The tail end of the staff flashed around and would have caught her on the point of her hip, if she'd still been there. Some how Rachel had managed a truly incredible standing back flip, with out thinking and with out looking. The only imperfection was that her feet didn't catch the staff end, sending it flying. Unfortunately Rachel's opponent was more experienced then she and caught Rachel's right toe with her elbow. Rachel's back flip became more of a flop but with out a pause she rolled away. "Never stay where you were!"

The bladed end of the staff struck the floor. Rachel struck out with her foot, trying for something like a roundhouse that would break the staff, or at least the blade. But Rachel had been lucky, she wasn't as clever as the last few seconds had lead her to believe and instead of breaking the staff, or the blade, the blade severed most of her calf muscle.

"Fuck!"

Rachel rolled away as fast as she could but it wasn't fast enough. The bladed end of the staff was pressed into her back.

Rachel rolled again and brought up her arm to knock the staff aside.

"Damn it Pandora." The blade had cut right through Rachel's dungarees and made a four inch long, almost two inch deep cut in the back of her right calf. There wasn't as much blood as you might expect but there was certainly more then Rachel wanted.

"That back kick was foolish."

"No shit!"

"You were over confident."

"Right again. Bully for you." Rachel could actually see inside her leg, inside the muscle that moved her foot and body. Neither of which was it going to do very well when it was half severed. "What the hell were you using a blade with an edge on it for anyway?"

"You've gotten too good for the practice blades."

"Yeah!? Well in case you forgot, I'm the one this will never heal right on."

"Oh, you're being such a baby." Pandora laid down her staff and took Rachel's hand, helping her to her feet. Then Pandora bent over and grabbed Rachel around the waist and shifted under her friend. She carried Rachel over to the side of their second apartment with the sink and medicine chest. Pandora dropped Rachel on the bench where they usually changed clothes.

"Ow! I'm not being a baby. This is worth a hospital stay and stitches."

"Oh, you're not going to any hospital."

Rachel noticed that Pandora didn't say she wasn't getting any stitches.

Pandora rummaged through the closet and came out with a kind of padded boot that she slipped over Rachel's foot. The boot was ridged, it felt like sheep's skin over wood. Pandora laced up the front and Rachel was forced to half point her toes. Forcing her foot into this position took the most possible tension off her calf muscle. "You know Pandora, the fact that you have a boot specifically designed to immobilize a foot after this kind of injury should tell you something."

"I plan ahead?"

"No, you- ARRGH!!"

Rachel hadn't seen Pandora bring out the needle and thread. She must have hidden them in her hands before she pulled the boot out of the closet."

"In a hospital they'd give me a local before they started to operate on me."

"Bunch of wimps. You can't become a victim of pain."

"I thought I was a victim of you."

Pandora was pressing Rachel's flesh together and sewing it closed with huge stitches. Rachel new the method, Pandora would follow with tiny stitches once the wound was held closed. And Rachel knew better then to try to impress Pandora with the intensity of the pain. After all Rachel had never had children let alone some of the more intense experiences Pandora had endured. But ...

"You know Pandora, pain is there to tell us that what we're doing is not something we should be doing."

"Uh huh. And what shouldn't I be doing?"

"Well, I think the pain is saying, poking holes through one's..." Rachel was grinding her teeth in a way that might send her to the dentist if not the hospital. "Uh, through one's epidermal layer, and especially threading string through one's epidermis, is not something you're supposed to do."

"You want me to stop?"

"I want you to give me a fucking nerve block."

Pandora twisted a nerve in the back of Rachel's right knee between her thumb and forefinger. Rachel's calf went numb. She could still feel Pandora sewing on her, in fact it felt worse in that now it made her stomach jump around but she reminded herself that a queasy stomach and an itch she shouldn't scratch were better then the intense pain of a minute ago. "Thank you. I think I can assure my skin that I learned my lesson and I won't do any random sewing on my epidermis"

"Yes, but have you learned not to back-kick at a sharp blade?"

"Oh, yes. The slippery feeling of the blade slicing into my muscle was enough to teach me that." Rachel gave an involuntary shudder. "Urgh, hate that feeling."

Pandora favored Rachel with a smile.

"How long until my leg's a hundred percent?"

