Heretical Edge

I was already continuing before the others could even respond. "I'm sorry, really. I know it's a lot to ask you guys to jump right back out there and go in the line of fire again right after we just got done with Lechmere." I wasn't even going to get into the fact that from my point of view I had also just gotten done dealing with like fifteen different major events, but also just came off a four month vacation at the same time. Yeah, there were a lot of very confusing feelings I didn't have any time to process. "I wouldn't even try to bring you guys back into all that so soon except this is kind of a big-- ow."

Miranda, who had punched me in the shoulder, gave me a look. "Okay, one, don't apologize for asking for help. That goes for any time you need it, let alone when it's about stopping an entire species from going extinct. And two, there must be some sort of time delay thing going on with the rift, because we've been in here for about three weeks. Your friend showed up a week ago."

Her head nodded toward Daffy, who was staring at me while clutching something against their chest. Belatedly, I realized the thing was a Bugs Bunny plushie. One of the Flique must've conjured it for them. Seeing that, I made myself smile and stepped that way, taking a knee in front of the kid. "Hi," I started quietly, "I guess you've been having some fun around here, huh?"

Their head bobbed a bit shyly before they held up the Bugs toy, voice solemn. "Daffy needs Bugs. They're friends. But they fight a lot. Not bad fight. Fun fight. Daffy yells." They hugged the plushie while adding a quick, "I wouldn't yell at Bugs. But it's real funny when Other Daffy yells."

Smiling for real that time, I nodded in agreement. "You're right, it is funny when Other Daffy yells. And yup, Daffy does need Bugs. So I'm glad you've got him. We have to go help some of your people, okay? We're gonna try to bring them somewhere safe. You stay here and play some more." I was doing my level best to keep my voice as calm and reassuring as possible.

And speaking of being calm and reassuring, I looked around once more before asking, "Is Elizabeth okay?" This was the first chance I'd had to check on Elizabeth Hubbard, or the piece of her that had been in Sariel's mind asylum thing until I sent her here, to the Archive.

"She's sleeping in one of the demon trains," Fathom informed me. "For some reason she feels safe with them. We figured we shouldn't disturb her right now, least till we get out of here."

As a couple of the other Flique took Daffy to play a game (accompanied by several of the Patchworks who were clearly even younger, mentally, than the rest), Extra piped up. "So like, we need to get out there and save some Fomorians, right? Time might pass slower in here, but I feel like every second counts. If Cronus spots this rift in the course of all his world domination, we're gonna have to run pretty damn quick. And we won't get another shot at saving them."

"Guess that means you're volunteering to ride shotgun?" I asked, wondering briefly if there was going to be a whole discussion on that. Something told me Extra wasn't exactly the only one who might want to be out there helping pull this thing off. I just hoped we could settle it quickly.

Story spoke up. "Actually, Extra and a few more of us are going to be riding along in the waiting room, ready to swap in. Locke is the one going in with you first, just in case they need to be healed before they can move." In response to my blink, she reiterated, "It's been three weeks."

"Yeah!" Tabbris put in quickly. "And these guys wanna help too." She gestured to several of the larger Patchworks who hadn't gone off with Daffy. "They can move things and carry people."

Miranda clarified, "They're scared. But you helped save them, you-- err, we freed them from Lechmere, so now they want to repay that favor. They want to help save these Fomorians."

One of the Patchworks, a tall creature that looked like a rather furry ogre with tusks (kind of like a humanoid woolly mammoth) spoke up in a low, gravelly voice, clearly very carefully considering each of his words and pausing in between almost every one of them. "They… say… these… Formmums… would be… only monsters. If you… had… not… saved us… we would also be… only monsters. We… would like… to… help save them… as you… helped save… us."

Oh, right, yeah, they'd had plenty of time to discuss this whole thing. Fighting off the blush that creeped up over my cheeks, I looked at that woolly mammoth guy, hesitating before finding the right response. "I'd welcome any help you want to give, but you don't have to pay us back. You were all being controlled by Lechmere. Nothing you did was your fault, and you just-- you don't have to make up for anything, and you don't owe us anything. And I need to tell you, it's going to be dangerous out there. I will try to keep you as safe as I can. But we need to be clear, this is only for volunteers. I won't make anyone go out there. If any of you wanna stay, it's fine. I get it."

