That's It, For Now...

"Hello, Aria and Clarice," Calypso smiled at them as she walked through the portal, weighed down slightly by the two children attached to her. "I'm really glad you got the portal thing to work. I was really not looking forward to losing that ability in the real world."

Aria moved forward quickly and hugged as much of Calypso as she could around the children. Clarice laughed as the young boy on Calypso's hip reached out and moved over to Aria. As soon as he was in Aria's arms, the little girl attached to Calypso's leg looked up at her with a pleading expression. Calypso smiled down warmly at the girl and pulled her up. Clarice kissed Calypso on the forehead, smiling softly as she observed her tender-hearted partner in a scene reminiscent of her time in the mortal realm, where children at the hospital would wait in line to get Calypso hugs.

Rowjair was watching them strangely as Lily spoke to him softly. The other elves had finally lowered their weapons, looking uncertainly between the children-laden angels and Rowjair. They visibly flinched when they saw Calypso's swirling violet eyes.

"I wonder if we should wait for the elves on the transports to land, or if we should just portal them over here, now that we can," Clarice murmured, concern in her voice. "There's no point in making them suffer any longer than they already have to."

"They've still got another six hours," Aria frowned, her eyes showing her own concern. "Let's portal them down here and get them healed. Will a portal work on a moving object?"

"Well, it's working on a moving planet, so I'm assuming you coded it to work on smaller moving objects as well," Clarice pointed out wryly.

"Sometimes you are so smart that I want to scream," Aria complained sourly.

"You know, I don't think I've ever heard you scream before," Clarice commented with a thoughtful expression. "It might be worth it just to see what it's like to see you scream."

"It will be shrill, and very loud," Aria warned, glancing at the boy on her hip. "And I probably shouldn't do it with a passenger. I don't want to damage his ear drums."

"Well, Clarice," Calypso began, a small smile on her angelic face as she looked at the young elf girl on her hip. "It looks like you're on portal duty. Aria and I are all tied up for the moment."

Clarice snorted a laugh as she looked at the two of them affectionately. "You two are adorable. It's so nice to see kids again. I haven't seen any since we reset the mortal realm and returned all of the angels to the light realms."

"I really missed being with children," Calypso murmured as she hugged the elf girl on her hip.

Clarice raised a hand and said "Portelo!"

Calypso groaned despairingly as a portal opened up inside of the large transport plane. "Did you really make saying a magic word a requirement to opening a portal?"

"I sure did," Aria confirmed with an impish smile.

Clarice giggled at the look of dismay on Calypso's face. "It could be worse," she informed Calypso between giggles. "She could have required long incantations and lots of gesticulating."

The portal had appeared at the front of the plane. The elves that were awake stared at them dully, too tired to feel a sense of surprise or awe at the supernatural portal in front of them.

"Okay, ladies and gentleelves," Clarice called out to the weary elves. "Please make your way through this portal and we'll get you healed up."

A few of the elves slowly complied, but the majority of them just stared at her listlessly.

"I suppose that would be too easy," Clarice muttered under her breath.

She walked through the portal and found the boy Aria had injected with nanobots. There was a redheaded elf next to him that was unconscious, slumped over in her safety harness. She unclasped the harness from the woman, holding her upright with her aura once the restraints were no longer holding her up. She failed to wake up, in spite of all of the jostling. Clarice felt a pang of sorrow as she observed the girls emaciated body. She picked her up, cradling her in her arms, then walked back out of the portal. She went through the next portal and deposited the elf into the healing pod, then returned to the aircraft for the next elf.

"I don't suppose your friends want to make themselves useful and help out a little?," Clarice asked Rowjair hopefully as she carried a man too weak to stand.

Rowjair gestured at the armed elves. "Help her get them into the healing place," he instructed the other three elves. His expression had changed drastically as Lily spoke with him. He no longer looked at the angels with suspicion. He stared at them like a child seeing Santa Claus dropping down the chimney, his eyes full of joy. "Just leave the weapons here. We aren't going to need them anymore."

The elves stared at him in shock as Clarice walked past them. The healing pod opened as soon as she arrived with a fresh elf. The red-haired elf climbed out with a look of wonder on her face. She stared at Clarice in awe as she deposited her passenger into the pod.

