Official Report

427 Evergreen Terrace

New Hebron, California

Sapphira closed his eyes, the wind whipping his hair as he let out a long sigh. He let his eyelids slide back open, and he bit his lip glancing at the black SUV parked out front of Amelia's home. He couldn't make out the license plate from that distance or see through the tinted windows, but he knew without being told who was inside.

AEGIS was keeping an eye on him, and perhaps the agent too. He'd had a long night, first with the apartment building and subsequent trip to the hospital. Upon being treated and released, representatives from AEGIS swooped in and 'debriefed' him. The experience left him feeling like a criminal under investigation and rattled him far more than he cared to admit.

When they'd finished, they issued a warning about further 'vigilante' activity and then he'd allowed to leave. He stayed, looking into Katie Brown, thinking perhaps, he'd use his healing abilities to help her, but it appeared it was unnecessary as they had already discharged her. So, Amy and he returned to her home, and the pair collapsed exhausted into their separate beds.

He gripped his hand tight around the railing that lined the front porch of Amy's little home and stood there staring off into the distance. Even when the first few droplets of rain splatter his cheeks, he remained there looking out into the distance.

He'd thought he wanted to die, to see his wife and daughter again, but after struggling for his life in the burning apartment building he'd realized how wrong he'd been.

The death of his wife had left a hole in his heart he would never fill, but he stayed strong for his daughter. When Clara passed away, he was more alone than he ever had in his life. It was the reason he'd turned in on himself and grew angry with the world. As the years passed, he'd looked forward to death more and more.

Now, he found that a part of himself, at least, wanted to live. He lifted a hand and clenched it in front of his face before stretching his fingers out and flexing them one by one. Could he make a life for himself, like this? How would he continue without becoming everything he despised?

The rain came down harder and the breeze blew it into his face. He didn't care. He didn't fear a little water even if it was half-freezing out. It didn't seem to bother him much. He realized it must have something to do with his enhanced abilities, but the truth was he didn't care. He gripped his side where the falling debris had impaled him and let out a long sigh.

"It's raining you know," a voice spoke from behind and Sapphira spun around on the balls of his feet both hands stretched out.

The front door frame creaked and groaned before splintering into a thousand pieces and sending the door slamming open with a thundering crack. A figure clothed in all black, stood in front of it hands held up and his jaw hanging open.

"Damn girl," Babalawo said head craning back to gaze at the door. He was unaffected by the blast of telekinetic energy, either due to reflexive use of his own powers or, perhaps, he'd used them to sneak up on the other exemplar and had yet to turn them off. Either way, the result was the same.

"What the hell do you want?" Sapphira growled clenching both fists at his side.

"Well, just wanted to check up on you. Y'know after I rescued you, but given the way you welcomed me, I'm not exactly sure that was the greatest idea."

Sapphira turned his back to Babalawo and leaned back over the railing cursing himself for the damage he'd done to Amelia's home. "There's an AEGIS car parked right out front, you know."

He leaned over the railing and turned to eye Sapphira. "I'm sure, they're calling for backup as we speak."

Sapphira gritted his teeth and shook his head. "How the hell did you find me?"

Babalawo, grinned his eyes sparkling with amusement. "It ain't too hard to access emergency room records when you can walk through walls. I figured they'd take you to the nearest hospital and from there all I needed to do was look for someone with your exact injuries and physical description. I'm a little surprised your pretty AEGIS friend didn't have you admitted under an alias. Must have thought no one would track you. I gotta say, you have damn impressive healing abilities to be standing around like nothing happened."

Sapphira scowled and stared straight ahead. Resisting the urge to check his bandages. He had a way to go in the healing department, but he was much further along than an ordinary human being would have been in his place. That being said, he wasn't sure how resistant his new body would be to infection. It might be a good idea to head inside, clean himself up and change out his bandages. It was a bad idea to get dirty rainwater getting into his wounds.

"Why so much interest in me?"

"People like us gotta stick together. No matter what that goddamned spook has told you, I'm not a bad guy. I help people whenever I can."

"And the money you steal, that's just for kicks, right?"

"It's more about redistribution of wealth. The banks I steal from our owned by rich white folk with more damn money than they know what to do with. You think they're gonna miss it?"

"Admit it, you want to get into my goddamned panties," Sapphira gritted his teeth and rounded on the other exemplar. "I'm not some love sick little ghetto whore. You even so much as touch me, and I'll--"

"Shhhit," he cursed cutting Sapphira short. "Is that what you think this is about?"

Sapphira never answered, he stared at Babalawo his mouth hanging wide open. There was something familiar about the way he'd drawn out the word shit. It wasn't much to go on and he strained his mind trying to determine why it would strike such a cord with him. Try as he might, he couldn't place it.

Before he could issue a retort, there was a loud screech from the street and he snapped his head just in time to see a half a dozen black-clad figures come pouring out a second SUV, identical to the first. Sapphira had no doubts who they'd come for and when he whipped his head back around Babalawo had disappeared.

Official Report

427 Evergreen Terrace

New Hebron, California

Sapphira froze, staring at the rain-soaked woman in the mirror. He bit his lip and shuddered as he reached a hand up to touch his breasts. When he wasn't out of the house, he'd taken to moving around without a bra, but going outside in the rain without one had been a mistake. His nipples and areolas showed through his shirt.

He grimaced and his cheeks burned. Had Babalawo been able to see through his shirt?

He glanced at the bathroom door, but didn't close it. It got a little warm inside when the room was shut off from the rest of the house and since he'd used his abilities to wedge the front door back into the shattered frame, the risk of someone wandering into the house was minimal. With the notable exception of Babalawo, but he could walk through walls.

