Awakening 48

Something like white flowery dust surrounded them. Keya couldn't tell what it was but it felt soft and squishy like it was alive or something. Then, a loudspeaker announced, "Oh, hi! You guys failed so awesomely!"

Keya looked around and the white powdery stuff flew off her body. "Um," Keya said, "What happened?"

"We cured you," the loudspeaker lady said.

"Who are you?"

"Nordits, at your service, ma'm, er, missy," the voice said.

"Where are you?"

"Down here," said the voice.

Keya looked down and found that she was talking to a floating leaf. After having fought vampires, she found the whole thing quite annoying.

Mark and Teresa were right there in front of her. Mark looked to be healed of any wounds he may have sustained in battle. Even the blood was gone.

Teresa's black and red outfit was sparkling clean.

They woke right after the leaf said "Nordits."

Mark said, "Great, Nordits, bunch of drunk immortals."

"Hey!" The voice said, "Yes, calm down, I know its accurate but its not just a bunch of us. Of course, I'm setting him straight, why do you think I said 'hey' for? Who's the mike leader anyway?"

"But they healed us," Teresa said, smiling. She hugged Mark so hard, he fell back a little. Mark laughed. "Wow," Mark said, "A world without vampires."
"Mind you, there were some," the voice said, "But we set them straight."

"You did what exactly?" Keya asked, still a bit shaky.

"We made them stop being vampires and then they were people but then a lot of us insulted them for not being vampires and someone said that they were bad at being vampires, so they left to some other part of the planet, which quite frankly, I thought was very rude of them, don't you think?"

"Not," Keya said, but rethought her phrasing, "I mean, I guess."

Then, something even more strange happened.

Billy fell from the sky.

The white powdery stuff flew from all directions to catch him.

A girl who could be called the replica of Teresa in a black and white outfit fell from the sky but was missing part of her right hand. Basically, there was a vein-filled and blotchy dark spot where an arm should be. The powdery white stuff caught her too.

And, finally, the Mark from the library fell from the sky. He, too, was engulfed by the white powdery stuff.

"What the hell?" Keya asked. She ran at Billy, who seemed to be passed out for the moment.

"Oh, yea," the voice said, "The failure, Great Traveler of Worlds, who is doomed to Fail once, but everyone thinks will succeed in the end, has returned."
"What are they talking about?" Keya asked Teresa.

Teresa shrugged and began to make out with Mark, who had dropped his katana on the floor and had forgot all about the flying leaf or the Nordits.

"What are you talking about, leaf?"
"It's Ariana, Conqueror of the Weak in a Milkmaids Dress but you can call me LustMaiden, thank you very much."
Keya thought about this. Then said, "Ariana will do, I think."

"Told you she wouldn't do it, now quit asking me to do that."
Keya held Billy's hand. It was cold. For a moment, her heart felt like it would burst. "Why is his hand cold?" Keya asked, forgetting the Nordits for the moment.

"The master of dimensions is being healed, you ditz."

Keya grabbed the leaf.

She heard through the speaker shouts of complaint,

"Dernit, dagon she-lion, whatinblazes, ohmygod,ohmygod, she has the leaf of justice!" This last came from the female.

"I didn't come here to be insulted. Now, tell me, is Billy okay?"

"Oh, Billy, ey? Gone behind my back now, everyone's going back to that ole Billy thing. Look we take names of our saviors seriously around here and his name is....uncertain at this time but we're working on it, you see, so none of this foolish Billy business."

"I'll call him whatever I want!"

Keya shook the leaf to make her point.

"SonoJervintheGreat," one loud-mouthed Nordit yelled through the speaker, "LettheweelasscallemBuggertbut donna letr do that again. The whisky's gone to me head!"

"Okay, okay," Adriana said, "Billy for now, master of dimensions, blah, blah, the point is he's fine, she-witch."
"Keya will do, I think, don't you?"

"Yes, yes, let the leaf go. Gently, gently, miss Keya."

Keya let go of the leaf with a smile. This was one fight she could easily win.

She stayed for what seemed like five minutes looking down at a passed-out Billy. Had he come after her? She was the one that was supposed to find him and it was quite unfair that he found her or did they find each other? It was more accurate to say that this happened than to be upset by the other thing.

