-One Hundred Forty Five-

It wasn't until dinner that Mandy calmed down enough for her to appear again, looking almost none the worse for wear. I don't know how she did it, but it was almost like her meltdown hadn't happened at all, not in that elephant in the corner way, but like she'd actually managed to completely come to terms with the whole thing in only a manner of hours. Sam, on the other hand, was looking a little run down, not that I blamed him at all. He seemed more at ease, though, which was good, cause the last time I'd seen him he'd looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Are you guys okay?" Connie asked before I could as we somehow managed to meet up again in the first floor lounge.

"Better." Mandy admitted. "Dinner?"

Connie nodded and the four of us headed out.

"So what happens now?" I asked. "We're married now, and honestly I'm still confused--"

Connie smiled and held my hand as Mandy nodded. "I know what you mean, there's a lot of pieces that still need to come together, things that didn't make sense or..."

"It will soon." Connie insisted. "Once all of us meet."

"All of us?" I asked.

She nodded. "They're coming, it's almost time."

"For what?"

She stopped, turned, and looked at me. "This isn't going to make any sense, actually, things aren't going to make sense for a while, I think, but it will once this is all over. Once we enter the cafeteria everything is going to change, for all of us, though it might not look like it at first. And I want you to promise me that whatever happens, you'll go with it. You have to trust him even though you won't want to."

"Connie, I--"

"Matt, please." She said, giving me an almost pleading look as she continued. "And also, when I faint, catch me, and bring me to the table in the far corner where the man in white is sitting."

I sighed. "I don't have much choice in the matter do I?"

She smiled. "You always have a choice, Matt, trick is, what is it that you want to see happen the most?"

I didn't say anything for a moment, then shook my head. "Alright, I promise."

She grinned, and the two of us walked forward.

"Should we--?" Sam asked.

Connie turned and stared at him like he was insane. "You kidding? It wouldn't work if you two weren't here."

"Alright then." He whispered.

Connie and I walked through the doorway, and I could instantly feel her hand slacking, so I reached around her as she started to collapse and picked her up. I was trying not to freak out about this as I carried her into the lunchroom proper and past the rows of tables before anyone could say or ask anything. I carried her around the corner into the section to the left that went back for a ways, and into the back where I could already see the man in white sitting, calmly drinking coffee or tea, from the look of the white coffee cup in his hand, and reading a newspaper.

I walked right up to him, and just as I was about to speak he put his newspaper down and stared at me, ice blue eyes going right through me like he could see my soul, which stopped me in my tracks. I knew then that this man, though he looked to be thirty with short cropped blond hair and a very nice white suit, was far from human and far from thirty. The man seemed to me to be as old as the earth itself, and it made me wonder just who in the world he really was.

"I have come to take her with me." He said as he stood. "You know this as well."

I sighed. Somehow, the moment Connie'd said what she had, I knew this moment was coming.

"But fear not, young one, you two are bound in ceremony, you will see her again once this is through, but she has her path to walk for a while, and you have yours. Now is not the time to worry about such things, you have a long life ahead of you, together with her, don't spoil it now by--"

I inhaled deeply. "I know." I said as I handed her, reluctantly, over to his gentle, caring, hands. "And I know she'll be fine, I just--" My voice broke.

"I know, you only just found her, and you feel like you are already letting her go, but trust me when I say this, if she did not come with me now, your time together would be... pathetically short. You did the right thing, and it won't be long before things go back to rights. Kai only has so much time before she, too, must leave, and things here must be put back to rights before she can go. Your sister too. The pieces have to be assembled correctly for the endgame to happen as it should, for the forces of harmony and creation to win."

"You're creation, aren't you?"

He laughed. "Not by a longshot." And with that, he turned and walked through the wall, and something told me that they weren't anywhere near here anymore.

"Damn!" Mandy said. "This is one crazy, fucked up, day."

"You can say that again." I muttered as I turned and walked back towards the lunch line.

"Talnorr!" I heard someone, some unfamiliar voice, call, so I looked over to see a female who was half human, half snake, coming towards me. From the waste down she appeared to be your average python, but from there the scales morphed into green flesh that was more and more human until you got to her torso which was pretty much human, and the only clothing she had on was a red bikini top, though it somehow seemed to fit. She had no arms, and her face seemed to have reptilian qualities, though I couldn't pinpoint what, and as she spoke a forked tongue could be seen going in an out of her mouth. "Talnorr!" She said again as she stopped in front of us. "I see the moment has come to pass, you have made the right choice, and so now the gathering can take place."

"What gathering?" I asked, failing, I knew, to hide my confusion.

