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Chapter -14- Baklava

Thursday, September 14, 11:30am local Athens, Greece ...

Nathan Carrington set his fork on a plate besides a slice of Baklava cheesecake. "You know I'm too old to eat this anymore, Grams."

The sixty-six year old woman sat down at the other side of the kitchen table and folded her hands. "Nathanial, you take diabetic medication. It won't hurt you to have one slice of dessert."

"Rich food gives me the sh-..." he trailed off and cleared his throat. "It tears up my guts, grandma."

YiaYia chuckled. "You're the only man who still knows my birth name. It won't kill you to use it."

"Hell, I remember when you were born, Athena. An Aries in 1957. Still, I prefer to call you what everyone else calls you: Grandma."

"Heh. I won't stop you, Nathan. So are you going to eat that or not?"

He sighed and looked down at the dessert on his plate.

Silence.

Nathan shook his head with a frown. "I love your desserts, but I don't have time to be sick to my stomach right now. You're not offended, are you?"

"Heavens no. The key to longevity is a healthy méros."

A wry grin found its way to Nathan's gnarled old visage. "I'm not here to talk about rich foods or ... healthy bowel movements."

"Oh, you understood my euphemism, did you?"

"I figured it out by the way you were talking. Honestly, I thought méros was supposed to be a music term."

"It has a handful of meanings."

Nathan pushed the plate away and folded his hands. "Grams, have you met a surgeon named Cybil Powalski?"

"Doctor Cybil J. Powalski," she said. "He works at Jewish hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. That's a city in the United States."

Nathan quirked brows, causing his wrinkled forehead to bunch up. "I know Baltimore is in the United States. It's just north of DC."

"Sorry, Nathan - if I mention a city in America to one of my countrymen, it's not likely they'll have heard of it. Unless, of course, it's a famous city, like New York, or Los Angeles, or Miami. I've grown used to explaining myself before someone can ask."

"Fair enough. Anyhow, do you know him? Like, in person?"

"I introduced myself to him after he manifested." YiaYia folded her hands on the table. She glanced at a second plate of cheesecake. Her eyes cut back to Nathan. "I'm not eating mine unless you eat yours."

"Not happening, Grams. So you've met your replacement already?"

YiaYia nodded. "He doesn't yet know the importance of his role in the future. He doesn't know how lucky he is to have had that..." She gestured outwardly with her right hand, searching for an appropriate term.

Nathan tilted his head. He withdrew a cellphone and thumbed the screen. His eyes lifted back to hers. "Éna vrády períptero?"

YiaYia scoffed. "You need to stay away from those telephone translators. But naí, the 'one night stand,' as it were - Cybil owes his life to Karla." She grinned and asked, "How is my little dear Karla?"

"She doesn't know what she's capable of, that's for sure. At this point, I doubt she remembers having sex with Cybil. To her, it was just a tryst while she was in the area."

"Just the same, she saved Cybil's life. And without him, there would be little hope for the future of the EC."

"The council doesn't exist anymore, Grams. There are just a few surviving Specials left around the globe."

"I know. I've always known it would come to this. It was one of two possibilities."

Nathan lowered his gaze, glaring at the dessert in front of him. "Is the future still forked?"

"Not the way it was," she said with a frown.

"What did I do wrong?"

"I told you, the telepath has to survive."

"Marcus Howard died twenty-four years ago. There's nothing I can do to fix that. It's too late."

"You didn't protect him."

"I did! I stayed away from him, so he wouldn't become a target, Grams."

"It's my fault. I should have encouraged you to take an active role in protecting him."

Nathan sighed. "We're past that point already. I need to know how to fix things without Marcus."

"Nathanial, sweetheart, I didn't want to say this to you because it would upset you, but it's time you know the truth."

"I'm listening."

She reached across the kitchen table and took one of his aged hands into her own. "The boy Karla called 'Chance,' was never _supposed_to die. He was supposed to help bring balance back to the Esoteric Council, and, to be frank, I am surprised that the attack on the Specials didn't happen sooner."

"Wait, what? He was supposed to live?"

YiaYia nodded in reply. "It's what I foresaw. You changed the future enough that he should have lived. But you took your eyes off of him long enough that he still died."

