Gomurr was the first to speak after the startling revelation about lady Robynn was revealed.
"What sort of game are you playing Robyyn, or whatever your name is? I demand to know why we have been brought here, and how we are supposed to get home. The time for your silly dangerous amusements is long past!" Gomurr almost shouted.
At his words, Robyyn's eyes narrowed and a look of anger and just a touch of fear crossed her face. Her guards began to inch toward the Upstarts and their teacher, but Lady Robyyn held up a restraining hand.
"Peace my minions!" she said, "The man asks an honest question, and I fear he will not like my answer. Very well, if you want to hear the tale, it is my duty to tell it. I along with my mother and her mother before her are what are called Nexus Beings. Almost all creatures have counterparts in the various dimensions. What makes my line different.....and you different as well, Bux......is that we are usually beings of great mystical power, as well as the ability to tap into our other-dimensional counterparts and communicate or at times breach the veil and cross to their dimension."
At this statement, Bux looked up at Robyyn with fear in her eyes and said, "So it was you that I kept hearing in my head, but why? I felt you were in danger and that you needed me for something, but what could I possibly give you. I have no such power."
"Oh, but you do, my child." Robyyn purred, "Even more than your diminutive teacher suspects. Do you believe that I caused your friend's wounds to heal so nicely or that it was my power that kept you all sane during the dimensional jump. Oh no, sweet Bux.....that is your gift.....and it is one that this realm is in dire need of. Because if you cannot heal this world, I fear we are all doomed. You see each manifestation of the nexus has slightly different abilities, but enough of this for now. Your gifts are still raw and undeveloped, it will take a great deal of training before you are ready to do what must be done and time is growing short. Now come, I promised gifts and gifts you shall all have."
"Look, Queenie or Lady, or whatever the hell kind of friggin royalty you claim to be," Jam shouted, "The only gift we want is a ticket home. I couldn't give a flyin fig about dimensional nexus jumpers from beyond. I just want out of here."
"I fear my dear that this also is beyond my power. You see, not even I know how you arrived here. I was only alerted to your presence after I my desert sentries brought word of you. One of you must have caused the nexus bridge."
They all looked toward Gomurr, then toward Rahsas, then finally at Bux.
"Ok kiddos, who did it. This is gettin really old...really fast," mouthed Rita, but none of them could give any answer, and the revelations weren't finished yet.
"Robyyn," Rahsas said, "My abilities lie in teleportation and I was responsible for my own journey here, but had nothing to do with the travels of the others. My powers have never been so unpredictable. Something or someone is hampering them, and It seems entirely too coincidental that I also felt called to this location. Upon my arrival I have but one solid memory.....of you...calling me Brother...and then nothing."
Robyyn's face turned ghostly pale, and her fingers gripped the staff, that also held such a sense of deja vu for Rahsas.
"Rahsas, it appears, the time has come to reveal the secrets of the past in order to save the future. It's odd that the one who began this downfall would return in company with the one who can prevent it, Robyyn said. "Yes, you are known to me as brother, but not of blood. When I was young, after the death of my mother, a man took me in. He also had taken in another lost child in the form of a dark-skinned lanky youth. I see now that you are that that boy from my past, Rahsas."
Rahsas shifted his gaze and looked straight into Robyyn's face. Is this why he had never felt at home anywhere....because he wasn't. Could this strange place really be home?...but what of the memories that recalled a place of peace and beauty. If the memories of Robynn were true, then what of the memories of the lessons and the old man......and the staff.....the staff coming down again and again on the old man.....What did it all mean?
"You speak of a teacher, Robyyn," Rahsas asked, "Where is this man now? Why do you hold the staff he once wielded. What happened to the teacher?"
Robyyn's face grew cold and hard. She looked at Rahsas with venom in her eyes.
"I think that is for you to reveal child of darkness!!" Lady Robyyn howled "Was it not you who was so jealous and spiteful of the old one's power that you destroyed him? Was it not you who bludgeoned him to death with this very staff, and then ran cowardly away to spread your evil to others. Confess, BETRAYER!!!"
Rahsas' mind whirled. This couldn't be true. He had never killed anyone. Why couldn't he remember?
