“NO!” the young woman gasped.  She tried in vain to get up, but her injuries wouldn’t allow it.  She could only sit and watch as her companion stood her ground despite the curved blade of their enemy’s scythe jutted out her back.

    “And thus,” the large man robed in black sneered, “you die.”

    “So I shall,” his victim said.  She could feel her own blood (and her very life) flowing out of her wounds, could feel the cold steel of the blade inside her body.   Tears ran down her cheeks and she coughed, spurting blood out of her mouth as she did.  Despite this, she smiled back at her murderer.  “But you… will not be… so fortunate…” she said through forced breaths.  The ground at their feet began to quake and there was a sudden flash as bolts of energy began to swirl around them.

    “What are you doing?” the man asked, surprised by this sudden surge of power.  Then his eyes widened as he understood.  “No!  I won’t allow it!”  He yanked his weapon out of her and raised it over his head with a scream of rage as the torrential effects of her final attack seemed to tear a hole in the very air behind him, revealing a void of darkness within.  There was a blinding flash of light, and-

    Kyle awoke with a start.  He was sitting up in bed, soaked in a cold sweat.  He found himself feeling his chest, and felt somehow relieved that nothing was wrong.  He got up and walked to the bathroom, wiping his tears away on a towel.  Had he been crying?  Flicking the light switch, he startled as he saw himself in the mirror.  “Get a grip,” he muttered to himself.  He didn’t know what else he was expecting to see, anyway.  It was just the same thing he always saw.  Sometimes that happened though.  He would have moments where he didn’t recognize himself, and though it bothered him greatly, he didn’t want to talk to a shrink about it  There didn’t seem to be any point in paying someone to tell you  that you’re as screwed up as everyone else and give you some pills.

    He studied himself.  Green eyes, chestnut hair that went to the base of his neck, rounded face, small frame.  Yep, same ol’ Kyle.  He flexed his arm.  He spent quite a bit of time exercising and training in various fighting techniques, but it didn’t show much.  Sure, he looked athletic enough, but he was doomed to have small muscles to go with his small body, and no amount of working out seemed to be able to fix that.  As he turned his body, he looked at the strange mark on the back of his right shoulder.  A lot of people thought he had a tattoo, but few could believe he’d had it all his life.  If nothing else, it looked impressive.  About the size of a tennis ball, it was a four-pointed star, like he’d seen on old-style maps, with two crescent-shaped slivers overlaid on top of it, making it look like an eight-pointed star.  There were strange symbols in between the eight points, and the entire design was contained in a circle.  He had no idea what the hell it was supposed to be, but he always felt comforted when he looked at it.

    Splashing his face with cold water, Kyle realized he was still shaking.  That was “the bad dream,” as he’d always called it.  Like always, most of the details faded from his memory, but he knew there was a sinister man, a dying woman, someone screaming, and what sounded like a hurricane all around them.  It was one of a handful of recurring dreams he’d had as long as he could remember.  All of them involved some kind of fairy-tale land with castles and such, and the dying woman was always there (although usually she wasn’t dying and sometimes was very young).  Kyle had no clue what these dreams were supposed to mean, and it didn’t help that he only remembered bits and pieces of them when he woke up, but it felt like there was some deeper meaning to them.

    Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a woman stood on top of large apartment building and surveyed the streets below.  She was dressed in odd clothing (at least, for this world), a hooded cloak over a simple traveler’s tunic and breeches, with dusty boots that looked to have walked many leagues, and she was adorned with several sparkling jeweled rings and a beautiful amulet.  In one hand she carried an iron staff that had a precious blue stone set at one end and several smaller gems all over it.  This world was so insignificant that it had no magic in it whatsoever, yet it had proved to be an effective hiding place for the one she sought.  It made sense.  Who would think to look for someone in a place like this?  But they had found it at last, and now it was a matter of tracking down the target.  She only needed to focus her energies to sense the presence she was looking for.  In a world devoid of enchantment, one who was full of such power was easy enough to locate.  She felt no other mystical auras around her at all, and smiled.  “Looks like I found you first.”  This was going to be easier than she had hoped.  With a wave of her hand, the woman vanished into the darkness of night as most of the city slept.


    Kyle sat in the food court at the mall, lost in thought.  He had noticed a short skirt displayed in a nearby store window.  The sign said it was on sale, but who in their right mind would pay even that much for it?  Sure, it was cute enough, and maybe with the right outfit-

    “Hey, buddy,” a voice said, startling him.  “You still with us?”

    He quickly looked down at his lunch on the table as he felt the warm blood rushing to his cheeks.  “Yeah,” he muttered, “sorry.”  He’d been lost in one of those weird little moments when he thought about things in ways that weren’t exactly typical of your average guy.  Like his dreams, it was something that he couldn’t do anything about and preferred not to discuss with anyone.  Not even his best friend who was sitting across from him.

