Chapter 18

         The first thing I thought was "what?" How could Vadrak split himself? Did that mean that he was James and the other girls' former boyfriends all along? I asked all of these questions out loud and my brothers, Vesta, and her friends all started talking at once.

         "Calm down, I'll explain it all," Irvin said.

         We stopped talking and let him talk.

         "I don't know how he does it, but I'm sure I'm right. He may have been watching Hearst, Aden, Demetrio, Timur, and me all along, or he may have killed and replaced the real humans. I don't know exactly, but all of the girls clearly miss us. They're going to tell their boyfriends about us, thus telling Vadrak about us. Vadrak controls them from some sort of computer room, right? That makes me think that he is using them like puppets. When Aden saw Vadrak talking to the Elders, no Elder was actually saying what Vadrak was saying. Vadrak was only putting his words into the Elders' heads."

         "What if the girls find out who their boyfriends really are?" Timur asked.

         "I don't think that they will. Vadrak's clever. If he wants the girls to find out, then they will; if he doesn't, then they won't," Irvin said.

         "I don't suppose there's any way to warn them, is there?" Hearst asked.

         "I don't know, do any of you have ideas?" Irvin asked.

         "I don't," Demetrio said.

         "Neither do I," I said.

         "Same here," Timur agreed.

         "I do," Vesta stepped in.

         "What?" Timur and Demetrio asked.

         "The Elders said that you couldn't see them again, but they didn't say anything about us, did they?" Vesta asked.

         "No," Demetrio said slowly.

         "Where are you going with this?" Timur asked.

         "Don't you see? I could go and warn them without your actually seeing them."

         "No," I said. "It's too dangerous. You can't risk your life to save them."

         "Why is it too dangerous?" Tamara asked as she stepped next to Vesta. "I'll go too, we can all tell them."

         "No, you can't," I argued. "Vadrak's watching them so he'll watch you next. Either you'll lead him to us, or you'll get yourselves killed. Anyways, you don't even know them."

         "Fine, maybe I don't. But you could write a note to them, and I'll deliver it," Vesta said.

         "That wasn't what I meant. You can't sacrifice yourself in an attempt to save them."

         "Don't you think they deserve it? Our sacrifice?"

         "Aden's right," Irvin told Vesta and her friends who had all joined her. "I can't speak for my brothers, but I know that I couldn't lose you. Any of you. You've become a second family for me. After my brothers and I spent time in the mortal world, I just got more and more confused at the female mortals' reactions to our efforts. After I met you at the campsite before the battle, I brought forth the real me. It was hidden deep inside of me from the decades I spent in the mortal world. Here, I know I can speak for both my brothers and me. We are hecapsycheires and need the company of other hecapsycheires."

         There was a long pause until Timur said, "Hear, hear."

         Demetrio, Hearst, and I followed Timur's lead. Irvin had truly spoken our thoughts out loud.

         "I have something to add," Demetrio said. "I wanted to study the girls. Maybe even be friends with them, but I knew that I couldn't. That's not who I was meant to be. This may not be the most polite way of saying it, but, they could be a real pain. They always needed something. They needed protection, or food, or to change locations, or sometimes they wanted to touch us with their lips. It was truly nauseating to be perfectly honest."

         I never dared to say it out loud, but once again, one of my brothers had spoken my feelings. All of the girls would complain, and they always needed something. I think the word in the human world would be "self-centered."

         "Okay then, just pretend that they were any other mortal who needed our help. Wouldn't we help them?" Aurelia asked.

         "We can't be a god, Aurelia," Timur said. "We can't help everyone who needs help. I wouldn't be surprised if both the Elders and Vadrak were watching the female mortals."

         "Why don't you call them 'the girls' anymore?" Tamara asked.

         "It is not relevant or important at the moment," Hearst said. "It does not matter what we call them. I feel like you're drawn towards them and away from us. Can't you see that we're trying to protect you?"

         "The male gender feels that he is dominant and protective. We can take care of ourselves. According to you, they can't," Gina said.

         "They can't what?" Demetrio asked.

         "They can't take care of themselves. You said that they always needed something, and one was protection," Gina replied.

         "I agree with Gina," Izumi said. "We don't need you to protect us. You want to protect them don't you?"

