---

 

Being dead, basically, gives you a different perspective on things all around. Oh sure, technically I wasn't dead, I had a living body and the life that came with that body. Unfortunately, it wasn't the body I was born in and grown up with.

When I died, okay was murdered, in my old life, my soul screamed for vengeance, for a chance to make things right. And something heard me. Worse, it answered.

Then made me an offer.

One I foolishly accepted without much in the way of thought.

Then I, once David Streeter, tough, generally uncaring security specialist became something else entirely. I became The Spectre. A vengeful spirit who had one purpose. Taking out the bad guys, the really bad guys, no matter what it took to do that.

And I did that.

The first thing I'd done once I incarnated, or reincarnated, into my new form was to kill the people who had murdered me and the woman I'd loved. That would have been satisfying but there was one hitch. A big one.

I was female now.

And gorgeous if you discounted the dead white skin and red eyes. I had the body of a centerfold, the face of an angel, long, thick fiery red hair, and my — costume — was a brief green bikini type thing with knee length boots that had a four inch heel, along with a hooded cloak that at least covered some of that.

It was embarrassing, to say the least, and a shock considering that I had been male, all male, before I died.

Worse, I did have a live body as an alter ego. But that was as a beautiful little lady with basically the same attributes. But she was a prostitute. Her, my, name was Deena Elaine Dawson. Oh yeah, I did manage to catch the ironic joke in the name. Just read the intials, I'm sure you'll see it, too.

My life was so — fucked. In more ways than one, by the way.

But Deena turned out to be a nice person who actually cared for the people she knew, and helped them out when she could. Plus she was going to school for business, and not just to be a secretary.

The people on the street generally loved her — me — and so did the people in the dingy little apartment building she called home. And before you get outraged about me taking over a life and displacing someone who deserved to live, she had run into a really bad one on the night I died, and she was killed. My soul, spirit, whatever, was put in her dying body and it was healed by whatever brought me back from the dead.

The more I learn about that girl, the more I know she deserved to live and keep doing what she had been. I grieved for her too. And found her murderer. I won't go into that, but he suffered before he died, just like the original Deena had. Justice is often cruel, as I've found to my occasional dismay.

So am I.

But I'm also compassionate. Odd juxtaposition there isn't it?

I'm vengeance incarnate, like the Greek Furies. But I'm also someone who can actually care for other people, and give some of my potential victims second chances.

Provided they haven't actually killed an innocent.

So that is where I'm at right now. In life, I'm a whore with a heart of gold she tries really hard to hide, and in my other form I'm a terrible, frightening instrument of unyielding justice. The Spectre.

Every law enforcement agency wherever I've worked is trying to catch me.

I'm a vigilante, and that just isn't acceptable. There is LAW and it should be adhered to.

But LAW, and JUSTICE are often two different things.

And I was justice. I could do nothing to change that, and honestly, didn't wish to.

I found the really bad people, and things, then made sure they would hurt no one again.

That is my purpose, my reason for being. Like I said, I found the really bad people and made damned sure they wouldn't hurt anyone again.

And for that I was hunted.

I was just floating over River City, St. Louis, my city, and thinking about all that while keeping a psychic eye out for something that demanded me to fix it.

Happily, nothing hit my radar just then. Crime, the really violent ones, had significantly tailed off once I make a few appearances. People knew that if they harmed innocents there was someone out there who would make them pay for doing so. They also knew that payment didn't include jail time and time off for good behavior.

I noted a green streak in the sky headed my way and let out a sigh. I thought I'd come to an agreement of sorts with Jade. I wondered what she wanted now.

But it wasn't Jade who ended up hovering in front of me.

He was weirdly familiar, too. The one real human friend I had in my Diana Spectre form was Kyle Raynor, the comic book artist. This guy looked like him, but wasn't the man I knew and had saved from another version of myself.

“Spectre.” He said and Icould see his arrogance as he gave my form an appreciative, and half lustful look. “You are a menace.”

“Depends on who you are for that.” I shrugged. “I protect the weak, and take out the predators.”

“So you say.” He nodded, still giving me that man who sees a babe look. “But the law is the law, and you don't pay attention to that at all.”

“So what are you going to do?” I asked while thrusting out a hip, placing a hand on the out thrust one, and tilting my head as Deena would do with a potential client. “Arrest me?”

“Not necessarily.” He answered while obviously looking me over. “Maybe we could come to some kind of agreement here.”

“Oh?” I asked with a little smile and a toss of my hair. “Just what kind of 'agreement' are you thinking of here?”

“You know.” He leered at me and moved forward a bit, so his hand could reach out to touch my cheek. “A few drinks, some conversation, then move on from there.”

My loins were responding, but my mind was outraged. I gave him another little smile while moving his hand away from me. “You know, I'm intimate with your alter ego on this world, Kyle. He's a nice guy and he cares for me. How did you get to be such an asshole?”

Having said that, I moved myself so I was about thirty yards away from him and grinned evilly. “Besides, what makes you think you could catch me if I didn't want to be caught?”

“I know a lot more things than Jade did when you two first met.” He growled. “And now I'm going to show you some of those, girl.”

“Are you always this nasty when a girl turns you down for a date?” I asked with amusement clear in my voice. “If so, no wonder you hit on anything with breasts and a pretty face.”

He didn't answer, just got red in the face and threw an elaborate cage at me. I will give him this it was much better than the one Jade had thrown at me. But it still didn't work.

I shifted aside and actually admired the workmanship on the cage. “Nice. But you're forgetting one important thing here, dear.”

He growled and threw a bunch of green spikes at me. I let them hit, then go through me and laughed with that sepulchral sound I could do so well. “Oh, Kyle. I'm so happy that you think I'm worthy of that kind of attack. What are you going to do next?”

Next he threw a green globe at me. I avoided that and taunted. “Oh come on now. Jade did better than that and like you said, she was a newbie.”

Kyle growled and surrounded me with green blades that cut, slashed, and stabbed.

I just waited until he ran out of energy on that one, and smiled. “Oh come on, I know you can do better than that.”

He tried other things, which I dodged or ignored and finally his ring was running low on power. When that happened I moved in and grabbed his head to give him a soulful kiss, then pulled back with a laugh. “Kyle, Kyle. Get it through your head here, I'm not your usual opponent. Why that is, I'll let you puzzle out, if you can. By the way, your alter ego on this world is much nicer than you are.

“But I might, sometime when I'm really bored,” I swooped in again and gave him another mind melting kiss, “visit you some night.”

He just floated there in the air as I vanished after that one.

Oddly, I'd had a lot of fun teasing and kissing him. I decided it was probably because he looked a lot like my Kyle.

But also decided I'd haunt him in the future.

Hey! I'm a girl, I'm beautiful and I know that because I used to be a guy and have seen what I look like in both persona’s, besides, girls have to have fun after all.

Yes, I'm evil. I know it. But come on. I was a pretty girl, and even if the guy was a jerk, he was good looking and built. Teasing him would be lots of fun.

And Like I said before, I intended to tease him in the future. A lot.

So sue me, or whatever. I knew what I was and what I looked like. Both were gorgeous girls.

I was finally coming to grips with that and had discovered that it wasn't such a bad thing all around.

Besides, I liked the attention. Much to my old self's chagrin. But even he was coming around. It was fun being a pretty, sexy girl after all, and David never lacked a sense of fun even if he was the hard assed macho dude who 'took care of things'.

Then again, being Deena in my human life had shown me that being a girl wasn't all that bad and could even be fun.

And I was sooo going to visit that Kyle again. I couldn't resist it. He was sooo tightly wound, and really needed a good time in the sack.

Urrk! What am I saying?!!

Okay, time out.

Take a breath or two here, girl.

I was already half in love with the Kyle Raynor — the comic book artist in this world, that I's first met. And we'd had the congress you would expect between a male and female who were attracted to each other. More than once.

But this other Kyle Raynor, the Green Lantern, was magnetic. I felt like I would be cheating on the Kyle I knew, but at the same time knew that they were the same person in some basic sense. But they weren't the same.

My Kyle was gentle, loving, and considerate of my needs.

The other Kyle was demanding, needy, and had to dominate his partners.

Oddly, I found myself loving them both. If that makes sense.

They were, after all, just different aspects of the same person.

Now that was something that threw me on my figurative butt.

I'd never before even thought about loving a man. I mean I had been one not so long ago.

But now I had two of them I would give my life to preserve, and worse, they were the same person. Just from different places.

And one of them was determined to 'bring me to justice.” so to speak.

Oh, this was going to be fun. Not.

“Hey Kyle.” I announced myself to the comic book writer. “How's things?”

“Good.” He answered once he'd gotten over my showing up in his studio without notice, but I'd been dong that and he, god love him, had just taken it in stride. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good.” I answered with a little smile then gave him an embarassed look. “I was wondering...”

“Wondering what?”

“If you could make love to me as I am now.” I hesitantly answered.

“Make love to you as the Spectre?” He asked with an almost frightened look on his face.

“Yes.” I answered, and gave him a look that I knew was vulnerable and needy. “Could you do that?”

“I think so.” He nodded, then grinned. “I already love 'Deena, you know. It's only fair that I love you, too. You two are the same person after all.”

“I'm not Deena.” I softly told him.

“No, you aren't.” Kyle smiled. “But you are someone like her. Both of you try to find the good in people and I love you. You aren't a different person Diana. You and Deena are the same being, and your determination and caring show whether the authorities see that or not. Of course I could take you to bed as you are and enjoy it. You're beautiful, Diana. And I love both of you.”

That was the first time Diana learned what it was to be a woman, and loved.

The other Kyle would pale in comparison.

But it didn't mean I wasn't going to keep messing with the guy.

He needed to have some sexy girl teasing him and then getting away. It might teach him a little bit about humility, or at least that he wasn't god's gift to women like he thought.

Sheesh, another project.

I gave my Kyle — wow, when did I start calling a man mine? — a deep kiss and left his apartments feeling better about things in general than I had since I'd awakened as I was now.

But I had work to do.

Even if the urge to find and tease the GL Kyle some more was hard to resist.

What can I say? I know how I look, what I am, and all that. Given all that, a girl likes to have an effect on a man, you know. Yes, I think teasing the Green Lantern version of Kyle is going to lots of fun, but I'll have to be careful about that.

Not that it will stop me.

But that's for times when I don't have to be doing something else.

Thoughts of either Kyle faded as I was floating over the city again. I had a duty to perform, and one that didn't allow me to indulge in personal fun when the time came to do it.

Scanning the city I caught the sense of a lot of things that were wrong, but I couldn't punish every petty thief, or random little cruelty that happened. That's something that humanity as a whole has to work on in it's own time and it isn't up to me to fix that for them.

But as usual, something drew me.

What I was drawn to didn't appear to warrant my attention at all to begin with.

I saw a normal enough kitchen where a suburban housewife was cleaning things that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher while humming a contented little tune to herself.

But her soul was screaming. When I looked to see why I saw abuses that sickened me. Not only from her husband, but from others in the past and present who still visited her apparently placid, well kept home. Or people her husband took her to at times.

“Hello, Helena.” I greeted her softly, appearing in my Deena form, wearing slacks, a pullover top and comfortable shoes, unlike her own attire of an anachronistic dress, short heels and apron, so I wouldn't completely scare the poor woman out of what wits she had left. “Or is that your real name?”

I caught the pan she dropped before it hit the floor and handed it back to her with a smile. “No need to be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you, dear.”

“Huh... Who are you?” She questioned with fear clear in her face, eyes and posture. Something I noted was pretty normal for her, by the way. “How did you get in my house?”

“There are ways.” I answered then gave her my best disarming Deena smile. “I'm not here to rob you or hurt you. I want to help.”

“I don't need help.” She countered, still trying to see if I'd come through an accidentally unlocked door or window. “I was fine until you suddenly showed up in my kitchen. My husband won't like you being here unannounced.”

“I'm not concerned about your husband,” I told her with another smile while pulling out a kitchen chair and sitting on it to show that I wasn't hostile to her. “I'm concerned about you. What's your name?”

“My name?” She shook her head for a moment, carefully set the pot into it's place in a cabinet then looked back at me in curiosity, what does that have to do with anything right now?”

“Humor me.” I told her then asked again. “What's your name?”

“You already know that.” She shot back. “You called me Helena when you just — appeared in my kitchen.”

“No, Helena, your real name.” I gently answered. “The one you were given when you were born.”

“I can't,” she gave me a look full of fear and pain then sank into another chair at the table and cradled her head in her hands. I couldn't see her eyes because of the curtain her thick blonde hair made but I could feel her distress and sense her tears in the deepest parts of my being, “I can't tell anyone. It hurt whenever I tried, I don't want any more pain. Please don't make me say any more.”

“Helena.” I reached into her mind and did what I could to free the imprisoned parts, or at least allow those to speak at least this time. “Who were you? Before you became Helena?”

Something was working to block that, not just ingrained training or brainwashing. That something was centered at the base of her skull and was sending impulses to the rest of her brain. Painful ones at the moment. I did my best to block that and asked again. “Who were you before Helena?”

“Kevin.” She gasped, waiting for the waves of agony that she had become accustomed to whenever admitting to that little and venting a little sigh of relief when it didn't come. “Kevin Logan. I was — was a software designer.”

“Who did this to you, Kevin?” I asked softly, but with a sick feeling deep in my stomach because I had an inkling of what had happened, at least in the behavior parts of the poor woman's life. I say woman because she clearly wasn't even close to male now though her soul still was that in part, and was screaming at the cage it was in.

“The — the people I worked for.” She answered slowly. Still afraid of the pain that would be inflicted if she didn't act just as programmed. “I was working on applications for a revolutionary new chip, one that could help impaired people regain the use of their limbs, or voices, or anything else. I discovered that they were also doing mind control research, based on my work and confronted them with that.

“They, they took me somewhere else. To show me the benefits of the work, they said. “When I left, I don't know how much later, I was like this, a pretty, old fashioned housewife with a husband I had no choice but to love and defer to.”

“Damn.” I whispered. “Maybe I can help, a little at least.”

“No one can help.” She answered miserably then sobbed. “The chip has replaced part of my nervous system, if it is taken out, I'll die.”

“Do you want to keep going as you are?” I questioned quietly, containing the rage I felt at what had been done and pushing it down to a deep place to be called up later.

“I have no choice!” She grated out then glared at me. “Why make me relive that now? Are you with them? Did they send you to make sure I'm being a good little housewife?”

“No, they didn't send me.” I answered with a sigh. “I'd like to put a stop to what they're doing, if it hasn't been done already.”

“Like you could do anything.” She actually snorted, having only seen pretty little Deena.

“You might be surprised.” I actually managed a smile at her. “I did release you enough to tell me what happened to you, didn't I?”

“Who are you?” She asked again, while looking carefully at me.

“This.” I told her as I shifted back to my Diana form. “Don't be afraid, I'm not here to hurt you.”

“You're that Meta vigilante that the police are after.” She let out a little gasp and sat further back in her chair, obviously afraid.

“Yes.” I nodded and shook my head. “But I don't harm the innocent Helena, Kevin, whoever you are now. “Tell me who you worked for. I'll do my best to see that they don't do this to anyone again.”

Lo — Logistic Solutions, it's on...”

“I'll find them.” I gave her shaking hand a reassuring pat. “You've suffered enough just telling me this much.”

“Can, can you help me?” She asked and the tears in her beautiful green eyes were ruining her once perfect makeup.

“I'm sorry.” I really was, but anything I could do would be very temporary and would only result in more agony for the the poor soul once that had faded. “My powers over the living are very limited. I only bring death, and then only to those who deserve it. You aren't one of those.”

“Then kill me.” She almost begged. “Finish this horror of a life that I have to act like I enjoy.”

“I can't do that.” I shook my head and almost cried myself at the admission. “But I can give you an out if you'll take it.”

“Anything!” She was pleading and I felt it to the deepest parts of what I had left of a soul, and it hurt feeling that need.

“You'll have ten, maybe fifteen minutes after I leave.” I told her simply. “When you can do what you want instead of what you've been programmed to do. I can't give you any more than that. I'm sorry.”

“It's enough.” She nodded resolutely even though she was still crying. “Thank you.”

“Use the time you have wisely.” I answered, then stood up and moved to give her a tight hug. “I can't tell you how to use it, I'm not allowed to do that, but do what you think you have to.”

She nodded and something came into her expression that had no place on a normal housewife's face. “I will.”

“Are there any children from all this?” I asked.

“No, though that would have come in time, I'm — I'm female through and through physically, though I have no idea how the bastards managed that.”

“I'll find out.” I promised. “Believe me when I say the people who did this you are going to pay.”

“I believe you.” Helena nodded, but now I could see Kevin looking out of her eyes. “I just wish you could make them go through what they did to me, and others.”

“I can't promise that, but trust me, they'll regret the day they started on this project.”

“I guess that's all I can ask then. Has my time started yet?”

“Not until I leave.” I answered and gave her a sad look. “Is there anything else I can do right now?”

“You gave me my life back.” She shrugged in a very masculine gesture and gave me a faint smile. “Even if only for a few minutes. I'll take care of the rest. Thank you.”

“Go with God.” I told her and left the place.

Though I only went outside and hovered to see what the transformed male would do. Her husband wasn't home or I would have been hard pressed not to kill him since he had to be in on the events that had produced his 'wife'.

It only took her seven minutes and a few seconds. She didn't bother with a note, just went to where her husband kept his pistol, made sure it was loaded, whispered a little prayer, and shot herself through the roof of her mouth at an angle that made sure it would blow most of her brain out the back of her head.

Her last words were. “You can clean this mess up, you son of a bitch.”

I made sure her wounded soul went to a place of healing.

Then went hunting.

I can't really describe the rage I was feeling after that. Again, I thought of waiting for her husband to come home and starting my retribution there. In our brief contact I had felt all that the poor man had gone through to become the demure, beautiful housewife I'd found. Unimaginable pain, both physical and mental, not to mention psychic. Whoever had done this were far beyond what those people did to poor Dolores.

I floated above the city for awhile after that. Weeping, Crying my eyes out, and screaming my rage to anything that could hear.

“Diana.” The all too familiar voice intruded with uncharacteristic gentleness. “You do recall I warned you about this all consuming rage. And what it could make of you if you give in to it.”

“Dammit!” I screamed back. “Did you see what I did back there, feel what I did?!”

“You are my avatar in the world, Diana, of course I saw and felt all of it.”

“Then you should know why I'm so angry now!”

“I do, love, I do.” The voice answered softly. “My name is, or was Tisiphone. Believe me, I am all too familiar with rage and meting out harsh justice.”

Tisiphone. The most violent of the three Greek Furies. I knew that and was boggled that she had finally told me who she was, but at the time it didn't matter to me at all. That I was HER avatar on Earth did.

“They need to pay.” I grated out between screams of agonized rage. “The ones who did this need to PAY!”

“They will, dear, they will.” Tisiphone soothed. “And you will be the major instrument of that payment, but to do so you must put the rage aside and start thinking instead of reacting.”

Truthfully, I was worn out. Anger takes a lot of energy if you didn't already know that.

“Tisiphone,” I answered, sounding at least a bit more sane when I did. “I've never truly hated anyone I was sent after, not even The Necromancer. These people I hate, with a fire that feels like it could melt steel.”

“I know, love.” She answered quietly. “But put that hate aside for now, and the rage that comes with it. You will need to THINK to get to these people.”

“All right.” I let out a sigh and all the rage that was left seemed to flow out of me with it. “But I am going to visit Helena's 'husband' in the near future.”

“As I would do.” Tisiphone answered, then added. “Just contain the rage, daughter. It serves no useful purpose yet. It's time will come and you will know when that is.”

“All right — Mother.” I answered and didn't even know why I called her that, though it felt right.

“Go back to your Kyle, or the other one,” She advised. “Or become Deena and work extra hard. The physical contact will help you. You need to shed some of this physical aggression and that would be the best way to do it just now.”

“Okay.” I half reluctantly agreed. “Good night, Mother.”

“Good night, my child.” She answered I could swear I felt a hand stroke my cheek. “Rest, find relief. Tomorrow is soon enough to begin the things you must do.”

Part of me wanted to protest that even one night would make some other poor souls suffer more than they needed to, but she was right. I was pretty well useless in my present state of mind and emotional condition. So I went home.

But I had a mission. A real one this time instead of simply seeing bad guys and taking them out.

I wondered if I would need help with it, and if I did, who I would dare ask for that.

 

---

 

The building didn't look like anything special, or sinister at all. Outside it was just another post modern building with lots of glass and solar panels set within well landscaped grounds that almost looked like a park.

Inside, it was techie's dream. High end computers that wouldn't be considered state of the art by the public for several years yet, clean open work environment without the cubicles you'd expect to see in a place where computer nerds worked, and people freely shared information among themselves.

All in all, it appeared to be a pretty good place to work.

But there were places, underground, and even on the surface, that most of the regular employees never saw, and rarely heard of other than in rumor.

And this was the place where Kevin Logan/Helene Hotchkiss had worked.

I couldn't access the computers in the secured areas, and to be honest not even in the regular work areas. Being a ghost, more or less, meant that their security had no effect on me, and I didn't effect it, but to access the data base I would have to go physical, which would have set off more alarms than I cared to think about.

Even if I had gone physical, I didn't have the time to get into the hidden systems, not even with the passwords and other codes without triggering the alarms thanks to the sophisticated computer scanning of the whole facility and recognition protocols for individual employees allowed in the restricted area.

And I didn't want to warn whoever was funding the hidden research that someone was on to them. But I knew of someone who could probably hack even the secure systems. I made a mental note to contact her once I was finished up in the place and see if she would do it.

That could be ticklish since she was firmly 'one of the good guys' and I had only been tentatively moved into the status of 'Not a real bad guy, but...'.

There was someone else I could ask for help from on this without getting all the Law and Order types worrying about ethics, but I hesitated to contact her, and Megan might help, but again I was leery of approaching her given her recent experiences with the bio-metal and chips that someone had made of it. I didn't want to dredge up more painful memories for her.

But I was pretty sure she'd want to be in on this one for the same reasons.

I wasn't going to contact her, though, until I had solid evidence someone else would back up.

I did hang around to see if I could find or hear anything else useful. Being a ghost does has its good points at times, you know.

“You shouldn't have left her alone that long, Hotchkiss.”

Helene's 'husband' grimaced and replied to the one who was berating him. “Mr. Clarke, she seemed to be under control and let's be honest, I couldn't take her everywhere with me. People would have gotten suspicious. I saw no hints that she was breaking the programming until I got home and found her in my office.”

“You should have noticed.” Clarke, a rather nondescript man with greying hair and a bit of a paunch despite the exercise he obviously did to stay in shape glared at his companion. “I don't need to tell you that our 'girls' are the biggest part of our funding for this project. When one slips the leash, it makes our clients wary. You should have seen the signs and acted accordingly.”

“There were no signs, dammit!” Hocthkiss shot back. “Helena was the perfect little traditional housewife. You know I brought her back for reinforcement twice. I don't know what went wrong this time.”

“Well there wasn't enough of her brain left to scan, so neither do we.” Clarke answered simply. “But you obviously failed to spot something. If you can't see such things maybe I need to find someone else to control the new girls and if you screw up again, you just might find yourself among them. Clear?”

