Thankfully, Vice-Commander Carpenter took my assessment of Raina and my advice on how to handle her very seriously. She didn’t just descend upon her, or have someone else under her command do so, as soon as possible to work something out for her and Midnight to do some invisible scouting around campus. While we did need to actively seek out whatever alien presence might have taken root here, and time might very well be an important factor in that, Raina’s mental health was more important.

I had made certain, during my report, to stress that Raina wouldn’t be much help if she were thrown into things right after finding out that Midnight was real and that she wasn’t losing her mind like she thought. After the way those doctors near her home had treated her like she was crazy, and made her doubt her own mind for years afterward, she was likely still in a very fragile state, both mentally and emotionally. She needed at least a little time to sleep on things, talk to Midnight, process that this was all real, and to be able to settle into life at the University.

I mean, just starting University and getting used to a more adult learning environment can be enough of a shock to the system for a young adult, but add in that we were going to be studying magic and how it can alter living beings, and it kicks things up a notch. Poor Raina didn’t just have that to deal with, though. She also had to adjust to the fact that she wasn’t crazy and had a formerly mythical creature bonded to her and speaking to her in her head.

Vice-Commander Carpenter was allowing me to be Raina’s contact with the Vanguard, trusting me to approach her when I felt she was ready, and to contact her office when and if Raina was ready to negotiate some sort of deal. So, during the rest of the week, I talked to Raina between classes to get to know her better as a friend and to get a sense of how she was adjusting. Having definitive proof that she wasn’t crazy, witnessed by someone else, helped her a great deal, but I knew from experience that it can take a while to adjust to having a Unicorn casually chatting in your mind, not to mention their protectiveness of those they choose as their Maidens.

Honestly, though, I had some adjusting of my own to do, and I was a very busy Water Sprite during that first week of classes. For one thing, my class schedule was very full, especially with the added class for Vanguard Officer training. For another, I was trying to spend what time I could with the people I cared about, make Naia feel welcome in our group, and keep an eye out for trouble.

As the week progressed, the attention that we were getting from the baseline humans and other students tapered off, and the guys coming to our table in the cafeteria to proposition Ainslee while we were eating became less frequent. Unfortunately, the problems with Kelly only seemed to get worse, and I was more frequently having Moonlight tour the campus in search of anything that might indicate aliens and keep an eye on my sister when I or one of the others couldn’t.

With each new observation or report of someone stopping to stare unnaturally at my sister, I became more concerned, and so did command. I insisted that Kelly never be alone, not even between classes. We were trying to have at least one of us with her at all times, and Moonlight was almost spending more time silently shadowing Kelly than she was with me, to fill in the gaps when we couldn’t be with her due to different classes and schedules.

Now, it was just after dinner on Friday evening, and now that we were all finished with classes for the week, I was hoping that things might take a more positive turn for us. Sure, most of our weekend was probably going to be dedicated to Vanguard basic training, but at least I could be sure that Kelly would be safe and secure while we did so. I had also talked with Raina, following our final class in the afternoon, and things had gone a lot better than I had feared.

Raina seemed to be adjusting well to Midnight’s constant presence in her life, and he was starting to shed some of that constant nervousness that I had noticed in her on the day we had met. She was probably as ready as she was going to be to hear about the current alien situation on campus, and I was relatively certain that she was mentally stable enough to make a sound decision. As much as I didn’t want to rush this or push her into anything she might not be ready for, we needed her and Midnight, if they could be convinced to help. The few stealth teams that the Vanguard had were stretched thin, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity, and ethereal or not, Moonlight could only do so much on her own.

With the Vice-Commander’s go-ahead, I had informed her of the current situation that we had discovered through the people creepily watching my sister, what I suspected, and that we needed someone to help with the invisible scouting around campus to try to get to the bottom of it and to keep my sister and other students safe. While it did go better than I had hoped, that didn’t mean that Raina was easy to convince.

I knew all too well that she didn’t want to join the Vanguard, and that, as a Wood Nymph, she had a natural aversion to violence of any sort. So, first, I had to convince her that she wasn’t being asked to join the Vanguard or fight the aliens if she did find them. I insisted that she would only be doing stealthy scouting and observation, which would likely help her later in her goal of joining a team studying Altered ecology and species in former Incursion zones.

Not only would a recommendation from the Vanguard’s Vice-Commander help a lot with that, but it would be good practice for her and Midnight at observing and assessing without being detected. Her only tangible connections to the Vanguard would be through the paycheck she earned from her part-time work, and me as her contact. Should she find anything during their scouting forays, she could contact me by my personal comm code. That would work out well on the Vanguard side of the situation as well, since we couldn’t be certain whether Vanguard comms were being monitored yet.

