CHAPTER I

Having herself covered with her blanket, and her boyfriend keeping his arms wrapped around her, while sitting with their Secrets Dragon, Kyle and Kirsten are watching how their spirit animals interact with each other. How the turtle spirit slowly moves across the mattress floor, and how the wolf spirit jumps around him, encouraging him to go faster.
"Aren't they adorable?" Kirsten asks.
"It would be more adorable, if they were real animals, doing what a real animal would do," Kyle replies. "Instead of us imagining what they might do."
"Yeah," Kirsten replies. "But to see animals do what we've always been doing, like me wanting things fast, you wanting to take it slowly, and me having to encourage you to go faster..."
Kyle shrugs. "Then yeah, I guess it does look a little funny."
She smiles at him.
"Comfortable?"
Both feel as though their hearts stopped. Somebody spoke that should not be able to, as she is not in this room with them.
Both raise their heads, to see that behind their couch, on the regular floor, stands a blond woman, in her early twenties, smiling at them.
"Anaïs!" they both cry out, and rise up meet with her, and hug her.
She hugs them back. "I missed you too."
"But..." Kyle starts, as he loosens the hug and looks at her. "How are you here?"
Anaïs grins. "You two are just projections of your thoughts, right? Well, I may not be in here with you, but my brain still has a chip that connects to the Van."
"So you can project your thoughts here too?" Kirsten asks.
Anaïs widens her grin. "Never thought of trying it before, but now I have, and... here I am."
"When are you coming back to us?" Kirsten asks. "For real?"
"As soon as my work's done," Anaïs replies. "Which may still be a while. If I'm not too busy reorganizing the agency, I'm looking for the Vanman Posers."
"Found any more?" Kyle asks, with audible anxiety.
"We managed to neutralize all the ones we're aware of," Anaïs replies. "But one managed to escape us."
"Escape?!" Kyle nearly panics.
"How?" Kirsten asks.
"We don't know," Anaïs answers. "It seemed to have found a way to protect himself from that Null Hole."
"Where is it now?" Kyle asks.
"We don't know," Anaïs answers. "But don't worry, we'll do everything we can to find him."
"Can we help?" Kyle nearly begs.
"I'm sorry," Anaïs answers. "But if you get involved, you'll only risk revealing to others that you're still alive."
Kyle mumbles a curse, making Kirsten caress his arm in comfort.
"I do hope you'll get them all soon," she says. "People already think we're the bad guys. We don't need others to make it worse for us."
"I'll do what I can," Anaïs replies. "But that also means I won't have time to look for a place for us to live."
Both kids frown, and loosen the hug to look at her.
"Since you kids are supposed to be dead, I can't just leave the agency, and live with you. To them, it'll look like I disappeared," Anaïs explains. "I need to find a house, or an apartment, or anywhere that has an actual address. Where I'll seemingly work, be a regular human, and fight as Moonlight Shadow at night. And of course if she shows up in any city, shortly after I move in, people will notice, and figure out it's me. So I have to be active there before I officially move in. And as soon as I have moved in, I'll adopt, on paper anyway, two kids, so you two can live with me."
Kyle sighs. "That you would go through all that trouble for us. Even though we..."
Her smile weakens. "Still sad that you couldn't save Dr. Anand?"
"Not that we couldn't," Kyle responds. "She wouldn't let us."
"She told us she didn't need us to cheat death," Kirsten replies. "Even after we... after we told her... the bomb..."
Anaïs pets her head. "You don't have to reiterate the whole story. The Van already told me everything."
Kirsten curls her lip, in an attempt to smile.
"Anyway, I have looked into some of the things you asked me," Anaïs says. "If Anand had made it into Yomi, Ayumi hasn't seen her. Nor any of the other shinigami. That she has asked, anyway."
The two kids look down.
"I did look for the Genie that created the Van for you," Anaïs says.
Kyle perks up. "And did you find him?"
"Yes, and no," Anaïs answers. "For the most part, it seemed as though he had vanished off the face of the Earth. But then he briefly returned, only to disappear again."
"Where?" Kyle asks.
"In the Secret City," Anaïs replies. "He must've been visiting Nemo and Roma."
"That's right," Kirsten responds. "He made them, too."
"Wonder where he disappears to," Kyle mumbles to himself.
"Since we brought up Nemo and Roma," Anaïs says, "you may be interested to learn that they no longer work for Dumas."
Both kids frown at that.
"Did he fire them?" Kyle asks.
"No," Anaïs says. "They no longer work for him, because he quit his job, and moved into the Secret City."
"But why?" Kirsten wonders. "What about all the people he wanted to help?"
"With all the restructuring happening, most of his patients are relocated," Anaïs explains. "Either to the Secret City, or to the Underground Lair in Japan. In any case, it means that all his reasons to be with us, are now in the City."
"Too bad," Kyle says. "We could use another friend with the SUITs."
"Actually, they're not called that anymore," Anaïs replies. "Nor the Defense Patrol, or the Altadrie. We are now Department of Reconnaissance, Analysis, and Termination."
The two kids exchange a frown, before they turn their heads back to their assistant, and speak in unison. "DRAT?"
Anaïs giggles. "It was Wells' idea. He thought it fitting to call the agency that, as that's the word, or some word like it, that most people would be shouting when they see us go after them."
"I can imagine," Kyle replies.
"On a slightly brighter note, I did manage to get in contact with Santa Claus," Anaïs responds.
"You did?" both kids ask in unison.
Anaïs raises a brow. "When did you two create a hive mind?"
Kyle chuckles. "Sorry. I guess we've been together for so long, we're starting to act, and think alike."
"That explains it," Anaïs replies. "In any case, I explained the whole situation to Santa Claus."
"And what did he say?" Kirsten asks.
