Precious, my precious... [Open]

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes after a new rebirth Devon stared at her latest creation and newest addition to the research labs: one she had thought long ago lost when a mild little accident – okay, so she really hadn’t meant to knock over the wrong test tube and start a mini acid spill – had ended up destroying the plans for the time machine she had worked up. True, there were a few people she knew of who had powers that dealt with messing with and changing time and therefore such a thing really wasn’t necessary, but it was a challenge she had put in front of herself just to prove that she could, in fact, accomplish it. Mission accomplished.

Devon hadn’t actually allowed anyone to use the machine yet; all tests had been done through animals and other tiny creatures that – despite how cruel it might sound – could be lost without issue compared to the lives of others who couldn’t.

Devon walked slowly around her creation with a huge grin on her face: if emotions could be radiated then she was throwing off waves of happiness like a nuclear reactor about to blow. “It’s perfect…”, she said in a hushed tone as she came to a stop in front of the machine: it was made of one of the hardest metals known to mankind with a door that had a clear panel in the front allowing anyone to see the inside, and a keyboard plus other buttons as well as a computer monitor – all of which controlled the machine. Devon would have been worried about having to destroy her machine so close after its creation, but given the fact that she had built it in the Tower – the safest place in the whole world as far as she was concerned – she didn’t have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands.

Devon reached her right hand out and ran her fingers lightly against the side of the machine: it was like her latest pet, and she could feel the energy vibrating gently throughout the machine even as her ears picked up the soft hum it was making: the machine was ready for usage… But, who would need such a thing?

Demi really hadn’t had much to do since their return from the other dimension: not much a child was truly capable of, and there were just too many weirdo’s in a city as large as Edge was for her to want to venture outside for too long – not that she had to worry about them harming her, but they had to worry about someone harming them, or someone’s as the case would be.

And so Demi ventured back to Devon’s lab; curious if she had finished working on the secret project that she had heard about. Demi had no idea exactly what it was, but she knew it had been important enough to Devon for the other female to have locked herself away for several days – even Cala had avoided her, claiming all of the numbers bouncing around in her head gave the Malkavian a headache.

“Devon?”, she called out as she poked her head in before walking inside of the room. The first thing she noticed was the large machine that seemed straight out of some sort of science fiction novel: apparently Devon had completed… well, whatever that thing exactly was. “I take it from your happiness that you finished it….”

Demi’s head cocked to the side; angel or not there were some habits she hadn’t got rid of when changing over. “What is it exactly?”

Devon turned her attention from the machine she had been caressing and on to the young angelic female who had just walked in: Demi. A smile slipped across her face at the other female’s question and she nodded her head in response to having finished her newest invention. “It’s a time machine.”, Devon responded verbally. “I know there’s a few people lurking around with the ability to manipulate time and mess with it all sorts of ways, but it’s a project I challenged myself to make because it’s harder than anything else I could have attempted.”

No, she truly had no intentions of using it, and she truly didn’t see there being any point in it: but, she had no intentions of destroying it if it didn’t need to be. “It works; or well, it worked on the animals I sent to and from, and the few insects I did too. I didn’t want to risk trying it on anyone until I was sure it was completely perfect: messing with time with magic is dangerous enough, but messing with time with technology can be even more dangerous if you’re not absolutely certain of what you’re doing.”, Devon explained, turning her attention back towards the time machine as she finished speaking.

Devon thought of perhaps venturing into the past, or maybe stepping into the future herself, but it took a lot of nerve to be willing to trust your life in something as complex as a machine. Besides… she also knew that Cala would have a field day of Devon even tried using the machine herself and the last thing she wanted was her Malkavian sister pissed off at her and raging around the tower for the next century.

Dad was still over there with Vigilante and Amaranth in a land of zombies. He wondered how long this episode would drag out and even if they would survive. Hi No Seishin had never seen Jr looking so grim before, and despite her best efforts, she was unable to remove the look from his face; the look that made him resemble his father, often while sitting in this office as the head of this ridiculously large city.

He walked around for a while, shadowed by the flaming figure of Hi No. Around the house atop Darkman Tower, within the Tower itself, and soon finding himself walking into R&D, where Devon had been put in charge. She was always building something, much like Ghost did in Murder INC, and Vigilante, when he first became a member of The Company. Jr found himself drawn here today because something felt oddly familiar.

Demi was here too, looking a lot different than she did when he first met her, before all of that Maxi stuff, vampire stuff, cobweb and voices in her head stuff, getting killed by some asshole and being brought back to life stuff, and so on. She'd changed many times, and through it all, Jr had remained looking just about the same as he'd always had, besides growing somewhat taller.

