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Episode V - Revelations

Forgiveness, now there is a concept.
According to the Gospel of Luke Jesus asked his Father in heaven to forgive those that were putting to death. Would we have the strength to do this? As the first Christian martyr, Stephen was put to death He asked for those stoning him to death to be forgiven Could we do that?

It is clear that some things are easy to forgive, like a child taking a cookie from a cookie jar, was there any real harm done? Some things are not so easy, like a partner who is unfaithful. Something"s seem impossible like the father who chose to forgive those planted the bomb in Enniskillen which killed his daughter

How do you know when to forgive? When someone lies about their age as The Spirit of Fidelity seemed to do, when she said she was sixteen, when she was really fifteen? Sorry, that was unfair; she did not lie, because she believed it as she had been forced into serving the treacherous Yagel Pen Swift in the Mystical Realms where they calculate ages similar to cultures in East Asia, such as Korea There is nothing there to forgive, except myself for not protecting her better than I did.

How about a Leprechaun, car jacking you, handing you over to two Americans, supposedly partners with the government organisation that kidnapped The Spirit of Fidelity and tried to have you arrested on trumped up terrorism charges? Well that one seems to have worked out ok so far, so I may cut him some slack.

So how about the government organisation responsible for all this pain, and the head of said organisation who has had a humanity bypass, and is set to murder in cold blood The Spirit of Fidelity, after degrading and humiliating her and torturing her. I can not see it some how.

But now there was another player on the field. What could possibly go wrong next, or should I not ask?

Mr Sepia was in his fifties as well as Mr Blue, and like him, he seemed to have had a military background. He was carrying a leather briefcase that he had had open. I noticed other folders in there similar to the two he had just taken out. Mr Blue was clutching a sheet of paper from his folder, Dana Scully the American women and work partner of the official American observer, Fox Mulder was scanning the other sheet of paper.

Mr Sepia placed his briefcase on the floor and pulled across the remaining spare chair, "Would you like to sit down in this Miss Fidelity" he asked her softly.

Fidelity, obediently sat down in the chair, her face was white as a sheet, and her eyes were streaming with tears. In short she was terrified.

I then noticed, that Crandal seemed to have slipped away, no wonder Mr Blue had not referenced him as a definite IDE.

Mr Blue pointed at Fidelity, "Are you telling me" he spluttered, "in spite of the field detection equipment, and the anomaly in the MRI scan of it"s brain, and the confession from the leprechaun we captured a week or so ago, that that is a normal human"

Mr Blue slammed the paper on the desk, making Fidelity jump almost out her skin. She was gripping the arms of the chair very tightly. I went over to her chair and put my hand on her left shoulder, as some kind of gesture of solidarity.

"Well Mr Blue" Started Dana "This is a DNA profile of this young teenage girl you had arrested, and robustly interrogated, on suspicion of being an entity from another dimension, and it says that her DNA markers identify that she has a very human father who was a serving officer in the G2, the Irish military intelligence service"

My reaction was "What?"

Fox asked Mr Sepia if he had another copy of the profile. Mr Sepia shook his head, so Dana passed the profile back to Fox. Fox scanned it, looked at Fidelity and turned to Dana, "is it really necessary to read out that last bit"

"Graeme, what are they saying, what have I done?" Fidelity Whimpered, "are they going to kill me like Yagel had my mother killed"

Dana came round and squatted in front of Fidelity and looked up at her, and gently stoked the right side of her face, and looked at the two black eyes Fidelity had received during what passed off as her interrogation. "I won"t let that happen sweetie" she whispered to Fidelity and then opened a pocket on the external jacket she had given Fidelity to wear over the lab coat and pulled out a packet of paper handkerchiefs. Dana passed me the DNA profile piece of paper, while she tried to clean Fidelity"s face up as best she could. She turned around to face Mr Blue"s desk, glowered at him, and took a jug of water with which to wet the tissues.

I looked at the DNA profile, but I could not begin to understand a lot of the science, Physics, computing and folklore were more my forte, but one of the bottom lines named an individual from the Republic of Ireland, then I saw the footnote, that he had been killed in 2002 in Afghanistan in a friendly fire incident from the Americans, three days after he had saved two US marines from a Taliban unit. Fidelity"s father, if this document was right, was a war hero, but he was dead. As her twin sister, the Spirit of Fancying was lost; she had no family left, unless I counted.

