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Chapter -22- The Meaning of Love

Minutes later...

Karla Loupe stumbled. She put her hands out and her palms met a nearby wall. She looked around but didn't see Eric or Conner. "Boys! Boys?"

No response.

She looked down. The room was well lit and she stood on a pedestal with a glyph in a circle at the center. She looked back up. The pedestal was the same as the one she was just standing on, but the room was different.

She felt disoriented. "So that's what it feels like to be teleported and not expect it." She stepped off the slightly elevated circle and looked around the room.

Elegant pillars were at the center of the room. There were no carvings, but the architectural design was beautiful. The pillars were shaped for functionality and décor, reminiscent of white Corinthian columns found in Greek temples.

She approached the closest pillar and traced her fingers through the fluted grooves in the column.

The base, where it was mounted into the floor, was decorated with acanthus leaves. The carvings curved up into a palmette design, supporting the column.

Karla stepped back and looked around the room. The walls were faded but had a story mural on the west side. She couldn't make out the images, except for one or two. She recognized one section having a bull with golden horns.

The glowing eyes of the bull were made from the chrysanthemum flower, like the teleportation pad and the Japanese Emperor crest.

She walked along the wall to a door at the end. The doors were decorated in a way that was overwhelmingly detailed with etchings unlike anything she'd ever seen on a documentary. At the corners of the frame, she saw sprouting anthemion images in the marble.

Karla paused to take in the design of the doorframe. She pushed on the door. It was belligerent at first, but eventually gave, creaking on well-designed hinges older than recorded history.

She stepped through. The well-balanced door shut behind her. Karla looked around. There were mirrors in the corners of the ceiling. The reflective surfaces created brilliant lighting that cast the room into a soft glow despite the lack of an apparent light source.

Karla squinted her eyes, looking up at the mirrors. They weren't made like a normal mirror. They were cast and polished from metal. There were edges where they seemed scuffed. The fact they were so polished after so long made her wonder if they were normal metal or if they were made from the same stuff as Conner's rod.

She concluded that someone must have restored the mirrors within the last few years.

Karla passed through to another room, which was lined with shelves and cubbyholes. In some of them, there were empty scroll rods with metallic rods. The dust beneath them, lining the cubbies, were all that remained of the parchment that were once scrolls.

Who knew what information they contained, or how long ago the paper turned to dust?

She picked up one of the rods and looked it over. After a moment, Karla put it back on the shelf and continued on.

She went through another decorative door. Like bank vault doors, they were perfectly balanced and weighted to open with ease. They creaked softly, the only protest offered, and swung ajar.

Karla stood on a balcony overlooking the entirety of the ancient lost city. It was breathtaking.

Concentric circles stretched out. She realized almost immediately that they were large empty canals, and she was at the center.

She looked down from on high, able to see the rooftops of tall buildings down in the town. They faded into the distant gloom.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

Karla whirled around, face to face with Aris Falcon. She stared at him in shock and silence.

"Kudos to you for not having a reaction."

Karla closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Mm. Reno?"

"Yeah."

"He showed up. He disappeared and I found myself choking. I felt lightheaded. I reached for a bottle of water in my desk and forced myself to drink. Whatever I was choking on, I swallowed it. Reno thought I was dead?"

"He did that to kill you. He wanted you to choke to death."

"Then I suppose I'm lucky." Falcon sighed. "I know why you're here. It was wrong of me to take Donovan. He has an ability that is undocumented. Steven wished to study it."

"Excuse me?"

"To explain in short, Karla, the ability possessed by Fox and his son, Conner, allowed people to interface with technology in this city. Conner will use that ability to interface with the inner sanctum. It has been sealed for over ten thousand, seven hundred years."

"Back up to the part where Steven wished to study my son."

Falcon nodded. "Steven is the oldest man alive. He was floored by the ability of your son. To date, no one has displayed the power to decrypt wireless information and read it. Donovan's ability is a mutation, and it would give the user the power to monitor unlimited information at any given time ... without a computer or hardware interface."

"I know what my boy can do. Anyhow, you're right about one thing - it was wrong of you to take Donovan. You and I? We had a fucking deal, Aris. I leave you alone; you leave me alone. Guess what? You broke our contract. Now I'm going to break your face. Where is my son?"

"He is sleeping. For him, it has been less than two weeks since he has last seen you. We were unable to harvest his ability. It is unique to him. Perhaps with the technology within the inner sanctum, we will be able to..."

