The Return of Odyssey
Thanks to Robert Hudson, who who plays Kharis!

In the driver’s seat of the Bronco, Kevin Armstrong is tonelessly singing what sounds to Cassie and Kharis to be a butchered Hebrew pop song. Next to Cassie, Moira winces as he hits a particularly off – and high – note, then jokes, "Kev, are we there yet?"

PRIMUS and the FBI’s number one fugitive stops singing and shoots his wife an amused look, "Just about," he says as the car passes the brightly lit PRIMUS base on their left. Armstrong, Cassie notices, doesn’t even look over.

Cassie pats Moira's hand. "I understand," she says, smiling. "Tony sings in the shower, except on rare occasions when he does it in front of an entire museum of people. Of course, Tony thinks he sounds wonderful," Cassie whispers and then screws up her face into a wince. "One of the three tenors he's not."

Glancing back up at the PRIMUS facility, Cassie wonders where Maria Chow was. How ironic, Cassie thinks. Here I am in the car with PRIMUS MOST wanted on the way to hopefully battle cultists while PRIMUS sleeps as if nothing is wrong.

It had been almost two full days before the Wild Geese had gotten a lead on the pseudo-Cassie’s plans, and things had moved quickly from there. A team of Wild Geese operatives was already in place on Alcatraz, where they had followed two men they believed to be in cahoots with them. The woman impersonating Cassie they had seen not at all in 24 hours, and Cassie had begun to despair that she had disappeared forever. However, an hour ago, Ronan O’Neill radioed Armstrong and Moira at the Marin house, to let them know of the sudden teleportation of the impostor onto the island. Kharis, it was hoped, would be able to affect a transfer of Cassie’s soul back into her own body at the peak moment of the evil sorceress’ own summoning.

News of the imposter showing up had relieved Cassie. At least we know where she is now, Cassie thinks.

Crowded into the back seat of the Bronco, next to Moira, is Selena. The woman with the silvery aura has remained silent during most of the previous discussions, offering only a few comments of her own. "I can feel something starting to happen," Selena says.

Cassie pauses for a moment and extended her limited senses. "I can't feel anything," she sighes. "But I can smell kelp and if that's any indication, something stinky is definitely up."

Kharis stares off towards the Bay and Alcatraz for a moment, as if he could somehow see the island prison and the ritual preparations taking place there, and frowns to himself for an instant. "I think it is early yet for the actual ritual to begin. It is more likely that they are erecting Wards to prevent interference or detection by others."

"No," Selena says firmly. "Something is starting to happen, and it isn’t wards, either."

'Why would she..." Kharis muses aloud, "There should be no reason to begin this early... Unless... Unless she were foolish - or arrogant - enough to effect the summoning without a full ritual team." He glances at Kevin, "There have been no other arrivals?"

Kevin Armstrong radios his team, already on Alcatraz, and says a few moments later, "They haven’t seen anything yet," he says. "Just the woman and her assistants preparing for a spell. According to Ronan they are still about an hour away from being ready enough to bring whatever it is they’re planning."

The Bronco pulls onto a dock, and through the thick fog, a woman’s form can be made out, approaching the vehicle. "This way," a slender redhead says to the group with a Dutch accent, gesturing towards a moored boat.

The trip across the choppy water – normally enough to make Cassie queasy – is oddly soothing, and passes quickly. The boat is oddly quiet, and in the fog, sounds are baffled even further. "They still have no idea we’re here," the redhead – Annike, Cassie remembers hearing her called yesterday – says.

Great I finally get my sea legs and its when were getting ready to fight cultists to hopefully get my body back, Cassie thinks. Why couldn't I have handled the ocean so well when Tony took me fishing. Cassie shudders slightly remembering that voyage and the hours of dramamine induced sleep.

Moira shakes her head slightly, and looks at her husband. "I don’t like it either," he says, as she opens her mouth to speak. He looks at Kharis. "Our suits –" he glances at what the three Wild Geese are wearing – "will protect us from the sight and hearing of the cultists. Can you provide similar camouflage for yourself, Cassie, and Selena?"

Kharis takes his eyes from the fog-shrouded island ahead of them, glances at the two women seated next to him, and nods, "Yes, although I should wait until we are on the island itself before so doing. She will have wards to detect the approach of ones such as I over the Bay, but in her arrogance I think she will forgo setting any over the island itself. In any event, the energies of her spell will obscure my presence sufficiently that such a minor casting will go unnoticed. It will, however, require that the ladies remain close to me for it to be most effective." A second later he adds apologetically, "No more than a meter or so - I would not have you think I meant for you to cling to me like frightened children, afraid of the dark. "

"How about frightened adults worried about cultists," Cassie quips. "I'm not in any condition to be walking long distances anyway, so I doubt I'll be straying to far from your side."

"A prospect I would find most appealing were I somewhat younger," Kharis replies with an odd, but serious smile.

He pauses for a moment, then looks back at Kevin, "Is there... other garb you would wear when combat begins? This raiment," he indicates the stealth suits, "seems to be lacking in protective armor."