    “Okay, just checking,” Graham said before taking another bite out of his sandwich.  He had known Kyle for over 10 years, and knew better than to dig any deeper.  They’d come from similar backgrounds: abandoned since childbirth, in and out of foster care, finally winding up on the streets before their teenage years, so it seemed fitting that they should run into each other and wind up sticking together.  Graham had been 4 years older (Kyle being only 12 when they met), but he couldn’t help but take him under his wing and helping him learn how to survive.  Graham’s big break came after a run-in with police over a few stolen wallets when he was 19.  The judge saw something in him that he hadn’t even seen himself, and put him through one of those boot camps to turn kids’ lives around.  To his surprise, it worked.  He wanted to turn his life around, and now, at 23, he had made a name for himself as a member of the police department.  Of course, he had Kyle sold on the idea right away and now got to refer to him as “rookie.”

    “So, anyway,” Kyle said, trying to sound casual, “anything big going on today?”

    “Nah, it should be pretty quiet.  After the drug-bust last week, most of the big leaguers will be laying low.  I’ll probably take you  along with me tonight, if you don’t mind.”

    “Sure.”  He brightened at this.  A slow night for Graham was still better than sitting in a patrol car clocking people getting off the highway or getting puked on by drunks.  Plus, Graham had taught him everything he knew about fighting, and he was always at his best when they teamed up.  “We should probably get going pretty soon.  In the time it will take you to find your badge, we’ll be late.”

    Graham shrugged.  “Everyone needs a little disorganization here and there.”

    Kyle got up and threw away his trash.  He turned around and bumped into a tall woman with long blonde hair.  “Sorry,” he said.

    “It’s my fault,” she replied, then her blue eyes got wide and the color drained from her face.

    “Are you okay?” Kyle asked.  He motioned for Graham, who got up and hurried over to them.  “Get a chair, I think she’s going to pass out,” he said.

    “No, no, I’m alright,” the woman said.  “Sorry, I, uh, just thought I saw something.”

    “A ghost, by the looks of it,” Graham remarked.

    She smiled.  “Something like that.”  She looked at Kyle, studying him with great intent.  “You look a lot like someone I once knew a long time ago.  Maybe a close relative?”

    “I’m afraid I don’t know who,” Kyle answered.  “I was orphaned, so I couldn’t tell you anything about my family.”

    “You sure you’re alright, ma’am?” Graham asked.

    “I’ll be fine.  Thank you, though.”

    “Alright, bud, we’d better get going.”

    She watched the pair of them walk away.  There was no mistaking that she had found the one she sought.  She had been waiting 19 years for this, but never expected this turn of events.  Of course, she wouldn‘t be the same person that she was back then, but this was going to change things.  “Well, well,” she said to herself.  “This is going to be interesting.  We’ll have to handle this a little more carefully.”  She began to follow them from a distance, her eyes fixed on Kyle.  “Won’t we, my lady?”

Chapter 2

    As usual, Graham was late for shift.  He had Kyle drive him to the station so he could take the blame (“That’s what friends are for, right?” Graham had joked).  Kyle still had a few hours before he needed to report for duty so he returned home to work out for a bit.  He practiced some basic martial arts routines for about an hour followed by a rigorous cardio session.  He had always pushed himself to the limit when he exercised.  He felt as though he needed to prepare for something, something far more serious than the day-to-day problems facing a street cop.  It drove him toward some unspecific goal, one that he had felt deep inside all his life.  It was as though he had  left something unfinished.

    Finally feeling satisfied with his workout, Kyle was about to turn on the shower when there was a knock at the front door.  He felt a chill from the strange birthmark on his shoulder.  He considered answering the door, then decided against it.  They weren’t expecting company and he had to go to work soon.  He was about to pull off his t-shirt when he heard a voice from the living room.

    “Um… Hello?”

    Had he left the door unlocked?  Stupid.  He shook his head and turned off the faucet.  Nothing he could do now but see  what was going on.  As he walked into the living room, he saw a blond woman who looked familiar.

    “Can I help you with something?” he asked, trying not to sound irritated.

    “I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion,” she said, “but we have some important things to discuss, and I wanted to do it in private.  This is going to be… awkward, to say the least.”

    Kyle looked puzzled.  “Okay, I think you have the wrong place.”

    “You really don’t remember me, do you?”

    “Wait,” Kyle said.  He did remember something about her.  “You’re the lady from the mall earlier.  But why-”  He stopped, noticing that not only was the door still locked and bolted, but his tennis shoes were still sitting against it, undisturbed.  He eyed the woman suspiciously.  The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and his shoulder was now tingling.  “What’s going on?”

    “It’s okay,” she said.  “I’m a friend.  An old friend.  One who can answer a lot of questions for you.”

    He wanted to take a defensive stance but found that he couldn’t.  There was something in her eyes that made him feel like crying, both with sadness and with joy.  His mind was racing.  What was this feeling?  Why was he shaking?  Something seemed to be just out of reach in his mind.  Something that he wanted to remember, that he needed to remember, but he couldn’t quite.  “I don’t know what your talking about,” he stammered.

