Chapter 3:
(03/30/01)
Following the raid on GenCoTech, Wan decided he needed money and started asking his contacts in Chinatown if they could find work for him. He began taking on odd jobs for a mage with the unusual hobby of hunting Nephandi. Wan’s first mission was to steal some Nephandi-related information from a Syndicate office. Deciding he needed help, he asked Kyler to come along with him, and she accepted. The operation started out well but got a little messy after Kyler botched her attempt to hack into the computer system and get more data, set off a bunch of alarms, and had to get out as quickly as possible. However, Kyler and Wan accomplished it nonetheless and were paid $2 million, most of which Wan kept.
Back at the chantry, everyone else eventually realized that no one had seen Maria since the raid. Worried, everyone spread out and started looking for her. Eventually, they found her in a clearing in the woods behind the house, meditating and not responding to anyone’s voice. Trying to get her attention, Saxon began poking her with a stick, and she disintegrated it. So he got a bigger stick and poked her again, and she proceeded to give him third-degree burns on his arm with Prime and kick him in the chest, breaking several of his rips. The rest of the cabal overpowered her and tied her hands, after strengthening the bonds with Prime to keep her from breaking through them.
Everyone sat down for a serious discussion, and Teal explained what he knew about Maria’s “episodes” where her multiple personality took over. Jennifer started researching the possible causes of Maria’s disorder and learned that a wraith had most likely possessed Maria. She got in contact with another Virtual Adept named Seed, who told her how to get rid of the wraith. Unfortunately, it required a skill in Spirit magic which Jennifer did not possess.
Jennifer started asking around the cabal and soon discovered that Kyler was the only one who had the necessary skills to banish the wraith. However, when Jennifer asked her, Kyler declared that she didn’t believe in ghosts and thought the entire idea was ridiculous. Jennifer suggested hiring Seed to get rid of it, but since no one else knew him they didn’t trust him to come into the chantry. The discussion started going around in circles and eventually came to a complete halt.
In the meantime, Maria was being kept under 24-hour watch in the chantry’s basement. At this time, the Maria personality had taken over again. Maria had no memories of what Carlotta did with her body, and she was very confused as to why the cabal had imprisoned her. During Saxon’s watch, Maria told him she needed to go the bathroom. He called for one of the other women to go in and watch her, and Kenley volunteered to do it.
While Kenley and Maria were in the bathroom, Kenley (an atheist) began taunting Maria about her belief in the One, which she saw as ridiculous supersition. Suddenly, Maria snapped. The Carlotta personality took over, locked the door, fried the intercom, and dragged Kenley into the Shadowlands.
Back in the physical world, everyone soon realized that something had gone terribly wrong. Unfortunately, the cabal’s lack of Spirit magic made it difficult to help Kenley. Finally, Kyler agreed to go into the Shadowlands and look for Kenley and Maria, even though doing so meant going through the Gauntlet and suffering a huge amount of personal injury. She was ultimately unable to find them, but everyone was impressed by her courage and self-sacrifice.
In the Shadowlands, Kenley learned that Maria’s wraith was actually a man named John Crowley. He had died in a very messy, untimely way and wanted to live again. He threatened to throw Kenley into a Maelstrom if she didn’t convince Maria to give him equal time in her body. Kenley said it was impossible, but offered to create a new body for John. He agreed, but demanded permission to remain in Maria while she worked. He then sent her back to the physical world.
Kenley and Kyler spent the better part of a week recovering from their ordeal. When Kenley gained the strength to explain the situation, some of the mages (such as Teal) were horrified by her betrayal of Maria, while others (such as Jennifer) thought she had done the only thing she could have. Kenley set to work on figuring out how to clone a body for John, and everyone else began dealing with this new development in their separate ways.