Lee sat on the couch going over the inventory for the bar. The liquor order was due the next day. Kevin had gone to bed a couple of hours earlier, but the TV was still on providing background noise. Lee wasn’t really paying much attention to it.

At least not until the news came on with a story about another murder. Yes, there were always murders happening in New York, it unfortunately seemed to be unavoidable.

But there was something about this string of murders that kept drawing her attention and made her worry much more than any other reports of murders did. These were making her anxious, overly concerned. Not scared, these murders weren’t making her fear for hers or Kevin’s safety any more than any other murder in this city made her.

She was anxious because for some reason hearing about these murders made Lee feel like she needed to do something.

Which was ridiculous. She wasn’t a cop. She wasn’t one of those X-Men. She hadn’t even been working with Haven since Tarin had disappeared.

Not since Tarin had disappeared. And the Tarin from the other side of the rift had shown up with the same powers. And taken over the shop.

Memories that she had suppressed for years suddenly came to the surface. The broken crystal ball in the shop; her broken collar bone; a bedroom saturated with blood; a hand in her hair, dragging her across the kitchen to get a knife…

Lee didn’t even realize that her heart rate had increased, or that she was holding her breath.

Then a picture flashed across the TV. It wasn’t the same woman. Lee knew that it was impossible for that to be true. But the woman on the screen looked remarkably like the woman she had seen Tarin with at the bar. When Rachel had dragged her back to New York after the camps.

“Fuck” Lee exclaimed, raising to her feet, not noticing the papers falling to the floor as she stared, horrified, at the TV.

It shouldn’t be possible. How could it be? That spirit hadn’t left Tarin. It hadn’t been willing to give up the body. It’s plan had been to either win that battle or kill Tarin in the process. He hadn’t left Tarin’s body, he’d completely disappeared.

But it was all too similar for it to be anything else.

Glancing over her shoulder in the direction of Kevin’s bedroom, Lee hesitated for only a moment. Then she was digging around for her phone. She needed someone there with Kevin now, because she needed to get to the shop.

It felt like it took forever to figure out where her phone was, but the moment she found it, she was dialling, calling her sister. Taking a couple of deep breaths as the phone rang to try and ensure that her voice wouldn’t sound panicked, Lee waited. Finally, after six rings. “Hey Rach. I’m sorry, I know it’s late, but could you come over and stay with Kevin? I need to go deal with an emergency.” Then she waited, breath held. If Rachel couldn’t come over that night, Lee wasn’t sure who else she could call, and that would mean the merge would last that much longer.

“Thank you so much,” Lee said, her breath leaving in a relieved sigh. “I’ll see you soon.” Hanging up, Lee was moving. Into her bedroom, changing into a pair of old jeans (she had thought of sweats since that would have been so much more comfortable during the inevitable waiting, but that would have caused Rachel to ask too many questions), a black tank top and a sweatshirt.

Then Lee started digging in her closet. Looking for something she had hoped, that she had thought, she would never have to use again. Finally, at the bottom of the box in the very back corner of her closet, Lee pulled the taser out. Then as an afterthought, she pulled a messenger bag down from the shelf and threw the taser in, followed by a change of clothes.

Back out to the living room, Lee transferred her wallet from her purse, tossed her cell phone in, then went to the junk drawer, digging until she found the key to the shop. There was nowhere else in the apartment it belonged, but Lee had never been able to get rid of it.

That left her waiting, looking around. Rachel would be here to watch Kevin, that was taken care of. But the last time this had taken days. And Lee knew her sister. She could not have Rachel poking her nose into this, especially not with Kevin. And she’d try, if she was in the city.

Getting an idea, Lee grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a note. Signing it, Lee had just gone to the desk to grab Kevin's passport when she heard a knock. Grabbing his birth certificate as well, Lee put it and the note in the passport as she rushed to the door.

“Thank you so much, Rach,” Lee said, leaving the door open as she turned back into the apartment. “You’re a lifesaver.” Literally, Lee hoped.

“Of course Lee. What’s the emergency?”

“Not entirely sure,” Lee claimed, her back to Rachel as she threw her running shoes on and grabbed her bag. “I’ll let you know in the morning. But…” Lee bit her lip as she turned back to Rachel. “This could potentially be huge and take a while. If I’m not back in the morning, why don’t you take Kevin up to see mum and dad? You know I don’t take him as much as he wants.”