"Jesus..." Nathan ran a hand back through his short grey crew cut. "Dammit. These goddamn hunters are ruthless. It's like the goddamn Warsaw Uprising. We'll fight and hold our ground as long as we can, but help is sitting in the Celestial Realm while we get slaughtered down here."

"I don't focus on the past. I focus on the future, Nathan."

"Second World War - Poland held out for over two months, and the Russians stopped their advance against Germany, and just let the Polish die. Well over a hundred thousand civilians died - women, children, and resistance fighters."

YiaYia frowned.

"The deities are sitting up there in the Celestial Realm, refusing to help. How long can the Specials hold out?"

"We all knew, once Chance died, that it was only a matter of time before Falcon's hunters would start their attacks."

"You said it was just a possibility."

YiaYia shook her head. "You did your best. Now it's time to find Karla's future team."

"You're talking about a small ragtag group of Specials against people trained by hunters."

YiaYia nodded. "Teach Karla and her team to resist before it's too late."

"I've been preparing Karla for decades, Grams. It doesn't matter how many rifles she has. The Chasseurs Ardennais had all the bravery in the world and still lost the border to Rommel."

"You and your war history."

"I had to learn it. I was a General."

"You had three soldiers, Nathan. You were never a General. You were a commander at best."

"The Four Horsemen did the work of a battalion."

"And now you pride yourself on knowing useless historical information?"

Nathan glared at her. "If Greece didn't go to war against the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s, you would be a Sunni Muslim right now, buying your dessert ingredients in Lira. You'd have to have a man in the house to tell you 'what Abu Bakr would do.' And you'd have to abide by the six pillars of Iman. Considering you're agnostic, I doubt it would go over very well. Hell, they didn't even have fiction stories until near the end, and I know how much you love to read fiction."

YiaYia frowned. "You know your history, Nathan."

"I've had a long time to study it. I learn from other people's mistakes so I can make a difference in the world. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Sunni Islam, but it doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for you."

"I'm sure the Ottoman Empire would have fallen by now."

"Would it? Greece stood up for itself, and many other nations followed. It took the better part of a decade to make it stick. Even now, two hundred years later, Sunni Islam is the largest organized religion in the world."

YiaYia frowned. "How do you know so much about it?"

"I studied it after I met you. Did you know there were two-and-a-half million Greeks before the war? After the war, there was only eight-hundred-thousand left. Two-thirds of your nation was slaughtered, sold into slavery, or God-knows what else. That's 'Islam: the religion of peace' for you."

"Well, the Greeks were a Christian nation, ruled by a Muslim nation. Just ... so you know. I know they let us stay Christian, Nathan."

"And one of the points of big-government religion is to convert everyone. That's what the Ottoman Empire did, they just did it under the guise of having a choice."

"I'm not sure how you mean."

Nathan shrugged. "Christians were second-class citizens, their children were conscripted, and they paid higher taxes. Muslims were nasty bastards to everyone else. It's kind of ironic how they move to America and pout that they're treated poorly."

YiaYia frowned. "I've never seen you like this, Nathan."

"Yeah, well, history is a funny thing. You learn how people really are. Had Greece not fought, you would be a Muslim today. The Ottoman Empire was a Christian Majority up until, like, the fifteenth century. But by the 1800s, the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire was below twenty percent."

"I see."

"A hundred years later, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. I remember it - it was about a century ago."

"What caused it?"

"Greece going to war really screwed up the Ottoman Empire's financial situation. It created a domino effect that caused the empire to collapse little by little. People respected the Greeks for being the underdog and fighting their way out from beneath their rulers. People realized that their Muslim rulers were nasty, unmerciful bastards. The empire began to shrink."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because knowledge and understanding of history will prepare you for the future."

YiaYia nodded. "This has turned into a very interesting lunch conversation. So, how does your history with the Four Horsemen help you keep Karla alive?"

"Ethan and Mike are dead, and I'm retired. Kalen has a duty to defend Natalia while she's in some sort of vampire sleep hibernation thing." Nathan trailed off with a sigh.

"And that history helps Karla how? Help me understand."

"I want Karla to lead a larger group of people than I did. The Esoteric Council wasn't much better than the Ottoman Empire at times."

"Oh?"

"Karla's team will be free to use their abilities against Falcon without fear of judgment from some bullshit supernatural pseudo-government and a self-proclaimed 'judge.'"

"It's time you prepare Karla for the worst, Nathanial."

