They had a little meeting in the ladies room. Jara really didn't have to go, but since when did ladies have to go when they said they have to go? If men were smart, they'd have the room wired. Be as it may, Jara was pacing back in forth, mulling over their current situation. "Okay, this guy claims to be Steele's brother. Mebbe he is, mebbe nae, bein' tha' we hav' Daemon folk ou' there tha' can assume any shape or form or guise they want. Now he want us to be takin' him to ye boyfriend, or he's goin' to run us in on suspicion o' murder? Hav' I forgotten anythin'?" Spoken as she threw a look at her friend/buddy/partner-in-crime, who was still looking somewhat rough after her latest vision.

Jara would only change what they were saying in mid-sentence when someone else came in, or she'd get a compliment from the dance with Valeria earlier. "Ye kno' wha' Steele would say if we go callin' him about a brother he does nae recall havin'?"


"He'd think we were whacked. Maybe. Possibly." Eve was leaning against the vanity with multiple sinks, legs crossed at the ankle. She was feeling a little better, but more drained now than anything. "Then again, he might recall that I've asked him before if he had brothers - right after I met Arion the first time. Then again, that might be a detail lost when reality was skewed. I mean, I don't really know what to say, Jara. I've met one guy that claimed to be Steele's brother before, and Arion mentioned Devantious by name. It's weird, but I don't really get the feeling of *wrong* with this guy, like I do around Daemons or anything. But I agree - this situation is altogether strange." Eve closed her eyes for a moment, reached up to push her fingers through her hair, give the soft curls a shake. "And he's not my boyfriend." Afterthought!


"Yea' an' tha' whole story he spun about wha' *really* happened at the last club tha' was here? Around tha' time I remember havin' nightmares fer weeks on end, so tha' sort o' makes sense." Okay, Eve just got *such* a look when that *blatant* lie came rolling off that little pink tongue of hers! Jara's eyes could have been dice right then, she rolled them so well. "Oh you are *soooo* full o' it! We can only stay in here fer so long until Mr. Steele figures out wha' we are really doin' in here, iffin' he has nae already. This one looks verra sharp, y'kno'? I guess since I'm th' senior agent here, it's my call."

Turning to face the mirror, Jara checked on her makeup and teased her hair a bit. "Wha'? This is *why* we came in here, right?" She gave Eve a subtle nudge before taking her by the hand and leading them both out of the room.


"I'm not full of it. I'm telling the truth. Ask him, and I bet he'll tell you the same thing." About the boyfriend/girlfriend thing, that was. "Please, he's gotta know what we're up to in here. Women don't go to the bathroom in pairs and packs for nothing. It's where we can convene without the men being around to nose in on things." Straightening, Eve turned around to give herself the eye, absently. She'd pulled the sweater back on but left it open, and she quickly slicked on a little more lip gloss. Then Jara was
essentially pulling her out, and Eve skipped to keep up. "So what's the decision?" Not that she'd been terribly helpful in this.


Jara slid back into the booth first, and took in a deep breath. "Here's the deal." Her accent had become about 90% full English which meant she was100% business.
"We are here per your brother to find out any facts and/or leads about the serial killings. My partner here has some sort of weird bond with the person in question, who just happen to be a cloned version of her from another reality that's somehow found herself here as well. I'm also a product of another reality, because I'm not Jared's sister; I *am* Jared in my own reality, just as the Steele trio were all women. It was a realm only populated by women. What can I tell you?" *News flash!* Jara had just said something that she hadn't touched upon before. An all women realm? What the fuck? "And no --" Here she pointed her finger at Devantious, "-- It wasn't some sick Cinemax warped male fantasy, either, so don't go there. Anyhoo, you want to meet Tohmaz? Right now we don't really know you from Adam, no pun meant, and so there will be no meeting until we get what we are came here for, and I contact my brother. You can talk to him instead. Take it or leave it." Letting out another breath, she smiled at a passing waitress. "Can I be havin' another refill, please?" Dehm spooky how she switched accents like that.

Devantious was impressed. One, he had actually thought the pair of them had made a dash for it, knowing full well women don't *always* go to the ladies room to just go there. It did give him time to process what this girl Eve had told him, as well do a little background checking. Hell if there wasn't an actual Paranormal Division! But it was one of those Area 51 types, for your eyes only, and he didn't have the clearance to go further. When they'd come out from the ladies room, he'd noted that Jara had a very serious look on her face, and his hunch was right because she laid it all on the table for him. And hell if he didn't have a Steele like grin right then! "A female version of the Pirate? Damn. And for the record, that line of thought *never* crossed my mind. Okay, the meeting can wait. I'm willing to throw my hat into the serial killing ring, if you'll have my help. "


Eve blinked at Jara at that odd bit of news. Funny, why hadn't Jara mentioned that somewhat creepy little tidbit before?