“Lee, what’s going on?” Rachel asked even as she took the passport that she was handed. “This sounds major.”

“It’s really nothing for you or Kevin to be worried about. It just might end up taking a while, why not give him a visit with his grandparents out of it?”

Was she lying about the worrying part? Damn right she was, but she had no intention of either Rachel or Kevin finding out about the merging, so there really was nothing for them to worry about. Without waiting for Rachel to have a chance for any other questions, Lee grabbed her keys and made her way to the door. “Thanks again, Rach!” she said as she made her way into the hall and shut the door.

Taking a slightly shaky breath, Lee quickly made her way down and out of the building. This was not going to be easy. It never was.

It had been a weird few weeks and it had all started because he’d decided to step in and break up a fight (something that he never usually would have done) in a bar (a place he’d never usually be) and had taken a really well placed right hook to the sweet spot just below his jaw.

Much to Tarin’s chagrin and eternal mortification, he’d folded like a card table. Unconsciousness had been brief, but he must have hit his head again on the way down because recovery from the subsequent concussion had been brutal. The fuzzy head, the lingering exhaustion, and the mild confusion upon waking were nothing the medium hadn’t experienced before. This one had just lingered. Meeting a woman in a bar had been a bad idea in the first place. The woman had gone home with him that night though, and Tarin hadn’t really cared if it was pity until he’d woke up next morning alone. So much for a real connection.

Luck in the female department really hadn’t been bad lately and he’d had two other…successful? Encounters over the subsequent days/weeks but each time he’d woken up freezing cold and alone. Tarin hadn’t ever been one to sleep around, but none of these women were giving him a chance for a second date. Were all the women in New York ninjas? Was he that sound a sleeper? Was it a difference between the other side of the rift and here that you usually woke up with the person you fell asleep next to the night before?

Maybe tonight would be the night. Things had gone well again, and in spite of a pounding headache Tarin was hosting company who didn’t seem to mind that he lived in the back of the shop. He was going to stay awake this time too, he’d really liked this woman, Christine, and if she was going to sneak out…he wanted…to…know…why…

Dammit…he’d fallen asleep again…and it was cold…and wet…

Tarin opened his eyes. He looked around. He closed his eyes again. He opened his eyes again.

Nothing changed. He was outside.

Tarin raised a hand to rub his eyes and nearly knocked himself out with the handle of the knife still clenched in his fist.

The knife…clenched…in his fist…

The…bloody knife. There was blood on his hand too, so much blood. Too much blood.

Tarins’s breath was coming in strangled gasps, his whole body shaking as he looked around. Looked down where he could feel something pressing against his inner legs. Mute horror nearly paralyzed the man as he forced his head down and forced his eyes open.

”Oh god….no…how….”

It was…had been…Christine.

Tarin’s fingers turned to ice and the knife dropped into the grass, there was blood absolutely everywhere. Christine’s blood…and so much more. What had he done? Why couldn’t he remember doing it? How did they get outside?

Suddenly Tarin was retching and he fell to the side, into more blood. The ground was slick with it. How was there so much blood?

Not even knowing where he was, Tarin backed as far away as he could, until his back came up against something solid, shaking and hardly able to breathe. He pulled his knees up and rested his forehead against them much like he had when he was a kid.

There was only one way this had happened, there was only one way to solve the problem. It had been drilled into his head his entire life. Never lose control. If you lose control, you take care of the problem yourself. Nobody else needs to clean up your mess. Tarin’s eyes shifted now, locking on the knife where it laid in the grass.

Lee was still living in the apartment that Rachel, Kevin, and she had gotten when they moved (back) to New York years ago. The apartment that had been relatively close to Tarin’s and to the shop to make it easier for Kevin to see his father, for them to coparent.

Which meant that she was relatively close to the shop. But cutting through the park would always make the trip shorter. Plus in the park, at night, she could move much quicker without being as conspicuous about it. Not that she had all that much energy. Yet.

But getting to the shop even a little quicker was what was important.

Rushing through the park, she focused on her siphoning as she wouldn’t be able to see if there was anyone around.

