Chapter 14

My urgent shout must have impressed upon Sarah and Jessica that I wanted us out of there right away. To be immediate about it, they just teleported the whole area rather than each of us as individuals. That's the only way I can account for the medium sized fire that we had burning in our living room when we popped back into the house. I thought the teleport for live animals and humans was different from the teleport for objects, but maybe they just used everything they had to get it done faster. There's so much about all this stuff we don't know yet.

Talk about excitable; these young girls nowadays have no sense of humor. We didn't need fire engine sirens with all the screams the girls let out as the living room burst into flames. Girls scattered everywhere, either getting out of there or looking for fire extinguishers. I was never sure who was doing what. It was just a little fire. Bandor never caused that much reaction.

Little Sarah is a cutie. She showed us she would also be something special when she grows up. Maybe she's just used to Arrian's fire. She looked at all the girls as if they were nuts (she's perceptive too!) < Hey! J.>, rolled her eyes, giggled, and breathed an icy cold, wet wind on the flames. Bye-bye fire. She got several nasty looks from the girls. Hey, they could've done it too.

It wasn't long before all the girls were back in the room. We all looked at our new visitor, still handcuff to the chair. I started looking for keys to let her out. Amy looked at me crossly, did something with her fingers, and the cuffs fell off. Oh yeah, world's best lock picker. <Earth to Daddy! Come in Daddy! J.>

The new woman was in a state of shock, and it seemed to be from our teleporting. I wasn't sure how someone who knew the ancient language could be surprised by teleporting and powers, but she appeared to be. That look of shock was nothing compared to when she looked up and saw Victoria.

"Tar sento lis shadento," she whispered, her voice quivering from ... something. She was trembling all over. "Zenda sha lortal conzenta?" she asked.

It was like a Chinese fire drill. None of us knew what the other was saying. This was fun! Not!

"Tala zardo en sinto," the voice from across the room said. We all whipped around to see Elizabeth walking towards the other 'Victoria', talking to her.

"Tori-llia," the woman answered, as she stood up, facing Elizabeth.

"Tori-llia," Elizabeth answered, pointing at Victoria. "Victoria," she added.

The woman freaked.

"Nyle! Nasu Tori-llia!" whatever she was saying, she was insistent. I assumed she was insisting she was the real Tori-llia.

"Tori-llia," Elizabeth repeated, pointing at Victoria again. The woman sank down in a chair and closed her eyes. She was trembling.

Elizabeth sat next to her and they proceeded to have a long conversation. We understood little of it, except Tori-llia. Using the format for the other girls' ancient names that we knew, it was apparent that Tori-llia was this woman's name. It was also apparent, according to Elizabeth, that it was also our Victoria's name in the ancient tongue. I was getting a headache.

After jabbering for about ten minutes, the woman leaned her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. Victoria, a look of concern still on her face, sat next to her. She reached out tentatively and took her hand, holding it gently.

You would have thought someone had just electrocuted Tori-llia. She jumped and her eyes flew open wide, her head turning sharply towards Victoria. She didn't take her hand away, however, and in fact clutched Victoria's hand tightly. They both looked into each other's eyes deeply, and suddenly the air almost screamed with non-verbal communication. I could tell by the look on the girls' faces that they were not included in the conversation. I wasn't either. It was obvious that all of us ceased to exist as far as the two Victoria's were concerned, as they linked with each other. They just sat there, staring into each other's eyes.

Elizabeth told us what she knew.

"Her name is Tori-llia. That means Victoria in her language. She not only looks exactly like Victoria, but she has the same name. Her birthday is April 13, which makes her one of us. She is the same age as Victoria, I think. I will have to consult with Megan about the potential differences in telling time, but I would bet the farm they were born at the same instant.

"She has no idea how she got here. One minute she was going about her business, and the next thing she knew she was handcuffed to a chair with a bunch of men doing unspeakable things to her." Elizabeth's eyes looked sad, but there was also something else in there, something that made those men lucky they were already dead. Victoria broke her connection with the other woman for a minute and looked at me. There was still fear in her eyes, but there was an intense rage in there also, more so than I had ever seen in her eyes before. Her new friend was crying, and Victoria returned her attention to her and hugged her tightly. The other woman held on as if she were drowning.