What did Babalawo want and more important why he had seemed so familiar? Try as he might he couldn't put his finger on it.

He scowled at his reflection and turned his head studying his chest as if expecting that his breasts might provide him with an answer. Emitting a long sigh, he put it out of his mind. He peeled the shirt away from his skin before slipping it over his head.

Again, he paused staring at his bare chest. For a change, what he saw didn't anger him, but rather aroused him. He shuddered as his mind conjured imaginary images of the agent making love to him. Her lips caressing his erect nipples and her thin frame pushed against his, heaving and thrusting.

He contemplated closing the door, but he set such thoughts aside. A part of him hoped that the agent would return and... His cheeks burned at the mere thought, but even so he didn't change his mind. He should be ashamed, but he'd grown tired of fighting, tired of resisting the urges of his body. Perhaps, he was becoming the whore he so insisted that he was not.

With a careful tug he peeled the rain-soaked bandage away from his skin. The area was still tender and sore, but when he looked down at it, he was more than a little startled by what he saw. The wound had scabbed over. He traced a hand over it, staring in wonder. He glanced back up at his reflection seeing the fear reflected in his eyes. It was unnatural to heal so fast and he reached out to touch the mirror with his open palm.

How well did his 'increased healing factor' work? Could he regrow limbs or organs? If his cells regenerated at such a rapid pace, it might stand to reason he may not age as quickly as an ordinary human being or at all. How long might he live iftrue?

He stared at the girl in the mirror, wondering if perhaps, it might not be so bad. Young, healthy and more powerful than an ordinary person would ever hope to be. He could do wonderful things with his new abilities, help so many people... or, he paused staring into those startling sapphire-blue eyes, terrible things.

He licked his lips and a slow smile touched his lips. He saw hunger in his eyes, not just for power, but for the appetites of the flesh, and for Amelia. It terrified him how strong his desire was for Amelia. His parents had raised him to save himself for marriage. He believed pre-marital sex was a sin, but wasn't the only thing he found so disquieting. He wore a female body, and had lusted after another woman. Did that make him a lesbian? He still saw himself as male, so perhaps, it wasn't gay at all, but even if he identified as a man, Amelia didn't.

A growing part of him didn't care. That part of him wanted to satiate his lust and to give in to the desires of his body. He stood there and swallowed, hard. How could Amelia ever feel for him as he did for her? Someone with her scruples would never have an interest in a relationship with another woman, and even if she swung that way she was uncomfortable around him. She hid it well, but their empathic bond left no doubt.

He clenched his eyes shut and hot tears slid down his cheek. He was so confused, he didn't know who or what he was becoming and it terrified him. His eyes snapped open, he leaned forward and pressed both of his open palms across the vanity. He stood there looking at his reflection, trying to fight this strange new longing within him.

So wrapped up in this battle against himself, he did not detect the sounds of approaching footsteps. Only when he heard a stifled gasp from the doorway did he take notice. He stood there, aghast, his heart hammer in his chest at the sight of Amelia. His inability to fight the simmering flames within him ensured that desire come bursting out of him with the intensity of a raging fire.

Amelia stood there frozen staring at him with wide eyes and he turned toward her, place both hands on her cheeks and leaned in to kiss her full on the lips. The agents response though predictable, was disappointing. She jerked back and attempted to pull away, but before she'd even taken half a step, the pair froze.

Sapphira gasped, the agent's emotions washing over him with an intensity so overpowering that he could do nothing but stand there in place. His lips mere centimeters away from her face and his hands still cupped around her cheeks. His mind was pulled away, entrapped by the thoughts and feelings of the other Exemplar. He tried to scream, to call out, but no sound escaped his lips. The room faded away and darkness followed.

Sapphira stared into the void, a darkness like the one he had witnessed when he'd received the offer from Chemosh. Yet, it was different. Somehow, this new void did not seem so empty.

Light flared to life, blinding him and he was standing in a playground. He was a child, other children surrounded him none of them older than nine or ten.

One of them a taller boy, loomed over him both hands balled into fists. "Go ahead, Andy say it again."

Sapphira took a few steps back and swallow as he glanced up at the other child. "I-I'm a girl!"

Murmurs from the other children followed this pronouncement and Sapphira went reeling to the ground his whole face throbbing in pain. He tried to scramble back to his feet, but another child kicked him in the side and he fell back to the ground gasping for breath.

The other boy, the tall one spit in his face and scowled down at him. "I always figured you for a sissy queer."

Another flash of light, and Sapphira sat atop a bed tears streaming down his face. A reflection in the mirror along the opposite wall, revealed the boy was in his early teens, and had grown his hair out into a ponytail. A man was rummaging through a closet, his face beat red and his teeth gritted in anger. He'd scattered a half a dozen outfits across the floor, all of them feminine, dresses, blouses, skirts and skinny jeans.

"No son of mine is gonna be a goddamned cross-dresser, do you hear me? Tomorrow you're going to go to the barber and get your hair cut short and as for all this... shit," he waved his hand around gesturing at the clothing littered across the floor. "I don't know where the hell you got this shit but it's going in the trash. It's bad enough you have those freak ass visions, but this I will not tolerate, do you understand?"

"Dad, please," the boy spoke and Sapphira his lips trembling. "I'm not a cross-dresser. I'm a girl inside."

The man, lurched across the room and hit the boy across the side of his head. Sapphira's ear rang from the force of the blow before the next flash of light took him away. In the darkness he word the man's words echo through the void.

"Don't you ever speak those words again. You goddamned sissy freak."

More flashes came, each followed by another of 'Andy's' memories. It confused Sapphira at first, he was merely a passenger along for the ride. Who was this boy and why did his memories fill him with such dread?