"No." Karla cracked her knuckles. She made a fist, drew it back, tensed up, and slugged Falcon in the face with all of her telekinetic strength.

Falcon's neck broke immediately. He dropped to the floor. His head turned back in its original direction. Tendons popped. His upper spinal cord began to mend.

Aris sat up, opened and closed his hands and got to his feet. "Do you feel better?"

"I'm just warming up, bitch. Where's my son?"

"Karla, calm down."

"Where. The fuck. Is my child?!"

Falcon shook his head. "I heard what you've done to Jasper. Clever, teleporting an object into his head. I hadn't considered you phasing an object with his brain. I've made changes - you won't be able to phase anything into my body. The quantum..."

"I don't need a fucking science lesson, Doc. Where is my son? I will rip your head off and telekinetically drive it up your ass. Feel free to heal from that. Now, where is my son?"

"Karla, let's first discuss your level of disrespect towards..."

"Aris! If your next breath isn't the location of Donnie, I will rip your teeth out, or better yet, I will drive them up into your goddamn head! Then the _next_word out of your mouth will lead me to ripping your head off like I described a moment ago! I will find my son without you. Don't fuck with me!"

Falcon stepped aside and gestured for her to turn back in the direction from which she'd come. "Keep going. You'll see a round pedestal on the floor in the third room. Just keep going in that direction until you find the utility room."

"You kept him in a closet?!"

"Karla, I kept him where no one would interfere with him."

She glowered. "Your guards said they've never seen a child down here. If you cloned him or made him turn into an adult or some bullshit like that, I will seriously come back."

"You're threatening me? How do you plan to hurt me? I'll heal. You've already seen that."

She approached Falcon, putting her face awkwardly close to his. "I will floss with your spine." She turned away from him and stormed across the room, back the way she came. "Bitch." She slammed the door shut behind herself.

Karla took a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream and shout. If Falcon couldn't die, there was no way this nonsense would ever be over.

She made her way through the empty library, back into the first room. She looked down at the pedestal, wondering how it knew to bring her to this place - the building where her son was kept.

Karla stared at the teleportation pad for a moment. She stepped over it and went through a door, leading deeper into the building.

Suddenly, she didn't care about the beautiful decorations. She didn't care about fancy inlays on the wall, or murals or anything else for that matter.

Right now she wanted Donnie. She wanted chocolate, hot tea, a hug from her friends ... something to take the edge off the anger boiling in her heart.

Right now, she was alone. She was alone, with her son in the room ahead, and a psychopath megalomaniac in the room behind her.

She knew she couldn't protect herself from Falcon's ability to heal. She couldn't fight him to the death. She took a deep breath again.

Karla slung the next door open and approached another door with bundled cables along the floor. The cables went through a hole drilled in the corner to the left of the doorframe.

She went through and saw a stasis pod against the wall. Beneath the condensation-frosted glass was her son, un-aged and protected from the world.

Aris stepped into the doorway behind her. "I'm not as barbaric as you."

"This ... is pretty barbaric," she said. "Get him out of there."

Aris shook his head with a sigh. "He's only slightly older than I was when you first tried to kill me, Karla."

She blinked. "Excuse me? I would never try to murder a child."

"I always pitied you because you don't even know what you do not know. But now ... I think I pity you more because you cannot remember what you once did know."

"Alright, Falcon. You're not Jesus, so stop with the parables."

"So much has been taken from your memories since the turn of the twentieth century that I'm surprised you've adapted. Such catastrophic memory loss should have theoretically caused dementia. Then again, you did adopt the personality traits of those you've loved and lost. Peri Darken's obnoxious behavior; Marcus Howard's outlook, and how he would often proclaim something to be cliché. You've absorbed Gerard's excessively romantic outlook on sexuality. You started eating ice cream after the death of Jonathan Conner Parker. Do you even realize you're doing it?"

Karla stood in silence, listening to the monologue because ... frankly, the man was right. In a soft voice, she asked, "How did you even know those things about me?"

"The same way I knew you tried to kill me when I was a child."

Karla shook her head. "I wouldn't harm a child."

"You nearly did. I stole powers to protect myself from people like you."

"We weren't enemies until the twenty-first century, Aris."

"We were never enemies. We engaged in a simple business transaction. I provided you with a product; you left as a satisfied customer."

