Omniverse Recovery system

“Well, you seem like you lived a pretty happy life here,” Daniel said, looking around the house.

Rachel gave him a flat look. “If you consider being an outcast at school a happy life, then yeah, I had a great childhood.”

Daniel immediately regretted asking.

He didn’t know what to say to that. Rachel had been giving him nothing but attitude since what happened with Angela, and honestly, he was starting to wonder why he was catching all the fallout. It wasn’t like he was the one who’d betrayed her.

Rachel walked farther into the house and stopped in the hallway, her expression shifting as she looked at the spot in front of her.

“This is where she died,” she said quietly.

Daniel’s face turned serious. He stepped closer, scanning the hallway, feeling out the atmosphere. “Okay. What’s her name?”

“Melissa Roth,” Rachel said, quieter now. “My adoptive mother.”

He nodded, looking around. “Then this is where we start.”

Rachel crossed her arms. “You said you could let me talk to her. How?”

“Give me a minute.”

Daniel stepped into the middle of the hallway and closed his eyes, focusing on the place where Melissa had died, reaching beyond the physical world for whatever trace of her remained.

The air grew colder.

“Is it working?” Rachel asked.

“I think so.”

He extended a hand toward the hallway. “Melissa Roth. Your daughter wants to speak with you.”

Nothing, for several seconds.

Rachel’s expression started to fall.

Then a faint breeze moved through the hall. The curtains shifted despite the windows being closed.

Rachel’s eyes widened. “Mom?”

A pale figure began forming at the end of the hallway — barely visible at first, then gradually clearer.

Rachel recognized her instantly. “Mom…”

The figure looked at her. “Rachel?”

Rachel’s eyes filled with tears as she took a hesitant step forward. “You’re really here.”

Daniel quietly slipped away, leaving them alone, and walked out through the front door onto the lawn. He pulled a piece of candy from his coat, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth, staring at the old house.

Resurrection isn’t possible, he thought. Her soul’s already mid-reincarnation.

He’d made a mistake bringing her back this far.

Once a soul entered reincarnation, pulling it back into the living world wasn’t supposed to happen — the connection to its next life had already started forming, and interrupting it could cause real problems.

If he tried to give Melissa a second life now, he wouldn’t be restoring her. He’d be trapping her between life and death, permanently. She’d never reincarnate again. She’d just remain an undying ghost, stuck in the world of the living.

He sighed, rolling the candy in his mouth. “Yeah… definitely shouldn’t do that.”

He glanced back at the house.

For now, Rachel deserved the chance to say goodbye.

Melissa listened quietly as Rachel told her everything that had happened since they’d been separated — Angela, Trigon, Diana, and finally Daniel, how he’d taken her in and tried to help even when he clearly had no idea how to deal with an angry teenager.

Melissa didn’t interrupt, her expression shifting as Rachel worked through everything that had happened to her.

When Rachel finished, Melissa gave her a gentle smile. “It seems you found a good family, Rachel. Now I can rest easy knowing there’s someone reliable around you.”

Rachel looked down, holding back tears. “He’s not exactly reliable. He’s an idiot most of the time.”

Melissa laughed softly. “Maybe. But you trust him.”

Rachel didn’t answer right away. Then she nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

Melissa reached out, touching her cheek — faint, almost weightless. “Then I’m not worried anymore.”

Rachel closed her eyes, leaning into her mother’s hand. “I wish you could stay.”

“I know.” Melissa’s smile turned sad. “But you still have a life to live, Rachel. Don’t spend it looking backward because you miss me.”

Rachel opened her eyes. “I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

***

About fifteen minutes later, Rachel finally stepped out of the house. Daniel was waiting on the lawn with his hands in his pockets, and he looked up as soon as he heard the door close behind her.

“Okay, did you say goodbye?” he asked.

Rachel didn’t answer. She walked past him a few steps and stopped, staring back at the house. Daniel could tell she was still thinking about Melissa and wishing there had been some way to keep her here.

He sighed. “Rachel, I’m going to say this one more time because I know what’s going through your head. Your mother has already been given another life. Her soul is moving on.”

Rachel stayed quiet.

“If I interrupt that and keep her here, I can do it,” Daniel continued. “But she wouldn’t really be alive again. She’d be stuck on Earth forever, unable to move on or live another life. She’d become a ghost that could never leave.”

Rachel lowered her eyes.

Daniel looked at her seriously. “I could make that happen if you asked me to, but would you really want that for her?”

After a few seconds, Rachel slowly shook her head.

“Then it’s better to let her go,” Daniel said.

They stood there quietly for a moment before Daniel decided to change the subject.

“So, which high school do you want to join?”

Rachel turned toward him with a confused expression.

“There’s a lot of good high schools in Central City. Pick whichever one you want, and I’ll make sure you get in.”

Rachel stared at him.

“School? After everything that’s happened?”

Daniel looked at her as if the answer were obvious.

“You’re still a teenager. What did you expect? You’re not dropping out of school.”

Rachel’s expression shifted from sadness to disbelief.

“You’re seriously talking about school right now?”

“Yes. You just survived your birth mother trying to use you to summon your demon father, got possessed, met a dead parent, and now you’re going back to school. Life doesn’t stop just because things get weird.”

Rachel shook her head.

“You’re unbelievable.”

Daniel started walking toward the cab.

“Maybe. But you’re still going to school.”