"A couple of weeks."

"Weeks!?"

"If you weren't living with me ... it'd never be a hundred percent again."

"I know. I'm grateful for that." Rachel didn't say the rest.

"Of course, if you weren't living with me you wouldn't be practicing edged combat either."

"You can't get rid of me that easily. You could have cut off the whole thing and I still wouldn't leave you."

Pandora just shook her head in wonder.

"Not that I want you to get any ideas. Understand?"

"Understood."

Rachel watched Pandora follow up with tiny stitches. Rachel was fascinated, now that it didn't hurt. And she thought it was a good idea that she learn how to do such things, in case Pandora needed such service, or ... in case Pandora wasn't there the next time Rachel needed such attention. Rachel wished it was possible to do nerve blocks on yourself.

"By the way, dear ..."

"Yes?"

"Just why were we practicing with staffs with razor sharp blades on the ends. I think the only time I've ever seen anything like them is at the Vatican. I think the Swiss Guard uses them. Are you planning an assault on the holy see?"

"No, we have a visitor waiting and I hoped to discourage him-"

"And she knows of my fondness for the church and wished to insult me by using their symbol." The voice was male but so soft. If felt like the softest possible fabric had been run along Rachel's naked body. Like it had moved right through her. She was wet and sated and ready to do anything he asked.   "Turn it off Vakar. I'm not in the mood and you're going to make her squirm so much I won't be able to finish."

"Sorry!" The voice was almost human now. This time it hadn't given Rachel orgasms but it still was the softest, sweetest thing she'd ever heard. How could Pandora ignore it?

"Rachel, you've always wanted to meet ... This is Vakar, a vampire. Vakar, this is Rachel, an archeologist specializing in South American tribes. She's also skilled in armed and unarmed combat. And once she gets over your voice you'd best be careful."

Vakar looked at Pandora and then nodded at Rachel. He wasn't handsome. He was small, his skin was very brown like he lived in the sun and his hair was dark and very curly. He looked nothing like any image Rachel might have had for a vampire. In fact if it hadn't been for the voice ...

"What do you want?"

"Much more direct then I remember. No pleasantries this time?"

"You walked out on me, if you wanted pleasantries when next we met you should have thought of that-"

"I walked out on you?"

Pandora was furious, "You were the only one who ... What do you want?" Pandora was acting very strange.

"Well, I would like to get some history straight. As I remember it-"

Pandora dropped Rachel's foot and was across the floor in a second. She had scooped up the staff and brought it against Vakar's. Rachel hadn't even seen the vampire move. She'd never seen Pandora move so fast but somehow Vakar was faster.

"Haven't we done this before?"

"I doubt you've kept up on your edged weapons skills over the last hundred years."

Vakar gave Pandora a bow of his head. "Touché!" He tossed the lance aside, leaving himself open for Pandora's attack. Rachel realized that Pandora was on the edge of dismembering this Vakar. Rachel couldn't remember ever having seen Pandora in such a rage. (Not even when she'd faced Lucifer, someone it had been clear that Pandora disliked intensely.)

"What do you want?" It came out through clenched teeth. Pandora wanted to attack this man. What had he done to her, and why wasn't Pandora attacking him? Why was she holding back? Vampire's were on Pandora's targets of opportunity list weren't they? Rachel had seen Pandora take a risk to do away the last sucubas, why was she holding herself in check with a vampire? And what had their talk meant? Had they been ... friends?

"I need your help. Isn't that obvious? Its not like you've been hard to locate."

Pandora struck Vakar with the unbladed end of the staff, and then with the haft. She beat him across the room until he almost fell over Rachel and her bench. "What would I possibly help you with?"

"Saving your children."

"FUCK!"

Pandora twisted the lance between her hands and it shattered into a dozen pieces.

"Maybe he's lying?"

"No, he wouldn't do that."

They were standing in the shower. Pandora was washing Rachel. Rachel had a trash bag over her foot and was balanced on one leg. Or not really balanced at all. Pandora was rubbing her with a loofa so that her skin would come off and if Pandora wasn't holding Rachel with her other arm she would have gone down in a heap.

"I thought he was the "Prince of Lies."

"No, that's a lie."