Nathan eyed her. "Did you have a dream?"

YiaYia nodded. "It's why I called you here. It was a rather long, extremely detailed one. I wrote everything down when I woke up. In it, Karla leads the charge against Falcon's hunters."

Nathan sighed. "You know, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division _captured_the Chasseurs Ardennais for information."

YiaYia arched her brows. "I don't know that battle. So, _without_a history lesson, what is your point?"

"Karla can make forty rifles seem like four hundred, but she's still outnumbered. The problem is, Falcon isn't a military commander. His hunters don't interrogate. They just burn everything in their wake."

"So teach Karla how to swoop in and attack undetected. Teach her how not to be caught."

Nathan smiled somewhat. "You mean like Russia's 588 night bomber regiment?"

"Excuse me?"

"Russian female pilots. They would cut their engines, swoop in at night, drop their ordinance on the Germans, and escape the area."

YiaYia leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Let's talk about the future, not the past. Karla won't be fighting an enemy nation. Falcon's hunters hide in plain sight, all over the world. It's not the same, and the tactics you've learned from history won't work."

Nathan frowned. "You have a point, Grams."

"You and Methos consider yourselves to be retired Generals. So advise Karla on how to lead her team against these hunters."

Nathan looked down at the kitchen table in silence. He sighed.

"What, Nathan?"

"Generals lead armies to battle against clear enemies under an opposing flag. You were right - I'm not fighting a clear enemy, I'm not a General anymore, and our people are on the defense with little or no communication. I don't even know how many Specials are left alive."

"Nathan, you tried so hard to convince yourself that you're a fighter at heart, but we both know there's one thing you do better."

"I get answers."

YiaYia nodded. "And now you're investigating the largest scale clandestine act of murder in known history."

"These hunters are daunting, Grams."

"Does a police officer go to war with a gang?"

Nathan blinked at her. "We're not fighting a gang."

"Does your enemy have a nationality?"

"No."

"Then they are a gang. Does a police officer go to war with a gang, Nathanial?"

After a moment to ponder the reason for her question, he finally said, "No. A police department can't wage war. They would organize a sting and go after the local leadership of the gang. If possible, they lure the head of the gang into their jurisdiction to complete the operation."

YiaYia nodded. "So get all the information you can, and sting these bastards where it hurts."

Nathan blinked. "It's rare you cuss."

"It was warranted," she replied with a wan smile. "Assemble Karla's team and prepare her to lead. Talk to as many of them as you can, Nathan."

Nathan stared at her for a moment. A smile tugged at his elderly face. "I spoke to Kalen first, then I spoke to Tamamo. I found Evan Balmoral."

YiaYia listened quietly.

Nathan cleared his throat. "I found Sinopa and Jules. I've kept Karla safe." Nathan paused to think. "Oh, and Johann Foster - Karla should be with him by now."

"Your job is finished, Nathan. You can relax."

"No, I still have to find Rufus Darken and, if possible, Collobulous." Nathan rubbed his chin in thought. "Karla's team needs more people. Rue and Bull; Donovan, Eric and maybe Justus; Patience; Kalen Kincade; Vincent Nevada, Fox and Topaz Parker; Reno Nevada..."

"Shh, stop."

Nathan frowned. "What?"

"Your job is not to find everyone. Your job is to set the pieces around chessboard, and let the game play out the way it was intended to happen."

"My job is to get Karla ready. I'm too old to lead."

"Nathan..."

"Karla and Chance were supposed to lead this thing together."

"You let him die. You should have protected him. You have no one to blame but yourself because you refused to take an active role."

"The kid surrendered himself to a Justiciar! If he didn't, the council would have hunted down Karla for aiding and abetting a wanted supernatural. The kid was brave, and he's the reason Karla is alive."

"He was more than just some 'kid,' Nathan."

"You're right. Chance wrote a confession to the Justiciar taking responsibility for the death of Ethan, and for Sinopa's attack on Darius. So I respect him, but you said Chance and Karla would keep the supernaturals alive. Chance traded his life to protect Karla, and the attacks happened. I can't take it back. I can't undo it."

"You promised yourself you would protect your wife's sister no matter what, didn't you?"

Nathan eyed her. "I thought you said you see the future, not the past. How did you know that?"

