Chiaroscuro

by Kurrent

A look at Nico and Karolina's love and relationship over the years. (Spoiler: It's never boring for long.)

6. Ch 6: What the Fuck Just Happened

Author's Note: This chapter is going to have some serious highs and lows. Be forewarned, and have faith.

Cover art is a still from Hulu's Runaways.

I do not own Marvel comics, the Runaways, Hulu or any of a half-dozen other related properties, and I do not make any claims upon Marvel or its characters. All these characters are used under the concept of Fair Use, and I make no profit or income from using any of them.

Chiaroscuro

by Jo K.

Chapter 6: What the Fuck Just Happened

I don't care if you hate me

'Cause you're gonna have to face me

And there's no use in crying

You know I would be lying

If I said you could escape me

What doesn't kill me makes me vicious

I'm not gonna break, I can take all that you can give

This is survival of the sickest

I am not afraid, bring the pain

What doesn't kill me makes me vicious

-Halestorm, "Vicious"

—O—

—O—

"The sole heir to the tech giant Wizard has officially been cleared of any wrongdoing in the deaths of her parents. Nico Minoru Dean, eighteen years old and the only surviving daughter of Robert and Tina Minoru, stands poised to inherit both of her parents' shares of Wizard, which, added to her own personal portfolio of roughly five percent of the tech company's stocks, would give her ownership of over seventy percent of Wizard, a Fortune 500 company.

"Uncertainty currently holds sway at the highest levels of Wizard, as Mrs. Dean has had very little exposure to the company's daily functioning, as opposed to her parents, who were intimately involved in Wizard's day-to-day operations until their recent deaths.

"Robert and Tina Minoru were present at the wedding of their daughter and Karolina Dean, daughter of Church of Gibborim leader Leslie Ellerh Dean, four months ago, a private ceremony conducted at an undisclosed location in the California desert. Several guests were treated after collapsing from heat exhaustion, among them Robert and Tina Minoru. Despite all attempts by medical staff at Cedars-Sinai Hospital to stabilize the couple, Robert Minoru passed away five days after his daughter's wedding. Tina Minoru passed away two days after her husband.

"Rumors continue to swirl regarding bad blood between Nico Minoru Dean and her parents, stemming back to a malicious police report that falsely identified Nico, the youngest Minoru, as one of several suspects in the murder of Destiny Gonzalez, a young runaway whose body washed ashore on a Los Angeles beach last year. While no one was ever officially charged with filing the false report that led to Nico Minoru and five other teenagers—among them Karolina Dean—being hunted as fugitives for several months, speculation persists that Robert and Tina Minoru, also founding members of the multimillion dollar charity PRIDE, had something to do with filing that report. That speculation remains fueled by multiple accounts of a bitter estrangement between Nico and Robert and Tina, an estrangement that some say turned violent based on hospital repo—"

"Oh my god, turn that shit off," Nico said as she came out of her and Karolina's room. She was wearing one of Karolina's nightshirts, which fell down to her knees, as she came down the main steps from the second level.

"It's important to know how much people have been able to put together," replied Alex, sitting with Molly in front of a modest flat-screen television that had been set up in one corner of the Hostel's main room.

"Our parents sucked. Have they figured that much out yet?" Nico said as she stepped off the wide stairs onto the aged floor of the cavernous room.

"Hey, hon?" Karolina called out from the open door to their room. She was thirty-eight weeks into the pregnancy, and walking was much trickier than it used to be. "Can you get me some hot tea, please?"

"Karolina!" Molly called out. "The news is running a thing on Nico!"

"Molly!" Nico hissed. "She doesn't need to be up so much. Walking's hard on her this far along."

"Good thing I don't have to walk," Karolina said, smiling as she floated through the doorway, her body glowing pink and purple with some yellow and blue hues visible intermittently. She stayed upright as she flew down the stairs, meeting Nico as she reached the main floor.

"Babe," Nico said patiently, catching her wife's arms and instantly becoming weightless herself. "You need to take it easy."

"No, I need this baby to come on out!" Karolina said, frustrated. "God, Nico, I want to hold this little girl so fucking bad. And I'm tired of being big and pregnant! My back hurts all the time. I can't wear most of my clothes. I have to go pee every two hours! And do you know the last time I saw my feet?!"

"It's back on!" Molly said, turning her attention back to the television.

Nico gave Karolina a tired look, but Karolina countered with her pitiful look. Nico had no chance to resist.

"Little remains known about Nico Dean. She was a student at the private Atlas Academy until last year, when she was withdrawn in the middle of her junior year for reasons that the school declined to disclose. While Atlas's grades and records are kept private, classmates who were willing to be interviewed said she did well academically but cultivated a strongly antisocial demeanor."

"She was a witch. Like, a real-life witch. Dressed all in black, creepy make-up, the whole she-bang."

"She kept to herself. Didn't really make many friends but wasn't really mean. She just did her own thing, you know?"

"She totally had something to do with her parents biting it! She was a satanist! She used to keep dead animals in her locker!"

"Did you really keep dead animals in your locker?" Molly asked, turning around in her seat.

"NO, Molly! Give me a bit of credit, here!" Nico gestured at the screen. "Not like that bitch Roxanne'd know! She was too busy snorting Adderall!"

Karolina put her arm around Nico as they floated just a hair above the ground. "Did they already show the reporter trying to interview Nico at the interment for her mom and dad at the end of June?"

"Yeah, that was the BEST!" Molly said, whirling around. "They had to bleep everything! She was so pissed off!"

"Assholes shouldn't have gotten in my face," Nico said quietly. "Not after that."

Karolina pulled Nico closer, then kissed her wife on the top of her head. "I'm sorry, hon. I know that was a bad day for you."

Nico nodded, uncharacteristically quiet. "Yeah," she mumbled. "It was."

—O—

Nico's hand was already reaching into her black jacket for the Staff when Karolina slid in front of her, physically blocking Nico from seeing the reporter who had climbed the fence of the cemetery and memorial gardens to crash the funeral and interment for Robert and Tina's cremated remains.

"Nico!" Karolina said, grabbing Nico's arms and trying to get the dark-haired witch's attention. Nico had already spit out a very long and impressive string of profanity, and Karolina wanted to avoid televised murder if possible. "Cameras, sweetheart!" she said quietly but firmly as she looked into Nico's brown eyes. "Cameras, cellphones, who knows what."

Nico was obviously seething at the reporter accosting her, but she couldn't take it out on Karolina. Or be mad at her. None of this was Karolina's fault.

Nico let go of the Staff. She pulled her hand out of her jacket, patting Karolina on the shoulder instead. "Thanks," she said, looking up into bright blue eyes. "Hey, will you... Will you do something for me?"

"Um, I guess," Karolina said, her loving smile making it clear that she was teasing. "Since, you know, I am carrying your child."

Nico nodded, and the gesture told Karolina that her new wife was significantly more nervous than she was letting on. "Just... stay with me here for a bit. Until everyone leaves. Okay?"

Karolina searched the depths of Nico's cherry wood eyes. She nodded. "Sure, hon. Of course."

Nico took a seat on a marble bench placed along the hallway of the mausoleum, with Karolina sitting beside her. Nico's gaze remained fixed at the polished stone floor as Karolina rubbed her back. When one of the attendants inquired if they needed anything, Karolina made it clear that they needed some privacy; the older man smiled politely and nodded, then proceeded to efficiently sweep everyone else out of the mausoleum, including the cemetery and gardens staff.

"Okay, they're all gone," Karolina said, after double-checking that only the two of them remained.

Nico looked up and took in a deep breath, holding it in for a few heartbeats before blowing it out. She turned to look at Karolina again. "Thank you," she said, softly. "For everything."

Karolina gave Nico a long hug. "It's okay to miss them," she said quietly.

"They were such assholes," Nico said, struggling against tears. "They hurt you. They hurt me. They tried to erase our memories. They don't deserve me being sad over them dying."

"They're still your parents, hon. They changed your diapers. They drove you to school. They fed you and clothed you. They raised you. Yes, they were assholes, but they were still part of your life, good and bad. That part's gone, and while it's going to get better, it's still a big hole in your heart."

Nico put her left arm around Karolina's lower back and her right arm across the blonde's abdomen, resting her right hand on the baby bump as she leaned in and let herself cry briefly.

She DID have a hole in her life now, with her parents gone. But she had so much more now, too. That made the pain bearable.

After a minute or two of Karolina quietly holding her while she cried, Nico finally sat back up. "Sorry," she said with a sniff. "I'm sure I got makeup on your black dress."

"No big. It'll come out. And you're worth more to me than a stupid dress." She held up a handful of Kleenex she had fished out of her purse while Nico had been crying.

"How are you so amazing?" Nico asked, taking some of the tissues.

"I'm just naturally incredible."

Nico nodded as she wiped, then used another tissue to dab at her eyes. "Yeah, I'll buy that," she said, getting a sunny grin from Karolina. "Thank you for being here with me."

"Of course."

"You up for one more thing?"

"For you, absolutely."

Nico took a deep breath and stood, reaching for Karolina's hands. The blonde placed her hands in Nico's and let her wife help pull her to her feet. Nico looked into Karolina's eyes for a moment, then she turned and led Karolina back toward the vault now housing the remains of her parents.

Karolina examined the carefully cut names of Nico's parents, one on each side of the vault that was chest-high to her. Decorations outlined the marble endpiece, but as Karolina watched, Nico forcefully removed the decorations that were on the two lower corners of the vault, hanging down and obscuring the marble plate of the vault below; without a word, Nico tore those pieces of decoration off and threw them on the ground.

"Nico, honey..." Karolina began, only to stop when she saw the now-revealed name on the vault below Robert and Tina's.

Amy Sophia Minoru

"Oh," Karolina said softly. She took Nico's right hand.

Nico laid her left hand flat against the cool marble, directly over Amy's carved name. "Hey Sis," she said gently. "So, Mom and Dad are right above you. Sorry about that. They'd already paid for it and gave the place specific directions, so the people here wouldn't let me change it. I wanted to put their lying asses outside in the rain."

