A pair of dark eyes peered out from behind the tree that harbors the treehouse by the fishing dock. They surveyed the land a while before stopping at the cactus patch, the same one Susan died in. A piece of paper lay by a small pool of blood, which was shed by Susan herself. The eyes moved just a touch to reveal a shadowy figure, which silently moved across the desert. A small white arm reached out and snatched the paper before disappearing behind the shadows.

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Everyone was slung into a small room and disconnected from their chains just long enough to have chains attaching their hands together put on. Now that everyone could move around freely, everyone reunited with their families. Of course, Jenna, Kass, Karr, Lydia and Katherine found each other, and there was a lot of hugging and words of happiness, and of course they had to explain to Lydia that Katherine could use the HoloDeck to get to Albia just like they can use the HoloDeck to get to Earth, and she just LOOKED like that when she was a norn, and she was shorter than Mommy and Daddy and Gramma because she's only about 50 minutes old in Albian time. And then Jenna had to explain what happened to Susan, and they all had a quiet moment or two, because everyone was just too scared to all out cry, but nothing really huge happened. (Is your head spinning yet?)

"All right!" A large grendel with a spear snarled toward the huddled masses. "Get in some sort of line and prepare to appear before the king!"

Everyone immediately ran toward the back.

"Ye wusses!" The grendel called. He looked around for someone close, and then got a hold of Jenna's arm. "We'll take the old one first. Round up ye fam'ly and come with me."

Jenna glanced at the others, and then took a few cautious steps forward, her family at her heels. They were led out of a room, and into a grand hall. The walls were painted a cool blue, and proudly displayed blood red wall hangings. A carpet of the same color ran down the blue stone floor. Grendel soldiers lined the carpet, standing straight and tall at attention. At the end of the carpet, the Grendel King sat upon his throne, with a telephone up to his ear.

"Hello?" He began. "What? No, I don't want any." And then he hung up. "All right ... who's first?"

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"Wha- wha- what in the world?" Susan groggily mumbled. She opened her weary eyes, expecting to feel intense pain, like she did when she. wait, what did she do? She assumed she died, but she seemed pretty alive right now. Setting up, she rubbed her head and took a good look around. There was a very light blue all around her, and she appeared to be sitting on a cloud. all of a sudden it hit her. "I- I am dead! This must be Heaven!"

"Not quite," called a voice behind her. She whizzed around to see a small grim-reaper look alike, except two floppy norn ears hung out the sides of the hood. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as the Norn Reaper, cousin of the Grim Reaper."

"So I'm dead?" Susan asked.

"Not quite." The Norn Reaper replied.

"So I'm alive?" Susan asked again.

"Not quite." The Norn Reaper replied again. "It's complicated-you're not dead and you're not alive. You're a little like a living ghost. I suppose you'd call it an angel, but you're not that either because you haven't died and earned a halo and wings and such. Either way, you're about to help all of Albia."

"Me? This is a joke, right? "

"No joke. The Grendels are taking over everything, because they're jealous of the Ettins. It used to be that they were the only special species in Albia, but then Bean invented the C1 ettin, and that made them mad, and Lis invented the C1 Shee, and that made them furious, and now Cyberlife makes official Ettins for C2. They're not happy. So now, they've taken the Arlington Stone.."

"The WHAT?" Susan interrupted.

"All right.." Sighed the Norn Reaper. "I knew you wouldn't know this. As the Albian Scrolls tell it," He then made a scroll appear in his hands. Unrolling it, he read aloud, " 'When the ancient Shee first discovered how to work with genery,' " He paused briefly. "It's very old, by the way. Forgive the word genery. Anyway: '...they created the Norns. The first norn was a man named Ron. And Ron was cute, and it was good. The Shee then created Ettins. The first Ettin was a man named Nitta. And Nitta was cloned several times, and he and his brothers worked hard, and it was good. Then one day, a young Shee accidentally created a Grendel. The Grendel cloned itself many times, and then upturned everything and created havoc. And it was bad. The Shee captured the Grendels and locked them away to starve, and all was good again. But the Shee decided not to take a chance, so they put a spell over the land that allowed them to always be in control, and no race shalt overturn them. They attached the spell to a stone, and they set the four elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Light in the stone, and named it the Arlington Stone, and placed it upon the neck of the idol in The Great Sheeian Temple. And all was good once more.' Susan, it is also written in these scrolls that one day, someone will get a message from the Heavens about the future, and reveal it in a poem before their death. Then the Arlington Stone shall become missing, and the power shall shift from good to evil. The poem will lead a group of seven people to restore peace. The author of the poem shall guide these people. I think this person is you. Was that too much to absorb?"

