Common Domain

January 1, 1987
Stanford University
Stanford, Ca

The android Diana Carter who has been attending classes at Stanford for the past two years has had a chance at freedom now that her mental tie to the real Diana has been severed. It was Diana who named the android Robin when they were training partners. Robin has shared Diana’s life through a mystic link between them created by Shanna. When Robin attends school, Diana sleeps absorbing everything into her subconscious and lending the android her personality to guide her. When Shanna sent Diana on a mission to the world of Zeeza that link was severed leaving Robin alone for the first time without her guide.

Returning to school after Diana’s departure, Robin had only two classes on New Year’s Eve and then met up with John Porter in the cafeteria at lunch time. John had been asking Diana out for a while but the influence of the real Diana prevented Robin from accepting those dates. Now able to make her own decisions for the first time Robin accepted his offer to go to the park yesterday to meet up with some of his friends. Throwing a Frisbee, becoming a normal college student for the first time. It was the most fun Robin had ever had in her short existence. Even with her increased interaction with the other, no one suspected what she was really. Diana’s control on Robin kept her withdrawn from everyone except her roommate Sara.

Robin really didn’t care why she just was enjoying this chance at freedom. She spent the whole rest of the day with John and his friends the Simon twins; Greg and Vinny and Greg’s girlfriend Anna. She learned a lot about the twins, they particularly interested her. Even though they were fraternal twins they were nearly identical. It took Robin analyzing the smallest angles of their faces to distinguish the differences. John’s friends even seemed to like her enough to invite her to a New Year’s Eve party at a local frat house. Robin knew that Diana wouldn’t be happy with her if she took her new found freedom that far so she declined.

Imagine her surprise when John Porter showed up at her dorm room at one-thirty in the morning drunk off his ass. He was rather handsy with her but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Her android body weighs over five-hundred pounds but it uses some sort of technology to repel gravity making it seem lighter, as not to collapse weak structures under her weight. Robin can control that effect so as to give her the weight advantage on the drunk college boy. She managed to get John into her bed where he passes out to sleep off the booze.

Robin sits against the wall on her roommate’s bed staring at John like she had for most of the night. Robin’s android body has no need for sleep but usually she goes into reduced activity state that simulates sleep to maintain appearances. For once she was glad her roommate Sara had stayed out all night. Explaining John Porter in Diana’s bed to Sara, might be harder than to the real Diana. She is rather impressed that John has not vomited as she has been told is an after effect of heavy drinking. From where she sits she can monitor all of his bodily functions with her enhanced senses. It is a relief that his hangover does not appear to be taking that course. Like most athletes he has a high metabolism that has been burning through the alcohol as he slept. She suspects that he will wake up with a very bad headache.

In the silence of the early morning, she listens to him breathe, to his heart beat, to the blood flow through his veins. Then there is a change in his blood flow. At first she is concerned. A greater amount of blood now flows to his groin. He rolls onto his back to reveal what Robin would assume to be called morning wood in his cargo shorts. Without Diana’s influence over her, Robin has discovered that her android perceptions are much more acute. She has become much more analytical in nature.

It is another half an hour before the young man in her bed shows anymore activity. Other than the movement in the front of his pants every few minutes. He sits up to turn sliding his feet to the floor. His eyes are still tightly closed as he lingers on the edge of the small single bed. He shows no sign of even being awake that Robin can tell as he pulls off his sweaty t-shirt over his head. Robin is silent as she looks over his smooth toned athletic torso. What is this she is feeling is it a malfunction of some unknown system? Then he stands up pushing his cargo shorts and underwear to his ankles in one motion. John Porter stands in her dorm room completely naked. Her voice is still absent as she records the sight to her memory. John then steps out of his pants to walk to the bathroom, his eyes still closed. All of these dorm room are pretty much identical she justifies, that is how he does it with his eyes closed.

Robin watches him in the full length mirror on the wall across from the open bathroom door. It is clear that he has no idea where he is because he makes no attempt to lift the toilet seat. When he is finished he shaking to drip piss on the seat he returns to the bed. He lays down on top of the blankets his hands behind his head fully exposed.

The show is over as Robin clears her throat loudly, “Ahem.”

Rolling his head to the side John says, “Morning Diana, what are you doing in my room?”

“It’s not your room,” she replies.

Suddenly feeling the draft, John grabs for the blanket to cover himself. “Shit!” he exclaims. “How did I get here?” “Oh God, I’m so sorry!” he says reaching to the floor to retrieve his shorts. She watches him as he struggles to get dressed under the blanket. “I feel like a total asshole!” “That son-of-a-bitch Vinny gave me one of his special cocktails!” “I can’t remember anything after that!” “He knows I sleepwalk when I drink that Shithead!”

“You weren’t asleep when you got here,” Robin tells him. “Very drunk but not asleep yet.”

“Shit that makes it worse!” John grumbles pulling on his shirt over the blanket. “I didn’t…., attack you or anything did I?’

Robin feels odd again as she replies, “No, no, it was okay, you weren’t that big of a problem.” “I don’t have any class today anyway.”

John throws back the blanket to sit on the edge of the bed again, dressed this time. He starts to put on his sneakers to asks, “I didn’t say anything stupid did I?”

“No, no you were too drunk to do much of anything other than pass out,” Robin replies.

“I’m so sorry, Diana,” John says again standing up. “I’m sure you never want to see me again.” “Have a nice life,” he tells her as heading for the door.

“No, wait,” she says grabbing for his arm. “Why don’t you buy me lunch after you get cleaned up,” she said pulling at his sweaty beer stained shirt. “As an apology.”

“Really?” he says. “You aren’t discussed by me?”

“No, we all have bad nights,” Robin tells him having no idea why she has just asked this guy out to lunch.

“Thanks, for this second chance,” John smiles. “Can you meet me at Sardou around one?”

“It’s a date!” she tells him as he leaves her dorm room.

Outside in the corridor he leans back against her door grabbing at his crotch. Big Johnnie Pork-her, bags another one, he thinks smiling to himself. He knows that it is only a matter of hours before he gets in the naive girl’s panties.

JANUARY 2, 1987
Antarctica, the South Pole, an adjacent dimension known as Common Domain

The Mistix power used by Core to expel Diana Carter from Zeeza does not sent her home. She finds herself spinning helplessly through the dimensional fabric. Energy surges and crackles all around her as she rips a hole in reality to land in a place nothing like she could imagine.

Common Domain, it exists as an adjacent dimension at the geographic South Pole. This mostly unknown place is populated by the souls of people who have died by unearthly means. There are many souls here unique because unlike all other souls who have met death they continue on with full memory of their former lives. Although these souls have left their bodies behind on Earth to be mourned, while here in Common Domain they have identical solid protoplasmic bodies that are free of aging and all illness. There is no change of seasons or night and day. Only on very rare occasions have the living gained access to this world of the dead.

Today the first living soul in thousands of years has arrived. Diana Carter awakes in her bedroom, the one she had when she was fourteen living in Hampstead, Long Island, New York. She lays in bed staring at the ceiling for a time. It is as if she has awoken from a dream, a very long dream.

She studies the cracks in the plaster over her bed like she has done on many a morning. Her eyes move to the tops of the pale yellow walls that surround her. Then pulling her hands from under the blanket she sees the bright red nail polish that she always loved. Rolling onto her side she remembers every photo and poster tacked to her wall over her dresser. Her poster of Shaun Cassidy, that her father ripped down in one of his drunken rants when she was sixteen, still hangs on the wall. What if it was all a dream, those years after mom died, when her father treated her so badly. “Mom!” “Mom!” she shouts out at the top of her lungs.

