She sat down on the edge of her bed, staring at the wall for a moment. There wasn't all that much to do, and no one had been online so she had gone upstairs and pulled out her ipod, wondering what she would do next.
Then she heard a ringing from the hallway and she stood up and went to answer it. "Hello?"
"BETHANY!!!!" Kate shouted down the phone line. She was in a good mood. A very good mood. If it was physically possible, she would have jumped down the phone line and hugged her friend. "Okay, okay, so you know that time I told you to let me know if you managed to create some sort of inter-dimensional thingy that could get you into movies or books or stuff?! Well, guess what?" Kate didn't pause long enough to let her friend answer, but almost immediately went on. "I managed to make one of them!"
"What?" The boredom of a few minutes ago vanished in the blink of an eye as Star's eyes lit up with excitement. "It can go into any book or movie? Any at all?"
"Yeah! Totally! I just tested it a few minutes ago. Word of advice: Don't startle someone who controls fire. It's a bad idea." After a second's pause, Kate added, "Don't worry, I'm okay."
"Can it take us to Gettysburg?" Star asked eagerly, the thought coming in her head as soon as Kate said 'yeah'. If there was anyplace in the entire world that she wanted to be, it was with Lo Armistead.
Kate paused for a minute, after the slight squeak from her friend, and sighed. "Okay, I just know you're thinking about Lo or Hancock or Armistead or one of those guys who I can never tell apart..."
"Lo and Armistead are the same person," Star said, grinning. "And Win Hancock is his best friend, and is like a brother to him. I want to see Lo though! More then anyone! Can we go there, please, I can be over at your house in a matter of minutes!"
"Same person? Huh. No wonder I can't tell them apart." Kate paused for a minute, for no real reason other than to annoy her friend. "Yeah, sure. Come on over."
"I'll see you in a few minutes!" Star quickly put down the phone and ran to her room, grapping her Confederate uniform jacket and throwing it on, along with her hat as she took off from the house, down the street, over the hill and rang the doorbell of Kate's house, gasping for breath after having run the entire way.
"One minute and fifty-eight seconds, girl," Kate said to her friend, opening the door. "You might want to breathe after that run." Suddenly shifting back to her good mood, she added, "Okay, okay, so... you should probably control the thing for Gettysburg. I'd probably get distracted and end up in some pocket dimension or something." She ran over to the table and showed Bethany the device. "It goes on your arm, like this." She clasped the metallic device around her friend's forearm.
Star grinned, still breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. "So what do I do? Just wish myself in the place were I want to be?"
"Hold on, hold on!" Kate latched herself onto her friend's arm. "Okay, that's better. You don't as much wish as seriously concentrate on exactly where you want to be. And what you're wearing or hanging on to will go with you." She held up the captive arm. "Hence the death grip."
"Alright, I see." Star closed her eyes and thought about her favorite movie, Gettysburg, the charge and Lo Armistead's face. He concentrated on it more then anything else, having no other thoughts but the place that she wanted to be.
The transition between realities was virtually nonexistant - they were standing in Kate's house one moment and on a battlefield the next. "Okay, we're here," Kate said. "Oh, and after you kidnap what's-his-face, we're going to go hijack one of my favorite people, okay?" An explosion rocked the ground less than 100 meters away from the two girls. "Also, let's get out of the line of fire. Like, NOW."
"It's not what's-his-face! It's Lo!" Star said, flinching away from the explosion without even thinking about it. Then she looked out over the battlefield, ignoring the last thing her friend had said. "There's Lo!"
Kate watched her friend take off towards the general. "Idiot. I said OUT of the line of fire, not into it!" Seeing no other choice before her, and fueled by the fact that Star still had the Thingy (which, Kate decided, should be the official name for it), she followed her friend.
The battlefield seemed to be utter chaos, but Star didn't pause in her step. There was only one thing that she saw, the form leading the men towards the stone wall with his hat upon the tip of his sword. And she charged towards him with everything she had, she had to stop him from crossing over the wall.
"I don't get it," Kate muttered, running crazily while trying not to get hurt or killed with the cannonballs landing all around her. "She always - HOLY SHIT - complains about how I always like 'frighteningly dangerous' characters, and she drops us in the middle of a freaking battlefield."
It was then that she reached the stone wall at the same time that Armistead reached it. Forcing herself to take the last few steps, she grasped him from behind just as a volley of rifles went off in front of them. Both of them fell over just behind the stone wall, luckily neither of them hurt.