In the end, it didn't matter, they all wanted to go. Well, okay, that might have been overstating it a bit. None of them wanted to go. Which was fair, since I didn't really want to go either. I really didn't relish the thought of running out in the middle of that invasion. It scared me. But it was the right thing to do. I thought that, and so did they. No matter how worried we were, no matter how sick the idea of going out there made us feel, we were gonna do it anyway, to save those people.

All of which meant these Patchworks were braver than me. I had more powers, more training, and a promise to keep. Not to mention a sense of responsibility for these descendants of the Fomorians I'd met back in Dinosaur Time. And these guys had to be more scared than I was.

There were ten of them going out there, all large enough to move any debris that got in the way, and carry those Fomorians. At this point, we weren't actually going to ask permission or explain anything. There wasn't time, not with Cronus out there. Sure, right now he probably wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as he was in the future, but he was still pretty bad. And if he made it to Earth, just… no, we couldn't let that happen. We had to grab those people and get the hell out.

Looking at Miranda once that was as settled as it could be, I asked, "Sure you're ready for this?"

She offered a raised fist. "I'm more ready for this than I was for that time you decided to prove Mrs. Jabbforth was the one taking all those extra desserts from the cafeteria and made us accidentally find out she was cheating on her husband with Mr. Meyser." Her eyes shifted to the side as she gave a visible shudder. "That's an image ten-year-old Randi didn't forget for awhile."

Returning the offered fist bump, I coughed. "Yeah, well, things might've have changed a lot, but I'm still setting out to do one thing and finding myself right in the middle of something bigger."

"And there's nowhere I'd rather be than right there helping you get out of it," she informed me with a quick wink. "Besides, like you said, this is important. Let's get out there and save them."

Bezique tugged my leg, her little wings flapping anxiously as the tiny batty-fang stammered, "I woulds help. I wants to help. I cans scout, and fly up to be showings you all where to go and where any bad bads are being." Even as she said all that, her voice caught. We both knew very well what she was offering. If she was in the air, a tiny thing like her with no real defenses, she'd be an easy target for any of those ships, or anyone else. She'd be separated from the rest of us and incredibly vulnerable like that. But the little Patchwork Harpy girl offered to do it anyway.

With a smile, I reached down to pick her up, giving Bezique a reassuring hug before carefully explaining, "Thanks, I know you'd be out there if we needed you. But I already have a plan for that. What I really need you to do, Zique, is help these guys get ready for any injured we bring back in here once we get through the rift. They need to set up a medical area. Can you do that?"

A little shudder of relief ran through the Batty-Fang before she agreed solemnly. I gave her another hug before setting the girl down so she could run off and join Empty, one of the Flique who had spent a lot of time among healers. His (he had come to embrace a masculine presentation) name was actually a pun on EMT. A bit of a stretch when adding the p sound, but still. He took Bezique's hand and the two of them went with a few others to get things ready.

To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what would happen if Tabbris possessed me from inside this place before I went out. So we decided to wait until we were both on the outside. Giving them all one last look, and a very firm promise that I was going to do everything I could to make sure we all made it through the rift so we could go home, I focused on shifting back to the outside world.

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The time dilation was dialed up enough in the Archive that only about three seconds had passed while I was in there before I popped back out, even after I'd taken extra minutes to chat. To Percy, Cerberus, and Mekkta, it probably just looked like I had flickered out of existence briefly.

Without wasting a second, I turned to them and spoke quickly. "Okay, I've got some friends coming out. We go down there together, we break rubble out of the way and clear a path. As soon as we grab every Fomorian we can carry, we come right back and go through the rift. We don't explain, we don't ask permission, not right now. It's not gonna take long for Cronus's people to notice us, so we don't give them time to organize. In and out. Mekkta, hold the rift."