“Diana, what is it?” a voice from behind her speaks as the door opens. Diana rolls over to see her mother standing at the door. The first thought in her head is that it isn’t real. It is like that time she dreamt that she had a twin sister and two brothers. “Are you going to stay in bed all day Cupcake?” Sylvia Carter asks.

No, this is like what Taurus did to trick her in Zeeza. Diana sits up on the edge of the bed looking down at her painted toes, then up at the woman at the doorway. She studies the woman for a moment. The way she moves, the smile on her face, the style of her hair. It all seems so real, too real, much realer than any of those other times. “I can’t do this again,” Diana sobs. “It is too hard.”

“What sweetheart, what is too hard?” her mother asks walking over sitting down next to her on the bed. “Is everything alright at school?” “Did something happen at soccer practice again?”

Diana feels her eyes start to tear at the smell of her mother’s perfume. “I just miss you so much, I can’t stand being tricked like this again.”

“Cupcake, no one is tricking you,” Sylvia Carter tells her daughter as she put her arm around her shoulders.

Diana leans closer. “You feel so real,” she whispers.

“I am real sweetie,” Mom tells her. “I really thought this would make it easier for you.”

“What?” “What would make it easier?” Diana asks looking up to her mother’s face as tears streaming down her own face.

Sylvia Carter stands up from the bed taking her daughter’s hand. “You loved this room so much, at this time in your life.” “Let me show the rest of the house, it is exactly how we remember it.” Diana doesn’t say a word as her mother leads her across the room. For the first time she notices how much shorter she is then he mother. Glancing at the mirror over the dresser her reflection reveals that she is fourteen again in every way, right down to her short hair and pajamas. Diana loved her red and yellow pajamas. Out in the hall, the family photos are just where they were nearly ten years ago. Diana did love this house and it broke her heart when her father moved them to the city.

Diana is so confused by it all and she so wants to believe it is all true. “Where is Daddy?” she asks as they start down the stairs. “If my who life after I left this house is nothing but a dream, I want Daddy to tell me!” she demands. Sylvia Carter doesn’t respond as she leads her daughter into the kitchen sitting her down at the table. “Where is Daddy? she shouts this time her mother slides a plate of pancakes in front of her. She pushes the plate away and sits back in the chair with her arms folded over her chest.

“I am so proud of you,” Sylvia says to her daughter. “You have been through so much and grown into such a smart and powerful woman.” “I only wish I had told you the truth instead of letting my fear guide me.”

“Woman!” Diana shouts. “Look at me, I’m fourteen!”

“That is your doing Cupcake,” her mother replies sitting down at the table across from her. “The gift, the necklace the Mistix gave you.” “The moment you awoke in your room it activated making you look as you do.”

“You know about the Mistix?” Diana asks more confused than ever.

“It was Core who sent you here, sent you to me,” Sylvia tells the confused girl. “Just turn off its magic like they showed you.”

When Diana looked in the mirror she wasn’t wearing the Mistix necklace but when she reaches for her neck she can feel it there. Touching the invisible ruby it is deactivated and she is herself again. The red nail polish and pajamas are gone, her dark hair again lays on her shoulders. The leotard she wore in Zeeza has returned as well. “I guess I know who I am now,” Diana says. “Question is who are you, really.”

Sylvia Carter smiles broadly, “I am your mother and I never thought I would get to speak to you again!”

“That is not possible, my mother died years ago!” Diana argues.

“That is true I did…die,” Sylvia responds. “I died and left you alone when you need me most.” “I am so sorry for that!” she says reaching across the table for Diana’s hand, that the young woman pulls away. “I understand how you must feel.”

“How can you possibly understand anything?” Diana charges. “This is just another crazyass dream!”

“I assure you this is no dream,” Sylvia says. “This place is called Common Domain.” “It is a spirit realm of sorts.” “When a person dies of non-earthly means and has unfinished business on Earth their spirit, their soul comes here.” “When I died of cancer it was from an unearthly cause.”

Diana so badly wants to believe what this woman who is so like her mother is telling her but it all seems impossible. “So you are saying I am dead too, that I died of unearthly means?”

“Oh thank God no, you still have so much good to give to the world!” her mother’s response. “There are only a few being with the power to send a living, breathing person here, Mistix can do that.” “Core sent you here so you could finally make peace with my death.”

“If that is true, than how is letting me see my dead mother going to help me make peace with the fact that she is dead?” Diana replies feeling the tears on her cheek again.

“I don’t know sweetheart, that is completely up to you,” Sylvia tells Diana. “Perhaps if I tell you about when I first came to be here.” “I missed you terribly, but I didn’t miss the pain.” “I had been in pain for so long, I enjoyed being free of it for a while.” “I learned about this place, met the others that are here and I learned why I was here.” Sylvia pauses for a minute gathering her thoughts. “I’m sure this is something no mother has ever told their child but we have always been close, so it is important that you know how you were conceived.” “It was the sixties, free love and all of that stuff was in the air.” “I was never much into that scene, I really didn’t feel a desire for sex, maybe it was my religious upbringing.” “I really don’t know.” “Sure I had a boyfriend, William but he was very straight laced and never pressed the issue of sex.” “He joined the army after High School and was sent to Vietnam for a time.” “That was when I went off to start college.”

“This is information for the most part I already know,” Diana tells the woman she still can’t believe is her mother’s ghost. “I could still be dreaming this.”

“I’m getting to the part I haven’t told you” “Be patient, you know how I always told you that,” Sylvia scolds. “It was summer break and I was on a kind of retreat with some friends at a cabin upstate.” “It was a beautiful June night, the stars were out and I saw a shooting star.” “I was the only one who saw it so I decided to go look for where it landed.” Sylvia takes a deep breathe and her voice is a little shaky as she begins. “When I first saw him he looked like an angel to me.” “He was laying on the ground in the woods.” “His body glowed like a star, he was beautiful!” “I wasn’t frightened as I approached him, it was more like excitement.” “He was nude and perfect.” “He was awake, but he appeared confused almost incoherent.” “He smiled and summoned me closer.” “I don’t know what I was thinking, but when I stood over him looking down at his beautiful glowing body I felt was desire for the first time in my life.” “I was a virgin, but I was in college I knew about anatomy.” “When it was over I suddenly regained my senses.” “I fled back to the cabin.” It is Sylvia Carter that now has tears running down her face. “I never told this story to anyone.” “I was too embarrassed, too ashamed.”

Wiping her cheeks with her hand Sylvia continues, “It was not long after that when William returned home from the war.” “When I realized I was pregnant, I figured I had no other choice but to fool him into believing the child was his.” “I told him I was so overcome with emotion at his return that I had to go all the way.” “Soon after that we were married and he never knew the truth.” “What was a marriage of convenience for me quickly turned to a loveless one, that was until you were born.” “The moment I saw you I was in love!” “I don’t know if it was what happened with your sister, but I never wanted to let you go.” “You were my greatest treasure in live!”

“Wait a minute, sister?” Diana catches, “You said sister!”

Sylvia falls silent with a sad look on her face. “I could never bare to speak of her when I was alive,” she finally says. “But you had a stillborn sister.” “I think somewhere deep down I felt like I would lose you too if I ever even thought about her.”

“So I really did have a twin sister, like I had in that dream?” Diana asks in shock.

“We would have named her Robin,” Sylvia says, “After my grandmother.”

“This is all getting too weird!” Diana says getting up from the table and going to the refrigerator as if she is really back home. She takes out a bottle of red wine, pulling out the cork with her teeth, she drinks it straight down.