Karolina fought back a laugh. Nico really had tried to make that change.

"But I know you won't take any more of their shit now. Anyway, that's not the only reason I'm here."

Nico released Karolina's hand and opened her arm for the blonde to slide closer. Karolina complied, putting her own arm around Nico in support as she fought back tears of her own.

"I know you remember Karolina. Not like you could forget her, right? Well, turns out she isn't just brilliant and beautiful, she's also gay and crazy enough to fall in love with me. So we got married, and we're having a kid in a few months. We're starting a little family of our own, inside the bigger family that we chose, not the ones we were born into."

Tears dripped off Nico's cheeks, and she had to close her eyes for a few seconds. "But..." she said, voice shaking, "If I could have chosen... I still would've picked you for my big sister."

Karolina hugged Nico more tightly as she also blinked away tears, eyes sliding across the vault. Amy's name was etched on the left side of the marble piece, with the right side of the marble empty. "Was this supposed to be for Amy's husband?" she asked, her right hand rising to trail her fingertips over the unmarked surface.

Nico nodded. "They got one for me, too. Below Amy, of course."

"Well, it's for us now," Karolina said firmly. "Many years in the future."

Nico didn't say anything. Her lip trembled as emotion flooded her body, warm and soothing to fight the angry bitterness that the morning had stirred up.

"Or, if you want, we can go up here," Karolina said, pressing her fingertips over the blank right side of Amy's vault. "So Amy won't be alone."

It was so sweet a thought, so Karolina, that Nico broke down again, and Karolina turned her around and held her tight to her chest; Nico had to lean in a bit due to the baby bump, but it was fine, it was perfect, having Karolina holding her with their soon-to-be child between them.

Nico nodded through her tears. "I'd like that," she said roughly, against the smooth fabric of her wife's dress. "And Amy would too."

They stood there for a few minutes, all quiet in the mausoleum. Neither of them felt rushed, and Nico felt as at peace as she could, given everything she and Karolina had been through.

"We could name our baby after her," Karolina said softly. "After Amy."

Nico shook her head. "No," she said. "I want our daughter, all our kids, to be their own people. I wouldn't want any of them to have to carry the name of their dead aunt. They'd grow up and live in a shadow they might never escape. That wouldn't be fair to them."

She looked up to Karolina. "But that was very sweet of you to suggest. Thank you."

"You're welcome," replied the blonde. "Then we'll honor her in other ways."

"By not being lying, cheating, manipulative assholes like my parents were?"

Karolina hugged Nico tightly again. "That's a great place to start."

—O—

"It turned out to be a good day," Nico admitted. "Because of my awesome wife."

"Thank you," Karolina said, turning her powers off and letting them settle back onto their feet. "Oof," she groaned, as her weight once more settled in her spine, legs and feet. "I should probably sit down."

"I'll help you to the table," offered Nico.

"No, it's good. But if you wanted to go ahead and get my tea, that'd be wonderful. You'll probably be back at the table before I make it there."

Nico gave Karolina a compassionate smile. "Anything for you, baby," she said, then turned around and hurried toward the dining room and kitchen.

"Morning, Gert, Chase," Nico said as she walked past the couple already seated at the table.

"Morning," Chase replied cheerily.

"Fuck off," Gert mumbled.

"Oooh, someone's having a good morning, huh?" replied Nico, not bothered in the least.

"My fucking uterus is going to climb out and choke me to death with my own ovaries," Gert groaned.

"Yeah, sounds painful," added Nico as she made it into the kitchen. She raised her voice to make sure she could be heard as she called out, "You want me to make you anything? Or get you something?"

"Just make this period stop. It's kicked my ass since last night."

"Hey, at least it's not your brain trying to kill you now, right?"

"GOD, Nico, stop trying to make me feel better. You suck at it."

"You are doing better, though, Gert," Chase said, rubbing his girlfriend's knee.

The purple-haired woman gave him a look of disbelief. "It's either that or die," she said flatly.

"So, I'm glad you're not dead!" he replied, unfazed.

Gert finally gave him a weak smile. "Yeah. I'm glad I'm not dead, too. Thanks."

The buzzing of Chase's phone pulled his attention to where it sat on the dining table. He lifted it up, saw it was his mother calling, then took the call. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"

After listening for a few seconds, Chase became disturbingly pale.

"Chase," Gert said. "What's wrong?"

Chase swallowed. Sweat started to form on his forehead. "O-Okay," he said, voice shaken. "Thanks for letting us know."

"GUYS!" Gert yelled, getting everyone's attention. She was already getting thoughts of panic and worry from Chase. "Something's fucking going on!"

Nico hurried back into the dining room, holding a mug of black coffee for herself and a cup of hot tea for Karolina, who was still about halfway to the dining table. Alex and Molly came running in from their seats, passing on each side of Karolina. Old Lace came loping down the stairs, tail held straight out behind her.

"What's going on?" Nico asked, not liking Chase's pallor at all.

"That... was my mom. PRIDE's sending a mercenary unit after us." He looked at Nico. "Jonah's back. In my dad's body."

"Good," Nico said. "I'll make sure the son of a bitch stays dead this time." She looked at Karolina. "I'm more worried about Karolina, though."

"I'm more worried about a group of mercenaries!" Alex said, hotly. "A police strike team nearly took us out! Mercs have military-grade gear and stuff the cops don't carry!"

"They don't know where we are," Molly said.

"Yes, they do," Chase replied. "Or at least Jonah knows how to find us. Mom said Karolina's energy signal changes during labor. It intensifies to where other Majesdanians can detect it. That's what Jonah told PRIDE when he contacted them just now."

"What?" Nico asked, her head snapping back to regard Chase. "Karolina's isn't in labor."

"NICO!"

"Oh, fuck me," Nico swore at the sound of Karolina's cry. She put the mugs down on the table, then ran into the main room.

"I-I think my water just broke," Karolina said hurriedly.

Nico looked down, seeing a small, shallow puddle of clear fluid around Karolina's feet. "Oh, fuck," she whispered, then she looked up at Karolina. "Fuck, Karolina! The baby's coming!"

"And Jonah's going to send a group of mercenaries, or maybe a missile or something like it, right to us!" Alex said, running into the main room, stopping just short of Nico. "Wow, your water really did break."

"No shit," Karolina and Nico both snapped at him simultaneously.

"We need to get you into the sanctum," Nico said. "He shouldn't be able to track you there."

Karolina nodded. "Get our labor bag."

Nico ran up the stairs. "On it!"

"And we need to get Dr. Lindell!"

"On it!" Nico called out again, her voice muffled from being inside their room.

"I'll check our defenses," Alex said. "Chase! Did your mom say when this attack was happening?"

"Sometime today. She said she tried to talk them out of it, but Alex's parents are out for blood. Specifically, ours, not his, but Mom's worried about all of us. Jonah did something to wake that thing in Stacey's head back up, too, so she's helping him."

"And her drones," Gert added. "Old Lace needs to stay inside, in case she tries to poison her again."

Lace not staying inside unless bond-human and packmate do as well!

Wincing from the force of Lace's thought, Gert turned to the Deinonychus. "Lace, it's too dangerous. She almost killed us both when she poisoned you!"

Not hiding when pack and nest are threatened! she replied, punctuating the thought with opening her mouth and hissing.

"God, you're as stubborn as I am," Gert swore.

"At least this time we're better prepared in terms of defenses," Chase said, looking at Alex.

"True that," replied the other male Runaway. "And I have some countermeasures for those drones, too."

The clomping of boots coming down the main stairs made everyone look to see Nico, fully dressed in a knee-length dress with black lace at the ends of her sleeves, around the collar and down the chest. Her makeup was intimidating with dark red around both eyes, lips a burgundy that was nearly black, hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of loose-top soft black leather flat boots.

"That was getting ready quick," Alex said.

"Magicked it," Nico said, not slowing her approach. "As long as there are new fashion shows, I have easy spells for that." She had a large bag slung over her shoulder and a second bag in her left hand; the Staff of One floated along behind her. She came to a halt directly in front of Karolina as the blonde suddenly groaned and bent forward.

"Fuck!" Karolina swore. "Con... trac... tion," she gritted out between her teeth, as Nico dropped the bags (not in the amniotic fluid) and grabbed Karolina's hands to help steady her. The contraction lasted nearly fifteen seconds, and it left Karolina sweating when she was able to stand again.

"Well," she said, face red. "That's progressing fast."

"Yeah," Nico said. "Real fast."

She slipped her sling ring onto her finger and began sweeping her hand through the air in a circular motion to open the portal to the pocket dimension Doctor Strange had helped her set up to practice her magic. It also served as a fallback point and shelter for the Runaways should it ever be needed, so they had already moved a bed, nonperishable foods, a sofa and chairs, a table, clothes and other supplies into the pocket realm. The sanctum had a small water basin fed by a spring connected to Kamar-Taj, a hearth and wood to start and maintain fires, and a small privy that discreetly emptied into one of Los Angeles' sewage treatment plants (establishing that one-way gate had not been fun for Nico).

Once the portal was open, glowing with violet runes, Nico widened it enough to walk through two at a time. She helped Karolina into the sanctum, which appeared as an enclosed chamber with smoothly cut stone walls, a small pool roughly two meters across, a fireplace and free-standing brazier, wall-mounted torches that never burned out or smoked, the bed, sofa, chairs, a table and a few other pieces of furniture arranged around the room.

Nico helped Karolina over to the sofa, taking care in case another contraction hit.

"I don't want to sit down," Karolina said as they reached the couch. "Dr. Lindell said walking will help speed labor once it starts."

"I'm going to get her," Nico said. "Do you want someone to stay with you until I get back?"

Karolina nodded. "Please. Gert would be great."

"You can put up with her for a few minutes?"

That made Karolina smile. "Yeah, I can." She stopped taking as her face scrunched up.

