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Chapter -3- Memories

July 29, 2049 - 10:50am CEST Paris, France ...

** Reno Nevada pushed the guestroom door** open and leaned in the doorframe.

An older man looked up from a holographic television emitter built into the floor by a bed. "Reno? Holy hell, you're up! And walking!"

Reno didn't recognize the man's face, but knew the voice instantly. "Holy hell, yourself. Wilfred-freaking-Greg, you don't look like Christopher Lloyd anymore."

The older man slid off the bed and walked through part of the hologram. He stopped in front of Nevada and looked him over. "Christ ... same old Reno. How the hell are you even walking? How do you even have the energy to walk?"

"The first night, Karla used her telekinesis to walk me around like a puppet," said Reno with a half-hearted shrug. "And a bit of lightning helped give me some pep. Karla seems to think I'm zapping the house and absorbing it whenever my emotions tank. If it wasn't for the juice, I don't think I'd even be out of bed yet."

Wilfred rubbed his chin and shook his head. "I thought for sure that you'd need physical therapy, psychological therapy, and all sorts of stuff. God, I can't even imagine how disorienting it must be to just suddenly poof, wake up and twenty-five years are gone."

Reno ran his hand up through his short dark hair and ambled into the room. He slumped into a chair against the wall and stared at the hologram floating at the center of the room. "I, uh ... I remember a few small things. I remember being in the tube as it filled up with gas and some sort of goo. I remember tasting this ... like, mercury kind of taste. I remember Karla's voice, saying, 'I'm right here, Top Cop,' and then I think she was reading to me at some point. I remember hearing thunder. And then I was wide-awake - there was an energy surge and I was wide-awake. I think I was electrocuted or something. And there was a lot of adrenaline and I was in shock and I climbed out of the bed. Next thing I know, Karla is standing over me, surprised."

"You don't remember anything else during your coma?"

"Uh, I have weird memories of popping bubbles and feeling like I was in an aquarium. And then I felt like I was riding a bike and living through an earthquake. Maybe that was the hospice people exercising my legs and the little muscle vibrating things. Now that I think about it, I do remember them arguing with Karla about leaving my feeding tube in."

"She mentioned that; she kept taking it out and feeding you herself. Every time she goes out of town, they put it in. Every time she comes back, she takes it out."

"Oh."

Wilfred shrugged a bit. "That, uh ... argument was right before you woke up - it was definitely recent. It sounds like you were completely unresponsive until a few days ago, and then you surfaced, somewhat, to what's called a 'vegetative state.' And then, you woke a little bit more but you were still unresponsive ... and then the lightning strike, Wednesday, that Karla described as ungodly long."

Nevada glanced at the holographic image floating in the middle of the room. The resolution was crisp, almost lifelike. The colors were vibrant and beautiful. He continued to stare at the impressive technological distraction. "We were just transitioning from 8K television resolution to whatever the next big thing was. I remember because I got my 8K TV as soon as the prices came down."

"Yeah?" Wilfred offered a wry grin. "TV's made a lot of changes in a short time. After 8K was something called '8K Fulldome' and then, suddenly, everything changed."

"What do you mean? What changed?"

Wilf shrugged, casually, and said, "The industry was so focused on trying to achieve the highest resolution possible, then along came holographic technology. It was an overnight transition. Kind of like a technological singularity. The whole world jumped over to holograms as quick as it could embrace the technology. People were hungry to live in a sci-fi world."

"I destroyed my TV," Reno said with a sigh. "My first lightning bolt the day after my powers kicked on." He paused then asked, "What's the resolution of the hologram thing?"

"We measure it in megapixels, now. Kind of like we did with cameras back in the old days." Wilfred glanced back at the hologram then towards Reno and said, "The average human eye sees the world upwards of 570 megapixels. Your old 8K TV was 33-point-2 megapixels. I think the high-end holograms display at 75 megapixels but there's talk of a new sensor that may display at _two hundred-some-odd_megapixels. This one, right here, is forty-six. Still, it's a nice unit though."

Reno lifted his hands and shook his head. "Great, I have to be a mathematician or a nerdy teenaged computer geek to know TVs, now. It sounds like a bunch of fancy bullshit. Please tell me we still have the NFL?"

"Uh, yeah. We do. And Ultimate Frisbee now has a National league."

"Christ. It was bad enough it was getting popular in colleges and high schools back in 2024. I woke up hoping that non-contact sports crap would be gone in the future."

Wilfred chuckled. "At least you didn't wake up to a world like Demolition Man or, worse yet, Idiocracy."

"True. That would have sucked." Nevada smirked, picturing what the world would have been like with bathroom seashells, and crop-fields flooded with sports drinks. "I can see it now - a future with a five-star Taco Bell, and _Costco_everywhere."

Wilf snorted with amusement. "Yeah. Anyway, have you talked to the doctors since waking up?"