Rachel tried to get a look at Pandora's face to see if she was smiling. Not that Pandora could be caught so easily.

"I'm sure you know more about vampires than I but I can't think that they're the most trust worthy of ... of what evers."

"No, they're not. But Vakar knows what 'My Children' means to me. And he knows what I'd be likely to do if he used it in a lie to me."

"Uh huh. And just why is it that you haven't done something to him already?"

"You've got a lot to learn Rachel."

"I'm not a child." Rachel blocked Pandora's strike before it connected with her jaw. "You've got to get a handle on that anger Pandora."

"Maybe my anger's justified."

"Maybe it is. But if you're going to help him, or him help you, you can't afford it."

Pandora tried to twist her wrist free of Rachel's grip but Rachel wasn't being put off. "He's scared of you."

"Everybody's scared of me." Pandora gave Rachel a shove and used one of the indefensible moves to free her wrist. She stocked out of the shower. Rachel lunged for Pandora and grabbed her by the upper arm. She hauled on Pandora's arm unbalancing both of them so they ended up in a heap on the floor.

Vakar was at the door. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Rachel ignored him. She held onto Pandora's arm and forced the older woman to look at her. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Well you should be."

But Rachel wouldn't let go. Pandora's arm was already bruising. Then the fire went out of Pandora's eyes and she embraced Rachel.

Vakar left the two naked women on the floor of their bathroom and returned to the kitchen/living room. He'd never seen anyone stand up to Pandora like that. No, that wasn't entirely true. He knew one stupid son of a bitch who'd tried it. As it was if the idiot hadn't been the next best thing to immortal his guts would still be spread all over that stupid tavern. And to top it off his stupidity had earned them a visit from his lord and master and a meeting with him was always to be avoided.

Vakar had closed the blinds in the livingroom. He hoped Pandora didn't mind but it didn't much matter if she did. This wasn't going as he'd hoped. But he was still alive and it looked like Pandora was going to hear him out. Things could be worse.

It took Pandora and her friend a long time to emerge from their room. Pandora was wearing painted on jeans and a tight short top that held her boobs in place but did little to conceal them.   The girl wore a T shirt, bra, shorts, and one tennis shoe. Combat expert or not, she wasn't going much of anywhere on that leg.

"All right. You used the magic words, what's the crises?"

"Uhm. I think it would be better if your friend was left out of this."

Pandora looked at Rachel, apparently with every intention of telling her to go back into the bedroom and close the door. But then Pandora softened and turned back to Vakar and waited.

"Okay." Vakar paced twice and then took a chair by the breakfast table. "I was sent on a mission."

"I don't want to-"

Vakar held up his hand to stop Pandora's tirade. "I was sent on a mission to find Satan and bring him to Avalon. I failed."

"What do you mean you failed? He wouldn't listen to you? That's not surprising considering what it costs him to-"

"I couldn't find him."

"You couldn't find him? It shouldn't be too difficult. You have read your Dante haven't you?"

"Yes, I've read my Dante, I've read the entire Comedia, not just the Inferno. And if you remember, I have even more reliable information then that as to the nature of hell and I tell you, I didn't find him."

The two of them stared at each other for moments.

"If you want me to put it more simply, he wasn't at home."

"That's impossible."

"I'm aware of that." Vakar stood up, apparently he wasn't comfortable being at a disadvantage in front of Pandora. "So rather than returning empty handed I thought I would return with the greatest hero of all time."

Pandora stared at him a moment, apparently in disbelief. "Me?"

"Can you think of a greater hero?"

Before Pandora can respond, and Rachel has no idea what Pandora would have responded with, Vakar continues. "I was surprised in fact that you weren't there."

"Where?"

"The gathering of the heroes."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Two days ago, in Avalon."

Pandora apparently still doesn't know what he is talking about.

"I had Malcom Gottlieb call all of those who should be there who do not already call it home. I thought he would have called you."

"I don't know Malcom Gottlieb, except by reputation. And if he'd called me to some mythical gathering of heroes in the mythical city of Avalon, I wouldn't have gone." Pandora snorts, "Who'd you have chairing this meeting?"

"Arthur!"

"Who?"