In the end, Raina agreed, and I think that was in good part because she felt indebted to me for convincing her that she wasn’t insane and that Midnight was real. Midnight didn’t seem to be convinced, but that didn’t surprise me since he was probably prioritizing Raina’s safety, and there was the slim possibility that this could endanger her. In the end, he was going along with it, but mostly because it was what Raina wanted to do, and because she would be safer with him while ethereal than by possibly looking for trouble without that edge.

Once I had gotten the pair on board and suggested that Raina take Midnight for an invisible ride around campus that evening to get started, I reported my success to Vice-Commander Carpenter. That was when she told me that she wanted me to teleport directly to her office to meet with her after dinner. So, that was what I found myself doing, once I had seen my teammates all back from the cafeteria to our dorm room, where Kelly would be hidden away from prying eyes.

I appeared directly in her office, as instructed, and called out, “Cadet-Major Pierce, reporting as ordered, Ma’am.”

“At ease,” she replied, as she looked up from a holographic display on her desk, quickly dismissed it, and gestured to one of the Fairy-sized chairs that she kept on the surface of her desk. Then she set up one of the magitech anti-surveillance devices to ensure nobody would be listening in on us. Okay, it looked like this was serious then.

I quickly took a seat, as instructed, and inquired, “Is this about Raina, Ma’am?”

The Angel shook her head, looking more tired than I had ever seen her as she replied, “No, Lily. Since you, your team, and your sister are greatly affected by this evolving alien situation in the city, I thought that you might appreciate an update, especially since you may be involved in any plans to either counter or capture the enemy.”

Something that she said stood out to me, my eyes widened, and I was compelled to ask, “In the city? It’s not just on campus?”

She shook her head; her lips set in a severe frown. “I’m afraid so, Lily. The two who were watching Kelly on orientation day were unable to provide any information on who might have been controlling them, not even when we had a telepath look through their minds. Since then, we’ve been checking with not only that campus clinic, but also clinics and the hospitals across the city about people suffering blackouts, lost time, and memory issues, and it’s not just limited to the University grounds.”

“You’re sure they’ve all been alien-influenced?” I pressed, anxiety tightening a knot in my chest.

The Vice Commander’s expression didn’t change as she nodded. “We’ve done the same with the security office and police stations regarding complaints about stalkers, eliminating those where the stalkers in question did not seem confused or were having memory issues similar to those who were watching Kelly when confronted. We’ve been seeing some patterns.”

My eyes widened just a little. Patterns could be good; we might be able to use them to track one of these aliens down or at least have a better idea of what they were doing and why. “What kind of patterns?” I inquired.

“We’ve determined that six people are currently being monitored, including your sister. Four young women attending the University, a woman in the city, and one of the boys at the orphanage for Altered kids. They all have one thing in common: all of them were Titan captives who were returned to Earth within the past two years. I am assigning people to shadow each of them, including Kelly. Those shadowing students at the University will pretend to be late-arriving students and will be given schedules matching those they’re watching over,” she explained, causing me to let out a sigh of relief.

At least someone would be watching over Kelly and the others, who were being monitored. I needed to ask, though, “Do we have any idea why they’re being monitored?”

Some of the frustration showed through in the Vice-Commander’s expression as she grimaced and shook her head. “We have no idea. None of these people is in any sort of position that would help the enemy militarily. The students are all in nursing, mental health, and counselling programs. None of the people who have been controlled have any form of military knowledge or are in a position to access it either, which brings me to the other pattern we’ve discovered.”

I let out a long sigh. This only kept getting more confusing the more that I learned. How was I supposed to help keep my sister safe if I had no idea what was going on or what these aliens might be after? With a sad shake of my head, I said, “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the other pattern?”

Vice-Commander Carpenter looked me straight in the eyes and announced. “All of the ‘watchers’ we’ve discovered were non-Altered humans. Every single one. Not one had any Altered genes whatsoever. The current theory is that whatever these aliens do to mind-control people and mess with their memories, it doesn’t work on Altered for some reason. If we’re immune to their mind-control techniques, it would certainly explain why they haven’t just taken over Kelly and the others directly, and why they no longer wanted them on their home world.”

She was right. Altered having immunity to their mind control would explain a few things. However, there was something that stood out to me that made no sense, not that the Titans made any sense in the first place. “Okay, I can see your point, but if they couldn’t control them any longer, why send them home to Earth? Doesn’t that make us a threat? Why not just kill them all and be done with them? And why have they been avoiding capturing people who are going to become Altered? Why let us go and grow into our power? The only Altered that they seem to actively attack are those we send to the front lines during Incursions. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed morbidly. “If our theories are true, that’s a massive tactical mistake, one that we will make them pay for.”

