A/N:
I'm back, for now at least.
I had to settle some affairs, draw up an outline for a new story, and try and think up a general story for this one, so I could stop pulling its plot out of my ass.

Chapter 12:

"So... Where do you want me to start?" Silas asked, pulling his gloves tight against his hands and stretching his back. It felt like months had passed in the span of a few days, taking in new abilities was exhausting, stealing the power of The Beast was even more exhausting, using the Beast's abilities to steal a monster's powers, to enhance his own? That sapped the Conduit of his energy so quickly and so thoroughly Silas was amazed he was still even remotely conscious.

"What kind of monster are you?" The Vampire asked, from her perch atop a dead tree stump. "My first idea would have been you'd be an Elemental. But given how many... Elements you control and the variety with which you control them, I think I am wrong there. Seeing you fight so effectively with other yokai's abilities makes me think you're a leech, but their abilities are temporary at best, so that can't be it." She listed off, showing a wisdom and deductive reasoning ability her pink-haired counterpart would never have even hinted at possessing. "The way you carry yourself -"

"You know... I did say I'd tell you... Why don't you just... Let me?" Silas inquired, reaching inside his sling-bag and ripping out his hoody.

Moka gave him an odd look, before she crossed her arms and glanced off to his right. "I rarely get to walk about. Even more rarely do I get to think as hard as you make me."

"Then remind me to let you out and we'll play chess, one day." Silas said, "now, I think honesty will be my best policy, here, so I'll be blunt: I'm Human."

"Bullshit." The Vampire's red eyes gleamed with a desire to gut the yokai on the ground beneath her, for lying as bold-facedly as he was. "No human -"

"Lady, I'll blast you with smoke if you interrupt me like that again. You want the truth? I'm giving it to you, take it or leave it." Silas wanted sleep, and the more he spoke to Moka, the less likely that prospect was looking. For effect, he faux-coughed up a few longfulls of the dark substance. "Now, I told you this story, about how I lived in an area that was predominantly Human?" She nodded, "that wasn't entirely true. Not entirely false, either, but not entirely true. I lived in a Human city, Empire city was its name." He thought he saw comprehension dawn in her eyes, but she stayed silent. "One day, these terrorists detonated this enormous bomb, which... Well, activated, is a word... Activated specific genes in Human beings. These genes give us these powers -" He charged his left hand with electricity to showcase his point. "- and let us use them. So, for all intents and purposes, I am Human. I'm just not a Homo-Sapiens."

"Then, what are you? 'Human'?" Moka asked, anger was clearly flooding her tone, though if she were angry at the fact he was a human, that he'd lied to her for so long, or something else, Silas didn't pay attention.

"Call me what you will. Human, Conduit, 'Bio-Terrorist', I am what whoever sees me as." Said Silas, "but the point is, my blood is Human. My genes may not be, but my blood is, so that is what I am: A Human. I'm not a monster, but I can't be called a 'true' Human, either... I'm a Conduit. But in the eyes of Humans, I'm a monster. In the eyes of monsters, I'm a Human." He explained, "so in the end, I am - as I said - what whoever sees me as."

"And why did you kill Kuyou like that?"

"Empire City was destroyed by a beast of a Conduit. He was the massive lava-thing you saw me fighting as. He was made by the bomb that activated all of us. So he had the powers of the bomb, he had the powers to activate and power up other conduits." Silas explained, "I killed Kuyou like that, for two reasons. The first was to make an example: If someone threatened me so damningly as Keito did, I wouldn't hold anything back against them, I would kill them. The second, was because I needed more power in and of itself. By killing Kuyou like that, I stole from him everything, and added it to myself. In other words, I leeched all of his powers and kept them myself. I now am twice as powerful as I was before, and added to that is all that Kuyou was, itself doubled by my attack." He paused, considering something. "If Kuyou is alive, he won't ever be the same."

Moka leaned back, staring at the red sky above her. "So... Can you take powers from anyone?"