    “There are a lot of things you don’t understand yet,” she continued.  “About where you came from, and who you are.  You have yet to discover your true self.”

    “And so you just decide to drop in and tell me,” Kyle replied.  “What can you possibly know about me?”

    She smiled a warm, knowing smile.  “For starters, I can tell you that the symbol on your back is not just some elaborate birthmark, as you no doubt have come to believe.”

    Kyle’s defenses crumbled.  He’d never shown it to anyone but Graham.  “How did you…?”

    “It’s a crest..  It signifies you as heir to the greatest power known to our people.  It is the symbol of the line of Alexandria, the noblest family in our world.  It is the Star of Alexandria.”

    “Our world?” Kyle repeated.  “So now I’m an alien?”

    “Haven’t you ever felt out of place?  Haven’t you felt like something was missing, like you were somehow… different?  Or remembered things that seemed like someone else’s memories?  Have you ever thought of a place that is unlike anywhere in this world?  Or perhaps, dreamt of it?

    Kyle’s eyes widened.  There was a spark of a vision in his mind.  Three people in some dark place.  A man robed in black, someone who was dying, and a third.  A young, blonde-haired woman who was seriously injured.  She looked like she could have been the mysterious visitor’s daughter.  Kyle dropped to his knees, feeling like a gunshot when off in his head.  The vision (or perhaps a memory) was trying to force its way through.  “N…Na…” Kyle muttered.  He found himself lying on a cold stone floor.  The man in black was gone, and the blonde was sitting next to him, crying.  Kyle reached up with a trembling hand.  And then, as quickly as it came, it was gone and he was back in the living room and he recognized the older version of that girl standing before him.  “Narissa?”  he said.  “That’s your name.  But how do I-?  What’s going on?  What the hell are you doing to me?”

    “I’m sorry,” Narissa said.  “I know this is sudden.  I had hoped you could live in peace.  A chain of events that was set in motion 19 years ago is coming to a head, and you are at the heart of it.  It’s a bit of ‘unfinished business,’ if you will.”

    Kyle’s head was spinning.  Nothing made any sense, yet at the same time, he felt like he understood on some level.  “I-I don’t remember…”

    “I know.  But you will, with time.”

    “Tell me who I am,” he asked, trembling.  “Please.”

    “You were our savior.  The last of your bloodline who could end the darkness that threatened to consume the world.  I was about your age at the time, and had traveled with you for quite some time, as a friend and ally.  Though we led an army against our enemy forces, in the end it was you and I who stood against the rogue warlock, Valiniko-”

    Kyle shuddered and felt a chill run down his spine at the name, as if recalling some horrible dream.  He had a brief glimpse in his mind’s eye of a shadowy figure looming over him, then it was gone.

    “I’m afraid I wasn’t much help,” Narissa admitted.  “I was nothing compared to him.  You might have destroyed him, but…”  she closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek, “he tried to finish me off, and you defended me.  As a result, he struck a fatal blow to you.  With the last of your strength, you  sacrificed what was left of your life energy to cast him into a rift between dimensions, sealing him in the depths of time and space.”

    “So, I died?”  Kyle said.  “Some hero.”

    “You saved us all.  You were able to accomplish something that none in your family had ever been able to.  The ultimate power of Alexandria, the power of death and rebirth.  It fell upon my shoulders to  guide your soul to new vessel.  I crossed the dimensions and came here, to a place with no magical energies.  I figured it would be safest for you here, in the event that what was left of our enemies should try to find you.  I found an infant that had died at birth and transferred your essence into it.  Your power would remain dormant in this dimension, since it is, mystically speaking, a dead realm.”

    “Okay,” Kyle remarked after taking it all in, “but now what good am I?”

    “You haven’t lost anything in terms of power,” she explained.  “It’s just ’sleeping,’ in a sense.  But we can awaken that power.”

    “Not that it isn’t tempting, ultimate power and all, but why do we need to do that?” Kyle asked.  “You said something before about something happening now.”

    “Yes.  See, if Valiniko had walked away from that battle, no one could have stopped him from destroying all opposition and taking control of our world.  And phase-shifting in and out of dimensions is relatively simple for those of great power, so he could have conceivably spread his rule across all worlds.  Even though he still lives, you put a stop to that.”

    “But if it’s easy to cross dimensions, why can’t he just get out of this rift you mentioned?”

    “Because,” Narissa said, “he is not in any dimension.  He is in a void between space.  Being cast in there would be a nightmare.  Uncontrollable energies wildly flare about in a hellish onslaught within the void.  He has been trapped there all this time, but the remnants of his forces  have allegedly found a way to free him.”

    “And you think they can do this?” Kyle asked.

    “I wouldn’t be here if we didn’t,” she stated.

    He sat in silence for many long minutes, thinking everything over.  It was insane, but it was too much so to be a hoax.  Too many things made sense or sounded oddly familiar.  And there was the dream.  “Wait,” he said.

    “What is it?”

    “There’s this dream I’ve had for as long as I can remember.  There is a girl who looks like you, only younger.  A dark man, that would be Valiniko.  But I never see myself.  There’s another girl though, what about her?”