"Karla made sure of it," Reno said with a shrug. "They're concerned with me being extremely constipated, and they want to know what triggered me to go into something called an 'MCS' before waking."

"It stands for 'minimally conscious state,' Reno."

"Yeah, that." He eyed the old man with a wry grin then shrugged. "I was zapped pretty good - electrocuted, actually, when the lightning shock fried the hospice equipment."

Wilfred tilted his head. "Is that what caused you to wake up?"

"Maybe. They're not sure. Karla was concerned about electricity surges. It's a little weird to see her acting like a mom."

"Yeah, she called a contractor to come out and look at the electricity situation. I haven't heard the final word on it. Have you?"

Reno nodded in reply. "They said the surge shouldn't have jumped from the grounding cable to the main, and it shouldn't have bypassed the surge protector on the equipment. But it apparently defied physics or whatever. They said it's unlikely it could happen a second time - they replaced the surge protection crap just in case." Nevada stood up and stretched. He leaned against the wall adjacent to the chair. "Sorry, I guess I'm being a bit restless or whatever."

"I can't believe you're standing, Reno. It's unbelievable that you're able to move around without a wheelchair."

"I'm juicing myself to keep charged, and then I just hit the gym. I get frequent muscle spasms and weird, like, ghost pains in my legs and arms if I'm not in the gym. My legs fall asleep a lot. If this is what arthritis feels like then count me out."

"But when you amp up and hit the gym, it feels better?"

"Yeah, Wilf. But in my down time, everything is uncomfortable. I've been eating a lot, but I can't barely take a crap."

"Anything else you've noticed?"

"The first day I was wired as hell. Then, the second day, I was eating everything I could. Yesterday, I met the doctors again, and I couldn't even talk to them. I felt tired and fuzzy and just ... really out of it. They said I was suffering from something called 'semantic aphasia,' and that I would need therapy and pills and a bunch of other bullshit."

"Really? You seem fine, now."

Reno nodded in agreement. "Today I'm talking again. I'm thinking clearly again. I'm feeling pretty good, actually. I'm getting my mojo back."

"Has Karla been flirting with you? She seems really upbeat since you woke up."

"Upbeat?" asked Reno. "She's been crying at night. She just deflects shit during the day. She smiles, makes jokes, and all that crap. But she's all sorts of upset, Wilf."

"Yeah. I saw her not too long ago and she was really down in the dumps about Eric and her kids, man. She was in a really bad way before you woke up, but when I arrived here yesterday, she was doing a lot better."

Reno offered a weak smile. "Yeah, she flirts." His smile faded. "But to be honest, I'm not feeling it. I don't feel anything right now. I'm totally out of it. I'm not even interested in looking at her ass right now. Part of me wishes I hadn't even woken up."

"I read that depression can be normal after..."

Reno interrupted, saying, "You didn't really know Nichole because she disappeared before you and I started talking outside of work. But Nicky was a beautiful, smart girl. And now she's some sort of freak, courtesy of Aris-fucking-Falcon."

"Reno, I'm really sorry man."

Nevada leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes with a sigh. "Yeah. Don't worry about it. I mourned her for months before meeting that ... whatever it was that looked like her. I'm telling you, they can't be the same girl. I wanna run her prints through AFIS to know for sure. Anyway, let's not talk about her."

"Alright, uhm. I've always wondered what goes on for someone who wakes up from a coma like that." Wilf shifted his weight, not used to standing for long periods of time, anymore. "So, uh, have you had any solid food yet? I mean, besides ice cream and nutrition bars?"

"Yeah, I had a cheeseburger." A wry grin returned to Reno's face. He thought back to how juicy, how goddamn delicious that burger was. "It was everything I dreamed it would be. And Karla found a steak and potatoes, so that's on the menu for tonight. Like, god-honest-real cow meat steaks."

"Wow. Most meat is genetically created for public consumption, now. It's grown in a lab."

"Yeah, not a fan. It tastes weird."

Wilfred shrugged with a frown. "Real steaks are not easy to come by in Europe right now."

"So I'm told," said Reno with another sigh. He kept his eyes shut and relaxed in the chair. "Baby food and Jell-O were all I ate the first day. It was disgusting. And Karla has been giving me these weight-gainer shakes that taste way too rich. She practically has to yell at me to drink the whole thing."

"Yeah, I knew someone with cancer who had to drink those. You want to sit down, Reno?"

"Nah." Nevada opened his eyes and abruptly changed the subject. "I'm told Florida is under water. Let's go and find my car. I'm sure we can fix some stuff. I mean, we don't have Johann and Evan to craft new parts but I'm sure we can..."

"Reno, your car is fine."

Nevada perked, offering the first genuine smile since waking up. "Really? You got my car? It's okay?"

