"Damali," Cain whispered. "She's blind. Go into her mind." Cain wiped the sweat from his brow and whispered into Marlene's ear, but she didn't respond. "She's deaf." He stood and paced back and forth and then dropped down again beside her, watching Damali slowly move to Marlene and extend a trembling hand above her third eye.
"We must know whether or not she is brain dead. I am so sorry, dear one."
Damali closed her eyes, and placed her wet cheek on Marlene's forehead. Shuddering breaths repressed a sob as she stroked Marlene's hair.
"I love you so much, Marlene, come back whole."
A sob tore through Shabazz and put him on his feet. He walked away, deep into the brush. No Guardian followed him. Kamal put his fist to his forehead and walked away in the opposite direction with his eyes closed.
Damali continued to stroke Marlene's now all-white hair, and whispered gently. "Mom, don't die."
I have done all I have to do, you know all you need to know from me, Marlene replied in a serene voice from her mind. / won't be alone, Christine is with me.
"Don't you leave me, Marlene!" Damali shrieked, clasping Marlene to her breasts.
You will not be alone, child. It is time.
Bitter sobs wracked Damali as Marlene's voice became weaker and began floating. She hugged Marlene up from the ground and began rocking with her mother-seer's body in her arms. "You have to be here for my babies! You have to be here when I act crazy! You have to be here--because I cannot breathe on this planet without you... Marlene!" Damali's voice dissolved into hiccupping, shrill bleats.
"Let her go, D," Rider said quietly. "Baby, she's gone."
"Give me the Caduceus!" Damali shouted, glaring at Cain as he stood and slowly shook his head.
Carlos stood and stared off into the distance, eyes glistening.
Damali closed her eyes and materialized the rod in her grip when no one would hand it to her. "Now you listen to me, Marlene Stone," she said between her teeth. "I refuse to let you go because foolish men tampered with the fabric of the universe!"
She rammed the staff into the dirt, making the ground beneath Marlene's body begin to glow gold as she gently laid her down. "I call nature energy!" Damali shouted and stood, opening her arms to the dark heavens. "I call all the elements of the universe, female power to give life! Through me, I call Isis, herself! Aset, every Neteru on the Council of Queens. Eve--you owe me! Your son is beyond the barrier! I delivered your message, now hear mine! My mother-seer is my sanity! Do not let her die!" Damali snatched the rose quartz crystal from her pants pocket and held it up in her fist. "Love, all the way from the original temple of Hathor, from the pavilion of Trajan in Egypt, I love her with all my heart and soul!"
Strong winds gathered. Lightning touched off dancing energy in the sky. Trees shuddered. Green grass grew around Marlene's body where it was once parched and dry. Rain fell like tears. A stunned team looked on in awed silence.
"I am woman, thus water, and water is the essence of life. My tears are the rain which replenishes the barren earth. I am fire--love, profound passion, the spark of conception--which gives inanimate cells motion. I am the air, which fills lungs. I am the earth, form and substance, nourishment and healing. I am pure faith, for I own the heart and soul of a woman. I am hope... because of my faith and my love. A trinity resides in my soul. My female symbol is the circle of unity. My spirit is unbroken, like the infinite circle. She will not die. Not on my watch!"
Silver tears streamed down Damali's cheeks and she stood legs wide, head back, eyes closed, arms open, begging Heaven in her mind.
Slowly, the wrinkles in Marlene's face began to recede. Her dead, white irises became warm, and living, and brown. Her hair began to grow out dark ebony from the roots as the white, dead locks became brittle and fell away. A shudder, then a cough. Damali was on her knees in seconds before Shabazz could ever reach his fallen woman. Marlene was in her arms gasping. Kamal hung back weeping. Shabazz was sobbing so hard that Big Mike had to come get him. Yonnie had silent tears running down his strained face. Younger Guardians slowly came near, too mesmerized to emote. Carlos stared down