Otaku Reflected 

Episode Three, Eva Revolution 

Part Thirteen 

Dual Slayers! Lonely! A Troubled Start!

by Jared Ornstead 
  
=====

    A very long time ago, someone made an important choice, a choice 
that could alter or destroy worlds. Had it been more recent, the change 
would've been less dramatic, but the choice was made a long, *long* 
time ago. 
    That kind of choice has consequences. 
    Frequently dire ones. 

*** 

    It was a lonely life. 
    At first it had not been that way. When he'd first arrived he'd 
been reduced to the age of six, looking like he was wearing a tent or 
his father's clothes, with the garments baggy and ill suited to his 
small frame, and the sword looking bigger than he was. 
    The little vagabond/orphan redhaired boy had been taken in by two 
other redheads, both of them girls, and at first they'd got along 
famously. The Inverse family was one of the most talented groups of 
people on the planet, and he'd fit right in snugly like he'd always 
belonged to it. His two older playmates had soon become his sisters, 
insisting that anyone so bright and talented (not to mention his red 
hair) *had* to be an Inverse! 
    They'd taken baths together. With him at six, Lina a few months 
older and Luna just barely in her double digits and with bath water so 
scarce (drawing it from a well was no ones idea of fun) it had been an 
innocent thing. As their skill in magic progressed it ceased being 
necessary, as any one of them could summon enough water from the air to 
fill a tub, but the little family ritual remained because it was so 
fun! They got to laugh and play and splash each other, a break here and 
there to actually scrub, and wash each other's red hair. 
    Then the inheritance from their parents ran out, and Luna had to 
get a job waitressing, and things around the Inverse home got a little 
more uncontrolled with her not there to fill in as role model and 
substitute parent. 
    Jared, ala Victor, had not been idle. He'd figured he'd been 
inserted into this time for a reason and did his best to make use of 
it. Simply being part of the Inverse family had led to an absolutely 
first rate magic education. What they couldn't teach each other could 
hardly fill a book of spells, and 'Victor' had some ideas that had 
spurred the other two on to create spells they normally wouldn't have, 
and they'd in turn expected the same of him. The result was a small 
library of family spells that no one else in the world knew, because 
they'd been the ones to create them. 
    Selling one or two of them had been Jared's idea, and it brought 
Luna home from a portion of her hours waitressing, which made Lina more 
tolerable. Ordinarily, Lina Inverse was quite the spoiled child. Having 
been a prodigy of magic meant that she'd never really grown out of the 
'gimmie' stage and learned that sometimes you can't have this or that. 
So she insisted and when she insisted someone usually got hurt. 
    This did not make her popular. 
    Luna was more powerful than her by an order of magnitude or more at 
this stage, so she *tried* to keep her little sister in line. But there 
was only so much she could do in a day, and Lina took to wandering 
fast, because the further she got, the further it placed her out of 
Luna's restraining influence, and the more she could have of what she 
wanted, when she wanted it. 
    Thus was born Lina Inverse, wandering adventuress and bandit 
slayer, eventually earning the appellation The Enemy of All Who Live 
because of her extreme lack of restraint. Zefielia was a much more 
pleasant place with her gone from it, but the rest of the world got a 
handful. 
    Things were now going a little differently. 
    In this case, when Luna was gone, Jared was there. It helped MUCH 
more to have Luna there when she was, because frankly Lina wasn't 
interested as much in listening to her younger brother as she was 
hauling him enthusiastically around and either telling him to do things 
or trying out new spells on him. 
    That last one actually backfired, as Lina was trying out her spells 
one day when Luna was gone working and had accidentally doubled Jared's 
age. Lina had been experimenting with a black magic spell and turned 
him from her delightful younger brother to almost a male duplicate of 
her older sister. Against someone in their thirties or more that spell 
would be crippling, but to Jared it was useful. And he acted so mature 
that soon everyone was taking that for how old he really was. 
    Lina got really upset about that. 
    Part of that was that he failed in her opinion to act as a younger 
brother should. He had all the maturity she lacked and, after that 
incident where she'd doubled his age, people mistakenly took him for an 
*older* sib all the time. This caused Lina to lose status in her own 
eyes and losing status was like losing anything else she coveted; She 
hated it. 
    Lina was like a child in most of her temperaments and once she 
learned there was no reversing the spell she got mad. It was like her 
well beloved younger brother had been stolen and replaced by this 
inferior older model. This also placed her in the position of being the 
kid of the family again and that got her upset more than the loss of 
her brother, against which was also laid the guilt of this loss having 
been her fault. 
    Luna *tried* to patch up the mess, but from that point further, 
Jared picked up alot of esoteric black magic just by being on the 
receiving end of it when Lina lost her temper at him, which was 
happening with increasing frequency. He also picked up a distaste for 
those spells such that he would rarely, if ever, use any, vastly 
preferring the elemental and white magic. Partly because white magic 
could put him back together after Lina was done taking him apart. 
    That had been the start of Jared's loneliness, as Luna was taking 
more care to live her own life and spending less time with her sibs, 
feeling to some degree that he was now in charge when she was gone. 
Having experience with how mature he'd always acted, on some level Luna 
felt he was fully capable of this responsibility. 
    Perhaps he was, but Lina wasn't willing to give it to him. 
    And so he went adventuring on the side. 
    Growing up an Inverse taught you all the black magic there was to 
know, practically. Jared didn't care to use any of it, really. But 
getting this early a start, he was able to see and do things he'd 
learned about from the show and actually got to them *before* Lina 
could get round to destroying them, as the sorceress seemed to do to 
anything that got near her in the Slayers anime. Surprisingly, Lina had 
managed to drive him from the house several years before she left. So 
he'd studied white magic in Sailune, broken in to read the private 
libraries of many of the most prominent practitioners, and stolen 
outright the spell books of a few evil villains, cooking up 
counterspells to the things he found there. All in a plan to make 
himself ready to fix whatever it was Lina broke when she finally got 
around to breaking it. 
    This was because he didn't have any doubt that Lina Inverse was the 
reason he was in this universe. It was too improbable to think 
otherwise. One, she was the main character. Two, she already had a 
penchant for breaking things, people, and had come crazily close to 
adding worlds to that list more than once. Three, on his arrival he'd 
been dropped in her family's proverbial lap. 
    He'd failed to alter her personality at the source, where she was 
growing up. Now it was only a matter of making backup plans to be ready 
with a contingency when eventually she screwed up and broke the world. 
    He kept busy in the meantime. The superspy had been there when 
Sylphiel and Gourry first met, and had pulled some strings and now the 
two were hitched, happily wed with a kid on the way. There had been the 
time when he'd run into Zelgadis when the lad was still human, and 
quietly snitched a lock of hair so he'd have a sample to restore him 
from should the usual thing happen, cursing him with the body of a 
part-human chimera. Meeting Naga when she was still a flat-chested 
teeny bopper was a personal triumph. As a kid she was almost identical 
to her little sister Amelia, so he gave the princess what encouragement 
he could to *stay* that way - a cheerful, helpful and enthusiastic 
cherub instead of a brazen slut, queen of useless sorcery. 
    His bag of useful toys called his Superspy Survival Kit had been 
stolen by a thief not long after his arrival, or the Inverse family 
*never* would've hurt for money. He'd been forced to detonate the 
devices remotely, to insure they didn't fall into wrong (or, seeing as 
how it had been a thief had stolen them to begin with, even worse) 
hands. So Luna gave what effort she had into waitressing to keep the 
family afloat, and Jared, aka Victor, did his with sending money home 
every so often. 
    It kept him at a distance, but it was the only sure way he knew of 
to keep his growing knowledge of magical secrets out of Lina's 
possession. The few times he visited home Lina's tantrums left him to 
rely mostly on his own wits for survival, lest she got his spells. 
    She was sweet when she wanted to be, a real pest otherwise. 
    After one of his first adventures she got out of him one of his 
best, new spells that he'd been almost desperate to keep out of her 
grip. In spite of all his plans to say nothing nothing about it when he 
got there, she'd already heard something of it in the tales of his 
journeys. 
    So the next time he set out, it was in disguise and with an assumed 
ID. Very few tales filtered back that were recognizable after that. So 
he was able to take some trips and spend time at home. 
    They still didn't go all that well. 
    Less Luna about than usual, Lina acting like a spoiled pill, and 