"Not much," Anaïs replies. "Just that if he thinks you did the right thing, in letting history play out, you'll find out next christmas. If he leaves you a present, it means he thinks you did. If he doesn't leave a present..."
"Then we should've saved her after all," Kyle says, feeling down again.
Anaïs loses her smile for a brief moment, but tries to bring a new one to her face. "You know, a soldier often has to make decisions that he later regrets. Whether he should've killed his opponent or not, or whether or not he could've saved someone or not."
"But we're not soldiers," Kirsten replies.
Anaïs lets out a short giggle. "With this ship and those soldiers outside, you could've fooled me. But that's not the point. They often regret having been unable to save certain lives. Just like you two are."
"So what do these soldiers do, then?" Kyle asks.
"They cannot save the lives that are already lost," Anaïs says. "But they can save those that are still here. Which brings me to the other reason why I'm here."
"What's that?" Kirsten asks.
Anaïs steps back, breaking off the hug, in order to explain the situation. "A police raid led to the arrest of several people. Among them was one woman, who needed medical attention, but... the doctors were more than a little surprised when they looked at her blood."
"Why?" Kyle asks.
"It's a little too technical to explain," Anaïs answers. "The point is, the doctors wrote a report, somebody at the hospital contacted us, we came in, helped release her from the hospital, and erase every document, and memory, of her being there."
"And where is she now?" Kyle asks.
"Still at her home," Anaïs replies. "The idea occurred to us to send her to the Secret City, but we're still too busy reorganizing everything."
"Are you saying you want us to bring her there?" Kirsten wonders.
"Like I said, a soldier saves lives, to make up for the ones that he couldn't," Anaïs replies. "Let this be one of yours."
Kirsten nods. "We should be going there anyway, to pick up Shade."
"But won't the SUIT... I mean the DRATs notice the woman's gone?" Kyle questions.
"They're too distracted right now," Anaïs answers. "By the time they'd notice she's gone, they likely already forgot she existed in the first place."
"Even then, aren't there still DRATs guarding the City?" Kyle asks.
"Don't worry about that," Anaïs says. "I already gave the Van all the details he needs to create entry passes. You can come and go as you please."
Kyle scratches his chin. "We should still use some of our soldier friends to go in. That way we don't risk being seen."
Kirsten chuckles. "If they do see us, they won't recognize us from miles away, in these new outfits."
"That's right," Anaïs starts. "I haven't had a chance to compliment you on your new clothes. You look great in them. I almost didn't recognize you when I first saw you in here."
"See?" Kirsten replies. "If even she didn't recognize us, then the SU... DRATs won't either."
Kyle bites his lip, pensive.
"What's wrong?" Anaïs asks. "Don't you want to see your friends in the City again?"
"I do," Kyle answers. "Just that... won't it be weird? We haven't been in there for a while, and our friends think we're dead..."
"So we just let them know we're not!" Kirsten exclaims.
"You do have a point," Anaïs says. "You're bringing in a new friend for the Non-Humans, while at the same time revealing you're still alive? It may be best if you ease them in a little."
"Right," Kyle agrees. "We go in, in one of our disguises, and when the time's right, we show our friends who we really are."
Kirsten taps her chin, thinking about this. While she does so, she notices their turtle and wolf spirit animals, who are still on the mattress floor.
"How about we go in as the Turtle and the Wolf?" Kirsten suggests. "We'd look like Non-Humans ourselves, which nobody would think twice about. Right?"
Kyle shakes his head. "No, I don't think they would."
Kirsten cheers at that.
"But we should still avoid being seen with our soldier friends," Kyle reminds her. "For the same reason why Moonlight Shadow couldn't be seen with the Vanman."
Anaïs giggles, which makes them both stare at her.
"What's so funny?" Kirsten asks.
"You two," she explains. "One second, you're happy to see me, the next second you're grieving about Dr. Anand. And now, you're about ready to go back in action. I'm just happy to see that you're not always sad."
Kirsten looks at Kyle. "Think it's time we should stop mourning?"
Kyle pauses for thought. "More like time she shouldn't let mourning stop us. Anaïs, do you know where this woman lives?"
Anaïs points at the computer on the desk. "I've sent the Van everything he needs to know."
"Great," Kyle says. "Time to let the Gallivanter leave Oblivion."
Kirsten smiles at that. "Van, call the Fire Troop into the control room."
"The Fire Troop?" Kyle questions.
"Of course," Kirsten says. "Didn't you say we should use our soldiers to pick her up?"
Kyle shakes his head. "I was thinking more about the Gliders. They're not soldiers, or at least don't look like them, and are much friendlier."
Kirsten thinks for a moment. "Maybe we should let them pick her up, but what if she's got some enemies? They'll need the Troop to help out."
"Or the Scout Shark, to make sure the coast is clear," Kyle replies. "Van, better bring everyone in the control room."
Anaïs smiles. "Keep this up, and soon enough you won't need me anymore."
Hunching his shoulders, Kyle hurries to hug Anaïs. "We'll always need you."
Kirsten wraps her arms around her as well. "Just wish you could stay with us."
"Me too," she replies. "But officially, I should be resting. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
She breaks off the hug, then caresses the nearest wall.
"And I'm looking forward to the day we can get married," she whispers.
"As am I," the Van responds.
With a smile on her face, she disappears from the room.
Both kids have dropped their jaws at those words. Neither, however, can address what they just heard, as within their field of vision, they can see through the windshield, where their small army has arrived.
Kyle shakes his head, clearing it from any confusion. "All right. Wright. Earhart."
At the sound of those names, the Gliders step forward.
"We've got a job for you," Kyle says.
"Fire Troop, Scout Shark, you should back them up," Kirsten adds.
Everyone shares a frown, wondering what their assignments will be.