While I was completely on board with making sure that the Titans’ mistakes came back to bite them in the collective ass, I really didn’t like the fact that we still had no idea what was driving them to launch these Incursions on Earth or what their goals might be. Of even more concern to me was that I didn’t know what they wanted with Kelly and the other people they were monitoring.

My sister had already suffered enough at the hands of those alien bastards, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that they weren’t done with her yet. If they were, then why send spies into enemy territory to monitor her? If there was no military reason for it, then why do it at all, except perhaps as some form of psychological warfare?

So, I felt the need to voice those concerns. “I’m on board with hitting them in their weak spots, Ma’am, but what about the more immediate problem?”

Vice-Commander Carpenter nodded thoughtfully. “I agree with you, Lily. I hate the thought of having enemy spies anywhere near this city, or on Earth, period. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot to go on with them doing their spying through human proxies and wiping their memories afterward. Hell, their interest in your sister and the other five persons of interest could just be some sort of smokescreen to direct our attention away from something important.”

“Damn, I hadn’t even thought of that,” I muttered before letting out a long, frustrated sigh.

“Right now, we’re doing all that we can by keeping an eye on their targets, issuing them low-profile bodyguards, and by having psychics and stealthed scouts keeping an eye out for anything unusual,” the Angel said, but she looked as unhappy with the situation as I was. “Unfortunately, we now have a whole city to search for signs of the spies instead of just the University campus. If they continue working as they have been so far, though, I don’t see us tracking down any of their spies unless we get lucky with a Unicorn patrol or one of our psychics sensing something that doesn’t belong.”

“What do you think the odds are of that happening?” I asked.

“With only two Unicorns and a handful of receptive psychics with a decent range, the odds are extremely slim, especially with the whole city to cover,” she admitted with a sad shake of her head. “We probably have as much chance of getting struck by lightning. There is one way that we might increase those odds, though.”

So, it seemed like we were now getting to the meat of the matter. She had mentioned possible plans when I arrived, but so far, she hadn’t done anything but update me on how badly the search for enemy spies was going. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like whatever it was she was about to bring up. Still, I made myself say the words, “And how would we do that, Ma’am?”

A grimace of distaste spread across the Vice-Commander’s face. “It’s possible that the aliens haven’t made their move yet because they haven’t been able to get any of their targets alone. Even before we decided to assign bodyguards, the girls attending the University weren’t alone for long in public spaces, and the same goes for the two people who are off-campus.”

This was starting to sound uncomfortably familiar. “You want to use Kelly as bait, don’t you?”

“Not right away, and only if she is willing,” she insisted. “We’ll give stealth patrols and psychics a little more time and see if anything comes up that way, since they don’t seem to be a threat to any sensitive information at the moment. If it does come to that, Kelly is probably the best option for bait, given her invulnerability.”

I frowned and quickly countered with, “Yeah, sure, but only if they physically attack her. I’m more worried about the psychological risks. Kelly still has nightmares and flashbacks about her time on the other side of the Breach, Ma’am. Just hearing their fucking language caused her to freeze up and go into a massive anxiety attack when we confronted that alien’s human puppet.”

The Vice-Commander nodded sadly and gave me a sympathetic look. “Which is exactly why I want to give our other methods a little more time. Hopefully, we can stumble upon something before plan B becomes necessary. It should also give Kelly some time to think about whether she wants to do this. Given her psychological state, I won’t order her to do it. This would be a strictly voluntary assignment. Also, I would have you, Moonlight, and whatever other members of your team she can carry tailing her invisibly, and we’ll have reinforcements in place for you to cast a portal to in case the alien watching her takes the bait.”

I sagged into my seat with a heavy sigh. “Thanks, Ma’am, I appreciate that, and I will talk to Kelly and the others about this possibility.” I wasn’t thrilled about the idea, though. My sister had suffered enough at the hands of those aliens.

“That’s all I ask, Lily; you’re dismissed. Go back to your dorm, talk things over with your teammates, and get some rest. You all have training tomorrow morning.” With that, she gave me a weak, tired, and somewhat forced smile, and I was free to go.

As soon as I returned to our dorm room, I let the other in on everything that I had learned during the meeting. Nobody was especially thrilled about the idea of giving Kelly’s alien stalker a chance to do whatever it was watching her for, and Kelly, understandably, needed some time to think about her possible role in Plan B and to just process everything that we’d learned. None of us could blame her, especially me.

My meeting with Vice-Commander Carpenter had given me a lot to think about, after all. Even after sharing the update on the aliens on campus situation and the potential Plan B with the others, I found myself unable to stop thinking about what I had learned during that meeting. None of the aliens’ behavior made any sense, and if it didn’t make sense, then how could I expect to keep my sister safe from whatever those alien fuckers had planned? It was a long time before I fell asleep that night.