we were just talking about baking. By the way, on the subject of that, you might want to buy yourself a timer to make sure you're not overcooking it.' 'Thanks.' As Jana left, Freja wondered how she could help, coming up with an idea, but immediately dismissing it as 'No, that's a terrible idea. And she'd kill me for suggesting it. In fact, they both would.'

Cleadon Quarry, South Shields

Having found little joy in her landscape art, Astrid instead had gone to a rock climbing event at the side of an abandoned quarry, hoping to find herself there. Using her powerful shoulders and legs, she dug her hands into the rough and ragged rock face, pulling herself up at a decent pace, and swinging across when the face started to get too steep. This technique was impressive even to the seasoned professionals, and as she reached the top, she was informed '72.8 (seconds), pretty impressive. You fancy the more difficult route?' Still trying to find something to fire herself up, she tightened her plait, and responded 'Give me the hardest route you've got.'

Responding to her plea, the grizzled instructor took her down a winding mountain path to an imposing cliff face, the top third unable to even be seen from the ground as a result of the steep overhanging face. 'This little baby's 300ft, grade 8b, you're not going to find anything harder this side of Scotland. You sure about this?' She nodded, and quietly asked 'What do I even have to lose?', before jumping onto the wall.

After taking a breath at the bottom of the rocky escarpment, she growled audibly, and then started firing up the face, amazing even the professionals with the way she pounded up the treacherous face, her hands and feet at times a blur as she swung effortlessly from hold to hold, mapping out the route in a zig-zag motion, constantly finding new holds where her feet and hands could rest, even if only for a moment before she fired off again.

Reaching the obscured face, she ran up a craggy pass, and then reached the final climb. But as she made it up with relative ease, it was not pride or adrenaline that she felt, but pain and frustration still, as it failed to reconcile the thoughts and feelings that acted as tiny daggers, needling her every time she tried to embrace anything else. Reaching the very top, the hugely impressed organiser told her 'That's the best time we've seen all day on that, 4th all year. Get a couple of better footholds early on, and you'd be right up there.' She responded by puffing her cheeks out and leaving, not even stopping to acknowledge the scorching time she'd set nor return the loaned gear.

In Newcastle

While Ally played with some toy trucks under the watchful eye of two behaviour assessors, Blair and Jade agonised over what they were watching. 'They're going to think we're terrible parents, they're going to be able to tell that isn't washed and we're going to be crucified, what if we're letting everyone down Jade?' This wasn't her girlfriend's concern though, as she calmly wondered 'I hope Ally's not too distressed by all of this.'

This appeared to not be the case however, as Ally quite happily continued playing, blissfully unaware of being formally assessed and just seeing it as an opportunity for some fun and frolics. One of the assessors then squatted down to talk to her, and she seemed more than happy to regale them in what appeared to be a fascinating conversation, even if the lack of ability to hear it was causing further stress.

After a half-hour assessment, they left Ally to play, and invited Blair and Jade into a private meeting room. 'In order to complete any diagnosis, we just need you to answer a few simple questions related to your… cousin?' 'Cousin and now adopted daughter. But I've spent way more time with her than her actual mother has.' 'Ok' he stated smiling 'How does Miss Ally get along interacting socially with people?'

Jade quickly identified 'She's hit and miss, if she knows you or knows that we know you, she's usually pretty great. Otherwise, she can be a bit temperamental, she's really big on the whole stranger danger stuff.' 'She doesn't trust anybody she doesn't know really, she'd much rather look to one of us for protection.' 'And she's good at starting and maintaining conversations?' 'Maintaining them on something she's passionate about, absolutely. She's not the best at starting them unless she's prompted or she knows the subject.'

Writing these answers down, the next question was 'Does she read social cues well? So things like body language, facial expressions, sarcasm?' 'Oh she understands them alright, especially the last one, she's becoming a right madam.' 'But does she read these well in conversations? Is she able to differentiate sarcasm from regular speech, is she ok at recognising people's emotions through their face?'

Pausing for thought, Blair identified 'She does have some issues when it comes to telling if people are being serious or not, the other week she thought I was actually going to kill Jade for not washing plates from lunch.' 'And there was that time when she continued chasing Rio even after she twisted her knee and was clearly in pain and hobbling, because she thought she was joking around.' 'To be fair I think she was just pushing boundaries there.'

'So what is she like with her interests? Does she show a heightened passion for them?' 'Oh yeah, absolutely' Blair explained. 'I remember a couple of years ago, she got really into jigsaws, and we… well I, ended up buying her like 40 jigsaws in a matter of months, she woke up wanting to do them, she went to bed wanting to do them. She just gets so into things, and then she'll forget about them a couple of weeks later.'