In the end, Billy was Billy, a seriously confused boy with remote feelings of affection for Keya or so Keya hoped. She had grown so much over the past few months in other dimensions. She wondered if time had passed as much for Billy, who traveled everywhere to try and save the universe. And he had found the real Mark Piersley. If only he would wake up, so she could ask how the heck he did it.

And, as if on cue, Billy's eyes opened but his face was one of confusion. Immediately, he came up to her and gave her a hug, which was surprising. But then, he started to cry which made Keya wonder what had happened. "Um, it's nice to see you, too, Billy."

"Simon died," Billy said, through broken tears, "He died. I failed him. The Nordits said I would fail but I didn't believe them. I shouldn't have taken him with me. How could I be so dumb!"
The leaf was silent for once.

"You knew!" Billy snapped at them. "You knew and didn't tell me!"
"Knowing is our curse," the female voice said, pity in her tone. "We knew the girl would come back too but you never asked those questions. Do you not think that we weren't dying to tell you everything and, even now, we wish we could tell you the truth of it all, the truth of the end but it is not up to us. We are made of a cruel magic."

Keya consoled Billy a minute longer. "We must go back," Keya said. "There's still someone trapped in the other vampire world, where those two come from. Right now, we can't be consumed by this."

"What will I tell Francine?" Billy asked, still crying, "That's her nephew. He was my best friend."

"And he saved my life," a white-haired Mark Piersley said, now looking as young as his replica. The two Piersley's looked at each other for a moment.

"Not the strangest thing I've seen," they echoed to each other.

They stood apart, distancing themselves.

Teresa, the one in red and black, was leaning on Mark now. Mark was so happy to not be around vampires that he kissed her again.

"We go back," Teresa said. "The girl is right. There's someone in that place and as good as this is, it isn't our world."

"And my friends are in that other world," the other Mark said.

"One earth at a time," Billy said, "First, let's go save the stranger. Serena seems to have things in order where you were kept captive."

"Serena died, Billy," Keya said to him.

"That's strange," Billy said, "Because I met a Serena." Billy turned to look at the Teresa dressed in black and white, who was on the floor. Her hand had grown back.

She looked at her arm strangely. "These Nordits and their stupid magic. I was going to get a cool robotic arm like in the movies."

"I believe Billy is looking at you because Serena is back?" the white haired Mark said.

"So I stole a Serena from another dimension and duped her into thinking that her Mark Piersley was our Mark Piersley, big deal, sue me."

Both Marks looked at each other and said at the same time, "Our little sister is alive?"
Keya rolled her eyes, "Yes," she said, "Just don't mistake her for me again."

"But wait," the white-haired Mark said, "Before we go, you and the others go make friends," he told Keya and Teresa, "I have to talk to the...traveler."

Keya gave Mark a look and rolled her eyes. She didn't like to be separated from Billy but she was also somewhat shocked to see that the slingshot she had had in her hand was in Teresa's right back pocket.

**

Billy looked at Mark expectantly as the others walked down a trail that was made for them by the Nordits. The Nordits were not speaking to them which probably meant that they were off drinking somewhere. Billy still had strange feelings for the Nordits but he was amazed that they could heal so well. "I know what you're thinking," Mark said, "But the Nordits can't cure all vampires from the decease. If anything our little friends got lucky that they could cure them. You know they're so immortal that they love anything involving pain. They think they die every time someone steps on them. That's why they could heal you. Their immortal blood has inert curing enhancements. Do you know how they cured us?"

"No," Billy said, "But you're going to ruin my hopes and dreams by telling me aren't you?"

"They spit on you."

"Ugh," Billy said, swallowing, "Really? I was spat on by those things? Am I drunk now?"

"Try not to dwell on it. I really wanted to speak to you about dimensional stability. Now, listen. Yes, we'll go back and go into that castle to save the mystery person in their filthy lair. However, you must know this about the man who with the flick of his fingers killed your friend. He is not Arthur Lacroise. Not the Arthur Lacroise I knew, anyway. The real one may still be loose out there somewhere traveling from dimension to dimension still seeking his vengeance. You can't feel the breaking of the universe on this earth but you should be able to feel it like an uneasiness in your stomach. I feel it here because of my special connection to it. Did you want me to save you from this mess? No. I can not. Like I said, this dimension thing is not my problem."

