Chương 55: Containment Blues

"Seraphina," Jasper called out as he entered the room. Seraphina jolted awake.

"Yeah," she said, opening her eyes wide and stretching out the arm she had fallen asleep on.

"Sorry, I must have dozed off," she said, pulling herself out of the chair.

"I don't recommend sleeping in that," she said motioning to the desk chair. Jasper nodded his head in agreement.

"Well, it wasn't designed for sleeping, it was designed for working." He laughed.

"Why didn't you go to the dormitory and nap on one of the cots?" he asked.

"Or you could have at least gotten somewhat comfortable on the couch."

"Well, I didn't intend on falling asleep, it just, well happened," she said, still trying to clear the fog her brain was in.

"Ideally, I would have loved to have gone home and slept in my bed."

"About that," Jasper began, sitting down on the couch.

"I sent a team to your place." He sighed.

"I'm sorry, Seraphina," he said, sadly.

"They burnt it to the ground, it's gone." Seraphina rubbed her face and plopped back into the desk chair.

"Everything…gone?" Her eyes opened wide, "My kids?" she asked, panic and dread causing her heart to race and stomach to sink.

"They are all fine, I sent teams out right away, they are in various safe houses being very well guarded." He looked over at Celestia who was looking out the window.

"Your family too, Celestia, everyone is accounted for, and has been moved successfully." Seraphina sighed with relief, the panic subsiding. She cast Celestia a knowing glance.

"Thankfully, we got out of there when we did," she said, shaking her head.

"Who is behind this Jasper? Murder, arson, attempted kidnapping, these things just don't happen here."

"You might find this interesting," he said, getting up and handing Seraphina a folder. Seraphina took the folder from Jasper, "what is it?" she asked.

"It's the results of the testing we had done on our Agent Farthingsworth and your house," he replied. Seraphina opened the folder and began skimming the pages. She suddenly stopped and looked up at Jasper.

"This can't be right, Jasper," she said, furrowing her eyebrows and rereading it.

"It says that the trace was from an unknown species. That's impossible. We have gates to all the realms and have their biologics on record. There is no way we have an unknown species."

"I was just as surprised as you are, Seraphina," Jasper replied, standing up and making his way over to the window.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"Yes, it means that an otherwise unknown species has access to portal technology and they have infiltrated the Fairysphere. This is bigger than we imagined or ever planned for," she said, flopping the folder on her desk.

"We have no protocol for this. We are in no way prepared for this type of scenario."

"We are facing a completely unknown foe and are going in blind. We don't know how advanced they are… What their intentions truly are… Or how to defend ourselves. Taking over the Fairysphere means they will be able to access any other realm. That is, if they haven't already," Jasper said, rubbing the back of his neck. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"We can't even order an evacuation, Seraphina. There is nowhere to go," he sighed.

"The only thing I could do was shut down the whole system once we got your families out. That meant locking down all access points to and from other realms." The color drained from Seraphina's face.

"What about those still out in the field?" Celestia asked.

"Agents have been ordered to stay in their assigned realms until further notice," Jasper replied.

"But Jasper…" Seraphina began.

"It's not ideal, I know, but Seph, I didn't have much choice."

"Any signs that other realms have also been infiltrated?" Seraphina asked.

"Wouldn't the control center have seen any attempted unauthorized use of the system? It's not like any rando can just walk into a Shirley and operate it," Celestia said.

"I mean, we know you must have a credentialed fairy to even operate the teleport system. So how did this go undetected?"

"Good question, Celestia. That is precisely what command is trying to figure out. To date there have been no reports of attacks in any other realms, and no unauthorized use of the teleport," he replied.

"I would like to keep it as contained as possible, no point in starting mass panic," Jasper said, looking first at Seraphina then to Celestia.

"So, we don't know where, or how the breach occurred. For all we know they could have been slipping through unnoticed for years. This is not good Jasper. Not good at all." Seraphina stood up and walked toward the window. She looked out over the grounds.

"We don't know how many are out there, Jasper, or why they are even here." Seraphina turned back to Jasper, then walked to the desk and sat down.

"Now they have murdered a high-ranking official for what? A dead infant?" Seraphina wrapped her arms around herself shuddering.

"The fact they were willing to kill to retrieve a dead infant, makes my blood run cold. There must be more to this than we can see."

"The child being dead renders the prophecy moot, so why kill, to take its remains? What is their motivation for such a high-level operation and how far are they willing to take it?" Jasper said, running a hand through his hair. Jasper and Celestia looked at one another, then to Seraphina.

"How much danger are we in, Jasper?" Seraphina asked, her voice not betraying her inner panic.

"What about our families? Can we at least see them?" Celestia asked, walking away from the window and sitting anxiously on the couch. Jasper shook his head no.

"I'm sorry Celestia, for their safety and yours, we sent them to safe houses in other realms."

"So basically, we are stuck here to face Armageddon, and we can't even say goodbye to the people we love?" she huffed, placing her arms over her chest trying to control the tears she felt stinging her eyes. Seraphina got up from the desk and came to her. She sat down next to her and began rubbing her leg.

"I know this is hard, Celestia, but you know they are safe and in no immediate danger." She said, trying to comfort the distraught young fairy.

"They are safe for now, but what about tomorrow? Or say next week? You both already said we don't know what they want, or how advanced they are. For all we know they have the technology to begin a full-scale invasion of every realm," she said, wiping her eyes.

"What if we never see them again, Seraphina? How will we know that they are alright?" Jasper sighed.

"We are currently monitoring for any dimensional rifts. By shutting down the other portals, we should be able to pinpoint their entry point and potentially be able to shut it down." Jasper rubbed the back of his neck again as beads of sweat began forming on his forehead.

"Jasper, sit down and take a breath… when was the last time you slept?" Seraphina asked, becoming concerned for her friend.

"We need you to take care of yourself. We need you. Working yourself into an early grave is not going to do anyone any good. If anyone can get us through this crisis it's you."

"Seraphina, I'm fine," he said, trying to reassure her.

"I will sleep when I know things are under control," he said, half-smiling.

"Look, I will wake you if there are any new developments. Stay here, get some rest," she said.

"Have you eaten?" Jasper looked at her and scoffed.

"I didn't realize my mother was here," he laughed.

"Well, if you are not going to take care of yourself then somebody's got to." Seraphina said, firmly.

"Celestia, how about you go see what you can scrounge up to eat. I'm going to go see if we have any updates," she said, needing something to do.