In a particular darkened area, one where the nearest light that should have been illuminating the path was burnt out, Lee felt a person up ahead of her, off to the right of the path. Lee moved to the left of the path and continued on. It really wasn’t concerning for her, there were always people in the park. She just didn’t want to be surprised if any of them actually tried to approach her.

”Oh god….no…how….”

The voice had come from the person she felt just off the path. Right as she was passing them. Lee stopped so quickly that she stumbled. ‘Please don’t let this be him,’ she thought as she turned and cautiously made her way toward the voice. ‘Let me be wrong, let this be anyone else…’

Off the path Lee went, stepping up her siphoning as she focused on it, trying to see as much as she could in the dark. Around the shrubs that had obscured the person from the path. And Lee stopped dead in her tracks.

It was so much worse than she had feared. At least the darkness hid the redness of the blood, but she could see where it was wet. She could smell the blood. She could taste it.

And there, on the other side of the latest victim, she saw him, back against the trunk of a tree, arms wrapped around his legs which were pulled up to his chest. The Tarin from the other side of the rift who had appeared just days after the rift had closed. After h-the Tarin she had known had disappeared. The man she had let take over Tarin’s shop, because what else were she and Kevin going to do with it. Lee knew it was him because she’d stopped to check on the shop periodically over the years. Not often, only once or twice a year, never actually going in, but checking to see that the shop was still open and looked in decent shape.

Some of those times she had seen this man through the windows.

This man who now sat looking scared, horrified, shocked. Staring at something on the ground, off to the side of the body.

“Shit,” Lee said under her breath as she started moving again. This was so far from good…This was not how she had wanted to deal with this situation, but here they were.

At least based on the expression on his face, the spirit wasn't currently in control. That was something at least. Still focusing on her siphoning, knowing that no one else was around, Lee took a wide arc around the body to try not to get blood on her shoes. And that’s when she saw it, what the man had been staring at: the bloody knife.

“Shit,” she said, pulling her bag open and grabbing her shirt out. That would have fingerprints on it, wouldn’t it? Bending down, she grabbed the knife, wrapping it in her shirt before shoving it back into her bag. Then she straightened up again, eyes on the man - she couldn’t actually think of him as Tarin - and spoke slightly louder. “Get up. We need to go. Now.”

The knife was right there, almost in arm’s reach. It was so close to the body though, the body that he had carved up. The body that he had slept with when it had been alive and warm and laughing just a little while before. She’d been sweet, talented…young. He’d thought she was too young, but she’d know how old he was and it hadn’t been a problem…

Oh god…he was almost sick again. Tarin knew he needed to move, needed to grab that knife and ensure that nothing happened like this again, but he was shaking so hard he didn’t think that he could move. He just needed a few minutes to pull himself together. He was so tired.

Footsteps padded down the path and Tarin wondered what would happen if someone stumbled on him. It was obvious what had happened, he just put his forehead on his knees and waited. When they ran to call the cops, he’d take care of things. The last thing Tarin wanted to do was to traumatise the person who had stumbled on this disaster any more than they’d already been.

There may have been words said, but all Tarin could do was look at Christina’s bloody hand, the little charm bracelet she wore. He made himself look at everything else too. Her eyes were still open.

“Get up. We need to go. NOW.”

Those words broke through, and Tarin stared in horrified disbelief as someone bent down and picked up the knife. They also stuck it in the bag.

The person was familiar in a vague way. Tarin’s brain just wasn’t working though and the shivers were wracking him so hard that he just couldn’t figure out where to look of what to do.

Lee. Her name was Lee. She had been married to the Tarin who had lived here.

“What….” he said, “You can’t be here…” he said, words rasping out.

“I have to stop this. I don’t know how it happened…I don’t know what you think you can do, but you can’t handle this…I can’t handle this…” he was rambling, babbling, trying to get the words out that would make her understand.

Tarin held his hands out, hands that were almost dripping with the blood that essentially caked him everywhere else. Up he looked, helplessly, making desperate eye contact.

“I don’t think this is the first time. I need that knife…please…I have to stop this.”

He didn’t seem to realize that she had approached. His eyes, she noticed, had moved back to the body in front of him. He was shaking, but otherwise not moving, even as she was telling him to get up.

