The shimmering black cloak slithered along the cement floor as its wearer walked through the tunnels of VXC’s headquarters. The cloak masked her identity, but to everyone in the facility her position was well known. As was her reputation, she smiled inwardly as people pulled away from her as she walked by them. Her eyes alighted on a young recruit, and from the look on his face he had gotten the briefing on her, his eyes grew wide as she purposely brushed against him. His body was rigged and the boy was shaking as she whispered in his ear, “Welcome to my little kingdom. Would you like to play a few games?”

She had to keep herself from bursting into a fit of giggles as the terrified boy shook his head, the gesture displayed his fear with stunning clarity. She faked a frown as she rested her hand on his shoulder, “Oh well, it would have been so much… Fun.” As she whispered the last word any spine that the new recruit had melted away, or it might have been the electrical shock that went through the boy’s body. He slid to the ground, unconscious, and slightly burnt around the edges. She bent down a slid her other hand from under her cloak, the hand delicately held a small pink rose. She placed it on the chest of the boy, she stood up and called to the nearest people.

“Take him to the infirmary.” As she walked away she turned back to the two that were picking up the boy, “Oh, yes, when he wakes up tell him I said hi.” Then she continued down the halls, people started to hurry by her a bit faster than before, soon she was walking alone in the hall. Now she let go the fit of giggle that had been building up, if you had no idea who the giggles were coming from they would have been like the sweetest music that you had ever hear. But for any that overheard the fit of laughter it would have been soured and dark. She continued down the hall that eventually returned to the normal bustle of life in the underground complex.  This was her little kingdom, for now.  She turned into her own private lab, away from the rest of the complex and protected, until the time came for its use.

She sat down at the computer alcove that was in the lab and tapped the screen. As she waited for the connection she rested her chin on her wrist and propped it up by putting her elbow on the desk in the alcove. The computer flashed a confirmation then displayed a man with stock white hair. The wire rim glasses blended in with the wrinkles that covered the ragged face, the man’s beard was as white as his hair.

“So we CAN pick up on the first ring.” Her playful manner didn’t faze the old man, even if he knew who she was. This was part of the fun with him, she always wondered how she effected him underneath that calm skin.

“Yes. If you are calling to know if I have managed to get in to his lab, I have not. He has taken some very acute measures to keep it hidden, acute, but very effective.”

“Well, he is THE Jeremie Belpois. Oh, the praise you lavished on him, he even may little Lizzy, look like five year old. She was a great actor wasn’t she, so good at hiding her little secret. But I guess I is to be expected that he would put up some camouflage. Hidden in a factory, more than likely undetectable to scans, you get the idea. But Mayhem, dear, if anyone can find a chink in his armor it’s you. So find it, pretty please?” She looked at the old man’s face and then severed the connection between their computers.

Leaning back she let the hood of her cloak fall from her head. Her long hair flowed behind the chair, cascading in streams of red and mahogany.  She unclasp the pin that held the cloak on and let it slide onto the chair. She got up from the alcove and strode over to the door, she tapped it and a small green light on it flashed red. She let herself slid into another chair, glancing over at the small display she told it to access a file. Laying her head back she slipped into a light sleep,  just enough so that her mind could steal away.

***

Jeremie sat in the teachers cafeteria, the food was the same as when he was a child. No matter what Odd said it was still as close to card board as was edible. Jeremie turned in his chair to face the one way window that looked into the chaos of the students cafeteria.  What he had taken to calling “his four” hadn’t bonded like his friends had, they were still scattered around the room. Not even an acknowledgment of their existence had passed their lips. But he was roused from his musing by the sound of the door opening. Glancing at the door he saw a tall raven-haired woman stride in.

Smiling Jeremie watched her stand before what was supposed to be chicken alfredo, but move on. As she made herself a salad from the materials provided Jeremie managed to catch her reflection in the window. Now he smiled out right, leaning on the table. “Who would of ever thought we would end up back here?”

The woman turned around looking at Jeremie, her face puzzled. Jeremie’s grin widened as his identity was remembered by the woman.  Realization turned to surprise and she realized what Jeremie actually looked like. “Einstein? No… Jeremie”

“Bright as ever, Sissy” He chuckled as he said her old nickname.

Elizabeth Delmas sat down across from the withered Jeremie, or at least he thought he still looked withered, but if he had actually taken the time to inspect himself he would have found traces of youth returning to his face. But there she sat across the table, like a beacon from the past, her hair had grown long and her face seemed to have gained some hidden quality. She seemed relaxed, peaceful, like she was truly herself, and like one of her many slaps that Odd had received Jeremie realized something; Elizabeth Delmas was truly one of the best actors in all of history. For the six years he had know her she had put on a charade, acted, flawlessly, too flawlessly.

“How life been for you?” Jeremie asked the only question that he could think of that wouldn’t seem like he was prying into her. She took a bit to respond, her eyes were tracing the line that criss-crossed Jeremie’s face.

But eventually she sighed, “Well, life is what life is. What I have done with it fills me with happiness, even if life, itself, does not.” Jeremie nodded, this was what Elizabeth really was, not an idiot like she portrayed herself to be. “I haven’t seen you here before?”

Jeremie chuckled, “I try my best to stay away from this, what are they calling it, food. I’d bet that the chicken is used in contraction projects as cement.” This provoked a laugh from the raven hair women. It was a clear, ringing laugh, the kind you might imagine as coming from a nymph from ancient times. For whatever reason she had hid this side of herself, but he decided not to pry. “I’m afraid I have not read through the faculty list, so what is your position here?”

Elizabeth sighed, “I’m attempting to salvage a drama department. But the kids, less interested in Shakespeare, more interested in their own hormones. I’ll admit that it is not a meaningful existence, but its rewards are sweet, when they come. “

Jeremie nodded, silently absorbing the sound of her voice. He had never really taken the time to notice Sissy. At one time she was an annoyance, and even for a time a member of their little gang. But she had never really passed the fringes of his perception. Then the bell rang and a ruckus arose from the other side of the two way mirror. Jeremie stood up, “No rest for the weary, no food for the hungry, no water for the thirsty, but yet I press on.”

As he left the building he couldn’t help but smile. His past didn’t have to haunt him, not all the time at least. Jeremie chuckled as he glimpsed Erin racing through the courtyard, Grace gaining on him, and he could just make out over Erin’s screams, “You’re dead, you hear me! Dead!”

***

Delmas picked his way through the rubble of one of the building that had been blown apart in the freak explosion last night. No one knew what caused it, but the death toll had stayed amazingly low. Only a few people had been drastically harmed, most of which were of a police team try to halt a break in at the hospital that he was climbing through. Even the people inside the decimated hospital had survived, but had the person that he was looking for. Was he alive?

He hoped that he would not find the body he was looking for.