Project HEARD
presents
Gold Digger:
When Personalities Collide

24 NOVEMBER 1998 0210EST
GINA DIGGERS' UNDERGROUND COMPLEX

 Gina got out of the car and stretched, yawning. She walked around the other
side of the car and opened the door, waking Brit up.
 "My bed is screaming out to me, I can hear it from here," Cheetah said through
a yawn.
 "Uh-huh," Gina agreed. "Can you walk yet?"
 "Lemme try.." She unfolded her legs from the footwell of the car. "Aie!"
 "Hang on, I'll get some help, somehow--"
 "No.. let me try," Britanny interrupted. "Just stiff from sitting so long,
that's all." Slowly she swivelled herself to face out of the car and then stood
gingerly up to her full height.
 "Okay?" Gina asked.
 Cheetah twisted her hips around twice in each direction, keeping her feet flat
on the floor; ugly cracking and popping sounds emitted from all her joints from
the knees down. "Ah! MUCH better. Yeah, I'm fine now."
 "Ewww!" Gina shivered at the sound of Britanny's joints getting back into
position. "Don't do that with me around! It sounds sick!"
 "It doesn't hurt," Brit shrugged, taking a step or two. "Actually, it's kinda
like cracking your back--it relieves a lot of pressure."
 "Still, wait till I'm out of earshot, okay?" Gina tossed her hat on the
workbench and started to head to her room also, but suddenly, she saw something
happening in the Lab. She turned in that direction, startled to see some sort
of dimensional portal forming. It wasn't a light-gate, and it wasn't one of her
dad's dimension-doors, so she was naturally on alert.
 She was surprised a second time when two figures came lunging out of the
portal in what looked like the latter half of a flying tackle, landing on the
floor of the Lab. Cheetah was suddenly behind Gina, having heard the commotion.
 "What the--" Gina said, recognizing the first person, the one who'd apparently
been tackled, as Brianna--although she was in tattered clothing and looked
dirty and unkempt. She turned over and wrestled with the other person--a young
man--for a moment, then got halfway up before he grabbed her leg and hauled her
down again.
 Gina was frozen with surprise at the scene playing out before her--someone
brawling with her sister--but Cheetah wasn't. She lunged forward, and the young
man took notice of it.
 "CHEETAH, NO!" he shouted, still trying to wrestle Bri' to the floor. "DON'T!
IT'S NOT BRIANNA--IT'S GRAVE DIGGER!"
 "What?!" Brit said, stopping in her tracks. Brianna, or Grave Digger, broke
free of the young man's hold, gave him a swift kick to the face, and then
grinned evilly at the two sisters.
 She turned to address the man on the floor. "You rat, you blew my cover! Not
to worry, though, I'll be back to finish you all off when you least expect it!"
 Before anyone could react, she sprinted off out of the Lab. The man got to his
feet. He called out after Cheetah, who looked like she was about to run after
Brianna, "Let her go--she's not the same Brianna you know."
 "Who the heck ARE you, and what's going on?!?" Gina shouted.
 "I can explain," he said wearily, feeling his face with his hand to see if
anything was broken. "Do you remember sending.. or, rather, probably to you it
was more like TRYING to send Brianna to another dimension, exactly a year ago,
to save your existence?"
 It took Gina a few seconds to make the connection. "THAT'S where I recognize
you from," she said, "all those temporal scans." After another moment, she
realized something else. "But it didn't work! Bri' bounced back into our world,
and we were ready to try again when we.. noticed.. that everything had.. fixed
itself..?"
 She trailed off as the man began to nod. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm
Jason Low, the man you sent Brianna to protect. She in fact DID make it there,
although there was a sort of a timestorm on the other side. We were able to
determine that she was Frakesed--that's a term I coined for some fan-fiction I
used to write, where the character gets sent to another dimension but at the
same time bounces back into their own. And Brianna did exactly that. So now,
there are two of them."
 "What did you mean when you said Grave Digger?" Brit wanted to know. "You
didn't mean that she's.."
 "Reverted back to her old persona, it seems, yes," he said with another sigh.
"The Brianna you just saw--the one from my world--has been developing more and
more hostility and short-tempered-ness over the past three weeks. She beat the
crap outta our car, and ran off into the wilderness--"
 "Is that why she looks like she's been living in the woods?" Gina asked.
 Jason nodded. "She stayed in the forest near our place for two weeks, then
came back, all calm and collected, saying she knew what was going on."
 "Go on," Gina said evenly.
 "Yeah, the suspense is killing us," Cheetah added.
 "Well, she figures that I'm not the only one that was causally linked to your
dimension here," he started to explain. "She thinks that she, being a copy of
the Brianna that exists here, is connected in some way to her. In other words,
what Brianna here does.. or, in this case, behaves like.. 'my' Bri' experiences
too."
 Gina didn't react for a moment; neither did Brit. Then both of them grew wide-
eyed and looked at one another, then Jason.
 "Are you saying that Brianna's become Grave Digger again?!" Gina blurted out.
 Jason shrugged. "That's what 'my' Bri' said during one of her lucid moments.
She can feel the Grave Digger persona tugging at her all the time, for the past
three weeks or so, but she's only able to overpower it for a few hours at a
time--my guess is when Brianna-slash-Grave Digger here, is asleep.."
 "Or maybe it's the clone that got to your universe causing Bri' here to come
unglued," Britanny shot back. "Maybe we should go take your clone DOWN and see
what that does."
 "No!" Jason shouted, perhaps a bit too forcefully. "Please, no.. to you, she
may just be a clone, and a cursed one at that, but to me.. she's.. she's MY
Brianna.. and she means a lot to me, seeing as how she saved my LIFE at least
four times, not to mention a bunch of other stuff. Besides.. what if harming my
Brianna also harms yours, or causes yours to become trapped in her Grave Digger
mentality forever?"
 "First of all," Gina said, "We don't even know that that's the truth. Brianna,
or, as you put it, 'our' Brianna, may be just fine, and 'your' Brianna may have
just gone mad as a result of the dimensional warping that created her. The only
way to find out for sure is to go to Jade.. because 'our' Brianna went there
two days ago on a trip with Genn and Seance. I presume you know them, too?"
 "I know all about you guys," Jason nodded. He explained why.
 Gina sat down. "Perhaps you should tell us what's happened since you noticed,
um, 'your' Brianna starting to get nasty."
 "Sure thing."

06 NOVEMBER 1998
2338hrs (MST)

 The small red-and-white rescue truck known as 50 Emergency cut through the
night, lights and sirens operating, to a call reporting "unknown problem, man
down" in the Bragg Creek Shopping Center's parking lot. There happened to be
two people at the station right when the call came in, and one was a registered
EMT, so they had a full crew, and they were off to the call.
 "This better not be another drunk out watering the lampposts," Brianna Diggers
grumbled from the passenger seat. "I'm gettin' sick and tired of that."
 "Ah, don't sweat it," Jason Low said, while he drove the truck. "Things have a
way of eventually balancing out. If this ends up being a garbage call, you can
be sure we'll get something major next week to make up for it."
 Three minutes later, they were on scene, and sure enough, one of the locals
was lying on the wooden deck in front of the post office. Brianna got out and
walked over, arms folded in front of her and a frown on her face.
 Jason was wrestling with all the gear that Brianna should've carried over to
the patient, so he was running a bit behind, when he saw movement out of the
corner of his eye. He looked up, and Brianna had knelt down beside the patient.
 He thought that was a good thing, until he saw her slap the man in the face
once or twice and then grab him by the shoulders and start shaking him.
 "Bri'?! BRI'!" Jason yelled, breaking into a run. He was still on the wrong
side of the truck, and was loaded down with the trauma kit, airway kit, and
defibrillator, so he wasn't making very good time.
 "Get up, you loser!" Brianna was hollering at the man as she shook him. "You
ruined my night!"
 "BRIANNA!" Jason yelled, diving down to a kneeling position beside her and
grabbing the man. She released him, and glared at Jason.
 "You can't DO that!" Jason said with disbelief. "He didn't do anything to you!
And whether he brought it upon himself or not, he does need our help!"
 "He doesn't need the kind of help *I* wanna give him," she said coldly,
standing up and walking away.
 Jason stared after her for a moment, then turned to survey his patient. Bri'
didn't appear to have injured him at all, so he carried on with the normal
patient assessment.
 A loud BANG erupted from behind them, and Jason instinctively sheltered his
patient from the perceived gunfire.
 It was unnecessary; there was no gunfire. Jason turned to see the Emergency
rocking from the force of Brianna's door-slamming.
 She sat in the passenger seat, arms folded, staring pointedly away from him.

