Augustus Maxamillius Ceasar looked south toward the Colosseum in Rome. One of the only structures that still existed as a reminder of where the Roman Empire had come from. It also served as a reminder of what could happen to the Empire if people didn’t take care of business. Decadence and strife had allowed citizens to forget their duty and for a time Rome had decayed. Since the last Crusade, the Illuminati, a term the leaders of the government had adopted, had worked hard to ensure that women remained second-class citizens. They were breeding stock and served as a distraction or entertainment. They were to be kept in the roles they were assigned. For those women, and men, that proved themselves worthless to society. Well, the Roman Empire had had other ways it could make worthless people useful.

  As Augustus sipped his espresso, he considered the report he’d just read from his spies up north near Cambridge. Michael Carpenter had made some changes that his fellow board members were not happy about over the last year. The number of women that were being sent to the brothels and markets in the Americas and Middle East had reduced significantly. For some reason, Mr. Carpenter’s organization was spending money to help young single women and get them educated instead of removing them from the area. There was a high demand for young white women, especially redheads. Since he’d stopped supplying such women, that demand had only intensified.

  This brought up another point, where was Mr. Carpenter getting all of his money from? Until a year ago, Augustus knew where every penny that Mr. Carpenter earned had come from. The money that was helping the young women in the Northern Territories had to be coming from somewhere, but he couldn’t find the origin point of the resources Mr. Carpenter was selling to generate capital. Augustus had gone so far as to have the Tax Service audit Mr. Carpenter. The resources were real, and Mr. Carpenter was trading them for real money. No, something else was going on.

  Augustus turned from his balcony and made his way to his desk. He sat down and opened his email. After a moment an update arrived from his agents near Cambridge.

  Sir,

  The subject has not deviated from his normal pattern. Evidence of secondary backing is not in evidence. Current projections show that the monthly quota will not be met for the 12th straight month.

  Request, tasking?

  V

  Augustus looked over the email and made his decision. Michael Carpenter would have to be made an example of. He hit the reply button and sent a quick reply to V, his lead operative in Cambridge.

  Authorization Omega Zeda One Eradicate. Primary Target. No witnesses. Dr. Broyles is sanctioned. If the Dr. is present capture and transfer.

  Agustus hit send. A moment later he received confirmation that the orders had been received. The Roman Empire had existed for almost 3,000 years. No upstart who suddenly grew a conscious because he wanted to be “fair” to women was going to ruin what his lineage had maintained for this long. Augustus opened his database and started looking through the files he had on the various women that Michael had “saved” over the last year he had become especially interested in Dr. Broyles. He'd have to wait a bit longer if she wasn't captured tonight. Once Michael Carpenter was dealt with all that would be required would be an accident for her father and he could acquire her for himself. Who knows, after he was done with her, perhaps he’d let her go back to being a doctor. August smiled evilly, Probably not. He did so thoroughly enjoy watching the light fade out of a woman who had thought herself free as she left his world forever.

  ***

  Michael Carpenter, Pandora to those in her inner circle, sat at his desk and looked over his financial documents. Getting used to using the correct pronouns when she was pretending to be a he, was a pain in the ass. But, she had to admit ever since she’d absorbed that asshole it had been fun pretending to be him. Luckily for her, Michael had been one of the regional directors of the Roman Empire with a small empire of his own up here in the Northern Territories. When she’d first arrived this mini empire had given her a chance to learn about the world she found herself in. It also gave her time to learn how to blend in because if there was one thing that was true about his world, it treated its women like shit.

  This world was the worst when it came to the equality of the sexes. So much so that Mistress Carpenter had not even considered crossing Pandora. It just wasn’t in her psychological makeup to cross a man. When Pandora had transformed into Michael Carpenter in front of her she’d been shocked by the display of something magical happening, but Pandora had noticed how she’d stopped displaying any form of resistance. It was almost like she’d been programmed to never question men. While that worked in Pandora’s favor right now, she knew that she would have to fix that mindset. To allow her the time she would need to adjust to her new reality Pandora had sent Mistress Carpenter off to one of Michael’s other residences about two hours north of Cambridge near Scarborough. It was also the place Pandora had all the women that she was saving sent.