the spy playing Victor was almost ready to go bandit hunting on a 
permanent basis when news arrived of rewards for slaying men accused of 
banditry and Lina was off to a life of blowing up lots of monsters and 
a few large cities. 
    Both remaining Inverses gave out heartfelt sighs of relief. Jared 
had been about to despair of reaching Lina to reform her (which he'd 
suspected since his arrival was probably his goal and the reason he was 
sent on this trip), and Luna hadn't had the same relationship with Lina 
ever since she'd had to *instruct* the young girl that she should NOT 
be making extra money by selling projections of her older sister 
bathing. 
    Actually, Jared, ala 'Victor', got a surprise. Because in the lull 
right after Lina left, when Luna had just started dating local boys, 
Rezo the Red Priest came to town. This was the same Rezo who was 
considered one of the Five Great Sages of all time in that particular 
universe, and who eventually turned to evil because he could not let go 
of his obsession to receive normal sight, rather than the approximation 
he'd achieved using various spells. The desire Rezo felt to cure his 
own blindness was matched only by his frustration at being at such 
heights of magic that he could cure practically anyone else, just not 
himself of the one thing the priest had learned magic for in the first 
place. 
    Jared was at the time bruised and with blotchy purple warts on his 
skin that had only partly faded when the priest came to town. For 
several years now, Lina had been trying out dangerous new spells and 
somehow her younger brother was one of her favorite targets, especially 
when he stopped being so visibly younger and their relationship 
switched. In spite of his searching out knowledge far and wide the 
little brat went far beyond him in terms of magical viciousness, and 
usually found holes in his defense. 
    Rezo was short of his grand fall by some years at this point, and 
showed up totally unannounced with the totally unexpected gesture of 
healing Jared's magical injuries, left from Lina's rather exciting 
farewell ceremony. 
    That kid had a temper that was going to end the world, if she 
didn't learn to control it. 
    After the Red Priest had cured Jared's malady he surprised the 
youngster again by asking to be led to the Inverse residence. It was 
the sage's turn to be surprised when Jared said that was where he lived 
and that neither of his big sisters would be home right then. 
    The restaurant was *happy* to let Luna go when the Red Priest asked 
it. 
    Lina was rescued from an encounter where she'd learned what that 
time of the month meant to a girl sorceress about to base her life on 
her ability to prosper by sorcery, just as a gang of villains was about 
to show her a terrifying chase through the woods and emotionally scar 
her further, ever seeking new power, because she hadn't planned on what 
to do when her first period interrupted her ability to do battle. 
    Luna stood quietly back when Jared came to the rescue. 
    She explained it had something to do with the same female thing, 
and Lina got over a ton of her resentment as her brother saved her from 
the beating of her life with a few well placed fireballs. 
    The Inverse family gathered once again, then got to the Red 
Priest's problem. Once preliminaries were over, he explained, and it 
seemed that Rezo had thought since the three were growing names in the 
sorcery business due solely (so far) to their research into new spells, 
they might be able to help him. He came at them with a commission to 
create a new spell, one that would cure his blindness. 
    Lina was flattered, but turned it down, going back off to bandit 
hunting saying that white magic wasn't her thing. Luna didn't 
immediately offer a response, and Jared said that he'd be glad to take 
the assignment up, but they would need more resources and access to 
greater white magic than they had. 
    Lina would later bite nails when she learned that her two siblings 
had been invited to peruse Rezo's personal library as long as they kept 
trying to develop a cure for him. Jared was actually quite surprised 
when Luna offered to come along, but was glad for it. The big surprise 
was that he'd always considered Lina his assignment and that wasn't the 
sister he was getting along with. 
    So the Inverse family moved to Sairaag, where Rezo had hidden the 
great library he'd saved and developed over a lifetime of magical 
research and study. 
    Lina would bite nails in half. 
    She'd do worse if she ever found out he'd later managed to wrangle 
out of a dragon permission to read some of the actual Claire Bible - 
for two years of solid perusal. But that came after Jared, with his 
sister Luna's help, broke the news to Rezo the reason he couldn't open 
his eyes was that he'd had the bad luck to have the world's worst demon 
sealed up inside them. It wasn't so much a question of how to open the 
eyes as how to get the nice Rezo from living as the demon's 
reincarnated shell if they *did* succeed. 
    A troublesome problem. 
    But once it was out in the open, the two of them plus Luna put 
their heads together, between them actually figuring out and executing 
a plan to eliminate and destroy the demon fragment that had been 
sealing the Red Priest's eyes shut since birth. With a lot of work and 
research, his sight bestowed, his lifelong quest completed, Rezo 
rededicated himself to good and went on a redoubled quest to do good 
deeds and heal people wherever he went. 
    All of these were mere sidelines for Jared, but they kept the 
unexplained mission from driving him batty. He had NO idea why the 
Agency had warped him in so early. Back before Lina had done the age 
doubling spell on him Lina got the last of his superspy toys, the One 
True Watch, and destroyed that trying to figure out how it worked, 
leaving Jared to wonder how the Agency would *ever* find him again to 
eventually pull him out. Because it was beginning to look like he'd 
been sent to take up permanent residency. 
    All these years had been a long time to wait. 
    Just to fill the time after curing Rezo, Jared went about doing 
good deeds until the people had taken to calling him the White Priest, 
and there was talk of adding him as the Sixth Great Sage of all time. 
    Then he ran into Lina again. 
    By then she was very full of herself, even more so than when she'd 
left their cottage in Zefielia. The White Priest always wore a mask, so 
his features were unknown in reference to that glory, and Lina only 
knew him as her little brother she could pick on. He left her with a 
curse that turned her into a small, white mouse every time she used 
magic, after blasting her within an inch of her life. 
    Then he 'happened across' her as the White Priest, and healed her 
burns and injuries while giving her a partial treatment for the curse - 
a bottle of pills that would turn her back to normal. Jared figured 
that by the time she was through with the bottle she would've learned a 
little humility after transforming into a mouse a few hundred times, 
and it was automatic that the experience would teach a little restraint 
to the girl. 
    Or so he assumed. 
    In this case, it actually turned out to be correct. It helped alot 
to readjust her worldview that "sweet, kind and innocent young Victor" 
had blasted her viciously on first sight, teaching the sorceress that 
bad deeds *can* come back to haunt you. She *really* hadn't connected 
her treatment of him with the possibility of creating a grudge. Victor 
didn't think like that, he didn't *hold* grudges. 
    Being the sole exception to that was a little frightening to the 
girl. 
    The newly healed sorceress went on a LONG succession of losing 
fights after that, as there is something that hampers your style about 
turning into a helpless creature every time you use your spells, and 
compared to some people out there, she really wasn't that hot a 
swordswoman. 
    But Jared was confused. 
    What he didn't know, and couldn't explain, was why he stayed on 
plane afterwards. It wasn't like the Agency, not like them at all, to 
leave him in place where he was no longer needed. It was near to 
driving him crazy with worry. Lina *couldn't* cast the Giga Slave. A 
spell that powerful would transmute her into a mouse before she'd even 
*started* to cast it. The moment she decided to act on the desire the 
curse would react. And, without the Giga Slave, she was about as 
helpless to destroy the world as anyone normally was. 
    So why was he still left in place? 
    It *wasn't* because he was happy. Sure, he had a certain amount of 
fame when he chose to employ it, but true happiness is not based on 
possessions, power or prestige. It only comes through relationships 
with people you love and respect, and Jared had neither. 
    So, he settled down in some town in Zefielia, creating a home base 
of sorts for the White Priest that incidentally caused the population 
to swell dramatically when the word got out. Then he did his best to 
keep busy. 
    It surprised him totally when Luna showed up one day. 
    The eldest sister of the Inverse family showed up, and without 
explanation bought a small restaurant and settled down to do business. 
Sometime the next year a battered and poor young waif dragged herself 
in, got cleaned up, and took a waitressing job. That was how Lina 
returned to the Inverse family household. 
    Even after curing her curse her confidence remained shattered. It 
was the harsh kind of lesson life teaches, that no matter how tough you 
are something can _always_ bring you down. And after you've been 
treated that harshly it's difficult to use harshness against others as 
callously, if you've got any human feeling in you. 
    After that the family began to heal somewhat. 

