A bright beam of light in Kevin's living room late the next morning announced Zanell’s return to Earth. Nick was immediately at her side, wrapping her in a loving hug.

“Nick what’s going on?” Zanell inquired.  “You said it was urgent.”

“It is,” Nick replied.  “Brian’s gone with Zator.”

“What?”

“Zator found where Brian lives,” Kevin explained. “He threatened death to Brian’s wife and son if he didn’t hand over the amulet.”

“Just like him,” Zanell murmured.

"It gets worse,” Nick continued. “Brian offered that… that if Zator would leave his family alone, Brian would go with him and give willing service to him.”

Zanell gasped.  “He didn’t!”

Nick nodded.  “I’m afraid so.”

“How long has he been gone?”

 “Just over a month.”

 Zanell sighed and closed her eyes.  “We don’t have much time, then.”

 “Why is that?” Alex asked.

 “Because with Brian and that one amulet in my father’s service, it could mean the annihilation of the galaxy, to the universe.”

 “Told you,” Nick said to the others.

 "What's going on?"

 Everyone turned to the stairs to see Leighanne coming down with Baylee in her arms. She was looking at Zanell.

 "You’re Zanell, right?  The woman that brought them the amulets?”

 “Yes.”

 “Brian told me all about you the day before he left.  I'm Leighanne."

 "It's nice to meet you," Zanell said. "But I wish it was under different circumstances."

 She noticed the little baby in Leighanne's arms and stepped closer. "Is that your son?"

 Leigh nodded. "Yes. This is our son, Baylee."

 Seeing the tiny infant in Leighanne's arms tugged at Zanell's heart.  How could Brian leave such a beautiful little boy to serve a wicked man?

 "We'll get him back for you, sweetie," she promised as she rubbed his cheek with her finger.

 "How will we do it, Zanell?" Howie inquired.

 After a moment, Zanell turned. "I have a small ship that we can use to search for him. Just in case it's necessary, there are weapons. I'm certain AJ will have no problem handling them."

 Nick swallowed, then nodded. "So what do we do?"

~~

Brian marched through the ship to Zator's throne room. One of the Emperor’s soldiers had come to his room saying that Zator requested his presence. Hiding his surprise, he allowed the soldier to escort him. The large doors parted with a loud hiss. Brian stepped inside and saw his master sitting on his throne. His daughter Serafina stood beside him, her hand on his shoulder.

 He knelt. "You wanted to see me, my lord?"

 Zator smiled, seeing the man showing reverence. He had come a long way in one month.

 "Yes I did, Brian." He rose. "How would you like to test your rank as chief commander of my army?"

 Brian's eyes widened in surprise. "S-sir?"

 "I've seen your leadership skill strengthen in the weeks that you've been with me.  I would like to see you use that ability."

 A chance to test what he had learned, to prove himself to his new leader. "Where, sir?" Brian asked after a moment.

 "An insignificant town on the western side of your North America," Zator replied. "The plan being to attract the attention needed to bring the remaining amulets into our hands.  Will you accept it, Commander? Serafina will be going with you of course. I want her to stick with you at all times."

 The brunette turned to her father in exasperation. "Father, I'm not a little girl anymore-"

 "Hush, dear. Let him speak. Will you accept?"

 Brian straightened. "Yes sir. I accept." He looked over and smiled at the princess. “If Serafina will be at my side as Lieutenant Commander.”

 Serafina gasped quietly, then a smile curved onto her face. “Gladly.”

~~

Laser fire.  Horrible laughter.  Running.  Running.  Must get away.  Keep away.  A familiar voice shouting orders, but it’s too muffled to hear.

 Stay away!  Fire, there’s a building on fire.  No time to stop to put it out.  Must run to keep safe.  No!  Who are they?  Tall figures holding guns.  Their faces are covered.  Eyes like pools of ink, they’re so dark.  Heinous laughter.  Don’t let them catch you!

 A child is crying.  Where is her mother, her father?  They’ve been taken already.  A man walks past her, not seeing.  She tries to run.  She’s been seen.  Run, girl!  Run!  Don’t let them catch you!  They caught her.  A soldier carries her over his shoulder to his commander.  He tells the soldier to put her with her parents.

 Voices crying out in anger.  Monster!  Traitor!  You’re no human!

 She tries to run, but her feet can’t move.  The fear of the people assails her senses.  How can she help?  Is it possible for her to help?  Can they see her?  She doesn’t want to find out.  Come on, feet.  Move!

 Voices.  Don’t let her get away!  After her!  The fear is unbearable.  The fear of the people combined with her own.

