Mystery Lake

[Epilogue] Lives

"You would not believe this one girl in my class. She totally hates all boys and thinks they should all be turned into girls. I was totally floored, and I imagined siccing Junior on her. She's a whacko!"

Roxy had just gotten up after a nap between classes and was thinking about making herself a nice lunch when Alyssa stormed in with this bitter story about her anti-male classmate. Before Roxy could even get a few words in, Alyssa was on to her next indignation.

"I was going to call her a misandrogynist. But I was so flustered that the word was confused, and I tried to Google it when the professor wasn't focusing on me, and I felt like I was losing my mind because it kept doing the autocorrect thing from the anti-male word to the anti-female word. Like the other one didn't exist. I freaked out, like it was something out of 1984 where they put words and ideas in the memory hole. And real people were trying to erase anti-man sentiments as a thing. Eventually, I relaxed and realized that I was just on the wrong side of autocorrect. It's misandrist, not what I said before. But I still really want to slap her." Alyssa finally took a proper breath after all that.

Roxy pressed a hand to her forehead and said, "Please don't. Please don't slap anyone. Is this that transfer girl from Japan with the fuchsia hair you mentioned before?"

Alyssa nodded vigorously. "Yes! She's a loony. I can't believe the kind of things she believes. And she has a really weird… I don't even know if I want to talk about it."

Trying to shake the sleepiness out of her eyes, Roxy lightly and casually reminded Alyssa that similar opinions about men were not too far removed from the kinds of things she had professed just a few weeks ago. Of course, Alyssa noted that her opinions were very different and that she was willing to learn and adjust. After that, she immediately changed the subject to her presentation in another class, for which she had received high marks.

That was the bulk of their conversation as the young girl took time to warm things up in the new dorm common room they had recently been assigned and shared. Alyssa had her own room, and Roxy shared hers with Chiara. They were trying to get Mira to move in as well, but she wasn't sure. Small steps with that girl. Very small steps. But she was making progress.

Their spring break was mercifully sedate after those first few days. The places Russell suggested they visit made for some nice day trips in between helping out at the Triton shop. Maggie even arranged for them to get paid for working the cash register during a follow-up date between the big lady and Riley. It wasn't nearly enough to cover their expenses, but it put a healthy and helpful dent in them.

After the week was over, they kept in touch with the Tritons through video chats, texts, and phone calls. Trips to the infamous lake were hindered by much clearer and more decisive signs and obstacles.

Not that it mattered to Roxy, with her ability to cut to the chase. But even jumping through portals to the location didn't reveal much, and the signs of the blasted trees had been removed to the point where it looked like a small fire had gone through rather than the assault of an alien spaceship landing.

They were all tempted, especially Mira, to reveal details of what they had discovered to Miss Clifton, but she had just returned from an extended break, and her body language hinted that she had things on her mind that didn't suggest the appropriate moment. At least that was how Mira alluded to it with her chronic, persistent uncertainty. Roxy was tempted to just spill the beans, but she gave Mira time to do her own version of that.

The girl was making progress. She'd taken the initiative to join the LGBTQ+ outreach organization on campus. She vented as much as Alyssa often did about class quirks like today. She was eager to make friends but unsure if they would believe and understand her situation. She went to weekend trans support meetings and vaguely danced around the details of her life. Most of the others in the group assumed that she was a female seeking to be male or female seeking a non-binary identity, because anything else would have required more explanation than seemed possible.

The water they had taken from the lake had lost its transforming properties since the ship left and returned to the earth. Mira wouldn't explain exactly by what method or test she knew that its ability was gone. Roxy really hoped she wasn't throwing it at random strangers and waiting for results.

She suspected that Miranda's friend Eileen, who went by Leon, was involved. Too bad they couldn't do anything for her. Riley reported on some strange, quirky phenomena spreading beyond the area of the original lake and speculated through her podcast and internet postings if there was an unexplained disturbance there. Roxy liked to fall asleep listening to the podcasts. Sleep was good. She wished she could get more than three hours of it lately.

The situation with the bonus Layla drew suspicion and accusations from a few classmates, but nothing serious enough to cause trouble. Having a twin who just happened to transfer wasn't that weird. The hard part was the two of them trying to distinguish themselves from one another. Their general plan was to let one of them grow her hair out and have the other one cut it short. But they couldn't agree on who would do what.