"Oh, and by the way, she helps run a private security firm and was once an agent in their equivalent of the FBI, as far as I can tell. She has no idea where she is, and has no frame of reference for where she's from. It's unlikely she's from this planet. From the description of where she's from, and her spoken language, she's almost surely from Planet # 1. She calls it Terzo."

Elizabeth let all that sink in.

"Is that the name of Planet # 1?" I asked. Surely Elizabeth, or Lisa, or someone would know that.

Elizabeth sighed heavily.

"It's not that simple, Patrick. I dropped out for a long, long time after ... well, after. At that time, there was a planet we called Terzo, the first of three inhabited planets. But that name has not been used for a long time. I don't know if anyone even remains of that planet. Is Planet # 1 the same planet? I don't know ... it could be. Certainly nothing in the history after the fall of Cornaza refers to any of the three planets by name. They are simply referred to as Planet # 1, 2 and 3. Even the writings that Megan has found refer to them as such. Also, remember, it's like here. Humans call this place 'earth'. Is that really the name? How many know it by 'Terra'? I suspect they stopped calling them by their real names once we left to keep potential enemies we might meet, or re-meet, from knowing who we were and where we were from. However, to Tori-llia, and any others that might be there, they refer to them by their real names."

"Becky, can you do a brain scan on her? I want to find out who she really is. Elizabeth, she acts as if she knows nothing of our powers or abilities. Can you explain what we are going to do and get her permission?" I asked.

"No need. You can go ahead and do it if you want, but I can tell you for sure, she is me. I don't know how, but she is me," Victoria said without breaking eye contact with her look-alike.

It was a good idea; it didn't go down well though. The woman acted horrified at the thought of someone scanning her, after Elizabeth spent ten minutes explaining what a scan was. She absolutely refused, and looked at us all as if we were monsters or something.

That's when we got our first big break.

"Es dorca qi londo mantera si ... Katiro!" she muttered, obviously upset at us. Elizabeth's eyes lit up.

"She's upset that we would try something that hasn't been done in eons, ever since Katiro left!" Elizabeth whispered excitedly. "She says we have no right without his permission!"

Elizabeth looked at me questioningly. After thinking about it for a while, I nodded my head.

Elizabeth pointed to me.

"Katiro!" she said.

The poor woman practically threw her neck out looking between Elizabeth and me.

"Qa? Nando! Tor es Katiro, dar Nagalla!"

"She says Katiro would never be here without Nagalla. She wants to know where Nagalla is," Elizabeth explained. I looked at Megan. She shrugged her shoulders, then frowned and nodded her head slightly. I knew what her problem was. She hated to be fawned over. We both knew what was coming.

"Nagalla!" Elizabeth said, pointing at Megan. The woman looked at us with huge eyes. Then, she showed us she was not dumb.

"San lasto don eporata Taa-Laka! Tan qor tando!" she demanded, her eyes narrowing.

"She says Katiro has a Life-mate. He would never be without her. She wants to know her name and meet her!" Elizabeth was trying not to laugh.

Amy walked up to Tori-llia. She pointed to herself.

"Taa-Laka. Amma-llia," Amy said softly.

Tori-llia's eyes got huge, and then she fainted.

That took everyone by surprise. I had upset girls everywhere, putting a wet washcloth on her forehead, raising her feet, rubbing her hands, everything you could think of.

She wasn't out for long; perhaps a minute or so. When she recovered, she stared at us with a look of ... awe, almost worship in her eyes. Megan didn't look happy.

'Here we go again, ' our looks clearly said to each other. We hated being looked upon as almost gods, and we were even more concerned about what that attitude might eventually do to the girls. Teenage girls were impressionable, and I had no reason to believe ours were any different. Fortunately, so far they had just laughed at it all.

Poor Tori-llia didn't know what to do first. Somehow, she figured out who Elizabeth was. I said she was smart. She couldn't decide whom she should kneel in front of and worship first — Katiro, Nagalla, or Queen Elizabeth (one of these days, I'll have to ask Elizabeth what her ancient name was. I doubted it was 'Elizabeth'. Wait; I already knew. Amma-llia had called her by name. Now what was it? ). <It's an age thing. Love you, Daddy! J.>

Fortunately, Tori-llia didn't understand English, so she didn't catch the threat I made to a grinning Elizabeth that if she didn't stop this, I would figure out a way to make this woman her private servant. That made Elizabeth take the matter seriously. She hated having servants, and refused to have them, as much as she could, when she was queen.