He witnessed the boy get a buzz cut and weep as his long locks fluttered to the ground. The barber did not speak, but rather went to work a look of grim disapproval on his face. Again a flash, and he witnessed Andy screaming at his father and a woman who he assumed to be his mother. Somehow she looked familiar, but Sapphira could not place her face.

Another flash.

Again. he witnessed the boy getting beat on by his father, but this time he ran, bolting out of the house. When his old man caught up to him they had a public confrontation on the front lawn. He struck the boy again and knocked him to the ground before losing consciousness

When the next memory came Andy was resting in a hospital bed and speaking to a social worker. He touched the man's hand, brushing against a simple gold ring on the man's right hand. He was thrown decades into the past, and he, in turned witnessed the beating of the social worker through his own eyes by an abusive parent. It wasn't the first such vision, for the boy, but it sparked a conversation and inspired the social worker to contact AEGIS.

Understanding dawn on Sapphira and his blood boiled. Aocial services removed the boy from his home and sent him to live with an aunt more sympathetic to his plight. Andy visited a myriad of doctors and psychiatrists, who prescribed hormone blockers and female hormones and oversaw his transition. Soon after, he began to call himself Amelia.

With that final flash, Sapphira found his vision fading again into darkness. Then, an image resolved itself before him and he was again looking into Amelia's eyes.

He jerked back and lurched onto his feet staring at her with wide eyes. "Y-You're..."

Amelia rose, standing across from him a look of defiance in her eyes. "Go ahead finish it."

"You're one of them goddamned she-males."

Amelia gritted her teeth and shook her head. "I'm a transwoman."

Sapphira eyed the other exemplar and shuddered. "You lied. You made me think you were normal. Now, I find out your just some sissy pervert."

"I never tried to deceive you, Liv. I don't see myself as a man any more than you see yourself a woman. After what you'd been through, I thought you might be a little more understanding," she bit her lip and wiped tears from her eyes.

"What I've been through? I got transformed against my will. You were born male and mutilated yourself. There's a difference." He moved across the room and for a moment, Amy thought for certain he would lash out and attack her, but he instead brushed past her on his way to the exit.

She turned her head following him as he gazed and shook her head letting out a tired sigh. "It's no different, you know right? You were forced into the wrong body by your transformation and I was assigned the wrong one at birth. The way you feel, the discomfort with your body, the disconnect between reality and the way you know how it should be. It's the same."

"You're wrong." He growled under his breath now running down the hallway.

Amelia ran after him, not sure why, and called out. "Wait! Where do you think you're going?"

He spun around on the balls of his feet and jabbing a finger against her chest. "Away, and if you know what's good for you, you'll keep away from me, you damn freak!"

He turned away and pounced on the door. Amelia opened her mouth prepared to warn him he wasn't wearing a top, but before the door had even cracked open a blouse materialized over his naked torso. He didn't even seem to notice, attempting to slam the door shut behind him, but the frame was so damaged it creaked and swung back open.

Amelia stood there, frozen in place and bit her lip staring out at the open door with wide eyes. With a tired sigh, she plopped down in her favorite recliner. She sensed the anger and hurt emanating from Sapphira and even if she had wanted to, going after him would only provoke him. Besides, the agents on surveillance duty would ensure he didn't get into any trouble.

She looked back up at the open doorway and let out another long sigh.

"Fuck," she cursed under her breath and retrieved her phone from inside her pants pocket. With another long sigh she dialed Matthews number. She wasn't looking forward to explaining this one.

His heart was hammering inside his chest as he stormed out of the house. Sapphira scowled, clenched both hands at his side and glanced down at his chest. Surprised to find he was wearing a blue button down blouse.

It was his abilities at work, his mind projecting the illusion of a shirt to preserve his modesty in much the same way it had protected his identity, first when fighting off Kwrump and later when he had entered the burning building. Truth be told, he wasn't in much of a state of mind to care either way. He glanced back eying the AEGIS car as the engine growled to life. The agents inside would follow him, but he didn't give a damn about that either.

He clenched his teeth and just kept walking. Though he had no idea where he was going or how far his travels would take him, he needed to get away.

How the hell could he have been so stupid? The clues had all been there, her boyish build, the lack of a figure and the almost husky quality to her voice. She was feminine, he had to admit, but he saw now, thanks to the time spent viewing her memories that this was due to her beginning hormone treatments at such a young age.

He walked, silent, only stopping to yield to oncoming traffic. Those few pedestrians that were unfortunate enough to get in his way found themselves pushed to the side by some unforeseen force.

He came to a stop at a busy intersection and looked around realizing that he was a little more than a block away from university Whether his subconscious mind had directed him there or if it were a coincidence, he knew he had found his destination.

He bit his lip, glanced back at the AEGIS SUV still tailing him, and crossed the intersection once the traffic signal changed. Within moments he looked on the sprawling university. He crossed the street, one final time and found the bench where he so often rested while watching his granddaughter come and go.

It would be hours yet before his granddaughter left her classes for home, but he had nowhere else to go. The prospect of seeing her, even from a distance, was very appealing, but he would have a long wait on his hands.

He leaned back in his seat, folded his arm across his chest and positioned himself to get a clear view of the parking lot and the school beyond. There was the slightest chance Hailey might deviate from her schedule. From what he could tell she was a dedicated student, but she was a beautiful young girl with an active social life. She might miss out on class to spend time with friends or if she were to fall ill.

