We laid on the bed, holding one another for a long time. The wind blew in from the shattered window, chilling the entire space, I finally speak up, “Violet… there’s something I never told you about when I came back…”

She looks back into my eyes for a long while… saying nothing, but appearing contemplative.

“When I returned after the attack, three years ago, I tried to let you think I was just in a hospital somewhere, that’s not really what happened…”

She continues her silence, anger evident in her furrowed brow, she simply turned herself, sitting up… then in a surprisingly deep grave tone she finally responds, “Go on…”

“Well, I didn’t go to the hospital. I had a vision, or some kind of out-of-body experience where I was apparently dead.”

“I could see whiteness all around me, emerging subtly from the darkness which has enveloped me after the attack. I could see the outline of a woman in the distance. She was the only thing I could see, so… naturally I went to her.”

Violet nods her head slightly, her eyes remaining transfixed, giving me nothing to read or even judge from.

“That woman you just met, Aurora, was standing there. I was upset, I had been in incredible pain, and she comforted me, and she taught me about the sigils we had found, how they belonged to her, and contained a special power.”

That got Violet’s attention, “Special power? More than the powers we saw them emit?”

I raise an eyebrow, “That’s not a question she answered, but she did continue on and on about a gift of powers she wanted to give me.”

Violet balled her fist, shifting her position on the bed, “The same powers she was talking about?”

“I don’t know Violet, it was an experience I don’t clearly remember anymore, but I do know she tried to give me some gift, and I refused it repeatedly, but as we just learned, she played me, she returned me to my body… and I awoke in a coffin.”

“Returned?”

“Made? I don’t know, I just figured they buried my lifeless body, and I escaped by growing out.”

Violet looked into my eyes, looking perhaps for any sign of duplicity. “Now let’s say I believe you, what do you think this woman would gain from tricking you into thinking you have no powers?”

I think about that for a few moments, what could she gain? “Well, she could be playing a game, and she wants additional pieces in the game that she could manipulate.”

Violet nods, “Sure… or she could have you as a probe, watching me and the work I do… to steal the Dimensional Link, or anything else I discover.”

“Really Violet?”

“Of course! That would be a brilliant plan!”

I point to the Dimensional Link in the corner, “She clearly didn’t take it, she was in this room and didn’t take the fucking device.”

Violet got a little flustered by that, turning to the side and pulling her arms into a more protective position, “Well, well… well, maybe she wants me to trust you and you just tell me the truth most of the time… and you are waiting to take it when I don’t expect it!”

She didn’t seem convinced… her vindictive side may be driving, but I know where she really is…

“Or maybe I just love you so much, that I rejected her gifts as best I could and returned to you, and have lived with you for years. I married you because I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Her feelings are her weakness, I don’t like using her weaknesses against her, but she is giving me little choice, so I smile a little more, “Maybe you are just being a paranoid bitch, and you need your wife to smack a little sense into you…” I pat her cheeks softly with my hand, hoping to elicit a more sarcastic response.

She still looked upset, but she spoke under her breath, “Maybe you are just my manipulative wife, who knows how to break into my mind… with your special bitchy powers…”

“Maybe I am, but I returned from death to come back to you either way, so I deserve some credit at least.”

For the first time in this conversation, her brow lightened, and she twisted, planting her feet on the ground and resting her hand lightly on my arm, “I may be struggling to believe this, but that’s true, you did come right to me...”

“It was my only goal, and I hoped everything would get better, perhaps become normal, but it’s worse now, learning what really happened… I didn’t make it out, I only thought I did.”

Violet turns and jogs out of the room, raising her voice, “Well, maybe I don’t believe her, what if I think she is a fucking, lying bitch.”

“What are you getting at?” I call after her, remaining on the bed.

She reenters the room suddenly, “Hold still dear,” I freeze as places a probe into my arm, linking it to her DNA testing kit, “I just want to check your DNA, I can’t imagine your DNA being a match if you were a copy.”

After a few moments, the test returns with a 100% match. “Alice Speirs”

Violet stared blankly at the test for a moment, “Maybe she lied… maybe she is trying to confuse us.”

I take her cheek in my hand, locking eyes with her, “Or maybe she got the ingredients right and made a perfect cookie.”

Her eyes seemed angry again, but a more playful angry, she looks down, “Shut up… this is serious.”

I nod and raise her head again, “I know, and now I’m going to be serious.”

She tilts her head, getting closer and pushing the tester away, “Is that possible?”

I roll my eyes, “Of course it is… but if we want to be serious about this, we need better than your consumer scanner... we need Professor Duval.”

She stands there for a moment, thinking, before pulling off the bed into her arms, and then placing me on the ground, “You’re right Alice, get dressed, we have a train to catch!”

“Wait, where is Ganymede?” I spin around, out to the window, “Ganymede!”

I hear his caw, echo through the air, as he circles above, he turns and descends rapidly, spreading his wings to slow himself and land on my arm.

I laugh and softly pet his wing with my free hand and shoo him up to my shoulder, “Alright, now that I’ve got my dinosaur, we can go.”