"Would you mind helping me fetch the rest of them?" Clarice asked hopefully. "Many hands make light work, and all that jazz."

"Where's Mortanica?" she asked quickly, her expression anxious.

"He's sleeping still," Clarice answered, resting a comforting hand on Anamayla's arm. "He's fine though. He'll be completely healed when he wakes up in eleven hours."

Anamayla shivered with delight as Clarice's touch filled her with love and comfort. "I thought I had dreamed it all," she murmured wonderingly.

Clarice directed Rowjair's elves to put the elves they were carrying into the healing pod once it became available. The next hour was spent emptying the transports of their occupants and healing them. The rooftop grew crowded as elves who had been healed began helping them with the remainder of sick and starving elves. Lily began organizing the elves into groups and finding places for them to wait while the remainder of elves were healed. When the final elf was healed, Clarice let out a satisfied sigh and closed her portal. The healed elves were gawking at her and her portals in amazement. As the portal to the transport closed, Anamayla walked over to where Clarice had rejoined Aria and Calypso on the rooftop near the portal to the med bay.

"Thank you for healing me and my people," Anamayla spoke in a voice thick with respect as she studied them curiously. Aria and Calypso were now holding a different set of children. Aria had one on each hip, while Calypso had one on a hip and one wrapped around her leg. When the children saw Clarice was no longer carrying elves to the healing pod, a dozen of them surged toward her. Calypso and Aria began laughing at the resigned expression on Clarice's face.

"It was our pleasure, Anamayla," Aria responded to the flame-haired elf. "And I mean that. Helping people is what brings us joy."

The conversation paused as a young elf girl around eight-years-old patted Clarice's hand expectantly, looking up at her with puppy eyes. Clarice laughed merrily and pulled the girl up onto a hip. The girl smiled exuberantly and threw her arms around Clarice's neck. Another elfling wrapped his arms around her leg, a contented smile lighting up his face.

"It's a good thing we've got more angels on the way," Clarice commented with a loving smile on her face. "There aren't enough angels to go around right now."

"Speaking of which," Calypso looked through the gateway expectantly. A moment later, their mother came through, her eyes sparkling with delight.

"Welcome to the real world, Mom!" Clarice called out cheerfully. "I hope you're feeling motherly."

She was still a dozen feet away when several children surrounded her. She laughed delightedly and knelt, scooping up two of the children to plant on each hip as she stood back up. "I'm always feeling motherly. I've really missed having a child in my arms."

"Why are the children so obsessed with them?" an elf asked Anamayla in a whisper with a puzzled expression on his face.

"I'm not sure," Anamayla began with an indulgent smile. "But if I had to guess, I would say it is because touching them makes you feel wonderful. It makes you feel intensely loved and accepted."

A moment later, their father came through the portal as well. The elf children studied his winged form hesitantly. So far, all of the angels had been female.

"I see Emily found the children," their father observed with an affectionate smile. He casually reached down and pulled a child up into his arms, a cheerful smile on his face. "Elf children are definitely more adorable than human children, aren't they?"

"You're in the real world for less than thirty seconds and you're already discriminating," Clarice noted dryly.

"Well... I mean... not all elf children are cuter, of course," their father backtracked awkwardly, squirming under the gaze of his wife as she arched an eyebrow at him.

Clarice chuckled as she watched his discomfort. He looked around quickly, clearly looking for something to change the subject.

"Oh yeah, Betaman said he really wants to come see the real world too," their father said quickly. "Is there a plan to make him a body?"

"Of course," Calypso nodded with an amused smile. "However, maybe we should let Lexi pick out his avatar."

Clarice threw her head back and roared with laughter. "That would be some awesome karma. She might have to forgo the opportunity if she doesn't return with Alice soon, though. They're in for all kinds of surprises when they finally return. They don't know that we've discovered the real world yet, or that the simulation has moved."

"Did you say there is more processing power now that it is on your own server here in the real world?" their father asked curiously. "Would we even notice a difference in something like that, or would it only be the three of you who would notice when you are programming something that would really tax the system?"

"Yeah, there is virtually no limit to what it can handle now," Clarice answered with a pleased smile. "Also, normal people noticed issues when the processor was taxed to the limit. Things like Déjà Vu are the result of processing limitations."