"Don't use the word 'got.' Geeze, it makes you sound uneducated. Yes," Wilfred paused and smiled. "Your car is fine. It's in California in a garage beneath the Parker Mansion, with a ton of other fancy cars. We even put Presidential-grade run-flat tires on it, like you asked. It hasn't been started in years, but all the fluids were synthetic. Other than draining the oil and putting in some fresh synthetic, it should theoretically still run. But nobody can juice the compulsator enough for it to start. Not without being plugged straight into a wall, that is."

"You should sound less educated. People hate when someone sounds aloof. Anyway. What's a compulsator?"

"I thought I normally do, Reno. Anyway, I pulled that capacitor out of the trunk and built something better designed for what the car needed. I built a compulsator ... with some friends."

"Friends?" Reno eyed Wilfred suspiciously. "You let other people see it? What did they say?"

"After all the stuff that happened, I went back to school. I stayed in contact with Lance Patterson. I learned a lot, and I became a scientist. A proper, educated scientist. What I built for the car was with the help of some very impressive minds from the campus. I told them it was for a collector, who wanted a legitimate superhero car. They didn't even question it."

Reno ran his fingers back through his hair, again, glad to feel it on his head. "Yeah. Alright. Wilf, thank you. I ... I appreciate it. I really do, man. Karla was right."

"About what?" Wilfred looked Reno over. He was surprised the man was doing so well, physically, after being in a coma since the end of February.

"I told her I didn't feel like a proper man without nice threads and my car. So, she told me she could get me the suit, but to head over here and talk to my visitor. She said I'd feel better. She was right - talking to you is what I needed."

"I knew you'd miss your car. Besides, I was proud of the work I put into it. And those boys compressed the carbon fiber until it was so dense, it was a diamond-strength material. There's nothing else like that in the world."

Reno laughed. "Man, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you kept it safe but it's not just the car."

"Oh?" Wilf offered a confused expression.

Nevada shifted his weight, seeming somewhat restless. "It's good to know I still have a buddy I can talk to. I guess I needed that more than I thought."

"So how do you like the future?"

Reno laughed, albeit in a winded, hoarse tone. "The 3D television thing is pretty neat. But no flying cars? It's a little disappointing, man."

"People are still trying to make it happen, but we can't seem to fit them into briefcases."

"Ha!"

Wilfred grinned, glad the younger-looking man understood the Jetsons reference. "That, and you'd have nut-jobs flying them into office buildings and penthouse suites. Sorry, Reno."

"Yeah, yeah. You let me down, Doctor Brown."

"Jesus, not again." Wilfred shook his head. After a pause, a wry elderly smile tugged at his face, creating creases on his cheeks. "You're a trip. We're not headed to California until you've had a little more physical therapy. Now sit your butt back down."

"But..."

Wilfred lifted his hands. "Reno, relax. The car isn't going anywhere. Just be patient. You haven't even gone outside yet. Let's do one thing at a time."

"I guess. I haven't slept in four days." Nevada sank down into the chair again and closed his eyes for a moment.

"What?" Wilfred furrowed his brows. "Reno, are you serious?"

"I guess I'm afraid I won't wake up again." His body relaxed, as though glad to be off his feet.

"You look like you're falling asleep just sitting there. You need rest, man. Your body and mind heals when you're resting. That's what a coma is - absence of a sleep-wake schedule. Obviously you're awake now. Go down to your room and try to sleep. I'm not going anywhere, and neither is your car."

Silence.

Wilfred frowned. "Reno?"

A single, drawn out snore came from Nevada from the way he was sitting up in the chair.

Wilfred shook his head and headed for the door to find Karla. "I should've seen that coming."

X

X

Meanwhile, at the same time... July 29, 5:50pm JST Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan ...

Sinopa Guillot padded through the alley , ears laid back, and whiskers flush along her svelte vulpine muzzle. She approached Dawn, who paced nervously with a look of irritation.

Sinopa transitioned in the alley, coming to stand on her feet. She drew a kimono from her satchel and unfolded the cloth. She quickly pulled undergarments up her legs and a bra over her torso, then she pulled the kimono onto herself, and tied the sash. "So, you have all my sensei's memories?"

Dawn Razin paced in an alley, frustrated and flustered. She jerked her head to the left, throwing her hair back, then pivoted and stalked back in the other direction. "No koshimaki? You wear modern underwear? Part of Japan's odd obsession with panties, or something?"

"Hai," said Sinopa. "No waist-cloth, Dawn-san. These are easier to wear, yet Japan's strange obsession with them is not to blame. I began wearing them for comfort in the 1980s, after meeting Jonathan. I can see that you are upset - do you wish to discuss it?"

"Your goddamn 'friend' has a lot of goddamn problems, you know that?" Dawn kept her eyes on the pavement. "And James' nephew didn't even ask permission. I want to be mad at him, but I saw what that woman went through. She was literally about to die if the kid, Conner, didn't do what he did. But Jesus Christ..." Dawn turned around and face Sinopa. "Oh, wait, does Jesus even exist? Is anything I thought I knew even real? This is too much!"