  Setting up Scarborough to act as a staging area for young women that the original Michael Carpenter would have turned into prostitutes or worse was no simple task. Once Mistress Carpenter had understood what Pandora was doing for the young women and that they weren’t be sent out into the normal meat grinder of a society the Empire garnered, she’d devoted herself to helping with the project. Every woman sent there did.

  Once the estate up north had been set up Pandora made a doctor's visit to Dr. Broyles for a checkup and showed her what she could do. After many questions and a few demonstrations, Dr. Broyles agreed to give up her job at the hospital and become a permanent addition to Michael Carpenter’s staff. She was with Mistress Carpenter in Scarborough seeing to the needs of the young ladies up there. They came from all walks of life and most needed some form of medical care or nutritional change to their diet to help them. A few were pregnant and having the doctor close by helped tremendously. If there was anything modern technology couldn’t handle Pandora would take a quick flight up, and sort it out with her ability, Heal Other.

  For the most part, Pandora remained near Cambridge at Michael’s minor palace. It was a huge, 1,000-acre estate just west of Milton and North of Cambridge. In addition to having quick access to the A14 highway and the ability to catch the trains right out of Cambridge, there was also a small helipad on the property and Michael even owned a personal Learjet that he kept at the converted airfield out at Mildenhall which was just over sixteen miles to the northeast. Pandora could shift into her Shadow Dragon Form and fly but she’d stick out like a sore thumb because magic and magical creatures did not exist in this world.

  When Pandora first arrived, it had taken a little while for her to adjust to this world. It was unlike any of the memories her mother had of her father’s Earth. Though this was Earth, just a different version of it. Pandora didn’t have much knowledge of her father’s Earth but she was sure that she’d heard the terms United Kingdom and United States, neither of which existed here. There were “The Colonies” across the Atlantic and where she was right now was considered the “Northern Territories.” Learning the geography and names of places as well as the slang for this world took a good portion of her time.

  Additionally, she had to be careful with who she trusted with the knowledge of her ability to shapeshift into Michael Carpenter. At least that’s how Dr. Broyles described her ability. Pandora still thought of it as polymorphing but it didn’t really matter what it was called so Pandora didn’t correct her. Four people who had seen her absorb Michael had been the four female guards who had tried to turn her into a sex slave.

  When Pandora had finished absorbing Micheal and had stood before Mistress Carpenter and the four female guards, they backed away and tried to run. After a quick non-lethal scuffle, Mistress Carpenter had called in the male guards who had taken the four females away to be secured for debriefing. Pandora had tried to convert the four female guards but two of them had proved too far gone to the indoctrination of the Roman Empire and had tried to report the death of Mr. Carpenter to the authorities after they had said they would never work for her.

  When Pandora, as Michael Carpenter, had met with the authorities. Michael Carpenter had gone through every test they had. The fact that every test showed that he was Michael Carpenter, even the genetic test they performed. Since Pandora was also able to provide the passwords and codes required to get into the financial accounts of Michael Carpenter, including the secured accounts granted by the Head Office in Rome, the authorities had sent the two women to be reprogrammed for lighter duty.

  From Michael Carpenter's echo, Pandora learned that meant they were off somewhere performing as joy toys for men who paid a hefty price to be able to abuse women who were deemed damaged and worthless. If they survived the “Re-education” they would be back. When Pandora had found out that’s what had happened she’d tried to get the two women sent back to Cambridge. The conversation she’d had with Michael’s direct supervisor within the Roman Empire had solidified her desire to burn the Empire to the ground and give the people a chance to begin anew.

  The other two women who had tried to grab Pandora had seen the fate of their sisters and kept their mouths shut. Both women now served Mistress Carpenter directly. They also gave Pandora, or Michael Carpenter when she took that form, plenty of space and actively tried not to come near her. Pandora didn’t mind. It would be a while before the women came to realize how much better off they were under Pandora.

  Luckily the two women that had been sent off for re-education had both returned after three months. Neither spoke of their time away nor did they say anything about Michael Carpenter or Pandora. When Pandora had met both she’d been in her Michael Carpenter form, and both had seemed unphased. When Micheal had asked about what they saw when Pandora arrived, both simply said, “We were mistaken by any claims we made. You are obviously fine, Sir. How can we please you?” Pandora had ended the interview and sent them to Scarborough to help Mistress Carpenter. It would take a while to undo the trauma that had been done to them and keeping them away from herself and doing what they did best, protecting someone, would be good for them.

