Zoey's War

Tomorrow When The War Began

November 1st, 2029

"COME ON! Stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!"

Zoey's mouth curls into a snarl and she leaps at me, crossing the five feet separating us in the blink of an eye. I smile as I take three steps back, weathering the teenager's flurry of punches and kicks without letting a single one through. I block a right hook with my left forearm and lash out at Zoey's right foot with my left as it comes off the floor for a kick. I step in close to box her ears but she retracts her arms and knocks both of mine wide. That is not enough for her to land a blow though as I retreat again, bending back and to the left, her punches catching nothing but air. I spin to the right, to Zoey's outside and stomp on her foot, pinning her in place for a moment, allowing me to drive a jab into her short ribs. That sends her stumbling, her breath leaving her in a woof. I don't let up, pivoting forward on my right foot to slide my left behind hers, striking her in the chest with both my palms. Zoey loses her balance completely, stumbling backwards into poured concrete wall of the boiler room.

I say nothing as I pop a squat in front of Zoey as she slides to the ground and keels over, gasping for breath. I didn't hold back on that last blow. "Better, my young Padawan," I say sagely, stroking my chin.

Zoey scowled at me. "Fuck you, oh wise Jedi Master."

"Ah ah, f-bombs are reserved for when you are really getting your ass kicked, not just losing at a little light sparring."

There was a knock at the door at the top of the single-story staircase that led up from the subbasement boiler room that Zoey, Stan and I were in. "And that would be the super. Looks like physical training is over for the day."

Zoey didn't say anything, just continuing to scowl at me and rub her chest. The building's supervisor was waiting in the narrow hallway that connected all the administrative and maintenance areas together. He was a somewhat overweight, congenial man in his early fifties with hair just starting to go gray. He gave the three of us a curt nod, locking the subbasement door behind us. For an extra fifty dollars a month, he let us use the subbasement to train, although he had no idea what we did down there and did not ask.

He gave the three of us a quick nod as we passed each other in the narrow hallway, Zoey and I in olive-drab short-sleeved t-shirts and shorts, Stan in his work clothes, all of us sweat-stained and smelling. The three of us ascended the three flights of stairs to apartment 3-F that we shared with Tuesday and Jimmy.

"We're back, Mom!" Zoey called from the tiny foyer as we all shed our shoes.

"Good timing," Tuesday called from the kitchenette, the sound of something sizzling on the stove. "Dinner is about ten minutes out so you two have time for a shower before we eat."

I said nothing, just walking past the dining/living room to the bedrooms. There were three of them, one shared by Tuesday and Zoey, one shared by Stan and Jimmy and mine. My bedroom was the only one with an attached bathroom, but lacked a full bath. I tossed my sweat-dampened clothes in the hamper and stepped under the cold water. I did not linger long, just long enough for a quick soap and rinse. I had been up since about six a.m. and had not had much to eat for lunch so I was more than ready to sit down and eat. It was Tuesday's turn to cook tonight and she was easily the best cook among us.

Dinner was pretty quiet, everybody focused on their food. It wasn't until plates started to be cleared that Tuesday spoke. "So how did training go today?"

"Pretty well," I said around a mouthful of food, grinning when Zoey scowled. "Zoey's hand-to-hand is just about perfect and Stan is progressing pretty well too."

"That's good. I can't imagine we have much time left." The room fell absolutely silent at Tuesday's words, Stan, Jimmy and Zoey all lowering their silverware and looking at me.

"Yeah," I replied quietly, dropping my gaze to my plate. "Zoey is about the age that she is in my vision."

Nobody said anything, gazes darting around the table. I leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes as the memory of the day that I had revealed who I was and what was to come to my friends rose to the fore of my mind.

Flash!

It was a cool October evening, windows shut tight against the encroaching Chicago chill. Everyone was seated around the table in living room of the apartment that Stan, Jimmy, Tuesday, Zoey, Walter and I shared. "First of all, I would like to thank you all for showing up tonight."

"You said it was very important when we talked on the phone," Walter said quietly.

"It is," I replied from my position at the head of the table. "This is quite seriously the most important thing that any of you will ever hear. However, before I can explain why I asked you all here tonight, I need to tell you who I am."

"Jodie, are you in trouble?" Stan interrupted with an upraised hand. "Because if you are, that is alright. You don't owe anyone here an explanation if you are."