 Jason climbed back into the truck twenty-five minutes later, after handing the
patient off to the ambulance crew and putting the equipment away.
 Brianna didn't move from her position, slouched in the passenger seat with
feet up on the dash, so Jason reached across and picked up the radio mike.
"Fire dispatch, 50 Emergency's available on radio."
 "50 Emerg, roger," came the response, and it was the last sound from inside
the cab for another eight minutes, until the truck was almost back at the
station.
 "I'm sorry," came a tiny voice from Brianna's direction. "I don't have a clue
what came over me. I haven't even been stressed lately, so I can't blame it on
a rising temper or anything like that."
 Jason turned the corner onto Redwood Meadows Drive. "Well, whatever it was, it
ends TONIGHT," he said firmly. "I DO care if you're pissed off at the world,
but it can't happen on a scene. Our only saving grace was that nobody was out
watching us. If anyone had seen it, we both would've been finished, period,
because you're basically acting as my student, since you're just a first-aider
and I'm an EMT. You fall under my license when I'm the registered caregiver at
a scene, and anything you do that's considered negligent would be lumped in as
my own negligence."
 "Sorry," she repeated, still using a quiet voice. "Did I.. was he hurt?"
 "By you? No, thank Goddess," Jason said, backing the truck into the station.
"He was just pushing the boundaries of the alcohol/blood balance. Do me a favor
and book us off with Fire Dispatch."
 She did, and the two of them closed up the building and prepared to go home,
seeing as how it was almost twelve-thirty in the morning already. They went out
to the parking lot and the car that sat there.
 Parked there under the streetlamp was a three-year-old Honda CR-V. It wasn't
the vehicle either of them had wanted, but there were some circumstances--the
insurance company refused to pay Jason for the Taurus, seeing as how Brianna
had left the scene of at least two collisions, and caused several more, when
she drove Jason out of Chinatown the February before. It didn't matter to them
that Brianna had been credited by the EMS department with saving Jason's life,
she'd caused wanton destruction and been guilty of two or more hit-and-run
accidents (though the police refused to press charges).
 Next, the settlement from the shopkeeper who had fired off his rifle at what
he thought was the Escort used as the getaway car of the crooks that robbed
him. He was just barely ekeing out a living with his convenience store, which
was being robbed so often that he'd taken to fighting back--so he couldn't pay
them for the loss of the car and the near-loss of Jason's life. However, he did
have an brother who ran a used car lot..
 ..and that's how Jason came to be driving the CR-V. He didn't like it, but he
was growing used to the vehicle. Perhaps he could trade it in after not much
longer for a truck or something..
 "By the way," Brianna said, gesturing to the clock, "Happy Birthday."
 "Thanks," he said, smiling at her.

THREE DAYS LATER (MONDAY 09 NOVEMBER 1998)

 Jason sat down to supper, worried about Brianna, as he had been for the past
week or so. Her chair at the table was conspicuously empty, and he hadn't heard
from her since she'd gone 'just out' several hours earlier.
 "Something going on between you and Brianna?" Jason's father wanted to know.
 "No.. at least, I don't THINK so," Jay answered with a shrug. "She HAS been
kinda.. um.. not 'moody', but something like that, lately--her temper's grown
real short, and she's flying off the handle at the littlest things."
 "Like?"
 "Well.. yesterday she was cranky all afternoon in the car, pissed that I
wouldn't let her drive, and pissed that I wasn't going faster, that kind of
thing. And she's been.. hostile a few times before that, too," he said, not
wanting to mention the specifics of the medical call on Friday night.
 "Can you think of anything that might've brought this on? Did you guys have a
rude customer in your business deals lately? Is anything not going right for
her?"
 "If I knew, I'd tell you right away, but she's not telling me a thing," Jay
said. "When she's not angry, she's apologizing profusely. I ask her what she's
thinking when she says things, and she can't explain it--other than to say it's
what felt right at the time."
 "Sounds to me like she's stressed out," Rob supplied.
 "Yeah.. maybe she should have a talk with Heather," Jennifer said. "Maybe you
BOTH need to."
 "I'll try to remember to suggest it," Jay nodded. "If she's civil the next
time I see her."
 "It'd be in her best interests," Jenn said. "Otherwise, if she's trying to
cope with that much stress, she might as well be digging her own grave."
 Jason started to nod, but then stopped suddenly, looking up at Jennifer with
wide eyes. He tried to say "What did you say?", but stopped when he realized he
had a mouthful of food.
 "What?" Jenn said.
 He swallowed and tried again, visibly going pale. "Grave..?" he said. "Oh, I
hope not."
 "What do you mean?" his mother asked in an exasperated tone.
 "Okay," he said, obviously shaken, "You remember what I told you about her
origins, right?"
 "Yes--"
 WHAM!
 Everyone jumped. It was as if something had crashed into the house.
 That was exactly what it was, they realized, as they heard yelling and barking
from the area of the basement--barking from the dog, and yelling which sounded
like Brianna.
 Jason got up, knocking his chair over, and raced downstairs; his father and
brother-in-law were in pursuit immediately.
 Jay threw open the door to the garage and almost stepped out into nothingness.
His garage was one story below his basement, due to the way the house was built
into a hillside, and the basement/garage door opened to a stairway that
descended ten stairs into the garage itself.
 Or at least it used to, until a Honda CR-V had driven into the stairs at speed
and destroyed them. Brianna was there, punching the side of the mini-sport-ute.
 "What the hell happened??" Jason shouted down to her, even as he realized all
of the garage door was wrapped around the front of the car, too.
 "STUPID PIECE OF SHIT CAR!" Brianna yelled, punctuating each word with a fist
into the body of the CR-V; it already looked like it'd been in a meteor shower
all around. "AND STUPID PIECE OF SHIT DOOR!"
 "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Jason yelled as she went to work on the garage
door, yanking a panel out from in front of the car and beating the car with it.
The windshield caved in.
 "THE GODDAMN GARAGE DOOR DIDN'T OPEN!" she ranted back at Jason. "I'M TEACHING
IT A LESSON!"
 "By using it to fuck up our car?!" he screamed. "Get a goddamn GRIP!"
 "I CAN'T!" she shouted in response. "I'VE GOT NO CONTROL!"
 "Tell me about it!!"
 "GO TO HELL!" With that, she threw the door panel at the car, taking out all
the driver's side windows, and ran out the open garage door into the night.