They were already a hit in the drama department, making a delightful combo in improv and allowing for some interesting plays with curious quirks. Chiara even joined the department on a temporary basis, working backstage and as a writer, despite feeling completely out of her depth at every turn. She strolled and danced around the slightest hint of random male interest. Roxy got a little of that too, even though Jake was always with her.

Nothing too crazy, but suspiciously friendly guys on campus who acted annoyingly vapid. Some dudes treated it like it was a miracle that she answered a question and had a certain insight that needed to be celebrated for it, and they wanted to detail something for her so that she would know even more. She tried her best to be charitable, even though she wanted to roll her eyes.

Jake was her inside man, fulfilling the male role without being beholden to it. He also found charitable moments with certain guys she disagreed with. Not that she wanted to follow this transfer student's ideas and perspective, but she could definitely see some people who needed to get a fucking clue. A temporary dip might be worth it.

Jake had been pulled into what felt like a whirlwind of emotions when he recently learned that his father was back home on a semi-regular basis. Just as he might have wanted and wished for ages ago. The Muller Corporation, which his father worked for, was about to be taken over by a Chinese conglomerate Roxie had never heard of called the Nuhaizi Corporation. Too many companies in their lives, and it felt like the company was still lurking in the background, waiting for their time to strike.

Roxy was so proud of Jake that he didn't take the emotional bait of his dad not only coming home but having terse words for his "daughter" and the "life choices she made.".

Jake's mother had been confused but otherwise receptive to the way Jake was now, but reversed that opinion when she was in the thrall of her husband. As always. Jake expected that he would have to stay close to the college during summer break and find work locally, but he had some plans to make Thanksgiving and Christmas happier.

If only the water still worked, and they could do more with it to give them all choices. Alyssa tried barfing on and around Jake when he felt a little stressed by certain male things. Maybe that was the culprit last time; maybe it was the fairies messing with them, but they were stuck this way for now, aside from the Laylas.

Roxy thought that Chiara and Mira would have trouble with their weighty advance guard. But Jake prepared them with a series of stretches and exercises, and everything around the theater and their classes kept them on their feet and left their ankles sore, but the rest of their bodies were fine. Roxy, ironically, ended up with more pain in her boobs than any of them. And other pains as well.

She wished she could put a portal in her skirts for all the messy stuff of life. This was a unifying vent event of emotions for all of them. Roxy dragged most of the group to at least one women's event at the LGBTQ+ outreach, even though the agenda consisted mostly of watching Good Morning America videos and trying to critique them. She had had enough of that shit in her regular classes.

Chiara had a few occasions where she noticed strange glowing on random walls and trees, but otherwise had the least number of occurrences of her ability in the world, at least the main one. They had no idea what the red color ability was or if she could reproduce it. Jake still had immense strength, but it was slowly degrading to a strong but normal human ability.

Miranda retained the full consequences of her ability, especially when she listened to a heartfelt story in the Outreach and wanted to strongly sympathize, with unpleasant consequences. She'd taken up meditation to strengthen her personal resolve. And she had recently drawn up plans for a new short film, due at the end of the next quarter.

All she'd hinted to the others about the subject matter was that it was inspired by what happened to them. Roxy was wary but encouraging, knowing that making something out of a tangle of feelings and insecurities was better than just letting them stew and grow tighter and more painful inside.

The Laylas couldn't really use any of their powers in public, but in the privacy of their shared, explicitly separated dorm, Roxy had seen them doing stuff like out of Sword in the Stone, with objects flying through the air like there were floating expressways. They were usually pretty careful about such obvious signs of their abilities, and they still needed to be on the same page for them to work effectively. They already had a puppet show that predictably led to a multitude of curious and perplexed onlookers. Usually careful.

She hadn't seen Cerberus since they camped out, when it felt like he was saying goodbye. Rydia actually made a few appearances. All the official paperwork had been quietly settled. She was Roxanne Kerry Griffin. A decent choice for her middle name. Everyone else was happy with their own official documentation, especially Alyssa, who tried not to get too big an ego about her stated status as a prodigy, already in college despite her young age.

Some people who knew her before were weirded out, but most just accepted it as one of those things. Names are weird. People change. Some things are inexplicable.

Roxy made her way over to Alyssa while she was eating and wrapped her up in a comforting hug, despite how sleepy she still felt. Their relationship was still a work in progress, but Alyssa actually enjoyed the way Roxy would scrutinize her whenever she was barreling over her own thoughts about something that was bothering her.