YiaYia leaned forward, eying Nathan. She afforded him a smile. "I don't need clairvoyance to see how protective you are. You love Karla almost as much as you loved her sister."

"Yeah..."

She narrowed her gaze. "It's a shame you weren't thinking with your heart, back in 1999."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You could have made yourself a target and protected them both. Instead, you watched Chance and Karla grow close, and you distanced yourself, because it hurt to see her happy."

"I always knew they were meant to be together. I backed off so they could be happy."

"You 'backed off' long before the boy was born, yet after they finally met, you couldn't bare to watch them happy together."

"Bullshit. I was too old for Karla."

"That's what you tell yourself, but it bothered you. Admit it."

"Fine." Nathan ground his molars together. "I gave them space, so that they would be happy. I just needed time to get over my feelings for her - I broke things off with Karla seventy-five years before those two met. I shouldn't have been jealous, but I was, and it was weird."

"You should have swallowed your pride and allowed yourself to be happy for them. You should have protected them. You should have protected them like a father protects children."

Nathan grimaced.

"Too late for that now, hmm?"

"Yeah." Nathan sighed and glared at the kitchen table again. "You always tell things like they are."

"That's what you expect of me, Nathan."

"So now what? Have you seen how everything ends in your new dream?"

YiaYia nodded. She folded her hands and leaned forward somewhat. "And you know what I learned?"

"What?" He leaned back in the wooden kitchen chair.

Her offered a cryptic smile. "I learned a lot. I know about your argument with Raul Poliandro in 1893. I know the details about your marriage with Karla's younger sister. I know that you're afraid to change history too much and why. I know you're angry with yourself. I know you _still_have feelings for Karla. I know you miss Nikola..."

"Again, you said you see the future. How the hell did you find out about my past? How do you know this stuff?"

"I can't help what I dream about. Maybe my dreams and prophecies aren't about what happens in the world, so much as what happens to its people."

"I need my secrets to stay secret."

"You can trust me with your secrets, Nathan. I'll keep them to myself."

"This is why I avoided Chance - if he learned my secrets, he would have learned my weaknesses. That would have made him a target." Nathan sighed. He tried to forcibly relax his posture, but was too pensive to fake his feelings. "What else did you learn from your dream?"

"I know you're not ready to pass the torch down to the police officer."

"Inspector," he corrected. "The kid is an inspector. And he's not ready. I should be teaching him. Preparing him. He would stand a better chance if I was allowed to..."

"Stay away from Reno Nevada until it's time to pass the torch."

Nathan grimaced.

She shook her head. "If you bring attention to Inspector Nevada, you will make him a target. If that happens, Nevada will die. If that happens..."

"Okay, Grams. Look, just tell me this: How did Chance's death change things so dramatically?"

"Chance would have used his ability to keep you safe, Nathan. Now Chance is dead."

"I should have been there to save him, I get that now. But it's too late." Nathan pursed his lips, causing age lines on either side of his mouth. "I'm told he had one demand from the Justiciar - to die with his boots on. Awfully manly for a teenaged boy."

"He was past the point of no return, because you weren't there to help him, Nathan. So he traded his life for a cause. He didn't run from it, he didn't cower from it. He met death bravely."

Nathan grimaced.

"If you make Inspector Nevada a target, he will die before his power manifests. If that happens, you will have no one to receive your torch when the time comes."

Nathan sighed. His eyes lowered. His shoulders slumped. "Okay, so what else did you see in your dream?"

"I saw Washington DC in the future."

"I need you to be specific. I need every detail, no matter how insignificant."

YiaYia nodded and started her story again. "I saw a layer of dust on stale boxes of cigarettes, sitting on a shelf. No one dared to smoke them, not even vagabonds. I saw a package half-opened, likely by someone looking for supplies. I saw a cigar sitting left on an adjacent dusty shelf. The cigar had small holes - snacked on by tiny beetles."

"What else did you see, Grams?"

"On the wall, outside the store, I saw a radiation symbol posted."

"It sounds like the future I saw, in my youth. I was just a twenty-something year-old punk kid who thought he knew everything. When I was shown the future, I knew I had to change things for the better. From 1893 onward, that was my goal in life."

YiaYia nodded. "In my dream, Millions died. With no one to operate the many nuclear power stations on the east coast of America, these abandoned plants suffered meltdowns. Some nations went bankrupt trying to clean up the mess, but it was too late. Radiation contaminated the east coast and the Atlantic."

