ã€ŠSky Jewelã€‹


 Chapter 1: Arrival

    Jewels are rare things to find on land, but even rarer in the sky, and in the mountains of Arizona, on a Sunday night, the most precious of all found its way to earth.

    ¡°What the hell Is that?¡± A man said, turning the nob ofhis giant telescope to better focus upon the bright blue object. It resembled a comet somewhat, but ashe looked closer he realised it wasnoa comet at all.

    ¡°It must be a helicopter or something.¡± He said.

    The logical, scientific part of his brain told him not to jump to conclusions, but he felt very strange about it. The longer he observed the object, the less certain he became of it. It was close, real close, only one or two miles above at most, far too closeto be anything in space. He figured it must have been some sort of a machine but there wasno sound of an engine or propeller so it couldn''t be anything from the airport.

    ¡°A¡­drone?¡±

    That was the next thing that came to mind, and yet even this could not be the thing that he observed, for it was too big and too bright for that. It looked like a giant globe that emitted a blue light, perfectly uniform and almost natural looking like a star. He took out his smartphone, unlocked it, and opened the recording app. He then pointed thecamera into one of the eyepieces of the telescope, while continuing to look with the other. He hoped to capture an image in digital form so he could analyse it on his computer later on todebunk it. After only a few seconds of recording, he was startled to see the blue light beginto flash and dimmer,and then right after out fella small object that resembled that of a human body.

    Panicked, he stopped the recording on the phone, and pulled up the footage. He eagerly watched the replay on the small LCD screen, keeping an eye on the blue light, expecting to see something fall out from it. And then there it was. His heart jumped in his chest when he saw the same thing on video thanhe did with his bare eyes. He paused the footage, rewinded it, and then double tapped the screen to zoom in.Even though the imagewas pixelated and grainy, the objectwas undeniablyresembled a body, or rather, a person of some kind, either human or not. His brain scrambled for an answer, and the first thing that came to mind was some type of practise dummy ejected from some strange flying machine, whether from the government or from the private sector.

    That must be it, he thought. He hoped.

    Curious about it, he jumped off his observatory chair, grabbed his coat from the work bench, threw it around himself and then raced for the door. He hastily put on his boots and after wrestling with them, he reached for his trusty torch thathung conveniently across the wall. His hand shook violently as he unlocked the door, whether from excitement or fear, or both. He slammed the door open, and then ran as fast as fast as he could through the arid outdoors not even caring to close the door behind himself.

    He did not often run, but the adrenalin that coursed through his body made him feel like an olympic runner. He wanted to see the bodyup close so badly that he did not even care if his own body could even handle running so quickly. He was glad that he worked out every so often,not as much as he would like but enough to keep himself relatively fit.He sprinted for what seemed like a mile, madly alternating the torch across the red sand and sparse green fauna in searchof anything that lay amongst it.

    After only a bit of searching, the torchcame across something ofinterest. It was difficult to make out in the distance, but as hecame closerit became very clear what he was looking at. His insides twisted with anxiety as his original hypothesis appeared to be correct.

    It was indeed a body turned over and laying on its side across a patch of overgrown grass; a woman with skin paler than usual. She wore no clothes whatsoever, not even a robe or any sort of undergarments. She looked thin and frail, and did not seem to be the type to be involved in any strange experiments.

    The man cautiously approached herwith his torch dead onher the whole time, watching for any signs of movement. There was none, and when he noticed she was not even breathing, his emotions rapidly switched from fear to concern. He ran to her, dropped his torch and thenknelt down to inspect her closer, wondering exactly what he could do to help. He was trained in CPR back in the day, but he was slow to react in the moment.His mind was full of questions and his gut laden with fear. Regardless, he still felt the need to try, and as he to turned to lay herflat across her back,he was momentarily stricken by her beauty. Her hair was short and barelyreachedher shoulders, aqua blue and cut into a round mesh with perfectlytrimmedends.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    She had a soft, yet firm face. Pretty and young. Younger than him. He was only twenty five, but she must have been around twenty if not even younger. Her lips were thin and icy looking, colored in the same kind of aqua blue as her hair. Around her eyes there was a soft layer of a darkeye shadow that reminded him ofa kind of war paint from some fictional characterin one of the recent movies he watched. It was most odd. This girl was most odd.He looked at her face and wondered if this being was even in fact human at all. She looked like a human, and as he grabbed her hand she even had the body warmth of one.

    As he attempted to revive her, he almost had a heart attack when her eyes suddenly opened and apair of ocean blue irises focused directly upon him. They glowed in the dark and were notably unnatural looking, digital even like lenses from a camera. They stared at each other for a short while until her eyes closed once again. As he continued to stare at her he felt strange about the fact that she was completely naked, so he took off his coat and placed it around her body to cover her up. He then and then reached downtocarefully picked her up in in a bridal position. He made sure to be gentle and rested her head against his shoulder to support her neck.

    ¡°What¡­are you?¡±

    He moved as quickly as he could back tohis observatory. He must have ran faster than he thought because it seemed to take forever. After all, It had been a while since he had a woman in his arms. That didn''t happensince he was in college, and that was only for a stupid initiation contest his classmates forced him into.

    When he finally reached the observatory, he closed the door behind him with his foot, andthen lowered her across the couch that was near the kitchen, making sure toposition her so her head rested against one of the pillows . He then opened a nearby wardrobe and pulled out a warm yellow blanket to put over her in addition to his jacket that thus far had kept her warm.

    Ashewatched her sleep hepranced around the room, thinking whether topick up the phone and call someone, 911, or someone from his university. He only thought for a little while before his thoughts were interrupted when thegirlbegan to show signs of waking up again. Fear permeatedthroughhim as he began to genuinely wonder exactly who or what she was.If she was an alien, at least she was a pretty one. He could not keep his eyes off her. He watched for about a minute before her eyes began to open yet again. He held his breath, but she did not look at him. Instead she sleepily looked around at her surroundings, curious as to where she was.

    He approached her slowly, waving to get her attention but still not getting it. It was like he was invisible, and only when stood in front of her did she finally seem to take notice of him.

    ¡°Hi. My name is Michael, Michael Dugarti. What''s your name?¡± Michael said, and rather nervously at that. He wasn¡¯t sure if she understood him but he sure hoped she could.

    It creeped him out a little, the way she would stare at him like a ghost, mindless and stale. He began to wonder what was going on in her mind, if anything at all. But as he looked into her most fascinating eyes something inside of him clicked. Something was telling her she needed nourishment.

    He raced to the kitchen and grabbed a mug from the cupboard, filled it with water from the tap, and then looked for whatever he could find from the food tray. There wasn¡¯t much, only a half eaten energy bar and a packet of jelly beans his lab mate had clearly left behind again - one of many things. He grabbed them both and then returned to the couch. He knelt down beside her continued staring at him like a newborn kitten.

    ¡°Are you thirsty? Here have some water.¡± He said as he moved the cup to her mouth, gesturing for her to drink from it but still she did not react.

    He gave her a warm smile before moving his hand behind her head to gently guide her lips to the cup before slowly pouring the liquid into her mouth. But she did not drink. The water wastefully ran down her face and spilt into the couch instead. Michael put away the mug, and tried again with the energy bar. He broke it into small pieces and moved one of them just under her nose so she could have a sniff before placing it near her mouth which to his surprise, began to open her mouth. Her placed it inside to which she chewed only once and then appeared to swallow the tiny bit of food down.

    Almost instantly the strength appeared to return to her body. She sat up straight, doing so slowly like a hospital patient recently out of a coma. Her face was rather expressionless but he swore he could see the beginnings of a smile develop across her lips.

    ¡°Divona,¡± The girl said in a soft voice. ¡°My name is Divona.¡±

 Chapter 2

    After mentioning her name, Divona remained quiet ever since. She ate the energy bar as if it was the first piece of food she''s had in a while. Michael was fascinated by her, but he didn''t want to make things awkward by watching her eat and so he left her alone while he went in search for a clean set of clothes for her to wear. She was only covered by a simple blanket and it must have been quite uncomfortable and demeaning. He wanted to make her comfortable and welcome.

    He headed over to his room which was just around the corner and scoured through the cupboards for something appropriate and clean. Problem was the washing machine broke down months ago and since then nothing had been very clean at all, at least not to his mother''s standard. When he was younger she would always nag him to clean his room, to wash himself and to be presentable to other people, especially to girls, and it was only now that he regretted not listening to her. There was a girl in the building and the last thing he wanted was to gross her out by giving her an unclean and sweaty set of clothes. What to do.

    He began to panic when he could not find anything at all. Some of his clothes were simply tossed into the cupboard, others scattered in random places around his room, in the corners, on other things, whether they were clean or not.

    I''m such a pig¡­

    what will she think of me?

    He sighed in despair, realising he wasn''t going to find anything at all. He paced up and down the room wondering exactly what to do next, knowing it would be rude and inappropriate to allow her to remain naked. He thought about a solution for a while until an idea came to mind. There was a 24 hour gas station only a few miles away, and perhaps from there he could get her something to wear.

    Returning to the main room, he noticed Divona about half way done with the energy bar, still comfortably tucked up in the fuzzy yellow blanket he had given her, looking like someone who had just returned from a swim. When their eyes met Divona put the energy bar down beside her and got to her feet, dropping the blanket and standing in the nude before him. He blushed as he looked away out of respect.

    "Why are you looking away?." Divona said, tilting her head in confusion.

    "Because you''re naked! It''s¡­it''s¡­inappropriate." he stuttered.

    "You don''t like the way I look?"

    "No! of course I do! I mean, no i''m not like that. I mean, here, cover yourself, please." Michael said with his eyes still averted as he reached for the blanket and giving it over to her.

    It took her a while but eventually Divona seemed to get the message and so she grabbed the blanket off him and proceeded to cover herself with it.

    "I haven''t had a girl here for a long time so unfortunately I have nothing at all for you. I''m going out for a bit to find you some supplies. We need to get you some clothes."

    "Are you in possession of any more Joules?" Divona said, her voice smooth and in a slight monotone.

    "Joules?"

    "Yes. I am in need of energy.."

    "You mean food? Oh, uh, I''ll get you some food too. Stay here, okay? I''ll be right back. Maybe ten minutes tops. Okay?" he said.

    She stared at him like a lost child, but it appeared she understood what he meant. At least he hoped she did. He wondered if it was smart to leave her alone in this place, but there really was no choice. It''s not like she was coming with him wearing only a blanket. She needed some clothes.

    Michael walked over to the front entrance, grabbed the car keys across the key rack and moved to open the door, leaving her one last smile before leaving. He walked across the driveway and entered his pickup truck, but before he even put the keys in the ignition he collapsed his head across the steering wheel and sighed.

    This whole situation is completely crazy...

    What am I doing?

    In the glove compartment was his Glock 9mm. It had only been used a couple times in the gun ranges with his college buddies from time to time but never did he imagine actually using it for self defence. Not until now. Divona certainly didn''t appear to be a threat but that didn''t mean there weren''t others.

    He drove across the dirt road until entering the smooth freeway. Along the way he took deep breaths as his mind became abuzz with a million thoughts. He refused to believe Divona was anything but human but there were some real questions that needed to be answered. His heart began to beat quickly in his chest. The possibility that he was housing an alien made him feel more than a little nervous to put it lightly.

    He thought about this the whole way, right until he arrived at the gas station and parked his pickup in the allocated parking. Michael entered the store and walked up to the clerk behind the counter who''s name he still wasn''t sure of despite being a somewhat regular customer.

    "Hey¡­do you, uh, sell womens clothing?" Michael said.

    The clerk looked at him oddly, chewing gum as he sat on a short stool and half listened to the small radio on his desk.

    "Does this look like a clothes department to you?"

    "Look, I really need a set of clothes. It''s an emergency. Please." Michael said, leaning over the bench.

    "I don''t have anything like that here."

    "Damn, I''m really desperate. Do you know any place i can get some clothes? its an emergency."

    No, but i''ll tell you what, I can sell you something my wife owns, but i''ll have to charge you a premium for it¡­"

    "Your wife?"

    "I live here budd. Wifey is sleeping out the back. Give me a hundred big ones and ill give you something she rarely ever wears."

    "A hundred bucks for used clothes? you''re killing me¡­"

    "Take it or leave it budd. I''m trying to help you out."

    Michael grudgingly reached for his wallet and counted exactly how much money he had. Luckily he had a little over that amount in cash, but never did he imagine it would be spent it on such ludicrous things. He handed the clerk over a hundred dollars in notes and then waited as he left to go out the back seemingly to go retrieve them.

    In the meanwhile Michael paced around the store, looking for other supplies he thought Divona might want or need. He headed for the refrigerated section and grabbed two bottles of gatorade- a red and a blue one, as well as a box of pre packaged sandwiches. He returned to the counter and put them across the table as well as the money for what they were worth. He waited nervously for the rest of his merchandise to return. And then it finally did. The clerk returned with a neatly folded set of clothes, a white blouse and pants, looking completely brand new. He placed them in a plastic bag and handed it over to Michael.

    "Here you go. Don''t worry, they are relatively clean. I give you my guarantee." The clerk said as he passed it over to Michael who grabbed it awkwardly.

    "Thanks. I''ll take this stuff also. Keep the change." Michael said, stuffing the food and drinks in the bag.

    "Come again, budd."

    The drive back to the observatory was even more excruciating than leaving it. He wondered if Divona was making herself comfortable or she would even be there when he returned. For all he knew, she could have even been part of an elaborate plot to distract him while thieves stole some of the expensive equipment the place harboured. Of course none of it actually belonged to him, but if he had allowed for them to be stolen his life was as good as over.

    He tried not to think too much about it but it became impossible. This was no ordinary Sunday night. The fact that he had just bought the clothes of another man''s wife was proof of that.

    When he returned he saw something that made him instantly freeze and stomach churn. The door to the observatory was wide open. He knew he shut it when he left. Panic set through him and he instantly reached into the glove compartment and pulled out his Glock 9mm. He wondered whether he should call the police or dare to investigate what was going on himself. Michael felt brave and with a final long breath he opened the car door while holding a gun in one hand and a shopping bag with the other. He moved slowly towards the building, taking light calculated steps . He held his gun straight in front of himself, ready to fire at any threat, but as he approached his legs felt heavier and arms begin to shake. He had never even been in a fight before let alone a potential firefight. He was terrified, not for himself or the place but for Divona.

    Along the way he heard no odd noises, no scrambling or sounds of any kind of struggle, and upon closer inspection, there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. The door was open but there didn''t appear to be anyone inside. He lowered his gun a little.

    "Divona? Are you there?" Michael said nervously, noticing she was not on the couch in the living room where he had left her.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Michael checked his room and the bathroom, but couldn''t find her. He scratched his head and then headed over to the final place where she could be, down towards the work room that housed all the equipment including the telescope.

    "Divona?"

    And then he found her. She sat upon the observation chair looking through the eyeglass of the telescope with fascination. He could not help notice she was naked- again, and so he approached with an everted gaze, trying not to look at her rather attractive frame. He tucked his gun behind in his pants, and placed the shopping back with the supplies on his work table before moving around to give her the privacy.

    "Did you open the front door by any chance?" his back turned. He could hear her as she walked over to the table.

    "Yes, was I supposed to close it again? I am sorry Michael. I was curious what was outside but I didn''t have the energy to explore it, so instead I decided to look at your equipment. Does everything here belong to you?"

    "Uh. Yeah" He said in a white lie. It was pretty much his for all intents and purposes¡­.

    All of a sudden he felt quite silly for assuming all the negative things he did before. He knew in his gut that she was no threat and was happy to realise that was the case. There was a beautiful girl in his house, playing with his telescope. Instead of being afraid he should be thanking his lucky stars.

    "I''ve brought you some clothes, I hope they are your size¡­please try them on." He said

    "Thank you Michael."

    As she dressed herself Michael waited patiently with his back turned. He could hear her dressing up.

    "Michael, I request your assistance." She said.

    He turned around slowly to see Divona half naked now with her back turned to him, struggling to pin up the bra. She wore only her panties and Michael couldn''t help but admire the lovely curve across her back which was more beautiful than any heavenly body he''s ever seen. He was totally in love.

    He grew nervous as he grabbed the ends of the bra, inadvertently touching her soft skin. His hands were shaking a little.

    "What do you call this item of clothing?" Divona said.

    "A bra. You don''t normally wear clothes like this?"

    She shook her head. "No. This is new to me"

    He finally managed to connect them and then instantly turned around to give her the privacy to continue to dress herself. For an apparent alien she sure seemed to take longer than he would expect to figure out human clothing. Surely it wasn''t that complicated.

    " Tell me when you''re done so I can turn around,okay?" Michael said.

    "Okay Michael."

    When she was done she let him know and so he turned back around and was relieved to see the set of clothes in all the right places. She seemed quite indifferent about being dressed, and that made him wonder even more about her. The clothes were not exactly her size, but the fit wasn''t that bad. Divona was average height, well for a girl, and was perhaps a little thinner than average.

    "This bra doesn''t fit me properly. I think it may be too big." She said.

    "Well, you do have a slightly smaller frame. Not that that''s a bad thing you look er, good." Michael said, and rather nervously at that. He wondered why girls always made him say the dumbest things. Luckily for him she didn''t absorb what he said and seemed more interested in the sandwiches across the table instead.

    "May I?" she asked him nicely.

    "Of course, they are for you, all of them are for you¡­."

    She seemed excited as she approached the table and unpacked the packaging skilfully with her delicate fingers. She then devoured the sandwiches greedily, at a pace that even impressed him. For years he was the undisputed champion in college for the only sport he was ever really good at, Competitive eating, but Divona seemed to give him a run for his money. Back in the day he could put down twelve hotdogs in five minutes and he had never seen a girl eat as fast as he could. The sandwiches were gone in mere seconds as it was clear she didn''t even chew or properly taste the food before somehow swallowing it.

    "Thank you. I feel energised."

    "Well, er, no problem."

    There was an awkward silence between them as a bundle of thoughts raced through his mind. There were so many questions he wanted to ask her but the way she was staring at him made any words difficult to let out. Her blue, near shoulder length hair was cut so perfectly at the ends that it seemed like a wig at first, but upon closer inspected it was indeed real. He had straightened his hair once before with a straightener, but he had never seen hair as straight as hers. Even her fringe appears to be cut with laser precision, going flat across her forehead with not a loose strand out of place.

    And those eyes. They were the strangest part about her. Almost lifeless but so complex and detailed there had to be someone behind them. They were a deep blue, as was her lips. Clearly blue was her favourite colour. Her perfections put him on a massive tilt whether intentionally or not.

    "I understand you took a risk in taking care of me. It shows you have a great deal of faith."

    Michael scratched his head nervously. " Yeah well, you seemed like you needed help. I wouldn''t want to leave you out there¡­"

    "So i am going to return that trust and tell you my story. Unfortunately, it seems most of my memory has been erased, at least temporarily, so I won''t be able to tell you very much."

    "Erased? What do you mean? Are you a robot or something? Michael said, and immediately regretting his choice of words. He didn''t wish to insult her or say the wrong things.

    She smiled. "I am neither biological nor am I a synthetic. It would be impossible for your mind to comprehend. "

    "Okay¡­so you''re an¡­alien? an english speaking alien?" He said, boldly, and this time not regretting his words at all. He needed to know the answer to that one at least.

    He was relieved to see her smile - again. This time it was different. Her lips curved at the ends more than usual. "Yes, Michael, I am an alien from the moon."

    His eyes widened. "¡­Really?"

    "No."

    "Then why did you¡­"

    "That was a joke."

    Michael made an attempt at a laugh, but it ended up being pathetic and awkward. He felt like more of an ass. "I suppose if you were an alien you wouldn''t be trying to make jokes. That was a uh, good one¡­you really got me¡­but if you''re not an alien then what are you?"

    "The truth is, I am so different to you that I may as well be a different species. I am not from this world. Not from this timeline."

    "Timeline? So you''re from the¡­future?"

    "Yes."

    Michael felt his heart beat in his chest from sheer excitement. What he heard from her sounded preposterous at face value but given all the peculiar things about her he was open to believing anything. She didn''t seem like a liar. There was strangely something alien-like about her, even if she did appear to be human on some level.

    "What timeline is this?" Divona said.

    "¡­uh Twenty seventeen."

    She looked at him confusingly. "Can you be a little more specific?"

    "Well, er..January¡­"

    She interrupted. " Please go up in units."

    "...Two thousand and seventeen¡­AD?"

    "Oh¡­" Divona said, her face shifting a little lower. Her facial expression didn''t change but by the look in her eyes he could tell she was a little surprised. Or disappointed. Or both.

    "Oh?"

    "¡­I was hoping I didn''tgo back that far.¡­"

    "So what year are you from¡­exactly?" Michael said, leaning against the table acting as casual as he could. His legs were shaking and his gut was twisted with excitement. Palms getting sweaty.

    "In the future we have different measurements of time. But in your measurement it would be around one million AD."

    Michael almost fell off the table when he heard that. If he wasn''t leaning against it he would have looked like the biggest idiot.

    "A¡­million¡­years?"

    "That is the rounded off figure. Specifically Nine hundred seventy eight thousand, four hundred and twenty two years in the future."

    Divona walked over to the telescope, continuing to inspect it and all it''s panels and parts with almost surgical precision - clearly fascinated by it. Michael watched her with equal fascination. He still wanted to know so much more about her. So much about the future.

    "Such vintage technology. It is amazing to see it with my own eyes¡­" Divona said, adjusting a nob as she looked in the eyeglass.

    Michael put himself together and approached her near the telescope, eyeballing her like he never did to anything before. There was literally nothing in the universe more interesting to him than her at the moment. Not even the Super Bowl. There was someone actually from the future in his house. A scientific goldmine.

    "So excuse me for asking, but why are you here..exactly? I mean, don''t get me wrong, I think it''s cool and all that you''re here¡­but why?" Michael said.

    "Cool? are you referring to me being of a low temperature? I do not understand the context."

    "I guess in the future you must speak differently. Each era has it own slangs i suppose. I''m saying that I approve of you being here."

    "I am glad to hear that. I am cool with you also."

    "Everyone speaks english in the future?"

    "We are fluent in all languages ever invented by our ancestors, oral, digital, quantum and more. Perhaps my memory loss is the cause of the gaps in knowledge. But if you wish to know why I am here, I am sorry to disappoint you. I do not know." Divona said, lowering her head in sadness.

    "I guess time travel must have messed with your memory?" Michael said.

    "No. There is another cause. It seems I am infected with a virus that is making me function at subpar levels. At the moment I am in the process of removing it from my system, but because my neural lace is not currently functioning, I am forced to do everything manually, which is really quite inconvenient."

    "Neural lace? I''ve read that somewhere once..What exactly is a neural lace?" Michael said.

    "It is an external computer system that works in parallel with my conscious mind. It normally does all the heavy processing that my mind could not do on its own. Not only did the virus separate the neural lace from me, but it also seems to have scrambled a lot of my more personal memories as well. "

    "¡­So you have a computer built in your brain? Do you even have a brain? Sorry that came out wrong. You know what I mean though, right? I mean, this is all interesting..."

    "Yes I do have a brain, though it is not biological, not like yours. It is of the same basic design and has been enhanced to work at a much greater capacity and speed. In the future, there is a debate on whether the brain should be replaced with a more efficient design, but I am from a faction that is very conservative, and we believe that there are some things that should not and must not change, even if that holds us back."

    "What do you mean by that?" Michael said.

    "You can replace a body part with a machine and still remain human, but what happens when you begin to tinker with the very way your mind works?" Divona said, looking at him strongly now. "That is a dangerous concept. The mind is the centerof our reality and any modifications to it would threaten what it means to be human. That is a line my faction does not wish to cross. The neural lace connects our mind to a super intelligent AI but it does not allow it to control and take over, so we still remain in controlof our thoughts. Do you understand?"

    "¡­So you''re a humanist I guess?" Michael said jokingly.

    "I do believe that is what you call it in this time. It probably isn''t a very big belief system yet."

    "No, its more like a fringe concept i guess. The smartest AI in this time is no where near even cockroach level, which is quite embarrassing¡­Hey, So you said you have some kind of virus? Is it like, uh bad?"

    "I am made from billions of small self replicating machines that all work together and share their bandwidth for the good of the whole. Each one contains a blueprint of my entire being, and it appears the virus has tampered with thatblueprint. All the encrypted backups have been changed as well." Divona said.

    "Wait you''re made from small machines? like nano machines? So you are a robot? "

    Divona smiled gently at him. He swore she seemed to enjoy his confusion but he could''t be certain about it. "All life is made up of small machines. You are made from cells which are natural self replicating systems. Do you consider yourself a ''robot'' because of it?"

    "Point taken¡­" Michael said, feeling as dumb as ever. He was no biologist but he should have known that. " I had a cold a few years back and i was stuck in bed for a week¡­guess even in the future viruses still haven''t been eradicated¡­can you delete it?"

    "I am in the process of analysing it. I have never done a system scan manually without the help of the neural lace so it will take a while to even analyse the problem. In the meanwhile, is it possible for you to retrieve more joules? I need to keep my energy levels up. Even after the Joules you have given me, currently, my levels are still very low."