"Pendragon, 'The once and future king.' "

This seems to make Pandora pause. Rachel of course has heard of Avalon. The city on the shores of forever across the impenetrable desert. Where the "Lady of The Lake" took the wounded Arthur to tend to his injuries and where he would wait until Britain needed him again. The city, under the name Avalon and others, plays a role in several European myths as the place where the heroes who don't die of their adventures go to find peace after their quest is concluded.

Apparently Vakar was saying that the city was real and that Arthur still waits there and that he had called a meeting to which Vakar expected Pandora to attend. And apparently Pandora had never actually believed in Avalon. Surprising in one sense since Rachel had learned of the reality of so much folklore while in Pandora's company. But perhaps understandable as Greek heroes were supposed to have joined the Gods on Mount Olympus in Zeus's great hall, the hall of heroes.

"Why did Arthur call the heroes? And what would Arthur want with me? And what would the heroes want with Satan?"

"You're not going to like the answer." Vakar pauses here and he shouldn't have. Pandora seems to build up steam like a pressure cooker. "There's a threat to the world, not just to an individual or a people, or even a country but to the whole planet. And if this threat isn't stopped the whole planet will be destroyed, the Gods too. Any you'll never be able to finish your quest. And your children will never be able to complete, our destiny."

Pandora seems to have been distracted by this surprising crisis.

"I was sent to find Satan, Michael was sent to find God, Atlas to find Zeus, Eldorado was there ... I don't think any of us have been successful. I thought ..."

"Yes?"

"I hoped you might be able to find Zeus, and the other Olympians when Atlas couldn't."

"Why would I-"

"Atlas is a Titan. And it's possible the Olympians would not heed his call. Thor has been helping but he's-"

Pandora makes to grab Vakar who shifts out of her reach with that same impossible speed Rachel had seen earlier. "What possible threat makes men want to bring back the age of the Gods?"

"I, I won't tell you."

Impossible as it seems to Rachel Pandora is on Vakar before he can avoid her again. But Vakar has incredible strength for such slight man. He throws Pandora across the room into the kitchen preparation island. But Pandora doesn't let go and though Pandora crashes through the island, tearing off the butcher block lid Vakar is dragged along with her. In fact Pandora smashes Vakar bodily down into the electric stove.

Vakar is hurt and Rachel hears steel tearing as Vakar kicks Pandora with both feet. Pandora slams into the refrigerator. Vakar is free, his feet having pushed Pandora too far to keep her grip but she is back on him before he makes it past the breakfast table.

Pandora swings Vakar by the foot of one leg and slams him into the breakfast table and then the chairs and other furniture like a toy on a string. Then she's on top of him with a splinter from the table pressed against his heart.

"Not like last time."

"Would you?"

"I've killed fifty one vampires. Why shouldn't I make it fifty two?"

Vakar looks into her eyes. Trying to find ... what? Love? Forgiveness? Weakness? Rachel knows there isn't any there. Maybe there was when Vakar knew her before but no more.

Vakar apparently gives up hope that Pandora would spare him because she "couldn't kill him." "Because, you respect Arthur. And if there's a chance-"

Pandora threw Vakar away from her. He landed on top of the wreckage of the kitchen. "Shut up!" Pandora threw away the improvised stake. She surveyed the damage to their apartment as she wiped blood from her face.

"I can lead you to Avalon but we have to hurry, there isn't much time."

"It shouldn't take more then a day-"

"Too long. We can go faster by using the fourth."

"You have permission to use the fourth?"

"Yes."

This seems to have impressed Pandora more then anything yet. Rachel grasped at straws, "The Fourth?" Did they mean the Fourth dimension? The dimension God existed in?

"Rachel-"

"You're not leaving me behind."

"The fourth dimension isn't a place for mortals."

"The fourth is where the Gods live. I understand that. But you're not a god anymore and he-"

"It's not like the third Rachel. Vakar and I, we might loose our bodies completely and appear to you as our bare souls. I lived there once and Vakar, Vakar appears to have traveled the Fourth without mishap."

"Mishap?"

"Insanity."

Well Rachel had to accept that as a mishap but if she let Pandora get away with this-

"Besides, someone needs to clean up this place."