 "From then," Jay said to Gina, "we didn't see her for days. I was, of course,
beside myself. Anyway, we were all in a sort of a stunned shock, until last
night, when she came back. She was like you saw her just now, all ragged and
messy, and when I asked where she'd been, she said she'd been out in the forest
south of my place."
 "Why?"
 "She said she could 'feel it', and didn't want to be near any people if 'it'
came back. She also said she was 'fighting it' and didn't think she was going
to be able to win. What 'it' was, she didn't say, but I think it's probably
become kinda obvious to you."
 "So you'd have us believe."
 He ignored that for the moment. "Anyway, it was a relief to have her back, and
to find out she hadn't done any massive damage to anything substantial, or
worse yet, killed anyone--based upon the absence of any reports from the police
or the park rangers, and Brianna's testimony herself. She says she's aware of
her actions all the time she's behaving like this, but she's unable, or almost
unWILLING, to stop it, as if she WANTS to do it. In any case, she wanted us to
restrain her somehow in case she went crazy again, and we said no, we'd try to
help her through it. Or rather, my family did. I already knew that it was going
to come back."
 "How?"
 "It had to. She was getting more and more violent each time and it was lasting
longer. It was only a matter of time, and sure enough, six hours later, she was
all mental again. Me and Rob and my dad tried to restrain her, but you I'm sure
know what it's like to try to hold down an angry Brianna. Like trying to
restrain PCP incarnate. Anyway, she broke free and ran away, saying she was off
to 'where it all began', to 'finish them all off'. I did some quick thinking,
realized that today is exactly one year from when she popped into my life, and
chased her down."
 "By the time I caught up to her," he continued, "she was already where I'd
found her a year ago. And, I shit you not, there was a dimensional rift opening
right where the one had been last year! She was heading for it, so I ran after
her and tried to knock her clear.. but I assume we ended up going through the
portal after all, 'cause here we are."
 "Um. Oooooookay," Gina said slowly.
 "You don't actually beLIEVE him, do you??" Brit said dumbfoundedly. "Just look
at him! How can we trust someone like this we don't even--"
 "You used your temporal scanners to locate me just over a year ago," Jay cut
in loudly, overenunciating. "You found four instances in which I was supposed
to die, which would somehow cause the destruction of your own universe. First
of all, I was to be struck by a semi one morning exactly one year ago today at
the intersection of Highways 8 and 22, six kilometers from home. The next
instance involved me getting hit in the neck by a road flare at a car accident
one night on the highway. Thirdly--"
 "Enough," Gina interrupted with an upraised hand. "I believe him, Brit." To
Jason, she said, "Have you got a plan?"
 "Not exactly," he shrugged. "I hadn't even planned to come here. I'd thought
I'd've been able to knock Brianna clear of the portal and just sort it out from
there."
 "So what do we do?" Cheetah said with despair.
 "Hold it, Britanny," Jason said with a hand held up. "I didn't say I didn't
have any ideas, I simply said I didn't have a plan all worked out. First, I
think getting both Briannas back here and holding them would be in our best
interests. From there--well, first, let me ask, your dad is a magic user in
this universe, right?"
 "An arch-mage," Gina corrected him.
 "Right, that's what I was hoping. Anyway, getting 'your' Brianna back here
will, I hope, help us understand what's going on--if it's a situation stemming
from something that's happened to 'your' Bri' or if 'mine' has just gone nuts.
From there, consulting your father on what he might be able to do for them
seems like as good an idea as any, in my opinion."
 He regarded Gina as she finished the mother of all yawns. "If I might be so
bold," he added, "you appear to be as tired as I. Perhaps we should all get
some sleep."
 "But this is important--" Gina said through another uncontrollable yawn.
 "I agree, but so is rest," Jason cut in. "If there's one thing I've learned
over my years in the fire service, it's that you need to be healthy yourself
before you can help others; and being caught up on sleep is a crucial part of
that. So, not to be a pushy guest or anything, but we should all have a nap."
 "Gina, he's right," Cheetah said. "We've all been up forever. We're both
tired. And I'm just coming off healing two broken legs! So let's get some sleep
and deal with this first thing in the morning, ok?"
 "Okay," Gina finally reluctantly said.
 Cheetah turned to Jason and pointed a finger at him. "Nine A.M., buster, no
later--you'd better be ready to hit the floor running."
 "Can do," he said. "No problem."
 "I'll take him to the guest quarters," Gina told Cheetah. "You should go."
 "Right," Cheetah nodded. "Don't let Stripe and me keep you up."
 Gina smiled for a moment at her departing sister, then turned to face Jason.
"Okay, let's get you a place to sleep, then."
 As she led him to the room, he said, "Thanks for believing me, by the way."
 "You're welcome," she acknowledged him. "I just hope you're wrong about Bri'."
 "As do I," he nodded. "In a way."
 "Because if you are wrong, that just means that.. um.. 'your' Brianna.. has
become emotionally unglued, right?"
 "More or less," he said with a sigh. "And I'm hoping against all odds that
that isn't the case. ..Not to wish any harm on your Bri', that is.."
 "Understood," Gina said. "Well, here we are." She tapped a keypad on the wall,
and an adjacent door slid open. "I'll have the computer set a wake-up call for
you."
 "Make it 8:15, if you can, please," he said. "I don't want to anger Brit."
 Gina allowed herself a small laugh. "Good choice. G'night."
 "Night," he waved, stepping inside.

 The next day, or rather, later that same day since it was early morning when
he'd first arrived, Jason walked into the lab to see a man of about his own
father's age sitting at the table beside Gina, who appeared distraught.
 "Morning," Jason said.
 "What's good about it?!" Gina snapped, raising her head before burying it in
her hands again.
 "I never said 'good'," Jason said, electing to not sit down, instead standing
near the doorway. "What's happened?"
 "We just tried to contact Jade," Brit spoke up, coming into the room from the
other direction. "Dad can't raise anyone at all."
 Jason nodded towards Dr. Diggers. "Sir," he said in greeting.
 "Hello," Theo answered him. "A pleasure, under any other circumstances.."
 "I understand," Jason nodded again.
 "And what's worse," Gina added, "Penny wants to talk to me and Brit about what
happened at Civ-Alpha the past few days. Now. So we gotta go there."
 "Don't worry, Gina," Jay said. "I'm sure she's all right. She's in the company
of friends. If something's gone wrong, they can take care of her."
 "But we can't get a hold of them, Jason!" Gina protested in a desperate voice.
"She could've hurt them to the point where they can't answer us--I mean, if
she's reverted to Grave Digger like you think."
 "Gina, your friend is right," Theo said. "The combination of the Edge Guard,
Seance, and Genn will be able to keep Jade--and Brianna--safe. It's possible
that they are only simply too busy to answer us. You go to your meeting; Jason
and I will go find the.. other Brianna and try to come up with a solution to
the problem."
 "..Okay," she finally said. She stood up.
 "Don't worry," Dr. Diggers reassured his daughter. "Everything's going to be
all right."
 She looked at him for a long moment, then nodded and headed for the door, only
glancing once at Jason.
 "I hope they're going to be okay," Jason said, looking at the door the two
girls had left through.
 "You needn't worry about them, either," Theo said, standing up. "They're quite
capable as well, and we have a large task ahead of us."

ONE HALF-HOUR LATER

 Jason and Theo were walking along the streets of Atlanta searching for "Jay's"
Brianna. She hadn't returned to the complex, so they figured she had to be out
and about somewhere in the city.
 The problem, of course, was that it was a large city, and there were only two
of them searching. With luck, though, there'd be something that Dr. Diggers
could magically track.
 There was; someone with some kind of lycanthropic ability, though not even
close to being fully developed, was somewhere in Atlanta. They located the
source of the emanations and headed in that direction.
 "Hey, there she is," Jason pointed and whispered. In a crowd of people moving
along the sidewalk half-a-block ahead of them, Brianna indeed walked along,
going in the same direction that Jay and Theo were--in other words, facing away
from them. 
 "We have no way of knowing who's in control," Theo said. "I can sense the two
entities there, but I can't tell who's dormant and who's dominant. Be careful."
 "How're we going to handle this, then?"
 "We'll have to try to sneak up on her," Theo said with a hand on the younger
man's shoulder. "Even that may not work. She could even be hearing us as we
speak."
 Jason hadn't thought of that; of course, Brianna's hearing was so superior to
that of a normal human's that it was entirely possible. "Right."
 Nothing more was said from then on; they walked through the crowds, slightly
faster so as to close in on her but not fast enough to attract attention.
 Or so they thought; abruptly, she whirled around and, with arms stretched out,
bellowed, "Flesh to stone!"
 "Oop!" Jay gulped and dove for cover, trying to drag down Theo with him. Theo
did end up crashing to the concrete, but only because Jay had pulled him down--
Theo had been preparing an aurashield, one of the basic protectors in his
arsenal, but it was a toss-up whether or not it would've stood up to Brianna's,
or rather Grave Digger's, magical attack.
 In any case, back to the action: the spell poured from Brianna's fingertips
like a bolt of lightning and, through a huge amount of luck, missed Jason and
Theo only because they'd hit the deck. They watched it pass them and immobilize
an innocent bystander, turning him into a statue.
 Jay spun around and looked for Brianna, hoping to elude her next assault, but
it was unnecessary; she was already slumping to the ground, and the pedestrians
were running about in a frenzy. Some were running away, others were running
towards Bri', others were standing there staring at the citizen that had been
turned to stone.
 Jason scrambled to his feet; Dr. Diggers did the same, but while Jason ran for
Brianna, Theo first reversed the spell cast on the hapless pedestrian, who
stumbled about a bit in the care of the other bystanders.
 "Brianna! Can you hear me?" Jason said, kneeling beside her unconscious form.
"Bri'!"
 "Give us room," Dr. Diggers said. "Everyone, back!" He waded through the crowd
to crouch beside Jason and Brianna. "She's been knocked out from the effort of
casting a high-level spell, I think," he said to Jason. "This may well be our
only chance to get her home safely."
 "Right," Jay said, reaching under his supine friend.
 "That's not necessary, I can--"
 "I'd feel better," Jason said through the strain of picking Brianna up and
cradling her across his arms. "Besides, I'm used to carrying people, I'm a
firefighter."
 "Very well," Theo shrugged, sending them through a dimension-door and leaving
the crowd of people to look at one another in surprise.

 Jason stepped out of Theo's portal into Gina's lab. He set Brianna down on the
floor, for lack of a better place to put her.
 "What now?" he said.
 "Please, a moment," the elder Diggers said, facing Brianna. "Allow me to probe
her mind and see if I can identify what's going on."
 After a moment, Theo looked puzzled yet hopeful. "I can only sense Brianna
now.. the other personality seems to be gone, or at least deeply unconscious."
 "Let's hope so," Jason said. "But what happened? How the hell come she's got
magic now?"
 "As near as I can guess, you were right in your assumption that this Brianna
and the Brianna that normally resides in this realm are psychically linked,"
Theo began to explain. "And perhaps something happened on Jade that awakened
the latent magical energy in Brianna, that she inherited from Gina when she was
born.. and somehow, also revived the curse I thought I'd destroyed three years
ago." He bent down to inspect Brianna. "And that, in turn, somehow affected
this Brianna."
 "Sir, if I might say so, you're taking this rather well, considering your
daughter may be in danger of harming herself or another, off in another land."
 Theo answered Jason by nodding to Jay's Brianna, still out cold on the floor.
"As long as your Brianna keeps slipping in and out of control here, exchanging
places with Grave Digger, it stands to reason that her counterpart on Jade is
still all-right."