She made sure to make her stop and reflect on what was wrong and what was right, and whether what she was feeling was because of what had happened or because of something else. Alyssa didn't like this at first, complaining that it was Socratic and testing and all sorts of other things. But Roxy kept telling her that she loved her unconditionally.

And Alyssa realized that she felt the same way. It was a revelation and a relief. They could still hurt each other, and they had done so more than once already. And it wasn't a feeling to be abused, although it wasn't possible to lose it. They didn't realize how much they needed their connection until it became commonplace, and they could rest easy together.

Jake shared and proved similar sentiments, but the family connection touched very specific points of pain for each of them and began to heal them. It was also fun to see random people who heard their story fling the wildest accusations that Roxy couldn't possibly have a daughter, that something crazy was going on, and that it somehow involved aliens. How close, yet how far away.

The only result of the alien DNA thing with the Laylas was that they each made a rather comical but concerted effort to communicate with the local lizards in the science labs. The results were inconclusive.

"Thanks, mom," Alyssa replied without prompting and without pushing the sentiment too hard. Roxy didn't have words to truly express how much that three-letter word meant to her.

After eating, Alyssa explained that she had to go across campus to the library to do some research. But she also mentioned that she had a strange feeling when she looked out into the woods closest to campus. She couldn't explain it, but it was pleasant. Roxy brushed her hair and tidied up around the room. She had no idea what to make of it, but she hoped it was a positive sign.

When Alyssa left, she opened the curtain on the side facing the forest and checked it herself. There was nothing. The trees were too dense to make out an animal, a fairy spirit, or anything else. But she still felt something as she looked out. It drew a single tear to her eye that traveled swiftly down her cheek. She caught it and gently wiped it away. Was she sad? No. Not sad. She smiled to herself and leaned against the window.

"Thank you," she whispered to the glass, not expecting a response.

Outside, Alyssa skipped and jumped nearby, then looked out at the same patch of forest. She had no tears, but her mouth was boldly drawn in an irrepressible smile. She waved at nothing, not knowing why, and hurried on her way.

-----

Just beyond the tree line, a dark figure, clad in black, bowed his head, folded his hands, and said what he was sure would be his final farewell.

Deeper in the forest, Cerberus came to a quiet clearing and spoke simply with soft words and strength, "I am ready. Do what you must."

Stepping out of the shadows, there stood another him. "Which are you? Conscience? Pride? Rage? Pain?"

"I don't know. I tried to do my best with my small sliver. She is here, in a way. They are here. In the way they taunted us. The time we shared meant so much to me. I give it to you."

This actually made the other Cerberus step back. He retorted, "You are soft. Definitely conscience. Unfortunate. We can't be soft against them. It's going to hurt. So much will burn. But there's no other choice. For them. For any of them."

"I know. I accept that. There's no salvation for me. For any of me. Go ahead."

He took a step forward, but then took it back. "It's because of Blessin. And Aosaginohi. We played the monster, and they called us out. They broke us. But we can see everything, everywhere. What if they're still with us? They were infected. So many of them. So much of the company spreading every moment. They had to regroup too, but it was a brief interruption. They are coming, always coming. We have to stop them, no matter what the cost to everything else."

Cerberus nodded to his twin as he listened. "I have intelligence. I used a watch to monitor their operations before they took over someone. It was destroyed, but something survived. And there was a resurrection. It could have been just a summoning, but I think... I believe it was something more. There is a chance... a possibility of everything we hope for... maybe."

The other Cerberus gritted his teeth. He gazed into his twin's eyes for several seconds before turning away. "Too much hope. The hope that kills you. I have help. I've already consolidated a few. We have a plan. You know it. But intelligence is good. Good work. Now it's time to come home. I'll try to make it painless." He slowly began to unhinge his jaw, stretching all his aspects to almost impossible proportions. Cerberus closed his eyes and concentrated on the most beautiful thoughts he could summon. And waited.

The violent consumption never came. The other one retreated and looked away. After a moment, he offered this explanation: "You have done good work. You can continue to do it. I don't need you right now. Besides, you're soft. Better to deal with you later. Give me the watch, and we'll call it even."

Cerberus let his shoulders drop in relief and plucked the watch from his suit pocket. The other one nodded, accepted it, and walked away. Cerberus stayed in the clearing for a long time before returning to Rydia, who was standing quite a distance away.

