How insidious is evil? Can it become genetic? Can good be genetic? Where does that leave freedom of choice?

The government limousine that had picked Stephanie up from the airport sped along the highway at a speed that was above the limit. It passed police cars which didn't give chase because it was a diplomatic vehicle. Unfortunately for the passenger in the back seat of the vehicle this felt more like a kidnapping.

* * *

Stephanie had been stressed out for the entire flight back to Australia. Jacques had tried- unsuccessfully to calm her down. She had told him what had happened to her in France and how Charles Szasz had unsuccessfully tried to transfer his consciousness into her and had only partially succeeded.

“That's good isn't it?” he'd asked her when she told him that she now knew everything Szasz had known.
“I suppose it is in the way that I'm super smart now...” she trailed off
“But...?” He prompted.
“I'm heir to his criminal empire! I don't know what to do. He's opened bank accounts all over the world and I'm the only one with the knowledge of how to access them, but if I do I become a target for the people he had his darker dealings with. I wouldn't even worry about it except that he set up some organisations that actually did some good.”

Jacques didn't have a decent answer for her because he found this turn of events hilarious and the only sound that came out of his mouth every time she looked at him was the laughter he so gallantly tried to hold in when they were together.

Since Jacques wasn't any help in deciding how to handle her dilemma she could only think about asking one other for advice. However this concerned her, she considered Dani her best friend and she wanted to talk to her but Dani fought darkness. She had to wonder, if Dani got involved in this would she lose her friendship with the human aspect of the Angelus? For these reasons and others, she got no sleep on the flight and when she disembarked from the plane she was in a bad mood.

As she had been in France on business tor the embassy, the car that came to pick them up was an embassy car. Jacques held the door open for her to get in but before he could climb into the back seat after her the driver accelerated, driving off and leaving him on the pavement.
At first Stephanie was surprised but but her agitation passed quickly. “What do you want from me?” She asked the man driving the car, yet she was greeted with only silence.

Stephanie thought of using her abilities to compel the man to stop the car but then she realised that she was never in any danger and that if she wanted to discover what was going on she would have to just let what was happening happen. Oddly, as they reached the outskirts of Sydney an hour later she realised that they seemed to be retuning the way they had come.

The car turned onto an unpaved road leading to a farm but it stopped ten metres from the gates leading into it. The driver got out, opened her door and said, “Follow me.”
“And if I don't?” she queried.
“Then I carry you kicking and screaming,” he replied without expression.

She followed him in the opposite direction from the diplomatic vehicle into a field that seemed to be an extension of a horse ranch. They walked to the stables where a different person was waiting. It was actually a woman, one Stephanie knew very well although she was sure the woman didn't think that she would remember her as the principal of her childhood primary school. Once they were alone the woman told her to get onto one of the ponies and follow her. Stephanie considered pretending that she couldn't ride but realised that this woman knew her as a child and she would know that before she became ill as a child she had been taught to ride.

Stephanie climbed on but wouldn't go faster than a quick walk saying that she had hurt her back and didn't want to jar it. The woman appeared dissatisfied but didn't force the issue. They walked through a small area of woodland, bush and trees only to arrive at another gate with a Mercedes sports car waiting. She got into the car without being told to and the woman who used to be a teacher drove them back toward Sydney, back to the airport to be precise.

“So where are we off to?” Stephanie asked.
“We shall be going America” Came the reply. “I have a gun so no funny business. Do what I say and no-one will be hurt.”
“Ooh,” said Stephanie sarcastically, “I suppose you won't hurt me but you will kill me. Tell me, what would your mother say if she knew you'd grow up to be a kidnapper?”
“Don't bring my mother into this,” the woman said. “She's got nothing to do with this.”
Stephanie smiled, the woman was getting flustered. “Teaching is such a noble profession, unless you're one of those people who become a teacher to bully children to make you feel better about yourself. 'Now,' she thought to herself, 'time to drop the bombshell.'But you never seemed to be that way. Isn't that true Madame Perier?” From where she was sitting she saw the woman go pale.

“You remember? How do you remember? They said no-one remembers”
“Well,” sneered Stephanie “It seems they were wrong.”
“So tell me madame, what makes you want to kidnap someone working for France? What caused you to become this corrupt person.”
The ex-headmistress seemed to be getting angry, this is exactly what Stephanie wanted but her questioning seemed to backfire because the older woman's mouth shut and she didn't speak until they had boarded a private plane that had been scheduled to fly to New York.

After they had reached a certain height and had levelled out Miss Perier finally couldn't stand having to be quiet. “I'M NOT THE ONE WHO BETRAYED MY GOVERNMENT! Oh yes, I know all about you Stephanie Roux. I work for the DGSE, do you think the French Government don't know who their traitors are?”
“Who told you that I was a traitor?” Stephanie asked, genuinely curious.
When the woman wouldn't open up any further Stephanie had no choice but to use pheromones to find out what she was hiding.