If she had an opinion on the absurdity of me giving her orders, the woman didn't share it. She just gave me a thumbs up before making a flicking motion with her other hand. "They're gonna notice us pretty soon anyway even if you don't get down there. So you should pick up the pace."

She was right, no more time to waste. But the first thing I did, before anything else, was focus on my ghosts. I summoned all of them, every single one I could manage in that moment. With the added number I'd picked up through various rifts, that was almost three hundred. But I kept them invisible, since having several hundred glowing translucent floating beings appear right over our heads would probably attract attention a tiny bit faster than we wanted. Still, they were right there, spreading out over our heads to fly overwatch. As soon as any of those ships started paying attention to us, the ghosts would do everything they could to intercept and distract them.

With that done, I summoned the others from the Archive. Miranda appeared first, then Tabbris. My sister gave a quick wave to the others, then hugged Eurso and kissed Cerberus on one of his heads before taking my hand to possess me. By that point, the Patchworks had started to appear all around us. Of the ten that were participating in this, two were those very large woolly mammoth ogres, one looked like a centaur but with a bear lower half instead of a horse (and a humanoid upper half that was built out of at least six different people judging by the patches of skin), three were like enormous, ten-foot long and eight-foot tall badger creatures made out of a myriad of other animals, another three were rhino beings (one bipedal and two quadruped), and the last one looked like a cross between an ostrich and a crocodile (the croc parts were the head and tail).

While I was focusing on that, Percy had told Cerberus to go ahead and shift into his larger form. Which meant the three-headed robot dog was suddenly bigger than a bus, by far the biggest part of our group. So he would be taking the lead, the tip of our spear to get us down there and back. Not for the first time since arriving, I lamented the fact that I couldn't just teleport. That would've been the easiest way to do this, just jump straight down there, grab as many people as possible, and teleport straight back. But this wasn't Earth, so that was right out. We were just gonna have to do this the long way. And hope like hell that we made it out with our passengers.

You guys all good in there? I asked inwardly even as I was shifting into my lion form. This was about running, about moving quickly, and the lion was the best choice for something like that.

Ready! Tabbris immediately chirped, her mental voice sending a rush of relief through me. Yet again, it was an odd feeling. For two parts of me (London and the Roundabout vacation), I had just been with Tabbris minutes earlier. But for the rest of me, it had been the better part of a year.

Yeah, we're set, Locke agreed. Tabs is gonna run close defense while I keep the ghosts moving. You've got Extra, Hot Type, Fathom, Story, and Rig in the ready room to hot swap in whenever.

By that point, Miranda had duplicated herself. She had a different Randi with each of the Patchworks, ready to help guide and protect them. And, of course, Percy was standing atop Cerberus. When she saw my lion head look that way, she gave a quick salute, calling, "Ready, Captain!"

Right, no more stalling, no more time to waste. Those ships and the rest of the invaders Cronus had sent down (invaders that had very recently been defenders) were pretty distracted with the whole taking over the entire planet thing, but they were gonna notice us soon. Especially with Cerberus standing there. It was time to get this show on the road. And then get it through the rift.

We all knew that, we all understood this was our only chance to make this work. Even with the screams, the roar of ships flying through the clouds, the horrifying sizzle of lightning lasers that cut through buildings and flesh alike, the world still seemed to go completely silent and still for just a second. I knew what they were waiting for, everyone here was listening for me to give the word. They were listening for me, me to tell them to run down there into the middle of all that.

It was a thought that terrified me, that made my throat go dry. If I said it, if I gave the order, they were going to race into all that horror. And if something happened to them, if they failed, if we failed, it would be my fault. No one else's. Ehn wasn't here. I could have told everyone to go back in the rift right now, that we didn't have to do this because our most powerful asset, the guy who was supposed to be running this and protecting us wasn't here anymore. I could have called an end to it, and whatever happened if I didn't would be completely on me. I was choosing this. Even Mekkta would have gone with it if I said we should bail. This was my choice.