Karla pointed to the stasis tube. "Get him out of there."

"You know, I once considered you to birth the twins. I had already prepared the treatment and the genetic material. Sinopa approached me first, seeking help with conception."

Karla put her hand on the side of the chamber. "If you won't help me, I know people who will. I'll take this thing to them. We already know it has a battery backup. That's how Reno's pod got to DC."

"I sent Reno's pod to DC. The battery source on your son's pod is limited to a matter of twenty minutes. Reno's pod was designed to operate for twenty-four hours."

Karla balked. "You? You sent Reno's pod to the surface? Why?"

"I believed he would not come out of his coma. I used him to track the rest of you. I know how sentimental you and your friends are, Karla. I tracked Reno right to your home where I found Eric and Rufus. I killed them both, took your son, and..." Falcon shrugged. "Rufus survived. Reno woke up. I was wrong. But at least I have the satisfaction of taking away your husband whose life you begged for when we last met."

Karla smirked. "Yeah, you got me, Falcon. You won that battle. You killed Eric and now I'm all alone. Open the fucking pod."

Aris eyed her for a moment. "It must be opened from the command center, remotely."

"Bullshit, open it now."

"Karla, I predicted something like this might happen. My failsafe is to be far away from the pod when it opens. I'll open it, and you won't find me afterwards. You'll have no choice but to take your child home and leave. I will survive, Karla. You couldn't kill me as a child, and you won't kill me now."

She narrowed her eyes. Karla amped up her arm and took Falcon by his shirt. "Let's go." She shoved him back through the door. "Back the way we came?"

"Yes. It's back that way."

Karla shoved him down the hall. "Move. Now." She guided him through the beautifully decorated rooms, back the way they came.

Falcon stepped through a doorway. As soon as his feet connected with the teleportation pedestal, he disappeared from her grasp.

Karla stumbled a bit. She looked around. Her eyes cut down to the round pad on the floor. She balled her hands into fists. "NO!" She stepped onto the pad. "Falcon!"

Nothing happened. She stood there in silence. The pad ceased to take her anywhere. "No! No, goddamn you! I swear to God I will find a way to kill you!"

Hopelessness settled into her gut. She slid down the nearest wall and sank into a corner.

Karla drew her knees to her chest and sobbed in frustration, anger, and emotional stress. It was all too much at once. She was so close to rescuing her son, and her only lead escaped.

The tears were short lived but a necessary evil. She took ahold of her emotions and drew a deep breath to calm herself. "Okay," she whispered. "Okay. I'll be okay. I'll get him out of there, and we'll be okay." She took another deep breath.

She perked up at the sound of a clatter in an adjacent room. She stood up and wiped her face.

Two male voices could be heard ever so faintly from the next room. One chastised the other. The second challenged the first with an equally scolding tone. It was almost music to her ears.

She shouldered her handbag and reached into the purse until she found eye drops.

The succubus lifted her head, closed her eyes, and placed two drops onto her eyelashes. She opened her eyes, letting the solution mix with her eyes. Karla thumbed the cap back on, dropped the bottle in her handbag and waited.

A door on the far wall opened and Conner stepped through with his cane at the ready. "I'm telling you, Eric, I smell her perfume. She's here."

"There is a distinct lack of destruction, boy. Karla is..." Eric followed Conner through the door and trailed off into silence. Eric glanced at Conner and nodded to acknowledge the boy was right.

Karla offered a tired smile.

Eric approached his wife and put his hands gently on her arms. "You've been crying."

"Yeah. Stupid drops - they're supposed to be faster than using cucumbers. What a crock of crap, huh?" Karla took a deep breath and sighed. "Donnie is in the other room. It's not far. He's safe. He's alive. But Falcon got away before I could force him to free our son. I'm sorry."

"How did you get here?" Conner asked. "Did I say something to upset you back in the courtyard, earlier?"

Karla shook her head. "No." She pointed to the circular pad on the floor. "It's a teleportation thing. Somehow, when I touched your cane, it activated the one that brought me here. I ... assume it has something to do with your cane opening the door to that room. Maybe it's something for your family's ancestors - I have no idea how it works, but it brought me to where I wanted to be. It brought me to my son."

Conner grimaced. "Alright, well ... Falcon's not dead. Did I catch that right?"