“Yes, sir.” The man answered with fear evident in his posture and smell.

“We got this mess cleaned up for you, which is fortunate for you, but now we need to give a cover story for just why your loving, doting wife isn't around any longer.” Clarke mused. “Visiting her mother won't work, since we don't have someone to replace her right now. All the girls we have on hand are already paid for.

“We can manufacture evidence that you were fooling around on her and she finally just got fed up and left. I think that's the best we can do right now.”

I knew I should have called Kevin/Helena's suicide in. I cursed myself for that one, but continued watching while doing my best to contain the rage I felt welling up when I had it confirmed that not only had there been more unfortunates subjected and sold, but that more were in the making.

Being the avatar of a Fury, or Erinyes as the Greeks called them, wasn't easy at all. Especially since I was the avatar of the most violent and vindictive of the three. I wanted to lash out and kill both men in that office, painfully and slowly, but knew that if I did that, I'd have to work a lot harder to find and stop what they were doing. So I consciously cooled the not so slow boil I was at and kept paying attention.

“Go check on Mitsuko.” Clarke ordered. “Our client is getting impatient to have his new wife.”

“Yes, sir.” Hotchkiss answered and rose to leave the office.

“No more screw ups, Hotchkiss.” Clarke warned.

“There won't be, sir.”

Then and there, I decided there would be more 'screw ups'. As much as I wished to kill the guy, I also realized there were worse things than death. Kevin/Helena had experienced that, so had Dolores.

I was going to take these bastards down, hard. But some of them needed a taste of what they did to others.

Much as it shamed me, I was anticipating that happening.

“Make damned sure she's as submissive as our client wants.” Clarke softly said, the threat was clear in his tones.

Hotchkiss didn't answer, just left the office.

I followed him.

Mitsuko stared at her reflection in the mirror of the ornate vanity she had been given and repressed a shudder. The delicately featured, beautiful Asian face she looked at while she applied her makeup wasn't the one she had been used to seeing some time ago.

But dwelling on that, or even seeming to resist what had happened to the man she used to be, resulted in pain like most people couldn't imagine. She had no idea of how her jailors had managed to change her body and face, but she was all too aware of how they enforced her compliance.

They had surgically implanted some kind of chip at the base of her skull and in her spinal cord. A chip that could give pleasure if she acted correctly, or unimaginable, burning agony if she didn't. She had experienced enough of the pain. Though she hated what she had become — this submissive, demure, lovely Japanese woman, she hated the agony worse, and feared it. So she had become one of the 'good girls' to avoid more of it.

Mitsuko Armitage was already a wife, though she had never been officially married. But the people who had made her what she was showed her pictures of a wedding, with her in a bridal gown hanging on the arm of a man she knew was her husband no matter how that revolted her deep inside.

She had more than one picture of herself with that man, always holding or being held and looking so deceptively happy. Worse, she also had pictures of herself as a little girl, a teenager, and a young single woman. The were all in frames and displayed prominently in her rooms.

Knowing all of them were faked didn't change a thing.

Mitsuko Armitage had a history, a past life, and had false memories of being a girl at school in Nagasaki. She had come to think in Japanese most of the time, and using English, which now sounded harsh and all sharp cornered to her, took a bit of thought.

But she had been born in Ohio, and grew up speaking the language that now seemed so foreign. Made to be so cutely awkward with the customs of a country she had grown up in.

It was all so wrong, so horrible. Not only had they altered the body she had grown up in, they had altered everything else she had once taken for granted.

But she didn't dare resist. She craved death, but they wouldn't allow that, either.

She was the now the loving,very traditionally submissive wife of a rich American.

And could do nothing to fight that.

Inside she cried, because now she was a woman who had no choice but to be the thing her 'husband' wanted, screamed about that, and her lost self raged.

None of that made a bit of difference.

Having felt and experienced that from the delicately featured, Shapely young Asian woman I pulled out of her mind and wished to kill someone all over again. I had gone through something like she had, with the change of sex and ending up being beautiful in both my personas, and I was subject to someone's will, too. But I hadn't been forced to become sweet and submissive through burning, acidic pain in all my nerve endings. I hadn't been ripped from my old life and forced to take on another the way she had.

“I wish I could give you the death you want so much, Mitsuko.” I whispered. “In time I may be able to give that to you, but for now, I need you alive. I'm sorry.”

“Is someone there?” She questioned in a sweet, melodic and accented soprano.

I didn't answer, just withdrew so I could go somewhere else and cry.

Later, as my Deena self I reflected on what I'd learned and what had happened to me.

Yes, my human self was a prostitute, and a good one. But I hadn't been really forced into it. I knew, deep down that I could have changed that simply by taking a job as a waitress, receptionist, or junior secretary somewhere. I had the qualifications for all of those.

But the point is I'd had a choice.

Made it, and lived with it knowing that it had been my choice.

Helena, and Mitsuko hadn't had that luxury.

They'd been forced into the molds that shaped and defined them even though their souls were complete opposites of what they had become.

“Dammit!” I screamed into the air while throwing an inoffensive vase against the wall. More things got thrown and I kept cursing any deity that existed for awhile.

A pounding on my door stopped that, and I carefully looked at who was doing it through the peephole in the door. It was one of my neighbors, concern etched on his rugged face. “Deena?! Are you having problems with someone?”

“No.” I answered while opening the door and giving him, Hernanado, a weak smile. “I just got some really bad news and was venting. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you.”

“You sure, chica?” He questioned while examining me and the part of the apartment he could see. “Someone hurts you, hermana, I hurt them. Okay?”

I'm sure, Hernando.” I managed a smile. “Sorry for the noise, and no one is here but me.”

“Must have been bad news.” The man sighed, satisfied that I wasn't fighting with someone. “You need to talk, me and the wife will listen anytime.”

“Thank you.” I actually smiled and gave him a kiss on his scarred cheek. “I'm okay, just needed to get something out and here was the safest place to do that. I really am sorry I made you worry.”

“No Problemo, chica.” He grinned. “We all know the things you do around here and try to hide. Anytime you got trouble, you let me know.”

“I will.”

“Bueno.” he nodded then gave me a hug. “I leave you to whatever it is.”

I watched him return to the apartment across the hall and felt a surge of unsexual love.

Another difference there between me and poor Mitsuko and Helena. People actually cared about me as Deena. Those two, and others I didn't want to think about just then, didn't have even that.

“Hi Lena.” I announced myself once I'd appeared in her — office, computer room, or whatever?

The poor girl almost hit the ceiling that was a good ten feet above her head, and turned abruptly to see who had invaded her private space. Oh, she also had a rather large handgun in her hand and it was pointed right at me.

“Sorry I startled you.” I smiled then looked at the weapon in her hand. You don't need that with me. I'm not here to hurt you, you know.”

Would it do any good even if I used it?” She questioned while pushing a stray lock of her hair away from her face without lowering the pistol that was still pointed at me.

“It would hurt.” I admitted. But other than that, probably not.”

“You could have given me some warning, you know.” She said while lowering the weapon and carefully setting it back in the clips that held it under her desk. “You showing up out of nowhere is kind of, you know, scary as Hell.”

“Sorry.” I actually was, since I could have gotten in contact through Deena's email, though I was still hesitant to do that. The only one in world who knew about my alter-self was Kyle, and him I trusted in a way that is difficult to describe. Okay, I was probably in love with the guy. Weird, really weird, since I'd only been this girl I was, or both of them, for less than a year. “I'll email you first next time, I just didn't think this time around.”

“Ahhh.” She shrugged and grinned. “Doesn't matter now since you're here, but a little advance notice would be nice next time around. Then I might not be in danger of shooting things I'd rather not, you know?”

“I'll email you in the future.” I promised.

“So I need to look for something from Spectre.com?”

“No.” I actually laughed at that one, though the idea was intriguing. I'd have to think about that one for awhile, though. “I'm trusting you with something here that only one other person knows right now, but if you get a message from this source, it will be from me. Can you keep that to yourself?”

“Well, duh!” She grimaced. “I get tips and information from all kinds of 'anonymous' sources and I have things on my system that keep them anonymous no matter how hard someone looks. You know who my Dad is. I got his intelligence out of the genetic mix and my Mom's looks, thank goodness. So believe me when I say there's no one better with computers or the Net than me.”

I nodded. Lena's last name was Luthor. Yes, that Luthor. If she said it about her computer skills, I believed it.

“Now,” She actually grinned at me. “What name should I look for when you contact me?”

“SexyDeena.” I told her with a little sigh then added. “My alter ego is a very good and well paid prostitute, much as that pained me in the beginning.”

I saw the flash of understanding on her face but was quickly swallowed with amusement that she tried hard to hide. “Okaaay. I gather from the way you said it there, that you used to be a guy?”

“Yup.” I shrugged. “The entity that chose me seems to have a really warped sense of humor.”

“No shit.” She answered then gave me a concerned look. “Doris used to be a guy, too. It's hard for her a lot of times. How are you holding up with that?”

“I am what I am.” I shrugged. “It was tough at first, and still is off and on, but I deal with it. My neighbors, and the people in the neighborhood where I live in and work love Deena.”

“And?” Lena questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, yeah, the sex is good.” I shot back half angrily, then had to chuckle. “The body does rule the mind, Lena, and Deena, me, is working that way to make money for an education that will get her out of that kind of life. She's in university and is a business major.”

“Good for you.” Lena smiled and moved up to actually hug me. That was a shock. The only person who had done that before was Kyle. “I know you aren't the villain that the police want everyone to think you are, by the way. I've been following your — exploits, since you first visited us.”

“I am a bad guy by the current rules.” I pointed out.

“You're justice, Deena.” She answered. “Not law.”

“The name is Diana in this form.” I told her.

“The Huntress.” She nodded and grinned. “Appropriate. I take it that what drives you, brought you back from the dead is something involving the ancient Greeks? The name hints at that, after all.”

“A Fury.” I confirmed. This girl was way to smart to be safe Being around if she wanted to did information out, for most people.

“Which one?

“Tisiphone.” I said with a wince.

“Ahh, the violent, really vengeful one.”

“Yeah, so now you know why I'm the way I am at times.”

“Understood.” Lena gave me a little smile. “Does anyone else know all this about you? Besides Tisiphone, I mean.”

“Not all of it.”

“Okay.” She said then got that 'business' look on her face. “So why did you come and what do you want me to do?”

“I need you do dig around in this database.” I answered, while handing her a paper with the information on it. “I can't get to it because if I went physical enough to do it, it would set off all kinds of alarms, so be careful while you're digging.”

“Pfft!” she grinned. “I can get into any database, and let me tell you it's tough not to do that on some of the financial networks, but I'm already rich. I do finance some of Doris' and my needs that way right now, but I always put it back later. Besides, I can get in, get the information, and not even the security administrators there will know I've done it.”

“This one is really dangerous.” I told her.

“So what does it involve?”

“Bio-metal, chips.” I answered. “And this bunch is much further along than the ones who got Dolores.”

“Oh, shit, I thought you said that was done.”

I thought it was.” I said quietly. “But I was wrong, and I'm going to put an end to it if I can. I just need your help to find what they do, how they do it, and if you can, get me a list of their victims.”

“You got it.” Lena nodded, then gave me a long, careful look. “Megan needs to know about this, she would want to be in on it.”

“Yes, she would.” I nodded. “But I need facts, and for her to hear it from someone she trusts.”

“I'll take care of that.” Lena assured me.

“That's all I ask.”

“I'll be in touch.” She told me then grinned. “And don't stay such a stranger. I'm your friend, Diana, Deena, or whoever else you are or were. I just wanted you to know that.”

I couldn't answer that one, just nodded.

Now I had two people who knew about me, and my alter-ego.

I trusted both of them.

“Good bye, for now.” I moved forward and gave her a hug. “And thank you.”

“I'll be in touch, soon.” She assured me.

Whether that was with the information I wanted, or for other things didn't matter just then.

I went somewhere else to think about what had just happened.

 

---

 

I was just doing normal Deena things that afternoon, done with classes, studying finished (only had morning classes that day) and was going through things on Face book, email and that kind of stuff.

To be honest, it still boggled me that Deena, me, had so many friends, and not just the casual type that you get on facebook. I received around fifty emails a day,and thanks to a good spam filter none of those were ads, or trying to to convince me I could make a fortune by working online.

The two bright red exclamation points by one, sent to me from [email protected], caught my attention right away. I'd flagged anything from anyone with those initials or using Lena or Luthor in the name.

It was from Lena, as I'm sure you've figured out already.

D.

I have some information, lots of it. Call me.

There was a phone number in the message, but that I'm not going to share.

I got my phone and keyed in the number in the email, ready to close the call if someone I didn't know answered. I could always throw the phone away and get another one, after all. Pay as you go phones are nice that way. Plus I had added a few little things — supernatural, of course — that would make it at best difficult to trace where I was when using it.

“You have reached the number of Gig.dot net. If you don't have legitimate business here, hang up or you will regret it . If you do, leave a message and I will get back to you.”

“Nice message, Lena.” I spoke after the familiar beep. “It's Deena, Diana, whatever. This is my Deena voice so you probably don't recognize it. I'll just say this right now. Dolores.”

It was a mere fifteen seconds before my phone chirped again, once I'd closed that message.

“Diana?”

“Hi, Lena, and it's Deena, just now. But hello. Your email said you had information?”

“Yeah, lots.” She actually sounded a little sick as she answered. “But I can't tell you over the phone.”

“I'll be there in a few minutes.” I answered then chuckled. “Just don't hit the roof when I say hello this time, okay?”

“I know you're coming this time.” Lena answered. “This is not nice, stuff, Deena.”

“On my way.” I answered, shut off the phone, and changed to Diana.

It's really amazing how fast you can get from St. Louis to Chicago when mere physical constraints don't apply.

I just lifted out of my apartment, floated long enough to orientate on where I was and where I wished to go, then was hovering over the warehouse that Doris and Lena called home.

Then I went in.

Lena was in the same room I'd met her in the last time.

“Hi Lena.” I announced myself and settled to the floor.

“Heya, Di.” She answered without so much as a flinch, but she was also working the keyboard in front of some monitors. I had no idea where the computer she was using had been hidden and didn't really care. “You aren't going to like this.”

“I got that impression from what I've seen so far.” I told her then went back into my Deena shape. “So what did you find?”

Lena did give a little start at the change in my voice and turned to look at me. “Deena, I take it?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Most people handle me better in this version.”

“Well... you look human.” She agreed then couldn't suppress a grin. “And you're just as hot as in your other form, just a lot less scary.”

“Yeah, I know.” I shrugged then looked at the six by four foot monitor on the wall. “But you said you had information I need?

“Oh, yeah. That I do.” She grimaced. “I can tell you that the sex slave thing is just the tip of this iceberg. They use that to finance everything else.

“That Miyoko you found?” She actually looked a little sick while she was telling me that. “Sold for 2.5 mil.”

“Damn.” I breathed then asked. “What about Helene?”

“She was a bonus for a good employee.” Lena answered and I could not only see, but feel the revulsion she felt over that. “Make these people pay, make them hurt. I've never wanted to hurt anyone until now, but these people...”

“I will.” I told her. It wasn't a promise, or a wish, it was just something that I knew was going to happen. Then I moved forward and hugged her tightly. “They are going to pay, trust me.”

“Good.”

“But I need information to make that happen.” I quietly told her.

“What I have is all here.” Lena handed me a thumb drive. “I'll find more, but right now that's all I could get. I still haven't found where they're getting that damned bio-metal.”

'We will.” I promised her. “But be careful. These people are dangerous. If they find you've been hacking their files...”

“I know, I know.” She wiped a tear from her cheek and managed a weak grin. “I'll be careful.”

“All the same.” I answered. “We need a codeword that you could hide if they do catch you, or me.”

“Rain.” Lena answered. “That's the emergency call. “It's pouring rain.”

“Good.” I smiled and implanted another code word in her mind so I could be sure it was 'her' talking with me. No one but me would be able to access it and yes, I felt like shit doing that. But now that I really had friends, I wasn't about to let them go into harms way without some kind of backup.

“I'll get you more.”

“Just be careful.” I needlessly cautioned. “I don't want another Dolores to deal with here.”

“Oh, puhleeaseee.” Lena winked at me. If they can find me, they're aliens from some other planet with really super tech.”

“Don't get cocky.” I had to chuckle. “You never know.”

“True.” She said then gave me a long penetrating look. “You have to let Megan in on this, you know.”

“I plan to do that.” I assured her. “But she has some zombie problem in Brazil right now to deal with. Don't worry, when the big hit comes, I'll make sure she's involved.”

“Okay, she needs that, you know.”

“I know.”

“I don't know, really what or who you are,” Lena moved forward and gave me a hug. “But you be careful, too. Part of you is mortal, you know.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, then added. “I seem to be the incarnation of one of the classical Greek Furies.”

“Fits.” Lena actually grinned at that. “Justice personified, and vengeance.”

“Yeah, that's me.”

“Don't let that kill who you are, Diana, Deena, whoever.”

“I've been working on that.” I assured her.

After another set of hugs — females just love hugging, I never knew that before — I returned to my, Deena's, apartment.

I had a computer in a place my Diana form went, a place that no one without supernatural assistance could even find.

Once I'd read what was on that thumb drive, I wished, fervently, that I was capable of being physically sick.

Yes, the 'Wife — sex slave' — thing was just a sideline for the people doing this. That in itself was bad enough, that they they could rip away someone's life and replace it with something else, just to keep the money coming in.

They had determined early on that males were more appropriate subjects for that kind of transformation because a male had no automatic defenses against what most women would just shrug off.

Their money making subjects had no real experience with fending off the attentions of a male, or how to deflect that kind of thing with a few words, a glance, or just walking away.

It was the most reprehensible thing I'd ever seen in my life. Both lives, by the way.

And the bastards just did that for amusement and to make money to fund their really nasty stuff.

Never in either existence I'd known, had I so genuinely wanted to kill someone, or better, make them hurt like their victims did.

Death was way to good for these people.

Some of their experiments were, to say the least, pure abominations. Abominations meant to be set loose on normal people.

And the worst part? Those abominations were suffering through all of it. Hating themselves, what they had become, and what they were supposed to do. They remembered. They remembered who and what they had been, and knew they were horrors. But they could do nothing to break away from that.

That inability fueled the rage their creators wanted. Aimed.

Yes, oh yes. People needed to die here. Painfully, and slowly.

Their victims needed only a quick release from their pain. I could give them that physically. And send them to a place where their wounded souls might be able to heal.

But I had to find them to do that.

And so far, where they were kept wasn't something I knew.

But I would find them. Free the tortured souls, and torture the ones who had done this thing.

You know? I had no problem at all with that last idea. Condemn me for that if you like, but remember, I am a Fury. That defines me better than any amount of words could do.

I AM A FURY. I am the god's vengeance incarnate. I am hate, rage, despair, pain, personified.

But at times, I can be merciful. I've done that, seen it, felt it.

This wasn't something that deserved, or even allowed me to think of mercy other than for the victims.

People were going to pay for this. And if I had anything to say about it, they would pay for eternity.

I have told you I was never all that nice a person, haven't I? As if you hadn't noticed by now.

I found Helene's husband at the house where that poor soul had gone through enough Hell to make up for a thousand years of misdeeds.

He was on his computer, inputting his wishes for his next 'wife'.

“Now that's interesting.” I quietly said while reading what he was typing. “Submissive, loves any kind of sex with men, obedient to her master, and super feminine.”

He looked up to see who had managed to break in through his security and paled when he saw me. "The Spectre.

“I know who you are.” He actually looked terrified. "What do you want with me?"

“Oh, I'm not going to kill you if that's what you're worried about at the moment.” I shrugged and finished off his relieved expression with an evil smile. “Oh, no, that's too good for you. But trust me, you're going to wish I had in time.”

“What?”

“Shut up.” I said it quitely, but with enough force to let him know that I meant it. “Death was a mercy for Helene, or whoever she was to begin with, I gave her that, or at least freed her will enough to allow her that out.

“You won't have that.” I took a seat in a chair that had me looking across his desk to see him, and smiled. “But I'm sure you'll wish you did in time.”

The weapon he used was impressive. A Colt Commander, .45 caliber, and to be honest, when the rounds hit me, they did hurt, they always do. I think it has something to do with Tisiphone making sure that I don't think I'm above the pain mortals feel. I could be wrong, but who knows? She doesn't share things like that with me.

He actually looked relieved until the wounds closed and I slowly got up from where the impact of the rounds had thrown me. Trust me, if you haven't been hit by a .45 at close range, don't try it. System shock from even a usually non-fatal wound would probably kill you.

“Now that wasn't very polite.” I groused while righting the chair I'd been sitting in and using it again. He just goggled as if he didn't believe what he'd just seen. I grinned. “I'm already dead. It's kind of hard killing someone in that state, you know? But if it helps any, that hurt like a bitch.”

He was pale, sweating, and terrified. All of which were fine with me.

“Now, on to the business at hand.” I got up walked to the bar in the corner and poured myself three fingers of a very expensive single malt scotch then seated myself again. “Feel free to get whatever you want to drink. I won't stop you unless you try to bolt. I have some unfinished business to attend to and you're only the first of many I have to do that with.”

“Wha.. What are you going to do to me?”

“Well I can't do the physical alterations to make you into your 'dream girl' as much as I'd like to,” I shrugged, “but I won't need to because when I'm finished with you, you'll do all that yourself or allow your coworkers to do it to you. And they won't even need to use one of those damned chips on you to get the results you all seem to look for.

“Being technically dead, I can't alter anything physical.” I gave him an almost gentle smile. “But the mind, ahhh now that's another matter entirely. The mind goes on, even after death, and given the abilities I have, that is within my purview to meddle with.”

“What?” He looked confused.

“I'll make this easy.” With a thin smile I pointed at his computer monitor and ordered. “Read the file you just made for your perfect wife.”

He did, running through the whole thing as sickening as it was.

“You wanted someone who was submissive, ultra feminine, and would accept whatever a man wanted to do with her, correct? A sexual plaything that was also like some sit com housewife from the fifties?”

“Yes, but what that does that have to do with now?”

“Nothing with now.” I laughed. “But the future? Now that will be interesting.

“Because the qualities in a 'wife' that you wanted?” I chuckled. “Well now you have them all, and will spend whatever it takes to make your body conform to those. You aren't a man any longer except in the physical sense, and if your employers don't notice and give you the body you need yourself, you'll do things to get it on your own.

“Oh, no suicide clause for you either.” I gave him a 'what can you do?' look then an evil grin. “You will live out your allotted span of years, just in your new gender and attitudes. And it isn't going to be instant either. You'll suffer as little by little you masculinity goes away along with your ability to make decisions. You're going to become dependent on someone else, a man, to make those for you.

“Maybe you should change your name to something like Donna Reed.” I laughed. “Or June Cleaver, though that would be an insult to those ladies.

“Because you're going to more feminine than either one of those, and more receptive to sexual advances than a porn star. But even with all that, you'll keep an immaculate house, and always be beautiful for your 'husband'. Enjoy your new life.