         There was a long and awkward period of silence as we thought about Izumi's question. Already, we had grown so distant from Jessica, Terra, Cari, Rhonda, and Portia. I suppose we wanted to protect them in the sense that we didn't want them to get hurt, but we wouldn't want any other mortal to get in the middle of the hecapsycheires' business. Demetrio had pointed out the negative side of the girls. Could the pros outweigh the cons?

         There were so many emotions passing through my head, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if I would even consider Jessica a friend anymore. Demetrio was right. She always wanted something, whether it was a tour of Paris or a change of socks, it was always something. I think that was why I liked Vesta and her friends better than Jessica and her friends. Vesta could take care of herself and didn't have to rely on others to protect her, Jessica couldn't. I suppose it might have been my fault for introducing myself, but once she grabbed hold, she wouldn't let go. Yes, we should rescue or at least warn the female mortals, but put our new and closest friends' lives at risk? No way.

         "I know I can't speak for my brothers, but I believe we've all had similar feelings," Hearst started. "We loved the girls like sisters. But notice how I said 'loved' rather than 'love.' The love was not like love between close friends. We may not even have loved them like sisters. We used them. I tried to deny it, but I know that we did. We wanted to study them, but they grew too attached. I want to protect them in a way that I don't know if you would understand. I want to protect them by leaving them alone."

         "By letting Vadrak get to them?" Tamara cried.

         "Vadrak doesn't want them specifically. He wants us. He'll use them to get to us. We can't let it bother us. If you go and risk your lives, Vadrak will just hurt us more by killing you."

         "Hearst is right," I said. "I've never had the confidence to speak my mind. I always let my brothers step in and say what I felt. This time I'm stepping in. Vesta, I've gotten to know you and your friends, and I consider you my best and closest friends. I consider my brothers my friends as well. The nine of you are the most important parts of me. You each make a part of me. If the five of you left, you would be killed, and I wouldn't be able to survive.

         "You survived leaving the female mortals. This time we'd be the ones leaving you, and you would still survive," Vesta said, but I could tell from her body language that we were talking her out of it.

         "Except for the part where you won't be leaving us. You'll be helping us. Starting with not going to warn them. The risk is too great, and the result may be unsatisfactory. The next thing you could do to help us would be helping us find a way to send Vadrak back to Dimension Z before the Elders send us through another portal. We don't know if the new dimension they create will be safe or not. It could be a massacre for all we know," I pointed out.

         "I may be doing the wrong thing, but you've succeeded in talking me out of going to warn your friends in the mortal world. If Gina, Aurelia, Izumi, and Tamara go, then I will go as well, but I'm not going to lead this," Vesta said, and she turned to her friends.

         "I may regret this later, but I'm out as well," Aurelia said.

         "Either you're very persuasive or you're right, but I think that you're right about the outcome not being as positive as we wanted even if we paid with our lives," Tamara said.

         "We're both persuasive and right," Hearst said.

         "Gina, I don't understand why the five of you wanted to risk your lives for someone you didn't know, but I think that all of my brothers are right. It'd be a mistake to even attempt to rescue them," Demetrio said.

         "Okay, I won't go," Gina said.

         "I guess that just leaves me," Izumi said.

         "Izumi," Irvin said quietly. "No one's trying to pressure you into a decision, but I want you to listen to me. You can't warn them on your own. It wouldn't even be in your interest even if all five of you went. The cons of going outweigh the pros."

         "All right, I'll stay," Izumi said.

         "Aden, were you serious about finding a way to send Vadrak back to Dimension Z?" Vesta asked.

         "Yes, I am. I don't think it's possible to kill him anyway. He said he was going to leave without further destruction. Maybe he will be true to his word in the sense that he won't do any more destruction, but he'll just make someone else destroy this dimension and everything in it," I told her.

         "We could try to find him," Tamara suggested.

         "And do what, once we found him?" Demetrio asked.

         "I hadn't thought that far ahead," Tamara muttered.

         "I think it'd be suicide to walk right up to him. The protective spells still work so we can leave without being detected, but for the first time, I really don't know how to get what I need," Irvin said.

         "I think you're all missing something," Aurelia said.

         "What are we missing?" Timur asked.

         "Remember Aden's dream? Vadrak said that the five of you were a threat, and he wanted the Heinous Knights to find us. He obviously thinks you have some sort of extra power that makes you an even greater threat to his plans. I think we should find out what that strength is and see if it can be transferred. I mean, your father transferred it to you. What if could be as simple as touching?" Aurelia suggested.

         "Except for the part where we've touched so many different things, and Vadrak's only focusing on us," Demetrio pointed out.