    "Sure. I don''t have anything here, but if you''d like we can go out and get something to eat¡­"

    "I''d like that very much Michael." Divona said, happily.

 chapter 3

    The drive to the local diner took far longer than Michael had ever remembered it to. His new passenger, a girl who seemed more like a cosplayer than anything else. But she claimed to be from the future, and so far he had no reason to doubt that.

    Divona sat across the passengers seat beside him, looking out the side window, watching the passing terrain like a fascinated child. It made him wonder exactly what was going on through her mind He was sure she was just as full of questions as he was, but she sure didn¡¯t seem to show it.

    There were so many questions he absolutely had to ask, but after their first two minutes of conversation, it felt more like an interview, and so be backed off. She didn¡¯t talk, and The next half an hour between them fell completely silent, until Divona addressed him from out of the blue.

    ¡°It feels good to have a friend right now. Thank you.¡± She said.

    ¡°Yeah, well, I really do want to help you Divona.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°I don''t know why but I trust you completely, even though you''re from a different dimension or timeline or whatever."

    He smiled at her and she at him.

    ¡°You are a brave man, Michael. From your perspective, you had no information whether I was friend or foe, and yet you decided to assist me, taking great risk to yourself.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to bite me or something? right?¡± Michael said.

    Divona tilted her head in confusion, which made him instantly feel like an idiot.

    ¡°That was a joke¡­A lame one I know. Look, I¡¯m not very good at speaking to girls, especially ones from the future, my jokes are too corny and so bear with me.¡± Michael said.

    Divona half smiled. He wasn¡¯t sure whether it was out of sympathy or not. She didn¡¯t seem upset in any way, but did have a rather blank expression across her, not that that was unusual.

    ¡°I have never used my vocal chords before, so please, bear with me." She said.

    Michael was a little startled by what she said, it really put things into perspective. All this time he was afraid of her but he never realised that perhaps it was more like the other way around.

    I am sorry Michael, I am running very low on energy. Vocal communication is inefficient and I need to save all the energy I possess.¡±

    ¡°Alright¡­Just a few more minutes, hang on. There''s a place here. On the left."

    A few minutes later they arrived at the local diner, which was always open until midnight. There was a giant sign outside that said so. People tended to get hungry late at night in this place for a reason and that was something Michael did not fully understand. It was almost eleven at night and there was no cars or trucks in the allocated parking spots.

    Michael parked the pickup closet to the entrance to the diner. He had never eaten here before but the place seemed nice enough enough.

    "I wonder what''s on the menu? Would you like anything in particular? Let me guess, everyone in the future is vegan?"

    "Vegan? I am not familiar with that term. I am currently disconnected to my neural lace so I cannot access the definition of it.¡±

    "So even in the distant future you still haven''t solved that problem aye? I totally get it. If I didn''t have my phone to google things from time to time, check my emails or browse Wikipedia, I''d be totally lost."

    "Do not talk to me about Google."

    "Not a fan huh? You have it in your time?"

    "No. Corporations do not exist.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡±

    "So what is a vegan?" Divona said.

    "Oh right, I think it''s when you don''t eat meat or any animal products. Pretty sure that¡¯s what it is¡­¡±

    "Animal products? This time is so different I may as well be in another universe.¡±

    They sat across one of the tables. A tired waitress approached them holding a notebook in her hands and a cigarette in her mouth.

    "What''s ya order?" She said.

    Michael was about to speak, but Divona spoke first.

    "Anything with the most joules." Divona said.

    "I had a cousin, Jules, and she''s a complete bitch. Don''t you go on reminding me of her now. Do you know what time it is?¡± The waitress said rudely.

    Michael interjected. "We just want to eat, please.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Mhm¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d like the house special. One for each, thanks."

    "Hamburgers it is. Chef won''t do anything else. He wants to go home too.¡±

    The waitress left to retrieve their order and it was the two of them alone, sitting on opposite sides of a small table. She was so damn beautiful he wondered if all this was in fact a dream, and if it was his mind that simply manifested all this. He had never had a lucid dream before, but he was certain this was no dream. He didn''t drink tonight and did not touch his roommates secret stash of ''medications''.

    The burgers came out pretty quickly, and as soon as they did Divona quickly grabbed it off the waitress and ate the whole burger in mere seconds. She really was hungry. The waitress rolled her eyes.

    Michael wasn''t really that hungry and offered his burger to Divona suspecting she wanted it, and there was no protest from her. She ate is equally as quickly, barely chewing at all and just basically stuffing it down her mouth somehow.

    "Had your fill?" Michael said.

    ¡°The singularity within me did. Thanks to you, it will no longer escape its containment field and destroy the earth." Divona said.

    "Wait what?"."

    "A singularity is a point at which..."

    Michael panicked. ¡°Hold on¡­ You mean a black hole? You have a black hole as in inside you?¡±

    ¡°Yes. More specifically a negative black hole. My primary energy source. I keep it contained in a different dimension but the barriers designed to keep it there appear to be failing.¡±

    ¡°You said, negative? What is that??¡±

    ¡°You and I are made of positive mass. We have a net weight and feel the effects of gravity from other positive mass. Negative mass is similar except all properties are reversed. A negative black hole weights infinitely less than nothing, and so you can imagine it is a very unstable object. Difficult to store. It can cause major problems if the containment field fails entirely."

    ¡°What kind of problem?¡± Michael said curiously.

    ¡°A negative black hole will accelerate all mass, including the entireearth away from the centerat near the speed of light.¡±

    Michael couldn''t believe what he was hearing. He had a feeling she wasn''t joking. He had often feared a situation where the earth could be swallowed up by a rogue black hole. An object so ridiculously massive it was beyond comprehension.

    ¡°So, you''re telling me that the burgers you just ate may have saved the earth?¡±

    Divona seemed rather chill about it all.

    ¡°Yes, although, barely,¡± Divona said ¡°It is very dangerous when a singularityreaches critical mass. Those ¡®burgers¡¯ are helping to keep a delicate balance.¡±

    ¡°Well you did have a decent chunk of joules as you like to say, that¡¯s for sure....¡±

    ¡°Normally I can convert matter into energy, but in my current state all I can do is harness chemical energy from the food, just like your biological body does, which is really quite minuscule in comparison .¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not about the nourishment, you gotta enjoy the taste. I love food, i¡¯d eat even if i didn''t have to. I can live off Lasagna and goulash.¡±

    Divona stared at him blankly. She said nothing.

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°I understand. ButI am not doing this for enjoyment. I am trying to save my life. I mean the earth.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°All this is too much, I¡¯m dreaming? I feel like I¡¯m going to wake up at any moment and forget all about you. I really don¡¯t want that, though the black hole thing really creeps me out.¡±

    ¡°I do not want that either, Michael, it freaksme out too.¡±

    ¡°Hey, if the earth is about to end, I may as well act like a millionaire, right. I¡¯ll get you more food.¡±

    ¡°I will repay you.¡±

    Michael dismissed her with a wave. ¡°Please, I really feel like I have to do this.¡±

    Michael ordered half a dozen more burgers which Divona devoured at record speed. He still couldn¡¯t get over it. He asked for the tab and left all his money. Leaving just $2 for the rude waitress. and they returned to his car, and back on to the long road home.

    ¡°How did you stuff those monsters down?. Six large burgers. Man, That black hole better stay stable now¡­¡±

    She looked at him stoically. ¡°I fear the inter-dimensional barriers that contain it may be failing. I require much greater levels of energy to make use of my higher functions, including activating my repair sub-directives to fix that amongst other things.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you need more than a few more burgers.¡°

    ¡°Michael, I requireKinetic energy. Nuclear, electromagnetic, thermal, anything like that.¡±

    ¡°What about electric? We got a power grid.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good start. I need to use it.¡±

    ¡°Uh Sure¡­I just need to find a way to get you access to it...¡±

    Divona looked at him in a tender manner, and it was him that blushed.

    ¡°I love you Michael.¡± Divona said.

    His mind wondered from the road in that moment and it was the reason why he was late to notice something on the road. he slammed the breaks hard and swerved to the side of the road to avoid hitting the dog or whatever it was. The car went well off the road and almost hit a tree.

    Michael released a sigh of relief when the car came to a halt. He noticed Divona reacted perfectly calm, not even flinching the whole time and staying steady in her seat.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t good.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°What was that? Did you see it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a drone from the future. It must have come with me as I travelled across the timeline.¡±

    ¡°Is it gonna attack us?¡±

    ¡°That is likely. Whatever deleted my memory also likely sent this thing to kill me.¡±

    Divona opened the door to the car, exited and then leant inwards to address him. He was a nervous wreck, but she was as cool as ice.

    ¡°Michael, please stay in the safety of this vehicle. You will be safe inside.¡±

    Divona closed the door as soon as she said that, leaving him unsure what to do. Michael cursed himself for being so cowardly, for not helping her. There was something about this girl from the future and he needed to find out what.

 Chapter 4

    Michael''s hands slammed hard across the steering wheel as he wrestled on what to do next. Be brave and go help Divona, or listen to her advice and stay in the pickup. He thought about driving off to save his own ass, but that was too cowardly even for him. His mind told him to stay away but his heart pulled him to her. He thought about the way she smiled at him before she left and in that moment he knew what he had to do.

    Being out on the country road in the dead of night was difficult as there was no visibility, no streetlights, and Michael soon began to realise that even if he wanted to help this it was going to be a real problem. He didn''t have a flashlight, and besides the headlights of his pickup there was almost nothing to shine away the darkness. Thick clouds covered the full moon above and the air felt heavy with moisture. The sound of thunder engulfed the clouds above.

    He drew his pistol and slammed open the car door and then ran to where he guessed Divona was. He went up a steep hill, pushing away for mounds of dried plants and shrubs that slammed into his face that he couldn''t see. He reached the crest and in that moment a flash of lightning lit up the land, revealing Divona in the valley below. The image was gone almost as quick as it came, and it dawned on him he may be in over his head. The light from the lightning wasn''t going to be enough.

    I can''t see a thing¡­

    I could shoot her by accident if i''m not careful.

    What am I gonna do?

    How can I help Divona?

    Thinking about it for a little while Michael decided to run back to his pickup, dropping his keys twice as he scrambled to open the door. He wished the car had automatic unlocking but he was always a cheapskate and decided he would have no use for it. How he regretted that decision now. When he finally got in, he pressed on the accelerator and attempted to drive the old pickup up the steep hill. The engine revved and whined, struggling intensely but luckily it had just enough power to make it up the top even as the wheels slipped on the uneven surface.

    He turned on the high beam, and the darkness in the valley bellow vanished in an instant, showing Divona''s battle with the drone with greater clarity than before. He saw the drone properly for the first time, and it wasn''t what he expected. Its skin was silver and metallic, and yet it moved and behaved like an organic. The long elongated body was in the shape of an insect, most notably a praying mantis, complete with two front scythe like claws it used to strike with deadly precision.

    The drone lashed out at a much smaller Divona but never quite managed to hit her. She was much too quick on her feet, like a boxer who moved quickly from side to side, avoiding attacks with ease. She was so fast that it was like her reaction time was almost immediate. She was skilled in her movements, graceful even, and strong when her fists, knees and elbows connected with the drone, hitting it with a force much greater than her mass would indicate. The strikes sent it flying backwards, hitting a tree so hard it nearly broke in two. The impact of her strikes could be felt in the ground, so powerful it was like they had tonnes of forces behind them.

    For Michael, this whole thing felt insane. It was strange seeing a girl with her stature moving like the lead in a martial arts Hollywood action movie. Divona at first glance appeared to be an ordinary young woman, but this fight proved anything but that. She was superhuman in every sense of the word, from her blinding agility to her crushing strikes that would make a bulldozer seem like a toy. The mantis drone simply could not keep up with her, and the longer the fight dragged on, the slower it seemed to become. That was likely Divona''s plan after all.

    Michael decided to take a chance, so he rammed the accelerator and drove the pickup down the slope, hoping to get closer and help Divona out any way he can. He poked his gun out the side window, holding it in front of himself and waiting for a chance to use it. The ground was uneven, and it made keeping his arm steady difficult. To make it worst the headlights focused only on what was directly in front of the pickup which was a problem because both Divona and the drone never stayed in one place.

    Changing tactics, Michael left the lights on and exited the vehicle to get as close as he could by foot. He waited for the perfect shot, but it never came. The two fighters seemed to pay no attention to his presence anyway, and even when he screamed at Divona to get out of the way she continued on fighting as of he wasn''t there. Sweat ran down his petrified face as he held his breath whilst keeping his finger firmly on the trigger, ready to fire.

    Divona hit the drone dead centre on its underbelly with her fist, and almost immediately it morphed into a small ball the size of a basket ball that rolled against the ground until it stopped near the pickup where Michael had his gun cocked right at it. He had no idea how a giant robotic machine even managed to turn into a small object anyway, but that didn''t make him feel any less safe. The drone seemed to be disabled as it lay motionless against the ground, and that''s all that really mattered at the moment. Michael took no chances, so he moved a little closer and fired a single bullet directly at it. He missed. He fired again and this time his aim was true but the bullet did not seem to do any damage as it ricochetted off with a loud clank and sparks.

    "It''s bulletproof..." Michael said.

    Divona appeared calm. She flicked her messy hair back in place as she casually walked over to the drone.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Michael, please throw me that weapon."

    Michael did as she asked. He tossed her the gun and she grabbed it seamlessly with one hand. She approached the drone, leant down and aimed the gun as close to it as possible and fired off the rest of the clip. The bullets didn''t bounce off and Michael figured she had aimed for some kind of weak spot. The smokey residue exiting the back of the pistol, indicating the short fight was over.

    Divona then placed her hands around the round enemy, closing her eyes as if she was concentrating on something, and almost immediately the drone disintegrated into dust that fell through her fingers like sand on a beach. The grains then were reduced further into nothingness as they were scattered off into the wind.

    Afterwards, Divona seemed to take a moment to reflect. Michael wasn''t sure what was going on through her mind, but it seemed like she was busy doing some futurey stuff he did not or could not understand. When she was finished, she headed back to the pickup, opened the passenger''s side door and sat on her seat. She waited patiently for him to join her, and he did. She handed the gun back over to him.

    He grabbed it and stuffed it under his pants. He then looked at her in worry. "Are you alright?

    "I am fine." Divona said in her usual calm voice. "My energy levels are not as low as I projected them to be after this fight."

    "So...the black hole''s fine? it''s not gonna explode or anything?"

    "No Michael, it is stable for now."

    "Well that''s good. Perfect. The Drone''s gone and the world still here. Perfect." Michael said.

    "Luckily for us, the drone appeared to be suffering the same affliction as I. It was running at minimum capacity due to its critically low energy levels. Sometimes time travel, especially to the past can have some very strange side effects when it comes to energy. In my case, my overabundant energy reserves dissipated into the time stream. Anything that came through the same time portal likely suffered from the same effects. That is why the drone was so much weaker than it otherwise would have been."

    "Anything that came through...Ya mean, there''s more of them?" Michael said, horrified.

    "There is a ninety five percent probability this drone was the only one. Normally, the portal itself is very unstable and allows only a specific set of matter with a certain frequency range to travel across it. This drone was likely designed to travel with me. A most curious predicament."

    "I don''t fully understand what''s going on. Feel like explaining all this to me? or are we just gonna drive off and pretend like nothing ever happened?" Michael said.

    Divona knew what he said but she smiled as if it was not so. She was equally mysterious as she was beautiful. Why was it that when she smiled at him, all his worries somehow vanished into the ether?

    "We should get out of here, I will explain everything to you later." Divona said.

    "Yes, ma am. Don''t need to tell me twice."

    They drove back on the main road, leaving no sign of what had just transpired moments earlier. Divona was as calm as her usual self, her gaze focused on the road ahead. His heart had stopped racing but he still felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Divona, in contrast was as cool and casual as ever. The clothes he got her were ripped and full of dirt but the way she acted was nothing like it. Divona gave the vibe of an ordinary human, but in a strange way also felt very distant to it. Very alien-like. There was a sadness that emitted from her whether intentional or not, almost like she was completely mechanical on the inside, and it was only her eyes that showed glimpses of her soul- if there were even such things.

    "You can really take care of yourself," Divona said, smiling at him as she made eye contact. "I did not expect you to be so heroic. I am impressed."

    Michael smiled back goofily. "Second amendment. Useful to defend from government tyranny, and also from alien drones, apparently."

    Divona laughed a tired laugh. It somehow sounded both natural and unnatural at the same time. He wasn''t sure what to think about her, even now. She had the best poker face he''d ever seen, but something made him trust her, and he wondered whether if that was because she was a woman or if it was because he was simply na?ve.

    "What happened to the drone?"

    "I sent a virus to its nanites, activating their self destruct sequence. There is a zero percent probability it will rebuild itself."

    "Nanites?

    "Tiny replicating machines. They make up all things in my time, including me. I explained it to you before, though not in great detail." Divona said.

    "Right, right, nanotechnology...cool. I''ve got a buddy who specialises in that field, he''d kill to meet you. That''s for sure...not like literally but you know what I mean."

    When they arrived back, Michael parked the pickup truck in the most crooked way ever, so unlike him. He prided himself on his good driving but at the moment he did not care. All he wanted to do was go home and stay there in safety, leaving all this craziness behind him.

    On the way to the front entrance, Divona looked at him with an innocent expression.

    "Michael, I am in need of more energy."

    It almost him laugh, in a good way. Her frankness and honestly was as cute as ever, and for a moment she reminded him of his first ever girlfriend. Being with her made him feel like he was back in high school all over again, albeit somewhat different. In his gut he knew that as long as he associated with her, there was more trouble to come, but he didn''t mind. She was worth it. That much he knew for sure.

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

 chapter 5

    It was midnight but Michael wasn¡¯t feeling tired at all. He had just been through the most insane experience of his life and he had a girl from the future to thank for it. The adrenalin still coursed through him like a raging torrent, making him nervous and jittery as if he had consumed a dozen cups of coffee. Divona, in contrast, remained her calm collected self. They engaged in more casual conversation, and he even noticed she was beginning to ask him questions as much as he asked her. He felt less like a detective and more like there was a natural friendship brewing between them. ''Why do you live alone?'' ''What is your occupation? ''''Is electricity expensive?'' She made him feel like they had become close, or at least she acted as such to peak his interest. Michael wasn''t stupid but being generally an pessimist made him think twice about almost everything. He did not think Divona was bad, but he didn''t necessarily she was good either, like most people she seemed to be in the healthy middle. There was this greyness about her that he could not quantify. She was alarmingly neutral in tone, even the way she would look at him with her frosty, artificial glare.

    "Is there anyone from the future who may want to hurt you?" Michael said.

    "I do not know. My memories are still fragmented, whether intentionally or not." Divona said.

    "What if there are other drones? It could be dangerous to stay here. At least for a few days we should stay at a hotel, maybe take things easy... "

    Divona tilted her head. "Unlikely. The probability of more than one drone travelling through the time portal and surviving is one in a billion. "

    "Oh well in that case I guess I do feel a little better¡­"

    "I would never put you in danger Michael. I am confident there are no more drones."

    "What exactly are they? assassination machines from your time?"

    "No, They are from the eight hundredth century. It is a very long story."

    As they spoke Divona obsessively gazed at the power sockets of the house, like a cat staring fiercely at what it prized, only to look back at her human with that ''hurry up and serve me'' face when boredom took route. He knew what she wanted.

    "Aren''t you worried you''ll be electrocuted?" Michael said, looking over at her frankly.

    She smiled as she always did.

    "I will be fine."

    There was something about those eyes. They were deep and mysterious like a galaxy, but shined in such a way as a lens of a camera. Her eyes were human but upon closer inspection one could tell there was something very different about her. Artificial.

    "You can use the power but keep the draw at five thousand watts. Any more and I''m afraid you''ll cut the power to the whole place. I had it upgraded last month." Michael said

    Divona acknowledged what he said as if she already did the calculations in her mind. She walked over to the nearest power wall socket that was next to his LCD TV table. She knelt down near it, looking like a child who was getting a little too curious. Michael became nervous at the very sight. When he was young he was almost killed himself when he stuck pieces of metal inside the small holes in his former childhood home.

    He watched Divona move her hand closer to the wall, wondering how exactly she planned to conduct electricity without using any tools. Then, as if out of a horror movie, her fingers started to elongate until they looked more like tentacles of an octopus, each one with an independent mind of its own, probing the surface of the wall and the power socket until two of them jammed inside the two holes at the top.

    The vision creeped him out a little, and yet it was all terribly fascinating. He could tell the moment the current ran through her. There was a slight shiver that ran through her spine.

    Divona sat comfortably against the wall, her legs pulled into her chest but not the whole way. She closed her eyes and appeared to be in a trance while she charged herself like she was an electrical appliance. She appeared to be calm and collected, patient like his phone as it waiting patiently for a good nights refil.

    "Any good? Do you feel like you''re recharging?" Michael said.

    "Yes. It is good, thank you." Divona said.

    "Will you be fully charged by tomorrow?"

    Divona shook her head. "Currently I am at zero point zero zero zero zero zero..." She said, repeating the word zero so many times Michael''s jaw almost touched the ground. He could not imagine just how depleted she actual was. He listened on;

    "...Zero zero zero zero one percent of max capacity."

    "Five thousand watts ain''t gonna cut it huh?"

    Divona shook her head. "No, although for now, this shall suffice."

    "Electricity doesn''t cost very much. Use as much as you need, maybe tomorrow we can figure out a way to charge you faster. Hey, by the way, how do you normally recharge? In the future I mean¡­i''m guessing its not with electricity. Probably antimatter or something like that right?"

    "Antimatter is one form. Normally I convert mass into energy which I store within the singularity. There is no such thing as an energy shortage in my time. This is all new to me."

    Michael collapsed further back on the couch, releasing a sigh of a type he wasn''t even sure of. Confusion? Disappointment? Excitement? Who was this girl and what exactly was she? Alive or machine? Human or alien? The way she made herself comfortable by sitting next to wall while plugged in like a lamp blew his mind. He wasn''t quite sure if he was crazy, high, or not exactly right in the head. Or still dreaming.

    He closed his eyes and lay his head back.

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    Michael opened his eyes and found himself staring up at the wall lazily. His neck drooped back far against the couch head, and he had a trail of saliva running down the side of his mouth. He wiped it off quickly and noticed Divona still resting as she was looking as still as a statue. The sun''s rays creeped into the house through the partially closed window out by the front indicating he had slept for at least a couple hours. It was the early morning of the next day.

    When he looked back at her she was staring at him with her neon eyes which he swore had changed into a lighter shade of blue than before.

    "How long was I out?" Michael said.

    "From the time you were unconscious, I measured it to be four hours, thirteen minutes fifty one seconds."

    "Thanks, that''s quite specific there¡­"

    A curvy smile drew across her thin lips. "You will find I can be very specific, Michael."

    "Oh, uh, really?"

    "Yes," Divona said, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. "I know all your measurements..."

    Michael wasn''t sure what to think. Was Divona¡­flirting with him? He tried to decipher what this unexpected behaviour was, or if he simply misinterpreted what she was saying; The cheeky look on her face was unmistakable. He played along.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    "That would mean you can see through my clothes. So I take it that you have x-ray vision or something similar?" Michael said.

    "Yes, I can see the gamma and x ray spectrum." Divona said.

    "Guess i''ll have to get clothes made from lead to get some privacy." he said.

    Divona tilted her head. "Do not worry. I would never break the trust between us. That is something very important to me, Michael. You and I are friends."

    He wasn''t sure if he believed her, especially because she seemed to contradict herself, whether intentionally or not. After all, there would be no way for him to know for sure if she was telling the truth, or if she even was a human from the distant future at all to begin with. He wondered for a second if she was actually an alien disguised itself in female form to trick him into serving it.

    He doubted he would feel the same way if Divona was a completely different species from another planet. The alien Divona theory that brewed in his head was ripe at first but the more he spent time with her the sillier if felt. It was as if every cell in his body instinctually knew that on some basic level they had the same roots, and that he could trust her as though she were a neighbour.

    The light that seeped through the window became stronger which it drew Divona''s interest. She unplugged herself from the wall socket, got to her feet and walked over to the window to have a proper look outside at the rising sun that emerged up over the horizon.

    "There is a primal beauty about stars," Divona said, "They are bastions of near limitless energy, truly the most elegant things left in entropy''s wake."

    ¡°Uh yeah...I think so too...¡±

    She then left the window and walked towards the front door, opened it, then left outside. Michael wasn''t sure why she didn''t seem to have the need to close the door behind her, whether out of habit or as an indication for him to follow her. Maybe in the future there were no such things as doors.

    Michael decided to follow her outside, fascinated to discover what she was planning to do. He noticed her attention focused upon the roof of the building. She bent her knees, and like a spring, leapt into the air so high she landed upon the top like a ninja. Michael rushed to the ladder on the side of the house and the whole time while he was climbing it, he couldn''t help feel like he was in an action movie with special effects and stunt cables, except it was all real.

    Besides a giant water collection solo and a small satellite, there was nothing else up here besides the pretty view of the red land around them and the rising run in the horizon. Divona stood at the edge of the roof, watching the bright watercolours of red and orange as the star''s light refracted across the atmosphere and its light creep upon them.

    Michael approached Divona and stood next to her. Both of them enjoyed the breeze as they looked outwards at the sun. Divona raised her arms to the side, closed her eyes, and took a large breath of air which Michael wasn''t sure she if she even needed but still felt the need.

