“Okay,” Katrina whispered as they wandered back to where the lady was gathering her things and putting them back in order.

Careful not to touch anything, Katrina glanced down.

There were pictures of the church they were in from every conceivable angle. There were lists of features and room sizes. There were prices, big ones, listed. There were pages and pages of what looked like a contract. There was something with the title “purchase agreement” on the top.

“It looks like...”

Katrina got cut off by the sound of the unicorn man walking back into the entry way.

“That wasn't so hard,” he boasted. “Now, about the church. I'd like to make an offer.”

Ms. White stammered, surprised, “Are you sure? Don't you want to at least look at the rectory first?”

Sebastian shook his head, “No. I already feel like I belong here, like I'm coming home. I'll take it.”

The real estate agent nodded, “That's excellent. In that case, I have all the necessary paper work with me. If you'd like to accompany me into the office, it will take us awhile to fill all of this out.”

Katrina leaned toward her companion and whispered, “I have a feeling this is about to get really boring.”

The papers were outrageously boring. Kaitlyn thought she spied the words "Alternate Reality" in a logo, but it actually said "Alternate Realty." There wasn't an 'i.' Were people from other universes just really bad at spelling? Or was realty an actual word that meant something?

It looked and sounded like Sebastian was just here to buy the building. The Order spy couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of portals to other worlds in this conversation. There was, however, a lot of boring financial stuff she didn't care about. She was starting to feel really silly.

"It will be boring." Kaitlyn whispered back. As a good spy, she knew that a lot of her job was boring. But there was still a certain thrill to just being there, without being noticed. Besides, something interesting still might pop up, even though she knew it probably wouldn't. Either way they had to keep watching.

As time wore on, she decided that she could get away with asking a few things. Being psychic didn't have to mean that she knew everything, after all. "What's 'realty' mean?"

“Realty is a company that sells houses and buildings.”

Something squeaked under the pew next to them. Something skittered back and forth until it collided with Katrina's ankle. Something furry and wearing a sweater had found her from hearing her voice, even though she was invisible. It put its paws on her shoe and chattered upwards at her.

“Mr. Whiskers?” Or whatever his name was. She couldn't keep them all straight. From the angry way he chattered, it wasn't the right name.

“What do you want?” She whispered down to him.

The rat raced off toward a dark corner where several sets of eyes glowed back at them. Ah. The cavalry had arrived.

“Our back up is here, so we can go back to the shop and introduce you to everyone now. Letitia is going to be keeping an eye on Sebastian for awhile.”

Oh... so, that whole thing she was thinking about the portals and the other universes... okay. Well, at least she didn't try to tell anyone about that idea of hers. Especially Lori, she realized. Kaitlyn might've made herself look stupid in front of Lori! The mere thought of doing such a thing filled her with dread.

Good thing she wouldn't be doing that.

From what Kaitlyn could see, it seemed like the invisible girl was talking to a rat. In a sweater. Named Mr. Whiskers? If only she could ask questions! Alas, she was still suppoed to be a psychic, and psychics are supposed to know everything already. That's what a psychic at the Sanctuary kept telling her: psychics know everything.

Apparently Mr. Whiskers was 'back-up,' so they could leave. They could just get up and stop watching Sebastian, if they wanted. Which made Kaitlyn feel kinda bad about all that time she spent spying on Sebastian without having backup; those days spent following the unicorn around felt like they took forever. To think: she could have taken turns with somebody, cutting all that time spent in half. Why didn't she think of that herself?

And... Letitia? Was that Stephen's imaginary girlfriend that he kept talking about?

Kait kept hold of the invisible hand and let the other girl lead the way.

The bus ride to the shop was much shorter than the bus ride from the gym. It wasn't long before they were at the entrance of Future Sight.

“So, this is the shop,” Katrina opened the door for the red haired girl. It was family homework time, apparently. Inside, Crow and Julia were bent over a math textbook, under Elias' supervision; he was also supervising a bowl of tuna at the same time. Marco was having trouble sitting still doing his homework. He kept flitting back and forth between a math textbook and a calculator that he'd put on the opposite side of the room: on purpose. Even Alister was hunched over grid paper and a worksheet filled with different kinds of triangles. The lines on his paper were meticulous, and every answer that he bothered to write down was perfect.