    Jared had a nice room above the restaurant. There were shelves 
crammed with all sorts of books (though the spell grimores usually 
wandered off to Lina's room), a nice mirror (magic, of course), a good, 
soft, plush bed and enough of the essentials to get by on. 
    In all it seemed pretty normal for a boy magic user. 
    Luna called him down from bed. It had been some time since the 
early pre dawn practice forays with the Saotomes on that first 
assignment, and the late night study sessions with his assignment 
lately had turned him into a slug abed. Yawning, he cast a quick 
cantrip that spread swirling waves of water over his body and under his 
clothes, washing him and them completely in moments. Then he cast 
another to dry himself, and the room from what little splash it got, 
then it was downstairs to eat before the morning breakfast rush. 
    As usual, Lina was at the table, having transformed into a quiet 
bookworm not unlike Sailor Mercury in character. Jared didn't claim to 
understand it. Once again Luna went through the morning ritual she'd 
developed of asking Jared about his nonexistent love life, then she 
pestered him when there was nothing new since yesterday. 
    With a sly glance at Lina, Jared claimed to be allergic to love 
letters, getting a rising blush and stammer from the young sorceress. 
    With breakfast over, the two sisters went back to their rooms to 
change for their jobs working the restaurant by day, excusing Jared to 
grab his pack (a normal one, all his special superspy gear had proved 
impossible to replace or replicate in this world) and ran off to the 
abbey. 
    The growing town had a first rate magical education establishment. 
The abbey Jared went to was not one of the best, but it was tolerable 
and more importantly had a good lab that he could use privately. Since 
Luna's restaurant didn't, and he didn't feel much like using his powers 
openly when not in White Priest guise, that mattered. 
    The fact that Luna had enrolled him there as a student wasn't 
flattering, but it did help him slip in some limited social 
interaction. Not much, but there was a reason for that. 
    On the road climbing the hill where the abbey lay, Jared flinched 
as an independent tracking, fast attack, armor piercing rocket 
splintered the cobbled road behind him, sending flakes of shattered 
cobblestone flying with lethal intensity everywhere as the explosive 
power of the high-tech missile detonated. 
    Several of the schoolgirls laughed at him. 
    Jared sighed, looking out over the city from the vantage the 
abbey's hill gave him. To *him*, in the middle of the city there were 
two giant robots fighting. Around them were power lines and asphalt 
roads under concrete buildings, as the two wrestled with terrible 
intensity, smashing all around them. 
    To everyone else there was nothing but fields and ordinary houses. 
    He could see them, but nobody else could. 
    Sighing again, he resumed the walk up the hill. Bits of stone 
pattered down through him without effecting him in the least. It was 
like an illusion, except he knew, and had been tested by all the best 
mages he could consult, that there was nothing actually there. It was 
wearing his battle reflexes raw to go about life ignoring these battles 
as they cropped up from time to time. 
    His classmates felt he was a weirdo. 
    While he *could* have gone White Priest mode to overawe the lot of 
them, there was little satisfaction in it. He wanted friends, not 
sycophants. And troublesome as it was to endure their mockery it would 
be even more empty to endure their praise. 
    Getting to the abbey, Jared changed with the rest, throwing on a 
white robe above his daily wear in the entry chamber. Then they went to 
the divided classrooms and let the mages who would be teaching them 
give the lectures of the day. 
    He ducked and stiffened up when a cannon chewed through the stone 
of the building he was in, but at least he was no longer casting 
defensive spells against these startling, but otherwise harmless, 
visions. It was a trip to see his classmates walking through big piles 
of rubble like they weren't there, however. 
    Well, he'd done the tests. They *weren't* there. 
    Then it was time for individual study, and Jared was off to his lab 
for private time. In there was his current pet project. He'd observed 
that the best magic weapon available in this world was sadly incapable 
of hurting the worst monsters. 
    So he was creating the Claire Blade. 
    It was in the early stages, not much more than a framework now, and 
certainly could use more work. Part of the reason why his classmates 
viewed him as so ordinary was that most of his magic got spent each day 
investing this. He was left with so little he was actually seen as one 
of the slower students. 
    He adjusted his experiment, cast today's final spell, then got 
dressed to go home. 
    Between one thing and another, he'd turned sixteen, marking ten 
years he'd spent in this world. He was actually starting to worry that 
the Agency had forgotten him, as it had been nothing but silence since 
his arrival. Privately, he sometimes worried that he'd gotten lost, 
that he'd not landed in the right world, or that something else was not 
right about this. 
    In all these he was wrong, but he worried. 
    He left the abbey and walked right through a concrete utility pole 
that wasn't there, cutting across the athletics fields toward home. 
Then he went back and returned the plain white robe he'd worn for the 
day. 
    Someone met him there. 

