ENDGAME

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One

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There's another world out there – a world of magic, with a different set of rules to our own… only, those rules are in danger of being eroded… the whole world is in danger of being destroyed by the Evil One. Why should you care? You should care because, once that world falls, ours will most likely be next. That world and our world are linked, and if that world is to be saved at all, then it is warriors from Earth that are to save it. Six warriors from Earth, strong in magic, strong in body and, most importantly, strong in heart are convening with their allies at a tavern in a deserted town. Now is the time that has been in the making since they were children. This is where their enemy waits, and where they will do or die. And this is where it all began.

-x-

Bobby O'Brien sat down heavily. 'You can talk.'

There was a heavy pause. Everybody looked at Uni. 'Of course,' she sighed. 'You didn't know that.'

'How could you not tell me?'

'I didn't really tell anybody until my hand was forced…'

'You don't have any hands…' muttered Eric before being painfully jabbed in the ribs by Diana's elbow.

'By that point,' Uni continued, 'you'd left us. I'm sorry you had to find out last. I wanted to tell you…'

'So why didn't you?'

Uni glanced downwards. 'I thought it was best… I wanted to protect myself.'

'You mean, you didn't trust us,' frowned Bobby. 'You didn't trust me.'

'Bobby O'Brien,' snapped Sheila, harshly, 'that's enough of your distraction tactics. Where the Hell have you been for the last six months, and how did you ever end up with these… these scavengers?'

'Actually,' mumbled Pistol, 'we in't scavengers any more, we're more like…'

'Not now, Pistol,' sighed Bobby. 'I didn't really know where I was going, or what I was doing. I just knew I had to get away, before I… before I hurt anyone else.' He blinked up at Hank, his expression full of worry. 'Your eye… that… that wasn't me, was it?'

'No, Bob,' Hank replied. 'I've got nobody to blame for that but myself.'

'I ran into these guys four months ago,' Bobby continued. 'Well… that is, they ran into me. Well… actually, they tried to rob a market I was at and I stopped 'em.'

''E said we was doing it all wrong,' added Pistol with a sheepish grin.

Sheila scowled at her brother. 'So you joined them? You helped them to rob honest people like the ones who've taken us in today?'

'Hey! I helped them to make people feel good about giving them the things that they need. You know, like we used to, back in the old days?'

'And how was yelling Tarantino at people supposed to do that, exactly?' piped Diana.

'That was the emergency card,' Bobby explained. 'They weren't supposed to use that one.' He glared at Pistol and Nym. Nym simply rolled her eyes with an affectation of boredom, while the Ogre chewed his lip and gazed at the floor.

'We were only supposed to get a few supplies from here,' Bobby continued. 'We'd have offered to do some manual labour or something in return, although people often help us out for free when we tell them how important the task ahead of us is.'

Eric scoffed. 'Going town to town sweet talking your way into freebies… that's an important task, now?'

'That's not what we do,' Bobby replied. 'It's how we get by, but it's not what we're working towards.'

'What are you working towards?' Uni asked, quietly.

'Can't you guys all feel it?' Bobby asked the others. 'There's something big ahead of us – a war. There's a voice out there that calls to me. Somebody out there needs our help… needs my help. And I'm not gonna let 'em down. I have to make sure there's a world out there for little kids to grow up in.' He paused, briefly. 'So, that's why I'm building an army.'

Sheila's eyes widened. 'An army? Bobby, what are you talking about?'

'Field Marshall Bobby, huh?' grinned Eric.

'Pretty much,' Bobby replied.

'And, where is this awe-inspiring army of yours?'

'Parking up,' answered Bobby, simply.

'Huh?'

The door swung open and a shabbily flamboyant masked man strode into the tavern.

'What is this?' demanded the man in a Gallic accent so thick that it could only possibly be assumed. 'I demand to know! Honour must be satisfied.'

'Hey, LeFroux,' Bobby greeted. 'You remember my friends…?'

'We send you to get food,' continued LeFroux over him, 'we hide the velocipatory transportation device…'

'The what?' asked Sheila from the corner of her mouth.

'The truck,' Bobby replied. 'Grey's a great inventor, but he's crap at thinking up names.'

'…we even begin to pitch our tents, and where is our dinner, Barbarian? Where? You are all here with your chitting and chatting and LeFroux, he starve to death!'