Sinopa frowned keeping a respectful distance. "Dawn-san, please."

"I spoke Japanese! Like, it came out of my mouth and I understood what I was saying! I never learned Japanese!"

"Hai. Tamamo-sama possessed your mind. Her spiritual presence resided in the frontal lobe of your brain, and her soul shared residency with your body. It can be taxing on people after the spirit leaves.

Dawn rubbed her face then sighed in frustration. "Taxing, huh? Yeah, how so?"

"When you wear powerful glasses for a moment, then take them off, your eyes need to adjust. The brain is the same way. When so much information is imposed on the human brain, and then leaves, it takes time for your mind to adjust to the loss."

"So you're saying I'm emotional because I'm getting used to losing her presence? But I still remember most of the shit I learned from her. Why didn't that crap go away? I don't want her life imprinted on my memories or whatever! And, no lady - I'm emotional because everything I knew about life was just changed. My perception of reality is different now, you got that? And, Christ, do you know what that woman has experienced?"

"No, I am afraid I do not..."

Dawn threw her hands into the air. "Do you know how many times she's had her heart broken? And do you know how strongly she feels about you?"

"Iie, I..."

Dawn continued, overtop of Sinopa's voice, asking, "Do you know how close she came to dying before escaping that other world? It's a good thing she made it to my body. You have no idea how close she came to death. Jesus! They were using her sword to try and saw her tails off."

Sinopa bit her lip.

"I can remember the sensation, lady! The cold sword against my bare ass. I remember what it felt like to be helpless and have pudgy fingers shoved in my mouth to keep me quiet. Having my dress hiked up, and feeling violated! And now I'm stuck in some country ... and my head is swimming! They touched me all over, in inappropriate ways, just to show me they were in control. They were trying to saw a limb off my goddamn body. I remember her making peace with her imminent death. Nobody should have that kind of knowledge! And this is the kind of world you want me involved in? You want Jaye involved in this kind of shit?!"

"Dawn-san."

"It's too much! I need to go back to Chicago. I need to decompress and get my head right!" Dawn turned back the other direction, stalking back down the alley for the tenth time. "I can't remember where my memories start and hers end! It's all mixed up, now! I don't have her help to determine which memories were mine from before!"

"You having trouble differentiating?"

"If a person is the sum of their life experiences, I'm two people now. It all bleeds together!"

"Dawn-san, please, if you would just..."

"Dawn is gone! I need to reinvent myself just so I can push everything behind me. I need to dismiss all of it as past. I can't differentiate! I need to stop and think who I've slept with - Conner or James. I remember having sex with both of them! I have both memories, lady! I feel dirty, having fucked fifteen year old boys! And you know what I did to people in China? I fucking tortured them! I opened up a pregnant woman out of curiosity! To learn! Jesus Christ, I murdered a fucking pregnant Chinese woman."

"Iie, that was Tamamo during her first marriage to Chinese royalty. Humans were more of a curiosity than..."

"No! I remember doing it with my hands! I can hear the screaming! We strapped a man to a hot metal pillar and it cooked him while we watched at a party in the palace courtyard! I can remember the smell of his cooking flesh! How could I let my husband make me so disgusting?"

"Those memories are not yours. They belong to..."

"I have them! They're my memories now!" Dawn threw her hands up in disgust. "I haven't smoked pot since high school but, God, I need it right now. I want to get drunk. I need to cloud my head. I need to forget." She looked back at Sinopa and said, "What do I even call you, anyhow?"

Sinopa blinked. "I do not understand. If you have Tamamo's memories, you should know my name."

"That's not what I mean," Dawn exclaimed. "I meant, should I call you Sinopa or should I call you Shizuko?"

Sinopa blinked. "Why would you think my name is Quiet Child?"

Dawn glared at her uncomprehendingly. "Kiko stole those memories from you, but you should have started to remember by now, right?" Dawn shook her head. "I mean, logically ... shit, what am I talking about? That bitch is a ten tail. It'll stick longer." She paused and balled her hands into fists.

Sinopa opened her mouth to reply but nothing came out. She pursed her lips and frowned.

"I don't even know what a ten tail is! This is confusing! I know your name was Shizuko when you were born. But I don't know which memories are mine and which belong to your friend, the pedophile."

"Dawn, please..."

Dawn grimaced. "That memory ... Conner and Konoe - that_one _has to be her. I would never fuck a child. But I sure as hell know what it's like with two fifteen year old boys, now. It turns my stomach. And none of these lovers can compare to what it's like to bed this other guy, Azazel."

Sinopa blinked and swallowed. She came to realize that Dawn didn't have the mentality, personality, or willpower to handle what she experienced. Thus, Tamamo's secrets were spilling out of the girl by the mouthful.