    Mitsuki Sanada was the most popular girl in the entire town, and 
half the kingdom as well. She was attractive, intelligent, nice (when 
she cared to be), had a wealthy father and a smile that was lethal. 
Miss Sanada was also witty, good to her friends, and did we mention 
attractive? Good, it needed to be said twice. 
    She was also the type of girl that had raised the polite turn down 
to an art form. In her place a girl had to. She was receiving proposals 
for dates on a level that would have made every other girl jealous if 
Mitsuki didn't have the charming habit of turning a boy's attentions 
politely away toward her friends and fellow girls. It need not be said 
that the girls loved her for this. 
    As she was just reaching the age when marriage was most easily 
considered, there was a growing force of the most persistent and 
prosperous boys, in the magical school run by the abbey, that felt they 
were worthy to date her and were only waiting for an opening. The fact 
that they balanced each other in a kind of standoff was something that 
gave Mitsuki some breathing room as well as peace of mind. 
    Half the attendance at the abbey's school was because she went 
there. The boys to be near her, and the girls to receive handoffs from 
Mitsuki of the boys who were near her. The abbey had a marriage rate 
that was downright stunning. 
    More attended because of that, and it was Luna's primary reason in 
enrolling Jared. 
    Mitsuki walked down the hall with the sort of poise of a girl in 
full health, confident of herself and at peace with the world. A pair 
of boys who'd been chatting on the stairs about the daily events of 
their lives stopped to watch her pass, and didn't look away or speak 
until she had turned a corner on her way. Whereupon they sighed, 
blushes risen on their cheeks, and made the sort of comments expected 
of boys knowing they can look but never have a particularly awesome 
prize. 
    In Mitsuki's wake this was a normal, everyday occurrence. 
    Miss Sanada was walking to the changing room at the entrance to the 
abbey. It was nothing unusual or fancy, and properly ought to be called 
a robing room, as that was where students and faculty put on and 
removed the white robes they wore during daily sessions. As the robes 
were worn *over* a person's clothes, this was about as thrilling as 
watching a person change shoes, ie, not much. 
    Well, you had to be *really* hentai, and those people got expelled. 
    Jared was just hauling the tent of slightly yellowed cotton off 
over his head when he heard a voice call his name. 
    "Victor Inverse?" 
    "Only my sisters call me Victor." He replied, hauling the fabric 
off the rest of the way. When he saw who it was he involuntarily 
blushed. Mitsuki Sanada = Most Popular Girl in... anywhere he could 
think of. Most Popular Girl vs Talking to Me = Logical Conclusion. "I'm 
sorry, am I in your way?" 
    He moved to be standing not where he'd been standing before, in 
case by some strange miracle he had a robe locker near enough hers to 
block it where he'd been standing. Hmm, if that was the case he could 
sell it to any guy in school... 
    Mitsuki was gazing on him intently, with a strange expression on 
her face. It wasn't adoration and it wasn't love, both of which he 
recognized and neither had any reason to be present here. Then he 
identified it: She wanted something from him and was trying to be nice 
about getting it. 
    Scheming, but without the usual barbs to it. 
    She presented him with an honest and somewhat friendly smile. "I'm 
sorry. That was the name on your school records, and the one on the 
book entitled Technology. A fiction of a world without magic, right?" 
    He eyed her warily, guards up. "Yah." He begrudged. 
    If Mitsuki noticed she went unperturbed by the latent hostility of 
a soul in the anguish of being alone. An anguish that perversely kept 
those who felt it from *not* being alone by turning away those casual 
acquaintances that might eventually turn into friends. 
    She smiled, an expression offering warmth and friendship. In 
*return* for something, he was sure, but an offer like that rarely gets 
made twice, much less a third time. She asked. "So what do your friends 
call you?" 
    "Jared." He was still on one word replies, though thawing, 
recognizing that whatever this was it was better than an evening alone 
with his books again. 
    "Have you got many friends?" She inquired. 
    Jared shook his head softly. "Not at the moment." 
    Mitsuki paused, as if tasting the words. "Well, *Jared*, do you 
really make all that technology stuff up, or do you really see things, 
like the girls around school have said?" 
    In response he yelled. "Gah!" and plastered himself to the ground 
as an explosion ripped through the chamber where they were standing. 
Predictably nothing happened, and he blinked up through his arms 
crossed over his head to see Mitsuki standing calmly where floor level 
should be over what looked to him like a torn up crater. It didn't help 
that he could *hear* the roar of the shells as well as the explosions. 
Half the time he could swear he could even smell them, but he knew that 
at least was in his mind. 
    "Can I take that for a yes?" Mitsuki asked. 
    Jared nodded, unable to speak. His highly trained combat reflexes 
were nothing but a detriment in the face of this kind of stimulus. 
    Mitsuki had taken her robe off earlier, before tracking him down 
and coming here. So she stood with hands clasped and asked him. "So, 
what's happening now?" 
    Jared sighed softly, knowing he'd get teased for this. Man, he 
hated this world! "The abbey is damaged in many places, the entry hall 
is in ruins. There's been a battle going on all day between a pair of 
giant robots, those are like golems, and there's damage all over town." 
    "What do the robots look like?" 
    He looked out over the city. He could see them clearly, but how to 
describe them to a person who didn't even know what a light bulb was? 
"One looks like a giant woman in white armor, wearing heeled boots that 
come to her knees. The other is more artificial, with a tube for 
spitting fireballs running through the heart of its body and both arms 
composed of weapons. The one with all the weapons is black, and the 
woman robot fighting it is using her empty hands, no spells, no swords 
or anything. She's just grappling and throwing punches. That she's been 
fighting like this all day long speaks well of her endurance, but she 
is taking the brunt of the damage. Why?" 
    "Why?" Mitsuki blinked, disarmed, then smiled to reassure him. "I'm 
interested." 
    Warning bells were going off, but his social senses were dulled by 
inactivity these past years and warning was muted, as if at a great 
distance. He didn't notice it. Still on some level it must have 
registered somewhat. 
    He blushed. 
    "Ah, Mitsuki... I mean, Miss Sanada..." 
    Her smile returned. "So you know my name." 
    He nodded, fearful, but power was just starting to trickle back 
through part of his brain that hadn't been used in years. His emotional 
batteries had run dry ages ago, especially in the face of his rather 
troubled family life. He hadn't lied to Rei Ayanami, there were aspects 
of his personality that ran on affection like it was fuel. 
    It was the social aspects, primarily. 
    Lacking a source of that while laboring hard at first to help Lina 
had been like chugging uphill until he ran on empty. Since then he'd 
been mostly shut inside of himself. Realizing that she needed more a 
response than a nod, he told her simply. "You're famous." 
    "So are you." Was her well schooled reply. 
    In better times that would've been worth a wry smile, now it 
elicited a frown. "But not in a good way." He retorted, turning to walk 
out the entrance hall and *not* steer around the rubble. 
    Mitsuki joined him and took his arm, causing the warning bells to 
go off at a volume where he actually *heard* them, in a metaphorical 
sense. Jared stopped, not realizing they were now standing where the 
entire practice field could see them. He just looked at Mitsuki 
puzzled, and she smiled and took off, dragging him along and behind 
her. 
    "Come on! You can walk me home." 
    ~Input registered.~ Stirred a very long dormant portion of his 
mind, waking up at the trickle it was receiving. ~Okay, reliability of 
affection source has yet to be determined, but probably is quite low. 
Ooooh, but it feels good anyway!~ 