'There's a dozen of you,' said Rosa, 'aren't there?'

Bobby blinked at her, confused. 'Including me, yes.'

Rosa nodded, calmly. 'I made enough food for all of you.'

'How did she…?' began Nym.

'She's a Soothsayer,' Hank explained.

'You are the Ogre, I take it?' Rosa patted Pistol on the shoulder.

'Only on me Mam's side,' muttered Pistol.

'I made double helpings for you,' Rosa told him, kindly, sweeping off towards the stove.

Pistol smiled. 'She's good.'

'Why don't you guys tell the others to come in for dinner once the camp's been pitched,' suggested the Barbarian. 'I think I've still got some catching up to do here.'

LeFroux grunted in agreement. 'And what shall we do about the others?'

'Others? What others?'

'There is a party walking towards the town,' LeFroux explained. 'Grey saw them through his ocular lens magnification device. Only five of them; three women, one old man and a Wizard. They should reach us within ten minutes. I say we fight them!'

'LeFroux, that's your answer to everything…'

'It sounds like it's just Presto and the others,' Sheila interjected. 'I'm glad they made it OK.'

'You guys found some allies too?' Bobby asked.

'Yeah.' Eric grinned. 'And you'll never guess who we got.'

'Wait,' snapped Percy, 'There's more coming? Are we feeding an army here?'

'A small army,' Rosa smiled from the stove, 'but an army nonetheless. The five who are approaching are the last who will need shelter here. I provided for everybody.'

Percy shot a sideways glance at his wife. 'I thought you were peeling an awful lot of vegetables.'

The bandits began to shuffle out of the tavern to join the rest of their party outside. Nym nodded at the cot as she passed it.

'Sweet babies,' she told Rosa. 'They yours?'

'One is,' admitted the Soothsayer.

'Oh?' Nym took another hard look at the smaller sleeping baby, then stared at Sheila. 'Oh. I see.'

'What?' asked Pistol, from half way out of the door.

Nym pushed him through, whispering some amusing secret to him as she went.

Sheila sprang to her feet. 'Hey! Hey, they must think that…' she trailed off.

'What?' asked Bobby. 'What's this about babies?'

'Um.' Sheila steeled herself, exchanging glances with the rest of the group. She took a deep breath and walked over to the cot. 'Bob, there's something you need to know…' She picked up the sleeping newborn and showed her to Bobby. 'Somebody you aughtta meet.'

Bobby blanched. 'Oh my God! You had a baby!'

'She isn't mine, Bob…'

'Well, of course she's yours! Look at her – she's the spitting image of you.'

'I'm not her mother,' Sheila replied. She held the baby out towards Bobby. 'I'm her aunt.'

Bobby's brow furrowed. 'What? She's not… she can't be…'

'The woman who gave us shelter just over nine months ago,' Uni told the Barbarian quietly. 'Lilac.'

Bobby rubbed his face and sat down again, shakily. 'But that was just one time. Ships that pass in the night…'

'Once is enough,' Diana added.

'Can't be mine…' Bobby breathed. He stared at the baby again. 'Oh God. She is, though, isn't she?' He paused. 'Where's Lilac? Why didn't she get word to me? Where…' He craned his head around the tavern. 'Is she even here? She hasn't abandoned the poor kid, has she…?'

The others exchanged more glances. Hank and Sheila took seats next to him.

'I'm sorry, Bob,' Hank muttered. 'Lilac died.'

Bobby closed his eyes fast. 'When? How?'

'Kosar,' Hank replied. 'He didn't even know that he'd done it. He just split the ground under her feet and she fell. Happened only a few hours ago.'

'Poor Lilac,' Bobby sighed. 'What a crappy excuse for a life she had.' He frowned up at Hank. 'Why was she even with you? Why was she putting herself in danger with a tiny baby to look after?'

'She wanted to find you,' Sheila replied. 'She wanted to show you your daughter.'

Hank cast his gaze down. 'I talked her into it.'

'Lilac wasn't dumb,' Bobby added. 'She wouldn't do anything that she didn't want to do. This isn't your doing, Hank.' He sighed again. 'It's mine.'

'You didn't even know.'

'That doesn't matter,' Bobby resolved. 'She died trying to give me the opportunity to know my daughter.' He held his arms out toward Sheila. 'Let me hold her.'

