"Whoa!" Taylor yelped. "Hey, Jess. I'm assuming you're better now."
"Yes, yes... Do you have your block down? Can you sense Carla?"
Taylor blinked.
"Umm... yes I have... Sense Carla? What are you..." then Taylor frowned. "Hey, that can't be right..."
"What do you sense?"
Taylor's eyes met Jess's.
"Something very weird."
"Oh thank goodness I'm not the only one," Jess sighed.
"Not the only one?" asked Diana, having inadvertently overheard.
"Carla's empathic signature had changed. I mean, a certain amount of gradual change is normal, and a large amount of change can also be normal if the person has had a traumatic experience or something," Jess said. "But... but with Carla..."
"It's changed... to an unnatural degree, and in such a way that..."
Taylor paused and looked at Jess.
**********
The (now healthy) Hansons and the Connory's were having a meeting. Isaac was still unaccounted for.
"I don't know how it's happened..." Taylor said. "But it's almost like... like... how can I put this? It's like Carla has become the ultimate good guy."
"What do you mean?" asked Zac.
"Well... okay, everyone has good and evil inside them, whether you like it or not. And both are apparent in everyone's empathic signature, including the amount of... control each... force has in them. Carla has lost every ounce of evil in her."
"Okay..." Doug said. "And this is a problem because?"
"Because it's more than just being 100% good," Jess said. "She's... she's not just Carla any more. She's Isaac as well."
Everyone turned to look at Carla. Carla looked back at them, then laughed.
"Oh, is that's what's been worrying you?" she smiled. "If only you had asked me, I could have told you."
"Do you know how it happened?" asked Taylor.
Carla frowned.
"No, I'm sorry, I don't rightly know," she said. "I hope I haven't disappointed you."
"No, no, it's fine."
"I might know..." Zac said slowly. "Might it have happened when I accidentally zapped them? Ike and Carla were both in liquid form at the time... And afterwards, Ike went off his rocker at me."
"Oh dang..." Taylor said, his eyes wide. "If Carla is now herself and Ike, and she's all good..."
"Ike might be their evil sides?" Jess filled in the blanks.
"Where is Ike?" Diana asked nervously.
"He stormed out after I accidentally zapped them," Zac said, chewing his bottom lip.
"This is not good," Taylor said.
"I think we've established that," Zac said, joking out of reflex.
"If our theory is correct, and Ike is 100% evil..." Taylor went on, ignoring Zac. "He's the most powerful out of all of us... I don't even want to consider what he would do..."
Silence.
"Oh, he wouldn't get up to that much trouble," Carla said, assuredly. "He can't be that bad."
Everyone looked at Carla, then back at each other.
Definitely not good.