Jade then tried to decipher what Blair said. 'Ally gets really heavily invested into certain subjects, but it tends to rotate a bit, and it's like that with music as well, she'll spam the same song nonstop for weeks, and then just stop listening to it for no reason. But there are certain things like Submarines and the American Civil Rights movement that she'll just come out with the most random facts about that like nobody should ever know.'

Finally, there was one final question. 'So what made you think she might have this?' Jade explained that 'Well I… we noticed how into things she gets, and she has these certain… I don't even know what you'd call them, like when she's really excited she'll get a slight stammer and it's difficult to understand her, and her limbs will just be all over the place, she'll just be swinging her legs wildly and she'll make huge gestures with her arms.'

Blair then added 'I think it was called "stimming", she just has all this energy and she doesn't know what to do with it. I know she's really self-conscious about it, because you can see her trying to stop her legs and arms, but she's really not good at doing that, she just can't hold things back sometimes, and that's when we get the outbursts from her, she'll get really frustrated, and she'll get really emotional sometimes, but she won't remember why at all.'

With this, the assessment ended as the other assessor returned to speak with his colleague. 'Just take a seat and we will be back when we've determined next steps.' While they were waiting, Blair was desperately trying to lip-read what they were saying to no success, while Jade was playing with Ally, trying to keep her occupied while also keeping half an eye on her girlfriend.

Around 20 minutes later, the assessors invited them into the private room. 'We have reviewed all the evidence you have provided, as well as our observations.' 'And?' Blair asked desperately. 'We cannot be certain, but on the balance of probabilities, we believe that Ally is on the Autistic Spectrum.' 'So she has it?' 'You have to understand, Autism is not a single condition, but it is a collection of traits collected together under one umbrella term.'

'In this case, ASD conditions are extremely difficult to diagnose in females particularly, but based on what you said about her masking some traits, we do believe that she most likely does have a condition, and we would be confident in giving her an official diagnosis. So what happens next is that you will receive our full report in the post in the next 7-14 days along with another appointment where you can talk through anything you don't understand or are concerned about.'

'In the meantime, we will be looking to support Ally with her physical communication and easing her emotional dysregulation when her stimming is present, but we will talk more about that at the follow-up appointment. Now this isn't strictly related to the diagnosis, but from talking to you, I got the feeling that you were both very nervous regarding the nature of motherhood and looking after Ally.'

They both nodded, admitting their concerns. 'There is a community centre in Sunderland, it offers a foster and adoptive mothers' club once a week, there are mothers of all experience levels there, they have children all the way from months old to teenage years. If you would like to attend a session, I will give you some information about it.' As they nodded again, they were handed a flyer with the information on it. 'You will both be brilliant. Just believe in yourselves.' With the new information and positivity, the three of them left the assessment centre.

At the base

Belle was quietly sat reading a book when Lydia approached her, which she took far from kindly to. 'Go away before I clock you, I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now.' 'No, because I'm sick of you pretending to be Freja's sister or whatever shit you put in her head. Now you've resorted to bribing her for her affections, I mean what is this, some kind of sick and twisted power play? Some kind of joke?'

Not standing for the abuse, Belle stood up and immediately pushed her over. 'I don't know what's going on in your thick skull, but I wasn't bribing her, I was telling her well done for winning in a tournament that I would have been in with her if you hadn't have tried to ruin everything between us, because you're a bully and quite frankly, I should be her sister, because at least I wouldn't do such a shit job of it that all she wants to do is be in a hypnotic trance to escape me.'

This lit a fire under Lydia, but before she could respond, Belle grabbed her by the jaw. 'And I'm not finished. I need to ask you something - are you jealous? Jealous that your sister who you've done nothing but demean and try to keep under your thumb your entire lives has had more success than you even though you were always the more talented one because all she wants to do is work hard, and all you want to do is go off and party with your deadbeat bozo of a mother in Ibiza? You really were made for each other, you're both useless sacks of shit.'

This was the tipping point, and Lydia swept Belle off her feet, before they started brawling. Seeing this, Rio immediately ran in to help, only for Belle's flailing leg to smack her in the side of the jaw, and Lydia, sensing that the president was on her foe's side, throwing Belle into her, causing Rio to almost be knocked out cold, and in her dazed state, she was unable to stop Lydia throwing Belle into a sofa, before Belle grabbed her by the hair and biel tossing her onto an old MDF table, which buckled one of the legs and made the table fall, the crockery on it smashing on the floor.