Karla nodded. She turned to Eric and hugged him. "I couldn't kill him. I tried. I broke his neck and he healed from it in seconds."

Eric replied with a facial expression of disgust. "We'll find a way to kill that man. Then our family will be safe." He returned his wife's hug, briefly.

For Karla, the embrace wasn't nearly long enough but such a public display of sentiment from such a typically private man was still appreciated.

She wiped her eyes. "They're the tears of Ben Stein. Wow." She made her way through a doorway, adding, "This way, boys."

Conner turned to Eric and shrugged. "Who is Ben Stein?"

Eric shrugged back. "Look it up. All she's ever told me, when she makes that joke, is that she wants to win his money, or that it 'gets the red out,' whatever that means."

Conner furrowed his brows. "Okay...?" He followed Eric through the doorway.

Karla stopped in front of a small side-room. The door was already open. She gestured towards the room. "Conner, can you get him out using your power?"

"My dad figured it out for the others," said Conner. "If he can do it, I can do it."

Karla brought her fists together. She pressed both of her thumbs against her teeth, but refrained on biting the nails. "Just ... do whatever you can."

Eric placed his hands on Karla's shoulders. "Hey ... we'll figure this out."

She leaned back into his touch, again appreciative to receive it.

Conner leaned his cane against the wall and explored the pod with his hands. First, he wiped the condensation from the outer tube, and peered in at the electronics slightly visible through the glass pod. "Karla, this one is different."

"What?"

"It has ... an umbilical cord going to your son's navel. The design of this thing seems heavily modified compared to the versions up in the other city." Conner leaned over, peering through the bottom of the glass at electronics below the boy's feet. "It's receiving and transmitting information - probably vitals and stuff. He's being monitored."

"Why monitor him?" asked Eric. "If he's frozen..."

"He's not," Conner said. "His body function is operating at reduced capacity, but he has an umbilical cord and a ... whatever that thing is called that collects urine and such."

Karla took a deep breath. "Urinary catheter. So, he's aging?"

Conner looked back at her. "At best guess? I'd say he's aging slowly. He's in hibernation. But his body is protected. Give me a sec. I'm trying to interface with this thing and it has seven redundant firewalls."

Karla fidgeted. "Let me know when to teleport him. It's the only way we can get those tubes out the right way."

Eric murmured softly to his wife. "I thought you can't pull them out like that? They're too attached."

"It's a frame of mind," she whispered back. "Chance showed me that trick. Back then, cellphone chargers interlocked like metal Velcro. He told me to take the charging prongs out of the socket instead of trying to pull the charger from the phone. It worked. I have the finesse to do this sort of thing, now. It's not attached any differently than the knife that was in Rachel's thigh."

Eric nodded, followed by a half-shrug. "I wasn't there for that."

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine. I got this. I won't hurt our son. I know what I'm doing."

"Okay."

Conner looked back over his shoulder. "It's uh ... it's opening."

"Good work!" Karla exclaimed.

"I'm not sure if..." Conner trailed off and stepped away from the tube. "Yeah. I, uh ... thanks." He looked down at the cables on the floor. "You want to trace these back to their source or do you want to get the hell out of here?"

Karla watched as the nutrient solution drained out of the stasis chamber. Her son's body began to sag with the lack of buoyancy. "I'm taking my boy to Elvena. She's going to get him back to Paris and wait for everyone to arrive - me, your parents ... everyone."

Conner nodded. "Karla, is it true you're giving your home to my family?"

"Yeah."

He afforded a weak smile. "Thanks. That's ... I know my mom was upset with you, but you're ... thank you for caring about my family."

She nodded and cut her eyes back to the stasis tube. "God, it's taking forever. I want to get out of here before that asshat comes back."

Eric gave Karla's shoulders a squeeze and dropped his hands to his sides. "I'm glad he let you live."

"He was freaky and made no sense as usual. He rambled, he monologue'd ... all this shit and he doesn't realize he's..." she sighed and shook her head.

"What?" Conner asked.

"Nothing," she said. And then, as an after-thought, she added, "He thinks he's the good guy in all this." Karla watched as the last of the fluid drained. The child within sagged by the breathing apparatus, the umbilical cord and the catheter.

Karla held her hands out. Donovan appeared in her arms.

The child was soaking wet and smelled like bland chemicals. The smell of the chemicals gave her a flashback to when she was in labor. Donovan smelled like bodily fluids - blood, placenta, and the like.