TWO HOURS AND CHANGE LATER

 Gina and Britanny entered the lab to see their father and Jason there with an
unconscious Brianna.
 "Jinkies!" Gina exclaimed.
 Jason looked up. "Gina, I can't get your computer to do an analysis of her,"
he said. "It won't even start up."
 "That's 'cause your voice isn't programmed in as an authorized user," Gina
said, walking to the terminal. "Computer, on."
 "I wanna explore her physical properties," he said. "I need to scan for some
particles you've probably never heard of before."
 "I take it this is your Bri' 'n' not mine, then?" Gina asked, typing on the
keyboards.
 "Right," Jay said. "We didn't want to leave her alone to go search for yours,
because, um, there's been a development."
 Gina turned around to regard Jason. "Like what?" she said before turning back
around to type.
 "Well, when we caught up with her, she, um.. well, she cast a spell at us."
 "She WHAT?!" Brit (who was kneeling beside Brianna) and Gina stereoed.
 There was a groan, and the four of them turned to see Brianna getting to her
feet. Brit stepped back, and while Theo didn't move, he readied a defense.
 "Woah," Bri' said, slowly getting up. "..Where am I?" She looked around.
"Gina, is that you?"
 "Brianna?" Gina said. "Are you okay?"
 As Brianna neared Gina, Theo suddenly looked alert and intense. "GINA, GET
BACK!" he hollered, and simultaneously, Brianna's eyes narrowed and she scowled
at him.
 "DISINTEGRATION!" she yelled, throwing her hands wide. A ball of energy burst
into existence and hurled itself towards Gina.
 "Zoinks!!" Gina exposited as she hugged the cement floor of the lab. Grave
Digger's spell again missed due to sheer luck, and instead of killing Gina, did
a very good job of wrecking a computer console behind her, turning it to dust.
 Jay rushed forward again, but too late; Brianna was already falling backwards,
unconscious again, and her head hit the ground with a sickening cracking sound.
 "Oh geezus!" Jason said, kneeling down. "Somebody get me a first-aid kit or
something."
 Gina, after she got up off the floor and regained her composure, brought a
med-pack over to Jason, but it turned out he didn't need it; there was no wound
to dress. "Lucky," Jay breathed.
 "I take it she's not back to normal yet," Britanny said as she helped Jason to
his feet.
 "That's the understatement of the moment," he agreed.
 "So are you gonna go find OUR Brianna now?" Gina directed to her father.
 "I'm not sure I should leave Jason's Brianna quite yet," he answered, nodding
to the body on the floor. "If Grave Digger takes control again, and is again
able to get off a spell with force behind it, it could be a serious problem."
 "If we can keep her in one spot, I've got a solution to the magic issue," Gina
said.
 "Ow," Brianna said, waking up.
 "Anti-magic field on!" Gina blurted out in a panic.
 "Gina," Bri' slowly said through the pain, "She's gone again. It's just me."
 "Go to hell, Grave Digger!" Gina snapped back. "You tried that before!"
 "No, REALLY," Brianna said, lifting her head. "Honestly. It's me, not Grave."
 "'Grave'?" Gina repeated in a disbelieving tone. "You're on a first-name basis
now?"
 "Well, considering she's inside my head, yeah. Help me up.."
 She trailed off as Gina stood there, arms folded, watching her. "What's going
on?" Brianna asked.
 "Allow me to explain," Jason said, coming into her field of vision.
 "Jay? Jay!" Brianna said. "You're all right! I.."
 "Grave Digger's been causing a lot of trouble," he said flatly, then realized
what she'd said. "Wait a minute--you remember what you did while you were her?"
 "Everything," Brianna nodded. "Like I said to you earlier, I'm conscious all
the time in here, but she's not.. when she fights me for control, I don't have
much choice but to let her take over. She once threatened to discharge a spell
at my--OUR, I guess--head if I didn't cooperate." She turned to Gina. "Like
Tanya did at the wedding," she said, adding with disgust, "Grave's strip-mining
my memories while she's wrecking all our lives."
 "How'd you know about that?"
 "Huh?"
 "You're, um.. 'Jason's' Brianna, right?"
 She looked at Jason with a questioning look, then back at Gina. "Yeah.."
 "So how did you know about what Tanya did at the wedding? You weren't here,
you were with Jason in your own universe."
 Realization crossed Brianna's face. "So I was! How about that?" She looked at
Jason. "How did that happen?"
 He shrugged. "Your sympathetic link with your twin here, I guess. Anything
else you know that you shouldn't?"
 She also shrugged.
 "Anyway," Gina said, "why does she go away like that when y--er, when SHE,
casts a spell?"
 "I don't think she realizes it yet, but she seems to tire out really easily. I
could physically easily cast more spells, I think, but psychically, after one
casting, she seems completely drained and passes out."
 "Would a high-enough-level spell wipe her right out?" Jason directed at Theo.
 He shook his head. "I'm not sure," he said. "It's doubtful, though--exhaustion
wouldn't kill a normal person, and this is similar." He turned his attention to
Brianna. "Can you feel her when she's coming back?"
 "Not soon enough," Brianna shook her head. "It must have something to do with
the link that I have with my, uh, self here in this world.. when she's in the
Grave Digger persona, I start to revert to her too, and I have almost no
warning whatsoever."
 "Well, then, I don't think we have a choice," Gina said.
 "You need to immobilize me," Brianna nodded. "I agree."
 Gina guided her sister to a chair, and Brianna sat down; Gina picked up some
cords taken from an the nearby destroyed computer.
 "All right," Gina nodded, tying the knots. "Don't let her hurt you."
 "Trust me," Brianna said with a wry grin, "I don't think she wants to hurt
herself, and that's the only way she can hurt me."
 "Okay. Good luck."
 "Seal the door, too, so nobody else can get in."
 "I will."
 Gina finished tying her sister up; Dr. Diggers cast a spell that magically
sealed the bindings, so that Bri' wouldn't be able to break them; and the two
of them headed for the door.
 "You coming?" Gina asked Jason.
 "Nope," he said, taking a second chair, rolling it in front of Brianna, and
sitting down. "Think I'll hang around here for a while."
 "Are you sure that's wise?" Brianna asked with a surprised tone.
 "You won't be able to budge from that," Jason nodded. "And," he gestured at
the sphere around her, "you're inside an anti-magic field, so even if you DO
manage to break out, you're not going to be able to do much."
 Gina smiled slightly and talked to Jason. "Dad and I are going to be in the
kitchen discussing this if you need us." She then turned to Brianna. "Hang in
there, okay, sis?"
 Brianna smiled humorlessly. "I'll stay right here."
 Britanny looked at Brianna as well. "Good luck."
 Bri' nodded. "Thanks, sis."
 Then it was just Jason and Brianna, sitting three feet apart, regarding each
other.
 "So.." Brianna said after a few minutes. "How's things with you?"
 Jay laughed in spite of the situation. "Not too bad, all things considered. At
least I didn't get turned into stone yet today."
 "Yeah.. um, sorry about that."
 They sat there for another few moments in an uneasy silence.
 "Sorry," Jason said, blinking his eyes and shaking his head. "It's awkward
making small talk with you all tied up like that."
 She grinned. "No comment."
 He stifled a laugh again. "Get your mind outta the gutter."
 "Hey," she shrugged, with a serious expression, "I've got to do something to
keep my mind off my situation."
 Jason softened. "I know. I'm sorry."
 "Don't be, it wasn't your fault."
 "Are you sure?" he said. "I mean, if I had done more--"
 "You mean when I was flying off the handle with you, on the call, wrecking the
car, and all that?" He nodded, and she continued, "It wouldn't've made a damn
bit of difference, except Grave might've fully shown up in me sooner."
 "Yeah, and then maybe you wouldn't've come through that portal, which, by the
way, how did you make that happen?"
 "I didn't," she said. "I just knew it would be there for a split second, and
that it was my chance--or, rather, Grave's chance--to come back here. Sorry, my
thoughts are all screwed up with her in here with me."
 "I kno--"
 "No, you don't," she said. "You can't possibly know."
 "I didn't mean--"
 "Jay, I've got ANOTHER PERSON INSIDE MY HEAD. And she's PURELY EVIL. I know
that gets tossed around like a cliche all the time, but it's the TRUTH. Grave
wants nothing more than to kill Gina and Brit--and YOU, now, for what you're
doing to stop her."
 "And what then?"
 "Don't try to change the subject, dammit! I'm fighting for my entire existence
here! Every thought I make, everything I experience, Grave Digger instantly
knows, because when she regains consciousness, she instantly has access to all
my memories, as if she was a client machine re-syncing with a server. And
what's worse, she now has MAGIC. And I can't control her at all. It's like I'm
a prisoner in my own body when she takes over! I'm relegated to sitting back
and watching her use my hands to try to kill the lot of you--and I can't do a
damn thing about it, except hope she uses up enough energy to fall unconscious
again and give me back control."
 "If she has access to your memories.. is the inverse true?"
 "What?" Brianna said, thrown off by the change of topic.
 "Can you tell what she's thinking?"
 "Not right now, no; she's not conscious."
 "But when she is?"
 Brianna shrugged again.
 "So what if she DOES kill Brit and Gina and me? What then? Her mission's
completed, right? What would she do after that?"
 "I have no idea," Bri' shook her head. "I haven't 'asked' her."
 "It'd be interesting to know. If she hasn't thought that far ahead, there
might be a chance to steer her off this whole path."
 "I doubt it. She feels too strong to resist."
 "Okay.. just,.. well, just keep it in mind." He tried to shift the subject.
"Can you 'feel' your.. other self, the one that lives here?"
 "..Yyyyyyes," Bri' said after a moment. "Kind of. Though I don't think she's
here in this universe."
 "No.. she's apparently in Jade."
 "Yeah, that's what I was getting. And, she's changed."
 "Changed? How so?"
 "Well.. when Grave's awake, I can sneak some of her magic away to experiment
with, and I tried peeking in on the other Brianna once. And it felt all weird,
like her body was different physically. I mean, I felt a TAIL, for starters."
 "A tail? You mean, like Cheetah's?"
 Bri' nodded. "And.. well, different."
 "Hoo boy," Jason said. "That may not sit too well with Gina, considering she's
already so traumatized by all this."
 Brianna didn't answer, so, after a few seconds, Jason changed the subject
slightly again. "Can you contact her at all?"
 "Who, Gina?"
 "No.. the other you."
 "Nope. I can look in on her, in a vague sense, but nothing else."
 "Are you thinking of what you'll say to her when this is all over?"
 "What do you mean?"
 "Well, I'm thinking, once we solve your problem, and the other Brianna's, the
odds are probably pretty good that the two of you'll end up in the same room
together. Had you thought about that?"
 "....No," Brianna shook her head. "I've always thought you couldn't exist in
the same place twice."
 "That's the old time-travel cliche; this is different," Jason began, but Bri'
interrupted him.
 "Listen, she's starting to wake up, I think," Brianna said. "So I need you to
do me a favor."
 "What is it?"
 She raised her chin and projected it out at Jason. "Clock me a good one."
 "WHAT??"
 "A left or a right cross should do; your choice."
 "I choose neither!" Jason blurted out. "Why in the hell would--"
 "Because if I'm conscious when she wakes, she can draw on my untapped magical
energy to use. But if I'm knocked out, she only has what energy she's saving up
in reserves--and since she's blasting away with high-power spells every time,
you know it can't be a lot."
 "Well, I'm NOT gonna punch you out to do it. There's gotta be some other way."
 "Trust me, if there was, I'd've chosen it instead," she said urgently. "But
there isn't. You've gotta believe me, knocking me out is the best thing you can
do right now."
 Jason stared at Brianna for a long moment, trying to will himself to do it.
Finally, he raised his hand.
 "Nng!" Brianna said with a shudder, as if she was having a seizure. Jason, not
having swung yet, backed away.
 Brianna's expression contorted several times over the space of a few seconds,
then settled down. She fixed Jason with an icy stare.
 "You're no more than a spineless rodent," she sneered. "Couldn't even help
your friend in her time of need. And now I have all her power."
 "Up yours," Jason shot back uneasily, seeing as how he was insulting Brianna
as well, in a way.
 Grave Digger tried to stand. "I'll make it quick for y--wha?" She looked down
at her bound wrists and feet. "You dirty bastards," she said, struggling
against the cords.
 "I had to, Grave," Brianna said back. "Otherwise we would've escaped as soon
as you woke back up again."
 "That's the PLAN, you idiot!" she raged. "Can't you do ANYTHING right?"
 "I guess right and wrong are two sides of the same coin," Bri' shrugged, which
was hard to do while her body was also fighting to break loose of its bindings.
 "Shut up!"
 "I will if you will," Brianna shot back. To Jay, it made a pretty interesting
picture, seeing Brianna, arguing with herself, tied to a chair.
 <Interesting isn't the word,> he reflected. <More like traumatic.>
 The door swished open. Brianna looked up to see Gina and Theo entering.
 "Ah, I take it you called them as soon as I woke up, eh?" Brianna smiled
annoyingly at Jason. Her voice filled with acid: "What a little trooper."
 "I can't help it," she added in an apologetic tone instantly. "She's in here
again."
 "Shut up," Grave said.
 "I think not--it's my body and I'll do what I want," Brianna shot back.
 "They're both in there again," Jason said. "Bri' fights her, but as you know,
she's already threatened to wipe 'em both out if she keeps it up."
 "And it wasn't a threat," Grave answered quickly. "I'll do it, too."
 "You won't as long as your hands are tied and your magic is unavailable, you
bitch," Gina said.
 "Gina!" Theo said accusingly. "Enough." Theo turned to face Brianna, regarding
her.
 "Dad," Brianna said, "she's in here, but it's not always an even share of
control. It seems to be equal right now, but as you know, if she uses even one
high-level spell, she gets knocked unconscious, and I gain total control..
until she wakes up again."
 "Thanks for telling me what happened," came the response from her own mouth.
"Now I know for next time."
 To his credit, Theodore didn't answer. "Hmm," he said. "Quite a predicament."
 "You're telling me," Brianna added.
 "Well, you brought it on yourself, asshole, by fighting me," Grave retorted.
 "I wish you'd just shut up," Gina yelled.
 "Yeah, well, I wish Brianna here had never gotten inside me," Grave snapped
back. "You win some, you lose some."
 "I didn't get inside YOU! YOU'RE inside ME!" Brianna railed.
 "Forgive me," Dr. Diggers said. Jason thought he was going to try a spell, not
remembering the anti-magic field in use, when suddenly he picked up one of
Gina's T-shirts that was lying there in a laundry pile, folded it into a thin
length of cloth, and gagged Brianna. "I can't concentrate with you bickering."
 <Nice going, moron,> Grave told Brianna.
 <I'm not the one he's pissed off at,> Bri' answered.
 <Yeah, right. If you hadn't done this in the first place, we wouldn't even be
here.>
 "Is there anything you can do?" Gina asked her father.
 "Not right now," he shook his head. "Perhaps later. You two and I should talk,
out of her.. er, THEIR earshot." They turned and left.
 <Great, now we're gagged AND alone,> Brianna complained.
 <Alone? You call this alone? I can't even THINK without you being in my way!>
 <Listen, you're basically me, with Grave Digger's personality, right?>
 <Like hell,> she snapped. <I'm GRAVE DIGGER with Grave Digger's personality,
PLUS an UNWANTED extra one.>
 <But you remember all of my life, am I right? Right up until the point in time
where you took over?>
 <I wouldn't tell you!>
 Brianna had an idea. <I'd imagine you wouldn't,> she acknowledged, <except
that I can do this.> Suddenly Brianna's memories were Grave's, and vice-versa;
it was as if Brianna had reached into herself and opened a door. Yes, she
remembered this realm's Brianna's life, down to the very last detail.
 She closed the door again and returned to speaking with Grave Digger. <So you
know what I'm like. Why be like this, then? What does it possibly gain you to
be so evil?>
 <Go to hell!>
 <We both will together if I can't get you out of here,> Bri' said calmly. <So
tell me.. is it because of all the things I never got to do, like get together
with Stripe, or have my way with Genn, or-->
 <GO TO HELL!!> Grave interrupted, and Brianna knew she'd hit a nerve.