Nathan sighed.

"It will be a tragedy."

"I tried my entire goddamn life to change the future, and it was all for nothing."

"Nathanial..."

"Grams, I have the power to make significant changes. I need to kill Aris Falcon."

"You cannot fight Falcon. You tried to kill him in 1908, but he survived..."

"Yeah, I was desperate. It wasn't my best moment." Nathan shook his head. "I tried to make Aris an ally to the Esoteric Council in 1980. I thought I could make him a 'good guy' so to speak."

YiaYia shook her head. "You cannot control his destiny." She reached across the table and put her hand upon his.

"I can keep him from becoming unstoppable."

YiaYia tilted her head in confusion. "Why would you think he becomes unstoppable?"

"There was an oracle I knew who couldn't see his own prophecies. Instead, he touched the hands of a person and showed them their future."

YiaYia nodded. "I've heard about him. He died in 1908, when you tried to kill Falcon the first time. But in my dream, Falcon isn't unstoppable. He will be killed by someone on Karla's team."

Nathan sighed in relief. His shoulders relaxed and the tension drained out of his posture. "Really?"

"I saw it last night. However, it will be some measure of time before Falcon's life ends. A lot of harm happens first."

"Then he needs to die sooner, pure and simple. The problem is, it's not going to be easy."

She folded her hands on the kitchen table. "Why would you think Falcon becomes unstoppable?"

Nathan frowned somewhat. "In the future I saw, Falcon gets his hand on the green stone."

"I'm sorry?"

"I've kept it a secret for a long time. It's one of the secrets I..."

"Is it hidden beneath the ice in Antarctica?"

Nathan's eyes widened. "How did you know that?"

"In my dream..."

Nathan stood up. "I have to leave. If anyone knows where it's at, it's not safe there."

"Sit down," she exclaimed. "Let's have our facts straight before you rush off. You're old. You would not survive in Antarctica. Now, what's going on? What is the purpose behind the green stone?"

Nathan ran his hands up through his short grey hair. "Aris almost got his hands on that stupid green stone in the 1930's by chance. Then he nearly got his hands on it again in 1945."

YiaYia gave Nathan's hand a gentle squeeze. "I saw it was significant. Tell me about it."

Nathan slammed his fist on the table, breaking his frail pinky finger. "If Falcon gets his hands on that goddamn little green stone, he becomes unstoppable. That's the future I learned about, and the reason I surfaced in 1893 to change the future." The bottom of his hand swelled, becoming darker in coloration.

"Nathan..."

"You don't get it, Grams. I've worked _eighty-eight years_to keep that thing hidden."

"Nathan..."

"Here's your history lesson, Grams. The year was 1935. It was about a year after the Bathysphere set a world record for deepest dive."

YiaYia remained quiet.

"There was this rich-ass member from the supposedly-defunct German Thule Society. He put together a team. The team consisted of one archeologist, one oceanographer, an engineer, a medic, and a Special. I don't know who this Special was, and I don't know what power he had."

"I'm listening," she murmured in reply.

"The Germans set up a diving test. It wasn't on the books. There was a ship with a skeleton crew for the dive team. The crewwas told they were conducting stress test studies, which ... was true. That went towards building the first U-boats about a year later, but it's unrelated. It was a cover story for the German dive team. They made their own version of the Bathysphere."

"You rarely get this excited over..."

"I'm not finished, Grams. Going over facts is how I handle stress. It's why I investigated crimes by Specials, and it's what kept me clear-minded when leading the Four Horsemen."

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant o interrupt, then. Go on, Nathan."

"Anyhow, this crew broke the official record of the '34 Bathysphere dive, but it was all secret. It wasn't documented. No one knows just how deep the team went."

"How do you know about it?"

"That's complicated, Grams. All I know is that they made it to the bottom of the Atlantic."

YiaYia nodded and remained silent.

"The technology didn't exist for a dive that deep. Not back in 1935."

"What happened to the team?"

"When the damn thing surfaced, the German dive team was dead. Only the Special, whoever he was, managed to survive the dive."

"I'm listening."

Nathan nodded and continued. "This guy brought back proof of a lost city. He had technology belonging to what was dubbed the 'First Age of Human Technology.' I don't even know how the hell he got it. He should have been crushed by the water pressure that far down. It would have been impossible to open the hatch under that much pressure."