Sheila gently passed the baby over to Bobby, who cradled her close to his chest.

'It's you,' murmured Bobby to the newborn, 'isn't it? The voice crying out in the night – the lost little kid. It was you all along. Well, I'm gonna take good care of you, OK?'

'Bob,' Sheila reminded him, 'you're only seventeen…'

'So?' Bobby shrugged.

'He took good care of me when I was a baby,' Uni added, 'and he was only a child. You'll be a wonderful father to her, Bob.'

Bobby smiled. 'What's the little tyke's name, anyway?'

'Bluebell.'

Bobby twisted his face a little, trying desperately to mask his disappointment. 'Bluebell. Huh.'

'Dorky name for a kid with a dorky dad,' Eric grinned.

'Shut up, Eric,' warned Bobby. 'When you have a kid, you give it whatever name you want, but don't go round makin'…'

'Oh,' interrupted Eric, breezily, 'I will. Sooner than you think, kiddo.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Eric put his arm around an irritable Diana's shoulders. 'It means you're not the only one whose tadpoles can swim, Bob. You're looking at one heck of a knocked-up Acrobat.'

'Oh,' replied Bobby, absently. 'So you guys are sleeping together again. Thought you probably would be by now.'

'And how,' added Eric.

Diana removed the Cavalier's arm from her shoulders, hotly. 'Although, at the rate you're going right now, Mister, we're not likely to be doing that again for a long, long while.'

'What? What did I say?'

'Congratulations, Diana,' added Bobby, 'although you have to be completely nuts.'

Diana rolled her eyes. 'Tell me about it.'

The door to the Inn banged open again and Nym strode back inside, followed by Pistol, LeFroux and the rest of the gang.

'So what's for tea, then?' demanded the bandit as she clomped muddy boots across the floor. 'Oh, and you'd better set a few more places – that other lot are just arriving.'

The bandits' engineer darted in front of Nym quickly, with a faint nod of acknowledgement towards Hank and the others.

'Hey there, Grey,' Hank greeted. 'Still inventing stuff, huh?'

'It's a living,' murmured Grey modestly as he pulled a chair out for Nym.

Rather than scoffing at Grey contemptuously, Nym settled herself in the offered chair with a quiet 'cheers, Love.'

Sheila and Hank exchanged glances before turning their wordless attention on to Bobby for an explanation of Nym's uncharacteristic good manners.

'They're an item,' Bobby mouthed, silently.

'For real?' mouthed Hank in reply.

Bobby nodded. 'Big time,' he mouthed.

Hank mouthed a thoughtful 'oh', while Sheila visibly relaxed and allowed herself a wide, smug smile.

'Hey,' called another voice from the door, 'looks like the gang's all here. And then some.'

Bobby turned his head towards the doorway, where Presto stood, flanked by people who looked suspiciously like… Bobby's breath caught in the back of his throat… Zandora, Ayeisha, Ramhoud and… the Barbarian's face fell, momentarily. Was that… Varla? Nah, couldn't be. She was long dead.

Bobby got to his feet, handing Bluebell swiftly over to Sheila. 'Presto? Boy, am I glad to see you!'

He squeezed the Wizard's shoulders tightly. Presto coughed out as much of a laugh as the forceful hug would allow him.

'Feeling's mutual, Bob. You brought friends, I see.'

'Yeah.' Bobby released Presto and nodded hopefully at the Wizard's companions. 'Looks like you did, too. Is… is that…'

'I flatter myself that we hardly need to be introduced a second time,' grinned the older man at Presto's side, with a familiar Arabic-sounding twang.

'I knew it,' beamed Bobby, greeting the others. 'Where did you find these guys?' Without thinking, he shook Varla's hand as part of his frenzy of salutations. It took him a second to realise whose hand it was he was holding. As soon as he did, he froze.

'You're supposed to be dead.'

'But she's not,' Presto replied. 'It's a long story. She's here to help.'

Bobby shook his head. 'She sold us out. And now she comes crawling back to us and…'

'Presto knows what he's doing,' Hank added, quietly.

'Does he?'

Hank frowned at Presto. 'Bob doesn't know, either?'