         "Well, there may be another way to transfer the power. We shouldn't give up right away," Gina said.

         "I don't think that the power is the crucial point," Vesta said.

         "Then what is?" I asked.

         "I've said this before. Vadrak wants something. I think that the power that the five of you have along with the a few other things are all related to one big thing."

         "There's too many 'things' what are these 'things'?" Hearst asked.

         "Vadrak possessed your friends former, what did you call them? 'Boyfriends.' That's one thing. Another is that he's made contact with the Elders without the Elders knowing it. Not only that, but the Elders like what he has put in their heads. Maybe if there were some way to see inside of Vadrak's head and get the whole truth or at least, get the parts we need from him, that might explain why he wants this dimension or why he wants to build this new 'Master.'  Maybe we could even learn why the five of you are so important in this process."

         "That's a lot of things to learn. Do we really have the time for that?" Demetrio asked.

         "I think we need to use the stones again. We should watch Vadrak again and see what he's doing now," Vesta said.

         "I agree," Irvin said. "But this time, I think that we should stay as far away from the house and each other as possible."

         "Why?" Aurelia asked.

         "I don't think that the protective spells will keep Vadrak out forever. He won't be able to see, hear, or smell us, but he'll see patterns that suggest we've been to places. It'll only be a matter of time before he picks up on our trail, finds us, and kills us," Irvin replied.

         "Oh," Aurelia said in a small voice.

         The sun was setting, so we all prepared to leave. I gathered my stone and took the paper with the phonetic spelling of the spell. When dusk and fallen, Vesta and I teleported to a different part of the Sahara Desert. We created the wall of flame, chanted the spell, spoke Vadrak's name, and waited for him to appear.

         He was in a meeting with several other Heinous Knights including Thor. They appeared to be questioning him.

         "Why are the sons of Sergius so important, my lord?" one Heinous Knight asked.

         "I told you, they are a threat to our plans."

         "Couldn't you be more specific?" the Heinous Knight protested.

         "Fine. I will tell you everything, but as soon as I have done so, I will not answer any more questions. Understood?" Vadrak asked.

         "Yes, my lord," the Heinous Knight said.

         I didn't know why Vadrak allowed the Heinous Knight to contradict him. Then I realized that Vadrak still had to keep some of their loyalty. Not all of it, perhaps, but some.

         "I started a while ago when I gained a new power. I tested it on the son of Sergius who could control fire. He resisted, but his attitude changed. He had just returned from the battle where I killed the former Elders of his kind. He started with a short temper and then changed to cocky. The new Elders sensed that I was using my power on him so they sent a servant to collect him. They were going to try to warn him about me. I couldn't let that happen. I made sure that the son of Sergius didn't go with the servant, and they started playing trivia games.

         "Once I realized how strongly he resisted, I tried to destroy him, but the Elders got in my way. Then it was time to use my power on them."

         "What was your new power, my lord?" the Heinous Knight interrupted.

         "I had new telepathic powers. I used them on the Fire son of Sergius to test it out. My plan to take over Dimension A has started. I want to get rid of the hecapsycheires, but not before they have helped me build a new Master. No hecapsycheir will want to leave the planet they live on, here in this dimension, or leave Earth, whichever they live on. After the Master has been built and the new dimension created, the Elders and all of the other hecapsycheires will leave to the new dimension that they created. They may not want to, but I figured out how to expand my power. Now, I can control them all, but the force won't be strong enough to stop the sons of Sergius, especially if they transfer their powers to more hecapsycheires."

         "How would they transfer their powers?" the Heinous Knight asked.

         "I won't tell you. I'm almost positive that nobody can see or hear us, but if they could, I couldn't allow the sons of Sergius to find out. Once the new dimension has been made, I will create a portal leading to that dimension. After that, all of the hecapsycheires will be like zombies begging me to give them orders. Instead of having them act as my servants, I will send them all through the portal to get rid of them. If I can't kill the sons of Sergius, I will do everything in my power to stop them from stopping me."

         Just then, a page ran into the conference room.

         "My lord," he panted. "One of the sons of Sergius has been found."

         Vadrak whirled around to face the messenger and asked, "Which one? Where? When?"

         "The fire controller. He's in the Sahara Desert with the female hecapsycheire with whom he has has allied himself."

         Vesta and I stopped watching the screen and looked at each other just before the Heinous Knights grabbed us.