She just smiled and slithered away, so I followed, hoping that Sam and Mandy were too, especially since she was moving so fast. "There is a lot you don't know, and honestly, it is probably for the best." She said. "The ceremony wouldn't work otherwise."

"What ceremony?!" I asked, getting more than a little impatient.

"Holy fuck." Sam muttered, and I turned to see him pale as a ghost. "Isn't that supposed to come later?"

She snake-woman laughed. "Time flies, doesn't it?"

"But I thought--"

"Hush, it will make sense all too soon." She said, slithering faster towards the back of the room. She stopped by the round tables at the back next to the windows, then after a moment turned right towards the short wall perpendicular to those windows that ended where the lunchroom continued in that recess, and promptly walked through the wall without so much as a shimmering affect.

"What is this, Harry Potter?" I muttered as I followed without a thought. Now that Connie was gone and I had no idea when I'd see her again, I was finding myself more than a little irritated at all the deception, half truths, and 'it will make sense later' statements that seemed to keep cropping up over and over and over....

"Not even remotely." The snake person said without turning back. That's when I realized we were in a giant white circular stone room with pillars all along the walls that were at least ten feet high, no windows, no doors, just steps around the edges that ended in a narrow strip all the way around that was higher than the rest by a few feet, and two thirds of the way in there was what looked to be a wooden podium but I figured had some other purpose. There was some mysterious light illumination coming from I had no idea where even though the whole place was well lit in a soft yellow-white light.

"And Sam, this isn't exactly what you think. You weren't given all the details of this, either. Well, it's more like plans changed a bit."

"Figures. So what is it?"

"We're going to create a new oracle."

"What?!" The three of us said simultaneously.

"Harmony and creation have both given their blessing, as well as most of the others. They agree, with what has happened, another, new, post must be created. But this oracle is not like the rest, this being will not see the future, will not hold its possibilities in its hands. This child will be able to influence time simply by being, by existing, by doing anything at all."

"Our child." Mandy muttered.

The snake woman nodded. "Your child, being conceived as she was, is perfect for this. Only, once this is through she won't be just your child anymore, she will be more than just the two of you, both in spirit and in flesh and actuality. There are... physical and all sorts of other things we must do to make her, to change her into what she needs to be. This will not be easy for you, Mandy, and it will be painful, and by the time this day is over she will exist outside your body, and your body may or may not be the same afterwards, no one can say, such a thing has never been tried, and such a being has never existed before, and I need your willingness to do this. If you chose not to, there are other options--"

Mandy shook her head. "No there isn't, not with what's going on in the world. You don't have anyone else, I can see it in your eyes. She's needed to change things, to change the outcome of this. There's no one closer to the center of the storm."

"Connie." I whispered. "Is your backup plan, isn't she?"

"In a way. In a way she is also helping us here. But that is neither here nor there, and Mandy--"

Sam shook his head. "Mandy, we talked about this."

She smiled slightly. "I know, but it has to be done."

"No it doesn't, I can go in your place, there has to be a way, Mandy I don't want to see you--"

She smiled. "I know. It's not like I'm going to die here or anything, Sam, I'm just--"

He sighed. "Nothing's going to be the same after this, and I have a better chance of--"

"And how would you take this burden from me, huh Sam?"

He sighed.

"What is it that you know that you haven't told me?!"

He said nothing.

"Sam?! I'm waiting!"

"I may not know everything, and I may not have all the pieces anymore, if I ever did, but I do know enough about this... even if it's changed... you won't be the same person you were when you went in, Mandy, and I can't..." He hung his head, and I could see him trying to blink back tears. "I just can't let you unknowingly walk into that... not without knowing what I do... about what it does... Our child, not even she will really be fine, but at least for her it's just physical changes."

"Sam," She said soothingly, putting her hand on his arm. "I'll be fine, regardless of who told you what."

"But--"

There was a sort of shimmer and harmony appeared, in her true form, amazingly enough. "Oh thank god you haven't done it yet. There's something else that has to be done first... if you two have even agreed at all."

"We do." Mandy said.

Sam sighed. "It's not like I can stop you anyway."

Mandy slipped her hand into his and squeezed.

"I agree." Though he clearly sounded like he really didn't want to.

She smiled. "I had hoped you'd say that. Come." She said, walking forward. "All three of you. Charlene, stay here, someone will be here soon who you need to meet, and help. It's crucial that you do."

She bowed low.

Harmony continued, went up the stairs, and through the wall.

