When Enid returned to Goldwater she felt renewed. She knew where she would face the architect of this attack on creation and reality. First, she would need to allow her daughter to work through something. She would not send her alone. Helen had learned how to shift her shape into different humanoids, a holo-web would work for Hazel. She walked inside Ray’s home letting her form collapse into her Sarah face.

By the time Ray woke up she was sitting on his porch, feet up on the railing sipping coffee. She hadn’t realized he was there until she felt his hand on her shoulder. When she glanced up he blinked at her.

“What happened to your eyes?”

Enid blinked.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“They’re gold.”

Enid smiled.

“I think it’s because I… am no longer able to fully contain the angel.”

“Oh no, is there anything we can do?”

Enid shook her head.

“No, there is nothing to be done.”

“You seem… different?”

“I know how to win the war. The cost will be high, but the cost of not winning is higher.”

He sat down beside her on the bench.

“You’re going to die, aren’t you?”

Enid nodded.

“But I will take Lucifer and… the true enemy down with me. But my children… my family will be safe.”

Ray shook his head.

“There has to be another way.”

“Ray, I can see every single possibility now. The result of every action. I know how me moving that pebble to the left will affect all of creation going forward. I know everything. It’s what… I was hiding from. Seeing your own death…it’s not something anyone wants to see, even angels. There is no other way.”

Ray nodded slowly. Enid smiled and sipped her coffee.

“You know, it’s a relief. For years I’ve felt like there was this shadow over me. I already figured I was dead once. Willingly sacrificed myself, but my mother saved me. This time it’s my turn to be a good mom.”

Ray glanced up at Enid.

“Do you have to leave soon?”

Enid nodded.

“I… have preparations to make and Hazel and Helen, they have… one last task before I put them somewhere safe.”

Ray went pale.

“Take my daughters there too, please.”

Enid shook her head.

“You don’t understand. We’re… not of this time. They belong in the future now, far in the future. A future that might not…survive. So, I’ll put them somewhere safe. Excluded from… its complicated but once their time arrives, they’ll be thawed out and can go on with their lives.”

Ray looked completely lost. Enid put her hand on his forearm.

“Your daughters will live out their lives. The final battle will take place sixty years from now in Germany. During a war…a war so terrible the whole world is involved. Your daughters will live to see it. Their grandsons will fight in it, and there is nothing you or I can do to change it.”

Ray got a far off look in his eyes.

“What is it like where you are from?”

“That’s a difficult question, Heaven? The far future?”

“The far future, no man should know what Heaven is like.”

Enid smiled.

“The earth is frozen. A glacier covers this entire country. Humans live in vast domed cities. We can travel the stars. I’ve personally seen the sun rise on a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. It is so far from here it takes light from the sun fifty thousand years to travel there. I have driven across the surface of a moon of Saturn. I have fought a battle among the stars of dead solar system. I have shared a drink with two separate alien species. You cannot imagine what it’s like. It would seem like magic to you.”

“So…we survive?”

“Oh yes and we thrive. If things continue like they are, the humans will be a Galactic power. Alas I can only see up to the end of my battle with Lucifer.”

“You are going to truly fight the devil?”

“Yes. It’s not the first time we’ve crossed blades. I trapped him in Hell… a long time ago.”

“How old are you… really?”

“Just slightly younger than God. In human years…. I would be billions of years old.”

“Yet you sit here drinking coffee… how?”

“Honestly because I have closed myself off to most of my memories. If I opened myself up completely, I wouldn’t be me any longer. I would be…something far beyond mortal. Near God. I don’t want to do that. Not yet.”

Ray nodded. Enid leaned back against the wall of Ray’s home and took a long drink of coffee.

“Hey Ray, do me a favor, don’t tell my girls about…what I said. They don’t need to know.”

“You have my word.”

Enid heard footsteps approaching and looked up. It was Helen and Hazel. Hazel was the first to notice Enid’s eyes and rushed forward.

“Mom, why do your eyes look like Isis’s?”

“Guess it’s because I hit that age finally. How was your shooting?”

Hazel grinned.

“So much fun.”

Helen frowned slightly when she looked at Enid.

“Mother, something is different.”

Enid nodded.

“I have a target for you and Hazel to take care of while I take care of some other problems.”