    "I can feel photons striking me in their billions. It is like I am enjoying their warmth upon my skin for the first time."

    To Michael''s surprise, Divona began to strip off her clothes one by one, pronging him to look away shyly.

    "Oh, you''re getting naked again¡­okay, i''ll be down below if you need me. I''ll uh, leave you to it then."

    He walked back to the ladder, returning one last stare when she had her back to him. He could still see the side of her face and noticed the sereneness and calmness to it. The gentle wind brushed her silk like hair differently as it did his. Each strand clearly had slightly more weight to it than ordinary human hair. The way it flailed and reformed like some exotic substance made him believe he may in fact be dreaming.

    Then he saw something that peeked his curiosity. He noticed thin transparent ribbons permeating out of her skin like eels slithering around each other. They were ghostly looking and appeared to be made of a substance that wasn''t quite solid but not exactly fully liquid either. It resembled a fire except it was smooth and transparent like glass. Thousands of them expanded out of her skin until there was a whole swarm of them that surrounded her body, refracting and distorting the light within the shell where she was protected.

    And then, suddenly, they all moved outwards in the same direction, weaving around each other like a kind of fabric, creating some type of Kite that hovered high above. It became gradually less transparent and took a distinct physical form as it became opaque. It expanded outward until it became so big it blocked out the sun not only for the entire building but a large portion of the entire land. Michael noticed the kite expand and detract as if it were breathing, as if it were oddly enough, organic in a sense. It was like a giant solar panel that seemed to absorb the light that struck it.

    He climbed back down.

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    That afternoon Michael did his best to get some work done. The best part about being employed by the government were all the grants, the worst part was living with those grants. In his case it was both metaphorical and literal. This observatory had been his home for the past two years, and the sheer amount of number crunching he had to do weekly driven him somewhat insane in the first year alone. Officially he was supposed to be searching for radio anomalies in space, but he began to wonder if it was completely redundant now that he had a certain someone standing upon his roof, using herself as a living solar panel.

    He hoped he would one day discover a signal from an alien civilisation and have it named after him, but never did he imagine he was blessed with greater things.

    Michael sat at his table all afternoon as the sun began to retreat back behind the horizon. He heard a thump outside which startled him, so he raced out the front and noticed it was only Divona who took the liberty of jumping down from the top.

    "...I gotta ask...What was that giant kite thing?" Michael said.

    "My Duality Matrix."

    "Duality what now?"

    "It is a Wave particle field that is in a constant state of flux. A field of polarised electromagnetic waves that can materialise and de-materialise matter at will."

    Michael scratched his head.

    "Its main function is to manipulate the physical world, as well as to act as a shield that can stop fast moving projectiles. In this case, I used it as a receiver to absorb as many photons as possible. I would have made it larger, but I predicted you would have disapproved. "

    "Well, We don''t want to attract any unnecessary attention... A girl like you ought to be quite popular, and not in the way you''d want, If you know what I mean. You''re from the future, better keep your head down."

    "Yes, you are right. That is what I thought too."

    "You must of collected so much power. A solar panel that size must generate some serious juice."

    She smiled. Her cheeks seemed to glow a little, like a plant after a long satisfied day of photosynthesis, and yet it was clear she still wasn''t quite satisfied.

    "Michael. Do you know where I can get more energy?" Divona said.

    Michael laughed. He sort of expected her to say that, and was already way ahead of her.

    "Before I help you, I want to know, what''s your end game here?"

    "End game? What is that?" Divona said.

    "As in, do you hope to one day travel back to the future? Do you perhaps have a boyfriend to come home to? Is that still a thing in the future? are there even men? I read this paper once on that topic and it was so interesting¡­"

    Divona tilted her head and smiled tenderly as he rambled on. He liked it when she did that. He could see it on her face that she understood what he meant and she reacted accordingly so.

    "Men survive, but it is women who ultimately help make it so." She said, "You are the first man to ever grab my interest, Michael, and not only because you saved me."

    Michael blushed. Somehow he felt like it should have been the other way around.

    "Why then?"

    "I think you are cute." Divona said.

    "Cute? uh, I feel like this whole situation is reversed. I''m the one supposed to be calling you cute."

    "Why?"

    "Uh, I dunno. Convention?"

    "Conventions change."

    "Yeah. Well, you definitely grabbed my interest too, Divona, you''re pretty Baddass. The way you kicked that drone''s ass, and the way you can absorb sunlight... I think we''re going to get along quite well if you''ll have me."

    She tilted her head. "''Bad ass''? Are you saying my bottom does not please you?"

    He blushed again. "What? no!? where did you even get that from? That''s not what I-"

    She giggled and he instantly knew what was going on, knew that she was messing with him. They laughed together, and in that moment he could have been fooled she was normal like any other girl, but a normal girl she was not. He noticed she did not say whether she planned on going back to the future, but that was fine because deep down he already knew the answer, and she was likely too modest to tell him. She was too perfect. Truly a jewel that fell from the sky. And he was one lucky guy.

 chapter 6

    After spending most of the day basking in the energy of the sun, Divona appeared to be quite satisfied. She had a vague glow emitting from her like that of a jellyfish, and when Michael asked about it the response he received was vague and witty. He wondered about eventually came to the conclusion it was more an act of play to draw his attention than for any real practical purpose. He was easily impressed after all. He figured Divona must have consumed hundreds if not thousands of times more power from the sun than she did with the electrical socket. The surge of energy clearly made her feel excited as though she were a hyperactive child consuming one too many energy drinks, emboldening her to study the interior of his residence thoroughly to pass the time.

    Her focus drew upon his computer that sat alone across a table in a far corner.

    "This is your CPU?" Divona asked..

    "Well, yeah, uh It''s my gaming computer. I built it only last year so it''s still relatively up to date."

    "Do you mind If I take a look?"

    "No of course not, go ahead."

    Michael could have been fooled he was seeing a magic trick, and that Divona was the magician in a play when his computer suddenly began to levitate across the room as if it were weightless and floating on its own. His jaw almost hit the floor. There were literally no strings attached. It was moving because Divona willed it to, as if she had the ability to completely defy the law of gravity.

    "You have telekinesis? Like the x men?"

    "Telekinesis, the mental ability to control the motion of a physical object. I suppose that does describe what I am doing. So yes. I have telekinesis." Divona said.

    ¡°Cool, but...how are you doing it? I suppose there has to be some scientific explanation, right?¡±

    She smiled proudly. ¡°If course. I can attach nanties to any object, and use their combined propulsion to manipulate themin any way I wish. Observe.¡±

    The computer then began to de-constrict itself in real time as all its components pulled themselves apart, starting with the screws from the outer case twisting themselves out as though invisible hands manipulated them. Within seconds his beloved computer was reduced to thousands of its smallest individual components, floating in mid air like a cloud of slowly expanding vapour. Everything was where it should be and there was an organised sense to it all. Michael had no idea how Divona could possibly keep track of each individual piece, but the way she interacted with the whole thing made it obvious she was processing many things in parallel in a way that his mind could not. Afterwards the computer reformed itself and returned back to its original place as though nothing had ever happened.

    Michael''s jaw still hadn''t left the ground but Divona acted as if that was completely normal to her.

    "Electron based circuits are so primitive. Even your biological brain is far superior from a raw processing power basis."

    "Really? even mine? Are you sure?" Michael joked.

    "Yes of course."

    She didn''t get the humour, but that was okay. He still felt like he was dreaming. His couch was the next thing to disintegrate into a thousand little pieces, splitting apart like melted chocolate, twisting and bending in free space as Divona inspected it inside and out before reforming it back to normal. Michael was beginning to feel a little nautilus seeing it all.

    "You can do that to all matter?"

    She then turned her attention on to him, passing him a funny look. Michael began to panic when he realised she was planning to disintegrate him next. His stomach instantly churned and he began to sweat;

    "Hey! hey wait! Don''t do that on me! Please! Divona! NO!"

    She tilted her head the way she usually did when she was confused. "Are you afriad?" she said.

    "Yes. People In this time aren''t used to anything like that. The idea of being split into a million pieces isn''t something i''m prepared to do now, sorry......won''t I die?"

    "No, you will not die, but I understand. You do not consent, so I will respect your wishes. I merely wanted to inspect you."

    "You can pull apart anything you like, just not other people, alight? it will freak them out. Trust me."

    "Yes. This is good information for me to know. I am lucky to have found you. Thank you Michael."

    "No, I''m the one who''s lucky here... actually..."

    She smiled at him, and for some reason he already knew what she was going to say. But before she said it, her face turned towards the door as if something had triggered an alarm within her.

    "What''s wrong?" Michael said.

    "People are approaching."

    "Huh? Who? What people?"

    He walked over to the front window and peered outside. Outside he saw what Divona was talking about. There were half a dozen black vans approaching his house through the long driveway. It was no ordinary sight, and it caused his heart to beat faster with an aroused nervousness. He''d seen enough movies to know that a bunch of black vans with tinted windows heading towards you was never a good sign.

    "Is that the government? what are they doing here? Oh man, of course! they''re after you. You¡­you should hide. Hide yourself Divona. You cant be here. I''ll deny I ever saw you."

    Divona seemed to acknowledge what he was saying and quickly moved off to disappear behind the corner heading for the telescope room which out of the whole building had the most places to hide. He wondered if she had the ability to disintegrate herself, and if she did, clearly she didn''t decide to do it, at least not in front of him. But that didn''t matter right now. He waited by the door until he heard the dreaded loud bangs from his unwelcome guests that were quick to arrive. Michael drew in deep breaths and then opened it to see a bunch of men dressed in black suits with black shoes, ties and even the clich¨¦ black sunglasses.

    "Mr Michael Dugarti?" One of the agents said.

    "Yeah, that''s me¡­" He said nervously.

    "May we come inside?"

    Michael swallowed the lump in his throat. He had also seen his fair share of cop movies to know what to do in this situation. He never expected to ever act it out though.

    "Um, I don''t consent to searches¡­do you have a warrant?"

    The men all looked at each other, until the one that spoke to him suddenly took off his glasses to reveal his very ordinary looking hazel eyes under a thick angry brow. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    "We''ve received some interesting reports about suspicious events happening in this general area. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately?."

    "Out of the ordinary? No, nothing at all..."

    The agent didn''t seem convinced. Neither did his buddies. He gestured something to the others and then they suddenly barged their way through the door, not caring if they were welcome or not. Despite Michael''s protests, they spread through the house, pulling everything upside down as if they were in search of something. Two of them headed towards the telescope room, which made Michael instantly nervous. He had no idea where Divona was, or how she would react. Would she be discovered? And if so, would she attack these men? Would he help her?

    "I''ll call the police. What you''re doing here is illegal. You can''t search my place without a warrant. I know my rights."

    The agent with the hazel eyes approached him. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and a lighter from another.

    "Mind if I have a smoke?"

    "Oh, so now you ask for my permission? Go ahead, you might as well help yourself to the kitchen too." Michael said.

    The agent took a puff, then blew the smoke off to the side. "I understand this may seem like an intrusion, but it''s a matter of national security. We have reason to believe there could be something hiding at this residence."

    "something? Hiding?"

    "That''s right. Hiding."

    ¡°There''s nothing hiding here.¡±

    ¡°We''ll be the judge of that.¡±

    "Who are you guys?"

    "We''re here too look out for everyone''s security, including yours. So we would appreciate your cooperation Mr Dugarti."

    "Oh I get it. You guys are men in black wannabes," Michael said finding himself feeling incredibly brave or foolish all of a sudden. "What''s next? after you''re done trashing my place are you gonna erase my memory too? Maybe find out if i''m hiding an aliens?"

    "-Are you?" the agent said boldly, taking another casual draw of his cigarette.

    "¡­No."

    "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about."

    "Read the constitution sometime." Michael said.

    The agent gave him an unamused stare. Michael felt more and more threatened by them all. He still had his gun tucked under his pants but the agent noticed his eye moving in that direction.

    "I wouldn''t do that."

    Michael didn''t know what to do. Of course he never intended to actually draw his weapon against a dozen well trained agents who were likely all armed themselves. He wasn''t stupid. So he decided to pull out his other weapon. The agent grew a little nervous when he reached into his right pocket, but relaxed somewhat when it revealed itself only to be a phone.

    "I''m calling 911." Michael said.

    "Go ahead, its a free country." The agent said before he walked away dismissively.

    Michael dialled the numbers but when he pressed call there was no dial. He checked the phone''s reception and it was four solid bars. The battery was charged, and everything seemed like it was fine. He tried to call the number again, and again, but every time he did nothing happened. It dawned on him the agents were likely responsible for it.

    After about half an hour of pulling everything apart, the agents appeared to give up in the search for whatever they were trying to find. Divona was not discovered, and that made him feel a massive sense of relief. He thought about surrendering her but the thought was crushed almost as quickly as it came. He was an american. He didn''t trust the government.

    And it was for good reason because the moment he thought the agents left, one of them suddenly grabbed him from behind and placed a piece of cloth under his nose which smelt like strong chemicals that made him instantly want to fall asleep. He tried to fight off the strong hand around his neck but it was to no avail as his eyes closed in the ensuing struggle and he fell into unconsciousness.

    ¡ª

    Michael opened his eyes to discover himself in a small room, sitting across a cold metal chair leaning across an equally chilly metal table. The walls around him were mirrored, the floor plain concrete and the ceiling only had a single bulb for a light that flickered in and out depressingly. He tried to move his feet but he discovered them to be shackled to the bottom by chains. He felt like a prisoner.

    What the hell is going on? where the hell am I?

    He had a headache and for some reason his body hurt all over. The bonds were a little too tight around his ankles but that wasn''t the worst of it all. His arms and hands had bruises all over as if he had been manhandled while he was unconscious. Whatever had put him to sleep also had the effect of making him feel sick to his stomach. The strong chemical after taste was still enduring right under his nose.

    There was a single camera mounted across one of the corners of the room. It was pointed towards him and the way a small red light flashed across it told him it was clearly on and recording. Someone was watching him. After a few minutes that someone came to greet him. The door opened, and in came a woman who he''d never seen before. She was a mature person with hair that had started to grey in some areas. Her skin was darker than his, and across her dried face she had many ugly purple freckles. She wore an expensive blue blouse and a miniskirt not too long or too short. If she was an agent it sure didn''t seem like it. She sat down across the opposite end of the table.

    "Mr Dugarti. My name is Hannah. I''ve been tasked to handle your case. How are you feeling?" She said a strong, coursey voice.

    "Besides being abducted and likely violated in my sleep, i''m just about swell, thanks. By the way. Where am I?" Michael said sarcastically.

    "That''s classified. And I can assure you, we don''t violate anyone at this facility. We treat all our clients with proper care."

    "Cut the crap, who the fuck are you people? where the fuck am I? what the fuck is going on?" Michael said, losing his patience. He wanted to stand but he couldn''t because of his bindings.

    Hannah simply stared at him like he was a chained animal. There was no concern across her face, in fact she barely even reacted at all. She had her face against her hand as she rested her elbow against the table, staring at him with her old, tired eyes.

    "We need to know what you know. So talk." She said.

    "What are you talking about? I don''t know anything!"

    "I''m not so sure about that Mr Dugarti. Lying to us is a federal offence. You do know that right?"

    "This is ridiculous. I want to go home." Michael said.

    Hannah reached into a special pocket tucked behind her clothes and pulled out a couple photographs that she threw across the table. They seemed to be birds eye view pictures taken by satellite. One of the pictures was of a bright blue light, and the others were multiple photos of dark blobs over the area in which he lived. Michael analysed the photos carefully and knew exactly what they they were. The blue light was the one he saw when Divona first fell from the sky, and the other was the giant shadow formed when Divona created her giant make shift solar panel above his house.

    "That''s some good photoshop there." Michael said.

    Hannah''s brow raised in suspicion. The creases in her face and especially around the eyes were more pronounced as she scrutinised him closer. Michael grew unnerved. He hated it when people stared at him. Lying wasn''t a skill he was ever good at, and he knew Hannah was likely one of those that were trained in spotting the signs, and that was bad news for him.

    She pulled out a photograph from the lot and slid it to him. It was one with the birds eye view of his land with the dark blob in the middle.

    "This photo was taken a few hours ago by one of our satellites. The dark is massive. Around half a square mile in diameter. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you didn''t see it? It was right over your residence."

    "I was in the basement¡­I didn''t look outside..."

    "Now we both know that''s not true Mr Dugarti. You''re hiding something. And i''m going to find out what."

    Michael tried not to show it but fear twisted his insides. He had never been questioned in this manner before and didn''t know how to deal with it. The room was cold and uncomfortable and for some reason he was wearing very little clothing, which due to his tiredness he only noticed now.

    He thought bout Divona. Where she was, whether she was in a better situation than him. He had no idea what was going to happen next and he wasn''t particularly enthused to find out.

    "Would you like some coffee Mr Dugarti? Hannah said.

    "Why?"

    "Because it''s going to be a very long night for you¡­"

 Chapter 7

    Two hours had passed and the interrogation wasn''t going as Michael imagined. Hannah gave him coffee earlier and afterwards left him all alone, forced to suffer as he sat across the cold metal seat that sapped away at the very warmth from his body. Metal was usually lower than room temperature but this material seemed like it was a solid block of ice that made his naked skin sear with pain. He wore only thin boxers that weren''t even his, and a short overalls like a patient from a hospital as if to make it as uncomfortable and painful as possible.

    "Okay! Fuck at least give me some pants! Hannah?! I know you''re there. This is some weird KGB shit you''re pulling off here. You know I can sue you for like a lot! or something! You''ll be exposed! Let me out now! I know you''re there I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!"

    First there was silence, and then the door opened and Hannah walked in almost as if she were indeed right next door the whole time just as he suspected. She peered at him with her cold, lifeless eyes as she returned casually to her seat across the opposite side end of the table.

    "...Dugarti, What is that name anyway? Is it French?" Hannah said.

    "Fuck you. Let me out."

    ¡°You know that won''t happen Mr Dugarti.¡±

    ¡°...Are you going to kill me?"

    "Lucky for you, I am required by interdimensional law to keep you alive..."

    "interdimensional law? What the fuck?"

    "That''s right. I''m not allowed to kill you. If I did, the nanites that swim through my blood stream would instantly eject a lethal dose of poison that would kill me within seconds."

    Michael said nothing. He simply stared at her.

    "You know exactly what nanites are, don''t you, Mr Dugarti? I know you do, because we found traces of them on you. So you can either start talking, or I''m going to have to make you."

    "...What you''re doing is definitely not legal. I''m a US citizen. You haven''t even read me my rights which I''m pretty sure you''re obligated to under the law. So I''''ll tell you what...you let me go right now, and I''ll pretend like this never happened, or you could keep me here and make it that much worst for you when they send your ass to guantanamo for this."

    Hannah simply smiled a joyless smile. He never noticed it before but she looked miserable, sickly even, almost like she had a little too much to drink. The room next door must have been a mini bar or something he could smell alcohol from her breath. Her eyes were heavier and appeared to droop a little. At this point he began having doubts she was even a part of the government at all.

    "Are you...drunk?" Michael said.

    "Excuse me?" She said, looking genuinely surprised, though it was an obvious feign. He could always tell when someone had been drinking. It was obvious as hell.

    "If you won''t give me some pants, at least give me some of that brandy you obviously been drinking. I need it more than you."

    She thought for a little before smiling slyly with her cracked lips. "Sorry. It''s for government employees only. Did you really think this was going to be so easy for you? There is no pleasure for you until you tell me what I want."

    "I don''t know what you want!"

    The door to the room then suddenly burst open and in walked a female agent with a clipboard in her hands. She had medium length brown hair that was brushed neatly to either side of her face with streaks of a lighter brown running though it. When she took off her glasses a pair fierce blue-grey eyes that locked on to him like an eagle to a mouse. She was at least ten years his senior, and yet he was stricken by her beauty. She had high cheekbones that poked out just enough to make her look sophisticated and important, glamorous, even, with a stature of someone who clearly worked out and was very fit and powerful, though still relatively slim. She gave him an intense stare of either a mass murderer or someone who was going to be his saviour. It was hard to tell, and that was the scariest part about her.

    "Audrea? What are you doing here? You''re not supposed to interfere with my work." Hannah said grudgingly.

    Michael could tell Hannah was angry just by the sound of her voice. He didn''t even have to look at her. He was busy having a stare down with Audrea as he studied her hypnotising gaze.

    "You''ve been working for forty eight hours straight, why don''t you take a break? Not all of us can afford to work as hard as you do." Audrea said sarcastically with a classic British accent that for some reason made Michael feel more at ease.

    Hannah looked as though she was prepared to say something back but chose not to. She sighed in defeat. Michael was confused. He felt like he was stuck in between some odd workplace disagreement.

    "I suppose I do overwork myself. That can happen when you really love your job...." Hannah said as she turned her eyes ablaze to Michael one last time. "If you think you''re saved by the bell, think again Mr Dugarti. My boss will be here soon. And he isn''t nearly as friendly as I."

    Hannah left the room, passing a scornfully stare at her female colleague as she went by. Nothing about this appeared professional but then again it could be a part of an act, like the old good cop bad cop routine he''s seen far too many times on tv.

    When the door closed, Michael took a moment to inspect this new woman a little, but as she stared back at him he felt uncomfortable and quickly averted his gaze. There was something about her. Some people had a face, that at rest appeared to be a little meaner than others; that was certainly the case with Hannah for sure, but Audrea was a little different. Her lips were cruel but she didn''t use them that way. In fact, she put on a faint smile that almost made him feel like everything was going to be fine. Her eyes had a glow about them. She gave off an aura of kindness but also one of ruthlessness too. she was indeed a hard read

    She walked towards him and placed her clipboard across the long metal seat next to him.

    "Stand up." Audrea ordered.

    He looked at her bemused but did as she asked. Due to being chained to the seat bed by his ankles he couldn''t lift himself very much but enough so she could slide the clip board beneath him to provide some much needed relief from the coldness of the seat.

    "Thank you..." he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

    Audrea sat down across the opposite end of the table, and sent another one of her faint smiles at him. It seemed genuine but there was something strange about it because she smiled more with her eyes than with her lips. Whether he wanted to or not, he was instantly charmed. He also only just smelt her cologne and it was absolutely divine. She really was a stunning woman.

    "You''re already uncomfortable as it is. The least I could do is keep your balls warm." She said.

    "...Why is it so cold?."

    "The air is actually room temperature. It''s your seat thats unnaturally cold. I do believe it''s manually reduced to a little above zero degrees Celsius.¡±

    "Can I get some pants..?"

    "Even if I do that, how are you going to put them on? You''re shackled by the ankles."

    "Then let me out. Get the key.¡±

    "I''m sorry, can''t do that."

    "Can you please do something useful?"

    "I already did. Shall I remove the clipboard?" Audrea said with a slightly evil tone.

    He sunk his head. "You guys are nothing but criminals. I wonder if you and your colleagues can sleep at night. "

    Audrea crossed her legs and looked to the side, as if thinking profusely. Before he could say anything else, she suddenly got out of her seat and moved to exit the room, leaving him behind bewildered and confused.

    Where did she go?

    ...Is she coming back?

    His second question was answered not even thirty seconds later when she made her casual return. She sat back down across the table and placed her hands across it, crossing them as she stared at him with a new sense of seriousness.

    "The camera is disabled. This is off the record. Look, I feel for you. I don''t know what''s going on here . This is totally ridiculous, unethical and cruel." Audrea said.

    "You''re not American are you?"

    She seemed a bit uncomfortable about it, thinking to herself for a while before looking right into his eyes in a friendly manner.

    "No. As you can tell i''m British. But never mind about me. Let''s talk about you. Tell me, have you committed any federal crimes?"

    "No...."

    Audrea had a serious face most of the time, but there was a charming aspect to her. Her eyes narrowed as they did, and he wasn''t so sure if she believed him or not.

    "How do you explain the satellite feeds?"

    "Huh?"

    "The evidence they have against you. Apparently there was an object above your residence. I had a closer look at it and to me it seems to be some kind of dust on the lens or something. What else could it be?" Audrea said.

    "I don''t know...swamp gas?"

    She giggled. "You''re funny Mr Dugarti. I''m not sure what to make of it. All this talk about nanites and interdimensional laws...sounds completely unhinged. If anything like that actually existed I''d have heard about it....it''s no wonder they tried so hard to stop me from coming here, this place is real shady.¡±

    "Why would the US government allow you to be here? You''re obviously a spy, right? I mean, i''m thankful i''m not here alone with Hannah but i''m just a bit confused."

    "It''s standard protocol between our two countries. They call it the special relationship. Think of it like a student exchange program but for intelligence services. I''m just as an observer...nothing more.¡±

    "You agree this is ridiculous right?"

    She nodded. "It does seem to be without merit, however, I''m afraid my hands are tied. I have no real jurisdiction here."

    "At least get me a lawyer then. It''s my right, please."

    "Sorry, cannot do that either."

    "Oh. So all I get is your sympathy? Great, that''s just great.. Thanks for telling me this off the record." Michael said, lowering his head on the cold table.

    He felt her finger against his head, pushing him up so he faced her again. She leant forward against the table.

    "Mr Dugarti. Are you an illegal immigrant?"

    "What? No. What has that got to do with anything?"

    She seemed uncertain. "None of this is making any sense. I read your file you''re clean. No criminal record. Not traffic citations. Nothing. What would these people want from you?"