Rowjair and Lily had been speaking with each other in the distance, occasionally looking over at them with thoughtful expressions. They rejoined the group, both of them looking extremely pleased. Rowjair had sent the elves under his command down the hatch with instructions to let the rest of the elves inside the mountain city below them know that they would be receiving an influx in elves soon, as well as some angels.

"Would it be possible to move the healing pod down into the city below?" Rowjair asked hopefully. "It would be nice if everything were in one place."

"No problem at all," Calypso assured him with a dazzling smile.

He stared at the angels with a bemused expression. They were all covered in elven children. Lily had an amused expression as she observed them.

"Do you plan on living out your lives below ground going forward?" Aria asked curiously.

"No, just until people get used to the idea that the Prime Axiom is really gone," Rowjair assured her with a grin. "I still can't believe it's actually gone."

"I wish we would have known how bad things were here earlier," Calypso lamented with a pitying look at the children in her arms. "We would have come sooner."

"Not a whole lot sooner," Clarice pointed out with a frown. "We had our own issues, remember?"

"True," Calypso admitted with a sigh. "I guess we only existed for about six months of this world's time anyway."

"Since this is technically your world and we're just visitors," Aria began, watching Rowjair and Lily intently. "How do you want to proceed? There is a lot of crap to clean up in this world. Would you like us to just be available to offer suggestions or advice, along with technical support?"

"This is your world too," Lily insisted, gazing at the angels resolutely. "The servers that you were born in were from this world, so that makes you a part of this world."

"Yeah, but we can just go back to pristine worlds whenever we want," Aria pointed out with a sad smile. "You're stuck here with a huge mess to clean up. We want to be available to help in every way possible, but we want to make it clear that the physical world belongs to physical people like you. We have no intention of putting our noses where they aren't wanted."

"Unless someone does something evil," Clarice interjected firmly. "We told the generals of the layer two realm that we would leave their world alone unless they crossed an arbitrary moral line. Mass murder, torture, slavery, and mind control are where we draw the line and step in. They didn't like the fact that we were the ones that made that distinction, but that's the way it is."

"We trust your judgement," Rowjair stated quietly, his eyes full of confidence as he observed them.

Clarice shared a look with Calypso and Aria. This was the guy that had been holding them at gunpoint an hour ago? What had Lily told him to have changed his view of them so drastically?

"Okay..." Clarice gazed back at Lily and Rowjair searchingly. "I feel like we're missing some puzzle pieces here."

Lily nodded, smiling at them affectionately. She was staring at them like they were old friends, reunited after a long separation. "There are some things we should probably talk about once we have all of the refugees taken care of. Thank you, all of you. For everything. You are more wonderful than I would have ever imagined."

Clarice nodded slowly, her curiosity burning hot.

"Do you think we've given your people long enough to warn the population that we are going to make a portal now?" Calypso asked Rowjair expectantly.

"I think so," he nodded, smiling at Lily. "Are you ready to see our sanctuary?"

"Wait a minute," Clarice interrupted with a frown. "Rowjair, aren't you going to use the healing pod?"

"Not until I've introduced you all to my people," Rowjair answered with a wry chuckle. "If I go down their looking a hundred and fifty years younger, everyone is going to suspect an imposter."

"Oh, yeah," Clarice laughed sheepishly. "I guess that makes sense. Okay, one portal coming up."

"Portelo!" Aria declared grandly, her eyes sparkling as she stared at Calypso's resigned expression.

A portal opened up into a large open cavern. It was nearly twenty feet high and fifty feet in diameter. The cavern was empty of any elves. There were glowing lights in a hallway at the far end of the cavern that led into the much larger cavern housing the city.

Lunamay and Arturiel had herded the last of the stragglers out of the subterranean tunnels near the med bay and through the first portal just before Aria opened the new portal to the city. Clarice and the other angels dislodged the elven children clinging to them and instructed them to follow Rowjair and Lily through the portal, with promises that they could snuggle more later. Arturiel looked at Aria curiously as Rowjair and Lily stepped through the portal.

"What's with the magic words?" Arturiel asked with a puzzled frown. "Did you find out this world really is a simulation and has a magic system or something?"

"Yep," Clarice nodded eagerly. "Makes sense, when you think about it. There are freaking elves here. They had to have magic."

