TETHERED

BOOK 1

BY

KAI STORMHAVEN

Chapter 1: Beyond the Shards

"Aria, get out of the bathroom already!" Melody growled impatiently. She banged the door for emphasis.

Melody stepped back in surprise as the door opened immediately. Aria hurried past quickly, but not before Melody saw the remnants of her twin sister's latest bout of weeping. Taking a deep breath, she ignored the twinge of guilt that assaulted her conscience and walked into the bathroom.

It had almost been a month since the nightmares had begun awakening Aria in the middle of the night. She had been seeing a shrink for two weeks now, but the nightmares appeared to be getting worse, if the screams that awoke her every night were any indication.

She stared into the mirror at tilted dark-brown eyes that held no trace of puffiness and sighed again. She needed to stop treating her sister like a Vernicious Knid. It wasn't really Aria's fault that she had an overdeveloped sense of ethics. It had almost been six months since Aria had refused to help her cheat on her eighth grade math test. She had remained committed to her course of cold indifference toward her former best friend and sister ever since.

During the past six months, Melody had made new friends. Her mother called them frennemies, but what would her mother know about being a teenager? They didn't even have internet when her mother was fourteen. Melody shuddered at the thought. Barbarians.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Melody heard her mother ask Aria from down the hall.

"Fine," Aria replied in a subdued voice.

"Still can't remember anything from your dreams?" her mother asked in concern.

"No," Aria sighed. "Nothing."

"I've booked an appointment with a sleep specialist in Seattle," her mother told her gently. "She's one of the best in her field. We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise."

"I'm not sure we'll have to worry about it for much longer," Aria replied quietly.

"Why do you say that?" her mother asked, the note of concern in her voice ratcheting up several notches.

"Just a premonition," Aria mumbled in a barely audible voice.

Melody paused in the act of brushing her silky midnight hair as a sudden chill ran down her spine. She knew her sister's premonitions had a nasty habit of coming true. Aria had saved her life twice as a result of those fateful premonitions.

Swallowing her sudden nervousness, she finished brushing her hair and moved on to brushing her teeth. It would have been easier to freeze Aria out of her life if her solemn twin wasn't so sweet. Aria was always the first person to offer comfort to a person in distress. Melody had lost count of how many times Aria had held her in her arms as she cried her heart out.

It had been less than a year ago that their mother had revealed they were the product of rape when their mother was only fifteen. Rather than falling to pieces, Aria had held both her and their mother tightly in her arms as Melody sobbed bitterly. Until that moment, their mother had always told them their father had left before their birth. Melody had always held out a secret hope that her father had some extraordinary excuse for leaving them, and they would be reunited someday.

Discovering how many times her mother had come to the brink of committing suicide after the rape had forever changed her opinion of men. She knew there were good men in the world, but for months after her discovery, she could barely look at men without feeling a sense of intense revulsion. The thought of her loving mother being subjected to such brutality had turned her world upside down. She had developed a snide sarcasm that had her spending more time in the principal's office than she spent in class.

Aria had begun spending her nights in Melody's bed, holding her in comforting arms until she fell asleep. The thought of anything happening to her overly tender-hearted twin brought a lump to her throat and a sting to her dark eyes.

Feeling her sense of resolve harden, she hurriedly finished getting ready and went down to her sister's bedroom. She came to an abrupt halt as she saw her mother sitting at the computer desk crying silently.

"What's the matter, mom?" Melody asked worriedly.

Her mother started slightly, then turned to look at her. "Aria wrote a new song. I'm so worried; I don't know what to do."

"Let me see," Melody said, a cold hand grasping her heart.

Her mother stood up and quickly left the room, sniffling quietly.

Melody sat down and began reading. Icicles began running down her spine as she read the haunting lyrics.

Angel white of labyrinth blue

Do you see me as I see you?

Soft darkened eyes

haunted by dreamless sleep

Is it your ghost I see in the mirror?

Reach out to touch me

dearest dream of mine

Open your eyes, say you're alright

The glass shatters at the softest touch

Is there a soul beyond the shards?

Warm tears sting my eyes

As all of these sweet memories

flood back to me

Reminiscing now

The sun will set beyond

the cruel mountain range

I'll still be here

(it's dark now without your light)

Begging your heart to beat

(sweet defiled angel, open your eyes)

My existence is not the same

(believe in me)

Without you here...

(believe that I love you)

You shut your eyes

and gave in to that light

A beauty frozen in eternal night

just when I realized the

error of my ways

you slipped between my fingertips

I was a fool, I was stuck in such bliss

Wish I could grant, you your first kiss

Sorrow only grows if I try to forget

you're an eternal part of me

A sweet lullaby

Clasping my fragile heart

and whispering your name

Soft embrace in my sleep

Is this a dream or is it

Yet another nightmare of thee

Don't let this end

(it's cold now without your touch)

Wait on the other side

(my beautiful angel, rest in peace)

And I will slumber deep

(just please don't let this die)

I'll see you soon...

Melody felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she stood up. She had let her own selfishness go on for far too long. Feeling a sense of mounting urgency, she hurried down to the kitchen. Her mother was pacing the floor as she held her cell phone up to her ear.

"Where's Aria?" she asked her mother uncertainly.

"She said she wanted to walk to school," her mother replied. "She said she needed to clear her head."

"Can you drop me off with her?" Melody asked quickly. "I don't want her walking alone."

Her mother looked at her in surprise, her dark eyes softening. "Thank you, Melody. I'll just get my keys."

Melody hurried out to the car and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her mother. She didn't have to wait long. As she fretted about her sister's ominous lyrics, she finally noticed the dark circles under her mother's eyes.

While Aria had become more supportive and loving toward their mother after learning about the circumstances of their conception, Melody had become more distant and withdrawn. She had been openly critical of her mother naming her two daughters Melody and Aria, when her own name was Harmony. Talk about cliché. Just because she was obsessed with music didn't mean her daughters would be as musically inclined as she was.

Now she felt bad about her criticism; after all, she and Aria had both turned out to be exceptionally gifted with music as well. Her jaded view of humanity made her want to lash out at everyone, including those who were closest to her.

As they pulled out onto the small residential road and began driving toward the junior high, Melody felt her anxiety grow exponentially. She knew people always joked about twins having a kind of metaphysical bond, but she knew it was true in her case. She could always tell when her sister was in trouble, and her sixth sense was screaming at her that something was terribly wrong.

She pulled out her cell phone and called Aria. It went to voicemail after four rings. She hung up and called again with the same result. As her heart began beating faster, she pulled up her google maps app and searched for her sister's GPS beacon.

"We should have caught up to her by now," her mother said anxiously.

"She's not answering her phone," Melody informed her breathlessly as her heart rate sped up even more. "Turn here! Her cell phone is several blocks away."

"That's the industrial section of town," her mother muttered as she quickly glanced at Melody's phone. "Why is she over there?"

"Hurry," Melody choked out, starting to hyperventilate with worry.

The car's engine revved up as her mother stomped on the gas. She barely slowed down as they cruised through a four-way stop. She guided her mother into an abandoned factory compound. A black sedan sped out of one of the old bays, spitting gravel behind it as a middle aged male quickly turned his head away from them as he drove past.

"Call the police!" her mother commanded as tears began leaking down her face.

Melody hurriedly dialed 9 and pressed Send.

"911, what is your emergency?" a woman's voice asked as they parked the car in the bay the black sedan had come out of.

Melody was too choked up to speak as the sounds of screaming reached her ears. She jumped out of the car before it came to a stop and ran toward a fifty gallon drum that was sitting in the middle of the bay.

"Hello?" the dispatcher's voice crackled over the phone's speaker. "Is that someone screaming?"

Her mother was beside her a second later. There was a pair of vice clamps holding the lid down on the large drum. Melody desperately helped her mother yank the clamps off as her ears were flogged by the most terrifying screams of pain she had ever heard.

As they pulled the lid off of the drum, Melody's heart froze in terror at what remained of her sister. With a despairing cry of anguish, her mother reached into the drum and pulled Aria out of the acid filled drum. There was no trace of her sister's beautiful tan skin; all that remained was raw, red blisters and blood.

"Aria!" her mother cried in terror. "Oh my God, my Aria!"

"I need you to tell me where you are!" the dispatcher's voice demanded from the cell speaker.

Her mother snatched the phone out of Melody's shaking hands. "We're at the old paper mill. I need a life-flight immediately!"

"Can you tell me what happened?" the dispatcher asked tersely.

"My daughter has been dumped into a vat of acid!" her mother wailed in a voice so filled with pain that Melody almost didn't recognize her. She could see her mother's arms and hands blistering from where she had come into contact with the acid. "Her skin is completely burned off!"

"Mommy, it hurts!" Aria's voice was weak, and her words were barely recognizable through her destroyed lips. "It hurts so bad!"

"I'm here baby," her mother sobbed, trying to hold her quivering daughter without hurting her more. "I'm going to make it better, I promise."

"It hurts so much, mommy," Aria whimpered piteously.

Melody felt liquid running down her knuckles and realized her fingernails were biting into her palms as she clenched her fists. Aria hadn't called their mother mommy since she was seven years old.

"Mel?" Aria's voice was fading.

"I'm here," Melody choked past her sobs.

"I'm sorry I didn't help you…" her voice faltered, and she started coughing up blood.

"Please God!" her mother shouted in desperation. "Somebody help us!"

The sound of sirens grew loud quickly as a sheriff's car sped into the lot outside the bay, followed shortly by an ambulance.

"Sweet Jesus, what happened?" the young deputy gasped as he finally saw Aria's disfigured body.

"We need to get her to a burn unit fast," the EMT said quickly. "We're going to need a chopper to get her to Seattle."

"Can you give her something for the pain?" her mother pleaded through her sobs.

"I can try," the EMT said doubtfully. "I'll need to contact the burn center first; I'm not trained for this level of injury."

Melody lost track of any further dialogue as she stared into her sister's destroyed face. Her eyelids were gone, along with her once-brightly shining brown eyes. There was a small nub where her nose used to be, and what was left of her ears was melted against her head. Where a rich mane of midnight hair once covered her head, now only a blistered and bleeding scalp remained.

"Why can't I see anything, mommy?" Aria whimpered painfully. She coughed up several more mouthfuls of blood.

"It's just really dark," her mother told her comfortingly. "Mommy will fix everything."

"Mel?" Aria asked thickly.

"Right here, Aria," Melody whispered, trying to hold back her sobs.

"Take care of mommy, please?" Aria's voice was suddenly serene.

"I'll take care of both of you," Melody whispered through her tears. "I'm not letting you leave me behind."

"I'll be back soon," Aria choked, then began spasming.

The EMT rushed over and gave her a shot of something translucent. "The morphine won't get rid of the pain for a burn this severe, but it will take the edge off."

Melody looked up as the sound of a helicopter grew louder. She absently noticed the deputy had tears streaming down his face as well.

"She's going into cardiac arrest," the EMT informed the life-flight paramedic as she hurried over to assess the situation.

The look of horror on the life-flight paramedic's face was quickly masked as she transported Aria over to the chopper on a gurney. Melody followed her mother over to the helicopter and watched the paramedics begin inserting an IV into her sister's arm. Melody was terrified of flying, but she didn't even notice as the chopper lifted off the ground and begin the short journey to the Harborview Burn Center.

The next hour was a blur of anxiety and fear as Melody watched her sister struggle to stay alive. The doctors had to resuscitate Aria six times in the first hour. It was shortly after the second hour that her sister slipped into a coma.

Her mother was also in the ICU, having the burns on her arms treated. As noon approached, Melody couldn't stand the endless wait anymore. She stopped the next nurse to leave the ICU by stepping in front of him.

"I need to know what's happening," Melody said firmly. "Is she going to live?"

"It's too early to make any predictions at this point," the nurse told her sympathetically. "There are too many factors…"

"Just try," Melody cut him off, taking a deep breath. "What are her odds? I need something."

"Okay…" the nurse said reluctantly. "It's a miracle that she's still alive. She swallowed a great deal of the acid, and her entire body has been burned more severely than anyone I've ever seen before. Her internal organs are still functioning somehow, but her lungs are only operating at approximately ten percent capacity. The fact that she slipped into a coma is the only reason she is still alive right now."

"How long?" Melody asked, unable to be more specific as a sob choked off the rest of her question.

"I'll be surprised if she makes it through the next twenty-four hours," the nurse sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Like I said, it's a miracle she's even alive at all right now."

"What about my mom?" Melody whispered.

"She'll require extensive tissue repair surgery on her arms and hands, but she'll recover," the nurse replied. "There is a chance that her fingernails won't grow back though."

Melody glanced down at her own hands automatically, noticing for the first time that her palms were covered in red blisters from the limited contact she had shared while touching her sister's destroyed skin.

"You were burned too?" the nurse asked in sudden concern. "Come with me."

Melody followed him into another room where he had her sit on an exam table. Even seeing the burns now, she still couldn't feel any pain. The nurse flagged down some other personnel, who quickly began wrapping her hand in burn bandages.

"How much pain are you feeling?" one of the women asked.

"None," Melody replied dully.

"Have you been given any kind of pain medicine?" the woman asked with a frown.

"No," Melody replied shortly.

"Hmm…" the woman murmured thoughtfully. "Could be shock. We'll need to check for nerve damage."

"Excuse me," a man in a dark suit stood in the doorway. "I'm Detective Hallaway. Is now an okay time to ask a few questions? The longer I wait, the more distance the person who did this will be able to put between us."

"Do you feel up to answering a few questions?" the woman asked doubtfully.

"Okay," Melody replied with a sigh. She could feel a bleakness growing in her stomach, spreading into the rest of her body. It felt like a light inside of her was slowly being extinguished.

"Do you remember seeing anyone at the site of the incident?" Detective Hallaway asked as he took out a notepad.

"There was a man in a black four-door sedan that was leaving when we arrived," Melody replied dully. "He was looking the other way when he passed us."

"Did you see what kind of car it was?" the detective asked intently.

"I think it was a Buick," Melody answered slowly. "The back windows were tinted, and there was a missing hubcap on the back tire."

The detective continued asking questions for another five minutes before closing his notebook with a satisfied grunt.

"I think we have our suspect in custody," he told her grimly. "He was arrested after a hit-and-run about five miles from the incident site. A DNA test should confirm whether he is the culprit."

"How would a DNA test prove anything?" Melody asked with a frown. She felt the blood drain from her face as realization suddenly hit her like punch to the stomach.

"She doesn't know?" the detective asked the woman still attending to her bandages.

"No, we thought she had endured enough trauma for one day," the woman replied disapprovingly.

"My apologies," the detective murmured contritely.

Melody barely heard him. She felt a ringing in her ears and couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. She barely noticed the nurses trying to calm her down. She blinked as a wall of black came rushing toward her.

Chapter 2: Still Alive

Melody gradually awoke to the sound of muted voices outside of her darkened room. She slowly looked around the room, then down at her bandaged hands. God must have a sick sense of humor, burning the hands of a family of musicians.

A moment later, she was jumping out of bed in panic. She ran out of her room and grabbed the first nurse she encountered.

"What time is it? Is my sister…" she couldn't finish the question.

"You've been asleep for six hours," the slim young woman told her soothingly. She had dark-brown hair that was pulled back into a bun that contrasted beautifully with a pair of intelligent blue eyes. "Your sister is still hanging on. They're operating on her right now."

Melody let out a trembling sigh. "What about my mom?"

"She's sleeping," the nurse replied. "She is doing remarkably well, in spite of the severity of her burns.

"Thank you," Melody said gratefully.

She looked around and realized a small crowd of people were watching her. A blonde with pretty green eyes stood next to a man with a channel 5 news camera, both of them observing her intently. Her principal was there as well, along with her math teacher.

"When's the last time you had something to eat?" the nurse asked gently.

"I'm not hungry," Melody responded absently. "Will I be able to see Aria when they are finished operating on her?"

"Of course," the nurse assured her. "You really should get something to eat. There is a cafeteria on the first floor. It will be at least another hour before they are finished operating on your sister."

"I don't have any money with me," Melody admitted with a blush.

"Just tell them to charge it to Nurse Emily," the woman said with an encouraging smile. "Now go get some food. You're going to need your strength in the coming weeks."

Melody remembered her sister's final words. Take care of mommy.

"Okay," Melody replied as her eyes filled with tears. "Thank you so much, Emily."

Emily patted her shoulder comfortingly before turning and moving away.

As Melody began making her way toward the elevators, her math teacher, Ms. Olson, and the principal, Mr. West, joined her as she entered the lift.

"I'm so sorry, Melody," Ms. Olson told her softly, her blue eyes filled with compassion.

The soft words were enough to bring the reality of her situation crashing back into the forefront of her mind again. With a gasp, she fell into Ms. Olson's slender arms and began sobbing brokenly. Ms. Olson gently stroked her dark hair soothingly, whispering to her comfortingly. As the elevator reached the ground floor, she let herself be led to one of the tables in the cafeteria.

"We were unable to find any of your extended family in your school records," Mr. West said gently, after she had regained her composure. "Is there a father or grandparents who we can notify of your circumstances?"

"My grandparents passed away last year," Melody replied heavily. "My dad can rot in Hell, if he's not already. He raped my mom when she was fifteen years old and left her to die."

Ms. Olson blanched, and Melody heard a gasp behind her. She turned her head to see the reporter for Channel 5 standing several feet behind her. The woman's green eyes were wide and filled with sympathy. Turning back to the principal, she let out another resigned sigh.

"My mom was an only child," she continued. "We don't have any other family."

Mr. West nodded, looking awkward. "I'm sorry. We'll speak with your mother later, but we wanted you to know that we're here for you. We've cancelled school tomorrow and will be holding a candlelight vigil for your sister at 7pm in the gym."

Melody nodded silently, unable to speak around the sudden lump in her throat as more tears leaked down her cheeks. She was going to need to rehydrate soon with all of this crying business draining her body of liquid.

Mr. West patted her shoulder comfortingly before leaving her with Ms. Olson. Wiping her tears away, she got up and went over to the salad bar. When she tried to charge the food to Nurse Emily, Ms. Olson insisted on paying for it. As she sat back down, she noticed one of the televisions mounted on a wall showing a picture of the paper factory on the screen as a news anchor gestured at the empty bay wrapped in police tape.

"Police have confirmed the identity of the attacker through DNA evidence, and are currently holding him without bail," the blonde news anchor was saying. "The name of the victim was not released, because she is a minor. Her mother and sister were also treated at the Harborview Burn Center after suffering from chemical burns from a diluted form of fluor antimonic acid, which in concentrated form is one of the most powerful acids on Earth. There is no word on whether the victim is still alive, but chemical experts have made it clear that surviving a complete submersion in such a substance would be impossible, especially if any of the substance was swallowed, since it explodes when it comes into contact with water. Even the fumes from this deadly acid can be fatal. Police believe the attacker concocted the acid in his own lab, since the factory where it was found did not make use of the substance. They believe he used the acid in an effort to remove any trace of the victim's body. It is still unknown how the mother and sister were able to find the victim in time to save her life."

The news anchor paused for a moment before continuing.

"I've just been informed that it was actually her twin sister who found her, using the GPS beacon on her phone. Our news office was able to obtain the dispatch recording of the 911 call that was placed."

Melody stared in horror as the screams of her sister were played from the dispatcher's recording, forcing her to relive the moments immediately after finding her sister. The news anchor's face paled as she listened to the pain-filled pleas of Aria for her mommy to stop the pain. She heard her sister's final words one more time, before the television suddenly flickered off. She could see the outline of Ms. Olson through the blur of her tears as her math teacher stood trembling in front of the television.

Everyone in the cafeteria was staring at her now. She stood up unsteadily and lurched over to the bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet in time to empty the food she had just consumed. Ms. Olson knelt down next to her, pulling Melody's hair behind her shoulders and stroking her back comfortingly.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that," Ms. Olson said in a voice choked with emotion.

Melody spent several moments dry heaving. She stared at the soiled porcelain in front of her, trying to make sense of how a world so full of cruelty could exist. Why would anyone voluntarily bring a child into this horrible place? I didn't even get a chance to apologize to her!

She wasn't sure how long she knelt there staring into emptiness. One thing was for sure; if her sister died, she wasn't going to be left behind.

"You're not leaving me behind," Melody whispered to herself.

"Melody, please don't talk like that," Ms. Olson said, sniffling tearfully.

Melody blinked, realizing she had spoken her last thought aloud. She turned her head to face Ms. Olson. "Give me a reason to stay. Give me one good reason to stay in this Hell."

"Someone very dear to me once said that evil only triumphs when those with the capacity to do good give up," Ms. Olson told her softly. "Don't leave the other good people in this world behind who need your help."

"Whoever said that was a naïve fool," Melody muttered harshly.

"Aria is the person who told me that," Ms. Olson replied, her voice catching.

Melody blinked. It was exactly the kind of thing Aria would say. "Why would she say something like that to you?"

"Your sister has an amazing gift of intuition," Ms. Olson whispered almost inaudibly. "I've had many of my own struggles these past few months. After a very difficult day when I felt like giving up, your sister wrote a song for me and left those words at the bottom of the page. She made me realize that focusing on helping others balances out the pain in my own life. She is wise far beyond her years."

Melody nodded unconsciously, having thought the same thing many times. While she had been giving her sister the cold shoulder for not helping her cheat on a test, Aria had been pouring her heart out in song and deed to help other people in need. Her shoulders began shaking as she realized just how much this world would lose if Aria didn't survive.

"Is everything okay?" a voice asked in concern.

Melody sniffed noisily, rising to her feet. Perhaps she could try and fill in part of the void if Aria left her behind. She had no illusions that she could fill her sister's shoes, so to speak, but she could at least try. If there was some kind of afterlife where she would eventually meet her sister, she wanted to be able to tell her she had given it her all.

As she turned around, she found the young reporter from Channel 5 news studying her with sincere concern. She was so used to the false and pretentious façade most reporters exuded that it was surprising to sense the sincerity in the woman's gaze.

"I'll be okay," Melody replied shakily. "I just need to stay away from the television from now on."

"That was really tacky," the woman said disapprovingly. "Whoever approved that to be aired should be fired."

"That's for sure," Ms. Olson agreed darkly, walking over to the sink and washing her face.

"I wanted to warn you that there is a mob of reporters outside trying to track you down," the woman told her, nodding toward the door. "I'll try and run interference if you want to make a run for the elevator. The hospital security has banned any press from going up to the ICU floor."

"Aren't you with the press?" Melody asked doubtfully.

"I was here doing a story on the dedication of the burn center staff before you arrived," she replied with a slight smile. "I would never stoop to the level of sensational nonsense that these goons go for. They make a mockery of journalism."

Melody smiled, instantly warming to the woman. "I appreciate the offer. How did you intend to run interference?"

"I'll just march off in the other direction and pretend like I've found you somewhere else," she said with a mischievous grin. "They won't want to risk the chance that I really do know where you are, so they'll follow me."

Melody looked at her name tag. Rhapsody. How fitting.

"Thank you, Rhapsody," Melody said warmly.

"No problem, Melody," Rhapsody replied with another mischievous smile.

"How unusual," Ms. Olson remarked as they waited a minute before making a run for the elevator.

"Truly," Melody agreed, feeling the first sense of warmth in her chest since the day began.

As they reached the elevator, she noticed there was, indeed, a security guard monitoring who entered the lifts. He nodded at her as she entered with Ms. Olson.

When they reached the top, her mother was just exiting one of the patient rooms. She hurried over and wrapped her daughter in a tight embrace. She grimaced in pain as the contact from the burns on her arms were aggravated by the physical contact.

"How are you doing?" her mom asked.

"Terrified," Melody answered honestly. "How are your arms?"

"Very sore," she replied with another grimace.

"Have you heard anything else about Aria?" Melody asked anxiously.

"She's still being operated on," her mother replied with a deep sigh. "Have you learned anything about her condition? The last update I heard was over eight hours ago."

Melody stared at her mother, unable to repeat what she had heard from the nurse or the television. Her mother must have seen it in her eyes, because her eyes began filling with tears. Before she could say anything, a doctor came out of the operating room and began walking toward them.

"What news?" her mother asked in a trembling voice.

"Well, there's both good and bad news," the doctor replied, looking perturbed. "First, we were able to remove all traces of the acid from her lungs and stomach. She is currently stable, which I will admit doesn't make any sense. She should have died before we could even begin operating on her. As impossible as it seems, her tissue appears to be undergoing some kind of regenerative process. Her lungs are almost up to fifty percent capacity, and the damage to her stomach and throat has begun repairing itself at an accelerated rate. I've never seen anything like it. We had a team collect samples of the acid from the site of the incident, and it is so potent that it burned right through a sheet of glass. If her cells continue regenerating at this rate, her body might actually survive."

"And the bad news?" her mother asked hesitantly.

"Her brain activity has flat lined," he replied with a sigh. "In coma patients, that indicates a permanent vegetative state, with no possibility of recovery. I would say there is no hope of recovery; except that her body is already doing things I would have said were impossible before today. We have a team of neurologists who will be arriving in the morning to study her brain activity for any indication that the cellular regeneration process will spread to that portion of her body as well."

"Wait a minute," her mother said with a frown. "I thought humans weren't capable of cellular regeneration without some kind of stem cell implant?"