The pheromones didn't work and instead of willingly telling Stephanie what she wanted to know, the woman collapsed in a faint. However, something that Stephanie had never experienced before happened. The part of her power that hid her face stopped working as her face once more felt the air on her skin. It was fortunate that she had was tied to a seat because she would have fallen onto the floor as she felt her mind separate from her body.

She was back in the offices of the DGSE in Paris. The entire building had been placed on alert to look out for anybody that looked different. It was almost noon and nothing untoward had happened all morning but at noon a man with no face walked into the building. Nobody had been able to stop him from getting where he wanted to go. When he appeared again from wherever he'd been he'd told her to detain a woman at the Australian Airport, this woman, he told her was a spy- a double -agent selling France's secrets to the highest bidder. She must subdue and capture this woman and prevent her from leaving the airport.

The woman in the description was Stephanie, but what was odd was the destination the orders told them to take her to: New York City, USA.

Twenty hours later the plane touched down at JFK international airport. Steph had allowed the woman (who had regained consciousness none the wiser from the experience) to take her to a waiting car which drove them to an estate near the ferry station to Staten Island. This was one of Jackie Estacado's more secure estates.

* * *

To an observer Jackie Estacado may have seemed to be focusing on one situation most of the time. It also seemed like he was a playboy. This is what gave him an edge over his enemies. Much of his business he took care of without anybody knowing. He would do all the planning, signing and get reports from his underlings but once everything was set up he would let Butch take care of the implementation of his business activities.

However the one thing that he did keep aware of no matter how many other things he had going on was Alomeg Resources. It had taken him two years to find out anything about it, once he had discovered it was run by a madman in France, he set out to find out how to get control of Szasz's business. When he realised that he would not be able to do this, even with the Darkness working for him, he was furious.

He didn't know how the man had done it but he seemed to have enslaved the minds of all those who had worked for him and Estacado was unable to influence anyone in his organisation. When he heard that the man had been caught he tried to find out if there was any way to find out more about his business. When the man began going on about an heir, Estacado was one of the few people who didn't discount it as the ramblings of a nutcase.

His contacts in France and those who had infiltrated the mental asylum in Paris where Szasz had been held before he had died had explained that Szasz had developed some sort of experiment and had ensured it compatible with a human. He had found out that the person who was the holder of whatever the experiment was, would be the heir.

It wasn't very hard to discover Stephanie was the supposed heir, but if Estacado had known more about her he would probably have left her alone. Unfortunately for him or maybe fortunately, he didn't.

Estacado had first heard about Alomeg Resources when he required some top assassins to assist him in getting rid of one of his rivals a year before he received the Darkness. They gave top- notch service - a hitman so good that he would never be seen, but someone who would not talk if he got caught.

Estacado was so impressed with the professionalism of the organisation, he kept using them even after he had the Darkness to work for him. When he got word that Szasz had been transferred while blabbering on about an heir he realised that an opportunity had opened for him. All he needed to do was find this heir.

He first found one of the people who had voluntarily undergone one a Szasz's human experiments in the '70's. He'd then used the Darkness to give him the powers that the experiment was supposed to give him but didn't. This was the man that Stephanie had seen in her vision. The Darkness had given him pheromone based powers similar to those that Stephanie had.

Ms. Perier was the only agent at the DGSE that the pheromone was still affecting however the more time she spent with Stephanie who had been touched with celestial fire, which was the opposite of what had altered her perception, the more unhinged the poor woman became. And so it happened that as they were driving through the front gates of Estacado's mansion the woman had a brain aneurysm and the car went out of control and smashed through the wall leading to the sitting room of Estacado's Mansion. Because of this Butch Babliano was unable to warn his friend and boss that Stephanie would call to the Angelus.

As Stephanie got out of the car on shaky legs her eyes met Estacado's the part of her that had been touched by the Angelus recognised the Darkness immediately and sent out an alert to all aspects of itself that it was in the vicinity of it's enemy.

Danielle Baptise, human form of the Angelus, had just received a phone call from Vampirella and had been about to go to her, now found herself changing direction and ending up in the same room as Jackie Estacado. He stood in the shadow of the room and the aspect of the Darkneess appeared on his features facing the Angelus in all her glory.

Steph couldn't help but think about a gunfight in an old western movie.

* * *

In Flagstaff, Arizona Geoffrey had been given a hero's welcome as the lost school- children were returned by the newest superhero. The fact that everyone knew him didn't stop them from asking him what his superhero name was. Although he had told everyone that his superheroing days were over- at least until he had finished school.

