Ilias just looked... VERY confused.

"Ah, I..." he stammered, before shaking his head.

"Fine." he told her.

"I will." he said.

"But I'm warning you, I want an explanation after this." he then told her.

"I pile of ashes just arrived here, and you're asking if this Zeria is OKAY!?" he exclaimed. "She's clearly NOT. She's... well... she's a pile of ashes!" he said further, before shaking his head.

"But... I'll go and tell him." he finished, before turning and starting to walk off.

Ilias was... stunned, to put it lightly.

"Ah... I... that..." he stammered.

He was then quiet, before smacking his forehead.

"I could have guessed this." he said.

He then sighed heavily, and opened the door to the decontamination room.

"Please, you don't have to stay in there." he told her.

It was at that point, they heard Hal's voice calling to them.

"Can SOMEONE please explain to me why the intruder alarm is saying we have a problem here!?" he demanded.

"....a phoenix." Hal responded, looking at Zeria.

"Certainly a rarity." he commented.

"And... your cousin?" he then asked Kiah.

"Ash." Kiah specified.

"...certainly explains how he got her through the barrier." Hal muttered. "Would have been nice if he'd told me he'd be doing this." he growled, before taking out a comm unit.

"Cancel the Code Red-5. Situation under control, no emergency." he said, before putting it away and sighing.

"That was almost a fiasco." he told them.

"Now... why were you sent here?" he asked Zeria.

"Perhaps we should discuss this further." Hal replied.

"Come on, let's get acquainted." he suggested.

Meanwhile, Ash had arrived at the Remmington manor looking for his mother... but had been told that his mother had chosen to go to the Fyrane manor. Confused as to why she would do so, he left and made his way home... to the Fyrane manor.

After talking with his brother, he learned that their mother had been acting weird, and had disappeared into the large forested area behind the home.

Ash, now confused and concerned, made his way into the forest.

"Mom!" he called out.

"Where y'at!?"

"Uhhh... hey." Ash replied when he got up there.

"Wow." he said, taking in the treehouse. "This... this is... just... wow." he said further.

"I never knew this was here." he admitted. "And I thought I'd been all over this forest in the years I've lived here and sparred with the animals that live in here." he continued.

"How long has this been here?" he asked her. "When did this get made?" he asked her further, before shaking his head.

"Right, nevermind that for now." he said.

"Mom, I know you must be feeling... well... strange. Different. Weird." he continued, unsure as to how she was being affected at the moment.

"But I know WHY." he went on.

"And trust me, Zeria is safe right now." he then assured her. "She is safe where she is, and isn't in any danger, I promise."

Ash just sighed.

"She's in the San Diego branch of The Unit." he told her.

"For reasons I'm not sure I should divulge, she's safe there. There's a protective barrier around it." he continued.

"...." he was then silent, before looking away.

"And I know what was going on with her." he said further.

"She told me so, herself." he continued.

".....you're not going to like it, though..."

Ash just sighed heavily.

"It's... Vanessa again." he said.

"Seems she's found a way to infiltrate the connection between familiar and mage." he told her.

"Zeria was managing to hold it off temporarily by killing herself and regenerating, but it always kept coming back." he explained further. "So I sent her to the Unit as ashes, so she'd reform and not have that in her." he went on.

"...but yeah, it's Vanessa again." he reiterated.

"Seems she's found yet ANOTHER way to screw with people."

"I know." Ash replied.

"But I don't know how to stop her." he said.

"I suppose we could talk to Zeria some more, and-" he started to say, before something else Zeria had said kicked in.

"...oh, not..." he mumbled.

"I need to check on Casey." he said.

"Kitt's been missing for weeks now."

"Got it." Ash responded.

He then disappeared from where he was, and reappeared in the backyard of the Fyane manor.

When he appeared there, and stepped inside, he froze.

"....guess I should have been paying attention more." he said.

"THAT is some strong mana up there." he muttered, looking in the direction of Casey's studio... straight upwards.

His brother, meanwhile, looked VERY concerned.

"That JUST spiked as you were gone." Lindsay told him.

"We need to stop her... and fast." Ash muttered, as they rushed up to the closed door to her studio.

"CASEY!" Lindsay called in.

"ARE YOU OKAY!?"

The brothers looked at each other, before they grabbed the door and forced it off its hinges. When they did, they were greeted by a horrifying sight.

Casey was sitting in a circle of quartz, and the necromantic saturation in the room was... alarming. It almost felt like it was going to creep out and suffocate them.

"....Ash?" Lindsay said.

"Yeah?" Ash responded.

"We need help." Lindsay said.

"We do." Ash agreed.

With that, they called Vincent and explained the situation. Vincent was there in an instant, and was almost floored by the concentration and strength of the mana there. He made his way up to where Casey was, and stopped when he saw the sight.

"...I'm going to need backup." was all he said, before taking out his phone.

He then dialled Cassandra's cell number, and awaited her to pick up.