    A warrior bulging with muscles placed his sword against the side of 
a small boulder, leaving it there still for a couple of heartbeats, 
then his back muscles bulged as he twisted and went from nothing to 
having cleft the boulder in two. As he was wiping sweat away with a 
grin (you never know what your sword could become trapped in during 
battle, so this was an exercise valuable for those few who could do 
it), his moment of triumph was interrupted by the next muscle man in 
line, who was standing with his blade slung casually over a shoulder as 
he watched a pair cross the practice field. 
    "Hey, look." 
    Another part of the action on the field paused as a pair of 
sorcerers ceased practice with fireballs hung suspended in the air. 
"...Hey, isn't that delusional idiot with..." 
    Men in the robes of apprentices stopped, others wearing the guild 
crests of town watch in training stared. Archers standing at their 
shooting range ceased looking toward their targets. The question got 
asked over and over again. "Say, who is that guy with Mitsuki Sanada?" 
    All attention focused one way. 
    As they got further into the field more and more things paused. 
This was not unusual for Mitsuki so she didn't notice it, but there 
were ominous undercurrents growing this time. She was about to start 
asking more about the things he saw when a wedge of assorted schoolboys 
marched by. 
    Somehow Jared went missing into the middle of it, hauled by heavy 
arms. 
    "Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!" The redhaired boy went tearing off down the 
street, vaulting a small row of bushes and charging through a lemonade 
stand that wasn't there, the burliest men on campus chasing after him 
with swords swinging. Fireballs were flung around him and arrows were 
falling all across his path. 
    "How DARE you *touch* our Mitsuki!!!!" 
    Jared was one of the top spell users on that era, he had also 
allowed himself to get in the habit of draining himself ridiculously 
dry trying to hurry along the work with that sword, a weakness he 
resolved *never* to get caught in again! 
    "But I didn't do anything!!" 
    "LIAR!! How could you run away like this if you had a clear 
conscience?" 
    Jared didn't bother to turn, shouting aloud while he focused all of 
his attention on how to run. "Are you CRAZY!!? ANYBODY seeing the 
expressions on your faces would flee in terror!" 
    He flipped over an orange cart, vaulting off of the roofed 
structure like a gymnast and landing by a chimney to go roof hopping 
away, arrows and spells falling around him. Jared chose a good moment 
shielded by explosions and slid down the far side of a peaked roof, the 
slant hiding him until a small winged creature appeared and started 
shouting with a finger pointed at Jared. "He's here! He's here, master! 
He's here!" 
    Jared might not be able to fireball it just now, but he made a good 
try of spitting it on his sword just the same. Then he was off running 
like mad with *other* summoned creatures hounding him just short of the 
mob of outraged fellow students vowing to kill him for having thought 
defiling thoughts of their beloved Mitsuki. 
    Jared had worked up such a good head of steam that he'd run along 
the *side* of a convenient wall making a sharp turn to avoid his 
pursuers, when at the other end of the alley appeared a group of 
musclebound swordsmen from the school, having somehow gotten ahead of 
him in the wild and twisty chase. 
    Archers appeared on every roof, arrows pointed down at him. 
    Golems rose up from the street. 
    Jared was just about to give himself up for dead when Mitsuki 
appeared, opening the door of a shop from within and hauling him inside 
by the arm. The door closed behind and the store was soon surrounded by 
villainous schoolboys. 
    Then they saw what that shop *sold* and broke away, crying wet 
sounding sobs of grief as some of the boys split up and went their 
separate ways. Others, more determined, hung around the shop, breathing 
heavily on the windows as some cried and others got the world's worst 
nosebleeds. 
    Inside the store, Mitsuki leaned away from peeking around the 
curtain of a window display of shapely female carvings modeling very 
frilly lace underwear and smiled at Jared. The redhead had a face the 
color of red apples and was fixed in gazing up at the ceiling, the only 
safe place to look in here. The girl giggled, taking him by the hand 
and leading him into the back of the shop. 
    Moans and cries of distress could be heard from the boys at the 
shop front as their idol led the most *un*eligible bachelor in town 
back behind the racks and racks of assorted female underthings, and out 
of view. 

