By Raven
When Allison came into the house, Jade knew that something was terribly wrong. She could smell her sister�s blood in many places, from the cuts on her face and from her lower sections. She saw the images of the man who had raped her sister, and his scent was fresh in her nose. Mother was taking her to the holodeck. She knew that Mother would take care of Allison. Jade decided that she needed to take care of the man that had done this to her big sister, because Mother had her hands full with her sister�s panicked mind. She flew to the landing and headed for her room, closing the door behind her.
She opened her closet, removing the alligator vest that could be worn as a shirt, and her low cut black leather pants, which were like her mother�s except for the jade green oriental dragon applique on the right thigh. She put on the cowboy boots that Ethan had made her from the gator. There was still plenty of room left to accommodate her growing. Her pants let her show off the green titanium belly button ring she had got after taking the rose from Shawn.
�Aurora, let�s go.� she said to her partner in crime. The six month old cat was now the size of an adult. She leapt to Jade�s shoulder, and they were off.
�Carl, please send me to Allison�s last recorded coordinates prior to her return.� she asked the computerplex. Mom had placed a nanite tracker in her sister when she was young, due to the fact that she had tended to teleport uncontrollably as a child.
The alley that they entered was filled with the man�s scent and the scent of her sister�s blood. There was also the scent of rancid trash and human urine. ��Rora, stay here. I will bring him to us.� Jade said. The cat proceeded to hop gingerly to the dumpster and make herself unnoticeable.
Jade rounded the corner, strutting much the way she had watched her older sister do many times before. She walked into the bar- the scents nearly sent her reeling. She noticed him immediately, and knew that he still hungered for the fear that he could produce and feed upon.
She had watched prostitutes before, and knew how to make herself seem fragile and needy. The man picked up on her- she made her mind spieking ability seem stronger to him. Then, Jade walked over to the man and said, �Hey, mister, want a date?�
She could read his emotions, and knew that he saw her as dessert for his earlier feed. As they walked out, she noticed the signs of a black eye starting. He was also favoring his left side slightly, Allison had bruised his ribs. There were the signs of her boot prints on the dirty T-shirt he was wearing.
They walked into the alley, and as he got closer, she felt what had caused her sister to reel in terror so much. This man was a scrambler- he could keep a teep from sending, and fed on the person�s fear when he did so. She feigned the terror he expected her to feel. Once he had his hands on her, that was when she turned the tables. �So you like causing fear in your victims, being the big predator. Well, let�s see how you like being prey.�
He looked at her dumb founded. That was when she switched her grip and used her training to slip away. �Oops, you let go, didn�t you. Can�t feel the fear, can you?� That only made him angrier.
She could read his soul. She knew he had raped and beaten several women in the last few years. All his life he had to listen to his mother berate him because he was not like his brothers. He could not hear her when she �talked to him�, so she told him that he was useless. He had started making the screamers pay a few years earlier.
Jade once again slipped away from his grip- this was making him furious. That had been her goal the whole time, getting him into enraged. That would make her work so much easier to do. He grabbed her wrist, then she made her move. Just like a monkey, she was on him and had her fangs in his neck, sucking greedily. He tied to slam her into the dumpster. Using her strength and flight she turned him, causing him to careen into the dumpster. He hit his back so hard, she heard the spleen rupture, along with a kidney.
Jade continued to drain him, then she saw what he had done to the other women. Twenty-three women had been brutally raped by this man including his own mother, which he had then beat nearly to death, then gave her to the sharks. Something inside her snapped then. She reached into him, and with a twist used her beast to instill the fear he had fed on into him.
�No!� came Aurora�s mind voice into her head �Do not drink him to death! You will lose part of yourself if you drink until the heart stops!� She stopped herself as she felt the heart flutter.
Jade knew that Andrew was there, watching her. She felt him take the man. That was when she carved the glyph of justice in his forehead, justice for all those that he had hurt. She licked the wound so that it would close over, leaving an interesting scar. Then, she had Carl deposit the body near a police station. She knew that there were no signs or traces of her on the body, Aurora made sure of that. Once that was done, she returned home.