"Appearances are deceiving," Armstrong says, sounding amused. "I don’t think you need to worry about our equipment."

"Very well," Kharis replies, eyeing the garments again dubiously. "You should know your own equipment and its limitations better than I."

Once the boat reaches the secluded dock Kevin had chosen for their landing, Kharis gently lifts Cassie into his arms and steps out onto the fog-dampened dock, glancing around for a moment before looking down at her. "I must set you down for a moment Cassandra," he murmurs quietly.

"Don't wory I'm not going anywhere," she says, peering through the fog, trying to locate their destination. Cassie is somewhat subdued. It's hard to be cheerful when you know the next few hours may determine if you live or die and the fate of the world. I don't think I ever really appreciated the stakes in this paranormal business. I was being a bit too naive, Cassie thinks.

Kharis gently sets Cassie down at his feet and straightens up, beckoning Selena closer with one hand. Once she moves close enough, he holds it up again to stop her, "That should be sufficient I think," he says quietly. "Please, both of you be still for a moment."

Raising his hands over his head, he throws them wide and lifts his face up to the night skies beseechingly. A moment passes, and then the fog around them thickens, twisting in shape and form until a vague humanoid form can be seen within it, eyes made of sparkling drops of water regarding them suspiciously as it whirls about them in a soundless dance.

Kharis lowers his arms and bows formally to the moving form, "I require your aid Spirit of the Air," he murmurs softly. "As is the custom since the days when thy kind walked the wind freely, and Flirr'thee'nahhh, the Prince of the Clouds swore his people to aid me and mine when called upon in time of need. I speak the Words - Daheel, Murahas, Shonissaee - and thee must obey."

A faint, wispy voice works its way through the fog shrouding the dock, a whisper carried on a breeze from a world away, "Who are you to claim the rights of the ancient pact? Who are you to speak the Words? Who calls me?" 

Kharis merely looks at the now motionless figure hovering in front of him for a moment, then says, "You know me Spirit of the Air, as thee and thine have always known. Come closer if you cannot see clearly, perhaps the filth that fouls the air here has dulled eyes that outrange the eagles."

The cloudy form moves a trifle closer, as if peering at Kharis with weak eyes, then recoils suddenly, as if struck at by a snake. "Forgive me Master! I did not know... It has been so long...." it whistles, almost groveling, "How may I serve you?"

Raising a hand to point at Cassie and Selena, Kharis answers, "Shield myself and these two women from prying eyes Spirit of the Air. Wrap us in your concealing mists until I release thee, and I shall remember your name unto your Prince when next he and I speak."

"At once Master," the spirit replies worshipfully. Spinning about the three of them again, it stretches itself out, surrounding them in a small pocket of mist that seems to filter out the normal fog covering the dock and leave them in a pocket of still, silent air.

Kharis glances about them, nods once, and bends over to pick Cassie up in his arms again. "That should suffice for such as these," he says quietly. The slyph will shield us from their prying eyes and ears until it is too late."

"Where does Moira find these people?" was all that Cassie could wonder. Now if only he were doing tours at the De Young, we really see people coming in, she thinks.

With Kharis’ spell in place, the five – Annike remains with the boat – begin to navigate, Kharis carrying Cassie’s fragile body, up the steps and through gates. Already warned of the positions of the three cultists by Ronan O’Neill, they travel completely unchallenged, the only sounds they hear are those of the oddly-pitched fog horns. Moira and Kevin are invisible to Cassie, both in sight and sound, as they make their way up to a wide level.

The fake Cassie has set up the area for her summoning in a large courtyard. She is wearing Cassie’s amulet, and the others – those stolen from the British Museum – are spread out in a circle around her. Blood outlines interlocking circles on the concrete ground, with the sorceress in their midst. "Arrogant indeed," Kharis hisses, "to attempt such a thing with only two such assistants. Arrogant... or gifted beyond the norm for such vermin."

"I wouldn't call someone who relies on stolen power and the death of children gifted," Cassie softly hisses. "Demented maybe but not gifted."

"There are many roads to power Cassandra," Kharis replies, sounding old all of the sudden. "I have seen them all - each has their costs and their rewards for the seeker, but none are without a price." He turns to her with eyes that are suddenly too old for any living thing to bear the weight of, "Regardless of the way she has achieved her power, she has it now... And I must see that she does no harm with it... 

"We," Cassie says, putting emphasis on the word. "We need to see she doesn't do any harm. Hey I may not have paranormal powers any more, but if nothing else I can bore her to death by reciting Aristophanes in Greek. And I'm willing to bet that Selena has a few surprises up her sleeves. Don't count us out. We all want to help. If nothing else, us good guys have teamwork on our side."

Selena grins. "Well, maybe not up my sleeves," she says to Cassie, with a glance to the skin-tight costume.

Kharis blinks, and looks down at Cassie for a moment, as if seeing her for the first time. "I... am not used to operating with companions," he admits quietly. "It requires some... adjustment... after many years spent standing guard against the Dark alone."