 Who is he?  Who commands these creatures?  Wait…

 She sees a soldier remove its mask.  A pale face, dark eyes.  No!  One of her father’s soldiers. He reaches for her... closer, closer....

Zanell screamed as she woke up.  The voices were gone, mere echoes in her mind.  It couldn’t have been a nightmare; it seemed so real.  Was it real?  Hands on her arms made her scream again.

 “Zanell, it’s okay!  It’s me!”

 She finally saw his face, the deep brown eyes filled with concern.  “H-Howie?”

 “That’s right.  Are you okay?  What happened?”

 Zanell swallowed and tried to get her tongue to work.  “Th-there were people.  So many… so much fear… an attack.  It was…”

 She gasped when a shadow filled the doorway, then sighed with relief when she saw Nick.  Holding out her arms, she beckoned him to her.  He was at her side without hesitation.  She felt his arms wrap protectively around her.  New voices filled the room.

 “What happened?”

 “Who screamed?  Zanell?”

 “Is everything okay?”

 Nick felt Zanell’s arms tighten around his neck.  He changed positions and carefully lifted Zanell onto his lap.  “Someone go get her some water.”

 Kevin hurried from the room.  As they waited, Nick could feel Zanell trembling.  He looked down and saw her pale face and wide eyes.

 “Zanell?”

 She just shook her head.  Not yet.  Kevin returned moments later with a glass of ice cold water and handed it to Nick.

 “Thanks Kevin.  Zanell, here’s water.”

 Zanell raised her head off Nick’s chest and took the water.  “Thank you,” she murmured.

 Nick watched with worry as Zanell drained most of the glass at one time.  She sighed deeply when she was done.

 “Better?” he asked.

 “A little.”

 “Can you tell us what happened?”

 “It was so real, it couldn’t have been a dream,” Zanell said. “There was so much fear.  Someone was attacking a town full of people.  It was someone human, I heard the villagers call him a monster, a traitor, that he wasn’t human.  And… I saw one of the soldiers, too.  He was one of my father’s soldiers.”

 “What?”

 “I never expected him to do it here on Earth.”

 “Well,” AJ said, “I’m pretty sure we’ve learned from experience to expect the unexpected.”

 Zanell sighed.  “That’s true.  But it felt so real to me, almost as though it was happening in real-time, but it was midmorning.”

 “Do you remember where it is?”

 She nodded.  “I think so.”

~~

Zanell leaned forward as she stared at the passing landscape.  They had left Kevin’s house two hours ago, leaving Leighanne and Baylee in safety.  Leighanne had protested, wanting to go with them to see if it was her husband, but Zanell had convinced her to stay.  Deep inside, she knew that it would be better for them to stay behind.  If her suspicions were correct, and they were rarely wrong, what they were about to discover was better left untold.

 In the pilot seat, Kevin worried at her pale face.  How bad could it have been, that after two hours she was still frightened?

 “There!”

 Zanell was pointing to the northwest near a mountain.  He flew closer and discovered…

 “Fire,” Nick murmured. “There’s the town!  My gosh, what’s happening?”

 “There’s only one way to find out,” Kevin replied. “I’ll see if I can land in that open area over there; just outside of town.”

 The dust picked up as Kevin flew the ship closer and landed on an open field near town.  As the ship came to rest on the ground, a strange feeling welled up inside of Howie.  A feeling that told him that whatever they were about to discover would be too terrible to put a word to it.

 “We’ll split up.”

 “Split up?” Nick cried. “Kevin, are you nuts?”

 Kevin turned to face his youngest companion. “It will give us an easier chance to scope out the situation.  If we see anything, we can use the communicators Zanell gave us.”

 “But-“

 “It will be all right, Nick.”

 Although he agreed verbally with splitting up, deep inside, Howie knew that Kevin was wrong.  It wouldn’t be all right.  He could feel it deep inside.  But what was it that gave him that feeling?

~*~

 “I’m going to go in for a closer look.”

 “Be careful, Howie,” Kevin’s voice called. “You never know what could happen.  Be on your guard.”

 “I will.” Howie pressed a button on his wrist communicator to end the transmission and climbed a little farther down the hill closer to the town.  He could feel the heat from different buildings burning.  What monster could have done this?  Zanell thinks it was a human because of the remarks of the townspeople in her dream.

 He paused where he was, deciding that it would be best if he sent down a hologram to look.  He didn’t want to risk getting caught spying on such destruction.  Concentrating, Howie created a young woman about five and a half feet tall, curly dark brown hair and gray eyes.  He dressed her in blue jeans and a gray sweater.  Looking at the final product, he hoped that she would look like a member of the town if she were spotted.  As she traveled down the hill to the town, a projection of what she saw appeared in front of Howie.