And I made the only choice I could. Letting out a low breath, I forced my lion body to spring forward, giving a roar that sent everyone else moving with me. Everyone but Mekkta, who took up position in front of the rift and waited for anyone to approach. The rest of us, the werelion me, Eurso right at my side, Percy on top of the giant Cerberus with his three robot heads, and ten Patchworks being ridden by Mirandas, took off down that hillside, racing toward the already-broken city in the distance.

We ran like that, crossing burnt, shattered ground, jumping over jagged cracks and dodging around or over any debris that Cerberus didn't utterly pulverize on his way through. And the big guy sure did a lot of that. Nothing could stand in his way, he just bulldozed right through most things, turning boulders and scattered pieces of wall alike into so much dust and pebbles. All of us stampeded down the hillside, across the field, and into the city proper. Or what was left of it.

If I'd had time, I might've taken a moment to be staggered by the horror of what I was witnessing right then. This was just one city, one tiny part of what was happening all across the planet. The people, these Fomorians, weren't being killed. Hell, their attackers, corrupted and infested versions of their own friends, neighbors, and family, were outright stopping them from dying. Some were trying to end their own lives, apparently knowing what was awaiting them. But the attackers wouldn't allow it. They kept them alive, dragging them off to have a Seosten mind shoved into them so they could be turned into more of these monsters and sent after others.

But the fact was, I didn't have time to consider any of that. I would be horrified and sick later. I would cry and throw up later. I would hate myself for not being able to do more to stop this later. Right now, I had to shove it out of my mind and focus on saving everyone here that we actually could. I had a dozen ghosts focus on flying through the city, finding people who hadn't already been taken. Every time they found anyone, usually singles or in pairs, one of the Patchworks with a Miranda riding them would head that way and get them back on their feet. We couldn't make them understand our actual words like this, but it honestly didn't take much to convince them to run with us. Those who could stand were moving on their own power, while those who couldn't for whatever reason were lifted up onto the Patchworks and carried. They brought them back to Cerberus, who actually opened up some sort of hatch on his side and allowed some to get inside him. I just uhh, yeah, we were definitely gonna have to get them out before he shrank.

The point was, we had some Fomorians. We had them. That could have been enough, after grabbing about nine or ten and loading them up. There were at least two of each of the three sexes. But this was our only chance to save as many of the original Fomorians as we could. It could very well be the only opportunity we'd get to give their species a chance to continue to exist.

Some of those ships had already started to notice us, but the ghosts were on it. They swarmed into the vessels, screwed up the instruments, pulled levers and twisted dials, or just shoved and pushed the pilots. Anything to get their attention and buy us a few extra seconds, a couple extra minutes, a moment or two longer. Anything to give us another chance to find one more survivor.

Finally, I felt as though we'd pushed it as far as we possibly could. We had thirty survivors. Thirty living Fomorians either inside Cerberus or riding one of the Patchworks. Or me. I had two Fomorians on my back, clinging on for dear life while frantically whispering what felt like reassurances to one another. They were scared of us, that much was clear. But they were even more terrified of their own infected, corrupted people. We were the best of a difficult choice.

Giving a quick roar to get everyone's attention, I spun around and started to race back out of the city. The others followed suit as we headed for the same hole in the wall we'd come through. A couple corrupted Fomorians tried to stop us, but went down hard as Cerberus stampeded over them without even slowing down. He even aimed slightly to the side of that hole so he could slam into and through that part of the wall to make the way out even bigger. And just like that, our small herd passed through the opening. The rift was right up there, already being investigated by a dozen Infested Fomorians. Well, it had been a dozen. Mekkta had taken them down to about two by that point. But they knew about it. Which meant Cronus knew about it and would be on his way.

We had to leave now.

Which, of course, was the thought I had just before something came tearing down out of the sky and slammed hard enough into the ground ahead of us to send up a shower of dirt and debris. We all had to recoil backwards. It was a ship, one of the larger ones. The thing had practically embedded itself into the ground, before dozens of hatches started opening up all along the sides. Infested Fomorians poured out of it. So many of them were just erupting from the broken machine. All there to stop us from reaching the rift. Right, of course. It couldn't be that easy. We were going to have to fight our way out of here.

And we had to do it before Cronus arrived.