“I know as well as you do that wine will not affect you,” Sylvia says from her seat at the table. “It is because of who your real father was.”

“You mean the angel you screwed in the woods?” Diana says bluntly.

“Diana!” her mother scolds, “That was uncalled for!” “I know you must be angry with me, but that is no reason for you to disrespect me!” “I am still you mother!”

“Are you?” Diana questions. “I still find all of this very hard to believe!”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Sylvia says. “I so wanted you to accept this as the truth.” “Deep down I knew with all you have been through, it would be hard for you.” She pauses for a moment as if deep in thought. “I am going to show you how I truly am, that will convince you what I say is true.”

Diana is still very skeptical as the woman claiming to be her mother as she stands up from the table. Then the house shutters, Diana can feel everything around her move as if in an Earthquake like the one she was in when she went to Los Angeles in high school. She even the empty wine bottle in her hand vibrates slightly as she puts it down on the counter. When she looks back to her hostess, the form of her mother is gone, replaced by a shimmering ball of pure white light. Diana can’t help but stare into that light. It is an incredible feeling of warmth and love that she feels. All of the anger she has held inside for so long slips away. It is her mother’s love that she feels like no other, a love she can no longer deny as it embraces her from across the room. When the trembling of the house stops the ball of light changes back into her mother.

Instantly Diana rushes to take her mother in his arms. “Oh my God, Mom, I missed you so much,” she sobs on the woman’s shoulder. “I am so sorry I didn’t believe it was you!” “It has just been so hard since you left, I have had so much pain.”

“I know cupcake, I know,” her Mom says running her hand over Diana’s dark hair. “I have watched over you all this time, watched you grow into the Miracle Maiden you are today.”

Still crying Diana mumbles, “Mom really, Miracle Maiden?” “That is almost as bad as Cupcake!” “Why did you call me that anyway?” Diana asks trying to compose herself as she sits back down at the table.

“When you were two, we had a birthday party for you,” Sylvia begins sitting down next to her daughter taking her hands. “It was just the three of us and I bought three cupcakes.” “You ate all of them and I said you were going to turn into a cupcake.” “And I meant it.”

Friday, January 2, 1987
Stanford University
Stanford, Ca

John Porter sits in the cafeteria with his friends the Simon brothers. “I can’t believe the old sleepwalking trick worked again,” Vinny says grinning.

“Like a charm,” John grins. “Once they see Big Johnnie Pork-her they can’t resist!”

“So did you boned her yet, big man?” Greg asks.

“I think I am going to be patient with this one, sweeter the cherry,” John laughs. “I intend to close that deal tonight after dinner.”

Across campus the Diana Carter impersonator sits nervously at a table in the library. She tries to study but can’t stop thinking about how she is going to explain what she has been doing with John Porter to Diana. It has been three days now with no word of what has become of her friend. If she could worry she would be doing it right now. True emotions are still hard for her to experience or understand. That is what makes it all the more confusing what she has been doing with John. Robin knows she should stop, she should not go out with John again. But he will be meeting her here in an hour. He wants to cook her dinner at his apartment off campus. She is so excited at the prospect but knows all too well that is wrong.

Time passes quickly as Robin’s android mind tries to make logic of the past few days but can not. Before she knows it John sits down at the table across from her. “Hello beautiful, had enough studying yet?” he asks.

“I was thinking I might pass on dinner,” she tells him. “I am getting so much done with the library empty, I really hate to let this opportunity get away.”

“There are more than one kind of opportunities,” John smiles charmingly. “I promise right after dinner I’ll bring you right back here.”

As she gets into John’s Trans Am she begins a full systems diagnostic. There must be a concrete reason for why she is acting like this! Robin is sure that Diana would hate everything about John, his cocky attitude, his life style and this car she rides in. But at every turn Robin seems to only dig Diana in deeper. Maybe that is the answer, tell John that she isn’t Diana, that she is Robin. No that would not work. Telling the truth would make it even worse for Diana. She needs to end this thing she has begun with John, before it goes any further!

When the couple gets up to John’s apartment she is surprised at how clean it is, “Wow, this is not at all what I expected your apartment to look like.”

“My Dad pays for it, he has a maid come in once a week,” John explains. “Glass of wine?”

Robin’s logic programs say no, wine has no intoxicating effect on her it is of no value. “Yes, please,” she answers. Although she has an android body that truly does not need to eat or drink she must keep up appearances. Her body does draw some energy from the food, but not in the same way a human body does. John leans across the counter to hand Robin a glass. A chain with a jade stone mounted in a Acorn shaped gold pendent falls from inside John’s open necked shirt. “What is that?” she asks.

“Oh, that is my good luck charm,” John replies tucking it back under his shirt. “It makes sure I get whatever I want.”

“That is silly,” she replies taking a sip of the wine. Having no true taste buds she can only experience the wine on an analytical level. “The wine is of a good grade.”

“Good grade, at two-hundred a bottle I would hope so,” John brags, again making Robin think that is something Diana would hate about him. “Dinner should be ready soon, I had my Mom put a pot roast in a crock-pot for me this morning.”

“Your Mom?” Robin questions, he could have just lied and said he had prepared dinner. “Does she come by often?”

“Only if I ask her too,” John replied sitting down on the sofa. “She owns her own restaurant in LA, works day and night.” “My Dad’s a lawyer.” “What do your parents do?”

Robin stands looking out the balcony door windows. “Diagnostic complete, all systems functioning at original settings,” she says out loud uncontrollably.

“What was that you just said, I didn’t hear you?” John asks from the sofa.

Disconcerted by the result of the diagnostic Robin changes the subject. “I rather not talk about my parents.” “I’d much rather talk about why I am here?” The question is as much surprise to her as to him.

“What do you mean?” he replies questioning her sudden change of attitude.

“I’ve heard the talk around campus,” she says. “You are the love em and leave em type.” “Is it your intention to just make me another notch in your head board?”

John sits on the sofa in shock. He is speechless for the first time ever on a date. “It’s not like that with you,” he finally says. “Sure at first I joked with the guys about how I was going to get you.” “But if I was going to do that I would have done it by now.” “I like you, I enjoy spending time with you.” “It is a pleasure to be your friend.”

The word, pleasure it triggers something deep inside the android’s programming. “You want pleasure with me?” she says oddly.

John looks at her oddly after her strange comment. “Yes, I get pleasure from your company.” Without another word the android Diana Carter places her wine glass of the end table and begins to undress. “Diana what are you doing?” John says in surprise.

“I am preparing to give you pleasure,” the android says. On the inside Robin feels trapped, unable to control the actions of her android body. She wants to shout out stop! But the words do not come as she takes off all of her clothes to stand naked before the young man on the sofa. Her body is flawlessly human in appearance. She caresses her ample breasts before sliding her hands down her thin waist to her rounded hips.

“You are incredible,” is all John can says as she steps closer. He has no idea about the internal struggle that happens inside the android as Robin tries to control her body. The android leans down kissing him on the lips. Then she sits down on his lap straddling his legs. Her fingers run through his blonde hair as she kisses him some more. His heart flutters with anxiety, no girl he has brought to his apartment has ever been this aggressive. “Stop Diana, why are you doing this?”

“Call me Madison,” the android says as she begins to unbutton his shirt. Inside Robin hears her voice speak the name and she realizes that the body is no longer under her control. Something has been changed by that Diagnostic she ran, it said original settings.