I smiled a little. "No, Stan, I am not in trouble. At least no more than anyone else in the world is." That confused everyone. "Please, just let me speak and I am sure that I will answer any questions you might have in due course." I paused for a moment to let one of them say something, but no one did. "First of all, allow me to introduce myself. I am Jodie Holmes. I am a medium. I have been linked to the spirit of my stillborn twin brother, Aiden, since the say I was born." I proceeded to lay out my life in brief detail, from the day that I was dropped off at the Department of Paranormal Activities, to my stint as an agent of the CIA, to the Black Sun incident and my brief foray into afterlife.

"Why are you telling us all this," Tuesday asked after several long seconds.

"The funny thing about time is that it is a purely mortal concept. Time has no meaning in the Beyond, and as a result, when Aiden returned to me, he came with memories of the future."

"What did he show you?" Tuesday asked again.

I shook my head, holding out my hands. When everyone had joined hands I closed my eyes, visualizing the psychic flame that represented my will, touching it to everyone's forehead. The vision only lasted a second, but that was more than enough to convey my message.

Tuesday lurched to her feet, clutching Zoey to herself. "No," she breathed. "That is not Zoey; that cannot be Zoey."

"Yes it is, Tuesday. You saw my vision exactly how I dream it every night. All the power I have comes from my link with Aiden. Zoey has no such handicap. Her power is all her own and she is the only one that can stop the Infraworld spirits from destroying ours."

Taking a bracing breath, I lifted my eyes and looked around the table, meeting and holding the other four members of our group in turn. "I don't need to remind any of you the stakes for which we will be fighting. You have all seen what is to come. I have spent the last seven years teaching you everything that I know in order to prepare you for it. Zoey, I hate that you have been forced to grow up faster than even I had to. You know that I would give anything to taken this burden from you, but I can't. I have spent years traveling all over the world learning as much as I can about the other side, the Infraworld, the Beyond, Heaven, Hell, anything remotely connected to the afterlife and passed it all on to you. You are an extremely potent psychic. I know that despite your age, when the time comes, whether it is tomorrow or next year, you will do what you have to stop the Infraworld spirits."

Nobody said anything for several long seconds. Zoey was focused on a knot in the grain of the wood of the table, hands clasped tightly together. "There was once a time that I felt much like you did when you were a child in the DPA labs, that I was a freak, a monster, especially when my talents started manifesting themselves. But do you want to know the one thing that you and me? It is the fact that I accept what I am. Yes, my powers mean that I will never have a normal life, but I don't want a normal life. I have something that most people will never have: a purpose. I have a destiny. I was born to fight, born to save the world. I know that I will probably never have family or friends beyond those who are sitting at this table, but I don't resent the fact. I will be a heroine, someone that will go down in the history books. You gave me purpose, Jodie, and I will never forget it or regret it."

I closed my eyes, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to wet my cheeks. I shifted my point of view to Aiden's for a moment and examined my friend's auras. Stan, Walter, Jimmy and Tuesday were surrounded by feeble green light that always seemed on the verge of dying out, but Zoey's aura burned a bright blue, the ghostly flames reaching halfway to the ceiling.

I opened my eyes again, the visualization of Zoey's psychic power leaving a brief afterimage on my physical sight.

"Just because you don't regret the loss of your childhood doesn't mean that the rest of us can't," Tuesday said. "Zoey, I am your mother. The last thing I want for you is to have to carry that kind of burden. My job is to protect you, not the other way around."

"I know, Mom. And I can't imagine what the last seven years have been like for you, and I will admit that you have been unreasonably cool about all this 'averting the end of the world' stuff."

"I saw the beginning of the end of the world. That kind of thing is pretty hard to argue with, no matter how much I want to. But I have to admit that I couldn't be prouder of the woman that you have grown into."

"As are we all," I continued.

An awkward silence spread over the table, Zoey ducking her gaze again, trying to hide smile and blush. "I know I haven't always been the easiest to get along with," I snorted, one or two particular incidents coming to mind, "but you have always been patient with me if not gentle."

"Take my word for it, Zoey, gentle is the last thing you need when training to save the world. The next Black Sun incident is going to be like Doomsday and Armageddon had a baby."

"You do know that the two are two words for the same thing right, Jodie?"

"My point is that the next Black Sun is going to make what follows look like a Disney flick. You know this, you have seen my visions. There is no amount of prepared that is enough for what is coming."