“Oh, wearing male clothing is going to get painful in awhile, too. You'll develop a rash like it's an allergy and you'll naturally gravitate to the most feminine fashions in style, and at home — well, let's just say that vintage clothing shops and websites are going to be your favorite places.

“Good bye.” I told him then dropped the halfway pleasant face I'd been showing him. “You're going to suffer you son-of-a-bitch, because with all that, your male self will still be there, just unable to do anything to counter it or even tell anyone about what's happened to you. Enjoy your new life.”

And I left him, but I knew I'd watch for awhile then be sickened by what I'd done to him. But the guy deserved it.

Did I feel good about what I'd just done?

No, not particularly.

But justice, true justice, is often unkind, even hateful to some it is administered to. But that's the way of balance, isn't it? No one is immune to it, not even me. Especially not me.

Did I feel bad about it?

No.

Now what does that say about me?

No matter, it was my path and I had to follow it. And there were more, many more people who richly deserved what I'd just done.

Death is a mercy at times, one I'd withheld from that one, and would continue to withhold. Death is nothing, simply moving on to something else. To deny that release to someone, that was true vengeance.

And I truly began to understand the real, awful power, the ancient Furies had wielded.

 

---

 

I was hovering over River City again, just thinking about things while I watched over my town.

My town, when had I start getting so possessive of it, I wonder?

No matter, I had, and felt a real need to protect it and its citizens in my own, somewhat unorthodox way.

But at the time I was musing about what I'd done to Helena's 'husband'.

Part of me was sickened by what I'd done, sure that no one deserved that. But another part felt only satisfaction. His punishment fit the crime and that was that.

That mix of horror and satisfaction pretty well summed me up just then. Or maybe for all time now that I really think about it. Justice is often unkind. Vengeance has nothing to do with kindness at all.

Somehow, I thought that what I'd recently done was a combination of both no matter how repugnant the small part of me that was still human felt that to be. Even with that, the satisfaction was the stronger of my reactions.

There are times when I don't like myself much.

But would I do that again? What I'd done to that man if it was for the same reasons?

In a heartbeat, if I'd had one in this form.

My thoughts were interrupted by a bright, no make that blazing streak in the night sky. One that was heading right for me. I reached out my awareness, something I was getting better at doing while staying focused on my own surroundings, so knew who it was before she even arrived.

The winged form hovering in front of me was breathtakingly lovely. It resembled a bird, in that it had wings, but was made of flame hot enough to burn the world if it was let loose.

“Hello, Phoenix.” I greeted her. “I seem to be attracting all kinds of visitors lately. Guess I'll need to change where I hang out to think. Are you here to take me in to face justice, too?”

“Hardly.” The form shrank and lost some of its brilliance until the shape of a young woman hovered in front of me. “I don't know if even the Phoenix could take you, but I won't try. I don't think the city would do well if you and I went at it full out, do you?”

“Probably not.” I agreed. “So why are you here, then?”

“I want to help you.” She said. Then offered nothing else.

Okay, ball in my court, over the net, whatever. I returned the serve. “Help me with what?”

“What you're doing and have been doing recently.” She answered.

“Which is?”

“Playing the airhead isn't your style, Spectre.” She chuckled. “You know what I'm talking about. I watched what you did to that bastard.

“At first I wanted you to kill him, painfully.” She went on with a sigh that sent sparks flying through the air. I was actually glad that I was mostly incorporeal just then. Those could have hurt otherwise. “But when I saw what you were doing I changed my mind, and cheered you on.

“Even though I was ashamed of myself for that, I relished what you did to that bastard.” She grimaced and even appeared a little ashamed. “Even if it was something I would find repellent most of the time. He deserved that, and more.”

“That's about how I felt, too.” I admitted. “But that one is going to be living with his 'dream' for a long time to come. Even if I'm ashamed of myself for doing that.”

“Don't be, death was too good for him.”

“I even denied that to him.” I told her. “He won't die unless I let him, or her, as it will soon be. Worse, the woman he's going to become will look young and fresh until I release her.”

“You'll relent in time.” She shrugged then gave me an evil little grin I'd seen in the mirror all too often. “But that one needs to suffer, for a long time.”

“Wow, someone who actually doesn't condemn me for things, I've done.” I marveled and shrugged. “I don't always like what I do, you know. I'm guided, and have to follow that at times.”

“It's what you are.” She shrugged again. “You can't fight that, Spectre.”

My name is Diana.” I answered.

Appropriate.” She nodded. “The Huntress. And my name is Jean.”

“Jean.” I nodded, and gave her a bit of myself that I hadn't done all that often. “I seem to be the modern day incarnation of one of the Greek Furies.”

“Tisiphone, I know.”

“You know her?” I actually looked surprised because I was. “You've seen her?”

“I know her, yes.” Jean answered. “From legends and myths. But I knew that she was behind what you do from the start. She was the one who went after murderers, after all. I haven't been able to talk with her, though.”

“Probably just as well.” I grinned. “With your powers and her blood thirsty leanings that could really get messy. On a large scale.”

“No arguments there.” Jean laughed. “She was the most violent of the Erinyes, after all.”

“Tell me about it.” I grumbled.

“Don't you want to know why I want to help you?” She asked.

“Figured that you'd get around to telling me in time.” I told her.

“True.” Jean — Phoenix gave me a look that penetrated what soul I had left and nodded. “I had a chance to help once before, I might have been able to save Dolores, but I was afraid to do that.”

“Lots of thoughts, good, bad, indifferent, and emotions to sort through for you to have been able to find her.” I pointed out. “That would have been really painful for you.”

“Not an excuse.” She shot back. “I should have helped and I didn't because I didn't want the pain that looking would have caused me. The pain that resulted from my not doing that was worse.”

“Superman, or Supergirl, is a myth.” I told her and moved forward to hug the still flaming figure. “No one can ignore pain, Jean. I can't, you can't. I could have found Dolores, too. If I had when things were starting with what happened to her, I might have been able to at least stop the programming that made her into a less than human toy for someone.

“But I didn't step in then either.” I let out a heavy sigh as I said that. “I could have, if I'd been paying attention. I could have stopped it. But I didn't.”

“You were busy hunting down that Necromancer at the time.” She shot back. “At least you were DOING something that would help people. I wasn't. I just — sat there, too afraid to find her because of the nasty things I would find while I was searching.”

She was crying, and the tears were molten. I just sent them to a place they wouldn't damage and hugged her tighter. “We all made mistakes when that happened, bad ones. I wish at least one of us hadn't, but we had no idea about what the real evil that took Dolores was. We all just thought she'd been kidnapped and nothing else. You aren't the only one who made that assumption, believe me.”

“But I just stepped aside!” Jean almost screamed. “I wouldn't even try!”

“Like I said.” I soothed while stroking her back. “None of us really knew what was happening to Dolores. Now we do. And I'm going stop it, root out the cause, and destroy it.”

“These people are a lot further along than the ones who did that to Dolores.”

“I know, and one of them has paid for that already.” I said without emotion. “Others will, trust me on that. I am Justice, and vengeance. And when it comes time to hand those out, I have no conception of mercy.”

“I want to help you make them pay.” She whispered.

“You will.” I told her. “You can find me wherever I am, I can find you wherever you are. But if you need to talk with me in our human forms just email [email protected].”

“Sexy Deena?” She actually giggled at that one.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “My human form is a prostitute. But she's a good person.”

“Can I ask you something here?” Jean gave me a long, slow look. “Were you a guy before whatever happened to make you like you are now?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned. “All guy, but being a girl isn't all that bad, especially when the girl you are is one guys drool about, though that part was kind of hard to accept at first. Tisiphone has a really twisted sense of humor.”

“You're not fighting that part of you now, though, are you?”

“Nah, it wouldn't do any good if I did and the sex is really, really good.” I grinned. “You should try it.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” She answered a bit weakly. “But not right now.”

“When you're ready.” I told her then gave out a happy sigh. “But trust me, you'll wonder why you waited so long once you do.”

“If that happens, you'll be the first to know.”

“Nah, I'll be the third. First is you, second is the lucky damned guy.”

“Lucky?”

“Jean, you're gorgeous.” I flatly told her. “Teenager or otherwise, you are simply beautiful and you're going to have guys chasing you all the time in your mortal life. You've shown the Phoenix human grief and pain. Show her human joy, too. It's only fair, after all.”

“Wellll.”

“No buts.” I answered with a grin. “You'll do it when you're ready, and you'll know when you're ready.

Just let it happen, don't force it, or fight it. I will come and you aren't going to be able to stop it.”

“But I know what people are thinking!”

“And?” I smirked. “When that one special guy comes along, that just means that you'll know it.”

“That has nothing to do with what we were talking about.”

“Nope.” I said and hugged her again. “That we will do, but what I just told you has everything to do with getting really comfortable and happy in your new self. You need to let the girl have fun and get satisfaction, you know. After all, she is you.”

“Like your own girl self would know that!”

“Oh, she does, I do.” I answered quite seriously. “I know what my human self does to make a living and oddly, I'm not ashamed of it. But I have one special person who has never paid a cent for being with me and trust me, that means a lot. In time, you'll find someone, too. And when it happens, you'll know it.”

“How could someone love me?”

I saw the pain, the uncertainty in her and hugged her again. “Someone will. Just give it time.”

“With what I am?”

“Look at me, Jean.” I ordered. “Look at me.”

“What?”

“My special person sees beyond what I show the world. Yours will to when he comes. Mine loves me in both personnas even if one of them is really dangerous to know. And you know what? He isn't worried about the extraneous stuff. He loves me for me, whichever form I show him.”

“That is off the subject.” She pulled back and I knew nothing else I would say was going to gentle her down to her new sex.

“I'll take your help.” I told her. “And thank you for it. We'll make these people pay for what they've done, Jean. That is something that I'll never let up on until it's finished. My word on that.”

“With what you are now, that's more than enough.” She nodded then gave me a smile. “The other stuff, I'll think about and work on.”

“Good enough on both counts.” I nodded.

“Bye for now.” She touched my cheek and smiled. “But we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future, I know it.”

“Oh, yeah. Don't stay a stranger and all that.”

“I won't.”

“Good enough for me.” I answered as the Phoenix manifested again and went somewhere else.

Lord, I was glad I hadn't had to fight that one.

“Oh, Kyllle...” I breathed. “Come chase me.”

I could believe he lived in some spaceship. What I couldn't believe was the mess in the place.

“Haven't you grown up enough to clean up after yourself?” I taunted. “Five year olds have learned that much, after all.”

Kyle Raynor, the Green Lantern version glared at me. “How did you get in here and why aren't the alarms going off?”

“Let's just say that's for me to know and you to find out.” I grinned as I moved forward to give his unshaven cheek a little stroke with one hand. “You'll figure it out eventually. And the alarms?”

I went material for a few seconds and the place got really noisy.

“Feel better now, love?” I sweetly questioned and actually moved in enough to give him a kiss on the lips before I pulled back. Then I went insubstantial again and the alarms stopped and even the ship's computer seemed confused for a moment. “Next time I visit, I'll let the ship know I'm here if that will make you feel better.”

“You're dead!” He told me while almost frantically wiping his mouth. That was soo cute.

“Not completely.” I teased. “I can kiss you, right? Then that should tell you that I'm not all ghost.”

“Dead, alive..” He was still rubbing his lips as he said that. “I'll bring you to justice.”

“Kyle, Kyle.” I shook my head and darted in to plant another kiss on his cheek while my hands wandered places my former self would have never dreamed of touching on a man. “I AM justice. Are you going to catch me and bring me to me?”

He didn't have a comeback to that one, though I had groped him in places that women usually did to men just before sex. I just gave him my sunniest smile as he floundered. “I'm waiting on an answer here. You know a girl likes to be appreciated in more than just physical reactions.

“You'd have LOTS of fun if you managed to catch me. I promise!”

“I will catch you.” He growled while getting himself under some kind of control.

Hey, I know what I look like, even in my scary form. Guys are sooo easy....

“Only when I let you, dear.” I grinned. “Come on, chase me.”

Outside the ship I both berated myself for acting like that and cackled in some kind of glee that my old male self would never have understood. I was tying a really powerful, macho man in knots just by teasing him, and he couldn't touch me if I didn't let him.

The letting part? I'd think about that later. Right now I needed him aroused, angry and following me.

And yes, this plan was insane. But you know how it is. A girl likes to be appreciated. Besides, I was actually having fun. Plus, I was going to lead him somewhere that he really needed to see.

All the dodging, ducking, taunting and teasing? That was just icing on the cake.

I can be such a bitch at times.

“Got you!” Kyle crowed as a really massive green mass of something tried to catch me. I can't describe it and won't even try. I just moved over enough for it to miss, but to be perfectly honest, nothing alive could have avoided it. This boy was good. Really good.

But did I tell him that?

Nope.

I just darted forward, wrapped my legs around his waist and made motions that would have any man melting, kissed him on the mouth again, with a little tongue, then darted away before he could react again.

“Hah! Missed me again!”

Watching someone in tights trying really hard to hide a hard on is hilarious. It just doesn't work. There is nowhere to put the thing.

“Oh, Kyle...” I cooed. “Does that mean you like me? I want a ring!”

Then I darted away, never letting him quite lose sight of me but letting the dear think he was still seeing me because of his own abilities.

“Nyah, nyah, na nyah, nah!” I even stuck out my tongue after I'd said that to taunt him.

And I know, I know. I had some really serious shit to deal with and it seemed like I was ignoring it.

Okay, I was a bit. Teasing the GL Kyle was more fun than I'd had in a long time.

And I needed to have a little fun.

Okay, lot's of fun.

Face it, there aren't many people who can tease a Green Lantern and get away with it.

So on top of being fun, with a guy I actually was sexually attracted to, I was doing something that only a rare few had managed to do and survive.

I was TEASING a Green Lantern! And He couldn't catch me unless I decided to let him!

I know, I know. Kyle the comic book writer was gentle, caring, and I did love him more than I can say.

But would he chase me all over the solar system cussing all the way?

Nope.

Besides, the Kyle I was teasing was just another aspect of the Kyle I loved. Mostly.

Okay, okay, I'll feel guilty after I let the Green Lantern version catch me.

They are the same person, you know, so it isn't exactly cheating.

I think.

 

---

 

I'd led the GL Kyle a merry chase, with lots of laughing — on my part — and swearing on his. But I finally stopped playing and led him to where I wanted him to be.

I was hovering over the building that housed the company known as Logistic Solutions and just stared at it as he swooped in with a crow of victory. “Got you now!”

Whatever he threw at me, I just batted aside. I don't know how I did it, I just did. Can any of you really explain how your nervous system works? Or how You breathe? I just did it, and looked at him.

“Fun and games are over for now, Kyle.” I waved to the building below us. All that was to get you here.”

He was still shocked that I just casually shrugged off what he thought was one of his best tricks, and shook his head. “Why?'

“Look.” I invited while waving a hand at the building.

“It's a fairly modern building, probably does something with tech given where it is, but so what? Why would I be interested in that?”

“Look inside.” I answered and pointed to a specific part of the structure. “In that part, and underground, there are at least three levels below ground.”

He did. I watched his expressions go from annoyed to surprised, to shocked, to rage.

“No Kyle.” I put a hand on his arm to keep him from charging inside and wrecking things. “That won't be enough.”

“But, that's — that's...”

“I know.” I told him softly. “I feel the same way.”

“That needs to be stopped!” He almost shouted and it took all I could do to keep us invisible for a moment, to contain his outrage, and rage. “That is...”

“Unspeakable, I know.” I kept my hand on his arm and gave it a little squeeze. “Given my nature I want to go in there and just kill every one of the ones involved with that human trafficking.

“But I can't.” I went on. “This is just one place, Kyle. They have more, doing things like this and worse. If you or I went in there and tore things up, arrested or killed people, the organization behind them would just set up somewhere else. Somewhere we don't know about.

“I need to find them all, Kyle. The money people, the brains behind this monstrous thing, the force that drives it. This is my only link to that and much as I want, NEED to go in and kill someone for what they're doing, as much as I need to release the poor souls they've ravaged, if I don't find the source none of that will do any good. They'll just start up again somewhere else.”

He reached out a finger and touched my cheek, pulling it back with a glistening gem of moisture in it. He looked at that, then at me and shook his head. “You're crying.”

“Surprised?” I asked bitterly. “Part of me is still human, you know.”

“Yes, I am.” He answered but didn't seem to be mocking me. “You have a reputation that would make people think you don't feel anything.”

“Oh, I feel.” I shot back. “That's part of my own particular Hell. I found one of their 'products'. Almost by accident a while back. The only thing I could do for the poor woman was give her enough will to overcome her programming and that damned chip so she could blow her head off. When that was over I screamed at God, the gods, heaven, whatever I could think of to rant at.

“Kyle, I have to find the source of this, and stamp it out.” I told him while staring into his eyes. “I have to.”

“Yeah, I see that.” He nodded with a sigh. “You're one contradiction after another, you know that? One time you're this merciless killing machine, another you're a giggling, maddening tease, not to mention having power that is enough to scare me when I think about it, and now I find that you actually can care about people.”

“Welcome to the real world, Kyle.” I sighed. “Everyone is full of contradictions.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right on that one.” He shrugged then looked back down at the building we were watching. “I have resources you don't. I'll do some digging and let you know what I find. But I want to be in on the end of it.”

“You will be.” I moved in to give him a hug, just a hug, nothing else. “Thank you.”

“But all I can do is arrest them if I'm involved.” He warned. “The Law won't allow me to kill anyone.”

“That's fine.” I smiled at him. “You do the Law stuff and leave the nasty things to me.”

“I can't just stand by and let you kill people, you know.”

“Who said I was going to kill them?” I said with a bleak expression on my face.

Taking another look at what was being done to innocents in parts of that place, he shuddered. “Maybe killing them would be a mercy, at that.”

“I can do Mercy.” I shrugged, then shook my head. “But not for these people. They need to suffer what they've inflicted on others.”

“Yeah.” Kyle let out a breath. “I guess if you aren't killing them, I could — sort of — look away.”

“Oh, don't worry.” I grimly told him. “These people are going to live for a long time.”

He shuddered at that thought. “No one deserves that.”

“Payment in kind.” I shrugged. “Part of me doesn't like that much at all. But that is what I do, after all.”

“What are you, Spectre?”

“My name is Diana.” I answered and managed to give him a smile even if it was a bit weak. “What I am? Well, I'm a Fury reborn. One of the mythological ones. Or at least her avatar on Earth.”

“I guess that explains some things.” He admitted.

“If you figure it out, let me know.” I had to chuckle.

“I've been trying to corral a force of nature here.” He grumbled.

Oh, don't let that stop you.” I managed to grin. “You chasing me has been the most fun I've had in a long time.”

“Oh yeah.” He actually laughed a little there. “In spite of the cussing, and everything else, chasing you has been fun. You stretch me, make me really work. But to be honest, the kisses and other things are a pretty good incentive to keep at it, too.”

“I thought you were holding back when I did that kind of thing.” I patted his cheek then let my hand rest on it for a moment. “You're a good man, Kyle Raynor. Just a bit crude at times.”

“I'm a guy.” He shrugged. “We fart in bed, belch, sit in front of the television watching other guys beat each other to a pulp in what people call games, and tend to be insensitive. You have your things that people have problems dealing with, I have mine.”

“Good point.” I admitted, since I knew what he was talking about first hand but wasn't about to tell him I'd been a guy not so long ago, too. “So now what do we do?”

“I'll use my resources to help you on this one, I'll be in touch when I find something.”

“Just don't charge into my bedroom or anything.” I winked. “We'd never get anything done if you did that.

“Seriously, I'll give you an email address where you can reach me and trust me it isn't hackable unless you have supernatural powers.”

'Spectre.com? He shook his head once he read the email I'd written out and handed to him.

“A friend's idea, actually.” I shrugged. “But that goes somewhere that isn't physical. I don't think you'd like what you found there if you traced it, by the way. It isn't a nice place.”

“Whatever.” He shook his head then gave me a grin. “Are you still going to tease me into chasing you?”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded. “Everyone needs to have some fun, after all.”

“What happens if, when, I catch you?”

“Use your imagination, big boy.” I grinned.

“Okay, done deal.” He nodded. “You want chased, I'll chase you.”

“You're not a jerk at all, are you?” I patted his cheek then kissed it. “It's all an act.”

“Got an image, just like you do.” He grumbled.

“Ohh, I can see more to this thing between us than I first thought there'd be here.” I laughed.

“Probably.” He shrugged. “But only if you let me catch you once in awhile, you know.”

“Smart man.” I kissed his cheek again.

Wow, I'd just taken a potential enemy and turned him into a friend, mostly. The with benefits thing? Later.

More importantly, I had another powerful ally.

Yeah, I know I teased him, belittled him, made promises I might or might not keep in the interpersonal aspect of things, but face facts here. Having a real live Green Lantern on your side and working on something you want to happen is no small thing.

The people doing these chips were going to go down. Hard.

And I fully intended to stamp out the tech that made the damned things possible in spite of the good the things could potentially do. Sometimes, humanity just isn't ready for something. Much as I hated the idea, I thought this was one of those times.

“Hey, Lena.” I said as I materialized in her sanctum then noticed the other person there She had been kind of hiding in the shadows, like that would have kept me from seeing her . “Hi Doris.”

Giganta walked out of the shadows, grew to about twelve feet high ( that was all the room would allow without her breaking the roof and bluntly questioned. “Why should we trust anything you do, Spectre?”

“My name is Diana.” I answered and shrugged. “If you've been following what I do, you know I don't lie to people. Why would I start with you?”

“I've looked at the files Lena has hacked from that place you sent her.” Doris answered without answering. “What the Hell have you got my girlfriend into here?”

“Delores times ten.” I shot back. “What? You think I'm going to expose anyone to that kind of thing without needing to do it?

“I really had to have those systems hacked.” I whispered. “People who don't deserve it are suffering and people who should suffer are getting away with it. I need to know all I can about that so I can stop it.”

“You, alone?” Doris questioned, then amended that. “Oh, I know you're some fearsome retribution from Hell or something, but even some supernatural entity couldn't stop that kind of thing alone. As I said, I've read those files.”

“I know.” I nodded and sat down, then changed into my Deena form. That took Doris by surprise and I just grinned at her. “I'm human, too, at times. And yes, I know I won't be able to do this alone, so I'm finding people who can see past the vigilante aspect of my other self and will help me do this. Trust me, I've seen the results of what these people can do, in the poor victim's minds. So what are you going to do with knowing what you've seen on those files, Doris?

“Try and arrest me?” I asked tiredly. “Or help me stamp this abomination out?”

“If you had to ask that,” she shook her head, “You haven't been watching me that closely.”

“Yes I have.” I grinned and shrugged. “But I had to have you tell me. Even if it was in that roundabout way. We have other allies now, too, for this, by the way.”

“We need to get rid of these chips, and the person or people who are making them.” Doris looked at me and added. “By they way, you're human form is really cute.”

“I know, I know.” I waved that off. “I won't tell you what I do for a living in this form, but trust me, I know. Now, as for allies on this...

“Phoenix?” Doris gave me a look that was telling me she was having trouble believing that, then added, “And a Green Lantern?”

“Phoenix came to me.” I answered. “And offered her help. I had to kind of tease the Green Lantern into following me so I could show him.”