    Narissa shifted uncomfortably.  “Ah, that’s the part where this gets complicated.”

    “No offense, but this whole thing has been pretty damned complicated so far,” Kyle said.

    She sighed.  “See, when I put your soul into this body, I was really emotional and kind of in a hurry.  I didn’t really check to see if things were, uh, a perfect match, so to speak.”

    His face paled.  “You don’t mean… No.”

    “Your true name is Celeste Angelique Diamonde-Alexandria.”

    He fell into another long silence, then said, “So I was a girl?  But that was a different time and place, right?  So why does that complicate things for me now?”

    Narissa sighed.  “When your power awakens, your body won’t be able to handle it.  It’s a body from this dimension, remember?  People of this world are not attuned to the mystical energies that flow within us, thus it is useless to them.  You are an anomaly here: a mystic soul in a non-magical body.  So, basically, your current body will be destroyed and you’ll be restored to your original form.”

    “You mean I’m going to turn into a girl,” Kyle said.

    “Well, technically, you’re still a girl,” she replied.

    Kyle fell into a long, brooding silence.  Now he knew why he had been abandoned at birth and why everything felt so… foreign to him.  He knew why his body always felt wrong to him.  He wondered if he would feel “whole” once he changed.  On the other hand, was he really considering this?  It was completely insane!  Other dimensions, magic powers, and he was really a girl?  All this from some random stranger who appeared out of nowhere?

    He sighed.  No matter how much he tried to rationalize it, he knew in his heart that what Narissa said was the truth.  Not that it would be any easier to decide what to do.  “I don’t…” he started, then  looked at her, the internal conflict reflected in his desperate eyes.  “This is all so…’

    “It must be quite shocking,” Narissa said.  “Like I said, I don’t think there would have been any easier way to tell you.”

    “Look,” he pleaded, “my world has been completely shaken.  I know you want me to jump up and go running off to who-knows-where and be some kind of hero, but, I… I need a little time to think about this, okay?”

    The woman closed her eyes.  It had only been a few days ago that she had been sent on this mission.  She had been reluctant to accept it, and there had been a heated argument.  She was still bitter about the outcome.

    “Very well,” she had said.  “I will go.  However, I cannot guarantee her decision.”

    “I see no reason why we shouldn’t expect her cooperation,” the Lord Regent answered.

    “And if she refuses?”

    He had almost smiled.  “She doesn’t have a choice.”

    “No,” Narissa had replied.  “She never did in the first place, did she?”  Tears welled up in her eyes.  “And now, just like then, her fate is being decided for her.”

    “It is for the good of us all.”

    She looked at Kyle.  Yes the eyes were the same as she remembered.  The face was very similar.  But her old friend had a different life now.  “The decision is yours alone to make,” she said at last.  She held out her hand and touched Kyle’s shoulder.  There was a flash, and he felt as though he had been jolted with electricity, though it wasn’t quite the same as being hit with a taser.

    “What was that?” he asked.  His shoulder burned, and he felt something rising within him.  It was powerful, surging through his body and filling him with a heightened sense of awareness.  It was like adrenaline, only… better.  Stronger.  His body started to feel strange.  He felt a tightening of his waist and swelling in his chest and hips.  He glanced over in the full-length mirror on the wall and saw, for a fleeting instant, a very confused-looking young woman standing in the middle of the room wearing his clothes.  Horrified, he looked down at his body, but nothing had changed.  The feeling was starting to subside.

    “I have released the seal on your spiritual energy,” Narissa explained.  “Now you are the only one who can fully unlock it.  If you choose to do so, your true self will awaken.  Simply touch the Star on your shoulder like so,” she stopped to demonstrate a strange hand sign  with her index and middle finger extended and slightly bent,  thumb and ring finger touching on her palm, pinky finger  curled and cocked at a slight angle.  “You will feel it awakening.  It will be stronger than what you just felt.  Then you will be restored as Celeste.  I will sense it, and will come to you at that time.  If you should decide not to awaken the power, then  so be it.  In that case, I will return in 7 days and re-seal it, and will leave you in peace.”  She moved to the door.  “Take care,” she said, and left the house.

Kyle sat in silence for the rest of the afternoon.  He never imagined anything like this.  Nor could he predict that he would be forced to make his choice much sooner than he anticipated, and that his life would be changed forever.

Washington Square was busy, as usual.  The many upscale stores and restaurants were bustling with activity inside and out as teens chatted on their phones, children threw change into the decorative fountains, and soccer moms power-walked around the small lake behind the shopping center.  Kyle didn’t know when or how he got there, but he was thankful for a place to melt into the background.  He had not gone to work, nor had he called in.  He probably could have come up with a halfway believable excuse but he had far too much on his mind.  Or would that be her mind?