"They aren't," the doctor agreed with a slightly baffled look. "Right now, we only have a few theories on how this could be happening. The most plausible, is that the acid triggered a reaction similar to what occurs in a fetus when it begins the gestation process, activating her stem cells. Since she doesn't need to re-grow external limbs, the process wouldn't require her body to be submerged in amniotic fluid, the way a fetus does. I'll admit that this is stretching the limits of credulity, but this kind of regeneration is unprecedented. If she remains stable, we will have time to study the process in more depth. In time, this could lead to completely new breakthroughs in our understanding of stem cells."

"She's still alive," her mother finally said with a determined gleam in her dark eyes. "That's all that's important, for now."

Chapter 3: So Far Away and So Near

Melody focused on the warmth pulsing in her stomach as the steady beep of the cardiograph filled the silence in Aria's room. It had been a week since her sister survived her first night in the ICU. The doctors were just as baffled by her continued survival as they had been on the first night. Each time they removed the bandages that covered every inch of her body to apply new ones, a little more of her tissue had grown back. Her brain, on the other hand, had continued to indicate a vegetative state.

Melody would have despaired, if not for the continuing connection she had always felt to her twin sister. That warmth in her stomach had always indicated her sister was safe, and she wasn't going to question it now. Somewhere, her sister's consciousness still retained a connection to this body.

Melody opened her eyes as her mother entered the room and sat next to her on the small love seat. Her mother had always had a slim figure, but now she almost looked emaciated. It was almost a full time job making sure she ate regularly. She wished her mother could feel the same connection to Aria that she could. The constant talk from the neurologists about Aria having no chance of recovering was taking its toll on her mother.

"The neurologists are going to come and collect all of their fancy equipment in a minute," her mother informed her dully. "They're convinced there's no hope of her brain recovering."

"She'll recover," Melody told her confidently.

Her mother just nodded. They had been through this conversation several times over the last couple of days. The two of them hadn't been home since the incident. Ms. Olson and Rhapsody had been bringing them changes of clothes and toiletries. The other reporters had finally given up on interviewing her and her mom as the story grew older and the doctors refused to talk about their patients.

"I want to give Rhapsody an exclusive interview on Aria's life," Melody informed her mother quietly.

"What for?" her mother asked curiously.

"Rhapsody is the only decent reporter I've ever seen in my life, and I want the world to know what they almost lost with Aria," Melody explained softly. She looked into her mother’s eyes as she continued, her own eyes filled with determination. "Perhaps if they understand the kind of treasure they nearly lost, they'll be more apt to protect them in the future."

Her mother smiled warmly. "Perhaps you're right."

Several men in white coats came into the room, moving toward the equipment monitoring Aria's brain activity. Melody leaped to her feet, with anger flashing in her eyes.

"Get out!" Melody demanded hotly. "How dare you come in here without facemasks! Do you have any idea how susceptible she is to infection right now?"

The older men looked at her in irritation before complying. She heard one of them muttering under his breath as they went back out the door.

"The girl's a vegetable," the grey haired man grumbled. "They're just wasting valuable space for someone who's never going to wake up."

Melody felt her blood boil in fury as she took a step toward the door to give them a piece of her mind. She froze in place as the sound of her sister's voice began a haunting melody. She spun around and stared in shock as her sister's heavily bandaged face moved slightly as she sang.

The neurologists returned with facemasks donned, staring in utter astonishment as Aria sang. It wasn't quite the same voice that Melody had known all of her life. Enough of her original timbre remained to be recognizable, but the sound coming out of her sister was transcendental in its purity. Angels would have wept at the inhuman beauty in that voice.

Melody stood and stared with tears in her eyes as she listened to the words in her sister's song.

On this night the pale moon flies

through the endless starry skies

So hold me close

feel the rhythm of my heart, echoing far

Take my hand

Lead me where to souls could soar

Oh, so far away and so near

I have seen your eyes before

in another life I lived

In innocence

I imagined you could fly close to the stars

'Here I am

waiting for the moon to rise

Oh, so far away and so near

I have felt eternity

in another life I lived

On feathered wings

chase my spirit far and wide, ageless and free

Take me there

always towards that place of peace

Oh, so far away and so near

As the last notes of her song faded, the neurologists rushed over to their instruments and began feverishly studying the displays.

"This is impossible!" the oldest looking one said in astonishment. "There's absolutely no brain activity going on."

"Who was singing in here?" a nurse asked from the door, with tears in her eyes. "I've never heard anything so beautiful in my life!"

"Aria was singing," Melody told her thickly, through her own tears.

"This isn't possible," one of the other neurologists muttered disbelievingly. "A person cannot sing without a brain, and this girl's brain is dead."

A small crowd was gathering around the door, looking for the source of such beautiful sound. Word quickly spread that a coma patient was singing, while remaining completely unresponsive. Melody stood guard at the door, making sure that anyone who entered was wearing a mask.

"What's going on?" Rhapsody's voice asked anxiously from somewhere behind the group of people blocking the door. "Is Aria okay?"

"Come on people, make room," Melody started pushing people back so that Rhapsody could enter the room.

"What's all of the excitement about?" Rhapsody asked when she saw the look of delight on her face. "Is Aria awake?"

"Not exactly," Melody replied with a broad grin. "She just sung the most beautiful song this world has ever heard, though."

"Someone is setting up some kind of hoax," one of the neurologists finally declared with a frown. "There must be some kind of sound equipment embedded here. A vegetable can't sing."

Before anyone could say anything, the bandages around Aria's mouth began moving again as a melody just as beautiful as the first began emanating through the bandages. The words were incomprehensible, but the melody and sound of her voice was unearthly in its beauty.

The growing crowd stood in absolute silence as Aria's voice carried out clearly through the doors, audible to everyone in that wing of the hospital. The neurologists began double-checking all of the connections on their equipment as Aria's angelic voice continued speaking in an unknown language.

"The equipment must have a glitch," one of the neurologists said when Aria's song ended.

"We have five separate devices connected to her head," one of his colleagues disagreed. "There's no way all five of them are malfunctioning."

"That's the only explanation possible," the first one insisted. "A person cannot sing without brain function."

"Fine, hook the electrodes up to me and let's test the equipment," his colleague suggested.

The crowd watched silently as the neurologists connected a set of electrodes to themselves. As soon as the electrodes were attached, the displays began showing color distortions. They disconnected the electrodes from their own heads and reconnected a new set to Aria. The display remained empty.

"The equipment appears to be working fine," Harmony declared with a cold smile. "It appears that it is your understanding of consciousness that is in error here. My daughter is no vegetable."

"She's just spouting gibberish," the older neurologist declared firmly. "This is probably just some kind of muscle-memory response."

"You heard the first song," her mother disagreed even more firmly. "That was perfect English. I have no idea what language she was just singing in, but I have no doubt it was something more than gibberish."

"That's not exactly something you can test," the neurologist retorted, looking distinctly irritated.

"Of course we can test it," her mother replied, holding up her phone. "I recorded the whole thing. We'll just need a linguistic specialist to confirm whether this is an actual language, or not."

The neurologist looked like he wanted to argue the point further, but before he could reply Aria began singing again. The language was similarly unfamiliar. Melody felt like millions of small strings were pulling on her chest as the beauty of her sister's voice stirred feelings of wonder and awe so intense that it left her breathless. How could anything sound so beautiful? A whole new generation of poets would be able to find an endless source of inspiration from the sublime notes echoing around the room. As she listened to her sister's song, she remembered watching Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz transition from a black and white world into a new land so vibrant with color that it forever changed her perception of reality. She had never imagined sound as a living entity before, but she couldn't think of a better way to describe the notes caressing her mind with blissful wonder.

The rest of the day continued in a state of surreal wonder as Aria began new melodies at varying intervals. The crowd outside the door had begun recording and uploading Aria's mysterious songs before the hospital staff noticed and chased them out. By the end of the day, the media vultures had returned, seeking access to Aria's room.

Melody found herself cornered by several reporters as she fetched some food for her mother from the cafeteria. They surrounded her like a pack of hyenas and started rapid firing questions as she tried to reach the salad bar.

"Is it true that your sister is still in a coma, even though she is singing?" one of the men asked as he shoved a microphone under her nose.

"Were you aware that the uploads of your sister's songs have been viewed over fifty million times already?" another reporter asked.

"Has your sister sung any songs in English?" a third reporter asked, obnoxiously shoving his microphone into her face.

Melody kept trying to push through them to get to the food cart, but they pushed right back. With a growl of irritation, Melody snatched the mic out of her face and stared right into one of the cameras as she spoke.

"Yes, she sang a whole song in English," Melody growled. "Something about a special place in Hell being reserved for assholes like you. Now get out of my way! I have a mother who requires sustenance. Go back to your coven, or wherever it is that you bloodsuckers go when you're not trying to ruin people's lives."

Her outburst had the desired effect. The reporters blinked in surprise, allowing her to push through. She ignored their snide comments as she loaded up a tray of food and walked back toward the elevator. She glared so fiercely at several other reporters who began moving toward her that they paused long enough for her to get into the lift and move back up to the ICU.

"Are you okay?" Rhapsody asked in concern as she saw the look on her face.

"Did I ever mention how glad I am that you aren't a traditional reporter?" Melody asked wryly.

"A few times, yes," Rhapsody replied with a pleased smile. "Did you get accosted in the cafeteria?"

"Yeah, but I gave as good as I got," Melody said with an impish grin. "I'm sure they'll have all sorts of fun smearing my personality after today."

"Not if I can help it," Rhapsody declared firmly. "I've been writing a story about everything that's happened this past week, but I didn't want to bring it up until things calmed down for you and your mother. I want the world to see you as people, rather than some kind of entertainment spectacle."

"Funny you should mention that," Melody said as they made their way back to Aria's room. "I was just telling my mom that I want to give you an exclusive interview on Aria's life before the attack. I can only imagine the nonsense they are saying online about her right now."

"Not much," Rhapsody assured her. "Without any extended family to contact, and nobody at your school knowing very much about Aria, the media hasn't been able to say very much. All they've been able to report is that she gets good grades and is very quiet. Your mother was very thorough at hiding the true nature of your births. They've been looking for who your father is without any success. They've made some educated guesses about the nature of your conception, but there are no police records or news papers about the incident."

"My mom never told us who he was," Melody admitted quietly. "I think that she is the only person who knows who he is. She refused to cooperate with the police after she got out of the hospital. She spent a few months in a mental institution on suicide watch after several attempts at taking her own life, before we were born."

"I'm so sorry, Melody," Rhapsody whispered in dismay.

"She stopped trying to kill herself when she started to feel us kicking around in her uterus," Melody said with a sad smile. "She's said on a number of occasions that she would go through it all over again, if it meant having us as her daughters."

"Your mom is absolutely amazing," Rhapsody told her warmly. "I keep waiting for her to snap, but she seems to have an endless reserve of hidden strength. I can't even imagine what she must be going through right now."

"I wish I could relive the past six months," Melody murmured reflectively. "I treated both of them so badly after she told us about the man who sired us. If Aria hadn't been there for me, I would probably be in a juvenile detention center right now."

Her mother smiled as they entered the room with her dinner. There were several doctors playing with the equipment attached to Aria. It was strange to think her sister was the person underneath all of those bandages. She had not been able to make herself stay in the room during the times the nurses changed Aria's bandages; the thought of seeing fiery red burn scars where her sister's beautiful skin once existed was just too much.

"Any new songs while I was away?" Melody asked as she watched the doctors work.

"Just a very short one," her mother replied with an adoring smile. "I should have believed you when you said she would be back."

"I wonder how long it will be until she wakes up," Melody said thoughtfully. "Do you think she'll remember any of these songs?"

"I hope so," her mother replied as she dug into her salad.

"That would be too cool if she remembered what the words meant," Melody said wistfully. "I wonder if she's telling us about the places she's visiting."

"That's an interesting idea," Rhapsody said in fascination. "To date, people who have claimed awareness during near death experiences have had no way to provide any evidence for what they experienced. If she woke up and was able to translate the words of her songs, it would lend a lot more credence to the possibility of consciousness residing outside of the body."

Melody looked over at one of the neurologists after hearing a derisive snort. He was the one who had insisted on the honorary 'doctor' before his name after she had addressed him as Mr. Fox. She had made a point of only calling him Mr. Fox after that.

"Did you have any new theories that could explain Aria's behavior better than non-localized consciousness?" Rhapsody asked him coolly.

Dr. Fox's silence spoke volumes.

"I thought not," Rhapsody said dismissively. "Muscle memory indeed."

"What would a teenage reporter know about consciousness," Dr. Fox sneered. "Let me guess; you read an article on the internet about NDE's and now you are an expert on neurobiology."

Melody blinked in surprise. Teenage reporter? Just how old is Rhapsody, anyway? How could she get a job as a reporter if she's just a teenager?

"I'll have you know, I won't be a teenager after tomorrow," Rhapsody told him dryly. "I'm sure my intellect will begin declining rapidly after that, if your own fossilized state of mind is any indicator. Let me guess; your read a book fifty years ago that claimed consciousness resides in the Cerebral Cortex, and now anything that questions that assertion is not worthy of consideration?"

"There is nothing mysterious about consciousness," Dr. Fox told her coldly. "It is just a complex array of chemical processes in the brain that are triggered by external stimuli through the body's five senses. Action, reaction; nothing more."

"You could say the same thing about a drone piloted by our military, if you didn't know it was remotely operated by an intelligent entity that was wirelessly controlling it," Rhapsody countered. "It has cameras and other sensors that feed input back to a central processing unit before that information is transmitted back to the pilot. Without any kind of understanding of wireless technology, a person from the last century would probably assume that the drone was a self-contained conscious entity as well. However, with your towering intellect, you would understand that even though the drone can operate on autopilot if it loses contact with the human pilot, it still requires a wireless connection to make any intelligent decisions. Without the pilot, it is just a vegetable, as you put it, with no higher functioning cognitive abilities."

"Comparing electrical circuitry to molecular biology is like comparing sundials to supercomputers," Dr. Fox growled, his voice getting louder as his irritation rose. "Your analogy has no relevance in serious discussion. There is a mountain of evidence that proves consciousness resides in the brain, while there is zero credible evidence to suggest the possibility of it residing outside of the body."

"Zero credible evidence?" Rhapsody raised an eyebrow with just a hint of smile. "What would you call that?"

Dr. Fox looked at Aria dismissively. "Certainly not evidence of nonlocal consciousness."

"It's almost like talking to a child," Rhapsody said with an indulgent smile. "You could be staring at a blue sky and trying to convince everyone else it is red because you saw a sunset once. Try opening your eyes to what is right in front of you. You've got the opportunity of a lifetime here to be the pioneering scientist on the frontiers of consciousness, and you're so busy refusing to even look at the possibilities that it is going to pass you by."

"I don't have time for this nonsense," Dr. Fox grunted, picking up his bag and leaving.

"You seem quite knowledgeable for a twenty year old reporter," Dr. Lorenzo noted as he studied Rhapsody curiously. "What are you majoring in?"

"I graduated last year from Cornel with a master’s in microbiology," Rhapsody told him with a small smile. "I had no interest in working for a pharmaceutical company, so I am currently majoring in Communications and minoring in Journalism. My work at the burn center was part of my internship with Channel 5."

"So, you are barely twenty years old, and you already have one master's degree and are working on a second?" Dr. Lorenzo asked in amazement.

"I have an eidetic memory," Rhapsody replied with self-deprecating shrug. "I graduated high school at age twelve and started taking college courses."

"Eidetic memory has been disproven in adults," Dr. Lorenzo said doubtfully.

"Ask me for anyone's phone number or address," Rhapsody suggested challengingly.

"In Seattle?" Dr. Lorenzo asked.

"In North America," Rhapsody replied.

Dr. Lorenzo was quiet for a moment as he watched her thoughtfully. "Okay. Gullen McGrevor."

"435.684.3184. 4055 Highway 276. Little Rock, Arkansas," Rhapsody replied immediately.

"Eileen Gammet," Dr. Lorenzo fired off.

"775.530.6119. 800 Ski Run Blvd. Suite, 201. South Lake Tahoe, CA," Rhapsody answered without hesitation.

"Amazing," Dr. Lorenzo said in awe. "There's only been one scientifically proven case of eidetic memory in an adult, and it was later cast into doubt."

"I know," Rhapsody replied with a half-smile. "I could recite the case study and conclusions verbatim, if you like."

"This room is just full of unusual individuals," Dr. Lorenzo said with a glance at Aria. "I would love to spend some time doing some case studies on your ability once this project is finished, if you would be willing."

"Perhaps," Rhapsody replied noncommittally.

"I'll have to think about what you said to my colleague," Dr. Lorenzo said pensively. "I can understand his hesitation in looking at the possibility of nonlocal consciousness. In our field, it is considered fringe science and is a quick way to ruin your reputation."

"Change is rarely easy," Rhapsody agreed. "It is going to be difficult to make the case for something so taboo, but I think Aria might just be the catalyst that makes it possible."

After Dr. Lorenzo left, Melody looked at Rhapsody with a raised eyebrow. "So, tomorrow's your birthday?"

"Two decades old," Rhapsody grinned. "Sometimes I feel a lot older, with all of the useless information rattling around in my head."

"You're saving hundreds of trees with that memory," Melody told her with a grin of her own. "I would hardly call that useless information."

"Have you always had an eidetic memory?" her mother asked curiously. Melody was happy to see that she had finished her dinner.

"No," Rhapsody answered with a shake of her head. "I fell out of a tree and landed on my butt when I was eight years old. The impact caused my spine to jolt my brainstem, resulting in damage to my neocortex. I had seizures for a couple of days afterward, but they eventually stopped. When the seizures went away my memory stopped putting limits on what I could remember. It can be very annoying sometimes."

"Annoying?" Melody asked in surprise. "How so?"

"I can't ever get my mind to stop processing data," Rhapsody rolled her eyes. "A simple glance around a room will commit every minute detail to memory permanently. I have a hard time making my mind settle down enough to sleep or just carry on a normal conversation. I've learned several tricks over the years to mute it to the background, but it takes constant concentration to keep myself from analyzing everything I see continuously."

Everyone grew quiet as Aria began singing another song. One of the nurses checking the bandages around her eyes gasped loudly, unconsciously clasping her gloved hand to her masked mouth.

"What's the matter?" her mother asked in alarm, rising quickly.

"She's crying…" the nurse said slowly.

"I thought her tear ducts were destroyed?" Rhapsody asked in surprise.

"They were," the nurse replied in wonder. The nurse reached down and gently removed the bandages covering the rest of her eyes. She let out another gasp. "Her eyelids have grown back."

"What?" Melody rushed forward to see a pair of dark-pigmented eyelids closed over her sister's eyes.

The nurse gently nudged one of the eyelids up to reveal a completely formed eye. The iris was a milky white color.

Her mother's hand trembled as she reached out and gently brushed Aria's tears away. "Oh, my baby, I'm here."

"So far away, and so near," Melody whispered in sudden understanding. "She knows we're here."

Chapter 4: You Are Not Alone

Melody took a deep breath and began singing a song she had been working on since the day after the attack. She knew Aria could hear her now.

Lost in darkest blue

Endless labyrinths weaving through

Will you stagger on,

with no star to light your way?

Share with me your tears

All your troubles and deepest fears

I remember when

you chased all my shadows away

Won't you take my hand?

Come away with me from this land

Let me give to you

all that you have given to me

Fly horizon bound

Find the moon behind darkening clouds

Even far apart,

know our souls together will be

When the storm draws nigh

Dreams will shatter before your eyes

Know that you're not alone

When the battle starts

I will comfort your restless heart

You'll know that you are home

When your stars stop shining

Endless vines around you winding

Know that you're not alone

I will give my all

So your tears will no longer fall

Down, down on sorrow's stone

Look into my eyes

All eternity you will find

In this fragile heart,

know that you will always belong

Shout into the night

Show the darkness that you will fight

Hopeless you may feel,

but inside I know you are strong

Keep me in your heart

So we'll never be far apart

Let the bonds of love

break these chains imprisoning you

Always you will find

Shadows lingering close behind

Lift your spirits now,

We shall be together soon

As Melody finished singing, she noticed the cardiograph had sped up in cadence.

"She's reacting to your voice," the nurse said in awe.

Rhapsody was staring at her through tear streaked eyes, with her mouth parted slightly in wonder. "Two angels in one room."

"Truly," another nurse who had entered behind Rhapsody at some point during the song said in a voice thick with emotion.

Her mother was wiping her nose with a Kleenex, watching her with love-filled eyes. "One more time?"

Melody nodded, starting at the beginning again. As she reached the second verse, her mother's rich voice joined in with a counterpoint harmony that added a whole new dimension of emotion to the song. She watched the cardiograph speed up even more.

She had always had a good voice, but her love of Aria brought an emotional passion into her melody that spun her song into something far more powerful than she had experienced before. The warmth in her stomach grew stronger, urging her voice into a realm of love she would never have imagined existed. As the final notes died away, an almost reverent silence filled the entire wing of the hospital.

The silence was broken as Emily came into the room, pushing a small girl in a wheelchair. The child's arms and neck were wrapped in bandages.

"Maria says that when you sing, her burns stop hurting," Emily told them, her eyes filled with pleading. "We've been unable to do very much for her pain because she has an allergic reaction to most of the pain medicine we have."

The small girl was watching her with wide hazel eyes that were filled with wonder. "Can you sing it again?"

Melody smiled tenderly at the small girl and began the song again. Her mother joined her once again on the second verse. She faltered slightly for a moment as a third voice joined their harmony. Turning quickly, she saw Aria's bandaged mouth moving as her angelic voice added a third layer to their song. What had been a beautiful song before was quickly transformed into something so enchanting that she felt nonstop tingles rushing from head to toe in rippling waves. Aria wasn't singing the words, but a dancing scale of notes that brought depth to a previously two dimensional world.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," the small girl said in wonder as she examined her bandaged arms.

Melody looked out the door in surprise as more burn patients congregated outside of the door, trying to see inside.

"Who are these angels that have taken away my pain?" an older man asked, with tears leaking down his cheeks.

"Melody, Harmony, and Aria," Rhapsody said thickly as she wiped at her own damp cheeks.

"The pain is gone," a middle-aged woman with bandages wrapped around her shoulders and back said wonderingly.

"It is gone," Harmony agreed with a beatific smile as she observed her own bandaged arms.

Several doctors joined the group of patients, studying Aria with interest.

"I've heard of musical therapy, but nothing like this," Dr. Cole marveled, absently brushing a stray lock of light brown hair from her wet eyes.

Her mother unwound the bandages on her arms just enough to look at the scars beneath. "Oh my God!"

"What's the matter, mom?" Melody asked anxiously.

"All of the blisters are gone," her mother replied in amazement. "It almost looks healthy."

"Let me see," Dr. Cole said curiously, gently taking her arm and peeling the bandage back further. "Absolutely amazing…your arms should have taken another six weeks to recover this much."

The doctors began inspecting the other burn patients with equal interest. A steady stream of gasps and other sounds of amazement filled the area as each burn patient revealed that their wounds were similarly healed.

"How is this possible?" Dr. Reid asked aloud, though he didn't appear to be directing his question at anyone in particular.

"What's going on now?" Dr. Lorenzo asked curiously as he tried to squeeze through the crowded door.

"Aria's ability to regenerate appears to be spreading to the other patients through her singing," Dr. Cole informed him.

"Is she serious?" Dr. Lorenzo asked Dr. Reid skeptically.

"Quite serious," Dr. Reid replied gravely. "All of the patients you see behind you were suffering from intense pain just moments ago. As Aria and her family sang, the pain from their burns vanished. We just examined several of them, and they are weeks, if not months ahead of where they should be in their healing progress."

Dr. Lorenzo looked around the room with a slightly confused look on his face, as if everything that he knew about the world had suddenly been tipped over. "There must be some kind of mistake. When was the last time their injuries were checked?"

"I just changed the bandages on Maria less than an hour ago," Emily informed him, gesturing at the small girl.

"Does it stretch credulity too much to imagine that sound has the power to heal a person?" Rhapsody asked the doubtful neurologist. "We can liquefy glass with sound, changing its form on a molecular level."

"Broadcasting a single pitch to the resonant frequency of glass is a lot different than the mastery that would be needed to control the cellular regeneration in something as complex as human skin," Dr. Lorenzo replied with a shake of his head. "It would take a complete understanding of how each pitch affected the billions of chemical bonds that make up human tissue, and how to rearrange them into a new form. The complexity for such a feat is still beyond our most powerful supercomputers."

"I agree," Rhapsody admitted with a small smile. "It would take a power far greater than anything we understand to guide someone's voice through the necessary pitches required to heal a person."

Dr. Lorenzo blinked, staring at her silently as he processed what she was implying. "You think Aria is receiving instruction from God?"

"Call it what you will, though I wouldn't call it God," Rhapsody replied with a shrug. "But yes, I believe she has access to understanding far beyond ours, wherever she is, and is channeling that knowledge back through this body."

The room grew silent as everyone contemplated Rhapsody's words. Melody smiled at the thought of her sister's ability to find ways to help people even in her comatose state. She doubted that even death would be able to stop her selfless twin from reaching into the world to make it a better place.

"This could easily be settled," Dr. Lorenzo said into the silence.

"What do you mean?" Melody asked with a frown.

"We just need to bring someone from another burn center and see if the effect can be repeated," Dr. Lorenzo explained. Melody noticed the aura of skepticism surrounding him was beginning to crack as Rhapsody's arguments slowly nudged him closer to opening his mind to new possibilities.