... Probably because it *was* creepy. She shrugged it off, stormy eyes instead pin balling between the two - listening to Jara, watching Dev's reaction. "This female version of Jared had been much more insane in my experience." Just an aside. Her lips even quirked into a half-hearted smile, a mild attempt at levity. It was short lived, and she looked at Jara, considering his offer. "... Chances are that we can use whatever help we can get." Especially of the open-minded variety.


"Well, I'm not tha' daft to be refusin' help." That was as much as Jara would be able to say before her cell phone went off. Ghostbusters ring tone, no less! She answered, pressing a finger into her other ear to hear over the thumping bass. "Rico here. Wha'? Ye hav' to be fuckin' kiddin' me! Bodies jus' don' get up an' leave. Yes, smartarse, I kno' wha' line o' work we are in! Yeah, we can look into it. Bringin' a fresh set o' eyes too. Claims to be Tohmaz's brother. Yea', he's sitting right here. Hold on. My *brother* wants to talk wit' ye."

Handing him the phone, Jara gave Eve a goofy smile. Devantious had minute or so conversation before passing the phone back to her. Jara arched an eyebrow of her own before slipping the phone back into her pocket. "Bugger's legit, it seems, partner. At least in name. Whether or not he's actually your *boyfriend's brother*, remains to be seen." Sliding out from booth and finishing her drink, she made a quit stop by the cage to have a quick chat with Valeria, then met up with them by at the door.


'Bodies jus' don' get up an' leave.' That didn't sound very good. Eve was giving Jara a doubtful look when she heard that, and *really* hoping they'd come up with a more 'normal' explanation. Heh. Yeah, right.

Still, she had to give Jara's shoulder a push with her own. "Well, you *said* there was a Steele trio in your own reality. I've met two out of three, prior to tonight. I guess this completes the bunch." It was all peculiar, but it wasn't at the same time; she'd met the other two, so what was one more? "Besides, maybe he'll see something we haven't. And he's *not* my boyfriend." One more shoulder-nudge before she slid out of the booth, heading for the door ... where they had to stop and wait for Jara to talk to cat-girl again.


Devantious was the quiet on of the three it seemed, always watching, observing, with that tiny Steele trademark grin on his face, and he also had a thing for dressing in all black. Jara nodded to the both of them, and as they made their way out of the club, their ears would still ring from the less than subtle blasting of the techno/house/rave music.

Devantious pointed across the street to a sleek silver-colored SUV. "That's me. I'll follow you guys."

Jara would have none of that. "Let's get this trust thing off on the right foot. Time's a factor, and you're right there. We're heading down to the local morgue. Adam Trenton's body has gone missing." The fun thing about Jara was that she didn't pull punches, and could easily be one of the most blunt folks on the face of the planet.

Dev would give Eve a small, knowing smile though, as he slipped into the driver seat before letting them inside. "Boyfriend, huh?"


Well, at least she wasn't stuck in the driver's seat. Her ears were still ringing a bit, and she felt on the deaf side of things as she tried to re-adjust to the normal level of sound. The club wouldn't have been that bad, if not for the noise. Eve settled into the passenger seat, and had to shoot Jara a glance as she buckled in. Ugh, she even had *him* saying it, now? "Um ... No." Well, she didn't *think* so, anyway. What actually constituted that? Mutual agreement, or what? A shake of her head to shake it off, and she looked back again Jara again. "He's gone missing? Please tell me we don't have a trail of gore or bloody footprints leading toward the doors." Funny, she hadn't been sure the body had been left in one piece...

The images she's Seen when Lilth had thrown the dagger at the mirror came back to her. Eve reached up and touched her forehead, trying to blot it out, think about something else.


"The body was in too many pieces to walk away." Spoken in unison by Devantious and Jara, which caused for a chuckle or two.

Pulling her hair up into a ponytail, Jara decided to get right down to business. "Devan, I have a question about Tohmaz. When Evie mentioned that Tohmaz didn't recall having brothers, it didn't seem to phase you in the least. Care to share why?"

Devantious still had that cool as a cucumber exterior thing going on as he glanced her way. "One, because there are enough folks out there that don't seem to recall a lot of things. Two, the last time I saw Argus, he was being tried for crimes against humanity."

That got a double take from Jara. "*What?*"


"Yeah, I remember Arion mentioning something about that." It didn't seem to phase Eve, either. She leaned her head back on the seat, looking up at the ceiling of the SUV. She'd have liked to fill Jara in, but Eve had the feeling it would come out convoluted, or she'd leave pieces out. "Arion mentioned a lot of things." Softly, thoughtfully. It had been a long day ... "A lot of people don't remember a lot of things. Some of it came with the alterations of reality, I think, Daemon influenced. And there are also just other oddities - like no on remembering the old Stonebridge building except ... well ... us." A shrug, and she raised her head. It had provided a nice, brief little distraction from the reality of the situation. Eve really didn't want to go to a morgue; it was one of those things that almost *screamed* 'bad idea,' particularly with abilities like Jara's and her own.