Susan sat for a minute, thinking about all this. "Is this why Creatures doesn't respond to Katherine's commands?"

"Darn straight." The Norn Reaper replied.

"Soo... what do we do now?" Susan asked.

"Your first mission," the Norn Reaper started, clearing a small hole in the cloud they were on, "Is to help that norn, right there." He pointed to Katherine.

Susan was shocked. "Katherine? What in the world does she need help with?"

"She needs help proving she's the hand. Right now, she's too scared to defend herself, and could end up getting death if we don't do something. Soo.. if you'd just enter her mind real quick and talk her through it.."

"How in the world do I do that?"

"Just.. " The Norn Reaper began, "kinda.. concentrate.."

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"So," The Grendels King snarled in his harsh, ugly voice, "what would possess me to let you live?"

"What would possess you to kill us?" Karr argued.

"You'll get in the way." The king bellowed.

"Of what?!" Karr demanded. He tried to charge forward, but was grabbed by a guard.

"My plan to destroy the Ettins." The Grendel King replied. "For years, the Shee kept us from destroying the little suck-ups. When they left, the Ettins were sealed underground forever, and we were reduced to just one Grendel every 10-15 hours. Now the eruptions have brought the Ettins back, and we have another chance! The Hand is gone, the Shee left, and there's no one here to help-except norns. So we're going to lock you all away or kill you until we squash them like a bug."

Katherine muffled a brief grin during the speech. The Hand was right before them!

"KATHERINE!" A voice in her head called.

Katherine shook herself a bit. What was that voice in her head, and why did it sound so familiar?

"Katherine!" The voice called again, "I can't tell you who I am. You will know in good time. But for now, prove who you are! All I can tell you is this - What happens when the hand points to a Creature?"

Katherine took a good think on this for just a second.

The Grendel King drew a breath before continuing. "I herby sentence you to..."

"WAIT!" Katherine shouted, stepping forward and pushing the guard aside. "What if I can prove I'm the hand?"

The king blinked for a minute before breaking out in laughter. "YOU?! The HAND?! You're a norn, you don't look a minute over :50, and you're a GIRL for crying out loud! Everyone knows the hand is thousands of hours old, and is a boy."

"But I CAN prove I'm the hand." Katherine coolly stated, took a deep breath, swallowed, and lifted up her paw. A small devil head appeared by the grendle's tail.

Every guard in the courtroom let fly with a huge gasp, and a few of them laid their spears down and dropped to one knee. The king himself was stunned.

"Sir!" An awkward-looking Grendel ran up from behind everyone. He had a red scarf draped around his neck, and a book in one hand. "The scriptures say that The Hand will come someday and put evil in its place. Sir, I do believe.."

"Skip your stupid scriptures, Gregory!" The king snarled in reply. "We'll put The Hand where it belongs! Guards! Put our visitor and her friends in a special cell!"

The guards grabbed everyone and chaffered them away.

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Everyone had been sitting in that cell for what seemed like hours. Of course, had it of been hours, Jenna would be lying dead, Lydia would be fertile and substantially larger, and Karr would have started to complain about knee pain. So, since none of that had happened yet, we can guess that it had been only a few minutes. But in Albia, minutes can be a lifetime.

"I'm bored." Lydia commented unnecessarily.

"We all are." Reminded Kass.

"And sad." Lydia added.

"We all are." Kass reminded her once again.

"Why are we here?" asked Lydia.

"Because," Karr started, "the grendels want to get rid of us."

That made very little sense to Lydia (she hadn't come to the important realization that not everyone loves everyone else), but she shut up because she was sick of asking questions. No one really minded that, they were all sick of answering them. This is what is known as a win-win situation.

"Maybe we should just get those mattresses out and try to sleep." Suggested Jenna. This sounded like a good idea, so they pulled out the thin mattresses on the corner, and set them up on the floor. Then everyone crawled on a mattress, and tossed several times before getting to sleep.

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"It was the night upon which Blip died. Katherine stood, looking at the sky where Blip had just been torn apart, numb. Zack snuck up behind her, but this time, he didn't have the piece of Blip. Toby came too, but only to offer consolation. Blip was really, really gone..."

Katherine woke up with a snork and a start. "It was only a dream.. " She panted, feeling around the end of the bed for Blip. It took a while for it to register that he wasn't there. "No.. " She thought, shaking herself, "Its not like I miss him..". But she did. She just wouldn't admit it. It felt so bad that he was gone, and that Susan was gone. She couldn't take it anymore. She broke down and cried.