 Theo and Gina sat in the kitchen discussing things.
 "I hate to keep nagging, but -what about OUR Brianna-?" Gina said. "I mean, in
all fairness to Jason, his Bri' needs our help too, but I feel like we're
abandoning my sister here!"
 "Gina," Theo said, "she is in Jade, surrounded by friendly faces. I'm sure if
something had gone drastically wrong, word would've gotten back to us by now."
 As if on cue, a gateway swirled into view in the den, and out stepped Seance.
 Gina and Theo stood up. "Seance," Gina said. "What's going on in Jade?"
 He read her expression (and quite likely her thoughts) and looked confused.
"You already know?" he said questioningly.
 "We've experienced some problems here," Theo said. "An alternate-dimension
Brianna has arrived, exhibiting some of the same behavior that no doubt 'our'
Brianna is on Jade."
 "Well," Seance said, running a hand through his hair and sighing, "yesterday
morning, through events I'm not sure of myself, Brianna's personality was
twisted around into someone that Genn alternately calls 'Grave Digger' and/or
'the curse'."
 Gina moaned and rested her head on the table.
 "There was a fight," Seance went on, "and the Edge Guardians tried to stop
this Grave Digger personality, but in the process she destroyed a tavern and
nearly killed Sheila and Garfield.. not to mention the tavern's patrons and
owner."
 "The end result?"
 Jason entered the room just then; the others looked up, but he waved them on
to continue as he sat down.
 "Genn was able to restrain her, Doctor, feeding off her aura to sap her magic
energy and prevent her from launching any attacks again; as well--"
 "Maybe that's why she can't do more than one high-level spell," Jason cut in,
interrupting Seance.
 "I beg your pardon?" Seance stumbled.
 "We'll explain in a moment," Theo said. "Go on."
 "Genn was able to force Grave Digger's personality into the back of Brianna's
mind. Genn thought that Brianna would simultaneously wake up, but she didn't--
at least, not right away. She's been conscious once or twice, but Grave Digger
seems to wake up again at the most inopportune moments and fight for control."
 "That all fits," Theo nodded. "As I said, another Brianna, from another realm,
the realm this young man comes from"--he indicated Jason and introduced him--
"has arrived here with the same symptoms. Some of what you have described has
coincided with events here, as well. Tell me, if you can.. how did Grave Digger
come to the fore?"
 "From what I know," Seance said, "Sheila accidentally knocked Brianna out, and
when she regained consciousness, she had a severe case of amnesia. Grave Digger
didn't show up until Genn arrived in her presence."
 "Likely a cover story," Theo mused. "Genn would have easily seen that Grave
Digger was faking the memory loss, so she had to act."
 "I don't mean to whine again, but is this getting us anywhere?" Gina said.
 "I believe it is, Gina," Theo said, nodding again. "Seance, have there been
any other incidents?"
 "Genn and the Edge Guardians have been able to keep her from harming anyone
for now," the young mage nodded.
 "By any chance would one of Grave Digger's most recent awakenings have been
only for a moment or two, less than half-an-hour ago?"
 "I believe so," Seance said, "Unless something transpired after my departure."
 "I'd wager not," Theo said, standing up. "If you and Genn and the others can
safely restrain her for a while longer, I'd recommend you do that, and I stay
here."
 "What?!" Gina blurted with a look of total shock and surprise.
 "I think we can manage," Seance said, "but we aren't able to eliminate Grave
Digger, sir."
 "I don't think that'll be necessary," Theo said. "Simply keeping her from
escaping and doing any harm should be enough. Call on Brod, Mesha, and Tark if
you feel need to, but preventing Grave Digger from running loose will suffice."
 "Dad, we're talking about BRIANNA here!" Gina protested, shooting to her feet.
 "Exactly my point," he nodded. He gestured in the direction of the lab, below
them in the complex. "And I think the Brianna we have here in your laboratory
may have the key to solving all our problems."
 "Say what?" Gina queried.
 "Beg pardon?" added Jason.
 Theo turned to face his daughter. "According to Jason, his Brianna was created
during an experiment of yours gone wrong. She has exhibited the same behavioral
patterns as 'our' Brianna, according to Seance's testimony."
 "Yeah, but she's been at it for a lot longer than a day," Jason pointed out.
 "However, time may not flow as quickly in this realm as it does in yours," Dr.
Diggers said. "What was three or more weeks for you could easily have been but
a few hours in this universe."
 "Fair enough," Jay shrugged. "Anyway, we know that both Bri's have been acting
all wonky.. what does that do for us?"
 "When Genn forced Brianna's persona back to the forefront of 'our' Brianna, I
believe it may have had a direct effect on 'your' Brianna's level of violence--
you said that it differed significantly just before you arrived here?"
 "Yeah," Jason nodded slowly, starting to see the point. "She decided to come
here and 'finish it all', or something like that."
 "I agree that there's a sympathetic relationship between the two Briannas,"
Theo said, putting his hands flat on the table and leaning on it, "But I think
that it is YOUR Brianna that is affecting OURS."
 "What?"
 "See?!" Gina blurted out.
 "Gina!" Theo cut in with a scolding tone.
 "Well, Cheets TOLD him!"
 "There's no room for 'I-told-you-so's' in this situation," Theo said. He
turned to Seance. "I have an idea, but it requires me to be here. Can you
return to Jade and help to keep our Brianna in control? With luck, you should
soon notice the disappearance of Grave Digger, at which time I'll come for you
all."
 "..All right, sir," Seance said hesitatingly, turning and leaving.
 "And now," Theo said, moving to the elevator, "to execute my plan."