"I guess whenever we all have some free time it's going to be a really fun chat, wi' lots o' beer. Evie, I know ye don't want to be retellin' all this, but we need to clue Devan in here on the whole clone thing, and your bond."


"I don't get the bond - really. It seems to play in at random, and we've ... well, we've Seen one another in mirrors before. She tends react really *badly* to that." Eve happened to turn her head to look out the window as they drove away, and her eyes lighted on a figure in line for the club. It took a second longer for recognition to spark, which had her twisting in her seat to look back. Was that ... "... Evan?" She whispered the name, then settled back into her seat, dropping her hands into her lap. She'd have *sworn* it was him, but that didn't make sense. At all.

... But she'd been talking, hadn't she? Attempting to explain something? Blinking, a small frown creased her brow. "Um ... She was a cloned experiment by the Daemons - Cromwell in particular, I think. They were doing it in the lower levels of Stonebridge, and I believe she was the one that was missing from one of the growth tanks. 'Eve X,' but I don't ... I don't know why she'd be calling herself Lilith. Or why she's homicidal." Well, she could hazard a guess or two - One of them being that if Lilith shared any of Eve's abilities, she might have been reacting to it completely different than Eve ever did. It could have been construed as a case of nature versus nurture. "But that bond is the main reason we think she's the one with bloody hands, and we were at the club to fish for info. See if many people there might recognize my face as hers, too." Which beefcake and cat-girl had, though they'd said it was the Goth club ... why wasn't Eve surprised? She was still betting on Lilith being a Goth queen.


"So you're assuming that this might be the missing clone? Have you actually *Seen* her doing those killings in your visions?"

Jara was about to say something when they arrived at their destination. There weren't any police there, save for the main security and those on the graveyard shift. Getting out of the SUV, Jara was met by what looked like a college intern. "Rico, girl, am I glad they sent you. This shit is way too weird, especially with it happening tonight!"

Devantious leaned over towards Eve, whispering into her ear, "I almost forgot about that old Earth urban legend about October 31st ... Halloween, I think it's called?"

Jara, in the meantime, was slipping into Seer mode, placing her tinted glasses over her eyes before they completely transformed and spooked the intern further. "Okay, slow down, cowboy. That's why we're here. Just take us downstairs, and explain what happened."

Devantious tilted his head to one side at the sight of Jara putting on the shades this late at night. The intern pulled out his key card, allowing them all access inside. "Well, with all the clubs having parties tonight because of that witches' holiday ..."

Devantious continued it for the intern. "Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent. Halloween is very popular in Ireland, where it is believed to have originated, and is known in Irish as O?che Shamhna, literally 'Samhain Night'."

He offered a small smile at the intern who was impressed, and Jara, who was dumbfounded. "I didn't take you for the witch knowledge type, Devan."

He smiled once again, nodding at Jara. "That makes us even, because I didn't take you for a cage dancer."

*That* got a look from the intern, who was waved off by Jara. "Let's stick to why we're here, people. Focus!"


She was mildly surprised to find that the place wasn't swarming with police - not that she was very disappointed in the fact. A chill slipped down her spine as she got out of the SUV, and a brief shiver took her. "Yeah. Halloween." Strange, but she'd almost forgotten about it; too many other things on her mind, she could only suppose. Eve had never been a great fan of Halloween, though she'd always liked the costumes as a kid.

The young woman followed along with everyone, and tried to keep focused, but found it difficult. Being a little tired didn't help her, but she had the feeling that her mind was still a touch hazy as well, and the feeling that there was something she was *missing* wasn't helping her. Mild paranoia was setting in, and Eve found herself curling and uncurling her fingers, slowly. "How long ago did you find that he was missing?"


"The scary part? Right after midnight. I knew something was up when those freak Goths were hanging out, asking weird questions. How they got in here is beyond me, though. You have to have a coded key card, especially this time of year. I even checked the security footage, right before calling Jared, but nothing." Stopping at the double doors, the intern looked back at Jara. "Did you know this very building used to be a Waiting Mortuary?"

That got the rise of an eyebrow from Devantious. "A Waiting Mortuary was a mortuary building designed specifically for the purpose of confirming that deceased persons were truly deceased. Prior to the advent of modern methods of verifying death, people feared that they would be buried alive. To alleviate such fears, the recently deceased were housed for a time in Waiting Mortuaries, where attendants would watch for signs of life. A bell was strung to the corpses to alert attendants of any motion, although there were no documented cases of anyone being saved from accidental burial in this way, it is sometimes erroneously believed that this was the origin of the phrase 'saved by the bell', whilst in fact, the phrase originates from the sport of boxing."