He glances back down at the ritual site for a moment, begins to turn back - and pauses in mid-movement as a curious expression crosses his face. Looking down, he brings up a neatly manicured hand from his lap and stares, as if fascinated, at his slender, powerful fingers as they tremble before his eyes. "How... interesting..."

Selena hovers about six inches off the ground, close to Kharis and Cassie, and she shakes her head as the sound of a woman’s voice – Cassie’s voice – becomes louder, eerier with the intonations of her spell. Suddenly, Selena pales, and recognition dawns on her face. "Oh, by the holy name of the Goddess!" she whispers. "It’s HER."

"Who?" Kharis whispers, snapping his head around towards Selena. "You know this creature? What can you tell me of her? Anything - anything at all could be important when the battle begins."

Selena shakes her head slightly. "It is far too long of a story to get into here. Suffice it to say, she is someone who has had nearly the same training as I, but five years ago our paths diverged sharply, and she swore she would see me ruined."

"Great," Cassie mutters, "a cultists on a quest for vengeance. Like just plain cultists wasn't bad enough to begin with. What I wouldn't give for a plain old bank robbery right now. If she's trying to get her vengeance on you, why didn't she try this stunt on the East Coast?"

"Because Cassandra," Kharis sighs softly, placing a hand on Cassie's arm, "you were here - and she needed your body and its connection to the amulet to achieve her goals."

"I never felt really specially-connected to the amulet, " Cassie says. "I guess I always just kind of felt lucky I got it and then the responsibility to do some good with it. I'm not like Selena. She's connected to a goddess. I'm just an assistant museum curator."

"The amulet chose you Cassandra," Kharis corrects softly. "I know not why, or how it made its choice, but that much is clear. You have been touched by magic, and for good or ill your life can never be the same again." He looks at her penetratingly for a moment, then adds, "I very much doubt that any 'mere' assistant museum curator would have displayed the courage and determination that you have shown these last days. Do not dismiss yourself so lightly. 

"I think," Selena says, "Rather, I know, from what Miret has told me, that it is nothing so simple as who has the amulet. There are bloodlines that are required. Only those descended from Miret, as I am, can be her priestess or wield her powers."

"So are you saying that she may have stolen my body because of genetically who I am?" Cassie asks. "Listen I know you haven't met my parents, but they're like five generations of Greek Orthodox. I don't think I'm related to any Middle Eastern priestesses. Unless somebody in my family isn't telling the whole truth."

"If you look back at classical Greek history," Selena says, "Especially at the Persian Wars, you can see that there were many ‘Greek’ – Athenian or Spartan -- settlements in Ionia that were either conquered by the Persians (and subsequently regained) or which were strongly influenced by the Persian culture of the time through traders and scholars," Selena explains. "Intermarriage was common enough." She pauses, and cocks her head slightly, regarding Cassie with large brown eyes that shine silver. "The Goddess I serve," she says, "Is far older than Athens or Sparta."

"I don't know, this is all pretty strange," Cassie says. "I guess I would have thought the amulet would have been handed down then generation after generation and not just luckily finding me. I was raised as a Greek Orthodox and well, we never worshipped a goddess. No offense meant. It's just, well my mom would say I was going to hell for just listening to this type of talk. And she'd give me a stern lecture about there being no goddess and not to worship false idols and then she'd probably curse me a couple of times just for good measure. I don't know what to believe."

"Believe what you find in your heart," Selena says. "I was not what I would consider to be the most faithful – or devout – of the descendants I was raised with. My Calling was more than a small surprise."

 'Selena's advice is sound," Kharis interjects softly. "If you follow what you feel in your heart then, no matter what others will say, you are being true to yourself - not the self that they would have you be."

"Thanks for the advice," Cassie says, smiling. "I've never really been able to talk about this with Tony. It's hard for him to understand and well Maria Chow, it's just different with her. She's an Avenger and for them it's duty. Anyways, it's nice to talk to someone who wasn't always hurling thunderbolts around. Too bad I didn't get to have you as a sister. Mine had a terrible practice of ignoring me or pulling my hair when I was younger. Now they just ignore me."

"When this is all over," Selena says quietly, "We will have much to talk about. There is more than just a tenuous blood bond between us now."

"Is the sorceress another Chosen then?" Kharis asks Selena, "One who failed her Test and was passed over or rejected? Whose was she?"

"Not Chosen, though she – and everyone else – believed her to be. When the time came for the Choosing, though, she stood as though the goddess was within her. However, the Goddess was not amused at this fabrication, and she was subsequently cast out," Selena explains in a whisper.

"I don't suppose we could hope for a repeat performance of the goddess casting her out here?" Cassie whispers back.

 "I would not expect it," Selena says. "Her power is limited now to only those places which have been kept holy for her."

Abruptly, Kevin Armstrong reappears next to the group as well, from their shelter behind a guard tower. "They are still unaware of us," he says to Kharis, his voice low. "We are prepared to take out the two support personnel whenever you give the word. I am concerned, however, that you will not be able to get down there fast enough."