But finally, he looked up at her, and he spoke. “Not out here, I can’t do a damn thing,” Lee agreed, keeping her voice low even though she still couldn’t feel anyone nearby. “Even if I could, we still need to move, now.”

Then he was holding his hands out, hands that were still dripping with blood, and Lee had to swallow as she moved her eyes back to his. “No, it’s not the-” she started, whispering the words, only to cut herself off as she processed what else he had said. What he was alluding to ‘needing to do’ with the knife.

“No, you do not need the knife,” she said firmly. “That is not an option on the table. The only thing that you need to do right now is get on your damn feet. Got it?”

As she stood there, taking a couple steps closer to him, she watched, carefully. Waiting to see what he would do. Trying to be ready for if the spirit took over again. Thinking about what she could do if he didn’t follow her instructions and get to his feet.

As far she she knew, Tarin had never woken up like this. At least from what she understood, the worst he had woken up to was the bedroom. The blood soaked bedroom that had caused her to run to the bathroom multiple times while she was cleaning it. And yes, that had been absolutely horrible.

This was so much worse, here, right in front of them.

“So help me, if you don’t stand up I will drag you back to the shop, and that’s something that we don’t have the time for and that I don’t have the energy for yet.”

Why didn’t she understand? Why was she insisting that he do anything besides the only thing that would ensure that this never happened again. Lee had all but confirmed that this wasn’t the first time that this had happened and Tarin just groaned and dropped his head onto his knees again.

“You know this isn’t the right thing to do Lee. You don’t owe me anything just because I’ve got this name and this god-forsaken power. I don’t deserve your help. This is my responsibility and I deserve everything that’s about to happen.”

The fact of the matter was that the longer they stayed here, the more chances were that someone else was going to stumble in. Lee had put that knife in her bag and that made her an accomplice. Maybe she didn’t owe him anything, but now he owed it to her to not drag her into his mess.

She was going to drag him? Could she do that? He looked at Christina again. Looked at what he’d done to commit it to memory so he wouldn’t lose his resolve. What did it matter if it was now or later?

“You shouldn’t have come here tonight Lee.” Tarin said as he pushed up from the ground, swaying slightly where he stood. His legs shook so hard he almost sat down again, but the muddy, blood-soaked ground kept him on his feet. Maybe he could still get her to leave.

“I’m definitely not the person you knew. You really should just hand that knife back over and walk away like you were never here.”

He dropped his head onto his knees, but Lee was still able to hear every single word that the man said. But finally, he pushed himself up to his feet and Lee took a step forward at seeing how unsteady he was, ready to catch him if need be.

He - Lee still couldn’t think of him as Tarin - managed to stay on his feet, though. “Maybe you’re right, maybe I shouldn’t have come. The Tarin I knew probably would have agreed with you on that. But I’m here now, so let’s get going.” Starting to walk slowly, keeping her eyes on him to make sure he was both following and staying on his feet, Lee led him through the park. Not heading back to the path, but rather walking through the grass, staying away from where she knew the paths were, keeping their distance so that while people may be able to see them if they were walking on the nearby paths, she hoped there would be enough distance that not only would the blood not be visible, but hoped that there would be no possible way they could be identified.

Plus the grassy areas, away from the paths, were generally much darker than the main routes through Central Park.

“And you’re right, you’re not the person I knew. And maybe you’re even right about not deserving my help, but you do need it. Plus, if the monster in your head is somehow who I think it is, I was already involved long before you stepped through the rift.”

Still feeling around them with her siphoning, Lee tried to get him to walk faster. The faster that he walked, the sooner that they’d get to the shop, and the sooner she could try to deal with this spirit. Again.

Hopefully third time would be the charm.

What the hell was even happening here? Tarin had absolutely no idea why he was following Lee through the grassy, more wooded areas of the park that led in the general direction of the shop. He didn’t know why she was so insistent on doing something when the solution he proposed was by far the most effective way to end the threat no matter who was in his head.

The fact that she knew.

“Wait, you’re fucking telling me that you’ve done this before. Dealt with this?”

They kept walking and despite the fact that he still felt like he was going to throw up and he couldn’t feel his hands or feet, Tarin was flabbergasted. How had that other bastard found someone like this? What cruel or wonderful twist of fate had landed him someone who didn’t wake up in ribbons simply because she’d made the mistake of going home with him and being too…human to resist.