    "Thank you, come again." 
    Mitsuki closed the door to the service entrance at the back of the 
shop behind them, having first checked to make sure it was clear before 
she'd led Jared out of it. She enjoyed the rather helpless look of 
embarrassment presently on his face. 
    "I'm sorry. I had no idea they would react like that." Mitsuki 
apologized. 
    Jared was struggling to breathe, looking more red in the face now 
than before, after having an up close and personal look at half the 
stock in the store as the girl had searched around waiting for the 
assault force to lose heart and interest. She had even made a small 
purchase out of politeness to the store owner for the providing them a 
timely refuge. 
    "Is this your first time in a lingerie shop?" Mitsuki bent close to 
tease when Jared still couldn't answer. 
    His blush fled as he resumed some control of himself. "Of course it 
is! If I went around going into lingerie shops people would treat me 
like a *real* weirdo!" 
    Mitsuki's reply was to make a happy noise, then take him by the arm 
again to lead him off down the street. "Perhaps I should apologize 
further. I hadn't meant to make your life at school any harder. But I 
think I should say, I do not think of you as a weirdo." 
    He cocked his head away skeptically. "Miss Mitsuki, I do not mean 
to say that I'm not glad you're talking to me. But why are you? You are 
doing a very determined job of being my friend, and I can't kid myself 
that it's because of my looks or social standing." 
    She made an agreeing grunt that sounded very cute. "True, about the 
social standing part. If you'd smile more you might be handsome, but 
that is not why I wanted to speak to you. You see, I read that book of 
yours." Mitsuki was looking at the cobblestones of the road ahead, not 
self conscious, but not revealing much either. Then she brought her 
head up in a gesture that tossed her hair and returned to smiling at 
him. "I am very interested." 
    Jared looked at her askance, but was too desperate for any kind of 
fellow contact with someone not actively in conflict or struggling with 
their own problems to turn this chance up. He sighed. "Okay, lead on." 

    Mitsuki Sanada had lovely brown hair that fell straight to her 
waist in back. She also had a shapely figure and wide eyes. But it was 
less for those qualities, nice as they were, than for the fact that she 
had a witty, level head that made her so sought after. There were any 
number of bubble headed beauties around, with figures as voluptuous and 
hair as long as you could ask. Most of them could also manage to roast 
their house instead of a meal they'd been cooking or cause the nail 
polish to explode in a freak alchemical reaction. 
    Some also laughed like crazed loons at all hours. 
    No, one of the reasons why Mitsuki was so valuable was she did 
*not* fly off the handle unreasonably, thought things through, and 
generally made much fewer messes than she cleaned. 
    Rarer qualities than one might think, on whichever world. 
    A man might marry Miss Sanada knowing with firm heart that she'd 
cost him less than she'd save, either in headaches or in gold pieces. 
Compared to other girls where you may as well set your home on fire and 
leap from a tower to save yourself the time and emotional expense at 
delaying the inevitable, she was quite a find. More than her mere 
attractiveness and rich father would otherwise indicate. 
    Unfortunately, to most men's minds at least, she'd also gotten 
very, very good at defending herself from unwanted proposals, mostly 
heading them off before they were even given. 
    The fact that Jared was enjoying his conversation with her was a 
given, once the initial distrust had passed, and that went away quickly 
when she showed no reason to support it any longer. Along the way he'd 
sprung for ice cream cones and Mitsuki was halfway through her double 
fudge ripple just as he was finishing off the scoop of pumpkin and was 
getting to the chocolate chip. Several times he'd had to catch a 
dribble right before it fell as he was enjoying their talk so much he 
almost failed to remember to eat. 
    "Here we are." Miss Sanada said, pausing before a big house with an 
open gate. 
    Jared stopped, their most recent topic fleeing his mind as he 
partook of the view of the mansion before him. It qualified her as part 
of the minor nobility at least, and probably a touch more, seeing the 
quality that had to have been behind the laying of the stones. It was 
far from the largest place he'd ever seen, but managed to exude an aura 
of quiet care and a gentle touch better than places many times the 
size. 
    It was beautiful. 
    "You live here?" He said with a touch of disbelief. That disbelief 
fled in an instant as he considered things. Yes, she and this house 
went together like a hand and glove. Their auras matched from the 
ground up. 
    "Yes, this is my home." 
    Jared turned to look more fully at her, expecting to say goodbye, 
when she leaned more close and said. "I would like to hear about this 
more in depth. Would you like to come inside? My father wants to 
see..." 
    "So YOU'RE the one!!!" 
    The front double doors both sprang instantly open and a man ran 
through gesturing widely enough that he took up the space to fill both 
frames. Suddenly Jared was enfolded in the man's glomp, and the lanky 
gentleman was rubbing their faces together. "Thank you for coming! I'm 
overcome with emotion. You're the chosen one alright! You even *feel* 
good!" 
    As the man's scratchy, almost bearded face was rubbed against Jared 
repeatedly in a display of affection normally reserved for pets and 
children, Jared tensed up and shouted. 
    "He's a PERVERT!!" 

