[Author Note: Sorry for the flashback, but I had to correct a few things, and it took longer than I expect. Hope you like it, I did my best to get everything just right. Tell me if I messed up on something and I'll correct it. Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to work onward with the next two episodes...after a good night rest.]
Vice Principal's Office
Wednesday; Moments Ago between 12:45 PM to 2:13 PM
Mrs. Crawford was vastly surprise by the solar eclipse, like everyone else was, and was even more surprise to find it ending rather quickly. At first, the thought of the moon being control by the 'enemy' came to mind, but quickly abandoning that idea, seeing that there wasn't any negative signature that she should pick up from it, let alone have a motive to do so. But, what was the purpose of the solar eclipse?
Then, she realized something else: the strong negative signature that she was sensing was gone now, or perhaps too weak for her to sense it anymore. Now she was even more confused than before, especially considering that there should have been an ill-fated conclusion with the moon moving location suddenly, but there wasn't. There was no news report of weather problems or tidal waves, which had just defied the law of physic, although that seems to be happening a lot these days. But, another question popped up: did the moon consciously move itself to aid the situation involving the negative signature a few moments ago?
She was being shallow up by theories, but she just let them go and sighed. She had enough to worry about and the event seems to have been resolved anyway. She did a quick check on the students and teachers by making an announcement for anyone experiencing any ill effects by the event to come to the nurse office. After that, she got back to her previous task of calling Mr. Saunders, making sure to remind Mayan about her own phone call with her news-reporting cyborg cousin beforehand.
"Umm, h-hello; might I ask who is calling," a male voice answered, with a mixture of tiredness and a slight nervousness to it.
If that anime-changed teacher Cass was in the room, at this point of time, there would have been a large anime sweat drop flowing down her head. "Ooh my, sorry about that, I must have woken you up from your rest. I was calling to check up on something important, though, so I hope you don't mind."
"Oh sure," Mr. Saunders replied before yawning softly, but something stopped his yawning as a realization must have dawn in his thought, "W-wait a minute, is that you, Mrs. Crawford?"
"Heh, yeah, I guess it had been a while since we have last meet, at least person to person. You probably may not know this, but I am the new Vice Principal of your daughter's school. Crazy, isn't it. Anyway, I'm calling on Tiffany's behalf."
"I-Is she a-all right, is she in t-t-trouble," Mr. Saunders asked, his voice full with concerned and nervousness now.
"Relax, Mr. Saunders," Emily replied as normally as she possibly could, as she tried her best not to laugh, "She isn't in any trouble that I know of, other than simply being upset, she is doing okay for the most part." She knew that it wasn't right to laugh at the poor man, especially with all the troubles he had to deal with, but his voice at that moment just sounded a little squeaky. Nevertheless, she continued onward without giving in, "Actually, I want to talk with you about her teacher, Mary Summers. I have been curious about the tension that is going on with the two and I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the subject."
"Oh...well," Mr. Saunders began off before he hesitated, feeling conflicted at what to do or say, "It is...a bit complicated. I...I-I don't know if I have the right to say anything. Maybe you should talk with Mary why."
"I am planning to, but I need your side of the story first. Sooo, p-please, this is very important that you tell me what happen!"
"I-I'm s-sorry, I w-would like to h-help you, but I j-just can't," his voice told her, sounding a bit unnerved and apologetic. "E-everything came out about fine, nevertheless, so you don't have to worry." He sighed depressively, part of him did wished to help Mrs. Crawford, but the other part didn't want to disrespect Ms. Summers after trying to help him with his daughter.
He was about to apology once again and say his goodbye, but he stopped himself when he sworn that there was a weak sound coming through the phone, but he couldn't distinguish what it was and dismissed it for a moment. However, another sound was heard through the phone, which seems like an odd blend of a weak growl and a sigh.
"Listen, Mr. Saunders, I can understand that you don't want to trouble Ms. Summers, but this is not something you should keep to yourself or hide! I don't know what happened exactly, but I am not oblivious to the fact that something did happen, and it could have actually ended up rather badly instead. I know this because her second transformation kinda clued me in to that part. Sooo, I'm begging you, it is very important that I get the whole story!"
Hearing the forceful and distress (maybe even slightly angry) tone in the woman's voice on the phone was a bit surprising to Mr. Saunders, since it was unusually for her typical behavior. Mr. Saunders couldn't hold back his frustration, finding himself overwhelmed, and yelled somewhat in a panic into the phone, "I d-don't...I don't understand, Mrs. Crawford! W-what do you mean a-about her second t-transformation?!"
"We-ell...when you said a moment ago about it being a bit complicate, that might have been an understatement. From my awareness, her transformation was similar to my own experience, I'm afraid to say, so I know a few things that you might not know about. It wasn't entire caused by the sun like normally, but rather caused by a form of 'seed' that is made of negative energy. The seed took advantage of the Iridescent Sun's property and cause...well, I guess the best choice of word to describe it would be a 'false' transformation."
"Huh...a s-seed?! Y-you saying that this seed was responsible for corrupting my poor baby?!"
"Actually, as terrible as it was, Tiffany somehow did a wonderful job at keeping the seed from overtaking her completely. She might not know it, but the strength of her spirit is remarkable, something you should really be proud of. Sadly for me, her seed might have been a prototype, or something else along that line, because my seed had a stronger effect on myself."
