Chapter Two: Why You're Here

After the fight, Tiffany finds herself on another planet, and waits to see why she's the subject of so much attention.

“But why now?” Tiffany asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Keller snapped. “I’m sorry, but there are bigger issues afoot.” He then reached into one of the pockets of his jacket, pulled out a small plastic thing shaped like an octagon with a bulge in the middle, and handed it to her. “Here, open that.”

“Not until…” she stopped at his stern look and slowly took the object from him.

“You pull it open,” the creature advised, his arm having split into two hands demonstrating the motion.

She nervously tugged on it. “Oh well, doesn’t work. Guess I won’t…”

“You’re holding it the wrong way.”

Reluctantly, Tiffany turned the device around in her hands and slowly pulled the object open.

The world changed with a silver flash. The park vanished, replaced by a garden, in the middle of a house. It became a bit darker, too, and a bit colder.

A few seconds later, the creature appeared right next to her in a flash of silver light. “Well, we’re here,” he announced.

“OK. Why am I here?” Tiffany asked.

Keller looked at her. “Aren’t you going to ask where we are?”

Tiffany glared at him. “If I cared at all, sure. Now, I just want to go back home. So show me what we need to do so that I can go home.”

“Don’t worry, Ui will be here soon.”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“I was just told to go find you. I have no idea what you’re supposed to do.”

Tiffany rolled her eyes. Great. After a second, something struck her as rather odd. As she looked around, everything seemed to be in black and white.

“Welcome back, Keller.”

Tiffany turned around. Moving out of the house and into the garden was a scaly, black, cat-like thing with antlers, easily bigger at the shoulder than Tiffany was. It wore a blue robe which covered its body except for its head and feet. Tiffany blinked at it.

Keller stiffened up a little as he heard her voice. “Uh, hello, Ui. So, here she is, and if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just head off to...”

“Keller!” Ui rushed over to him. “Your arm! What happened?”

Keller groaned a little. “It’s not that bad.”

“Your arm just got chopped off!”

“I’ll just grow a new one.”

“You shouldn’t have to. What happened?”

Keller shook his head and muttered something under his breath. “One of them had a knife, but I dealt with it.” He pulled the knife out of his belt. “See?”

Ui jumped back. “YOU BROUGHT THAT BACK HERE?”

“Oh relax, would you?” Keller asked. He then dropped the knife on the ground. There was a bright flash of light, and then the knife was gone, as well as a large amount of the ground. “See? All gone.”

Ui took a few breaths to calm herself. Finally, she composed herself. “Go to Erza. Now."

“I’m fine.”

“Then prove me right. Go.”

Keller glared at Ui for a moment before sighing again and walking off. “You’re wasting her time.”

Ui didn’t answer him. She just watched after him as he entered the house. Finally she turned to Tiffany.

“OK, why am I here?” Tiffany asked her.

Ui didn’t answer. She just stared at Tiffany, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. Then, Ui tilted around her, looking at her from different angles.

“Helloooo?”

Ui backed off. “Ah, sorry,” she said meekly. “It’s just, uhhh, I’ve been waiting for you and now that you’re here I just want to…” She stopped at Tiffany’s glare. “I’m rambling aren’t I?”

Tiffany nodded. “You also didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh, sorry. Just…” she stopped herself. “So, your question, why are you here? Well, let me see if I can put this right...”

“That other guy mentioned I had to ‘set things right’ back here.”

“Oh, yes. Thank you. Well, the funny thing is, ‘setting things right’ is a big category.” She looked sheepishly at Tiffany. “One that I haven’t narrowed down yet.”

There was silence for a moment. “What?” Tiffany asked flatly.

“Well, I know it’s you we need, I just don’t know what we need you for.”

More silence. Finally, Tiffany said, very softly and very fiercely “Take me back. Right now.”

“I can’t.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because we need you.”

“Why do you need me?”

“As I sai…”

“No. As in ‘what made you come and abduct me’?”

Ui looked away from Tiffany and started tracing something on the ground. “You may not like the reason I give you.”

“I already don’t. Tell me anyways.”

“Why?”

“Because if I’m going to be kidnapped, I have the right to know why.”

“‘Kidnapped’ is kind of a...”

“I was taken from my home world against my will. I was kidnapped. And you are trying to change the subject. Why did you kidnap me?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes!”

“Alright.” Ui sighed and opened her mouth, then closed it. She continued this for several seconds, occasionally making sounds, but not forming words. Tiffany started tapping her foot on the ground.

“Well?”

“Well… a few days ago…” Ui had difficulty going any further and continued to keep opening and closing her mouth. Finally, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes tight and…

“Idadregatomettafidyu.”

…

“Huh?” Tiffany asked.

“I said you wouldn...”

“No, you spoke too fast. I didn’t understand a word you were saying. Say it again.”

Ui sighed again as she willed herself to start up again. “A few days ago… I was asleep, and I dreamt that...”

“Hang on.” Tiffany held up her hand. “A dream?”

“That’s how he comes to people.”

Tiffany took in a breath before she opened her mouth again. “Who’s ‘he’?”