She wrapped him up in a hug that threatened to snap him in half as she expressed tearful relief. He hoarsely thanked her before asking, "Anything new on the squirrel situation?"

She wrapped him in a hug that threatened to snap him in half as she expressed her tearful relief. He hoarsely thanked her with little breath left before asking, "Any news on the squirrel front?"

Before she could answer, a hissing, strangled, wretched voice squeaked from somewhere near the ground, like an old lady with her chest crushed and huffing helium.

"You bastards! Where are the rest?! I'll have all of you! You will suffer like you never imagined!" Painful gurgles followed the last words. The two of them looked in the direction of the sound. A squirrel, head drifting to one side, a cruel intelligence peering through its dark eyes, hobbled in their direction.

"Lillis."

"My hallowed name is not yours to use as if you're superior to me. You should grovel. You should beg with every breath you take in my presence! I am your God. One of your creators. You are beneath me in every way! And youuuuu...why does garbage still live?!"

Rydia stretched her leg to an unnatural degree and replied, "Dealing with the squirrel situation, Boss. Sorry, little one." Cerberus added, "Allow me to help."

"NOOO NOOO NOOOOO! It took me forever to connect!" Both agents brought their feet down on the squirrel, and that was the last it said. Rydia recited a little blessing for the original inhabitant that she had learned from Riley.

Peace returned to the forest again, and the two of them walked off to their car.

----

Miles away, the unnatural, animalistic screaming resumed.

"Those pieces of shit! I'm so glad I had a spare. Damn squirrels. So sick of squirrels!" The small animal under Lillis' control convulsed before she eventually managed to gain control of it.

It wasn't long before she heard a voice in her ear calling her name.

"Valik? Is that you?" Lillis gurgled again but was eventually able to control the strangely shaped throat of the animal.

"It's me. I managed to establish a foothold. I have them."

Lillis vented, "A little too late! Which?"

"Chiara Watson. I've established complete control, but I haven't overwritten her yet. Just sleeper mode. Would you like me to proceed?"

Lillis lifted her small, furry body in excitement before lowering her paw. "No.... not yet. I want Layla... both of them...to suffer slowly. Just taking her lover would be too quick. Besides, having eyes and ears through Chiara will be infinitely more useful than the alternative. She has something. It could be useful. But be ready to replace her at my command. And don't let the rest of the company know. This is just between us."

"Of course. Is there anything else?"

Lillis rocked her disgusting little body. "Nothing else for now. We sit and wait for a better position. Good work. We lost this time, but we will win the game. Everything dies..."

"Save us. We shall live forever." Valik's voice faded away as Lillis struggled to move and stand as she preferred. She spasmed in place with what first seemed like angry screams translated as animal squeaks. It became uproarious laughter.

"Yes yessss YESSS! Hahahaha! Finally! A challenge. No one has ever touched me before… until now! What a thrill! It'll make my victory all the sweeter! What a round! What a game! I can't wait to play my next move. I'm not losing to that bitch… to any of them. I could have secured my victory in one fell swoop, but I'll have to play it safe. And I'm going to show them all that I'm the best. Lillis! Now and forever. Not those.... oh shit! AAAAAA!"

Before Lillis could finish her thought, a red-tailed hawk sunk its claws deep and painfully into her squirrel body and carried her off. She was tempted to quit, but she embraced the pain—her first lesson, the truest lesson she ever learned. The one she would spread to all with her victory.

It still fucking hurt like hell.

----

"Cerberus?"

The other Cerberus, the one who came to visit and decided not to eat, whirled around on guard at hearing his name.

A slight, older woman dressed all in a shiny slate silver outfit stood near the trees where no one had been before. She raised her hands and then dropped them, palms out, to show that she was no threat. Not that anything she might be holding would be a concern to Cerberus.

"Ruth Fowler. How fares my sister-in-law?" Cerberus asked with a sincere smirk.

Ruth circled around where Cerberus stood. "We haven't used the family name in a while. Mom's still hanging in there. Still mad, in so many ways. The usual. Your sister brought us something, from the early days."

Cerberus clinched his face and tightened his jaw before answering, "I don't have a sister."

Ruth nodded solemnly. "Fine. But Sasaki Haruka wants to talk to you."

"If she tries, she dies. I swear it."

"Noted. Fair enough. But I have a proposal for you. Would you like to hear it?"