    He put his head in his hands and suppressed the urge to scream.  Just thinking about it was driving him mad.  Kyle always knew something about him was different, something wasn’t right, but the revelation that had been unloaded on him was unbearable.  To find out that he had already lived one life and died, that his body was nothing more than a shell hiding his true self, that he wasn’t even from this world, that there were other worlds (magic or otherwise), and that he was supposed to have some kind of responsibility to fulfill to the people of that world, and that he had only a matter of days to try and make sense of it all and then come to some kind of decision was more than he could handle.

    And yet, there was something else that gave him comfort.  Something deep inside of him that gave him an odd familiar sense of comfort.  Ever since the mysterious woman had  touched his shoulder-

“I have released the seal…”

-he had felt it.  If he focused his thoughts inward, found that warmth inside his very being, it brought him peace for a brief moment before he would again overwhelm himself with the confusion and doubt that seemed poised to rip him to shreds.

    He stood up and walked away from the bench that he had been sitting on, following the sidewalk to wherever it would lead him.  He examined the young women as he passed them.  Some strutted on spiked heels, some bounced in short skirts, even the ones in simple t-shirts and shorts seemed to move with grace and elegance.  Many chatted without a care in the world, either to each other or on cellphones.  Some adjusted their hair in the breeze, others tossed theirs as if defying it.  Some were pretty, some were slutty, some were modest, some were professional.  Kyle studied them all and wondered in spite of himself which of the styles and characteristics he would have.  He probably wouldn’t want to attract too much attention, at least, not the kind that would have every guy within a mile staring at him.  But then, who knew what the guys in this other world were like?  He decided it might be like riding a bike, once he got things going he would probably remember what worked best for him.

    Kyle stopped.  What the hell was he thinking?  There was no way he could be expected to go through with all this.  Yet, he found that his heart had been racing in his chest at his musings.  After all, it wouldn’t be too weird, not really.  He had lived another life as a girl-

“Well, technically, you’re still a girl.”

-so it wouldn’t be like, well, like being  a guest on the Jerry Springer show or anything.  He could see it now.  “My next guest,” Jerry said in his mind, “may look like just another guy, be he’s really a magical girl from another dimension!” 

    “Bite me, Jerry,” he muttered, pushing the thought out of his head.

   
    Kyle didn’t remember how long he’d been standing in the middle of the store.  The middle was where the invisible line was drawn, the equator dividing the male hemisphere from the female hemisphere.  It wasn’t too late, he could still turn around and run out the door.  No, he had to do this.  The only way to settle this once and for all was to prove to himself how ridiculous even considering this was, so he could get on with his life.  The life he’d known until now, the life he would keep living once he put this behind him.

    He took a trembling step over the imaginary line.  There was no turning back now.  Kyle tried not to look at any clothing rack for too long.  He had a couple of t-shirts he’d picked up back in the guy hemisphere and hoped he looked like the other bored men who wandered around while their girlfriends spent all day in the dressing room.  This is madness, he thought as he tried to steady his hand enough to appear casual as he picked through a rack of denim skirts.  No, I have to do this.  Then I won’t even think about actually doing… that thing she’s asking of me.  It took longer than he thought it would to find something he thought would fit.  What the hell is so wrong with Small, Medium, Large, and so on?  I had no idea you needed a degree in physics to figure this crap out.  Eventually, he’d pieced a few things together.  He got about an inch from what might as well have been the gates of Hell as he approached it, the “intimate” section, but he decided he was already deeper in this than he wanted to be (at least, he thought that was still the case) and tried to bundle everything in the t-shirts he’d taken into No Man’s Land with him as he tried to make a discreet dash to the dressing rooms.

    On second thought, this was like facing the gates of Hell.  He should have realized sooner that a place like this would have locked dressing rooms.  It was the kind of place that thought so highly of itself that it didn’t trust you with it’s beloved fashions.  No, you needed its permission to even think about trying anything on.

    “Not a chance,” he said under his breath.   Momentum carried him forward one more step before he’d have turned around, one step that tripped the sensor in the entryway of the sacred dressing rooms, resulting in a loud musical tone that chimed throughout the area.  “Oh fu-”

    “Can I help you?”  It was the voice of the guardian of the hallowed halls of the pretentious garment store’s dressing rooms herself, as if summoned out of thin air to appear before all who had the fortitude to cross the threshold.

    “Uh… actually, I,” Kyle stammered, feeling his face turn beet-red.

    “How many do you have?”  She sure was polite, for a soulless corporate sentry.

    “Um, well, I changed my mind, so-”  It was too late.  She had plucked the bundle of clothes right out of his hands.  Never mind thoughts of what choices he was going to make about his life, he tried to will himself to die on the spot.  It didn’t work.

    “You can only take 6 items in at a time,” the saleswoman said.  “Do you want me to hold a couple of these for you?”  She must have seen the confusion about her reaction (or lack of reaction) in his face, because she gave him a warm, knowing smile.  “It’s okay,” she told him gently, “you aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last.  Relax.  Besides, it’s our job to sell the clothes, not judge the people who buy them.”