Hazel quirked her head to the side.

“Who?”

“I believe you’re familiar with him… from England?”

Hazel’s eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists.

“Where?”

“He’s with the Silwrath. He was the one who was… prodding them to use temporal weapons to wipe out all other sentient beings.”

“You show me where he is, and I will end him.”

Ray looked between the three and seem to decide he had heard enough and excused himself quietly.

“Hey, you need to do this quietly, as Silwrath. I can’t have you letting werewolves and vampires out of the bag. If things continue how they were we need them to be blindsided by you lot.”

Hazel nodded.

“Mom let me pick up step-dad.”

Enid shook her head.

“I’ll give you weapons that can kill him and anything he brought with him. I will do this on one condition.”

Hazel didn’t hesitate in her response.

“Anything mom.”

“After you kill him you join your grandparents, your brother and your sister in stasis.”

Hazel blinked.

“What? No…I can’t leave you alone.”

Enid shrugged.

“That is my price.”

Hazel motioned to Helen.

“What about her?”

“She’s coming with me to fight Lucifer.”

Hazel looked hurt and confused.

“Mom? Why her?”

“Because she’s already technically dead. No living creature will survive the battle. That is simply it. You will die if you go and I’m not going to allow it.”

Hazel went pale with those words.

“You can’t know that.”

“I do, I know it to be an indisputable fact. If you come with us, you will die. We’ll deal with it and pull you out of stasis in the 29th century and you can go on with your life. No more time traveling, no more fighting demons. You can live a normal life. Hazel if there was way you survived I would let you come with us, but you will die if you join us. But in the meantime, you and Helen will go deal with Tekanon. Remember, quiet, as Silwrath.”

Enid stood up and shifted into Seraph. She offered up her hands. Helen and Hazel took them. She moved them through time and space, landing in an antechamber of a massive Silwrath keep. She shifted into a Silwrath so Helen could see her. Hazel tapped the air in front of her and was covered with the illusion of a purple skinned dragon woman. Helen mimicked Enid who had turned into a ruby scaled Silwrath. Helen’s tail twitched. Her translator took over for her and she spoke in the language of the dragon people.

“This feels weird mom.”

Enid nodded.

“You’ll get used to it.”

Enid held out her hands and two Silwrath dueling blades appeared in her hands, she offered them one to Hazel and one to Helen. The sisters took them and swept them through the air briefly.

“Careful, they will utterly destroy anyone they kill. Wounds from them will never heal.”

Hazel grinned, her illusion displaying razor sharp draconic teeth.

“Perfect.”

“In and out. Quick and silent. I’ll pick you up when you finish the job.”

Enid’s form shifted into that of Seraph and she flicked out of existence with a woosh of air. Helen looked at Hazel.

“How are we going to find him? She obviously knew exactly where he was.”

Hazel shrugged.

“I know his scent. I bet she could only take us so far because of some timey…wimey… thing.”

“Timey wimey?”

Hazel sighed.

“You wouldn’t understand, so never mind.”

Helen shifted and scratched at her scales as they left the antechamber and entered one of the main halls of the massive Silwrath castle. Pillars of pink metal disappeared into a vaulted ceiling. No carpet graced the mirror like marble floor. Hazel whispered harshly towards her sister.

“Stop fidgeting.”

Helen whispered in return.

“I can’t help it I don’t feel right in this shape. The wings, the tail.”

Hazel turned and grabbed Helen’s arms it wasn’t visible through the hologram but her face was red. Had Helen been mortal at the time her arms would likely be broken under the grip of the angry werewolf.

“Do not screw this up for me. I need this. Deal with it!”

Helen nodded her tail and wings twitching. Hazel released her and the pair continued on their way through the palace. They passed several patrols whose only reaction to them was to avoid meeting Helen’s eyes at any cost, every single one kept their eyes firmly planted on the floor in front of them. Helen whispered to Hazel.

“What’s up with that?”

“You look like Aunt Ruby, her family are the only ones with scales like that. She is a fearsome telepath and they are apparently related to the imperial family. No one is going to ask us questions because they’re going to assume I’m your bodyguard and you’re supposed to be wherever you are. They’ll be too frightened of being noticed. So just keep walking like we belong here and try to look more like you own the place. Mom was smart to shift into her as an example.”