"That won't be necessary," Dr. Cole told him shortly. "There is a new patient enroute to our center already. They should be here soon."

"What happened to them?" Melody asked apprehensively.

"A toddler touched the glass panes of a fireplace and burned his hands," Dr. Cole replied with a sigh. "It's the most common cause of serious burn injuries in children."

Melody shuddered at the thought of a toddler suffering from such intense pain. Why can't the human body have some kind of intensity filter to stop pain before it becomes excruciating?

The other patients slowly dispersed when it became apparent that Aria was finished singing for the moment. As they waited for the EMT's to bring the new patient, Rhapsody suddenly looked at her with a bright spark in her green eyes.

"They mentioned that the pain left them before Aria began singing," Rhapsody said excitedly. "When you and Harmony sang, it stopped their pain. When Aria joined in, it healed them. I wonder if the two of you are triggers to start her singing…"

Before Melody could reply, the EMT's arrived with a screaming toddler on a gurney. The child's hands were already wrapped in burn bandages. Dr. Cole quickly directed them to bring the child to the space outside of Aria's room. She paused, looking at Melody and Harmony questioningly as she uncovered one of the bandages.

Melody took a deep breath and started the same song once more. As her mother joined in on the second verse again, the toddler's cries quieted. As the third verse began, Aria's soaring scales joined their song, weaving a complex tapestry of sound and emotion that permeated everything in range of her glorious voice.

Dr. Lorenzo was watching the toddler in wide-eyed amazement as the look of pain and fear on the child's face changed to one of peaceful tranquility. There was absolute silence in the room as the final notes of the song died away and Dr. Cole removed the remaining burn bandages. Where angry red blisters had just moments ago covered the child's hands, a smooth pink layer of scar tissue had replaced the damaged skin.

The mother of the toddler was watching Aria's bandaged body in confusion, with tears streaming down her face. "What just happened?"

"Your son was just healed by angels," Rhapsody told the woman, wiping her own tears away with a tremulous smile.

"Who are they?" the woman asked, staring at Melody and her family in awe.

"Melody, Harmony, and Aria," Rhapsody replied with a wink at Melody. "Apparently Harmony had a premonition when she named her daughters."

"Isn't she the girl who was in the news last week?" the woman asked in shock. "I thought she didn't make it?"

"She's in a coma," Rhapsody replied. "She's still alive though and recovering steadily."

"How is she singing if she is in a coma?" the woman asked in perplexity.

"That's the golden question," Rhapsody answered with a half-smile. "She started singing earlier today, but she doesn't have any brain activity showing up on the monitors. Some of us are convinced that she is communicating from the other side."

Dr. Lorenzo let out a deep breath at Rhapsody's words. He looked like a person who had just been told Christmas hadn't been cancelled after all. "I don't understand how this could be possible, but I can't deny what my eyes are seeing anymore. Aria's consciousness is still alive somewhere, and it is communicating through her body without the use of her brain. This is going to revolutionize everything we understand about consciousness."

"It was about time for a revolution anyway," Rhapsody told him with a mischievous grin. "We can only live on a flat world for so long before it gets boring."

Rhapsody let out a tired sigh as she kicked off her shoes in her apartment. She had stayed at the hospital until three in the morning, expecting Aria to awaken at any moment. The fact that she was singing had given her hope that the young woman would awaken soon, but her brain activity had remained unresponsive throughout the entire night.

Unable to make her mind calm down enough for sleep, she grabbed her tablet from the nightstand and began flipping through the latest news articles. She began chewing her lower lip as she saw the toddler's mother on the first article in Google News. The reporters had obviously gotten their grubby hands on her after the doctors had discharged her son with a few light bandages.

The first headline was titled: GIRL IN COMA HEALS BURN VICTIMS THROUGH SINGING.

Doctors are still refusing to comment on the miraculous recovery of a toddler treated at the Harbor View Burn Center, but the mother of the toddler claims that the teenage victim from last week's acid attack healed her son through song, even though she is in a coma. Several YouTube videos have surfaced throughout the day showing the young coma patient singing in an unknown language. Linguistic experts have confirmed that the words depicted in the songs are not gibberish, but an actual language. Without a frame of reference to decode the language, the translation of her words will remain a mystery. Neurologist Mike Draper claims that even if it is another language, the chances of her being able to translate it if she ever awakens are slim. Most coma patients do not remember anything that occurs while unconscious.

Several other burn victims were discharged around the same time who also claimed their injuries were healed through song. Lacking any confirmation from the doctors who work at the burn center, most people are taking these claims with a grain of salt.

Rhapsody frowned as she looked at the comments below the article. It was amazing how obnoxious some people could be when hidden by the cloak of anonymity. She could understand the doubt some people expressed, but the name-calling and character abuse was inexcusable. The names were as silly as the views expressed in most comments.

User: OnlyJesusHeals – 'Don't beleive this article! This girl is pozzesed by a devil! Is it not written: But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.'

User: AllFundisGoToHell – 'What is it with u crazy religious nutjobs! This is a freaking hoax, nothing more! How freaking gullible can u be? Healing with music? OMG, u people r SOOO freaking stupid! And lern hwo to splle!'

User: IAmTheAntiChrist – 'Can you think of a better place for my master to come into this world than a burn center? Gates of Hell anyone?'

User: IWasThere – 'I was there and saw it with my own eyes! I watched the neurologists arguing with each other about it being impossible, even after they made sure all of their equipment was working. Dr. Lorenzo admitted to everyone in the room that the only possible explanation for the events was that Aria's consciousness was residing outside of her brain. This is NOT a hoax! If you don't believe me, go set yourself on fire and you'll find out firsthand!'

Rhapsody pursed her lips at the last comment, sorting through her perfect memory for a matching face to the comment. Whoever they were, they knew who Dr. Lorenzo was. None of the hospital staff or patients would have suggested that someone set themselves on fire, so it had to have been one of the visitors. There had been several relatives accompanying the other burn patients who witnessed Maria's miraculous recovery. The fact that they spelled consciousness correctly indicated that they either knew how to use a spell checker or had an IQ higher than one hundred.

She scrolled down until one comment in particular caught her attention.

User: MAADIGO – 'I'm not saying this isn't a hoax, but if she truly is healing people by singing, then would it be possible to use a recording of her voice to heal people? Just a thought…'

Rubbing her tired eyes, she navigated to YouTube and listened to one of the recordings that had been uploaded. It wasn't quite the same as hearing it live, but it was still transcendental in its beauty. There were over one-hundred million views so far, with over one-hundred thousand comments. The comments were almost entirely positive. The few negative comments were left by typical internet trolls that had nothing better to do than broadcast their discontent like an attention deficit child.

Shutting her tablet off, she forced her mind to slow down. Taking even breaths, she focused on relaxing each muscle in her body sequentially. After several minutes of forced relaxation, she felt her mind drift into slumber.

She stood on a cracked desert plane, lined with cages that were hanging on gibbets as far as the eye could see in every direction. Each of the cages had a large eyeball inside it that appeared to be searching for a way out.

She turned around and found an eyeball as tall as she was, sitting on the desert floor. There was an empty cage behind it, with its door hanging open. The iris was mesmerizing in its beauty. It was a mixture of violet, with tendrils of lighter lavender extending away from the pupil. Even though the iris was two dimensional, the tendrils had the illusion of extending away from the pupil in all three dimensions. They swirled around the pupil like the spiral arms of a galaxy, hypnotic and enchanting. As she stared into the captivating orb, a whispering breeze began ruffling her hair. The faint sound of a haunting melody could be heard on the breeze, filled with a sweet innocence that brought tears to her eyes.

Dark shadows began dropping out of the sky above, swirling around her as she tried to listen to the almost discernable words in the song. The shadows had black and red tendrils waving around lazily as they drew closer. She felt shivers wrack her body as the tendrils plunged into her chest, wrapping around her spine and yanking her toward the open cage. She let out a scream and tried to resist, but it was like fighting against gravity. Her feet slid across the ground as they pulled her inexorably toward the open cage.

The pupil on the giant eye suddenly contracted, and the lavender spiral arms surrounding it began swirling furiously. The whispering melody on the wind suddenly roared into a deafening blast of golden light, banishing the shadows with an explosive detonation. Rhapsody stood gasping for breath, staring at the enormous eye that was observing her. It was absurd to think a single eyeball could be expressive, but she felt a sense of protectiveness radiating from the beautiful iris as it observed her silently.

A horrible beeping noise interrupted the beautiful song, causing her to look around with a frown. As she turned away, the bleak desert faded away and she opened her eyes. Stupid alarm clock.

Chapter 5: Look Into the Sky

"Is she awake yet?" Rhapsody asked Harmony quietly from outside Aria's room.

"Yes," Harmony replied tiredly. "She's been awake all night."

"As have you, from the looks of it," Rhapsody noted lightly.

"I was so sure she would wake up after she started singing," Harmony sighed in defeat. "I just kept waiting and waiting…"

"Go get some sleep," Rhapsody told her firmly. "I'll wake you up if anything happens."

"Why are you helping us so much?" Harmony asked softly. "I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but you've spent almost every waking moment taking care of us. I feel like I'm monopolizing your life."

"Because I've been looking for something special in this world all of my life," Rhapsody replied with warm smile. "Now that it has fallen right into my lap, I'm hardly going to turn around and walk away."

"I don't know what I would have done without your help this week," Harmony told her sincerely. "Thank you for all you have done for us."

"It has truly been a pleasure," Rhapsody told her with a bright smile. "You and Melody are extraordinarily wonderful people, and that is a rare thing to find in this world."

"Is that Rhapsody?" Melody's voice came from inside Aria's room.

"Yes," Rhapsody replied as she donned a mask and opened the door. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Better, now that another friendly face is here," Melody replied with a grin. "Happy birthday!"

"Ug!" Rhapsody groaned. "I just felt my IQ shrink. Now that I'm not a teenager, I don't know everything anymore."

"Ha ha," Melody replied dryly. "Very funny. What brings you here so early? It's barely nine. I thought you would be sleeping in after staying here so late last night."

"My stupid alarm woke me up," Rhapsody growled in mock exasperation. "One of the problems with my eidetic memory is that once I wake up in the morning, I can't get back to sleep."

"Wow, that really sucks," Melody said sympathetically. "Maybe you should try falling out of another tree and see if it goes away…"

"If I thought that would actually work, I might just try it," Rhapsody chuckled. "Speaking of sleep; I had a rather interesting dream last night."

"Oh?" Melody asked curiously. "Am I old enough to hear about it?"

"Melody!" Harmony admonished sharply.

"Only joking, mom," Melody grinned impudently. "So, what did you dream about?"

Rhapsody related all of the details of her dream as they listened raptly.

"Did you understand the words in the song?" Melody asked intently.

"Yes," Rhapsody nodded with a teasing smile. "Would you like to hear them?"

"Was that a rhetorical question?" Melody asked with a roll of her eyes. "Of course I want to hear them!"

Rhapsody laughed lightly at getting the desired reaction. "Okay, here's what I heard."

Look into the sky

Can you see the moon across the ocean

Coming close to me

I can hear the melody

Cry into the void

Let my voice become the hand that reaches

Out to you and leads

To my long lost memory

Carry me home

I lost my way on roads ever weaving

Home

Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing

Carry me home

I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming

Find me

Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving

Voice that calls from there

And the footsteps of its fallen angels

Now becomes the beat

Of my heart so incomplete

Every night I bathe

In the blue that washes over me

And brings me to my knees

In this longing I believe

Carry me home

I lost my way on roads ever weaving

Home

Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing

Carry me home

I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming

Find me

Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving

As she finished repeating the words, Melody and Harmony quietly walked over to stand next to Aria's bed.

"God, I wish I knew what to do!" Harmony sighed out in a broken voice. "There has to be a way to bring her back to us."

Melody hugged her mother from behind, closing her eyes as she rested her head against her back. "We'll find a way, mom. Just don't ever lose hope."

Rhapsody swallowed a lump in her throat as she watched the two of them. Whatever else resulted from this tragedy, at least it had brought these two closer together.

A growing noise from outside the window distracted her from her thoughts. She wandered over to see what was causing all of the excitement. Her eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing. Hundreds of people were marching around the hospital parking lot, carrying picket signs and banners. Her eyes narrowed as she read what was on the signs.

Revelation 19:20 - And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Matthew 7:15 - Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

"What are you looking at?" Melody asked curiously.

"Nothing," Rhapsody said quickly. She turned away from the window and grabbed them both by the hand. "Come on, you two, bed time. Get some sleep before you collapse. I'll wake you up if anything interesting happens."

"Promise?" Melody asked.

"Promise," Rhapsody assured her as she opened the door and herded them into the waiting area. The two of them had been sleeping on recliners for the past week. Getting either of them to go home for a night was next to impossible.

After ensuring Harmony and Melody were going to stay in the comfortable recliners in the visiting area, Rhapsody walked back into Aria's room and stood over her unmoving form.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did last night," Rhapsody told the slumbering girl. "I don't know what would have happened if they had succeeded in putting me in that cage, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been good."

If she had any doubt that the small girl could hear what was happening around her, it was banished when Aria started singing the same melody from her dream from the night before. It wasn't in English this time though. The notes seemed more powerful when sung in the foreign language, as if the words in their native language contained elements of power.

Emily entered the room in the middle of the song. She walked up next to Rhapsody and stood silently until Aria finished singing. It was as if all of the elements for hope, love, and peace were intertwined into a single weave of channeled energy. The tiredness that clung to Rhapsody from her short night of sleep faded away, leaving her energized and optimistic.

"Wow," Emily whispered quietly when Aria finished. "If God had a voice, it would sound like this."

"And so, she does," Rhapsody replied with a smile.

They were both startled out of their reverie as a rock bounced off the window. Emily followed Rhapsody over to stare down at the angry mob below. Another rock hit the building next to the window as a less coordinated malcontent stood chanting slogans with his peers.

"What the hell are they doing?" Emily asked in scandalized tones.

"Religious fundamentalists," Rhapsody told her with a disgusted shake of her head. "They're convinced that Aria is the anti-Christ, so they're doing what any God-fearing Christian would do and trying to kill her."

The hospital security staff was hopelessly outnumbered as the mob pushed past them and entered the hospital. Rhapsody stared in shock, unable to accept the fact that people could really be so stupid.

"They're coming for Aria?" Emily gasped in dismay. "We have to get her out of here!"

Rhapsody looked around, chewing her lower lip absently as she thought quickly. "Are there any empty patient rooms nearby?"

"Right next to us," Emily replied uncertainly. "Why?"

Rhapsody quickly went into the next room and climbed into the empty bed, pulling the blankets up around her. "Wrap my face in bandages," Rhapsody commanded Emily tersely.

Emily stared at her without moving as her eyes filled with understanding. "Rhapsody..."

"There's no time," Rhapsody snapped impatiently. "Hurry!"

Emily reluctantly moved over and began wrapping her face in gauze. "The police will do something…"

"They won't get here in time," Rhapsody interrupted her through the gauze.

Emily's eyes filled with tears as she realized the seriousness of the situation. "Rhapsody, there's got to be something else we can do-"

Her words were cut off by the sound of the mob arriving. Rhapsody took a deep breath, then began singing the same words she had just heard Aria sing. She knew she wasn't as good as Melody and Harmony, but it was good enough for the mob. They stormed into her room with a wordless roar. She refused to open her eyes as the first blows from blunted objects landed, trying as hard as she could to keep from crying out, lest they discover she wasn't really the coma patient they were after.

Blow after blow slammed into her head and body, sending pain coursing up her arms, head, legs, stomach…everywhere. Tears leaked down her bandaged cheeks as she clenched her jaw as hard as she could to keep from crying out. Pass out already, damnit!

The roar of the mob was suddenly interrupted by a sound of such discordant chaos that she lost the battle with consciousness and fell into blessed darkness.

Rhapsody frowned as she heard the sound of voices around her. So, there is life after death.

"She's waking up," a voice said sharply.

"Rhapsody, can you hear me?" Harmony's voice asked softly.

Rhapsody tried to open her eyes, but she could only manage a small slit that let a painful amount of light in. She could just make out the outline of Harmony's form leaning over her.

"I'm not dead?" Rhapsody asked in surprise, then frowned as she heard how funny her words sounded. It was like she was trying to speak with a mouthful of mush.

"No, you're not dead," Harmony assured her in a tearful voice, gently running soft fingers through Rhapsody's bruised scalp. "Thank you for saving my daughter's life."

"What happened?" Rhapsody mumbled through her swollen tongue and puffy lips.

"Apparently Aria is able to do more than heal people," Dr. Lorenzo's voice answered from the other side of her bed. "After those people attacked you, she began singing in a voice that could best be described as the wrath of god. Most of the pottery and glass in the building is destroyed. Everyone within range of Aria's voice passed out until the police arrived and began escorting them to their new quarters downtown."

"Is Aria okay?" Rhapsody asked in concern.

"Thanks to you," Melody answered her, grasping her bruised hand tenderly.

"Who's with her right now?" Rhapsody asked worriedly.

"She's right next door," Harmony replied reassuringly.

"We would like to try an experiment, of sorts," Dr. Lorenzo said tentatively. "Would you mind if we move you into Aria's room?"

"What kind of experiment?" Rhapsody asked suspiciously.

"We know that Aria can heal burn wounds," Dr. Lorenzo explained slowly. "But…we would like to see if she is capable of more."

"What, exactly, is the extent of my damage?" Rhapsody asked carefully.

Dr. Lorenzo took a nervous breath before answering. "Pretty much every limb in your body has been broken multiple times, and your head and face have suffered from extensive tissue damage. Without Aria's help, you're looking at months of reconstructive surgery and physical therapy."

"Oh…" Rhapsody replied quietly as she felt Melody squeeze her hand gently. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"About twelve hours," Dr. Cole answered from somewhere near the foot of her bed.

"Okay," Rhapsody replied with a sigh. She felt a swell of joy in her chest as she realized her desperate plan had worked; Aria was safe.

They rolled her bed into Aria's room and then began unwrapping bandages from various places on her body.

"Do you mind if I record this on video?" Dr. Lorenzo asked tentatively. "I would like to study the process in slow motion later on, if this works."

"Sure," Rhapsody replied, grimacing slightly when she tried to smile as pain lanced through her torn lips.

"Are you okay?" Harmony asked concernedly.

"Yeah," Rhapsody replied, careful not to smile. "I just need to avoid smiling."

"That would be a true loss to this world," Harmony told her tenderly.

Rhapsody felt her face flush slightly at the compliment. She had always felt self-conscious about her smile as a result of how wide her mouth was. While that kind of smile might have looked good on Julia Roberts, she felt like it made her look psychotic.

"Are you ready?" Harmony asked Melody.

"Ready," Melody nodded, taking a deep breath.

Broken and torn

Reviled with scorn

I wander among the streets alone

Fearing neither pain or death

Fighting for my last breath

I will ever defend my own

Sight and sound bereft

Senses so nimble and deft

I hear, I see both light and tone

I am all that you fear

I am all that you hold dear

I am the father and mother

The sister and brother

I am I am I am I am

I am you and you are me

Why is this so hard to see

I am they and they are we

Why is it we cannot be

Living in harmony

Live in harmony

As Melody and Harmony began at the start of the song again, Aria's voice joined in with a complex arrangement of ascending scales. Shivers ran up and down her spine as the foreign words seared into her body painlessly, forging bone and flesh back into place once again. The skin around her face grew loose as the swelling dissipated and her eyes were finally capable of opening all of the way.

Dr. Cole and Dr. Lorenzo were watching in stunned incredulity, their mouths hanging open in an almost comical manner. As the musical family finished their fourth rendition of the song, Aria's voice quieted.

"How do I look?" Rhapsody asked nervously. She smiled without thinking when she heard the words coming out of her mouth in her normal voice once again.

"There's that smile I love so much," Harmony smiled back at her through tears. "You look amazing; even better than you did before, if possible."

Melody brought a mirror over and held it up in front of her. She gasped as she saw the face staring back at her. It was difficult to say what was different; there were dozens of subtle changes from her former appearance that created an overall effect of an almost completely different person. Rhapsody 2.0, she thought with a wry smile. Her smile widened as she realized it no longer looked psychotic. What a nice change.

"Okay, stop admiring yourself already," Melody told her with a giggle.

Rhapsody blushed self-consciously and then laughed at the indulgent smiles of the small group of doctors and nurses watching her. "Fine, I'll stop admiring myself. It's hard though; I'm smokin' hawt!"

Everyone laughed, wiping at wet eyes as they hugged each other in relief.

"So, she really can heal just about anything," Dr. Cole noted, sniffling lightly. "I hate to treat her like an object, but I wonder if it would be possible to bring terminal patients in to see her until she wakes up."

"I can assure you that she would insist on us utilizing her in such a manner," Melody told Dr. Cole seriously. "In fact, if we didn't and she remembers anything when she wakes up, she'll be very disappointed with us."

"Where did you come up with that song?" Rhapsody asked Melody softly.

"Mom wrote it about you while you were sleeping," Melody replied with a grin. "Too bad you're straight…"

"Melody!" Harmony growled in exasperation as her face turned bright red.

Everyone laughed good-naturedly as Rhapsody glanced at Melody with a coy smile. "Who said I'm straight?"

Harmony's dark skin flushed even more as she avoided everyone's gaze. Rhapsody had always found oriental features to be far more attractive than Caucasoid. Harmony's mixed oriental and Caucasoid heritage had resulted in a woman of almost fantastical beauty.

"What happened to your eyes?" Melody asked suddenly, leaning forward to look closely.

Rhapsody blinked as she looked closer at her irises in the mirror. Her normally green eyes had small, almost invisible tendrils of lavender vines spiraling away from the pupils.

Chapter 6: Medical Revolution

Rhapsody had to force herself to stop staring into every mirror she passed as she made her way down to the cafeteria with Aria's math teacher at her side. It was so strange to see the new version of herself staring back from her reflections with such exquisite features.

"You can stare," Ali told her with a small smile. "I won't judge."

Rhapsody laughed, shaking her head ruefully. "Am I that transparent?"

"Not at all," Ali told her with a smirk. "You're just reacting the same way as everyone else who sees you, and with good reason. You already had more than your own fair share of good looks before, but now you look positively stunning."

"Thanks," Rhapsody mumbled in embarrassment. "So is Ali short for something?"

"Nice subject change," Ali said dryly. "Yes, it's short for Allegra. My dad was an orchestral conductor, and was too wrapped up in his music to comprehend that Allegra is a horrible name for a girl."

"It's no such thing!" Rhapsody objected vehemently. "Allegra is a beautiful name for a girl!"

"Rhapsody is a beautiful name for a girl," Ali said firmly. "Allegra sounds like some kind of pasta."

Rhapsody couldn't help laughing. "You know, some people worship pasta."

"They do not," Ali objected smilingly.

"Oh, but they do," Rhapsody insisted. "They call themselves Pastafarians and worship The Flying Spaghetti Monster."

"You're making that up…" Ali said disbelievingly.

"Not in the least," Rhapsody assured her, fighting to keep a serious expression. "There have been sightings all over the world. Some people have even found his noodly appendages depicted on grilled-cheese sandwiches."

Ali was doubled over with laughter as Rhapsody continued. "According to Pastafarians, pirates are Absolute Divine Beings, and they have charts to show that the decline of pirates world-wide over the past couple of centuries has coincided with the rise in global warming."

"Please, stop already!" Ali gasped through her peals of laughter. "I'm suffocating here!"

"As long as you'll concede my point that having a name that sounds like a brand of pasta is not a bad thing," Rhapsody replied in mock seriousness. "It's a divine name."

"Where do people even come up with this crazy stuff?" Ali wondered.

"It was developed in response to schools allowing Intelligent Design to be taught alongside Evolution in science classes," Rhapsody told her with an amused smile. "They do an excellent job of showing how naïve fundamentalists truly are."

There were dozens of cops scattered throughout the cafeteria and outside the front doors. They weren't taking any more chances that another mob of fundi's might show up and cause more trouble. The army of reporters were also being restricted from entering the hospital, much to her delight.

"I couldn't help but notice the adoring looks Mr. West was directing your way any time you were looking the other direction…" Rhapsody said lightly. "Is there a story there?"

"Huh?" Ali asked, looking nonplussed.

"The principal," Rhapsody elaborated. "He's been casting calf-eyes your way all week long. He's not bad looking, if you like the staid and proper type."

"Charles?" Ali asked, looking suddenly flustered. "No way! He's way out of my class."

"I should hope so, at his age," Rhapsody said dryly.

"Not class, class," Ali replied with another blush. "Why would he settle for someone like me? He could pick millions of more attractive women than me."

"That's the silliest thing I've ever heard in my life," Rhapsody shook her head like she was trying to rid it of a particularly foul parasite. "Aside from me now, you're the hawtest babe in four states. You have a seriously warped self-image if you think he could do better than you."

"You really think so?" Ali asked shyly.

"I know so," Rhapsody assured her confidently. "I'll let him know you're interested so that he'll work up the courage to ask you out."

"No, don't!" Ali objected with a brilliant blush. "I mean, what if you're wrong? I'll never be able to look him in the eyes again."

"When's the last time you went on a date?" Rhapsody asked curiously.

"I can't remember," Ali mumbled.

"How old are you?" Rhapsody asked.

"Twenty-five," Ali replied with another blush.

"What kind of people have you dated before?" Rhapsody probed further. "Jocks, geeks, rebels, preps?"