Elizabeth and Tori-llia jabbered back and forth for quite some time. I heard Katiro, Nagalla, and Amma-llia mentioned several times, then I remembered Elizabeth's name as Tori-llia said it; Thimalla. I was also surprised when she used another name that was obviously connected with Elizabeth; Eliandor. Hmmm. Sandor, Bandor, Eliandor. Now I knew where 'Elizabeth' came from. I wondered what my Mother's name was, the fourth of the brothers and sisters. I had never heard her called anything but 'Mom, 'dear', or 'honey'.

I also remembered that Elizabeth had chewed Amma-llia out for using the name Thimalla; it belonged to a dead person. I saw Elizabeth's face tighten as Tori-llia called her by name, then saw her inexplicitly blush when she called her Eliandor. Elizabeth spoke very quietly, very calmly to her. I didn't understand what Elizabeth said, but I figured she was telling Torri-llia, nicely, never to call her either of those names again. The poor woman didn't understand, but she nodded.

Elizabeth apparently convinced our visitor not to worship us, but that didn't stop her from bowing slightly to us and kissing our hands. I guess it was the best we could hope for.

Tori-llia finally allowed Becky to do a brain scan on her. Becky looked surprised and did a brain scan on Victoria. She then went back and repeated it on our visitor. The results were somewhat different than we expected.

"Damn. Well, she is Victoria," Becky pronounced.

"I don't understand. Victoria doesn't have an identical twin sister," I objected.

"You certainly don't understand. I didn't say she was Victoria's identical twin sister. I said she is Victoria. Even with identical twins, there are small differences. She is not a different, identical entity. She is Victoria. Period. They are one and the same person. She's not even a clone. She is the same person. The DNA tracking, neural patterns, chemical composition, molecular and subatomic structure are all identical. Even the thought patterns are the same. The experiences and memories are somewhat different, as would be expected, but even they are very similar. Both held the same jobs in the past. Both hold the same jobs now. They are the same person, in two slightly different worlds."

"How can that be?" I asked. I had a feeling that there was more than what she was saying; what she was implying was at least as important as what she was telling me. I just couldn't read between the lines at the moment.

"Hey, I just report the results. I don't explain them, at least, not in this case. I have no idea how it can be so. From the looks on everyone's faces, I don't think they know either."

Elizabeth and Tori-llia talked for quite awhile. After the first few minutes, I noticed that Megan was paying close attention. She didn't speak the language, but she understood it somewhat and could follow the gist of the conversation. I could tell by her excitement level that they were talking about the history of Terzo, Miazo, and Cornaza. We knew them as Planets #1, #2, and #3. So they had names. I was glad to hear that. A civilization that named its planets #1, #2, and #3 probably deserved to be exterminated!

I enjoyed watching Megan's face as they talked. Her emotions varied from interest to excitement to sadness and tears. There were also some looks of confusion.

After talking for several hours, we finally remembered our manners and realized that Tori-llia was probably exhausted. Victoria offered to show her to a room and get her settled. Amy offered to go along with them. I had watched Tori-llia staring at Amy frequently as she talked with us. I realized after a few minutes why. Amy looked like a young Victoria; except for age, they could have passed for twins. They weren't that far off anyway, as all of us adults looked much younger than our real ages. Human ages, I mean. We wouldn't even be alive if we looked like our true ages. Tori-llia was probably wondering just how many there were on this planet that looked like her.

The rest of us stayed in the living room to hear what they had discussed. I had a question before Elizabeth started, however.

"I don't understand. How come she didn't recognize me right away if she knew about Katiro?"

"I asked her that. It made sense once she explained it. Simply put, the body you are in now doesn't look like Katiro looked when he left. We inhabit human bodies, but they don't necessarily look like our original bodies, and in fact usually don't. She didn't seem to be surprised by how you look once she knew who you were," Elizabeth explained. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there was more there than that, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I asked the other question.