"So" Mr Blue interjected, "This IDE is a half-breed, that still makes it a IDE and still under our jurisdiction" then he added, "If you don"t mind I have work to do, and we must exterminate all inter-dimensional threats, which includes this thing here. It is not a child, it just looks like one"

I looked at this Mr Blue, he was determined to put Fidelity to Death, and we were in his domain. He would not even recognise that she was a person, even if she was a minor spirit of virtue who had had human form. As I had grown to know her over the last three months, I had seen a warm caring teenager, who was eager to please, unlike most teenagers of her age, even though she did have an air of sadness about her. (Plus she had looked painfully thin)

Dana stood up and faced Mr Blue, she was really angry now, "Are you denying your own DNA lab"s findings that she is not an IDE but a frightened girl, that you had assaulted" she shouted at him.

Mr Blue sat his ground, he had obviously been a marine, or an SAS officer or something like that.

"I am not ignoring my MRI evidence" Mr Blue countered

"What MRI evidence" Fox asked, "What have you got"

"Ah Mr Mulder, you will have to control your partner here. She is getting too irrational"

"I did not figure you for a sexist" Fox countered.

I could see this had slightly unsettled Mr Blue. He had been caught out in an uncalled for personal remark, trying to look big.

"So what have you got?" Fox asked

"We found small nodules in it"s brain"

"She has a name, Mr Blue" Fox replied, emphasising the "she"

Nodules, in the Brain? I had heard of this and now something about Fidelity made sense. She was intelligent, but her reading was slow. Angela, the Manageress at the coffee shop had told me of research that had found actual physical evidence of some form"s of dyslexia manifested itself as nodules in the brain. Dyslexia was not exactly uncommon among some twins, and Fidelity was left handed, not a solid indicator in it self, but did fit the profile.

"Mr Blue, Fidelity has nodules in her brain, because she has a form of dyslexia" I said.

"Yes, I had read that paper as well" Dana confirmed, "so much for your MRI evidence, since when has having dyslexia been a crime"

Mr Sepia coughed

"Yes you can go now Mr Sepia" Mr Blue said in his irritated tone.

"It is not that" Mr Sepia replied, "Because of who Fidelity"s father was, our search triggered some alarm over in Ireland"

"And" Asked Mr Blue

"They know we are holding an Irish citizen who is the daughter of a decorated war hero"

"Oh do they now, well they can just whistle"

Just then, a telephone rang on Mr Blue"s desk, the telephone was red, someone obviously had been a fan of Batman

Mr Blue hesitated, and then answered the telephone, whilst he was doing this, Mr Sepia took from his brief case a Mars Bar and handed it to me. "I got this downstairs from the vending machine, I think Fidelity needs it"

I looked at the chocolate, suspicious that it may be something it was not, but it was just a plain Mars Bar. I squatted down in front of Fidelity, and passed it to her, she took it, and tried to open it. She was very weak, so I opened it for her, and she started to much through, eyes still streaming with tears.

"My father's dead, isn"t her?" Fidelity sniffed
"I'm sorry, Fidelity it looks that way I told her softly"
Fidelity, broke into uncontrolled weeping, everything was too much. I had rescued from one world, only for her to find in our world, she had lost everything.

Mr Blue hung up the phone. He was still not happy.
"I have been ordered to release you" He muttered as if through gritted teeth, "We are just waiting for Miss Fidelity"s escort from the Irish Military Intelligence service to arrive

"That would be me" Came the voice of Crandal, as he came in, looking like a man with dwarfism and presenting an ID badge. "I am Crandal McTuckle of the G2 special operations section, I think Mr Blue you will find this in order" then with a twinkle in his eye, added "You are welcome to find our number in the yellow pages, ring it up and ask for his extension, just to confirm"

Mr Blue"s face was a picture of disgust, "So the Irish G2 are hiring leprechauns now"

For a moment, Crandal stopped, and then looking up at Dana briefly, stood on his toes at Mr Blue"s desk, "alleged leprechauns"

"OK, we are walking out of here now" Announced Dana, and not before time. I half expected some kind of gun fight to stop us leaving, but nothing.

Dana took Fidelity by the hand, and she meekly followed. Fidelity had learned, always obey your elders, or you might get a beating. I just felt angry at all those people who had done this to her. At least we had the satisfaction of knowing one was dead, Yagel Pen Swift, at the hand of the Prince Low Troll.

Fox stood up, looked at Mr Blue and then said "Thanks for the tour, I"m sure DC will be very interested in knowing how the British run things"

Mr Blue, just glowered back and then said, "That lab coat is government property"
Fidelity on hearing this, sobbed "sorry" and with her free hand went to start undoing the top button. Dana spotted this and gently grabbed her other hand, "You don"t need to do that sweetie" she whispered, then added "You have done nothing wrong"

Fox looked at Mr Blue in disgust, and took out his wallet and pulled out note, I could not see which one it was and threw it at Mr Blue. "This should cover it, if not bill me" he said with contempt

As we were leaving, Mr Sepia came up to us and bent down to speak to Fidelity. "Sorry miss you had to loose your clothes like that, but I did manage to save this" then he handed her, her talisman of permanence, which the Prince Low Troll had said allowed her to live in our world.