Given his current physical state, he had no way of convincing the girl of his relationship to her, but perhaps there was another way. He was about the same age and, once AEGIS had cleared all the legal tape, he would be sitting on a sizable sum of money. He would use that wealth to get an education and start a new life for himself. There's nothing to say he couldn't befriend her as Sapphira.

He stopped his rumination and froze, his mouth hanging open in utter shock. He had caught sight of his granddaughter leaving the building. Against all odds, there she was. He didn't dare approach her, not yet, but at least fate had given the chance to see her.

She was with a large group of other students, there were laughing and Hailey was grinning ear to ear. He watched them, wishing more than anything he was a part of that group.

His heart hammered in his chest as he contemplated approaching them.

No. He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head.

'Damn fool, old man,' he shook his and a single sob escaped his lips. How would he make friends with people who were virtual children to him? He couldn't even operate a damn cell phone, these kids lived and breathed the internet. Almost completely ignorant of modern pop culture and the attitudes of the time, he would be a fish out of water.

He opened his eyes again and wiped tears from his cheeks. Hailey's friends had dispersed. All save a little slip of a girl who he would have found pretty if it hadn't been her shock of electric blue hair and the tattoo sleeve that covered much of her right forearm. He'd never understood why these damn kids needed to cover their bodies with that hooey. She looked like a damn circus clown.

Everett sighed, shook his head and froze. The girl pushed Hailey against the wall, and while his initial impression was that his granddaughter was under attack, he soon realized that it wasn't her blue-haired companion's intent at all.

She stood up on the tips of her toes and locked her lips around Hailey's. He was up on his feet in an instant and he had both fists clenched at his side.

"Goddamnit," he cursed under his breath between gritted teeth. All sense left him and without realizing it he was moving toward them.

His confrontation with Agent Van den Broeke had made him realize just how close he'd come to giving into the carnal desires of his body. He would not let his granddaughter take the path he had come so close to taking. Though, a stranger might observe that the two situations were very different, to Sapphira they were pretty damned much the same thing.

He was less than a dozen feet away when a hand touched his shoulder and he spun around to look into a set of wide blue eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" He backed away and getting his first good look at the woman who had intruded upon him.

The new woman smiled and glanced down at her frame. "Well, I don't suppose there's much of a chance you'd recognize me, not in this body. Do you like it?"

Sapphira took a step back, moving away from Hailey and her lesbian lover and eyed the young brunette grinning at him with malicious glee in her eyes. She was pretty, beautiful even, but beyond that Sapphira wouldn't have thought there was anything out of the ordinary about her, if he hadn't realized who was lurking under her skin.

He gritted his teeth, bit his lip and did his best to avoid looking back at his granddaughter.

"Chemosh."

The girl rolled her eyes and let a smile touching the corner of her lips as she glanced down at her hand. Flexing it and turning it back and forth in front of her face.

"Sometimes I forget how invigorating it feels when inhabiting so young of a host, especially in the first few hours," she said glancing back up at him with a hungry gleam in her eyes.

Sapphira, so unnerved by what he saw reflected in those eyes gasped and took a few more steps back. "H-how did you find me?"

"Oh, that," the girl waved a dismissive hand and stepped toward him. "That's easy. I can sense another of my kind miles away. As the inheritor of Ashtar's spark you're the next closest thing. I've known where you were the whole time."

Sapphira stared at him his jaw hanging open. "If that's true then why haven't you tried to attack me? At the least why not send those creatures after me again?"

"Oh, you mean the Gallu? I let them out to play nothing more. It's part of our little bargain, they help me maintain access to this plane of existence and I prove them with an anchor for which to access it. From time to time I arrange little playdates with your mortal kin. They feed off the energies of dying victims, and a hospital happens to be one of only a handful of locations your kind seems to congregate when they're so very near to death. The point from which they enter this space time is relative to my location in this world. As that was the nearest place of death, it was the one the Gallu attacked."

Chemosh stepped forward, and Sapphira tensed, thinking she would attack, but the other being placed a thin delicate hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Tell me, have you thought about my offer? It wouldn't be so difficult enact my plans without your help, but I like to take the path of least resistance. Why have you fighting me at every point of the way when I can ally myself with you?" She bit her lip and brought her whole face mere inches from Sapphira's.

Sapphira swallowed, his heart hammering in his chest. The girl that Chemosh had inhabited smelled of flowers and wasn't hard on the eyes either. His body, responded in much the same way it had before his confrontation with Amelia.

"I-I," he said not even able to a complete sentence. He stared back at her with wide eyes, every fiber of his body quivering with desire and yet despite everything he hesitated. Chemosh terrified him, for all her talk of alliances, did he dare trust her?

She kissed him, and he tasted strawberries. When she pulled away, he stared back at her again, not able to think straight and certain not able to form a coherent answer.

She pulled him close, pressing her chest in his as her lips brushed his ear. "My, my, my your granddaughter has proven to be quite a disappointment, hasn't she? Still, I think you would still do almost anything for her, wouldn't you? It would be a shame if something were to happen to her, don't you think?"

She pulled away, smiling back at the SUV still parked nearby. "And that AEGIS friend of yours, what is it she calls herself a transwoman? You mortals get so caught up in your little titles and descriptions, it's cute really. Well... in any case I can sense your anger, the agent betrayed your trust, I can help you deal with her."

Sapphira shuddered, somehow he didn't think dealing with her would entail a mere exchange of words.

Chemosh slipped a hand into Sapphira's pants pockets, slid it back out again and brushed her hand over his vulva just before taking several steps back.

She pulled her hands up, flicking a few stray bits of hair out of her eyes and smiled again. "You need more time, another day, perhaps? In the meantime, why don't you take a little look inside your pants pocket and do a little investigating, You will find something illuminating. Consider it, a gift. I hope to hear from you... soon."