Letitia was notably absent, probably tucked away in her bedroom, concentrating on keeping track of her spies that were currently watching Sebastian buy a church.

Eros, settled comfortably into a plush purple arm chair, looked up upon their entry.

“Welcome, Kaitlyn. We've been expecting you. Alister told us you'd be paying us a visit this evening,” the former hobo waved one hand in the twelve year old seer's general direction. The seer ignored them all, muttering something about how many square c's were in a hypotenuese.

This was the same shop where Sebastian went, when she'd last heard anything about Jude. This was also where Sebastian tried to force himself upon that strange woman right before teaching her to wield sharp objects more effectively. And apparently going back to her home above a gym to live with her.

Anyway, the place looked a lot nicer when it wasn't completely destroyed. And there were a lot more mutant kids in here than Kaitlyn expected. She already knew about Jude, of course, but she had no idea about the others. The orderling tried to avoid the larger boy who was zipping back and forth across the room.

The only person who wasn't a kid was the adult on the purple chair, and what he had to say made her stop, and gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. They were expecting her? How...? Oh. The shop was called Future Sight. Guess what Alister could do. And what Kaitlyn couldn't do.

Crow spoke up, glaring accusingly at the newcomer: "Alister also said you were a big, fat liar."

The Orderling took a step back. Elias gave Kaitlyn a nervous grin, flashing his peculiar teeth before nudging his younger friend. "Uh, Crow: homework." He looked up at Kaitlyn again. "Alister never said that."

"He said you were a talented liar," Marco added helpfully, from where his calculator was. "He never said you were big or fat." Now he was at his textbook.

Kaitlyn was getting a bad feeling about all of this. They knew a lot about her already. They probably already knew about her power, too. On top of that, something about Alister's apparent lack of interest in this conversation was starting to unnerve her.

Katrina took a moment to stare at Crow, then Kaitlyn, then Marco, then Kaitlyn again. Finally her shocked stare came to roost on Alister's hunched form, where it turned to the angry glare of a hawk about to peck someone in particular's eyes out.

“Why didn't you tell me the truth?” She asked accusingly, not of Kaitlyn, but of the little blonde seer who was hiding behind his shiny little sunglasses apparently oblivious of the death rays she was glaring at him. She didn't like being lied to, but she disliked being used even more. They were all a team, but it was like Alister thought he was the team captain or something, and no one needed to look at the playbook except him. They would just have to believe him, follow his lead, and trust that everything was going to work out in the end.

“You wouldn't have brought her back if I had,” Alister muttered somewhere between a squared and b squared.

The little kids had stopped working and were just staring at them, looking back and forth between them like they were afraid something was going to explode.

“Urrh!” The little illlusionist intoned her frustration as she finally threw herself into one of the matched violet chairs and crossed her arms across her chest. She took a few breaths to cool herself down. There weren't many people in the world that could make her angry. Alister was one who could do it without even trying very hard.

Eros stood, and offered his chair to the new red head, “Please, won't you have a seat? Tell us about a little about yourself so we don't need to rely on rumors and hearsay.”

Kaitlyn walked to that purple chair very slowly, as if she were an inmate on death row, and this was the electric chair. Once she was there, she was the center of everyone's attention. The two little kids, the fast one, and the one with the shark teeth were all staring at her. Each set of eyes paralyzed her. She needed to get out. She didn't want to be here. It was a stupid idea for her to have walked in here in the first place.

Eros patted her on the shoulder. Somehow, instead of making her even more uncomfortable, it made her start to calm down. But she still wasn't calm enough to just come out with the truth. Her mind was working in overdrive, trying to think up a way to get out of this.

"So, Kaitlyn..." Alister broke the silence, not even bothering to look up from his work. "What does your mutation let you do?" He almost seemed to recite the question, as if he were obliged to, without really seeming to care how she answered it. But it gave her somewhere to start.

Could she get away with lying about this?

Probably not. She looked at Katrina, hoping her reaction wouldn't be too awful.

"I... kinda blow stuff up."

Katrina sat up a little straighter in her chair for a moment, then slouched back into her original position.

Blow. Stuff. Up.

That explained a lot, that did. A lot about why it seemed like they got attacked. Really it was this girl the whole time and Alister knew perfectly well what was going to happen, or probably did, he hadn't looked into her future, but it was obvious that he saw this current conversation.

