#110

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.