It was Emily's turn to wait as a long silence overtaken the phone, a little longer than what Mr. Saunders had to wait, but finally the voice spoke up, a little surprised in its tone, "Y-you're saying that you was affect as well, just l-like my daughter?! But, you don't sound like it...and I don't think you would be calling me if you were."
"Yeah, I was a bit worse off than your daughter, but someone was able to purify the seed inside me and save me. For a long while, nonetheless, I lost my humanity completely and became a sadistic monster. Unlike your daughter, my seed was 'programmed' with implanted memories and persona among with a preset mission to carry out. In the process of carrying out that mission, I...s-she...d-did some horrible thing, and w-was about to something far ruthless. Thankfully, my seed was purified before I did something that I would never forgive myself, but my daughter and I will be having nightmare for a good while."
"O-okay, I-I think I understand a little more now," Mr. Saunders said, "But, what does you mean by her second transformation was a clue? To what?!"
"I guess to answer those questions," she paused to catch a long breath, feeling emotionally tired from all the explanations she was now responsible with, before going onward, "You have to realize something: that seed wasn't just floating in your daughter's body, it does what 'seed' naturally do and took root in her body, attached itself to her very being. The only way that your daughter could have transformed again, would be from that seed to be removed from her body. But, that required a lot of force to remove that seed from your daughter."
"B-but, wasn't it a good thing to get rid of that seed," Mr. Saunders noted, feeling a bit frighten at what was being told over the phone. "It was doing terribly things to my daughter, changing her like it had done to you."
"Good intention or not, I'm afraid that it was a terrible idea. By removing the seed from her body by force, Ms. Summers could have ultimately killed her in the process. I'm rather grad that everything came out positively, but the chance of success was way too low. Unfortunately, there might have been a good chance that Mary knew the risk beforehand, and yet she still attempted to remove it nonetheless. The scary part of that assumption would be that she might have actually been willing to kill her. And, if that is correct, then I don't think it would've matter to her if Tiffany was cured or not, she was only there to deal with a possible threat, one way or the other."
"T-that can't be! I k-know Ms. Summers for a long time, she wouldn't let that happen."
"To be fair, I don't exactly know if she really have done anything at all, which is why I am calling you, so that I can get your side of the story. But, I must have to agree with you, I don't get it myself. I may not know Mary as long as you might have, but from what I could tell, she doesn't seems like the kind of person to do something like that. I have always thought of Mary as a good woman in general and that she would normally never risked the life of a student."
She paused to sigh and continued, rubbing her forehead with her right hand in the process, "B-but, lately I have been getting some odd and unnerving feelings around her, and among with seeing some odd behaviors from her students while she was around them, I am beginning to think that her transformation might have done something to her. And, if she did what she did, she basically went behind our back without considering asking us for other options or even offering a warning to us about it. She even kept quiet about the affair afterward, which could end up badly for her and anyone else."
The voice gasped over the phone, unable to stop from going into a panic attack for a short while, but Mr. Saunders finally got a hold of himself and replied as calmed as he could, "S-she did seems different to me when I had invited her to my house, like s-s-she was on some kind of mission. But, I really didn't think she would have killed my daughter. Like you said before, she just wasn't the type to harm a soul."
"I would like to believe that a part of her did come to your house to help as well. So, that is why I am trying to keep an open-mind and looking into the matter privately as I can. I am planning to ask your daughter and Mary about the event soon, but I would like to hear your side first. Can you please tell me so I can prevent Ms. Summers from getting into serious trouble?"
"V-very well, let see w-what I can remember..."
Later onward, after Mr. Saunders ended his tale.
"Thank you, Mr. Saunders, you have been very helpful."
"I appreciate you trying to help my daughter, Mrs. Crawford. And, tell the school counselor that I said thank as well."
"Sure," Mrs. Crawford started with a smile, but temporary frowned for a moment, "I'm just sorry that I wasn't able to help her myself. I could have prevented this whole mess in the first place."
"It's okay; you had your own problems to worry about. Beside, perhaps this all might have been a good learning lesson for my sweetheart. I just wish I could make her feel comfortable in her new form; I hate to see her so depressed and hurt."
"I'll see to it that she can get some help with that issue."
"Do...do you want me to tell Tiffany that you call?"
"Well," Emily said in middle of her thought, "Only if she bring it up, otherwise it would be better to keep quiet about it. She had been through a lot today and I don't think it would be a good idea to talk about it for now. Let just wait and let me talk to her myself. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, that fine. I'm sorry about not telling what happen in the first place...I wasn't sure how I could've handled the situation."
"Heh, it's okay. I was sure you were just trying to respect Mary for trying to help. And, don't worry; I will straighten this whole deal out with her."
"Thank," Mr. Saunders said with a breath of relief, before he looked at the clock, "Well, my daughter should be coming soon, so I need to get off. Thank for everything and good bye for now. Hope everything come out fine on your end."
"Me too, and have a good day."
Mr. Saunders was waiting for her daughter, who was about to come home by now, full of thoughts rattling in his head. He felt so bad for his poor daughter. Perhaps a good cup of cocoa might pick her day up. Suddenly, he heard some footsteps getting close to the door. He looked onward as her daughter came inward, slouching before looking at him, looking a bit more grad to see him than she had been before.
"Hi, Tiffany," he said. "The school called and said you'd had a bad day. I just wanted to say, if you wanted to talk about it..."
