After The Fall

Pietro was sitting in the rec room -- which was abandoned for once -- with his laptop, a video camera set up and focused on him, and a glass of wine sitting on the table nearby.

"Right then," he said to the camera. "I haven't done one of these in way too long but life has taken an unexpected turn. OK, it's been way too long. I never used to do these with a tripod," he said, shaking his head and reaching out to stop the recording.

Anya had been more or less hiding in her room as she worked over what had happened. She'd been briefed, and there were quite a few things in the briefing that worried her... including the fact that Anna had said there were other Lensherrs there. Plural, which meant that even if one of them was Lorna, at least one more was bound to be someone she didn't necessarily want to see. The odds of them being from her world seemed slim, considering the fact that if her father were there, they most likely wouldn't still be able to be in hiding and if Pietro or Lorna were around, they would have made their presence known to her as soon as they heard she was there. Still, she wasn't sure that she wanted to face them.

She checked the hallway as she left her room, mentally kicked herself for paranoia that was completely unwarranted, and headed down to the kitchen. The kitchen, like the one in her world, was fully stocked and she opened the fridge to look through her options.

Anya pulled the car into the garage and turned it off, taking her time as she collected the things that had made their way out of her pockets. She disconnected the mp3 player from the car transmitter and plugged her headphones back in then slipped the unit into her pocket. After tossing her cell phone into her purse, along with her keys and chapstick, she climbed out of the car and headed for the door. When she opened the it and stepped through, though, she realized very quickly that she was not standing on the path to the main building.

She was in what looked like a throne room, and as she stepped down from the dais, she caught sight of a portrait on the wall. She nearly dropped her mp3 player, but managed to keep a grip on it instead, as she stared at the faded picture.