"You never said that!" Billy complained.

"Well," Mark said, "It's not. It's yours."
"Why isn't it yours?"

"I have bigger problems okay? Now, you're the kid destined to save the universe, accept it and deal with it or we're all going to be in trouble. Let's go save this person and keep your nerves. What I was trying to tell is to watch your back. There are parts of the universe that are collapsing in on each other and if a disconnection happens where we can not travel to all three true earths, the fabric of the planetary universe might collapse. Think Billy. The three earths are shaped like a triangle. Earths in the lines of those triangles are crashing against each other, merging. If too many of these non-true earths collide and merge, they will break the triangle, causing the true earths to spiral away from the triangle, which will disentangle the triangle, as though it were a pile of marbles and were hit by a boulder, scattering earths everywhere. Climates on different earths will change, the universe will be undone, and we might all die. Now, keep your head straight and remember what I said."

"What about Arthur Lacroise?" Billy asked, curious as to why Mark had brought it up.

"Oh, yes, he might show up unexpectedly at just the wrong moment. He's good at that."

"I see," Billy said, "So I have to put the earths right and deal with some rogue traveler set on revenge against anyone that looks like Keya."

"Pretty much."

"I hate you."

"But you don't hate Keya."

Billy stayed silent and gave Mark a mean look. They walked back to a place full of grass. The Nordits could make anything in their white foggy earth appear from thin air or maybe they made it with their magic. Now Mark sat next to the Teresa dressed in red and black. A tree was there and the black-haired Mark sat with his back against it, smiling as Teresa stroked his hair. The Teresa dressed in white looked at her earth's Mark and gave the other couple a look of disgust, "Really? You went for Mark? Hmmm. I would have stuck with Ruben."

The other Teresa cleared her throat. "In our earth. Ruben didn't make it."

"I'm sorry," Teresa said to her other self. It was weird to watch it. One doppelganger feeling sorry for the other. Billy shook his head, wanting it to be over already. It was like the nightmare had just begun. Before, at least, he could see his enemy. Now, he was fighting to keep the universe from falling apart. Why was he always fighting? He didn't want to be the bully anymore.

The final void opened into an already fought battlefield. Inside the castle gates there lay dead gargoyles and a tall black man in nothing but army pants and steel-toe boots. He was sitting on the bodies of the Halberd-carrying vampires. "Ey, mates," he said, "I got a mighty good hold on reality now, don't I?"
But in the next instant, they had traveled back, away from that earth. Mark cursed.

"Not today," Billy said to the white-haired Mark.

All six of them were in the darkness of a clear street. A little closer and they would be at the castle walls where a huge hole had been made by the impact of Teresa's magic. They stood alone. "Why did you send us there, huh?" Billy asked Mark.

"I thought I could end it sooner," Mark said. "How did you figure it out so fast?"

"I didn't," Billy said, "But I saw you travel out and it was wrong. Everything about the way you did it suggested you weren't going the right way."

"And how did you know the right way?" Keya asked him. She was staring at the wall and Billy figured that she recognized the place. Gargoyles roamed the skies vigilant.

Every second or so, they heard the gargoyle's wings flap in the air. It was like the meshing of electrical wires.

"Is this the place?" Billy asked.

"Yes," Keya said.

"Hmm," Billy said, "I didn't know. I just fixed Mark's travel."

"Fixed?" Mark asked.

"I traveled not to where you thought you should be but where you needed to be," Billy said.

"Oh," Mark said, "But you didn't open any voids?"

"Yeah," Billy said, smiling, "Remember when you told me to visit that dimension with the lion? Well, they know something you don't know and now so do I."

"You might just be the one after all," white-haired Mark said. The other Mark stayed relatively quiet, Billy noticed.

"Why don't you speak?" Billy asked him.

"I'm more of a fighter," the other Mark said.

Billy walked closer to the wall and he noticed that a gargoyle had stopped in mid-air to stare at them. Billy held a hand up and it was cut in half. The other Mark was busy sending most of the wall into another dimension. Now, the ranks of angry werewolves were clearly visible to them. In addition to guards with halberds, seven-foot demons with horns and stone-like armors, there were werewolves on the front of the building. They were all ranked, as though it was a private military installation. Billy had never seen anything like it. He figured it was to do with a vampire's sense of honor. It didn't matter to Billy because he wasn't there to worry about vampires anymore.