"I'd rather not talk about this," Ali replied, folding her arms defensively.

"Oh my god…" Rhapsody whispered as she suddenly realized the root cause of Ali's evasions. "You've never been on a date before, have you?"

Ali shook her head silently, avoiding her eyes. Their arrival at the salad bar gave Ali time to regain her composure. She spent excessive amounts of time on each dish, clearly trying to prolong the inevitable continuation of their conversation.

"Are you vegetarian as well?" Rhapsody asked with an arched eyebrow.

"As well as who?" Ali replied, raising her own eyebrow.

"Melody, Harmony, and Aria," Rhapsody replied.

"Vegan," Ali answered with another light blush.

Insecurity much? Rhapsody thought ruefully. "What made you want to be vegan? The health benefits, or the animal cruelty?"

"Both," Ali replied with a sigh. "I watched a documentary on factory farming and couldn't bring myself to continue supporting that kind of system anymore. I used to be fairly obese, in my late teens. It took less than a year to lose it all after becoming vegan."

"I have a hard time imagining you obese," Rhapsody said with a small frown. "Are you talking thirty-pounds overweight? Because that's hardly obese."

"I was three-hundred pounds before I became vegan," Ali revealed with a smile. "At five feet and two inches, I was almost wider than I was tall. I'll show you pictures sometime, if you want."

"Wow, I just can't see it," Rhapsody said with a small shake of her head. That would explain her insecurity, I suppose.

As the two of them sat down at one of the tables, Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole joined them. Rhapsody watched them sit down curiously.

"So we've been thinking about ways to maximize Aria's healing abilities," Dr. Cole told her with an excited sparkle in her eyes. "We believe there is a possibility that recordings of her songs could heal people as well. We have several terminal patients on their way here right now. One has cancer, one has HIV, and the other has Cystic Fibrosis. We're going to record her songs when she heals them, then play them back at the cancer center and see if they are capable of curing the other patients without Aria present."

"If this works, there is going to be pandemonium worldwide," Rhapsody pointed out. "The medical industry is a large part of our economy, and a silver bullet like this will probably cause some serious destabilization issues."

"The FDA will probably try to ban the use of any such recordings, until they understand how they work," Ali noted thoughtfully. "They do pretty much whatever big Pharma tells them to do."

"Good luck banning a sound bite," Rhapsody said with an evil grin. "Without a physical product to regulate, there is no way they'll be able to stop the distribution of her songs once they get on the internet."

"We came to similar conclusions," Dr. Cole said, nodding at Dr. Lorenzo. "We won't be reporting any of our findings until after we have uploaded her songs to the internet."

"This is huge," Rhapsody said as tingles went down her spine. "We're talking about 1.6 million people diagnosed with cancer every year who are suddenly going to have a whole new life in front of them."

"Yes," Dr. Cole agreed with barely suppressed enthusiasm. "And that's just the cancer patients. If this works for all of the other illnesses, the world is going to change overnight."

Dr. Lorenzo looked down as his pager started beeping. "Looks like it's show time," he said with an excited grin that made him look a decade younger. "The patients have arrived."

Rhapsody hurriedly finished up the reminder of her salad before following the two doctors to the elevator.

"Are you vegetarian?" Ali asked curiously as the elevator doors shut.

"Yes," she nodded with a small smile. "My parents are vegans. They made a point of explaining how messed up a carnivorous diet is. They were quite passionate about the subject."

"I can see why, after watching the documentary on factory farming," Ali noted with a sigh. "It's amazing what we will do to make a few more bucks."

"It seems like Douglas Adams came up with a solution to the animal cruelty dilemma," Dr. Lorenzo told them with a twinkle in his eyes.

"You mean breeding the cattle to want to be eaten?" Rhapsody asked dryly. "Yes, I have to admit that was a brilliant idea. Sick and wrong, but brilliant."

The three patients were already waiting in Aria's room, each of them in a wheelchair. Rhapsody could tell by the uncertain looks on their faces that they didn't know what they were doing there. Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole began installing a microphone array around Aria's bed as the rest of them waited.

"Why have we been brought here?" the elderly woman asked doubtfully.

"It will become apparent shortly," Dr. Lorenzo assured her. "Please be patient."

The woman grunted sourly, but didn't say anything else. There was a small boy who looked about eight years old that was completely bald. A middle-aged woman stood behind him, presumably his mother.

The third patient was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She appeared to be having trouble breathing. Her wheezing and labored breaths made Rhapsody inadvertently hold her breath several times before she realized what she was doing. There were two women about the same age standing behind her wheelchair, one a tiny blonde and the other with midnight black hair. Small lines of worry were etched into their brows as they watched the young woman in front of them helplessly.

"I believe we're ready," Dr. Lorenzo finally said, his eyes shining with anticipation. "Go ahead and do your thing." As he finished speaking, he pressed the record button on the laptop connected to all of the recording equipment.

Aria and Harmony joined Melody's song at the same time on the second verse. Rhapsody felt the familiar tingles begin rushing through her body as the ethereal beauty of Aria's voice began giving life to the sound waves once again. The complexity of her ululating scales became so intricate that Rhapsody couldn't follow them in her mind.

The old woman with the sour expression was sitting in her wheelchair in stunned amazement. As the first rendition completed, she slowly stood up, her eyes as wide as teacups as tears streamed down her cheeks. The other two patients were watching her in puzzlement that quickly turned to hopeful awe. Aria's voice began a different pattern of scales for the second iteration of the song. The young woman in the wheelchair's eyes widened as her breathing grew stronger and the wheezing disappeared. She slowly stood up, her face filled with wonder. The two women behind her were suddenly crushing her in a tight embrace as she wept in relief. The black-haired woman kept repeating the same words over and over; "oh my sweet Val, oh my sweet sweet Val."

Aria began her third iteration of the song, once again changing the pattern of her scales. The emaciated little boy gasped as his scalp began sprouting hair. The gauntness in his cheeks quickly faded, leaving a healthy glow in its place. He stood up from his wheelchair tentatively, then let out a triumphant shout as he jumped into the air and pumped his fist. His mother let out a low cry and pulled him into a tight embrace as she stared at Aria wonderingly.

"Is my son healed?" the woman asked Dr. Lorenzo hopefully.

"Yes, he is healed," Dr. Lorenzo assured her. "All of you have been healed."

"How?" the older woman finally asked as she regained her composure.

"Aria has been in a coma for over a week," Dr. Lorenzo explained after taking a deep breath. "Yesterday she started singing, even though her brain monitors were still showing no activity. We discovered shortly afterward that her singing was healing the other burn patients. As to the how…we don't have a clue. Some of us believe she is receiving instructions from the other side."

"How can I ever thank her?" the young black-haired woman asked tearfully.

"You'll get your chance," Melody replied firmly. "She'll wake up eventually."

"It's time to go put our theory to the test," Dr. Cole said as she disconnected the laptop from the sound equipment. "I'm going over to the cancer center to test it out."

"Do you mind if I tag along?" Rhapsody asked hopefully.

"Sure," Dr. Lorenzo replied with a shrug. "The more the merrier."

Melody and Harmony stayed behind with Aria. Dr. Cole joined them as they made their way to the parking garage. As they got closer to the garage, Rhapsody noticed a crowd gathered outside of the exit. Reporters. Great.

"Twenty points for the ones who work at Channel 13," Rhapsody told him from the back seat.

"Is that all?" Dr. Lorenzo said in disappointment.

"Sorry, they're just not worth very much," Rhapsody replied dryly.

They slowed down to avoid hitting the reporters that were all but blocking the exit. Rhapsody shook her head in disgust; she had never seen a wake of media vultures this rabid before.

Several news vans followed them out of the parking lot as they drove the short distance to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"Try to time the next light so that you have to run it right after it turns red," Rhapsody suggested. "Otherwise, we're going to have an audience when we get to Hutchinson's."

Dr. Lorenzo looked back through the rearview mirror and let out a curse. "It's times like this that I wish I had a few caltrops to throw behind me."

"I'll add it to your Christmas list," Rhapsody responded wryly.

The news vans were forced to slow down as Dr. Lorenzo dropped his speed to ten mph. When the light turned yellow several hundred feet in front of them he floored the gas pedal and sped through the light just as it turned red. The news vans were too shocked by the unexpected maneuver to react in time. Rhapsody chuckled as he turned off the main road and continued to their destination, without their entourage.

"Nice driving, doctor," Dr. Cole told Dr. Lorenzo with an approving smile.

"Why thank you, doctor," Dr. Lorenzo replied with a satisfied grin.

After parking his Prius, the three of them went into the residential portion of the research center.

"Isn't this the part where people actually live?" Rhapsody asked with a frown.

"Yes," Dr. Lorenzo replied without slowing down. "We don't want to try this with any doctors present right now. We're just going to find a patient to test it on outside of the clinic."

"You seem quite suspicious of your own kind," Rhapsody noted with a smirk.

"With good reason," Dr. Lorenzo muttered. Dr. Cole nodded her agreement with a wordless grunt.

They knocked on the first door they arrived at. An older woman answered the door. "Can I help you?"

"Yes ma'am," Dr. Cole replied in a business like tone. "May we come in for a minute. I'm Dr. Cole, and this is my colleague, Dr. Lorenzo."

The old woman looked at them for several moments before finally opening the door wider and inviting them in. "I'm Loretta Bahvins. You forgot to introduce the girl," The woman pointed out.

"This is Rhapsody," Dr. Cole introduced her. "She's just here to help with the computer."

"What is it that you want?" Loretta asked suspiciously.

"Mom, who's at the door?" a woman's voice called from down the hall.

"Just a couple of doctors," Loretta called back shortly. "Now tell me what it is that you want."

"We're conducting an experiment with musical therapy that is helping cancer patients recover at an accelerated rate," Dr. Lorenzo explained. "Are you the person being treated?"

"No, it's my daughter, Cynthia," Loretta replied, looking skeptical. "You just want to play her a song? And you think it will actually help her recover?"

"Yes," Dr. Lorenzo nodded.

"Fine, get it over with," Loretta sighed in resignation. "It's not like you can make it worse than it already is."

They followed Loretta into a bedroom toward the back of the apartment, where a middle-aged woman sat upright in bed, propped up by half a dozen pillows. Her head was completely bald, evidence of her chemotherapy treatment. Cynthia reached for her wimple with an embarrassed blush, but Rhapsody reached out and gently restrained her hand.

"You won't need that anymore," Rhapsody told her with a smile full of promise.

She stared at Rhapsody questioningly as Dr. Lorenzo quickly arranged his laptop and set up a couple of speakers.

"We just want you to listen to this song," Rhapsody explained softly. "It will do the rest."

The song began with Melody's voice leading the first verse. As Aria's voice joined the second verse, Cynthia gasped as her eyes went out of focus.

"What's wrong with her?" Loretta asked in alarm.

"She's being healed," Rhapsody told her calmly. "Don't interfere."

Loretta watched as her daughter's gaunt face came back to life, followed by a rich crop of blonde hair sprouting from her scalp. When the song ended, Cynthia's face was aglow with sudden life.

"Oh mom, I feel wonderful!" Cynthia exclaimed, leaping out of bed. She ran around the bed and hugged her mother tightly as they both cried into each other's shoulders. Rhapsody felt a warm glow in her stomach as she watched the fruits of Aria's miracle taking form.

"Apparently the recordings work as well as the live versions do," Dr. Lorenzo noted quietly.

"The world is about to go through a medical revolution," Dr. Cole replied with a look of awe on her face. "Nothing will ever be the same again."

Chapter 7: Slumber

"Who was singing that beautiful song?" Cynthia asked in wonder.

"Her name is Aria," Dr. Cole replied. "She's a coma patient at the Harbor View Burn Center. She's been singing songs similar to this one since yesterday morning, even though her brain is in a vegetative state. Until just now, everyone who has been healed was in her presence as she sang. We recorded her last healing session to see if recordings would work as well as live performances. They appear to work just fine."

"How is she singing if her brain isn't functioning?" Cynthia asked in puzzlement.

"That's the big mystery," Dr. Lorenzo replied with a sigh. "She is defying everything we understand about how consciousness works."

"We would appreciate it if you kept this miracle to yourself for a week," Dr. Cole said gravely. "We need to get as many songs as possible on the internet before the FDA tries to put a halt on it."

"Why would the FDA try to stop the cure for cancer from being shared?" Cynthia asked in shock.

"Because they do whatever the big pharmaceutical companies tell them to do, and these songs are going to get rid of all the diseases in the world almost overnight," Dr. Lorenzo explained with a disgusted shake of his head. "This represents the end to their empire of drugs and malpractice. They'll fight for their survival with everything they've got."

After leaving the cancer research center, Rhapsody couldn't stop thinking about the foreign words in Aria's songs. Could they be instructions on how to bring her back? Or perhaps a tale of her journey outside of her body?

"So, what's the plan now?" Rhapsody asked the two doctors with a raised eyebrow.

"Now, we start bringing in every kind of diseased patient we can find," Dr. Lorenzo replied. "I noticed that Aria sings differently depending on what the patient's condition is. If there is a unique song to cure each of the major illnesses in this world, I want to get them recorded while we have the chance."

Rhapsody nodded her agreement. While it was beyond amazing to heal cancer, aids, and cystic fibrosis, it would be positively astounding to be able to heal all of the world's illnesses. She was still having a hard time believing this wasn't some kind of epic dream.

When they returned to the burn center, Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole reconnected the microphone array and laptop to the bed. The rest of the day was spent recording new songs as the two doctors kept returning with different patients. There were several attempts by reporters to sneak in, but the security team nabbed them every time.

The days began to blur together for Rhapsody, as she watched a steady stream of sick patients wait their turn to enter Aria's room. Rhapsody had finally convinced Harmony and Melody to spend a few nights a week at their own house. Aside from Aria's continued singing, there had been no indication at all that she might wake up suddenly.

After two weeks of marching sick patients into Aria's room, Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole did a mass upload of all of the recordings to every video and audio site they could find. Each song had a title to match the illness it was meant to heal. There were hundreds of millions of downloads before the medical industry realized what was happening and began shutting the videos down with claims of copyright infringement. It was too late though; every time one of the songs was pulled offline, one hundred more of the same thing replaced it.

Rhapsody couldn't help chuckling to herself in amusement as the media tried to smear the source of all of the healing. It looked like they were resorting to outright lies, claiming that many people who had listened to the healing music had suffered from heart attacks and strokes. If they were dealing with common cold or flu patients, their tactics might have worked; but they were dealing with people who already had terminal illnesses and severe disabilities. These people were willing to gamble a lot for a chance to have a normal life again.

The stock market crashed within a few days of the songs being published to the internet, as shares in pharmaceutical company's plummeted like a rock. Rhapsody felt a sense of grim satisfaction at the giant's collapse.

By the time the FDA had regrouped enough to start banning the use of Aria's music, the majority of the world's illnesses had been cured. The political landscape quickly changed as the funding from Pharmaceutical lobbyists quickly dried up. The EU and Canada made a point of rubbing the United States nose in the fact that if they had switched to universal healthcare several years ago, their economy wouldn't have crashed.

After two months of being in the hospital, the doctors released Aria to Harmony and Melody to take care of at home. The medical equipment was ridiculously expensive, but thanks to Harmony's booming chain of karaoke bars, as well as an anonymous donation of fifty million dollars, she was able to afford it. They had erected a kind of shrine for visitors to stop at outside the house, where Aria's voice could still reach them with its healing power. There was always a steady stream of amputees, deformed bodies, and serious injuries that required her to heal them individually.

Thad re-read the twitter post for a second time, wondering how so many people could be roped into a scam that was so easy to disprove. There were thousands of retweets affirming the original tweet's claims that a massive upload of music capable of healing anything from cancer to the common cold was available on YouTube. Some hacker must have a botnet of drones faking all of the re-tweets.

Unable to withstand his curiosity, Thad clicked on the YouTube link and listened to the premiere video, titled Cystic Fibrosis. As the song finished, Thad blinked in surprise as he felt wetness on his cheeks. Why am I crying? Feeling a faint spark of hope, Thad unplugged his laptop and walked down to his mother's room.

"Mom, I want to show you a cool song I found," Thad said softly as he sat down on the edge of her bed.

His mom smiled weakly, looking skeletal with the dark circles under her eyes and hollow cheeks. The wimple covering her bald head was coming undone again. "Sure, baby. Let's hear it."

Thad took a deep breath as he selected the video titled Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. As the angelic voice began singing, his mother's eyes widened in sudden awe. "Thad, this is beautiful!"

Thad nodded absently, watching his mother closely. As the second verse began, another voice joined the song. The new voice sang in a strange language, but the sound of that amazing voice defied description! Thad knew his eyes were tearing up again as he got caught up in the effortless ascension of scales that seemed to bring color into a previously drab world.

The sound of his mother's breath catching brought his attention back into focus. He gasped as the color began spreading back into her cheeks, restoring her skin to a healthy pallor. She was quickly pulling off her wimple, and Thad gasped again as dark-brown hair quickly sprouted from her bald skin. The red spots on her skin vanished even as he watched and the bruises he had become so accustomed to faded into a healthy skin tone.

"Thad, what just happened?" his mother asked in amazement.

The sudden life in her bright brown eyes was what convinced him it had really worked. With a sob, Thad pulled his mother into a tight embrace. "You're healed, mom. You're healed."

Lillian glared at her tablet angrily as she read the Facebook post from her sister's page. Some charlatan was claiming videos on YouTube could cure people of any kind of sickness. Before her daughter was diagnosed with Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, she might have just ignored hoaxes like this.

She quickly posted a response, feeling angry tears splash on her hand as she typed.

"It's bad enough that there are people sick enough in this world to think hoaxes like this are funny, but to contribute to their insensitivity is unacceptable. I thought better of you, Miriam."

Lillian tossed her tablet down on the couch and walked over to watch the restless sleep of her five-year old daughter. Sometimes it seemed like the whole purpose of life was to provide amusement for some sadistic deity who reveled in the pain and sorrow of everyone and everything. If there was a God, and she was quite confident there wasn't, she had a lot to say to him when she finally met the bastard.

She was brought out of her brooding by an urgent knock at her door. Frowning, she walked over to the front door and opened it. Her sister nearly knocked her off her feet as she pushed past determinedly, walking over to her daughter's room.

"What the hell are you doing, Miriam?" Lillian demanded irritably.

"Watch," Miriam said firmly. "I've already witnessed this work on someone else."

Lillian frowned as Miriam pulled out an mp3 player and began playing a song on the speaker. Before she could work herself into another rage, the voice of an angel began singing. Lillian slowly closed her mouth as she listened, entranced. When the second voice joined in, she felt something come alive in her that she thought long dead: wonder.

As the third verse began, she stared in stupefied shock as her daughter woke up and stared at her with a clear gaze, eyes no longer clouded with constant pain.

"Mommy, she made the pain go away!" Melany grinned at her brightly.

"Who did, sweetie?" Lillian asked thickly.

"The girl with the pretty eyes," Melany replied with a grin that split her face from ear to ear. "She said to get better, and I did. Why didn't the doctors think of that?"

"I don't know, sweetie," Lillian choked out as she knelt down and gathered Melany in her arms.

For the first time in four years, Lillian wept tears of joy instead of bitterness.

Rhapsody yawned widely as she recited the novel, A Deafening Whisper, to Aria's slumbering form. Having read it before, it was permanently entrenched in her limitless memory banks. Now that Aria was at home, she was in a queen-sized bed that had plenty of room for the others to gather around her. Melody was already asleep, with one of her arms draped over Aria's midsection. Rhapsody had already taken several pictures.

Harmony was asleep on a twin bed right next to the queen. She was a flopper, so she didn't trust herself to not get tangled in Aria's cables when she fell asleep. Melody and Harmony had quickly adapted to the fact that Aria might not wake for years. Being able to carry on a crude form of communication with her through songs made it bearable, barely.

They had taken the last of the bandages off of Aria that morning, as the last vestiges of damaged skin were replaced by healthy tissue. Her hair was no longer midnight black; it was honey-blonde and almost down to her chest. Her face looked like a makeup artist had spent hours making every color and shade compliment her delicate features. It was hard to believe that it was just her natural skin pigmentation. Her lips were a dark plum, almost black. Her eyelids were dark as well, and her eyelashes had grown back long and thick. She no longer had any body hair. Rhapsody wasn't sure if her cellular regeneration was just unable to rebuild the hair follicles, or if she had taken a more conscious role in her healing process.

She was no longer an identical twin to Melody. Her skin was several shades lighter, and her features had changed subtly during the healing process. There were still more than enough similarities to make them look like sisters, even if they weren't identical.

Rhapsody sighed after reciting the last page of the novel. While the story was beautiful, it was still heartbreaking. She hoped Aria's story had a happier ending. Picking up her tablet, she browsed some of the alternative news sites. She had learned years ago that the mainstream media made a point of censoring any kind of news that didn't conform to their agenda.

The first article made her grin.

CDC WARNS PUBLIC THAT SO-CALLED HEALING MUSIC CAUSES CANCER IN HEALTHY PEOPLE

Rhapsody snorted and moved on to the next headline.

GIRL HAS ALIEN HAND THAT HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN

In Utah, a seventeen year old girl is struggling with what doctors call Alien Hand Syndrome. The girl's hand appears to have a mind of its own. After getting expelled from her high school for fighting, psychologists confirmed that she had no control over her left hand when it began attacking other students. She now wears a special sling that restricts her left hand's movement. The girl's mother had to prevent her daughter from choking herself to death on several occasions when she was younger, as her alien hand appears to have homicidal tendencies. So far, none of the treatments doctors have given her seem to work. She's requested amputation multiple times, but doctors have convinced her to continue trying new treatments for now.

Pursing her lips, Rhapsody glanced at Aria speculatively. I wonder if that is something Aria could heal.

With another ginormous yawn, Rhapsody put her tablet down and snuggled up to Aria's other side and immediately fell asleep.

As the years slowly ticked by, Rhapsody felt her optimism wane. It had been over three years of the same routine every day. Aria was an easy patient to take care of. She no longer produced any kind of body waste. The doctors theorized that her constant singing was burning up all of the liquids she was receiving from the IV. She had grown skinnier, to the point that she looked like an hourglass where her waist narrowed to a tiny size. All of the tests indicated she was still healthy though.

The three women started each day by giving Aria a wash down with damp cloths. Pumping Aria's legs and arms to keep her muscles from atrophying had turned into a good work out for the rest of them as well. During the first two years, Aria had spent most of her day in song as the never ending stream of hopeful people who had lost limbs or suffered from other deformities waited in a line over a mile long. The city had provided a dozen police officers to keep the line of disfigured supplicants out of the roads, as well as preventing any more attacks on Aria by fundamentalists.

After the first two years, the line had started shrinking as Aria methodically healed the masses of disabled people. They usually only had a couple dozen people a day now. Aria rarely sang new songs anymore. They had recorded over a thousand unique melodies, each one as beautiful as the last. Her name always popped back into the headlines when she would sing a new song. The world had largely accepted Aria as a kind of divine messenger from beyond the veil. There were still plenty of fundamentalist Christian and Muslim groups that claimed she was an agent of evil, but they were by far the minority.

There were thousands of websites dedicated to Aria, as billions of people expressed their gratitude for the gift she had given to the world. Libraries and schools were naming their buildings after her as well. The ripples from her gentle touch on the world had transformed every person's life to one degree or another.

The pharmaceutical companies were a thing of the past. Hospitals were closing down or reducing their staff to focus on just treating physical injuries. The economists who had predicted worldwide collapse after the demise of the pharmaceutical companies were sadly disappointed. Most of the scientists and doctors who had worked for the medical industry before had started a group of research centers in an attempt to decode Aria's songs and figure out how she was healing people.

A growing group of people were proposing a new calendar that started the day Aria went into her coma. Before Aria, and After Aria was how many people looked at the world now. Many of the more progressive Christians were proclaiming Aria as the vessel Christ was using for his second coming, pointing out scriptures that prophesied a thousand year period without disease and war. Rhapsody was pretty sure that nothing was going to put a stop to all of the warmongering in the world.

As she lay down on the queen bed for the night, with Aria sandwiched between her and Melody, she felt tears fill her eyes. "Aria, please tell us what to do to bring you back to us. Please, please come back to us."

Aria's heart monitor sped up for a fraction of a second, confirming Rhapsody's belief that the comatose girl could hear her. Despite the passage of three years, Aria had not continued to noticeably age. Aside from her chest developing as she matured, her legs were the only part of her body that appeared to have grown at all. They were disproportionally long compared to her torso, but it wasn't a bad look. The public world had still never seen her face since the bandages were removed, and Harmony planned on keeping it that way. When Aria woke up, she didn't want her to be a spectacle for everyone to fawn over, especially if she didn't remember anything.

With a heavy sigh, Rhapsody closed her eyes and let sleep pull her into its dark embrace.

With a gasp, Rhapsody spun around as her heart began beating at a dead run. She was floating several dozen miles up in the air, looking down on the night-darkened American continents. As she stared around in panic, a swirling orb of brilliant light materialized in front of her.

I'm dreaming. Rhapsody realized. She took a deep breath as her heart rate slowed down to a normal pace. "Is that you, Aria?"

The orb of light pulsed slightly in acknowledgment.

"Aria, how can we get you back into your body?" Rhapsody asked desperately. "What do we need to do?"