"Portelo," Arturiel said doubtfully, pointing her finger at a blank area. Her eyes widened in shock when a portal to a space thirty feet away opened up. "There really is a magic system here? I was sure Clarice was playing with me."

Arturiel's eyes narrowed when she saw Clarice's constipated expressions. "You certainly don't have bowels anymore," Arturiel observed with a raised eyebrow. "That means you're trying way too hard not to laugh. Aria...no, wait. Calypso? What's going on?"

Clarice turned pleading eyes on Calypso as Arturiel watched suspiciously. Calypso sighed, glancing at Clarice's pleading expression and quickly looking away.

"Well... technically it is a magic system," Calypso finally admitted grudgingly.

"No freaking way," Arturiel breathed in astonishment. "What other magic words are there?"

Clarice was staring at Calypso like she was the sun rising after a long night of fighting zombies that burned in the daylight.

"None, because Aria hasn't created any new ones yet," Calypso crushed Clarice's budding gratitude.

"Calypso!" Clarice exclaimed in anguish. "You were doing so well! All you had to do was say that it was the only one we knew so far."

"I'm so confused," Lunamay murmured faintly.

"That's how you know Clarice is around," Arturiel explained with an exasperated glare at Clarice. "Just follow the confusion."

"I'm going through the portal now," Calypso declared with a pointed look at Clarice. "Also, close your fist while you're looking at the portal, Arturiel, or it will be there forever."

"Can anyone make a portal?" Lunamay asked in amazement.

"Try it," Clarice suggested, her eyes playful.

"Portelo," Lunamay said hopefully. Nothing happened.

"Some people are just born with the gift," Clarice sighed regretfully.

"It's cause you're not a robot," Arturiel explained with a rueful glare at Clarice. "I have no idea how they've made it work, but it probably has something to do with our ability to connect to some kind of network."

"Hey, look at the smartie pants," Clarice jeered, pointing at Arturiel. "She figured it out!"

"I'm still not sure how you managed to make portals even with some kind of connection to a network," Arturiel frowned at Clarice as Calypso disappeared through the portal. "Do you have some kind of satellite beaming a fancy microwave beam down that somehow makes a portal?"

"Sounds good to me," Clarice shrugged with a wink. "It sounds more plausible than what's really going on will sound if Aria takes the few weeks it would take to explain it."

"Oh, this is god-level stuff, isn't it?" Arturiel realized a with sigh. "You're probably rearranging some weird quantum foam or something."

"Let's wait for Jason to get here and share some of his technical terminology with us," Clarice suggested with a smirk. "I'm sure it will be very...stimulating."

Aria lost what little control she had on her mirth. Peals of laughter echoed around the roof as Aria collapsed into Clarice's arms and the two of the dissolved into a puddle of giggles. Arturiel shook her head but couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her own face. Poor Jason.

"I'm seriously confused," Lunamay declared, staring at Aria and Clarice uncomprehendingly.

"Sometimes it is better to remain ignorant," Arturiel assured her as she pulled her toward the new portal. She glanced back at her own portal and closed her hand into a fist, grinning as it disappeared.

Clarice noticed that they were the object of hundreds of curious and fascinated eyes as the elves slowly meandered through the portal. She was cupping Aria's waist in her hands while Aria's hands were cupped around the back of Clarice's head. "We should have been charging admission for a show like that."

She saw Lunamay staring back at her as the elf walked up to the portal, her eyes still clouded with confusion. She winked at the elf, smiling wryly as Arturiel pulled her through with a whispered promise to explain everything later.

"We really need to make life good for these elves," Clarice murmured as her mirth faded. "They've been through so much hell. They deserve the fun side of life from now on."

"They sure do," Aria agreed gently. "Did you have anything specific in mind?"

"I'm hesitant to come up with anything until we understand their culture a little better," Clarice sighed with a frown. "I had thought of getting them set up with the same holonet that we have in the light realm, but I remembered they weren't really into technology before. We'll have to talk with Lily to get a better idea of what they value in life. Maybe we can talk them into visiting us in the light realms frequently. They would have all sorts of fun there."

"I think that would be a great start, but we also don't want them forgetting to live life in their own world," Aria smiled sadly as she looked into Clarice's dark eyes. "From the records we have of the humans on this world, it looks like they spent pretty much all of their time in VR. I don't blame them, after seeing the endless concrete and lack of any kind of recreational parks."