Part of the gargoyle fell from the sky into a void. It's other half shattered to pieces on the street. Keya took a step back, not wanting to be hit by the debris. "Really? That's your trick? Well," she said, "I'm not really that impressed."

"You're not?" Billy asked, "I mean, I wasn't expecting...but I thought it was real neat the first time I did it."

"Love birds," Keya's Teresa said, "Let's get on with it."

The two Teresa's split up. Keya's took the right side of the wall following her Mark. The other was on the left following a path that directly led to the demons wearing halberds. These were either cut in half by voids or burst into fire but then were put out, since the magic didn't affect them. The voids weren't magic, so they were still cut in half. After realizing this, the other Mark's Teresa started shooting down the gargoyles, which were increasingly affected by magic. Teresa shot a sort of three-shot ice-beam from her wrist like a bullet but consistently. It hit one of the gargoyles and it paused mid-flight, frozen. Its eye moved from left to right as it fell, then shattered into tiny ice crystals on the ground.

"Now that's a neat trick," Keya said, smiling.

The traveler Mark cut things completely out of the picture but they weren't quite living when he did so. A gargoyle flew straight at Keya but then Mark put his hand out and the gargoyle's head hung slightly off its neck, then vanished completely right before it crashed into Keya. Billy tried to figure out how he was cutting them so fast. He concentrated hard on the gargoyles, since there was so many of them, there was no way Mark could cut them all out of existence before Billy figured out the trick.

Keya took a step back and almost stumbled onto a concrete rock on the road, leftover from previous explosions. "The non-coma you is scary."

"How'd you learn my trick so fast!" Billy exclaimed, realizing that Mark had not opened a void to make the gargoyle travel to a different dimension.

Mark smiled, and adjusted his shirt. Dressed mostly in a black suit whose buttons were missing over a sweaty T-shirt, Mark was the not-so astute possible hero of all worlds. Billy couldn't really place him. Was he really the dull Mark in the library who loved tea and to tell boring stories? Well, the Nordits had definitely healed whatever it was that was bothering Mark earlier.

The other Mark had run into the building itself. He was now by the entrance. A trail of chopped off heads and halberds lay in his wake. The werewolves had not chased him.

Meanwhile, growls were heard from all sides, as Billy walked closer to the wall, his every step crunching on fallen pieces of ash mixed with broken concrete. "They know who you are, I think," Keya said.

For a second, Billy had forgot she was there. Why hadn't she stayed in the library learning things? It would have been simpler, that's why. As far as Billy knew, none of his ordeal with traveling to different dimensions had been easy. Of all of it, losing Simon had been the worst. He was not eager to see another good friend of his hurt because he couldn't fix the universe in time.

As if on cue, above them appeared five gargoyles, circling them like innocent prey. Luckily, one of the Teresa's had remained by them. She clicked her fingers and blue rays shot out of one of her finger nails. All five gargoyles were obliterated from the sky. "I got," Teresa said, "Better tricks. Where is your slingshot, little girl?"

Keya looked at the other Teresa with some interest but she didn't look like she got along with her. She simply shook her head.

"You're afraid you might hurt him. Him? The fat one?"

Now, Billy could see that Keya was getting upset and he fought hard not to blush. Billy doubted Keya could hurt anyone but if she was afraid to use a slingshot, it must be for a reason. Maybe, she wasn't so good with one. Billy remembered that he had some skill shooting people from the four-foot height of the local pine tree with rubber bands. It couldn't be much different, could it?

"Not now," Billy said, his face focused on the wolves ahead of them.

"Mark," Teresa said, catching up to him, "Mark!"

The white-haired Mark stopped walking. He was heading alone toward the wall but waited for them to catch up.

The wolves began to run at them. They were inches before Mark's feet before a sudden impact made the world go boom in an instant.

Keya breathed in hard. She didn't scream this time. She smiled at that but was still not happy to be bounced around in some magic balloon like a toy. Billy held her hand, which was important to her. It was almost as important as how he reacted to the explosion. He wasn't refusing to scream. Instead, he looked around as they bounced on top of the wolves in the magic bubble created by the new Teresa, and smiled. He actually smiled.