 The door opened again. Gina entered the room, followed by her father and
Jason. "Bri', you still in there?" Gina said.
 "Lllh-hllh," Brianna tried to say through the gag, nodding.
 "Alone yet?"
 "Nnnh-nnh."
 "Can you keep control?"
 She shrugged. It was a draw at the best of times.
 "Well, Dad has an idea, at least for now.. and it's going to require that I
untie you and let him take you somewhere. So do your best."
 Brianna sat there waiting, and Grave Digger ranted at her about how she was
going to kill everyone the moment she was free, including Bri' if she resisted.
 Gina freed her and she shot to her feet, in a fighting stance.
 "Oh no you don't," Gina said, and triggered the stunner she'd hid in the palm
of her hand when Brianna wasn't looking.
 "Sorry, Bri'," Gina said with obvious anguish in her voice. "You'll understand
in a few minutes. And Grave Digger, if you're in there--I hope this is the last
time I ever speak to you."
 Jason watched as Theo and Brianna disappeared through a dimension-door.

 When Brianna regained her senses, she was standing on a featureless plain,
still frozen by the stunner blast.
 Theo walked up to her.
 "We're in a pocket dimension," he said. "While Gina was distracting you, Grave
Digger, I brought us here. Therefore, you don't know where we are, and don't
know which way to point your dimension door to get home. So it's just you and
me.. and Brianna, of course. Though not for long."
 Bri' found herself silently agreeing, though she knew it was Grave resolving
to put her father down and then finish Brianna off as well. The stunner field
wore down, and she could move again.
 "Let's get it on, old man," Grave said.
 He backed up a few steps and generated a conflagration. Bri' instinctively
readied an aurashield to block it.
 <She's forgotten!> Brianna realized. <He's going to have her cast a spell, and
it'll knock her out!>
 <Oop! Thanks for reminding me,> came a laughing voice in her mind. <We might
make a good team yet. Besides, aurashield's a low-level casting.>
 "Don't hold her back, Brianna," Theo called out. "We need to wear her down."
 "She just reminded me of that fact, Doctor," Grave said. "Rest assured, it
won't happen this time."
 They battled back and forth, and Brianna watched helplessly, though she found
herself paying attention to how Grave put together spells, for some reason. For
five minutes, the two of them blasted things back and forth, making some
craters here and there to spruce up the featureless landscape. By then, both
mage-suits were in tatters, although the bodies underneath had been healed
quickly.
 Brianna could feel Grave starting to panic as the latter realized something,
at the same time as Dr. Diggers was verbalizing it. "You have forgotten, Grave
Digger, or perhaps never knew in the first place, that many low and mid-level
spells will accumulate to equal the drain of a high-level one."
 He threw a disintegration at Brianna/Grave Digger, and they cast an aurashield
up once more to block it. It hit the shield and dissipated, but they were
knocked backwards; even as Brianna had the wind knocked out of her, she felt
the headache again and knew Grave had been rendered unconscious.
 "Brianna?" her father said, coming over to help her up. As he did, she felt
him probe her mind. "Good. I feel only one of you there now. Get ready."
 "For what?" Brianna said, getting to her feet.
 He tossed another conflagration at her, and she yelped and put her arms up
before her face. When she realized she hadn't been cooked by the blast, she
looked to see that she'd instinctively formed an aurashield.
 "Very good," Theo said, as Bri' lowered her arms and watched the shield
dissolve. "What I need to do is teach you all of these skills and spells, so
that you can do battle with her in your shared mind. I was hoping she'd have
tried a high-level spell like teleportation for the final blow I gave her, so
that she'd be out longer, but we'll have to make do with what time we've got."
He took up a fighting stance again. "En garde, as they say."

 Another hour-and-a-half later, after learning quite a bit, both about Grave's
fighting skills and her magic, Brianna felt strange. "Uh-oh," she said in a low
voice. "I think she's coming back, Dad."
 "Then we'd best get you back to Gina, so she can immobilize you again. I'll
make this fast, since I don't think I've got much time left to say it to you:
it's YOU that's going to have to solve this problem. YOU are going to have to
fight Grave Digger using everything at your disposal." He opened the dimension
door and dragged her towards it. "Eradicating her persona from your shared mind
is the only solution now. You need to convince your own mind to psychologically
evict her from within you."
 As they passed through the dimension door, Brianna felt Grave Digger wake up,
and Bri' gave a mental shrug. <Well, now or never, I guess.>
 Suddenly, as Bri' willed it, she found herself retreating into her mind;
vaguely, she and Grave Digger were aware that Gina had stunned them again and
was in the process of tying them up, but Grave was so surprised at the
challenge that it was lost on her.
 <You wish to do combat?!> she reeled. <You impudent fool!>

 "So what now?" Gina asked her father.
 They, and Jason, looked at Brianna's body, seated in the chair, tied and
magically bonded as before, looking straight ahead but not seeing.
 "We wait," Theo said.

