Pre-Edit Count – 1,541 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Iridescent by Linkin Park

Previously:

When the Queen sits up, she meets Warlow’s eyes, “Get Eric.  We have a mess.” It is enough to make them all worry.

Now:

A full meeting on Baile is called to discuss Sookie’s dive discovery.  Sookie had indicated that it would be the only place secure enough for their meeting but wouldn’t say why.

Godric also is transported to the planet with her reassurance it will be better for him.  The Pool will help as well as the magic that is on the planet.  With both, he will hopefully be healed enough to defend himself if needed.

Also taken to the planet are any others that Eric had already met with and pinpointed as part of his Advisors and those who will be assistants to those on the council.

Alcide is there for the Werewolves. Roman will be there to advise Godric, who has been named a member of the council, on what is going on as he had been gone for such a long time. For the Shifters, there is a female leader, since none of the males would cooperate long enough to decide who would be the representative. Both Sookie and Eric had vetoed Sam since neither wanted to deal with his assholery. He had been put in at the last minute as an answer to Eric’s threat of picking a more reasonable example of the Shifters.  Luna has been a huge improvement over what they are used to dealing with anyway and she is often the voice of reason.  A very welcome respite from most of Earth’s representatives so far.

To represent the race now called Fae, Warlow has brought the family member Claude, whom he introduces to Sookie as a many times removed cousin.  All of the people on the council had made their opinions heard.  None of them wanted Niall.  However, Warlow had told the others and gave official word as to the Advisor for the Fae, Niall couldn’t be found.

An old friend of Eric’s, Octavia Fant, is the voice of the Witches. They tried to use people they knew personally if possible to avoid worrying about outside influences. Luna is a rare exception, but then the other options would have been rejected if they had been in front of Sookie.

The human governments had been told the truth to see if they can help bring the rest of Earth up to speed but they were still screaming that it is a bunch of lies and so forth.  They couldn’t get them to agree to anything so they were excluded from the group for the time being.  Eric and Sookie can deal with that part later when they announce the truth to the world.

Sookie looks around and she closes her eyes at the small amount of people that are represented this time.  It may look like a large group to someone who has just appeared but she remembers the last time that Lucifer was free.  Thousands had met as representatives of their races at that time, and even then it had to be weeded from those that wanted to be there.  Instead, this time, this is all there is to battle someone that killed most of those who had been united to fight him.

She hopes that very soon in the future that they can find some of the missing allies but she fears that they are gone. Nothing Warlow or Jason has found shows where there are more of their kind.  Not that either has stopped searching; Warlow has only temporarily setting aside his jumping to help at this time.  Still, it is not looking like there will be others.  After all, their allies had been searching a long time for more of their kind.

However, they didn’t find Earth either the first time.  Sookie grabs onto that hope with both hands, needing it.

Lucifer, it looks like, has been planning this for a long time.  Too much is stacked against them in the deck they are playing with now.

Finally everyone is settled, with the Earthlings looking around amazed at the planet, around them as well as the two in the sky, they are being told is where they are from. It seems too much like a story they had read in books, or seen in a movie.  However, they are here for more than seeing new worlds.  They have a threat that can threaten not only these worlds but Earth also.

So when Eric stands, all eyes turn to him, hoping that things are not as bad as they look from his and Sookie’s expressions.  They need the hope because if it is that bad, they might as well give up now.

Hearing their thoughts, Eric pauses then puts on a stronger face for his allies. “Thank you all for coming. I know a lot of you are still dealing with the fact that we are all one race.  One kind.  That there is no such thing as Supernaturals versus humans.”  He pauses to meet as many eyes as he can as he says the last softly, “That Earth is not really our home world.  We had been calling this Home to have something to make it easier for you to call it. However, as Sookie will tell you now, it has been confirmed with her last dive for information, that the name for our home world is Baile.” Staring out at them, he tries to send the impression that there is still hope.  When he no longer the defeatist attitude, Eric nods in respect to them then turns the meeting over to Sookie.

She stands and concentrates for a second.  Above them all Baile and it’s sister worlds appear.  “As High Queen, I have admittance in the Database, as we call it, that no other than Eric has.  I had been what we term diving for awhile now, trying to find answers to the questions Eric and I have.  No one, not even Shadoe, who was on our planet when the war broke out, could answer those questions once we started asking.”  She looks out into the crowd and reading their minds, decides how she will announce it.

When she figures out the course to take, she puts her hand on her hip as she informs them all, “I will tell you now that there was no war.  There was no agreement to go to Earth.  In fact, there was nothing even hinting this.  One day we were all here and on those planets, and the next we were all moved.” She points to the worlds above their heads so that they can see what she did.

The worlds zoomed in and they see Baile looking much like it did now from space.  When it goes closer, instead of the empty virgin landscape they had seen on their way here, there are cities of what they could only think of pure fantasy among the mountains and waters of the world.  They see what Sookie and Eric have been telling them visible above them all.  All species that had been at war on Earth with each other are one.  And among them walked their allies.

The sheer amount of people who flew in the sky and walked the ground they are standing on amazes them all.  Then the world zooms out and next came the world that is described to them of being the closest to Earth.  There they see cities that were advanced from ones from Earth but also contain the magic that they are told had been there in much larger quantities than can be found on Earth now.  Again, the world teems with life and you even see shuttles taking off and other ships in orbit.