Both Doris and Lena looked at me, then considered how I looked in my specter form and both of them chuckled.

“Bet that was fun.” Doris grinned.

“Oh yeah.” I grinned back.

“And?” Lena questioned.

“Now I have him looking into things, too.” I shrugged. “So between you and him, we should have a pretty complete picture of what we're after pretty soon.”

“Oh, I know that.” Lena gave me a look usually reserved for total idiots. “But are you going to let the poor guy catch you?”

“Oh.” I gave her a weak grin and a sort of shrug. “In time. He is really hot. But that isn't the subject here, my personal life isn't important given what we're looking at, you know.”

“Good point.” Lena nodded. “So now what?”

“I have a link with another one they've changed.” I sighed. “As much as I would like to release that poor soul, I need 'her' to link to other things that are important.”

I'd gone back to my Spectre form when I said that, and Lena still moved up and hugged me. “None of this is going to be easy, Diana. You can send her soul somewhere it can heal later, can't you?”

“Yes.” I shuddered and just let her hug me. “But the longer she is the way she is, the harder it will be to fix that, even once she's dead and her — his soul is free.”

“Much as I hate saying this.” Doris put in and moved in to join the hug. “I think she, he, wouldn't mind if the people who did that to him were punished, and the ability to do that again was wiped out so it wouldn't show up again until the race is ready to use it for people's good all the time.”

“But he'll be going through a Hell that you can't imagine in the meantime.” I whispered, then shuddered again. “And I could release him/her from that now. I was in the mind of another one like her, and hers. I just want to go in and kill people for that.

“But I can't.” I looked at both of them without flinching. “I have to learn all I can about this, and find where they get the bio-metal, and who is financing all of it. If I don't do that, this will will just resurface somewhere else when their present operation is taken down. And I hate myself for that.

“But if if do what I feel I should, they'll just start again somewhere else if I take out the facilities I've already seen.”

“Don't ever think you're not human.” Doris moved back and looked at me without even a little fear. “No matter what you are now — Diana, Deena, whoever you are — you haven't lost your humanity, I can see that now. When the time comes, you'll have my help, for what that's worth.”

“Thanks.” I let out a sigh and had to marvel that my Spectre form could even do that. “I — we — are going to take this bunch down, and eradicate their source for that damned bio-metal if I have to find some way to obliterate it to the point where normal humans won't be able to reach it for generations.”

“Yeah.” Doris nodded.

“A nuke would work for that.” Lena put in helpfully.

“Mitsuko.” I appeared to the poor soul in my scary form.

“What?” She pulled back, as expected and there was real fear in her eyes. “You that vigilante police look for!”

“Yes, I am.” I answered and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, she had been doing dishes when I appeared, and shook my head. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

“You bad thing!” She countered. “You kill people!”

“Yes I do.” I told her then shook my head. “But only really bad ones. You have nothing to fear from me. I don't harm innocents, and your are one of those. I'm here to help, but I need your help to do that.”

You no help!” She shot back and looked so lost when she said that. “No one able to help.”

“I can if you'll let me.” I said, and just sat there, letting her get used to the fact that an almost ghost with red eyes was sitting in her kitchen. “I want to, and I can help you.”

“No!” She shot back. “No one help, no one know. I Mitsuko, now and forever!”

“I know.” I countered. “I know what was done to you, what you went through, and why you're like you are now. I can free you, but I need your help if I'm going to do that. I want to stop what happened to you, Mitsuko, and make sure it doesn't happen again to others. But I need your help to do that.”

“What help I give?” She asked and I could feel as well as see the misery in her entire being as she said that. “It hurt to even think of things I not be now. It hurt bad.”

“I can ease that.” I told her and reached into her poor battered mind to deflect some of the impulses from that chip and made those a physical reality. “But you can't let others know I've done or am doing that. Can you go on awhile longer as you are?”

“I think so.” She tiredly answered. “I sex toy, housewife, soon to be mother. Not much time. I afraid.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“Yes!” she spat out. “I have baby in seven months! Not hurt my baby!”

“Never that.” I reached across the table to touch her cheek. “Your baby is safe from me, and from the people working with me. All we want to do is keep what happened to you from happening to others. For that I need to watch things through your eyes. Will you let me do that? I won't change you any more than you have been, but seeing things through your eyes and perceptions would help a lot in ending all this, at least you could help save others from what you've gone through.”

“I do that.” She nodded while protectively cradling her belly. “Just not hurt baby.”

“No, dear.” I sighed and stroked her cheek again. “I'll defend your baby with my life, such as it is.”

“Then I help.” She actually sat straighter and looked me in the eye. “This thing must stop. Not good. Not good at all.”

I know, I know.” I told her, hurting for what she was, and envious for what she would become in seven months. “I'll stop it. I promise.”

“Promise...” She looked at me and tilted her head. “Husband promise all time, no follow up, you different. I see that. I help.”

If you ever want or need a definition for courage, just look at Mitsuko. I felt small when I left her, and a little dirty for using her the way I was going to do. But she hadn't flinched over that, just so long as no one hurt her baby.

I went to my private place. I cried and I felt a sense of wonder at the same time.

Mitsuko had more strength of character and soul than I thought I could raise under her circumstances.

And that humbled me more than anything I'd ever come across in any of my lives.

 

---

 

Mitsuko simply sat there for a while after the ghost girl had gone. Thinking more clearly than she had been able to for some time.

She was afraid, but that was nothing new, she'd been afraid since all this had started happening to her back when she was someone else who's being was denied to her now.

Afraid for the baby growing within her that she should find abhorrent but couldn't. The unborn, still forming child couldn't be held to blame for what had happened to her and after all, he or she was nestled right under her heart. Something that is difficult to ignore and most especially hate.

That one deserved its chance at life, and one without the constraints his or her mother had to endure.

She resolved to do whatever she could to give her baby that chance and felt something that was nearly alien to her it had been so long, with so much pain and loss that she couldn't recall the last time she'd felt that emotion.

Mitsuko finally had hope again.

And she decided that she would fight in whatever way she could, to keep that, and maybe, just maybe, make something of it besides the travesty of a life she was now forced to endure.

“Spectre,” She whispered, “I die happy if you make bad men pay. You promise to take care of my baby. I know you do that. What you need? I do.

“You be free, my child. That I promise you.” She said louder while gently stroking her belly.

“Who are you talking to, Mitsuko?” A male voice intruded on her thoughts and she looked up to see the man who had become her 'husband' and the father of her child. She hated him with enough force to make the definition pale, but gave him a happy distracted smile.

“Just talk to baby. They like that.”

Then she smiled as the conditioning kicked in and kissed the man she hated more than anything else she had ever known.

I had to pull out of watching Mitsuko then. What that man had her do is nothing I'm going to even try to describe. Let's just say that I really wanted to make that one suffer, for a long, long time. And give Mitsuko the chance to confront him when the time came and she actually had her mind back as her own.

How I was going to manage to give her that, I didn't know, but I'd find a way.

Given what she had agreed to with me, she deserved at least than much.

And yes, I was hovering over the arch again, just thinking, stewing, and longing for revenge against people who had done things to others who would never have the chance to get that for themselves.

“Might as well make yourself visible.” A familiar voice intruded on my thoughts.

I'd known she was coming, spotted her a long way off and gave a mental shrug as I let her see me and looked at her. “Hi Jade. Been awhile.

“Oh, I like the new look.”

“Been kind of busy lately.” She answered without answering.

“So I noticed.” I let out a long sigh and nodded. “I saw it all.”

“Yeah, so now I'm branded as a dangerous killer, too.” She answered shortly, and with evident pain in her answer.

“We all do what we do, Jade.” I shrugged. “You defended a whole planet when you did what you did, though most people don't know that. Me? I just defend the individuals.”

“Does that make it right?” She questioned.

“Better to ask if that makes it wrong, I think.” I looked at her and felt the pain she was fighting. “You know you saved the world from a lot grief, even if how you did that hurts. I can't find anything wrong with that. Can you?”

She hesitated, then shook her head in the negative.

“Jade, no matter who or what we are,” I told her, “we are what we are and have to act accordingly. I don't necessarily like a lot of what I do, I can tell you don't, but we do it to keep People safe and unaware of the true dangers out here. It's hard, but it's what we do.”

“Trying to justify what you do?” She shot back but it was without real heat or outrage.

“No,” I gave her a sad smile, “not at all. I just do what I am compelled to do. Justice isn't a nice thing most of the time and neither is defending something you consider precious.

“If we have to kill to keep people safe, we'll do it.” I moved forward and gave her a hug that she didn't try to get away from. “Even if we hate ourselves because we did it.”

“I wouldn't have understood that a while ago, you know.” She said and actually sat on the top of the arch.

I joined her and patted her shoulder gently. “But now you do.”

“Yeah.”

I took her into a hug to stop the quivering of her shoulders and all I could say was, “Go ahead and cry, it's all right. Gods knows I've done enough of that myself.”

She did, I did. I won't go into details here.

“You've been busy, too.” Jade told me, once that was over with, then gave me a concerned look. “What you're doing is dangerous, you know part of you is mortal. What if these people find that part and chip you?”

“Let them try.” I actually chuckled at that thought. “My human form isn't defenseless, and if the bad guys took Deena, they would have a very unpleasant surprise. I am not ruled by my physical, human body. And Deena would be capable of hurting anyone trying to take her.”

“But if they ruled your human form, wouldn't that rule you?”

“Let them think so if they even make the connection.” I gave a little shrug. “And I can beat that chip. For myself at least and in some cases for others in a limited sense.”

“What?” She looked at me like I was insane. “You can free all the chip slaves?”

“No, I can't.” I told her seriously. “I can give them some freedom of choice, though. I've done that already, but no, I can't change a lot of things that were done to them. Just mitigate the worst of it if things work right.”

“Where does that leave you, then?”

“I honestly don't know, Jade.” I told her. “I'm not a goddess and neither is my patron. All we can do is do what we can and hope for the best.”

“What about the mortals that are helping you?” She questioned and I had to grin a little. At least Jade recognized that she wasn't a mortal human, or even human, any longer.

“I'm watching over them, Jade.” I told her, or promised her. “No worries there.”

“Given your abilities, I won't argue that point.” She nodded. “But you aren't always watching, you can't do that. It just isn't possible.”

“No.” I agreed. “But Tisiphone can and does.”

“Guess I'll just have to take that as truth.” She nodded then gave me a grin. “I also hear that you've been teasing a Green Lantern?”

“Kyle.” I think I looked a bit embarrassed when she brought that one up. “He isn't all that much of a jerk, you know, and he's going to help me with all this chip thing.”

“Given how you look, right now,” she actually giggled, “that makes sense. He'd do anything in his power to get you into the sack.”

“Welll,” I gave a little self conscious shrug, “I tease him, he chases me, we both have fun.”

“Good for you, dear.” Jade actually gave me a real smile. “Are you going to let him catch you?”

“Eventually, I suppose.” I would have blushed if I'd had real blood in my system just then. “It isn't quite cheating on the other Kyle since they are basically the same person, right?”

“The other Kyle?” She asked with a lift of one eybrow.

“Never mind.”

She just laughed, gave my cheek a gentle pat and said. “Well, got to go, but it's been an informative conversation. You are all too human, Diana, no matter how much you might deny that.

“See you around, and if you need help with this chip thing, holler.” She hugged me before shooting off to who knows where.

Wow.

I would have liked to think about that conversation for a while, like maybe a year, but I had things to do and couldn't afford to take much time to wonder about things that didn't directly impact what I was presently doing.

I was beginning to get an inkling of why the ancient furies had been so fearsome. If my attitude was any indication, once one of them latched onto something they wouldn't let it go until it was finished one way or the other. I knew that's where I was with this ugly mess I'd uncovered. I'd stamp out what was going on presently with those chips if it took me eternity to do so.

And trust me, a fury with a mission, a real mission, is a really scary thing.

By now I suppose I have the right to say that with some authority. I wasn't a fully blown fury, or didn't think I was, but I was certainly one's avatar in the world these days. And I had a mission that I wasn't about to let go of until it was finished no matter what mayhem I had to cause or endure to get it done.

Justice was going to get done. People were going to pay, dearly, for the things they were doing.

The fact that what I was planning for most of them was worse than any death imaginable didn't even cause me to flinch by then. These people had pronounced their own sentences by what they were doing. I wasn't blind, like the classic Justice of mythology or the one shown in statues at court houses, but I was implacable. And I would not stop until my own brand of justice had been served.

Even determined as I was, that thought made part of me more than a little sick.

“Hello, Charlie, or should I call you Charlotte now?” I asked once I'd appeared to the the shell of a man who had been Helena's husband and chief tormentor. “Feeling all nice and girly inside yet?”

He almost hit the ceiling and nearly puked when he came down to see me seated comfortably in a chair in the Den he was sitting in while he fretted about things that I'd engineered.

“Are you here to torment me?” He asked in a shaky voice and I could see the held in rage, and fear in his eyes while tasting it in his soul.

“I told you what you had to look forward to, Charlotte.” I gave him a cruel little grin. “So, are you having problems at work already? Trouble making decisions, maybe? Doing little things, showing mannerisms that aren't considered all that manly?”

“You could stop this.” He told me then actually looked as if he was going to fall to his knees and beg. “Please stop this. If I don't change they're going to take my job away, chip me and transform me.”

“Nothing more than you deserve.” I shot back without expression. “I told you what was going to happen. I won't change that.”

“Please!”

“And how many people have begged you to do just that?” I asked without sympathy. “How many times have you relished the pain someone else was going through without making a move to do anything about it except add to it?”

“I — I've learned my lesson.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You haven't. You haven't even come close to learning about what you and your associates have put innocent people through, are putting them through. But you're going to learn all of it. First hand.”

To his credit, he didn't plead any longer. Just lowered his head and sobbed.

“At least you aren't begging any longer.” I told him. “How many times did your 'loving wife' Helena beg you for release, or did you even give her that much leeway? How many others have begged you to stop what you're doing to them, or overseeing as they descend into a kind of slavery the human race has never seen before?

“How many, Charlotte?” I pressed. “How many people have you done this to?”

“About twenty.” He whispered. “The process is expensive, and time consuming with the genetic alterations and the conditioning we do.”

“Genetic alterations?” I asked. “Tell me more.”

“The — subjects are given an injection that attacks their DNA, changes it from XY to XX first. Then adds the racial and individual characteristics we want them to have.” He tiredly told me and I could tell from his expression that he'd already had that injection himself. “Then we use nanites to alter their physical selves to match the new gene mapping in their bodies.

“Given the trauma from the genetic alterations, their physical bodies succumb easily to the changes that make them real females. The process is slow, and painful, which reinforces the need to obey. If they fight we not only use the chip to give them pain, we withhold the pain meds during their physical transformations.”

“And you wonder why I seem merciless right now.” I quietly told him while trying to hold my gorge down. Not that I'd mind messing up his carpet, but that would have given him the wrong impression. I'd go somewhere and throw up later. “So have you given yourself one of those injections?”

“Yes.”

“And just which genetic heritage did you give yourself?” I asked.

“Mixed Arabic and Black.” He miserably told me. “The type we sell to Middle Eastern Shieks.”

“Serves you right.” I didn't chuckle or even gloat all that much. “So you'll be looking at a life that sees things through veils, and other restrictive clothing.”

“Yes, damn you.” He shot back.

“I've been there for awhile, actually.” I told him with a thin smile. “You however, are going into it fresh. How do you like it?”

I grabbed his chin and looked inside his body, to the changing genetics he'd already inflicted on himself. “Oh, you're going to be a beauty, too. Long slim Nubian neck, Ghetto butt, face like an Egyptian sculpture of Nefertiri.

“I'm sure you're associates will make a LOT of money off you, dear, though I can see that Charlotte isn't a proper name for you any longer. I think I'll start calling you Samira. In the ancient Persian that name literally means 'entertainer'. I'm sure you can figure out the rest for yourself.”

“Stop this, please.”

“You're begging again.” I told him and shook a finger in his face. “That doesn't work with me, Samira. Mercy and compassion aren't things I'm well known for, after all.”

“Then kill me now and get it over with.”

“Kill you?” I shook my head. “Oh no, Samira. You're going to live a long time, and you'll spend that life looking young and fresh. The worst thing I can do to someone is deny them death, and that's what I'm doing with you. No matter how much you might want it, no matter how many times you try to get it, you'll fail. You are going to live in your new life until I release you.”

“Damn you to Hell.” He grated out even though he looked a little green around the edges as he said it.

“Oh, I'm there already, dear.” I assured him. “You however, are just walking up the gates and reading the inscription. You do know what that says, don't you?”

“Abandon all Hope...”

“Exactly.” I managed to smirk and nodded. “I'll be watching, and riding, as you go through those gates, too. Don't think I'm going to leave you alone.”

Damn, I hate myself at times.

But vengeance is my nature, and most of the time, vengeance is cruel. Very cruel.

Did the guy deserve the future he was looking at? I thought so, even if it did make me a little sick thinking about it. No natural born woman would deal well with or should have to endure what Charlie/Samira was going to go through.

But that one would, and I would be watching through his/her eyes and feeling with his/her nerves through the whole thing. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I had to know how the whole process worked. The best way I could think of for learning that was to go through it, even if it was — happily — vicariously.

That, in case you haven't got it yet, is my own particular curse. I have to know what my victims go through. Another little quirk that Tisiphone put into me. Damn her.

At least I know she did that so I wouldn't lose touch with what humanity I still had.

But it doesn't make things any easier to handle.

And yes, I puked my guts out once I'd left Helena's former husband.

Feel better now?

I know I don't.

There was one other piece to the puzzle of allies I was gathering that I couldn't ignore or put off any longer.

Megan. Miss Mars.

She had lost more than a lot of us even wanted to contemplate when what happened to Dolores was done. She deserved to be in on the kill when it happened.

But she was busy with another crises, and in trouble at the moment.

I knew she and her companions could handle the trouble, but didn't wish to appear to her physically because if I did I might be compelled to do something. Given the hard knocks Megan had endured recently, she didn't need someone swooping in to the rescue. Not when she was more than capable of taking care of the situation herself.

So I did something I'd never tried before. I entered her dreams.

“Megan.” I softly called to her.

“What? Who? Where am I?” She asked in a rush that showed her confusion and fear.

“You're in a safe place.” I assured her. “I just wanted to talk with you for a few minutes and this was the best way to do that given your present circumstances.”

“I'm — we're in deep trouble.”

She looked around as if searching for something to attack and a I let out a light chuckle. “No need to worry, those troubles haven't followed you here. And you and your friends are more than capable of handling the problem even if things might look bleak at the moment.”

She looked and me and pulled back a pace. “You're The Spectre!”

“Yeah.” I shrugged, and you're Miss Mars. I'm not here to cause trouble just to talk for a bit.”

“What do you want?” She was suspicious and given my general reputation, I couldn't blame her for that at all.

“Lena is going to contact you soon.” I answered quietly. “She'll give you the information about what I'm doing just now.

“But I think you'll be interested.”

“Why would I be interested in pure vengeance?” She questioned.

“Because I've found others doing what was done to Dolores.” I told her bluntly. “And they have it down to a fine art that goes well beyond what your lover had to endure. If you want in on the end game with these people, I'm giving you the chance to do that. But don't make up your mind until you hear from Lena. She has all the information and my bona fides in this.”

“Chips?” She asked weakly then began to look outraged. “More people are using those damned things?”

“Yes.” I answered. “I'm investigating, so I can root out the whole disease right now, but yes, and what these people are doing is worse than what was done to Dolores, believe me. I've been riding one of their victims and am riding one that will undergo the process, but that one deserves it. He was in on doing it to others not so long ago.

“When I have more information, you'll have it. But take care of your present difficulties first. This isn't going to be a quick fix kind of thing, it's going to take time and care. You do what you need to do here, then get in touch. Lena can give you the means to do that once you're ready.”

“I want those bastards.” Megan grated out.

“So do I.” I told her. “So does Phoenix, a Green Lantern, Lena and Doris. “We'll get them, Megan, but we have to do this carefully. If we slam the facility I've found into the ground, they'll just set up business somewhere else that we aren't aware of. Can you be patient for awhile with this?”

“It'll be hard.” She told me then nodded. “But if we can get all of it, root, branch and bloom, I'll wait.”

“Good enough.” I nodded. “I'll let you get back to what you need to do now. But do contact Lena, then me once this thing is finished.”

“Oh you can bet the house on that.” Megan told me.

“I have to go now.” I told her. “You're close to waking up and if I see what I think you will, I'll have no choice but to intervene, and this is your fight, and Courtney's. Not mine.”

“I'll be in touch.” She promised.

“I know you will.” I sighed. “You take care of business first, then we'll talk at length.”

“You got it.”

“We'll get them, Megan.” I promised her. “I have other people working with me on this and it will still be ongoing when you're done here. But what you're doing here is important, too. Maybe more so than you currently realize. Finish this, then come find me.”

“I said I would.”

“Good bye, for now, then.” I told her, then added. “You do know that that expression used to be God be with you?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Same to you.”

“Oh, that one lost his hold on me when I died.” I shrugged. “Another one has suzerain over me now, but I appreciate the sentiment. Talk with you later, Megan.”

And I left that dream.

 

---

 

Samira clung fiercely to her sanity. Knowing what was being done to her and the next likely steps would be in her new evolution didn't help at all. In fact that knowledge made things worse.

“Spectre.” She whispered while trying not to look at her newly cafe au lait skin, or the beautiful face that still showed shock whenever she looked into a mirror. “You destroyed me. But not completely. I'm going to survive this to spite you if nothing else.”

Oh, Samira hated. She hated her former co-workers, the doctors and scientists who had perfected her 'treatments, and the real, if alien nerve tissue the nanites had formed to give the chip planted at the base of her skull to replace the once fatal wire extrusions. But most of all, she hated The Spectre.

But she could show none of that at all. Not without pain so intense her mind would literally stop working when she was subjected to it.

The pleasure she was given through the same agency that delivered the pain was almost worse than the pain. And she knew all too well those induced good feelings were more addictive than the most invasive drug going in the illegal markets and on the streets.

She did stop and wonder if the other victims, the ones she had helped to train, had hated her old self with the intensity she directed at her present tormentors. The only conclusion she could reach was they had. But it had done them no more good that it did her.

I had been watching Samira's progress, and the people watching her go through it.

Truthfully, even given my rather nasty nature, I wondered if I had done the right thing by condemning that one to such a thing. I didn't like myself all that much for doing it, either.

But I'd already gained a wealth of information from that. The chips weren't reprogrammable as of yet, but the people working on them were gradually getting a solution to that. The current problem was that trying to reprogram the chips activated the automatic self destruct embedded in the things and none of them were quite sure why that couldn't be circumvented. But the subjects they attempted to do that with died. Painfully as a rule.

“Be strong, Samira.” I whispered while watching her doing her makeup in a large mirror purposefully designed to show her the body she now had.

“Be strong?” She had heard me and shook her head, briefly interrupting the decoration of her face. “You caused this to happen to me, is that another taunt?”

“Not exactly.” I appeared to her and shook my head. “You were, are, a means to an end. I once thought you richly deserved what is happening to you, but watching it, and feeling it, through you has changed my mind. No one deserves to go through that.”