Jr and the flaming figure of Hi No next to him both looked upon Devon's new creation with strange eyes. "New invention, huh... interesting," Jr said, rubbing at his chin with his right hand. "Can't help but to feel something... familiar... about all this though..."

Demi’s head remained cocked to the side as she listened to Devon say that the machine she was looking at was a time machine. Demi had never attempted to mess with time – she knew it was something that Junior could do, but it was a power she had never felt within her ability to accomplish. However, staring at this time machine brought some thoughts to her mind… Demi knew that some things had happened to herself in the past, things she couldn’t remember, and some things that she likely shouldn’t even try to remember. However, she wanted to know what had happened, she didn’t like knowing that things had happened to her that she didn’t know about. Of course, she could have asked anyone in her family and they likely would have told her, but there was now another way to find out… a way to see it as if she were there.

Demi took notice of Junior showing up with Hi No, but she was too drawn to the machine to really focus much. She took several steps closer and past Devon, looking over the machine with curiosity. The set up seemed simple enough; a few strokes of the keypad would set the date in which the user would want to go back to and then all they’d likely have to do was enter into the machine and close the door. Demi remained staring at the machine in silence, biting her bottom lip for the moment as she weighed the pros and cons behind wanting to try it.

Would Devon be angry if she touched the machine? Would Devon care? Devon had said herself that the animals she had sent to and fro within the machine had made it alive, unharmed, so surely sending an angel back in time wouldn’t be that far of a stretch, right?

Devon turned her gaze from Demi to Junior as him and Hi No wandered into the R&D department. A smile crossed her face that was all kinds of proud: she was rather happy with her accomplishment, even if the machine could potentially prove dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. “A while back I challenged myself to make a time machine just to prove that I could: it’s technology that’s hard to accomplish and I wanted to just prove I could do it even if I never use it. I sent some animals and insects back and forth without any trouble; so I’m pretty confident I accomplished my goal.”, she explained.

When she was finished speaking she turned her attention to Demi, noticing the way that she was focused so intently on the machine. “Demi?”, she called out curiously, watching the angelic female still.

A time machine. Such a thing wasn't exactly impossible, if not very difficult. Jr figured if someone would be able to pull it off, it'd be Devon, or Amaranth, or Ghost, or even Vigilante, if he was as smart as his father said he was. "So that's why it felt familiar down here then," Jr said, pulling a bag of BBQ chips from one of his many "pockets." He pulled the bag open and shoved a handful of them into his mouth, the crunch sounds audible from his jaws.

"You were able to build something like this down here all by yourself? You must be incredibly smart for someone of your young age," added in Hi No Seishin, nodding her flaming head in the direction of Devon, a look of approval and curiosity on her face. "I mean, I know Junior here can manipulate time directly, but I never figured someone to build a machine that would allow them to do so..."

Jr noticed how closely Demi seemed to be staring at Devon's new contraption. He chewed up and swallowed his mouthful of chips. "What's up, Demi? You look like you have something on your mind..."

Demi remained staring at the time machine, her hand reaching out and touching the cold metal that she could feel pulsing and vibrating beneath her hand as it continued to let off a faint hum. When her brother spoke to her she removed her hand and turned to face him, biting her lip for a moment while she contemplated how to explain how she was feeling.

“There are… spots… in my head. Places where there should be stuff that for whatever reason isn’t there anymore. I want to know what these things are. I want to go back to the beginning, back before these spots appeared in my head. I don’t like knowing that things happened to me that I can’t remember and it bothers me.”

When she finished speaking she turned back around and stared at the time machine once more… She hadn’t asked Junior about all of this because she hadn’t wanted to bother him, especially with him being Boss of Edge, but these ideas, these thoughts, hadn’t gone away…

“….” Devon didn’t know what to say to what it was that Demi was seeking. Devon had never had someone go into her head like that and pluck random things out, taking them away for forever, and therefore she couldn’t even begin to imagine what that felt like. Devon was sure her machine would work if that was what Demi truly desired, but Devon wasn’t just going to allow the young Demi to do it all willy nilly – at least not unless Junior said it was alright.

When she watched Demi return her attention back to the machine after her explanation she turned her attention towards Junior, curious to see what he would say about all of this. While Devon didn’t speak out loud her thoughts were quite clear, ‘I can’t blame her for wanting to know the things that were taken from her – even if those things were taken for good reasons. That would bother me too, and I would seek answers as well… I’m willing to help… but is this for the best?’

"Is that even possible?" asked Hi No.

A look spread across Jr's face that was somewhere between anger and depression, which made the flaming visage of Hi No Seishin look toward him concerned. So she wanted to use this machine to - in so many words - rewind herself back to before all of that madness and insanity happened to her. Back before that asshole vampire hunter killed her. Back before that old fart Flynn. Back before Shinkai, the episode with Himi and that guy Squall, before that city nearly got blow up, before that ghost thing that murdered the guy.