 In the meantime, in Bri's mind, she and Grave Digger suddenly appeared--two
entities, identical in appearance, and looking sort of like Brit's features on
Gina's body, compared to Bri's normal form of Gina's features on Brit's--on a
mental battlefield.
 "You've already failed," Grave laughed, pointing at Brianna. "Even in a
mindfight, you're unable to call up your own form. You're finished!"
 Bri' grinned the mirror image of Grave Digger's grin. "I chose your form for a
reason," she said, raising her hands and preparing a spell.
 Grave Digger threw up a defense immediately, and the discorporation Brianna
had thrown her way vanished. She looked at Bri' with a surprised look. "That
was a high-level spell! You.. I.."
 "It's all in our mind," Bri' grinned again. "As my father pointed out, it's
only when YOU actually use the spell in the PHYSICAL world that the energy gets
sapped. This one is a fight to the finish."
 Grave waved her hands sharply in a cutting motion; the aurashield dissipated.
"Then let's get it on."
 "Yes, let's!" Brianna shouted back, raising her hands.
 Grave readied a defense, but there was nothing from Brianna. Grave looked at
her, then lowered her defenses. "Well, you going go do anything, or just sit
there?"
 When Brianna didn't answer, Grave grinned and put her hands on her hips.
"What, did that one little pissant spell drain you?"
 "Of course not," Brianna said nonchalantly, throwing a pair of fireballs in
Grave's direction. Grave, with her defenses down, had to hit the deck to avoid
getting toasted. "I was just examining the best way to attack."
 "What are you talking about??" Grave said, launching a conflagration.
 Brianna threw up a mystic shield, easily blocking the assault. In the back of
her mind, she was thinking about the differences between her real, live body
and this form she'd adopted for the fight, but it was secondary to the task at
hand. "I was employing tactics, Grave, something you'll never understand, since
you just throw your energy around like it was going out of style, rather than
taking a look at what your opponent might do to counter it and then working
that into your attack."
 "Bah. That's too much work," Grave Digger said, causing the ground to cave in
all around Brianna, who fell down into the resulting pit.
 Grave walked forward to move to the edge of the pit, but before she'd taken
three steps, Brianna rose quickly out of the pit and levitated high into the
air. "Don't think you can get rid of me that easily," she shot back, sending
along a disintegration spell for good measure. "After all, this IS MY body, MY
mind, and MY chosen battleground!"
 "Oh, spare me," Grave said after dodging Brianna's attack and launching a
retaliatory strike.
 "Never!" Brianna said, heading back for the ground, ducking under the light-
razor spell. She landed, augmenting her touchdown so that a quake radiated out
from her feet and split the ground right where Grave was standing.
 "Why waste your time with these theatrics?!" Grave said, rising from the
crevice. "If you fancy yourself a better mage, prove it!"
 "I do believe I already am," Bri' countered, teleporting to escape the nova-
strike Grave had sent her way. She ended up right behind Grave, as intended,
and tapped her on the shoulder.
 Brianna saw the look of surprise on Grave's face right before she flattened
Grave with a thundering right cross. She flew through the air and landed on her
behind, 25 feet away.
 Brianna was temporarily distracted by her tail whipping around, but she put it
out of her mind for the moment. With Grave Digger still on the ground, Bri'
tossed a crescent cutter along the ground, and it almost got to Grave before
she rolled out of the way.
 Grave jumped to her feet, drawing a fireball out of the air and throwing it.
Brianna put up a shield, and Grave expected the fireball to splatter against it
and dissipate, but instead, the shield acted like a mirror, bouncing it right
back at her.
 "Yaah!" she said, putting up her own shield, which dealt with the fireball as
Grave'd expected.
 She then had to build the shield again as Brianna went back to a conflagration
for her next attack.
 "You're insane!" Grave said to Brianna after the spell had faded away.
 "Am I? You're the homicidal one, not me. Besides, I'm only getting started,"
Brianna answered, allowing herself a grin.

 They fought for what seemed like days; they were both able to see using their
one set of real, physical eyes, though, and the clock showed that "only" 15
hours had passed. Neither were tiring one bit.
 "You're an amateur!" Grave scoffed. "You have no chance! I haven't even had to
make a serious assault yet, you're so pitiful."
 "Perhaps that's exactly what I WANT you to believe," Bri' said, continuing to
hammer away at her evil twin.
 "For what purpose? As you said, our spell-energy isn't being dwindled by this
fight."
 "That's correct," Brianna said evenly.
 The battle went on.

 Another few hours passed, realtime, and suddenly the two combatants were aware
of Gina in the room. She leaned into their field of vision. "Bri'?" she said.
 "Yes?" Bri' heard herself say, and knew it was Grave Digger saying it. She was
caught off-guard slightly, and Grave smoked her one good hit.
 <What the hell are you doing?> Brianna wondered as her mental self picked
herself up off the ground.
 "Is it over?" Gina asked.
 "Yeah," Brianna's voice came, sounding slightly tired. "I finished her off.
She's gone now."
 "Okay," Gina nodded with a smile, and bent over to release the bonds.
 Bri' hammered away at Grave some more. "I think it's time to get rid of you,"
she said in her mind.
 "Wouldn't it be nice if you could?" Grave sneered. "As I've always said, you
can never hope to achieve it!"
 "I wouldn't be able to, IF I'd been at my limit all this time," Brianna said.
She was about to say more, but was surprised to note that she was rising from
the chair.
 "Gina, RUN!" Bri' shouted out loud.
 "What the--" Grave Digger said, also aloud, looking back at Brianna's hand on
the chair in a death-grip. "Arrh! Stop fighting!" She reached back with her
right hand to pull her left one free of the chair.
 "In just a moment," Bri' told Grave in her mind. "But I need something first."
She raised her hands, calling on every last ounce of energy her Grave-form in
their mind had to offer, and bellowed out, "ESSENCE ABSORB!"
 Grave Digger was shocked. "You--you can't use that spell--*I* can't--"
 She threw as many barriers into place as she could, but she was completely
overrun by the spell, and everything went white in their mind.

 "Bri'? Brianna!" Gina was saying, and shaking Bri's shoulder.
 "Huh?" she said groggily, waking up. She put her hands on the floor and
pushed, coming up as if from a pushup, seeing as how she'd landed on her face.
 "Bri'.. is that you?" Gina said.
 "Yeah," she answered, noting that Grave Digger was gone from her mind. She
wasn't even dormant like the other times, she was completely gone.
 "Is it over?"
 "Yeah," Brianna nodded. "It's over. For real this time."
 "Got any proof of that, if you don't mind me asking?"
 "My word," Bri' said. "Have Dad probe me if you must. Grave's gone for good."
 "Understand, then, that I WILL have to get him to do that."
 "I understand. I'd insist on it too."
 "Okay." She reached up and used the communicator, unwilling to leave Brianna's
side for a moment.
 Jason entered behind Theo, who regarded the alternate-reality version of his
daughter, lying on the floor. "Open your mind to me," he said. "Let me see it."
 Bri' did, and felt him boring psychically through her skull, then fading away.
"She's gone," he said.
 "Good," Gina said. She helped Brianna to her feet.
 "I just want to go on record as saying I NEVER, en eh VER, want to go through
that again!" Brianna said.
 "Well, I think we're safe from that," Theo said. "And now, girls, I have to be
off to Jade to ensure that Seance and the others have enjoyed as positive a
resolution as we."
 "Thanks, Dad," Gina said. "For everything."
 He nodded in reply. Brianna looked at her father as she felt him checking her
mind once more. He met her quizzical expression with his own, filled with
surprise.
 "And.. good luck," he said.

 "Sis.. Jay and I will work on getting you two home," Gina said. "You look like
you need some rest."
 "Yeah," Brianna nodded. "Mind if I crash somewhere for a while?"
 "Sure," Gina said. "Your room should be free.."
 "Um.. thanks, but if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to use a guest
room."
 "All right," Gina said. "Why, may I ask?"
 "Jay and I talked about this earlier. I think that meeting myself would be a
mistake. And I think that sleeping in my other self's room might be too much..
I don't want to disturb anything she's got going on in there. I'm sure our two
lives have diverged greatly since I was .. um, created .. so, I'd rather not
have any contact."
 "Suit yourself," Gina shrugged. "I would've thought you would've relished the
opportunity for this."
 "Any other time? Absolutely. After all I've been through, and I imagine all
'your' Bri's been through too, .. I'll pass just this once." She smiled.
 Gina returned the smile. "Okay. Well, you know where the guest rooms are,
then. Like I said, Jay and I have been working on getting you guys back to your
own universe, and we've got some more ideas to work out on that."
 "Okay," Brianna said, stretching. "Thanks."
 "If you need anything, Bri'," Jason said, "Just let me know."
 "Thanks," Brianna repeated, smiling as she left.