    No, he was not a pervert. He was just a mad scientist. 
    Hey, they were fairly common in the Slayers world. 
    The basement was filled with one of those labs that look basically 
the same through their limited variations that didn't precisely alter 
whether the scientist in question used science or magic to reach his 
ends. There were the tubes, copper wire, weird looking devices, piles 
of paper, strangely shaped silver dishes, clusters of beakers, books, 
all the essentials. The omnipresent restraining device was in this case 
a not so typical electric chair rather than the far more traditional 
operating table, but the straps served just as well. 
    Two guesses as to who was in the straps. 
    Jared was surprised the guy could move so fast. He darted around 
like a lizard when he felt like it. The redhead judged the man at a 
touch over six feet and not quite as lanky as a bean pole, but on the 
thin side. Rather than gawky, the guy looked imposing in spite of his 
rather unkempt appearance. Three days growth on the beard, at least. 
His black hair was medium longish for a guy, but stood straight up like 
a shock of black grass more than like hair which would normally hang 
down. There was also a small pair of tiny lens glasses serving to 
decorate the man's rather finely formed nose. 
    What scared Jared was that the man didn't *look* mad, so much as... 
driven. There was a look to those with no touch with reality, and a 
whole different cast to them that had a good grasp of it, yet were 
devoted such that their mental tasks utterly superseded all the mundane 
physical ones like taking care of himself. 
    Jared knew, because he could be like that himself at times. 
    The scientist stepped in front of him, waving a finger 
admonishingly. "That's right. I haven't introduced myself." He placed a 
hand on his chest. "I am Mitsuki's father, magical researcher Ken 
Sanada, age 49. I specialize in dimensional theory." 
    ~Uh oh. This sounded ominous.~ 
    The scientist started to go through a number of heartfelt poses. 
"At present, I work at a Mage Guild as an assistant instructor. While I 
pour my heart's blood into the research of my own projects!" 
    Jared blinked, surprised. Then sweatdropped, trying to avert 
disaster. "No way. I'd place you late thirties at *most!* Was there 
some technique you've found that lets you stay a younger age?" ~Like 
the one Rezo has? I admit, he's got a real whopper of a doozy on that 
line that keep him in his prime. Trouble with *that* spell is you have 
to reach your prime first, and I haven't met mine yet.~ 
    Ken Sanada blinked, still in Jared's face. "Oh, I look young for my 
age? You're very smooth with words, I must say." 
    The man assumed a hands on hips position to throw back his head and 
laugh. His daughter appeared behind him, hands clasped in apology where 
her daddy couldn't see it. 
    Aw, heck. It'd been a great trap. He forgave her with a shrug and a 
slight smile while counting up the scraps of magical power that had 
accumulated in the short time that passed since he'd exhausted himself 
at the school. 
    Not enough for anything. 
    Ken Sanada finished his belly laugh, approaching Jared again while 
pulling a small portrait in a frame from his pocket and showing it to 
the boy. "Incidentally, my wife's name is Ayuko, isn't she a beauty? I 
like to brag about her." He paused, and Jared realized most of this 
conversation was going on in the old man's mind. "What's that? Where is 
she now, you ask?" In response to nothing either young person had said, 
the scientist began to cry while holding the portrait close to his 
face. "A - Y - U - K - O!!! Ayu - u - ko! Come back to me, please. 
Ayuko!" 
    In the midst of his whimpering sobs, Mitsuki slipped the portrait 
out of his fingers and tore it into tiny pieces, looking more 
embarrassed at his antics than Jared would've thought possible, given 
that her father was only witnessed by her and an experiment subject, 
after all. As she was tearing it up, Mitsuki painfully said in spite of 
her embarrassment. "Dad, get over that two-timing twit of a woman who 
ran off with another man!" 
    Ken Sanada seized her, causing the girl to forget her embarrassment 
for a moment in total surprise. That man could move fast! "Mitsuki!" 
The desperate man demanded, holding her firmly by the shoulders and 
still crying. "You'll always be here for me, won't you? Won't you?" 
    She accepted that with a cute but strained expression. "Of course, 
dad." 
    Well, Jared got to see where she got her emotional strength from. 
She's probably had to be shoring up her father most her life. That 
would teach strength to anyone, if it didn't snap them first. Actually, 
she appeared to be doing quite well. Compared to other lunatics Jared 
had met this Ken Sanada was fairly stable. 
    Likable, even, in a mad scientist sort of way. 
    A bit like Washu even. Ahh, the memories... 
    Jared cleared his throat to get their attention. "Excuse me, I 
don't mean to interrupt, but did you kidnap me for a reason? Or am I 
just here to meet the family?" 
    The two Sanadas separated instantly to face Jared once again. "Oh, 
but we haven't kidnapped you!" Mitsuki pled with clasped hands before 
her chest. "It was only necessary so that father could take your 
readings for his work! We'll let you go in a moment." 
    Ken Sanada was already at a bank of instruments, waving a wand 
around his back over Jared as he worked. All sorts of alchemical 
apparatus were reacting to this stimulus, but Mr. Sanada was watching 
these results with evident displeasure. "Hmm, I see. This is truly a 
dull readout. You're too darned normal." Sanada threw the wand against 
the instruments in disgust. "You're average and without character." 
    Jared hazarded a guess that was the Agency protections laid upon 
him, producing a dull reading when the facts were quite the opposite. 
    Ken Sanada was already in his face again. The man was greased 
lightning! "Why do you see visions of robots? Where did you learn about 
this... technology?" 
    Jared was silent a long moment, suddenly filled with dozens of true 
responses that would doubtless get him into trouble, and not a single, 
reassuring, false one to get him out. He glanced away, unable to face 
Ken Sanada. 
    The mad scientist smiled a grin of victory. 
    The man was then pacing around the chamber and ranting. "The recent 
rash of hens laying two-yolked eggs! Milk going sour before it's a day 
old! The rise of monster influence! Even the society shunning my 
theories!!" He shouted, in their obvious order of important to himself. 
"Ultimately, there is a reason for all of these!" He whirled his fist 
in the air, then twirled to face Jared, putting his hands over the 
redheads arms held down by straps. "In short, this series of phenomena 
is directly due to the effects of a parallel world upon our own! 
Inverse, all that you have seen thus far are visions of this parallel 
world!!!" 
    At this emotional climax Mr Sanada hit a large red button, causing 
the silver dishes to close in around Jared, who could now see they were 
some part of a focusing array. Well, at least the guy came up with his 
*own* excuse so Jared didn't have to say much. Some of it fit, 
actually. Heaven certainly knew *he* knew there were alternate 
dimensions. Seeing one wasn't too far a stretch. 
    Mitsuki cocked her head at him and frowned slightly, puzzled. 
"You're certainly taking this very calmly." She observed. 
    Jared shrugged within his bonds. "Put yourself in my place. Lured 
by a cute girl into the clutches of an eccentric and possibly dangerous 
magical scientist. If you were to learn all they intended to do with 
you was tell you about parallel world theories it would be almost 
relaxing compared to the alternatives. Something similar happened to my 
sister once and the guy wanted to chop her head off and give her the 
body of a monster chimera. This is tame." 
    Mitsuki blinked in honest surprise. 
    Jared made himself comfortable within his bonds, smiling at her. 
    She smiled in return. 
    Her father was already walking toward a lifesize statue of a fat 
and portly man about a foot shorter than the eccentric mage. The wood 
carving was defaced on every surface with slander against the man it 
portrayed. Mr. Sanada fingered a particularly vile curse carved in the 
bald forehead of the wooden man, saying aloud. "Magic begins with 
ideas. Research mages like myself are expected to prove their theories 
by producing workable magic." He clenched a fist in rage, then glanced 
around and had suddenly acquired a inked quill which he was using to 
outline a new reproach into the wooden man's face. "I'll show that 
no-proof, all-mouth, crack magician Rara!" 
    The implement was gone and Mr Sanada was walking calmly toward 
Jared from the opposite side of the room. "You're going to go to the 
parallel world to prove my theory, in my Super Ultra Deluxe Parallel 
World Transporter!" He clenched a happy fist. 
    Jared smiled cutely up at him. "Can't we just call it a Dimension 
Spanner? It's much simpler." 
    Mr. Sanada considered this, concluding. "Okay." 
    Mitsuki shyly whispered in her father's ear. "Dad, didn't you say 
this machine wasn't finished yet?" 
    Her father answered back, not bothering to keep his voice down 
much. "Oh, there's nothing to fear. He's going to a parallel world. My 
counterpart will be on the other side... probably." 
    "Probably?" Mitsuki worried. 
    Her father shrugged. "If he approaches the other me for help, he 
should be able to return him to this world." 
    "Should be?" She worried more. 
    Her father leaned close, with an insistent whisper. "This is ME 
we're talking about, after all." 
    "Oh!" She slapped a fist in her palm, worries gone. "That's right." 
    Ken Sanada had done one of those lightning dashes of his and hand 
both hands on a lever, straining with emotions at this great and 
climactic moment. "You'll see Rara! I'll be the one to prove a parallel 
world!" 
    Mitsuki was using both hands to push her father back, restraining 
him and shouting. "Don't give me that! You're over doing it! You said 
you were only going to take his physical examination today!" 
    Her father relaxed, putting a hand to his forehead and backing off. 
"Oh yeah. Sorry. I guess I got carried away." 
    Jared was quite enjoying this little comedy routine. 
    The girl sighed, folding her arms and seating herself now that the 
crisis was passed. "He's such a handful." She mourned aloud. 
    Unfortunately, she chose to seat herself on the lever her father 
had been pushing. A whine began building as it was depressed and all 
sorts of lights and blinking things started to make their presence 
known. The disk Jared's chair was strapped to started to glow and a 
reverse waterfall of green and yellow light began to fall upward around 
him. 
    Mitsuki's father was incoherent, trying to tell her what she'd done 
yet stammering too greatly to get past the first syllable. Mitsuki 
looked at him in surprise, trying to figure out what the matter was. 
    The waterfall up upward flowing light had turned from a slight 
shower into streams. 
    "M... Mitsuki! You've flipped the transporter lever!" 
    "You're kidding!" She hopped up when she realized where she was. 
    "Release Inverse quickly!" 
    "Right!!" 
    She started screaming, and the world went out. 
    It was all too silly, he hadn't the heart to tell them that Rezo 
would soon be dropping by looking for him. They had some plans about 
recent monster raids to discuss. 