  While Pandora was dealing with the minor personnel issues she was also speaking with Caspa whenever she had a moment to drop into her Mindspace. Almost immediately they both realized that the magical density here was almost nonexistent. They could only pull up a Status Screen while in her Mindspace. One thing they had figured out while they were trying to utilize magic was that while one of them was resting the other could take control of her body. Also, they both had access to Michael's memories which had remained locked in the room she’d thrown his personality into. The echo of Michael Carpenter had persisted for almost six months before it had faded from the room she’d looked his mental echo into.

  Once Michael Carpenter’s echo had faded though they’d both received a life's worth of memories, almost like they’d lived that life. When that happened there had been a mental battle of sorts. If she had not had a high enough willpower, she probably would have lost that battle. As it was, she had easily withstood the mental attack and the memories of Michael Carpenter had been added to her and Caspa as if they were their own.

  Because Pandora and Caspa could take turns running her body they were able to maintain Michael Carpenters form and work around the clock. This allowed Pandora to study the history of this world and learn what technologies existed. What she learned led her to believe that this world was comparable to what Adam had described and shown Adaline about his Earth in the 21st century. They didn’t have that nanite technology Dad loved but they had planes, trains, and automobiles. Shoot they even had an internet of sorts, though it was nothing like what her mom had her trained on. This internet was a lot more restricted and seemed to only show Empire-sponsored content.

  The Empire had Fission but hadn’t succeeded at fusion yet, though they were getting closer. They’d put satellites into orbit, but no one had actually gone into space yet. Because there was no Russia or China, and the Roman Empire spanned the Earth they’d absorbed all the other cultures or destroyed them. There were no other countries, there was only the Roman Empire and small towns or cities that did not submit to Roman authority. Such towns were on small islands in the middle of nowhere or in extremely remote areas that no one could get to.

  Because of the low magical density, there was no magic. Well, if there was magic it was well hidden because, besides herself, Pandora could find no references to actual magic. Also, no one knew what a Dungeon was, nor had they heard about the Labyrinth. That made Pandora the most magical creature on the planet, as far as she knew. It also gave her a tremendous advantage.

  Within the first three months, Pandora had taken over and redirected the shadier businesses Michael Carpenter had been running. To ensure that there were no continuity issues between when she was running Michael's body and when Caspa was running the body she made sure that there were two independent sets of staff that saw to Michael Carpenter’s every need.

  While Caspa continued to run his financials and also produced and invested capital Pandora went to various locations around the Earth and retrieved resources. She’d access an area through the Shadow Realm, and pop back into reality. Pick up the resources and leave the same way. Pandora Traveled around the world under the guise of looking for more women to add to his harem. Michael's memories hinted that he was known for his insatiable appetite for women. If he did find some, they were added to his official Harem and sent to Scarborough for reeducation.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Pandora and Caspa played the role and were able to pick up and save at least two or three girls each time they made a stop. Doing so allowed her to sneak into various mines and grab some ore, a few diamonds, rubies, whatever, then sell the materials through Michael’s Black Market broker once he returned to Cambridge. This more than made up for the loss he took from shutting down his business It had revolved around capturing na?ve girls that were running away from home into the big cities and then getting them locked down and sent where they could make him the most money.

  Pandora redirected the Carpenter Estates resources toward educating and preparing those young women to step into the power vacuum that was going to be created when Pandora fixed the power structure of this world to one where women were treated with a lot more respect. She was no expert on societal dynamics or macro changes to a social structure, but it didn’t matter. Women were not cattle. They were not playthings that were to be discarded. She had memories of her mothers from when she viewed anything that wasn’t a dragon with that attitude but the many years her mother had lived had changed that attitude. Her mother had undergone a significant change after meeting her father, but her father had not been the first person that her mom had ever just sat back and talked to. There were others. Pandora was sure there had to be a better way to govern this world than what the men were doing, and she aimed to give the women and men of this world willing to work together a chance to figure out what it was. Those currently in charge though? Yeah, those assholes needed to hit the road, or better yet, become fertilizer.