Nico dropped to one knee and took Karolina's hand, letting her wife squeeze her hand (painfully) until the contraction passed. "Ow," she muttered, flexing her fingers once Karolina let her go.

"Sorry," the blonde gasped.

"You can't help it, baby," Nico replied, leaning over to kiss Karolina's forehead. "I'll get the doctor and midwife and be right back."

She stood and walked through the portal, leaving it open. "Hey Gert," she said as she stepped back into the Hostel's main room. "You mind to stay with Kar until I get back with the doc and nurse?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Gert said. "Lace and I can keep her company. I'm not going to be much help out here, anyway."

"I have an idea," Alex said, as Gert and Old Lace both stepped through the portal, Gert first, followed by Lace and her swishing tail.

Nico pulls the portal closed, then turns around. "Okay, but I need to hurry," she said, trying to maintain her calm.

"You remember the backup bolthole we set up, further out in the desert? The Bunker?"

Nico nods. "Yeah. I've still got runes set to open portals there."

"I think we should move Karolina out there, at least long enough for Jonah to put his crosshairs on it."

Nico's lips curled back into an angry expression. "You want to use my wife and kid as human targets?! What the FUCK, Alex?!"

"Not for long!" Alex said, holding his hands out in front of him as Nico took an angry step toward him. "Just... for a little bit. To give him a target that isn't close to here."

"It's over a mile away, even farther away from town," Chase said. "It's a risk, but it's a minimal risk. Getting a group of hired killers will take some time."

"Unless he already has them ready," Nico replied.

"And it would pull Jonah away from here," Chase continued. "Who knows how long he's been feeling the surge in Karolina's energy? It might have been long enough that he's already pinpointed us as Ground Zero."

"Look," Alex said to Nico. He could tell she was still seething at his suggestion, and he knew he needed to keep his argument succinct. "This place is literally an abandoned mansion buried in an earthquake and landslide. But it's been our home for a year now. We don't have a lot. But THIS... This is ours."

Nico closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Fuck Alex and his logic sometimes.

"This place has been our shelter. It's been our safe place. And none of us, Karolina included, wants to lose it."

Nico sighed. "I'll ask her when I get back. Okay?"

Alex nodded. "If she doesn't want to do it, then we'll take our chances here. It's completely up to her."

"I'll move her and stay with her when I get back," Nico said, begrudgingly.

When Alex didn't move out of the way, Nico guessed there was more. "What, Alex?!"

"We need to do it now," he said slowly. "The sooner, the better. Jonah could be hours away, or he could be minutes away. Chase and Molly can go with Karolina to watch out for her. You can leave the portals open so everyone can run back through at the first sign of trouble. Karolina knows how to close them, right?"

Nico nodded, trying to control her temper.

"I've got monitoring stations set up out there as well. It's just inside the military testing grounds, so that might give Jonah some second thoughts as well."

"Or it might just let him hit the place with everything he's got, with no worry about collateral damage or witnesses," Chase added.

"Chase," Alex said, giving the taller man a look. "Not helping, man."

Nico's heel of her right boot tapped up and down for several seconds, her expression unreadable. "Two conditions," she finally said.

"Nico, we have to hurry!"

"TWO CONDITIONS!" Nico snapped.

Alex sighed. "What are they?"

"First, all of you are going to wear something I made." She reached into one of the pockets of her dress and pulled out a handful of small amulets, each about the size of a bottle cap, with a thin chain threaded through them.

"These are bullet barrier charms," Nico said. "I'll have to activate them with a drop of your blood, but they'll stop bullets and other high-speed projectiles... to an extent."

"What's the extent?" asked Chase.

"A lot of bullets hitting close together is too much for the charm. A single bullet, you're good. Two kinda close together, should be okay. Full auto, it'll stop the first one or two, not the rest."

"Better than nothing," Chase said. "Thanks."

"We've got some body armor we'll use as well," added Alex.

"I don't need one," said Molly.

"You're still getting one," Nico replied.

"Why?!"

"Because your powers turn on and off. Because it's better to have more protection than you need than not enough."

Molly sighed. "Fine."

Nico released the Staff, which hovered beside her. She created a small portal for her to reach through, then pulled her athame out of her nightstand, followed by alcohol wipes.

"Clean your fingers off," she said, handing each of the other three a wipe before closing the portal.

"Are you serious?!" Alex said. "Nico, there is NO TIME!"

"Wipe. Your. God. Damn. Fingers."

Alex held her stare for two seconds before backing down. "Alright! Alright!"

Nico turned to Chase. "Chase. Finger."

Chase obediently held out his left hand, little finger. Nico pressed the tip of her athame against the skin, then touched the amulet to the blood drop that welled up. The amulet glowed with a soft purple light for a second before fading and looking innocuous again.

"Okay, put it on," Nico said. "Alex."

Alex offered his left hand, ring finger. Nico resisted the urge to jab his finger and instead lightly broke the surface of the skin, as she had done with Chase. His amulet also glowed when it touched his blood, returning to normal like Chase's.

"Okay, Mol."

Molly held out her right hand, ring finger. Nico pressed the tip of the knife to her finger, but nothing happened.

She looked up into Molly's eyes. "Powers off, okay?"

"Were my eyes lit up?"

"I don't think so. But I want to keep you safe, okay? So focus on letting the knife poke your skin."

Molly nodded, closing her eyes to concentrate. It still took more effort than with the others, but the knife's tip finally drew a drop of blood from Molly. Nico activated the amulet, then handed the amulet to Molly.

"I'll go get Karolina and Gert and Lace. I'll activate their barriers, too."

She started opening the portal to the sanctum when Alex said, "Hey, what was the second condition?"

Nico looked over her shoulder toward Alex, still drawing a circle with her left hand to open the portal. "If anything happens to Karolina or the baby because of your plan, I'll fucking kill you," she said, her face stony.

—O—

"Dr. Lindell!"

Alison Lindell stopped in the hallway outside one of the exam rooms. "What is it, Meredith?" she asked the nurse.

"It's Ms. Dean. Her wife says her water's broken, and she's gone into labor. She texted you on your cell phone."

"Call Meghan. She's the nurse midwife on call today. Tell her to get her things together and that we'll be picking her up soon." Alison made her way down the hallway of her practice's office, looking for one of her partners.

"June," she asked one of the nurses that worked for other physicians in the practice. "I've got a home birth that's a priority. Can Sandra and Gail cover my afternoon?"

"I'll probably catch some hell over it, but they should able to make it work," replied the older nurse.

Alison smiled. "Thank you. It's a first baby for these two, and they've paid extra to have Meghan and me both there."

"I bet I know who you're talking about. The really young lesbian couple? The tall blonde and the tiny brunette?"

"That's them. Sweet and cute. God, I remember when I was that young."

"You know who the brunette is, right?" asked the nurse.

"A soon-to-be new mom who's probably freaking out?" Alison said, starting to walk down back down the hall to her office.

"No, actually—"

"You'll have to tell me later," Dr. Lindell said, knowing full well who Nico Minoru Dean was—she watched the news, too—but continuing to smile at the nurse. "I have to get my stuff."

She stopped at the closed door to her office, which made her pause. She always left her office door open. Confused, she opened the door and went inside, then had to catch herself to keep from crying out when she saw the very same Nico Minoru Dean sitting in one of the chairs in her office.

"Oh my god!" said Alison, clutching her chest. "You scared me to death!"

"Sorry," Nico said softly, and despite her dark clothes and makeup, she looked so young at that moment. "I just want to get you and the midwife and get back to Karolina. Things are about to get kind of fucked-up, and I want to get her and you someplace safe."

Alison started moving around her office, getting her phone, her keys, her purse and the medical bag she had packed three weeks ago. "I have all I need here," she said, gathering her things.

"Kick-ass," Nico said calmly. "Who else are we getting?" She pulled out her phone and texted Gert for an update on Karolina, then Chase to get an update on the overall situation. She was still mad at Alex, even though his idea was a logical one.

"Meghan Yost is the nurse midwife on call. We'll have to get her. I gave her one of those little coin things like you asked."

"Great," Nico said, feeling a bit better with Gert and Chase both quickly replying that things were about the same. Karolina was having contractions, but they hadn't progressed much, and there were no signs of activity around the Hostel or the Bunker. "Those give me something to focus on when I'm making my portals. That's how I got here."

"Portals?"

Nico grinned. "Yeah. Portals."

—O—

When familiar purple runes formed in the air, Karolina felt a touch of relief. The purple runes grew into a glowing circle, accompanied by a sawing noise with violet sparks falling from the circular outline that was forming in the air. The center of the glowing circle vanished, revealing what looked like a home on the other side. The portal widened, then Dr. Lindell stepped through, followed by one of the nurse midwives. Both of them looked dumbfounded as they looked around the dusty concrete bunker, an old abandoned observation station from the days of the Cold War.

"Oh my god, is this where you two live?" asked Dr. Lindell, shocked.

"No, this is— You know, it's a long story," Nico said.

"Nico," Karolina said, whimpering a bit.

Immediately Nico released the Staff of One, which patiently followed its master when she ran over to where Karolina was lying down on the simple twin bed. It was too short for the blonde, and Nico immediately felt like an ass when she saw Karolina's feet poking over the foot of the bed. She grabbed the Staff. "Make this bed fit Karolina!" she said.

The bed glowed as it lengthened, widened and shifted to better accommodate the blonde.

"I'm so sorry, baby," Nico said softly, pressing kisses to Karolina's sweaty forehead.

"It's okay," replied the blonde, sniffling a bit. "Missed you."

"I missed you too. I was so worried."

"We'll be okay. Just hurts."

Nico nodded. She saw Karolina's face tighten and took her wife's right hand. "Go ahead and squeeze, Kar. Just don't break my hand please."

Karolina groaned as the contraction built, tightening and squeezing her abdomen and pelvis for a good twenty seconds before she felt the burning pain start to ebb. "They're getting closer," she managed to gasp.