John’s first thought of the name change is that the girl has a multiple personality disorder. Then she begins licking his smooth chest, her mouth finds its way to his nipple taking it between her teeth as she unbuttons his pants. He should stop this he thinks, this chick could be crazy! But when she stands up to pull off his pants all thoughts of stopping her vanish.
The entity calling itself Madison does things to John Porter that no other college girl ever has as Robin struggle helpless to stop her. When she is finished with John, Madison dismounts him, stepping forward away from him, instantly she is gone. It is Robin who turns around to she the barely conscious man on the sofa. “That was freaking amazing, you are freaking amazing!” he moans.

Robin quickly gathers up her clothes from the floor. “I have to leave!” she says trying to get dressed as quickly as possible. What the hell was that? is the only question in her mind.

“What about dinner?” John calls after her as she runs out the door half dressed.

Common Domain
the home of Sylvia Carter

The reunited mother and daughter sit at the kitchen table laughing at the dumb story together for the first time in over a decade. They laugh and cry over all of the things that have happened since last they were together. It is like no time has passed, like Sylvia has been there through every important moment in Diana’s life.

“I mean I felt bad about breaking his arm, but I really didn’t feel guilty about it,” Diana admits. “He deserved at least that for what he did to Tracey.”

“You always were a loyal one,” Sylvia comments. Looking around the blue painted kitchen from her childhood Diana remembers something else. “I remember when we painted this kitchen what was I about ten?” she asks.

“Ten and a half as you used to always say,” Sylvia replies with a smile.

“I picked out the color too,” Diana adds pausing for a moment to remember, “It was Robin Shell Blue, right?”

“The universe is so strange, you picking a color with that name,” Silvia confesses looking around the room. “It was one of the few reminders of her that didn’t make me cry.” “I guess because it was you that chose the color.”

“Stranger than you know,” Diana replies. “I never knew I even considered having a twin sister until I had a dream about it.” “In the dream her name was Robin too.”

Now it is Sylvia who looks to change the subject, “What about that other boy you haven’t mentioned?”

“Who?” Diana asks. “Do you mean Eric?” “That was just not meant to be.”

“Oh I know that, I mean the one from camp,” her mother inquires.

“You must be joking, Steve?” Diana smiles. “That was so long ago.” “I was just a kid!”

“But I never saw you cry so hard over something in your life, as you did on that bus ride home,” Sylvia confesses. “Before or since.”

Then Diana leans over to hug her Mom again. “You said you watched over me, how?” she asks.

“At the Dome,” Sylvia replies.

Diana looks at her mother in confusion. “The Dome?” Diana queries, “What is the Dome?”

“The Dome is a place that allows us to view the lives of the family we left behind.” Sylvia explains. “Most everything in this world, like this house is built of a protoplasmic type material that is easily manipulated and changed by those who are here in this world. “Everything except the Dome, it existed long before any of us came here.”

“I would like to see it,” Diana requests.

Sylvia hesitates a moment before replying. “You have to understand Common Domain is not like Earth, there are different rules here.” “I created this house to comfort you, what is outside is very different.”

“Mom, I’m sure I can handle it,” Diana replies.

Getting up from the table, Diana’s mother leads her to the front door of the house. “Are you sure?” Sylvia asks as she reaches for the knob.

“Yes Mom, let’s just go!” she tells her over protective mother. Sylvia opens the door and it is like the realm outside rushes in, flooding over her. Diana is staggered for a minute like trying to catch her breathe after being hit with an ocean wave. She is dizzy and more clear headed than she has ever been in her life, all at once. Then the world around her calms as her brain fights to bring it into perspective. She realizes that her mother is holding her hand now and that she has become a kind of anchor for her in this world. Holding her mother’s hand feels good, like one of the many things she has missed for so long.

As they walk down the path to the Dome pavilion Diana takes in everything she sees but somehow her brain really can’t comprehend any of it. The human mind is too limited for the cosmic truth that is Common Domain. All Diana can be sure of is that if she steps off this path she will fall to infinity.

“There it is up ahead,” Sylvia says pointing. The Dome pavilion is an incredible sight to behold. It appears as a huge white constantly shifting fluffy cloud. When they get to it they simply walk into the side of the mass at the end of the cobblestone path. They pass through the cloudy wall effortlessly. Inside the area is a large open space. At its center a massive half sphere rests on the floor.

Sylvia Carter leads her daughter to the Dome, where they stand watching the swirl of colored mist on the surface at the half sphere. With a thought from the mother the mist calms revealing a scene from the past. The vision is of Camp Tandy, the fourth of July 1981. Steve Roberts carries Diana on his back as he jogs in a circle around Tracey Altman who snaps photos of their horse play. “There he is,” Sylvia says. “Look at what fun the two of you were having together.” “I always loved this summer, all the laughing and giggling you did.” “You were so happy.”

Diana smiles at the vision from the past, she had almost forgotten about that day. She watches knowing what else they did that day. The hike up the mountain to the waterfall was just as she remembered it. The picnic lunch they ate sitting at the side of the water and teasing as they did to each other after. Were all good memories too. What came next as they climbed the waterfall she didn’t need to see again. “That is enough, Mom,” she says turning away.

“No it’s not, this is my favorite part,” Sylvia says. “The part you never saw.”

“Part I never saw?” Diana says turning back to the Dome. She watches as her hand slips from Steve’s hand and she falls back to the water. Then the scene freezes.

“Look at his face,” Sylvia instructs as the Dome zooms in on Steve Roberts face. “That is not the look of just concern for a friend, but a look of terror.” “He loved you too.”

“It was a scary moment for him, he had no idea I couldn’t be hurt by the fall,” Diana excuses.

“Wait until you see what happened next!” Sylvia smiles as the Dome begins to move again. Steve Roberts leaps from his perch on the top of the waterfall to the rocks at the bottom.

“Wait that is impossible, I was there, that falls was nearly thirty-five feet high!” Diana exclaims. “No one could have made that leap without getting hurt!” “No, this is wrong, it’s a trick.”

“Or he is special like you,” Sylvia smiles. Diana doesn’t respond as the view of the day continues. The days pass quickly until it comes to the kiss. “Watch his body language, he was so into you.” “Right up until the kiss.” “Now look, he is in pain.” “In away his heart was broken too.” Diana watches as the view closes in on Steve’s face again and she can see the tears the moment before he runs away. Diana’s eyes turn to the floor if there was a floor. She regrets that she was so stupid she didn’t see what was right in front of her eyes. Then she thinks, it can’t be true. He was so normal, right. I wonder what he is doing now?

Suddenly the view changes again, it shows a muscular man’s back, his brown hair is wet with the spray of water. “What is this, what is happening?”

“I think when you saw how I really look, we have bonded somehow,” Sylvia tells her daughter. “You have gained some control of the Dome.”

“Who is he!” Diana asks, “What is he doing?” The man turns as the view pans back. “Oh my God!” Diana exclaims turning her head away from the Dome. “He’s naked, showering!”

“It’s him, Diana, it’s Steve Roberts,” Sylvia announces.

“How is that possible?” Diana asks. “You said the Dome only allowed you to view family.”

“Or loved ones,” Sylvia tells her. “I said you had a love for him, I was right.”

“But why the peep show?” Diana asks looking back to the Dome to watch Steve put on sweatpants.

“As strange as this sounds this isn’t current time either, it is the last thing he did before he disappeared from Earth,” Sylvia explains.

“Disappeared?” Diana asks as they watch Steve answer the phone before disappearing. “Where did he go?”

“The Dome only views people on Earth,” Sylvia explains. “When you were in Zeeza I could no longer see you in the Dome.”

“This is all so confusing,” Diana says. “Who has Steve become?”