"Well, in slightly less depressing news, I brought dessert." Walter pushed his chair back and returned with a white cardboard box. I groaned, dropping my face in my hands. When I looked up, Walter had revealed a white-frosted birthday cake, thirty-nine10 candles set around the words 'Happy Birthday Jodie & Aiden.'

"You guys know I don't like birthday parties," I groused. "And that is not even considering the fact that you are a day late. I was hoping that you had forgotten."

"Well, I had a professor's conference down in St. Louis that I just got back from, you know, and we figured that we would wait until I got back so that we could celebrate together.

"Why is it you don't like to celebrate your birthday, Jodie?"

I gave Zoey a flat look. "I had a traumatic experience with one as a child."

She gave me a confused look. "How can cake and presents be traumatic?"

"Let's just say I ended up burning the house down. Not to mention that no woman likes to be reminded that she is getting older.

"Well just because you don't want to enjoy your cake, that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy it. Blow out your candles so the rest of us can enjoy it."

I did as Tuesday asked and sat back as she cut it, handing everyone a slice. I accepted mine with a small smile and a raised glass of milk in toast to Walter. Tuesday had cooked, so that meant that Zoey and I were on kitchen patrol. Unlike Stan or me, Tuesday was pretty good about not making a huge mess of the kitchen, even when she was making something that was really messy. We worked in silence for a few minutes, up to my elbows in hot soapy water while Zoey dried the dishes and put them away.

"What was it like being in the CIA?"

"What?"

"What was it like working for the CIA? You have told me a lot about the Black Sun incident, but you never talk about what you did when you worked for the government."

"That is because I did a lot of bad things in the name of our country, and few of them were good. In fact, the only good thing that I would say that came out of my time with the CIA is that they gave me the skills to train you to stop the next Black Sun. Other than that…" I shook my head. "Let's just say there were a lot of lies told."

It grew quiet again, the sound of Stan turning on the television and flipping through the channels coming from the living room. "What is it like to kill someone?"

I sighed and leaned against the sink, hanging my head. "Tonight seems to be the night for armor-piercing questions. It sucks. It was never something I liked or wanted to do. Killing with a gun or in hand-to-hand combat is bad enough. Killing with Aiden… it's a million times worse. I hope it is something that you never have to do, but we both know that you are going to. I just hope that day is a long way off."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes I wish that the next Black Sun would hurry up and erupt. I mean, it's not like I want the world to end or anything, but… I don't know. I'm just tired of hiding, tired of pretending to be normal. What is the point of being able to move things with my mind when I can't use my powers to put uppity bitches in their place?"

"Emily and her friends causing you problems again?"

Zoey scowled. "Bitch poured water over the top of the stall onto the toilet paper when I was using the bathroom and tried to trip me in the cafeteria at lunch. Emphasis on tried."

"But you didn't retaliate, did you?"

Zoey gave me a flat look. "Don't you think someone would have gotten a call from the school if I had gone Vader on their asses and Force choked them out or something? And to be frank, I thought you would have realized that you trained me better than that. It will take more than a few high-school bullies to make me turn to the Dark Side."

"Point," I allowed.

"You have shown me your memories of what McGrath did to your mother and you when you tried to leave. I know better than to do anything to attract his attention."

"Glad to hear it. But take my word when I say that I would have given anything to be able to have a fraction of the normalcy you have when I was your age. Just about every time I tried to do something normal, it backfired on me in the most humiliating and painful way. So while you may want to get on with saving the world, just keep in mind that there isn't going to be much time for eating out at restaurants and going to movies with friends once things start going to shit. Just try not to take what you have for granted."

"I know and I don't, but it's just so frustrating at times, having to hide who I really am."

"Tell you what, Zoey. The day that the DPA ignites the next Black Sun, you and I will go to your school and deliver a little karmic justice. How does that sound?"

Zoey grinned. "That sounds great."

"I though you would think so. Now, let's get these dishes finished and you can watch some television. Watch some news and then we can start our evening session."

"You know part of the reason why Emily and the rest are such bitches to me is because all I am allowed to watch are old movies and the news."

"Too much TV rots you brain. And there isn't much that has come out of Hollywood in the past ten years that can compare to the old stuff. Besides, wouldn't you rather spend your time keeping up with current events than waste your time on werewolves, vampires and time travelers?"

"I don't know what TV was like in your day, but there is more to the boob tube than TV dramas. Or so I'm told. I really wouldn't know."