"But I don't love him, it's purely sex," said Dawn. "I mean, she doesn't love him. _I_love James."

"Dawn-san Tamamo can suppress..."

"No! I'd rather have therapy! You've had your memories suppressed. So has Tamamo, I believe, and both of you hated it. I don't want my head messed up anymore than it already is! I'm changing my name. I need to get away from your crazy little world and get my head back together. I remember things that are absolutely appalling. And how the hell does this shit fly with her? How can she be okay with all this shit she's done?"

"She was in a different frame of mind then. She meditates to find it within herself to let go the past she cannot change."

"Yeah? Well, how about something more recent, then," Dawn snapped. "How can she be okay with being violated by those Norse bastards?"

"I ... was not fully aware of Tamamo's struggles with Norse deities. But, Dawn-san, Tamamo has age, experience and a different mindset, all of which allows her to deal with who she has become. All you have is the details of her memories and you are not emotionally equipped to handle what you have learned."

"Get me home to Chicago, please. Please. I need to go home. I need to reboot and work on my RC hobby cars. I need to work on the coloring for Jaye's comic. That's me. That's what I did before I came here. I need that again. I need to reconnect with my own identity. Take me home."

"What about your betrothed?"

"Tell James I went back to Illinois and that I'm safe. I can't look at him right now."

"But..."

Dawn cringed at a mental image then said, "No. I cannot look at him right now. I will fall apart, Sinopa. I vividly remember screwing his kid nephew and what it felt like to look in his eyes with my legs wrapped around him. I feel like I cheated on my fiancé. I can't even look in his eyes right now. I'd be too ashamed. I need to go home and just ... hide for a while. - at least until I come to terms with the knowledge that it wasn't me who did those things. Please! Take me home."

"I can take you there. I will ensure that you are financially taken care of, so that you can focus on reconnecting with your true self, unburdened by emotionally stressful things, such as paying for..."

"I don't care. I just want to go home. Please. Help me get home."

Sinopa approached Dawn and took her right hand. "We will go to the airport, now. I will get you home, Dawn-san."

"No, I can't be Dawn right now." She swallowed and began walking with Sinopa towards the mouth of the alley. "Call me..." she paused, swallowed again, then said, "Call me Rachel. It's just an easier way for me to cope."

"Very well, Rachel-san."

"Domo arigato, Shizuko-chan." Dawn swallowed with a frown. "Sinopa, or whatever. I'm sorry. I'm all out of sorts. This is why I need to reinvent myself as Rachel. So I can ignore everything I remember about both pasts."

"Hai. You need to need to cling to something that You can invent, and then figure out the rest later. You see? I understand you better than you think, as I have had to reinvent myself before as well."

"Yeah," Dawn whispered softly. "Please, get me out of here."

Sinopa walked with her and nodded in understanding. "Let us take a cab to the airport. I will get you back to Chicago right away. I promise. And I will handle speaking to James. Just worry about getting home and resting."

"Yeah..." Dawn, now Rachel, licked her lips and walked with Sinopa, out to the road, doing her best to shut down her emotions and not think about everything she'd just learned. It felt like forbidden knowledge. And a good deal of it was carnal knowledge or worse.

It wasn't anything she was prepared to handle at this point. She hated herself and Tamamo for such an emotional burden - memories of a past she never agreed to live.

X

X

Meanwhile... Hospital Psych Ward ...

Tamamo looked up at the psychologist then back down at the handcuffs on her wrists. "I could burn these off but they would heat up and damage the flesh of this vessel. Would you please remove my restraints?"

"Who do you think you are, now?" asked the doctor, intrigued.

"I am Tamamo-no-Mae, via kitsune-tsuki. And this poor tortured woman has seen a great deal. The mind of this girl is damaged but not beyond repair. She needs me to help stabilize her. It will take time."

"You're rather calm, now, though."

"Hai, doctor. A nurse gave me a sedative. Very helpful," said Tamamo with a relaxed sigh of delight. "It feels wonderful. It helps ease this woman's mind to relax. It allows me to more easily take over as the dominant personality."

The doctor folded his hands, sitting in a chair adjacent to the bed, to which Tamamo was still handcuffed. "And, uh, being inside this woman's mind ... can you help me to better understand this sensation of being in a new and vulnerable body?"

Tamamo shrugged and said, "This woman's mind is a boat on the water. The drugs have calmed the waves for now. But this vessel has taken on a great deal of water. And I am armed with only a bucket, and my feet to plug the leaking holes by standing on them. I am doing my best until I can manage to scoop out all the water. Then I will need to figure out a way to plug the leaks for good. This woman needed me to help heal her shattered mind. She has been through a great deal, recently."

"And you are Tamamo-no-Mae, correct? Wife of an Emperor that died a thousand years ago?"