[img=100x200]http://ravenmoonlight.com/catalog/images/talisman_clay_blackgod.jpg[/img]

She had been with out it for over 24 hours, with no ill effect, why had the Prince Low Troll lied, or had he.

"Thank you sir" Fidelity whispered, and put the talisman around her neck

We reached the front door of the reception. It was bright and sunny outside, for December, although the ground was icy, as this part of the complex seemed to be a frost pocket.

As Dana lead Fidelity out by the hand, she felt Fidelity drag behind, as she was trying to pick her way across the gravel path in her bare feet.

"I'll carry her" volunteered Fox, and scooped her up in his arms. Fidelity held on to Fox"s neck, and fox smiled back at her, "My your quite light for a fifteen year old"
"Thank you" uttered Fidelity

"We are going to have to get you some new clothes Fidelity and some new shoes"
"But I don"t have any money?" Fidelity replied.

I got my wallet out to see what I had. It wasn't much, due to buying petrol the previous day. "Wait a minute" I thought", "I can use my credit card to get money out from a hole in the wall, get some cheap shoes from a "

My thought train was interrupted by Fox, "We have a special platinum card, so Uncle Sam can pick up the tab"
"That"s the least we can do" Dana told Fidelity.
We then headed to where the car was parked in the car park. Being unencumbered, Crandal and I reached it first.

"Can you check underneath for devices" I asked the leprechaun.
"You are paranoid" Crandal replied, but looked under anyway, as I did.
Then I heard the bleep of the alarm, as Dana disarmed the car alarm.
"Graeme, if they had fitted anything, I am certain the alarm would have alerted us to that" Dana told me as she arrived at the car.
Suddenly I felt very silly

Dana motioned for me to sit in the front passenger seat, as she wanted to sit next to Fidelity, I suppose as Fidelity was only wearing a lab coat and Dana"s coat over the top, that seemed appropriate, although Crandal was allowed to sit in the back with them.

Dana buckled Fidelity in the middle with the lap belt and then got in behind Fox and did her seatbelt up. Crandal did likewise behind me

Fox started the car

I still expected our lives to be snuffed out in a sudden blast, but no. We were still alive.

Fox drove us out of the complex and headed into Brent Cross. As we were driving along, I saw in the wing mirror, Crandal pulling out a small book. It was a passport. I saw him handing it across to Fidelity. "Hear is a little present from the government of the Irish Republic" Crandal said.

I was curious, "Crandal" I called from the front, "How did you get Fidelity"s passport picture"
"It isn"t, it just looks like her"
Then I heard the realisation of what Crandal had said dawn on Fidelity, as it dawned on me.
"It"s my twin sister" Fidelity cried out, "It"s the Spirit of Fancying, she"s alive"
"Of course she is alive, and she has been longing to see you" Crandal added, "When the fairies took her away as a baby to get her away from that Drow scum bag, they left her at the central police station in Dublin, and she was adopted by a human couple and is being raised as their daughter in Ireland"
"If that is the case", Dana asked, "Why did they leave Fidelity behind"
"They could only carry one child at a time, and by the time they had got back, she had been taken, and it was too late"
"Does she think she is me" Fidelity asked, remembering how her evil Aunt had ordered the name tags swapped at the Mystical Realms nursery, so they never realised their true power
"No" Replied Crandal, Fairies are not fooled by false name tags, anyway she goes by the name of Caer, after the legend of Caer Ibormeith
"Caer That"s a pretty name" Dana said softly, then asked Fox, "due you think the State Department would object to a side trip to Ireland, so Fidelity can be reunited"
"That wont be a problem" Crandal ventured, "I just show a special badge to the staff at Air Lingus, and the Irish government picks up the bill" Then he added "Caer and the rest of the family are so desperate to see you Fidleity"

We reached the outside of the Brent Cross Shopping Centre , and Fox dropped Dana and Fidelity out side so they could find a department store that sold everything in terms of clothes. Due to the nature of some of the clothes she would have to buy for Fidelity, we all thought, only Dana should go with Fidelity, so Fox drove us to a car park.

When we parked, Fox asked Crandal about how come the Irish government employed leprechauns in Military intelligence, Crandal explained that many years ago, just after independence, the leprechauns approached the government asking for asylum from the Mystical Realms and offering their services. The ability to create illusion and turn invisible was irresistible, and ever since, there was a secret registration of such entities, which all the entities were happy to comply with. For a bonus they helped with the tourist industry.

Dana and Fidelity were gone for an hour and a half. Fox received a call on his cell phone and gave Dana directions to the car park. After about ten minutes, they arrived hand in hand at the car.