Mark and Teresa looked like they were practiced in this. Mark got ahead of them on purpose. It was to lure the wolves out. Keya smiled at how clever the trick was. Again, though, they had left her and Billy out of it. What was up with that? Couldn't the younger generation get a heads-up on the motives of the grown-ups? It was, after all, Keya's idea to come and save this unknown person from the grasp of the vampires.

The armies of wolves that lay before them couldn't be crushed all at once with simple explosions, though. Keya started to see this and so did Teresa and Mark.

Before them were wolves in leagues of a thousand standing side-by-side before the entrance, where Mark and Teresa were busy fighting them off. How had they passed by them without being attacked? Well, Keya figured, Teresa is a witch. If anything, they had cloaking capabilities. Hadn't this new Teresa shot blue lasers from her hand and defeated five gargoyles instantly? No one commented on her trick. Was it because she was a girl? Or simply because she was a witch and that kind of thing was expected of them? Keya didn't like it either way.

They got in the middle of it all, and the bubble vanished. Billy began to open voids, not to kill but to get rid of the werewolves. They were surrounded by the ugly white-haired mongrels. Two of them jumped at them. The white-haired Mark, unsheathed a hidden sword and cut them in half, blood dripping off his sword. A wolf head with glowing yellow eyes landed by Keya's foot. She kicked it away from herself in disgust.

"Slingshot?" the other Teresa asked.

Keya shook her head. The slingshot was too dangerous. She now realized why they didn't want her to have it before. It was ecstasy, pure joy to hold it in her hands and shoot with it. It was like her senses shot down and she could only think of shooting the slingshot. Was that like a curse or some sort of magic put on her? Why didn't it affect others in that way? Keya figured it had something to do with being Mark's little sister in other dimensions. The talent for the slingshot seemed to be connected somehow.

Of a sudden, everything became like a lingering sensation on her ears. She felt the hairs on her hands stand on end. Throbbing, she put her hands on her head to stop some unheard noise from bothering her. Something was using magic on them. Billy too was on the ground but he had a hand up. He began to do something quite amazing that Keya didn't think any of them was capable of.

The wolves scattered away from all of them, as the silent noise began to get audible slowly. It was a scary "Eeeeeeeee" sound that was surrounding them like a rapidly spreading virus. Keya's knees hit the ground from how much it hurt her ears and it started to create a ripple effect on her skin. She could see her skin moving up and down, as though it was an ocean. But, then, that too stopped. Her skin became stable again and the noise was gone.

Billy, somehow, had them in a half-circle void that they could see through. But everything that was being thrown at them, including the noise was being swallowed up by the outside of the void. Inside all of four of them fit fine, as Billy had opened the void ten-feet wide. How was he even doing it? Was he really that much more powerful than the rest of them.

Teresa and Mark were looking at him in shock, while the other Teresa and Mark lay on the floor, unconscious near the entrance to the building.

"Holy, crap," Teresa said.

"What is it the boy is doing now?"

A man with a red cape and a hunter's green beret with a white feather sticking out of it, floated down from the top of the building. He had on unique ruby shoes and red slacks with an ugly matching suit-coat. He also wore a blue tie. The biggest problem that Keya now saw was that this person floating down on them was, in fact, not a vampire. Yet, he smiled.

He had worrisome green eyes and a fair complexion, though the color of his hair was uncertain, as the hat covered most of his forehead. "La croise," Mark sighed, dropping his swords. "He's got magic now."

The man came close to the void but took care not to get too near. He obviously knew a lot about traveling. He stared down at Keya and the rest, including at Billy who was glowing green now. He didn't look to be the least bit tired. His talent was not like hers, then. Keya would never be able to hold the light for so long. She would be weakened by the effort and probably pass out.