Tamamo snorted. "Do you not know your own mythology? It was 1155 that Konoe was poisoned. The blame for his sickness was laid at my feet. No kitsune would have murdered an emperor."

"Because your kind is honor bound to Inari?"

"Of course! And a kitsune tricks to teach lessons. Konoe, the child emperor, was in no need of such a lesson; certainly not one that would come from poison."

The psychiatrist folded his arms for a moment then unfolded them and reached for a notepad. "So no one learned a lesson from his death?" asked the doctor.

"Iie, it was a tragedy. Toba was a good ruler and Konoe was a wonderful successor, with great wisdom for one so young."

"So you saw Konoe grow up?"

"From birth, yes." Tamamo gave a testing tug on the handcuffs and sighed. "Konoe was a good ruler and a romantic lover. Both of his wives were..."

The doctor shook his head. "The story of Tamamo, the 'beautiful fox witch,' had a lesson. Perhaps Konoe didn't learn it, but the reader of the story learned that even a woman who seems like the perfect consort, may still be the wrong woman for a relationship."

"How so?" Tamamo erupted. "I am the kitsune. I teach the lessons! Konoe-tenno was not murdered for later generations of story readers to learn something! Konoe's death was tragic! I was framed! The killer was ignored for nine centuries! And, for the record, Konoe and I had a _wonderful_relationship, if only too short!"

"The lesson I learned from that story, as a child, was that the perfect woman may not be as perfect as she seems. If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Tamamo was said to be perfect in every way, yet she poisoned him for a shogun who..."

"No!" Tamamo shouted. "First of all, he wasn't a shogun. Second of all, that was a rumor! The astrologer wasn't who he claimed to be, and he poisoned Konoe for his own reasons. I was blamed! Abe no Yasuchika was killed and impersonated by a murderer."

"Miss, I..."

Tamamo narrowed her gaze. "I loved Konoe-tenno! Your ignorance of mythology is an insult to his memory. Speak his name again and I will break you in half."

"Konoe. Konoe, Konoe-tenno. What are you going to do about it? You're not in control here, young lady. You're handcuffed to a hospital bed. You tried to take your own life. You are on suicide watch. You're in need of psychological help. I want to help you but first you need to help yourself by admitting..."

"I told you not to speak his name! You're going to force my hand, doctor."

"What do you think you'd do to me?"

Tamamo sneered, fighting the shot she received earlier. "I would plunge my fingernails into your flesh, beneath your chin. Then I would clench my hand into a fist and pull outward, then upward. It would rip the fragile flesh from your face. Your muscles would dislodge and sag. Your eyes would drop from your skull. Your death would be extremely painful and your life would cease in a very short time. Within moments. Your body would go into shock, and..."

The doctor withdrew a syringe from his labcoat pocket, pushed the end into Tamamo's leg and thumbed the plunder. "You'll be coming back to my facility for further observation. I would like to learn more about this trigger word before we speak again. I'll do my research on Konoe-tenno and read what I'm able of the Otogizoshi collection."

Tamamo's vessel could not handle the overwhelming flood of the powerful sedative. Her eyes fluttered shut and she relaxed.

X

X

July 30, 2049, afternoon... Paris, France ...

Vincent Nevada glanced at his watch then rang the doorbell again. The front door opened and, standing in the doorway, was Karla Loupe. The pretty blond succubus who was once best friends with his wife. "Well, well," he said with a grin. "If it isn't the maid of honor."

Karla blinked at Vincent's greeting. "You're acting completely different than when we saw you in Maryland recently."

"I was under a lot of stress, I hadn't slept and I had Nichole there bossing me around. She said I did such a good job I could 'go off the radar' for a few days. She knows I'm coming to see Reno, and she promised not to tell anyone. She's crazy but some part of her still wants to know he's okay."

"She wants his power, Vincent. Well, he woke up. So get your scrawny ass in here, and go see your brother."

Vincent's face lit up. "Point me in the right direction."

"The gym. I'll connect you."

"Wait." Vincent held his hands up to keep Karla from teleporting him. "I couldn't talk about this before, but I wanted to tell you something important."

"About my kids?"

"Well, Topaz and Fox seemed to have a lead. I haven't heard anything since leaving. But I wanted to tell you that Topaz forgives you. She wants you to know you're not the traitor. She feels betrayed and disappointed, but she understands you're not the traitor - you never were."

"I didn't mean to betray her. I was emotional. Hell, I was pregnant."

"Yeah. But you went years without telling her. But let's not go into all that." Vincent rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "However, there is a traitor."

"There is?" Karla tilted her head.

"Steven Milford. No one will believe it without proof, but trust me, we found proof. I just don't have it on me. Please, keep that close to the chest."