  Michael stood from his desk, It was so hard for Pandora not to get mixed up about who she was when she was riding a different body. Pandora stood up from the desk and hit the power switch. She was done looking over the financial documents for now. Caspa had done an excellent job. This would be the 12th month she missed the quota of young white women, preferably redheads, she was supposed to supply The Colonies and the Middle East with. The Sultans in the African continent especially like young white women for some reason. She had a feeling that there could be repercussions.

  Since she wasn’t sending any women, anywhere they would just have to remain disappointed. Pandora picked up the customary bourbon that Michael always liked to drink with Michael’s hand as he stepped onto the balcony behind his computer. Sipping on the bourbon Pandora looked out through Michael’s eyes and immediately noticed the three helicopters floating about a thousand feet out and a thousand feet up, just beyond the tree line that surrounded Michael's mansion. Pandora felt a ping of panic, which must have come from Caspa, and somehow made it through whatever was keeping her from talking to Pandora.

  Pandora didn’t have time to contemplate the ramifications of the helicopters above the tree line because a single 7.62x51mm bullet struck Michael right between the eyes at the top of his head. Pandora’s head was whipped back because she wasn’t planted and her body fell back as her feet lifted into the air and she crashed to the floor of the balcony. Pandora realized she had dropped the drink she had been sipping and knew Michael Carpenter would have thought that was the real tragedy.

  She was only on the ground for a second before Pandora dropped into the Shadow Realm through the shadow beneath her and got to her feet. As long as she could use mana and had a shadow nearby she could access the Shadow Realm. One thing about dropping into the Shadow Realm, magic worked normally here. Notifications filled her vision which she couldn’t ignore:

  WARNING! Surprise Attack

  WARNING! You have been struck by an Armor Piercing 7.62x51mm bullet

  Armor Piercing special quality bypasses 50% of target Armor. 3 points of damage reduction were negated.

  Base Damage 6.

  Critical Hit Multiplier increases base damage to 12

  Damage reduction of 6 reduced by 50% Base Damage 9

  Sneak Attack Doubles damage after damage reduction is applied. Modified Base Damage 18

  1,848 Hit Points reduced by 18.

  Current Hit Points Remaining 1,830

  A critical Hit to the head has a 1% chance per point of damage x4 to knock the target unconscious. 18 x 4 equals 72% to be knocked unconscious. Willpower modifier equals +3,071

  Base Chance to be knocked unconscious -2,999%

  Save Successful.

  Base Chance to be knocked down 72% + Flat-Footed 100% + Surprised 100%. 272%

  Surprise attack negates Agility modifier

  Flat Footed negates Dexterity modifier

  You have been knocked off your feet and are now Prone

  Shadow Step activated.

  Pandora closed her notification and brushed herself off. As she reached up and felt her forehead, she willed herself to heal 18 points of damage she’d taken

  “Did anyone get the license plate on the bus that just slammed into our forehead,” Caspa asked. “By the way, your ‘Magic Levels Absorbed’ or MLA’s are now 2,314.”

  “It’s good to hear your voice again Caspa. We don’t really get to talk all that often anymore.”

  “Don’t I know it, it’s all work with you,” Caspa said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

  Pandora smiled as she considered her maximum MLA capacity. Pandora could hold up to 6,152 MLAs which was what her Willpower attribute was currently. The only way she had to generate MLAs was to Absorb Magic, Not useful because no one had magic on this planet. She could Absorb items for 33 mana per pound absorbed. She utilized that part of her absorption power when she was “finding” resources that she could then sell for a huge profit as the only cost was mana. She’d visit a mine near wherever she was visiting, and absorb up to 186 pounds of soil and granite

  Luckily for Pandora, she could absorb exactly what she wanted and leave behind everything else. Diamonds, gems, and precious metals would fall to the ground and she’d recover them. It was a nice easy method of finding valuable resources. Of course, the 186 pounds of soil turned into 186 MLA which she could use to get her mana back with Mana Conversion. The addition of that ability had made the use of Absorb Item, technically infinite, she was just limited by her Willpower attribute which limited her to 186 pounds per second. If she wanted to do more her mana pool of 61,520 would allow her to absorb up to 1,864 pounds. Unfortunately, if she did that she’d explode because that would generate 61,520 MLA which was 55,368 more than she could safely hold. While the ability didn’t state what would happen if she exceeded her MLA capacity she was sure she didn’t want to find out.