“Why don’t we see?” Sylvia says using her connection to her daughter to back up Steve Roberts’ history to the summer after Diana met him. Diana recognizes the old lumber mill that she and Steve found in the hills above the camp the year she was there. They watch the scene as Steve arrives there from the edge of the woods. But he is not alone, there is another boy at the mill, a smaller one. The young boy starts a front end loader and sets it up to drive across the lot toward a fuel tank. They watch as Steve makes a dash for the runaway. He reaches the front end loader at about fifty feet away from the fuel tank. Jumping up onto the running board Steve climbed into the cab, managing to stop it before it hits the fuel tank.

Then Steve climbed out of the cab and up onto the roof to shout. The Dome is an incredible thing to watch but sound is not part of the experience. Diana and her mother can only guess at what Steve is saying. Not far away from Steve the younger boy hides on the back of a tractor trailer truck fully loaded with logs. After Steve was done shouting the boy stood up on the pile of logs lifting one high over his head. “Holy shit!” Diana exclaimed at the sight of the small boy lifting the log. “He’s got super strength too!”

“I told you that you were not alone,” Sylvia says. “There are more people like you than you know.” Then the boy threw the log long way at Steve like a giant javelin.

When Steve caught the log there was no more denying it for Diana, “Steve has powers too,” she says. “Even back then, but he kept them hidden, just like I did.” “That is why he was so scared when I kissed him.” They watch the rest of the conflict between Steve Roberts and the boy at the mill viewing all of the incredible things both of them could do.

Then Diana releases her mother’s hand causing the visions to fade and the Dome to swirl again. “That was him in Zeeza, wasn’t it?” Diana asks. “I was so close to him and didn’t even know it.”

“Nor did he,” Sylvia says. “If you were wearing that necklace,” she says pointing at Diana’s throat. But now, Diana thinks with what she has learned, maybe there still is a chance for Steve and her to be together.

“Okay, finding lost loves time is over,” a new voice announces entering the pavilion. “It is time to address the problem at hand.” Diana turns to see two other women have entered the space within the cloud. The one speaking is dressed in armor identical to the women she saw in Pisces’ province. “Can she help us or not?”

“Not yet, Brynhilda,” Sylvia scolds the armored woman. “Diana, this is Brynhilda she is…”

Diana doesn’t let her mother finish, “A Valkyrie!”

“Yes, but I was going to say our Sheriff,” Sylvia finishes. “Or, you might consider her the leader of our security her in Common Domain.” “And this is Aurora, her second in command.”

“Look the point is you were not sent here to find a lost lover or even a grand reunion with Mommy,” Brynhilda says coldly. “We are in the midst of a crisis here.” “Of late there has been an increase in new arrives to Common Domain.

Saturday, January 3, 1987
Stanford University
Stanford, Ca
Sara White and Diana Carter’s dorm room

Robin has laid in bed all morning after showering several times. Her reaction to the events of the previous day are very human. Since losing her connection to Diana events have been on a steady decline. The android replacement has been feeling things that are illogical. There is a struggle inside of her to make sense of what has been happening to her, but she is finding no answers. The only comparison that she can come up with is that she is like a child left at home alone for the first time. Her connection to Diana is much more important than she ever knew.

At first Robin tried to delete the actions of the persona calling itself Madison from her memory but found she could not. It is confusing to her that her android memory bank is not under her full control. She is a fully aware mechanical construct. Her body is made of synthetic material that only appears human. She has used her systems to do many repairs on herself over the years after training with Diana on Magic Island. Now something has changed, logic dictates that the diagnostic she ran yesterday awoke some hidden program she was not aware of previously. A program that is not something that Shanna should have ever included in her construction. Trying to scan the files of Madison has been hopeless. It is as if they are coded in some foreign language to her.

She has determined that her only course of action is to return to Magic Island for Shanna’s guidance but she has no means to do that until Diana returns home and she is summoned. So it is best that she no longer interact with humans. Hiding away in her dorm room telling her roommate Sara she is ill is her best course of action until she can go back to Magic Island to be repaired.

Antonio’s Pizza
the parking lot

Not far from the dorms John Porter sits in the back seat of Vinny Simon’s car bragging about his encounter with Diana to the brothers. The car is filled with pot smoke as they pass a joint around. The Simon brothers make money for school by selling drugs to other students. A boy whose parents have money like John is their perfect customer. “It was freakin’ amazing!” “For an uptight bitch she really let her hair down.” “One minute she is giving me the third degree about being a womanizer the next she is naked telling me to call her Madison.”

“Madison?” Greg Simon questions. “What is up with that?”

“I don’t know, she must have a multiple personality problem,” John confesses. “All I said was that it was a pleasure to be with her and the next thing I knew she was going down on me!” John exclaims.

“So was she a virgin?” Vinny asks with a grin.

“No way any virgin knows her way around like that!” John laughs. “She did things to my ass you can’t imagine!”

“Your ass?” Greg shouts. “What are you some kind of fag?” Vinny is visibly uncomfortable at his brother’s comment.

“Screw you!” John exclaims. “That bitch has made more of a man of me than the two of you little dicks will ever be!” “I never came so hard in my life!”

Stanford University
Stanford, Ca
Sara White and Diana Carter’s dorm room

Sara returned to the dorm room with lunch for Diana around eleven-thirty. It is late afternoon when Sara leaves Robin alone again in the dorm room to meet up with some friends. Robin still lays in bed feigning illness afraid to leave the room.

There is a knock at the door and she ignores it, she is not in the mood to see anyone. What if it is John, she thinks. What would she say to him? All she can think about is how pissed off Diana is going to be when she finds out what she has done. There is another knock. Why won’t they go away, she thinks. It must be John. She knows she has to say something to him, but what? A third knock and she climbs from under the blankets to peek out the peephole in the door. Someone has their finger over it making it impossible for her to see.

She cracks the door open to see the Simon brothers standing in the hall. “What do you want, go away!” she tells them. She can clearly see that they are high on something more than their usual pot.

“We just want some of that pleasure you gave our boy John,” Greg Simon says with a grin.

Instantly it is happening again. Robin can no longer control her android body or voice. “Do you want pleasure?” she says stepping back opening the door to let them in. Greg is slightly taller than Vinny and he is the first one through the door.

“Are you Madison?” Greg asks stepping closer to look in her eyes.

She can smell the liquor on his breathe. “I am,” she replies kissing him on the lips, while Vinny locks and slides the dresser in front of the door. “There is no need for that Vinny,” she calls over Greg’s shoulder. “I have no intention of leaving until the two of you get the pleasure you deserve.”

Trapped inside her renegade android body again Robin listens to every word spoken. How is that Madison knows their names? she queries. Why does she have access to Robin’s programming when Robin has no access to hers.

Vinny steps forward pulling Diana away from his brother kissing her as he did, his hand moving to squeeze her boobs. Then he pushes her down onto the bed. “What would Anna say if she knew you boys were here?” Madison asks.

“What you think we don’t share her?” Greg says smugly. “She loves it, now it is your turn to love it!”

“Why don’t you boys get undressed and show me what I have to play with,” Madison commands.

Robin hears something different in the tone of Madison’s voice. It is slight by still there. She speaks with more of an angry undertone than the passion she had with John. It is too slight for human ears to pick up on but Robin wonders what it means.

“You first,” Greg orders. Madison stands up on the bed over the twin brothers peeling off her pajamas.
She stands nude on the bed posing coyly for them. The high brothers are now eager for the pleasure she offers stripping down in seconds. They are both thin and clearly athletic.

“I see I have my work cut out for me,” Madison says stepping down off the bed to kneel in front of the brothers.