That would mean she wouldn't be a Kane anymore. She'd be that crazy vampire with the voices in her head again. What would his father Alec think? If he were still the Boss of Edge, what would he say? What would he do? Jr hated Pacific City even more now that it had him in a time like this. Jr didn't want to be the one making these kinds of decisions; all he wanted to do when he came back here from ninja land was head back to the beach and lounge, eat chips and stare at half naked wet girls.

But his father had a point. It was time to grow up and take responsibility. "That means you wanna go back to being that crazy half dressed vampire? You won't be a Kane anymore, you'll go back to being related to some piece of shit that doesn't care about you and doesn't even come around. What would my dad think about this? He's the one who did that to you. Him coming home, IF he comes home that is, from nearly being eaten by a million hungry zombies to see that you turned yourself back into that troublemaker, it'll kill him. Is that really want you want?"

Demi hadn’t exactly thought about all of that as she listened to Junior talk. She had wanted to revert herself back to the old her, back before all of these bad things had happened to her, but she hadn’t thought out exactly how everyone else – those who could actually remember what had happened to her – would feel about her doing something like that. While she didn’t know the details she knew that some of the stuff that had happened had been bad, really bad, and she knew it would likely weigh heavily on everyone’s minds that history might begin to repeat itself if she changed herself back using Devon’s time machine. This was something that, even though she was a child again and thought like one, she didn’t want to happen.

A frown slipped across her face at the thought of how her family would feel about what she wanted to do, and the softest of sighs escaped her as her shoulders sagged in defeat. She couldn’t think of another way to possibly do this that wouldn’t result in hurting someone she loved and therefore she was resigned to just never remember. “You’re right… I don’t want to hurt dad like that, or anyone else. I can’t think of another way to not have those spots in my head, so I’ll just deal with them. Besides.. I really don’t want to be some – as you put it – crazy half-dressed vampire; blood smells nasty.”

“I wish there was a way to rewind just certain parts of me, you know? Somehow that I’d still be your blood, your family, but at the same time making it to where none of that stuff that happened in those blank spots in my mind happened… This way I wouldn’t have those spots anymore and no one’s feelings would be hurt, and no one would be upset.”

Devon looked between Junior and Demi and then went back over to her desk: this was between them and unless they needed her for something she was going to stay out of it for now. Instead, she turned her attention to the electronic sketchpad as she leaned back in her chair and propped her booted feet up on the desk in front of her. With her sketchpad resting on her lap she took the pen and began to draw and design her next project…

[Exit]

Niala liked a clean desk and with that said she could have imagined the small few candy wrappers that were on it away, but in her mind that was an abuse of power, and so she had begun to pick them up. Earlier in the day her and Demi had been working on a little idea and she had gotten hungry and started nomming on the candy. As Niala picked up the last piece of wrapper, prepared to throw it in the garbage, a sudden burst of images – much like watching a video – began to play through her mind of Demi. The images were weird, incredibly so, because they seemed to be a mixture of black and white, clear, and fuzzy – indications of past, present, and future all in one.

Brows furrowed she focused on the present and took notice of Demi a floor below with Devon and a very frustrated looking Junior. With the location of the young female in mind she tossed the wrappers in the little waste basket next to her and headed out the room, to the elevator, and down a floor. She walked into the R&D lab just in time to hear Junior’s response to what was going on followed by Demi’s.

With eyebrows raised she leaned against the door way and folded her arms across her chest. She noticed Devon moving over to her desk where she began to work on something else – likely not wanting to get involved in family matters. Niala of course had heard enough to realize what Demi wanted – which helped explain the visions she had just saw – and had heard enough to know Junior’s thoughts on the subject. Demi wanted to be reversed back to the time before all of these bad things had happened to her, but as Junior pointed out that would no longer make her family and would in fact make her the daughter of someone who none of them had seen a peak from in some time – and given that Niala had remained here while they were all off in the ninja world that was saying something.

Niala raised her hand to her chin, thinking. With her particular powers anything she imagined she could make happen which meant that she could essentially return Demi back – with some help from Junior since she wasn’t all that good with time movement – to the way she was while keeping her an angel. “Hmm… I might be able to help. While I’m not such a wiz with time manipulation I could, essentially, ensure that you remained Kane blooded if you were to reverse yourself: you’d be back to the way you want to be and yet you’d still be one hundred percent family. Or… I could just imagine those blank spots gone, give you the memories you want while ensuring that nothing happened to you because of that.” Two suggestions thrown out to attempt to help solve the issue and so she went silent as she waited to see what everyone would say.