Bobby rolled his eyes, despairingly. 'Oh God, there's a whole freaking world of stuff it turns out I don't know today! What else could there possibly be to add to the pile…? What – you've been in secret communication with our mysterious jerkwad of a new DM all along and haven't been telling us, or something? Or maybe even…' Bobby trailed off, staring at Presto. 'You weren't even surprised to see me, were you? You knew I was going to be here.' He paused again. 'All those private little chats with Venger… all that time I thought it was him giving information to you. Tell me it's not you. Tell me you're not the one who's put all of us through this.'

'I had no choice,' Presto told him softly.

Bobby turned away, his fingers clawed in his short fringe. 'God dammit! Why didn't you tell us before, Presto? Why didn't you at least let us know it was you calling the shots?'

'I've never "called the shots",' Presto replied, 'believe me. And I only kept it secret to protect you…'

'So you didn't trust me either,' Bobby spat, 'just like Uni didn't trust me enough to talk with me…' a new thought struck him. 'I bet you even knew about the baby.'

'From the moment she was conceived,' admitted Presto.

'And you decided not to tell me about her, either?'

Presto nodded, sadly. 'I advised her mother never to mention that you were Bluebell's father. It was only for her protection…'

'Why is it that every time I hear about some new lie, some new bit of information that royally sucks, it's always been in the name of "protection"?'

'If Lilac had followed my instruction,' Presto replied, 'she wouldn't have been killed today, and your newborn baby wouldn't have found herself at the edge of the biggest battle we've ever fought.'

Bobby had no response to that. He was aware, as he stared at Presto, that the Inn had fallen silent. All eyes were on his friend – his Dungeon Master.

'We're walking into monumental danger here,' Presto added, softly. 'We have done all our lives. Every one of us here today has chosen this path – it might not seem that way to some of us, but we have. And we're all aware of what it is that we're dealing with. This isn't like Venger. Venger was a mortal man who was twisted by the darkness. Even in the worst times, he had a sense of honour. He could be negotiated with – reasoned with. Furnus is fire. You can't negotiate with that. It exists to consume and destroy everything that it touches. And then, we have to consider what lurks behind Furnus. No Name isn't just fire and brimstone. No Name is a storm of pure evil, and if you think the Devil discriminates…' he frowned, as though to himself. 'Nobody's safe from Him. Not the innocent, not the helpless, nobody. That's what we're walking towards, Bob. That's what we'll be coming up against, sooner than you think. Your daughter shouldn't be here.' He laid a hand on Bobby's shoulder. 'I'm not sorry for lying to you, or for coercing Lilac into silence. I'm sorry that I wasn't forceful enough. I wasn't able to protect her.'

A soft mutter went up amongst the bandits at the far table.

'You don't need to protect her,' Bobby replied. 'That's my job. I'm her father.'

'At the expense of protecting anyone else?' Presto asked. 'Your new friends? Your old friends? Sheila? Uni…?'

'If he has to,' piped Uni from a corner. 'It's his prerogative. We can take care of ourselves.'

Presto nodded again, thoughtfully. 'As long as you all understand.'

'I think it's a little late to start handing out "you must be at least this suicidal to take part in this battle" signs, Presto old pal,' added Eric. 'We're all here now. I don't think any of us are gonna turn back – we've come too far to get here.'

There was a generic noise of agreement from the assembly in the Inn. Presto smiled, faintly.

'You certainly have.' He paused, and switched his attention to Hank. 'So, what now?'

Hank blinked, startled, and gruffly cleared his throat as the focus of the gathered crowd turned to him.

'It'll be getting dark in a few hours,' replied the Ranger. 'It's probably the best idea for us all to rest up here for the night.' He paused. 'I mean… these things are usually done at dawn, aren't they?'

The bandits murmured another agreement.

'Hank is right,' cried an enthusiastic voice.

Bobby turned in time to see Ramhoud leaping onto a chair with all of his usual gusto. The great King was only prevented from stepping up onto the table by the Innkeeper's peevish tutting and glaring at his muddy boots.

'Apologies,' muttered Ramhoud, getting back down onto the floor. 'Hank is right,' he tried again. 'Let us gather our strength. For tomorrow, my friends… my allies… my children… tomorrow when the suns rise, we are going to war!'

An almighty cheer rose up from the crowd in the tavern. Only Bobby O'Brien was close enough to the Unicorn to hear her low whisper as the cacophony rang out.

'Back to where it all began,' breathed Uni. 'Back to where it all will end.'