Aria left a streak of light like a shooting star as she shot down to the east coast of the United States. Rhapsody hesitantly followed, amazed that her body was moving where she wanted it to in the empty air. As she drew closer to Aria, she realized she was in the state of South Carolina. Aria was waiting for her several feet above some kind of college campus.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Rhapsody asked in confusion. "Am I supposed to go to college again?"

Aria bounced up and down once.

"And I'll learn how to bring you back if I go here?" Rhapsody asked hesitantly.

Aria bounced again, then wavered and vanished.

Rhapsody sighed in boredom as she waited for her plane to touch down in Charleston, SC. After trying to puzzle out the meaning of her dream, she had settled on studying medicine. The field was quickly vanishing, so there wasn't a lot of competition to get in. Not that she would have had a problem getting in with her professional background. She had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for at the college. She hoped it would be obvious when she found it.

She had only been gone for one day, and she already felt an emptiness in her chest as the four year internship at Charleston Area Medical Center stretched out in front of her. She planned on visiting Aria and her family every spare second she got, but after being with them nonstop for three years, it felt like she was withdrawing from a highly addictive drug. God, she loved that small family!

She felt like a robot as she mechanically retrieved her luggage and made her way to a taxi. She shook her head in disgust when she saw a street preacher holding up a sign about false prophets showing signs and wonders. If the devil was responsible for healing the world's sick, then Rhapsody had no interest in joining the side of a God who didn't seem to care. By their fruits ye shall know them. Rhapsody thought darkly, remembering the mob of 'Christians' who had attacked her. What would Jesus do? I know! Beat them to death with baseball bats!

"Where to, ma'am," the cab driver asked as he pulled away from the curb.

"The CAMC," Rhapsody replied heavily.

"You look kind of familiar," he noted as he observed her in the rearview mirror. "Have I given you a ride before?"

"This is my first visit to Charleston, so probably not," Rhapsody replied with a sigh.

"You must have one of those celebrity faces or something," he continued studying her. "It's right on the tip of my memory."

"I'm just an intern at the CAMC," Rhapsody supplied helpfully. "You're probably just mistaking me for someone else."

"I guess so," he said doubtfully. He kept glancing back at her throughout the whole drive as he tried to jog his memory. Rhapsody was glad he hadn't figured it out before she left him. Being in the limelight was not her idea of fun.

She didn't waste any time carrying her luggage to her dorm room. She had decided to play the role of a normal, broke and starving college student. She was supposed to share the dorm with another girl; she hoped the girl wasn't a bitch. If she turned out to be unbearable, Rhapsody wouldn't hesitate in moving to more suitable living quarters.

"Hello, sugar," a voice called from behind her as she stood in front of her empty bed.

She turned around and found a petite girl with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes watching her interestedly. "Hello."

"I'm Capella," the girl walked over and offered her hand.

"Rhapsody," Rhapsody replied with a smile as she took the girl's hand firmly.

Capella had tiny hands. She had her left hand stuck in her pocket as they shook hands. Rhapsody caught a light whiff of tantalizingly feminine perfume.

"Ooooh," Capella exclaimed brightly. "You have a musical name too! I can see the wheels of destiny working all around us."

Rhapsody laughed at the irony in the girl's voice. Capella had a pleasant alto that was very expressive. "Yeah, I seem to always end up with friends that have musical names."

"So where are you from?" Capella asked enthusiastically. She reminded Rhapsody of an excited puppy.

"Seattle," Rhapsody replied, hoping she didn't put two and two together.

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed excitedly. "That's where that Aria girl is at! Did you ever get to meet her?"

"Not exactly," Rhapsody answered evasively. "Where are you from?"

"Salt Lake City, Utah," Capella replied with an infectious giggle. "And before you ask, the answer is no, I don't have any sister-wives or five mothers waiting for me at a polygamist colony back home."

"The thought never crossed my mind," Rhapsody assured her with a small smile. "So, are you a Mormon?"

"I was raised Mormon," Capella replied in a more serious tone. "I left the church when I discovered their lack of tolerance for civil rights issues."

"I see," Rhapsody nodded thoughtfully, wondering which act of intolerance she was referring to. Unfortunately, there were quite a few to choose from in most religions.

"Are you religious?" Capella asked, her voice picking up steam again.

"I don't believe in organized religions that ask for money," Rhapsody replied with a shrug. "So, I suppose I'm not religious."

"Good!" Capella quipped firmly. "Religions are the root of all evil."

Rhapsody laughed as she imagined the looks on several televangelists' faces if they ever heard that quote. "I'm going to have to agree with you on that one, I think."

"So how old are you?" Capella asked intently.

"Twenty-three," Rhapsody replied. "How about you?"

"Twenty," Capella said with a frown. "Do you drink much? I'm still underage, so I don't want to get you in trouble."

"I don't drink at all," Rhapsody assured her with an involuntary shudder. "I can't stand the taste of alcoholic beverages."

"A woman after my own heart," Capella crowed happily, causing Rhapsody to blush. "So, what have you got planned for the night? Would you like to go clubbing? Or a movie? How about rollerblading?"

"Slow down…" Rhapsody laughed helplessly. "A movie sounds fun. I need something to distract me from being homesick. What shows are playing?"

"Avatar 2 and The Future of Yesterday," Capella ticked the names off on her fingers. "Which one sounds good to you?"

"Hmm…" Rhapsody frowned thoughtfully, tapping her lips with her index finger. "How about Avatar 2? The first one was the coolest movie since The Matrix, so hopefully the second one lives up to its reputation."

"I was hoping you would pick that one!" Capella grinned, bouncing on her toes. "Come on! Let's go get a seat before they sell out!"

"We still have over an hour," Rhapsody told her dryly. "And they invented this nifty thing called the internet that lets you purchase your tickets in advance."

"My sarcasm meter is broken, so if you were just being sarcastic, it went right over my head," Capella warned with a teasing sparkle in her eyes. "Okay, you order the tickets, and I'll make some scotcharoos to sneak into the theater."

"Deal," Rhapsody replied with a chuckle. Her worries about having a nightmare for a roommate were quickly put to rest. This girl was going to be hilarious to live with.

After quickly unpacking her luggage, Rhapsody called Harmony and Melody.

"Hey, girlfriend," Melody's voice answered seductively. "You miss my underage loving already?"

"Melody!" Harmony's voice admonished in a shocked voice as Rhapsody giggled into the phone.

"I just wanted to let you two know that I made it safely, and that my roommate is awesome," Rhapsody told them with a grin. "And I wanted an update on Aria."

"She's still slumbering," Harmony sighed sadly.

"That's great that you didn't end up with a bitch!" Melody exclaimed.

"Melody!" Harmony snapped in exasperation. "Behave!"

"Blasphemy," Melody gasped in mock horror. "Thems are fightin words where I come from!"

"You see what you're missing out on?" Harmony said with a helpless laugh.

"Yeah, I do," Rhapsody replied wistfully.

"When are you coming to visit?" Melody asked hopefully.

"On Labor Day in two weeks," Rhapsody replied, trying to ignore how long two weeks was going to be without her girls.

"Okay, well stay out of trouble," Harmony said firmly. "You don't have an Aria there to heal you if anything happens."

"I'll certainly do my best to avoid trouble," Rhapsody replied dryly. "Love you."

"Love you back," they both responded.

Chapter 8: God Should Be Sacked

Rhapsody and Capella were fifteen minutes early, much to Capella's delight. "It's arcade time!"

Rhapsody let herself be dragged in bemusement to the game room. She stopped at an arcade that had a miniature car for a person to sit in, equipped with a steering wheel, gas pedal, and manual transmission. They were connected to hydraulics that would pivot and tilt the car around to simulate sharp turns and jumps. There were two of them side by side, and Capella quickly put quarters in both of them with an excited grin.

Rhapsody slowly got into the small car, feeling like an Amazon as her knees were forced up from the cramped quarters.

"Buckle up!" Capella warned her impishly.

Rhapsody looked around for the seatbelt without any success. She looked up into Capella's teasing eyes and laughed. "Sarcasm meter broken, huh?"

"It comes and goes," Capella waved dismissively. "You ready to rock?"

"I hope so," Rhapsody murmured as she studied the controls quickly. She had driven manual transmissions before, so that wouldn't be a problem. As the race began, Capella quickly took the lead against the AI drones. It took Rhapsody a moment to get used to the drones' homicidal nature as they tried to run her off the road. She was just starting to get the hang of it when Capella crossed the finish line. It took Rhapsody and the drones another ten seconds to catch up.

"Who owns you, bee-otch?" Capella asked triumphantly.

"One more time," Rhapsody insisted.

"Hey, I don't mind teaching you humility," Capella grinned. "We can do this all day."

Rhapsody just smiled as she waited for the pistol shot that would signal them to go. Capella had no idea that she had and eidetic memory. She never made the same mistake twice.

"I'm impressed," Capella said admiringly as Rhapsody stayed nose to nose with her. "You learn fast."

Rhapsody was a hairsbreadth in front of Capella's car when she passed the finish line. She turned to Capella with a smirk. "What did you say about humility?"

"You were holding out on me the whole time!" Capella accused her in mock indignation. "You've played this before."

"I most certainly have not," Rhapsody declared with an innocent look. "I'm just that good."

"Sure you are," Capella said dryly as she jumped out of her midget car and bumped her hip against Rhapsody's. "And I'm the Queen of Kashmir."

"That would be a neat trick, considering Kashmir hasn't had a queen for hundreds of years," Rhapsody noted with a raised eyebrow. "Would you like to try again?"

"Are you like a walking encyclopedia?" Capella asked, then giggled. "How cool would that be? I would so love to remember everything I read."

"I don't think so," Rhapsody disagreed with a grimace. "Having perfect recall means you remember the painful parts of life just as clearly as you remember the good parts."

"Wait a minute…" Capella tugged her elbow to stop her from entering the theatre room. "Are you telling me that you have a photographic memory?"

"I didn't say that," Rhapsody denied as her face turned red.

"Yeah…but you implied it," Capella stressed with a very direct look. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

"That's just mean!" Rhapsody growled, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the theatre.

"Come on, spill!" Capella said pleadingly. "I'll never tell another soul."

"Okay," Rhapsody sighed resignedly. "I have an eidetic memory. Are you happy now?"

"I would be if I knew what eidetic meant," Capella replied dryly.

"It's pretty much the same thing as a photographic memory," Rhapsody explained. "I'm a little abnormal, because most people lose the ability shortly after adolescence."

"So how much stuff do you remember when you walk through a room?" Capella asked in fascination.

"Everything in sight," Rhapsody said with a sigh. "It can get very annoying."

"You should go to Vegas!" Capella suggested with a wicked smile. "You would know exactly which cards had been used."

"Gambling is as bad as drinking to me," Rhapsody said distastefully. "I avoid both of them like the plague."

"Are you sure you're not Mormon?" Capella asked suspiciously. "It sounds like you follow the Word of Wisdom to me."

"I'm sure," Rhapsody snickered evilly. "They don't want people like me in their churches corrupting all of the innocents."

"What do you mean, 'people like you'?" Capella asked, staring at her sideways.

Before Rhapsody could reply, the movie lit up on the screen and the speakers began blasting into their ears. Rhapsody finally felt her body relax as she immersed herself in the world of Pandora. The cinematography was just as good as the first Avatar. The scotcharoos Capella had made were divine. When the movie finally ended, she let out a satisfied sigh at a movie well done.

"Well?" Capella prompted with an expectant grin.

"That rocked my world," Rhapsody said with a broad smile. "That was just what I needed."

"Oh cool!" Capella beamed, giving her a quick hug impulsively. "It was good for me too."

"Sleaze," Rhapsody said fondly.

"You know you like it," Capella replied with a smirk.

"God, you and Melody are going to be the death of me!" Rhapsody sighed dramatically.

"Who's Melody?" Capella asked with a sudden frown.

"She's sort of my Goddaughter," Rhapsody replied sheepishly. Way to go, mouth!

"You weren't kidding about your friends having musical names, were you?" Capella's grin was back.

"Nope. Not even a little bit," Rhapsody said with a chuckle. "Fate has a sense of irony, apparently."

"Isn't that a Matrix quote?" Capella asked suspiciously.

"Close," Rhapsody replied with a small smile. "You sure you don't have an eidetic memory too?"

"I get lost on my way to the car," Capella snorted derisively. "I definitely do not have any special memory powers; unless forgetting everything in record time is considered a superpower."

Rhapsody laughed good-naturedly as they walked out to Capella's old Honda in the parking lot. She called it The Geezer, and the name certainly fit the car. It tended to die at stop lights, and the cruise control would get stuck on the interstate. The panic horn had a mind of its own and would turn itself on randomly. Capella had tried to convince her that the car was actually sentient. After all of the crazy phenomena she had witnessed over the past three years, she wouldn't be surprised if cars did develop their own personalities.

The short drive back to the dorms was uneventful; The Geezer didn't die even once. Capella kept her entertained with stories of how she had ended up in Charleston.

"What are your plans for tomorrow?" Capella asked as they walked up the stairs to their third-floor dorm.

"It's Sunday," Rhapsody replied gravely. "I worship the god of slumber quite zealously on weekends. I probably won't finish worship services until around noon."

"Good!" Capella grinned in satisfaction. "That means you don't have to get to bed early."

"What did you have in mind?" Rhapsody asked in an amused tone.

"Some games to get to know each other better," Capella replied excitedly. "They're so fun, you'll love them!"

Rhapsody smiled as she let herself get caught up in Capella's enthusiasm. After changing into a long t-shirt for bed, she joined Capella at their small table. She had a pack of cards already sorted and dealt.

"You ever play Rummy?" Capella asked.

"Yeah," Rhapsody replied with a slight smile. "I read a book on all the major card games once, so it's permanently stored up here now," she tapped her head for emphasis.

"Gawd, that is so freaking cool!" Capella gushed enviously. "Wait a minute; you're going to cheat at Rummy, aren't you?"

"I'll be good," Rhapsody promised with an innocent smile.

"I have no doubt," Capella muttered under her breath. "So, here's the goal in this game: every time you win a hand, I have to answer one of your questions about me, and vice versa."

"Truth or dare?" Rhapsody asked in amusement.

"A little more mature than that," Capella replied dryly. "If a question is too uncomfortable, just say pass and I will move on to a new question."

"Okay," Rhapsody said, taking a deep breath as she studied her cards. "Looks like I'll be asking the first question."

"No way!" Capella said in disbelief. "I thought you said you weren't going to cheat?"

"You dealt the cards," Rhapsody reminded her. "You shouldn't have given me a royal flush for my opening hand."

"All right, Maverick, ask your question," Capella said as she rolled her eyes.

"Do you have any siblings?" Rhapsody asked.

"A younger brother named John, and an older sister named Eileen," Capella replied with a wry smile. "Talk about a family full of stupid names, right?"

"Nonsense," Rhapsody protested. "Capella is a beautiful name, and Eileen isn't bad either. I'm afraid John is a rather unfortunate name."

"I know, right?" Capella said with a grimace. "Who would name their child after a toilet? That's just mean."

Capella won the next hand. She let out a triumphant shout that was probably heard on the international space station.

"Is there a significant other waiting for you back home?" Capella asked, avoiding her eyes.

"Not likely," Rhapsody chuckled. "I'm too much of a freak for most people to be interested in."

"What?" Capella demanded indignantly. "You are not a freak! Whoever brainwashed you into thinking such nonsense needs their head kicked."

"Nobody brainwashed me," Rhapsody said with a smile at Capella's over protectiveness. "I graduated from High School at age twelve and had my first master's degree by the age of eighteen. People tend to think I'm autistic, since I remember everything I see and hear. Aside from Melody and her family, I haven't really had any friends before. Everyone was always twice my age in school, so it made it hard to interact with them."

"Well, you just found another friend," Capella told her firmly, lightly covering her hand for a moment.

Rhapsody felt tingles emanate away from the point of contact, and suddenly she was blushing. Capella was studying her cards, as if she was oblivious, but Rhapsody could see the quick, furtive glances she kept directing her way.

Capella won the next hand.

"So, let's see," Capella said thoughtfully, tapping her lips lightly as she stared up at the ceiling. "You've never had a love life; you're a super genius, and super pretty. You're like a walking contradiction. If you had a hero in life, who would it be?"

"Aria," Rhapsody replied without hesitation.

"Good choice," Capella said approvingly. "Talk about amazing, right? I've been wanting to visit Aria forever now."

"Are you sick?" Rhapsody asked in sudden concern.

"Not exactly," Capella shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I just feel like she needs all of the support she can get, even if it is just someone like me staring at her while she sleeps."

Rhapsody nodded silently, feeling a tear start building up in the corner of her eye.

"Do you think she'll ever wake up?" Capella asked curiously.

"I have zero doubt that she will wake up, eventually," Rhapsody said softly. "She's got an amazing family to help her find her way."

"Have you met her family?" Capella asked in surprise.

"Yes," Rhapsody admitted carefully. "They are some of the neatest people in the world."

"I hope to meet them someday," Capella said wistfully.

Rhapsody's cell phone vibrated as she received a new text. "Speaking of the devil, she just sang a new song that she hasn't sung before," Rhapsody said with a smile as she read the text from Melody. "New songs are getting rarer."

"Do you have an app that notifies you when she sings a new song?" Capella asked curiously. "What's it called?"

"No, just my goddaughter texting me the link to YouTube," Rhapsody replied shortly. "Let's see what it sounds like, shall we?"

"That sounded like a rhetorical question," Capella noted with a sideways smile.

"It was," Rhapsody admitted as she pushed play.

The song was beautiful and haunting at the same time. It brought back memories of her dream in the wasteland full of caged eyeballs. It wasn't a very long song, but it conveyed an entire lifetime of emotion.

"Wow," Capella whispered in awe.

"Wow," Rhapsody agreed wholeheartedly.

"If she sounds this good on a recording, I can't even imagine how good she must sound in real life," Capella mused.

"What are you doing for the Labor Day weekend?" Rhapsody asked suddenly.

"Wishing I had a life," Capella replied ruefully. "I don't get along with my parents very well, so I don't go home for the holidays. I'm sort of the black sheep in the family."

"I'm going to Seattle on Labor Day," Rhapsody informed her intently. "Why don't you come with me? Then you can meet Aria's family."

"Are you serious?" Capella asked incredulously. Her left hand shot out to grab Rhapsody's arm, but her right hand stopped it just before it touched, pulling it firmly back to her side of the table. Weird.

"May muh tongue turn blue if'n I ain't," Rhapsody replied with a grin, pretending she had not noticed Capella arm-wrestling herself.

"Oh my God!" Capella shrieked in a voice that had to have been heard by the Mars Rover. "I can't believe I'll finally get to meet her! Wait a minute…are you sure we'll be able to see her? I hear she's got thousands of people in a permanent line waiting to be healed outside of her house."

"They don't actually go into the house," Rhapsody explained. "They built a shrine that adjoins to the outer wall of Aria's room. The sound of her voice easily penetrates the walls and heals the patients. There aren't very many people that visit anymore. Things slowed down dramatically after the first two years."

"You think they'll let us into the house to see Aria?" Capella asked doubtfully.

"I can guarantee it," Rhapsody replied with a confident smile.

"Okay, next hand," Capella said with a happy grin. "This is going to be so cool!"

"Three Kings, and a four card straight," Rhapsody told her with a smug look.

"Damnit," Capella sighed dramatically. "You better not be cheating!"

"Butter, would not melt in my mouth," Rhapsody declared. "Now…do you have any significant other's waiting for you in Utah?"

"Ug, no," Capella replied with a shudder. "Mormon's are the worst people to take on dates. They feel so guilty about every impure thought they have that they can't focus on just having a good time. You wouldn't believe how many times one of my friends went to her bishop to confess that she and her boyfriend had moved on to second base. Bishops must feel like bloody perverts."

Rhapsody noticed Capella's left hand was struggling to break free of her right hand. Trying not to stare in fascination, she dealt the next hand. Capella waited a full minute before slowly releasing her left hand and picking up her cards.

Rhapsody won again, much to Capella's dismay. "Cheater," she said accusingly.

"Prove it," Rhapsody smiled challengingly.

"There's no need to prove anything, with that shit-eating grin on your face," Capella declared matter-of-factly. "A judge would send you straight to the gas chamber without a trial for a grin like that."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Rhapsody replied airily. "So next question; have you found any promising prospects during your time in Charleston? I can assure you these kids aren't Mormons."

"Hard to say…"Capella replied slowly, then blushed when her eyes met Rhapsody's. She quickly looked back at her cards. "I've only seen one person that is my type. I'm kind of eccentric, so I tend to scare most people away."

Rhapsody noticed Capella was avoiding any mention of genders. Why would she be nervous about being lesbian? Oh yeah…raised in Utah. Being gay is probably a capital offense there.

"Are you kidding?" Rhapsody asked in surprise. "Your eccentricity is what makes you so much fun! A person would have to be crazy to get scared off by that."

Capella's face lit up with a pleased smile as she stared up through her lashes shyly. "You really think so?"

"If you only knew how paranoid I was that my roommate would be some stick-in-the-ass tyrant, you would understand how relieved I was when I met you," Rhapsody said fervently. "You are perfect!"

Capella beamed a thousand watt smile at that. "Likewise."

Rhapsody felt some embarrassing things take place in her body as Capella's crystal blue eyes stared into her own green eyes. God, she's hot when she smiles like that!

"How about another movie?" Rhapsody suggested, standing up and stretching exaggeratedly until her night shirt rose to mid-thigh. Capella blushed furiously as she hurriedly looked away.

"I'm game," Capella said a little awkwardly. "What do you want to watch?"

"Did you bring any movies with you?" Rhapsody asked as she went to get the few movies she had as well.

"Um…a couple," Capella mumbled, turning red again. "Most of them are just really sappy chick-flicks though, so let's watch yours."

"There's nothing wrong with sappy chick-flicks," Rhapsody assured her. "We are chicks, after all."

"Caw caw," Capella said weakly.

"Imagine Me and You?" Rhapsody suggested hopefully. "I've wanted to see this ever since I watched the previews, but I just never remember to pick it up when I'm at the store."

"Um…sure…if you're okay with it," Capella muttered in embarrassment. "It might have some parts in it that you could find offensive."

"It takes a hell of a lot to offend me," Rhapsody chuckled. She popped the DVD into the player and then fetched the blanket from her bed.

Capella sat near the end of the couch, looking awkward as she watched Rhapsody out of the corner of her eye. Rhapsody bit back a smile at the other girl's insecurity; damn she was cute when she got all awkward!

She sat down right next to Capella, so their hips were touching and spread the blanket over both of them. "Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, thanks," Capella said, after clearing her throat roughly.

Rhapsody clicked play on the remote and settled back so that she was leaning slightly into Capella's shoulder. Rhapsody couldn't remember when she had laughed so much at a movie before. It became apparent why Capella had been so awkward about the movie as the two main characters turned out to be lesbians. She's really paranoid about anyone finding out. I wonder what kind of crap she had to put up with from her family…

At one point in the movie, when the two women were kissing, Capella's left hand shot up and groped one of her breasts.

"My, we are getting familiar, aren't we?" Rhapsody said teasingly.

Capella's face was almost purple as she wrestled her left hand, trying to subdue it as it clung to Rhapsody's chest. "I'm so sorry! I'm not doing this on purpose, I swear!"

"I know," Rhapsody assured her calmly, restraining Capella's right hand from interfering. "Just give it a minute and it will lose interest."

"You've seen this before?" Capella asked in a voice that was near tears from embarrassment.

"I've read about it," Rhapsody replied with a reassuring smile. "It's called Alien Hand Syndrome. One of your hands operates completely independent from the other hand, almost as if someone else is controlling it. It's a fairly common phenomenon."

"Do you still want to be my roommate?" Capella asked awkwardly as her left hand continued hanging on tightly.

"Of course!" Rhapsody said in surprise. "Why would any of this change my mind?"

"I might strangle you in the middle of the night," Capella whispered fearfully. "I did that to myself once, and my mom had to wrestle my hand away from my throat."

"Trust me," Rhapsody told her confidently. "If you try to strangle me in the middle of the night, I'll be able to escape. I'm tougher than I look."

"Thanks for being so cool," Capella said with tears in her eyes.

"Thanks for being so fun!" Rhapsody replied with a dazzling smile. "I can't remember a time when I've ever had this much fun."

"Getting molested by a psychotic hand?" Capella asked doubtfully.

"Well, it's an adventure, anyway…just don't turn into a tease," Rhapsody warned her in mock severity.

Capella blinked in surprise, and her left hand suddenly released Rhapsody's breast. She let out a relieved breath and her face turned red again. "That's one of the reasons me and relationships don't work out very well. It can get downright abusive at times."

"Aria will fix it," Rhapsody assured her confidently. "Is that why you originally wanted to visit her?"

"Part of the reason," Capella admitted sheepishly. "I mostly just wanted to see her for myself. I've seen so many things on the internet that it's hard to know what to believe."

"Just ask me any questions you have if you're looking for honest answers," Rhapsody told her gently. "I'm quite knowledgeable about the whole thing, so there probably aren't many questions I won't be able to answer."

"Okay," Capella said with an eager grin. "How old is Aria?"

"She just turned seventeen," Rhapsody replied.

"Some websites were claiming that her skin grew back, but most of the other websites debunked those claims," Capella ended it on a questioning note.