  Pandora could also Absorb Magic Items, or Absorb Kinetic Energy. She hadn’t come across any magic items over the last years, so that wasn’t useful right now. If she’d known she was about to be shot with a gun she could have seen the attack coming and chosen to absorb the kinetic energy which would have cost her 33 mana and netted her between 190 and 204 MLA. Then, she could just spend one MLA and return the 33 mana she’d utilized to absorb the incoming bullet. That specific ability was also useful when she wanted to land and shed her velocity quickly. She was always able to gain MLAs and immediately replace the mana she’d used. Not that mana usage was a problem.

  One of the issues she had in this world was that she couldn’t keep track of her mana, hit points, or stamina unless she was in her Mindspace or the Shadow Realm. She had 1,848 hit points and could regenerate 1 hit point per second, in addition to being able to use MLAs to heal which had the worst MLA-to-Absorption Effect conversion ratios of all her abilities. One MLA for 3 hit points on herself or One MLA for 2 hit points on others. Unlike normal healing, she could repair burns and broken bones. She could even heal damage from diseases. She couldn’t cure the disease but if someone had cancer that was eating them up from the inside, she could repair the damage and prolong someone’s life. Working with Dr. Broyles, she’d saved a lot of people, mostly children, and checked on them weekly to make sure they continued to survive while the scientist here continued to look for a cure. It was one of the highlights of her week and one of the few things she was most proud of since arriving on this Earth. Visiting the local hospital's terminally ill ward. She couldn’t save everyone but she did what she could.

  Getting back on track she had 61,520 Mana and Stamina. Her stamina regeneration rate was 308 per second and her mana regeneration rate was 63 per second. Technically she could absorb one pound of materials per second and never run out of mana without converting MLA into Mana.

  “I can feel you thinking about your abilities,” Caspa said.

  “Yeah, just going over how bad it sucks that we can’t normally access our Status Screen or notifications while we're in the real world.”

  “Might I suggest we pay more attention to what’s going on in the real world,” Caspa said. “I can see multiple people working their way toward the building through the shadows we’re near.”

  “I see them. With this move, I would venture to say that someone in the Home Office is not pleased with our lack of product in the Middle East and The Colonies,” Pandora said.

  “What will we do?”

  “You can read my mom's memories, what did she always do when something came after her that she couldn’t beat?” Pandora asked.

  “She ran away, but you can beat these people,” Caspa stated.

  “I can, can’t I? What did mom always do in those cases?”

  “She killed them, she killed them all,”

  “Yeah,” Pandora said as she allowed the anger that had been building up for the last year an avenue for escape

  Pandora moved through the Shadow Realm into the office behind her, stepped into an alcove, and exited the Shadow Realm next to a terminal. She tapped the lockdown key three times and then the only green button on the keyboard which activated an alarm and shut off all lights in the estate save some flashing lights at floor level that led to safe rooms. She could see fine in absolute darkness. Night vision, unless they were utilizing infrared, which wasn’t as accurate needed some light to work. To her vision, they would stick out while she would be able to move unhindered.

  The alarm she’d activated let the few staff members that were on the premises know to go to one of the safe rooms or lock themselves in their own rooms where it would take quite a while for anyone to break in. Pandora had spent an incredible sum beefing up the security here in Cambridge and up at Scarborough. The Alarm also notified Mistress Carpenter that this facility was under attack and that she probably needed to take measures to protect everyone up there as well. Yes, they’d probably jammed communication. That’s why the alarm was connected to a recently added five-kilometer landline that activated an alarm circuit far outside of any communication blackout zone they might use. Unless they killed all communications within a 30-mile area around the estate, the alarm would get out. Pandora would take a short trip after she dealt with these MI5 pricks.

  Pandora allowed her normal body to resurface as Michael Carpenter disappeared and stepped back into the Shadow Realm where she swapped her clothes to a black jumpsuit she had for such occasions. It was so much easier to do when she had access to her storage area and wardrobe functions of her interspace. She didn’t have anything like her father's dimensional storage but she did have a small 10 by 10-foot area that she could access when she had access to magic.