 She passed between two houses and crouched down, trying to get a good view of the attack.  Soldiers were running back and forth, shouting something Howie couldn’t hear from where he waited on the hill.

 Who’s the commander? he wondered.

 Almost as though his question had been heard, he saw a soldier carrying a screaming girl that was trying to fight against him.  The soldier tried to hold her as he marched over to a slightly smaller man and woman speaking together.  Howie’s hologram stood and carefully crept out from her hiding place, sliding closer to get a better look.

 As she crept closer, Howie could almost hear what the soldier was saying.

 “I caught her trying to escape, Commander Kael,” the soldier said. “Where should I put her?”

 “For goodness’ sake, Damoth,” the commander replied, “make sure she’s tied up first, then put her with her parents, over there.” He pointed to a small group of people sitting tied up by a tree.  As Damoth stepped away, the hologram Howie had created got her first good look at this Commander Kael.  There was danger in his appearance; a three-piece black uniform, with crimson chevrons on his sleeves and pants.  Emblazoned on the shirt was a crimson red flame lined with silver, bringing out the blue eyes and sandy blond hair.  Howie gasped as recognition set in.

 “No,” he whispered incredulously. “It can’t be.”

  He had to call Kevin.

 ~*~

 “Kevin!  Kevin, come in.  It’s Howie.”

 Kevin activated the communicator in surprise at the shock in Howie’s voice.  “I’m here, Howie.  What’s wrong?”

 “I… You won’t believe it… The commander, he’s…”

 “Howie just spit it out!” Kevin demanded.

 “Kevin, I know who the commander is.  Zanell was right, he is human.  But… you should see it for yourself.  I’m directly south of the ship.”

 “We’ll be there, Howie.”

 Once he ended the transmission with Howie, he called up another to reach AJ, Nick and Zanell.  He gave them instructions to meet him at Howie’s position.  He was anxious to see what Howie had to show them.  There was a feeling deep in his gut that it wasn’t going to be good.

~*~

Howie turned as he heard footsteps running through the woods off to his right.  Nick and Zanell hurried into sight, with Kevin and AJ right behind them.

 “Howie, what did you see?” Zanell asked as they got closer.

 Howie swallowed and turned back to the projection that was still in front of him. “Look.”

 “What are we seeing?” AJ asked as they stepped closer.

 “You’re seeing the town through the eyes of the hologram I created.  Let me see if I can get her to move around some more.  You… you won’t believe who I saw.”

 “Who?” Nick asked.

 The scene shifted as Howie’s hologram moved around, being careful to keep out of sight.  Suddenly, she paused as two men walked into view.

 “You let one escape?”

 “We tried to run after him sir, but-“

 “But nothing!” The commander shouted. “That one escape could cost us!  I want you to get a group together and GO FIND HIM!”

 The soldier hesitated before saluting and hurrying off.  The commander began to pace angrily, occasionally kicking up the dirt to create a dust cloud at his feet.

 “Who is that?” Nick asked as he peered closer.

 “You won’t believe it,” Howie choked.

 They all watched as the commander paused in his pacing.  He turned slowly and looked right toward the hologram’s hiding place.  Zanell shrieked.

 Kevin shook his head in denial. “It can’t be!  Not Brian.”

 But it was Brian.  The Southern facial features were the only thing Kevin recognized about the man, and even then, it had taken a few seconds longer to know it was his cousin.  Dressed all in black, with the red flame insignia on his shirt, Brian stood dark and… almost malicious as he led the attack on the town.

 “Uh, Howie?”

 Howie turned to AJ. “What?”

 AJ pointed. “I think your hologram was just spotted.”

 Howie whirled back to the projection to see Brian moving toward his hologram’s hiding place.  “Oh no.”

 The hologram started to back up, but paused as a woman ran into view.  She was similar in dress to Brian, except for dark brown hair tied in a braid down her back and a black beret on her head.

 “Serafina,” Zanell murmured.

 Nick turned to her. “Who?”

 “My sister.”

 “You have a sister?”

 “Yes.”

 “Howie,” Kevin interrupted, “I suggest you get that hologram moving or disappeared, because Brian and that woman are chasing after her.”

 The projection vanished immediately and Howie hurried to get a better view of his little hologram.  A few seconds later, the young girl came into view.

 “Howie, don’t make her disappear just yet,” AJ said. “I’ve got an idea.”