I shook my head and followed her, into another chamber that looked just like this one, only it was painted all sorts of bright, swirling, colors, all over the walls, floor, ceiling, and pillars. There was nothing else in the room. "There is another who will be going through that ceremony, someone you know, actually. Your daughter we need for something... a bit different, as it turns out. She was already given powers upon her birth, powers that make her different already, and we found one whose powers better matched what we need for the other ceremony, once we realized what all it would do... but that is another story that will become clear later."

"So what do you need from us, from her?" Sam asked. "If things are changing this drastically.."

She smiled. "Not as drastically as you think. Everything is in order, Sam, including what you know being different from this moment. I don't know if you will ever know or find out why it was needed, but it is, very much so, on a cosmic scale. And besides, this moment would not exist if you hadn't known what you did."

"That's true, I would have agreed and be in the middle of that by now." Mandy admitted.

"As well as other things." Harmony agreed. "That that is neither here nor there, and right now is a different matter. Right now we need to get you three prepared."

"For what? And what's this gathering that was mentioned--?" I asked.

She sighed. "That... that is a long story that I don't have time to tell, unfortunately."

I nodded, biting back the retort in my head. Honestly, I just wanted answers of some sort, and I wanted things to start making some sense, not--

"Come." She said as she walked to the other side of the chamber. "And stand on the edge up there, facing me." She said, stopping a bit short of the stairs.

I said nothing, just did as she asked. The moment Mandy and Sam got into place next to me the entire scene changed. The lighting in the room was gone, replaced with white wax candles that were in golden candelabras set all over the space. There was also five others in the room, who in the low lighting appeared to be our age, but it was hard to tell, one was a faun, one was a centaur, one was a human with bat-looking wings, one had cat ears, tail, and feet from what I could see, and the last looked human, but something about the posture and maybe their magic or energy was telling me they were an elf . They were all wearing regular clothing, from the look of it, but because of where they stood I couldn't make out much more than profiles. There was also a large circular table with a white table cloth over it.

"Mandy, I need you to lay on the table."

"You're not going to do anything weird to me, are you?"

Harmony smiled. "No, nothing weird. You won't feel a thing."

"What is this here for, and why am I here?" I asked Harmony. "If this is about their child--"

"It is, but their daughter is just the catalyst for the rest of the ceremony. This is about all of you."

"And Connie?"

"All is well with her, she is where she needs to be, and so are you."

I bit back an annoyed sigh and said nothing.

She put a hand on my shoulder. I was amazed at how cold it was. "I know, just bear with me a while longer. I've asked a lot of all of you, and while I know none of you are going to be the same again after this, just know that it will all be over soon. Sooner than you think."

"Just bear with it, right?"

She nodded.

I sighed. "Alright, what do you need me to do?"

She smiled slightly as Mandy got on the table, Sam was next to her and the two were talking. "What Sam knows... there's a reason why he thinks he needs to worry about her. I need you to make sure it doesn't happen. Just watch her vitals, if anything changes, fix it."

"But--"

"Mandy shouldn't change during the ceremony. Her child, maybe, but not her. You will know once it starts. I want you to stay up here by me, okay?"

I nodded, stomach suddenly queasy. "Alright."

"It'll be fine." She insisted. "Sam, I need you to move to stand at the small end of the table where her head is, alright?"

He said nothing, just moved like she said as the other five took their spots around the two and started chanting in what sounded like... Greek maybe? But for some reason it felt like they were all chanting but harmony was somehow translating it into the proper language, charging the energy in the room even further as their combined magics started to gather in the room. As it was building I made sure to check in on Mandy, which somehow was really easy, though I had no idea why or how. I assumed it was harmony, and there was a reason why I was the one standing here doing it.

As the energy built in the room I started to instinctually know what it was going to be doing, and what this whole thing was for even though my conscious mind still had no idea what the heck was going on, so I decided to go with it.

I watched Mandy's vitals closely even when they started to channel the energy into the room to do... whatever they were doing. About the only thing I knew was that it felt that between the five of them, every type of magic was represented, and that they were seriously good at communal magic building, which I didn't even know before then was possible. Course, there was a lot of things that I didn't know about... still didn't... but I really needed to stop thinking about that. Connie knew what she was doing.

Suddenly the magic as everywhere doing all sorts of crazy things, but it wasn't touching any of us, not yet.

"You ready?" harmony asked me.

"For what?"

"The onslaught."

"No, but I might be anyway."

She chuckled a little and I could feel whatever was keeping it at bay slip. She must have been doing it. "You are." She said, completely confident and calm.

The magic descended upon us, hitting all of us at once.

I had no idea if I managed to do anything before I passed out from the shock to my system.