She was not expecting to see who was sitting on her bed. Adrian was there waiting for her. �I felt you take him.� he said to her. �I felt his life force leave his body. Was that truly justice or was that the beast calling out for revenge?�
He got up to leave Jade alone. As he left, he said, �Allison is asleep in her room. Mom said to leave her to sleep and heal. She and Duncan took away the trauma memories, but didn�t let her forget.�
Jade went into the bathroom and looked at the mirror. His blood was all over her. That was when she realized she didn�t even know his name.
When they had been fighting to get Mom back, she hadn�t even needed to do more than swat the few she came across. Not even DeRuyter had been stupid enough to push it. He knew that he had been beaten and had no choice. She had wanted to kill him when she had seen her mother desiccated shell, but her father had said no. When she had heard that Dad let him go, it had made her furious.
Jade used the computer codes then to track him- if Dad couldn�t do it, she would! What she found was something that was so horrible, she still had chills thinking about it. In the middle of DeRuyter�s compound was a tree. As she looked closer, she discovered that he was the tree! He was forever frozen in a posture of terror.
In front of the tree, like a tombstone, was a granite slab. The inscription read, �It is not wise to fool with Mother Nature, for we take care of our own.� The part that still struck her with terror was the fact that DeRuyter was still alive, his human mind awake. He would remain that way for the rest of his life, never receiving release until he earned it.
As dawn approached, she could not help but wonder if what Adrian said was true. Jade went to sleep in the pit, she felt always more secure there. As she slept though, her dreams were strange and not her own at first.
She shared the early hunting dreams with her mother, though Mom did not know. She looked over them and realized one thing: her mother very rarely killed in cold blood anymore. She had done it many times when she first woke, when the beast was stronger then she was. Now, though, she always seemed to know the names of those she would send to the next existence.
�You don�t know why?� came Adrian�s voice to her in her dreams. At first she thought she was awake, then she saw herself killing the man with Adrian now standing there. �Mom always makes sure that she knows the names of those she has to kill, so that she will never take it lightly. She still sees herself as an animal posing as a human being.�
�I know,� Jade said, �But I don�t understand. She has so much physical power, doesn�t she ever just let the clutch out and floor it, so to speak?�
�Just because she can doesn�t mean she should, nor does it give you the right to do it, either.�
�I still don�t understand her, though. She can do the most bull headed things. Like what she wanted to do for Uncle Fred. She would have made her own condition worse, had Cery not did what she did. Why does she do it?�
It was then that Andrew joined his son. It still bugged Jade that Andrea or Andrew was �mom� to Adrian. �She does it, Jade, because in her, she has to. She would never ask anyone to make a sacrifice that she would not do herself.� Andrew told her.
�Your mother is very special, Jade.� came one more voice. Grandmother now entered the dream. �Your mom was another of my little accidents, so to speak. She was the first soul I had ever created, but I still don�t know where I goofed on her.� she said.
�Why, Grandma? I don�t understand!� Jade was feeling once again the frustration she felt when she was around anyone, especially her mom.
�Jade, your mom has a blind acceptance for what she must do. Somewhere in her creation, it changed and grew into something beautiful, though. Your mother will always think of others first. She was even willing not to have you, because her want for you was too selfish, in her mind. Look for yourself, little one. You have the power to see that.�
�I don�t understand, Grandma!� her frustration grew.
That was when her grandmother took her hand �Like this.� was all she said. Jade saw a green glow form in front of her, much like her mother�s lavender balls. �Now, tell it who you want to see.� her grandmother told her.
�Mother.� was the first word that came into Jade�s mind. The ball became like a mirror.
She could see her mom sitting next to her older sister while she slept. �Okay, I have seen Mom and my sisters do this with the lavender before. What is so different?�
�Tell it to look within, Jade.� She did as she was told. She could sense the anger and the worry that her mother felt about her sister. That she could do with her empathy. �Look deeper.� Jade look deeper.
�Show me behind the wall.� she said. All Jade�s life, there had been a wall in her mother�s mind, a wall that no one else could feel. The wall became transparent, so to speak, and what lay behind it was not what she had expected.
In this place, Mother wondered if she had done just one thing different, could she had saved Allison from the pain that she had suffered at the man�s hands? Then, Jade felt the one thing she never would believe her mother had- fear. Not just from when she had lost her vision, Jade had felt that when no one else could, but fear of something else, losing those that she cared about. That through what she did or did not do, something would happen and she would lose them. Jade saw that her mother was capable of so much love. She never expected it. She knew her mother cared for a lot of people. What she didn�t realize until then though was she felt, in a way, responsible for watching over humanity.