Rachel looked around. What Pandora said was certainly true but there was no way Rachel was going to do it, especially not with her bad leg. But she also knew she wasn't going to change Pandora's mind, not this time. So Rachel put up a token argument, enough to bring the fire back to Pandora's eyes before she gave in.

Pandora even helped Vakar to his feet, he seemed to be recovering from his injuries faster than Pandora. ("Not like last time?" They'd done this before?) Vakar took a few steps towards the door. He looked back at Pandora. Rachel was sure he wanted to tell Pandora to watch carefully but didn't dare. Then Vakar stepped forward and turned to the left, shifting his shoulder around some invisible obstacle and his body vanished like he'd stepped behind a curtain.

Pandora took a last glance at Rachel and then duplicated Vakar's move and result.

Rachel stepped forward and put out her hands trying to feel what she couldn't see but there was nothing to find.

The fourth dimension incorporates the 90%, right, angle between the three right angles in the corner of a cube. As you can draw a representation of a three dimensional cube on a two dimensional white board you can make a model of a four dimensional cube with toothpicks and clay by placing the fourth pick between the three already in a corner.

If asked in Sunday school (talmudic studies class) what the fourth dimension is? You can answer, its where God lives.

The first dimension consists of a single point. The second dimension contains: height and width. The third dimension contains: height, width and depth (into or out of the whiteboard). The fourth dimension contains: height, width, depth and time.

It is time that gives God his/her apparent omniscience. She can be every where at the same time. But it does not ensure God's omniscience. (Just as its possible for you to move up and down how many of your trips in a day include the third dimension?)

To move through time in the fourth is as easy as stepping left, right, forewords, backwards, upwards, downwards and etc. Ê

Pandora was reassured when she and Vakar did not loose their physical bodies but she was surprised at the error in her memory. An error was impossible. The way she perceived the world had changed greatly over half a billion years. And hers (and Vakar's) perception of the fourth was limited by the fact that they were aliens there. They were three dimensional beings in a four dimensional world. (How much could a two dimensional being, a living photograph, understand of the three dimensional world?)

Either way their time in the fourth they perceived as brief.

Avalon apparently was not in the fourth. As they stepped out onto the dais within the circle of columns their clothes fell away. Pandora wasn't ashamed of Zees' work upon her (the little she'd ever effected her appearance in her life had only lasted moments). But the change upon Vakar was more dramatic.

Vakar disappeared completely. There was a dark shadow where he should have been. A shadow not cast by light. There were no natural shadows in Avalon. Pandora could see the sun, it was obscured by a permanent cloud cover.

Vakar's shadow was a projection of his cursed soul. As Pandora looked deeper into the dark she could see movement. Vakar was battling himself deep in his soul. Pandora understood some of that conflict. She turned away before she saw herself in the mix.

Arthur was dressed in a combination of leather and wool that you would expect from a dark ages monarch. Pandora though wondered how he projected clothing as he, like she, was a third dimension being.

Pandora felt Eldorado before she saw him, this was what it was like with the bright souls of Gods. He projected the appearance of a modern, nondescript man of business with a hint of aborigine in his ancestry. It was true then, Vakar had been sent by Arthur Pendragon and Gods were working together with the heroes.

Pandora fell into a deep bow, "Lord Arthur, I am honored."

"No, no. It is we who are honored." And now Arthur bows, honoring Pandora. And when he rises he slips in, "Mother."

Pandora is embarrassed. "You honor me too much."

"No, you-"

Pandora cuts him off. "I know what I am, and what I have done. You are more Eve's child then mine."

Arthur knows better then to argue.

"What service can a fallible woman provide the 'Once and Future King?'"

Arthur considers for a moment. There are so many ways to fail in this moment and Arthur is smart enough to see the additional trap Pandora has laid for him. "Mother-" Arthur raises his hand to forestall another protest. "I find I can not protect your people as I have been tasked. A thousand years have I rested until needed but I am not equal to the task. I have called upon all of the greatest hero, and even the Gods to which I would be their steward and yet ... I have failed even in the call."

"Pandora what crises has the shadow brought to you?"

Eldorado and Arthur feel this is unfair.

The churning shadow speaks, "Our Mother knows me well. I deserve the name-"

"I'm no mother of yours. Of my line you were but you turned away from-"

Eldorado is fifty, sixty, a hundred feet tall and burning hotter and purer then the sun with white light. "Pandora, a God calls upon thee. Do your jealousies have a greater call upon you then the fate of this world?"