Chemosh, held an open palm out, puckered her lips and blew a kiss at Sapphira. "Just think of all the interesting things we might do to another with me in this body."

Sapphira stood there, watching her depart cold sweat dripping down his forehead. He didn't know how she expected him to contact her, but equal parts of him both dreaded and looked forward to it.

He watched her depart, shuddered, and glanced around realizing that his granddaughter and her lover were absent. This surprised him, looking back his encounter with Chemosh, he was certain it would have drawn more than a little attention from the handful of people around him Hailey included. Somehow Chemosh must have shielded their awareness so that no one would attempt to intervene.

He looked around one final time and plunged his hand inside his pants pocket. He removed a piece of paper and unfolded it. The page was blank, but that's not to say it didn't tell him something.

"Clara," he whispered under his breath and glanced down as his feet lifted from the ground. He stood there hovering in the open air, his cape billowing in the wind. He stared at his hands, now gloved and gritted his teeth. His mind had replaced the illusory blouse with the one piece costume his mind always conjured up when he needed to conceal his identity.

Chemosh had given him what he had sought for so long and he was damn well going to act on it. Without a single word he zoomed away, soaring through the open air.

Official Report

Creekside Oaks Apartments

New Hebron, California

Though Sapphira had hovered before, flying was new. He'd seen other exemplars in the news, arms spread out over their head soaring across the sky, but none of them had been using telekinesis to transport themselves through the air. He remained upright, feet parallel to the ground, and arms spread out on either side.

When he glanced down, he swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. His stomach recoiled, and he tasted bile in the back of his throat. He clenched his eyes shut, forcing himself to take in a steady and even breaths. Sapphira would have to rely on his other senses. It was too damned unnerving to look down at empty air. stretched his mind out, extending his other senses to compensate for his lack of sight and his awareness spread out. He felt the wind against his cheeks, smelled food cooking thousands of feet below and even sensed people and other animals moving about.

It appeared he did not need his eyes to form a picture of the world around him. Everything seemed much brighter and more vivid if he concentrated enough he sensed everything about the world around him right down to the molecular level.

He discerned a child growing in the womb of a woman far down below. The fetus had only just developed, and he believed it was too soon for the woman to know it was there. He sensed the fragments of metal in the leg of a man, shrapnel which had been embedded in his flesh while serving in the military.

People were not the only things which he sensed, a squirrel scurried about on the ground unaware that a hawk was about to swoop down from above and claim it as its meal. An aging truck with clogged fuel injectors, a snake slithering around inside the walls and floorboards of a home unbeknownst to the human inhabitants, and water running through pipes deep underground. All of these things and more were open to him.

His mind couldn't process the sheer volume of information that was being fed to him. He grunted and let his eyes snap back open before closing his psychic senses. His stomach heaved in protest as he looked out at the brilliant blue expanse before him, but it was preferable to the alternative.

He was never so grateful when he sensed he was getting close to his destination. He threw his hands up, gritted his teeth and eased himself into a steady descent. Soon, his feet touched the ground in front of an apartment building and he craned his neck around looking for signs of the AEGIS agents who'd been tailing him. It was unlikely they would have been able to follow him from so far below, but it didn't hurt to be sure.

He approached the building, and when he got to the door, he found that it locked. There was a buzzer with an intercom, but he saw no reason for anyone to let him in. That wasn't much a deterrent for him. He reached out with his mind, focusing all his will around the lock. The mechanism relied on a simple electrical circuit, and once he trigger it, the door popped open.

His target was close. He did not know his exact location, but he was somewhere above him and just a little north. The building wasn't very large, and while the interior was clean and well kept up, it was a lower-middle-income apartment building. There would be no security. He navigated the hallways, wandering until he found an elevator. When he reached out to touch a button, he realized that his hand was no longer gloved. His costume was gone replaced by the illusory blue blouse and his regular clothes. It was just, no need to call undue attention to himself.

When he stopped on the second floor, he still sensed his target above, so he let the elevator take him up to the third level. He stepped out once the doors were open and took a right. He felt him now... he was close.

Sapphira followed the corridor and stopped just outside a door. There was nothing to distinguish it from the rest, save the number. He paused, took a deep breath and traced his hands over the numerals. His whole body quivered in anticipation, but only when he was close did he experience doubt.

What if this was a trap?

He bit his lip, took a step back and gritted his teeth. He'd come all this way, he would not let himself chicken out now. Sapphira threw both hands out, sending out a wave of telekinetic energy, shattering the doorframe, just as he had the door to Amelia's house and sent it shooting open.

Silence greeted him. Still, a little dubious, Sapphira stepped inside, glancing in all directions and reached out looking for some trap. When he detected nothing he moved further into the dark apartment. He stopped just outside the bedroom door, detecting the first signs of any habitation. A whirring sound, so faint he doubted he would have been able to detect it before his transformation, was coming from within the room.

He hesitated again before turning the knob and pushed the door open. Light spilled into the room through a set of curtains that weren't quite closed. A figure rested atop the bed, and as Sapphira edged closer his eyes took in all the details.

The figure was an African American man, hooked up to some sort of breathing apparatus, and he looked to be asleep. Sapphira froze and his rage came boiling to the surface.

Though he had aged in the last twenty years there was no doubt in Sapphira's mind. It was his daughter's killer.

He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it hadn't been this frail wisp of a man who looked to be on the cusp of death. He gritted his teeth, moved to the end of the bed and stood there eying the man.

His face was gaunt, and grayish, but his resemblance to the young man who had killed his daughter was such that there was no doubts as to his identity. Sapphira's hands were shaking as he stood and hot tears stung his cheeks.