*** 

    After an unusually graphic dimensional transport sequence, where he 
fell like Alice through a bunch of symbols and past some shapes, the 
superspy reappeared in the same lab. 
    Or it looked the same, at first glance that is. But a closer 
inspection revealed grime and dust such that it hadn't seen any serious 
use in years. That meant either of two things, it had failed utterly at 
the dimension transport, substituting a time warp instead, or that it 
*had* actually worked and he was in another world where Mr. Sanada 
didn't work in his basement very much. 
    The floor was too grimy to tell tracks, not that Jared was very 
good at it anyhow. But when there was enough dust it was easy to see 
for anyone who thought to look. The kind of stuff on the basement floor 
was too rough a surface for him to tell anything. 
    Well, let's see, disjoint the thumb, wiggle out of that restraining 
band. Get an arm free and then work on the other belts. Not something 
you can do when there is someone there to stop you, but easy enough 
when alone, if a bit painful. Honestly, the leather was so long since 
it'd been cared for he might've been able to tear free. 
    That done, he did a quick reconnoiter of the rest of the house. 
Pristine shape, almost perfect in its housekeeping. This was not a 
place without a woman wise in the ways of how to keep her home, and who 
also had the time to do it. 
    Power sockets, light switches, toaster, and microwave oven... 
    It wasn't until he was outside and had walked into a concrete 
utility pole that he gave enough credence to the idea that the cities 
were laid out identically, adapting only for the fact that magic was 
used in one, and technology in the other. What were fields and gardens 
in one were parking and garages here. Add traffic lights and utility 
poles, bridges, crosswalks and paved streets, gutters, mailboxes, and 
more... It felt alot more crowded while remaining mostly the same 
place. 
    Technology required alot more stuff. 
    The superspy looked around himself, smiled wide and mused. ~When do 
you call a madman mad? When his theories work, or when they don't?~ 
    He set off down the street, humming happily to himself. Then he 
noticed there were no other people about. So he started looking for 
some. 
    He found something much better. 
    He found a resupply depot. Oh *they* didn't call it that, of 
course. But what they did call it was immaterial. It had the raw 
materials to recreate his Superspy Survival Kit, and once he'd 
discovered this he was once again equipped as he used to be. That 
enabled him to leave payment on the counter for the parts he took. 
    This hadn't worked in the Slayers universe, but it was working 
here. He had only to flip open Cell Slicer and he was reporting in, 
almost weeping at being able to do so. 
    "Central, this is Skysaber. I'm back in contact. I fear my 
assignment failed and I got lost in the wrong world. Please advise." 
    He checked his watch face. The replies were usually printed there. 
He trembled with emotion as the words began to scroll past. "Skysaber, 
this is Central. You are on location where we intended for you to be. 
Preparatory period now completed, assignment begins now. Report to 
these coordinates and await developments. P.S. You have always been 
where we intended for you to be. You can never be where we can't find 
you." 
    The watch screen was now blinking with an address. 
    Jared had to wipe the glad tears from his eyes as he ran there. 
  

*** 

Author's Notes: 

Hiya! 

    Well, I'm back to writing again. Good thing, too. It hurts when I'm 
not able to. We'll get back to more on the Eva cast later. But I'm back 
in the saddle again. Back where a friend is a friend... 

    Hurray for our side!