Pandora yearns to draw her sword. The arch of Eldorado's foot is taller then she but she does not fear. Respect battles with her anger.

The shadow moves away. "I will leave."

The Sword is in Pandora's hands. "No."

Pandora looks at Eldorado and then ignores him. She looks on Arthur. "You have no call upon me. My duty is clear and I pay it everyday. But I respect you and your principals great king." Pandora drops her right shoulder towards Vakar. "It cost you all to call upon me. I failed to respect that. I have been along while from the company of the ... I have grown selfish. You may make your plea, and I, of course, may consider whether it falls with in my duty or not."

Eldorado has returned to human size and form but Pandora continues to ignore him. This displeases Eldorado. No God is used to being ignored by one who knows their true nature. But then this small mortal woman is his elder many times over and she lived with the old gods long before her failure allowed him to come into being.

Eldorado fades away. He does not belong in her presence.

Arthur points into the overcast sky. "If you will look towards Uranus you may see what waits us."

The night sky burns off the cloud cover and a small blue green gas giant appears in the sky. Beside the medium sized planet is a larger space of nothing. No stars show through this nothing, no light is reflected from it. And Pandora can just see vapors from the blue green planet being drawn away into the blackness. It looks like cotton candy, only the roll grows smaller rather then larger. Some how it is sad to see it shrink.

"What is that you show me?"

"Uranus, our system's outermost planet."

"Uranus is great like the God it is named for. This ... shrinking fog ..." Pandora turns towards Vakar. "What darkness is that?"

"None of my lord's. It is ... a ship. One of several. Look farther, to the left and you will see the hole they have eaten through our galaxy."

Pandora looks. The stars come closer and as they do a gap of darkness can be seen. A gap that stretches past the edge of our galaxy and in open space it appears other galaxies are missing too.

Pandora turns to Vakar again. "The same argument?"

Arthur knows he must bring this back to the point. "No. No argument. They come from beyond our galaxy, they will draw off all of the matter from each planet and Sol. Every thing on earth will freeze if we are not consumed and broken down into carbon atoms first. Scouts have been sent, we believe to asses our potential. Mother Ghea and her children-"

"Ghea?"

"Yes, the mother of even your parents and grandparents has entered into this war. And war it is. If we do not persuade them to pass us by ..."

"Five hundred million years have I chased the plagues of man."

Vakar moves closer. "Not just of man, but of the entire universe. Perhaps they are one of the evils. Perhaps they are inspired by one of the evils. It doesn't matter. There are other dark ships in the sky, they advance at speed and if they consume us before we can forestall them ..."

"Cold and dark and never to finish my quest."

Now it is Pandora's turn to grow. She draws the Sword hope from its sheath behind her head and leather battle dress emerges from her naked flesh. "Take me to them. Take me now."

"But-"

"I have hope and I have my will. None have stood before them, and none ever will."

Arthur turns to the shadow for help.

"This way." And the Shadow Vakar moves into the city."

Pandora and Vakar are back in the fourth. Walking past the planets in a few strides each. But the fourth is not endless in this direction. There is a great rent in the fourth. An emptiness that stretches back to the home galaxy of the invaders.

"Where are they?"

Vakar points into the empty. "Beyond that."

"Lead."

"I can't."

"You know what waits for you on judgment day and still you fear that?"

"I would leap into to escape- No, I wouldn't. But I can't, there's nothing to traverse. Some how they have consumed even space time."

After a moment Pandora re-sheaths her sword. "If that reaches Earth, we will never be." Pandora turns and walks back towards Earth.

"I'm sorry, I hoped-"

"Rachel tells me I am greater in power even then the gods who made me. Because the evils I released and which it appears only I can recapture effect the entire universe, even the gods. She says because the Gods are made of the same stuff as the evils, that hope will send them to Tarterus in the same way.

"Power though is not wisdom."

"And we need both."

Pandora nods unconsciously. "Where can Lucifer be, if not in hell? And Zeus if not on Olympus? And Oden and ...

"Time to go home." But from her tone we know this will not be a happy home coming.

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