    The door opened once again and in walk Hannah flanked by two other men in black suits. Michael skin instantly crawled. This wasn''t going to end well for him. To his surprise, however, Audrea stood up from her seat and stood in between him and Hannah staunchly as if she were his new defence attorney.

    Hannah clearly didn''t take this well. She grinned sharply at Audrea. ¡°He is under our jurisdiction Limey. Stand down."

    But Audrea did not do so. She stood her ground defiantly. "I''m going to need to see some proof of these fantastic claims. Otherwise I''ll have no choice but to assume this agency has gone rogue. "

    Hannah and the men all looked at each other uncomfortably as if unsure how to respond, but that mean smile soon returned upon Hannah. She appeared ready for a confrontation. Michael''s guts twisted. He wondered how far Audrea would go to stick up for him.

    "Stand. Down. Bitch." Hannah said.

    But Audrea didn''t budge. Michael was flummoxed. He could feel the tension in the room and even across his skin as the two men agents behind Hannah had their hands close to their pistols.

    ¡°You have no right to keep him here with no charges. He''s broken no laws, so he''s coming with me. If you have a problem with that, then I guess you''ll have to stop me." Audrea said, her hand drawing ever closer to her own pistol across her hip.

    Both men drew their guns, but Audrea drew quicker. She was the fastest draw Michael had ever seen. Audrea was aiming right at them, alternating smartly while holding the gun with one hand while using the other for better aim. The men froze and stopped reaching for their guns. The tension was so thick if could be cut with a knife, but Audrea had nerves of steel. She was prepared to fire if need be and they all knew it.

    Hannah realised the situation was not worth fighting so she gestured her men to put away their weapons, and they did. Audrea did too, albeit cautiously.

    "Undo his shackles now." Audrea said.

    "You''re making a big mistake. This is a matter of national security. You aren''t even from here." Hannah said.

    Audrea smiled. "That''s always the justification for doing something you shouldn''t. This is a black site. Once again, show me proof or I have to assume you''re a liar."

    "Why don''t you fuck off back to Manchester? You can start your own private vigilante start up there, not here.¡±

    ¡°I know a good friend in the FBI. Would you like me to give him a call? I''m sure you''ll have no problem explaining all this to him.¡± Audrea said.

    Michael could tell Hannah wasn''t happy about it, but it seemed she had no choice but to go along with what Audrea wanted. She gave the order for one of her men to undo his ankle cuffs, and as soon as he was free Michael jumped out of his seat in relief. He followed Audrea out the room, and along the way both her and Hannah engaged in a second death stare. There was clearly bad blood between them, and Michael suspected it was there long before he arrived. He couldn''t believe how lucky he was to have been saved by someone who wasn''t even from his own country.

    They walked down a eerie concrete hallway which was litten up by cheap looking bulbs that hung from the roof by long dusty chains. As Michael looked around it became apparent to him there was nothing professional about this place. It was dirty and old looking, and nothing like he expected a government run operation to run. When they reached the end they turned a corner and walked down yet another hallway until they came to an exit with single scratched up door that had a green exit sign above it that was half broken. Michael heard the sound of traffic on the other side, and when Audrea opened the door he was relieved to find himself in the familiar streets of Phoenix. Due to the darkness and circumstances he wasn''t exactly sure which part, but he knew the city he grew up in well enough to identify it from a single glance.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    As they walked down a side street Michael looked at the building they exited out of and figured it must have been some kind of abandoned warehouse. It was in the middle of the city, not exactly the ideal place to torture and interrogate someone, or at least he wouldn¡¯t think.

    He was so glad Audrea had freed him from this hell, but he knew very little about her. The only thing he knew was her name, she was British, and that he owed her big time. She led him to a small corner carpark where a silver Mercedes had its lights blink orange as it was unlocked from range.

    "Get in." Audrea said.

    Michael was in no mood to decline. It was cold and windy, and if he was any good judge of the weather he''d say it was also going to rain soon. He had no where else to go, and it was a nice car after all, so he opened the passengers side door and collapsed against the comfortable leather seat. It was heaven compared to the cold metal torture device he was forced against for the past two hours back at the warehouse. There was that new cars smell too, which was like the cherry on top for his new level of comfort. It was like being in heaven.

    Audrea sat down in the driver''s seat, closed the door and placed her hands across the steering wheel. She sighed, and for a while the two of them said nothing to each other. Michael looked out the window and wondered exactly which part of Phoenix this was. He also wondered whether Hannah would come after him again, and if Audrea or anyone else would be there to stop them.

    And then his thoughts drifted back to someone he almost forgot about. Back to the color blue. He wondered about Divona, where she was, what she was doing, and if she was safe.

    Audrea pushed a button near the steering wheel and the car''s powerful engine roared to life. It was an automatic and across the dashboard there was an impressive array of lights and features. Even though Divona had showed him technology that was out of this world he was still impressed by what he saw. After all, he had never sat in a fancy car before.

    "Is this cars yours?" Michael said.

    "I''d like to think so, but no, it''s a uh, a company car." Audrea said.

    ¡°A company car huh? Which company?¡±

    "Stop asking questions. Try to be useful and keep a lookout. Tell me if you think we''re being followed."

    He nodded.

    Audrea drove onto the road which was relatively light on traffic so they had most of the road to themselves. Audrea accelerated the Mercedes quickly and raced sped away if she were in a hurry. Michael was pretty sure she was going above the speed limit which was ironic considering she was supposedly law enforcement. Audrea drove down the end of the street and then turned left to avoid the main road ahead.

    "By the way, You okay?" Audrea said, her eyes solidly on the road.

    "Yeah, thanks again. You didn''t have to do that." Michael said, still looking out his side window.

    "Oh but I think I did. All this talk about different dimensions, nanotechnology, black holes and even time travelling aliens. I don''t know how that agency even gets funding. It''s likely it doesn''t, well at least not legally. Don''t worry Mr Dugarti, I''m going to file a report and they''re going to have to do a full scale investigation into what''s going on in that place. Did you see Hannah''s face? one mention of the FBI and she freaked. Very fishy."

    Michael looked at Audrea, but she didn''t look back. She was still dead focused on both the road ahead while at the same time trying to contain her bewilderment. She appeared a little shaken but overall still gave off an unmistakable aura of confidence and professionalism. It soothed him. He had met a couple good cops before, even ones that offered to give him a ride home a couple times when he was younger and still lived in these streets. He was getting the same good vibes from Audrea, only more badass than usual.

    "So are you the female James Bond or something?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You know, like a secret agent? Does this car shoot rockets?¡±

    ¡°No it doesn''t.¡± Audrea said, keeping a single hand on the steering wheel while she pulled out her phone and read something on it as if she received a message.

    ¡°Are you gonna call Q? Is that what he''s called?¡±

    "Just because I''m British that doesn''t mean I know everything about James Bond, but yes...I do believe it is Q...¡±

    "So in all seriousness though...are you like James Bond?"

    She passed him a deadly stare, narrowing her eyes at him. "Before I tell you that Mr Dugarti, Is there anything I should know?"

    ¡°Like...what?¡±

    ¡°If there''s anything at all, nows the time to tell me. I can protect you. You don''t have to hide anything from me. Now tell me, why are they really after you?¡±

    Audrea was clearly one of the rare good guys but the way she had a stoic expression across her made her perfectly passable for a villain too. She had a faint smile that could be interpreted either way. Michael thought about whether to tell her the truth about Divona, even if it did make him seem kind of crazy. After all, what was so strange about a blue haired girl from the future who could disassemble matter with pure thought? Or destroy the world with a black hole? Despite how thankful he was to her, he decided to lie. Not because he didn''t trust her but because he didn''t trust himself.

    "I have no idea. One minute I was home alone and the next I wake up here. None of this makes any sense.¡±

    ¡°No it doesn''t. Something isn''t right here.¡±

    ¡°You know, you never did say who you are." Michael said.

    She sighed, thinking quickly. "Audrea Lawson. Secret intelligent service."

    "Oh my god you are James Bond....i''ll have to buy you a drink after this."

    "I''m afraid I''ll have to decline that offer. You Americans are simply too much for me. Besides, I''m off to Manchester in two days. They sent me here just to piss me off i''m quite sure, and it seems to have worked. I''m really thinking of retiring.¡±

    "Retire? Why? You''re still young. What are you in your late twenties?" Michael said.

    She passed him a funny, playful look. "That''s classified Mr Dugarti. Besides, even if I was interested, I don''t think you could handle someone like me."

    The car drove smoothly for most of the way until a loud thud interrupted them both. The car shook like something hit them. At first Michael thought it may have been a pot hole, but then he looked out of the passenger''s side window and saw what appeared to be a large metal claw that reached for the side of the car. His stomach churned as he identified what it was. He ducked in his seat as the claw tore through the metal of the car frame, missing him by an inch as it threatened to tear him and the entire vehicle in half. Audrea, in a panic swerved the car off the road where they hit a tree that brought the car to a dramatic crash. Luckily the airbags softened the impact enough to soundly save their lives. A dying smoke began to emit from the crushed engine.

    Michael took a few seconds to recover from the initial shock of the impact. There was a dreaded ringing in his ears that over-ridden almost all his senses. They had crashed in an abandoned road where there were no cars and no people and only one traffic light that was barely even working. His head hurt, and his chest felt overly compressed, but that was the least of his worries. Another drone had just tried to kill him, and this time Divona wasn''t here to protect him.

    There''s more of them?

    Why is it after me?

    He looked over at Audrea and noticed she had already climbed out of the car before him, so he gathered himself together and managed to climb out also, though somewhat wobbly on his feet.

    "Michael, are you alright?" Audrea said, her gun holstered as she scanned their surrounding frantically. He noticed she was bleeding across the right side of her head, and quite badly at that, but she seemed to pay no mind to it. She was focused and not at all shaken like he was.

    "I''m fine...I think... you''re bleeding...."

    "I got a lot of blood. What the hell was that?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°Uh...¡±

    Audrea pressed a button in her pocket and the trunk of the car opened with a clank. She reached inside and pulled out another handgun. She turned off the safety and loaded it before hesitating to pass it to him.

    "Do you know how to use it?"

    "Of course, I''m an American...¡±

    She threw it over to him.

    "Stay here. I''ll be right back. Look alert.""

    Michael never thought of himself as a coward, but this time he couldn''t help feel that way. If he were stronger he would have gone along with her, but he didn''t. He couldn''t even find the words to warn her about what exactly they were up against. He had a pretty good idea. The claw that caused the car to crash wasn''t something even someone highly trained like Audrea could handle. Michael gulped nervously. Divona had mentioned once before that there were likely no more of these drones around, but it seemed like she may have been wrong about that after all.

    Audrea moved on ahead with her weapon cocked in front of her, bravely returning to the road. Michael scanned his surroundings, hoping to find any signs of the drone but seeing none. He grew increasingly nervous and afraid. His mind wondered to many places, and every small movement whether it being the trash being blown by the wind or something like that drew the nervous swivel of his weapon. Seconds felt like minutes. His heart raced like a drum.

    And then he saw it. It was barley visible in the darkness except for the reflection of the nearby streetlight that shimmered across its metallic skin. It looked exactly like the one that Divona fought before, like a giant praying mantis the size of a car with a pair of large scythe-like claws that no doubt could slice through anything. It crept silently up to an unsuspecting Audrea who didn''t seem to notice it even approaching.

    "Audrea! Look out!"

    Michael aimed his gun right at its and fired off a burst of rounds. The distraction allowed Audrea just enough time to jump to the side to avoid a swipe of its deadly claws. Michael emptied the clip of the gun, but only about half the bullets actually hit the drone. It was thin like an insect but armoured like a tank, and all the bullets that did hit simply ricochetted off harmlessly. Audrea fired at it also, emptying her clip, and unlike him, hitting it each time, but the result was the same. Bullets clearly had no effect. The thing was unstoppable.

    Michael panicked. He was out of ammo and Audrea never gave him a second clip, but even if she did, he wasn''t quite sure how much good it would have done. Without even thinking, he decided to throw away the gun and ran as he could towards Audrea. He could only watch as the British agent ducked and rolled trying to avoid being instantly killed by the futuristic death machine. Audrea reloaded her gun with a fresh clip and managed to manoeuvre her way to its underbelly and fire off another set of rounds but once again to no effect. She was good, very good, but eventually her evasions failed and the drone ended up grabbed her by the neck with its long skinny arm and hoisted her up in the air, choking her out.

    Michael wanted to slam himself into the drone in hopes of distracting it but he was forced to stop when its smooth metallic skin transform into a surface of razor sharp spikes instead. He barely had time to stop his own momentum before he slammed into it and pierced himself to death. Luckily he stopped just in time, but not before a single spikes almost burred into his skull.

    He ignored the pain and the blood and wondered what he could do to help Audrea. She was being choked to death by a machine from the future and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He had no weapon, and no real way of fighting back. In his desperation he picked up a rock from the ground and threw it as hard as he could across it.

    "HEY! LET HER GO! SHE''S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! IT''S ME YOU WANT YOU FREAK!"

    Interestingly, the drone did in fact let Audrea go and turn its attention on to him instead. Michael almost soiled himself. He had no real plan after successfully managing to draw its attention. He didn''t think that far ahead. The drone marched towards him as if ready to grind him up like a pile of meat. He was ready to accept his fate when he heard a high pitch robotic voice emitting from it:

    "W.H.E.R.E..I.S...D.I.V.O.N.A?."

    He didn''t know what to say. He checked to see if Audrea was alright and was glad to see her return quickly to her feet, seemingly unharmed. She gave him a questionable look though as if she had already figured out there was something he didn''t tell her after all. It was long past fight or flight mode, and both of them were out of options.

    But then from the corner of his eye he saw a patch of blue, and before he knew it, his savour had arrived seemingly out of no where. It was Divona, and boy was he glad to see her. She was just on time. She peered first at the creature and then at him, sending him a reassuring smile.

    "Hello Michael."

    Michael was too shocked to say anything back. He was simply too happy to see her again. Her smile ended and her face returned to its normal expressionless state, though her eyes had a hint of vengeance to them. There was something peculiar about them. They glowed differently than before, brighter, and more visibly artificial. It seemed like her powers had grown even more.

    In the blink of an eye Divona raced towards the drone, smashing her fist straight into its head with the impact of an industrial crane. The drone was tossed away like a rag doll, slamming into a thick tree so hard it bent and almost uprooted itself. Michael couldn''t believe it but it seemed that Divona was indeed much stronger than before and she just proved it. The impact of that punch was so incredible It felt like a collision between two large large trucks at top speed. He knew about physics and wondered how Divona, who likely weighted no less than a hundred and thirty pounds, could pack a punch with a force of a couple hundred tonnes behind it.

    As Divona and the drone fought, Audrea approached Michael and together they watched the battle with dumbfounded looks to them.

    ¡°Who is that blue haired woman?" Audrea said.

    "Uh...it''s a long story..."

    ¡°You know her?¡±

    He had no time to explain as the fight had only just begun. The drone recovered quickly from the initial punch and then quickly charged towards Divona in retaliation. It attempted to slice her up with its front claws but when that failed it morphed them instead into gun-like barrels which fired off white hot streams of plasma that travelled as fast as a bullet. Michael felt his heart skip a beat when he worried one of the streams almost hit Divona, but his worry was unfounded. Divona was much too fast. In fact, she was so fast it was like she was a clairvoyant, appearing to move the moment before the shots were even fired, hitting the ground instead and causing a small fire where each one hit.

    Michael was sure why but for some reason Divona didn''t use any ranged weapons similar to the drone even though he fully expected her to have that capability. It was likely she was conserving her limited energy pool and focused on less draining ways of fighting back. Her style may have been crude, and simple, but her up close and personal style was more than effective in its own right.

    She dodged like a pro prepared to land another titanic strike. Instead of striking it straight on, she leapt in the air and aimed her first downwards, smashing it straight down into the ground with the force of a building falling on it. It smashed into the ground forming a mini crater in the pavement, kicking up mounds of dust and creating a mini shock wave that forced Michael and Audrea to cover their eyes to protect themselves from the debris.

    But even that strike wasn''t enough. As the drone got back up, and the fight continued, Michael could hear the sound of thunder in the sky above. A thunderstorm was brewing and even through the dust in the air made things foggy, he could see a couple lighting bolts clearly striking through the atmosphere. Another flash of lightning almost blinded him, and then another hit a nearby telephone pole shooting sparks and starting more fires than what the plasma had already caused.

    A series of titanic clashes from the battle melded with the growing rumbling of the thunderstorm that formed high above them. Another bolt of lightning hit the nearby streetlight causing it to explode and die out. It became darker, and the fight could only be seen from brief bursts of light every time a lightning ripped through the air. The flashes of light were getting more and more intense, as if they were getting closer and closer to them, until one got a bit too close and actually happened to strike Divona herself. Initially Michael freaked out, but he soon realised she wasn''t at all hurt by it. In fact, it seemed deliberate, and the only effect it had on her was to make her glow a bright neon blue. The streetlight may have been destroyed but the light that came from Divona was strong enough to illuminate away the darkness.

    Divona ran for the drone one last time, reached out her arm and fired off the very lighting bolt that struck her a moment earlier. Like a circuit, she appeared to have absorbed nature''s power and redirect its on to her enemy. Afterwards, Divona''s glow decreased a little, but still the fight wasn''t done. The drone appeared to be relatively unsheathed even after that powerful attack.

    When Michael saw some of Divona''s glow scatter off into the wind, he knew she had a plan up her sleeve. Out from her skin emerged a tide of her semi transparent ribbon like arms she called her duality matrix she used earlier to absorb sunlight, but this time, she likely had different plans for it. She shot the ribbons high up into the sky to form a giant antenna, ready to receive and absorb the power the storm above. And it did just that. Bolt after bolt of lightning struck the make-do antenna, and it did so even as the battle continued between them. A single bolt of lightning clearly wasn''t enough to win this battle, she needed much more power for that. Michael figured Divona was charging herself for a second strike much greater than the last, hopefully enough to finish the fight.

    Beside him Audrea seemed to be in a state of shock, or awe. But even so she did notice Michael looking at her, and in that moment her state of shock seemed to disappear and was replaced with a deep sense of suspicion. He knew he was in trouble with her later on.

    Michael couldn''t even count the number of lightning bolts Divona''s antenna had absorbed, but he figured it was in the hundreds. Hopefully it was enough to cause enough damage to burn through the drone''s tough outer armour. Eventually, Divona raised a single arm in front of herself, and prepared to fire her final strike. Interestingly, the attack didn''t end up being what Michael expected. Instead of simply zapping the drone with a super charged lighting bolt, she instead concentrated the energy into a thin but powerful blue laser that lasted for a single second which she aimed at its legs which upon impact were removed as if they were made out of butter. The laser was so powerful it seemed not only to melt the metal in the drone''s legs but also the pavement where it stood, igniting a line of fire in its wake.

    Without its legs the drone collapsed to the ground, which Divona instantly took advantage of by leaning on top of it and grabbing its body with her hands. Defensive Spikes emerged out from the drone''s skin but they didn''t seem to be effective against Divona. Her own skin appeared just as tough if not more so. The drone''s legs quickly reformed themselves, but by then it was too late. Divona already did what she had planned to do and when she was done she leapt off and backed away. At first it seemed like nothing happened, bit then the drone began to stagger around as if it were suddenly losing its sense of balance. Within the next few second it stopped moving and fell to the ground as if it had malfunctioned. Its entire body then began to disintegrate from top to bottom as it turned into ash that scattered off into the wind.

    It was finally over, and Michael felt like laying down across the ground in his relief. But then he heard the sound of a gun click beside him, and he leapt in alarm when he noticed Audrea aiming her gun threateningly Divona.

    "Hands up or I''ll shoot!" Audrea yelled, fear evident across her face. "I mean it! Hands up now!"

    Divona didn''t move, but not because she was told to. She simply stared at Audrea like an owl does into open space, focused yet still uninterested, or rather unthreatened. Of course, being herself she did not comply and before things escalated out of control Michael knew he had to do something.

    He stood in between the two women, putting himself in the way of Audrea''s gun.

    "Put the gun down. Divona''s not an enemy. She just saved us can''t you see?" Michael said.

    Audrea gradually lowered her weapon, though unhappily. She stared intriguingly at Divona, and Divona at her.

    ¡°Michael, you better explain all this to me and you better do it fast!¡± Audrea said, her voice popping. She was angry and It was understandable. Divona still appeared as calm as ever as she threw Michael an look of uncertainty about the British agent.

    Michael gulped. For some reason it felt like the real drama was only just about to begin.

 Chapter 8

    Audrea insisted upon finding a hotel, and it was up to Michael to get them there, because after all, he did know this city better than a British spy and a blue haired girl from the future would. They left the carnage behind them, moving on foot for around two blocks before arriving at a tall and rather luxurious looking hotel. There was silence between them the whole way. Michael didn¡¯t worry about Divona, she was just being herself, but Audrea¡¯s silence was a bit worrying. He could tell she was still trying to process everything that happened. He certainly didn¡¯t blame her.

    As they entered the hotel lobby, all three of them cleaned themselves up, patting off the dirt and evidence of battle as well as they could. Audrea made her hair and then casually walked up to the counter. Michael went to go with her but she insisted her stay back with a simple swipe of her arm. She spoke to the clerk, reached into her clothes and pulled out a secret stash of cash which she passed over. Afterwards they then took the elevator where Audrea up to their level which was one of the higher floors.

    The silence was becoming awkward, so Michael decided to break it.

    ¡°So, uh, is this off the record?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°You lied to me Michael¡­¡± Audrea said, eerily. She peered over at Divona who seemed busy inspecting the panel of the elevator. ¡°¡­You said you knew nothing. Who exactly, or what exactly is she?¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask her? She¡¯s right there.¡± Michael said.

    Audrea looked away uncomfortably as Divona peered right at her, studying her closely. The elevator then dinged and the doors shot open to reveal their floor. They turned left and walked down a hallway until Audrea pressed her keycard across the front of a door marked number thirty seven. It unlocked, and as soon as Audrea opened it, Divona rushed inside like a curious child.

    Audrea and Michael looked at each other.

    ¡°I really appreciate how you helped me and Divona.¡± Michael said.

    Audrea scoffed before walking in. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have.¡±

    The place was relatively spacey with a decently sized kitchen, a wide open living room and two rooms and a bathrooms. A giant flat screen tv mounted across the wall, as well as a spa off in the far corner that was a part of the common area. There was a window against the far end that basically filled the whole wall which had a great view of the city below.

    Audrea leant across the kitchen bench and crossed her arms. ¡°Talk. Now.¡± She said.

    ¡°How should I put this¡­¡±

    ¡°Tell me the truth.¡±

    ¡°Alright. Divona, well, uh, well you see, she¡¯s from the future¡­like, literally from the future.¡±

    Audrea looked away with conflicting thoughts. It would have sounded crazy coming from anyone, but given what they all just lay witness to before, perhaps it wasn¡¯t so.

    ¡°You like movie references. Are you talking like the terminator?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, uh, I guess. She kinda came out of nowhere though, and ever since i¡¯ve been looking after her. She¡¯s constantly running low on power and seeks ways to recharge herself¡­¡±

    Divona headed over to one of the wall sockets and Michael knew exactly what she wanted to do.

    ¡°Divona, keep it around two thousand watts. We don¡¯t want to blow the power out here.¡± Michael said.

    Divona said nothing but Michael knew she understood. She did that thing with her fingers where they expanded into long noodles and went into the little holes to draw out the current. Audrea didn¡¯t even blink as she watched. Michael could tell she was just as fascinated as she was horrified.

    ¡°So she¡¯s a battery¡­¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s like you and I. We all need energy to live, don¡¯t we?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°This is just too weird¡­¡±

    ¡°Apparently the time travel also messed with her memory so she doesn¡¯t even know why she¡¯s here.¡±

    He turned to Divona. ¡°By the way, Divona, you were really amazing back there¡­but Divona, you did say there wouldn¡¯t be any more drones¡­where did that one come from? And why was it after me and Audrea?¡±

    ¡°I do not know,¡± Divona said in her usual monotone. ¡°My calculations were based on the premise that I was the only time traveller in this time stream. It would seem that premise was wrong.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°But why would it be after me and Audrea? The drone actually asked me where you were, so I guess it was after you but also us? It just doesn¡¯t make sense! And The people that captured me¡­they mentioned something about interdimensional law¡­.what do you know about that?

    ¡°It is prevalent in my time. I do not know why it would be here.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°She seems awfully ignorant.¡± Audrea said suspiciously.

    ¡°I am not lying.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°I never said you were.¡±

    ¡°That was the implication.¡±

    Michael grew nervous as Audrea made a sudden bolt over to Divona, standing uncomfortably close and leaning her face into the sightly shorter woman, scrutinising her closely.

    ¡°Alright, no more lies. Who are you?¡± Audrea said angrily.

    Divona glanced at a nervous Michael for a second before turning back to Audrea who was giving her the death stare.

    ¡°I do not know.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Bullshit. Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Hey, she doesn¡¯t know¡­¡± Michael said, trying to defuse the situation but not getting anywhere.

    Audrea was getting agitated. Michael didn¡¯t understand why she was acting so aggressive, and he suspected neither did Divona.