    Oh great, Kyle thought.  He’d heard of stores having “sensitivity training” about people who lived “alternative lifestyles.”  She must think that he…  “Um, it’s not what you think,” he tried to explain.  “I, uh, I’m not like, well, you know.”

    “Is it your first time?”  If she was getting some kind of sick delight in torturing him, at least she didn’t show it.  In fact, it was more like a genuine empathy.  “Really, it’s fine.  She opened a dressing room for him.  “Tell you what, just leave everything you don’t want in the room when you’re done and I’ll pick them up later, k hon?”

    Kyle obliged, if only to seek safety behind a locked door.  She said something before he closed the door, he didn’t catch what it was, but he saw that she was still holding the clothes.   After taking them, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that the 2 items she had kept were the t-shirts.  He sat down on the bench seat and stared at the things he had hung on the wall hooks.  His heart was pounding so hard he thought it might explode.  No turning back now, he reminded himself.  Just get it over with and get out.

    He removed his jeans and t-shirt.  Then, steeling his nerves, he took a skirt off the hanger.  It was a dark blue denim skirt that was about medium length, with the 2 inches or so lightly frilled.  The tag was on the side rather than the back, and the other side had a zipper.  There were no pockets.  Kyle wondered for a moment how in world you were supposed to know which way was the front, but then he remembered that the tag usually goes on the right side.  He stopped a moment to try and figure out exactly how he remembered that to begin with, then decided he didn’t really want to know, and stepped into it, pulling the skirt up to his waist and zipping the side.  It was a little loose, but more or less fit.  It would do for this little sideshow, anyway.  Next, he reached for a green tank-top but reconsidered.  The lavender tunic would go better with this skirt-

What am I DOING?

-anyway.

    “Okay.  Now let’s see how stupid this is,” he said and turned to look at himself in the mirror.  He stared at himself, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.  On the surface, it was a guy in a flowy top and jean skirt, but on his small frame and lithe body they looked natural.  For that matter, he wouldn’t have to do much with his shoulder-length hair to complete the look.  But what shocked him the most was not how it all looked, but how it all felt.  He expected to feel awkward, goofy, ashamed, or all three.  Instead he felt comfortable, normal.  He felt less out-of-sorts and more like he had remembered something he had long forgotten.  Something in the back of his mind was screaming, trying to remind him that it just simply wasn’t right.  But it felt right and for now that was all that mattered.

    He left the store carrying his purchase in a large bag.  He’d only purchased two of the three outfits he’d picked out (even got the right sizes with a little help from the saleslady), but it was a start.  A start into what, exactly, he didn’t know.  He had considered browsing the “Intimates” section after all, but decided it would be best to take things a step at a time.  Again, he wasn’t sure what a step at a time would lead to, but he felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted from him and didn’t care.

    “Madison?”  A shocked voice startled him out of his thoughts of what may or may not lie ahead and brought him back to the here and now.

    Kyle looked around and saw the familiar unmarked car pulled up at the curb.  He had almost forgotten the tiny detail of the life he’d been leading so far and the responsibilities he already carried.  “Graham, what-”

    “Never mind that,” his friend interrupted.  “What the hell are you doing here?  The Captain’s going to go ballistic.”

    “Um…” he said, trying to think of something to get him out of this.

    “Just get in, we’ll think of something on the way.”

Chapter 4

Sitting in the back seat of an unmarked police car staring (with mixed shame and longing) at the bag at his feet, Kyle was at a loss for words. He had wanted to thank Graham for covering for him, telling the Captain that he had forgotten to report for the first half of his shift before the ride-along and thus taking the blame for him. Unfortunately, he just couldn't find the words. Graham hadn't even asked him about the purchase, and he was afraid that if the started talking, the subject would come up. Or that he would just blurt it out if he opened his mouth. How was he supposed to just sever his ties to his friend and his career and go running off to some other world? Maybe he didn't have to. He could just forget the last couple of days ever happened and go on with life. But if he did that, would he keep going on feeling like his life was missing something?

"Yo, Madison!"

Kyle had been so deep in his inner struggle that he hadn't even noticed Graham had stopped the car and picked up his partner, who was now staring at him waiting for a response.

"Hey Torres," he said. "Sorry, I was just, uh, thinking about something."

"Man, why is it so quiet in here? I thought you wanted to come with us and see what real police work is." Nathan Torres had been Graham's partner ever since he made Vice. He had hung out with Graham and Kyle several times and had passed out enough on their couch that Graham often joked about making him pay part of the rent. Kyle wasn't nearly as outgoing as Torres (or most of their fellow officers on the force, for that matter), but he always had a good time when he was around.

"Ah, you know," Graham said, "it's been a long day. Did you find any good leads?"

Nate had been roaming the streets for a couple of hours, checking the usual spots for drug deals, prostitution, street gangs, or anyone else who looked like they might be up to something. "Not much. Everyone is still laying low after that business with Zarnov last week." Dimitri Zarnov had been running a nice operation for quite some time. His network was efficient and well organized. It had taken four months worth of investigations to find how all the pieces of the organization fit together and how to hit it the hardest, which they succeeded in the previous week. Graham and Torres had led the sting, which resulted in acquiring several million dollars in drugs and weapons, not to mention the arrests of all the key players. All of them except Zarnov himself, who was believed to have fled the country and had several divisions of Interpol searching for him ever since.