Conner opened his mouth but decided not to speak.

Karla leaned her head down and listened to the sound of Donnie's breathing. A sense of calm washed over her. Tension drained out of her shoulders.

She drew in a deep breath. He didn't smell like her son from the nutrient bath solution, but she didn't care. "Okay. We can't risk running into Falcon again. We're taking the emergency exit. Boys, take an elbow."

Eric placed one hand on Karla's left elbow. Conner took hold of her right bicep.

Karla's purse disappeared. It reappeared on her feet. "Found an LZ. Hold on to yer butts." The group disappeared.

X

X

Elsewhere in the Lost City...

Nicky Parker sighed, staring out the glassless window of a beautiful, lifeless shell of a building. "I feel like I killed her, Reno."

Reno Nevada knelt in front of a panel on a wall. He traced his fingers over the pipes inside the wall, curious about the strange alloy. He looked back at his fiancée and frowned. "Wait, are you talking about that girl who was your clone? Jesus, Nicky, you popped her in the face to teach her a lesson about humility. That's not the same."

"I left her alone in the street, injured and at a disadvantage. I should have taken her to Fox and Topaz."

Reno stood up. "Nicky, we thought the city was cleared of attackers."

"I was trained to follow a procedure," said Nicky. "I would never leave a suspect bleeding in a street. That was ... it was foolish, and it was a horrible lapse in judgment." Nicky looked at the hole in the wall. "What are you doing, Reno?"

"Apparently these buildings had power channeled through them. These people had working lights, plumbing, and ways to communicate with other buildings. It's practically on par with what we have on the surface. It's ... modern."

"Huh." Nicky stared at the pipes in the open panel. She turned back to the window and stared out towards the temple in the distance.

The structure was so large it disappeared into the gloom, with only the front façade visible from the window.

Nevada approached Nicky from behind. He wrapped his arms around her. "Hey, don't be upset."

"I am. We didn't see eye to eye, but ... we could have been twin sisters. If I'd just ... taken the time to get to know her, I might have started to like her. Others saw something in her. And the worst part of all? I attacked her for cheating on Fox and Topaz."

"She was cheating?"

"She slept with that guy, Rufus. The monster ... Uh, wolf, guy. Guess what? Topaz told her to do it! So no, she wasn't cheating after all. She was asked by Topaz to help that guy get over a loss, so that the guy would be focused enough to help us fight."

"What? Seriously? Isn't anyone capable of a normal relationship anymore? I ... guess I shouldn't talk; I had a fuck-buddy thing and I shouldn't have..."

"That's the most normal thing you can do when grieving." Nicky leaned back into Reno's arms. "Anyway. Apparently, Nichole and Rufus had a thing at one time. Like, a physical connection or whatever. It's hella messed up, but whatever - bottom line, my clone wasn't cheating. So, no matter how you look at it, the fact remains I attacked her because I'm ignorant."

Reno sighed and kissed the top of Nicky's head. "I love you." He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know how to apologize for something he couldn't fix. He didn't know how to make it better. Telling her that he loved her seemed like the best course of action.

"I love you, too. I'm so glad you _get_me."

Reno sighed a breath of relief. "We're a team, right?"

"Yeah..." Nicky paused. She leaned forward in the window and looked down. "Uh ... your 'buddy' is calling for you."

Reno leaned over Nicky's shoulder and saw Karla down in the street. "Up here, kiddo!"

Karla vanished.

She reappeared behind Nicky and Reno. "We have a problem, you guys."

Reno and Nicky turned around, facing the succubus. Her blouse was saturated with a strange reddish-hued goo. At second glance, Karla also appeared to have been crying recently.

Nicky tilted her head. "Have you been crying?"

Karla held her hands up, palms out. "Later, later. Listen, Aris Falcon is still alive. I just punched him so hard it broke his neck and killed him - he healed from it. Then he escaped. He used these ... these teleportation pad-things, and got away."

Reno sighed, secretly exasperated. He ran his hand up through his hair and moved over to the bed. He sat down on the concrete-like base and reached into his pockets.

"Reno, we'll get him okay?" Nicky hated seeing him upset.

Nevada pulled a small USB drive and a small tablet, roughly seven inches in size, and sat them on the bed block. He took a deep breath. "I'm going to leave these here for a minute while I stretch my legs. I'll be right back. I need to find Raul and my brother so we can figure out what to do next." He stood up and stretched. "I wish these things had mattresses, instead of just an empty marble base or ... whatever this shit is made from."