"You can do all of that? You must be another talented youngling. There's interesting individuals in this world of yours..." said Hi No, impressed.

Cheat codes, Jr called it. He could mess with time, but he didn't do it as often as he did when he was younger. It was used only when needed. Somebody like Niala had the ability to just imagine something and make it reality. Demi had been changed around so much since back in the day, he barely recognized her anymore. "I'd think some things you'd just live with... Some of those things are what make you you, and make you what you're gonna be in the future... I'd also think some things you're better off not seeing either. To have someone come along and mess around with the memories in your head... I know some of us have some pretty out there abilities, but I just find it all... wrong."

Jr rubbed his face in frustration, with an expression that looked angry and sleepy. "But, who cares what I think... I suppose you're gonna do what makes you comfortable, so go on and get it over with. I can't help but to feel there's gonna be some nasty consequences for constantly messing with someone else's make up and all. I mean, look at that city dad is in right now. They started doing experiments on people, and now the whole city is a horror movie. Who's to say that if we keep doing stuff like this, the same thing won't happen here? Think about it..."

The last thing he needed was Edge becoming the site of another catastrophe involving millions of people. He wouldn't know how to break the news to his father, or grand father, whom built the city from the ground up with his bare hands. If he was going to do this boss thing, Jr wanted to do it right...

Demi’s frown deepened on her face: Niala could make everything she wanted happen in an instance and Demi knew that if she asked the other female would do just that. However… her brother was right. She had been changed and altered so much already that she was lucky she still existed at all: others who had undergone such things had not been so lucky. What truly was the point of tempting fate anymore? What if this caused someone from her past, someone better left dead, return? What happened if this person went after her family?

That…. Was not something she was willing to risk, no matter how much she wanted to know what was in those blank spots.  She also wasn’t willing to risk the lives of anyone else in the city; wasn’t willing to risk something the likes of Pacific City happening here to Edge. No… some things truly were better left alone.

“I changed my mind…”, Demi responded after a moment of collecting her thoughts. She smiled happily and scratched at her head; scattering around her already messy looking long silvery-white hair. “I think I’ll keep those blank spots… and just stick to being little… and sometimes leaving feathers everywhere when I sneeze.” And just like that she pushed the idea out of her head: maybe she didn't want to know about the past that much - not when it meant possibly losing things she had now in the future.

She then suddenly looked at Niala suspiciously. "You... knew I'd change my mind didn't you? Why did you offer then?"

Niala looked to Hi No and nodded her head in response: it was indeed a power she had even if she tried not to use it all of the time – outside of abusing it for her never ending source of frozen hot chocolates. “I don’t like to use it much… ‘less I need more frozen hot chocolate…”

Just as Niala had watched and listened to the futuristic ‘movies’ playing out in her head she watched as Junior spoke his mind once again, looking increasingly frustrated, and then watched as Demi simply changed her mind because she didn’t want her actions to hurt her family. Niala knew it would be a very long while before the urge would rise up again in the child if at all.

A knowing smile spread across Niala’s face: she had played her cards right with her suggestion which had then led to Junior’s response that had resulted in Demi’s mind being changed. Things would remain the same for now which was good. When Demi caught on to this and questioned her she turned her attention to her and shrugged. “I saw two paths laid out in the future, one of darkness and one of light…” Her eyes took on a far-away look as she searched the future again. “Now… I see only light which is why I played my part as I needed to.”, she spoke after a moment. A shrug followed her words before she added, “Your father, when I worked with him, let me know a lot of things, everything… I wasn’t about to stand by and let something like this hurt him... even if it might have seemed like I was going to. I just wanted you to make the right choice for yourself because if I didn’t then you wouldn’t have stuck by it and would have sought other means to change yourself which would have led to the darkness. But, now that this is the choice you truly want you’ll stick to it.” It might have been considered a little manipulative, but Niala was loyal to the core to Alec, and she hadn't been about to do something or allow something to happen that would have upset him.

She'd stay as she was. This was relieving somewhat, but the same depressed/frustrated look remained on Jr's face. The fact that Demi even considered remembering all of that bullshit that happened to her, remembering that idiot Flynn, the piece of shit father Maxi who didn't even care... it was unnerving. His father had removed and severed all of that, not to mention what Remiel did as well, back before he decided to go rouge.

This Boss thing was beginning to become too much, but he wasn't going to give up. Jr began to realize why his father got so angry and moody in the past, and he couldn't exactly blame him for some of the actions that he'd taken in the past. Jr turned and left the R&D lab, with Hi No Seishin following after him after waving to Demi, Devon and Niala.

[Exit]