“Let’s have some real fun,” she says walking over to her roommate’s dresser. Madison retrieves two silk scarves. “You are going to love this game!” she tells the horney college boys. Blindfolding both of them she tells them, “I want you both at once, but I don’t want you to see who gets what.”

The brother’s blindfolded brothers love everything Madison does to them until Vinny realizes something is wrong. “What the freak is happening?” he shouted reaching to pull off his blindfold.

She giggles, “Haaa, I guess you boys really don’t need me after all for pleasure.” Madison laughs as she climbs off of Vinny.

Greg pulls off his blindfold now to look down at his twin brother. “Jesus Christ!” he shouts. “What did you make us do!” Madison stands laughing as she slips on a robe.

“I made you screw yourselves like all nasty boys like you should!” she tells them.

Vinny moves on the bed to crawl away as quickly as Greg can push him away. Greg charges for the girl grabbing for her throat. “You are going to pay for this now!” he yells angrily.

“Do you really think so?” Madison replies taking hold of his forearm and squeezing it until his hand releases her throat. “Seems to me you liked it as much as me!” Greg’s knees buckle from her strength. She twists his arm behind his back as he grovels on the floor. Vinny watches from the bed where he sits against the wall in shock from the events that have transpired. Looking over to the bed Madison says, “Did you enjoy the pleasure I arranged for you?” Vinny doesn’t reply, he sits wide eyed in a daze.

“I think it is time you boys leave and don’t think of telling anyone about me,” she says releasing Greg’s arm dropping him to the floor. She walks to the door pushing the dresser aside with one hand. “Or I will tell them about what the both of you have done!”

The Simon brothers dress in silence to leave, neither of them satisfied with the pleasure they received from Madison. The moment they leave Robin regains control of her renegade android body. She sits down on Sara’s bed to inspect the scene of the crime. But whose crime, the Simon brothers or Madison?

Common Domain
The Dome pavilion

Aurora steps forward to the Dome to wave her hand across it. The swirling mist moves to tell the story as the former goddess speaks. “When new souls arrive here they are cleansed of their Earthly sins.” “These new arrivals are different.” “They have brought something with them that could not be cleansed.”

Brynhilda steps forward to the Dome, “We found out that your boyfriend here has encountered what killed these people.” The Dome shows the scene of Steve Roberts and Janet Redmayne raiding the crack den of people with Bernr parasites. “He even got infected, but he was too strong to succumb to it.” The Dome shows Steve vomiting up the parasite on his bed.

“Steve Roberts is not my boyfriend!” Diana insists.

“These things are alive somehow and when they kill a host part of the parasite is carried here with the soul,” Aurora explains.

“Sometime later this man came into your boyfriend’s life to reveal to him that he still carried part of the parasite inside of him,” Brynhilda tells them as the Dome shows how Steve began his adventure with Prince Benue to find the Bernr Queen.

“Wait I recognize that guy, sure he is older but that is Ben,” Diana says. “He said he was an alien from space that I met in South America.” Time turns back again to show Diana’s meeting with Ben in Lima, Peru.

“He showed you how to use your eye blasts to send his enemies back to where they came from,” Aurora explains. “We believe that talent could be used on these entities.”

“My bio-energy only works on living creatures, I don’t think it would work on these spirits,” Diana explains.

“In most cases that would be true, but things work differently here in Common Domain,” Aurora explains. “Spirit that come here retain all solidity.” Diana still completely doesn’t understand what the woman is telling her and it shows on her face. “When a person dies on Earth their Life Force splits into two parts, the Soul Essence and the Life Essence.” “The Soul Essence returns to the Well of Souls to be reborn.” “While the Life Essence remains behind on Earth for a time.” “A Life Essence is all that a person is in life.” “When people arrive in Common Domain their Life Force is whole.”

Diana looks to her mother for some kind of sign or approval of what these other two women are telling her. “I’m sorry Cupcake, I was only trying to keep you to myself for as long as I could,” Sylvia tells her daughter. “But we really do need your help with this crisis.”

“That is okay Mom,” Diana replies giving her mother a hug. “I feel the same way, but as soon as this is over we will meet back at the house.”

“Yes, of course dear,” Sylvia Carter says with a sad tone in her voice, breaking the hug. “I will look forward to it with all my heart.”

“Lead on Brynhilda!” Diana says almost giggling at the phrase. “I will do whatever I can to help you.” Diana only half understands what she has been told and she has no idea if what they are suggesting will even work. But if helping save this place keeps her mother safe that is all she cares about.

“We have contained most of the infected in an area outside the colony,” Brynhilda explains leading them out of the Dome cloud. Outside there is now another path that wasn’t here when Diana and her mother entered. It is that path that Brynhilda leads Diana down now.

“Why was there only one path before?” Diana asks her head feeling much clearer than it did before when she was outside in the realm.

Aurora smiles at Diana her multi-colored hair moving in the breeze. “These paths are for your benefit.” “We have little uses for them, we move freely from place to place unhindered by the limitations of the human mind.”

“What would happen if I stepped off the path?” Diana asks.

“That is something I suggest you not try to find out” Brynhilda says abruptly. “We are almost there!”

The Colony as they call it is rather large, larger than Diana would have imagined given the reason why these souls are here. The thought that keeps running through her mind is how Wonder Man was really Steve Roberts. Could it just be a coincidence that dream she had where she had a twin sister and she was having a secret love affair with Steve was around the same time as she met Benue? Even more strange is that she has also learned that Steve also met Benue. It is like their lives are intertwined somehow. Like no matter how far apart they are they are destined to cross paths again and again.

As Diana ponders destiny the group pass through a strange vibrating barrier that Diana can only assume is the border of the Colony of which Brynhilda spoke. On the other side of the barrier Common Domain is much different. The sky is filled with moving, changing shapes of magenta, blue and purple. Diana feels dizzy at first and then her equilibrium returns as she focuses on the path at her feet.

“What is this place?” she asks her companions.

“It is the Nexus,” Aurora explains. “It is a place that exists at the heart of all dimensions.”

“We managed round up all of these new arrives and place them here,” Brynhilda explains. Diana remembers how her mother looked without her human facade. Her eyes fight to stop looking past what is right in front of her to the shifting and changing horizon. She sees them then. Diana is surprised at how many there are of these newcomers. There must be close to a hundred of them. All of them are balls of light like her mother was for only moments, but the light they glow with is not pure white. They glow with a dim grey color. Each of these newcomers is oddly shaped, like a smaller black ball is attached to a larger grey one.

“You must aim for the smaller mass on their surface,” Brynhilda’s instructs.

“Why do they look like that?” Diana asks.

Aurora takes Diana’s hand to say, “Because whatever those parasite things are they prevent the newcomers from harnessing the nature gifts of Common Domain like the rest of us do.” “We fear by letting them in Common Domain the parasites will corrupt all of us.”

“This is all so far beyond my ability to understand.” “I’ve never used my powers to do such a thing before, even with Ben it was him controlling me that sent those alien away.” The other two women looks to each other and Brynhilda glares at the girl in disappointment. “I don’t know if I can hit them as long as they are moving around like that,” Diana explains. “What would happen if I missed and hit the larger ball?”

“You would make things worse by collapsing the shell of the larger, fully merging the two entities,” Brynhilda grumbles at the girl’s insecurity. “Making it impossible for us to separate them!”

“Is there a way you can make them be still then?” Diana asks. Brynhilda reaches out her arm and a long spear appears from the nothingness of the Nexus. As if by her command the spear extends out toward the group of newcomers skewering the large part of one of them.