Kate finally saw her friend, and collapsed under the wall to avoid injury as much as possible. Crawling over to Star, she hissed, "Are you out of your fucking mind?!" before yanking the Thingy from the older girl and putting it on. She grabbed Armistead and Star, and concentrated on a spot she saw, a bit more than a mile away. Almost instantaneously, the three of them were in a patch of woods empty of soldiers and firearms.
Star stared at her before scrambling to her feet. Beside her, Armistead got up slowly, his face a mask of confusion. Quickly, she turned towards Kate. "What are you doing? I didn't get to find Win!"
Kate stared blankly at Star for several seconds, before turning to the general and saying, "I apologize in advance for my most unladylike behavior." Then, turning to Star, she started screaming. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You drop us here, run straight into a battlefield UNARMED, nearly get shot to death, nearly get ME shot to death, I save your ass and this guy" - she pointed at Armistead - "And the first thing you say is that you didn't get to find some other guy?!"
"Yes, that's exactly what I say," Star said simply, glancing at Armistead, then back at Katie. "I had things under perfect control, all I had to do was find Win, and then you pulled Lo and I out of there before I could do just that. I've got to go back-"
"You're in the middle of a war, girl." Kate interrupted, exasperated. "There is no such thing as 'under control' in these situations. One stray bullet, and ta-da! You're dead. I'm not letting you go back." She poked Star in the shoulder. "Especially not with a jacket on that makes you a walking target."
Star turned around again and looked at her. "Right now the charge is at it's maximum," She stated, "This is my best chance to get in there and find Win before the Union forces have time to recover and before the Confederates begin retreating."
"No." Kate's tone left no room for argument. "I do not want to have to face your family if I let you get killed."
"I'm not going to get killed!" Star protested, "We can't take Lo and just leave Win behind!"
During this entire discussion, Armistead hadn't said anything. He was still trying to figure out what was happening. First he'd been leaped on by someone he'd never seen before in his life and then he'd been swept away from the battlefield in a blink of an eye, before he could even register what was happening. "Excuse me..." He said, staring at Kate and Star. "But can someone explain to me what's going on?"
At the sound of his voice, Star whipped around in face him, although she didn't say anything, just stared.
Kate, sensing an eminent fangirl reaction, jumped on Star and restrained her and covered her mouth before she could do any serious damage. "Sure we can leave Win behind. I won't risk you getting killed. Although if you do another bone-headed move like that, I might just have to kill you."
Looking over at Armistead, she said, "Eh. This is awkward..."
"Get off me!" Star's protest was muffled by Kate's hand and she pushed her away, tripping and falling over in the process. Once again, she stared up at Armistead, having landed right in front of her. Armistead looked blankly at her for a moment before reached down and holding out a hand, helping her back to her feet.
They were then standing right in front of one another, staring into each other faces, before Star spoke, somehow controlling herself.
"Hello sir..." Star said, her voice soft, not taking her eyes from Armistead the entire time, almost frozen where she stood.
"What's going on?" Armistead asked again.
Kate hesitated a moment before speaking. "Well... I'm not very good at explanations, and you probably wouldn't understand half of it. So I guess I should let Madame Weirdo explain. But I would brace for a lot of squealing, if I were you."
Star glanced towards Kate before looking at Armistead again. "I've wanted to meet you for so long General Armistead! For years actually, I view you as my hero, and my friend here found a way that could take us back into whatever world we want to be in and I came here to meet you Lo!"
Kate grumbled slightly. "I didn't make it for you... and it hardly counts as another world when you just use the Thingy as a time-travel thingy."
Armistead stared at her and raised an eyebrow, not even really understanding everything she'd just said, Star had said it so quickly. "Time travel?"
"Yes, time travel." Kate rubbed her temples. "This thing on my arm is basically an inter-time, inter-dimensional device. But it's easier to just call it a magic thingy. Basically, it takes the person wearing it, and anyone or anything they're hanging on to wherever the person wants. Which is how I got you and this idiot out of the battlefield."
"I'm not an idiot!" Star protested.
It all started to make sense then in Armistead's mind as he looked at the object of Kate's arm, then back at Star.
"Yeah, it's confusing, I know," Kate admitted. "And yes, Star, you are an idiot. And seriously, I have to ask..." She turned to her friend, ignoring the general completely for the moment. "You are always going on and on about how the people I like would kill me without a second thought. Okay, I'll admit, a few of them would. But not all of them. And anyway, I can recognize the urge-to-kill-rising signs soon enough to get the hell away from there before they actually kill me - " Kate cut herself off, realizing that she was going off on a tangent. "Anyway, what could possibly have made you think that landing HERE - well, not here exactly, but you get the idea - was a good idea?!"
