Madame
Levingt walks into through the breach in the wall. “Is everyone
alright?”
Mark
looks up, with genuine surprise. He had no idea that he'd ever see
her again. He doesn't know what to feel; part of him feels
deep regret and rage, but another part of him feels ambivalence. Why
are there these complications?
The
Doctor looks overjoyed to see her. “We're quite alright, Mary.
I'm...glad you got our distress call.”
“I'm
not alone, dear. I'm sure the Inspector picked it up too. It's just
that he won't come here. Not with me around.”
The
Doctor tries to hold up his smile, but as Jacob looks back at him, he
can see it's fake. He knows that Kai fears this woman, but she isn't
the Old Man, is she? No, she looks less powerful. But he knows that
looks are often deceiving.
“Well?
Come on out, friends. There's nothing to fear out in this place.”
She doesn't stop grinning as her eyes lock with those of Doctor Kai.
“Nothing to fear at all.”
Kai
continues to smile as he leaves, along with the others. Even You
follows, and as he strides past Levingt and Kai their happiness, real
or not, fades away.
“So
it's come to pass, then,” she says sadly. “Damn. I always liked
that boy.”
“It's
not over for him yet.”
“I
know. But it must hurt your brother so much to see him like this.”
“It
does. I can feel it.”
In the
distance, Susie and the others now have time to deal with You's
transformation. Mark explains to them what Doctor Kai explained to
him; that this will allow You to become much more powerful, but that
they couldn't retrieve his spirit. He's a mindless shell. Susie's lip
quivers as he says this, and the Doctor tries not to watch what
ensues after.
Mary
senses the despair at once, and looks at the vast House before her.
“McGee Manor,” she says quietly. “I never thought I'd see it
again. It's come a long way from Boston.”
“Don't
you find it demeaning that you...allowed yourself to work in it, as a
maid? To a man?” Doctor Kai responds.
“I've
been many things across time, love. I've had to embody even some of
the lower mortal aspects to appeal to my...followers. In the time
that I've traveled, I've learned humility, but not next to men. Next
to mortals, all mortals. I've delivered babies and worked putting meals on the
table, yes; but you have to remember that I've also shattered worlds,
been a warlord queen.”
“I
remember that one of your aspects was an Empress who killed her
entire world with her bare hands!”
“Yes.
Yes, that happened. And actually, as I remembered, I killed the
entire universe. I was the Empress Death, and there wasn't any
calmness about me. Certainly makes up for helping Snaps McGee put on
a tie now and then, doesn't it?”
“Not
entirely. You still embodied submissiveness.”
“I
did, but my...brother, we'll say. He's also had to embrace humility,
and he's had to do it many more times than I, I might add. It does
him well, and teaches him much about how he can't scorn or fight me,
or fight the aspect I have within him. Besides. I did have fun being
the most powerful member of McGee's Boston Group. I really enjoyed
spending time with Gregory O'Grady; in fact, he inspired me to be a
mob queen once. There I fell in love.”
“I
think I remember.”
“It's
not a bad thing for someone like me to fall in love. In fact, it
helped me connect much more with the cosmos. You could say it gave me
a plethora of pleroma.”
“Oh,
come on, Mary, that's awful.”
She
laughs. “I can't help it!”
That's
when she looks over, and her eyes glaze with the mystery that she
knows Kai can't see. She sees Susie sobbing, and feels each tremor
within the girl. But by Her Will, Mina is wrapped around her. And in
that, She finds power.
“I'm
guessing you won't be able to use The House to travel, given the
state it's in.”
“Likely
not.”
“But
if you want to stay with me, maybe with Klaus, you and I could talk
plans with the Old Man.”
Doctor
Kai flinches, gasps, blushes, and finally hides his face. She laughs.
“It's
okay, Kai! Ze's not going to hurt you. You have my word on that.”
“Will
you protect me?”
“Yes.”
“You
won't go all Wrath-y?”
“Nope.”
He
breathes unsteadily. “Okay.”
“This
would be the first time someone's stolen hir House, I have to
admit. And ze does suspect you, still, for that time when...”
“We
both know what happened.”
“But
ze's not going to, I dunno, un-clone or something. You'll be safe.
Ze'll probably just lecture you and move on with hir rather endless
life.”
Kai
clutches his head in nervousness, and doesn't look at her. “What
about the others? How will they get to the final battle?”
“You—the
one over there, and not you—once built an airboat from the same
table that Klaus and your brothers were bound to. They can use that
to head upriver. But I doubt New Cenabum will be safe for long. The
Emperor has been knocked off-track. He is willing to sacrifice
anything to recover both You and...well, me. He's become quite
infatuated with me, which is part of the plan. I've punched a hole in
his armor—now the kids have to stop him.”
“Ah,
yes. I sensed Klaus and the others were trapped in something not
unlike those dolls you've grown to love fashioning. What happened to
them...?”
“Some
were broken, meaning the connection was lost. But the others have
been...reclaimed.”
“Reclaimed?”
“Restored,
and then—taken back, by Inspector Fox.”
Kai's
eyes flash with horror. “He's trying to reopen our link to Kul'ul.”
“It
won't be long until he's after you and Klaus. The missing links.”
“And
that's why you're keeping us away.”
“Indeed.
If Kul'ul fully incarnates, he will become the same which absorbed
your first form. And then he will combine with the Time King; the
Second Enemy will be born again. Though already, we know the Time
Nexus has been forged. The first birth of that Enemy cannot be
erased. With the First and Second Enemies incarnated, the relative move towards the end of all things is approaching rapidly.”
“So we
can always prevent Multiversal Enemies from being born again,
but just not their first birth.”
“Yes.”
There is
a pause.
“This
is likely getting too heady.”
“I
agree.”
“Should
we prepare for that siege, then?”
“I
would say so. Why not?”
And so,
as tensions settled somewhat with the kids (though the unease
wouldn't pass for some time), the two travelers readied themselves
against an incoming assault. The Empire's wrath was indeed on its
way.
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