Cerberus narrowed his eyes. "You might have better luck with the other me. He still has a heart."

"I'm here to talk to you. I don't think we should be at odds. The company will destroy everything, unless we find a way to stop them. I'd like to propose an alliance. We don't have to be friends. We just have to protect everything we hold dear from them. What do you say?"

The man in black sneered. He growled with a low rumble. A moment later, he relaxed and took a breath. His tension eased.

He knew his answer.

-----

There were already signs of new growth in the stripped forest beside the lake. Some of the small plants placed there by the Forest Service and others were spreading into newly reopened niches.

The woods were quiet, but not painfully so. And out of that silence, a glimmer filled the air with the breath of a person who hadn't been there moments before. She was a young woman with carefully tousled shoulder-length, bright red hair. A pair of dark, glassy goggles, like those worn by an aviator, rested on the top of her head. The material had seen a lot, and all these years she felt them safe on her head. It was a comfort, even if it wasn't the original pair.

She wore a dark, almost navy blue, light jacket that draped around her body and flapped in the breeze. She reached an impossible depth into one of her pockets and retrieved a strange, bulky, rectangular device with a large screen that had recently been repainted blue with little traces of yellow underneath that had been missed.

Her simple, pale blue shirt was worn at one end and was beginning to stretch out a little too much from use. She had on snug red flannel pants that she adjusted with a tug. Brown and yellow boots pushed aside nearby pebbles as she held up the device, squinted, and started to move in a direction.

As she approached the lake, she listened to a series of strange sounds that trilled in sequence. Curiously moving her lips around, the young woman gave the device several quick love taps before it emitted a second sequence of sounds. The redhead nodded and adjusted the screen. Slipping into another mode, the red-haired woman used the device in a way that approached a cell phone.

A terse operator's voice came through. "How may I direct your call?"

The redhead cleared her throat and replied, "This is Abby Longbloom. Can you connect me to Ta—oh, umm, I mean Professor Yokota? Tell her I found something very interesting..."

----

There it is! Not quite the longest, but darn close despite my expectations.

This was a wild journey. I feel like so many ideas I wanted to put into the narrative actually made their way through in the manner that I was hoping for.

I pulled out all the stops for this installment because I'm at a point in my life where I need to take on a regular job to pay the bills. I had hopes that this series might attract wider attention and the Ko-Fi or Patreon might draw people. My problem is that I just create without thinking about the apparatus to support some financial backing or encourage a reward system. I'm still open to the possibility of a Substack as something I've investigated that might be interesting. I'm thinking it would include the fully refined versions of the chapters from the first six books.

My intentions right now are to polish the first book as I look for work and publish that on Kindle. I may not be able to use Kindle Unlimited because to do that, you have to give them exclusive publication rights, and it would be detrimental if the first installment in the series wasn't available in some way for everyone.

These six books completed constitute the first half or first arc of the Cerberus Saga. The second main set is going to primarily be sequels to each of the original books, so ironing out the first ones and taking precise notes for how I want to follow them up while also presenting a new narrative in that particular universe that welcomes new readers is going to be a slow but important process.

I hope people can support the series so that maybe the switch finally flips and a career as a writer is possible for me. The main difference is going to be pace. If this doesn't become my career, then I'll just be able to do it when I find the time. So, the five a week will transition to whatever is sustainable for me with a full workload of whatever supports me financially.

There is a little bit of extra material that I consider semi-canonical, and certain parts are explicitly canonical. We have a three-ish-chapter installment of See Yourself, Be Yourself. And then there is a standalone installment of the Revenge Rooms.

These are in more of a gender-bending transformation mode, with tropes you might see elsewhere. The series has developed in fascinating ways past that starting point, but I felt it was important to include this piece of it, plus there's some really critical stuff in the margins.

This is the end of the first arc, and then there will be the remaining materials. It's around 10 chapters, depending on how I decide to format it. And that's all I've written ahead of time.

I wish life allowed me to keep going at the pace that I've been, but balancing other things has also become a huge issue. It was my goal to reach 1 million words. All the other words I add to it after this point are just bonus. The folding in of characters from other narratives kind of exists as a way of me promising to myself and everyone else that the stories left in limbo will be finished and be told in all the beautiful ways I want. I promise to bring my characters out of the wilderness and into their future, and hopefully mine as well.

See you soon, and I hope it's sooner than I think.

Sarah "Majorkerina"