"A nice trick," The man said, "Where did you learn that from, Mark? Oh...but it's not you doing it, is it? I sense....something different." He put a finger inside the void and part of his finger was lost. The man smiled as he pulled what was rest of his finger back. The finger reformed itself. "You know what I found about the past, Mark, would surprise you. All this time, this whole mess with the universe collapsing in on itself. No one wanted to ask, well, how can we capitalize on the situation. The girl looks nervous. Don't worry, dear, I long since gave up on my petty vendetta. Karla? Old news. Markus, it's been a while. Your witch friend there made sure of that, didn't she? I lost everything and you gained everything, didn't you, Mark? I bet that's not how the great Piersley tells the story, is it? Did he tell you he was cursed? Is he still going on and on about how the vampires are his problem? Well, one thing is certain, they were my solution. My solution to the downfall of mankind. I no longer seek the vengeance I did before for your...betrayal, Mark. I know you claim that we were friends, while the whole time you only plotted to use me for your own purposes, weren't you? What was it that made me so mad? You got the girl and I didn't? Was that it? Some petty fight, jealousy, envy?" The man smiled, "Such petty things to worry about. Why? When the universe holds so many better and more advanced pleasures. I found a world of women, quite nice but they tried to enslave me. The Nordits were the worst. I obliterated half their race and all they could do is cheer magically. They spat on me so much that for two or three weeks I felt quite healed and dirty at the same time. Damn little....no matter, in a day or so, they'll be like you, trapped with nowhere to go."

"What have you done, Lacroise?" Mark asked. He looked upset.

Both Teresa and Mark were eyeing the man, nervously.

"Mind stepping out of that bubble to speak to me?" Lacroise asked.

With one hand he karate chopped Billy's bubble and it broke apart into nothingness. Billy tried to put it back up but Arthur waved a hand in his direction and Billy became so frozen stiff that he fell on his side. On the floor, he still didn't move. Keya ran to his side, worried.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

The good thing was that the sound was gone. Keya looked back but the old Teresa and Mark were gone.

"Lacroise, what have you done?"

"I did what you couldn't," Arthur said, "What did you think, I was keeping you alive in some other world for nothing? That you could escape me so easily? This was planned. So you killed a few vampires, who cares. There's endless worlds out there full of vampires."

"But you'll destroy our universe!"

. "Those earths do no belong to our universe. You know that! It's about time we broke away from what we have known. All I did was travel consistently between the true earths. It has created a neat array of displacement in your triangular universe. You think that making true earths would stop me, that you could stop the universe from expanding. You and your precious little libraries. For those of you who are not savvy, opening a void in certain libraries makes an earth distinct from the other, thus making them true earths. Otherwise, they would roam uncontrolled in the universe, not quite suitable for life, either."

"It wasn't like that La Croise. If you spin the triangular universe out of control, it will spiral multiple dimensions in all directions and destroy all earths as we know them....why would you even try such a thing?"

"Because, it was time, don't you think? Isn't it time now, that me and you put our grudge aside? Back in my world, in your world, your Detective agency waits for you, what is it now, the second curse, your ill-fated luck, everyone's having a bad day there, why would you want to go back to that? Wouldn't you prefer that your luck change?"

"I don't know how good it has gotten," Mark said, "Keeping me in a comma for years, while I await rescue from some dream, the supposed traveler of worlds."

"The one traveler, yes. I remember that. Those Norditz are good at the drinking and the tales they tell...pure fantasy, I assure you. This boy, is that who they chose? Don't be taken in by the lies, boy. Wake up. You think you're the one that's going to save these people? The girls can't even use their magic. I stopped all six of you with a sound spell, not even a strong one. How can your little voids defeat me?"

"It's not about defeating you," Mark said, looking down at the motionless Billy.

"He knows how to fight the spell," Lacroise said, "Creating voids to absorb it, how clever. Is that what Mark taught you? Yes, a traveler has his defenses but not in this case, boy. Do you know where I've been? I've seen the top of a mountain that only spews fire and came out with the glowing red orb that allowed me to heal myself of all mortal wounds. During my petty vengeance, one of the girls actually got a hold of her slingshot in time. Had I not traveled away in time, I would have died a gruesome death. The girl is more dangerous than any of you but, I see, that she is weaponless. Nice pouch, honey, is that pure gold silk thread? I seen that in a world a few years back. Where the heck? No matter. Now, let's see...what the....?"
The man flew away.

Multiple voids appeared in the air all of them the shape of a circle but the voids copied themselves, appearing right under Lacroises feet but every time one appeared, Lacroise flew higher. So many appeared at one time that Lacroise had to fly fifty feet in the air before they stopped appearing beneath him. A fifty foot cylinder of voids remained.

Billy was on the ground but he was glowing green again, and he was smiling.