บท 1: Amy

The empty computer screen stared back at her, the monitor blank with only the flashing cursor to indicate that the screen wasn't frozen, only her mind. Amy sighed and rubbed her tired blue eyes, the computer sat before her mocking her inability to write a speech, which was to address everything that had happened over the last two months. To calm the outrage people were feeling, which could well lead to a war. Outrage at the slave ring, which had been disbanded through her daughter's action, and more outrage as news of what had happened to Ghost and Katie became public knowledge.It mattered not that Ghost was immortal and had recovered from his savage beating. What had them outraged was that, just as Ghost seemed to be coming out of his self imposed exile from both human and Were life and had found his soul mate again, she was snatched from him again, killed before him in a mindless act of violence. She had managed to talk him into joining her pack, to keep him from spiralling back into that cycle. However, it was Katie's last words before she died which had kept him from isolation; 'live for me, I will return,' which were keeping him from running away from his pain.The outrage was high in the Were and other communities, even in the human community, the world needed to hear that everything was being done to ensure that justice would prevail. That those who had committed those crimes, the slave cartel, savage beating of Ghost and murder of his mate Katie, would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Tomorrow she was to talk at a press conference about these events as she had been directly tied to them, she abhorred winging it but had still not managed to write a single thing down.Her phone rang, she looked over the bank of phones on her desk, she had three - the black one was for normal use, the red one was a direct line to the president of the United States and the third, the white one was for the alphas and her family - she lifted the receiver on the white phone and tucked it beneath her left ear leaving her hands free if she needed them. "Amy speaking," she said as sometimes Joe answered this phone if she was busy."Why aren't you home yet?" Wolfgang asked slightly grumpy, he didn't like his pushy valet telling him to find out if Amy was coming home for dinner."I'll be home in a few minutes. I promise.""Still having problems with that speech." He asked, as he knew how much trouble she was having trying to write it."Yeah." She admitted, "I'm packing up now, I'll say goodnight to Joe then go.""Okay... I'll tell Bastion to hold dinner until you're home," he told her, "I love you."Amy smiled, "I love you too." She answered before hanging up. She turned to her computer and its mocking blank page before hitting ctl, alt, del and locked it. She stood and grabbed her briefcase stuffing the files on her desk into it before locking it and willing it to her desk back home so that she could try to do some work on that stupid speech, if Wolfgang let her.Amy walked around her desk and groaned as she remembered the crystal globe she kept a lot of information on, she turned and stuffed it into her pocket before walking out of her office switching off the lights as she left and walked into Joe's office. "Joe I'm off."Joe glanced up from packing up as well, her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of her way, and her hazel eyes scanned her boss taking in the slight frustration in her body language. "I'm off too and I'll check to make sure Rachel is gone." She hesitated for a moment, "Still having problems with that speech?"Amy nodded.Joe smiled gently, "You know what you need, you need a nice long relaxing soak in a bath of foamy water if Wolfgang lets you."Amy sighed, "That does sound good."Joe stood, "I'll see you tomorrow." She said."Yes... I'm coming in early, about an hour before the conference." Amy informed her.Joe nodded, she would be here to be of assistance. "Please, remind Wolfgang that if he is going to bite you not to do it in any place visible." She asked firmly as it took her a while to cover those marks and she never managed to completely erase them.Amy chuckled, "I'll remind him... no promises he'll listen though." She replied with a smile, Wolfgang liked to bite as much as she did and in the heat of the moment, neither could control themselves.Joe blushed; she had seen her boss and her mate in some very erotic positions around the office. "See you tomorrow." She said as she picked up her bag and grabbed her coat."Tomorrow." Amy agreed and focused her mind on her home, in particular the entrance hall and the part of it that had been cleared just for this purpose. The office started to fade as she willed her body home; she was mentally tired so she didn't feel the outside force working on her will, forcing it elsewhere.She blinked and when she opened her eyes, she stood staring in surprise and shock. The sun was high in the sky, the air had a cold bite to it, and it was closer to noon than dusk, lunch rather than dinner. She checked her watch, which confirmed that she wasn't going mad, her watch still read six thirty pm, but her eyes were telling her it was noon. She then took note of her surrounds, it took her a moment to realise that she was indeed where she wanted to be only the place she had called home was no longer. Her home was little more than rubble which was being reclaimed by the forest and dead autumn leaves which had surrounded it.It had been abandoned for a long time by the looks and smell of it. Her mind started to tick, trying to come up with a solution to what her eyes and senses were telling her. Three questions came to mind; what happened to her home, when was she, and what happened to her family?She knew of only one force that was powerful enough to affect her will, only one being could uproot her so. It had her swearing in every single langue she knew before she settled on English to finish her rant, "Bloody, cursed, interfering, goddess of fate." She finished as she pulled her black hair from her ponytail in frustration as her body paced for several moments, out of all of the gods only one could directly interfere with an Ancient and that was because it was she who had granted them their powers and their immortality. It was their debt to the goddess to be her agents in universes, to instigate change among the people and alter the course of history if she so chose. She knew not to bother trying to will herself back to her time or universe, Fate would not allow it until she had completed whatever task the goddess wanted of her.She took a deep breath wondering what the hell she should do, should she try to seek out Wolfgang... she quickly dismissed the thought, she didn't know what happened to this world and she was unwilling to walk into any situation until she did.That left her one option, she would have to seek the other Ancients, they would know what happened, would be able to tell her what went wrong. She closed her eyes and focused on the temple, as it was the only constant in the Ancients lives. She pictured the arched doorway in her mind and vanished leaving the ruin that had been her home.She appeared out side of the temple and stood still for several long moments with her eyes closed, afraid to open them and have her hopes crushed. Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes before sighing in relief as the temple stood before her and looked just as ageless as the last time she saw it. Her body moved before she could think, towards the arched doorway and reached out to grab the doorknob; there was an audidable click and was even more relieved that the magic of this place still recognised her as being Ancient. When she first came to the temple she had learnt some of its secrets, like the fact that the doors that led into the temple could only be opened by someone who was Ancient.She turned the handle, opened the door and glanced into the dark hall for a moment but walked in confidently as this was also home to her. Turning she closed the door throwing the room into complete darkness, just as she was about to will the lights on she sensed movement and ducked instinctively as a sword sliced the air where her neck had been just moments before.Amy spun away from her attacker and further into the hall. The sword came again but this time she was ready for it. She bent her knees and flung her body towards the floor, her hand supporting her body to avoid the blade. The blade cut the air above her, she pushed herself up and grabbed her attacker's wrist with her left hand. Amy pushed the sword away, straightened her body and spun into the attacker, elbowing them in the chest. While her attacker tried to recover Amy ripped the sword from their hand and spun pointing it at them.