"It's true, her skin regenerated," Rhapsody confirmed with a smile. "The doctors haven't got a clue how she's recovered. The last time I was in Seattle, she looked like a completely new person."

"Do you know if her hair will grow back?" Capella asked hesitantly.

"It's growing back at an accelerated rate as well, but only on her head," Rhapsody replied. "The only difference is that it's now a honey-blonde instead of midnight black. The skin on her face is a little lighter than it used to be as well, and she looks like she's wearing makeup as a result of how the pigmentation on her lips and eyelids formed."

"That's so cool!" Capella grinned. "So, if she woke up right now she wouldn't be in agony from all of her scars, right? Or terrified of being seen in public?"

"Mostly correct," Rhapsody smiled wryly. "If she woke up now, her mother would have several immediate choices to make depending on the circumstances of her return to the waking world. If she doesn't remember anything during the coma, they're going to get their names changed and move to a different state. Very few people have seen Aria's face since it healed. Her mom wants her to be able to finish school and have a normal life, without all of the hype and drama the media would bring into the mix if they found her."

"Wait a minute…"Capella paused with a frown. "Have you seen her face?"

"Yes," Rhapsody admitted with a sigh.

"I thought you said you never met her?" Capella said accusingly.

"Well, I haven't formally met her…because she's in a coma," Rhapsody explained lamely.

"What are you, a lawyer?" Capella asked dryly. "Just what exactly is your relationship with Aria's family?"

"I'm their Godmothers," Rhapsody said weakly.

"You have to be religious to be a Godmother," Capella pointed out. "Try again."

Rhapsody sighed deeply as she made a split second decision. "I need you to promise that you'll never repeat a word of what I'm about to tell you."

"Okay," Capella nodded earnestly.

"I was a field reporter for channel 5 news in Seattle when this whole fiasco started," Rhapsody began. "I was doing a two week story on the burn center to highlight how extraordinary the people who work there are. While I was there, Harmony, Aria, and Melody were brought in on the life-flight. During the next few weeks, I developed a very close friendship with Melody and Harmony. If I wasn't sleeping, I was at the hospital with Aria and her family. I've spent the last three years by Aria's side with Melody and Harmony. I had a dream a couple days ago where Aria appeared to me and told me I should come to this college if I wanted to find a way to awaken her from her coma. So here I am, hoping I can find a way to bring her back to us."

"Saint Rhapsody," Capella said thoughtfully. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Insufferable cad!" Rhapsody laughed, smacking her arm lightly. "Considering who makes the nominations on sainthood, I'd prefer to remain in my fallen state."

"Those priests aren't interested in girls, you know," Capella grinned wickedly. "You wouldn't have anything to worry about."

"Ick!" Rhapsody made a gagging motion. "Those pedophiles make me so sick."

"I hear that," Capella agreed. "So, who is Aria's and Melody's father? I don't think anybody ever did get to the bottom of it…"

"This is another one of those above top secret things, okay?" Rhapsody asked pointedly.

"My lips are sealed," Capella made the zipping motion on her lips, followed by the locking motion, then throwing away the key.

"Harmony was raped when she was fifteen years old," Rhapsody revealed sadly. "She never reported it and wouldn't cooperate with the police while she was recovering in the hospital. She was stuck in a mental institute for several months because she kept trying to commit suicide. She stopped trying to kill herself when she felt her baby's first kick."

"Oh my god!" Capella gasped in stunned amazement. "And then to have to go through all of this with her daughter again! If there is a God somewhere, he or she needs to be fired!"

"Agreed," Rhapsody said solemnly.

Chapter 9: Animal Farm

Capella frowned as she felt movement on her thighs. She sleepily opened her eyes. Rhapsody was stretched across the couch, with her head in Capella's lap. She watched in frozen amazement as her left hand slowly brushed tender fingers through Rhapsody's long hair. The Traitor, as she privately referred to her left hand, was never nice to other people. At best, it would leave them alone. She made a point of never being in the vicinity of sharp objects.

She was ready to chop the stupid thing off, after last night's groping session. It wasn't like she could use it anyway; at least then it wouldn't be a nuisance. The only reason she hadn't amputated it yet was the hope that she might meet Aria someday and have it healed.

Rhapsody's face was beautiful and serene as she slept with deep, even breaths. The corner of one side of her mouth was slightly upturned, as if it wanted to smile.

Capella felt so silly and clumsy in Rhapsody's presence. The green-eyed goddess was driving her crazy with all of the adorable emotions cycling across her expressive face. She would have been a horrible poker player. She smiled as she relived the previous day's events in her head. She hadn't had so much fun in her entire life. She had been sure everything was ruined when her treacherous hand started groping Rhapsody. It was still hard to believe how calmly Rhapsody hat taken the entire experience. She felt a desperate need to keep Rhapsody in her life for as long as possible. Letting something this good disappear would be sheer stupidity.

Of course, there was still one more major hurdle to cross that might still ruin everything. She's from Seattle; they're more open-minded there. She won't care if I'm a lesbian.

She repeated that thought regularly, hoping the repetition would eventually be enough to brainwash herself into believing it. Rhapsody had dropped several hints that made her think the green-eyed goddess was more tolerant than her own bigoted parents, but that might have just been desperation clouding her judgment.

At least I can enjoy looking, she thought with a smile as her left hand continued combing Rhapsody's hair.

She felt herself nodding off after fifteen minutes of studying Rhapsody's flawless face. I could SO get used to this.

Rhapsody opened her eyes as she felt a gentle hand stroking her check tenderly. Looking around with her eyes, she realized her head was cradled in Capella's lap. The poor girl had to sleep upright all night! Good one, Rhapsody!

She resisted the urge to tense up when she realized it was Capella's left hand that was caressing her face. She had a feeling that its awareness was completely separate from Capella's. She smiled softly at the act of tenderness being displayed by the volatile hand.

When she smiled, the hand stopped stroking her cheek and started tracing her lips with a finger. So, it really is aware. I wonder how that works? Two spirits in one body? Hmmm…I'll have to do some testing with this, I think.

She remained still for the next fifteen minutes as The Hand continued tracing patterns along the contours of her face. It was actually quite pleasant. Capella had beautiful hands. They were small, just like the rest of her, but her fingers seemed slightly out of proportion with her palms, almost abnormally long. Her face flushed slightly as her body began reacting to the intimate touches along her face.

Capella let out a groan as she opened her eyes and looked around blearily. "What time is it?"

"Noon," Rhapsody replied with a grin. "I'm all done with my religious obligations now."

Capella looked down at Rhapsody in surprise, followed quickly by panic as her left hand continued drawing patterns on her face.

"It's okay," Rhapsody told her reassuringly. "I think it likes me."

"The Traitor doesn't like anyone," Capella replied with a puzzled frown. "It's never been nice to anyone before."

"Maybe you've only been around wankers until now," Rhapsody suggested lightly. "It might be prejudiced against jerks."

"That's true," Capella admitted with a chuckle. "Is there anyone you want to test that theory on?"

"I can think of a few," Rhapsody replied in amusement. "They're all back in Seattle though."

Capella stared down at her with a mixture of nervousness and delight. The strange combination caused another wave of warm sensations to pulse through her body.

"So…what's the plan, Stan?" Rhapsody asked, trying to ignore the effect Capella's hand was having on her.

"I was thinking we could visit the zoo today," Capella suggested with an impish grin. "You know, visit some of your cousins in the primate section."

"I'm afraid my sarcasm meter is malfunctioning," Rhapsody informed her sadly. "Your sarcasm seems to be bouncing right off of me."

"I see how you are," Capella pouted. "Use my own words against me."

"Damn straight," Rhapsody drawled in a redneck accent.

Capella's grin faltered slightly at Rhapsody's words.

"What's the matter?" Rhapsody asked in concern.

"Nothing!" Capella replied quickly, her grin returning with full force. "So? You up for a romp around the zoo?"

"I suppose that depends on whether 'The Hand' will let me get up or not," Rhapsody replied in amusement.

"Its name is The Traitor, not The Hand," Capella informed her matter-of-factly.

"You'll just alienate it with that kind of talk," Rhapsody said with a twinkle in her green eyes.

"Oh, ha ha," Capella said dryly. "I'll alienate my alien hand."

"Well, from what I've seen of it so far, I quite like it," Rhapsody told her seriously.

The Hand stopped moving at Rhapsody's words, then retreated back to the arm rest on the couch.

"Even the groping?" Capella asked wryly, blushing slightly.

"Especially the groping," Rhapsody replied with a mischievous grin.

"You're so bad," Capella accused her, turning from pink to bright red.

"I know," Rhapsody admitted without any sense of remorse.

The two of them spent the next hour showering and getting ready for the day. Capella had been very proud of herself as she kept herself from staring when Rhapsody came out of the bathroom in a black bra and panties. Talk about freaking torture!

Rhapsody fired up The Geezer and started the hour long drive to the zoo. Capella had talked her into driving, since her hand was acting so unpredictably.

"Any radio preferences?" Capella asked as she turned on the radio.

"I have an mp3 player, if you want to listen to it," Rhapsody offered.

"I'd love to," Capella replied with an eager smile.

After plugging the mp3 player into the stereo, Rhapsody selected her favorite playlist. Capella listened to the song quietly until it finished.

"Wow!" She let out a breath explosively. "That is SO on my download list. Who is it?"

"Erutan," Rhapsody replied.

"Erutan?" Capella repeated with a frown. "Is that Latin for something cool?"

"No," Rhapsody giggled as she held the mp3 player upside down. "It spells Nature backward."

"Oh," Capella said slowly. "Well, that's pretty cool."

"Yeah, she writes and plays all of the music herself," Rhapsody said with a note of respect in her voice. "She's got one of the most beautiful singing voices I've ever heard, and she's very creative with it."

They listened to Erutan the rest of the trip. After a few minutes, Capella's left hand reached up and started massaging Rhapsody's shoulder.

"Okay, The Hand stays," Rhapsody groaned in pleasure. "This is awesome!"

Capella shook her head in wonder at how peculiar The Traitor was behaving. The doctors had told her that her hand was just reacting to stimuli from memories and impulses, instead of staying in synch with her conscious mind. She found that theory more difficult to believe as The Traitor steadily developed a personality of its own.

"Did you have epilepsy as a child?" Rhapsody asked thoughtfully.

"How did you know?" Capella asked in surprise.

"One of the most common causes of Alien Hand Syndrome results from surgeons separating the right half of the brain from the left half to help people suffering from severe seizures," Rhapsody explained. "Sometimes there are side effects though, like your hand."

"It's not my hand" Capella said pointedly. "It stopped being my hand when it got a mind of its own."

"I'm kind of surprised that they let you have a driver's license," Rhapsody said with a searching look. "Isn't it dangerous for you to drive?"

"That's what the restraining brace behind the seat is for," Capella nodded at the straps wrapped around the driver seat. "Some of the stitches have come loose recently, so I've been avoiding any long drives until I can get it repaired."

"What's up with your parents?" Rhapsody asked tentatively. "If it's not too uncomfortable to talk about."

Capella looked at her sideways, licking her lips nervously. "Um…we had some disagreements on religious practices, and they kicked me out."

"You're kidding!" Rhapsody gasped in amazement. "They kicked you out for not agreeing with their religion?"

"Pretty much," Capella replied with a sigh. "It's kind of strange how fast a person's manner can change so quickly from such little things. I think they're just so brainwashed by ancient dogma that anything new that comes along causes them to lash out defensively."

"I'm so sorry, Capella," Rhapsody told her sincerely. "You are more than welcome to join our small family."

Capella smiled at her gratefully, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

They arrived at the zoo without any trouble from The Geezer. Rhapsody smiled at the thought of The Geezer trying to make a good impression on her.

As they picked up their tickets and entered the zoo, Rhapsody looked around in amazement, appalled at what she saw.

"What kind of zoo keeps all of the animals in tiny cages like this?" Rhapsody asked angrily. "Whoever runs this place needs to be shut down!"

There was a tiger in a small cage that was roaring regularly, much to the delight of the other tourists. As Rhapsody moved closer to the tiger, she could see large clumps of matted fur around a protruding ribcage. The creature looked like it hadn't eaten in years. Rhapsody trembled in helpless rage as she stared at dozens of cages filled with similarly starved animals. The majority of the tourists didn't seem to notice anything was wrong at all. They've probably never gone hungry for a day in their entire lives.

She felt Capella's left hand begin stroking her back soothingly as she glared at the sorry excuse for a zoo. "I'm so sorry, Rhapsody, I had no idea it was this bad."

"It's not your fault," Rhapsody assured her. "It's the bastards who own this place. I'll be damned if I'm going to just sit by and let them torture these poor animals for everyone else's amusement."

"What can we do?" Capella asked helplessly.

"We'll just buy them out," Rhapsody said firmly. "Then we'll find real reserves to put these animals on."

"I don't know about you, but I don't think my student loans can cover that kind of cost," Capella said hesitantly.

"I've got plenty of money," Rhapsody replied dismissively. "I started investing when I was eight years old. I purchased my first fortune five hundred company five years ago."

"But, but, but…"Capella stuttered, at a complete loss for words. "But you don't even have a car! Why are you living in a dorm if you're filthy rich? Why are you even going to school?"

Rhapsody looked down and inspected herself carefully. "Do you really think I'm filthy?"

"You are so getting the smack down when we get home," Capella told her threateningly.

"Hey, waste not, want not, right?" Rhapsody replied with a shrug. "I don't want to live a fake life around fake people who wouldn't know what true happiness was if it bit them in the ass. I like our dorm, and I like The Geezer. I especially like you. Money can't buy happiness. Let's get out of here before I blow a gasket."

Capella followed her back to the car, staring at her like she had never seen her before. Rhapsody didn't waste any time exiting the zoo. As they reached the main highway, Capella's left arm suddenly shot across Rhapsody's lap and jerked the seatbelt across and buckled her in.

"Overprotective much?" Rhapsody said wryly, her face finally lightening up again.

"Apparently," Capella replied weakly.

"Can you get my cell phone from my pocket and make a call on speaker phone?" Rhapsody asked distractedly.

"Um…which pocket?" Capella asked hesitantly.

"Front right," Rhapsody replied, looking down at the pocket she was referring to. "I would get it myself, but I have a feeling that our overprotective friend might object."

Capella had to use her right hand to get it, causing her to twist at a funny angle to reach it.

"Do you know how hawt you look when you do that?" Rhapsody asked impishly.

"Slurp my butt," Capella retorted as her face turned red. She had to dig around for quite a while before she was able to gain purchase of it.

"You're starting to turn me on, with all that teasing," Rhapsody informed her with a suggestive wink.

"Now I just need to figure out how to turn you off," Capella muttered as her face shamed a sunset.

"Touche," Rhapsody laughed. "The password is 3083. Just hold down the number five to activate the speed dial."

Capella did as instructed and they waited for someone to pick up.

"Janet speaking?" a woman's voice answered briskly.

"Hey Jan, It's Rhapsody," Rhapsody spoke loudly to compensate for the noisy car. "Have you got a minute?"

"I've always got a minute for you," Janet replied, her voice warming up by several degrees. "What's up?"

"I just went to this zoo with a friend outside of Charleston, and the place has dozens and dozens of animals locked in kennels that are way too small," Rhapsody replied grimly. "Most of the animals are nothing but skin and bones because the owners apparently want to save a few bucks on food. I'd like to buy them out and transfer all of the animals to wildlife reserves that actually take care of their animals."

"Always the tender heart," Janet chuckled fondly. "I'll make some calls and get the paperwork started. How soon do you want it?"

"As soon as possible," Rhapsody replied. "I'll be surprised if several of those animals survive the week."

"Sounds good, I'll get to work," Janet said crisply. "And Rhapsody…don't be a stranger."

"Who was that?" Capella asked curiously after she hung up.

"My lawyer/accountant/sister," Rhapsody replied with a fond expression. "She manages all of my accounts for me. After making a name for myself in the world of business, I got bored and started looking for more meaningful activities to occupy my time."

"Like shacking up with hot chicks in crappy dorms?" Capella suggested teasingly.

"Exactly," Rhapsody smiled, staring into Capella's blue eyes. Capella blushed and looked away awkwardly.

Rhapsody noticed the other side of the interstate was at a standstill, with policemen blocking off all but one lane. She slowed down as she inspected the wreckage of a school bus.

"Oh my God!" Capella gasped in dismay. "Those poor children!"

Rhapsody pulled over to the shoulder and then grabbed her cell phone, gesturing for Capella to follow her. She called Melody's private cell that only she and her mother had access to as they crossed the interstate divide.

"Rhapsody?" Melody's voice was worried. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Rhapsody assured her quickly. "However, there's been an accident on the interstate where a school bus rolled over. There are a lot of children in the road that are in pretty serious condition. I don't know if this is possible, but I wanted to see if Aria could heal them through the cell phone."

"Wow, that's terrible," Melody exclaimed. "Just tell me when you're ready and I'll start singing."

"Ma'am this area is closed off to emergency personnel only," a policeman told her curtly.

"We're doctors," Rhapsody told him firmly. "How many are still alive?"

"Eighteen, but that's likely to change," the policeman said grimly. "They look like they've gone through a meat grinder."

Rhapsody hurried over to the line of children who were laid out on blankets in the road. "Go ahead, Melody."

Rhapsody turned her speaker phone all the way up as Melody's voice began singing sweetly through the airwaves. A few seconds later, Aria's voice joined hers. Rhapsody watched with bated breath as the children quieted down. The crowd of emergency personnel began gathering around as they watched the children's wounds seal themselves and missing limbs re-grow right in front of their eyes. The song continued for nearly fifteen minutes before the last of the children were healed. The five children who had been pronounced dead slowly sat up, pulling the sheets off of their heads.

"Thank you so much Melody and Aria," Rhapsody choked out tearfully as the children began getting up. "It worked."

"Thank God!" Melody replied fervently.

"I'll stick to thanking you and Aria," Rhapsody said firmly.

They quickly left the scene and moved back to her car as Rhapsody continued talking to Melody. The crowd of first responders didn't even notice them leaving.

"I can't wait for you to meet Capella," Rhapsody said excitedly. "She is so much fun!"

"Wait a minute," Melody said with a grin in her voice. "Are you telling me her name is Capella?"

"Yep," Rhapsody smirked as Capella face-palmed herself. "She hates the name too! How could anyone hate a name so beautiful?"

"People are going to think we've started a secret society if we keep attracting friends with musical names," Melody said in an amused tone. "Now we have Allegra, Harmony, Aria, Rhapsody, Capella, and Melody. We just need a Rhythm now."

"Two weeks is forever," Rhapsody complained as the sound of Melody's voice brought back a sharp pang of homesickness. "How am I going to survive four years of this?"

"Then get your butt back here!" Melody growled in exasperation. "There are plenty of colleges on this side of the country for you to go to."

Capella looked downright scared as she listened to them discuss the future. Rhapsody thought she knew why.

"We'll have to see if Capella likes the west coast first," Rhapsody said as she gave Capella a reassuring smile. "I have a feeling I may have found what I was looking for out here anyway."

"You would take me with you?" Capella asked tentatively.

"Of course she would bring you with her," Melody giggled into the phone. "We musicals have to stick together!"

"Wow!" Capella gasped excitedly. "I can't believe this is happening!"

"Somebody's excited," Melody chuckled. "Aria's going to love having you around!"

"She can tell you that?" Capella asked in surprise.

"Sort of," Melody replied. "We can't understand the words in her songs, but when we have a really cool person nearby, her songs get more expressive."

"Well, I'm pretty cool," Capella declared with a grin.

"She's actually pretty and cool," Rhapsody said with a wink.

"Oooh…I see how it is," Melody drawled slowly. "Rhapsody finally found her sugar plum tree."

"My what?" Rhapsody asked in confusion.

"You know…like a diamond in the rough, a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, a filet mignon in a hash house-" she broke off as Rhapsody interrupted.

"I'll text you our arrival times at the airport for tomorrow," Rhapsody said hastily. "Talk to you later…"

She reached over and pressed the end button on the phone that was in Capella's hand. "Sometimes she gets carried away," Rhapsody said with a blush, avoiding Capella's eyes.

"She sounds like a lot of fun," Capella said brightly.

Rhapsody smiled fondly. "Yeah, she's a lot of fun all right."

Capella barely contained her excitement as they finished the drive back to the dorms. Rhapsody kept laughing as she watched the small blonde going into a trance occasionally as her imagination ran away with her. Rhapsody checked the internet for flights, but there was nothing available for the next day. She sighed and glanced at the availability for tonight.

"How about we leave tonight, instead?" Rhapsody suggested quickly.

"Huh?" Capella stared at her blankly.

"Everything going to Seattle is sold out tomorrow," Rhapsody explained. "There are several seats still available for tonight though."

Capella stood staring at her with wide eyes for several seconds, then broke into a shrill scream and started dancing around in circles. "I'm going to Seattle, I'm going to Seattle."

Rhapsody winced slightly at the volume of her shriek. That girl belongs in an opera house.

She purchased the tickets and then they loaded everything into The Geezer.

"I just thought of something," Capella said with a frown. "What are we going to do with The Geezer?"

"I'm arranging for a moving service to bring it out to Seattle," Rhapsody replied with a smile. "I've grown quite fond of this car."

"So, you're like a super millionaire and you're going to ride around in The Geezer?" Capella asked doubtfully. "Wouldn't you want something nicer…more dependable?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Rhapsody objected lightly. "Besides, I'll have a mechanic overhaul it and take care of any problems when it arrives."

"Don't you get embarrassed, being seen in this beast?" Capella asked awkwardly.

"I hope I never change enough in life to become that superficial," Rhapsody replied firmly. "Shame is accrued by actions, not fashions."

As they waited to board their jet at the airport, Rhapsody's cell phone rang.

"Hey Janet," Rhapsody said brightly after seeing the caller id. "I'm coming back to Seattle now."

"It's about time," Janet said with a laugh. "I was hoping you would come to your senses."

"Yeah, yeah," Rhapsody said dryly. "So, how's it going with the zoo?"

"The owners are so far in debt that they can't even make their utility payments," Janet revealed. "When we offered to buy everything and wipe their debt clean, they didn't even haggle with us. There are several reserves who have already expressed interest in the animals, so we told them to pick them up as soon as they could."

"Janet, you rock!" Rhapsody declared proudly.

"Don't I know it," Janet snorted. "Just get your butt back here before you come across any more hard luck cases. You seem to be a magnet for them."

"Blah blah blah," Rhapsody said airily. "See you later!"

"So, everything worked out with the zoo?" Capella asked after she disconnected the call.

"Yep," Rhapsody smiled wistfully. "My sister's a great organizer. I was always good at spotting trends and moving numbers around, but she brings a human element into the equation."

"Excuse me," a tall man in jeans said behind them. "Are you Aurora Hall?"

"Nope," Rhapsody shook her head firmly. "I'm Rhapsody."

"Wow, you bear a striking resemblance to Aurora," he said in amazement.

"Who's Aurora Hall?" Capella asked curiously.

"She's one of the top five business professionals in the world," he replied, looking at them oddly. "She's been on the cover of every business magazine at least once for the last six years."

"Wow, sounds boring," Capella said with a yawn. Her left hand suddenly swept out and backhanded his stomach. "Sorry, Alien Hand Syndrome."

His eyes flickered with disapproval as he turned and left them alone.

"I think we can safely say that The Hand is a good judge of character," Rhapsody said as she fought the urge to break into laughter.

"Aurora, huh?" Capella asked expectantly.

"Rhapsody is my middle name," Rhapsody replied with a grimace. "I got sick of all of the attention everywhere I went, so I changed my name and started visiting places where people wouldn't recognize a famous businesswoman."

"You're one of the top 5 business professionals in the world?" Capella asked in amazement.

"I was," Rhapsody corrected. "Not anymore though. I still have more than enough money for anything I might need, but I stay away from that soulless enterprising now."

"How much is 'more than enough'?" Capella asked in a small voice. "Just curious…"

Rhapsody smiled fondly at her inquisitiveness. "Twenty billion at last count."

"Holy shit!" Capella gasped in amazement. "You're like one of the one percent!"

"Tell me about it," Rhapsody groaned. "I could cheerfully watch everyone on Wall Street drown in their own greed."

"Twenty billion…" Capella was mouthing the words silently, a look of disbelief on her face.

"Hey, it's just money!" Rhapsody said exasperatedly. "There's nothing special about it, unless you happen to run out of toilet paper. Happiness can't be purchased. Love can't be purchased. You should see all of the sleaze-balls in the business world that spend billions on hookers, cars, boats, and thousands of other equally worthless commodities as they search in vain for happiness. Try dating someone who isn't just looking for a quick buck when you're a billionaire. The lines of opportunists are so thick that you would never have a chance of spotting someone who was interested in more than your money."

"Sorry," Capella murmured apologetically, looking down at the ground. "I didn't mean to freak out there; you just surprised me."

"No need to apologize," Rhapsody told her firmly as she reached out and gently raised Capella's chin up with two fingers. "I go on rants sometimes; just ignore me when it happens."

"You're kind of sexy when you rant though," Capella said with a sly grin.

"You're such a smooth talker," Rhapsody said with a smile. "I certainly never would have met you if I had continued living the life I had in the business world."

"I'm glad you left then," Capella said softly, then blushed.

"As am I," Rhapsody replied with a grin.

"There's something I should probably tell you before I go anywhere with you," Capella said in a voice that was just above a whisper. She shifted around awkwardly, licking her lips nervously. "You might not want to be around me after I tell you."