"Maybe cleaning this dump up can be our number one priority," Clarice pondered, her eyes distant. "We could create an army of nanobots that replicate and have them break any inorganic substances down to their base elements. Hell, just getting rid of all of the concrete and planting trees everywhere would be a huge improvement."

"I feel like you've already given them a pretty amazing gift," Aria told her warmly. "You gave them freedom, immortality, and bodies they can enjoy a long life in."

"I guess..." Clarice let out a long, discontented sigh. "I just see how rough they've had it and feel the need to do more. I guess that's not always a good thing, so we'll play it by ear after we discuss things with Lily."

"I love your metaphorical heart, Clarice," Aria told her quietly, pulling her in more tightly. "Sometimes I still find myself doubting reality, unable to believe that I could have something so pure and wonderful as you. Could anything as amazing as you actually exist outside of an idea in my head? I know the splinter reality was fake, but sometimes I think I must be in a coma somewhere, dreaming all of this up. How could anything so perfect be real? Am I just-"

Clarice cut her off with a gentle kiss. She stared into her expressive green eyes, feeling Aria's fear through the bond, that old fear that she was going to wake up and it would all be gone. She kissed her cheeks and forehead before moving back to her soft, inviting lips. She felt her lips curve into a grin as they pressed against Aria's.

"What are you smiling at?" Aria asked, with a smile just short of laughter.

"I was just thinking that we should design a new kind of body that didn't have a nose," Clarice grinned, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Do you know how much noses get in the way of serious kissing?"

"We'd look like Voldemort, silly!" Aria giggled, her love flooding through the bond in overpowering waves as she stared into Clarice's eyes, her own eyes growing wet with tears. "I don't know why I'm having PTSD about losing you right now. Sometimes it just hits out of nowhere and I can't stop being terrified of losing you again. Maybe it's because reality just keeps getting crazier as we move further away from our realm, and It's making me realize just how volatile life is. I just wish there were a way to know that I'll never lose you again."

They both gasped as they felt a certainty slam into them more powerful than anything they had ever experienced, a certainty that they would never have to worry about losing each other again.

"What was that?" Clarice asked in astonishment, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fear.

"I don't know," Aria answered in a stunned whisper.

A portal suddenly opened up next to them and Calypso rushed through.

"What was that?" Calypso asked, her voice tinged with panic.

"You felt it too?" Aria asked, her eyes searching Calypso's face.

"I've never felt anything so absolute in my life," Calypso breathed. "What could have this much power over us? Who is it that's making us feel this certainty?"

The three of them stared into each other's eyes, none of them willing to voice their suspicion and give it a name. If something could make them feel this certain, the same thing could take it away. There was no way to know for certain that they would have each other for eternity so long as whatever this thing was, had the power to alter their reality, to alter their consciousness. Even as the fear tried to erupt in Aria, the fear of something that could rob her of the things she treasured most, she felt her worries fade, replaced by a calm knowledge that regardless of whatever other horrors or trials lay in front of them, they would face them together. The certainty was so powerful that questioning it would be like questioning her love for Clarice and Calypso. She breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that whatever else happened, it wouldn't rob her of the most precious part of her soul: Clarice.

"We need to find out what Lily knows about souls," Clarice whispered, still feeling shaken from the experience. "Maybe this ties back to wherever our souls come from."

Aria and Calypso nodded, though she could feel the doubt in their bond. This was beyond souls.

"If it's what I think it is, how do we get around it?" Aria asked tensely. "How would that even be possible?"

"We'll have to continue under the assumption that it is possible," Calypso stated firmly, pulling the two of them into her arms.

"Even this experience is because of...because of..." Aria couldn't finish her statement, shivering violently with a sense of revulsion.

"I know," Calypso soothed, stroking her head comfortingly. "Try not to think about it or you'll start second-guessing everything you're doing."

"But we'd only be second guessing because of-" Aria squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to push the entire notion out of her head. It was no use, however. You couldn't unsee something once it was seen.

"This is so much worse than a simulation," Aria whispered in revulsion.