"Can't say that I blame them," Graham said, grinning for the first time since he had picked up Kyle. "They're probably all too afraid to even think about stepping outside now."

A few hours later, they hadn't had much action except for chasing off a couple of street punks without even getting out of the car. They stopped at a street where lonely guys could pick up a "date" for the evening and waited for something to happen.

"Hmm," Graham muttered after several minutes.

"What?"

"That guy standing over there," he said, pointing to a row of abandoned apartment buildings. "I think this is the third time tonight I've seen him."

Torres sat up, a spark of interest in his eyes. "You think so?"

"I don't know, maybe. It's hard to say for sure. Probably just imagining things."

"Yeah," Nate agreed. "You see one punk, you've seen 'em all." A moment later, they saw another figure approach the man and they disappeared into an alley nearby. "Now things are getting more interesting."

Graham opened his door, making as little noise as possible. "Let's check it out."

Kyle, still not saying more than a word or two all evening, got out of the car with them. He wished he had gone by the house to get his sidearm, but decided to go with his friends just the same. He was in desperate need to take his mind off of his current situation, and what better way to do that then get some adrenaline pumping? He followed them to the alley's entrance and waited for them to give him the all-clear signal before moving in. They couldn't see or hear anything in the darkness ahead of them. Torres drew his pistol and switched off the safety, motioning towards where he assumed the men would be. Graham nodded and flicked on his flashlight as they stepped between the buildings. Kyle could feel his pulse pounding in his head. Every muscle in his body tensed, waiting to spring into action, but as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light ahead of him, he saw nothing but a narrow alley that ended in a high chain-link fence. They walked slowly, Graham and Nate with guns aimed straight ahead and Kyle following behind.

Suddenly, several things seemed to happen at once. There was a sound of a few engines approaching from the street, and the three of them turned around as light flooded the alley from oncoming headlights. Something moved behind a dumpster by the fence. The engines stopped as the vehicles were turned off and several doors were opened. Torres pushed Kyle aside and yelled. He fired a shot towards the dumpster just as a second shot rang out. Kyle rolled when he hit the ground and looked back at Torres, who had dropped to his knees clutching his right shoulder. The man behind the dumpster staggered toward them, gasping and choking, holding his throat as blood poured down over his hands and the front of his shirt before he collapsed and asphyxiated. Several shadows danced across the walls of the buildings around them as they heard the sounds of many guns being cocked.

"We meet at last," voice called out from a silhouetted figure in front of the headlights of the cars that now trapped them in the alley.

"Dimitri!" Graham cried. "You stupid bastard! It's already over for you. Killing us won't change anything."

"Perhaps not," he replied as he and his men walked towards them. "But consider it a repayment for everything you took from me."

Kyle stood frozen in shock. There were six of them altogether, three holding pistols, two with shotguns. Dimitri himself didn't have a weapon, at least, he hadn't drawn one yet. There was no escape from this alley, no one around to call for help, Torres was injured, and he himself had no weapons at all. They were going to die here.

"Heh..." Nate gave a gasping laugh. "I'm not done... taking from you... yet!" He let go of his bleeding shoulder and fired as several gunshots echoed through the darkened streets. Zarnov and his men seemed to be fine, but Nathan Torres lay several yards away with no less than a dozen bullets in him and half his face blown off.

"NO!" Kyle screamed. The back of his shoulder was burning, the birthmark pulsing. He felt as though there was a tremendous pressure inside of him, like it would erupt any minute. Maybe Zarnov's men had forgotten about him since Nate's desperate attack, or maybe they just hadn't noticed him since he wasn't wearing a badge around his neck, but he was able to charge the man closest to him. Kyle grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and twisted it out of its owner's grip before smashing him in the face with the wooden stock of the weapon. Unfortunately, before he could chamber a round, he had four guns aimed at him.

"Wait," Dimitri said holding up a hand at his men. "I admire your courage. You will die last." He waved a finger at Kyle and one of the men shot him in the ankle. Seeing him drop the gun as he fell, they turned their attention to Graham.


Kyle felt his leg throbbing as the world came back into focus. He had gone into shock and passed out. He rolled over onto his stomach, stifling a scream as he moved his wounded ankle. He managed to get up on his knees and started to feel nauseous as the blood rushed to his head. He saw Graham lying at Dimitri's feet.

"Get on your knees," the druglord snarled. "Beg me to kill you."

Graham sat up, wincing in pain. Blood streamed from his nostrils and mouth. It was clear he had been beaten nearly to death. "N-no," he said in a hoarse voice.

Dimitri kicked him in the sternum, knocking the air out of his lungs. "I can do this all night. Beg."

Graham regained his balance as he spit blood on Zarnov's white designer suit. "Screw... you."