“Oh my God!” Diana gasps. “What are you doing?”

“Holding one still, like you asked,” Brynhilda grumbles. “They’re already dead, it isn’t like I could hurt or even kill one.” Diana is taken back by the woman’s cruelty. Then watching the blob on the end of the spear, she figures Brynhilda must be right because it shows no signs of pain or struggle to escape. Brynhilda turns the spear to expose the profile of the conjoined spheres. Diana focuses her sight on the dark mass that actually does seem to squirm a bit. She has practiced for a year at how to control the intensity of the Bio-energy blast she release from her eyes. Surprisingly the use of her eye blasts uses less bio-energy than on teleportation. She uses a quick medium intensity blast that makes the black globe on the newcomer slide around the surface of the larger sphere.

“It is going to take more than that to get it off,” Aurora suggests.

“Okay, then let’s try a more adult size blast,” Diana says focusing again. This time the pink bio-energy from her eyes creates a greater reaction from the newcomer. The black sphere lets out a high pitched whistle and pulls away from the larger ball. The larger ball’s glow quickly grows brighter until it is as bright white as Diana remembers her mother to be. The smaller black mass float away shriveling up smaller as it moves away. Meanwhile, Brynhilda releases the other part of the newcomer allowing it to take a human form. The newcomer appears as a young confused man who Aurora takes by the hand and guide back to the Colony.

Brynhilda’s spear acts like a magnet to draw in another of the mutated newcomers. Diana fires another bolt and another newcomer is freed from a parasite. Aurora leads the middle aged woman to the Colony and the process begins again. There seems to be no flow of time in this Nexus and the only way Diana knows time is passing is that the newcomers dwindle as does her power.

When only one remains the three women realize that they have made a large misjudgment. The last of the newcomers drifts back in the Nexus, resistant to Brynhilda’s spear. At first it appears to have a large shadow behind it. Then the last one of the parasites flee away joining that shadow.

“Oh no what have we done?” Diana says eyeing the dark mass on the final newcomer that must measure over four feet in diameter.

“It is the Queen,” Aurora says. “It is the woman that was used to produce all of the parasites.” “Your friend Steve Roberts put her out of her misery, sending her here to be ours.”

“We miscalculated, thinking you were banishing the parasites from this place,” Brynhilda says. “You have only freed them to return to the queen.”

“There is no way I can take out that thing,” Diana tells them. “I am too rundown, my power too depleted.” “Even if I could, where would those parasites go then?”

“Perhaps, we have been going about this all wrong,” Aurora suggests. “We have been focusing on the parasites, but it was the host’s Life Force that brought them here.” “You said yourself that your power only works on the living.”

“Yes, so attacking the host with my power will not harm the Life Force,” Diana rationalizes. “So there is nothing more I can do to help you.”

“But you can still help,” Aurora tells Diana.

“Who are you?” Diana finally asks. “How is it you know so much?” “Brynhilda here is the Sheriff but you seem to have all the answers.”

“In life I was a goddess of light and wisdom,” Aurora tells. “Though Brynhilda knows battle, I know the workings of the cosmos.”

“I have heard the whole I was a goddess line before from the Mistix,” Diana retorts. “Forgive me it that doesn’t encourage me to trust you!”

“Unlike the Mistix, I did not choose to be a goddess or force others to worship me,” Aurora justifies. “I was born too long ago for you to comprehend, a daughter of the first Zenith, Quzita.” “I was mother to the Nordic race like some of my other sisters I was revered as a goddess, not worshiped. I was also the first to arrive here in Common Domain after my death.” “I died at the hand of an alien brought to Earth by one of my more disobedient children.” “I spent a very long time here alone learning everything I could about the cosmos until others began to arrive here.” “One of those things is how the living are affected by the forces of the dead.” “As I said before your powers are different here.” “This place makes your superhuman abilities work on a different level.” “By attacking the alien parasites you only freed them from their hosts.” “I realize now it is the host that needs to be freed.”

“So how do I do that all knowing goddess,” Diana as sarcastically.

“Not you, we,” Aurora says to Diana’s surprise. “I retain some of the power I once had on Earth here and together I believe we might be able to cast that thing out.”

“Out?” Diana questions. “Out to where?”

“Out of this realm to somewhere more suited for it,” Aurora says. “This is a realm of human dead, not a place where it belongs.” “It is only its connection with the newcomer’s Life Force that holds it here.” “I believe that together we can change that Life Force enough to finally sever the bond.”

“Change a Life Force?” Diana queries.

“Your power effects the bio-energy of a human body, here we are basically only bio-energy,” Aurora explains. “The parasites feed on that energy even now, together we can change the bio-energy to something more distasteful to them.”

“What I meant was how do we change a Life Force without killing the target?” Diana asks.

Brynhilda and Aurora laugh at her like she is a naive child. “You can’t kill someone who is already dead,” Brynhilda says through her laughter.

Aurora regains her seriousness as she steps closer to Diana, “You need to relax your defenses.” Allow me to merge with your body, become one with you.”

“That doesn’t sound too safe,” Diana comments but it is too late as Aurora’s human form vanishes replaced by a shimmering ball of rainbow kaleidoscope light. The colorful mass is almost hypnotizing as it quickly moves toward Diana to merge into her body. At first all of Diana’s instincts scream that she should resist this attack. Then she suddenly feels an overwhelming sensation of calm, peace and light from within. She steps closer to the Bernr Queen, the parasite mass shifts and moves around the surface of the newcomer. Diana feels a warming energy in her hands and as she lifts them up. Her powers have never manifested in her hands, until now. Aiming for the newcomer, her bio-energy mixed with spectral energy floods from her hands. It strikes the dim grey smaller ball of light.

The grey ball seems to thrive on the colorful energy as it begins to brighten. The parasite mass reacts much differently than it did when she blasted it. The combined power of Aurora and Diana flows freely at first until the parasite lets out a strange wailing sound. The multiple parasites begin to, what appears to be implode. The parasite mass shrinks smaller as the beam of spectral energy begins to fail.

“I can’t,” Diana whispers as her strength fades her arms begin to lower.

“No, not yet!” Aurora’s voice sounds in Diana’s head.

Diana feels a surge of power and pain that causes her to cry out, “No, stop, you are killing me!”

Suddenly the newcomer erupts with a burst of light that washes out into the Nexus. Went the light clears the former newcomer Bernr Queen has taken human form. Feeling dizzy Diana crumbs to the path. The last thing she remembers is the young red headed woman descends to the path near her before she passes out.

Sunday, January 4, 1987
Stanford University
Stanford, Ca
Sara White and Diana Carter’s dorm room

Sara and Diana lay silently in their beds it is early morning Sara has just returned to the room smelling of beer and pot. Robin lays analyzing Sara’s breathing to determine her state of mind and consciousness. Saturday night is Sara’s big party night and this one was no different than any other. It is not necessarily the best time to talk to her roommate but Robin is desperate. “Sara, are you awake?” she asks.

“Yes,” comes the sleepy reply from the drunk girl. “What is it Diana?”

“You have a minor in Computer Science don’t you?” the android asks.

“Ya, ya,” Sara responds barely awake.

“Who would you say is the top in the field of Advanced Computer science in the world?” she asks to no reply. “Sara, are you awake?”

“Ya, I heard you, Advanced Computer science,” There is a long pause before she says, “Japanese guy, Kitasato Suzuki.” “Now go to sleep before my hangover kicks in!”

Kitasato Suzuki, Robin runs through her mind over and over again. The library has a computer system that she might be able to use to find out more about the Japanese man. But the library doesn’t open until 10 am on Sunday. She lays in bed for another hour until she is sure Sara is asleep and then she crawls out of bed, making her body as light as possible to not make a sound. Dressing she leaves the dorm to head across campus to the library.