Belle then mounted Lydia, kneeling on her throat, and with a death glare in her eyes, smashing her in the right eye several times with her fist, before stamping on her throat, just as Donny and Kris arrived to hold her back, and Sakura stood between them. As Belle started to simmer though, Lydia charged, causing the medic's head to bounce off the arm of the sofa, ripping the fabric on the arm in the process, before jumping on Belle and the two guys holding her back, causing them both to retreat in self-preservation, but not before Kris felt a severe pull in his arm.

After booting Belle several times, Lydia picked up a table leg, and placed it upright on Belle's chest, before pressing down, rendering her virtually incapable of breathing, just as Freja walked in to see the medlam of the situation. She then saw what Lydia was doing, and shouted 'Lydia, it's not worth it, just leave her, we can talk about all of this after, just leave her, ok?' With what she wanted in bag, Lydia left alongside Lydia as Donny and a dazed Rio checked on Sakura, who was still knocked out.

By the time she'd been taken to the medical bay, Sakura was conscious again, but sore, as Rio checked on her. 'Sure you're ok?' 'Back isn't, luckily I'm not deadlifting. Did anyone stop them?' 'Yeah, Freja managed to talk Lydia down when she tried to crush Belle with a table leg. And yes, they're both being billed for the damage - a new sofa, a new table, and about a dozen plates and cups.'

A couple of minutes later, Sakura laughed. 'Look at you, the understudy looking after her mentor.' 'Yeah, would really be nice if I could go back to being your understudy.' 'Just give it time, you will be.' 'I hope you're right, I'm just sick of this whole presidency, I don't want it to turn me like it turned' 'It won't, because she didn't have the example of what happened to her. When you go in that deep, you can't see the forest from the trees, so you can only keep going deeper to try and find an exit. Now go and continue being amazing as a president, because I'm fine.'

In the arena

While all this was happening, Astrid was completely oblivious, as she was duelling in the arena, still on the search for something to highlight her life. Competing against one of the drones, she gave everything she had, throwing strategies both new and old at them, and time after time, she wouldn't just beat them, but absolutely slay her opposition, with no mercy nor hesitation to win. And yet, it still wouldn't provide relief.

So she tried again, but this time, as soon as the duel started, she looked at her copy of Renegades Unite, and without warning, she just started to cry, her hand trembling, and unable to move. She took a moment to breathe, and then tried once more, but still was unable to bring forward any form of response. Feeling hopeless, she just quit the duel, and immediately walked away, utterly despondent.

In Washington

Having returned home, Ally, Jade and Blair sat down with milkshakes they had picked up on their way back, and discussed their news. 'So what does this Autism mean for me?' Blair just smiled, and stated 'We don't know, but we're excited to learn. Because you are the most special person in the world to us, and it's going to be an adventure for all of us.' Jade then invited Ally to move her dining chair (as their sofa had been moved to their new apartment) between them, and they both put their arms around her.

'What we can promise you is that you're going to get everything you need. However hard we have to work, whatever hoops we have to jump through, we're going to do it, because you're worth it.' 'But what if I don't get what I need, school don't know me, they might not understand.' 'Then we'll give them hell' Jade grinned, encouraging them all. And that when Blair made an announcement to them.

'We're a family, and we always will be. That's why when I duel Declan, I want you both by my side. Because this is one of the biggest duels of my career, and I need my family cheering me on through it all. I need you to make noise when I go in there, and I need you to make more noise when I thrash the pants off him' she hyped while she and Ally jumped around, with Jade joining in shortly afterwards, a family united.

At the base

Having calmed down, Lydia was fully expecting Freja to check if she was ok. What she wasn't expecting was to instead be admonished by her. 'What the hell did you think you were doing - you could have killed her!' 'She fucking started it' 'Yeah, I know she started it, everyone keeps telling me that she started it, because I'm just your fucking babysitter! I'm sick and tired of this constant arguing, and'

Suddenly, Lydia erupted, and shouted in her sister's face 'Yeah, so am I! I'm sick of having to share you with some random murderer just because you feel sorry for her, and because Maddy was naive enough to believe a stupid pack of lies from a desperate convict, I have to put up with her stupid dopey face every single fucking day. So you're going to have to choose, and you're going to have to do it sooner rather than later, because either she goes, or I go, and you lose your one family member from your life forever.'