  Her hair, she willed black and it changed color, as did her skin. She couldn’t do that in the real world but her chaotic nature allowed her to change the color of her body and hair as she desired when she was in the Shadow Realm. With a thought, she looked like Kate Beckinsale from the movie Underworld. Which seemed appropriate since she was definitely going to be killing some fools and while she wasn’t a vampire, she was supernatural in nature.

  Pandora located the helicopters and moved through the Shadow Realm to the first one. As she’d suspected, only the pilot and copilot remained while they hovered over the tree line. It looked like this first helicopter could hold 6 passengers in the back which was now empty. Looking out the door windows on both sides Pandora saw two more similar helicopters which meant there were probably only three six-man teams rushing toward the estate.

  Only 7 seconds had passed since Michael had been sniped from the tree line. Pandora stepped out of the shadows into the helicopter and looked down easily making out the three teams of 6 that were running toward the estate across the last 1,000 feet. Of open space. Pandor could move 102 feet per second, Those spec ops guys, because women didn’t serve in spec ops ever. Those spec ops guys would take at least 84 seconds to cross the field which meant that if she wanted them in the middle of that open field she’d need to wait another 20 seconds just to make sure they couldn’t get back to the tree line quickly. Not that she couldn’t chase them down, there just wasn’t any need to make this harder than it needed to be.

  Pandora stepped back into the Shadow Realm aboard the helicopter and waited. The crew hadn’t noticed her appearance or disappearance. When she’d counted to 20 and the three six-man teams looked to be about halfway to the house she went to work.

  Pandora stepped out of the Shadow Realm right next to the rear wall of the passenger cabin, punched her hand through the thin sheet of aluminum, and touched the engine and main rotor housing. She willed those items to be absorbed and then stepped back into the Shadow Realm. One Second to appear and punch, One second to absorb, and one second to escape back into the Shadow Realm. So, 3 seconds total, and the helicopter no longer had a way to create lift.

  Pandora spent that 4th-second using Burst of Speed and 1,000 MLAs to travel through the Shadow Realm to the next helicopter where she repeated the process. Four seconds later she was at the next helicopter. Just as she absorbed the main rotor and engine of the third helicopter the first helicopter had dropped the 1,000 feet it had been hovering at and exploded into fragments against the ground

  Pandora watched from the Shadow Realm as the three teams dropped to the ground and went into a 360-degree outward-facing cover formation as they looked for threats which worked in her favor. Pandora shifted to her dragon form and flew up until she was directly over the furthest group from the others. She was a shadow dragon and there were no lights in the area. At most, the other team members looking in her direction would see a giant shadow.

  Pandora hovered over the first group, slid out of the Shadow Realm, and used her Breath Weapon on the first six-man group. The beautiful thing about her breath weapon was that anything she hit was transferred into the Shadow Realm where she could take care of it at her leisure. 9 seconds after the first group disappeared all three groups found themselves in a Realm of perpetual darkness that seemed to resemble they’d just been, at least the shadows did.

  Once the six-man teams were in the Shadow Realm Pandora flew over each crash site and used her Breath weapon on them as well. A few fragments would be missed but the main bodies of the wreckage appeared in the Shadow Realm. Her Breath Weapon could be used three times in rapid succession but she had to wait a full minute for one charge to come back. It had taken all three of her charges to get rid of the teams, and another three minutes to get rid of the wreckage.

  Pandora spent the next minute making sure there were no other invaders and then returned to the house and deactivated the alarm. She also sent a quick message to Mistress Carpenter before she looked into the Shadow Realm and noted that the three teams had come together near the middle wreckage. It looked like they had checked on all three for survivors and pulled them out. Of the six, only two had survived, which wasn’t going to be true for long if the moment she noticed in the distance in the Shadow Realm was what she thought it was. Pandora continued to watch the 20 men and very soon figured out who was in charge. Once she knew that, she headed back outside in her black jumpsuit and stepped into the Shadow Realm 50 feet away from the group.

  “Hello boys, looks like you’re all having a really bad day.”