"That should not present a great difficulty," Kharis replies, returning his eyes to the sorceress below them after a brief glance at Kevin upon his arrival, "although I will require Selena's assistance to transport Cassandra to the ritual site. It would be... unwise... for me to be transporting her when the vermin below see me." He turns towards Kevin, "Their reaction is likely to be... extreme."

Cassie shifts uncomfortably. Damn I wish I could walk, she thinks.

Nearly a half-hour passes, with the sorceress’ voice growing hoarse with her calling out to her evil gods. The wind begins to howl, swirling through the old prison, and icy rain begins to fall. There is only a red light that shines from the amulet around the sorceress’ neck to illuminate the scene below them. The long black hair whips in the wind as she calls out a final challenge – and Kharis realizes the moment of the spell’s greatest power is upon him.

"I think that's our cue," Cassie whispers.

Rising to his feet, Kharis nods to Selena and Cassie and steps to one side, moving away from them as if to draw fire fom casie's frail form. Throwing his arms wide, he shimmers, as if waves of heat were rising from the ground and obscuring him, and begins to change, his dark clothing fading away into shadows - banished by the light that springs up from nowhere and envelops him in an envelope of warm sunlight that dazzles the eyes for a split-second before receding.

As it leaves, Kharis is revealed to be wearing a nearly skintight suit of gold and green armor that covers his entire body except for the face. The arms and legs of the armor are composed of a golden metal that rises in bands from his fingertips and the toes of his boots, to just below his shoulders and halfway up his thighs respectively. A chestpiece of the same banded golden metal rises from his groin to just above the bottom of his ribcage. His neck and shoulders are covered by a short mantle of the same material, the mantle ending just beyond the tops of his pectoral muscles. All areas of his body not covered by the golden bands are, instead, sheathed in a supple green metal that seems to flow seamlessly into and out of the bands.

His head is covered by a headdress reminiscent of those worn by ancient pharaohs, with a tail descending from it on either side of his face to fall almost to his shoulders. The inner surfaces of the headdress that can be seen around the curve of his face are formed from the same banded golden metal as much of the rest of his armor, as are the tails that fall from it. The headdress' outer surface is obscured by the cowl of an emerald green cloak that matches the green portions of his armor, the cowl fitting snugly against the headdress, and coming to a slight point over Kharis' forehead. The rest of the cape passes under the golden mantle in some seamless fashion, falling to midcalf behind him.

"And the press called my costume outrageous," Cassie whispers to Selena, grinning. "I wonder what they'd say if they saw Kharis."

Selena grins back, showing teeth. "At least you haven’t made the Observer’s worst dressed list for three years straight," she says. "But at least the costume keeps people from looking too closely at my face."

Turning to Selena and Cassie, Kharis points to a spot next to the ritual site below them. "I will need her there once the transference begins," he intones, his voice somehow deeper and oddly comforting. "If there is a problem, and the sorceress gains the upper hand you must flee with Cassandra - should I be that sorely pressed, I cannot guarantee anything other than denying the entry of her Master to this world."

 "Good luck," Cassie says before Kharis floats off. Then, turning toward Selena, she adds, "I don't know about you Selena, but I have no intention of leaving here until this is finished once and for all. If that sorceress gets the upper hand, I'm not leaving Kharis here to fight it all alone. I may be stuck in this body, but that doesn't mean I can't crawl over and at least trip her if I have to."

"So you don't worry about me," Cassie adds, setting her mouth in a firm line. "Why don't we just watch each other's back and teach this woman you don't mess with us." 

Selena nods. "I would do the same, were I in your position."

Turning back to the ritual site, he pauses for the briefest of moments and then lifts up into the air silently and floats out into space, descending rapidly towards the ritual below them. "Enough!" he roars down at the sorceress and her assistants below him in a voice grown impossibly loud, the echoes reverberating like thunder off of the silent stone walls around them. "This shall not continue!"

Not even a full second past that and there many odd popping sounds, just before the two assistants fall to the ground in heaps. The woman below may wear Cassie’s face, but the red-faced wrath she turns at the sorcerer is inhuman.

"Boy I/she doesn't look too happy," Cassie mutters.

 "Your Master shall not enter this world sorceress - as Sphynx has stood barring the portals of reality to Its kind since time immemorial, so stands he today," Kharis thunders, waving a hand towards her in a beckoning gesture, as if inviting the stone beneath her feet to rise up - which it obligingly does, wreathing the sorceress in a casing of bloodied stone in the blink of an eye.

 Settling to the ground, Kharis spares a momentary glance towards the prone bodies of the sorceress' two assistants, and then turns his attentions back to the stone-covered form before him, raising his hands as if to bring more stone up to cover the motionless figure. Instead, a spiral of light rises up from the ground, working its way around the sorceress' form and beginning to rotate in a counter-clockwise motion. Raising them once again, Kharis summons another spiral up from an unoccupied patch of stone and turns to beckon Selena and Cassie down.

As he does so, the stone encasing the sorceress crack with a sharp popping sound, a thousand tiny lines of crimson light spreading across its surface like water sheeting off a pane of glass, and then explodes outward with a roar like a hundred boulders grinding together, sending shards of stone ricocheting about the courtyard like razor-edged shrapnel. The blast staggers Kharis forward, the slivers of stone shredding his cloak to tatters instantly, but failing to find purchase in the surface of his armor and bite into flesh.