Jerk.

“You could have gotten me killed,” her voice was calmer now, almost as if she were reading facts out of a history book, or lines from a play. Again, her comments were directed at Alister, not at the blow-y up-y girl, Kaitlyn. She wouldn't have done it on purpose, but the seer knew full well the consequences of his actions, at all times.

“You didn't die,” the seer pointed out, then with a flash of mirrored light, he tilted his head back to his text book. He was going to finish two more problems.

“So glad I could be of use then, fetching that dynamite little package you wanted so badly. Thanks for telling me it was explosive.” She was having a really hard time keeping civil. She had meant to keep that comment calm, too, but it was coming out way more sarcastic than she intended. Really, she ought to just go over and knock that cocky smile right off his face, it would be so much easier. Except her self defense class hadn't taught her how to start fights.

“Kids, bed time,” Eros announced, deciding that Katrina's latest comment, or perhaps one that Alister was going to say next, wasn't appropriate for ears that small. “Marco, Elias...” they rolled their eyes in unison. Clearly they weren't children, but Eros' tone suggested that they had better at least go supervise bedtime preparations.

"But it's still morning!" Crow protested. The sun shone in from the windows. It couldn't have been later than 11:00 AM. Eros knew this, but that wasn't really the point.

"Bed. Now." The man stood his ground. They weren't going to their rooms because it was late, and they needed sleep. They were going to their rooms because he said so. And maybe because things were about to get nasty. There was a walking bomb in their living room, after all. Elias got the message, and tugged Crow along with him. Marco followed suit, leading Julia to the safety of her room, leaving all their stuff behind.

It took Kaitlyn a moment to realize who Katrina was mad at. Which made her less scared, and more confused. Once the other kids had left, Alister spoke up, sounding a little irritated himself. "Sometimes everything works out better when I don't tell you things. Besides, we need Kaitlyn here. Hey, Kait: " He changed the subject to the redhead without even looking her way, "When Sebastian still lived in the Iris Clinic, how were you able to keep track of him?" Another recited question. He already knew it all; he was really just asking for everyone else's benefit.

Kaitlyn still wasn't feeling comfortable here. "Uh... I pretended to be a 28-year-old doctor whose age got messed up by a mutant, and I got an office across the street from him."

That sounded ridiculous on so many levels, Eros wasn't sure where to start. "And that worked? They believed you?"

The girl shrugged. "I guess. Everyone else just kinda went with it. So... yeah."

“You pretend to be 28 years old, but age shifted?” It bore repeating. Alister had been right, she was a talented liar. Maybe Katrina needed more practice. Here she thought she had to change even her appearance to get people to believe that she was someone else, and all she had to do was make up a a story about some mutational accident to be believed.

“Crazy.” She shook her head, forgetting for a moment even to be mad. All that to spy on Sebastian...

“Wait, why were you spying on him anyway,” if she wasn't part of the oracle group, who was she spying for? Because a person didn't just spy on someone with such dedication for no reason. Not with books to keep one's self occupied while he worked out at the gym. She knew that much from her own time as a spy.

Alister closed his notebook with finality and slid it back into his backpack. He'd done enough to get a B on it. He'd still graduate in the top few percent of his class, especially with his test scores being what they were, he didn't care so much about the homework.

The future seer leaned back on his chair and put his feet up on the chair opposite his under the table. He was getting bored and wanted to circumvent the rest of the conversation, so he skipped right to the heart of the matter, “So, are you going to join us in stopping the apocalypse?”

"Yeah, pretty much." Kaitlyn affirmed. She was starting to pick up on their amazement, and she let herself grin. Yeah, she was pretty hot stuff, pulling off a stunt like that. Of course, most of the people in the building wouldn't believe her without the extensive documentation Lisa had forged, but none of the people here had to know that. Kaitlyn was just going to take the credit.

As for why she was spying on Sebastian... she wasn't sure what to say, at first. But then she remembered that Alister already knew everything, and she probably couldn't get away with lying. So, instead, she would brandish the truth like a weapon, and wave it intimidatingly at everyone else in the room. "My mom asked me to do it. Her name's Lori Faust. You've probably heard of her."