Jara was giving Devantious *the look* now. Devantious, in turn, would just walk through the double doors.


She looked between the two men as they spoke, and Devantious broke down the meaning of a Waiting Mortuary. "Kind of like a Wake, but it wasn't done by family members. Of course, aside from preservation, that's one of the purposes of embalming. If you aren't really dead when you go in, you will be when you come out. The fear of being buried alive is that great." And Eve couldn't blame them a bit for that kind of paranoia. It took her mind a few seconds longer to catch up to something the intern had actually said... "Freak Goths? How many?"

"Eww. You two *need* another hobby," Jara muttered before following Devantious inside, pausing to glance about at random times, which could tip Eve off that she was probably Seeing spirits.

"Section six, row six ... box six. Hey, six-six-six. I didn't catch that before."

Jara wanted to catch the intern alright, catch him in the back of the head with an open palm strike. Devantious was studying the entire area -- the windows, camera alignment, the handle of the door which contained the missing body, requesting to see the finished report. Jara had her back turned, as if she was doing her own looking about, which left Eve on her own.

The intern came back with the reports, munching on a sandwich. "How many? Mmm ... Three, I think. Yeah, three. Two girls and a serious Frankenfreak. The one Goth chick was asking all sorts of questions, like how many bodies do we get here on average, what was the most gross body we ever got, were there ghost sightings here, have we ever had midnight madness parties here, while the other two were just looking around. The other girl was mumbling to herself, and I couldn't make out what she was saying because the big bruiser was sort of always in the way."

Still kneeling down to examine the where the body was, Devantious glanced over his shoulder. "What time did they show up?"

The intern looked at his watch between swallows. "Uhhh, about two hours ago, give or take."

Jara turned around, glancing over at Eve. "That's right around the time that Goth couple was at the Tryst, wasn't it?"

When the intern said the first two sixes, Eve could see where that was going. "... Box six." Muttered under her breath before she let a sigh hiss out and folded her arms. Creepy number. A chill clung to her, but she hadn't Seen anything yet; she really didn't want to, either. Jara seemed to be better at handling such things ... "Not a hobby. Just a matter of knowing a little history." Eve was looking around quietly, letting her eyes sweep the area, but doing her best not to touch anything. The intern had startled her a little on his return, and she gave him a dubious look as he munched away on the sandwich. Two girls and a bruiser ... Hnn ... "Yeah, I think so, and they *did* get up and leave right after we noticed them." A shrug. If indeed the Goth pair *were* involved, that could account for two ... but who was the third, then?


With a shrug, the intern finished off his sandwich. "Got me. This time of year, it's more of a Goth fest than usual. Not saying that all Goths are weird. You get those Goth wannabes, too."

Devantious stood up, brushing off his hands. "I'll need to see your duty roster. Could have been an inside job."

The intern blinked a few times before nodding and going off to grab the shift sheet, leaving the trio to chat freely.

"There are no recently departed spirits here, but something feels ... Off," Jara said, rubbing herself as if cold. "How about you Evie, anything out of norm? Evie?"


Eve had the look. Jara knew pretty well - the one where her eyes had gotten intense, even as the pupils shrank to pinpricks. The look that said that whatever she was Seeing, she was too caught up in it to see her own reality.

-/Time seemed to have shifted in reverse. She still stood at section six, row six, box six, but it was no longer just an empty box; now, Adam Trenton's body still lay inside. The temperature in the room seemed to be on a steady decline; the chill sank into Eve's skin, burrowed toward the bone, and made her stomach drop somewhere in the vicinity of her feet. She *knew* that Feeling. It was a sensation she'd been dreading all along, one she'd feared since their last encounter ...

Cromwell - but this time, he didn't bother wearing the disguise or shell of a human body. Humanoid, but the skin was waxen, faintly bluish, and his bald head was dotted with half-buried needles, each perfectly, gruesomely place. He didn't even open the drawer to remove the body - instead, he simply reached *through* it, and Eve would *swear* he looked back at her as he did so, with eyes that were pitch black. And he *smiled.*/-

The burn in her lungs jolted her back to reality, and for a moment, she found herself thoroughly confused. Where was ... ? Her heart was pounding, and a cold sweat had broken out on her skin. "He was ... He was *here.*" There was an underlying tremor in her voice, and her hands were shaking as she spun to look at her two companions. "Cromwell."


Eve would suddenly found herself tackled to the ground quite roughly, just as a figure came running at her with a bloody ax! Unruly hair blond, wild eyes and a blood curdling scream. Dr. Darcy?!