"First of all", said Ryan Fulcher, once he and Emily had settled down in the rather imposing company of the leather-clad Mystalornan woman, "I would like to thank the people and government of Dominion for all they've done to help my son..."

Ravani nodded respectfully, but did not speak, choosing to allow the Earth-man to say his piece in full. "...and I understand that Tony feels honour-bound to do all he can to repay you for your help", Ryan continued, "but Emily and I feel that this... this 'super-hero' stuff isn't right for our son at present. He's been... detached from the real world for so long that we're afraid that he doesn't quite understand the consequences of his actions - he told us he's killed, and the way he spoke about that - I... I didn't like it. It's... it's almost as though he's lost touch with what it is to be human..."

"Take it away", begged Emily, reaching for and squeezing her husband's hand. "The... statue. I don't want to lose my boy inside it. I know he's done some brave things, for what he felt were the right reasons, and I don't doubt that the people of Dominion are good people - it's just... just that I - I..."

"I had very little to do with Tony's... transition", said Ravani as Ryan broke off to comfort his wife, "but as the highest-ranking representative of Dominion currently in this galaxy, may I take this opportunity to thank your son for all he has done, for Dominion and all other worlds that love peace and freedom. To many, he is, truly, a hero, and his bravery is beyond question..."

Ravani paused. Emily looked as though she was going to speak, perhaps to unleash an angry tirade against what she might have felt was an attempt to "talk her round", but the Earth-woman chose not to speak, and after a moment, Ravani continued. "...but most important of all, he is your child, a child you have had delivered back into your family from apparent oblivion. We will, of course, honour your requests, even though to do so will cost us a much-valued ally."

"This isn't forever", Mr Fulcher intervened. "I'm proud that my son is prepared to fight to protect others, and defend what's right - my family has a military history going back several generations - but all that just isn't right for my boy just now. I want him to go to school, be around people his own age, and I hope he'll come to fully understand what being human is all about."

"Should you ever need help with anything, call for us", Ravani told the Fulchers. "You can rely on SCORPION as well, as we have absolute confidence in their abilities. Their leader is, after all, the founder of the greatest force for peace in my home-world's local region."

"Deputy Commander Korax told us about Rex Tyrho", said Emily. "She was going to arrange for us to meet him."

"Then you can see for yourself, and make your own decision on who to trust", Ravani reassured them both. "I don't think you'll find any reason to doubt what I've told you."

"Reason? Doubt?", murmured Mr Fulcher. "Even since we tried to wake our son up, we're almost constantly being forced to re-evaluate our definitions of those concepts. It's not easy to deal with."

Ravani smiled knowingly. "Mr Fulcher, may I introduce to you The Universe? Universe - Ryan Fulcher."

Those words seemed to go some way towards putting the Fulchers' minds at ease, neither Ryan nor Emily having any more concerns or reservations left to air. The couple got up, apparently content to leave the matter as it was, but it was the previously quiet Emily who had the last word.

"Tony wants to speak with you on his own", said the Earth-woman - and then she added, with a hint of anger in her voice, "and... and when you next she that Darkhawk, you... you tell her I want to speak to her. Will you remember that?"

"My people are gifted with near-absolute memory", Ravani replied, quite respectfully. "I can assure you that your message will be passed on, and that Darkhawk will respond to your request as a matter of urgency."

"See that she does", said Mrs Fulcher, more sharply than before, "or I'll come looking for her."

That'll be some achievement, thought Ravani as she watched the Fulchers depart - and projected her memories skyward to Dominion Five, where they were immediately relayed back to Dominion, and Darkhawk. Before Ryan and Emily's footsteps had receded out of earshot, the message had been delivered, and was already being acted on...

A few minutes later, Tony Fulcher made his appearance, for the moment relying on a wheeled chair which he initially propelled with his own two hands. Once inside the room, however, he took his hands off the rims of the two large rear wheels, and resting his hands in his lap, completed the journey by pushing himself forward by telekinesis.

"Quite impressive for an untrained psionic", remarked the Mystalornan sorceress, as Tony came to a stop in front of her. "Practice is always worthwhile - and you don't need to hide your talents here. These people have seen it all before, and more besides."