Helen flicked her wings without meaning to and they walked on.

“How do you know so much about these things?”

Hazel frowned.

“They are people like us. Just…dragons.”

“I thought dragons were a myth.”

“You thought vampires and werewolves were myths to.”

Helen’s tail twitched.

“Still, it’s like you’ve been here before. I’m so lost its so alien.”

“I haven’t but Mom was. She stole their flagship. After killing the entire crew.”

Helen blinked at her sister.

“How many people?”

“Several thousand.”

Helen stopped dead in her tracks.

“I know mom…I knew mom could be cold… callous but thousands?”

Hazel shrugged.

“Them or her Helen, let’s move on. I need to shift so I can use my nose. Won’t be able to talk much, sure glad this hologram is so big.”

Helen waited for the few seconds it took Hazel to shift and start tracking. Hazel motioned with her taloned hand, that looked strangely similar to her furry hand underneath. Her real claws were far more vicious. The pair walked on, Hazel leading the way. It took them the better part of an hour of Hazel stopping and sniffing the air to home in on their target. The castle could have been something out of the middle ages on Earth if not for the patrols armed with high tech energy weapons. They were seemingly free to roam the keep right up until they tried to enter a high-tech door guarded by two of imperial guards. Hazel recognized the uniforms from her lessons with her Aunt Ruby. They crossed their energy pole arms.

“Halt. This is a high security area, you are not authorized.”

Hazel was still in her war form so she would not be able to talk she glanced to Hazel who cleared her throat and flared out her wings.

“Do you know who I am?”

“You are a member of the ruby dynasty, but you cannot pass without permission of the Emperor himself.”

Helen was about to use the mind control her mother had taught her but Hazel seemed to have lost all patience and reached out her claws and lifted both guards up snapping their necks easily with her supernatural strength. Helen gasped.

“Why did you do that? I could have just made them think the emperor gave us permission.”

Hazel growled and tossed the bodies aside. She bent down and picked up one of the disruptor rifles.

“They…call… sec.”

They heard the sound of armored bootsteps echoing through out the castle. Hazel strapped the weapon over her shoulder and stuck her claws between the doors rending the metal. She struggled to shift them. She grunted.

“Help.”

Helen blinked a few times then forced blood to her muscles and helped pry them open. The pink metal complained but it was no match for a blood gorged vampire and a pissed off werewolf. As they burst through they were met by more of the imperial guard. Helen pushed more blood into her nerves into her muscles. She couldn’t match her mother’s speed but to a mortal she be untouchable, the dueling blade appeared in her hand. She leapt forward running on pure muscle memory. The poor Silwrath didn’t know what hit them. She was a blur of ruby scales and flashing white light. When she finished ten of them lay dead, an eleventh was twitching in Helen’s iron like grip as she drained him of all of his blood and dropped him. Hazel stared at her from the door. Helen was breathing heavily, not because she needed to but because she’d just take a large dose of supercharged adrenaline filled blood. A few silwrath technicians were scrambling away from the carnage. Hazel rushed to catch up to her sister. She had shifted down to her human self because she was speaking in clear words now.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know… I just didn’t want to get hit by those gun things.”

“Let’s find the bug. But first.”

Hazel aimed her disruptor at the computers and started shooting wild. Sparks flew. The pair pushed deeper into the secure facility. They both felt the familiar twisting that only demons could cause. The demonic shock troops weren’t even hiding their true faces. It wouldn’t matter if they had been. The sisters cut them down with ease and moved on. Resistance was light as they rushed forward. Hazel was hurrying to catch her target before he could escape. Their efforts were stymied by another solid door. They wrenched it open with a herculean effort. The delay it had caused was costly. Reinforcements were rushing in behind them.

Hazel saw Tekanon and she lost all sense of reason, her war form pushed her anger closer to the surface, the demon before her triggered her, it was impossible for her to exert any self-control over herself. She went berserk. The demons who tried to protect him turned into demonic blood splatters as the berserk werewolf rent them with her massive talons. Helen went the opposite way using blood to speed herself up. For every Silwrath she slew three showed up. She was on the edge of going the fastest she’d ever gone but her blood was going fast. She was young so she could not store much. Eventually she just ran out and collapsed on her knees. One of the Silwrath guards harpooned her and pulled her in. Helen was powerless to stop him. He put a helmet on her head.