"Nothing you could tell me would change the way I feel about you," Rhapsody told her gently, her green eyes full of hidden meaning.

"Um…I'm…" Capella took a deep breath as her face flushed bright red. "I'm gay."

"That's a relief," Rhapsody said with a laugh. "I was afraid you were going to tell me that you used to chop babies up while you worshiped Beelzebub, or something crazy like that."

"That doesn't bother you?" Capella asked in surprise, looking up with hope shining in her bright blue eyes.

"I would be forever tormented if it did," Rhapsody replied dryly. "Seeing as how I'm gay too."

"Oh…" Capella stared at her with a silly grin on her face for a full minute.

"Time to board," Rhapsody told her with a wink as she heard their flight departure announced.

Capella followed her slowly, her face struggling to keep from grinning.

"Wanna be my girlfriend?" Rhapsody asked impishly as she took hold of Capella's left hand.

"Uh huh," Capella managed to squeak out. Her left hand was tenderly stroking the back of Rhapsody's hand.

Chapter 10: Sleight of Hand

Several passengers stared at them as they walked down the aisle of the jet plane holding hands. Rhapsody just grinned, remembering how provincial some parts of the country still were. Capella was a dichotomy of shy awkwardness one second, then beamingly proud the next. Rhapsody had to remind herself that the small blonde was from a state that still had protests against anything more progressive than fire.

As they sat down, the person in the seat behind them fake-coughed "dykes."

Rhapsody placed a calming hand on Capella's left arm as it prepared for murder. "Let me handle this."

Capella looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure you don't want to let The Traitor handle it?"

"I'm sure," Rhapsody said dryly. "Though I suppose you could get away with it, since we could just blame it on your condition."

"That's what I'm saying," Capella said with an evil grin.

Rhapsody turned around so that she was kneeling on her seat and facing a large man with heavy jowls and a baseball cap. When he saw her looking at him, he leered back with an arrogant smirk.

"So, am I to assume you're only attracted to men?" Rhapsody asked him politely.

"I ain't no faggot!" he retorted, his face scrunching up in anger.

"Now you see how I feel," Rhapsody said in a commiserating tone. "The thought of being with a man gives me that same constipated expression that you have right now. That's why I'm with a woman. Any questions?"

"Go to hell, dyke," he snarled angrily. "Fornicating bitches like you are the reason this world is going to hell in a hand basket."

"At least we're travelling to hell in style," Capella spoke up from where she was still sitting. "I hear going there in a train sucks ass."

"You got a problem with homosexuals?" two large men who looked like they ate rocks for breakfast asked him coldly.

He opened his mouth to retort and then thought better of it. Instead, he started muttering furiously under his breath and clenching his fists spastically.

Rhapsody nodded at the two men with a wink and then sat back in her seat. After sharing a look with Capella, the two of them broke into a fit of giggles.

They slept for most of the eight-hour flight, with their heads resting against each other. She had texted their arrival times to Melody and Harmony before they left. Melody was going to be waiting for them with the car.

Life at Harmony's house had become a lot more interesting after Melody's sixteenth birthday, when she began driving. It meant they had one more person to send on errands while they were taking care of Aria. To Melody's credit, she had only received three speeding tickets in her first year of driving.

After docking at the Seattle airport, the man behind them surged to his feet and stormed past them with a one finger salute.

"I'm sure you served your country with distinction," Capella called after him sarcastically. "What a tool."

"Seattle's not the best place in the world for a bigot like that to be visiting," Rhapsody noted with a shake of her head. "He'll probably end up doing time for hate crimes before he leaves."

"Hopefully he has a friendly bollocks-munching cellmate if he does," Capella said darkly. "I had to put up with his narrow-minded ilk long enough when I was younger."

"Bollocks-munching?" Rhapsody asked with a questioning smile. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Probably," Capella replied with a grin, her dark mood vanishing. "I had a friend from Britain who spoke a completely separate form of English than Americans. We had to make him stop and explain what words meant every five seconds. It's amazing how different their slang is from ours."

The two of them collected their luggage and then walked through the art-filled airport until they reached the exit.

"I didn't realize how plain the airport in Charleston was until I saw all of the cool art here," Capella said thoughtfully. "I already love this city."

Rhapsody was about to reply when a streak of black haired energy exploded into her, squealing in delight.

"Hello, Melody," Rhapsody grunted, trying recover the wind that had just been knocked out of her. "Good to see you too."

"Don't you ever ditch out on us again!" Melody admonished her severely. "I was going crazy with boredom!"

"This is Capella," Rhapsody introduced her grinning blonde companion.

Melody released Rhapsody and immediately tackled Capella. "Welcome to the Musicals!"

"I need air!" Capella gasped, pulling on the death grip Melody had around her neck. Before Melody could release her, Capella's left hand shot up and took a wad of Melody's hoodie and jerked her backward.

"Strong one, aren't you?" Melody noted with a grin as she caught her balance.

"Sorry, that was The Traitor," Capella said apologetically. "It has a mind of its own."

"The Traitor?" Melody asked with an inquiring grin. "You call your hand 'The Traitor'?"

"She has Alien Hand Syndrome," Rhapsody explained. "Her left hand takes orders from someone else."

"And you just forgot to mention that ridiculously freaking awesome tidbit?" Melody demanded incredulously. "Holy pork chops! That is the coolest thing I've ever heard of in my life!"

"Holy pork chops?" Capella asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are pork chops really revered in Seattle?"

"No, silly!" Melody giggled. "You don't think shit is revered when someone says holy shit, do you? I'm vegetarian, so pork chops are as disgusting to me as shit is to other people."

"That is some stunningly unassailable logic you have there," Rhapsody congratulated Melody with a small golf clap.

"I'm glad you liked it," Melody made a false curtsy. "I live to serve."

"I'm starting to see what the last three years must have been like for you," Capella said with a broad grin.

"Welcome to Wonderland," Rhapsody chuckled, taking her hand and following Melody to their car.

"Wow, pretty low class car for a billionaire," Capella noted dispassionately as she looked at the Chevy Volt in front of them.

"Who's a billionaire?" Melody asked in confusion.

"Oops," Capella murmured with an apologetic look at Rhapsody. "I just assumed they knew."

"It never actually came up," Rhapsody admitted, blushing uncomfortably under Melody's intense scrutiny. "I didn't see a point in mentioning it."

"Oooh," Melody drawled slowly. "You've been keeping a secret this whole time, haven't you? Be a good girl and tell the truth now."

"Do you have a smart phone I can borrow?" Capella asked Melody with a barely contained grin.

"Yeeees…" Melody said slowly. "Is that going to answer my question?"

"Uh huh," Capella nodded with a twinkle in her eyes.

Melody handed her the phone with a flourish. Rhapsody leaned over her shoulder and watched as she typed Aurora Hall into the google search field.

"Here's Rhapsody's real name," Capella told her with a wide grin. "Recognize that face?"

"Business Weekly?" Melody murmured with a frown. "Forbes, Fortune, The Economist, Bloomberg…what the hell are you doing on all of these magazines?"

"I was sort of a business tycoon before I met your family," Rhapsody said awkwardly. "I had retired from business a few months before meeting you at the hospital."

"So, you're like what, a Bill Gates?" Melody asked uncertainly.

"Bill Gates without the crack," Capella muttered, then grimaced apologetically when Rhapsody sighed dejectedly.

"I was never a Bill Gates," Rhapsody said quietly. "I was just a young woman who had no limits on how much she could remember and how many patterns she could arrange in her mind at once. I could forecast with greater accuracy than Wall Street's most expensive supercomputer. But it was all rubbish. There is nothing but loneliness and darkness in the world of big business. I pity anyone who is stuck in that horrible vortex of deceit and insanity. Money is the great hunter of souls."

"Well it didn't get yours," Capella told her warmly.

Rhapsody smiled, snapping out of her bout of melancholy. "I sure hope not."

"It didn't," Melody assured her with a twinkle in her dark eyes. "Soulless people don't sparkle, and you definitely still have that sparkle in your eyes."

"Thanks, Melody," Rhapsody smiled, her eyes stinging.

"So, are you where that fifty million dollar donation came from?" Melody asked curiously.

"Guilty as charged," Rhapsody admitted with a sheepish grin. "Your mom's a proud woman. I didn't want her to feel like she was mooching off of me if I just told her I had enough money to keep us all comfortable."

Rhapsody inhaled deeply as they drove down the 167, happy to be back on the right side of the continent. Melody was pumping Capella for everything she knew about Mormons and the Mountain Meadow Massacre. She was doing an essay on the incident in one of her online classes. It was difficult to get very much information out of Capella that was useful, since most of what she had to say about her former neighbors was increasingly creative slang. Melody seemed to enjoy the bigot-bashing as much as she enjoyed the few facts she managed to glean. She kept turning and mouthing "she's so freaking awesome!" to Rhapsody as they drove.

"Do you live in the city?" Capella asked after ten minutes of driving.

"We're about thirty miles south," Melody replied as she passed yet another law-abiding citizen. "Near a town called South Hill."

"There's a cop up ahead," Rhapsody informed Melody perfunctorily.

"It's a good thing your back or I would have racked up a million tickets," Melody said with a grin as she slowed down. "I don't know what I'd do without my human radar detector."

"Human radar detector?" Capella asked expectantly.

"She doesn't know?" Melody asked in surprise.

"She drives the speed limit, she wouldn't need to know," Rhapsody said dryly.

"Rhapsody here is actually related to Megamind," Melody told Capella conspiratorially. "Even though she doesn't have the big head and blue skin, they're still from the same sperm source."

"Oh God, Melody!" Rhapsody gasped in disgust. "There goes my breakfast appetite!"

"Ha!" Melody crowed triumphantly. "That's what you get for ditching me. Consider that just one of the many forms of payback yet to come."

"Sooo…" Capella said dramatically. "Getting back to the human radar detector?"

"Oh yeah," Melody giggled, then honked her horn as someone in a gangsta-mobile cut them off. "Leave the fast lane to taxpaying citizens, you bunch of illiterate thugs! And go find your mothers so they can teach you how to read the size labels on your freaking clothes, because the freaking circus is NOT in town!"

"Angst, much?" Capella asked with a grin.

"Road rage already?" Rhapsody asked mildly.

"What?" Melody asked innocently.

"Aaaand…back to the human radar detector," Capella said with a pointed stare.

"Oh yeah," Melody nodded eagerly. "Rhapsody has this little alien in her head that rifles through petabytes of information every second and tells her where to spot anything out of the ordinary."

"Perhaps you would care to explain it, Rhapsody?" Capella asked dryly.

"I thought she did just fine," Rhapsody smirked.

"Don't make me sick The Traitor on you," Capella threatened ominously.

"Not scared," Rhapsody replied, folding her arms. "The Hand loves me."

"Now you see why I call it The Traitor," Capella growled. "All right, so you have an alien in your head telling you how to spot patterns?"

"Pretty much," Rhapsody nodded. "When I look out that window, I don't just see what my eyes are focusing on, I see everything. It's just as clear in my mind regardless of if it comes from my peripheral vision or where I'm focusing. As soon as traffic patterns begin slowing down slightly, my pattern recognition kicks in and warns me that there is either a cop or an accident ahead. You could do it too, but I consume a lot more bandwidth than normal people so I can identify changes quicker."

"Bandwidth?" Capella repeated. "What, are you a computer?"

"We're all computers," Rhapsody said with a grin. "Or computers are all people. Either way, we are very similar. There are a million ways to compare the ways humans and computers operate like each other."

"Name one," Capella said challengingly.

"Okay…" Rhapsody replied, taking a deep breath. "Humans have a basic level of intelligence we call instinct as soon as they are born, which tells them how to survive long enough for consciousness to develop in their brain. A computer has a CMOS chip called the BIOS that ensures all of the hardware in the system communicates properly until the operating system can be loaded from the hard drive (sub-conscious) into the system memory (conscious mind). The processor is the brain of the operation that crunches all of the numbers, similar to a motor that feeds film through a projector."

"So how would that analogy extend to what is happening with Aria?" Capella asked with a frown. "Where is her consciousness if it isn't in her brain?"

"Just imagine everyone in the future uses cloud computing, rather than local hard drives," Rhapsody explained. "Think of the brain as her processor. The processor just crunches numbers and tells the electrons where to flow, the same way the brain does. Just because her processor isn't functioning, doesn't mean the data that stores her personality is gone. Once her processor works properly, her consciousness will once again be able to flow through it normally."

"How do we fix her processor?" Melody asked quietly.

"It takes a very specialized, noninvasive kind of surgery," Rhapsody said with a grin. "That's why Aria sent me to get Capella."

"What?" Capella squawked in surprise. "There's no way in hell I'm performing surgery on anyone!"

"Of course not, silly," Rhapsody laughed.

"Wow!" Capella let out a loud breath. "You had me freaking out there for a second."

"The Hand is going to do the surgery," Rhapsody said calmly.

"Are you freaking crazy!?" Capella shouted incredulously. "This homicidal maniac will make mincemeat of Aria!"

"Nonsense," Rhapsody said calmly. "You're just saying that because it tries to do that to everyone else."
"Uh…yeah!" Capella replied exasperatedly. "As a matter of fact, that is exactly why I am saying that."

"Everyone else except…" Rhapsody left it hanging, giving Capella an expectant look.

"Just because it doesn't maul you doesn't mean it will be similarly accepting of Aria," Capella declared firmly. "There's no way I'm letting this monster anywhere near that girl!"

"We'll see," Rhapsody said with a mysterious smile.

"Don't you dare smile at me like that, missy," Capella growled threateningly. "Lefty might be a traitor, but righty still has enough intelligence to know who's in charge."

"Bitch fight!" Melody said excitedly. "Let me pull over first so I can record it."

"Do you know how sexy it is when you get all tough like that?" Rhapsody asked mischievously.

"I'm so going to beat you down when we get there," Capella told Rhapsody grimly.

"Hurry up, Melody!" Rhapsody urged with a grin. "She keeps promising but never delivering. Maybe I'll finally get something this time."

When they finally pulled up to the large house, Capella and Melody were having a belching competition. Capella could have taught Will Ferrell how to burp properly.

"Okay, swallow your tongues ladies," Rhapsody said as she got out of the car. "I doubt we want Harmony's first impression of you to be a clone of Melody."

"Why not?" Melody asked in an injured tone. "What's wrong with me?"

"What isn't wrong with you?" Rhapsody asked dryly.

"This place is huge!" Capella said in awe as she got out of the car.

"We moved here a couple months after leaving the hospital so that we could keep a full time staff on hand," Melody informed her. "We haven't really needed anyone else for the last year though, so most of the other rooms are empty now."

"When do I meet Harmony?" Capella asked curiously as they walked through the front room.

"She'll be with Aria," Melody replied. "We never leave her without someone in the room."

As Rhapsody walked through the familiar halls until they came to Aria's bedroom, she could hear Harmony humming a light tune. It was one of the many melodies Aria had introduced to the world. The first thing her over-clocked mind noticed as they entered the room was the cardiograph speeding up. Harmony stopped humming and looked at Aria worriedly before she realized they had arrived.

"Look what I found when I took the garbage out," Melody told Harmony impishly. "The garbage men left a few morsels behind."

Capella was hesitantly stepping closer to the well-lit bed where Aria was lying, connected to several tubes and cables.

"She's beautiful!" Capella whispered fervently, with tears running down her cheeks as she beheld the most famous person on earth.

"That she is," Harmony said with a sad smile.

"This is Capella," Rhapsody said with a proud smile. "She's going to bring Aria back for us."

"What?" Harmony asked in shock, her eyes suddenly filled with hope.

"I am not," Capella denied resolutely. "I'm not letting The Traitor anywhere near her."

"What traitor?" Harmony asked protectively, moving closer to Aria.

"That's just what she calls her left hand," Rhapsody said dryly. "It's the key to unlock Aria's prison. I didn't realize it until shortly after we left the zoo, when it pulled my seatbelt on. Back when we were on the couch in the dorm, and you were asleep, your left hand began drawing patterns on my face. At first I just thought they were random doodles. After a few minutes, the patterns started triggering some of the memories of books I've read regarding chakras and energy lines that overlay the human body. It was drawing patterns over the exact areas that were depicted as lines of force in the books. According to the author of said book, when a person's energy highways become twisted and snarled, it can cause physical ailments like anxiety, depression, pain, confusion, and even death. I believe the reason Aria is unable to fully reconnect with her body, is that her energy field is snarled and has to be repaired before her consciousness can fully return."

"Don't doctors know how to check for that stuff?" Melody asked doubtfully.

"Doctors don't believe in anything that can't be tested in a lab," Rhapsody replied with a shake of her head. "Since they don't have instruments capable of detecting this kind of energy yet, it doesn't exist, as far as they are concerned."

Rhapsody walked over and put her arms on Capella's shoulders and rested her forehead against the smaller woman so they were looking into each other's eyes. "I need you to trust me with this. Please."

Capella stood staring at Aria fearfully, unable to make herself move closer. Rhapsody chewed her lower lip for a moment as she thought.

"Aria, I'm going to need a little help here," Rhapsody told the slumbering girl. "She's kind of stubborn, so you will need to really motivate her."

Aria immediately began singing. It wasn't in the foreign language this time.

I love every flower, every bird, every bee

and everything surrounding you and me

Be the night around me when the stars fall down

we'll watch as the heavens turn round and round

Watch as they turn around

Round, round, and round

Watch as they turn around

I love every bower, every leaf, every tree

and everything surrounding you and me

Be the world around me when the leaves fall down

we'll watch as the seasons turn round and round

Watch as they turn around

Round round and round

Watch as they turn around

Be the star encircling

All my joy on painted wings

Sail horizon bound with me

Let our love forever be

Let it all go round and round

I love every hour, every star, every sea

and everything surrounding you and me

Be the wind around me when the rain falls down

we'll watch as the storm turns round and round

Watch as they turn around

"She wants to come home," Rhapsody whispered to Capella through her tears. "Please. Help her."

Capella nodded as she wiped tears from her cheeks. "It was even more beautiful than I imagined."

"Mom, turn off the mp3 uploader first," Melody said quickly. "If she does wake up, we probably don't want everyone in the world knowing about it right away."

"Mp3 uploader?" Capella asked with a frown.

"There's a sensor near Aria's mouth that starts recording any new songs she sings and uploads them to YouTube immediately," Rhapsody explained.

"The worlds about to get a surprise from that last one then," Capella said with a deep breath. "They've never heard her sing in English before."

"Yes, I imagine that will cause a bit of a sensation," Harmony admitted with a sigh.

After disconnecting the mp3 uploader, Capella tentatively walked closer to Aria's slumbering form. She grew more tense as her left hand began rising toward Aria's face, but she didn't stop.

"You're going to suffocate if you don't breathe, Capella," Rhapsody warned her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. "Just relax and let it work."

Capella finally took a breath, though she still looked ready to leap back at the slightest hint of aggressiveness.

The Traitor began tracing lines on Aria's face slowly, almost sensuously. Rhapsody could see from her memory where the lines should be on Aria's face as the hand traced them perfectly. It was exerting varying degrees of pressure as it slowly moved along the contours caressingly. After a few minutes, the cardiograph started speeding up. Just the small increase in speed was enough to make Harmony's eyes fill with tears as she stood on the other side of the bed holding onto Aria's hand.

Aria's breathing grew steadily stronger as Capella's left hand continued following the invisible lines of force that only it could detect. Aria's toes began twitching after a few minutes. Harmony let out an excited gasp as Aria's hand suddenly tightened on hers. The lights on the ceiling suddenly began flickering, and the machines connected to Aria went quiet as the power suddenly shut off, leaving the room almost dark in the overcast morning.

"Mom?" a voice everyone in the room was familiar with asked hesitantly.

"Aria?" Harmony whispered hopefully.

"Mom, what is all this crap stuck to my face?" Aria asked tentatively.

"Oh, my baby!" Harmony cried out in relief, pulling Aria in to a warm embrace. "Oh Aria, I knew you would come back!"

"What's wrong, mom?" Aria asked worriedly. "Why are you crying?"

Before she could answer, Melody was joining the hug with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Oh Aria, I'm so sorry for how I treated you! Please forgive me!"

"Melody?" Aria's voice sounded scared. "What's going on? Where are we?"

"It's okay," Melody told her through her tears. "Everything's okay, now that you are back."

"Back from where?" Aria asked in confusion. "Can someone turn the lights on please?"

"We would, but the power went out when you woke up," Melody told her with a tremulous smile. "I'll go get some candles."

"Can you help me get this crap off of me?" Aria asked Harmony as she began pulling at electrodes and cords. "Why is there a needle in my arm?"

"It's an IV," Harmony told her gently. "It's been feeding you nutrients while you've been asleep."

"Didn't I get enough at dinner last night?" Aria asked dryly.

"What's the last thing you remember, honey?" Harmony asked softly.

"Going to sleep after we read The Chosen," Aria replied promptly. "Which is by far the coolest book I've ever read in my life. I had the strangest dreams last night as a result, and not a single nightmare."

"What kind of dreams?" Harmony asked gently.

"It's all fading now," Aria frowned. "There seemed to be a ton of singing in it though. You would have really liked it."

"I know I would have," Harmony agreed as another wave of tears began falling.

"Why are you crying again, mom?" Aria asked worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

"These are tears of purest joy, my angel," Harmony told her with a beatific smile. "You'll understand why later, but for now let's just take it slowly. A great deal has happened that will seem very strange to you, and I don't want you to be scared."

"I've got some candles," Melody called as she came down the hall with a nimbus of candlelight preceding her.

"Wow tall!" Aria exclaimed as Melody entered the room. "You grew like four inches overnight!"

When Capella giggled, Aria finally realized they were standing on the other side of her bed. She immediately clammed up shyly.

"Aria, this is Capella and Rhapsody," Harmony told her fondly. "Rhapsody has been with us for quite a while now. Capella is the reason that you are now awake."

"Did I have a head injury or something?" Aria asked in confusion.

"There was an incident," Harmony told her after taking a calming breath. "You've been in a coma ever since."

"How long?" Aria whispered in a frightened voice.

"Just over three years," Harmony replied, pulling her into another tender embrace.

"But I was just with you last night!" Aria objected in bewilderment. "How could three years have gone by? Wouldn't time have passed even a little for me?"

"You've only just regained consciousness," Rhapsody told her comfortingly. "The longer you are awake, the more memories may leak into your waking mind of what happened while you were in the coma."

"What if nothing happened?" Aria asked anxiously. "What if I was just turned off like a computer?"

"We know that you were still partially aware," Melody assured her warmly. "You were singing while you were asleep. We were able to communicate with you, to some extent, by singing back to you."

"I was singing in a coma?" Aria asked in amazement.

"You weren't just singing," Rhapsody told her softly. "You brought so much love, hope, and peace to this world that not a single person on this earth doesn't know your name."

"I did?" Aria asked doubtfully.

"Yes, you did," Harmony kissed her forehead. "You saved more people's lives than any person in history. Because of you, there is no more disease, illness, or sickness on this world. The songs you sang held the cure for every kind of sickness known to humans."

"I…I…remember singing….something" Aria said slowly. "I was in this beautiful light, except that it wasn't light. It was more than light. It was like my life before was a shard, and I was suddenly reunited with the rest of the glass. I knew so much…and now it's just…like Will o' the Wisps."

"Will o' the Wisps?" Harmony repeated questioningly.

"The song, you know?" Aria replied.

"Should I know it?" Harmony asked uncertainly. "How does it go?"

Aria smiled. "It's really pretty. I'll sing it to you."

Like fire, you know, you know, even the stars you'd inspire

Like flame, I know, I know, that loving you will bring me pain

I know I've taken all leave of my senses, I want to be

closer to you. Nearing your light I become the nothingness...

...lose myself in your light

How can I make you take me away to the land that you

call your own? Give your love to me. Make me so happy,

I won't ever want to go home

Will o' the wisp, I can't turn away or resist

White fire deep in the blue. Hopelessly drawn into you

Like truth, you know, you know, everybody loves you, adores you

Like air, I know, I know, that I'm invisible, I'm not there

Can't be too quick to deny my heart, it's beating so

fast in the dark. I'm like a planet revolving around you,

why then can't you want me too?

Drawing me closer, leading my heart away

It's getting darker, longing for you this way

You're like a beacon, leading me through the night

Do I deserve you? Do I deserve your light?

Will o' the wisp, I can't turn away or resist

White fire deep in the blue, hopelessly drawn into you

Everyone stood staring at Aria in awe when she finished. If anything, her voice was even more beautiful than it had been when she was asleep.

"I've heard that song before, but not in English," Rhapsody said with a sparkle in her eyes. "You just provided the first true translation of a language from the other side."

"Huh?" Aria asked, nonplussed.

"You were singing all of you songs in a language nobody understood while you were asleep," Capella explained patiently. "It bore no resemblance to any of the current languages on Earth, so linguists were unable to decode it without a translation key."

"I was singing that song in another language when I was asleep?" Aria asked in amazement.

"We've got recordings of every single one of them," Melody told her with a grin. "My sister, the linguist."

"How old are we?" Aria suddenly asked Melody curiously.

"We turned seventeen four months ago," Melody replied with a wide grin. "And guess who can drive!"

"No way!" Aria gasped, her eyes going wide.

As the candlelight flickered off Aria's eyes, a collective gasp went around the room.

"What?" Aria asked nervously. "It was just an expression."