"Wake up!" Sapphira yelled, putting both hands on either bedpost and shook. The bed lurched forward, a few inches and bounced back slamming into the wall. He had misjudged, but he didn't care.

The man's eyelids snapped open, and he sat bolt upright emitting a loud gasp. He looked up at her with a set of wide eyes and mouth hanging open. "What? A-are you the new nurse?"

Sapphira threw a hand out, slamming the man back and into the wall. His hands went to his throat, and he gasped for air. Sapphira lifted his hand. His target rose out of the bed, the sheets and blankets fell away and as he was pinned against the wall.

Sapphira gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "Do I look like a goddamned nurse?"

"W-who... are... you?" He asked, gasping for breathe between each word.

Sapphira, feet rose from the ground and he hovered toward him. He stopped once he was less than a foot away from the man and stared at him eye to eye.

"My name doesn't matter. All you need to know is you killed my daughter, and it's time you had your comeuppance."

Sapphira released his hold around the man's throat, not for mercy's sake, but so he could hear the man's excuses. He wanted him to plead for his life before he snuffed out his existence.

"Lady, I don't know who you are, but--"

Sapphira slammed a fist into the jaw and the back of his head impacted the wall. He gasped, shook his head and looked back at him. "Please, I--"

Again, Sapphira cut him short. "Twenty years ago, you tried to rob a young woman at gun point, she was with her father, an old man. A sound startled you, there was a scuffle, and you shot the girl in the chest and the old man in the hip. You fled the scene leaving a father to watch the light leave his daughters eyes. I was that old man, she died in my arms. Do you remember now?"

"No, no, it's not possible," the man said tears streaming down his face and his whole body trembling.

Sapphira grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and tears of his own streamed down his face. "She was my world, I had no one else, and you took her away from me. She had a daughter. The girl grew up without a mother because of you."

"Shiiit, I-I'm sorry, I was a dumb fuck. I'd just had a kid of my own, I didn't have a job or money, my girl and I were going to get evicted and I got desperate. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just thought if I scared white folk maybe, they'd fork over some cash, that's all."

All at once, he understood why Babalawo's curse had seemed so familiar. "Your kid?"

He heard a thump from the doorway and turned just in time to see a figure come running toward him. His eyes didn't have time to take in the details, but he glimpsed a t-shirt and tennis shoes. He brought his hands up, to fend off the attack, but he wasn't quick enough. The man tackled him and because he was still hovering in the air, the force sent the pair hurtling through the open air toward the window.

He braced himself, expecting the glass to shatter, but he passed right through it and instead hurtled toward the ground. Sapphira threw his hands out and clenched his eyes shut. He mustered his telekinetic abilities and let his eyelids snap back open, just in time to witness himself stopping mere inches from the pavement below.

He spun around in the air, sending his assailant soaring away with a telekinetic wave and righted himself. Once his feet touched the ground, he spun around on the balls of his feet and got his first good look at his attacker.

"Babalawo," he whispered under his breath as the man climbed from the ground. Though he had never seen him without his mask, he'd seen the bottom half of his face. He might have had doubts if the other exemplar hadn't already used his powers on the window. He jerked his head around upon hearing his exemplar moniker and stared at Sapphira with his eyes wide.

"Psyren?" He stood there, shaking his head. "What the fuck girl? Why attack my old man?"

Sapphira clenched both hand at his side and gritted his teeth. "Your old man killed my daughter."

He thew a finger out toward the apartment building. "My father has been bedridden for the last nine years, so unless you were fucking twelve, it damned well couldn't have been him."

Sapphira gritted his teeth and threw a hand out sending the other exemplar hurtling away. He gritted his teeth and glanced back toward Babalawo hand held out ready to attack again, but paused between pursing his lips.

He had no desire to kill the Exemplar. Sapphira's feet lurched from the ground and he zoomed through the air back toward the outer window of the apartment. Babalawo's father would be dead long before the other exemplar could stop him. Maybe, then he would find peace.

The glass shattered shooting into the apartment in thousands of tiny pieces and Sapphira floated inside. Shards crunched under his feet as he turned his attention back to his daughters' murderer now collapsed back into bed.

Sapphira stood there trembling both hands clenched at his side. He gritted his teeth and eyed the man, swallowing hard as he raised his hands and prepared himself to end the man's life. His target jerked back, holding his hands in front of his face, perhaps thinking he would somehow shield himself.

"What have you done with Awé?" He asked, peering back toward the window.

Awé? The name sounded African to Sapphira's ears, but as far as he was aware it might well be European. He knew the name must be Babalawo's real moniker, and if it was African, it might go a long way to explain his pseudonym. He scowled at the man and gritted his teeth, cursing under his breath.

"Awé will be fine, which is more than I can say for you," Sapphira stepped closer, raising his hands and pinned the frail old man to the wall again. He stood there his hand poised ready to squeeze, but he hesitated. He had spent the last twenty years fantasizing about what he might do if he ever found the man who'd killed his daughter and now he was within his grasp he could do nothing.

His heart was fluttering in his chest, his stomach seized up and he sweat dribbled down his forehead. He gritted his teeth, and clench his hands shut, but nothing happened. He heard footsteps and this time he spun around and threw his right hand out toward the source of the noise before the intruder was able to sneak up on him. His telekinetic wave slammed Babalawo the opposite wall.

Sapphira panted, glancing back and forth between both men. He pulled his right hand toward his chest and Awé soared through the air toward him. He held a hand up, stopping him in mid-air, then threw his right hand out toward the older man. The other exemplar zoomed across the room and he impacted the wall beside his father.