Whirling about, he raises a hand aglow with white lightning bolts, only to be met by a shaft of blood-red energy that lifts him into the air and pins him against one of the courtyard walls, curling about him like a thing alive as it strikes sparks off of his armor, seeking a weak point to penetrate it.  

The woman laughs – a deep, rumbling cackle. "Oh, more meddlers," she says with mirth. "And with a fair amount of power, too. This will make things all the more interesting." Rubbing her hands together, red light begins to pulse wildly from the amulet, and swirl, blood-red, around her. Tendrils of the red energy begin to reach out, and grab Kharis, tossing him against a stone wall. The terrifyingly beautiful sorceress licks her lips, then turns her attention towards Selena. Behind them, Cassie sees a swirl of dark colors as Kevin Armstrong fades into the night, and out of her sight.

"You are a fool to attempt this," Selena calls down, landing lightly on the stones in front of her enemy, Cassie in her arms. "You are not powerful to control the forces you summon, Shirin." 

"You – you are an abomination!" the sorceress cries. "You who mocked the traditions, who drank in the shrine with your sister! Never did you go a day of your life without violating one rule or another of the Silver Moon. Your Calling was fake, a trick for you to inherit the Goddess’ power, Maharet!"

"Ha you're one to talk," Cassie says. "It appears to me the only power you've ever known, you've had to steal. You were never chosen."

Selena sighs, and her grip on Cassie shifts. Her voice is soothing, but Cassie can tell she is shaking with emotion. "You are wrong – I never wanted this, Shirin. None of it – you knew that, everyone did. I don’t know why the Goddess picked me, but surely you know that by stepping so far from her path you will never see the light of her face again."

"I will seek power where I will," Shirin states coldly. "You will not be allowed to stand in my way – you or that Egyptian."

Selena steps forward, the silver aura around her beginning to pulse. "Shirin, don’t – you don’t know what will happ –"

 The red bolt catches Selena by surprise, and she and Cassie are driven backwards by the blow. Cassie is flung from Selena’s arms, but before she can hit, she lands in invisible arms. "Don’t worry," she hears O’Neill say. "We will not let you fall."

"Shit, that woman is insane," Cassie says, struggling to regain composure. "Great, nothing like being a human football. Thank you, Ronan for being a quarterback par excellence. I don't think these old bones could take being dashed to the ground. Is Selena OK?"

Frantically, Shirin returns to the chanting. Light begins to swirl through the clouds, and shine forth from a growing chasm in the sky.

 Behind the women, throwing his arms wide and shouting a word that refuses to be heard by mortal ears, Kharis shatters the scarlet tendrils pinning him to the wall like glass, their fragments falling to the stone below with a faint tinkling sound that fills the silence after his cry. "Never!" he responds, "They shall not pass this, or any other night while Sphynx stands guard at the Border Between the Worlds!"

"Then you shall stand no more!" Shirin reaches into the air and draws a spear of crimson energy out of nothingness, hurling it at him with a grunt of effort, following it with another, and another until the very air reverberates with the hate she invests in each bolt.

The spears strike Kharis time after time, some skittering off of the armor he wears, but most piercing through to sink into the flesh beneath it. As each bolt sinks home, it flares up and begins to pulse in time to the heart beating within Kharis' chest, a beat that slows with each new lance that slashes into him - slows, and finally, as one last javelin of scarlet hate pierces his chest, comes to a halt. Kharis looks down at the spears imbedded in his chest, then back up at the sorceress with confusion written across his face, "No..." he breathes quietly, and then drops to the cold stone of the floor with a wet sound that echoes into the night.

A quiet, still voice slices through the sorceress' elemental cries of triumph almost lost in the night air as a single word brings her celebration to a halt, "Never."

A single bolt of purest white light tinged with filaments of gold pierces the darkness from the shadows of a secluded corner, the flare of its generation illuminating the figure standing there in a cloak of tattered emerald, one hand raised towards the sorceress. Striking her squarely between the shoulders, the beam drives her to the ground with its impact, rolling her across the shattered courtyard to fetch up against the wall next to the still body of Kharis.

 "One of your tricks, Maharet," Shirin says coldly, glaring at her former classmate. "It will be your last. I have killed him once, and I shall again."

 "Selena?" Cassie wonders, "How did she do that?"

 "You killed nothing," Kharis replies flatly, stepping out into the light. "Nothing at all...." Gesturing absently towards the still form sprawled across the pavement, he continues as the body simply melts into nothingness before the sorceress' eyes, "As your victory comes to nothingness before your eyes, so does your mad plan to bring the Old One across the Barrier. All denied you by Sphynx."

Cassie stares unbelieving at Kharis. "But he was dead. His body was dead. The body is gone. Oh this is weird."