Finally, the incredible world of Technology is shown with the city bands lit up and a great amount of traffic visible in the skies.  However, the ground was amazingly only filled with people hiking and walking. Nature was preserved on all the worlds, but on the Techno world, it flourished unblemished by the technology that it controls.

The size of the ribboned cities circling the world showed the vast amount of population living on them. The worlds zoom back out to show all the activity of the allies and their ships as well as the actual species who survive in space.

Then they were all gone in a flash of light.  Literally millions, nay billions of objects in space just gone in the span of a second.  The worlds zoom back in, and there is no life except for animals and insects left.  The Cities are gone in the other two world, only the ribbon cities left as any sign that people had once been on the planets.

The crowd turns as one back to Sookie waiting for her to tell them what had happened. The sheer amount of people they had just witnessed along with the technology that had been used when it all disappeared is too much for them to understand.

Swallowing, she takes a deep breath, reading the question in all of their minds, uniting for the first time since that time that they all had agreed on something. Impressed and humbled by the effect, Sookie answers that one question, “No one knows.  All that the database could show me is what had happened.  The ships, even ones on their way here, were all of a sudden deposited on their respective worlds.  And all the people who had any contact with us remembered a war to explain what had happened.  Most importantly, the ways of traveling that Eric and I are shown as how we move were suddenly gone from everyone’s minds.” Pausing, she is again, gauging the crowd to make sure they are all following her.

In answer to the question that is repeated the most often, she informs them, “That little feat is something we, the race of Fae, had brought about.  First it was technology that made it possible, then magic was joined to it and made it instant.  The trick is amazingly easy to do once figured out, but unless a world cluster like ours exists somewhere else, it probably won’t happen.  But there was still the question of what happened to all the people.  All our species?  Not all of them landed on Earth.”  She says the last softly as the image above starts flickering with the different races of their species showing that are missing.

She tells them, sadly, “As close as I found in this dive, there is the possibility of thousands of planets that could hold us.  I wish I could hope that at least some of them are holding the missing peoples of our species, rather than what Eric and I fear is the truth.” She bows her head momentarily, not able to tell them that even though she was shown more possibilities to search, that Eric, her and the AI believe that they are all that is left.

The entire crowd is dead silent, acknowledging the alternative. And the very real possibility that they are all that is left.

“Since we have not found any clue nor does the database have any evidence of it, I do not know the truth and we probably won’t until later.  For now, we need to deal with the fact that this is it.” This is as close as Sookie can take to giving them the truth.  She is barely holding it together after being in the Dive.  For it had her walking in those masses, and the feeling when it all disappeared was almost too much to bare.  What they watched is her own view of it.

Taking a deep breath, the worlds disappears and a large group of people are gathered about as they are now.  Sookie tells them, “This is the first gathering to deal with Lucifer.   As you can see, there were a lot more beings involved.”  She pauses and then people disappear from the crowd eventually leaving a few people. “And this is what is left of that group.”

The crowd is speechless.

Unable to keep up with the negative, she continues, “However, I have found some interesting things. I think that Lucifer has been around and may, in fact, be the reason we were sent from here.”  She waves her hand.  Her face now showing her anger at the so-called god that tried to make them less than they are.

The scene changes to show a picture of a sun-like globe above a planet of edges.  There is a black hole surrounding the planet, and, to be honest, it is awe inspiring.

“This was his prison.  It did not exist in regular time; they hoped by putting it outside time in a black hole that they will restrict him.  For you see, he is one of the originals that the All-Seeing brought in place to help him.  To be his hands.  As one of those individuals, he is more powerful than an average God.” She gives it to them straight so they know what they have to deal with.  Eric and she do not believe in hiding the truth.

The crowd murmurs and Sookie smiles, “I know.  I know.  But think of this, he is the only one that was an issue out of all the beings that were made.”  She gestures to the picture, “They put warnings around it and took precautions.  But the biggest issue that they had been that he could control Time itself.  They had hoped by making the place outside of time — in fact, it was the only way it could be where it was — it would hold him.” She is still amazed at the thought that had gone into this prison, one that she is sad to think didn’t hold him.

She looks down, telling them, “It was all they could do. It was cataclysmic to do this to an Original. Species died making this happened.  However, the database creators didn’t think all the precautions would work and decided to make all the information about him available to the High King and Queen, along with their thoughts on it. This is not fact, but their ideas, as well as what the database thinks as well.” Now comes the time to give them the hope that she is also feeling.

When there is shock from what she said, she smiles as she nods. “Yes, the database is sentient.  It had to be to do what it does.  The sheer amount of information entrusted to it made sure it had protocols and fail-safes to protect us, but it needed to know, to be able to learn on its own.” And they all should be thankful for that.  It might give them the edge, but it also made it where it implemented rules on itself to make sure it will always be there to guide them and never try to overrule them.

She looks out on them, informing them of her findings, “And it thinks that Lucifer is the reason we disappeared.  That little feat must have exhausted his powers, for while he is extremely powerful, that would be so far beyond what he should have been able to do.  In fact, there is the thought that Lucifer is no more powerful than we are now.” Her smile turns into a smirk, knowing this information will make them hope.  Give them that edge again.

However, when everyone looks at each other, heaving a sigh of relief, she cautions them, “But don’t count him out.  He has access to powers we can’t counter.  But we do have a chance.” She takes a deep breath, preparing herself for the next part.

Then she drops the bomb, “And the database, as well as I, thinks that he is out walking among us right now.” Pandemonium breaks out as people shout their questions, either out loud or with their minds.

Final count: 2,688

Fairfarren~