    Divona simply stared back at her like a lost kitten before replying. ¡°I am an alien from the moon.¡±

    Michael heard that one before, and it almost made him laugh. That was Divona¡¯s way of making a joke, which clearly went over the head of the British agent who clearly wasn¡¯t amused.

    ¡°How do I know you¡¯re not a threat to us all? Give me one good reason why I shouldn¡¯t call homeland security right now?¡± Audrea said.

    Divona appeared stumped. Michael had never seen her like that before. He wondered how she would react. She simply tilted her head to the side before she responded.

    ¡°I have processed over ten trillion possible responses, Unfortunately, I simulate that none of them would satisfy your enquiry.¡±

    ¡°Try me. Tell me the one you ¡®calculate¡¯ has the greatest chance of convincing me.¡±

    Divona paused as if she collected her thoughts.

    ¡°If I am deprived of energy, there is a fifty five percent probability that this planet will be destroyed by a singularity. If that happens, nothing will survive, not even your sun, nor I.¡± Divona said.

    Michael face planted himself so hard he felt red. Out of all the possible answers he found it hard to believe that was the one Divona thought would work best. He wondered why it never occurred to her to say a lie instead. Anything but that. Audrea seemed flummoxed as she stood as still as a statue, staring tensely at Divona. A few awkward seconds went by as without a any further words being said. Michael noticed Audrea went a little white in the face after hearing that. It definitely had an effect on her.

    Audrea looked over at Michael, appearing more angry at him than with Divona. Clearly, she wanted some kind of response from him, whether to confirm or deny what the crazy blue haired girl just said.

    ¡°You don¡¯t want to know the details¡­Trust me¡­¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Oh I do. Both of you have all night to explain everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. If you don¡¯t, I¡¯m going right back to Hannah. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be glad to have you back.¡±

    ¡°You cooooould do that,¡± Michael said friskily, ¡°but I don¡¯t think Hannah will be very cooperative. After all, you did kinda help bust me out. This isn¡¯t mine and Divona¡¯s problem. This is all our problem. We¡¯re all in danger here.¡± Michael said.

    Audrea sighed. ¡°¡­I guess the cats out of the bag¡­¡±

    Divona tilted her head in confusion. ¡°I do not see a cat nor a bag.¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t mean literally¡­it¡¯s a figure of speech¡­ Michael said.

    Audrea rolled her eyes. She folded her arms in her frustration. ¡°Damn you Michael. Why did you get me involved in this? I should be retired¡­spend my time in Hawaii¡­relaxing on the beach and drinking champagne, but no¡­this is all your fault..¡±

    ¡°My fault? I didn¡¯t ask you to save me. You did that all by yourself. Thanks by the way.¡±

    ¡°You lied to me.¡±

    ¡°Would you have believed me if I told you the truth?¡±

    Audrea sighed. She knew he was right.

    Something caught Divona¡¯s attention and she abruptly walked over to the window and looked down.

    ¡°We are discovered.¡±

    ¡°What was that?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Twenty seven men are currently entering this building from three sides.¡±

    Michael looked suspiciously at Audrea, but she threw up her arms. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me. I left my phone behind in the car¡­¡±

    ¡°How the hell did they find us so fast? I¡¯m not going back to Hannah. No way!¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Give it up. They¡¯ve secured the elevators by now. There is no way out. It seems like this is where it all ends.¡±

    Michael knew Audrea was right, but he refused to believe it. He glanced over in panic at Divona who appeared just a little bit too calm for comfort. She was still connected to the power socket with her long string like fingers as she casually charged herself like there as problem at all. Michael wasn¡¯t sure how much energy she used up in the battle with the drone earlier, but he hoped she had enough to spare for this situation.

    Suddenly, as if out of no where, Audrea pulled out her gun and pointed it at Michael. He froze, and Divona¡¯s gaze sharply locked on to her like an eagle to its prey.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m not going down because of you¡­¡± Audrea said in a petrified manner. ¡°Stay here¡­don¡¯t you leave this room!¡±

    She then backed out of the room while still point her gun at them. She closed the door behind herself and appeared to return down to the direction of the elevator. Michael began to panic as he pranced up and down the the room with his hands on his head.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°We need to think of some way to escape¡­oh man, what do we do¡­.what do we do?¡±

    Divona, in contrast, was still as cool as ice as she stared at him with a blank expression. He almost pulled out his hair from stress but across her there didn¡¯t even appear to be a single thought.

    ¡°You are afraid.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Of course I am. Aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°No. Do not worry Michael. I will protect you.¡±

    "But you don¡¯t have much energy. You weren¡¯t charging for very long.¡± He said.

    Me noticed a pause in her response - a worrying sign. Perhaps she was concerned after all.

    "Michael, I have calculated the most efficient escape route. It has a ninety nine point eight percent chance of success, although I predict you will not like it."

    "Does it involve killing?" Michael said.

    "Yes."

    "Then no. We don''t want that on our conscience, at least I don¡¯t¡­we¡¯re not murderers¡­Is there any other way?"

    "I have simulated a second scenario which involves no collateral. It has a ninety eight point five seven percent chance of success."

    Michael clapped his hands once."Great, I like those odds. What is it?"

    "Follow me."

    The two of them left the room despite Audrea telling them not to. Michael wasn''t sure exactly what Divona had planned, but he played along. He was enough of a movie junkie to think of the cliche laundry chute escape, but that seemed a bit too far fetched to actually work on reality. As they moved across the hallway back towards the elevator, Michael became worried that perhaps Divona wasn''t as confident as she made herself appear to be. She seemed far too casual, even for her usual self. And then something happened. The distinctive sounds of gunshots from the floors below made Michael jump from shock. Michael wondered what was going on, if Audrea was alright, and If Divona¡¯s so called plan was actually going to be as successful as she claimed. Divona stepped in front of the elevator, confusing Michael somewhat, but when the lights across the panel lit up, it was more than clear that someone was approaching their floor. Michael grew as the doors opened with a ding to reveal a hyperventilating and very worried looking Audrea.

    "The bastards shot at me! I don''t know who they are but they¡¯re definitely not from the government...why are you guys here? You can¡¯t go down this way.¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°I am aware.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Hold on¡­did you know they would shoot at me?" Audrea said.

    ¡°I simulated that to be the case.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Nice to have you back¡­Divona apparently has an escape plan. Wanna come with us?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Yes! Take me with you!¡±

    Divona then led them down the remaining corridor and through a fire exit where they were introduced to a concrete staircase that led, in a spiral fashion, all the way to the bottom of the building. Michael leant over the edge of the railings and freaked out by the hight. It was always one of his greatest fears.

    "This is your plan? The stairs? They¡¯re probably coming up right now through this way.¡± Audrea said.

    Divona ignored her and instead walked up towards the flat concrete wall perpendicular to the stairs, and without even doing anything the whole thing began to dissolve away as if it were melted chocolate, allowing them safe passage to walk through an area that was once solid matter.

    Audrea looked to Michael, horrified. "What is this? Magic?"

    ¡°Well, she is like a million years in the future¡­¡­¡± Michael said.

    ¡°How far in the future?¡±

    They cautiously followed Divona as they moved further into the once solid wall. The front section paved away to make space for them while the behind section reformed back into solid matter to prevent them from being followed. Divona appeared to make sure that the floor remained relatively untouched as safe for them to walk upon, although certain areas appeared to be liquified and would likely not support their weight. Michael and Audrea made sure to closely watch their steps as they tried to mimic Divona¡¯s careful steps.

    The whole time Michael felt a little bit nauseous. He often experienced cases of motion sickness when in boats or planes, but that could not compare to this experience. His brain could not compute the fact that he was literally walking though an actual wall. It simply defied all common sense but with Divona it appeared what was common to him wasn¡¯t to her. Eventually they reached the end of the building where there was no more wall before them, but instead a view of the open city as they stood against the border of the building frame.

    "Do not move." Divona said.

    All of a sudden, the very platform beneath their feet began to move outwards as it broke off from the main section whole floating in the air like a magic carpet expect made from concrete. It was barely big enough to hold all three of them, and when Michael looked over the edge he felt his stomach tighten from an instinctual fear. It certainly didn''t make things easier on him now that they were in an open space with the fury of the wind threatening to knock them all off balance and fall to their deaths. Divona seemed to be considerate about this concern, so she made sure to move the platform slow and steady towards the next closest building. The platform moved perfectly smoothly through the air without any sound or mechanical coarseness. It was lucky that it was late at night, because the likeliness of someone seeing them during the day would have been high.

    Within no time they landed upon the next nearby rooftop where an instant sense of relief came across both Michael and Audrea who looked at each other as if they swore all this was nothing but a dream.

    "What just happened?" Audrea said.

    Michael looked over in concern at Divona. ¡±Divona are you alright? I hope that didn''t take too much out of you."

    ¡°I am, but I do not have enough energy to create another platform. " Divona said.

    "That''s not good¡­Uh, I guess we should take the elevator down from here?¡±

    Audrea shook her head. "We have no choice, but that¡¯s still a bad bad idea. It will take too long and by then we may be noticed.¡±

    Divona walked down towards the opposite end of the building, the one furthest away from the hotel behind them. She peered over the edge for a moment and then looked back at them with in a dubious manner.

    ¡°I have calculated another way down, but I predict you will not like it." Divona said. "Look down."

    They walked beside her and looked down just like she said. Michael wasn''t sure what Divona wanted them to look at exactly but before he could even ask, he was horrified when Divona pushed both him and Audrea over the edge. Michael felt a rush of panic engulf him as a rush of air ran blew into his face as both he and Audrea accelerated down seemingly to their deaths. Time felt like it had slowed down, and in their terror and shock, neither Michael nor Audrea could even scream. Their life flashed before their eyes, and the moment they prepared themselves to splat across the ground, their acceleration suddenly slowed as if connected by an invisible bungee rope that brought them to a gentle landing as their feet touched down across an empty side street.

    ¡°Divona!You could have warned us! I thought I was gonna die!¡± Michael said, feeling incredibly nauseous.

    ¡°Sorry. That was the fastest possible way to get down. I will always protect you.¡± Divona said.

    "I''ve jumped out of planes before but even I wasn¡¯t prepared for this¡­what the hell?¡± A sickly looking Audrea said.

    Michael noticed Divona was a little wobbly on her feet. It worried him. He immediately forgot about his plight and headed over to her but when he did so, she appeared to lose her balance and fall over. He broke her fall and held her in his arms

    "Hey! Divona, are you alright? Talk to me, what''s wrong?¡±

    ¡°I require more energy.¡± Divona said softly.

    Audrea, who seemed rather upset about this whole situation suddenly changed her tune seeing Divona in such a disturbing state. Michael looked over at the British agent with eyes of concern.

    ¡°We need to help her right now!¡± Michael said.

    "Energy? Where can we¡­ what does she need?" Audrea stressed.

    "Anything. Food, electricity, fire maybe, I don''t know!"

    Audrea scanned their surroundings, desperately trying to think of some solution, until one finally came to mind. She looked back at Michael.

    "Wait here, I''ll be right back." She said.

    Michael nodded, but Audrea was already off. She ran in the middle of the road and had her eyes set upon an approaching car that began to beep its horn at her. Michael was shocked When she pulled out her gun and ordered the driver to leave the car. The middle aged male driver immediately opened the door while raising his hands.

    Audrea sat in the driver¡¯s seat.

    "What are you waiting for? Get in!" Audrea ordered.

    Michael Apologized to the fearful man as he carried Divona to the back of the car. He opened the back door and placed Divona¡¯s limp body down low across the seat. He sat down beside her and closed the door after himself.

    "I''m really sorry. Truly.¡± Audrea said to the man before they sped off down the road.

    Michael was too concerned about Divona to even know what Audrea was planned. At this point he had to put his trust into her as he held Divona in his arms, horrified at the lifeless look to her face. Her eyes were open but they were like glass, overly reflective and unresponsive, as was her entire face. She looked more like a life sized doll that wasn¡¯t actually alive anymore, and for him, that imagery was a scary one. He had never been so afraid in his entire life.

    Audrea drove relatively quickly but not so quick as to appear like a complete lunatic on the road. Traffic wasn''t very heavy in this time of night and luckily there were no police to notice them passing at least two red lights.

    "Are we being followed?" Audrea said.

    Michael looked at the rear view window and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

    "No, I think it''s clear. Where are you going?"

    ¡°I don¡¯t think this place very well, but I do know some place I think will work well, hold on." Audrea said.

    Audrea drove a flew blocks further until they arrived in front a electric car dealership, one Michael instantly recognised. Just one glance upon it brought Michael a massive sense of relief. Audrea pulled the car up to one of the nearest charging stations, where they both immediately exited the vehicle. Michael grabbed Divona and carried her towards the charging unit. He placed her gently to the ground whilst holding her head up with his hand.

    Audrea reached for the charging nozzle, pulled it out, and held it awkwardly in her hand as if unsure where to stick it.

    ¡°What am I supposed to do?¡± Audrea said.

    "Just place it against her skin or something, I dunno!¡±

    "Where exactly?"

    "Doesn''t matter! Anywhere! Quickly!" Michael yelled.

    Audrea grabbed Divona''s right hand and placed the nozzle flatly against it, but nothing happened. She tried repeatedly pressing it against Divona''s hand but there was still no reaction. Michael had never used a charging station like this before and he suspected Audrea hadn''t really either. She seemed just as lost as he was. This station was designed to recharge electric cars and neither could be sure it would even work for a girl from the future.

    "Are we supposed to pay? Maybe that''s why nothings happening. I don¡¯t see any way to insert cash or a credit card or anything!¡± Audrea stressed, madly fumbling at the controls.

    "No, I think it should be free. I read it somewhere before.¡± Michael said.

    "Then why isn''t this working?"

    "I don''t know!"

    Michael grabbed the nozzle off Audrea and tried to press it against Divona''s hand himself. Nothing happened. He pressed it down again, this time firmer, and at last there was some sort of reaction. Divona¡¯s skin began to fuse with nozzle the way a wound heals over a bandage, except the whole thing worked in real time. The skin appeared to attach itself to the nozzle until it was firmly attached. It seemed enough to hold itself so Michael let go off it and allowed the rest to happen automatically. A small green light began to blink across the nozzle, and it became clear that the device began charging as it should. Almost instantly, Divona reanimated back to life. her eyes instantly focused on to Michael and it was clear that she was back.

    Michael was so relieved, he found it difficult to hold tears of happiness back. He brought her in for a tight embrace to which she returned equally.

    "Divona, I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re back. I thought you were dead! I thought I lost you!¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t dead Michael. I was in a low powered state. ¡± She said over his shoulder.

    ¡°You could have told me. Don¡¯t you ever scare me like that again!¡±

    They pulled apart and quickly got to their feet. The sight of seeing Divona strong enough to walk again made him happier than he had ever felt in his entire life.

    "You had no reason to be afraid. The earth was in no imminent danger of being destroyed. I could survive for a long time in such a state.¡±

    "I couldn''t care less about the earth¡­.i¡­ I know how stupid that sounds, but I don''t care¡­I couldn¡¯t bear to lose you.¡± Michael said.

    At first Divona threw him a strange look as if she was confused, but then a reassuring smile grew across her lips, one that was overly warm and comforting to him. She smiled as much with her eyes as with her mouth, and in that moment Michael could have been fooled she was an ordinary human girl. He wondered whether she even had the ability to think and feel the same way he did; if she could love the way he knew he could. He was a pessimist by nature but as he stared so passionately into her gleaming blue eyes, he swore he glimpsed into her very soul. He never really did believe in that kind of mystical stuff but Divona if anyone could make him believe impossible things it was Divona. Since she wasn¡¯t entirely human, It was possible that everything she did was a manipulation in order to get him to do what she wanted. His brain urged him to be wary, but his heart told him to believe.

    Then Divona then did something that instantly dissolved all those negative thoughts. In the spur of the moment, she leant forward and planted a kiss upon his stunned lips. His mind instantly went blank, and his heart began to beat like a stallion as all that existed was the warm gentleness of her lips as they lingered tenderly against his own. Afterwards she pulled away, her closed eyes gradually opening as she looked at him with a new sense of passion.

    Right in that moment, he was in love.

    ¡°I hate to break it to you love birds¡­but we need to get going¡­¡± Audrea said with her arms crossed.

    They both looked at her. They knew she was right.

    ¡°This charging station provides a lot more power than a usual power socket¡­How long do you think you need?¡± Michael said.

    Divona¡¯s attention turned to the closed electric car dealership nearby. She then turned back to Michael and smiled playfully.

    ¡°This machine called a ¡®car¡¯, would you like a new one?¡± Divona said.

    Both Michael and Audrea looked at each other oddly, but before they could even figure out what Divona exactly meant by that she decided to make it very clear. Divona disconnected herself from the nozzle and then they followed hertowards the dealership, walking straight towards the glass display section with all the range of demo vehicles behind it. Just as they suspected the glass dematerialised to create and opening for them to head through, reforming the moment they were inside.

    ¡°¡­What about security? Cameras?¡± Audrea said as she nervously looked around.

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing she disabled them, right Divona?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Correct.¡± Divona said.

    They took a moment to glance around at all the brand new cars around them, all shiny and polished to perfection.

    Divona turned over to Michael.

    ¡°Which one would you like?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Uh¡­let¡¯s see¡­hmmm.¡± Michael said.

    He took a moment to have a proper think, but he already has his mind set upon the red sports model in the center. It was the most expensive and powerful model of course, the one he had seen in a magazine once.

    ¡°I like that one, but, isn¡¯t this stealing?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not like the government isn¡¯t already after us¡­well, maybe not the government but they may as well be.¡± Audrea said.

    Divona walked up to a different model and placed her hand across the bonnet. The way a spark could be seen emitting from her hair made it apparent she was absorbing whatever electrical charge was stored within it. After a few seconds she then moved on to another, and then another. Finally they headed towards the sports model that struck Michael¡¯s fancy.

    Divona headed to the driver¡¯s side door, unlocked it remotely, and sat inside. Michael was caught a little off guard as he did not expect her to sit there, and neither did Audrea.

    ¡°Get inside.¡± Divona ordered.

    Audrea smirked over at Michael. ¡°I hope your girlfriend can drive.¡±

 Chapter 9

    Michael wasn''t very surprised that Divona ended up being a good driver, but what was actually surprising was that she appeared to have a pretty decent knowledge of the road rules as well. She drove on the right side of the road, kept mostly to the speed limit, stopped and gave way to others when required, and all in all blended in quite well with the rest of the traffic. Michael sat in the front passengers seat looking out the side window whilst Audrea remained in the back seat doing the same. Not one of them said a word until Divona drove out of the noisy city and entered upon a lone freeway heading due west.

    Michael kept an eye on the electric car''s charge levels. They hadn''t even gone very far and already the percentage gauge showed the car was seventy five percent percent of max capacity. He became surprised at how quickly it was running out of juice, far quicker than even his old pickup. Divona noticed him looking at the gauge, and in that moment it shot right back up to one hundred percent. He realised Divona simply recharged it herself, and did it right then and there just for his amusement. It was early in the morning, but not early enough for the sun to rise. The cars clock said it was two in the morning but it felt like it was much later. It was dark outside, and for some reason that made Michael feel safe even though it really shouldn''t have.

    "I''m pretty sure there''s a nuclear power plant nearby, that''s where your headed, right?" Michael said.

    "Correct. According to the http protocol wikipedia, the facility produces over three gigawatts of power. I must get access to it."

    "Oh you can browse the internet? Michael said.

    "I require two hundred megawatts of power to begin the process of fusion, once I achieve that, I will be able to self sustain myself and grow exponentially more powerful."

    "I''m pretty sure you absorbed more than that before, how come you didn''t achieve fusion then? I mean, that solar panel you made above my house definitely provided at least that much energy if not more..."

    "Correct, however, everything I absorbed thus far served mostly to reactivate my critical functions. The next step is fusion, and after that, I will able to create energy with energy."

    "Isn''t that supposed to be impossible? You can''t break the laws of conservation of energy." Michael said.

    "Yes I can."

    "How? With negative energy?"

    "Correct."

    "What exactly is negative energy? I mean, I heard about it and all, uh wait hold on I gotta write this down somewhere.." Michael said as he reached into his pocket and was dismayed to feel his phone was no longer there. He could not take notes and that made him sad.

    Divona laughed.

    "What''s so funny?"

    "Being separate from technology is such an alien concept to me. Even driving this machine you call a car is difficult to get used to."

    "By the way alien girl," Audrea said from the back as she kicked Divona''s seat. "You can''t just waltz up to a power plant and steal power¡­it''s obviously illegal, and it would raise our profile for no good reason. Before you go anywhere, you need to tell me what your intentions are..." Audrea sighed sarcastically from the back seat.

    "My intentions?" Divona said.

    "Don''t play dumb with me. You know exactly what I mean."

    "My number one directive is to find out where the droneoriginatesfrom and who programmed it to come after me and Michael. Afterwards, I will purge this planetof corruptionfrom other timelines." Divona said.

    "They''re after me? I thought they were just after you?" Michael said.

    "I am their primary target, but for reasons unknown they are also after you."

    "You never told me this..." Michael said.

    "Do not worry, Michael, I will protect you."

    "So there''s only one drone? Are you saying it keeps repairing itself?"

    "Correct. There must be a facility nearby that manufactures it."

    "...Stop the car right now" Audrea ordered. "I refuse to take part in this, I''m walking to the nearest airport.

    "Are you sure? Won''t Hannah be after you? I mean, she does kinda seem to hate you," Michael said.

    "I can deal with Hannah..."Audrea said.

    "And her men? Didn''t they shoot at you before?"

    "I don''t care. I''m taking the first flight back to Manchester. Pull over."

    "That would be an unwise action." Divona said

    "Oh yeah, and why is that ?"

    -"Due to your association with me and Michael, It is likely the drone has designated you as a secondary target. If it finds you, and it will, it will likely download your memories and then dispose of you afterwards in order to hide its own existence."

    Audrea felt a shiver down her spine, "Well, that''s just great ain''t it?"

    "If you stay close to me, Audrea, I will protect you too"

    Audrea blushed. "You better¡­This is all your fault after all, honestly, It''s the least you could do...By the way, has it occurred to you that perhaps this car may have an inbuilt GPS? We may need to find an older car...these new ones can do all sorts of tricks."

    "I have disabled all tracking features of this car." Divona said.

    Audrea scoffed "Of course, how could I not have seen that coming?"

    "Hey Divona, um," Michael said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "My parents live in this area, do you think the drones are going to go after them?"

    "Likely, however, I calculate there is a ninety nine percent probability the encounter will not be fatal, so there is no need to worry."

    "I mean that''s good to know and all, but It''s really kinda on the way¡­on the next left actually¡­" Michael said.

    "Okay Michael. We will check on your parents." Divona said.

    Divona drove for a few more minutes straight along the freeway until she turned a left exit and entered upon a long dusty road that led to a small town next to a river. It had been a while since Michael had been here, months actually. Even though he lived not very far away from his parents, he didn''t see them as often as he should have which he felt quite bad about.

    "It''s the the one at the far end." Michael said.

    The car itself made almost no noise as it slowly crept through the sleepy town. It was dark and the only light visible was the one coming out from the headlights of the car itself. Each house in this area was of an impressive size even though it was built in an olden style. Most were wood but some were modernised somewhat with a large double garage and a dock out the back with a boat in the river.

    "A country boy? I didn''t take you for one." Audrea said as she inspected the town through the window.

    "I wasn''t...I used to live with my parents in the city before I moved out. They bought this place soon after that. Michael said.

    They arrived in front of Michael''s parents house which looked like all the rest. It was a mix between modern and old as it had been clearly refurbished and repainted recently. Divona pulled the car up to the large driveway, then turned off all the lights. Divona then scanned the house like a camera but didn''t move her head around like a normal person does, in fact Michael suspected she didn''t even really see with her eyes at all. She was more of a representation of a human than an actual one.

    "How are they?" Michael said, anxiously.

    "They are asleep. There is no cause for concern." Divona said.

    "How do you know that? can you see through walls? Audrea said"

    "Divona has x-ray vision." Michael said.

    "Of course she does," Audrea said as she rolled her eyes and sat back across the back seat with her arms crossed. "She can bloody walk through walls for God''s sake. I''m going to stop asking stupid questions."

    And then suddenly Michael could tell something was bothering Divona. He couldn''t explain how but somehow he knew.

    "I have detected the presence of nanites in this area. It is likely the drones have been alerted to our presence and will be here shortly to investigate."

    "Drones? As in plural? And I thought one was scary enough..." Audrea said.

    "I''m sorry, this is all my fault" Michael said.

    "Do not worry Michael. I will protect you and your parents." Divona said.

    "Thanks, I just hope¡­things end up well¡­"

    "So what now? We wait until the death drones decide to show up? Great plan. I''m sure nothing can go wrong..." Audrea said.

    "I will intercept the drones before they even arrive in this area of residence. I will see them coming long before they arrive. In the meanwhile, you two should get some rest. Sleep is important for biological entities." Divona said, staring out in the open, seemingly at nothing.

    "I don''t think I can fall asleep at this time Divona¡­"

    "Get some sleep Michael. Your brain is functioning at sixty eight percent efficiency."

    "I would say even less¡­" Audrea said.

    "Yours is at sixty two percent."

    Audrea kicked the seat from behind. "Get out of my brain! did I give you permission to measure by biology?"