“How would you know what I'm going through?” She questioned bitterly.

“I know,” I answered, “because I'm riding with you through every step that is taken. All of it. The pain, the pleasure, the self loathing, your physical transformation, and yes, the hatred.

“Hate me all you like.” I told her. “If that keeps you strong enough to hold to what self you have left I can deal with it. So long as it keeps you strong enough to endure the rest.”

“You can't possibly know what I'm going through.”

“Not from your exact perspective.” I admitted. “But as I said, I do feel what you do, see it, all of it.

“So tell me,” I questioned, “have you changed your mind about the agenda of this 'New Earth' conspiracy you are part of?”

New Earth. Hell on Earth, more like. The organization doing all this had plans that would end with most of humanity being subjugated to those damned chips one way or another. Plans were in place to use the chips on politicians, national leaders, business leaders. Without the physical changes their present subjects were subjected to, or replacing those people with some of their own changed to look like the people they had targeted.

Cleaning this up was going to be messy. Really messy.

Samira closed her eyes and I saw the tears trickling down her cheeks as she shook her head. “No one should be put through this.”

“Then be brave.” I softly told her. “What you go through is giving me, and others, the means to stop this thing.”

“They'll make me tell them.” She countered. “I can't keep anything from them, you should know that if you've been riding me through this.”

“Yes you can.” I gave her a smile and reached in to her mind. “And here is the way.”

“Why are you doing this?” She gave me a perplexed, disbelieving look once she had assimilated the 'safe private' place in her mind that I had given her. “You told me you wanted me to suffer, to know what my own victims had gone through. Why are you giving me this?”

“Vengeance can only go so far, Samira.” I answered. “You've suffered, now you know what others went through, could go through if your former associates are successful. I know I'm cruel, but even I have limits. If hating me helps you sustain what you have left of yourself, hate me. I deserve that.

“Get through this, with your mind and resolve intact,” I promised, “and I will give you the freedom you crave. No matter what form that freedom will take.”

“You really mean that.” She looked at me with something that was a mix of loathing and wonder. “You would actully do that?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “You have been through a Hell not many can imagine already, and will be going through more before this is finished. But you have my promise on this. Whatever release you wish when this is over, will be yours.

“Whether you believe it or not,” I gave her a sad looking over, “whether you truly repent or not, what you are going through deserves at least that.”

“What if I don't believe you?” She shot back. “You — YOU — are the reason I'm in this position now. Why should I think that you're doing anything other than holding out a hope that you'll snatch away from me when the time comes?”

“Your own belief doesn't have a thing to do with this right now.” I shrugged. “But I've given you my word, and I do keep that.”

“Go away.” She lowered her head into her hands and I could hear her trying to stop the sobs that threatened to force thier way out. “Just go away for now, please. I can't, I just can't let myself believe what you've told me right now.”

“Well, I can't blame you for that.” I agreed and did as she asked.

“You are learing, little one.” Tisiphone told me once I was back in my usual hovering spot.

“Learning what?” I questioned, not in the mood for metaphysical or philosophical discussions just then.

“That giving pain affects the giver as much as it does the victim. I do wish that my sisters and I had known that in times past.”

“I've always known that.” I shot back.

“Yes, and that, dear one,” she answered, “is why I chose you over others wishing revenge. But now you learn it as your victims do.”

“And that isn't fun, by the way.”

“Giving pain should never be 'fun'.” She countered. “Not once in my former existence, or that of my sisters, did we ever really take pleasure from inflicting pain. It is necessary at times, it is what we did, and what you now do. I learned too late, that such a thing should be tempered with compassion. My sisters never did learn that, and now they are gone.”

“So what does that mean?” I asked. “Are you using me to heal yourself, to learn what caring and compassion are?”

“Yes, little one,” she calmly affirmed. “I am.”

Now I ask you. Just how screwed up can life get? Or unlife, or afterlife, or whatever it is I'm doing right now.

I have a being that is almost a goddess learning from me when I'm just making things up as I go along.

I think I'll go home and lie down. I have a headache.

 

---

 

Charlie Hotchkiss was, literally, escorted to his boss' office by a pair of security guards who were each big and burly enough to give an NFL linebacker pause when they were in all out attack mode.

“Ahh, Charlie.” Clarke greeted him without looking up from the computer screen he was reading, or watching something on. “Good of you to come so quickly.”

“I — I was brought, and you know it.” Helena's one time husband shot back.

“Well, yes.” Clarke nodded then turned the monitor he was looking at so Charlie could see what he was watching. “Was that an accident?

Charlie winced as he watched the vid. A syringe of the genetic mutagen they used on their victims fell off a tray and the uncovered needle stabbed into his arm and his struggles to get it out caused the plunger to depress and force all the fluid into his blood stream. “Yes.”

“Clumsy.” Clarke shook his head. “And careless of you.”

“It hasn't been activated yet.” Charlie countered weakly. “I'm still me.”

“No, Charlie, you aren't.” Clarke sighed. “Now, genetically, you're someone else entirely even if you haven't had the nano infusions that would trigger the changes physically. As you are, you're a liability to us, you know that don't you? Onc genetic test and everything we're doing here would be exposed.”

“Why would anyone make me do something like that?”

“Hmm, Arabic and African mix, very nice.” Clarke ignored the man's last question. “The results should turn out to be not only very lovely, but also very profitable. And Charlie, your performance has been slipping since this happened. A lot of the decisions you've made since Helena died haven't been good ones.”

“I'll get over it.” Charlie argued, I'll get back on track.”

“Yes, you will.” Clarke nodded. “Only that track won't be what we, or you, had originally planned.”

“You, you can't do this to me.”

“Yes I can, Charlie.” Clarke countered. “In fact, given what you've had done already, I can and will do whatever I please with and to you.

“Take him to the clinic.” He ordered the guards. “So he can be chipped and given the nano treatments.”

Charlie could only scream, fight as well as he could — which was pathetically ineffective given his escort, and was taken away to start his new life.

I had been watching, and shoved something into Clarke's mind, unobtrusively, but I did it.

He gave the screen, and the door of his office a thoughtful look, then made a note to name the new girl Samira.

Charlie regained consciousness strapped to a bed in a room that he'd probably overseen the same type of procedure in numerous times.

The base of his skull, just above where it joined his neck ached and burned.

It felt like fire ants were gleefully running through his veins and nerves, so he knew the nanite treatments had already been given.

All he could do at that point was wish they hadn't beaten the toxicity of the original bio-chips. He knew that he would live a long, and outwardly happy life. Though it wasn't one he, or anyone he had known, would have chosen.

As the despair overwhelmed him, he did manage to curse the authoress of his current problems. “Damn you Spectre, God Damn you to Hell!”

I heard that curse and found myself smiling as I did.

“Oh, Samira, like I told you, I'm there already. You've just gone through the gates. Talk to me again once you've been there for awhile.”

He heard that, and my cruel laugh once I'd finished answering him.

Like I've said before. There really are times I don't like myself all that much.

Mitsuko had suffered since the ghost girl had visited her. But that was nothing new. The new thing, the really wonderful thing in her life, was the astonishing idea that her suffering was a lot less of a burden.

Granted, the child growing in her belly was another reason for that. Never in her wildest dreams had the person Mitsuko had once been did that person, that lost man, consider the possibility of being a mother.

That she thought, at least, wasn't a bad thing at all. Being a mother.

Oddly enough, the thing that was supposed to break her completely, finish without a doubt the transformation that had been forced on her, being pregnant, was only making her stronger.

“Men not understand how it is.” She whispered while stroking her belly. “Baby makes a woman a tiger. One not to provoke. For that I thank you and will always love you even without that. I never fight before. Now I have reason other than me. Bad men all pay for what they do. I be there to watch. All of it.”

“Talking to the baby again, dear?” Her husband asked indulgently as he entered the room.

“Yes, my husband.” Mitsuko smiled and this time the smile was real. “I talk to baby.”

Dammit, how many times can a person be humbled in a week?

Mitsuko had shown me a quiet, determined courage that I wasn't prepared for. My experience with people, even in my former life, just hadn't shown me that aspect of humanity.

Kyle, the comic writer, had shown me love that was not at all judgmental.

Kyle the Green Lantern had shown me that no matter what the outside was, everyone had a sense of fun and could enjoy it if they would only let it go.

Phoenix had shown me that no matter how powerful someone was, they could still be vulnerable.

Jade had let me know that people can change, and adapt to those changes even if they weren't all that pleased with how it happened.

Megan had given me a glimpse of pure determination, that refused to be stopped by mere physical obstacles.

Damn you, Tisiphone. Why did you have make me so perceptive?

Probably to remind me that I had been human and that part of me still was.

Humanity has always puzzled the gods, whatever gods were around.

And managed to impress them, too, I might add.

I was floating above the arch, the place everyone in the world seemed to know was the place to look for me, by the way, when a green streak approached.

“Hi Kyle.” I greeting the person who had arrived and gave him a kiss and hug.

“Hey, lady.” He responded without any of his usual innuendos,though he had responded to the kiss and returned the hug.” I've found some things you can use.”

“Great.” I answered but was still hanging there with my arm around his waist and kind of enjoying his around my shoulders. It was, predictably green, but it was a thumb drive.

“Been tracing things and at least found where, and to who, they sold their victims.” He quietly told me.

“That will be a big help, Kyle.” I smiled and found the unsettling fact that I actually liked a man besides my gentle Kyle, to be not that bad at all.

“Good.” He grinned, then added with a gleeful expression on his face. “Caught you!”

“You cheated.” I told him then laughed. “But, yeah, you caught me. Woo the girl with things she wants, it always works if the guy is at all worth it, you know.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Oh, yeah.” I answered softly as I took his hand. “Come with me.”

And no. I will not satisfy your prurient curiosity here. Use your imagination.

 

---

 

I felt good for awhile after that. I know I'd protested at first, but being a beautiful woman wasn't all that bad once you got used to it. Kyle and I hadn't wasted our time playing yahtzee or monopoly, by the way.

It was kind of funny. The guy obviously felt more naked when he took off his mask than he did without his clothes. Kinda like cowboys and their boots or hats.

But that particular cowboy definitely didn't kiss his horse.

My good mood evaporated fast once I downloaded the things he'd given me on that thumb drive.

Instead of the near twenty victims Charlie had admitted to, there were actually thirty-six of them.

Thirty-six men, males, ripped from their lives and forced into something opposite of anything they'd known or most of them even imagined. A lot of those had been married, and had children.

I almost threw up after first reading that file. These people hadn't simply destroyed individuals, they had ripped families apart.

And for what?

Profit, rewards, bribes, expediency, and the desire to make another human being suffer. In many cases, the victims had simply been in the way of some other ambitious person.

And before you question just how people in important positions like that could disappear without causing a stir, think about this. Thirty-six unfortunates out of millions. People disappear all the time. Or just withdraw from what they have been doing. Sadly, the searches for these unfortunates were at best desultory, and in some cases didn't happen at all.

Mitsuko had been an up and coming midddle level executive in a corporation with a rival who wanted him out of the way, had the shady connections and sadistic bent to condemn his rival to what happened, and wished to see his rival suffer. At 2.5 mil, she had gone cheap because they wanted the goodwill of the 'husband' they prepared her for. And because her former rival had paid a substantial sum to make certain the man she used to be disappeared forever.

Most of the girl slaves this bunch created sold for more than ten million, and some for much more than that. One, put up for auction, had finally sold for 150 mil.

Up to now, hate had always been kind of an abstract for me. Even in my former life, I had just done the job and not thought about it that much. I'd been doing that since my 'resurrection' to a point, but I had been at least thinking about the things I'd done and why I did them. But hate, real hate — the kind that can poison you if you let it go too far — hadn't ever been something I'd dealt with.

Until now.

“Inez!” Fernando Reyes called to the lovely, petite maid polishing his cherished, and antique silver coffee set. “Come here.”

The girl was beyond simply beautiful. Her perfectly oval face, full, wet looking mouth, and large, wide, soft brown eyes, combined with a shape that would have been the envy of a Playboy Bunny left what she was doing and approached her employer, owner, master with a provocative little smile.

“Si Patron?' She questioned. Once she had spoken English, had grown up with the language, but now that was as foreign to her as her memories of having been male. So much had been stolen from her. She hated what she had been forced to become, longed for release, but none of that made a bit of difference. She had been formed to please whoever owned her. She had even given up on resenting the fact, or even fighting it if only that happened in her mind. The pain was too all enveloping, too insidious, to endure for long. And the pleasure when she performed correctly — was like a drug that she was addicted to.

“You know what I want.” Fernando grinned and gestured to his crotch.

“Si, Patron.” Inez answered in her low, velvety contralto.

“Do you miss speaking English?” He taunted as his hands worked through the soft, thick, glossy black hair that fell in lovely waves to her enticingly lovely bottom. “The one-hundred-fifty million I spent to get you was worth it.”

Inez didn't answer. Her mouth was full.

“Big, important DEA agent,” Fernado gloated. “And now you're happily sucking my cock, chica. Don't forget to lick me clean when you're done, by the way.”

She did that, then without comment, went back to polishing the silver.

I'd had enough. Killing him was messy, really messy. And slow.

Then I killed his lieutenants, and the ones under them, then the dealers that were in his compound.

Then the mercenaries he'd hired who hadn't had enough sense to run and were foolish enough to try and shoot me.

Had I killed some innocents there? I doubted it. Every male in the compound had taken advantage of Inez's charms and many of them had even known who and what she had been originally.

One had, surprisingly, actually fallen in love with the poor thing. Him I spared.

“Inez, Jesus.” I appeared in front of them. Jesus, bless him, had actually fought his way to be close to Inez so he could protect her. “You two are safe from me.”

“You know.” Inez almost whispered as she looked at me in all my nasty glory as the Spectre. “You know what happened to me. Even here we have heard of La Fantasma.”

“Yes, I know.” I softly told her then shook my head. “I'm sorry, I can't restore you. But what I can do is give you some free will back. You have a man who loved you enough to risk his life to reach and protect you in Jesus, you could do a lot worse.”

“I know Fantasma.” She nodded then leaned into and hugged the man. “Just give me enough to be a real person instead of a living, breathing sex doll. That is all I ask.”

I reached into her mind and made the adjustments I could, then went a bit further and made her soul comfortable with what she had become. Don't ask me how I did that. It was kind of like walking into a large control room and flipping a few switches.

“Done.” I told her. “When the Policia come, be sure that your are not here, they won't trouble themselves with searching for a poor maid who somehow survived a power play from a rival drug lord. Then you can go live your life as it is now.”

“I will, Fantasma.” She nodded and gave me a slow, hesitant smile. “Gracias.”

“And you.” I turned to Jesus, who was a very nice looking man, not large, but obviously strong even if he wasn't all that good looking. “Take care of her. I will be watching.”

“No problema, Fantasma.” He answered fervently. “I have seen what you can do, but if you wanted to hurt Inez, I would still stand between her and you.”

“That,” I smiled and gave his arm a squeeze, “is what I wanted to hear. Go, before the Policia come, take her away from here, do your best to make her happy, she has suffered much.”

“She will suffer no more.” He answered. “Not if I can help it.”

I gave him, and her a hug. They both flinched, but that was no surprise since I'd done it in my Spectre form. “Be well, live long, be happy.”

“You are no evil thing, Fantasma.” Jesus said as I rose into the air. “You are an angel.”

“Maybe.” I answered. “Angels aren't known for being all that nice either, so I'll give you that much. “Take care of her, love her.”

“Si, bonita Fantasma, Si.” He answered.

I couldn't answer that one. Just nodded, then went somewhere else.

Inez wasn't the worst I found..

I did what I could without raising suspicions among the people I was hunting. The people I took out had powerful enemies themselves and it wasn't all that odd that they had been killed. But I only managed to free, as well as I could, five of the victims that way. Five others I gave the same out that Helena had taken.

The other twenty-five I could do nothing about just then. And that hurt.

But I had information, a lot of it, and more connections to pass along to my allies in this crusade, or whatever it was.

People, a lot of wealthy, powerful people, were going to suffer, and if they were lucky, die as a result of the things I was learning.

If they weren't lucky? I'm sure you can figure that one out on your own.

I know I'm not a nice person a lot of the time. Often enough, I'm not a good one, either.

“Here you go, Lena.” I announced as I showed up in her workroom, and yes, I had called first. Scaring my friends out of their wits isn't something I like to do if it can be avoided. “I have computer links, emails, financial trails, and even some paper to corroborate some of that.”

I'm not going to ask how you got all this.” Lena accepted the DVDs, notes, and files I handed her. But were you the cause of that mess in Bolivia a few days ago?”

“Which mess?” I asked.

“The one where that Cartel guy who'd been propping up a lot of their government officials got killed, along with all his lieutenants, and about a ton of other people working the Drug trade?”

“He paid 150 million dollars for a former DEA agent.” I shrugged. “The other ones just kind of got in the way.”

“Is she dead?” Lean questioned. “The DEA agent?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I fixed what I could in her head, and she has a man who really loves her. Loves her enough to stand between her and me if he thinks I'm threatening her, by the way.

“She's safe, and has a new identity.” I answered.

“Okay, but what if someone finds her even so?”

“I'm watching.” I answered. “I've managed to free five of those chip slaves, at least after a fashion. Six others, including Helena are dead, the the ones I managed to break loose have new identities and are with people who will do whatever is needed to take care of and protect them. It's the best I can do right now. The genetic changes can't be reversed. Every time this bunch tries that they end up with a screaming pile of goo until it can't scream any longer.”

“Is that in these files, too?” Lena appeared as sick as I had felt when I discovered that one.

“Yes, have a trash can handy when you read those and watch the vids.”

“I will.” She answered. “Should I give this stuff to the others?”

“Yes.”

“Kyle, the Green Lantern one, has contacted me, should I send this to him, too?”

“No, I'll deliver another set of the information to him myself.”

She actually grinned once I said that. “Got yourself another boyfriend, do you?”

“If he kissed and told, I am sooo going to hurt him.” I grumbled.

“He didn't!” Lena crowed. “But you just did!”

Am I ever going to get used to all this girl stuff?

Kyle, the GL one had actually cleaned the ship up. I was impressed. “Wow, this looks like someone actually lives here instead of it being an orbiting garbage dump. And the alarm didn't go off when I showed up this time.”

“Set the alarm to let me know when you came and told it not to rouse the dead otherwise.” Kyle grinned at me then waved at the surroundings. “I take it you like this better?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned. “That time my foot got caught in that old Chinese takeout carton and I felt things trying to eat my toes just about made up my mind to stay away from here.”

“Things kind of — mutate — out here if you don't watch them carefully.” He actually looked embarrassed about that one, but it had been pretty gross. No, it had been really gross. Took me an hour to clean my boot after that happened. And another hour to make it nice and shiny again.

“I have something for you.” I smiled.

“You always have 'something for me' when you show up.” He chuckled and took me into a hug.

“Well, yeah.” I hugged him back then pulled away and handed him the package I'd brought with me. “But this is really something, not the other thing we do.”

“You found them.” He nodded, referring to the chip victims who were out in the world just now.

“Yeah, and I could only get about five of them loose.” I sighed. “But I got a pile of interesting stuff while I was checking on all of them. This stuff is what I found. Might be helpful.”

“I'm sure it will be.”

He took the airtight package I'd handed him, touched a wall, then put it into what looked like a garbage chute that had opened up. When he saw my expression he laughed. “Not to worry, I just fed it all to the computer.”

“Handy.” I shook my head.

“Very.” Kyle agreed then started giving me that 'man who sees a woman he really likes and already has a relationship started with' look. “It will take a few minutes for the computer to digest that. Want to wait and see what it finds when it starts searching?”

'Welll,” I grinned back at him. “I think I have a few minutes here.”

Okay, it was more like an hour, or two.

Let me tell you, I was one well satisfied little Fury, or whatever I was, when that was done.

And yes, to all of you missed that before. He did take off his mask.

“Some of this stuff could cause governments to fall.” Kyle was reading the files I'd brought.

“Some of those I wouldn't regret.” I answered. “The others, things can be arranged quietly, I think, I hope.”

“What are you thinking about this one?” He asked then pointed at a powerful Middle Eastern leader.

“You don't really want to know.” I told him.

“Probably not.” Kyle shrugged, but persisted. “But?”

“Infertile,” I answered, “not fit to be or capable of being a wife or concubine in that culture. Slave, dancer, whore.”

“You know,” He answered that with a little shudder and a sigh, “you can really be nasty at times.”

“It's what I am.” I shrugged.

“I should be horrified, trying to stop you from doing things like that.” He shook his head then hugged me. “But I can't, and won't. These people deserve what they get, it's cruel and very vengeful. But I've seen another side of you, too.”

“Don't spread that last one around.” I grinned and kissed him. “It would absolutely ruin my reputation.”

“Samira.” The soft voice intruded on the blissful darkness Charlie had been in.

“Not Samira.” He answered dully and was punished for that with a pain so blinding, so all encompassing, that he didn't even realize he'd writhed so much he'd fallen off his cot and landed on the floor.

“You are who I say you are, what I say you are.” The man with the soft voice went on as if nothing had happened at all once the pain had gone away. It's truly amazing just how much pain the human body can endure, especially if it isn't really physical, isn't it? The mind, though, that's a different thing most of the time. So you will end up being who and what I tell you regardless. Struggle, fight it, and you'll feel that pain, and trust me, it could and will get worse if you don't cooperate. Be a good little girl, do what you're told, and you'll feel pleasure like you never imagined in your life, though.

“The choice is yours.” His trainer shrugged. “We don't need your mind intact to get the results we want, you know that.”

Charlie didn't answer, he was too busy panting, and trying not to vomit, but he heard.

“Now.” The trainer smiled. “Let's start again, shall we? What is your name?”

That pain had just about knocked me for a loop, too, though I shunted it aside at the last minute while watching my victim starting the first phases of her training. Charlie didn't exist any longer, at least not physically. The girl he had become was as helpless, and terrified, as any other 'products' that hellish place produced had been.

Justice.

Harsh, yes, but nothing less than he deserved.

Why, then, was I feeling sorry for him? Why was I raging about the abuses he was being subjected to?

And why, above all, I asked the gods, did I feel shame at having manipulated circumstances to arrive at this stage?

“That is our curse, little one.” Tisiphone's oddly gentle voice entered my swirling thoughts. “To give pain, one must understand it. Vengeance not only affects those it is delivered to.”

“No wonder,” I closed my eyes and fought the tears threatening to get past my tightly shut eyelids, “you and your sisters went insane.”

“True enough.” She answered. “Yet you have a strength we did not possess, Diana.”

“What would that be?'

“Your humanity.” She answered simply. “My sisters and I were created from nothing, we had no experience with humans until we were unleashed on them. Unlike us, when you were reborn, you already knew that humans can also be good, noble creatures. That is the strength, the experience you must hold to through this.”

“I hope that's enough.” I let out a shuddering sigh.

“So do I, dear one.” She answered quietly. “So do I.”

 

---

 

Once I got over my headache, and the massive bout of insecurity I felt when Tisiphone had confessed that she was learning from me, I found myself hovering over the arch again. Yes, I know anyone looking for me knows to go there by now. But habits are hard to break you know. Especially when all you have to do is think about it and you're there.