"Because Lo's here," Star said, "And Win, and George, and Lawrence, and Buster, and Buford and Tom, and Devin, and Longstreet, and Lee, and-"
Kate clapped a hand over Star's mouth before she could continue. "All right, I get the point. Also, don't start talking about Devin. Seriously. I keep thinking of the wrong Devin."
She looked over at Armistead. "See, I have to LIVE near this girl. Be glad you've only just met her."
"I take it..." Armistead said then, "That she is very interested in my time period.... and in the people in it..."
Star pulled away from Kate for the second time that day and cast her a glare, unhappy that she'd been cut off.
Kate grinned. "She's usually worse about it, actually. Anyway, Star. Is there any way possible that you'd leave without Win?"
Star shook her head firmly. "No way."
Armistead looked from one to another again. "Win? Win Hancock?" Hearing the name made him think of his closest friend, who he hadn't seen before the war but who he knew was closed, was across the battlefield.
Kate glanced at Armistead. "So... that's the guy's last name?" After a slight pause, she added, "Yeah. Sorry, but I don't know jack shit about this time period." She turned to Star. "I was afraid of that. See, the thing is, I'm still pretty much dead-set of hijacking Matthew. And it might get a bit awkward to get everyone around."
One look at Star's face indicated that nothing would stop her. Kate sighed and took off the Thingy. "Fine. Just get as close to him as possible, and get back here as soon as you can. If you die, I'll kill you."
Grabbing the thingy, Star grinned before she disappeared back onto the battlefield. Armistead watched her disappear, then looked over towards Kate. "If she dies," he asked then, "How would you kill her?"
"Huh," Kate said. "I didn't really think about that." After a moment of thought, she said, "Oh! Easy. I go somewhere, find a necromancer, get him or her to ressurrect Star, and then kill her. Problem solved."
"If you ask me, that's a lot of trouble to go through just to kill her again," Armistead said, shrugging. These time travelers were strange.
"Good point..." Kate said. "Maybe I'll just go back to a few minutes before she dies and then kill her. But that might make a pretty awful paradox." After a few minutes of silence, Kate shouted, to no one in particular, "WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING HER SO LONG?!"
Armistead shrugged again, not sure what to say to Kate. He looked out towards the battlefield for a moment in silence before he spoke, softly, more to himself then to anyone else. "They're going to report me missing...."
Kate shrugged slightly, unsure of how to react. "It beats being dead." She caught herself after the words left her mouth. "Um. I don't think I should have said that."
Blinking, Armistead stared at her. Dead? He was almost afriad to ask, started to open his mouth to speak but then decided against it at the last minute as Star appeared, with Hancock, on a stretcher.
Kate grinned at Star. "Good. You're back. That means I don't have to- wait. He's shot?"
Star nodded sadly, kneeling beside Hancock who had been shot in the upper leg, close to the hip. "You didn't let me go to him soon enough...."
Armistead's eyes locked on the form in the stretcher then and he fell to his knees beside the other general, taking Hancock's hand.
"Um? Hello, Star? Do the words 'time control' mean ANYTHING to you?!" Kate asked, starting to slip into rant mode. "And now we'd end up with a paradox if you went to go back and fix it. So we have to find some sort of doctor or healer. And not one of the craptastic ones from this era." Kate began pacing, not really paying attention to the generals. "A healer of some sort. Who wouldn't ask too many questions. Think. Think. Think."
"You mean that I could have gone back and kept him from being shot?" Star asked, standing up and facing her friend. "And surely you know of a healer or doctor someplace in one of the universes that you know about?"
"Um, yeah, you could have." Kate groaned slightly. "The healer or doctor thing isn't as easy as it sounds. I could go to the water tribe healers from Avatar, but they'd ask a lot of questions, especially with the uniform issues. Plus, they're basically at the north pole, and even though it's not quite as harsh there, we'd still probably end up freezing. I can't think of anyone from X-Men with healing powers besides Logan, and they only apply to himself. And most of the other things I know have can't heal the guy that quickly."
Star thought for a moment. "What about in Artemis Fowl?" She asked after a moment. "Holly could heal him...."
Kate froze and stared at Star. "Hmm... But again, there's the questions issue. As far as I can remember, she would want to know who he is, who we are, how he got hurt, what's going on, and so on. And... she's a fairy or something, right? Could be a bit difficult to find her." Kate paused for a moment, and tossed the Thingy back to Star. "You know what, it's the best bet, and you know more about Artemis Fowl than I do."