Gomurr spoke up again. "Robyyn, I see you are visibly upset, but I cannot believe that Rahsas had anything to do with the death of your master. What proof do you offer of your claims?"
"Proof!!!!" Robyyn sniffed, "What more proof do I need, but the look on his face. I found the old man bleeding and dying on the floor of his chamber. Rahsas was nowhere to be found. In his last words, the old one entrusted to me this realm, and I shall not fail him. If what you think of the boy is true......and that he has somehow changed from the viper he was, then I give credence to your words, but only because he may be the deliverer of this place as he once was the destroyer. By bringing the girl to me, he gains a reprieve. Otherwise he would be dead."
All eyes turned to Rahsas. He stood swaying slightly on weakened legs. How could this boy they trusted be capable of killing someone in cold blood? The look on his face showed such anguish. Things would never be the same again.
The first mystic flare shot from Nytshade's hand and struck Gregor in the chest. While he was in flight, with his kinetic field going, it did relatively no harm.
"Calm down, Nemesis," he shouted. "Don't make me hurt you or the White Queen."
"Me????? Calm Down?" Nem laughed. "After the way you spoke to me earlier, you are lucky I don't use dear sweet Jon's powers to fry you to a crisp. Her power is delightful by the way. Pity, you can never experience it for yourself. Suppose I destroy her and you as well? I can see it now, the mourning Black Queen accepted back into the arms of the IHFC after the news that her Black King and the White Queen had plotted against her. I can do this Gregor, I can make them think anything I want with the proper mental manipuloations and the corpses of you and her as set dressing."
Gregor concentrated and sent a projectile blast towards the ground in front of Nem. His power of turning pollutants in the air into propulsive and projectile energy was effective even at this close range. Should the shot have hit Nem instead of the ground, she would have been obliterated. The shot did strike the ground, however, causing Nem to fall. Her Pawn Blink fired a time pulse bolt at Gregor, which he narrowly avoided.
"So the kitten wants to play along with the cat!" Gregor growled. "I swear Nem, if you have injured Psi-Shot in this foolish temper tantrum, I'll make you pay."
Gregor concentrated again and formed a energy spear from the surrounding pollutants. Even in the relatively pristine area of the state where the school was located, there were still enough pollutants in the air to form this simple weapon. He hurled it at Blink, catching her jacket and pinning her to the side of the building. She cried out in pain.
"Clarice!!!!" Nem screamed, "Are you alright....Please say something!!"
With Blink possibly injured, Nemesis released her hold on Nytshade's powers and the battle was over. Nem ran to Clarice as Gregor picked up the stunned Psi-Shot making sure he was uninjured.
"Nemesis, you are lucky this child is unharmed or my spears would have found your heart as well as hers....As it is, she is merely bruised, but let this show you. I am not a man to be trifled with and my students are not to be endangered."
Psi-Shot sat upright in Gregor's arms.
"I'm all right, sir, and it wasn't Nemesis who took me out. It was someone else. I have never felt that much psionic energy before, and it was too much for me," Psi-Shot wheezed.
"If it wasn't Nemesis, then who?" questioned Gregor.
At that moment a psionic voice so loud it caused them all to cover their ears in pain filled their minds.
"Enough of this foolishness!!!!! I have let you all play your pathetic power games for far too long. I have inhabited the body of your so-called White Queen for well over 50 years. Her decadent lifestyle and powerful position in the world made her the perfect vessel. Although she was at first a rather difficult host to take, she soon accepted the fact that as she needed the mystical energy of others, I needed the psionic. A pity she never quite agreed when I had to destroy a person to get it. Oh well, there's no accounting for the petty moral dilemmas of women. Through this vessel I have sensed an even greater power than you mutants possess. A power that will allow me to not only rule here, but to rule in every dimension across the multiverse....and that power lies through this portal!!!!!!!" so spoke the Shadow King gazing at the spot where Gomurr and the others had disappeared.
So with casual ease, Amal Farouk took control of the bodies of all present and began to formulate a plan on how to reopen the portal which the travelers had disappeared into and then on how to feast on the minds of all the people therein.