Besides, the view is awesome.

And if nothing is going wrong enough to grab my sense of 'Justice' it's actually very relaxing. Almost zen with the good feelings I get while here.

I'm protecting, defending, MY town. And people knowing I do that has really kept the deliberate violence people do to others to a minimum lately. Even the most hardened criminal in this city and the areas around it know that if they harm an innocent, someone is watching, and will make them pay.

That used to bother me, the way I would just swoop in and take my 'vengeance' while delivering old style justice.

But given the things I'd seen recently, the things I'd felt through my connections with Mitsuko, then Samira,
made the worst murderer or serial killer I'd run across seem like misbehaving children.

“Diana.” A voice intruded on my musings and I looked up to see who I'd felt approaching miles away.

“Hi Jean.” I greeted the Phoenix and again had to admire the beauty of her fire and form before she took her human guise. “What can I do for you tonight?”

“I just wanted to check in with you.” She settled her human shape, even if it was wreathed if fire, on the top of the arch. “And to let you know I think I found another place those bastards do this kind of thing.”

“Where?”

“Los Angeles.” She answered. “But the people they work on there leave looking the same as they did when they went in. I can sense the chips in them, but they don't act any differently than they did before those damned things were put into them.”

“Politicians, media people, business and tech leaders?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Slaves don't always look like slaves to people who don't know what to look for.” I sighed, then told her what I'd discovered about 'New Earth'.

Jean answered with a word that a teenaged girl shouldn't even know, let alone know what it meant.

“Show me.” I told her.

Oh yes, this was the same bunch. Thier victims weren't changed physically, but the mental/emotional anguish hadn't altered at all. I could see it, follow everyone the bastards had enslaved. Making careful note of the area, and the location, I nodded. “Jean, this is going to go down, but we have no real evidence, the physical kind, the paperwork or records.

“When we do this,” I looked at her and frowned, “People are going to believe that we're monsters who are just gettng rid of a tech we don't like.”

“Let them think what they want.” She shot back. “I'll put up with being branded as villian if we can stop this.”

“That's all I needed to know.” I said, and moved up to give her (still flaming) form a tight hug. “The general public and authorities already think I'm way too close to being a villian. But I do what I have been charged to do. Once The Phoenix learns more about how humans work through you let her see the good things first or you'll proably have a hard time holding her back. Just tell her that humaity also does good things, great things.”

“She knows that.” Jean answered. “I don't think she understands what is good, bad, evil, or what so far, though.”

“Got one I'm showing that to, myself right now.” I sighed. “You have to show The Phoenix the good and bad about being human, and that most of the time, the bad doesn't really warrant a lot of punishment. I discovered that I'm showing Tisiphone just that recently.”

“Shes' still pretty distant.” Jean nodded. “But she's interested.

“Tisiphone is anything but distant.” I chuckled. “But she still wants to learn more about humanity. I halfway think I became what I am now just so she could do that.”

“She had other reasons, Diana.” Jean smiled. “You have a strong sense of justice, the difference between right and wrong. But you also know what love is, what it is to actually care for others. The only things Tisiphone ever cared for before you were her sisters, and they died or just went away, because they weren't able to grasp the idea that to really punish someone, you have to care for them”

“You know how it was when you were a child.” She went on. “If your parents punished you with nothing more than words, it hurt a lot worse than if a teacher spanked you. After the spanking from the teacher, you were careful not to get into trouble again right away.

“But if your parent's spanked you?” She grinned. “You knew, you JUST knew, that what you'd done to get that was really, really wrong.”

“I'm not the world's damned mommy.” I shot back. “I never cared in my human life. If I had to get rid of someone, or hurt them, I just did it. Part of the job.”

“Liar.” Jean grinned. “You got yourself killed because you cared about someone, something, and you know it.”

I Lowered my head and nodded then looked back up into the suns of her eyes. “Yeah, I guess I do, and did, at that.”

“So don't be ashamed of caring, Diana.” Jean returned the hug and let me tell you, being embraced with fire hot enough to rival a star is something that just can't be described adequately. If it can be desribed at all.

And it felt good.

Really good.

Mitsuko sat on her vanity stool, and examined her room in the large, oval mirror. She already knew what she looked like, had been forced to see that so many times that she no longer felt the pangs of loss for what she had been.

No, this time she was looking, searching, for things that would reinforce what the Ghost Girl, Spectre, had given her.

That wasn't close to freedom, but at least now, she could think for herself, see things from her own perspective without feeling that horrible, mind numbing pain. She promised herself that no matter what happened, she would help the ghost girl.

Mitsuko hadn't feared death for what seemed like eternity. Death would have been a release.

But now, now, she had another life to consider. One that was growing in her belly, just below her heart, and she would not, WOULD NOT, allow that new, innocent life to be corrupted by the ones who had made it possible for her to be a mother.

And she would pay whatever the cost was to see that happen. Her baby would be better dead than in the kind of thrall she had experienced, though that thought gave her more pain that anything her tormentors had given her.

But her child would not have to endure what she had.

Samira worked her way to conciousness. She had resisted again. Taking that 'thing' in her mouth, the very idea of doing that, revolted her. And she had paid for for that with a white hot, all eveloping, pain that was inside her rather than outside and it ripped her apart so much inside that she doubted her ability to resist what her keepers wanted again.

“Be Strong.” A remembered voice actually soothed her once the pain allowed her to think again.

Samira shuddered, remembered that she had once done to others what was being done to her. Worse, she actually thought she desevered the kind of hell she was going through.

And whether she wished to belive it or not, clung to the promise The Spectre had given her.

I had touched the minds of my two — what should I call them? Decoys? Bait? Catspaws?

I really couldn't like myself much when I let myself think about what I was allowing those two to go through simply to achieve what most of the world would see as nothing but senseless destruction of a technology that could alleviate suffering and make life better for a lot of people.

Sadly, that chip could have been that boon to humanity. It could have been a miracle like no other in human history. But it was being used to create a Hell on Earth instead of what it's true potential could have been. Stopping the latter would very likely stop the former, too. I grieved over that, but sometimes there are things one has to do that are not good at all to keep others from harm.

“Am I setting myself up as something above eveyone else here?” I questioned the air, sky, nature, whatever. “Have I gotten to a point where I think, believe, I know what is good for people better than they do? Do I even have the right to think that?”

“You are removing an evil, dear one.” Tisiphone's voice intruded on my thoughts. “You do not judge, you do not set yourself above anyone. You do what you were made to do. Find the evil, and destroy it. My sisters and I were made to do that but we were flawed. We lacked the knowledge and understanding of humanity that you possess.”

“And that makes me less flawed?” I shot back. “I kill people. KILL people, or leave them in places so awful that I cringe when I even think about them.”

“Oh yes, daughter.” Tisiphone answered and stroked my cheek with a hand that felt way too soft to have delivered so much death and misery. “You understand what my sisters and I failed to grasp.”

“How is that?” I moved away from the hand I couldn't see but felt. “How is it that I'm any better than you were? I was born mortal, I would think that would make me less.”

“There is your mistake, dear one.” She answered. “Humanity has always managed to perplex and confound the gods and their creations. The one thing any of those gods could predict about your kind is that they never knew what you would do in a given circumstance.

“But they did know that best of you fought so hard because you fought for something other than themselves, for another person, an idea, a nation. The gods just could not comprehend the depth of passion you humans gave when any of you 'cared' for something or someone enough to sacrifice yourselves to preserve the other.

“Those who did understand feared your kind, do you know that?” She actually gave me a hug with that one. “Because they realized that your race had the potential to be greater than they were.”

“We're a long way from that right now.” I sighed.

“But closer than you think.”

“I don't think so.”

“Child, beloved child, don't you see?” She hugged me again. “Your race is becoming what the gods once were. The time for your kind to mature, to look to thier next horizon has started.”

“We aren't ready for something like that.” I argued.

“No one is ready when that time comes, beloved.” She told me. “It is never easy to grow up.”

Crap.

Like that was supposed to make me feel better? To learn that humanity stood at the cusp of godhood when so many of us were worse than the most foul demon of legend?

Well, no matter, I couldn't do much about the other things right now, but I could, and was determined to, eradicate one particular evil that was being inflicted on the race.

Even if I didn't like myslef all that much for some of the ways I was doing that.

I found her, in a small cell and oddly listless, as if she'd been drugged. But Megan should have been immune to that kind of thing. After a closer look I winced at the damage that had been done to her. But that was something she would have to deal with. I — no one could do that for her.

“Megan.” I whispered to her, disturbing an unpleasant dream and chasing it away. “Megan, come talk with me.”

She appeared in the dreamscape I often made use of, still appearing listless, and slumped slightly to one side even in this dream state. “What?”

“You've been badly hurt.” I told her then raised a hand to stop her protest or comment about pointing out the obvious. “But that shouldn't be able to stop you. “

“Shy shouldn't it?” Her bitterness, and anger hovered around her like dark clouds shot with lightning. “Why?”

“You don't have to appear like that here, you know.” I told her with a smile. “Remember how you were and at least here, it will be so.”

She gave me a blank stare for a few moments, then got a look of concentration on her face. Then stood straighter and her eyes bored into me while she didn't say a word.

“That's better.” I nodded. “You need to listen to me Megan, closely, all right?”

“All right.” She nodded in her turn but had a question she couldn't stop from getting out. “What am I supposed to do here? I'm helpless!”

“Helpless?” I looked at her and shook my head. “Oh, no you aren't that, never have been, never will be. Unless you allow it to happen.”

“What are you talking about? I got taken, and incapacitated.”

“You don't know?” I asked then moved forward to reach out and gently tap her forehead. “That still works, doesn't it? Your brain, your mind?”

“Yeah.” she nodded.

“Then use it.” I told her. “You were a cop, and a good one, before your Metagene kicked in weren't you?”

“Yes I was.”

“And how did that happen?” I questioned. “Was it luck?”

“No, I thought things out, and through to do my job.” She nodded slowly.

“Then do that now.” I told her. “Use that mind. You'll find a way to get where you need to be and to do what you have to here.”

“But...”

“No but's, Megan.” I softly told her. “Use what you have to get the job done. “Just remember that you aren't helpless.”

She gave me a little grin, even if it was grim. “I have some payback to hand out here, that's true enough.”

“That you do.”

“Why are you doing this?” She asked. “Why come to me this way?”

“Everyone needs a little encouragement off and on.” I shrugged.

“Not you though.”

“Oh, especially, me, Megan.” I gave her a sad smile. “I have to go now. Get things settled here, then go to Lena and Doris. I'll see you there.”

Miss Mars, back after a short absence nodded thoughtfully and disappeared.

I'd done what I could under the circumstances. As I have said before, going in myself and removing her problems there would have done no one any good.

As to why I'd done it?

Ask Tisiphone. Maybe she'll tell you because she hasn't shared her reasons with me.

But Megan just needed that good o'l proverbial kick in the butt to get herself moving again.

“Clean yourself up, Samira.” Her handler ordered.

She picked herself up off the floor and headed for the shower where she washed off the results of her reactions to the last lesson and the rank, sour scent of sweat from her body. Once that was accomplished she moisturized and powdered herself as she had been forced to learn how to do then left the shower cubicle hoping her tormentor would be gone.

No such luck. He was still there, cruelly grinning, and expectant. “Get your hair in shape, and make yourself pretty, girl. We have potential customers here and they want to see some of our goods.”

Mentally cursing herself for weakness, and her tormentors for what they'd done, she moved to the vanity that was in her room and began brushing her thick hair once she seated herself.

“Good girl.” The man approved, then added. “Makeup and jewelry, too.”

She didn't answer, simply appied the cosmetics to enhance her already beautiful face with a skill that would have been completely foriegn to all she'd known before. Once that was finished, she spritzed herself with an expensive perfume and grimaced as she walked through the cloud of feminine scent.

“Now that's no way to be, Samira.” The man frowned. “Girls like you should smell pretty without frowning about it.”

She felt a pang of fear. Things like that had earned her punishment before. But doing them also filled her wth a sense of pleasure she hadn't dreamed could exist before her change. “I have done as you ordered, Master. Please don't punish me.”

The expected pain didn't come, thankfully, as the man shrugged. “Heels, and nothing else for this time around. We don't have time for you to clean yourself up again.”

Samira simply nodded, slipping her feet into the gold sandals with four inch heels.

“Come along, girl.” Her tormentor urged after giving her an appreciateive look. “People are waiting to see you strut your stuff.”

She just followed him, naked except for her makeup, jewelry, and the high heels.

Hating, raging, but unable to do anything about it.

“Colin, Colin.” I shook my head and sighed once the man and his underlings had emptied their weapons into me. “You can't kill something that is already dead.”

Yes, I had more important things to worry about, but I was still watcing over my town. The man I was chiding was a big time drug dealer and murderer. He killed, or had people killed, on a whim whether they really impacted on his business or not.

“You are a very bad man, Colin.” I smiled at him then let the full force of my eyes hit him. “So you have to pay for that.”

“It's business!” He weakly answered, as I moved to wrap his throat in one hand.

“No.” I shook my head as my hand tightened. “You enjoy it. The killing, the terror you inspire.”

“Please.” He was almost begging as my hand tightened.

“How many innocents asked the same thing of you, or your 'employees' when they were under the gun, Colin? How many?

“I'll change, I'll stop.”

“Yes you will.” I answered and broke his neck. The scum wasn't worth a bullet. “In Hell. I'll come see how your'e doing there.”

Then I killed his immediate underlings, those that had survived my first appearance anyway.

That kind of thing used to really bother me. But after what I'd been doing with the 'New World' conspiracy, it was actually kind of a relief. Clean kills, obvious bad guys taken out, do it and it's done.

Damn it. What in the name of God have I become? That I can think of killing over twenty people as nothing more than business as usual?

And a relief, a release from other things?

Yes, I was well and truly damned.

“Wear your best dress, and do your makeup perfectly.” Mitsuko's husband ordered. “We're going to show potential buyers just how good you are, darling.”

“Of course, husband.” She nodded and did as he ordered. While hating him, and what she had been forced to become.

But that hate for herself was tempered now. She had another life to consider after all with her pregnancy, and the ghost girl had assured her that her situation wasn't hopeless after all. And had given her the ability to think for herself as a promise on that statement.

Also, she knew the ghost girl was seeing things through her eyes. And sharing her pain.

So she would do what was expected. Do what her tormentors wished.

Because every time she did, the ghost girl found more to help her stop this abomination.

And if she, Mitsuko, couldn't be free, at least others might be, thanks to what she endured.

“We've found two sites where this is happening.” I told the gathering in the wharehouse Doris and Lean called home. “But we need to find them all. There are more.”

“I'm tracking comunications from the two we are aware of.” Lena answerd then frowned. “But it's slow. These people are very careful, and paranoid.”

“They have two locations in Europe,” Kyle — the Green Lantern one — added. But they are well shielded and hidden. I still haven't found them. There is another one in China.”

“You'll find them.” I told him, then looked at Lena. “You have the information?

“Yup.” She grinned. “I'll be digging, poking, and following trails. We'll find the places.”

“Good.” I nodded. “We need to take all of them out at the same time. If even one gets past us, this horror will continue.”

Everyone agreed, then Jean — The Phoenix — added. “I sat by once when this kind of thing was happening, it won't be that way this time. I'll slag any facility we find.”

“Is Megan going to be in on this?” Doris questioned.

“Oh, yes.” I assured everyone. “Miss Mars will be here when the time comes.”

For some reason they all took that as assured.

What is it about me that makes people think that things I say are fact?

Samira found herself in the center of an arena, with a pregnant woman she recogized. Mitsuko.

In a former incarnation, Samira had helped shape Mitsuko, forced the lovely young woman she saw to be whatever was needed.

Mitsuko returned her regard and there was something, an indifiable thing, in the expectant mother's eyes as they looked at each other.

With a little shock, Samira recognized that as the same thing that was keepint her going.

Mitsuko had been in contact with the Spectre, too.

Both women acknowledged that fact as they exchanged glances, and formed a bond that was nearly like being sisters.

Without it being spoken aloud, both knew that they would do whatever was needed to destroy what had made them.

 

---

 

A little warning here. Though not graphic there are some disturbing things that happen in this chapter. If you are sensitive just go halfway down to read.

Also, apologies for the wait on this one. I was fighting a bad cold and it's hard to see what you're doing with watery eyes, coughing and sneezing all the time. (grin) This chapter doesn't have a lot of action, it's more introspective, but it is setting up other things for later.

Samira looked at Mitsuko and felt a shame that was deeper than anything her tormentors had been able to force on her. She, in her other incarnation had helped form this lovely, obviously pregnant woman forced her into being what she was now. “Mitsuko.”

“You know me?” The Asian beauty questioned while searching for anything familiar in Samira.

“Not really. But I wasn't always as you see me now.” She answered slowly then realized just how stupid that sounded given their situation. “I'm Samira now. But I used to be one of the people who made you what you are now.”

Mitsuko gave her a careful looking over and nodded. “You did? Well now you know. Is that not right? You know what I, and others have been put through.”

“Yes.” Samira lowered her head, not wanting to look the other in the eye with that admission. “Yes, and I deserve what I'm getting now.”

“No one deserves this.” Miotsuko made a gesture that encompassed herself, Samira and thier surroundings. “I want to hate, I want to see the ones who did this to me suffer as I have. But I see you, and know that is wrong, too. Wrong as what was done to me.”

“So you hate me.” Samira nodded, still not looking directly at the other woman while letting out a shuddering sigh. You want me to suffer like — like you have.”

Mitsuko's pretty face twisted to show both grief and revulsion at what she had just heard. “I not wish that — this — on anyone, Samira. It is too terrible a thing.”

“I — I'm sorry.” Samira quietly answered while lowering her head.

“Sorry not work here.” Mitsuko said just as quietly as she moved up to lift Samira's chin so they could look each other in the eye. “Too late for that, maybe be sorry later if able. Now we do what we must. We work, we live and we wait.

“I am, you are, as we were made. No change for that. You suffer, I suffer. You know ghost girl, too, no?”

“Spectre.” Samira breathed so softly she didn't think anyone, especially the hidden watchers could hear.

“Yes.” Mitsuko nodded and raised her hand. Samira flinched, expecting a slap, but received a soft, caressing touch instead. “You were bad man, you do things that were not good. Now you are girl. Be good girl, bad girl? Be willing slave, or something else? Choice is yours.”

She moved to hug Samira and whispered. “Ghost girl has way to stop this. I help. You can help. What you do?”

“Only what I have been doing.” Samira answered slowly while returning the hug and whispering, too. “Let her watch things through me. And hope she can really stop this.”

Mitsuko nodded and Samira felt that against her still unfamiliar breasts. “Can. Ghost girl is strong. You be strong, too.”

It wasn't a demand so much as a question. Samira gave her companion a wondering look and asked, “How? How can you be so determined, so strong after all that was done to you?”

“This.” Mitsuko took Samira's hand and placed it on her swollen belly. “Wanted to just die at first, to just be the thing they want. But now have another life to care for, to fight for. Having baby was meant to break, it just make stronger. You be strong, too. Ghost girl will stop this. She use us to help do that. I help her, you can do, too. But you not alone. Remember that. Be strong.”

Since her change Samira had dealt with demands, orders that she didn't want to comply with, but that simple statement from one of her former victims gave her something she'd never really known before. A chance for a connection to someone who wasn't in her power or held power over her. A chance to possibly have a real friend or at least someone who wasn't simply an associate. “I don't know if I can be.” She whispered.

“You can.” Mitsuko said and pressed Samira's hand that was still on her belly. “Feel this. New life. New hope. One good thing to come from this. I defend my child here. Help me do that.”

Her hand still lightly touching Mitsuko's belly, Samira nodded while reaching a decision. “I will.”

Mitsuko smiled and that seemed to light up the room. “Being mother not bad thing, Samira. It give persepctive, and reason for life. I hope you find that for self. Is good thing even if the way we got there is bad.”

“I want to believe you.” Samira nodded.

“Is true.” Mitsuko answered simply while putting one of her hands over Samira's on her belly. “Feel. Learn. Know.”

Samira absorbed the feeling, the life under Mitsuko's skin, and had to nod. Words failed her, and tears were blurring her vision. When this was over, and she knew it would be in time, the man who really won Mitsuko's heart would have a treasure beyond the description mere words could depict. Resolute, determined, and caring. And strong, so strong.

“Be strong.” Mitsuko whispered again as if she had heard Samira's thoughts. “We get through this. We have to.”

“There is no going back.” Samira countered, trying to find something to dispute what she saw and felt in Mitsuko.

“Then we go forward, no?” The lovely little Asian mother to be questioned.

“It is all we have left, isn't it?”

“For now.” Mitsuko nodded.

“What can we do?” Samira asked.

“Wait, be patient. Obey for now.”

Samira lowered her eyes again, not able to endure the resolute determination in those almond, emerald eyes she had been looking into.

Finally, she agreed. “Yes, that's all we can do for now, isn't it?”

“We be free, Samira.” Mitsuko hugged her and fiercely repeated. “WE BE FREE!”

I was nearly in tears after I watched that. Okay, who am I kidding, I was in tears. Mitsuko had lost so much, been forced into a life that was so alien, but still managed to be strong enough, caring enough, to offer one who had tormented her earlier friendship and hope.

Heroes come from the oddest places don't they?

Again, I was humbled.

Though humanity can do terrible, awful things... It can still produce people that leave the gods in awe. I was learning that now and felt very small when I recalled some of the things I had done when I was still human.

I had what could be called super powers, and a lot of my newly acquired friends and allies did as well. But none of us were the kind of hero Mitsuko was proving to be.

Just a normal person, thrown into things he/she didn't understand and suffering for that, but never losing the humanity, the underlying strength of the species and working to transcend her imposed limitations.

Yes, I was feeling very insignifcant next to that even with all my powers and abilities.

“Gentlemen.” The director addressed the audience watching the two girls. “As you can see both are exquisite examples of feminine beauty and grace.

“In addition, they are fully capable of child bearing as our lovely Mitsuko shows so well here.”

“How can we be sure that this 'Mitsuko' isn't a plant, or made up to fake a pregnancy?” One of the gathered men questioned.

“You have the files on both girls.” The director shrugged. “Take your time to go through the pertinent sections, which will come up if you follow the prompts on your screens, then you will be able to meet the girls and put them through thier paces. They will answer your questions honestly when we do that, along with doing anything you demand of them.”

The gathering went back to the tablets they had been given and went through the files those contained. The room was filled with silence for awhile punctuated only with small gasps, and mutters of appreciation.

The director watched that with a thin smile and leaned forward to speak into a microphone he had just activated. “Mitsuko, remove your clothing.”

I was learning what the original Furies had felt just then. All I wanted to do was go in and kill.

But that wouldn't accomplish anything other than to soothe my own homicidal urges at the moment. If I did that, then the whole operation would just move somewhere else, but watching the self satisfied bastards who had done those things to create Mitsuko and Samira, along with potential customers for more girls like that, had me close to exploding with violence.

“Be Patient, child.” Tisiphone's voice penetrated the red haze I was watching things through. “You have a plan, see it through.”