The sun is just coming up as she walks through the courtyard toward the back of the library. Her android body allows her to see and hear him coming before he even says a word. He is a man about thirty who definitely does not belong on this campus at such an early hour. “Excuse me Miss but could you help me with something?” he asks with a grin.

“I’m kind of in a hurry so what can I do for you?” she replies not wanting to be rude.

“Are you Diana Carter?” he asks. The question is strange, she has never seen this man before and is very suspicious of his motives.

“Who’s asking?” she replies.

“I will take that as a yes,” He smiles again, proud of himself. “You are a hard young woman to find.” Now she is becoming annoyed with this guy. “Alexander Stormstrum, I’m a Private Investigator hired by your uncle to find you,” the thirty-something man says reaching out his hand.

Robin does not respond to his offer of a handshake. The spell Shanna cast two years ago to join her with Diana was also meant to keep her hidden from being found. Apparently the spell is fully broken allowing this man to find and identify her. Everything has gone so terribly wrong since Diana left for Zeeza. She has no way of knowing if this man is telling the truth, so neither does she. “I’m sorry, but you’ve made a mistake, my name is Robin,” She says turning to walk away.

“Then you are committing identity thief,” Stormstrum calls after her. “Because every piece of paper at this school says you are Diana Carter.” “Your Uncle Zac and Aunt Jean are worried about you, they just want to know that you are okay.”

Robin knows how much Diana loves her Aunt and Uncle and it seems cruel to keep them in the dark about Diana’s whereabouts. She has screwed up so much already, she can’t risk Diana’s father finding her. “Tell them not to worry,” she calls back over her shoulder as she continues to walk for the library.

Common Domain
the home of Sylvia Carter

Later back at Sylvia Carter’s house Diana regains consciousness. She is still very weak as she opens her eyes to see her mother’s smiling face. Diana can barely speak, “Mommy what happened?”

“You did it Cupcake you saved the last of the newcomers,” Sylvia tells her. “Her name is Janet, Janet Redmayne, she is here now and wants to thank you.”

The pretty redhead steps forward to the edge of the bed where Diana lays. “Thank you for what you did, Diana.” “When you get home you must find Steve Roberts and thank him too for me.” “He freed me of that horrible existence.” “And you need tell him that bitch that is pretending to be me is the real threat.” “She is the one who did all of this!”

“Home?” Diana repeats as she tries to move. “Mommy what is wrong with me?” “Why can’t I move?”

“You used almost all of your bio-energy and you can not replenish it here,” Sylvia explains. “You are on the verge of death, we have to send you home now.”

“Mommy, no, if I die, I can stay here forever with you,” Diana whispers weakly.

“No Cupcake, you must go home to heal,” Sylvia insists. “If you were to die here that does not mean your Life Force would remain here.”

“You have so much life ahead of you,” Aurora adds. “So much joy.” “Now return to Earth and the happiness to come!” Aurora raises her arms over Diana and a spectrum of light descends over the weak young woman.

“Mommy, no I want to stay with you!” she sobbed as she begins to fade from Common Domain.

“Diana, I love you!” Sylvia Carter calls out. “Always hold me in your heart even after you forget our time together here.” “I will be watching over you always!”

January 5, 1987
Diana’s cottage
Magic Island

Diana wakes back on Magic Island, she has been asleep for a day, Shanna is at her bedside. “What, what happened?” Diana shouts sitting up in the bed.

“That is my question for you, Diana,” Shanna says. “You have been gone for five days.”

“Five days?” Diana repeats. “I was in Zeeza for no more than a few hours.”

“Time flows differently between the two worlds but not that differently,” Shanna tells her. “You must have been somewhere else.” “What do you remember after leaving Zeeza?”

Diana lays back down on the bed to think about her trip to Zeeza that ended with the Mistix Core striking her with a bolt of beige energy. She rolls her head to the side of the room to see Robin sitting on a chair. Her android double stares at the floor as if she is afraid to look at Diana. “What’s with her?” Diana asks pointing.

“All in good time Diana, now where have you been for the past four days?” Shanna says an almost angry tone in her voice.

“I don’t know there is nothing to remember!” Diana says sitting up again and getting up from the bed. She feels completely fine, like she had just slept for a week. It is Robin that concerns her, there is something different about her android double. She seems anxious almost afraid, but very human compared to the last time Diana saw her. “Robin, what is it?” “What is wrong?”

The android looks up to Diana, her eyes conveying a look of sadness like Diana has never seen. “When you left the spell was broken,” she simply says softly. As Robin explains the events of the two days following Diana’s departure there is an emotion in her voice that was not there previously.

Listening to the story of how Robin began her friendship with John Porter. Diana know exactly where it is headed. She returns to sit on the edge of her bed as Robin tells if the sexual encounter with John and the emergence of Madison. She sits hiding her face in her hands making it impossible to gauge her reaction when Robin is finished. The room is silent all eyes are on Diana who sits unmoving. Looking up at Shanna Diana shouts, “How is this even possible?”

“I am anatomically accurate and fully functional,” Robin says trying to explain her participation in the encounter.

“That is not what I mean!” Diana shouts standing up to point at Shanna. “You told me this was completely safe, nothing could go wrong!”

“It was, there was no way of knowing the spell would be broken when you went to Zeeza,” Shanna replies sadly trying to defend what happened. “I need only recast the spell and this will never happen again.

“What is this Madison program anyway?” Diana rants pacing the floor. “Why would you even put such a thing in her?”

Shanna does not respond but Robin does, “There is more, Madison emerged again and this time I believe it was to protect me.”

“Oh great did she beat the shit out of someone too?” Diana fumes.

Robin tells of how the Simon brothers came to her room high with lascivious intentions. She details the events that took place in the dorm room with the brothers. How Madison tricked, embarrassed, and threatened them. Uncontrollable tears begin to run down Diana’s cheeks as the story ends.

Diana feels she is left with only one option. “Shut her down!” she states firmly.

“What?” Shanna says in surprise. Robin returns to her chair again looking to the floor in shame. She knew this was going to be bad. “I need only recast the spell, I can wipe the minds of those others easily.”

“Will you be wiping my mind as well?” Diana asks in anger. “Because when you recast that spell this will no longer be a story told by a renegade android, but part of my life!” “Something I did!” “Something I felt!” “Those boys inside of me!” “I don’t want anyone’s mind erased, I just can’t go back there again and neither can it!”

It is the first time Diana has referred to Robin as a thing since they first met and it strikes a cord in Robin at how angry she is at her. She has betrayed her friend, her sister the reason or excuse for it doesn’t matter. “I agree,” Robin says standing up. “I can’t be trusted as long as Madison can resurface again.” “Put me back where you found me.”

“Thank you!” Diana says. “Now both of you get out!” “I need to pack!”

“Diana, where are you going?” Shanna asks.

“Home!” Diana replies. “It is time I had a long overdue talk with my not father!”

“So you did learn something in Zeeza?” Shanna suggests.

Diana turns to look at Shanna accusingly, “I did and it is hard for me to believe you didn’t know all along!”

“Then there is one more thing I need to tell you,” Robin interrupts. “Before you leave you should know I was approached by a Private Detective who said he was hired by your Uncle Zac.” “I told him nothing because I didn’t think he could be trusted.”

“Great, just great could this day get any better?” Diana grumbles. “Him you couldn’t trust, but John Porter, him you could take a ride on!” “Now everyone out!”