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Chapter 09
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Vidnyanta’s old body fell and diminished until it was nothing more than a heap of dust and cloth. Such was the fate of powerless mortals. Her new body, however, opened from its fetal position, and she felt so strong. So chilly.

She got off the altar table, and two foot soldiers slipped a fresh robe upon her, one that was worthy of a goddess, and designed like the ancient Egyptians should have depicted her, even if her body and face did not match her original body. They had been fools to bar her from the pantheon, and now she had a new body to get back at the world whenever she pleased for the next couple centuries, not that the world had that long.

Once the robe was closed properly, Vidnyanta said, “My knowledge is boundless, my strength is great, and all shall kneel.”

Everyone in the room kneeled except for the other two Vanquishiri. The trio of gods was complete. Now, only one thing stood before their reign of discord and death upon the realm of mortals.

As she came upon that thought, she became aware of another presence in the world, or more specifically in the Paragon City area. It was an impossible presence. She decided that thinking too long about it would have been a distraction; especially since the doom of the world and its universe would sort all things out in the end. No, what she needed to do instead was fill the gap in her knowledge while the final preparations were being made. She had foreseen this quest for an answer, and it annoyed her that she would not know what the answer was. If the answer was somehow tied to the impossible presence, then so be it.

“Come, Devon,” she said. “Let us find your truth.”

The world hurt like a pile of bricks, or maybe that was just his head. Warren scowled either way as he sat up. Memory realigned itself, and he gathered that he was hit by something supernatural.

Where was everyone? Warren could hear them in the next room.

That moment, he found a book on the ground that looked as though it had been burned. He reached for it, using magic to try and protect the book’s remains, but it perished on the ground before him.

He scrambled through his things to find a few monitoring devices before heading outside.

“Call her mom?” asked Mary. “What are we going to say? ‘Someone appeared who looks like your daughter. She might be back from the dead, but we can’t say for sure?’ I don’t see that working very well, Jeff.”

Jeff said, “No, but Mai has the right to know.”

They were interrupted by footsteps coming down the stairs, and by Tatiana asking, “What’s all this racket about?”

The few people who were downstairs and conscious squirmed, barely saying hi to Tatiana and Wyatt as they finally came down to join everyone. Mary was certain she knew what the two of them were doing upstairs, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she averted her eyes toward the young woman sleeping on the couch with nothing more than a blanket over her.

Wyatt said, “Well, this is grim, whatever it is. Who do we have on the couch?”

“Oh my god,” said Tatiana suddenly, seeing the woman there. She carefully brushed aside some of the woman’s hair, and pulled down the blanket enough to get a better look at her face. “Judy. But, what . . . how . . . whaeyayuh . . . .”

The tears and confusion flooded her voice.

Just then, the door to the room Warren had been using as the downstairs office slammed open. He walked into the living room sporting a case in one hand, and his forehead in the other.

“Not to alarm anyone,” he said, “but I think we have a visitor.”

“And the award for understatement of the evening goes to . . .” said Kyra.

Mary said, “Damn it, Warren.”

Warren followed everyone’s gazes until he found Judy. She was a few years older than when they saw her last, but there was no mistaking Judy’s appearance. Warren set his case down beside the couch, and rested a hand on top of Judy’s forehead.

She moved then. Judy coughed and inhaled deeply, and opened her eyes.

There was a moment of silence and uncertainty.

“I can feel you, all of you,” said Judy. She lifted her upper body. “Everyone looks older now. Why do I feel so different? And why am I naked?” With a deep blush, she used her arms to cover her breasts. “Holy crap, they’re huge!”

Tatiana said “They’re not that big, sweety.”

Simultaneously, Mary said, “Not as big as mine.”

“Right, so,” said Warren, “I’m going to need to run a few tests on you. Would you feel more comfortable holding up that blanket, or would you like someone to get you a shirt to wear?”

“What kind of tests are you going to run?” asked Judy

“Heartbeat , body integrity, things like that. It won’t take long, and it shouldn’t hurt.”

“You say shouldn’t, and I say there’s a chance.”

“Nothing more than a pinch. Nothing’s going to blow up or shut down, I promise.”

“Then can I get a shirt please?”

Kyra hurried to her with something in her hand. It was a folded shirt that she kept in her purse in case of emergencies.

“Here you go. I think you’re close enough to my size.” Kyra spoke kindly.

Judy said, “Thank you, Ohmie.”

“Please, call me Kyra. How do you know the name Ohmie, anyways?”

“It just comes to me. It’s like I remember talking to you, but I was asleep somewhere cold for so long. I remember hearing Mortar’s voice while I slept, asking me if I could hear him. I remember making observations about the old base before it collapsed. I remember you, eating alone on top of a table. But, again, I was asleep. What does it all mean?”

“Here.” Kyra helped Judy slip her shirt on while using her own body to hide Judy’s top from everyone. Meanwhile, the blanket continued to cover everything below Judy’s waist. Then Kyra rested her hands on Judy’s shoulders. “You’re home now. We’re here for you.”