"Perhaps his ability allowed him to phase out of the diving device?"

"God only knows, Grams. That team was sent to its death. Whether it was opened on the ocean floor, whether they suffocated, or something else, nobody knows. It wasn't documented."

She nodded in silence.

"All I know is that this jackass 'Special' brought back proof of the First Age."

"What happened to the artifacts recovered by this man?"

"They fell into the hands of the German man I mentioned - the Thule Society guy. He had a lot of money and a lot of influence."

"Influence?"

"Yeah, Grams. The Thule Society helped to start a political party, which later evolved into what became the Nazi party. These are the people who believed there was an Aryan Race."

"I see. They thought Atlantis was the home of a master race?"

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah. The Thule Society thought they were the descendants of the technologically advanced First Age of Humans."

"The 'Aryan Race,'" said YiaYia with a nod.

Nathan nodded. "Exactly. That 'Aryan race' bullshit became one of the underlying principals behind the Nazi war machine. These dopes actually thought they were invincible because their leaders believed it. The leaders believed it because a bunch of rich old book nerds claimed they had proof of it."

YiaYia folded her hands on the table. "And one of the devices brought back from that trip was the green rock?" She glanced down at Nathan's swollen hand.

"After they dug it up from the ocean floor in 1935, the green rock was put into a vault. I searched, but it was ten wasted years. I never found it."

"Go on."

"In the spring of 1945, I was approached by a Special who had limited telepathy."

YiaYia tilted her head. "Really...? That's rare."

"Yeah. I agreed to keep this person's kid safe in exchange for information on where to find the artifacts belonging to the First Age."

"Go on."

Nathan sighed and ran his hands back through his hair. "This person risked their life to get me the information on where the damn artifacts were hidden. So I lived up to my end of the bargain and I kept that Special's son safe. The boy's name was Michael. I arranged for him to be raised by a Catholic Church."

"Michael Richter? One of your Four Horsemen?"

"Yeah, when Mike grew up, he became an ordained Priest, but he grew to hate it. Then he found out he was a Special. I met up with him to give him direction in his life."

"I remember him."

"Yeah." Nathan frowned. "Anyhow, in the Spring of 1945, Russia decided it was time to take Berlin. I made my way into Berlin and risked my life for several straight days to hunt for the artifacts while the goddamn city burned to the ground around me."

YiaYia remained quiet.

"I found the vaults being looted by one of Jonathan Parker's ancestors. I think his name was James Thomas Parker. He said he was hired to do the job by a man named Isaac. I explained that no one should keep all the artifacts together. I explained how there were other artifacts in the world and they were spread out for safety's sake."

"And Parker agreed with you?"

"He understood why I wanted to keep them separated. I agreed to help him get out of the city alive. In return, I got the green rock in a little wooden box. Tamamo-no-Mae took another. Isaac took possession of one artifact, and was told the others were lost or stolen before Parker arrived."

"I see."

"I don't know what the goddamn stone dies but quite a few people wanted it. I spent the next seventy-eight years trying to keep it two steps ahead of Aris Sokolov and people like him."

"I'm sorry to have brought you such bad news, Nathan. I knew it was significant. That is why I called you here."

"I figured it wasn't for sugar food. You knew I can't eat that stuff anymore. Thank you for calling me here."

"You're welcome."

Nathan glared at the table again. "Now that I know Falcon's men are digging it up, I'm angry. I need to get back into this fight. I need to launch the goddamn thing into space or something, because lord knows I can't figure out how to destroy it."

"Calm down, Nathan. Falcon doesn't have it in his possession yet. That's why I called you."

"Falcon becomes unstoppable if he takes possession of it, Grams. I've been fighting to change that outcome since 1906."

"Then change the future, Nathan. Keep Falcon from obtaining it."

"That's what I've been trying to do, Grams. But I'm getting too old for this shit."

"How did you go about hiding it?"

"In the late 40's, I hid it in Siberia while the rest of the world was focused on the collapse of Berlin." Nathan cleared his throat. "But Falcon tracked it down in 1999."

"I recall that you told me Aris Sokolov had a project located in Siberia, back in 1999."