"Alright, enough sass. You have an hour before evening practice."

OoOoO

Zoey and I sat cross-legged on the floor of my bedroom, a foot apart at the foot of my bed. We stared at the digital clock on the bed, the numbers slowly ticking forward.

7:58

7:59

8:00

I nodded. Zoey closed her eyes for a moment and reopened them, eyes filmed over white. I rose up a foot off the ground, bobbing once before stabilizing. I gave Zoey a single nod before closing my eyes and shifting. Zoey's aura burned strong, a finger of psychic energy bridging the gap between us and embracing me. Aiden and I rose a foot above my already suspended form and struck out. There was a time where Aiden was limited to simple telekinetic bursts of force, but between my own training and Zoey's, I had become far more adept at manipulating Aiden's psychic energy.

I extended a tongue of energy, wrapping it around and entwining it with the link that connected Zoey and me. Our energies had barely begun to meld when the link flexed, thorns erupting where her energy and Aiden's touched. Aiden instinctively released his hold on the link and lashed out again without my control. Zoey reacted with instinctive speed, congealing her psychic corona so that the scalpel-like attack was ensnared and assimilated, a thousand, thousand barbs locking Aiden's attack in place and breaking it down, the pieces absorbed.

I gave Zoey a small smile, that particular technique one of the more difficult ones that I had taught her. I had not truly expected a direct attack to work, so I changed tactics. Aiden turned his focus from Zoey to some of the objects in the room. Much of her training had been in learning how to shut out distractions and interference and focus on the task at hand. Of course, I had also tried to keep her mindful of the danger that completely ignoring her surroundings invited. My first target was the alarm clock on the bed, a pinpoint TK blast first turning on the radio, preset to the local hard rock and metal station, another turning the volume up to the maximum setting.

The door to the bathroom was open so I slammed that closed. I jumped the bed and the dresser and the bookshelf, knocking several books off, generally making as much noise as possible. While the books were still tumbling from the shelf, I popped the door to my nightstand and withdrew a cup, half chilled water, a quarter ice chips and a quarter ice cubes. I floated the cup over and dumped it over her head.

She reacted with predictable surprise and I wobbled as her concentration wavered. While Zoey was undoubtedly the stronger of the two of us in terms of pure psychic power precision, my link with Aiden meant that unlike Zoey who could only affect that which she could see directly, I was not so limited and Aiden could freely move around to attack a problem from another angle.

Her surprise did not last beyond that first yelp, though, quickly scooping the ice up and returning the favor. She was not nearly quick enough to drop them down my shirt though, Aiden catching her thrust, intertwining with it, shattering it, much as she had done to my first attack. I had Aiden spread himself out, stretching his being out to wrap himself around Zoey. She immediately erupted in thorns, wicked, barbed things that would latch onto whatever they caught and never let go.

Her thorns caught nothing but air though; holes appearing in Aiden's being, moving as the thorns moved. Her lips thinned into a white line as she rose into the air, stopping when she was at eye level and rotating so that she was upside down. The thorns suddenly stopped moving, stopped trying to catch and tear into Aiden, instead lashing out with a simple psychic strike aimed at my jaw and my temple. Aiden caught both, but barely and Zoey dropped a few inches.

She struck again, forcing Aiden to split himself between holding her upside down and deflecting her heavy-handed attacks. If there was one thing that Zoey was good at, it was making use of her strength. She knew that she was not going to be able to tear herself free from Aiden's grip so she stopped trying and began attacking me directly. Scalpels, clubs, teeth, claws, her attacks came in all forms, each of them either deflected or broken and absorbed.

Normally, the idea behind these sessions were for me to try to break her concentration and force her to drop me, but Zoey wasn't taking her usual defensive footing, not that it was an issue for me. She still had to split her concentration between holding me up and attacking me. While she had more power, I had more experience, and there was little chance of her beating me in anything in a straight out brawl.

Making noise and dropping icy water hadn't worked in distracting her, so I switched tactics. I waited until Zoey's assault slowed and simply turned her around.

"Cheater!" Zoey cried out as I dropped to the ground. I grinned widely at her as I turned her back around to face me, her arms folded across her chest and had a fierce scowl on her face.

"What you call cheating, I call creative winning."

"Very funny, Jodie, but you still broke the rules."

"'Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.'"

"That sounds like a saying."