Karla nodded in silence. She licked her lips then brought her hand up to her lips. Karla rubbed her chin then dropped her hands to her side and said, "I always had a feeling. I've had a while to process it. Don't tell anyone. Not even Lance Patterson. I don't know if Lance will choose his friend over what's right, you know? They're possibly the last two First Age people left in the world. That's a pretty deep bond."

"I thought you would be pissed off."

"I am. But it only confirms something I've been thinking for twenty-five years, hon." Karla shrugged with a frown. "It would be better to play him. Use him, y'know? I'll choose when not to trust him. For now, I'll pretend I still do. I don't know who can keep a secret yet. New team, you know?"

"How is Conner? Is he here?"

"No. He's preparing James Parker for some sort of job. Tamamo gave Conner the details of what needs to be done. But your brother is doing pretty good."

"Yeah? Flashy red wheelchair with rims?"

"He doesn't need one," said Karla in a proud tone. "He's using his power to heal his muscles. But you need to tell him to slow down. He's overdoing it. He's going to hurt himself."

"I'm ready."

Karla grinned and waved a hand at him.

Vincent held still. The mansion disappeared, replaced with a hallway door. He looked around to get his equilibrium then he reached for the knob and opened it.

A room full of professional workout equipment offered Vincent the scent of sweat and cleaning solution. He stepped in and approached Reno over on the weight bench. A young man grunted softly, pushing a barbell up. At first glance, it appeared to have thirty-five pounds on either side of the bar.

"You need a spotter?" Vincent approached the head of the weight bench and looked down at his brother. Reno was just as young as the last time Vincent had seen him, twenty-five years ago. "Are you seriously lifting seventy pounds?"

Reno looked up, eyes wide, at his little brother, now forty-two years old. "Holy shit." Reno lifted the bar up and, with Vincent's help, placed it into the cradles on either side. "Vincent!" He sat up and ran his hand through his hair. "Jesus, I can't believe it."

Vincent sat down on the bench adjacent to his brother. "Neither can I. Look at you. Still, what, twenty-eight? Twenty-nine? God, twenty-five years and several months. You haven't aged at all. I mean, I kind of expect it from Karla but it's weird seeing you young, still."

"My little brother is now older than me and has a family."

Vincent grinned. "So I get to be the older brother, now. You get to be the little brother for once. That's kind of novel."

Reno stared at his brother for a moment, laughed, and said, "Yeah I guess it is. C'mere, you." He hugged his brother.

"Jesus, Reno, you're all sweaty and..."

"Shaddaup. You're still my little brother. I need this. I..." His tone immediately cracked and lowered in tone. "I fought this woman who looks like Nichole. She was insane. Everything is weird now. I feel like I messed up and everyone paid the price. I didn't know, man. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I was cocky. I thought I could be a goddamn superhero, and I messed up. Now millions are dead, man. I screwed up, kiddo."

Vincent felt his heart break. Ever one to be empathetic, he hugged his brother back and sighed. "You didn't mess up. You just weren't prepared to do everything that needed to be done. Falcon has been working on this stuff for decades. And he's working with people who are way older and out of our league."

"I let everyone down, kiddo. I'm just glad you didn't die."

Vincent sighed and rested his chin on his brother's shoulder. "When I was younger, I would have done anything for you to hug me like this. You're the only family I have. Reno, everything is messed up, but I made a life for myself. I'm down there, and I have Topaz and Fox with me."

Reno relinquished the hug and nodded. His eyes dropped to the floor. "Yeah. Have you seen Nichole?"

"She's sort of my, uh, boss. Fox and Topaz implanted a virus in the computer system. Now she can't go back to stasis."

Reno stood up, gingerly, and stretched. "What do you mean?"

"When people are frozen, they're put into a coma. The computer program keeps people unconscious just incase someone escapes or the freezing thing fails on someone who can heal anything. So, uh, Fox and Topaz went off to put a virus into the system. They wanted you to wake up from your coma. They wanted to make things so they could just defrost our friends, and they'd wake up. So I knew you'd wake up. I wanted to come see you."

Reno looked up at Vincent and offered the middle-aged man a nod of reply. "A few days ago, I came out of the coma but I stayed in some sort of unconscious state until lightning struck the house and electrocuted me. It woke me up."

"Oh. So that means if they wake up Carmen, she might not come out of it right away. That kind of sucks." Vincent withdrew his wallet and showed Reno a photograph of his daughter with her brother. "Conner and Carmen. She is so beautiful and strong and intelligent. She's amazing. But she doesn't even know she's my daughter. We couldn't tell the kids. The trick worked. Falcon abducted the wrong kid, and his little plot went to shit."

"He didn't hurt her did he?"

"No, he put her into suspended animation. But I'm going to find her. I'll get her out somehow."

"I hope to meet my niece one day, kiddo."

Vincent scoffed with a grin. "I'm not a kid anymore."