�Your grandfather had originally programmed her and her siblings to be the sheepdogs of humanity, so to speak. In her, though, it changed. It became a need to protect all of creation itself. Even I was not expecting this, nor were any of my elder children. Those that are called the gods are even impressed with your mother. She has done more than any one mortal creature ever needed or could do on its own. Your father and Salem have been with her, but even they know that there is no stopping the �Need� within her.� Grandmother explained.
�I have that need, too.� Jade said to her grandmother.
�Yes you do, love, but for you it is different. You will protect as your mom does, but a little differently. You always in some way know what your mom is feeling, don�t you?�
�Yeah, even if she doesn�t want to admit it. Like her starting to paint again after Cery left. She would think I was asleep, and she would be there crying to herself. She never wanted to leave her, but she did it to make sure that she would be happy and healthy. For all those that she left, she always wonders if she did the right thing. Everything she does, she wonders if it was the right decision, doesn�t she?�
�Yes.� was all that her grandmother could say.
�You mean my mother lives with all that guilt all the time?�
�Yes, Jade. She makes the headstrong reactions she does because she knows she can survive more then any other. She would rather sacrifice herself then to have someone suffer.�
That was when the globe showed her getting into the circle after asking �Do you still accept willing sacrifices?�
�She was willing to end her existence for Baby Bryce, wasn�t she?�
�Yes, she was, and is, for all those she cares about. If she can save them from some sort of suffering, she will do anything.�
Her going to talk to the photographer came like a lightning strike in Jade�s mind. �What am I supposed to do then, Grandma? If I can�t stop her from being bull headed and sticking her nose out too far?�
�What you are supposed to do, little one, is to let her know that it is okay if she can�t save them all, so to speak. That she has done good and will always be able to do good. In time, she will come to you when she feels the things she can�t say to Salem or your father.�
�So, what is this green for, Grandma?�
�There are only two who could read into the souls of all creation. One is me,� said Andrew, �and the other is your Grandmother. You are a new soul, Jade, and with that a new magic was needed. Jade green magic of the soul. You will always be able to see the soul pairings in the universe.�
�Like Mom and Dad?�
�There are others around you. What does your heart tell you?�
�Brett and Mahree,�
�Good.� came her grandmother�s voice.
�Penny and Harry,�
�Yes!� came Adrian�s voice. �I told you!� his arm hitting Death in the ribs. Andrew just smiled at his son.
�Wu and Ba Mai are that way too, aren�t they?�
�Yes, Jade, they are.� her grandmother said with a smile.
It was then that she realized what she had done in killing the man. �Mother always make sure that she knows the people�s name, so that at least there will be one person who does not forget them.� Her heart sank, and she started crying �What have I done, Grandma?� came her tear soaked sobs.
�What you thought was right at the time. Learning the true meaning between justice and revenge is a hard lesson.�
It was then that Jade woke up. Her face was soaked with tears when she went into her sister�s room. She knew her mother was there, watching over a sleeping Alison. �Mom, I have done something terrible.� was all she could say before the tears overwhelmed her. Her mother came over to her then and did something she did not expect.
�I know, Jade. Adrian told me what you did.� Her face was blank and unreadable. �Adrian also told me that he had done many more things that made him worthy of how he died.� Jade didn�t feel any better about it, though. �What have you learned, Jade?� she asked next.
�That even if you have the power to cause death, that you should only use it when you have to.�
�Then, Jade, you have learned the one lesson I could not teach you: that with great power comes great responsibility.� That was when her mom hugged her and said, �Come here, kitten.�
Jade fell asleep next to her mom, sandwiched between her and Allison. Jade woke late that day, it was well after sunrise, nearly eight AM. She got up and went to the bathroom. Her stomach ached from hunger, and it wasn�t for food. She had never felt such a powerful hunger. She was still in Allison�s room, but Allie was gone. She went back to her own room and got dressed. She went downstairs to the kitchen to get herself some dinner. Allison was there- she had her workout clothes on and smelled of sweat. Mom was there too, pouring herself a cup of tea. She managed to get to the refrigerator before the dizziness hit her.
�Is anything wrong?� Allison asked before Jade blacked out. The last sound she heard being that of a china tea cup breaking.