"That's good," Nico replied, moving her right hand behind her back to shake out the pain where Karolina couldn't see. "That means we get to meet our baby girl soon."

Karolina looked at Nico, her blue eyes wide, and a smile flashed through her pain. "God, I can't wait," she said, a bit breathlessly. "I hope she looks like you."

"I hope she looks like you. One of us needing a step stool is enough."

Karolina laughed, and that made Nico smile, to ease her wife's pain even for a few seconds.

Alison and Meghan looked on at the sight, familiar in its most basic, but utterly unlike anything else they had seen in other ways.

"Hi," said a purple-haired woman who stepped into view from behind them. "I'm Gert, a friend of theirs. Well, we're actually family, though we're not exactly related."

Alison held out her hand, which Gert politely shook. "Dr. Alison Lindell."

"Meghan Yost," said Meghan. "Nurse midwife. We're colleagues."

"Nico and Karolina brag on your practice all the time. When my boyfriend and I decide to have kids, if we ever do, we'll use you, if that's okay." The other two women politely nodded.

Gert smiled. "Oh, yeah. Don't freak out or scream when you meet Old Lace, okay? She won't bite you."

"Oh, you have a dog?" asked Meghan, who was a huge animal lover.

Gert's smile turned into a grin. "Not... exactly."

Nico was entirely focused on Karolina when she held a soft yelp behind her. That was followed by a low grunt and a snuffling noise. "I think the doc and Meghan just met Old Lace," she said quietly, tucking Karolina's loose hair that had fallen over her face back behind her ear.

"They're going to be traumatized," Karolina said, smiling softly.

"Maybe. That's why we paid them a lot extra."

"True." Karolina reached over and grasped the back of Nico's neck, sliding her fingers up behind her wife's head to hold her tenderly. "I'm so happy right now," she said, blinking back tears.

"Because you're having labor contractions?" asked Nico, a bit confused.

Karolina laughed again, weakly. "Yes and no. It hurts like a bitch, but it means we're about to have our first daughter. It means I'm going to give you a child, Nico. Oh my god, I've so looked forward to this day!"

Nico pressed a kiss to Karolina's forehead, then to her lips.

"I brushed my teeth while you were gone," Karolina said proudly. She lifted her head to kiss Nico more deeply, but she quickly had to pull her head back as felt another contraction begin.

"Sorry," she hissed out as her teeth clenched. "Didn't... want to..." she struggled to get out, "Bite your... tongue... off," she ended with a gasp.

"Thanks for that," Nico replied as she felt Karolina's body relax again. "I like being able to talk. And bitch about things."

"I was thinking of other things you can do with that tongue," Karolina said, giving her wife a sly smile. "Things you do really well."

"Are you seriously thinking about sex right now?" asked Nico, lowering her voice slightly.

Karolina gave the jet-haired woman a look that meant that, Yes, I really am thinking about sex right now. "It can speed up labor," she said.

"We kind of have an audience. And we need to get you into the sanctum soon, before the shit hits the fan. But we might give it a try after while, okay? I can come up with some privacy spells."

Karolina beamed. "Okay."

"You think you can hover long enough to get through a portal to the sanctum?"

"If we time it right, sure. Maybe after the next contraction or two?"

"Okay, that works. I'll just take you directly there. Asshole should have gotten a fix on this position by now. If not, then he's too fucking stupid to be an issue."

"You know he's..." Her voice trailed off as another contraction hit.

Alison and Meghan made their way over to the bed with Karolina and where Nico sat in the chair beside the bed.

"They have a dinosaur," whispered Meghan to Alison. "Holy. Shit."

"How far apart are the contractions?" asked Alison.

"It's been about three or four minutes," Gert answered.

"These last ones have felt more like two minutes between them," Nico said.

"We'll time them," Alison said, readying her watch.

"Did you know they had a dinosaur?" whispered Meghan.

Alison grinned and shook her head. "No. They didn't tell me that. I just knew that they were superheroes, and teenagers."

"Contraction," Karolina gasped, clenching Nico's hand.

Alison and Meghan both checked their watches, marking the start and then timing the length of the contraction, which lasted for over thirty seconds.

"Shit," Karolina swore. "That one sucked."

"Felt like it," Nico muttered.

"I'm sorry about your hand," Karolina said, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry I'm so strong."

"Hey," Nico said, leaning over. "Don't apologize for being strong. Or for having contractions. You're having a baby, for fuck's sake. I'll stop bitching about my hand. If it gets hurt, it'll heal. I promise. I'm here for you, Kar. My hand is yours to crush."

The blonde laughed, her eyes twinkling as she looked up into Nico's eyes, almost black in the dimly lit bunker. "I'm glad you're here," she said. "With me. For this."

"I'm not leaving you until this baby's born. I swear."

"If they need you..."

"They won't."

"I'm just saying..."

Nico nodded. "I know. But I don't want to miss this. Any of this."

"I don't want you to either," Karolina admitted.

"You want to try to move to the sanctum after this next contraction? You going to be okay?"

Karolina nodded. "I can do it."

"Are we going somewhere else?" asked Meghan.

"We need to move Karolina and all of you to a safer place. We've got a group of mercenaries that are coming to hit this location sometime in the next few hours. We think."

Meghan turned to look at Dr. Lindell, who just mouthed the word superheroes.

"Starting," Karolina said with a gasp. She squeezed Nico's hand again as the contraction quickly built in intensity, going what felt like minutes but was really about thirty seconds.

"Two minutes apart," Alison said. "Getting there, Karolina. How are you feeling?"

"You can ask me in a minute," the sweaty blonde said. "We need to move to the sanctum."

"On it," Nico said, already pushing out of the chair and starting to open the portal.

"Karolina, we'll help you up, okay?" Alison said as Meghan moved the chair out of the way.

The blonde shook her head as she sat up, with considerable effort. "No, I'm okay."

"We can at least steady you while you walk."

Karolina's body bloomed into brilliant pink and purple light. "Thanks, but I'm not walking." She smiled as she floated up to a standing position, then over to where Nico was widening the portal to the sanctum.

"Watch your step," Nico said as Karolina floated over. "Please keep hands, feet and infants inside the car at all times."

Nico stepped through the portal, reaching back for Karolina. She took her wife's hand and pulled her through, her own feet starting to lift off the ground in Karolina's light. "Let's get you over to this bed, okay?"

"Okay," the blonde replied, steering them over to the king-size bed they had set up in the sanctum.

Gert led Dr. Lindell and Meghan through the portal, stopping instead of going through herself. "I need to check on Molly and the guys," she said. "My psychic stuff is still kind of screwy, but it might be helpful at giving us some warning."

"You guys moving to the bunker?" asked Nico. "Come on through. We've got the dedicated portal to the Hostel."

"Oh, yeah," Gert said, stepping through, then waiting for Lace.

Once everyone was inside, Nico closed that portal, then went to check on Karolina. "You okay, hon?" she asked her wife, taking her hand.

Karolina looked up from where she had settled onto the bed. Her glow faded, revealing her human form once more. "I'm good for now," she said. "Now that you're with me."

"How does this portal thingy work?" Gert called out. She was standing on the other side of the sanctum, staring at a glowing violet rune floating in the air at chest-level.

"You think about the Hostel and touch the rune," Nico said, turning to look at Gert but not releasing Karolina's hand. "It's attuned to each of us, so any of us can activate it."

As Gert did just that, the rune flared brighter, then opened into a portal roughly two meters in diameter. "How about that," Gert said sardonically.

"Gert!" Molly said, running over to the portal where it opened into the Hostel. "Hey Nico, Karolina!" she said, waving. "Hi strange people I don't know!" she added, waving to Alison and Meghan as well.

"Hey, Molly," Nico said, with Karolina waving as well as offering a, "Hey, Mol!"

"Still no sign of activity," Alex said looking through the portal but not entering. "We'll let you know if anything happens."

"Okay," Nico said. "If... you need me..."

"We'll handle it," Alex said. "Your place is with Karolina, and with your baby. Nothing's going to interrupt that."

"Thanks," Nico said, earnestly. "Try not to die. Any of you."

"We've got some surprises for them," Alex said. "We'll hold things down."

"Let us know when the baby's here!" Molly said eagerly.

"Will do," Nico said, giving the baby of the family—who wasn't a baby at all—a smile.

Gert waved, then turned and stepped through into the Hostel with Lace following her. Chase met her with a hug and kiss, then he playfully dipped her backward, getting a soft yelp and smack on his shoulder.

Molly reached up and waved her hand through the runes glowing around the portal, disrupting the door and closing the portal. Inside the sanctum, the opening collapsed back into the permanent rune Doctor Strange had helped Nico install; on the Hostel side, the rune was invisible but still present in the main room.

"Before you ask, Molly's parents are dead," Nico said, turning to look at the doctor and midwife. "She's fifteen. We're her legal guardians now. It was Gert's parents, but after some shit last year, she filed to have their guardianship terminated and transferred to Gert, her big sister. So you don't need to report anything to Children's Services." Seeing the knowing looks on the faces of the health care workers, Nico gives them a caustic smile. "We've had people try to 'help us' before. It never ends well. Not when our parents are fucking psychopaths."

"Is that what happened to your parents?" asks Alison, and she's surprised that someone would dare to ask that loaded a question before she realized she's the one who spoke.

Suddenly Nico looks old, much older than her eighteen years. She nodded, mumbled, "Yeah, pretty much," then sat down as Karolina started another contraction. "What happened to them, that's on my mom."

Nothing was said for a few minutes, enough time for Karolina's contraction to fade, then the next one to come and go.

"Karolina," Alison said. "We should check to see how dilated your cervix is."

"Okay," Karolina says, already sore and tired, and she knows she could still have hours and hours of labor to go.

She can do this for Nico. She can do this for their daughter.

"Have you two picked a name yet?"