“Those people deserve to die, or worse.” I shot back and my mental voice grated like stone against stone.

“Yes, love, they do.” The real Fury answered simply. “Yet if they do, if you kill them now, you will lose all you've worked to achieve in this so far. Take your own counsel here and be strong, dear one.”

I shook myself mentally and emotionally, then nodded because I was still not calm enough to voice my thoughts coherently without inciting myself to counter productive violence just then.

“Take what the girl, Mitsuko said to the other one and hold to it, little one.” Tisiphone advised. “Be strong, be patient, wait. Your time will come and so will the reckoning you wish for so badly.”

“You, urging me to show patience.” I had to chuckle mentally at that picture, of the last real Fury urging someone to hold back on delivering bloody justice, then let out a mental sigh. “You have been learning, haven't you?”

“Indeed, my child, indeed I have.” She answered a little sadly but with a hint of humor as well. “You will have your retribution, and your children will be free.”

“My children?”

“You have touched both Mitsuko and Samira, child.” She informed me. “They are now connected to you as a child is to it's mother, so yes. Such is the only way those like us can have that, as such they are your children.

“But sometimes, to defend a child, one must wait for the right time, and that time is not yet here. They will survive a bit longer, love. Both of them are very strong and know that you are watching.”

Damn. I hadn't thought of things in that light. But now that it had been pointed out I did understand just why a mother bear was so defensive of her cubs. I wanted to rip the guts out of anyone hurting those two, even if one of them had been part of the whole horrible thing once.

Mitsuko complied with the order, carefully folding her clothing and setting it aside, then looked at a shivering Samira. She moved forward and gently touched the other's cheek with one hand. “Is okay, Samira. We do as told, and Ghost Girl will see. She will make things better in time. Have patience, use strength, endure for now.”

“But they're going to expect me to do — things, that I still don't like.”

“Just do.” Mitsuko advised. “Less pain that way. Imagine biting it off, or kicking man in vulenreable place. Oh fight a little, not right if you don't, but just do as ordered. This will end. Ghost Girl has promised, and she keeps word, I think.”

“Yes, she does.” Samira nodded while suppressing a shudder at what The Spectre had told her would happen previously while remembering her first encounter with that being. “She does at that.”

Both waited, not without some trepidation, for what was to come next.

I couldn't watch any longer. Both Mitsuko and Samira had been superbly trained to be anything a man could want. I knew without thinking what some of the things they would be doing were going to show that.

But I'd marked each man there, and would be watching them in the future. To their detriment.

Oh yes, people were going to pay for all this. But not with what they'd done to others. That was too horrible to think about. If I inflicted that on them, as I had done with Samira before I knew all that I did now, I'd be no better than they were.

Even if the bastards deserved nothing less.

Damn. I was vengeance with a conscience.

Which kind of complicated things.

Kind of? Get real. It complicated things a lot.

But the bastards doing this were going down. Hard.

I'd see to that.

Samira was numb, at least mentally and emotionally once she was taken back to her cell-like room. She had been touched in places, caressed, pinched, slapped and squeezed on parts of her anatomy that she never thought she would possess in another, far gone, life during that session. She had even resisted a bit and paid for it in more pain before complying with her keepers' and their guests' wishes.

She carefully showered, cleaned herself thoroughly between her legs, brushed her teeth, and used the sweet tasting mouthwash while trying to forget the things she had done recently. More than one of the potential customers had taken her for a 'test drive' since Mitsuko was so obviously pregnant and awkward with something like that. The soreness between her legs reminded her of that.

But worse, to her still not completely acclimated mind, was the fact that all that had felt good. She had actually liked having a man inside her, welcomed the release of losing herself in the sensations for even a short time as they used her.

Once clean, Samira went to the narrow bed she was allowed, settled onto it, then curled into as small a ball as she could while quietly sobbing and shivering.

“You did very well today, Mitsuko.” Her husband approvingly touched her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. “The buyers were very impressed with you and with Samira today.”

“My duty is to please, husband.” She answered softly, fighting back the tears that came when she recalled what she, and Samira had been forced to do earlier. “Am glad you are happy with this insignificant woman.”

“Oh, you aren't insignificant.” He assured her with an expression that was close to gloating. “You're the first of our girls to become pregnant naturally, and that is a big thing, my dear. Now our potential buyers know we can provide submissive, fertile wives or mistresses whenever they want. Child bearing females who have no ego to get in the way of things for their husbands or masters.”

“I am pleased that you are pleased, husband.” She said quietly while gently setting a delicate hand on her belly to find the strength to go on with the travesty of a life she had been forced into. “Baby is good thing.”

“You don't mind being pregnant, then?” He questioned.

“Not mind at all.” Mitsuko actually gave him a genuine smile. “Growing new life is never bad thing.”

“Interesting.” Is all he said in response while obviously making a mental note for later.

“Samira.” I softly called to the lump under the thin blanket that covered the narrow bed. “I haven't forgotten you.”

“Why not?” She asked uncurling and looking nowhere in particular. “I deserve what I'm getting here, you said so yourself not too long ago.”

“That was before I actually knew what was going on in this hellish place.” I told her with a sigh. “Even with what you did, you don't deserve this.”

“I need to pay for what I did.” She shot back, miserably.

“And you haven't done that already?” I asked gently. “I put you through Hell, Samira, and unlike the others I've sent there, you're still alive. “I don't expect you to believe this right now, but I'll be a long time asking for you to forgive me for what I've done to you.”

“You asking me for forgiveness?” She snorted. “I have over thirty people to ask that of, and I don't think one of them will give it.”

“One has.” I pointed out.

“Mitsuko.” She nodded and there were tears in her eyes as she did. “I helped train her, hurt her, and she still doesn't hold that against me.”

“Mitsuko is a very special person, Samira.” I said while stroking her cheek. “You've learned your lesson now, she knows that and I will get both of you free of this, I swear it.”

“And what will I have if you do that?” Samira bitterly asked.

“A life.” I shrugged. “True, it won't be the life you expected, but you'll be young, healthy, attractive, and free.”

“And a woman, with submissive leanings ingrained.”

“Those you can fight, and overcome.” I answered. “If you're strong enough. And being a woman isn't such a bad thing. I have a view of both sides myself, and if you approach it right, it can be very good at times.”

“You were a man, male?” She gave me a disbelieving look and I returned that with a little grin and shrug. “I don't believe it.”

“I was.” I simply told her. “I wasn't happy at first, but now I have two men that I love very much, and they love me back. So you see, not all is lost. You can have a life, and love, if you can just be strong enough not to completely give in to what these people are doing to you. Keep your sense of self for awhile longer and I will get you out of this.”

“Why?” She looked at me in something like wonder. “I was one of the people doing this to others. Why would you take so much interest in getting me out of what you put me into?”

“Because you're a victim now, too.” I said. “I defend victims, and you're one because of me. I need to fix that, make it better for you and the others who have been victimized in this place. But you are here because of me, and I feel responsible. I don't make victims, Samira, I defend them. I'm sorry for what I've done to you because of that.”

“Sorry?” She almost exploded with the emotions pouring out of her. The rage, the hurt, the resentment. “Sorry won't change what you've done to me!”

“No.” I let out a sigh and nodded. “It won't. The best I can do now is to get you out of this and give you a chance at a real life again. Like I said, I'll be waiting a long time for your forgiveness.”

“Can you get me, and the others out of this?”

“Yes.” I answered and again touched her cheek, she flinched but didn't pull away. “Soon. You have my word on that, and you know I keep my word.”

“Yes, I know that all too well.” She tiredly answered.

“Then keep that inner strength you have.” I was cajoling, I knew it, but it was needed just then. “Hold on for just a bit longer. I swear again that you will be free of this soon.”

“I hope so.”

“It will be so.” I assured her then kissed her forehead. “It will be so.”

Damn. Tisiphone was right. Mitsuko and Samira were like my children. And I had the mother's imperative to protect her children.

Something I was going to do, no matter what it cost.

I went back to being Deena for awhile, I did have to make a living for my human life, but with every 'customer' I took care of, I remembered what Samira and Mitsuko had been put through. Oh, don't get me wrong, the simple act of having sex helped defuse a lot of my tension. That was part and parcel of my human self and personality. That was not something that would change any time soon and I accepted that.

But I still had the mental, the emotional anguish to deal with even if the urge to commit bloody violence had been at least temporarily quelled.

I'd sentenced a human being to the very thing I was working to end. And as I told Samira, I protected victims, I didn't make them. So yes, I was feeling a lot of guilt just then.

So I went to the one place, the one person, who I could actually just talk to.

He was working on another issue of his Spectre comic when I got there.

“I like how you're showing that she cares about people, Kyle.” I softly told him then stood back when he almost hit the ceiling from surprise.

“Couldn't you, you know, call before you just pop in?” He asked once he'd gotten his breathing under control and managed to turn to look at me.

“Sorry, forgot.” I went to my Deena form and hugged him. “It's been a really bad couple of days for me. I just needed to come and talk with you.”

He sighed while looking at the story board he'd been working on and shook his head with a small grin. “I should be used to it by now, and I'm going to have to redo that whole frame now.”

“Sor...”

“You already said that.” He gently put a finger to my mouth to stop me from saying it again. “So what's gone so bad that you look as if you've lost your last friend?”

“I created a victim.” I answered and not without my voice shaking. “To get vengeance and do something I'm working on right now.”

“You — kill people without a thought.” He slowly answered then looked me directly in the eyes. “So aren't you creating victims all the time?”

“Oh, it is never without thought.” I countered and let out a shuddering little sigh. “But this one is still alive, and I condemned them to Hell on Earth just to satisfy something in me that I don't like to think about too much just now.”

“So now you're trying to get this person out of it?” He asked.

“Yes.” I nodded and tears were running down my cheeks. “I defend victims, Kyle, I don't make them, except for this once, and it's tearing me apart right now.”

“If I have to kill a hundred, a thousand people to do it.” I said softly.

“I won't go there, but I will tell you this much.” He answered. “With what you do, sometimes you care too much for your own good. Let me ask you this, did this person deserve to be punished?”

“Yes, but not like she is being treated now.”

“So you feel she, this person, has paid for what she did before?”

“Yes, enough for ten lives.” I was sobbing by then with the shame and self hate I felt over what I'd done to Samira.

“And you're working to get her out of the situation?”

“Yes.”

“The what will you do when that happens?” He questioned.

“Work to make sure she has a decent life, watch over her, whatever I can that won't interfere too much with her life once she's free.”

“You aren't a bad person, Deena/Diana.” He assured me. “Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes those do impact on others. A lot of people don't even try to fix things like that. They just go on and try to forget it, or ignore the fact. You on the other hand, are working to make it right. True?”

“Yes.”

“Then just fix what you can, hope for the best with the rest of whatever crap this has caused, and know that you're doing the right thing, the good thing here. You once showed me that needless blame and guilt are useless things if you intend to get on with life. It's time right now for you to take that and apply it to yourself.

“Just do what you can to take care of the problem.” He simply told me and hugged me tight while kissing my forehead. “After all, that's about all anyone could do in that kind of situation isn't it?”

“But...”

“No buts.” He interrupted me with a kiss then pulled back to look at me again. “You made a mistake. It happens to everyone. Let that go and work to fix what you can. That's all I'm saying here. Guilt isn't going to help at all. I learned that from you, like I said earlier. Shit happens, love. We mortals, and you not so mortals just have to deal with it as best we can.”

You have a good one here, daughter. Tisiphone informed me at that point. Wiser than many a god ever thought of being. Listen to him.

Oh, yes. I know. I thought back to her without being offended at her eavesdropping in the least. My Kyle, this one is a very special person.

He proved that by gently leading me to his bed and just holding me once we got there.

And how I'd needed that. I hadn't even consciously realized it until then, but I had.

 

---

 

I knew that we were waiting, that moving now could be a bad thing that would warn the bad guys.

But I couldn't just sit there while this was happening. I couldn't.

“Jason Phelps.” I quietly announced myself once I'd appeared in his very secure redoubt in the Rocky Mountains. He was a survivalist, and a very rich one. That he also had questionable dealings in arms, drugs, and other things even less palatable, didn't matter to me.

This man was going to die.

By my hand, though that wasn't so unusual. The reason for it was.

“Who the Hell are you?” The man, middle aged and very fit with a head full of thick if greying hair demanded once I'd spoken to him. Oh, I had appeared in his sanctum as Deena, not Diana. So he was seeing a beautiful, sexy little piece of fluff.

At least in his perceptions.

“Oh, you could call me Deena or Diana.” I shrugged then almost pinned him with my admittedly supernatural regard as I shifted into my Spectre form. “Or maybe retribution. The choice is yours.”

“I haven't actively harmed anyone.” He answered with commendable calm given that I was in full Fury form at the time.

“Your actions, your business, have harmed a lot of people, Jason.” I countered.

“I sell things people want.” He shot back. “It isn't my fault if my products hurt people.”

“No.” I nodded. “It isn't, but you give others the means to harm innocents even if you mask that with the expression 'It's just business', don't you?”

“It is.” He answered. “And I should tell you that my security team is on the way right now.”

“Then they'll die, too.” I shrugged. “But with all the wasted, and prematurely ended lives your business has caused, I don't imagine that would bother you all that much.”

“What have I done to attract your attention, Spectre?” He questioned. “I haven't actively harmed the kind of people you seem to protect.”

“You had the high bid on Samira.” I told him. “And I won't let you have her.”

“What the Hell do you care about that?” He asked while very carefully reaching into his desk.

“I'm responsible for her. I made her what she is.” I looked at the 11mm automatic he had pulled out of the desk and smiled. “And I won't allow someone like you to have her.”

Predictably, he shot me. Five times, actually.

And yes, I got thrown against the wall, even broke one of his bookcases as I was thrown back when the rounds hit me.

“Damn, I hate that.” I shook myself, moved the ruins of the shelf away and stood up to give him an almost gentle smile. “That hurts like a bitch, but I'm already dead. You can't kill me.

“And you just really pissed me off, by the way.”

He fired again, and again, until all he got was empty clicks as he did. I glided forward, took the pistol from his hand and tossed it away. “I am vengeance incarnate, and you just really upset me. I would have made this easy, but you wouldn't have that.

“So now,” I sighed. “You're going to have to go through a really nasty death.”

I reached into the pipes the fed his gas fed fireplace and bent some of them until they broke.

“Just a hint of what you're going to have to endure once this is over.” I told him as the gas hit the flickering flames and those erupted into an inferno.

And I stayed there and watched him burn.

And yes, I was sick after that.

I'm inhuman, I know that, but I'm not Inhuman. If you can understand that at all.

But the man who had purchased Samira wasn't there to pay the millions that he had bid.

No one, no one, was going to buy Samira.

Best? It looked like an accident.

Gods, the way the Furies could do things. And I was following in their footsteps. Without the least hint of remorse.

But I protected those I felt I owed things to.

The next one was a surprise. I had planned to let that one go, but something, intuition, another feeling, or Tisiphone's insistence made me go to the second highest bidder.

“Spectre.” The guy, handsome — and yes I was noticing that so don't give me grief over it, okay — smiled at me and gestured to a chair. “Have a seat. We need to talk.”

I have to admit that I was taken by surprise at that one. Mostly people see me and try to run, or bluff things out, or shoot me. This guy wasn't doing any of that. He simply waved to a chair and waited.

I sat down, I could kill him any time I liked, but was more than a little curious at his response when I just showed up in his office. “Talk about what?”

“Oh, try a slavery ring that even if you stop it won't really help the poor girls, or guys, that got caught up in it?” He looked me right in my blazing red eyes and didn't flinch.

“I'm here to kill you.” I told him matter of factly.

“I know.” He gave me a very winning smile and shrugged. “I'm the second highest bidder on a girl who you are very interested in,

“Before you do that, I would like to show you something. Humor me here. If I'm going to die you should at least let me show you why I'm doing this.”

“Try it.”

He reached into a pocket in his suit and produced a folder that opened up to show a badge. “I'm FBI and we've been very interested in the same thing that you appear to be going up against. But up until a few days ago we had nothing to work with but rumor. You just finished our one link to this thing, by the way.”

I looked at him, I mean really looked. Like seeing into his mind and soul. That is a bit creepy, by the way.

“Michael Harris.” I nodded and shook my head. “You guys know about this mess?”

“Oh, yeah.” He answered. “We also know that the slaves are transformed males or girls who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or were in someone's way.

“And we want to stop it.” He told me simply. “Like you do.”

I just nodded.

“We also know that all the victims aren't changed physically.”

“So why haven't you moved to stop it?”

“Location, dear lady.” He said with a little shrug. “We don't know where these things are being done.”

“I can give you two locations.” I answered. “But you would need to wait a bit. There are more than a few of us 'Metas' that want these bastards. If you guys jumped the gun, most of them would get away.”

“I know about Dolores.” He told me while giving me that level, uncompromising look that your school principal gave you after you sneaked into the girl's locker room and got caught.

“Then you should know that we aren't going to stand for them being just arrested.”

Harris nodded, then did something that few people had done since I died. He looked me right in the eye, smiled, and nodded. “Neither will we.”

“A lot of these people are going to die.”

“If I can shoot one of them,” He told me, “it's all good.”

And he meant that.

Damn, I had been human, but humanity constantly surprised me now that I was something else.

“An amazing race, aren't they?” Tisiphone asked once I'd left Harris with a phone number and the promise that I would let him know when the metas were going to move.

“Yeah.” I answered. “At times they actually make me proud of coming from them.”

“As you should be.” The fury answered. “Your people have the potential to be more, much more, than anything the old gods ever dreamed of.”

“Yeah, you've told me that berfore, and before, and...” I answered.

“Truth is never something that grows old in the telling.” She answered and I could actually feel the grin she was wearing when she did it.

The bitch.

“The FBI?” Lena and Doris both questioned at once after I'd told them about what had happened during my last meeting while Lena continued. “Even if they know about this, what could they do, how much do they know?”

“They know about as much as we did in the beginning.” I answered. “Which isn't enough to accomplish much but is enough to be frustrated about the whole thing.

“As to what they could do?” I grinned evilly. “Their participation would give something like legitimacy to what we're planning to do, and trust me, Agent Harris doesn't want these perps in prison, he wants them dead just like we do.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Doris questioned with some disbelief in her tone and expression.

“Doris.” I let out a sigh and knew that my expression was a sad one. “One my more unsettling abilities, even for me, is that I can see into a person's soul. They might be able to fool their minds, but the soul always shows true.

“And Agent Harris, and his team are more than outraged about this chip slave thing on a gut level that doesn't need explained. They want blood because of it, and law aside, they're determined to get it.”

“Okay, so what do we do with that bit of information?” Lena asked.

“Send what we have to this e-mail address.” I handed her a slip of paper. “I know you can hide where it came from and doing it myself involves appeasing all kinds of weird spirits and things.”

“You calling something else weird.” Doris shook her head. “Now I've heard it all, I think.”

“Not by half.” I chuckled. “But I'll spare you the learning curve on that one this time around.”

“I'll take that as good thing.” Giganta snorted then grinned back at me.

“Oh, yeah. Trust me.” I nodded.

Kyle, the Green Lantern finally got into the conversation. “I have a problem with law enforcement of whatever kind being perverted to killing.”

“Kyle, Kyle,” I shook my head and moved to take his hand in mine while giving it a squeeze. “You are so much The Law, that I think you're loosing track of being human. We've found an abomination here, one that could have been a miracle, and our allies in law enforcement know that as well as we do. They know this needs to be wiped out for now, or humanity itslef could be in for a darker period than it, or a lot of other races, have ever faced. They're angry, outraged, and feel betrayed.

“They want to end this as badly as we do, and they are more grounded in the stakes than us. Those chips could enslave any of them. At least some of us could resist that. And you know Americans. We'll let people revile us, ridicule us, preach against us, but when they really push? We push back, harder.”

He huffed at that one for a minuite then grew less tense and actually laughed, even if it was a bit strained. “Okay, I see your point. But I still have problems with how bloodthirsty this plan is becoming.”

“Believe it or not, so do I.” I answered. “I'm not actually the bloodthirsty, implacable force of nature that I've been painted as. But I'm kind of the god's chemotherapy for humanity. I get rid of the cancers that might kill, or stunt the race. I don't always like doing it, but what I do is necessary. Plus, in spite of what the popular media says, I do have a sense of mercy. Those are the things that most people just don't see, is all. The ones I show it to don't talk, and I'm not going to out them by saying anything either.”

“I know.” Kyle nodded and pulled me into a hug. “You, Diana, Deena, Spectre, are a confusingly complex individual. One I'm very glad I met.”

I looked up into his face, and absolutely gorgeous eyes — did I mention that about him? -- and just smiled.

“Uhh, guys?” Lena interrupted. “This is all nice and gooey, but we — you know — have other things to work on just now?”

Another presence was with us in the warehouse now.

“Hello, Phoenix.” I greeted her as I moved away from my second, but not in the least less important Kyle.

“And I thought you were awe inspiring.” Lena breathed as she looked at me then back to the blazing, but held in, glory of Phoenix.

Even I, who have actually seen gods, was nearly transfixed by the blazing beauty and strength Phoenix was.

“It is close to time, isn't it?” She asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded then smirked. “By the way, how's your love life going?”

“Good.” That being of fire and glory actually giggled. Which pretty much gobsmacked everyone in the room, even Kyle. “Thanks for the advice.”

She toned down her appearance and was just Jean, a pretty teenaged girl after that.

“Show off.” I smirked at her.

“Look who's talking.” Jean chuckled.

“Oh, yeah.” I went back to my Deena form and laughed as I went to give Jean a hug. “Glad you got my message.”

“As if I could ignore FIVE emails from an obviously supernatural source.” She snorted.

“Just wanted to make sure you got it.” I grumbled. “Sometimes my — umm — ISP gets cranky about passing things along. Case in point, I sent it fifteen times.”

At that stage, Lena cleared her throat to get my attention. “Umm, Deena, could you go back to being Diana right now?”

“Sure.” I did that then gave her a questioning look. “But why now?

“Because someone is here who actually wants to see you as Diana, The Spectre.” She replied, then opened a door that led back into the real living quarters of the wharehouse. “She knows you that way is all.”

She was wan, and looked weak and tired, but determined as she slowly walked out into the warehouse proper.

I smiled in genuine pleasure as I saw her, and moved to stand in front of her as one hand lightly touched her cheek, then I accepted the tight hug she gave me and returned it.

“Thank you.” She whispered as we hugged. “You made me see that I have strengths that aren't involved with my change. That my mind, my intetlligence is my true strength.”

“Are you up to this right now?” I softly questioned with real concern.

“I may not be up to my usual standards physically just now,” She smiled then got a very determined look on her beautiful face and tapped her head while giving me a girlish grin. “But I have other options, and you know I wouldn't be out of this if I could barely get enough breath to survive. I can contribute.”

“You already have.” I answered and hugged her again. Megan, Miss Mars, was the last piece of the intricate puzzle I'd been working so hard to put together. She was here, and determined to help. “And you need to be in on this, I know.”

“Thank you.”

“You did it all yourself, dear.” I told her seriously. “I just showed you a path that might work. You're the one who walked it.”

“Let's get these bastards.” She breathed.