"Hold still sweetie, I need to see your eyes," Harmony whispered as she brought the candle closer to Aria.

Rhapsody let out a breath as she saw the same dark purple irises with lavender vines wrapping around them as she had seen in her dream so many years ago. They were crisp and alive, with the lavender tendrils moving around like the spiral arms of the galaxy.

"Wow…" Melody breathed in awe. "Is that what it looked like in your dream, Rhapsody?"

"Yep," Rhapsody nodded, unable to look away from Aria's mesmerizing eyes.

"May I ask what you are all looking at?" Aria asked lightly.

"Let me get a mirror," Melody told her quickly.

"Just take a picture with your phone," Aria suggested.

"All of our phones got fried when the power went out earlier," Rhapsody replied with a small laugh. "You made quite the entrance on your return to this world."

"I can't believe I've been gone for three years," Aria said, shaking her head disbelievingly. "This is going to take some serious reorganizing upstairs."

"Here, take a look," Melody said as she returned with a small mirror.

Aria gasped as she looked at her reflection. "Is that me? What happened to my face? My hair? Oh my God, I look like some fake'n'bake white girl!"

"You do not!" Melody giggled. "You look beautiful! And just be glad you didn't turn completely white, like Capella and Rhapsody. No amount of tanning could make a white girl look as good as you."

"Did I just change when I woke up?" Aria asked doubtfully.

"Just your eyes," Harmony told her soothingly. "The rest of you was a lot more gradual."

"But why?" Aria asked in frustration. "Do other coma patients change colors while they're sleeping?"

"You were a special case," Harmony replied awkwardly. "The circumstances of your injury resulted in the pigment and hair changes."

"Why, what happened?" Aria asked curiously.

"I…I can't talk about this," Harmony finally whispered as a tear fell down her cheek. "Can we save that for a later time?"

"Okay mom," Aria replied, gently brushing the tear from her mother's cheek. "Whenever you're ready."

Chapter 11: Light

Aria stood in the dining room looking out the window at the drizzling rain as she watched the power slowly return to the rest of the street. Apparently, her return to the physical realm had triggered a power outage that had knocked out the entire northwest corner of the country.

Dr. Cole had arrived shortly afterward, worried that the lack of power would be affecting the medical equipment. She had nearly had a heart attack when Melody brought her face to face with a standing and talking Aria. Dr. Cole had spent almost five minutes staring hypnotically into Aria's lavender irises before Rhapsody finally pulled her away.

Dr. Cole had the only working phone, since all of the phones near Aria had been completely destroyed by the electromagnetic pulse that heralded her return from the other side. Rhapsody had briefly skimmed the internet to determine the magnitude of the power outage, as well as note that a growing number of Aria fans were convinced she was about to awaken after hearing her latest song.

"What do you want for your first breakfast in three years?" Capella asked with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes.

"I…I don't think I can eat," Aria replied hesitantly. The thought of eating anything felt so alien to her that she felt small shivers of nausea quiver through her stomach just talking about it.

"We'll start you on a liquid diet until your body adjusts," Dr. Cole told her reassuringly. "It can take some time to readjust to a solid diet."

"I don't think I can drink anything either," Aria admitted softly. "I…think this body is going to reject anything foreign."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Cole asked curiously. "When you say, 'this body', are you thinking of yourself in the third person?"

"Sort of," Aria replied slowly. "This isn't really my body. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's more of a loan. I'm not sure how I know that, but that sounds right. I'm starting to get little flickers of memory from when I was asleep, and one thing I remember clearly is that I was only allowed to come back under very strict conditions."

"What were the conditions?" Rhapsody asked intently. She was leaning on the kitchen counter with one arm wrapped casually around Capella's waist.

"The most important condition was that I wouldn't defile this body with anything from the physical realm," Aria said with a small frown. "I'm not sure what that means in its entirety, but when I think about eating or drinking it feels very wrong, like I would be putting impure substances in this body."

"A body has to have nourishment, Aria," Dr. Cole said firmly.

"It will receive nourishment," Aria assured her with a smile. "Just not from the same thing mortal bodies receive nourishment from."

"Then what?" Dr. Cole asked doubtfully.

"Light," Aria said simply. She raised her hand into the air and pulled on the invisible tether she could feel connecting her to something greater. A shaft of light shot down harmlessly through the ceiling and landed into her hand.

"That was cool," Melody noted with an awed smile. "What other tricks did you learn on the other side?"

"I guess we'll have to find out as we go along, won't we?" Aria answered with a matching smile.

"What can you tell me about the incidents leading up to the power outage in the Northwest?" Director Reynolds asked the four suited men sitting across the conference table.

"It wasn't a solar flare," Admiral Jennings spoke confidently. "The NOAA hasn't observed any significant solar activity in more than two weeks."

"Ground and space radar didn't pick up anything larger than a bird preceding the incident," Admiral Beck added curtly. "The epicenter of the disturbance is the home of a coma patient on the outskirts of Seattle."

"Coma patient?" Director Reynolds prompted with a raised eyebrow.

"Aria," Admiral Beck nodded.

"What do we know about this coma patient," Director Reynolds asked with a deep frown. "And I don't mean her ability to heal with songs. What kind of results were obtained from her lab work at the hospital before she was discharged?"

"All of the lab results were lost after a data-bomb was set off on the hospital network just before her departure," Agent Smith informed him with a grimace. "It looked like clandestine work."

"God damn spooks," Director Reynolds growled. "This might be even more urgent than anyone realizes, if those bastards have been tampering in the medical field again. Get a team out there and find out what's going on at ground zero. I'm going to give Director Grier a call and see if I can wring some answers out of his oily hide."

Director Reynolds frowned as he watched Vice President Davis leave the office just as quietly as he had been throughout the whole meeting. There had been unmistakable sweat beading on his brow after Aria was mentioned.

"Director Grier speaking," Grier spoke into his office phone.

"We need to talk," a voice announced curtly.

"So, talk," Grier replied with a humorless chuckle.

"Your little project that was supposed to disappear three years ago is still causing trouble," the man declared grimly. "Are you going to finish what you started before we lose another major player in the game?"

"It worked out better this way anyway," Grier replied lightly. "In fact, I might even be a corpse right now had we succeeded. I'm inclined to see what else we can glean. She was obviously a much better alternative to the competition we had our money riding on."

"Unless she has total recall," he disagreed sourly. "Who knows what kind of trail she'll be able to follow back to us."

"Unless corpses can talk, she won't be following any trails anywhere," Grier said dryly. "You didn't think I was going to leave any loose ends lying around after how much they botched up such a simple assignment, did you?"

"Let's just hope these particular corpses can't talk," he grunted. "So, you just plan on leaving her alone in hopes that a few more golden nuggets fall out of her tree?"

"Who said anything about leaving her alone?" Grier asked with another humorless chuckle. "Nothing speeds progress along like a little adversity."

"What did you have in mind?" he asked suspiciously.

"You'll see, soon enough," Grier replied mysteriously. "Always good talking with you, Davis."

IS THE GOVERNMENT HIDING THE TRUTH ABOUT ARIA AWAKENING?

Just minutes after Aria's latest upload, which was the first time she sang in English, the power to four states went offline for almost an hour. Homeland Security released a bulletin claiming the power outage was caused by a network glitch at the DOE (Department of Energy), but local experts claim many of the power grids that went offline are not even connected to the DOE's control center.

Reporters seeking audience with Aria's mother, Harmony Kageki, have been unable to make any form of contact. It has been nearly two years since the last public sighting of Harmony Kageki. The few individuals granted permission to enter the Kageki estate have assured reporters that she is alive and healthy, but many find it peculiar that she never leaves the premise.

Individuals hoping to receive a song of healing for conditions that recorded music cannot heal are facing disappointment as the estate remains silent of Aria's usual vocal remedies.

Speculation of whether Aria has awoken and is unable to remember anything from her coma is one of the hottest questions on the internet right now. Many believe that even if she has awakened, the government will try to keep the fact a secret in order to hoard any future discoveries she may provide. After the blitzkrieg release of healing music three years ago that transformed the face of the world overnight and put the pharmaceutical industry out of business, many suspect the corporate controlled government to be taking a preemptive initiative to prevent a similar event from happening.

While most people would love to see Aria awaken from her coma, a vocal few believe she has more to offer humanity by remaining unconscious. Many religious groups both hope and fear what Aria will have to say about the other side, if she does indeed remember anything after awakening. Their primary fear is that her knowledge from the other side will invalidate their religious doctrine.

However, most people, regardless of religion or creed, are eager to learn anything she may remember from the other side. The question of what she was saying in all of her songs for the past three years may soon be answered.

We'll be posting updates on any new information obtained regarding Aria's state as soon as we learn about it at theshadowearth dot com.

Chapter 12: Epilogue

Adrian looked at her watch for the third time in five minutes, hoping Harmony wasn't going to leave her to the wolves. The karaoke bar was nearing full capacity as the second day of the Aria competition was about to begin. Harmony had contacted her for the first time after three years of almost complete silence and told her all of the karaoke bars would be having a week dedicated to Aria's music. The entire road had been shut down in front of the bar and a large LCD billboard projecting the stage was on display above the building. Adrian wasn't sure Harmony hadn't finally lost her mind from grief when she purchased permits from the city to have several blocks cordoned off and hired a small army of security guards to manage traffic and police the event. Karaoke was popular in Seattle, but seriously? Even a week dedicated to singing her daughter's songs wasn't going to be enough to draw that many people.

"Everything ready?" Harmony's voice asked from right behind her.

With a small squeak of surprise, Adrian turned around and found Harmony watching her with a small smile. Yep, she'd lost it.

"Yeah, it's ready," Adrian nodded carefully. She always felt uncomfortable around people who seemed mentally unstable.

"Okay, just a small change of plans," Harmony told her with the same small smile, like there was a joke that only she knew about.

"A change of plans now?" Adrian asked in dismay.

"Let everyone know that there will only be one group performing tonight," Harmony instructed her firmly. "No buts!"

She must have seen the objection in Adrian's eyes. God, what a nightmare. This crowd was going to murder her.

"Fine," Adrian sighed resignedly. "Who's playing?"

"A special guest," Harmony replied, that crazy smile returning. "Everyone will recognize her when she starts singing."

Adrian scowled as she made her way to the stage. So much for a full house. The majority of the crowd would probably leave within five minutes of the announcement. They didn't come to just watch someone else sing; they came to participate. That's why it was a karaoke bar…duh.

"Can I have your attention everyone?" Adrian spoke into the mic tentatively.

All eyes turned to her as the room quieted. She had to swallow before continuing.

"Tonight is going to be hosted by a single group of singers for the evening," Adrian said nervously. She could feel sweat beading on her brow.

It took a moment for what she was saying to penetrate as the crowd stared at her uncertainly. They slowly realized the implications of what she was saying. The sound of angry muttering grew steadily louder as more people discovered they wouldn't get a chance on the stage tonight. Before they could begin questioning her further, she made a beeline off of the stage and over to the back of the room where Harmony was standing.

"They're going to riot, you know," Adrian told Harmony with a shake of her head.

"Let's give them a distraction then," Harmony replied with a sparkle in her dark eyes.

Harmony pulled on a feathered mask and walked toward the stage. Four other women in feathered masks joined her from the crowd as she climbed onto the stage.

"This is bullshit," Adrian heard a woman in front of her complain. "I'm out of here."

"Screw this," the person next to the woman growled as she turned to follow the first woman. "I want a damn refund."

It was a mass exodus as the majority of the crowd began moving toward the exit. As the crowd slowly pushed through the double-doors, Harmony and her group of masked women began playing a variety of acoustical instruments that had been set up on the stage earlier in the day. A few people in the crowd paused to watch them curiously as the unique composition captured their interest.

Adrian was impressed. She knew Harmony had been an amazing musician before her daughter's attack. The mixture of bongos, violin, recorder, guitar and piano was mesmerizing, with a subtle intensity that struck a chord inside of her.

Then the small dark-haired girl in the center of the stage began singing and it was like time suddenly stood still as the crowd froze. Everyone knew that voice. Adrian had to remind herself to breathe as she stared in shock at the small girl on the stage. It can't be Aria! She's in a coma!

But there was no mistaking that voice. It couldn't be imitated. There was something so pure and powerful in her voice that nobody could hope to match it. Adrian realized she was shivering, even though the room was uncomfortably warm with all of the heat from hundreds of people in such a small area.

It took her a moment to realize that words were appearing on the screen, words in English. Even though the melody line was completely familiar, it had never been sung in a language anyone on this planet understood. The accompaniment brought a depth to the well-known melody that further enhanced its unearthly beauty as the other four masked women joined her voice with their own.

The crowd stood riveted, unable to move until the first song completed. As the final notes ended, the crowd surged back into the room with a roar as they realized the most revered person on earth was right in front of them. The cheering was so loud that Adrian had to cover her ears. The glasses on the bar trembled at the deafening sound as a wall of pure emotion poured out of every person's throat.

"My God, she's back," Adrian whispered as a tear slid down her cheek.

Brooke was in the middle of texting her friend as she exited the karaoke bar. 'Don't bother coming tonight. They have a single band playing for the whole night.'

"This is such crap," Brooke grumbled to the woman next to her as they stalked down the sidewalk like angry cats. "That's the last time I come to this place."

"That's for sure," the woman next to her muttered angrily. "This place has really gone downhill since Harmony stopped managing it."

"They've got some interesting music, I'll give them that," another woman noted as the outdoor speakers began broadcasting the unknown band to the streets.

"It takes a lot more than that to-" Brooke trailed off at the sound of Aria's voice.

"Is that Aria?" the woman next to her asked in astonishment.

"It can't be," Brooke gasped as the sound of that angelic voice proved her wrong. "She's in a coma!"

"Maybe she really did wake up last week…" the woman next to her said slowly.

The stream of discontented patrons had come to a halt as everyone turned to stare at the large LCD screen above the building. As the song finished, Brooke began feverishly texting her friend back.

'Get down here now! Aria is singing in person! OMFG!'

"This is Channel 5 news, and I'm Kiara Walkins," the news anchor announced. "We have breaking news tonight as reports are coming in from all over Seattle that Aria is singing live at the Karaoke Queen. Her mother, Harmony Kageki owns a chain of karaoke bars between San Francisco and Seattle, but she hasn't been seen in any of them since her daughter was left in a coma over three years ago. Initial reports claimed that the manager of the Karaoke Queen announced the performance of a single band for the entire evening. Most of the patrons began leaving the establishment until they heard Aria begin singing. The most riveting part of the event? Aria is singing the same melodies from her coma, but in English. It would seem that the answer of whether Aria would have any sort of recall after awakening has been answered. Aria and the four women accompanying her are all wearing masks to hide their identities, but most people are assuming that her sister, Melody, and her mother, Harmony, are behind two of the masks. Whether she is wearing a mask as a result of burn scars, or to hide a new face is unclear. What we do know for sure, is that it is most definitely Aria who is singing, as that is one voice that cannot be imitated."

"Get the keys!" Dianna shouted as she jumped out of her chair and ran for the door.

"Already ahead of you," Jeanette replied with a grin as she followed Dianna out the door at a dead run with the keys in her hand.

Jason watched the large LCD screen from the roof of his apartment, along with over fifty of his neighbors. He had only been vaguely aware that there was a karaoke bar a few buildings down from his apartment before tonight. The sound of Aria's voice blasting out of the large speakers on the roof of the Karaoke Queen had interrupted his latest killing spree during an online Call of Duty tournament. It wasn't the kind of voice a person could ignore. He had looked out his window to see the masked visage of a small blonde girl taking up most of the giant LCD screen on top of the Karaoke Queen. As the camera zoomed in on her face, the sight of brilliant lavender irises with tendrils swirling around the pupils like spiral arms of the galaxy suddenly filled the screen.

"What the hell are you doing, PlanetCommander?" GrimReaper's voice snapped through his communicator. "You just stood there and let that sniper put a slug through your fat head."

"Dude, Aria is singing at the karaoke bar down the street from me," Jason replied distractedly.

"Yeah, and I'm sleeping with your mom," GrimReaper retorted derisively. "Get your head back in the game, dude."

"Sorry, man, I'm going to the roof to watch this," Jason replied in the same distracted voice.

"Dude, what the hell are you on?" GrimReaper demanded angrily. "We've been practicing for this tournament for months!"

"Aria healed my brother man," Jason replied firmly. "I'm not kidding. She's really here. You should come check this out."

"Holy shit!" GrimReaper gasped. "I just got a text from my sister saying Aria is playing at the Karaoke Queen!"

"That's what I've been telling you man," Jason said patiently. "I live right down the street from that place. I can see her face on a giant LCD they have on the roof. She's got a mask on, but dude, you should see her freaking eyes! They're freaking awesome!"

"Where do you live?" GrimReaper asked quickly. "I want to check this out."

Jason had given him the address and immediately gone to the roof and joined the majority of other tenants in his building to watch the show.

"I guess she really did wake up last week," his next door neighbor, Aaron, said from right next to him.

"This is too freaking cool!" Jason breathed with a silly smile on his face as he stared at Aria's hypnotic eyes. "I can't believe she is finally awake!"

"What do you think the government's going to do about it?" Aaron asked thoughtfully.

Jason frowned, remembering Aaron was an avid conspiracy theorist. "What can they do about it? She's like a freaking messiah. They'll have a worldwide mutiny on their hands if they try to do anything to her."

"Since when has popular opinion ever stopped our government from doing stupid shit?" Aaron snorted. "It's not like they require IQ tests for elected officials to get into office."

They watched on in silence for hours as Aria sang dozens of her coma songs in English. Jason just shook his head as he tried to imagine what kind of places Aria could have been visiting that would inspire the words in her songs. Most of the lyrics were in a kind of story format, describing interactions with beings comprised purely of emotion. It was powerful stuff.

After nearly two hours of nonstop singing, she finally sat down on the edge of the stage and smiled at her audience radiantly.

"Thanks for coming to my homecoming party," Aria said softly. "I'm still trying to catch up on all of the events that have happened since my body went to sleep, but I wanted everyone to know that I am still alive. I know you all have a million questions, and I wanted to answer some of them tonight if I can."

Jason looked around the rooftop at all of his neighbors as they watched the LCD raptly. You could have heard a pin drop in the silence as everyone waited to hear what she would reveal about the other side.

"So, I thought I would just let you start asking questions, and answer as well as I can," Aria continued in her beautiful voice. "Just raise your hand if you have a question and I'll try to answer as many of you as I can in the next half an hour."

Every hand in the audience shot into the air instantly. Aria smiled and pointed to a woman near the front of the audience.

"How much do you remember from the other side?" the woman asked.

"More each day," Aria replied thoughtfully. "When I first woke up, I didn't even know I had been gone. The last thing I remembered was the night before my coma. After a few hours, small snippets of memory began surfacing, almost like a dream. Each day, the memories become clearer."

"What was it like on the other side?" the next person asked.

"Very different," Aria said, taking a deep breath. "It makes it very difficult to describe as a result of just how different it was. We are used to this physical realm, and our five senses that constantly feed our consciousness information about our environment. On the other side, there is no sense of spatial dimension. You don't move around from point A to point B on a geographic scale like you do in this physical realm. Instead, motion is experienced through a much wider array of emotions than we experience in the physical realm. Instead of the dichotomy of fear and happiness that is the root emotion for all of the derivative emotions we feel here in the physical realm, there are millions of other emotions that give depth and breadth to consciousness. The other intelligences you communicate with use this wide array of emotions to share experience and knowledge with each other. I would have to say that if you could feel even a fraction of the emotional bandwidth that your spirit is capable of experiencing, it would overwhelm and destroy your physical body."

"Is there a God on the other side?" the next person asked intently.

"Not as the religions of this world define God," Aria replied with a small frown. "This is another difficult concept to explain. In order for anything to grow, existence requires a constant state of acceleration and deceleration. If this oscillation ever stops, a void of nothingness would take its place. It wouldn't matter if it was a void of light or absence of light; in a void, no action can take place. As a result, all matter is in a constant state of flux as existence moves from a state of absoluteness to a state of nothingness. The period of absoluteness is what most would describe as God. It is the time when all of the intelligences in existence have united once more into a singular entity. If we remained in this singular entity, nothing new could be learned because all of the intelligences in existence are already united and everything is known. In order to avoid the state of immobility that would result from such unified knowledge, God fractures itself into a new cycle of ignorance, allowing the gradual buildup of intelligences as the process begins again."

"How were you able to communicate with your body from the other side?" the next person asked curiously. "Why aren't other coma patients able to do the same thing?"

"Melody is the reason I maintained such a strong connection to this world," Aria replied with a smile at one of the other masked women. "She is my twin sister, and in many cases twins share a linked consciousness. In some twins it is stronger than others. In my case, it was a very strong connection."

"Did time pass at all for you while you were on the other side?" the next person asked.

"It did," Aria nodded with a small smile. "I'm actually an old woman by most people's standards. While I was on the other side, I experienced nearly a hundred years of life. It is difficult to compare time between the two realms, but I am referring to the number of experiences I had while I was there. To live through so many experiences in this world, it would take at the very least a hundred years."

"You seemed capable of reacting to your environment to some extent while you were in a coma," the next person said thoughtfully. "How aware of this world were you during that time?"

"This world is like a film reel on a projector in many ways," Aria replied, blinking her hypnotic eyes slowly as she studied the people in the crowd. "I was able to look at any event in history, as well as the future. I spent a great deal of time learning about the true history of this world. It wasn't like watching a movie by any means, but more like being saturated in the experiences of the people whose lives I observed. I felt their pain, their hopes and their joys. I knew their innermost secrets and their darkest fears. Melody's link to my consciousness kept a steady stream of awareness flowing into me regarding the state of the world my body was in."

"How were you able to heal people through song?" a woman near the back of the audience asked.

"In order to understand the process, you would need to first realize how limited human knowledge really is at this stage," Aria replied, with just a hint of dryness in her voice. "In this age, humans have only been looking at reality objectively for a few hundred years. While humans are making amazing progress, they are trying to run before they have fully learned to walk. Much of the recklessness in science is driven by personal greed for money and power. This kind of carelessness results in the use of forces that are still beyond human understanding. Rather than continue studying these concepts patiently until they are fully understood, humans tend to begin utilizing these forces because they can, without questioning whether they should. With a more patient approach, the lifespan of this planet would not be in danger. In answer to your question, the reason my songs are capable of healing is because everything in existence conforms to what you might think of as a code. All finite matter can be arranged and manipulated by utilizing the proper sequence of frequencies that program this code. Human bodies have a very specific blue print, and when that design is tampered with through environmental factors, whether physical injuries or energy parasites that you call viruses, it becomes corrupted from its intended design. My songs are designed to guide the finite matter that defines human bodies back into the original healthy blueprint. The average human voice is unable to produce the subtle variations of frequencies required to restore the human design, but some people can be trained to utilize some of these tools. Computers can also be programmed to produce all of the necessary sequences to the same degree that I do, but the programmers would need to understand the human code before being able to induce the same effect."

"You said you could see the future while you were on the other side," the next person said with an excited gleam in his eyes. "Can you tell us what you saw?"

"Hope," Aria said simply. "I was allowed to return to this world to give humans another chance. The future I witnessed was a world without war and sickness; a world where humans overcame their prejudices and accepted each other as unique extensions of a single entity. I won't lie to you; there will be struggles in the coming years as the human race transitions to this higher state of understanding. I can promise you that the struggle will be worth it though."

"Are you still able to heal people with physical disabilities that your recorded songs can't heal?" a woman near the front asked.

"Yes," Aria smiled gently. "After tonight, I will be seeking out programmers who can help create applications capable of using the same method of healing I use. This will allow people to be healed without having to travel long distances."

"I know this is probably the stupidest question you'll hear tonight," a man said apologetically. "But why are your eyes so different now?"

"There are no stupid questions," Aria replied with a reassuring smile. "However, I will have to admit ignorance to some of the changes that occurred with this body. It's kind of a loner, so to speak. It doesn't require sustenance from the physical realm, and I no longer require sleep. I'm still learning new things about it as I go."

"Since stupid questions are allowed," a woman in the middle of the crowd said with a grin. "Why are you wearing a mask? I'm assuming you were able to heal your own body."

"Since I have a new face, I thought I would try and keep it hidden so that I can walk down the street without attracting everyone's attention," Aria replied with a musical laugh. "I look quite a bit different than I did before the coma."

"Do you harbor any kind of anger toward the man who attacked you?" a woman asked tentatively.

"He was not at fault," Aria said slowly. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I mentioned earlier that I had access to the true history of this world while I was on the other side. The man who attacked me had been programmed using mind control technology by the CIA. The Vice President of the United States wanted Americans to fear chemical weapons in order to galvanize support for their war ambitions in the Middle East. While he was unaware of Director Grier's actual plan, the Vice President knew it would be something horrific when he asked the director to fabricate an incident. Their plan did not work, because my sister and mother found me before they could set up the next phase of their plan."

There was dead silence as everyone absorbed the new information.

"I told you the government was involved," Aaron told Jason grimly.

Jason just stared, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that all of the conspiracy kooks had been right all along about how corrupt the government was.

"I'm afraid our time is up for now," Aria said regretfully. "Thanks for being so supportive of my family for the last three years."

As she finished speaking, the lights went out inside the karaoke bar, plunging everything into darkness. When the lights came back on a minute later, Aria and her masked companions were gone.