Nico turns to look at Meghan, whom she's only met a few times, compared to Dr. Lindell, who was there for nearly every one of Karolina's appointments. "Yeah. We have." She smiles, then looks down at Karolina, whose smile blows Nico's away.

"She's going to be so cute," the blonde says.

"Maybe she'll have your looks and my attitude. That'd be a fun combination."

"Or your looks and my attitude. Then everyone would fall at her feet."

"Karolina?" asked Dr. Lindell. "Can you and Nico get your pajama pants off so I can check your cervix after the next contraction?"

"Yeah, sure," Karolina said, meeting Nico's upset eyes. "She's our doctor, sweetheart."

"It's still somebody else's finger in you," Nico grumbled.

"For a very good medical reason," countered the blonde. "We deal with it. Right?"

"Yeah, I know. I just don't have to like it." She turned to the doctor. "No offense."

Alison smiled. "None taken. You two are very protective of each other, and that's wonderful." She had a single sterile glove ready to open. She and Meghan turned away as Nico helped Karolina pull the sleep pants down and off, then readjust the covers.

Karolina reached up and laid her hand on Nico's cheek. "Nico, hon, I really appreciate you protecting my modesty, but I'm pretty sure that by the time this is over, Dr. Lindell and Meghan are going to have seen all that I've got."

Nico closed her eyes and tried not to audibly grumble. When Karolina sat up and pressed her lips to Nico's cheek, that helped.

"God, you're so cute when you're all protective," the blonde said with an airy laugh. She sucked in a breath as the next contraction began, pulling Nico's attention away from pouting as she focused on her wife again.

—O—

It was nearly three hours, numerous contractions that were coming thirty seconds apart, and nine centimeters of cervical dilation later when Nico's phone buzzed.

She pulled the phone from her pocket and checked the message.

Jockstrap: They're close to the Bunker. Gert can feel them. Lots of them.

Nico looked up, meeting concerned blue eyes. "They're there. Chase says Gert can sense them."

Before Karolina could answer, the phone buzzed again.

Jockstrap: We've got this. Stay with Karolina. We'll hold them off.

Nico quickly tapped a reply that it was getting close, then put the phone back up. "I hope they can do it," she said.

"They've got body armor, Old Lace, the Fistigons, Alex's guns and Molly. And Gert's telepathy." Karolina's face was messy, hair sweaty and sticky, her shirt clinging to her chest in several places, but she had a raw vitality to her that Nico found gorgeous. "And Alex and Chase have been rigging up traps for months."

She paused as another contraction rode up and through her body, making her have to purposefully breathe as Nico tried to coach her through the worsening pain. When it was over, Karolina leaned back against the pillows Nico had propped up against the headboard of the bed, gasping.

"But most of those are around the Hostel," Nico replied. "They do have all those drones Alex reprogrammed, though. And he was working on some way to jam the ones Stacey and Dale use."

"It's Jonah I'm worried about," Karolina said. "You and I are the only ones who've really practiced on taking him down. Well, as much as we could practice it."

"If by practice you mean, brainstorm and toss some ideas back and forth, I guess," Nico said, getting a smile out of a tired Karolina.

"We'll go help them once our little girl's born."

Nico's curved eyebrows shot nearly to the middle of her forehead. "Excuse me? You've having a baby, Kar. You won't need to be doing anything but trying to recover and hold our little bundle of attitude."

"I don't want you to fight him by yourself," the blonde said carefully. "We work really well together."

Nico's look of surprise shifted into a soft, honest smile, one of the ones that made Karolina's heart soar when she saw it, because she knew that no one, absolutely no one, but her ever got to see Nico be that open and vulnerable.

"Yeah," Nico said, lifting Karolina's hand and kissing it. "We really do."

—O—

Less than an hour later, Karolina was pushing, because Nico was yelling in her ear, the doctor and midwife were telling her to push, and it felt like she was trying to force a grapefruit out of a vagina that in no way could have been designed with such a purpose in mind.

"Oh fuck, Kar, fuck, you're doing it!" Nico said, "You're doing it!"

"I KNOW I'M DOING IT! I'M THE ONE WHO'S FUCKING DOING IT!"

"Sorry, baby, but, Goddess, it's, it's..."

Karolina's scream wasn't pleasant or really even intelligible, but Nico didn't care. Her left hand might be broken, but she didn't care. Her makeup was gone, her dress and accessories laid across the back of a nearby chair. Now she was just wearing one of Karolina's cut-off shirts and a pair of her own black shorts.

"You're doing great, Karolina," Meghan said, working swiftly and smoothly at stretching Karolina's vaginal opening to try and prevent tearing. "I can see her head, by the way."

Karolina flopped onto her back on the bed. The pillows were gone, and she had moved farther down into the bed. Nico had moved onto the bed to be closer to Karolina. In their current position, she could have straddled Karolina's head, but her main focus was moving up behind her wife when Karolina sat up and helping hold and support her as much as possible.

"She's almost here," Nico said, looking down at Karolina's red, sweaty face.

"Thank fucking god," the blonde swore. "This hurts."

"Okay, Karolina, start getting ready," said Dr. Lindell, looking up over Karolina's stomach from where she was helping Meghan. "We need a few more good pushes."

Karolina struggled up onto her elbows; Nico slid forward and bolstered Karolina's body, her right hand on Karolina's right hip and her left being used like a therapeutic squeeze toy by the blonde.

Nico threaded the fingers of her left hand through Karolina's; she was hoping that might mitigate some of the pain to her poor hand while still giving Karolina something to squeeze.

"Okay, Karolina," Meghan said. "Ready... PUSH."

Nico gritted her teeth and started counting up from one, slowly, while Karolina pushed with every muscle in her body, crying out through the pain, until Nico hit ten.

"Her head's here," Meghan said, hurriedly trying to finish stretching Karolina as much as she could as the baby started to crown.

"I've got everything ready," Alison said, hovering beside and behind Meghan. An assortment of blankets, tools, metal bowls, suction bulbs and other items had been carefully set up in a sterile field on a portable table.

"Okay," Meghan said. "Karolina, you've done great. It looks like just a few more pushes, okay?"

Karolina nodded and leaned back, too drained to speak.

Nico leaned over and pressed her lips to Karolina's sweaty temple. "I am so fucking proud of you," she said softly, and the words made Karolina's chest shake with sobs. "I mean it," Nico continued. "I have never seen anything so strong, so incredible, as what you've done for the last few hours."

"PUSH, Karolina!"

Karolina squeezed Nico's hand and bore down with everything she had left.

"You're doing it, baby!" Nico murmured. "You're doing it! You can do this!"

"OH FUCCKKK!" Karolina screamed, the pain so beyond severe that she was starting to go numb below her belly button.

"Her head's out!" Meghan called out.

"I'm ready," Alison said to her colleague.

"Her head's out, baby!" Nico said, running the fingers of her right hand through Karolina's sweaty hair, then kissing the back of Karolina's neck. "She's almost here. You've got this, Kar, you've got this!"

Karolina nodded. It was so close, so close.

"Last time, Karolina. PUSH!"

Karolina pushed with everything and then some. She screamed as she felt the burning pain in her pelvis flare, then abruptly drop off, leaving only a seething numb sensation where her lower body used to be.

"She's out! She's out! You did it, Karolina!"

Meghan and Alison quickly began working as Nico moved to let Karolina drop back onto the bed. (It was that or get crushed.) Nico leaned over her dirty, sweaty, exhausted wife and cried and laughed as Karolina did the same.

"Fuck, Kar, you did it!" Nico said. "Oh, baby, you did it! You had our baby!"

"I want to see her," Karolina said, her pupils so wide and black that only thinnest rim of blue could be seen around them. "God, I want to see her! I want to hold her!"

As Nico helped Karolina back up, she moved the pillows down and piled them behind Karolina, then she slid beside the bedraggled blonde. "They're getting her, Kar, they're getting her," Nico said. "I want to see her too."

The wet cries of a newborn rang out in the stone chamber, and that opened the floodgates for both Karolina's and Nico's tears.

Nico hugged Karolina; the two kissed on the lips, ignoring how sweaty both of them had become by now. "Hey Kar," Nico said, smiling as she stared into her wife's eyes.

"Hey what?" replied the blonde, whose heart was now hammering with adrenaline and endorphins. She was flying on a physiologic high that would last for a few hours, and trading excruciating pain for severe but relatively tolerable pain made her feel even better.

"We, you and me, have a baby girl," Nico said, and the jet-haired witch giggled.

Nico Minoru Dean giggled. For at least the second time in a year.

"Do the new mommies want to hold their new baby?" said Alison, moving up along the side of the bed and carrying what looked like a baby burrito, wrapped in a soft blue blanket.

"Karolina, just try to stay where you are for a bit longer, okay?" Meghan said from her position between Karolina's legs, moving towels and pads up to the blonde's new position. "We still have the placenta to deliver, but you're probably not even going to feel it after that, okay?"

"Okay," Karolina replied automatically, but her attention was fully on the pink face that was visible in the bundle of blankets. "Oh god, oh god, she's so fucking adorable," Karolina swore giddily. "Her hair's black! Like your hair!"

Nico wiped at her bare face, jaw trembling too much to speak just yet, overcome with the sight of their child.

"I'm going to lay her right on your chest, okay Karolina? It'll help warm her up, and it's good for you and Nico too, to be as close as you can to her right now."

Karolina nodded, reaching for the baby. Alison carefully laid the baby on Karolina's chest; the movement startled the infant into crying again as her bare chest rested against Karolina's shirt.

"Your milk's going to come in," Alison said. "You can go ahead and feed her."

Karolina felt the warmth of the newborn baby on her chest and relished it. Then a tingling sensation, followed immediately by a fullness deep in her breasts, rushed over her. She looked over to Nico, whose face was streaked with tears, her eyes glistening and wide, totally enraptured by the tiny life on Karolina's chest. "Hold her for a minute, Nico," Karolina said.