As a shocked Freja reeled, Belle walked in, but there was no olive branch to be offered. 'I agree with her, because I'm moving back to Leeds in four days. So either you side with me and we go, or you side with Lydia and you never have to see me ever again.' Aware that she was already late for her movie night with Astrid, and unable to make a choice, Freja pushed them both away. 'I'm going to see Astrid, because right now, she actually needs me. You two can go to hell for all I care.' As she stormed out, she bumped into Lydia, and two plane tickets to Ibiza Airport dropped out of Lydia's jacket pocket, as Lydia looked on jealously. 'Glad she's important to you.'

That evening, at the base

Having both had difficult days, Astrid and Freja were hoping to stressbust over a silly horror film. They had the popcorn and lemonade in, they had blankets and pillows, and hunkered down. But after half an hour, it became clear to Freja that Astrid in particular wasn't getting anything from the experience, and so she picked up the DVD remote and paused the film, to her friend's great surprise.

'You ok?' 'I guess, but you're definitely not.' Giving a forced smile, Astrid said 'You first', which Freja took the opportunity of. 'I'm just sick of being forced to choose between someone who is my sister, and someone who feels like my sister. Now I've been issued an ultimatum to choose between them, and I just can't do that, because that's not what you do with family, you don't pick A or B, you embrace them. And I can't really forgive either of them, Lydia makes me feel worthless but Belle made me feel like I was all alone.'

Sympathising, Astrid pulled her in tight. 'I get you, but you've always got me, and whatever decision you make, that's never going to change.' 'What would you do?' 'That's nothing to do with me. I can't tell you what decision to make, and if I tell you what I'd do, that's only going to tell you what to do. All I'm going to do is remind you that there's a third option, because the way they're behaving, neither of them really deserve you.'

Left to ponder this mythical Option C, Freja turned the subject to Astrid. 'So what's going on with you then, you've had both Kris and Jana asking me about you today.' This was when Astrid let everything out. 'I'm not coping. And I don't think anyone ever thought of that, they thought you were the one who wouldn't cope, but I'm just not feeling anything at the moment, because every time I try to do anything, it reminds me of Maddy and what we do together.'

Finally, the dam broke, and Astrid started to sob. 'And I know that she's staying there longer, and I know that she's not coming back for a long time,and I just don't know what to do without her, because from day 1, she was the one person who was always there, always wanted me here, even when nobody else trusted me, when people would side with Claude over me, when people would want me gone.'

'It's like this film, everything funny, all I can think of is Maddy laughing so much she spits popcorn everywhere' she laughed through her tears, making Freja giggle as well. 'Or when something shocking happens and she turns into the Geordie Coke Fountain.' 'That's just it though, everything reminds me of her, and I don't know what I can do.' This was when Freja mentioned 'You're going to kill me for this, but I might know one thing that would take the edge off.' Understanding where she was going with this, Astrid immediately said 'First thing tomorrow morning, I'm doing it.'

At Ashworth Brook Farm

Phil was taking the opportunity for some peace, with Skylar having not long fallen asleep, when Astrid walked into the house, brushing her plait to the side in the process. 'How's Freja doing?' 'Yeah… she's good… I guess' she responded while looking away, just enough to give Phil an indication. 'How are you coping?' 'That's… kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm not coping, and… I want you to hypnotise me, make me obey you and all that. Like Freja does.'

Shocked, Phil took a moment to digest what she said. 'Don't be hasty with this Astrid' 'I'm not being, I discussed it with Freja, she's been telling me everything for the past hour. I'm still doing it.' 'I still need to warn you. Once we start, it won't stop, and I don't want you doing this for the wrong reasons. If you still want to do this, then I need you to verbally tell me, and I need recorded evidence.'

Astrid nodded, and passed over her phone. 'Record any time you like.' After pressing the button on his phone, he gave her the thumbs up, and she calmly declared 'My name is Astrid Hofferson, and I consent for Phil to put me into a trance, because I asked him to. If anyone has an issue, this is my choice, not his.' As he stopped recording, she pleaded with him 'Please, just do it.'

He consented, and after rooting through his drawers, pulled out a pair of fluffy pink headphones. 'This is the quickest way to do it. These are connected to a tape recorder with a hypnotic induction on it. Once you put these on, you will be entranced in a matter of seconds. You will have no time to stop once it has started, so if you want to back out' Still deathly calm, she told him 'Make me your soldier', and she took the headphones, before putting them straight on her head. Within seconds, she was staring straight ahead, having been put into a trance by him.

Next time: Split between different realities, Freja faces three futures, but which one will be the one she chooses? R: Ultra Evolution Book 30: Freja's Choice