"At first, I was not certain. But then Kuyou forced my hand, and I had to try." Silas said, "at first, I had thought I could only take them from Conduits. That's how I got my smoke and electricity powers. But when Kuyou forced my hand, I decided now was the best time to try, so I grabbed him and started leeching. When it worked, that was when I got my answer." Silas explained, "so... Yes. It seems I can take anyone's powers, Conduit or Monster."

"Hm." Said Moka, "is there anything else you're hiding from me?" She asked. "Anything else I should know?"

"I think you're kind of hot, but other than that, not much." Silas shrugged his shoulders.

Moka blinked, and then she blinked again. "What?" She nearly screeched.

"Not much else." Silas responded, cheekily, as he drew his hood over his head.

"Don't you ignore me, Human, what did you just say?!" Her mind was stalling, like an engine trying to get a jump from a dead battery.

"I just said, not... Much... Else." He stood up slowly, a grin plastered over his face.

Moka stared at him, livid. "Alright... We'll address that later. Now... We are going to talk about how you're going to make it up to myself and my inner half, for all the lying you've done to us." She said, sliding off of the stump and on to her own feet.

"Oh?"

"Yes. First, because you lied to us since day one... You're going to give us your blood, twice a day. At. Least." She stated, slowly.

"Hm." Silas grunted, "what else?" He asked, not affirming nor denying her demand.

"And... Because of your recently displayed insolence... " She slowly strode up to him. "You're going to learn your place!" Faster than most could even register, her leg whipped through the air, aimed straight for the Conduit's head.

The Conduit, having seen the attack coming, smoke-dashed out of the way just an instant before the leg would have hit his head. "I'll see you tomorrow, Moka." He said, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. "I'm exhausted." And with those words, the miniature meteorite flew from the clearing and towards the school, leaving a seething vampire in his wake.

"So let me get this straight..." Brooke Augustine said, slowly, making sure every word was said correctly and clearly. "You're telling me you detected the Alpha Conduit's energy... Everywhere." She stared at the computer screen in front of her.

"I... Miss Augustine, the computers don't lie. Just a few hours ago, our satellites detected the radiation. Barely a second later the energy signatures jumped from New York to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo to Mombassa... It's moving all the way around the world a half dozen times in as many seconds." Lieutenant Daniels explained as quickly as he could.

"How the hell is that possible?" The closet-conduit had an idea, but she refused to entertain the thought that someone had hacked in to the DUP's satellite network.

"I... Have a working theory, but -"

"Give it to me." She knew from experience, when it came to Conduits, damn-near anything was possible.

"Well, we've seen Conduits who are able to manipulate gravity, teleport, fly, create fire... Anything imaginable, we have a conduit on record who could do it." He explained hastily, a bead of sweat running down his pale skin. "It is within the realm of possibility that a Conduit could be able to create pocket dimensions... Like in the sci-fi movies."

"Pocket dimensions..." The way Augustine said it made the Lieutenant think she was actually considering it as a possibility! "And you're certain this is true?"

"Well... We have no evidence... And it could be entirely possible that the Alpha leeched powers from a teleporter... But radiation of this magnitude would only follow a Ray Field Detonation, similar to the two in Empire City. We've been scouring the hot-spots, and haven't found any craters at all." Daniels explained, as Augustine stared intently at the data he was feeding her. "So unless someone hacked our systems... Pocket Dimensions could be our best bet."

Augustine considered everything he'd told her. If the Conduits could create pocket dimensions, that could very well mean that an army of them was breeding right under their noses. As wonderful a prospect that was for the safety of her species, if Daniels had come up with the pocket-dimensions idea, that meant someone else would too. Given how scared of Conduits the UN was, that was a recipe for complete and utter disaster, she had to find these people first and get them to Curdun Cay, otherwise she didn't know what would happen.

"I want the reports on every conduit in our facility." She stated firmly, she had faint memories of a Conduit who was able to 'link' to others and teleport to them, but she didn't know how far that ability would stretch if it tried hopping dimensions. Hopefully, it would stretch just far enough. "And tell the UN-SC I'll be just a little late... I need to brush up on the Alpha Conduit's abilities." She didn't want to, but if she had to, she would kill little VaSilas, there were other Leeches in Curdun Cay, and they would be more than willing to steal the boy's life force if it meant they gained favor with her.