Ui’s mouth went tight as she looked around carefully. Finally, she moved closer to Tiffany and whispered to her in a voice so low that Tiffany almost missed what Ui said.

“God.”

Tiffany blinked. “Seriously?” she asked incredulously.

Ui’s face sunk. “I warned you,” she sighed.

“You brought me here because ‘God’ told you to?”

Ui nodded. “Basically.”

“…you’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

“You have to be. That just doesn’t happen.”

“Well, it did. He told me that you were very important and that the Djinn were coming after you.”

“Djinn?”

Ui blinked before she responded. “They’re our enemies. You’ve probably seen them occasionally. They’re very tall and they often cover themselves because they always emit light. The dagger came from them.”

Tiffany nodded as she understood. “Oh. Wait, they were actually pretty nice to me.”

Ui blinked several times. “Really?” Then she put her serious face back on. “That’s probably because you don’t look right. Trust me, if they found out that you were Hezaran, from here, they probably would’ve killed you if they didn’t send you here on Death’s doorstep.”

Tiffany pondered those words over. “So, if they don’t know who I am, I could have just stayed on Earth.”

Ui shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, but no. The Djinn would still have been looking for you, they probably still are.”

“How do you know that?”

Ui groaned before responding. “Because…”

Tiffany motioned for her to stop. “Any tangible proof?”

“I don…”

Tiffany stopped her again. “Yes or no?” she hissed.

Ui sadly shook her head. “No.”

“Then take me back right now.”

“I can’t.”

Tiffany opened her mouth to scream but as soon as she started, one of Ui’s tendrils expanded over her mouth. Tiffany tried to tear it away, but Ui raised one of her legs and summoned more tendrils, which wrapped around her and pinned her arms to her side. Tiffany tried to run, but Ui lifted her off of the ground and dangled her in front of her.

“Don’t try that again,” Ui warned her. “If you do, the town guard will come, and you’ll be discovered and executed for being an alien. I can’t take you back; the Djinn already know all the places where we arrive in your world, it’d be like walking into a deathtrap. I’m sorry about this, really. But I believe in what I dreamt.” Ui let Tiffany’s feet touch the ground and her expression softened. “Also, I’d really love it if I weren’t dragging you kicking and screaming into whatever you’re required to do, and as soon as I can, I’ll take you home; I promise.”

Tiffany’s feet touched the ground. “Now, if I let you go, will you promise me that you won’t make a sound?”

Tiffany glared back at Ui, struggling against the tendrils. Eventually, though, she tired herself out. Still glaring, she nodded.

Ui withdrew her tendrils one at a time, first unpinning her arms then, slowly, ungagging her. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, in a softer tone. “If there…”

“Just, leave me alone,” Tiffany spat.

Ui nodded sadly and walked off into one of the rooms. As she left, Tiffany thought about giving her a swift kick, but put the notion out of her mind. Instead, she just glared at her as she left.

Finally, after Ui had left, Tiffany stormed away and walked over to the garden in the middle of the room, hoisted herself up onto the wall, and sat down. ‘Stupid cat-thing,’ she thought to herself. ‘Oh, how I’d love to beat her to a pulp for this. God told her to find me? Ugh!’

She stopped. ‘Then again, I also didn’t think aliens were a possibility, or prophe...’ Then she shook her head. ‘No; I know about the aliens, and my dream just told me to stay out late, not kidnap or kill anything. I’ll deal with ‘God’ if he ever shows up.’

Tiffany irritably sighed. Ten minutes ago, she had just been a normal girl sneaking out after dark. In that amount of time, she had seen an alien killing another one, found out that she was an alien too, and had gotten shanghaied into… she still didn’t know what, only that something weird was behind it.

Tiffany’s eyes widened slowly as she realized something else. Her family had no idea where she was. In a few hours, they’d wake up and notice that their daughter was missing.

'Stupid cat,' she fumed. 'I'll find some way of getting back; just watch me.' She remembered the device that brought her here, while Ui and Keller were occupied, she'd slipped it into her pocket. With one eye at the door where Ui had gone into, she pulled the octagon out of her pocket and jerked it open again.

Nothing. Tiffany waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. A thought occurred to her: a longshot, but it might be possible. Tiffany reached into her pocket again and pulled out her cell phone. It could travel across planets, maybe it could carry a signal. She started playing around on her phone.

Within a few seconds, Ui zipped into the garden like a bullet, eyes wide and tendrils peeling off of her body. "What're you doing?" she asked quickly.

Tiffany looked up and glared at Ui. "Go away."

Ui ignored her and noticed her phone. "Quick! Shut that thing up!"

"What?"

"That thing! Shut it up!"

"It's not making any noise."

Ui closed her eyes and made a strange noise. "Well, make it stop doing whatever it's doing!"

"Why?"

"JUST DO IT!"

Her tendrils lengthened, she bore her teeth, her skin puffed up and Ui suddenly looked very big and very dangerous.

Tiffany, now pale, threw her cell phone onto the ground. "OK, done!"

Ui’s fur and tendrils settled down. "Sorry." She perked her ears up, and looked up and out to Tiffany's left.

It became very quiet. "What're you…"