Karla frowned. "I'm sorry, Top Cop. But, hey, I got Donnie back. He's sleeping with Elvena right now. I just came here to tell you Falcon's alive."

"Yeah. Alright." He paused then added, "I'm glad you got him back safe, Karla."

Nicky grimaced, looking from Reno to Karla. "Can you give us a moment alone?"

Karla nodded in understanding. "Yeah. Sorry. I know I'm the last person you want to see right now."

Nicky frowned. "It's not that, I just..."

"I'll be right back," Reno told them. He walked to the window and ... in a flash, a bolt of lightning rushed out of the window, lancing across the sky open air of the underground city.

Karla reached up and put her hands over Nicky's ears just in time to block out the sound of thunder.

Nicky shrugged her head away from Karla's touch. "Thanks but ... it wasn't that loud."

"He's been getting better. When he first started doing it, it was deafening."

"Look..." Nicky took a deep breath. "I know you guys used to be an item. And I know you two walked away from it like mature adults. Good for you both. But I need to process it, and I haven't yet. Seeing you is a reminder that he used to sleep with you ... like, recently."

Karla frowned. "Next time, I'll send Eric or Conner to talk to Reno."

Nicky grimaced. "No, it was an emergency. I get that. I'm the one with the problem, here."

Karla shook her head. Her soft blond tresses bounced about against her cheeks. "No, honey. I'd be the same way if someone touched Eric. It's a terrible double standard, and I understand. I'll go."

Parker dropped to the bed block and traced her fingers over the USB drive and the small tablet. "What is this stuff he's been carrying around? I figured you'd know."

"The USB drive belonged to Nathan Carrington. The tablet used to belong to Conner. USB was phased out a few years ago, so Conner gave him that older model ... that's how Reno is able to read the files on it. They're important to him but I'm not sure of all the details."

"Do you know what's on the drive?"

"Files on all of us. All of us. Even you. We're not sure how Nathan could have files on people he never met, but ... it's all part of the mystery of Nathan Carrington. He knew several oracles and kept them close. The man was obviously obsessed with the future. And the weirdest thing of all is that he left everything to Top Cop, someone Nathan never met, save for one minute at the time of his death. I heard a rumor that Nathan knew Top Cop's father, Mike Tomes."

Nicky looked Karla over and frowned. "It isn't that you two used to have sex. It's the cute nicknames. It's that you're attractive, and it's your personality. You're charming. You ooze sexuality. I'm afraid things will happen again - I could give a damn about the past."

Karla shook her head. "I got my husband and my children back. I'm fighting the urge to take them home and never look back. But I made a promise to everyone that we are going to see this crap through."

"Did you love him?"

"Reno?"

Nicky crossed her arms over her chest. "No, the Archduke Franz-fucking-Ferdinand of Austria."

Karla smiled. She felt the strangest and most sudden rush of amusement bubble up in her belly. Silvery peals of laughter came next.

After all the tension and frustration, Karla needed a good laugh. She sat down on the empty bed basin, next to Nicky. "I like you. That's something I would have said. Hell, I don't think many people even know who Franz Ferdinand is anymore."

Nicky scoffed with a slight grin. "Yeah. Were you ... alive back then? I mean, you look young but Reno says you're pretty old."

"Yeah. I remember when the last of his kids died. Max - he died in 1993. Personally, I never met Franz and I didn't give a rat's ass when he was assassinated, because it was a European issue. I was content to ignore it until everyone else got swept up in the drama and the war."

"How can you not care about a World War?"

"I was drifting apart from Nathan at the time. We were in a relationship for a few years, and I was ... I was happy, you know? And he told me that he couldn't let me get too attached. So I was more upset about my troubles than the world being at war."

"Why would this Nathan-guy do that?"

Karla shrugged. "He said he knew I would fall hopelessly in love in 1999 with a boy named Chance." Karla looked down. She realized she was fidgeting. "Nathan was right, though. I only knew Chance for about a month. And in that time, I felt so hopelessly in love with that boy, that I have unfairly compared everyone to him ever since."

"You're still in love with him? That was fifty years ago," said Nicky.