 The sorceress stares in disbelief at the vanishing corpse, then turns back to Kharis, her eyes glowing bright with the light of madness. "How droll," she says, her eyes flashing red. She throws out a hand towards him, the glow surrounding it reminiscent of Cassie's healing powers - but powers twisted almost beyond recognition by her mad rage and evil. A swirl of power crosses the intervening space before Kharis can do more than throw a hand up to ward it off, his spell collapsing as the tainted power strikes him squarely in the face and sinks into his exposed skin like water being absorbed by a greedy sponge.

 Shirin begins to laugh deeply as Kharis withers before their eyes. "Your life force will fuel the portal," she says mockingly. "Do not think your death will be in vain."

 "We've got to do something," Cassie says to the invisible form of Ronan. "She's killing him. Sucking the life out of him. Dammit, if I just had my teleportation powers we could get behind her and surprise her."

Kharis staggers, his legs trembling beneath him, and then falls to the ground, the body beneath his armor visibly shrinking and twisting with age with each passing second. His face twists in agony, then twists again and again as century after century of time press down on him with the weight of a thousand years, the skin of his face wrinkling, then cracking as it begins to decay while still clinging to his flesh.

The sorceress moves closer, her steps lightening as she nears the fallen man, his power feeding the growing portal above them. Her laughter grows as she studies Kharis. "The power of light is nothing," she says to Selena. "Nothing at all." 

"You are mistaken," says a gravely voice, as Kevin Armstrong becomes visible in front of Shirin. Moving faster than the eye – to Cassie he is at least as fast as Dragon Fist, perhaps faster – he grabs Shirin, and holds her steady. Though the tendrils of red energy whip around her, the former Silver Avenger and VIPER commander holds her steady.

"Yes," Cassie excitedly says, pounding on Ronan's chest. "Whoops, sorry," she adds apologetically. "Kevin's got her. He must have been a bullrider in a previous life. He knows how to hang on to the most mean-tempered animals."

"You should see him with Ed around bathtime," Ronan says. "There is nothing to worry about here."

It as though the sun rises in the courtyard, as a beam of brilliant light flies out to crash into her face, sending her reeling across the courtyard, clutching at her eyes and screaming in agony. "This world will bow down before no god of yours, evil one," a raspy imitation of Kharis' normal voice grates out.

Staggering forward, supported by a clearly exhausted Selena, a wizened and ancient Kharis raises his hands and sends another shaft of light into the screaming sorceress, wringing still more shrill cries of agony from her writhing figure. "So swears Sphynx..." he pauses, gathering his strength before bringing another beam of light lashing into her, "So swear we all...."

Ronan carries Cassie forward, towards the scene.

 "Do your work, sorcerer," Armstrong spits at Kharis. While the portal above is shrinking in size with Shirin’s inattention, her fury at being held by the Wild Geese agent is only increasing. Crimson energy blasts Armstrong, who, for the moment, continues to hold her steady. "NOW!" he says.

 A blast of silvery energy surrounds Kharis, rejuvenating him, lending him strength. "You must hurry," Selena urges.

 "Please, Kharis," Cassie says, looking at the sorcerer. "Please help me get back now. While it's still possible."

 Raising his hand, Kharis gestures slowly, indicating where Cassie should be placed, and turns to face the closing rift in the sky. Lifting his hands, arthritic fingers twisting painfully within his armor's gauntlets, he gestures to the heavens, as if to pull down the rift from the skies overhead - and nothing happens.

 Frustration crosses Kharis' ancient face, and he reaches forth to the skies again, more emphatically this time, his eyes suddenly blazing with power that casts shadows across the shriveled planes of his face. For a long, still moment, nothing moves, even the winds ceasing their passage through the clouded sky overhead. Then, almost unnoticeably at first, a single filament of pale green energy begins to trail down from the rift and into the courtyard, its twisting movements more wormlike than is comfortable to watch closely.

Cassie crosses her fingers and thinks a small prayer. "I hope this turns out alright. I'm really getting tired of all this body swapping."

The thread reaches his upthrust hands, twining about them almost lovingly, then wrapping about his arms and slithering down across his body to slowly cover him in a veined web of power. Thickening slowly, the filament grows to a cord, then a rope, as more and more power flows down from the rift to fill it, the energy spreading across Kharis' trembling body until it covers him like a shroud, wreathing him in bands of light that seem to echo the wrappings of the mummies entombed in Egypt thousands of years before.

A questing tendril of power suddenly snakes out from him to curl about Cassie's weak form, binding and supporting her as it lifts her from Ronan's arms to hold her suspended in midair, several meters off over the spot Kharis had indicated. Another tendril, this one thicker and more powerful looking, curls out to the struggling figure in Kevin's grasp and pin her hands down at her sides, lifting her into the air as well, her crimson lightnings lashing at it ineffectually.

"Your stolen powers will avail you naught now sorceress," Kharis rasps contemptuously, his voice more powerful than a moment before, but still a pale shadow of its former vibrancy. "The Lords of Light have seen your crimes, and they deny them to you." Stepping forward, still wreathed in the emerald aura, he stumbles, Selena's hands catching him before he can fall. "It is time to pay the price for your evil and return that which you have stolen."