 She took the opportunity, before she went to sleep, to have a shower; when she
was done, she got a glass and filled it with water, then sat down on the edge
of the bed to get ready to go to sleep.
 She sat there staring at the floor for a few moments. She thought about what
had happened, and what she'd done--or rather, what Grave had done--and what
might have come of it had they not been able to stop her.
 <I didn't dare tell them that she was getting stronger,> Bri' said to herself.
<That she was more and more powerful every time we fought for control.. and
that I didn't have a clue how to use the magic to combat her, that I was just
taking stabs in the dark, even after Dad gave me some pointers..>
 She reached to the bedside table for the water and realized it wasn't there.
She looked up and saw it still in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the
sink.
 "Aw, nuts," she muttered. Before she could get up, though, the glass lifted
off the sinktop and floated in her direction. Once it cleared the bathroom
doorway, it changed course and slid perfectly into her open right hand.
 As she gripped the glass, she stared openmouthed at it, unable to comprehend
what she'd just done. Once it sunk in, her eyes widened even more.
 <I just.. I mean, it was in there, and I.. Does this mean..>
 She held out her left hand open in front of her.
 "Handtorch," she whispered, and quickly and painlessly, a single flame began
burning just above her left palm.
 She extinguished it by closing her fist on it; it didn't burn her at all. Her
face slowly formed a grin.
 "Unbelievable," she said in a whisper. "I've still got her powers."
 She took a drink from the glass of water, then set it aside and climbed under
the covers.
 <This is going to be interesting,> she said to herself with a smile, turning
over a couple of times to get comfortable.
 As she was drifting off to sleep, she added, <Yes, it most certainly will.>

 And so, the next morning, Gina and Brit were in the lab, ready to see Jason
and Brianna off. After a marathon lab session, Gina and Jason had figured out
the exact programming needed to make the light-gate function properly to gate
to Jason's universe--and not cause them to get Frakesed, as it had with Bri'
over a year previous.
 "You sure you don't want to stay and see yourself?" Gina asked Brianna.
 "No thank you," Brianna answered immediately. "That, as I said, would just
be.. too weird for me."
 "Compared to what?" Gina said with a smile. "I don't think anything can be
'too' weird after what we've all just been through."
 "Okay, I'll give you that one," Brianna nodded, smiling back.
 "Sorry I was so harsh on you when you first got here," Brit told Jason. "It
was just a little strange to have you pop in out of nowhere and know us like
that and start telling us what to do."
 "No sweat," Jason said, shaking her hand. "It's nothing. I'm sure I'd be the
same if I was in your place."
 "If you were in Cheets' place, we'd be back to square one," Gina said with a
laugh. The others joined in immediately.
 "Well.. I guess this is the proverbial 'it'," Gina said.
 Everyone fell silent for a moment.
 "Thanks for all your help," Jason said finally.
 "Thank YOU," Gina smiled. "Now, let's get you two home so Brit and I can go to
Jade and find out what's keeping my dad."
 "Fair enough," Jason said. "Hope there's some way we can meet again."
 Gina nodded, and directed them towards the swirling mass of color that was the
light-gate.

04 DECEMBER 1998 (A WEEK AND CHANGE AFTER RETURNING HOME)
1945

 "Check this out," Brianna said, tossing the mail on the desk.
 Jason picked it up. "Interesting," he said.
 "What is it?"
 "Something from City Dodge Chrysler," he said. "The dealer down on Macleod
Trail."
 "What's inside? Open it.."
 "I am," he said, tearing the end off the envelope and reading the letter
inside. He mumbled for a second, saying "yadda yadda yadda, truck, yadda yadda
yadda, contest, .. holy crap!"
 "What is it?" Brianna said with excitement to match Jason's own.
 "You know those contests where they give people keys to a vehicle and if it
starts it up, they win it? Well, according to these guys, I get to go down
there tomorrow and pick one of four keys and try to start a new Quad Cab!"
 "That sounds great!" Bri' gushed, hugging him. "Congratulations!"
 "Well, I haven't won YET," he said. "Only got a 25% chance of it, too."
 "That's better than nothing!" Brianna countered. "You'll get it, I'm sure of
it."

 The next day, they borrowed Jason's father's truck and headed into the city,
to the Chrysler dealership. As they went past Redwood Meadows, Jason said, "By
the way, I've been meaning to ask.. do you still have those bank accounts and
cards with the unchanging balances?"
 Jay was concentrating on driving, so he didn't turn to see Bri's expression;
if he had, though, he would've seen her wearing a look of worry. "Um.. yeah,"
she said. "..Why do you ask?"
 "Because.. well, I don't normally ask this kind of thing, and I didn't want to
this time, because it seems too much like imposing, or putting you on the spot,
but I kinda figured, once we're settled down again, what do you think about us
getting a house of our own, in Redwood? There's some nice places there, and
we'd be close to home and all that.. Er, I mean, MY home.."
 "I knew what you meant," she smiled. "It sounds like a great idea."
 "I just figured we'd been through enough over the past while that we deserve
to get some space to ourselves. And I think owning a house is the way to do
it."
 Brianna laughed out loud. "Listen, after all we've been through, owning a
house is gonna be a piece of CAKE."

FORTY MINUTES LATER
THE SHOWROOM OF CITY DODGE-CHRYSLER

 Jason stared at the rack. Four black-and-silver, metal-and-plastic ignition
keys hung there, one of which was worth forty thousand dollars of truck.
 Aware that every pair of eyes in the building were on him, he reached out and
held his hand before the rack, trying to come up with a procedure that would
let him pick what he hoped would be the winner.
 All of a sudden, he grabbed the second from the left and plucked it down off
the hook. The tension in the room dropped somewhat, then built again as he
turned towards the truck.
 He climbed up into the driver's seat--<Ooo! leather!>--and sat there for a
moment, regarding the instrument cluster and the layout of the controls, seeing
himself driving down the road in this beautiful vehicle.
 Again, because everyone in the dealership was waiting on his every move, he
lifted up the key, transferred it from his left to his right hand, and slotted
it into the ignition.
 Gingerly, as if it would snap off, he slowly applied twisting pressure.
 A second later, the seat belt/door ajar chime went off (bong, bong, bong) as
the key turned freely to the ON position.
 Jason's eyes couldn't've been wider, and the cheering and applause from the
assembled sales and service personnel (and the other contestants) couldn't've
been louder as they all congratulated him.
 For kicks, he continued through to the START position, and the turbodiesel
whined as it was cranked, then rumbled to life.
 As he turned it off with a grin plastered all over his face, Brianna leaned in
through the open driver's door and hugged him, laughing and congratulating him
as well.
 "Well done, Mr. Low!" one of the salespersons said. "Now, if you'll come with
me, we just need to fill out some paperwork in my office."
 Jason, with a smile that looked like it'd never fade, gladly hopped out of the
cab of the truck--of HIS truck--and handed the key to Brianna. "I'll be out
here for a bit," she said. "Good job!"
 After Jason and the salesperson went into the offices, Brianna walked up to a
service-department employee standing off to one side. "Thanks," she said with a
smile.
 "No sweat," he said. "We enjoy it when customers want to do different things
like this. I'll make sure you get all your keys."
 "Thanks," said she, heading towards the door. "I'll just go get our stuff."
 "Go right ahead."
 She entered the service-bay lobby, where their jackets, her purse, and Jay's
backpack hung. She looked around, then, seeing nobody was watching, smiled as
she levitated her purse and Jason's backpack to her.
 Just after that, someone cleared his throat behind her. "Ms. Diggers?" came a
voice as she turned around. It was a junior sales rep.
 "Yes?" she answered.
 "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Larry," the
man said. "Having heard what you and he said, I had to check something.. I
tried all three remaining keys in the truck."
 "Did they work, sir?" she said with a smile.
 "Every last one," he said after a moment. "I'm afraid I don't understand."
 After shrugging her jacket on, Brianna opened her purse and extracted a bill
of sale for one Dodge Ram 3500 Quad Cab, etc etc etc, and displayed it to the
rep.
 "You'd actually purchased it?" he said. "This wasn't an actual contest?"
 "It was as far as my friend's concerned," she said. "Thanks to Larry."
 "May I ask why?"
 "I've been a bit of trouble for Jay these past few weeks," Brianna smiled.
"Had to make him believe his luck was changing."

END