"I'm just trying not to freak out my folks", said the young Earth-man. "They've had more than enough 'culture shock' for now."

Tony took a deep breath to steady himself, but as she started to speak, it quickly became clear that one breath wasn't quite enough. "I - I don't want Darkhawk to think I'm ungrateful, I'm turning my back on my duties..."

"Your father is right", Ravani intervened. "He..."

"I know he's right", interrupted Tony. "I knew even before he started talking about it."

Ravani was the most attentive listener as Tony explained the events that had led him to question some of his own actions. As little more than a child, he told the Mystalornan, he shouldn't have been so ready to kill, even when faced by enemies of Dominion who were trained and eager to kill, driven by their almost religious devotion to the Faenri Sisterhood. Doubts had surfaced at the time, but it had been too easy to push them to one side, in the name of duty...

"We all find our choices challenged, sooner or later", Ravani told him. "One is constantly challenged by others, but the real challenge comes when one is confronted by oneself. For me, that time came as I emerged from The Transformation of Ealvonhai - and you have undergone a transformation of your own, in 'waking' from being 'locked in'. One could say that I, too, had been 'locked in'; the Mystalornan dormant within the Ealvonhaian..."

The Mystalornan shared some of her less reputable deeds with Tony, giving him an insight into the person she had been before Ealvonhai became Mystalorn. She told the young hero how she had come to regret her not entirely legal past, and some of her adventures trying to put right her wrongs, and it was Tony's turn to listen, to try and understand.

"Go and live the life that's been given back to you", Ravani said at the end. "Dominion will survive - she already has champions aplenty, and should you absolutely be needed, we will call for you."

"Don't forget about me", Tony mumbled hopefully, in return.

"Rest assured that we won't", the spellcaster responded. "There's still the matter of your unauthorised departure from Dominion..."

Tony went a little pale, and Ravani smiled wickedly, an expression that, to the young man's mind, came to her a little too easy for his liking. Ravani saw his discomfort, and preyed on it for just a few moments, enough to remind the young hero that he served a higher authority, then she let her expression slip away. "Go", she told him. "Be with your family, and don't worry about Darkhawk, or Dominion. There'll be plenty of time for heroics in the future."

Tony nodded slowly, thoughtfully. Ravani thought he might leave without saying another word, but as he spun his wheel-chair around, the young man said something that made the Mystalornan spell-caster smile. "Not quite done with that yet", he said. "I've got to go and save my mother from getting on the wrong side of Darkhawk..."

Tony wheeled himself to the door telekinetically, but once again went back to propelling himself manually as he prepared to go back out into the corridor. "Take care out there", he said, pausing in the doorway. "I've seen what's happening, and I get this awful feeling it's going to get a whole lot worse, and soon."

"Take care of yourself, and your family", Ravani responded. "Hopefully, we and SCORPION can keep this world out of the conflict."

"You better", said the young Earth-man, "or you won't have just my mother to worry about!"

Tony tried to sound cheerful, and upbeat, but Ravani's past adventures and shady dealings had led her to develop a "sense" for evasiveness and deception, and that sense was registering just such an aura of unease around the young man. "Is there something else...?", she asked, gently, getting up and walking over to him. "I'd like to help, if I can."

The young hero was almost out the door, but he paused once again, and sighed. "To get Captain Dominion here, I pulled some pretty drastic manoeuvres in interdimensional space", he confided. "I probably came pretty close to duplicating whatever it is that Over/Strike did..."

"If anyone could achieve that, it would be you", Ravani told him. "I'm sure the Dawnshapers would be interested to study those manoeuvres..."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that", said the boy, darkly, looking up into the Mystalornan's eyes. "I... I've been thinking about it, and... and I get the awful feeling that I saw something out there. Something that just... wasn't right..."

"The interdimensional isn't a lifeless void, despite what some ill-educated sources might say", said Ravani, trying to reassure him. "Some have suggested that the Astral Realm is the source of all known life, in one way or another."