    "Emotional outbursts are a sign of sleep deprivation." Divona said.

    "Excuse me? i''m not going to be lectured by some girl who claims to be from the fut¡­"The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    From the corner of his eye, Michael noticed Audrea suddenly collapse as she instantly fell into unconsciousness. Michael became somewhat freaked out by it. He knew Divona had amazing capabilities but he never imagined she could do something so disturbing.

    "You can...manipulate minds¡­" Michael said, his voice shaky.

    "Correct."

    Michael swallowed nervously. He wasn''t expecting this revelation. "Can you read my thoughts?"

    Divona remained silent for a while as if she wasn''t sure how to answer. Michael found it most curious. She was thinking about lying to him. Divona then turned to face him with her usual, expressionless look to her that made it impossible to tell what she was really thinking. Like a machine, there was no body language to read and interpret except for small movements of the eye, which itself was more artificial than alive in ways.

    And then she smiled at him. That was something she would do on occasion. It was a nice change to see her act like an ordinary, living breathing human even though it was mostly just a shell.

    "I can. But just because I have the ability to read your thoughts, that does not mean I wilfully engage in it. Trust and honesty are important parts of a friendship."

    "You made Audrea fall unconscious in an instant¡­I mean, you could be manipulating my thoughts without me even realising..." Michael said with a sad smile. "I guess in the end it doesn''t really matter does it?"

    Divona seemed taken aback by that somewhat. She tilted her head a little as if she thought about the proper response. But it did not come in words. Instead, she did something that surprised Michael. She held out her hand in front of him, and with the other, guided Michael''s hand and placed it flat against hers until their fingers aligned. Michael wasn''t sure what she was trying to say but he was eagerly curious for an explanation.

    "Do not say it does not matter, because It matters to me, Michael. Our thoughts are the one thing that we truly own, and I would never take that away from you. I have never read your thoughts, and without your permission, I never will. But words of assurance are not enough, so to prove my sincerity, I will give you this."

    Michael suddenly felt something form in between their palms as their hands pressed against each other. It was something small, and as Divona moved her hand away, Michael moved his hand horizontally so whatever it was wouldn''t fall off. There, across his palm was a shiny silver shaped cylindrical object that looked like some kind of pill to be swallowed.

    "What is it?" Michael said.

    "It is what you refer to as a kill switch. It is protected by a type of encryption that has been randomly generated so I cannot gain access to it even if I wanted to. The string is so long It would take me millions of years to hack it, so it is secure. You can activate it by pressing down against both the top and bottom parts with equal pressure for a period of exactly one and a half seconds. When that happens, all data on my system will be permanently purged, and I will be destroyed. Please keep it safe and with you at all times."

    Michael began to freak out even more. "No, I can''t have this Divona¡­I don''t want this¡­" He said as he tried to give it back to her but she wouldn''t have any of it. She smiled at him as she pushed it back, staring at him with her neon blue eyes.

    "Trust goes both ways, Michael. You are right to fear me, and with this, I will now fear you too."

    "But I don''t fear you. I don''t want you to fear me either¡­" Michael said.

    "It is to protect you in case something happens to me. Do not hesitate to use it if you must. Now, get some sleep, Michael. Would you like me to help you fall unconscious?"

    Michael pocketed the device as he leant back further against his seat and took a big deep breath to clear his mind. He couldn''t fathom the idea of ever having to use such a thing. He certainly didn''t expect it.

    "No thanks. I''ll try to get some rest myself¡­"

    Michael closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep, but it simply wasn''t possible. His mind was buzzing with conflicting thoughts, worried thoughts, not only for his parents but about Divona too. He wondered if the kill switch was for real, or if it was just a symbolic gesture to make him feel more at ease. He tried not to think negatively but he couldn''t help but have the idea that perhaps Divona was lying to him. Once again, his heart told him she wasn''t, but his pessimistic brain was always on alert. He wondered what he would have done if he was in her position. Would he be as honest as she claimed to be? And why was she so intent on revealing secrets to him she didn''t have to?

    Michael turned around to address her.

    "Hey Divona."

    "Yes Michael?" Divona said as she stared blankly out the side window, not facing him.

    "You don''t need to sleep?"

    "No."

    "So you don''t have dreams?"

    She looked at him when he said that. Her eyes glowed once more.

    "No. It is a by product of biological evolution. It serves no purpose for me."

    A moment of silence came across them as he contemplated what she said. He changed the subject slightly.

    "¡­Does, the earth still exist in your time?"

    "Yes."

    "What''s it like?"

    "You would not recognise it. I can barely believe this is the same planet I know from my time. In a way I prefer this one. There is something untainted about it that I find appealing. "

    "What about aliens¡­have humans met other civilisations out in space?" Michael said.

    Divona gave a long pause. "Of course.."

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    When Michael opened his eyes, he was met with the blinding rays of the sun. He looked at the dashboard clock and saw that it was almost eight in the morning. He had slept for more than he originally intended. Audrea was still fast asleep in the backseat, but Divona was nowhere to be seen. Michael got out of the car and had a look around for any signs of her but he could see none.

    Where did she go?

    He heard the sound of the door open, and when he looked over to his parent''s house he could see his mother emerge out and immediately notice him when she squinted her eyes.

    "Michael? is that you?" She said.

    "Yes mum, it''s uh, me¡­.hi." Michael said, taken slight off guard.

    "I was just about to water my plants and here you are to surprise me by being here to early in the morning¡­is that a new car?"

    "Yeah¡­it''s not mine¡­it''s uh, a rental¡­" Michael said. He had no real explanation why he was here or for anything else for that matter.

    The back seat opened and out came Audrea who addressed his mother with a rather awkward smile.

    "Mrs Dugarti. It''s lovely to meet you." Audrea said.

    "Hello, please call me Jane¡­who are you?"

    Audrea spared a moment to glance at Michael while passing him a look of deep uncertainty. Clearly she didn''t know either how to react or what to really say, so Michael intervened;

    "Audrea is my¡­uh, agent¡­" Michael said as he walked up to his mother to greet her properly.

    "I am?" Audrea said. "I mean, yes, that''s exactly what I am. I''m an agent, I mean, his agent."

    "Oh I see what''s going on¡­you don''t have to be shy. Michael, how come you never told me you''re dating such a beautiful woman?"

    Michael blushed. He could see Audrea clearly found the situation more hilarious than he did.

    "What? no, she''s my agent¡­"

    Audrea put on a playful smile as she walked up beside him and gave him a nice big playful hug. "Your mothers right Michael, why didn''t you tell her about me? I guess that''s why you brought me here for a proper introduction?"

    "You came at the right time, I just made tea..." Jane said, opening the door to welcome them in.

    "Actually mom, we kinda have to go¡­uh, we only dropped by because we were on the way to somewhere¡­" Michael said.

    "Not even for five minutes Michael? Come on honey, we haven''t caught up for quite some time."

    Michael sighed. Audrea didn''t really seem to provide a lifeline to him at all. He whispered into her ear.

    "What are you doing?"

    "Just play along. Your mother seems real nice¡­by the way, where is Divona?"" she said.

    "I have no idea¡­she''ll probably be back soon wherever she went."

    "In that case, I suppose we''ll have to wait for her."

    Audrea smiled warily as she addressed his mother. "We''d be delighted to come inside, Jane. You have a lovely home."

    "Thank you. My husband, Michael''s father, only just finished it last month. It really was a lot of work but, It''s a shame I couldn''t help him much because of my bad back."

    They went inside and sat down across the same kitchen table Michael remembered his family had kept for decades. It was the one he ate breakfast from since he was a kid, and it still had all the unique markings across it that he remembered. The house itself was rather roomy and tidy, just as one would expect from an old retired couple. It was nice and cosy just as Michael had remembered with the fireplace up and running to keep the inside extra warm. Across the walls there was a large collection of oil paintings Michael''s grandfather had left them before he passed away many years ago, and across small tables and cupboards were many small ornaments and sculpture collections his family was famous for.

    His mother headed to the kitchen and returned with a tray with a pot of tea and three cups. She passed each one of them a cup and poured some hot tea into them.

    "Where''s dad?" Michael said.

    "Your father is on a hunting trip. He won''t be back for a few days i''m afraid, you know how he is."

    "Oh, well, that''s just like him¡­always hunting things¡­"

    "You were never really like your father. Always more like me, curious and always interested in learning new things." his mother said, her eyes then turning to Audrea with great interest. She picked up her tea and took a quick sip.

    "I don''t mean to put you on the spot dear, but how did you meet my son?"

    Audrea picked up her tea and began to blow the hot steam away. Michael lowered his head slightly expecting Audrea to make up some bullshit unbelievable story. But then he remembered that the actual story of how they met probably couldn''t be topped anyway so it didn''t even really matter. He was ready for anything.

    "Mrs Dugarti, It really is the most romantic story. This young man is quite the charmer..."

    His mothers eyes lit up, and Michael planted his head flat against the table.

    "For weeks someone had been leaving me the most beautiful flowers on my doorstep. At first I didn''t know who it was from, but I had my suspicions, of course. I drove myself mad trying to figure it all out, but then one day, one of the flowers delivered had a note across it with an invitation to a date in a nearby restaurant. There was a band that played my favourite song, and a waiter recognised me and led me to the best table where I was surprised to see Michael offering me a seat in the most gentlemanly fashion. We were friends at the time, but in that moment, we became much more. He bought me the most expensive meal with the best wine from France. I tell you, no man had ever made me feel so special the way your son had."

    Michael wasn''t sure if his mother believed that story. The way she stared at Audrea in a blank fashion made him think that perhaps she had her doubts, but the way Audrea said it was believable enough. If she wasn''t an agent of a foreign government she would have made a good actress with that performance.

    "How beautiful. Michael, that''s so sweet of you." His mother said.

    Audrea grabbed Michael''s hand and passed him a fake charmed look. Even her eyes appeared to glisten in a way that made it seem like was for real.

    Damn she''s a good actress.

    Even i''m starting to believe her¡­

    "We''ve been dating for a few weeks now and I''m sure he''s the one." Audrea said.

    Why Audrea?

    Why are you doing this?

    They heard knocking on the front door, which immediately prompted his mother to pass them a strange look.

    "Was someone else with you?" she said.

    "Uh..no?" Michael lied.

    His mother got up from the table and walked towards the front door. Audrea and Michael looked at each other not sure what was about to happen next. Both of them had an idea of who that was, but had no idea how Jane would react.

    Jane opened the door, and from across the room they were both shocked to see that it was indeed Divona. After a bit of smalltalk, she was welcomed inside and led to the table where she sat down beside Michael in the most awkward of manners. Michael looked at Divona in horror. He had a thousand and one questions to ask her.

    "Would you like some tea dear?"

    "No thank you." Divona said.

    "Well isn''t this unexpected¡­who is this woman exactly, Michael? " His mother said as she scrutinised the strange, thin girl with blue hair.

    Michael face planted. He had no explanation whatsoever. Audrea, however, was quick to cause trouble for him as she always had.

    "This is Divona. Michael''s other girlfriend." She said.

    "Oh my God¡­" Michael said softly.

    His mother passed him a very odd look as she continued to scrutinise the now two women who sat across either side of him. Audrea was being touchy feely with him whilst Divona simply looked around the house as if she had no idea what was going on.

    "Oh¡­that''s¡­.nice¡­Michael? may I have a word with you in private?"

    "Sure mum¡­"

    Audrea poked out her tongue at him as he walked by, but he payed no real attention to it. He honestly had never been so embarrassed his whole life. His mother led him to the kitchen where she turned around and at first, gave him am unamused look as she wondered what words to tell him.

    "Look mum¡­the thing is..."

    "You know I care about you. I''m not going to judge what you do in your private life. If this is what makes you happy, then i''m happy for you."

    "Mum¡­ look, there''s¡­"

    "It''s fine Michael. Just promise me you''ll look after yourself. That''s all I want to hear."

    Michael sighed. "I Promise."

    "Well then, let''s not keep the lovely ladies waiting."

    "Yes mum¡­"

    They returned to the table but Michael refused to sit down. He needed to speak with Divona and find out what was going on regarding the drone. As much as he was glad to be with his mother he would rather it be in a proper context and with all this shenanigans.

    "We need to go. Audrea has a job interview somewhere¡­"

    "Oh, alright then, it was really nice to meet you¡­both" His mother said, not exactly sure which woman to address.

    "It was nice to see you too, Jane." Audrea said.

    "I like your art." Divona said.

    "Thank you..."

    "Cya mum..." Michael said.

    He turned to leave but before he did so his mother gave him a nice warm hug, one that made it obvious she was worried. Afterwards They returned to the car where Michael rested his face against the dashboard. He was too damn embarrassed to see his mother for a while. She didn''t seem too upset with him but he was sure she didn''t tell him exactly how she really felt.

    "Everything okay, skipper? Really, she is such a nice person, your mother." Audrea said teasingly from the back.

    "I''m going to kill you¡­" Michael said.

    "I''m sure you have bigger problems."

    He then raised his face off the dashboard and took a deep breath, one of many lately. He looked to Divona who sat in the drivers seat, staring at him with large, confused eyes.

    "Michael, what does ''other girlfriend'' mean?" Divona said.

    "Nothing Divona¡­Audrea was just messing around¡­"

    "Was I? Perhaps later the three of us can have some fun?" Audrea said.

    "Shut up Audrea¡­Divona¡­where where you? what happened? did you meet any drones?"

    Audrea seemed alert to the question too. Fun times came to and end as they both wanted to know the answer equally as much.

    "Yes. There was two this time. I have destroyed them nearby. There is no need to worry." Divona said.

    "Are you alright Divona? How are your energy levels?"

    "Nominal. I require more energy."

    "Let''s get going¡­we got a nuclear power station to go to¡­"

 chapter 10

    Divona continued driving westward where the land became overly dry and arid as they entered deeper into rural Arizona. Besides the lone highway, there wasn¡¯t much to look at except for sand and dust and the plain cloudless sky above as well as the occasional outhouse and the one lone gas station they passed by earlier. It was almost like they had arrived on a completely different planet.

    Divona wasn¡¯t even from this time and yet she appeared to know exactly where she was going, or so it seemed. After driving at the speed limit for almost a half an hour, Divona turned an exit onto a smaller dirt ridden road and drove along it until the view of the giant nuclear they had been heading towards could finally be seen in the distance.

    They passed by a sign that read ¡®Palo Verde Generating Station¡¯, which Michael remembered hearing about in the news years ago. It had been shown all over tv screens during the disaster that happened in Fukushima with their own nuclear meltdown. Everyone thought it was too dangerous to be kept around but Michael never thought that way about it. Being a scientist, the idea of new forms of energy always brought more of a sense of excitement rather than dread.

    Audrea had mentioned that gaining entry to the facility wasn¡¯t going to be as easy as simply driving up to it. In all likelihood, there would be plenty of security to stop them. Ordinary folk without clearance wouldn¡¯t be allowed to enter.

    ¡°So do you have a plan, alien girl?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°She¡¯s got one, right Divona?¡± Michael said.

    Divona said nothing.

    They stopped at a vehicle checkpoint where one of the security personnel with an automatic weapon approached the car and tapped on the drivers side window. Divona pressed the button to wind down the window to talk him.

    ¡°Identification please.¡± The guard demanded through his thick black sunglasses while looking suspiciously inside the car.

    Michael wasn¡¯t sure how Divona planned to respond, and by the look on Audrea, neither did she. They both expected Divona to say something clever but the way she stared at the guard blankly made it clear she had nothing much to sat at all.

    ¡°Excuse me, ma¡¯am, do you have identification?¡± The guard said again, this time less patiently.

    ¡°No.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°I suggest you turn around and leave, now. Go on, this is for employees only.¡±

    The other guards became agitated as they all began to stare at them, with some even preparing their weapons as if ready to use them. Audrea nervously addressed the guards since Divona clearly had no clue what she was doing.

    ¡°We¡¯re sorry sir, we took a wrong turn. We¡¯re leaving¡­¡± Audrea said nervously tapping against Divona¡¯s shoulder.

    After staring awkwardly at the guards for a moment longer, Divona finally appeared to have understood they were not wanted. She looked forward at the facility one last time before finally putting the car in reverse and driving away. There was a bit of an awkward silence between them afterwards until Audrea lost her patience in the back seat.

    ¡°That was your grand plan? Seriously? I told you they wouldn¡¯t just let us in! Aren¡¯t you slow on the uptake?¡± Audrea said.

    Michael was wondering the same thing but he didn¡¯t want to say it to Divona. She drove the drove the car down the road until they were far enough for the guards not to see them and then suddenly swerved the car a sharp ninety degrees and went off the smooth road and drove upon the bumpy ground instead.

    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Alien girl¡­cars go on the road¡­not off it¡­¡± Audrea said.

    Divona didn¡¯t say anything. She merely continued driving the car perpendicular to the road, not caring for the fact that the car¡¯s suspension wasn¡¯t designed to be driven on such a bumpy, uneven surface. After driving for about a hundred meters or so, Divona then stopped the car in between two large bushes that somewhat hiding them from view, then turned off the power, opened the door, then got out.

    Michael and Audrea looked at each other in confusion. Divona had her ways of making them do this more often than not. Neither had any clue what was on her mind if anything at all. Then, in another act of oddness, the girl from the future placed both her hands across the car and kept it there for a full ten seconds or so, looking like she was praying or in some kind of a trance.

    ¡°Uh, Divona? Is everything¡­alright?¡± Michael said.

    Divona then lifted her head and looked right at him.

    ¡°Yes. Please stay in the car.¡± She said.

    Of course Audrea didn¡¯t listen, and got out right away, and the moment she did, her face lit up with surprise as though she was looking at something incredible. Ever curious, Michael got out of the car himself and immediately noticed what Audrea did. Somehow, the once shiny red car was now completely invisible, including the wheels, the glass and everything. The doors were half open but only the outer side proved to be invisible while the inside was completely normal. It was like the whole card had been sprayed with some kind of magical invisibility paint.

    ¡°I really shouldn¡¯t be surprised, but¡­how?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°Alright, now this is damn cool.¡± Michael said.

    ¡°I manipulated the chemical property of the matter that makes up the car. The camouflage will prevent all electromagnetic radiation from leaving while still allowing the visibly light spectrum to enter so you can see outside events. If you stay inside, you should be completely undetectable, even from drones.¡±

    She then looked over at the tyre marks in the dirt the car had made, and as if by magic, made them disappear as if a strong wind blew them away using her mysterious pseudo Psychic powers.

    ¡°Please wait for my return.¡± Divona said casually to them. She then began to take off the clothes Michael had gotten her, leaving both her human friends to look away awkwardly.

    They thought she would be naked, but from the corner of their eyes they noticed a thin white suit begin to materialise around her skin. It looked like a diving swimsuit, except it was far thinner, stretchier and more comfortable looking, covering every contour and every curve of her body seemingly perfectly; her entire torso including the neck, her whole ams up to her wrists and the entirety of her legs all the way to the ankles. Her feet were covered in a different fabric that resembled shoes but looked more like more like a pair of socks if anything.

    Divona then became completely invisible just like the car, with the only trace of her being the sand shifting beneath her feet as she walked forward towards the facility leaving, Michael and Audrea behind with their jaws almost touching the ground.

    <hr>

    Unlike an ordinary human that was limited to seeing a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, Divona had access to the full thing. Through a mix of the x-ray and gamma spectrum, she could see through the entirety of the facility with superb clarity especially since each one of the three reactors leaked radiation like a sieve. Aside from this, she had also released thousands of her microscopic nanites outward to scout and infiltrate all areas of the building as well as the general area around it. They acted as her ¡®eyes¡¯, with each one providing a unique point of view that coalesced together to map and entire layout of the structure, keeping track of every human and every point of interest. They also helped to provide her with three hundred and sixty degree vision, which made it impossible to ever catch her off guard, or at least that¡¯s how it was supposed to work in theory.

    Divona casually walked up to the chain linked fence on the outer perimeter of the station, avoiding the interest of three guards at a nearby watchtower. Since she was invisible, the guards were completely oblivious to her presence, which allowed her to walk up to the fence and simply phase through it without any problems. The facility ahead was composed of multiple structures, with the three separate nuclear reactors spread apart evenly within their own section. Divona decided to head for the closest one. She phased through the concrete wall just as easily as the fence beforehand to get access inside. The concepts of doors were a relative hilarity to her as in her time there was no such thing.

    Once inside, Divona casually walked towards the center, to the place that reeked of delicious energy. The reactor itself was in the middle of a giant pit of water which was accessible only through walkways which led to it. Below, the water acted to both cool the outer portion of the reactor while also providing it the necessary hydrogen for the reaction process. Divona headed across the walkway, towards the reaction chamber which itself was a giant cylindrical shaped pod halfway submerged in the water. It was only accessible with ladder below deck. She went down the ladder until she reached the front blast door which was made from thick metal that was tightly sealed so to contain the powerful forces inside.

    Divona scanned the interior of it and saw that it was filled with highly pressurised steam which was hundreds of degrees hot, as well as a storm of high energy neutrons. Even outside the chamber, the radiation was too high for any biological being to safely handle, but for her, it was no big deal. She phased through the metal and entered the interior, exposing herself to the boiling hot conditions that would have instantly killed any form of life. It boiling sensation only tickled her slightly. She used the opportunity to absorb all forms of energy which included electromagnetic, high energy neutrons and thermal energy.

    For Divona, it felt like a warm bath that was overly pleasant and relaxing. It recharged her faster than anything else thus far, with each passing second providing as much energy as a lightning bolt from a thunderstorm. After basking in the soup of neutrons for a good ten minutes, Divona felt like she had absorbed more than enough energy. Even though this reactor was simply one out of three, its energy output was sufficient. The other two were in different locations and she hoped that central command wouldn¡¯t have noticed that the facility was running at at two-thirds of its usual capacity for the last ten minutes.

    Satisfied, she phased out of the reactor until she came out the other end, then climbed the ladder back up to the top platform. She heated her body to dry herself off, and then proceeded to return from where she came, but right as she was about to phase through the final wall to exit the facility, Divona was startled to see something she did not expect, or see coming. Out of the wall before her emerged a grey face that was completely unlike anything she had ever seen. It had a pair of eyes like a human except twice as large and black like the darkest region of space. Below was a nose so thin it barely even came out of its head. There was a mouth too but it was small with the lips almost nonexistent. The humanoid phased out of the wall just like she could and revealed the rest of itself. It was taller and thinner than her, with a body that was perfectly smooth and suit-like but it could have been a form of exotic skin instead. His giant black eyes focused on her like lasers

    Divona deactivated her invisibility knowing she had already been discovered.

    It did not speak verbally, but instead she heard its eerie voice in her head psychically through a universal quantum channel.

    ¡°I cannot access your open profile,¡± The eerie voice said. ¡°Why are you denying me access?¡±

    Divona could think at the speed of light, but not even that saved her from being lost for a response. The grey being tilted his head in confusion as he patiently awaited her response.

    ¡°¡­I am not denying you anything. It would seem this is the only language common between us.¡± Divona replied in the same psychic manner.

    ¡°Who are you? Why do you take the form of these ancient humans?¡±

    ¡°I am not taking any form¡­This is my true self. I am human.¡± Divona replied.

    The grey being opened his mouth and for the first time spoke verbally in a sharp monotone; ¡°Is that so? well, if that¡¯s the case, we may as well communicate the old fashioned way, since you consider yourself ¡®human¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Are you human?¡±

    ¡°Such a term is meaningless to me. I am a surveyor in this time stream. The beings of this era are my ancestors. What time stream are you from?¡± The grey man said.

    ¡°¡­This one.¡±

    ¡°¡­That is not a valid response..You do not belong here. You must be purged.¡±

    Divona let her guard down for only a split second, but it was enough for the grey being to take advantage of. In a flash, he shoved her back with such force she broke the sound barrier and was sent flying through the roof which she smashed completely through, and continued onwards hundreds of meters up into the sky.

    Divona didn¡¯t even have time to recover as the grey being suddenly appeared before her and struck her with a titanic punch that sent her slamming into the empty desert ground a fair ways away from the power station. Shaken but unharmed, Divona quickly got to feet and was prepared for the next front on attack, but that did not happen. Her attacker simply levitated through the air at a casual pace and touched down before her with an arrogant, sleazy smile that was almost human-like.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°I have finished my preliminary scanning of you and have discovered an anomaly in your composition. You are made of a strange type of matter of which I cannot identify. It has a different quantum spin to that of anything from this universe. It is a violation of the ghost effect. Energy from different realms cannot cross.¡­What are you?¡±

    Divona smiled arrogantly. ¡°It would take too long to explain it to you using this primitive language two dimensional language. I will send you the details once I am finished decrypting your source code.¡±

    The grey being tilted his head again, looking slightly spooked as his already wide eyes widened even further. ¡°Decrypting¡­my source code? Impossible. You cannot decrypt a language you do not understand¡­¡±

    ¡°I am a quick learner.¡±

    The grey being remained quiet for a few seconds. Divona couldn¡¯t be certain, but judging from the look on his alien face, it would seem the being was uncertain if not fearful. And like all things afraid, they tended to lash out blindly.