Kyra splashed her face with more water. She half wanted to hide away in another bathroom to do this, but she picked the bathroom sink on the other side of the mansion instead. She needed time alone; she thought she did.

“Are you doing alright, sweety?” asked Tatiana. She stood at the closed entrance to the bathroom. Some privacy.

“I’m fine,” Kyra lied.

“No, you’re not.”

“It’s complicated.”

“You might want to try me on that.”

“That won’t mean it’s less complicated.” Kyra shut off the water with a sigh. “She was dead. For the past few months, I’ve tried to be my own hero, without living in her shadow. I had my own informant and everything. Then she comes back, and I learn that my informant all this time might have been her. I’m glad she’s back, if it’s really her, but what’s that make me?”

“Have you tried sending your informant any messages?”

Kyra showed off her phone. There had been no new, incoming messages since yesterday when Kyra’s mom had texted a picture with the words “Thinking of you.”

Tatiana said, “Damn. Well, sweety, let me tell you what. There’s only one you, and only one Judy. No matter how alike the two of you get, you need to remember that. Just do what you know or feel is right.”

“You’re right, but it doesn’t change how I feel.”

“It’s like your emotions have been winded, right? Imagine how everyone else feels right now. Jeff even hit the bar; he never does that. Warren and Wyatt are barely keeping it together examining Judy. Mary is trying frantically to get ahold of Walter, who we haven’t heard from since this morning.”

“Yesterday morning.”

“You know what I mean. The point I’m making is this. Something impossible has happened, and everyone is coping as best we can because this thing throws what we knew and felt under the bus. You’re not alone, and you don’t need to be. We’ll all get over this together.”

“You seem like you have it together.”

“Are you kidding me? I want to kick and scream and run away somewhere, but my baby is already threatening to kick my ass if I tried. So I’m talking to you for both of us. Now, can I ask you an important question?”

“Yes.”

“Why the fuck are you trying to hook up the love of your life with someone else?”

“I’m not. I just . . . She needs more than I alone can give her, and I want her to be happy. Is that so wrong?”

“Open relationships aren’t for everyone, sweety. Ask yourself if you’re really trying to give Mary your all before you give her up to someone else. I’d hate to see you two split apart because she got more from someone else.”

Kyra opened her mouth to respond to that defiantly, but then her phone buzzed. She checked it swiftly.

“It’s the boys. They’re calling a conference.”

“Is everyone ready? Good.” Warren stood by a holographic projector.

“Still no sign of our fearless leader?” asked Tatiana.

Mary said, “Nope.”

“He’ll turn up. Give him five years.”

Warren cleared his throat. “First things first, our guest is actually who she appears to be. That’s putting it in simple terms. Now, you might be asking how it is that she’s back, or why she looks like she’s twenty rather than fifteen. I’m still looking into that, but I think we can suffice to say that she’d have been twenty anyhow under better circumstances. As to how she came back, well, that is where things got tricky, like a rare alignment of forces at work.

“As some of you might recall, there was a mysterious file on the base computer that moved here with us. I had been unable to access it in the last few months, but it wasn’t harming anything more than the amount of space we had on the base’s main computer. Inside that file was a fragment, left behind by someone who’d been emotionally broken at the time, and she didn’t even realize what she was doing.”

“Judy’s just a fragment now?” asked Jeff, who had a drink in hand.

“Not exactly. This brings me to a more recent event – the grave robbery. Someone dug up and took her body.”

“What?!” exclaimed Tatiana.

Judy shifted uncomfortably.

Warren went on, “A couple days ago, a villain told us in his final moments that someone calling themselves the Vanquishiri was coming. While scanning our friend here, I found trace elements of powerful soul magic. Someone was working with her remains at the precise moment that I turned on the new scanning console. Somehow, the base called out to a tormented soul, it reunited with the fragment, and Judy was able to use her power to leap out of the computer rather than stay at the source of the magic.”

The projector animated a large portion of this for everyone to see. It paused on the outline of a human system.

“She is alive again,” said Warren, “but it is not a perfect revival. It is uncertain how long she can stay awake, whether or not she can use her powers at will like before, or anything. So that leaves us, not just as Leaguers but as a family, to watch over Judy and help her when she needs it. When we know that she won’t keel over without warning, or explode in a sudden burst of electricity, we can contact her mother. However, if we wish to stabilize her, then we’ll need to find her remains, and reunite Judy with herself.”

“I can’t see my mom yet?” asked Judy.

“I’m sorry, Judy. I really am. I’m not sure your mother can take the emotional blow right now, whether we can succeed to stabilize you or not. I don’t want to get her hopes up that you’re here for good.”

“Permission to swear?”

“Please do” and “Go ahead” filled the room.

Judy said, “This shit fucking sucks harder than anything else that can be thrown at me, not discounting rusted buckets of bloody piss. I can’t see my mom, I’m scared, I don’t even remember how the fuck I died, and some sons of bitches out there are fucking me over for some unknown reason. Fucking damn it!”

She slammed her body toward the couch, and Mary caught her. Just then, the front door could be heard opening and closing. Walter called out, and entered the room. Mary pulled the blanket over Judy.

Tatiana said to him, “Where the hell have you been?”