Fidelity had been totally transformed. She was wearing the kind of gear every self respecting youngster would wear to college or university. Everything was themed on pink. She even had a nice warm pink top. I had never seen Fidelity dressed this way before. When I first met her and first rescued her, she wore the kind of clothes you would see in a medieval setting, but when she was living in our world, all I ever saw her in was her coffee shop uniform. This new look suited her, this is what fully human girls of her age were wearing. Fully human? I caught myself thinking like those at that awful government torture chamber, it was only that Mr Sepia and possibly Miss Ochre who showed some humanity. Fidelity for all intents and purposes was human

Fidelity was also wearing sunglasses to hide the black eyes she had received at that so called "Facility". That was a good call, this Dana was a very kind and compassionate person, as was her partner Fox. They almost seemed like a married couple.

Dana was also pulling a small suitcase that trundled on wheels, which she placed in the boot of the car.

After loading up the car, Dana told Fox that she had asked to see the manager of the store and told her that they had been part of a joint US and British operation that had rescued a child from a group of abusers, who had destroyed her clothes to prevent her escaping. "While not exactly the truth", she had told Fox, "I did not consider it a total lie either. Given what I had seen, I thought that was the total truth, but this had been worse, it was government sanctioned abuse of a child.

Dana then told Fox that they needed to find a restaurant, as Fidelity had not eaten anything, apart from the Mars bar, since the afternoon of the day before she had been seized

I asked Fidelity why she never went for the evening meal at the hostel, and she told me about a large man with tattoos who lived there that she was frightened of, so she just hid in her room, only getting to eat when she was at lunch break at the coffee shop and on her days off, if she could not meet up with me, she did not eat at all. No wonder she was so thin. Then she mentioned that there was another reason she stayed in her room at the hostel, which she felt embarrassed mentioning. The only clothes she had left, before she had been arrested was just her uniform, which she washed and dried every night when she got back, so she would be sitting alone in her room, trying to keep warm in a thin blanket, listening to her stomach rumble. I felt so guilty that I had not spotted this. My shortcomings in looking after her had again been exposed.

We found a KFC, got Fidelity a chicken variety meal, with a regular coke. She was so hungry and ate every thing up. What she had endured had been so heart breaking, but at least we had found her twin sister and were going to take her to at least visit her. Maybe they would at least keep in touch by letter if I had to return back north with her. If I did I would have to have words with the hostel, but then would they feel comfortable with a fifteen year old girl staying there. The coffee shop manageress and I had set this up, so as to reduce the risk of social services being involved, after all, how could you tell them that Fidelity was the personification of the virtue of being faithful.

I really had to discipline myself to think of her as human.

After lunch, we all piled in the car and headed for Heathrow. I hoped Crandal was right that the Irish Government would pick up the tab for flying us to Ireland. Fox was insistent, if they did not, then the US State Department would..

We drove to the Car rental section and Fox handed the car back. Well I could easily take the train with Fidelity to Luton to pick up my car when we returned.

Then as we were walking through one of the walkways, there was Mr Blue, in his right hand what looked like a machine pistol

"You can not get away that easy" he sneered
"You have no jurisdiction over her" Fox countered
Dana grabbed hold of Fidelity, trying to protect her, Fidelity was petrified.

Crandal whispered to me "Graeme, something is wrong, I sense it"
I took from my back pack the locater used for detecting dimension jump orbs, it was glowing purple, what ever that meant.

Crandal stepped forward "I thought I recognised you" he challenged Mr Blue. Mr Blue"s eyes seemed to have turned violent crimson, "Oh have you indeed" Mr Blue uttered, now his voice like a torrent of rushing waters.
"Yes, you are the lost Spirit of Malice, who hides" Was all that Crandal got out, before a lightning bolt hit him square in the chest and threw him backwards in to Fox.

"I am no spirit of anything" Mr Blue started to say, "I refused to be rebranded like that late Spirit of True Love and her equally deceased Guardian of Mortal Struggle"

"Then who are you?" I shouted.

Suddenly Mr Blue"s head transformed into a dog shape.

My blood ran cold, of all of the ancient gods to run into, they could not get any worse than this one, it was the Egyptian god Set

"I had the perfect set up" Set screamed, "I would get the humans to launch a nuclear strike on the Mystical Realms. All I have to do is clear a few loose ends"

Suddenly between Fox, and presumably the dead remains of Crandal, what looked like dimension gate was forming, and coming through were a band of trolls.

[img=600x400]http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2431/trollesds2.jpg[/img]

And Dana and Fidelity and myself, were now trapped between the two in a pincer movement.

Tune in next time for the Mystical Realms Saga Season 4 finale

Yeah right