They had to be approaching the shop, but if Tarin was honest with himself he didn’t know where he was right now and was just going through the motions as Lee led him wherever she wanted him to go. Tarin didn’t know what else to do, so he started talking.

“I didn’t even know until tonight. I know what to watch out for. I’ve been watching for the signs as long as I can remember. There was nothing to tip me off. No random clothes, no waking up in unfamiliar places…everything was so…good.”

He paused, a hand raising to run through hair that was too caked with blood to allow the action to even happen. Why was everything sticky?

“She was…nice Lee.. She was too nice for that. Oh god, there’ve been at least three others…I thought all the women in this reality were ninjas.”

She said there weren’t any other options on the table, didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t the man she’d known before he’d ended up on the other side of the rift…but how did someone live with this? Knowing what they’d done.

They were getting close to the edge of the park; between jogging at night and simply wandering, sometimes for hours, during the day, Lee had a good idea of the layout of the entire park. Especially the end of it, near the shop. So close, but at the moment feeling so very far away.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Lee admitted. “A number of times.”

It was then that Lee felt it, felt the energy of someone else approaching them, coming up on the path that they were getting close to crossing. Coming on quick. “Shit,” Lee muttered, stopping in her tracks and raising her hand in front of his chest to stop him as well. They were much too close to the path for her liking, and with how fast the person was approaching, they wouldn’t have time to move away. At least it was much darker where they were standing than the path.

“Turn and face me,” she said, her voice quiet. As she spoke, she angled her body so she was facing midway between where the runner was coming from and where…her companion was standing. But she wasn’t looking at him, her eyes were focused on the path beyond him.

She didn’t even realize that she was holding her breath as she stood there until after the runner had passed them. Then she let it out with a relieved sigh. “That’s because he’s smart,” Lee told him as she continued standing there. Waiting until the runner was further away. “And he learned from last time. I’m not surprised that you didn’t know…”

At that point, Lee decided it was about as safe as possible to continue moving. The runner had made it a distance and was getting further away, and Lee couldn’t feel anyone else. “Let’s go,” she said, starting to walk again, picking up the pace even more as they crossed over the path and made their way the last distance toward the exit of the park. Onto the street.

“I’m sure she was,” she finally whispered, glancing over at him, trying to gauge how he was doing. “They all were…”

This was going to be the tricky part, Lee thought as they approached the edge of the park. Approached the street. At least the shop wasn’t far.

Lee just kept talking and Tarin continued to reel. Tarin remembered the day they’d met, the casual way she’d spoken about merges and possession and all the times she’d managed bail out the Tarin who had lived on this side of the rift.

Tarin half-assedly followed Lee’s directions as the jogger approached. He was so so so tired. Bone deep, weary, exhausted. More than anything he just wanted to lay down and sleep so that maybe his brain would stop, the shaking would stop…everything would just…stop.

They were at the street by the shop now, and Tarin knew that Lee was hesitating because she was worried someone would see. He looked at her for a moment, watched her trying to solve the problem.

Instead, Tarin just walked out of the park. He didn’t look around himself to ensure there was no traffic. He just walked right out into the street towards the shop. If that’s where she wanted him, that’s where she’d go.

Where was rush hour when you needed it?

He didn’t say anything. Though, Lee wasn’t sure what there was to say. Plus, his brain hadn’t been working the best since she’d found him. Shock would do that. Plus the tiredness, if this was anything like the last time. Though, she couldn’t help but think sadly, he would soon be finding out what true exhaustion felt like.

But now she was standing near the exit of the park, out of the direct light cast by the streetlights, trying to puzzle out how to get him from there to the shop without being seen. Yes, it was the middle of the night by this point, but this was still Manhattan. Less busy did not mean empty streets.

Suddenly, Lee saw him walking past her, out of the park. And into the street without even looking. “Damn it!” She exclaimed as she ran after him.

Grabbing his arm and yanking him back as a car veered out of the way, barely missing him. “What the hell were you thinking?” Lee asked as she now directed him by the arm she was still holding, moving quickly to cross the rest of the street.