"God yeah. If we found Chance in a tube next to yours, I would have been, like, 'Eric who?' I was stupidly in love with that boy. I can't even describe it. I was with my soul mate for a single month. Sad, huh?"

Nicky swallowed and frowned. "Damn. I'm sorry to hear that."

Karla reached over and patted Nicky's knee. "Yeah. Me too."

"I was so afraid you were going to try and get back with Reno..."

Karla shook her head and took Nicky's hand. She gave it a squeeze. "I'm not, nor have I ever been in love with Reno. I've only felt that strongly for two people my entire life."

"Chance and Eric, huh?"

Karla shook her head. "Nathan and Chance. Nathan grew to be an old man. I was honestly in love with him and he broke my heart when he told me 'please don't love me like that.' I was ... confused. For a while, I resented him. We kept sleeping together on and off. It messed with my head. I thought he was playing games with me until I met Chance. And then I realized something."

"What's that?"

"There's 'falling in love' like I did with Nathan, and then there is 'soulmate love,' like I had with Chance. The kind that Plato wrote about - the kind you can't fight even if you were at war with the person. The kind of love that makes you do stupid things, so you hope and you pray that they don't abuse your trust."

Nicky looked down. "Damn."

"I would kill another person for Nathan. If he asked me, I'd have done it." Karla scoffed at herself. "Foolish huh? But ... if Chance asked, I'd have killed the whole goddamn world. However, Chance wasn't the kind of person to ask that sort of thing."

"I thought you could only have one or the other? You find your soul mate, or you fall in love - it's like the old question of fate or freewill..."

Karla shook her head. "I think the world was once fated. But then there became so many people, and so many variables that we, as a species, evolved the ability of freewill. And now, because the world is such a big place, and there are so many people, many of us may never find our soulmate. So we evolved the ability to fall in love with someone who is..." Karla shrugged, thinking of a word. "...Compatible. You know? I found Nathan and I thought it was perfect. But it wasn't. I mean, it was for me, but it wasn't for him. I wasn't his soul mate. He knew it."

"Did he know who is soulmate was?"

"I think it was my sister."

"Wait, what? Nathan slept with you and your sister?"

"He was married to my sister. Then Kerii Mae died. I met Nathan after Kerii's passing."

"Oh. Damn, that had to be hard on him. So Nathan never got over her, huh? Well, that's obviously why he felt you two weren't soulmates."

"I guess not. Or maybe he found out who mine would be, and he wanted me happy, so he had me wait for Chance. He knew a lot about things that would happen up to the early twenty-first century."

Nicky nodded. "Was your romance with Chance worth the wait?"

"I'd like to think so." Karla smiled. She gave Nicky's knee a pat again. "I love Reno. I really do. He's a swell guy. I want him to be happy. Nicky, you make that guy really happy."

"You mean that?"

"I'd like to think I just ... kept him off the market until he found his soulmate in a glass tube, waiting for him."

"I don't understand why he didn't have feelings for my clone."

Karla shrugged. "Honey, that's how I know _you're_his soulmate - because of her."

"I don't understand, Karla."

The succubus offered a sly grin. "Because he wasn't in love with your face, or your mind, or your heart. He was cut from the same cloth as you. You. Not your body, or your smile, but the core of who you are."

"You mean, there were two of us, and he wanted me, not her, because clones don't even have a soul?"

Karla shrugged. "Maybe she does. What is a soul? Who knows, hon. But whether or not she has a soul - that doesn't matter. Reno is attracted to yours, babe. That's what I think. He wasn't even in love with her a little bit. When he found out his brother was banging your doppelgänger, he just shrugged. He muttered something about it being kind of weird, but it didn't really bother him. Why? Because she wasn't you. He could feel the difference."

Nicky replied with a slight smile. "You overthink things, you know that?"

Karla laughed. "Maybe I do."

"Just between you and me, I don't believe in soulmates. I'm open to the possibility of it, but if it's really a thing, I don't know if Reno is mine. I love him. I'm in love with him, but I never felt some magic connection."

"How did you two meet?"

Nicky shrugged. "We stepped on each other's toes on a drug case, and argued about it, and then he bought me a drink to apologize. We rarely agree on things, even after we became serious. We don't fight, but there is no magic connection. It's a pretty normal relationship."

"To be honest, that's what I had with Nathan. That's why, looking back on it, I know his soulmate was my sister, Kerii. I just helped him cope with the loss. I played the same role for Reno. Now that Eric is back, I don't have to be anyone's rebound."

