Look, and you shall find it. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Stage 10

Look, and you shall find it. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Miranda took a steadying breath as the now insistent gut-level sensation urged her forward. It felt more pressing now, almost if trying to warn her not to doddle around. Only then did she feel her energy levels waver. She reasoned that since she had been up for twenty hours, the adrenaline rush was starting to erode. Curiously, though, her fatigue had started the moment she stepped into this white hall corridor.

As she walked down the hallway, a voice came out of nowhere.

"You have no authorization to be here."

She looked up and laughed. "I…," why was she so foggy-headed all of a sudden?

"I'm Lieutenant Major Miranda Grey. I was activated by LFC Richard De'Raegon, once the Commanding Officer of the Paradoxical Training Corps, once inducted I would have been an active member of Branch Cell, of the covert and security apparatus. I am here to complete my mission."

There was a brief pause, but this time a woman's voice came over the intercom system. She sounded older, more seasoned by the inflections in her voice.

"You have no authority here, Lieutenant Major. You have never been activated; we have no record of this since you failed your Final Milestone. Go back the way you came or we will use force."

Miranda looked up. She was tired, but even still the fire in her eyes and voice could not be denied. She wasn't about to turn back.

"I'm not going anywhere until I speak with Zechariah Fairchild."

There was an eerie silence for a full minute and half. Miranda was confused by the lack of response, and just as she was about to speak up, a door opened in front of her and a woman, about fifty years in age and dressed completely in white, walked up to Miranda.

"How do you know that name?"

Miranda heard the unmistakable 'click' as the hammer of a pistol was pulled back.

She peered at the older woman with a hint of alarm. "I told you… Richard activated me, he told—"

"Richard died three days ago, how could he have activated you?" There was a strange note of demand in her voice.

"He recorded the message prior to his death and told me to, no, insisted that I give Zechariah Fairchild his PSSX."

The older woman pulled the weapon out of her lab coat. There was something about how this woman held herself that told Miranda she meant business. She didn't doubt the woman also had backup waiting behind the doorway.

"You can't speak to him. He's…" She stopped and shook her head.

The urging in her mind was getting more and more demanding. Her grip on her paradoxical Gift was starting to slip.

"Listen, I have no idea why I came here," said Miranda, her voice betraying a growing panic. "I was going to Dylars' Ditch, but something pushed me this way. I have no other choice, so please just take me to Zechariah now!"

The older woman narrowed her eyes and whistled loudly. Three soldiers rushed in, dressed in full biochemical uniforms.

"Yes, Director Yang?" one intoned.

Director Yang grabbed Miranda by the shoulder with her free hand. She closed her eyes for just a moment, then yanked her hand away like she had just touched a hot stove. There was heightened level of urgency as she barked an order to the lead solider.

"She's a Stage Three! We need to get her out of this room now!"

Moving so quickly Miranda wondered if they were even human, the soldiers picked her up by her legs and arms and carried her through the open door. Miranda was too weak to stop them; the sudden drowsiness she felt was almost too welcoming.

In that same moment she passed through the threshold into the interior of the lab Miranda felt her energy slowly starting to return, but it was too late. She was surely losing control of her paradoxical Gift.

"Let me talk to Zechariah!"

She started to squirm and kick. The sensation was now a full-blown wave of a single emotion.

HURRY.

Director Yang cursed when one of her fellow scientists shouted an order to the guards to get her to quarantine.

"Teresa! We can't let her see him in the quarantine room like this! He'll kill her!"

"We don't have any options, Lin! We only have one operational quarantine room and you know better than anyone that if we don't she'll take us all out!"

Miranda was oddly disinterested by all of this. She didn't know who had responded to what question but she knew that something in that white room had completely sapped her of her all her energy. She looked up at the two scientists.

"What did you fools do to me?! I had it under… control…!"

The Director nodded to the soldiers, reaffirming her subordinate's order to cart Miranda off in a hurry.

"That hallway you were just in has one purpose; it weeds out the Gifted from the paradoxically Gifted."

Miranda stopped struggling and looked up at the woman named Teresa.

To say that she was confused would have been an understatement.

"What the hell do you mean?!"

She gasped as another powerful sensation swept over her.

MIRANDA, HURRY.

Miranda shook her head, as her paradoxical Gift started to manifest. "I suggest you hurry!"

It wasn't a full second later that they stopped and set her on her feet. Director Yang punched in her credentials. There were notable tones of panic in her voice now.