"Fuck, Kar, I—" Nico stammered, only to have the baby pressed into her arms. She managed to orient the small head, crowned with thin, wispy black hair, in the crook of her left elbow to support the baby, who was now crying forcefully.

"She's got your attitude," Karolina said with a grin as she shucked her shirt completely off, tossing it on the floor next to the bed; at this point, modesty was worthless.

"Goddess help us all," Nico mumbled, the grin fixed on her face despite the baby's cries. "Hi, baby girl," she said. "We're so happy to see you."

"Okay, hand her to me, hon, before I start spraying milk."

"I don't think that's how it works," Nico said, laughing as she carefully moved the fussing infant back to Karolina's chest.

"It's pretty easy," said Meghan, who had apparently replaced Dr. Lindell beside them in the last few minutes. "Just brush your nipple against her lips, and she'll—" She smiled as the baby latched on, not quite on-target at first, finally getting a good grip on the nipple after Karolina adjusted her head position. "There you go. Just remember to really support her head for the first few months, because her neck muscles aren't strong enough to support it yet."

Nico watched with amazement as the tiny little creature made an irritable face, but the little cheeks and mouth were now readily sucking away. She lightly ran her fingers over the little strands of hair, the baby's head still a bit misshapen from the delivery. "You're so beautiful," Nico said dreamily, looking first at her daughter, then at her wife. "Both of you," she added.

Karolina beamed as she looked up and met Nico's face. She leaned over and kissed her wife, then looked back down at their child.

"Persephone Dean," Karolina said proudly. "Welcome to the world, baby girl."

—O—

Nico took a minute to bask in the splendor of watching Karolina feed their child. It was incredible, more wonderful than almost any sight she had ever seen, and she had seen quite a bit, despite her age.

"Going to check their status," she said quietly, so as not to disturb Persephone.

"Okay," Karolina replied, looking up at her wife. "I love you," she said. "I'm so happy right now."

"I am too," replied Nico, kissing Karolina on the head before carefully slipping out of the bed on the other side.

"Is everything okay?" she asked the midwife and doctor, both of whom seemed to be working around Karolina's vagina, as she picked up her burner phone.

"She's fine, just some bleeding," Dr. Lindell said as she was swabbing something inside Karolina. "It's nothing drastic. We'll get it stopped. The placenta's already out."

Nico turned and looked at Karolina, who did look a bit pale. "Sunlight helps her heal. I can help with that."

She pulled up her messages as she reached for the Staff of One, which flew to her hand. No messages had been received.

When she and Doctor Strange built her sanctum, Nico had used the Staff to create a mystic cell signal booster, to ensure that the others could communicate with her while she was in the sanctum. A quick check with her growing mystic senses indicated the signal booster was still active, so any messages should have gotten through.

She called Gert. After a moment to make the connection, the phone went straight to voice mail.

She ended the call, then dialed Alex. It rang four times, then went to voice mail.

Getting a bad feeling, she dialed Molly. It rang twice, then went to voice mail.

"Shit!" she swore, drawing everyone's attention.

"Nico?" Karolina asked, concerned.

"No one's answering, and we've not gotten any status reports."

"They're being jammed?"

"That'd be my thought as well, but I thought this signal booster might penetrate jamming."

"But you don't know that—OW!" Karolina said, wincing and looking down at the baby. "You just pinched my nipple with your mouth!"

"She's trying to tell you to switch sides," Nico said, trying not to laugh as the funny moment temporarily assuaged her worry.

"You might want to burp her," Meghan said. "Here, I'll help. You'll want a towel."

"I'm going to check," said Nico.

"Honey..."

"I just kind of have a bad feeling, Kar. And you've got really, really important stuff to do right here. Like, stop bleeding. Oh! That reminds me."

She lifted the Staff, angled slightly toward Karolina. "Solar supercharger!"

A sphere manifested in the high ceiling of the sanctum, glowing a bright yellow-orange. A beam of the same light emerged, bathing Karolina and Persephone in its light.

"We don't know how she'll handle the light, Nico. She's only a quarter Majesdanian."

"We can cover her up," Meghan said. She had just laid a towel over Karolina's shoulder while she was trying to burp Persephone, and she easily draped another thin towel over the infant.

Nico walked over and kissed Karolina on the side of the head, then she moved slightly and pressed a kiss to Persephone's head as well. "I love you, my girls," she said.

"We love you too, Other Mommy!" said Karolina, lifting Persephone's tiny arm and hand and waving to Nico.

"You're such a cute little shit," Nico said, unable to keep from smiling as she stepped back, giving herself a bit more room.

"Instachange for showdown with Jonah!" Nico said firmly; a flash of light and she was dressed in a black silk dress styled like a stereotypical witch costume, short skirt, low-cut top, mid-length wide sleeves. A black headband held her pulled-back hair, which was flowing long down her upper back, while a necklace displayed a glowing pentacle charm. Silver bracelets were over both wrists, and a dark brown leather belt wrapped around her waist. Her legs were in black fine mesh stockings, with low-cut boots on her feet.

"Turn your phone on, hon," Karolina said. "Leave the connection open. You don't know what you're going into out there."

Nico nodded. That was a good idea. She quickly dialed Karolina's number, handing Karolina her phone so she could answer the call. "I'll gate out to a neutral site instead of the Hostel or the Bunker."

"Okay. Be careful, hon."

"I'll do my best."

Nico turned and spun her arm in a circle, cutting a gateway through space and dimensions, then stepped through into the bright desert sun before closing the portal.

She stepped out onto the side of a smaller mountain, a few hundred meters from the bunker but at a higher elevation. She had found this spot while practicing with the sling ring, and she and Karolina had come out here at times when they wanted some peace. Since she was familiar with it, the site remained an easy place for her to find when her emotions were high.

Like now.

Two columns of black smoke were rising to the sky from down below. One of them was in front of the bunker, and it looked like the wreckage of several vehicles was creating the great plume of black smoke. The second column was coming from the Bunker itself. Or what was left of it. At least sixty or seventy armed men in desert fatigues swarmed the area around the Bunker, with over a dozen vehicles spaced out in the valley below and more on a bluff on the other side.

"Oh fuck," Nico swore.

"Nico? What do you see?"

Karolina's voice came through the phone, but Nico's growing dread meant she didn't hear her wife through the tiny earpiece of the phone with it tucked into her belt.

"Palantir," Nico said, and as the scrying spell she was visualizing manifested, she found herself wishing she could take it back.

Gert lay motionless on a small hill, face down, shot to death trying to shield a similarly bullet-riddled Old Lace. The bodies of several men in combat fatigues surrounded them, most of them ripped apart and dying or dead.

Alex lay crumpled in a ball, head in a pool of his own blood, two meters away from his father. Geoffrey Wilder was likewise dead, shot to death by Alex before Catherine Wilder executed her son.

Chase's body was smoldering from the missile that had hit the bunker. The wreckage of several light-attack vehicles was nearby, blasted to pieces from energy bolts before one of the attack helicopters had destroyed the bunker, killing Chase as he bought the others time to run.

Molly's body was being dragged between two mercenaries carrying assault rifles, pulling her away from a field of burning, destroyed vehicles, including two light tanks. Blood soaked the front of Molly's shirt and shorts from where she had suffocated on her own blood after being targeted with the caustic gas grenades Not-Stacey had designed.

"NO!" Nico screamed, loud enough to echo across the scrub plains below her.

Immediately she saw movement in multiple places below, on the valley floor. Men started shouting, engines revved to life, and the rapid movements of the people down below looked not unlike an angry ant hive that had been kicked open. The buzz of drones was barely audible, but it was there.

"You're not shutting me up today!" she said angrily, and she felt the Staff's magic insulate her from any more brain scramblers.

—O—

Nearly half a mile away, Jonah/Victor looked through his binoculars at the source of the scream. "Finally," he said, as Not-Stacey stood behind him. "It's the witch."

"I'll hit her with the gas. I already have scramblers on multiple drones as a precaution."

"Fine. Hit her quickly."

"Do you want her alive or dead?"

"Dead. She's too dangerous, even if she's a child. That Staff is one of the few things on this pathetic planet that genuinely concerns me."

Jonah/Victor turned to an older man in desert fatigues beside him. "Bring the helicopters back in. Hit her position from a distance. And move ground support closer. Once we kill this one, my daughter won't be able to hide. She has a thing for this human."

The commander of the Hell's Rejects mercenary unit hesitated momentarily, until a stern look from Jonah/Victor overcame his reluctance. "Viper One and Two, we have a new target for you."

—O—

Nico saw vehicles similar to small dune buggies and Humvees start moving in her direction, dust trails flying up behind their spinning wheels. And the buzzing of the drones was getting even louder.

"Typhoon season in the desert!" she shouted, holding the Staff high.

Instantly the sky grew dark, a green-gray color that wiped the sun from the sky. Then the hurricane-force winds swept past Nico, fluttering her dress and sleeves in the direction of the attackers before blasting down the small mountain and across the valley, bringing a wall of pounding rain with it.

The drones never stood a chance against the Force-five gale. They were torn apart almost instantly, the lethal gas rapidly diluted and dispersed in the deluge that now struck the approaching ground forces. The light attack vehicles were swept up and sent tumbling backwards; the larger Humvees strained to gain any ground as the pounding downpour turned the ground into mud almost instantly.

The pounding of helicopter blades drew Nico's attention to the south, where the valley stretched out and ran for miles. She saw two dark specks in the sky, and she smiled.

"MOTHER OF DRAGONS!"

—O—

The two Apache helicopters roared over the desert terrain, closing quickly.

"Viper Two, almost in range."

"Copy, Two. Wait, new contact, moving fast."

"What the hel—"

—O—

As the long, sinuous green-scaled dragon incinerated the first helicopter with a lightning bolt from its maw, Nico smiled grimly.

Two other dragons flew through the desert sky, one a dull red, the other a silver-blue, their wingless serpentine bodies undulating as they swam through the storm, unhindered by the rain and screaming wind.