Somehow, they lucked out. Other than the car that almost hit him, and a few others that drove past, there wasn’t anyone else on the street between there and the shop. Finally letting go of his arm as they approached the door, Lee dug the keys out of her bag, unlocking the door and waiting for him to enter before she followed, locking the door behind her. “Let’s head into the back,” she suggested, not even bothering to turn the lights on in the front of the shop as she started walking.

Rush hour, it turned out, was never where you needed it to be.

Lee was not happy, but Tarin didn’t respond when she asked him what the hell he’d been thinking. It should have been obvious. There had been two other cars, but in true New York fashion they either hadn’t noticed the state he was in or hadn’t cared as they made their way across the road.

Another time Tarin might have found it odd that Lee had a key to the shop. Tonight, all Tarin could do was think of a few hours prior when he’d brought a Christine back here after their date. She’d gently teased him about the place.

In they went, and Tarin followed Lee placidly into the back of the shop, feet squishing every step he took.

“I need to understand why you’re doing this…” Tarin said, “Why you’d go so far out of your way, put yourself and that kid of yours in so much potential danger when you can’t even look me in the eye?”

He was silent the entire way from the edge of the park to the shop. Even once they made it into the shop and she had ‘suggested’ they move into the back, he didn’t say anything.

Flipping the main lights on, not the lights that she’d put in for holding sessions back here, Lee watched him as he walked. Listened when he finally spoke. “Kevin’s not in danger,” she replied. That was one thing that she wouldn’t allow. That was the reason that Lee was wanting Rachel to take him out of town in the morning. He wasn’t in danger. That was the number one, absolute most important fact.

Taking her bag off her shoulder, Lee set it down against the wall as she thought about the rest of what he said. How did she really explain to a man that she didn’t really actually know why she was doing this. Why she had to do this.

Taking a deep breath, Lee looked up at him. That was not the face that should be in this shop. That was not the man she knew. Yet, his face felt familiar. She could see resemblance to Josh. To Adele.

“Because I’m the only one who can stop this,” she finally said, her voice growing quieter the longer she spoke. “Because that monster hiding in your head can’t be allowed to continue. And because, even if it was another spirit, just because you’re not him, doesn’t mean you deserve to deal with all this on your own.”

This world was such a baffling mix of the one he’d come from and something completely new that even several years later Tarin found himself shaking his head at this detail or that.

The people here had probably been the biggest shock. They were so used to mutants. They were so used to seeing visible mutations, dealing with the aftermath when someone lost control, being that collateral damage.

Of course now she looked at him. To tell him what he deserved. Tarin looked back unflinchingly, green eyes devastated but resolved.

“Whatever is left of that girl in the bushes thought she was safe too.” He said, mouth twisting in a face that looked like it was never going to get its color back.

Almost like they’d been keeping their distance since he’d woken up, spirits were creeping back into the shop now. The myriad of images they brought with them were usually an afterthought, but not tonight. Tarin put his head in his hands and squeezed. He could smell the blood again now, feel the places where it was still damp and sticking to his face.

“What I deserve?” He said, a mildly hysterical laugh bubbling up from somewhere that didn’t usually produce laughter. “What I deserve?”

As he spoke, Tarin moved towards the little kitchenette area and the drawers that were in there. He was probably the only shop owner in New York City without a gun. He’d thought it was after that way.

“You’re not the only one who can fix this Lee. All you have to do is hand me that knife and walk out the door. Obviously your Tarin couldn’t clean up his own messes, but I can and I will. Just walk away...Go back to the park and call the cops”

It was weird how calm he was all of a sudden, Tarin couldn’t help but think. “If it makes you feel better…not a single living person on either side of that rift would even know I was gone.”

At least nobody living…

It was involuntary, but when he pointed out that the woman that…Lee couldn’t help the shudder that ran through her.

And then he was laughing, and it was far from a pleasant sound. It was dark, disturbing. Then he was moving, toward the kitchenette. As he was saying that she wasn’t the only one who could fix this, not if she gave him the knife.

Lee was moving even as her brain was trying to remember, so many years ago, what had been left in the kitchenette here in the shop that could be used as a weapon. There were knives, but how sharp were they? Was there something that he had added in the years he had been here?

“Like I said before, that is not an option,” Lee told him, her voice firm, almost a little angry, as she came up in front of him. “And you're wrong about no one noticing you being gone.”

As she finished speaking, Lee reached her hand out to place it on his arm as she started siphoning.