"Is Eric your rebound?"

Karla laughed as if mocking herself. "Yeah, I guess he is. Shit. I never thought of it that way. But I made a family with him, so there is that. We argue a lot, though."

"Reno said you guys got separated. I thought the relationship may have been broken, which is why I was initially worried you might have reached out to Reno again."

The succubus smiled. "Honey, I'm old school - I don't throw away something when it's broken. I try and fix it."

"You're okay, Karla. I'm glad we talked. I don't feel worried or like I should be protective of Reno anymore."

Karla offered her fist towards Nicky. "Blow it up?"

Nicky arched her brows in confusion. She reached her hand up and brushed her knuckles against Karla's.

Karla opened her hand and wiggled her fingers. "Boom. Just know that I'll stomp asses and fight whoever stands in our way to make sure you and Reno get out of here and have a happily-ever-after ending. I've got mine, and now he should get his."

Nicky hugged Karla. "Thanks."

"No, thank you. I'm glad we're cool."

"We're cool," Nicky confirmed.

Karla stood up and stretched her lower back. "I'm going to get back before Donnie wakes up. You better invite me to the baby shower."

Nicky blinked. She subconsciously put a hand on her stomach. "What?"

Karla leaned forward and sniffed at Nicky. "I'm a succubus. I live off of hormones. You smell pregnant."

Nicky stood up and swatted at Karla. "Oh, I do not! God, you're as incorrigible as all your friends made you sound!"

Karla laughed. "Okay, okay, you're not gullible. Good for you. But I was serious - you should invite me to your shower. I wanna see what Mini Top Cops look like. See you around, Parker."

Nicky grinned. "It'll be 'Nevada' soon."

"Oh, I don't doubt it."

Nicky laughed. "See you around, Loupe. Thanks for not being confrontational."

"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing. I really expected you to hate my guts."

"Not anymore."

Karla grinned. "Works for me. I've gotta get back and be domesticated, now. My kids are probably hungry. I get a kick out of cooking for them. Weird, huh?" Karla vanished.

Nicky sat back down on the mattress-less bed. She shook her head with a chuckle and picked up the tablet computer and the USB drive. She held one in each hand, feeling nosey.

What could this long-dead old man possibly know about her?

Nicky finally pushed the drive into the jack on the side of the tablet.

Nicky saw a file marked, 'Reno Nevada / Nathanial Carrington.' She tilted her head, wondering why the file name had both their names, while all the other file-trees were named after one person.

She reminded herself that they had the same power and wondered if the names were paired by ability. Under that assumption, she assumed everyone else had a unique ability.

Except that Fox, Topaz, and Conner all had their own separate files.

Nicky put her finger on the file marked "Reno Nevada / Nathanial Carrington." The file began to populate text on the screen.

A sound outside caused Nicky to perk up. She heard distant footsteps, but it was more than one or two. She set the tablet down on the sofa and hurried over to the glassless window frame.

At the far end of the block, she saw six men in strange armored suits.

She squinted her eyes. The men held rifle-like weapons, but even from such a distance, she was able to make out details on their armaments. There was no ejection port for bullets. There was a lightning bolt icon on a magazine-like object sticking out from beneath the hand-grip.

Nicky took a deep breath and relaxed, trying to get the most out of her new ability.

The squad of soldiers stopped and swiveled their heads, searching the area. With them standing still, Nichole was able to see a printed font adjacent to the lightning bolt icon.

She realized it was some sort of battery cell for the weapon. At the end of the barrel, the rifle had a warning logo with another lightning bolt icon.

Nicky turned her head a bit and listened. She could barely make out their voices. The sound waves didn't travel far and the men's face asks muffled their voices.

One word stuck out to her. "Werewolf." A moment later, she made out, "Protocol seven hunting pattern."

Parker took a deep breath. They were apparently aware of Rufus in the area.

Nicky's eyes widened. Elvena Loupe, Karla's daughter, was staying with Rufus. Donnie, Karla's son, was staying with Elvena, which meant both of Karla's children were with Rufus.

Nicky raced out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and made her way to the doorframe. She peered out into the street.

The hunting squad turned away from her, surveying their area in correlation to ... whatever. She couldn't make out all the details of their muffled conversation.

She moved between buildings and headed in the direction of Rufus' temporary housing.