Viper One opened up with the M230 chain gun mounted under the nose of the craft. The powerful 30mm shells struck the first dragon, tearing chunks from its side and sending it howling upward, slithering out of the cannon's deadly spray.

That let the other two dragons combine to destroy the second helicopter, one spraying a yellow-green fire that burned despite the downpour, the other unleashing another bolt of lightning. When the two attacks met at the helicopter, the explosion was incredible.

—O—

"Call in the rest of the air support. All of it."

This time the mercenary commander, drenched from the torrential rains, didn't hesitate.

—O—

Nico's chest was pounding, a metallic taste of acid saturated her mouth and her arms and legs were cramping from the strain of maintaining three spells, two of which were among the largest she had ever sustained.

It wasn't enough. She was feeding her pain to the Staff, and that helped, but this wasn't going to be enough to beat Jonah.

The dark green dragon descended out of the storm clouds like a swimming snake, and as it approached the ground, it unleashed its energy breath, this time a shimmering, crackling electrical plasma that reduced men and machines alike to ash as it swept across the mercenaries stuck on the desert floor.

Her other two dragons were engaging the other helicopters, three more Apaches that were more prepared than the first pair but still encountered problems with fighting creatures more maneuverable than them in the sky.

—O—

"Why aren't your scramblers working?!" Jonah/Victor shouted at Not-Stacey.

"They are! They were, before they were destroyed!"

"Dammit. She's progressed more than I had expected. Then we're going to have to overload her. Tina could only sustain a few spells at a time, and this girl's got to be close to her limit."

He turned to the troop commander. "If you have any ground-to-air missiles, use them. If we can't take the witch down, she'll pick your men to pieces."

—O—

The first impact of bullets slamming into the ground around and behind her was Nico's first clue that her attackers' tactics had changed. Her bullet barrier, carried in her pocket, stopped the first two aimed at her, and that bought her enough time to throw up a runic shield with her free arm before the rest of the bullets slammed into the glowing circular barrier.

She needed to find Jonah and end this. And there was something else she needed to do, something even more important. But she couldn't do it yet. She was already straining, pushed to her limits as she managed a hurricane-force storm and three giant dragons, and these fucking bullets slamming into her shield weren't helping.

When the first missile hit her shield, the impact was so much more powerful that her shield buckled, and the remaining force of the explosion sent her flying backward into the side of the mountain. However, that pushed her out of the spray of bullets, so she had enough time to refocus her attention into another shield while still maintaining the typhoon and dragons, which were chewing up Jonah's attack dogs both on the ground and in the air, but the great beasts weren't indestructible.

Her green dragon shrieked as a surface-to-air missile hit its underbelly, blasting enough of its mass away to bring it crashing to the ground.

Her silver dragon died as one of the last two helicopters unloaded a brace of missiles into its side.

The red dragon avenged its silver sister by tearing that particular helicopter apart, but the last helicopter targeted the other helicopter directly, sending two missiles into the twisted pair of machine and dragon as they fought, and the explosion blew the last dragon apart.

—O—

"I'm going to have to deal with this myself," Jonah/Victor grumbled.

He turned to the troop commander. "Thank you for your services. You were worth every single dollar."

"We haven't accomplished our goal yet," said the man, surprised.

"Yes, you have," said Jonah/Victor.

He reached out and flared into brilliant, blinding white light. He vaporized the man, turning his body into energy and absorbing it into himself. This was a crude method, more wasteful than the elegant, nearly lossless energy transfer device Victor Stein had created, but this method did have a certain crude, visceral appeal to it.

He launched himself into the air, flying high and to the side, hoping to catch the witch off-guard. Her storm actually worked in his favor, as it dampened his luminous form significantly, and despite the wide arc he was taking to reach her, she didn't seem to detect his approach.

The last helicopter sent a brace of rockets zooming toward the mountain where the girl stood. Her mystic shield widened appreciably, and the impact of the half-dozen explosions shook her shield, which finally wavered and vanished as the last of the fireballs erupted against the barrier, pushing her beyond what her body could sustain.

—O—

Nico's head was screaming, her nose was pouring blood, her ears were ringing louder than she had ever felt, and it felt like her arms and legs were on fire.

And her shield was down, and the rain had stopped. The clouds were evaporating, and the sun was coming back out.

This was not good.

She only had an instant before she'd be dead. There was no time for anything complex, so she grabbed the Staff, lying on the muddy ground beside her and spoke a single word: "Re-raise."

When she saw the gleaming white light out of the corner of her eye, she briefly thought that Karolina had come to save her, but then she realized this light was too white, too blue, and then the explosion swallowed her.

—O—

Jonah/Victor watched with unmitigated delight as the explosion of his plasma ball sent the girl's body flying limply, spinning until she hit the side of the mountain hard enough to trigger a small rockslide that covered her body. The force of the blast had shredded her skin and clothing alike as well as ruptured internal organs, as he was no longer holding his powers back.

It was time to show these dirt specks what a Majesdanian could do.

He saw the discarded Staff lying next to the shallow pile of rocks covering what was left of its master. But the Staff was incredibly dangerous. He had seen what happened to people who touched it. Better to leave it, to bury it, where no one else could find it and use it against him.

The sun grew even brighter, now that those storm clouds had vanished. All he had to do now was find his wayward daughter, claim her offspring and raise the hybrid as a proper member of his family. His son was now lost, dying or dead along with the Wilder child, still trapped in the boy's psyche at the time his mother killed him. His cousin trapped in Tina's mind was missing, and nothing he had tried had been able to detect Tina at all. He had to assume his cousin was dead as well.

He still had one more cousin, and gaining his grandchild would give them enough to rebuild, slowly.

The light from the sun grew even brighter, which he ignored, until it began to take on a decidedly pink tint.

He looked up and to the side in just enough time to see a furious Karolina, glowing brighter than the sun, slam directly into him like a meteor.

—O—

As Karolina drove herself into Jonah/Victor as full speed, she generated a shockwave blast, magnifying the force of the impact and sending her birth father into a smoking plummet to the desert floor.

"WHERE IS MY WIFE?!" she screamed, all sense of control and reason gone.

The sensation of multiple impacts against the plasma field she was generating around herself drew her attention. She looked up to see a helicopter aiming at her, spits of fire coming from the cannon under its nose.

She extended both arms and unleashed a gout of pink and violet light so intense that it sheared through the helicopter's armor, designed to stop tank cannons, like it was paper. The beam cut the machine in two lengthwise, and the two pieces spun as they fell to earth.

Karolina turned to see the remaining soldiers starting to move, some of them firing at her, others retreating.

A quick glance showed no sign of Nico, and that made her even more pissed off. They had hurt Nico; she had heard it through the open phone connection, and then the connection had ended in a burst of static.

They were all going to die.

Karolina dove toward the gunmen, unleashing waves of luminous energy that burned and sliced as they struck, killing her attackers almost instantly. She flew through them, cutting them down, until a blast of impact on her back sent her skidding onto the muddy ground.

She never fully stopped, using her flight to pull herself back into the air and angling back toward Jonah, airborne once more. She couldn't feel her legs or her feet, but as long as she was flying, she didn't need them.

Rather than use another energy blast, she flew directly into Jonah/Victor, punching him in the face hard enough to break the jaw of Victor's human body. It was much harder than Jonah had expected, and the impact sent him backward, rotating in a backwards flip.

"Your little human is dead!" Jonah/Victor cried as he spent some of his light to heal the injuries to this body. He pointed to the blasted surface of the small mountain nearby.

Karolina's breath caught in her throat as she looked at the rubble from the shattered side of the mountain, the same mountain that she and Nico had used to sit and watch the sunset and sunrise. It was exactly where Nico would have been positioned.

Karolina's scream wasn't anything verbal. It was guttural, primal, pure rage. She grabbed Jonah/Victor and launched herself at that mountain, aiming away from the already-damaged face while holding his body in front of her as she drove the two of them into the side of the mountain with enough force to shake the ground a half-mile away.

She pulled back slightly, hovering. A quick glance, and she saw the Staff on the ground, next to the pile of rocks.

Jonah burst out of the rubble, but Karolina was already boiling toward him again, mouth open in a snarl of utter fury. They slammed into each other, hands opposed to each other, faces and chests centimeters apart as they glared at each other, the pink-purple light and the white-blue struggling for dominance.

Jonah had decades, even centuries of experience with his powers.

Karolina was riding a hormonal cocktail of adrenaline, endorphins and balls-out teenage rage.

Jonah felt Victor's human hands crack under Karolina's squeezing grip. He could feel his energy start to bleed away as Karolina began to unconsciously drain his light as she overpowered him. He tried to disengage, to pull away, but the furious young woman refused to let go, continuing to overpower him and drive him back, bending his possessed body back, back until Victor's spine began to strain.

The motion of the Staff of One suddenly flying up from the ground made Karolina look and pause as she continued to hold Jonah/Victor in her light field, her hands and upper body forcing his arms and body backward painfully.

The pile of rocks shifted and rose, rocks sliding to the side as a very battered, bleeding Nico Dean awkwardly stood up. The Staff flew into her left hand, still sore from the birth; her right arm was broken, and she stumbled as she stepped out of the pile of rubble, landing painfully on her side as she found out that her right leg was broken, too.

But that was better than being dead, which she had been. Temporarily.

As she lay on the dirty ground, she focused on her pain, on her agony, on the emotional anguish, on the guilt of failing her family. She poured all of that into the Staff of One, feeding it with her dark emotions, with her pain, and she felt the terrible power inside the Staff and inside herself swell.

She rose up from the ground, levitating without using any power at all, holding the Staff as high as her left arm could go, because apparently that shoulder was fucked up, too.

"NONE OF MY FAMILY DIES TODAY!"

—O—

Gert finished the scream that had been cut off by the bullets tearing into her back as she tried to shield Old Lace. Lace leaped to her back paws, accidentally sending Gert tumbling onto her back in the dirt.