Hazel was so out of control she did not notice her sister’s plight, or the army of Silwrath at her flank. All she could see was Tekanon’s cowardly face. The other demons and the Silwrath had no idea what they were dealing with but Tekanon was all to aware of who hid under the hologram. He was desperately trying to through another security door before Hazel could reach him. The angry werewolf swept her claw downwards but Tekanon managed to slip through the door and her claw just ripped through the metal floor. She roared and was about to give chase when everything stopped around her. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even howl in rage. She noticed a hand on her forearm. Then her mother’s voice. The sound cut through her rage and she regained control of herself.

“Stop.”

Hazel found she could speak again but was still moving in super slow motion.

“He’s so close!”

“Your sister is in trouble.”

“Go save her.”

“No.”

Hazel whined as she spoke.

“He’s not getting away this time! You said I could kill him!”

“I did.”

“Why are you stopping me?”

“Because if you go through that door, its going to close behind you, its already starting. Helen will be captured, taken off world, experimented on, tortured, eventually they’ll figure out her weakness… How long will she suffer in their hands?”

“You can save her, I can kill Tekanon.”

“No, I will not always be here to save you and your sister.”

“You will not let her suffer.”

“I already have. This is my final lesson for you, are you going to be a creature of rage and hatred, driven by vengeance, fueled by self-loathing because of what you let Helen suffer… or are you going to be a woman who loves deeply and sacrifices your own need for payback to help your sister and best friend? Are you going to be just like me, or are you going to be better than me? The choice is yours; I will love you either way.”

Enid released Hazel and time resumed its normal flow. Hazel watched Tekanon’s retreating form. She growled as she shifted into her war form and charged back towards Helen. Enid smiled from the shadows as her daughter made the choice to be a better woman then she was. She glanced towards Tekanon. He would die soon enough. Content Hazel had made the right choice she shifted to her angelic form and raised her staff. She started slicing through the Silwrath who tried to block Hazel’s path. The ones her daughter hadn’t already disemboweled with her claws that is…

Several minutes later and a lot more dead bodies Enid was reunited with her daughters. Hazel had her foot on Helen’s back and was yanking the harpoon out of her. Helen screamed as it ripped free of her flesh. Hazel tossed it aside. Enid disintegrated it with her staff before touching her daughters and whisking them to the chamber where her family and the fighters slept. Hazel shoved Enid and screamed at her. Her mother took it in stride.

“I hate you!”

Hazel ripped the holo-web off her neck and shimmered into her blood splattered human form. Enid reached her hand out but Hazel swatted it away.

“You could have saved Helen! You didn’t need me to do it.”

Enid collapsed into her red-haired mortal form and sighed heavily.

“You had to make the choice to rescue her, hon. It was the only way. You’ll understand one day. I can’t… I can’t make you understand but it had to be this way.”

Helen started drinking Synth-O after Synth-O deciding to stay out of the mother-daughter spat. Enid motioned towards the last empty stasis tube.

“Its time Hazel. Its time for you to sleep. When you wake up… when you wake up… we will see… okay?”

Hazel snarled.

“You didn’t let me kill him, deal’s off.”

“It wasn’t a request, nor was it a negotiation. Get in the tube or I will make you.”

Hazel shifted to her war form.

“I’d like to see you try.”

Enid sighed and waved her hand towards her daughter. Hazel was in her human form again.

“I am angel, you have no choice. Go.”

Hazel screamed again and started to rush her mother who snapped her fingers and Hazel was inside the sealed tube. Before she could struggle the stasis sleep overtook her and her eyes closed. Helen looked up at Enid.

“That wasn’t fair mother. She has a right to choose.”

“Not when the choice is she is guaranteed to live, or she is guaranteed to die. Fill up on blood, we face our last battle.”

Helen drank another Synth-O then looked back up at her adoptive mother.

“You lied to her, you aren’t coming back from this fight.”

“You are very gifted. You are also correct. But you will survive. Take good care of your brother and sisters, Hazel included.”

Helen left the empty bottles where they lay and stood. Enid offered her hand and without shifting into the angel pulled them back into the timestream.