Cassie closes her eyes and wishes really hard. I don't have any ruby red heels to click, she thinks. Her second thought is more prosaic. I hope this doesn't blow me up.

 Then as she slowly begins to feel Kharis' spell work, Cassie's fears grow. It hurts, she thinks. Why does it hurt? It's like I'm being ripped apart. Involuntarily, Cassie bites down on her lip. She can taste blood. Her last thought before the feeling of pain and separation rip through her is of Tony. I hope he knows I love him. Then Cassie screams and blacks out.

 Raising first one hand, and then the other, he calls the same spirals of light up from the ground as he had minutes before, their swirling moving in counterpoint to each other: one clockwise, and the other counterclockwise, the right-hand turning spiral rising up to surround Cassie, and the left-hand turning one Shirin. They begin to speed up, revolving faster and faster, forming vortexes that draw the air in the courtyard through them in a steady rush of growing force, the wind whipping at the two women's garments and tossing their hair about in wild disarray.

 Kharis's voice rises up, age cracking the words he utters in a language that tugs just on the outside of comprehension to the watchers around him, robbing them of the full effect of their power. Within the spiral vortexes, both women suddenly scream in unendurable agony, their voices rising up over the howling winds, as the suction of the vortexes wrenches at them on a spiritual level.

Kharis thunders out a single word, his voice crackling with power enough to make the watcher's hair stand on end, and gestures once to the hovering souls before him - ordering them back to their proper homes. Cassie's aged body and the younger one both suddenly disappear into the vortex.

 Overhead, the rifts closes quietly, its power spent, and the rope of power linking it to Kharis winks out of existence, followed a moment later by the emerald shroud that had enveloped him and the lines of energy supporting Cassie and Shirin. Kharis, bereft of the rift's sustaining power, slumps to the ground bonelessly and lies still.

 A moment later, Kharis groans and rolls over onto his back weakly, his ancient face illuminated by the courtyard's remaining lights. Slowly, almost as if it were not happening at all, the cracked and seamed lines begin to close, his features smoothing out as his youth returns to him. Beneath his armor, the wasted limbs begin to swell with their former youthful power, filling it out again as they had before. A moment passes, then another, and he is as he was when Selena first saw him.

"Good work," Kevin Armstrong says, getting to his feet. His costume is scorched in several places from Shirin’s blast, and he looks as though he has taken quite a beating. From across the courtyard, Selena gestures with one hand, and silvery light flashes down on the Wild Geese commander.

"Sorry it can’t do anything about the clothes," Selena says quietly.

"It’s OK," Moira’s voice says, as she becomes visible. "We deliberately hired Ed’s nanny on the basis that she was an excellent seamstress." She approaches her husband, and hugs him.

Ronan begins calling out orders to unseen members of the team as the skies above return to normal. "We need to hurry somewhat," Ronan says to them all, afterwards. "Energy discharge such as that will attract the local authorities."

"And PRIMUS," Armstrong finishes. "We need to get out of here."

Kharis' eyes open suddenly, and he sits up - far too quickly from the look of pain that crosses his face, "Ahhhnnn.." he gasps, trying to steady himself with weak arms. "Did.. did I succeed?"

"I’m not sure," Ronan interjects. "Annike has reported seeing a woman emerging from the Bay, but she doesn’t meet Cassie’s description. I’ve sent Maier and Kennedy down there as back up, but O’Malley is reporting increased radio traffic on PRIMUS channels."

"The Iron Guard could get here within minutes," Armstrong said. A jet pack on his back rumbles quietly, and he flies up, in the direction of the boat.

 Moira follows him, and Selena says to Kharis, "We need to leave. If we fly close to the water, perhaps meeting them back at the house is a better bet. Can you fly?"

 Ronan nods. "You’re right. We’ll meet you there."

Kharis struggles to his feet, leaning on Selena for support, "I... think so... But I am not sure if I can sustain a Spell of Concealment at the same time... Will that be necessary?"

"No, just fly low to the water -- go up the Bay, away from PRIMUS." Ronan instructs.

 "In that case," Kharis says, wincing again, "I believe that I can manage without further assistance for now." Wobbling a little, he takes a few steps and lifts into the air slowly, picking up speed as the breeze revives him, and heads out over the Bay in a low trajectory.

Cassie wakes up, the cool, gentle rocking of the waves carrying her through the water. The body she is in feels firm and young, and relief washes through her. "It's over," Cassie sighs. "It's finally over. Kharis you're a magic worker."

Opening her eyes, however, it is cloudy and dark – until a shark swims past her. Despite an odd mental greeting from the animal that Cassie barely registers, adrenaline pumps through her veins, and irrationally (for she knows it’s the wrong thing to do, even coming from the Bronx) she tries to swim frantically away.

"Shit, the spell must have knocked me out into the water. Great, great," Cassie mutters, as she quickly butterfly kicks her way through the water. "I get back into my own body only to have it eaten by sharks. No one ever swims in the bay by choice."

Paddling faster, Cassie heads for shore. "Of course no one notices that I'm gone. No, that would be my luck. Finally get back into my own body and drown a couple of feet from shore. I can see the obituary now. Odyssey dies during midnight skinny dip."