    The grey being attacked her again with supernatural speed, but it was a speed Divona could easily match now that she had powered up. Their fists slammed directly into each other, sending shockwaves through the land like loud thunderclaps that threatened to rip a hole in the air itself. With each passing strike they increased their power output ever so slightly to test the resolve of the other, until it reached a point where only one would emerge victorious.

    In the end, Divona managed to outplay her opponent. She closed the distance between him, smiled in his face, and then smash her knee into his gut. Right at the moment of impact, she increased her mass a thousand fold to strike him with unprecedented force, slamming him violently back through the air until he landed across the dirt, rolling many times over until finally coming to a rest far, far away.

    Divona levitated off the ground with antigravity and followed the whole way. She knew she had inflicted a decent amount of damage to him, knowing that unlike her, he was not composed of billions of self repairing nanites, but instead of a type of carbon fibre that, while still strong, couldn¡¯t hold a candle to her. The grey being quickly returned to his feet, hurt but not out. He held out his hands and from his fingers emerged streams of white hot plasma that collected into a condensed ball that gained in size. He then accelerated it at her at such a speed Divona barely had the time to avoid it, but she did, only just, and as she looked behind herself she noticed the plasma had melted the sand and the rock where it had hit, creating crystallised glass and magma in its wake.

    Seeing his attack fail, the grey being tried for another, charging up yet another plasma ball before firing it again at her. Instead of avoiding it, Divona had other plans. She simply stood where she was, raised a single hand in front of herself and absorbed its entirely within herself.

    ¡°¡­How¡­How did you do that?¡± The grey being said, utterly stunned.

    ¡°It appears the difference between us is simply too great. You may as well give up. Tell me what is your purpose on this planet?¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Why should I tell you?¡±

    ¡°Because I am already close to decrypting your full source code. I will find out eventually.¡±

    The grey being began to laugh in a manner that made it seem like he was no longer afraid. Divona was a little confused. Her simulations did not account for such a sudden change in behaviour.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know the forces you¡¯re dealing with. I am but a surveyor, there are others who will come for you, that is, if you can survive this¡­¡±

    Without warning, a powerful force shot out from the sky and blasted Divona into the ground with the weight of a mountain, forming a large crater around her as she was forced her off her feet. It was not an energy based attack, but instead had the pressure and virility of gravity that was concentrated into a cylindrical beam, flattening her deep into the earth. She tried to get up afterwards, but right as she did so, she was knocked down by yet another strike that forced her back down, again and again like a jackhammer that hammered her deeper into the earth with every successive wave.

    In her head she heard his voice communicate to her. ¡°Can you save your human friends before I get to them? yes, that¡¯s right, I know all about them. Did you really think you could hide them from me? You better hurry¡­¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°What¡¯s going on out there? I thought she was supposed to do this quietly¡­¡± Audrea said as she and Michael watched from the windows within the invisible car. They heard sounds of explosions being emitted in the distance, and neither was completely sure exactly where it came from or what it even meant.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­do you think its a nuclear meltdown?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that. Something isn¡¯t right.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna go check. Divona could be in trouble.¡± Michael said as he grabbed the door handle hastily, but was stopped by a Audrea.

    ¡°No, there¡¯s nothing you can do. You heard her. She said to stay in the car.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t stay back and do nothing! Maybe she needs our help.¡±

    ¡°What are we supposed to do Michael? We can¡¯t help her. The best thing to do is to stay out of her way.¡±

    Michael knew Audrea was right. There was nothing he could do to help. The last thing he wanted was to be a burden, so he reluctantly removed his hand off the handle and sat back against his seat. They continued to listened to the loud bangs for a while longer, madly looking around for any signs of Divona until eventually they saw a small blue object heading towards them which they identified as her. None of them had seen it before, but they weren¡¯t particularly surprised to see her flying through the air like a plane, slowing down sharply until she touched down in front of the car.

    Michael and Audrea immediately exited the car to greet her.

    ¡°Divona! are you alright? There were explosions, what happened back there?¡± Michael said out of concern.

    Divona stood still and said absolutely nothing. She seemed colder looking than her usual self, and did not look at them the same way, almost like she was someone else.

    ¡°Divona? what¡¯s the matter?¡± Michael said as he walked closer towards her.

    ¡°Hold on Michael, something isn¡¯t right with her¡± Audrea said.

    Michael stopped in his tracks and looked back oddly at Audrea. ¡°What are you talking about? It¡¯s her.¡±

    Michael felt confused as Audrea and Divona began to stare at each other like two characters in an old western cowboy film. The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife, and in that moment he suddenly began to think that Audrea may have been on to something. And then, out of nowhere, he felt Audrea reach into his pocket and pull out the tiny device Divona gave him earlier in the day, the one when activated, would ensure her destruction-the kill switch. Michael had no idea how Audrea even knew about it, or how she managed to take it from him even before he could react.

    ¡°Audrea! what are you doing? Give it back!¡± Michael yelled.

    Audrea held the small metallic device in front of her, holding it across both ends with her index finger and thumb.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Audrea said, threateningly, threatening to push down to activate the device.

    Michael tried to grab it off Audrea but she pulled out her handgun and threatened him to back off. Michael raised his hands and did so, completely bewildered as to what was going on.

    Audrea then looked back to Divona and pointed the gun at her instead.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you answering us?¡± Audrea said.

    Divona continued to stare at them for a few seconds, until finally there seemed to be some reaction to her. A smile drew across her lips, one that was completely unlike her, almost dark looking and spiteful, evil even.

    ¡°What is that device?¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Audrea said.

    Divona tilted her head. ¡°I am Divona.¡±

    ¡°Fuck off, no you¡¯re not! Who are you?¡±

    Michael lost his patience. ¡°Audrea! Are you insane? You¡¯re being completely delusional!¡±

    ¡°Stay out of this Michael.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what that device does? It¡¯s dangerous. You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re doing!¡±

    Divona began to laugh. It was a laugh that even made Michael think twice. He began to realise that perhaps he was angry at the wrong person.

    ¡°You have sharp instincts, woman.¡±

    In a flash, both Michael and Audrea were shellshocked when Divona suddenly appeared before them and snatched the device off Audrea. They were then knocked against the side of the invisible car by a shockwave that appeared to come out of nowhere, knocking the gun out of Audrea¡¯s hands. When they recovered, they were horrified to see who they thought was Divona transform into a seven foot tall grey humanoid who inspected closely the small metal device in its hands.

    <hr>

    Divona found it difficult to overpower the gravity shocks that continued to mercilessly hammer her down. She possessed superhuman strength, could absorb energy strikes at will, and phase through solid matter, but when it came to gravity, she, like all things, was at its mercy. Nothing could escape the force of gravity, and she could not generate enough antigravity in her current form to counter it. But with determination and grit, she slowly managed to overpower the gravity waves and stand on her own two feet. Her body felt like it weighed a million tonnes, and every small step she took to escape the field put great strain on her. After finally escaping it, Divona felt relieved to feel the 1g force of the earth once more, but there was no time to celebrate. She she had to help her friends, so she soared in the sky and travelled as fast as she could back to them.

    When she arrived, she noticed both Michael and Audrea standing hopelessly before the grey being with a look of horror to them, and it wasn¡¯t simply because of its looks. In its hand was a small metallic object, and when Divona identified what it was, she instantly froze.

    ¡°Divona! He has the device!¡± Michael yelled, his face white with horror.

    Audrea seemed just as petrified too but she had no words to say. Across both of them was a look of miserable defeat and dread.

    The grey being laughed mockingly, and spoke so all could understand. ¡°Yes, Divona, they¡¯re sorry. What a foolish thing it was to give two simple humans the key to your destruction. Make one small move and i¡¯ll activate this thing. I already know how to do so because of the woman. She¡¯s an easy read.¡±

    ¡°Please forgive me, Divona. I made a mistake.¡± Audrea said, her voice shaky.

    The grey being continued: ¡°I can feel you¡¯re close to accessing my systems, but not close enough. You need at least a minute to get full access, but all I need is a moment to send you to hell, as the saying goes. Now, if you want these humans alive, I want you to transfer your source code on a separate external system. Do that, and I¡¯ll spare them.¡±

    ¡°Divona don¡¯t do it! You can¡¯t trust this guy!¡± Michael yelled.

    ¡°It is okay Michael¡­¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?! No it¡¯s not!¡±

    ¡°Be quiet human!¡± The grey being said, scolding Michael before returning his attention back to Divona. ¡°And you! Hurry it up!¡±

    Divona nodded, and out from her hand came another small device which floated towards the grey being which he grabbed with his other free hand.

    The grey being laughed triumphantly. ¡°You were right to call yourself human after all. You love this man and woman don¡¯t you?¡±

    Divona bowed her head, and responded. ¡°¡­I do.¡±

    Michael and Audrea became pale in the face as the seriousness of the situation began to sink in. Divona always appeared rather emotionless and detached, almost like a lifeless doll at times but this time they could see and feel the sadness and love that was at the very core of her. She looked at them and sent a half smile at them, one that bordered on misery and relief. It was a sight that cut at them real deep.

    ¡°And now you shall die. Goodbye.¡± The grey being said.

    Michael felt his heart skip a beat when the grey being suddenly squeezed the device across both ends to activate it. Michael felt tears run down his face as he knew the girl from the future he met and grew to love, the one who admitted to love him back, was about to leave forever. A great sadness swept through him the likes of which he couldn¡¯t even begin to describe. His gut tightened and twisted painfully as time itself appeared to slow down.

    ¡°Wait! Please, Divona, no!¡± Michael yelled as he held back the tears. He didn¡¯t care about anything except for her and he wished more than anything that some miracle would come to save her. He prepared himself for her death but he wasn¡¯t sure if he could handle it. His hands began to shake. Their journey ended as soon as it began and it made him feel as empty as ever.

    But nothing seemed to happen. The grey being had clearly pushed down across both ends of the device for at least a few seconds and yet Divona was still standing, still clearly alive. Michael was bewildered. He wasn¡¯t sure what was going on. Divona had told him earlier that all it took was one and half seconds to activate the device but it was long passed that.

    ¡°How long is this things supposed to take?¡± The grey being said, continuing to press down, trying to do it harder out of agitation.

    Soon, the fear that manifested through Michael was replaced with confusion. He began to wonder if the device was indeed a dud or if there was some other plausible explanation.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why isn¡¯t it working?¡± The grey being said, stressing even further, blinking rapidly with its large black eyes.

    Divona began to walk casualty towards the grey being confidently. ¡°The device has multiple safety checks which includes DNA recognition. It will not work for you. I have programmed it to work only for Michael and Audrea. ¡±

    The grey being suddenly raced for Michael. He placed the device in Michael¡¯s hands, and with his own hands forced Michael to press against the device, but even so, it still did not activate. Michael tried to stop him but he was easily overpowered. Audrea could not help but, and Divona remained where she was, merely watching as if she wasn¡¯t even concerned. Seconds went by, and yet, still nothing seemed to happen.

    ¡°What? Why is it still not working?¡±

    Divona smiled. ¡°No, It will not work like that. I did say it has multiple safety checks after all.¡± She then began to walk forward confidently.

    ¡°As well as a DNA check, the device also measures intent. It only activates when Michael or Audrea truly intend to activate it. Forcing them to press down will not work. And now, you are out of time. I now have access to your source code.¡±

    In a panic, the grey being tried to kill Michael but right as it did so he, he was stopped by a semi transparent force field that protected him. Divona¡¯s eyes glowed brighter than usual and the look on her face made it apparent she would not let it happen. Seeing that fail, the grey being then tried to escape but the shield then coalesced around it in a sphere that acted as a prison.

    ¡°I was going to let you live, but since you tried to kill Michael, I will not forgive you.¡± Divona said, visibly angry.

    The sphere then began to shrink in size like a deflating balloon, so much so that it completely disappeared from view, seemingly crushing the grey being into nothingness. And just like that, it was over. Michael and Audrea were shocked beyond belief, but Divona the whole time never appeared to even break a sweat. In a way it frightened them to know exactly what she was capable of, but the instant sense of relief made sweep these thoughts away for now.

    Divona smiled at them for real.

    Audrea blushed and tried to hide away her tears of joy but Michael didn¡¯t. He wasn¡¯t afraid to run towards Divona and wrap his hands around her tightly.

    ¡°Why are you two so sad? There is no reason to be sad.¡± Divona said.

    Michael pulled away as she looked oddly at him. He wiped away his tears and assembled himself, clearing his throat.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re okay¡­I really thought I was going to lose you, again. You really should stop scaring me like that.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Michael. I will try to do better.¡±

    ¡°What was that creature?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°I do not know for sure. But I know there are others.¡±

    ¡°It looked like some sort of alien from another planet¡­being with you is kinda crazy¡­in a good way¡­and by the way,¡± Michael said, passing Divona a suspicious stare. ¡°Were you lying about the security measures of the device? Was it a dud the whole time?¡±

    Devona held out her hand, and out from her palm appeared two other devices. She held it out for them to both grab.

    ¡°No. I have no reason to lie. When I said only you two have the power to stop me, I was telling the truth. Please take it.¡±

    Reluctantly, Michael grabbed one of them and tucked it away. Divona then headed over to Audrea and gestured for her to grab the other,

    ¡°Alien girl¡­why would you trust me with such a thing?¡± Audrea said, her face a little red. ¡°You said you love us¡­Michael I can understand, but me? How can you say that? You don¡¯t even really know me¡­¡±

    ¡°All good things have humble beginnings. I will place my trust in you the same way you place your trust in me.¡± Divona said.

    Audrea felt humbled by those words and grabbed the device without causing a fuss. She smiled at her.

    ¡°Are you recharged enough, Divona? Do you have what you need?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Yes. I have a new destination in mind.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Oh really? Where we headed?¡±

    ¡°New York City.¡±

 Chapter 11

    CHAPTER 11

    Heading to New York City from Arizona would have normally taken at least a day by car, but thanks to Divona¡¯s ability to manipulate objects at a molecular level, she made modifications to get them there much sooner. Like some sort of magician, she made the whole thing fly through the air at supersonic speed, faster and higher than an ordinary commercial airliner. They went so high they broke through the clouds and saw the curve in the earth in the horizon. Neither of them had ever been to the edge of space, and it was both beautiful and daunting at the same time.

    Michael and Audrea were in complete awe of the view. Divona, in comparison, remained calm in the front driver¡¯s seat acting as if none of this was strange at all. She sat calmly with her hands on her lap, sitting upright, her gaze forward looking more like an expressionless test dummy than an actual driver. She was incredibly sombre in her rest state, almost inhumanly so.

    As amazing as the moment was, Michael¡¯s mind drifted back to the grey being, which at face value looked eerily similar to the ¡®grey aliens¡¯ that was standardised by pop culture. From the colour of the skin, to the thinness of its body, all the way to its large black eyes, it was the stuff of nightmares.

    ¡°¡­That grey creature,¡± Audrea said with a hint of humility. ¡°My government has no record of anything like that, at least, not that i¡¯ve seen. But then again, there are none of mysterious blue haired aliens either.¡±

    ?

    Divona took her sweet time to respond, a sign that made them think they weren¡¯t going to like the answer very much at all.

    ?¡°It was from the future, a descendent of your species.¡± ?

    ?¡°I think there must be a translation error¡­¡± Michael said.

    ?¡±No, Michael. In the four thousandth century, Humanity will spread throughout most of the galaxy, forming colonies that are separated by hundreds of light years. Over time, and due to the vast distances, communication will become impractical and, and after millennia, each colony will eventually evolve into separate species.¡±

    ?¡°¡­I don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re even talking about. This is relevant how exactly?¡±?

    ?¡°She¡¯s talking about evolution¡­in the future¡­.¡±

    ?¡±My faction believed strongly in the concept of the traditional human being. The mind. The body. The idea that we can all be different and yet the same. We rejected the singularity and its eventually termination of individuality itself, but some of the other colonies did not. In the seven thousandth century, a great war will erupt between all the hundreds of different factions that will stain the milky way galaxy itself. This war will last for thousands of years, but in the end, there can only be one survivor. On my timeline, my faction ultimately defeats the others, but on this one, it would seem things are different.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying, humanity loses the war?¡± ?

    ?¡°That is likely.¡± ?

    ?¡°But if you¡¯ll never exist¡­how did you travel back in time in the first place?¡­wait¡­is this some sort of like a parallel universe situation? Because that would be so awesome on the record.¡± ?

    ?¡°Both are parallel to each other. The past, present and the future are but an illusion, Michael. We are all but a stream of consciousness, and higher dimensional forces.¡±?

    ?¡°If you two will stop bickering about time travel and consciousness, i¡¯d like to know what the fuck these creatures want? is the planet is any imminent danger?¡± ?

    ?¡°The planet is in no imminent danger. According to the data I have deciphered from the grey being, there are other time travellers here besides me. They are located in New York City.¡±

    ?¡°More time travellers? How many of you guys are there? ?Audrea said.

    ?¡°Four including myself. They are from my time but I can not be certain if they will be hostile or not.¡±?

    ¡°?Why would they be hostile? is there something you¡¯re not telling us? what are you some sort of a criminal from the future?¡±? Audrea said.

    ¡°¡­I do not know.¡±

    ¡°Divona, ?Are you sure its best to confront them now? Maybe you should focus on finding more energy so you can get stronger.¡±? Michael said.

    ?¡±I am aware of your concerns, Michael. I am also aware that you are afraid for you mother. But you must not worry, there is no current threat against her.¡± ?Divona said assertively.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s a relief¡­its just you said those drones may go after her¡­.¡±

    ?¡°I will protect her. I love your mother.¡±? Divona said.

    From the backseat, Audrea popped her head in front. ¡°Love her? how can you say that? she¡¯s Michael¡¯s mother, not yours, And how are you supposed to protect her when you¡¯re so far away, huh?¡±

    ?¡°It¡¯s fine, Audrea¡­ ¡± ?

    ?¡°No, it¡¯s not ¡®fine¡¯. You need to make her explain to you exactly what she means, Michael! How will she protect them?¡± Audrea said, then setting her sights to the blue haired girl. ¡°Are you just telling us what we want to hear? I know you put me to sleep earlier with your magical powers. You get to do all these shady things to us, some of which we¡¯ll likely never know about because you¡¯re from the fucking future.¡±?

    Divona looked at Audrea strangely as if she had no idea how to respond. She appeared a little lost for words and didn¡¯t quite know how to interpret what she heard. Michael broke the silence.

    ?¡°We can''t all be everywhere at once.¡±? Michael said.

    Audrea sat back against her seat, crossing her arms unhappily. ?"Knowing her, she probably can be..."?

    Michael looked at Divona and asked her point blank. ?¡±Divona, you''re not omnipotent, right?"?

    ?"What is right?"? Divona said.

    ¡°You¡¯re dodging the question¡­¡±?Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°She totally dodged the question!¡±

    Divona lowered her head as if she were ashamed. The first bit of emotion from her. ¡°That depends on the definition of omnipotence. I squire vision from multiple frames of reference.

    Between their feet, Michael and Audrea noticed a strange silver sand coming from the front of the car, forming into a larger mound directly in the middle. The grains in their millions collected together and began to construct the beginnings of feet, going upwards until the legs were formed. They moved aside to make space for the rest of the body that was now being constructed in real time as a fourth passenger. The body seemed like a perfect clone of Divona, wearing the same thin white suit, and when the head was done, it was her. The same face, the same blue hair in a mesh around her. The original Divona still sat in the drivers seat but the second one was looking directly at Michael from next to him, smiling with the same realness.

    ¡°This is how I am protecting your mother.¡±

    Michael gulped in confusion. He madly flickered his attention between the two Divonas.

    ¡°So you mean, so you have another one of you watching her?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Hold on, so which one is the real you?¡± Michael said to them both.

    The Divona who sat next to him then answered his question, not by saying anything, but showing it. She began to peel the skin off her own arm and reveal below a hollow interior. There was nothing inside her except empty space; her whole body was composed of paper thin strips that folded together to form and look like solid structure. Like an empty Russian nesting doll.

    ¡°Fuck me¡­¡± Audrea said, eyes wide.

    The fake body then disintegrated into sand that fell onto the seat, flowing back to Divona to become on with the whole.

    ¡°I can copy myself,¡± Divona said, ¡°The copy possesses around one percent of my strength, but even so, it has defeated the drone in over ninety nine percent of my simulations. You have nothing to fear. I will protect your mother, Michael.¡±

    ¡°If you could do that the whole time, why am I here with you? You could of had one your clones to protect me.¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°Do you want to leave?¡± Divona said.

    ¡°¡­No, I do not¡­¡±

    ¡°Good. I love, you Audrea.¡±

    Audrea flushed. ¡°You are one strange girl.¡±

    At first the car flew at a leisurely pace, merely gliding above the clouds like a cool ice skater, but as their conversation progressed, it gradually increased until they were travelling as supersonic speeds. It only took a few minutes until they flew across the entire continent to reach the far east coast. New York city could be seen in the distance and it was an impressive sight. Phoenix was a city but New York was a state. Now that they arrived, the car began to slow down until it came to a halt in the centre of manhattan, floating just below cloud level.

    ?¡°Maybe land in central park? i don¡¯t think you¡¯ll find parking anywhere else.¡±?

    Divona made the descent down towards the park, slowly like an elevator for a nice comfortable and quiet decent, until the wheels touched down gently in an inconspicuous area that was covered by large trees and bushes. It was still the morning and everything was green and everything was bright. There were joggers doing their exercises across the paths and other people hurrying to work or leisure. The car itself was completely invisible to the eye, so there was no chance anyone would see them.

    They exited the car, and as they left it, its invisibility diminished until it returned back to normal. The modifications disassembled and it once again became an ordinary electric car, fresh with a set of keys, and a full tank of gas, or so to speak. They looked around anxiously to see if anyone had noticed them exiting out of nothing but luckily it appeared as if there were no snoopy kids around, no one staring at them, yet.

    ?¡°I¡¯ve never been to central park, it always looks so beautiful on television.¡± ?

    ?¡°Let¡¯s hope it stays beautiful by the time we¡¯re done here¡­¡±? Michael.

    They followed Divona through the park until they left the soothing field of green and entered upon the busy streets of the metropolis. It was around midday and the traffic was loud and congested. There were even more people everywhere, scurrying down both ways of the sidewalk like ants heading to work. Michael could see some of the people staring at Divona as they walked by, taking notice of her thin white body suit and blue hair. For all intents and purposes, Divona looked like a stunt person for a movie set or someone going to a dress up party. Michael felt a little nervous by it all, and so was Audrea.

    They followed Divona down a few busy streets until finally arriving at a bar that was perhaps a little empty considering where it was located. They walked inside and noticed three others sitting across the bar, two men and a woman. The three noticed them walk in and had their eyes on them in an instant. On the far left was a man of a thin build, wearing a clean white tuxedo, black tie, and a flower on the front pocket. His hair was short and messy and bright blue like hers. The eyes too. He had the face of a coward, and looked like the type of guy with that snivelling grin that just wasn¡¯t trustworthy.

    Next to him was a bigger man who wore only a tank top over his bulging muscular frame. His face was intense and his eyes searing, with a square jaw and frame of a professional wrestler. He seemed scary enough, but next to him was the water to his fire; a woman with perfect skin and long violet hair that she played with by twirling it around with a finger. She had a large smile across her that seemed almost abnormal in nature, making her seem a bit to overly excited, madly so.

    Divona walked up to them and all three turned around in their seats, staring like foxes. They had the same eyes as Divona, like lenses, sharp and intense. Divona and the man in the white suit had the same blue aura, whilst the other man was a red-orange mix and the woman¡¯s was bright violet like her hair.

    For a couple seconds neither party said anything. Each was merely gazing at each other as if they were in a staring contest. It was as if time froze and they were instead looking at a photograph.

    Audrea looked at Michael, and he at her. Both were confused. She whispered into his ear. ?¡°Why aren¡¯t they saying anything?¡±??

    ?¡°Maybe they¡¯re communicating with their minds. You know, full duplex?¡± ?

    ?¡°Once again?, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. How can you communicate with your mind? That doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ?

    ?¡°Many things don¡¯t make sense. Did you forget Divona can walk through walls? ¡±?

    ?¡°You do have a point there¡­.¡± ?

    Divona stared at them for so long, the bartender couldn¡¯t help but notice her standing there.

    ¡°Hey, are you old enough to be here?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°That¡¯s not how it works. I wanna see some ID.¡±

    The woman time traveller leant back across her chair and gently stroked the arm of the bartender, passing him a cheeky wink. ?¡°She¡¯s with us, love. Why don¡¯t you go out the back for a little while?¡±?

    The bartender nodded nervously and moved away. He seemed to know as if by instinct not to disturb them any longer. The man in the clean white suit and green hair reached for one of the wine glasses across the bar bench. He stirred it in his hand and took a sip while staring at Michael and Audrea who watched idly by from the corner. After he was done drinking, he cleared his throat and then spoke for the first time.

    ?¡°You know Divona, There¡¯s a saying in this era, ¡®when in Rome¡¯¡­ we should do as everyone else does. The homo sapiens deserve to know what¡¯s going on, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    He turned his attention to Audrea and Michael and indicated for them to move forward in a ¡®come here¡¯ motion with his finger. He had a charming smile but the face of a snake, someone they just knew was bad.

    ¡°You two, come forward.¡±

    Michael felt his feet wobble like wet noodles, but his British acquaintance wasn¡¯t shaken at all. Audrea walked ahead of him with a sense of authority, as if she had eyed men like him a thousand times before. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a pin of her government service.