"He did, Grams. Aris was also Sinopa's doctor. He helped her become pregnant with Jonathan Parker. Sinopa doesn't remember any of that anymore, unfortunately. Anyhow, I found out Sinopa went to him in Siberia for a sonogram check up. While Aris was distracted with Sinopa in a nearby town, I grabbed the stupid green rock and I hid it in America."

"I remember you panicking about it. Where did you finally decide to hide it, Nathan?" She gave his hand a squeeze again.

"I hid it in a First Age City, about three miles beneath the Common Wealth of Virginia. I figured if I could hide it somewhere it belongs, they wouldn't be able to find it."

"But you were wrong, hmm?"

Nathan nodded. "Falcon almost found it again in August of 2011. I sabotaged his communications network so that he couldn't coordinate with his operation in Denver. It crippled his operation. While he was staggering in the figurative dark, I retrieved the stupid stone and hid it again."

"If I recall correctly, you employed the aid of Justus Loupe?"

"Yeah, the guy can turn into a shadow. Shadows can pass through glass, ice, water..." Nathan grinned, somewhat proudly. "I didn't tell Justus what it was, just that he had to hide it. It's buried below an excess of five million cubic miles of goddamn ice at the South Pole."

"Falcon convinced Justus he is trying to save the world."

Nathan scrunched his peppered brows. "What?"

"Your plan was sound, but not lasting. Falcon required Justus Loupe's aid for unrelated reasons. That was in my dream. Justus confessed to Falcon that he once hid a relic beneath the ice."

"Whoa, wait up. I asked Tamamo-no-Mae to make him forget the location." Nathan clenched his hands into fists. The swelling lessened on the bottom of his right fist. "I have no idea where Justus hid it, and we agreed he should forget about it, so that he can't tell anyone. Even me." Nathan balled his gnarled old fists tightly "How the hell did Justus remember? He knew what was at stake."

"Someone above Tamamo-no-Mae restored Justus Loupe's memory. It was part of my dream. Justus remembered it was important, where it was, but he did not recall why it hidden in the first place. This made him seceptable to helping Falcon to find it."

"Jesus Christ," Nathan quipped.

YiaYia held her hands up to stop Nathan. "Eventually, Justus will realize he is being used. It happens soon. When it does, he abandons his endeavor to assist Aris Falcon."

"We don't have time for Justus Loupe to come to his senses. I need to get the goddamn thing as soon as possible. Where can I find Loupe? I'll find out what he knows."

"Nathan, it's too late. Falcon's people will have the relic any day now. I saw that much."

Nathan's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"When my recent dream started, it had nothing to do with the cigarette store, or the radiation signs. That came later on in the dream."

"Grams, don't keep me in suspense."

"Early in my dream, I saw Justus Loupe giving Aris Falcon the approximate location of a relic he once hid beneath the Antarctic. The information was coerced from Justus; he is not at fault. However, Falcon's people should be digging it up as we speak."

Nathan stood up. "I need to go."

"Wait."

Nathan stared at her. "What?"

"Sit down."

Nathan grimaced. "I need to stop them from..."

"Sit."

He sat down. "So what the hell do I do? I'm too old to keep hiding it, Grams."

She shook her head. "It's up to Karla's future team to settle the war against Falcon's people. Your job is to pass the torch to Reno Nevada ... _when_the time is right."

"But what do I do about the artifact?"

YiaYia reached across the table and took his hand again. She looked his hand over where he'd broken his finger earlier. There was no sign of swelling. "Your hand healed."

"Yeah. My body heals ... but I'm sure as hell going to die of old age. Bummer, huh? Look, I need to get this artifact back before Falcon."

"Do you trust Karla?"

"Yes. I love her. Not like I loved her sister - that's different. But I love Karla, and I trust her. I see her potential."

"You know more about her than she knows about herself, don't you?"

"Yeah. I know where her active powers came from. Tamamo, her father, and I hid the three most powerful artifacts, Isaac got one, and the Parker family took the rest to their vault. The world doesn't need shit like that floating around."

YiaYia nodded. "The green stone - what does it do?"

"I'm not exactly sure, Grams. It's something made by the First Age people. All I know is that the green thing is useless to humans. It's designed for Supernaturals."

"So give it to Karla."

Nathan stared at YiaYia in silence.

"Nathan, it's a simple solution. Give it to Karla. You said you trust her. You said you trust her father, Azazel. You know she cannot be coerced to give it up, because the only man she would die for ... is dead. You can trust her to keep it safe."