"How is it that she looks identical to Victoria? She has the same name, same birth date, same career on her planet. Hell, Becky says she's the same person. How is that possible?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth whispered. Julie smiled softly. I decided I should be asking her these questions, but before I could open my mouth, she shook her head slightly.

The knowledge and history that Elizabeth passed on from our visitor was fascinating.

"The first indication that anything was wrong occurred on Cornaza. If you think about it, that was to be expected. Cornaza was where the people that were a union of body and mind, that had colors, that were linked with their twins, went. Planet # 1, Terzo, was the planet where normal people lived, and people, usually children, whose powers and colors had not awakened yet. Planet # 2, Miazo, is where the colors and powers resided that were not linked to anyone yet. It was sort of a spirit world, if you will. It was probably the location of the pool of colors, where unassigned colors went when someone permanently died. There were some overseers, caretakers of sorts, from Terzo that cared for the spirits, but they didn't need much care. These caretakers were rotated regularly, since it was very difficult for a normal person to live on Miazo for long.

"It's interesting that the existence of twins seemed to have nothing to do with powers or colors then. Everyone was a twin, even if they never developed powers or colors. That was unusual, but it did happen sometimes. Those people were taken care of by society, as if they were ... handicapped? ... yet they were productive members. They were often used as caretakers for the spirits on Miazo, and were better at that, as they didn't know what they were missing.

"Anyway, as I said, the first signs that something was wrong occurred on Cornaza. Weird things started happening. People disappeared, never to be seen again. There was no trace of where they went. People would just go insane, then wander about with blank looks on their faces; the lights were on, but no one was home. Investigations of these incidences always showed the same two things; they had no colors or powers and their twins were gone. They just became bodies."

"But why didn't they just revert back to Terzo, where the ones that had no colors resided?" I asked.

"Some did. It was unusual, though. It seemed that once you had powers and colors, and were linked with your twin, the disappearance of all that had devastating consequences. You just couldn't go back to the way you were. It happened, but seldom.

"The third thing that happened was that many of the people on Cornaza just died. There was no indication of why. Of course, on autopsy, there were no powers or colors there, but did that cause the death, or did they disappear after the death? It was felt that the disappearance of the colors caused the deaths, for several reasons. Death doesn't mean much to us, but none of these people ever came back. They were permanently gone. But a search of the color pool database showed that their colors never reappeared on Miazo. The colors just disappeared and they were dead.

"About that time..." Elizabeth suddenly teared up and couldn't talk for a moment. She took a moment to recover.

"About that time was when things started to go to hell with Bandor. I don't know what happened. He was a good man, he really was, and I loved him dearly. But he changed pretty abruptly. Then he killed Megan. Things were never the same again," she said, and a little sob escaped her lips.

"It also became apparent that someone, something, some alien existence or force was causing this. Bandor seemed to know who it was, and had contact with them. They were systematically destroying Cornaza and no one knew how. The scientists were able to determine that some naturally occurring substance was systematically being wiped out on Cornaza. Somehow that substance was what controlled the linking of body and colors. Without it, the whole process was falling apart.

"Tori-llia is not a scientist, so she doesn't know what it was. There were wild rumors that it was a plant, but those may have just been rumors.

"Finally, someone remembered that the life on Cornaza could also exist on a planet we had discovered centuries before, called Earth. The situation was desperate, and it was decided that a few people that were left, somewhere between 50 and 200, would go to that planet, to preserve the race before it expired completely. They were led by a group of leaders named Katiro, Nagalla, Amma-llia, Tori-llia, and their families. There was another, very powerful personage in the group, a woman that was, and still is, looked upon almost as a god. Her name has not been spoken of for many years, and has been erased from the history of the planets. This was done to protect her identity, as she was considered to be the best hope for the existence of the race."

"Wait! Tori-llia? But that's our guest's name! I don't understand," I said.

"Yeah. Kinda like people naming their children after heroes in our time. That's why she was so stunned to find our Tori-llia here. Apparently, there can only be one person living at a time that is named after these heroes. Her parents applied for and received permission to name her so after the last Tori-llia was killed in a freak accident; an odd enough occurrence in itself. She freaked when she heard Victoria's name in her language because she knew our Victoria had to be the real Tori-llia. There is no other," Elizabeth explained.