"Director Lin Yang, Paradox Gifted Unit Alpha authorization number 24-Bravo-78. Open quarantine blast door, now!"

On cue the large blast door opened and Miranda was ushered inside. They laid her down on the floor, then the three were out of the room just as the blast doors started to close. She turned to look at the older woman.

"Where is Zechariah?"

Both women had the most terrified looks upon their faces. Just before they exited, the Director spoke up, "You're about to meet him."

The same moment the main door slammed closed, a secondary door opened and she was hit by a blast of energy that was so concentrated and raw, it left a taste of ozone in her mouth. She struggled to her feet and dove out of the small holding room into the larger holding area.

She stood and turned to look at the apparition that haunted this small corner of the world. Her eyes fell upon the large frame of a humanoid shape. A sudden gasp escaped, echoing the pain and terror she felt as a sudden pulsating energy chilled the core of her being. Her cell structure shrieked at the apparition.

The energy distorted everything, particularly the apparition's features. It was like looking at a heat wave. She squinted, but the image remained a shimmering blur. Then the being started speaking.

"…the time has come; the time has passed, the time has come at last…"

It slowly straightened to its full height and took a step forward. Miranda was hit by another wave of raw power, falling to ground and coughing up blood. She was trembling so violently now she could barely force herself to stand.

Miranda couldn't understand what was going on, but her paradoxical power was bubbling up. She felt like she was trying to hold closed a flood hatch of a sinking ship. The growing pressure was enormous.

Miranda's heart pounded, then started to get slower and slower. She looked up and could now make out what she thought was a smile, a crooked half smile. Its apparent warmth was enhanced by the extension of a hand.

Her first instinct was to attack the ghostly being, but something happened when his hand was extended. She experienced what only a Theorist Combat Precognitive could envision. Much like a movie reel being played with various alternate endings, she saw and understood the probabilities of her choices: to attack, to defend, to accept his offered hand. She saw the ways the attack could have been unleashed, if a particular attack would work, and the highest probability of survival.

She coughed again, more blood. She didn't have much time; but the answer that came to her nearly took her breath away.

She stood up. As she squared her shoulders, she looked her adversary - who was most definitely human, right in the eye.

"You're right… this time has come at last…"

Miranda envisioned her power like a blooming flower. In her mind she held the paradoxical Gift as if it were the most fragile piece of china and almost as delicately she released the lock she had so desperately been trying to keep from breaking.

An ancient phrase sprang to mind,

"Cry, 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war."

Miranda unleashed hell.

She gave in to Fate. She opened the gates to the one thing she was trying so hard to contain.

She embodied a figurative black hole; and in this black hole she would consume that wild raw concentrated power into herself.

The creature before her fought, then, in an unprecedented display of stamina, pumped even more power into Miranda's paradoxical Gift.

It was a battle so colossal, the seams of the quarantine room started to buckle outward, a titanic force of wills that threatened to destroy the entire building complex if allowed to continue.

Then Fate intervened again, mercifully granting in that moment a stalemate, a truce.

Miranda suddenly became fully aware of the awesome nature of her power. The more power she absorbed from him, the more control she was granted. As she opened her eyes, she could now distinguish Zechariah's features. She recognized a note of relief over his features as he smiled at her. He started walking to her, reached out his hands and took hers gently in his own. The warmth of his fingertips upon her skin was vivid and acute.

She was exhausted, yet her mind held no rebuke for her current state. She wanted to close her eyes and sleep, but for one moment she looked into his dark green eyes. They were surrounded by purple and seemed to glow and she stared deeply into them, knowing without knowing that he would have the answers to her questions. The man's eyes spoke to her, without words thanked her. She squeezed his hands tightly and tears fell freely from her eyes. She didn't know why all this was happening, but she sensed for the first time that she was exactly where she needed to be, not just finally in control of her own life, but also intimately, and perhaps infinitely, connected to this man before her.

He spoke to her in words that her ears could understand.

"Rest Miranda, you saved me. Now, let me save you…"

Her heart leapt in her chest! That urging emotion, that guiding sensation. That voice! Her inner guide had a name and it was Zechariah Fairchild, a man with a face, a smile, a hand.

Zechariah wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened only because it took her completely by surprise, and only for the fleetest of moments.

Is this a dream? She wondered.

That single thought echoed within her. Willingly, with a small smile on her lips, she murmured, "Zechariah, mission completed."

As she gave herself up to sleep.