Kate turned to the two generals. "Hey, we're probably going to get moving pretty soon."
"I haven't read them in a while..." Star said, catching the Thingy and putting it on, "But I can get us there."
She glanced at the generals then and moved towards then, placing one hand on each of them and then glancing over at Kate.
The scenery changed again, from the relatively quiet woods to a downright silent building. Kate glanced at Star. "You'd better hope to hell this worked."
Star nodded and glanced at her. "It would be better if we didn't draw attention to ourselves. You stay here with the generals."
Without even waiting for an answer, she slipped off to find Captain Holly Short.
Kate watched her friend vanish down the hall. She didn't know where she was exactly - she had only read one book of Artemis Fowl, back when she was in third grade. A thought hit her, and she cursed under her breath. I could have just gone to Dr. Marcoh. Or Dr. Mauro. He would have been relatively easy to blackmail, too...
Armistead looked up at her then, from where he was kneeling beside his closest friend, his almost brother. For a moment silence surrounded all of them until he spoke. "This is a different world, isn't it?"
"Yes. Yes, it is," Kate replied in a total deadpan. "If Star had actually thought her plan through, we might have been able to avoid this." She knew how terse she sounded, but it was mostly from not knowing where she was, and having to take an unplanned side trip. Kate decided to keep it in mind for her plans in the future. She knew Star would be in a similar position when they had to go to get Kate's characters.
"I just... I really wish that I didn't have to be here..."
"Where is here?" Armistead asked at the exact moment that Star reappeared, with Holly Short in tow. He looked in surprise at the elf.
"Here is here. Just... leave it at that, all right?" Kate asked. Directing her attention to Holly, she asked, "Miss... um... Short? Has Star explained why we need your help?"
Holly looked at the two generals, at Star and then at Kate. "No, she hasn't. And I want to know why. Who are you people anywhere?"
Star paused. "We need your healing powers."
Kate sighed. "We aren't anyone. Not anyone important. Please, just help us and you'll never hear from us again." She indicated Hancock. "He's been hurt. It's honestly not that serious - he won't die from it - but we need him to be able to get up and moving."
The elf stepped towards Hancock, looking at the uniform and then at the bullet hole in the man's leg. "He's been shot, how did that happen?"
She turned around to look at the others assembled.
Kate looked at Star, who offered no explanation. "It is a very long story. Let's just say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"That's a good way of putting it," Star agreed, "We don't have time to explain any more. We just need him to be healed so that we can be on our way."
Holly hesitated, then stepped over to Hancock and placed the tips of her fingers over the wound, getting two sets of confused looks from Hancock and Armistead. But she ignored them and let the blue sparks sail from her fingers into Hancock's leg, healing the wound.
Kate relaxed a bit. From what she could remember from the one Artemis Fowl book she had read, Holly was reasonable. And she did heal the guy... Kate sighed. "Are we all okay, then?"
Star stepped over to where Armistead and Hancock were still staring at Holly and looked at Hancock's leg. Although there was blood on the cloth, the wound was completely healed, without even a scar. "We're good," She said, smiling, "It's healed better, from the looks of it, then it healed according to history."
Kate scoffed slightly. "That's because, like I've said, doctors in that time suck. Which is why I insisted on finding a better healer." She looked at Holly. "Thank you," she said earnestly. It was about the only thing she could really think of.
Turning to Star, Kate said, "I think we should stop by at my place for a bit. A lot has happened in a really short time." After a second of pondering the accuracy of her statement, she added, "Well, to us, at least."
"You want to bring Lo and Win back to our time?" Star asked as Holly watched them with her arms crossed, not saying anything.
Kate raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather I just took them to Hetalia without any time to sit and think of a plan? Unlike you, I don't intend on just grabbing Matthew and running."
"Why can't we just grab him and run?" She asked, "Wouldn't that be easier? I would have loved to stay in the Civil War Era for longer, but I didn't ask to stay longer because I knew you wanted to get going."
Kate flushed slightly, knowing that her friend was right. "Well... er..."
"If we stay longer in your world, can we go back and visit the Civil War again before going home?" Star asked.
Kate nodded. "All right. Sounds fair enough. Shall we get going?"
Star nodded and glanced towards the two generals and Holly, none of whom had said a word for a little while. "Yes, let's go."
Kate rested an arm around Star, who grabbed the generals' hands. Focusing her concentration on the Thingy, she took them all back to her house.