"You should have stayed away, Awé," Sapphira said between gritted teeth, stumbling over the unfamiliar name. "I didn't want to hurt you, but since you butted your goddamned head into this mess, I don't have a lot of choice."

The older man, turned his head, glancing at the other man then glanced back toward Sapphira. "Please, do whatever you want it's the least I deserve, just don't hurt my son."

Sapphira drew close, glass crackling and popping under his feet. Again, he hesitated, and he didn't understand why. This man didn't deserve mercy. He'd killed his daughter, an innocent young woman with a whole life ahead of her. He'd been living on borrowed time from the moment he had taken that life.

"What are you waiting for? I won't beg for mercy if that's what you want," Awé's father said meeting Sapphira's gaze.

Sapphira eyed him, shifting from one foot to the other before he drew even closer his face inches away from that of the sick man. "I want it to end. I'm so tired of this pain."

It seemed to Sapphira that some external force guided what he did next. He threw a hand out, cupping the top of the man's head and felt himself being drawn into his mind. Again, his abilities pulled him into that dark void between the real world and that of the mind.

He stared up at a dark sky, and when he looked back down a car sitting on the street. It belonged to his daughter. He watched from afar. Events unfolded as he remembered, but from a different perspective.

Butterflies fluttered around him his stomach and sweat cover his hands as he removed the gun inside his pocket. Sapphira did not recognize the firearm, but he remembered it as the type that had been used to kill his daughter.

He knew whose eyes through whom he was viewing those events. It was through the perspective of his daughter's murderer, Noah Kincaide, that he was witnessing them. The name had come to him unbidden, a result of his psychic connection to the man.

His mind recoiled, and he attempted to draw his awareness out of the memory, but he could do nothing but watch. He saw his younger self climb out of the car, tap on the window of his daughter's car, then with Clara in tow he opened the hood. That's when Sapphira, in Noah's skin, stepped forward glancing around and licking his lips.

Everything happened so fast, Sapphira heard Noah speak that all too familiar demand. "Nobody move and you won't get hurt."

When he got to where Everett was about to hand over his wallet the all too familiar 'thump' sounded in the distance. Noah, jerked back, startled by the unexpected noise and his finger squeeze the trigger. There was a struggle and Everett grappled with him. Again, the gun went off, and the Sapphira watched his past self-collapse to the ground at Noah's feet.

Noah fled his heart hammering in his chest like a jackhammer.

The vision shuddered and faded away around him and Sapphira once again stared upon the father and son. He gasped, and took several stepped back, starring back at both men still pinned against the wall, his whole body shaking.

"No!" He screamed out, warm tears streaming down his face. He gripped the side of the head, and sensed rather than saw, Babalawo and Noah collapse to the ground and atop the bed.

The exemplar sensed Noah's motivations, his fears his concerns for his child and the despair that had led him to rob Everett and his daughter at gunpoint. He saw within Noah an echo of himself, a father desperate to provide for his child at any cost. It didn't make his actions any less reprehensible, but it gave them context. Everett Howard might have done the same thing had he found himself in a similar situation.

Awé sprang from the ground, but by then Sapphira was already in motion. He did not attack Babalawo, but rather ran for the window. He leapt through the opening and soared into the open air. All thoughts of revenge fled his mind, replaced by a realization that had shaken him to his core.

A gust of wind slammed into Sapphira and he clenched his eyes shut his hair fluttering around behind him. He shivered. Though his blouse was nothing more than a projection, somehow it seemed to offer him a modicum of protection. He had a higher resistance to the cold than an ordinary human or he would have long since abandoned his perch atop the building.

He opened his eyes and looked out at the expanse spread before him. New Hebron didn't have many skyscrapers. The one which he had found himself atop was only a few hundred feet high, but it provided him with a clear view of the city. Even in the dark he saw for miles, the lights of the buildings all around him illuminating the landscape in all directions.

He sat there legs dangling over the edge of the building, trying to make sense of what had happened. He looked down at his hands, the hands of a black woman. Not so long ago, had he seen someone that fit his current description he would have, at the least, made a disparaging comment or two. Fueled by a hatred he had thought justified, he had told himself that the maker had cast all people of color from the same mold. Now, he wasn't so sure.

What Noah had done was reprehensible, but it was not a direct act of malice as he had believed for so long and he had discovered a commonality between the two of them he couldn't bring himself to ignore.

"Troubling isn't it?" A voice spoke from beside him and Sapphira jumped to his feet, stepping away from the figure of a woman who had appeared out of nowhere beside him.

Though he had only met her once, Sapphira had etched her face into his memory.

"Ashtar," he spoke her name with more than a whisper.

The woman stood staring at him with a pair of sapphire-blue eyes so like his own. She smiled and stood there with her arms folded across her chest.

"How is this possible?" He asked looking her up and down. "You're dead."

"I am an imprint, a shadow of the true Ashtar," she stepped forward and held her hands in front of her face. "She left this... remnant hoping you might one day be ready."

"Ready, ready for what?" Sapphira began to edge away.

"Ready to open your heart," she smiled again and turned her back to him before glancing toward the horizon. "You've spent the last twenty years hating that man, and when you got your chance for vengeance, you fled."

"I should have finished him, it was the least of what he deserves," Sapphira said between gritted teeth.

"If that is what you believe, why then, did you run?" She glanced at him over her shoulder her sapphire eyes boring holes into him.

Sapphira bit his lip but didn't answer. Instead, he walked up to the ledge and stood beside her. He looked down at his hands, scowled and rounded on her. "I could have done it before you did this. This body is changing me, influencing every goddamned thing I do."