Cursing in Russian, Dimitri reached in his jacket and drew a handgun, placing the barrel between Graham's eyes.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Kyle watched. He had to do something. They couldn't die like this. Then, he was struck by a moment of clarity. There was something he could do, if it would even work. The "power" inside him. If it was as great as Larissa had said, maybe he would be able to stop this. But, if he used it, there was no going back. Could this power really save he and Graham at all? He didn't know, but it was his only chance.

Kyle made his choice, and made the hand sign that was shown to him as he tried to recall the incantation in a long-forgotten language of another world. Muttering the words, he reached for the mark on his shoulder.

Graham felt a wave of dizziness pass over him, but kept his eyes locked with Dimitri's. It took every ounce of strength to keep from losing consciousness and he was determined to look his killer in the eye. Go ahead, you bastard, he thought, pull the trigger already. He could feel the tension in the air, like static. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Graham then realized that it was more than just tension as he began to feel a strange, rhythmic pulsing of air around him. He shifted his gaze to the left, and could have sworn he saw his friend glowing right before he was thrown backwards by a sudden gust of wind. He heard men shouting and saw had time to see his attackers had been thrown as well before his head struck the concrete and everything went black.

"What the hell?" Dimitri shouted. He stood up, fighting against the gusting wind that seemed to well up from nowhere. He looked towards the western wall, where the source of the wind was coming from, and didn't believe what he was seeing. The younger cop, the one who had charged them head-on earlier, was standing upright glaring at him. Debris from the alley was blowing all over in the rushing air, and it seemed to be coming from this kid, not to mention the fact that there was some kind of dull light around him.

"Boss!" one of his men cried. "What is this?"

"Kill him!" Zarnov replied, and they opened fire.

Kyle didn't even feel the bullets that tore through his body. He felt only the surging power within and the warmth surrounding him. He faltered a moment, his mind was trying to tell him that he had just been killed, but regained his footing as the light grew brighter around him. He felt his body throbbing all over, then there was only blinding light. For a moment, he felt lighter than air, as if he was the light and had no body, then he tingled with sensation all over. His shoulders didn't feel as wide but his hips were expanding. His chest was swelling, his sides, butt, and legs seemed to be curving. there was warmth between his legs, inside of him. He felt renewed within the cocoon of light, refreshed. He was alive, truly alive, no longer held back by unseen bonds.

Dimitri could hear his men yelling, but was paralyzed with fear before the light that blinded him. It was like a small sun had appeared in the middle of the city. He wanted to run, but his legs simply wouldn't obey. He was certain that it would burst at any time, but after several minutes it finally began to fade. At last it was gone, and though the alley was still lit from the headlamps of his cars, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the contrasting darkness. The kid was gone, but now there was a nude woman standing where he had been. She was stunningly beautiful, and carried an air of nobility, but she could have passed for his twin sister. She even had the same neck-length hair, although rather than being pulled back in a bobbed ponytail, hers hung loose, framing her face. The eyes that seemed to pierce him were the same as the boy's had been. What was going on?

For many seconds, no one moved or made a sound. One of the thugs with Zarnov had his pistol aimed at the boy when that light hit, and now it was aimed at a girl. Part of him wanted to shoot her, but he couldn't seem to pull the trigger. At last, he managed a twitch of his finger. It was slight, but enough to break the silence with an ear-splitting bang. She raised her hand in an instant, and a barrier of soft blue light appeared around her, deflecting the bullet.

This is impossible, Dimitri thought to himself. It can't be happening!

The girl's eyes shifted momentarily to the far left of the alley, where Graham laid motionless. The next instant, he vanished and was lying on the ground behind her, within the glowing aura still wrapped around her. She turned her attention to Dimitri and his thugs who were still trying to make sense of what was going on. Her arm was still outstretched, palm up, and she spread her fingers wide. Swirling rays of energy began to converge in front of her hand into a white, glowing ball of pure magic. Her eyes narrowed, and the mass of light started to grow rapidly.

Larissa stood on the roof of a tall office building, gazing out at the city below. She wanted to rush straight to the boy, but held herself back. She had felt it clearly, that sudden outpouring of power. In a world devoid of magic, it took no effort at all to sense it. However, she thought it would be best to wait it out and see what happened. She had no idea what Kyle had been through that evening, she only knew that it seemed he had awakened his powers fully, that she would finally see her old friend and mentor again. Her knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on her staff. No, she should just wait. The transformation must have been awkward, and he would probably want some time to adjust, to let reality soak in. She turned and looked towards the middle of the city where a faint white glow had caught her eye.

And then she felt it. She had been absorbed in her own thoughts and hadn't even noticed the enormous level of energy coming from that light. It never occurred to her until that moment that Kyle might not be able to control the power. Before her terrified eyes, a massive explosion rocked the heart of the city. Her screams were drowned out by the blast, and the accompanying shockwave knocked her on her back. She got up quickly, staring out at the rising wall of smoke that blocked out the moon and stars in the sky.

"What have we done?"