"Eh. It still works." Reno grinned. "Speaking of names, Reno Nevada died. At least as far as the world and Falcon are concerned. Karla legally changed my name while I was in the coma. It'll help me fit in better."

"You have a new name?" Vincent tilted his head.

"She named me after a friend of hers who died. Nathanial Carrington. He's the guy who had the lightning thing before me."

Vincent furrowed his brows in confusion. "Pardon?"

"The old man gave me his powers. He was dying. I tried to bring him back. He gave me his powers and died."

"Weird." Vincent rubbed his chin in thought. "It was a myth that people could pass off their abilities at death like that. Nobody has seen it happen. But there have always been rumors. But Falcon is really trying to figure it out. And there are technologically designed jewels that can amplify a person's powers, or give someone some sort of control over an ability. They come from the Capital of the First Age. I think it's where Karla got her telekinesis."

"What?" Reno settled back down on the weight bench. "Karla's ability to throw stuff around comes from technology?"

"After living down there for all these years, that's my theory - I think Karla was given that ability. The thing is, it's only supposed to be until the cube dissolves in the body. And it's not supposed to be really powerful. But we give ability cubes to our science teams to help them get more things done. The longest I've seen one last is a few months."

"What makes you think Karla's ability is like that?"

"Anyone given an ability cube has glyphs show up on their palm, or, rather, wherever the cube was absorbed by the body."

"Karla has those things show up beneath her palms, all along her wrists, up her arms ... it almost looks like a sleeve tat when she really amps up. Does that mean she absorbed a bunch of them or something?"

"It would be too hard on her body. Only the immortals could use multiple cubes. And then there's still the problem of her ability never went away. Those things last a few months, tops. Also, the glyphs don't disappear. Karla's go away when she's not using her telekinesis right?"

"Yeah." Reno rubbed his forehead at the hairline. "Have you told her this stuff yet?"

"No. And I don't know if I'll have time to stay. You pass it on. I can't stay very long at all. I just wanted to see if you were up and tell you I love you, and I'm glad you're okay."

A wry grin found Reno's tired face. "Yeah? You remember what I promised you when I made it into the Personal Crimes Division?"

"That you were going to get rid of the SIG Sauer P229, because you didn't like forty caliber bullets?"

Reno stared at his brother for a moment then laughed. "Damn. Good memory. Yeah, I went with the forty-five. But I meant, remember when I took you out to a celebration dinner? It was right after you got your GED, kiddo. You remember what I promised you?"

Vincent paused to think. After a moment he shrugged and said, "We're a team. We'll always stick together."

A grin found Reno's lips. "Exactly. Whether it's helping you with rent, or being there when you needed to vent about girls. I told you I'm not going anywhere. I meant it, Vince." His grin broadened. Reno ran his hand back through his hair and added, "And what the hell is up with Ultimate Frisbee? Did a non-contact sport really get a National league? I that that crap was just a craze. Who the hell wanted it to be a pro sport? This funky-ass future has been kind of disappointing so far, TVs notwithstanding."

"I have no idea, I don't follow sports."

Reno laughed. "Right, right. Yeah, I remember."

"So what's your plans now that you're back? I mean, physical therapy, of course, but what else?"

Reno shrugged. "There was a USB Flashdrive in the Chevelle all those years ago. Computers at the time couldn't read the format. So I decided I'm going to try and crack it with a modern computer. I wanna know what's on that thing."

"Uhm ... okay? I didn't know anything about it."

"Yeah. It's been a personal mystery." Reno stretched a bit. "You staying for dinner?"

"No. I need to get back to my wife. We're going to find my daughter and figure out how to wake her up."

"Alright, kiddo. Leave a message for Conner before you go. If he thought he was your kid for a while, he's still going to expect you to say hi to him."

"I, uh..." Vincent shrugged. "I can't face him right now. I'm told he recently found out the truth. That means I lied to him for years. I'll talk to him soon. But he's not going to be very happy with me at the moment. Just tell him I said hey. I promise I'll make things right soon."

The two brothers hugged. "It was good seeing you, Vincent."

"Yeah, you too, Reno. Nathan. Whatever you are now."

Reno grinned and gave his brother a playful shove. "I'm your brother, that's what I am. Wilfred saved my car. We'll go for a ride in it soon. When do you have to go?"

"My plane leaves in a few hours. I gotta leave now. You know how that is - you have to hurry up and weight. But damn it was good to see you again. Tell Sinopa I said hello again."

"Yeah, sure." Reno gave him another hug then walked him out of the gym, back to the front door. "You take care of yourself. Get that girl out safe and sound."

"I will. Thanks, Reno."

"Don't even sweat it. We'll see each other again. Tell Topaz and Fox I said I'll keep an eye on Conner. I'm supposed to meet him soon. I won't let anything happen to him."

"I appreciate it." Another quick hug then Vincent walked out the front door and to his rental car.

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Next chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/734400