“We will. I promised.

 

---

 

Samira was afraid, or more afraid than usual since she had become what she was.

She had been sold, the man who was her keeper, who she was allowed to call only Master though he had been a compatriot in other times, had taken a great deal of delight in telling her just how many millions someone had spent to have her.

She had waited to be taken out of her cell, which now felt almost like home, but it hadn't happened yet. Which was puzzling. She had seen what happened when other girls had been bought. They disappeared very quickly, but she was still waiting for the the inevitable opening of the door to her prison that would lead her to another, wider perhaps, but just as restrictive prison.

Not that it really mattered. If her first buyer failed to live up to the deal, then she would be sold to the second highest bidder. Or put up for auction again. She knew all too well how this worked.

But the delay did raise a spark, albeit a small one, of hope. Could it be that promises made were being kept? Was it possible that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that she wouldn't end up as some helpless, hopeless slave?

“Samira.” A soft, but chillingly familiar voice interrupted her thoughts and she gasped then whirled around to face the author of her present difficulties, and the only chance she had for any kind of release from the nightmare her life had become.

“Spectre.” She whispered half in fear, half in hope.

“My name,” The terrible figure in front of her gently answered, “is Diana. You at least deserve to know that after what I've caused you to go through.”

“You made me hope.” She answered just as quietly. “Have you come to pull that out from under me now, too?”

“No.” The frightening, but oddly comforting figure answered. “I've come to get you out of here.”

“But that would warn them.” Samira shook her head. “They would know that someone outside knows about them and what they are doing here.”

“It doesn't matter.” Spectre — Diana, shook her head. “In a few minutes bloody retribution is going to visit this place, and it will never hurt anyone again, I promise you.”

“You mean it's going to end?”

“Oh yes.” Spectre nodded grimly. “Within a few minutes. Now come on, let me get you out of here.”

“No.” Samira shook her head. “I want to stay, to get some of my own back here.”

“Dear Samira.” Spectre cupped her cheeks in both hands and shook her head. “Trust me, you don't want to know how it is to actually kill someone in cold blood. Not even for rightful vengeance.”

The sounds of her door being unlocked caused The Spectre to stop and give her an almost sad look. “Well, here's your chance.”

Samira accepted the pistol Diana gave her, feeling it's alien contours and knowing that it held violent death. And it was in her hand, ready to strike like a viper if only she loosed it.

“Plans have changed, bitch.” Her keeper announced then stopped in shock when he saw the weapon in her hand. “Where did you get that?”

“That isn't important.” She grated out. “I have it, and it's pointed at you right now.”

“You won't be able to use it you helpless bitch.” He answered while showing her the control remote in his hand. I won't let you.”

And the pain hit her like a sledgehammer. The white hot agony that ran down every nerve she had was all too familiar, and she fought it, really fought it.

But that wasn't enough to overcome the blinding, crippling fire in her nerves and brain.

But a spasm of her hand pulled the trigger, the gun went off, and miraculously, the pain went away.

Shaking with nausea, weak and fighting to hold on to consciousness, she saw that the inadvertant shot had smashed the remote, and the hand that held it. Her tormentor was on the floor shock on his face along with a pain that seemed very satisfying to her.

“No more.” She snarled while forcing her shaking hands to aim the weapon at his face. “You've tortured your last victim, Roger. I did what you have, I know what that's like. But you haven't got the faintest idea of what it's like on the other side of things. Now I think it's time for you to die. Because I wouldn't put you through what I had to go through here. Believe it or not, this is a mercy.”

She glared at him, pointed the weapon at his face, and steeled herself to do the deed.

“I can't do it.” She cursed softly and moaned. “I can't just kill even you in cold blood. Not even with what you've done to me.”

“I knew you wouldn't be able to do it.” He sneered. “You always were soft. You deserve to be what you are now. And you're going to pay for what happened just now. It's going to hurt, a lot, and it won't be the stuff that doesn't show. I'm going to make you scream, beg, for me to stop, and I'm going to enjoy it.”

“No you aren't, you son of a bitch.” She answered then kicked him in the teeth. Then in the ribs, the stomach, and his crotch. “You aren't ever going to hurt me, or anyone else again.

“But I can't kill you like this.” Samira shrugged and held out the nine milimeter pistol for both her and his examination. “I could, and wouldn't really worry too much about doing that, you know?

“But then,” she shook her head. “I wouldn't be any better than you are.”

She kicked him one more time to make sure he was unconcious, then handed me the weapon without a thought or regret for lost opportunities. “I'm done.”

“I see that.” I answered softly. “Are you sure?”

“Killing him in cold blood would serve no purpose.” Samira gave me a tired smile. “I hurt him, and that's enough. Will he stay out for long enough for what's going to happen? Wouldn't want him raising an alarm too soon, after all.”

“He won't.” I assured her, making sure he wouldn't — by checking him, not killing him — which was odd for me but it felt right at the time. “And don't worry about alarms. A friend of mine is in control of all their systems by now. No alarms, no automatic defenses, no whatever.”

“Okay.” She nodded then looked around the room. “What about the other girls in here?”

“No one is going to harm them any more, Samira, I promise.” I gave her an encouraging smile and held out my hand. “It's time to go now. Come on.”

So much she had suffered. Because of me. I had watched her almost kill the man, then realize she couldn't do it even with all the pent up rage, pain, and other things she felt.

And you know something? I was proud of her for that. Really proud of her.

“Mitsuko, we need to go.” I told the startled young woman at my next stop.

“So,” She looked at me, then at Samira, and nodded. “It is time to end this, no?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I'll take you and Samira to a safe place, then I'll need to get back to the things where poeple are running, screaming, shooting, all that. But it ends now, like I said it would.”

“I would be there.” Mitsuko told me, then touched her swollen belly. “But have reason not to do that. Husband?”

“He'd kill you in minute if he thought he was in danger.” I pointed out.

“Not what I meant.” Mitsuko shot back. “Will husband pay for what he did?”

“Oh yeah.” I nodded. “He will.”

With a nod, Mitsuko looked at Samira and grinned. “See, I tell you ghost girl keep word. We safe now.”

“Not if I don't get you two out of here.” I held out my hands. “Come on, it's time to go.”

The two of them looked around Deena's apartment with puzzled expressions on their faces.

“I know the accomodations aren't great.” I told them, but no one will be looking for you here, and there are people who will watch over you while I'm gone.”

“What is this place?” Samira asked.

“Where I live.” I answered then shifted to Deena form. “You two wait here for a minute, have a seat, whatever. I'll be right back.”

I went across the hall and knocked on the door.

Frankie Rosa answered the door and I smiled up into his scarred, gentle face. His real name was Pablo, but everybody just called him Frankie. “Hey, Frankie, I got a favor to ask.”

“It is yours, hermana.” He answered without a thought.

“You don't even know what it is yet, dummy.” I lightly punched him in the chest and grinned. “Come on over to my place for a minute, would you?”

“Sure, what is this about?”

“You'll see.” I answered while opening my door and gesturing for him to follow me.

Mitsuko and Samira saw the bulk of Frankie and automatically pulled back as much as they could out of reflex. Frankie was a big man, and none of him was useless fat. He looked at them, then again at Samira and his expression darkened. With his scarred face that was kind of frightening.

And, as usual, he noticed, softening his expression and shaking his head while speaking softly to Samira. “Don't worry, I won't hurt you — like someone has done to you already chica. Who did this thing to you?”

Samira looked down at herself, and the fading and fresh bruises that showed with her scant costume, and shook her head. “I beat the crap out of him a while ago, it's okay. I'm away from that now.”

“Good for you, chica.” Frankie grinned and nodded.

“Samira, Mitsuko, this my neighbor Frankie.” I told them. “He's a good guy and I'm going to ask him to watch out for the two of you while I'm gone.”

“Are they running from bad people?” Frankie asked but was just seeking confirmation. He was far from stupid.

“Not for much longer.” I told him. “I just need these two to be safe for a little while. Can you watch over them for me, please?”

“Ehh!” He shook a finger at me. “You have to ask, hermana? Of course I will, and so will everyone else in this building. We know what you do, chica. And you help the rest of us all the time if there is need. Of course I — we, will watch over your friends. They will come to no harm if I can help it.”

“Thank you, Frankie.” I kissed his cheek.

“You do much that is good, as La Fantasma and as Deena.” Frankie answered, surprising me that he knew and he saw that with a smile. “What? Everyone in this building knows you come and go without using that door, and Danny Estevez has a story he tells at times. You do bloody work, hermana, but it is needed. Go. Do what you must. Your friends will be safe here.”

I nodded, and just went.

There was no need to hide the fact at that point was there?

As planned, Jean took out the place's communications with a burst of sunfire that lit up the whole city for a few seconds.

Kyle shattered the security doors separating the main facility from it's disguishing shell.

Megan was inside before he could do anything else, coldly eliminating anyone that tried to resist. No one inside those doors deserved even a little mercy and she gave none.

And me? I was back inside, raging in full fury. Literally. I was a red eyed, ghostly, ghastly demon that hunted down and destroyed anyone, anything, in my path. If they were guilty, they died. At least I didn't take out innocents, or my allies, though at times, it was a close thing. The ravening rage I was letting go of was more than frightening. It was terrifying, even to me.

FBI strike teams swarmed the place and they weren't taking prisoners either.

“My God!” Agent Michael Harris, accompanied by several heavily armed and armored agents stared sickly at the carnage I'd just committed in the security barracks. “What in the name of Heaven are you?”

“Nothing from Heaven.” I answered, turning my burning gaze to him and his companions. “I am Fury, Vengeance, Rightful Retribution, bloody, swift and implacable. And I am taking my due here and now.”

They found somewhere else to be, not that part of me blamed them for that at all.

I plowed into a bunch of bad guys who were pinning Doris down. No finesse. Just a pistol, fists, elbows, knees, feet and teeth. It takes less time telling than doing it did.

“My god, Diana!” Doris was watching me in a mix of awe and fear.

I felt impacts on my back, as the rounds hit, a lot of them, but I didn't go down, just turned to confront the shooters with a snarl and a wave of my hand. Leaving bloody smears on the wall they had been standing next to. I looked at Doris and shrugged. “I am THE Fury, Doris. What did you expect?”

Jean watched me kill another batch before she could burn them. Even she was shocked. I didn't care, or slow down. There were more here that needed killing and I was in full Fury mode. Nothing was going to stop me.

Megan watched me kill another group, looked at me for a moment, nodded, and went in search for other prey. She understood. And was as covered in blood as I was.

Jean, Doris, Megan and I raged through that hellish place and made it into Hell. Harris' men were no more forgiving than we were, especially after they found the holding cells and the pathetically broken, terrified creatures in them. If anything, that enraged them even more than what they had already seen and knew about.

Kyle was beside me when I cornered the last of the bad guys. I was getting ready to kill them when a hand touched my shoulder and a gentle voice interrupted me. “Enough, Diana. It's over.”

“It will never be over!” I turned to snarl at him and he just gave me a quiet, mournful look.

“No, not completely, but we did what we planned, what we set out to do here. It's time to stop now.” He persisted. “It's time to let this go for the time being. We have other things to see to now. You know that.”

It took more effort than I'd ever had to use, letting that rage that had filled me go. I had to fight it, push it away, hold it at arm's length then beat it into submission to manage that.

I managed. Barely. Then gave the cowering survivors a contemptuous look before turning and leaving the room without a word to anyone.

Once outside, amid the destruction, the dead and wounded, I sank to my knees and started crying. Silently at first, but it felt like my soul, or what was left of it, had been shredded then pulled a piece at a time out of me.

I cried for the victims in this, the ones we had managed to rescue and especially those I hadn't been able to save. I cried for the dead, all of them, that we or others had killed in this mess. Then for my friends, who had worked at what we had just done and agonized over it even though they knew it was necessary. And for me, the ravening, insane thing that I had become earlier, the shaking, grieving creature I was now. But mostly, for loss of an innocence I hadn't even been aware that I still had.

Arms were around me, holding me. Green arms, a pair wreathed in flame though it didn't burn, a set of human looking ones, and some masculine ones. All holding, all giving what comfort they were able as I let out years of agony I'd never even known I'd been holding in.

My friends.

Friends.

I actually had those now. I'd never let anyone get really close enough in my human life to really know friendship. Odd, that I had to die and become the spirit of vengeance to find that in life.

“Are you all right now?” Kyle softly asked as I wound down to an occsional hiccuoughing sob.

“Yeah.” I nodded then managed a smile. “I think so.”

Doris nodded and was soon speaking to someone on a phone. Where she'd managed to keep that without it getting damaged in all the mayhem I didn't know. She nodded and closed the connection. “It's done. The place in California, another in New York state, places in Argentina, Germany and Japan have all been taken. The warehouse where the chips were stored, and a factory that was turning out new ones are radioactive slag. It's over.”

Harris and his people were there, escorting the freed victims to vans and I watched that for a few seconds before answering. “Mostly, yes. But there is still more to be done. But that will be in other hands than ours.”

The healing that would be needed for the victims was going to be a long, slow, difficult process. Some of them wouldn't make it, I knew with a pang of grief.

But the rest of them would. And that thought made what soul I had left sing in joy.

 

---

 

It had been almost two weeks since we'd taken down the 'Barbie Chip' operation and the mole thing the people who used those chips were doing.

The smoke had cleared, the abomnination we had set out to get rid of was well gone.

But not all the news was good.

“I'm afraid that half of the girls we rescued just couldn't deal with what they'd become.” Doris told all of us gathered in the warehouse she and Lena called home. “fifty percent of them just curled up, ignored everything, and starved themselves to death, or are in the process of doing that. Nothing anyone tries brings them out of it, either and we have some of the best minds in psychology working on this.”

“As abused, psychologically, and physically as they are,” I sighed. “I think that fifty percent on the survival rate is good. I saved others before we got the lot of them loose, and that rate is about what I managed even with what mind manipulation I'm capable of.”

“We can't get the chips out of them.” Doris nodded. “Or change what happened to them. Those damned chips are just too intrusive, they took over too much of the victim's nervous systems. Even trying to alter that would be fatal for them.”

“The nano proceedure that made them into females isn't reversable, either.” Kyle put in. “I've had survivors, and dead ones scanned aboard The Jordan, and there is just no way to reverse the physical changes. Adding an extra leg to a Y chromosome to make it an X is a lot easier than pulling one of the legs off an existing X crhomosome. Jade's people have confirmed that. The girls we saved are stuck as they are. Trying to change that would only result in a nasty, painful death for them.”

“The good news here is,” Doris smiled a little hesitiantly, “is that the remotes to control the chips worked on a very rare frequency that couldn't be duplicated without knowing what you wanted to do. So TV remotes or garage door openers won't affect the girls.”

“And,” Michael Harris added. “The ones who survive are being given new identies, even new faces if they want that. So no one will ever know that they were chip slaves.”

“Unless that someone has access to your data base.” Lena pointed out.

“Covered.” Harris grinned. “I'm hiring you to purge all that information from government systems once we get the girls placed.”

“Really?” Lena asked then grinned. “I get to play in government computers without the risk of being arrested?”

“Just to purge the information we've been talking about.” Harris chuckled. “And don't even think of back doors or saving stuff you shouldn't have. We have computer people that are just as good as you are, Ms. Luthor.”

She pouted for a few seconds, then laughed. “Okay. You know I love a challenge.”

“Me, too.” Harris chuckled wryly. “Otherwise I wouldn't have been involved in this mess in the first place.”

I watched them, my friends. Friends.

That one still kind of boggled me. I had friends who actually cared for me. Friends who didn't care that I was the god's vengeance incarnate. Oh, they were still giving me those very carefully hidden looks when they thought I wasn't watcing. You know the kind, where someone is wondering if thier friend is going to do something stupid, or hurt someone because of something stupid. And they all still let their awe show at times, too. Dammit.

But they were my friends.

And that simple thing was worth more to me than anything we'd accomplished together up to then.

“You are deserving of thier friendship, daughter.” Tisiphone's voice told me gently. “You have earned it, and shown them that you would do for them what they would do for you.”

“Okay, MOTHER.” I answered then asked. “So what are you getting out of it all?”

“Simple enough, daughter.” She answered. “Through you, I learn what is to be human. The gods who pay attention these days are envious of me in that, and you are the reason.”

“Are you sure you aren't a goddess who is just pulling my chain?”

“Not yet, dear one.” She answered with a chuckle. “But I am close now, thanks to you and your friends."

Then she left. Dammit. Can I ever get the last word in? At least once?

Guess that's just part of dealing with a goddess in training. Sigh.

“Daina?” Megan prodded me with a finger. “Are you still with us here?”

“Oh, yeah.” I shook myself. “Just having a talk with Mama there. Sorry if I spaced out on all of you. What did I miss?”

“Nothing at all.” Jean grinned. “We just wanted to poke you and see if you reacted. Without trying to kill everything in sight.”

“That little 'eeek' you let out was kinda cute.” Kyle grinned.

“Oh, you guys are sooo funny.” I grimaced then had to laugh.

“We try, Diana.” Jean smirked.

“Don't quit your day jobs.” I snorted.

Mitsuko and Samira had blossomed. They were still staying in Deena's apartment and didn't wish to go anywhere else. Oh, maybe to another apartment in the building, but it was clear they'd both found a home. In the slightly run down apartment building and in the less than savory neighborhood it was in.

Go figure.

The people where I lived as Deena had simply gathered the pair in, closed ranks, and made them part of the family.

“I've lived in places that were a lot better for surroundings.” Samira told me once I got back from the meeting. “But never one that was better for community. I've only been here a few weeks and I already love the people here.”

“I want my baby to grow up with these people.” Mitsuko put in while patting her belly. “They have values they hold to, and don't abandon their own no matter how difficult that may be.”

And yes, I'd at least been able to give Mitsuko back the ability to speak English properly. Now she was learning Spanish, and Portugese.

Wow. That woman is amazing.

Both of them would need jobs, and other things, but those were incidentals when compared to what they'd found in this often dangerous, dirty neighborhood. I think they both were actually learning how to live a life that they weren't ashamed of.

And that was a good thing.

But Mitsuko still had to confront her own demon.

“Are you sure you really want to do this?” I questioned the delicate, very pregnant Asian beauty as we stood outside a heavy door in the very secure confinement facility her former husband was being held in.

“We've been over this before, Diana.” She smiled at me and gave me an encouraging pat on the arm. “I have to do this. You know that as well as I do.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. I don't think I had as much raw courage or determination in me as that lady has in her little finger. And she is a lady. In the old sense of the word.

“Then stop fussing at me and let me do this.” She told me. “I won't be free, really free, until I do what must be done. You know that.”

“I'll wait out here.” I nodded. “And won't hover over you in there. You do what you need to do.”

“Thank you, Ghost girl.” She smiled and touched my cheek. “You have done so much for me, and others, but there are some things that one must do themselves.”

“Yes, there are.” I nodded and took her into a hug. “You've helped teach me that in case you didn't know.”

“Then my life hasn't been a waste, has it?” She returned the hug and smiled at me.

“Never has been, never will be.” I assured her then set a hand to the plate by the door to open it. “So go do this. I'll be in later to handle the rest.”

I didn't hover, though that was hard.

I did, however, watch things on one of the monitors that were close by. Just in case, you understand.

“Hello, Clark.” She greeted the prisoner once the door had closed behind her.

The man, her former 'husband' looked at her and nodded but said nothing in response.

“What?” She questioned softly. “You have nothing to say to the mother of your child? The woman who was your wife?”

“Why are you even here?” He asked bitterly. “You're free now. I'm not. Did you come to gloat?”

“Oh, no.” Mitsuko shrugged. “Oh I wanted to make you feel pain like I have, wanted to let you experience the futility of being a thing that is fit for nothing but contempt. But when the time came for that, I just couldn't do it. Not even to you.”

“So why are you here?”

“To see you one last time.” She answered slowly. “To show you that in spite of all you and others did, that I am still a person of worth, someone who can live a real life.

“Someone who will not do to others what was done to her.”

“So you're here to tell me that you're better than I am, is that it, Mitsuko?”

“That.” She nodded with a smile though her eyes were hard and unforgiving. “And to let you know that your child will never know a thing about you. You'll just be the donor of the sperm that caused her to be. I won't ever tell her who you were, or what you did. That is all the mercy I will show you.”

“I was good to you, Mitsuko.” He answered. “Probably better than I should have been. But I did come to love you.”

“Love?” She snorted. “What do you know of that beyond your own twisted idea of possession being love? I am not a thing to be owned, Clark. No one is. So your professions of love are just a little late, don't you think?

“I took care of you, I protected you, kept you from the worst of things, you know.”

“At what cost?” She questioned. “To you? I know what the cost was to me. You did nothing to help me. Nothing.”

He didn't respond and she moved to stand in front of him. Then gently took one of his hands and set it to her belly. “Say hello and goodbye to your daughter, Clark. She will never be what you meant for me to be, or face the future you planned for her.

“Good bye, Clark.” She moved away from him and touched the door plate to let those outside know that she was finished. “Though I doubt any god would countenance what you've done. There are others who have things to say to you, do to you. They'll be here in a few minutes. You really aren't much of a demon after all.”

I held her as she cried after that.

Again, she had humbled me.

And the others who had been watching.

I entered the cell, carrying two syringes and a small box.

“Clark Fortuna.” I greeted him while holding the syringes so he could see them. “You know what these are, don't you?

And this, I'm sure you're familiar with.” I added opening the box to show him the chip nestled in a bed of foam. “I can insert the chip without all that messy surgery you know.”

He paled, and actually looked terrified.

“This one, as you know,” I held up the syringe filled with a cloudy reddish fluid, “is the prep for having the chip inserted, the way that lets part of someone's nervous system be removed and replaced with something foriegn to the body.

This one.” I showed him the other syringe with it's sapphire blue contents. “Is the nanos that will cause the physical changes, to make you into the slave, the female slave, that the chip is going to program you to be.”

He just watched me, sweating, in terror.

“What, nothing to say about it just now?” I asked. “I'm sure some of your victims at least tried to fight things before you had them changed. Are they stronger than you are?”

“You can't do that, you won't do that.”

“Oh, I can and I will.” I answered then glared at him in my full fury form. “I am vengeance incarnate mortal. The only ones I answer to are the gods. I can do anything I please with you.

“But I'm giving you a choice.” I favored him with an evil smile. “Which is more than you allowed your victims.

“I'm not going to force you to take these things.” I told him. “I'll leave them here and see what you do. Inject yourself and spend the rest of your life as a helpless, abused slave, or not and die. How badly do you want to live? What would you do just to stay alive? Because you're looking at a death sentence. Without trial, without appeal. Either use these things on yourself or die.

“I'll let you think about that for awhile.” I grinned at him as I was leaving. “But don't think too long. The offer has a time limit.”

“You know,” Special Agent Michael Harris told me once I'd left the prisoner. “you're scarier when you're calm.”

“Part of my charm, Mike.” I shrugged.

“What do you think he'll do?”

“I don't really care.” I answered simply. “He's already going through the Hell I wanted him to feel. The rest is, as they say, the luck of the draw.”

Harris, Mitsuko, Megan, Jean, Kyle, Doris, all looked at me for a few moments, then almost in unison, nodded.