"It's from a British World War II fighter pilot. It means that only fools blindly follow the rules. Rules are never absolutes, but rather guidelines. If you are ever losing a fight, you should be asking yourself what rules am I following that the other guy isn't?"

"That something you learned in the CIA?"

"It's something that I learned running from the CIA. It is something that I had hoped that you would come to on your own, but I suppose that is a little much to expect from a fifteen-year-old. I mean, you have been taught to follow the rules all your life, I shouldn't expect you to shake that kind of conditioning overnight. "

"While this is very educational and all, I was wondering when you were going to let me down. The blood is rushing to my head."

I gave her a nod and righted Zoey, setting her on the floor. "Is the lesson learned?"

"If you mean that I shouldn't expect you to fight fair anymore, then yes, the lesson is learned."

"Fighting fair is for suckers and losers, as I think I just proved. I want you to think on what I did tonight because tomorrow you are going to be fighting blind."

"You watch the Star Wars movies again or something, because you seem to be on a serious Obi-Wan kick lately."

"Sometimes the old ways are the best. Now, put the books back on the shelf and get to bed. You have a chem test tomorrow in fourth period if I recall correctly."

I pushed myself to my feet and left the bedroom as the music stopped and the books started floating to their spots on the bookshelf.

"Everything okay in there?"

"Nothing broken, Tuesday. Your daughter is a little wet, but otherwise fine."

"Good. I got a little worried when she screamed."

"Ice water. She's cleaning the mess up now. I didn't get the chance to ask earlier, but there haven't been any messages in today, have there?"

Walter shook his head. "Just the usual crazies on the usual sites. Nothing that seemed legitimate. Although Cole checked in. Wanted to see how you were doing. Says that Ryan has been asking after you."

I grimaced. "Isn't he always. You gave him the usual brush-off?"

"I did. And I know that it isn't my place to say, or any of ours really, but-"

"So don't say anything. I don't know what kind of message Cole passed on, but I said everything I needed to say to him fifteen years ago."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Walter said with upraised hands. Just thought that I would mention it."

"I am going to bed then, if there is nothing else." Nobody said anything, and I turned around and reentered my bedroom as Zoey left it. I flopped face-down onto my bed and closed my eyes.

OoOoO

This is not the dream I am expecting.

I am expecting the burned-out corpse of a city, a supersized Infraworld portal in the background.

I am in a white-tiled room, massive, with what was unmistakably a condenser unit, albeit larger than any other than I had ever seen. "Those idiot sons-of-bitches." I knew this was coming, I had dreamed it for a decade and a half, but seeing it, seeing the device that was going to cause the end of the world was not the same thing.

I had spent years after the Black Sun incident wondering how the people in charge could be so stupid-blind as to keep toying with the condenser technology after failure on failure, but I eventually realized that they did not see the Maryland, Kaziristan and Black Sun events as failures, but learning experiences trying to master the next nuclear technology.

"Initiating portal room lockdown. All personnel please evacuate the room. Primary and secondary access locked down."

"Containment field powering up. Sixty percent. Seventy percent. Eighty percent. Ninety percent. Containment field one-hundred percent strength."

"All safety protocols in place. Infraworld condenser powering up."

The two 'arms' of the device that would tear a hole into the Infraworld started humming, the pads of the 'fingers' glowing blue-white with power. The condenser took a few minutes to warm up before the air started shimmering. A black-fringed orange line eventually forming, thickening, splitting.

"Infraworld portal stabilized at 17.3 meters in diameter. Containment field remaining at one-hundred percent. Gentlemen, the Black Sun Mark II is operational. Good work."

OoOoO

I awoke with a gasp, sheets tangled around my legs, covered in a cold sweat. I sat up and kicked my legs over the side of my bed looking at the clock.

There was a knock on my door, Zoey stepping in as I turned to flick the lamp on. She was wide eyes, hands trembling a little.

"You saw it," I said. She nodded.

"It's started, hasn't it?"

I nodded. The clock read 12:01. It was November 2nd, 2029. All Souls Day.

OoOoO

A/N: So this is clearly not Shinigami no Naruto. The next chapter of that is coming eventually, but until then, this will have to tide you over. As I do not have a PS3, I am writing this from the wiki and Youtube walkthroughs, so blame any inconsistencies on that.

Please feel free to tell me anything that is clearly wrong, or overdone, or you don't like. While I am writing this mostly for myself, input and criticism is appreciated.