"This - this wasn't alive", said Tony - and now, he was looking genuinely anxious. "It had a... a presence, that's all I can call it. It didn't properly register before, when I was actually travelling through the interdimensional - it's only now, now that I'm back in the 'real' world that I'm realising that I encountered something, if only in passing..."

"That happens, especially when one isn't familiar with interdimensional travel", Ravani told him. "Memories can influence your surroundings, and become alarmingly real, right before your eyes. You have some very intense memories of being alone in total sensory deprivation, a condition only the most unlucky few experience as torture. It's no surprise that you might have 'encountered' something intangible, impossible to describe. Something to be afraid of."

"That might be it", said Tony, sighing again. "I'm probably overreacting, and all this 'drama' with my parents doesn't help. I'm sorry I got you involved."

"Think nothing of it", said Ravani. "If you're ever worried about this, and want to talk, don't hesitate to contact me. I'm almost finished setting my past right, and I expect I'll have time to spare, should I be needed."

Ravani placed a reassuring hand on Tony' shoulder, and the young man reached up to touch it. "Thank you", he said, smiling. "Y'know, you're not as bad as you might think you are..."

Those kind words remained with Ravani as she returned to Dominion Five, and prepared for the journey back to Dominion. They were firmly lodged in her mind as she slid out of her armoured dress, and stretched out on the fur rug in her private chamber, to piece together her report to Darkhawk about Tony's situation, and the abrupt disappearance of Captain Dominion, and she did her best to paint the youngster in the best possible light. The boy had more than enough worries of his own, and the last thing he needed was to be stripped of his one release from the mundane...

Ravani transmitted her report to Darkhawk just as Dominion Five exited from Earth's solar system, and jumped into interdimensional space, but her submission received a most curious answer. "I'm sorry", said Darkhawk's personal secretary, "but The Mother isn't currently available to discuss this matter. She left a short time ago - something to do with 'personnel matters', I believe..."

The sorceress smiled to herself. Someone on Earth was about to have their wish unexpectedly granted...

Mr and Mrs Fulcher were settling down for the night in the lake-side chalet SCORPION had provided at Beacon Ridge when there was an unexpected knock at the door. Ryan was fixing them something to eat, and so Emily had to drag herself from the sofa, despite her inner weariness, and go to see who was disturbing them at such an ungodly hour...

Standing on the porch of trimmed logs was a tall, red-haired woman, dressed in dark leather - and at once, Emily was struck by the feeling that they had met before. Exactly where and when eluded Mrs Fulcher until the visitor spoke. "Good evening, Mrs Fulcher", she said. "It's nice to see you again..."

"You... you were at the hospital", Emily murmured, memories unravelling, decompressing into her current thought-space. "That time, when there was that explosion...!"

"Well, it wasn't an explosion - I'm sorry about that", said the woman. "Hope I didn't distress anyone too much."

"Aurora Kain", gasped Mrs Fulcher, recollections all falling into their proper place. That day, Emily and Ryan had entered Tony's room to find a stranger there, a stranger who told them she represented someone seeking to do research into their son's condition. Curiously enough, Emily couldn't remember exactly who "Aurora Kain" was supposed to have been working for, and there had been no more talk of any research until the experimental procedure that succeeded in waking Tony from his coma.

"A necessary piece of disinformation, at the time", said the woman, extending an open hand in greeting. "You can call me Darkhawk. I understand you wanted to speak with me about your son...?"

Emily, rendered momentarily speechless, could only weakly take the woman's hand, shaking it feebly, then she stepped aside to let the woman in. Once Mrs Fulcher had regained the ability to speak, she simultaneously offered Darkhawk a seat and called for her husband...

"I don't need a seat", said the fiery-haired woman, "but if you don't mind, I will make myself comfortable."

Darkhawk then shed the illusion of being outwardly mundane, and revealed her true nature to the Fulchers, causing the interior of the chalet to light up brighter than day...

On the other side of the lake, a security operative, doing his routine patrol in a four-wheel drive land vehicle, stopped to take note of the situation, and contacted the security centre back at the main complex, letting them know that the "special guest" Commander Tyrho had warned them about had arrived.

...to be continued...