"You're sure?"

"It was a solution in my dream."

"Yeah, but Karla? That would make her a target."

"You said Falcon was unstoppable if he obtains it, correct?"

"Unstoppable, yeah, but he still died in the future I saw. But by then, the damage was done, and the world was a grim goddamn place to live."

"Falcon dies in the future you saw?"

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, Falcon and Karla both die, along with countless others. I can't let Karla die - I lost her sister. I couldn't lose her too." He looked away, as if embarrassed. "Kerii's death wasn't my fault. She wasn't immortal like Karla. They're half-sisters."

"I don't question your manliness, Nathan. So you outlived your wife - it happens."

"Yeah..." He sighed. "Listen, you know more than I thought you would. I figured you'd know about the future, but ... now that you know things about the past, too, I need to make sure you're not a target."

"Knowing puts me in danger?"

"If anyone found out what you know? Yes." He eyed her for a moment and rubbed his chin. "You know what? You need a bodyguard, Grams."

YiaYia eyed him. "Excuse me, young man? I'm an oracle. I can see people coming days before it happens. Sometimes months or years before it happens. Maybe you forgot that."

"The future is in flux. I'm changing things. If I give this stone to Karla, it will change things even more. You've always been able to pick up the phone and call me, but I may not be around much longer. Grams, you need a bodyguard."

She studied Nathan's expression for a moment and rubbed her chin. "So that's how it happens..."

"What?"

YiaYia stood up. She picked up the plate of cheesecake and carried it to a counter. She put wrap over it and tucked it into the refrigerator.

Nathan ran his hands back through his short hair again. "If I'm not mistaken, you start living with a female werewolf, right here in Athens."

She turned away from the fridge and eyed Nathan with a wry smile. "It always amazes me how much you know, yet you tell other people that your knowledge of the future comes from me."

"Her name is Ulfey or ... Wolfie or ... no, I don't think it's that cliché. Nobody names a werewolf 'Wolfie.' I just remember that it sounds something like that."

YiaYia nodded. "According to my dreams, her name is Icelandic."

Nathan nodded. "You'll be safe with her. I'm pretty sure you pass away from old age a long time from now."

YiaYia grinned somewhat. She cleared her throat and said, "There's something else I need to tell you about what I saw in my dream." YiaYia sat back down at the table and reached for a second plate, one she'd set out for herself.

"What?"

YiaYia grinned a bit. She eased a fork into the luscious dessert. "Johann Foster." YiaYia put the fork back down on the plate, adjacent to the dessert. "He be important but not for many years. I saw him becoming a leader of the Esoteric Council. Just remember the Golden Rule: Everything is subject to change. There is no clear mathematical formula for ensuring the future occurs the way seers predict. We see a likely outcome. A possibility. But it can be changed."

"Yeah. I know the drill. Johann is a good kid. He'd make a good leader. I hope Karla, Evan, and the others can break him of his bad habits. He's a bit of a wimp right now."

She stood up from the table and stretched. "Yes, and it's a shame that he is. He has such potential."

"He'll figure that out for himself," said Nathan. "He grows a set of balls soon. He just needs someone to show him what he's capable of. Look, I've got to go. Thanks for lunch."

"For you? Any time, Nathanial. Where are you headed? Obviously not Antarctica."

"I thought I changed the future by hiding this thing under the ice, but I was wrong. That means it's going to be on a cargo plane flying into California soon."

She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together in thought. "I saw a plane that crashes in Sausalito in my dream."

Nathan nodded. "You saw that in the future, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Yeah, that's the one. I just need to arrange for Karla to get to the crash site before Falcon's people. See? I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Take care of yourself, Grams."

"Thank you for the visit, Nathan. Don't slam your fist on things anymore. You need to take better care of yourself."

"What's the point? I need to be like Chance."

"How do you mean?"

"I need to arrange the chess pieces, like you said. Then I need to make sure I've got my boots on when I go out to the Sausalito Vortac Tower."

"I ... saw that, too. You're very brave, Nathan."

He approached YiaYia and kissed the side of her face. He reached down with a finger and scooped a small amount of cheesecake from her plate. He put his finger into his mouth, walked to a nearby window, and linked up with the sky in a flash.

Thunder rattled YiaYia's house, and the rest of surrounding Athens.

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