It is only a few seconds before she swims up and out of the Bay, and onto the dock by Alcatraz. Annike is standing by the boat, partially hidden in the shadows. Cassie emerges, dripping, from the water, and Annike’s mouth drops open. "Who the hell are you?" she says, leveling an oddly configured gun at Cassie’s chest.

Opening her mouth to answer, Cassie realizes several things. The first of which is that the damp hair which is now dangling, tangled and wet, from her shoulders is of the purest white. The second is which that her skin – all of her skin, for she realizes she is quite naked – is faintly blue-tinged.

Shock runs through Cassie. She falls to her knees on the dock, and stares at the skin on her hands.

 "Blue, it's sorta blue, I'm sorta blue. With white hair," she whispers. "And webbed hands." She curls her hands into a fist.

 Staring back up at Annike, Cassie looks totally stunned. "Annike it's me, Cassie. At least I think it's me." She looks at her hands again.

 "What the hell is going on?" Cassie asks getting up from the dock. "When did I get webbed hands and white hair?" Cassie's voice gets stronger as her anger grows. "What did Kharis do in that spell. 'The spell may not work. I may not be able to get you back into your body.' Well that's a little understatement. No one said anything about webbed hands and white hair!"

 "And how am I going to explain this to Tony!? Hi dear, remember when I had that accident. Well that wasn't really me. My body was possessed by a cultist. Oh but don't worry, she's gone now. However, there's another problem. I have webbed feet honey. Oh and my hair is white."

 "You could always dye it," Annike says, tossing Cassie a jumpsuit that looks to be several sizes too big and designed for a man. "On the positive side, you just cleared a half-mile of the Bay in about five seconds."

"Well, your motivation is pretty high when you think about what's been dumped in that water lately," Cassie says, pulling on the jumpsuit. "That and having a shark swim by. I suppose the flippers helped." She says waving a hand.

Armstrong and Moira fly up, along with several other agents as Cassie finishes zipping up the jumpsuit. "Oh, dear," says Moira, hugging Cassie. "I was afraid this might happen. You’ve taken on the form of your goddess, dear."

"My goddess! I don't understand this. I've never even worshipped her and now I've got her form. Oh I don't mean to be ungrateful. I'm very happy that I'm not Shirin, very happy," Cassie says with emphasis while hugging Moira back. "And while I have hundreds of questions I suppose this isn't really the time," she adds, glancing at Armstrong and the agents. "PRIMUS on their way?"

"Yep," he says, as people begin piling into the boat. "You can come with us, or go home now. We will be staying in the area for another day or two, and you can get back in contact with us and we can go over what happened, and why then." He gives her the keys to the Bronco. "We’ll all by traveling by boat back to the house, so you’re welcome to the car. Just drive it back when you’re done."

Glancing down at the keys, Cassie's at a loss as to what to do. "I'd like to just go home," she sighs. "But I suppose someone should stay here and deal with PRIMUS. It won't take them long to figure out this is tied to me, and show up on my doorstop. Don't worry. I won't mention the mysterious 'people' who helped me."

"A word of advice, if I may," Armstrong offers. "It is unlikely that they will believe this story about your transference and subsequent change. There is a bias in PRIMUS against magic, and they will likely think that you’re covering for something else, and you will put all of us at risk if you chose that route. You are far better off telling them that you were teleported here against your will, and that the evil, old Emily Thompson and her two cronies began this summoning, and she killed them as a way of opening the portal – and a way of becoming stronger in order to steal your body. 

"This story," he adds, "Is at least consistent with the one that Shirin used on PRIMUS previously, for which there was substantial physical evidence. In this case, Shirin could not control the power she summoned, and she and her gun were sucked into the vortex she created. It is close enough, and the physical evidence here would support that as well," he adds, "Given your previously friendly relationship with the Silver Avenger here, they are unlikely to challenge that. I would expect that you will be watched closely for the next month or two. It’s typical for PRIMUS to tail any known paranormal after a major event, in any case."

"You're right," Cassie says. "As much as I hate to say it, I doubt anyone would believe the true story. And to be honest, I really don't feel like haggling with PRIMUS over this. Plus I don't want to do anything that might give them a hint that you guys were here."

"How to explain this to Tony, though," she sighs. Turning her attention back toward Armstrong, she adds, "Do you have any suggestions about contacting you. If PRIMUS watches me as closely as you suggested, it might be too dangerous. There so many questions, but I wouldn't want to endanger anyone." Cassie trails off looking at Moira.

"Well, you speak classical Greek, don’t you?" Moira asks. "How about I’ll call you, and we’ll talk in Greek. I would seriously doubt that anyone at PRIMUS-SF knows it. But I’ll call you tomorrow, and we’ll set up a place to meet. We’ll have Annike drive you, and she can lose anyone attempting to follow, and make it look real."

"OK," Cassie says, somewhat relieved. "I guess you have to go. Be careful and thank you for all your help." Cassie waves, backing away from the pier.

PBEM Turns