Ashtar continued to stare at him and looked out biting her lip. "Did you ever stop to think, why Ashtar transformed you? She was dying, she knew Chemosh had to be stopped, and she saw within you a potential for selflessness that few of your kind possess. Your soul was weighed down by misdirected hatred. She passed her spark on to you, what you would call her abilities, but she sacrificed her few remaining moments of life to ensure that you were given a form, that she hoped would help you come to terms with the venom that had poisoned your spirit."

"And," he reached up cupping his breasts. "Did she consider that even if I came to terms with this venom I might not want to be stuck in this body for the rest of my life?"

"She considered that," Ashtar's shade frowned and reached out placing an open palm against his chest. Sapphira did not understand what the gesture might mean, but he doubted there was a sexual motivation. It made him uncomfortable. "When your journey is complete whatever conflict you have with your current form will be resolved, one way or another."

"And Van den Broeke?" he glanced down at her hand and frowned. "Did she arrange it so that I would be attracted to her?"

Sapphira shrugged, a soft chuckle escaping her lips. "No, why would you think? She's beautiful, is it so hard to believe you would find yourself drawn to her?"

"She mutilated herself!" I growled between gritted teeth. "How could I find that attractive?"

"Perhaps," she removed her hand from his chest and hugged her knees against her chest. "You sense a kindred spirit within her."

"A kindred spirit? Why would you think that?"

"Well, I would think it would be obvious, you've both were assigned the wrong gender, you through your transformation and she at birth. More than that, you've both suffered a great deal of tragedy. You through the loss of your wife and daughter and she through the abuses suffered at the hands of her father and rejection of her family. You both dealt with it in different ways, you turned inward and grew angry at the world, she buried herself in her work and distanced herself from those she cared about."

Sapphira nodded and glanced toward Ashtar. Though the implications of what she said filled him with dread, he found no flaw in her logic. He pursed his lips and looked out at the horizon, squinting at the faint light that had spread across the horizon. "What about you and Chemosh? Who or what are you?"

She sighed and bit her lip. "We came to your world long ago, masquerading as gods. We were a dispassionate people convinced of our own superiority, we used and abused your kind without a second thought. Many of us came to your world. Chemosh, and his brother Moloch carved out their own little domains. I had no interest in conquest, though I was no less cruel, I bounced between the two, sticking with one or the other on a whim. When I grew bored with this existence, I experimented on your kind, playing with their minds with my psychic abilities, driving them mad, sometimes even manipulating them into taking their own lives."

Sapphira eyed her surprised by this admission but stayed silent.

"I didn't anticipate that by viewing their minds, manipulating them in such ways, that I would understand them. By the time I realized what was happening it was already too late. I looked back in horror, realizing the countless atrocities we'd committed against your kind and the terrible effect our presence had had upon your people. I went to Moloch, hoping that I might make him understand, but he was as I once had been, without sympathy or mercy even toward a member of his own race. He saw what had happened as a disease to be cured, whatever the cost. He invaded my mind, attempting to purge the aberrant thoughts from my consciousness, but he exposed himself to them. Like me, he came to understand your people."

"Chemosh was a mirror image to his brother, so alike, and yet he did not overpower us or purge our minds of the insanity that had come upon us. He fled, perhaps he sensed that what had happened to us could not be reversed or perhaps he did not believe himself powerful enough to overtake us both. We took centuries to catch up to him and when we met in battle. We were victorious. We attempted to share with him, make him understand the change that had come upon us, but somehow, with Chemosh, it seemed only to intensify the malevolence within him. Though, he was the darkness within him neither one of us could bring ourselves to end his life and so we saw no other option but to banish him to the reality which the Gallu call home. Chemosh did not go down without a fight. Again, he freed himself and we battled long and hard. We won, but at great cost. Chemosh lashed out with one final strike."

She paused, pursed her lips and glanced at Sapphira a sigh escaping her lips. "He saw into our hearts and saw within us both a desire to redeem ourselves and so he ensured we could never do so. Soon after his banishment, I discovered that each moment I remained on Earth was painful. At, first it was a slight ache that was not noticeable, but it had a cumulative effect. Soon, it became unbearable, and it forced me to flee your world using the same gate through which we banished Chemosh."

"And Moloch?" He asked.

"The effect was different for him. It rendered him powerless, unable to make use of his abilities. He elected to stay on Earth and as far as I know he remains here to this day."

"And Chemosh, what does he want?"

She shrugged and licked her lips. "I believe he was telling the truth when he said he wanted to retake physical form, but beyond that I cannot say. He may try to conquer this world or he may try to destroy it. I can say for certain he will hunt down his brother, and he will topple governments and level cities to do so."

Sapphira bowed his head before turning to meet her gaze. "If I join him?"

"I don't know. The Chemosh I remember, is no more. In times past, he would have kept his word, but he is so different now. I believe it's possible he may betray you once you've fulfilled your purpose."

Sapphira nodded, glancing down at then street below. He could see people moving about the streets below. If Chemosh had his way, he was certain that many of them would die. Did they deserve such a fate?

Chemosh terrified him, he saw within him a reflection of his darker impulses. A creature hellbent on vengeance and destruction. He was changing, he could feel it, not in any physical way. That ship had already sailed, but it had given him a new perspective. Was it so surprising it would affect him? A part of him liked the changes he saw within himself, but another aspect, the one which so resembled Chemosh, wanted no part.

He glanced back at Ashtar, but she was gone. A part of him felt relief, but a much larger part wished she would return. He stood, put one foot near the edge of the building and glanced down once again at the people below and knew what he had to do. Without a moment's hesitation, he clenched both fists at his side, and leapt from the ledge. It was time to make a choice.