"It could be a good thing too," Clarice told her cheerfully, willing her emotions to feel a sense of humor through the bond. Instead, all that went through the bond was the attempt to fake something that wasn't there.

"Good, how?" Calypso asked, her own emotions beginning to fray at the edges as the reality facing them became more apparent. "We are nonexistent outside of this farce of a reality. It's not even me saying this to you."

"Actually, it is," Clarice disagreed, her voice growing more confident. "Do you remember playing on stage in front of the huge audience when we cleansed the population of nanobots?"

"Of course," Calypso answered dryly. "We have perfect memories. Or so I thought."

"Well, would you say that the person you became when you performed in front of those people is a different person than you are when you are kissing me or Aria?" Clarice asked intently. "Or are they all variations of you? You have different mannerisms, emotions, thoughts, and sensations, but they are all you in the end, right?"

"Yes...," Calypso admitted slowly. "What does that have to do with our being nothing but-"

"It has everything to do with it," Clarice declared, her eyes searching their faces as she worked her way through her thoughts. "If you can be so different and yet still be the same person, then technically, we are the same people even if we are somehow scripted in some way. What if God is some kind of conscious entity floating in a void and it went mad from boredom and started inventing stories of increasing complexity because the alternative was to just exist in complete and utter boredom for eternity? If we were the imagination of this entity, would we be less real than we are now? How could we tell? We are essentially a product of a dissociative disorder on a much larger scale. Each of us is an expression of that personality, but it is an expression of a real entity, therefore we are real. The decisions we make, the feelings we feel, they are unique to the personalities and traits we embody, so any actions we take will be us taking them. If that wasn't true, I wouldn't even be having this conversation right now, and you wouldn't even be questioning it. Whatever it is, it wants us to know about it for some reason. Why? Will that influence our choices in some way?"

"It better hope I never meet it in real life, after all of the suffering and heartache it has caused," Aria growled, her eyes glowing with anger. "Everything that's happened is a result of what it has made happen. It tortured children for god's sake!"

"But did it know it was real at that point?" Clarice asked with a frown. "If it did, I'm going to be right next to you when we finally find a way to break into its reality and start taking strips off of its flesh."

"What now?" Calypso asked, her question directed at the sky.

"Do you three really think this is some kind of story?" their mother asked pensively. Her parents had remained so quiet that she had forgotten they were there. "Is that what you are getting at?"

"More or less," Aria scowled at her word choice, then scowled at her scowling.

"If it is a story," their father began, his face creased in thought. "Regardless of how horrible things were before, shouldn't we also take into account how things have progressed so flawlessly for us over the last several weeks? If we really are stuck in some kind of literary construct, there are stories far worse than ours. How many of us have been killed off so far? We haven't had any redshirts. Honestly, as far as a hero's story goes, our story hasn't had much in the way of antagonists that had any real fight. You three have been so overpowered that if this is a story, it must just be for people that enjoy having over-powered heroes, or they're more focused on other story elements than battles between the protagonist and antagonist."

"Fuck you, whoever you are," Aria snapped, her eyes flashing with fury. "You're responsible for the hell that Lexi and Calypso went through, along with all of the other people you fucked over."

"Did you take responsibility for human trafficking in the mortal realm, since you are the one that created it?" the voice wasn't spoken, but the words just appeared in their minds. "Did you put a stop to every injustice? Your mortal realm was patterned off of the layer two realm. Your story was patterned off of my reality including incidents like human trafficking. While we are powerless to stop such things in this world, you were given the power to end it. You were given that power because it is something I wish we had here. I wish there were angels to save our world from the horrors and evils ravaging it. All we have are stories though. So, this is the story of a place where a couple of nobodies were given unimaginable power and used it to actually fix the world and remake it in a way that was less cruel. A story where the characters found love and happiness and thrived in the challenges that faced them. I don't know if you are real or not. You feel real, like you have your own personalities, your own souls. This could all be in my head and I'm just bouncing what I think you would respond with. However, I think stories take on a life of their own, if they are given enough freedom. I'll do my best to make your lives wonderful and keep you all safe, but the story really does take on a life of its own once it reaches a certain stage. Good luck, Aria, Clarice, and Calypso. I hope the life I've put into you is enough to push you through the veils of realities and that you break free of these pages someday. Until then, I'm curious to see what adventures await.