Geoff and Sarah had talked and had decided that it was necessary for her to remain more or less unknown while she was still studying magic. They went back to there everyday life of school and being involved in the teenage politics of popularity.

While Geoff had to deal with the government types over his metagene activation, Sarah was able to pursue her interests. Every weekend she would spend time with James White- Eagle learning the ins and outs of shamanism and white sorcery.

The soldier had been observing this odd trio for the past couple of weeks when Geoff accidentally stumbled onto him feeding. Being the hero that he was, even though he didn't want to have the responsibility of being a hero, he went after the vampire but was unprepared for the speed of the creature. He recognised the vampire from the warehouse and he wasn't ready to deal with what he classed as a creature that might be magical and so he didn't give chase. He made sure that the creature's intended victim was okay. When he had done all he could, he went back home to tell Sarah.

Sarah and James White Eagle were doing what Sarah later explained as a moving meditation and couldn't talk to her until she was finished. An hour later James and Sarah walked into the room where Geoff was sitting and he told them all about the vampire. Geoff asked how they should deal with it because he didn't know how to fight what might be a magical supernatural being.

“Vampires, while villainised by by many books are not actually all bad,” said James. “From what I've seen over the years they seem to have hidden from society by joining it. Most people don't realise they exist because they generally work to earn a living and to fit in, but they don't socialise with humans. They certainly wouldn't want to draw attention to themselves by a string of murders.
The largest vampire city that I know of is New York, I'll make some enquiries.
And that's how the soldier was able to get Sarah on her own. Geoff had given James a lift to the airport so he catch his flight to New York and Sarah was at home working on a particularly tricky aspect of magical imaging which was similar to taking a magical photograph.

It was 7pm and she was seated in a circle of candles interspersed with crystals when the windows of her room crashed. She had been deep within a meditative trance and was just beginning to come out of it when the door to the meditation chamber was kicked in.

The soldier had been excited, the young sorceress smelled fresh and would taste good. Her blood would give him the power to defeat the sorcerer. However as soon as he saw her in the circle he stopped.
“Ah,” she smiled, “I see you've dealt with magic before. You see I suspected you would be coming soon, I just didn't know when.”
The soldier snarled, “Come out of your circle and fight me witch, or are you afraid?”
Sarah just stared at him hoping would her next words would save her. “Vampire I know I'm no match for you but as long as I'm in this circle all I have to do is wait for the others to come back.”
“Oh please don't wait on my account little girl” he said taking a book of matches out of his pocket. He then sliced his hand with a sharp piece of glass that he had taken from the broken window.

“You know,” he said conversationally, “vampire blood is extremely flammable.” He began to dribble blood from his hand over the curtains and in various locations around the room. “Either way you die- by flame or by me. Flame will be longer and more painful, make it easy on yourself and come to me.”

Sarah knew what she had to do next but she was petrified, her mouth was dry and her legs were shaking. The vampire shrugged, “Okay, but don't say I didn't give you a chance” he lit a match and tossed it onto a blood soaked curtain. Sarah's legs unfroze at the sight of the flames and she stumbled to her knees, reaching out to break the circle by snatching up one of the crystals.

“I'm coming, just put out the fire.” She called with a trembling voice.
The vampire smiled, “I'm sorry, I never brought any water to do that but don't worry you'll be a part of me soon and won't need to live in this house anyway.”
Suddenly her whole demeanour changed and the vampire realised something was shifting in the room's energies.

“You know, psychopaths tend to get overconfident once they think everything has worked out for them,” she said holding the piece of crystal tightly in her hand. She had finally managed to work out the imaging technique and would use it to save her life. She drew from energies stored in the crystal and envisioned the vampire. There was a click and the soldier felt his body seize up. He was paralysed, he couldn't move.

“Normally this spell isn't used on living creatures without permission but, since you're trying to kill me I decided that I wasn't going to ask. You have actually been caught in a magical version of a camera, you might say that your molecules are on pause.” She continued, “this paralysis you are feeling is temporary and I don't know how much time I have,” she said walking over to one of the blood spattered curtains. “I tell you quite honestly that normally I wouldn't stand a chance against you, so without further ado I'll say 'goodbye'.” She threw the burning curtain over the soldier causing him to burst into flame.

Satanna was in the middle of a conference call with the other heads of state when she became aware of his death. Her son, her darling boy had finally found peace. She excused herself from the meeting,went to her chambers and broke down in tears. Even though she mourned, she was grateful to whoever it was that had ended his suffering.

* * *

The being once known as Lucifer observed the lines of battle being drawn up between the Angelus and the Darkness and smiled perhaps his long exile was coming to an end. Hopefully he would soon be able to go home.

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