Eros shook his head; it was clear that he hadn't.

"CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals?" No dice; he kept shaking his head. "Owner of the Sanctuary?" Eros shrugged. These things meant almost nothing to him. Kaitlyn sighed. "Well, she's a big deal." And, implicitly, he should feel intimidated.

>>“So, are you going to join us in stopping the apocalypse?”

Kaitlyn thought about it. Technically, Lori just wanted her to be spying on Sebastian the whole time. But these people were doing that too, so they could help, and they were trying to stop the world from being destroyed. The Orderling found it hard to imagine that Lori wouldn't want to save the world. "I'll do it," She said.

Even if it turned out Lori didn't want her to help them, she could just break this promise and go on her way. That said... Eros was a really nice guy. For some reason, she really didn't want to have to go back on a promise to help him.

“Lori is your mom?” Katrina did knew who that was. She hadn't known she was the CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals, though, just that she was a “big deal” at the Sanctuary. Did that mean Kaitlyn was like... princess of the Order? Katrina was fine with that. She liked plenty of people who were in the Order.

“How are she and Lenna doing? Are they still dating?” She hoped they were, because she had thrown them the best date ever and it would be a shame to have wasted all of that on a relationship that wasn't going to work out.

“Tell them both 'hi' for me,” Katrina insisted, “and if they ever get married, I'd love to help plan the wedding.” There could be carriages with white horses, and doves released when they kissed... She raised an eyebrow at Alister to see if, perhaps, there might be wedding designing in her future. He avoided her gaze with a knowing smirk. What a poor sport.

Hmph.

Well anyway, “That's great! We're glad to have you on board.” Even if she was a talented liar, exploding, Order princess. Katrina offered her hand in welcome.

Alister didn't show quite as much exuberance, but he did stand up and sling his backpack onto his back and walk over to where Kaitlyn was standing.

He leaned forward and whispered something just quiet enough that Katrina couldn't hear it.

“Our connections can help you as much as yours can help us. I understand where your loyalties lie, but she won't take betrayal well.”

It was still to early to see exactly how things would play out. There were still so many variables that Alister was uncertain whether Kaitlyn would actually betray them. It was a possibility, certainly, but not a certainty.

Katrina tilted her head at the seer and narrowed her eyes at him. That stupid twelve year old always had to have his little secrets.

Lenna and Lori? Dating? Married!? Kaitlyn was shocked.

But... but... Lenna had a boyfriend. Didn't she? The guy with the big truck and all the guns. They were at Coney Island on the Fourth of July. At least, she thought he was her boyfriend. And she knew Lori and Lenna were friends, but... "I... didn't know they were dating." The girl's voice was uneasy; she struggled with the idea even as she spoke. Lenna and Lori were her heroes, but... she didn't know that about them.

As she thought more about it, she would decide that Lenna and Lori getting married might be one of the coolest things ever. That way, she'd be kinda-related to both of them. This realization would only come later, after a lot of thinking about it. For now she was still a little shocked, and barely payed attention to Katrina as she accepted her hand.

Alister managed to snap her out of it, by finally acting like he cared about this conversation. And by getting so close to her that she could feel his breath on her ear. With the whispering out of the way, he backed up a bit looked her in the eyes. The Orderling could see herself nodding in his reflective sunglasses.

Then she went right back to thinking about Lenna and Lori. Several years ago, Kaitlyn didn't even have one mother. Now, she realized, she might be approaching a time when she would have two.

Kaitlyn didn't even know her mom was dating Lenna? That... might make sense. They had both been awfully shifty about it, rendezvousing in secret at Mondragon Labs of all places. Maybe they didn't want anyone to know about it.

Katrina waved her hands in front of her, by way of apology.

“I didn't mean to spoil anything. You really didn't know?” At least the red headed girl looked happy about it. That was probably a good thing, that the daughter didn't horribly disapprove of her mother's life choices. It happened all the time, but families tended to work out better when it didn't.

“They had a secret date that I accidentally was there for, with fireflies in jars and everything.” Katrina was proud of the fireflies, especially. “But anyway.”

Alister shrugged, making his backpack bounce up and down, “Fireflies, next it will be wedding dresses. That's my cue to leave.”

Katrina raised an eyebrow at Kaitlyn. Boys: they weren't any fun at all.