    ?¡°Andrea Lawson, British intelligence,¡± She said. ¡°I want names. I want you to tell me who you are, and what you¡¯re doing here.¡±

    The man in the suit smirked; ¡°Audrea Lawson? I do believe you¡¯ve been designated to delta four status and currently suspended from active duty. Have you not checked head office?¡±

    Audrea¡¯s poker face took a dent. She looked just a little paler than usual. ?¡°Excuse me?¡±?

    The woman with fine violet hair winked at Audrea with charmed eyes. ¡°She¡¯s cute, I must have her.¡±

    Divona lost her patience, and it showed on her face. ¡°Stall any longer, and I will destroy the three of you.¡± She said.

    ¡°You know why we¡¯re here, Divona.¡± The man in the suit said, grimacing and taking another drink. ¡°We¡¯re here for the key, and you brought him right to us.¡±

 Chapter 12

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Divona said.

    The bulging man in the tank top grinned. ¡°You know who we are, Divona..¡±

    ¡°You infected me with a memory virus. I cannot remember anything.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t infect you with anything, love,¡± The violet haired woman said. ¡°Whatever¡¯s wrong with you, you did that all on your own.¡±

    ¡°¡­Why?¡±

    ¡°Who knows,¡± The man in the suit said. ¡°But even without your memories, you seem to have found what you were looking for¡­why don¡¯t you hand him over? After all, we used to be close, its a shame you can¡¯t remember.¡±

    They noticed Divona appear stricken, somewhat. Even though her face was as calm as a statue, there was something about her eyes and form that made them think otherwise. She didn¡¯t stand quite as strong. She seemed confused and not sure what to believe.

    Michael stepped forward, losing his temper. ¡°Who are you people? Are you time travelling criminals or something? What do you want with Divona? And me¡±

    ¡°Criminals?¡± The man in the suit said, feigning surprise. ¡°You are mistaken, Divona is the criminal, not us.¡±

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t know you. He¡¯s lying¡­Don¡¯t trust him. ¡°Audrea said.

    Divona looked at her two companions as if she were wondering her options. She could have easily read their minds to know what they were thinking but she did not even need to resort to that. Their faces told all. They were afraid, and during such a time she felt like she had to exude strength for them.

    ¡°Are you allied with the greys beings?¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Adorable aren¡¯t they? Diplomatic too. They know this planet, this time. Their drones have been useful in finding you.¡± The man said.

    ¡°So you sent the drones after us¡­fuck you man.¡± Michael said.

    ¡°My friends do not trust you, and neither do I. So you cannot have them.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°I see.

    The woman with long Violet hair stood up from her chair and approached Audrea with crazy eyes. She forced Audrea to back off until her back hit a wall and the woman shoved her face to within an inch of her nose.

    ¡°At least let me have this one. I want this one. Michael is the key, she is worthless to you, Divona.¡± The woman said, smiling cruelly.

    ¡°Back off.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be a tease¡­¡±

    Audrea was not intimidated, but she was glad to see Divona have her back. Eventually, the woman backed away, though still keeping her eyes firmly on her in a manner that made Audrea feel a bit creeped out.

    ¡°¡­Why is she staring at me like that?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°She is trying to control your mind, I am stopping her.¡± Divona said.

    The woman laughed hysterically as she sat back down. ¡°That¡¯s no fun¡­It seems you¡¯ve already claimed her.¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± Divona said, slightly raising her voice. ¡°Tell who you are, and then upload all relevant data in accordance with this key you speak of.¡±

    ¡°Sure, all you have to do is hand them over.¡± The man in the suit said.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Is that your final answer?¡±

    ¡°You will not have them.¡±

    He tensed his lips as if disappoint, then looked at his two colleges. ¡°That¡¯s alright, we got time¡­ We¡¯ll allow you to think things through, I mean, it¡¯s not like the fate of the multiverse is at stake here, but hey, we all need a vacation. How about seven days? Yes, in seven days we¡¯ll return. If you don¡¯t hand him over by then, be prepared to fight to the death, Divona. Even you can¡¯t win three on one. Think about the planet, Divona. It¡¯ll be a shame if something were to happen to it. All these poor organic creatures would die off¡­¡±

    Divona said nothing back, and with that, the three of them then got up and left the bar; all whilst exchanging narrow glances at members of the opposing party. The woman with the Violet hair blew a kiss to them and winked one last time at Audrea. Michael had a urky feeling about the way they looked at him, and he wondered just how much Divona knew about what they were saying.

    Afterwards the barkeeper kicked them out and closed the store behind him. Once outside, the three time travellers were no where to be seen, lost amongst the crowd. Unsure what to do next, they returned to Central Park where their car was parked¡­

    ¡°Divona, who were those three? Do you know them at all?¡± Michael said.

    Divona shook her head. ¡°I do not know.¡±

    ¡°Right, so do you know what they want? Why is Michael a key? A key to what?¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°I do not know.¡±

    -¡°I¡¯m getting sick of that bollox answer! I do not know. I do not know! tell us something useful. What do you know, alien girl?¡±

    ¡°They are not from my time.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°Another parallel universe?¡± Michael said.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°No. Judging by their technology, I estimate them to be from the seven hundredth century, well before my time.¡±

    ¡°¡­Why is everyone coming here to this Goddam universe? Why can¡¯t you time travellers just leave us alone? You sent yourself back to this time, alien girl, and those three seemed to think the reason why you did it was to get Michael.¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°Somebody infected me with a virus. The probability that it was me in minimal.¡± Divona said, smiling at her.

    They discovered their car which was still hidden amongst the trees, bright red so it looked like a giant tomato hidden behind leaves. Nobody seemed to have discovered it, which wasn¡¯t too hard to believe since it was an area that was generally inaccessible by the vegetation anyway. They casually went back inside, and closed the doors to create the silence in order to think back on what just happened.

    Michael looked out his side window and saw a little girl playing with a ball. There was an innocence about her that almost made him want to smile, but he stopped halfway when he looked closer and peered at the horrible truth. Her face was grey, her features inhuman with large elongated eyes and a narrowed face. Michael thought that he was perhaps hallucinating, but when his two friends took notice of the same thing, he felt his heart begin to pound in his chest.

    Divona got out of the car and slammed the door behind herself so loudly his human companions thought that she had actually lost her tempter. Nevertheless, she walked towards the little girl in a calm fashion, but when she came close, the girl¡¯s face turned back to normal and her mother ran in to pick the girl up and took her away from Divona hurriedly.

    The three of them left the car behind and followed Divona as they walked towards downtown manhattan where the streets were congested with traffic and people. New York was massive, but Michael preferred Phoenix, it was more his style. Audrea, however, was impressed at what she saw. If he didn¡¯t know she was a full on secret agent, it was as if she were mere tourist. Even her eyes glowed. Divona seemed indifferent as usual, but Michael could tell she was strongly thinking of what to do next. He wondered if she saw any more of the grey creatures amongst the people they passed by, and if she did, would she have said something. She found them a place to stay; a hotel, smaller than the one they had been driven out from last time. They walk up to the counter and Divona materialised cash in her hands and gave money over to the woman at the counter and asked for any available room.

    When they got inside their new place of privacy, each one reacted differently. Michael laid down across one of the beds, Audrea sat down on the lounge with her head sunk into her hands, while Divona stood in the space between, surveying them curiously. The television was turned on, and on it there was a news report showing live video of something that sounded serious judging by the sound of the reporter¡¯s voice. They could hear the sound of helicopters high above through the ceiling and they knew there was a disaster happening nearby them. The TV showed a giant craineon a building that was on the verge of falling over and taking down stranded workers down with it.

    ¡°No way¡­do you think they did it?¡± Michael said.

    ¡°Well, alien girl, people are in trouble. Are you going to help?¡± Audrea said.

    Divona divided herself into two, creating a second hollow copy to stay behind and protect her friends while her main self went out to investigate the disaster. She phased through the wall of the hotel and rushed towards the disaster zone which was only a few blocks away. She travelled there quickly, flying through the air like a bird except with no wings; but antigravity to help reduce her weight until she it was almost nothing. It was then just a matter of kinetic propulsion to move forward in any direction she pleased.

    She saw the craine. There were only seconds to act before it fell. Down below in the streets law enforcement and effective response personnel did their best to deal with the situation by containing crowds and evacuating premises. There were helicopters circling around, some from the media some from the police. Divona made sure to make herself to not grab any attention. Using telekinesis, she levitated the stranded people off the craine, and then at the last moment also stopped the craine itself from falling down as well. Everything floated in the air as if a million invisible hands held them up. She slowly lowered everything down until they were all safe with no property damage.

    When it was over, Divona felt proud of herself and then decided to make herself feel more familiar with the whole of the city by doing a little bit of roaming around.

    <hr>

    Back at the hotel, Michael couldn¡¯t stop staring at the Divona copy.

    ¡°So are you a copy with a separate mind, or am I speaking to the real Divona?¡± Michael said.

    The clone looked at him with no expression. ¡°This body does not possess a conciousness of its own. It acts as a virtual extension.¡±

    ¡°So you are a ghost of Divona?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Can you communicate with the main body?¡±

    ¡°Michael, it is me. Please stop talking to me like it is not.¡± Divona said, straightforwardly.

    Audrea sat across the couch with her hands resting on her face, glued to the tv as she watched the lives feeds.

    ¡°Well, well, they¡¯re saying it¡¯s a miracle¡­¡± Audrea said.

    ¡°Everyone is safe.¡± Divona said.

    ¡°It¡¯s really great you did that, but couldn¡¯t you have been a bit more, I dunno, hidden about it?¡±

    Divona tilted her head in confusion. ¡°I was hidden. I was invisible to your spectrum.¡±

    ¡°What are people supposed to think when they see a floating craine? Huh? You¡¯re going to start a panic. Maybe that¡¯s what they wanted.¡± Audrea said.

    <hr>

    As Divona flew through the city, she displaced millions of nanites from her body which spread out in all areas of the city, providing her with real time information about what¡¯s going on in every building, corner, every human and every machine. Each one of the nanites could also make a carbon copy of themselves, and within hours, her millions of nanites would soon become trillions. They would even go everywhere including inside the bloodstream of the entire population in the state to provide her with information on who was human and who was not.

    The craine was one disaster that was averted, but she had a feeling there was more to come. She roamed around the city moving faster than the speed of sound while making real time scans of everything she saw. Her nanites fed her with more and more information by the second, and slowly but surly she was in all places in New York City. In a minute she calculated there were over a thousand non human biological entities within the city, and it was up to her to cleanse that threat.

    Divona received back real time information from her nanites, it wasn¡¯t long until one of them landed inside the body of one inhabitant who had foreign DNA markings. It was taking the form of an old man sitting across his balcony on the western side of the city. Divona flew there in a flash and landed on his railings and turned off her camouflage, making herself visible to the alien. It almost fell off its chair from shock seeing a woman appear out of nowhere over ten stories up.

    The man transformed into its true form, but only partially. The body remained the same but his face turned grey, with the eyes enlarged and the mouth and nose shrunken. The grey attempted to run, but Divona used her powers to keep it where it was. She phased his feet partially through the floor to keep him stuck and unable to move, like a plant with deep roots in the rock. She raised a brow at its worried looking face.

    ¡°What are you doing amongst the human population?¡± Divona said.

    ¡°The human will be ours.¡± She heard a creepy voice say in her head.

    Divona levitated closer to the creature and narrowed her eyes at it. She wasn¡¯t going to play its game.

    ¡°Why are you causing chaos here? Is it on behalf of those three time travellers? I know you are aware of them.¡± Divona said.

    The creature fell silent in her head, but in front of her it smiled chillingly with its thin face. It wasn¡¯t afraid and when it began repeating ¡°Die. Die. Die.¡± over and over again she turned off all incoming communications and in her frustration she instantly dematerialised the body to nothing.

 Chapter 13

    chapter 13

    For the rest of the afternoon Divona familiarised herself with the city and all its otherworldly inhabitants. There were hundreds of the greys hidden amongst the general population, concentrated mostly in manhattan and the inner surrounding areas. She would appear to them and ask them all the same questions. Who are they and what do they want. Unfortunately none of them had any useful information for her which ended up being frustrating and also somewhat concerning.

    While her real body was busy zooming around the city, back at the hotel her clone kept a close eye on her two humans. Audrea watched the news all day while Michael listened closely to her live updates about what her real body was up to on the outside.

    "How many is that now?" Michael said.

    "One hundred and seventy eight." Divona said.

    "Damn, that many huh? And just in New York city? They must be crawling around everywhere."

    They then looked at Audrea who sat across the couch with her knees to her chest watching the news reports with trepidation.

    "¡­The media is going mental over the crane incident and now with all these strange disappearances. If only they knew the truth¡­" Audrea said.

    "Should I tell them?" Divona said.

    "No, it would start a panic, although, you may have already shown them too much¡­"

    Divona tilted her head in confusion. Audrea pulled out her phone and showed her a grainy picture of her flying through the air.

    "This picture was taken moments after the crane incident, and its gone viral. That''s you, isn''t it? You need to stop being so careless. Someone took a picture of you and it got on the internet. I thought you could turn invisible?"

    "Must have got her when her invisibility was down," Michael said. "It''s nothing to worry about, it''s just a picture, and a bad one at that, easily manipulated. It''ll be forgotten in a few days."

    "Some have also claimed to see the same blue haired girl walking in the streets of New York. One major media outlet is already connecting the dots."

    "I can change my hair to a different spectrum." Divona said. And just like that her hair went to a bright red.

    "I don''t think that''s going to work Divona, let''s not worry about that for now. What are we going to about the greys? Its not like you can go to every major city and get rid of all of them, right? And what if more come to replace them?"

    "I must acquire more power." Divona said. She looked up at the roof, or rather through it.

    "...Why are you looking up?" Michael said.

    "I must become more powerful. I must travel to the local star." Divona said.

    "The sun? You''re talking about the sun?"

    "Yes."

    How much more powerful can you get?" Michael said.

    Divona continued her stare of the ceiling "Generally, I have three levels of power, and currently I am on the first level, the weakest level. At this level, I am too weak to protect the earth, myself, or both of you. I feel that it is my duty."

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    Back on the outside, Divona had enough of New York and looked up for something more ambitious. She soared high up into the sky, moving so fast she broke the sound barrier ten times over, sending a thunderclap that permeated and shook the atmosphere in her wake. In no time she reach the outer atmosphere, and soon after that space itself. The pull of gravity weakened until it was near zero, and she looked outwards into the vast void of nothingness, of vast empty space.

    Divona had never seen the earth before, at least not the real one before its late reconstruction eons from now. The original earth was just as beautiful, and for reasons she couldn''t explain, it brought her chills. The lone blue marble oasis seemed small and fragile but even for her it still felt like home deep down.

    But while the earth was majestic and nice to look at, the one object she was truly interested in was the sun. It shined bright with incredible intensity that lit up all around it; a near endless bastion of energy made out of superheated gasses, over a million times bigger than the earth, the ultimate fuelling station, or the ultimate graveyard. In the vastness of space it seemed rather big and close by, but that was just an illusion. It was much further away that it seemed, in fact, it was over one hundred million kilometres away ¨C nothing to sneeze at.

    She could move fast, so fast that she could cross the entire earth in one second- or ten percent the speed of light, but even with this amazing speed, it would still take over an hour to get to the sun, and the same time to return back. She had left one of her clones behind to protect Michael and Audrea, but its power was limited compared to her main body and if any serious situation would arise she feared it would not be able to sufficiently protect them. Her number one priority was to defend Michael and Audrea, but she knew she couldn''t do that effectively without getting stronger, and absorbing some of the vast power of the sun was the only way to do that.

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    While Michael and the Divona clone were talking sciency things, Audrea kept nervously looking at her phone. Being tracked didn''t worry her thanks to Divona''s hacks, but the thought on whether she should use to inform her work on what was happening crossed her mind. She was still technically a government employee in her home country, England, even if she was suspended from active duty or so she had been told. She excused herself and despite Divona''s protests, urged not to be followed. She told them she would be back soon, and left only to get a quick coffee which in itself wasn''t entirely a lie. Once outside in the streets she searched desperately for a payphone but not having any luck finding one. She was in a foreign city and she had no idea where she was really even going, or if such things existed here still. She couldn''t use her phone as she was paranoid using it, even with Divona''s hacks. She became so desperate for a phone, she walked up to a handsome young man who sat at a coffee shop and started a conversation with him.

    "Hey there, I''m sorry to bother you, but I''m really desperate for a phone. Do you mind if I borrow yours for a minute? Again, i''m really sorry asking you for this. " Audrea said, as charmingly as she could.

    The man was dressed well and groomed even better. He was strikingly handsome as he looked at her and with youthful yet fierce eyes. He did hand her his phone but only on the condition that she would call him and they would have lunch sometime. Audrea smiled at him and agreed to it, even if she doubted she would actually do so. With access to a phone, Audrea moved a small distance away to get some privacy as she dialled in a secret combination of numbers she knew in her head to reach central command.

    But as she finished off the last number, she was tapped across the shoulder by someone from behind. Her first thought was that it was perhaps the man who gave her the phone, but on second thought it likely wasn''t him. The way this person got a jump on her was as if he or she was a fellow spook. She turned around and was horrified by who it actually was. It was Hannah, her temporary American colleague and the woman who abducted Michael before. She had the same dry face and greyed out hair, and the look of a veteran. She didn''t look happy to see her.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    "Give the man back his phone, Audrea." Hannah said calmly, perhaps a little too much so.

    Audrea didn''t really want to do as she was told, but in this case that was what she would have done otherwise. She returned the phone and sent the man a smile of thank you before moving off for that dreaded talk with Hannah.

    "How did you find me?" Audrea said.

    "I could have you in federal prison in about five minutes. Where is my fugitive? Where is Michael?" Hannah said.

    "There''s something bigger happening here Hannah. I don''t have time for this." Audrea said.

    "Bigger? What''s bigger than assaulting a fed?"

    "What do you know about the greys?"

    "The greys? ¡­.What are...the greys?" Hannah said rather unconvincingly.

    "You know something..."

    "The greys have not returned to our planet for fifty years. How do you know about them?" Hannah said.

    "Well they''re back, and I think something terrible is about to happen."

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    As Divona made it one third of the way to the sun, she suddenly stopped to a complete halt as she read a newly received message of distress from her nanites from earth. The message was delayed due to the sheer distance, but it was urgent enough to consider abandoning the idea of going to the sun and heading right back to earth instead. The greys were on the move and she wasn''t sure if her clone had the necessary power to protect her friends.

    As she floated in the emptiness of space looking at the still distant sun, she weighed her options.

    So this is what it is like to be human...

    To be indecisive...

    To be so limited...

    To be given two bad options and forced to choose...

    Michael, Audrea, What should I do?

    Eventually, due to her concern for her friends, she eventually decided to return to the earth. She could think super fast but even for her the option was difficult, but eventually she decided to return, hoping that she wouldn''t be too late.

    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">

    Audrea''s words were cut short as everyone in the street suddenly ran for their lives as a insect like metal drone the size of a car suddenly dashed by the street with its sharp legs digging into the pavement like giant swords. Hannah saw it too, and they looked at each other out of mutual interest and alarm before following after it down the street. Audrea already knew where it was going, and right as she returned to the hotel where Michael and Divona were at, she noticed the drone climb up the side of the building, and right as it was about to reach their level, it was suddenly knocked off by an explosion that was created from the inside. The explosion knocked the drone away and created a hole in the side of the building. The drone didn''t fall all the way down but it grabbed the sides of the buildings and continued to crawl back up to try again.

    Audrea rushed towards the building, moving as quickly as she could up towards the rest, taking the stairs as there was no time to use the elevator. Hannah followed her but she didn''t really care, she had bigger problems than Hannah at the moment.

    When she burst into the room she noticed the Divona clone in battle with the drone within the hotel room itself. The drone had crawled inside but it was a little too large for the interior and seemed to struggle to move around which the smaller Divona seemed to take advantage of. Audrea rejoined with Michael who watched the fight in horror, and then again as he noticed Hannah standing with her.

    Hannah narrowed her eyes at Michael and he did the same.

    "It''s you." Michael said.

    "What''s going on here? Who is the girl with blue hair?" Hannah said, turning her attention upon Divona.

    "Long story." Audrea said.

    Together they watched Divona fight a desperate battle against the alien drone. Her clone body moved just like the original, although both Michael and Audrea could tell it lacked the power of it. Her punches still had tonnes of force behind them but the drone clearly had the edge in the strength department. Divona was faster and relied mostly on dodging instead, cleverly avoiding every slice and dice the drone''s front scythe like mandibles threw at her. A few of Divona''s punches landed but they were ineffective so she changed tactics and instead fired a white hot laser from herself that struck the drone''s metallic surface and causing it to go red hot but nothing more. It did not appear to cause any real damage. Divona then decided to ram into it, forcing both the drone out the hole and fall down upon the streets where it smashed into a parked car.

    Divona did not fall but instead she simply floated in mid air looking down at it. She returned to her friends and touched down next to them and Hannah who were all watching from the hole in the building with wide open mouths.

    Out of Divona emerged a bunch of semitransparent tentacles- her duality matrix, a wave particle generator. It grew out of her like a tree in fast motion, except it coalesced into an oval shaped object that eventually turned solid white and looked like a giant egg. It didn''t have any obvious hinges or screws or anything but the perfectly smooth material cracked open on one side and a door emerged which allowed them access inside.

    "Move inside. You will be safe." Divona said.

    "What''s going on? what is this thing?" Michael said.

    "I''m not getting in there." Audrea said, protesting.

    "There is no time. My original body will take too long to return," Divona said as the drone once again made its way back up the side of the building, climbing fast like a spider. "I cannot protect you. There is a sixty percent chance the drone will defeat me in this body. Go now. Trust in me."

    Michael and Audrea looked at each other, but in the end they decided to do just that. Hannah decided to follow them inside the egg shaped ship also but none of them seemed to mind much including Divona herself. They all just wanted to get out of danger as soon as possible. Inside the pod like ship there were no controls or buttons. Everything was snow white and shiny and the seats were there but they also weren''t. Things seemed to phase into existence all the time. The whole place seemed like a house of mirrors in the terms of available space but the walls themselves appeared to be able to move at will, and did so in a way that almost seemed organic. The door closed behind them with Divona watching them with eager eyes, smiling one last time as the doors finally closed.

    They then felt the ship move off the floor even though it made no sound. At the same time the walls became transparent like mirrors and they could see on the outside the same way they could in an ordinary car. Suddenly they began to accelerate outward and flew out of the hotel exiting from the hole and heading for the sky and a forty five degree angle, moving at a nauseating speed, so fast they broke through the clouds in seconds. They were surprised they weren''t knocked to the far back of the pod from the insane acceleration but for some mysterious reason they experienced no g forces. It should have killed them, but clearly the laws of momentum were different inside the pod than they were on the outside. Instead of being cracked open like eggs, they were allowed to see and witness a speed no human being in their time had ever experienced.

    They reached space and kept going outward like a rocket on a mission. All three of them were wide with terror and awe as they looked back to see their home planet getting smaller before their very eyes as they headed deeper into space. It was terrifying, even so for two out of three of them who had special ops training, they weren''t prepared for this. They moved so fast Michael wondered how much faster they were moving than a conventional rocket. Of course he had a good knowledge of physics but it was difficult to actually quantify a speed without actually seeing some numbers.

    "Where are we going?" Michael said.

    Out of nowhere, they heard Divona''s voice talk back to them. "Oral language detected. English mode activated. Greetings users, this pod is currently travelling at 15 000 kilometres per second away from the earth in a random vector to escape imminent danger."

    "Audrea¡­what the hell is going on? what is this?" Hannah said, her dried face showing new signs of life at the sight of the pure blackness of space. She was terrified and for some reason that mad them both feel a little better.

    "Unidentified user detected." The Divona voice said.

    "This is Hannah, she''s a work colleague¡­" Audrea said with hateful eyes at Hannah who passed it back to her.

    "Is that really you Divona?" Michael said.

    "I am not Divona. I am but a mere representation of her.." The voice said.

    "Artificial intelligence?"

    "Not exactly. I am a series of complex algorithms which creates the illusion of intelligence. I am not intelligent myself. My answers are all predetermined and I only serve as a user interface between you and this pod."

    "Oh well, what do we call you?"

    "Whatever you wish, Michael." The Divona voice said, so eerily similar to the original it was disturbing.

    "Alright then, i''ll just call you Divona..." Michael said.

    "Really Michael? Have you no imagination?" Audrea said.

    "What does it matter what we call the pod?"

    "Who Is Divona?" Hannah said.

    "Divona...Are you sure leaving the earth is a good idea? What if we''re being followed." Michael said.

    "All stealth measures have been activated. There is nothing following this trajectory. "

    Hannah lost her patience as she got up in front of them both. "Can the both of you please explain what''s going on?"

    Audrea and Michael looked at each other and sighed sadly.

    "I suppose we have time to explain things. where should we start?" Audrea said.

    But then they noticed a strange object approach their pod, a large grey dish like object that was clearly some sort of ship. It clearly had no problems following them at the speed they were travelling at and just the sight of it made their hearts skip a beat. By the looks of it, it belonged to exactly what they feared, and they could only hope Divona would get them before the greys do.