Sorry master-gert, Lace thought, as she swiftly checked for any nearby humans that might be a threat to her master. All the other humans around them were dead, so no immediate threat.

Gert tackled Old Lace, startling the dinosaur until she realized that her master was hugging her, thinking thoughts of happiness.

—O—

Chase got to his feet, sore and aching. The vehicles that been assaulting the Bunker were destroyed, and now he saw helicopter wreckage burning on the desert, with what looked like claws marks gouging through the armor.

Ah. Nico.

He checked the Fistigons; the left one was a bit glitchy, but the right one was at full capacity.

He smiled. One fist was all he needed, anyway. He set off at a quick jog toward the small group that was left of the mercenaries, roughly a kilometer away.

—O—

Alex sat up. He had been shot in the face, by his own mother. He quickly felt his face, but there was no pain. And no crater or wound.

His mother was bent over a few meters away, her back to him, likely crying, judging from the shaking of her torso.

Alex looked beside him. He grabbed the pistol he had used to shoot his father, who ultimately couldn't pull the trigger on his own son.

The sound alerted Catherine, and she turned, grabbing her own pistol on reflex. She wasn't fully turned around when the shots rang out and the bullets hit her chest, twisting her over and leaving her lying unnaturally on her back, staring up at the sun as she died.

—O—

As soon as Molly came to, she activated her powers and climbed to her feet. There were only a handful of men in desert fatigues that she could see, maybe twenty or so, but there were still a few vehicles here.

She grabbed the back frame of one of the light attack vehicles, then swung it like a giant paddle, releasing it and sending it into the group of mercenaries from behind, snapping bones and crushing bodies with the impact.

She grabbed the next vehicle, this one a Humvee. She hefted it, then threw it into the next Humvee, and the momentum of the throw hit another vehicle parked beside them before the gas in the tanks ignited, creating a massive explosion.

The soft pops of bullets hitting her side and back made her look beside her. Slightly up on a rise, a half-dozen fatigue-clad men were shooting at her. And Not-Stacey was there.

Molly grinned as she ran up the bluff.

—O—

"Oh God, you're alive!" Karolina cried out as she looked at Nico; she was still crushing Jonah/Victor's hands and burning the skin on the human's body.

"Yeah," Nico said, slowly and painfully. "We have to finish Jonah."

Karolina nodded, the action flinging tears from her cheeks. She yanked Jonah/Victor to her left, releasing his hands but trapping him in a light field just off the ground.

Nico raised the Staff, pointing it toward Jonah/Victor. "Don't expect me to make a habit of this," she quietly said to the Staff. She turned to Jonah/Victor and screamed, "Jonah, your soul is MINE!"

Karolina shifted the flow of her light field, using it to pull the physical body toward her, while the Staff pulled Jonah's soul in the opposite direction. For long seconds, both figures could be seen, Jonah's luminous form clinging to Victor Stein's physical body, until the connection was broken with no audible sound but a distinct snapping sensation that both Nico and Karolina felt inside themselves.

Karolina lowered Victor's body to the ground as the man started to groan in pain, then she looked up in time to see Jonah's luminous form sucked into the Staff's headpiece.

When Nico visibly trembled, Karolina flew over and caught her wife before she fell again. Nico hissed in pain as Karolina grabbed her right elbow. "Arm's broken," she said through gritted teeth, then she opened her eyes. "Fuck, I'm sorry. You just birthed a child, and I'm crying over a broken arm. And leg."

Karolina pulled Nico to her side, holding her wife by the waist. "How's this?" the glowing blonde asked.

"This works," Nico said with a nod. "Thank you."

"No, thank you. That sun spell you cast was awesome. It got the bleeding mostly stopped, though I am wearing an adult diaper right now. How sexy is that?"

Nico leaned her forehead against Karolina's. "If you're wearing it, you make anything sexy."

Karolina turned them until she could use one of her hands to grab Victor's moaning figure; she grabbed him in a light field, then started flying to where things were still exploding, on a small bluff across the valley.

—O—

Molly was tearing through the remaining soldiers when Not-Stacey hit her with what looked like a paintball loaded with gold paint. The sudden weak sensation that swept Molly's body was very unexpected, and she immediately dove for cover. She had felt this before, when her powers had been temporarily negated, and she flinched when bullets started to spang off the side of the Humvee she was using for cover.

A shooting noise registered in her ears the same time as the ground on the other side of the Humvee erupted, sending some of the mercenaries flying with surprised shouts and cries. Another blast and explosion, and Molly turned to see Chase running toward her, using one glove to generate an electromagnetic field in front of him to capture bullets shot in his direction while using the other to fire pulse bolts.

The glove he was using for attack seemed to be not working correctly, though, and the energy blasts had stopped while he seemed to be shaking the left Fistigon. And maybe swearing at it.

That was when Old Lace tore into the remaining mercenaries, using her speed, power and claws to rip, tear and disembowel them in a flash. She was so fast that she was through them before they could turn and target her; she remember the experience of being shot with the loud objects, and she had no intention of letting them shoot her or master-gert again.

Not-Stacey opened the case for her darts and gun, quickly finding the dart with the poison she had used on the Deinonychus once before, now enhanced to be much faster-acting. She opened the injector gun to load it when someone grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. She had enough time to get a glimpse of purple hair before a fist connected with the side of her face, then again, then a third time before her world went black.

—O—

There were still a few vehicle fires burning when Karolina, Nico and an incoherent Victor Stein reached the bluff hosting the command post.

All the remaining mercenaries were dead except for a few that were injured and had been restrained, kept in obvious sight and away from each other to minimize the chance of them trying anything.

Not-Stacey was lying on her back on the ground, her jacket stripped off of her, with small devices and objects scattered and thrown several meters away. Gert and Old Lace were standing over her, watching her carefully.

"Where's Alex?" Nico asked, not seeing the last member of their family.

Chase pointed out into the muddy mess of bodies and wreckage. Nico turned her head to see someone sitting in the mud, around two bodies that weren't wearing desert fatigues. One looked to be wearing a red dress.

"Is that his parents?" she asked, heart hammering.

"I think so, yeah," Chase said. "They were here. He went to meet them."

"Did Jonah wake up that thing inside his mind again?" asked Karolina, still holding Nico in front of her and the field bearing Victor with her left hand.

"No," Gert said. "Alex went to meet his parents to try to get them to call this off." She checked on Not-Stacey again, then looked in the distance at Alex again. "Looks like that went about like usual for us."

She whirled to Nico and Karolina. "The baby!"

"She's fine," Karolina said. "I nursed her then came straight here. Nico had a head start on me, because I was still bleeding, but she set up a nice healing spell for me that got me back in the fight."

She leaned closer to Nico, putting her lips to her wife's ear. She whispered, "Let's keep the adult diaper between you and me, okay?"

Nico met Karolina's gaze with her brown eyes and nodded. Bruises were starting to form across her forehead and left cheek, visible through the dirt and smudged makeup.

"Honey, you need to heal yourself," Karolina said. "You're going to scare Persy when we get her."

"Persy?" asked Molly.

"Short for Persephone," Karolina said with a smile. "The goddess who lived in the light half of the year and in the darkness half of the year. We thought it was fitting."

Nico wiggled slightly in Karolina's grasp, trying to step down to the ground. "I can stand if you can get me on my good leg."

"Are you sure?" asked Karolina, very unsure herself. "Nico, sweetheart, you need to heal yourself, too."

Nico shook her head. "Can't. I need the pain right now. It's keeping me going."

Karolina eased her wife down, gently letting Nico get her weight onto her left leg but hovering nearby. As her weight settled onto her leg, Nico felt muscles burn and ache again. She sucked in a breath and held it, taking the pain and using it for her magic.

"Exorcism of Stacey Yorkes!" she said, holding the Staff ahead of her. Not-Stacey floated upward a few centimeters, her body jerking and seizing as a glowing ball of yellow light began to emerge from her head. The struggle went on for several seconds before Nico finally yanked the Staff back toward her, wrenching the wispy orb of light free of Stacey's mind.

"What are you going to..." Gert began, stopping as she saw the glowing ball sucked into the Staff's headpiece, ripped apart bit by bit as it neared the artifact until it vanished.

"I need Alex, and quick, because I'm going to throw up soon, and when that happens, I'll pass out." Nico said.

"On it," Karolina said, taking off like a blur.

"Dad!" Chase said, as the luminous field vanished in Karolina's absence, revealing the burned body of Victor Stein. "Jesus, Dad! What... What happened?" He fell to his knees in front of his father, peeling off the Fistigons and laying them on the ground next to him.

Nico swayed a bit before she answered. "Jonah fought Karolina using Victor's body. Then we pulled Jonah's soul out of your dad's body. He's himself again, for good this time."

Gert knelt beside Chase, who was fighting back tears. "Hey," she said, her own heart breaking at the look of anguish she saw in Chase's eyes when he turned to look at her. "I called your mom. Apparently one of the things we broke—well, that Molly broke, most likely—must have been the jamming device. Phones are getting signal to the outside now. I told your mom roughly where we were. You've probably got something at home that can help heal him, right?"

Chase shook his head. "I—I don't know. We smashed the stuff Jonah was using at Gibborim Central. But maybe Dad and Mom have a copy of the specs somewhere."

"I'll try to heal him," Nico said, but she was starting to look worryingly ashen.

Chase nodded. "Thank you," he said. "For everything."

"Hey," Nico replied. "Thank YOU. All of you. You were willing to die for Karolina and me, and the baby, and you proved it. That's love."

"Did we really die?" asked Molly.

"Not enough that I couldn't bring you back," Nico replied, giving her friends a real smile. "So maybe you need to ask that question to someone with more experience than me."

A brilliant light announced Karolina's return. She set Alex on the ground.

"Is it—" he began.

"Exorcism of Alex Wilder!"

Alex's body stiffened as he stood, then a glowing orange ball of light began to tug out of his head. Alex's expression grew determined, and the pale orange glow popped free much faster than the one that had been inside Not-Stacey.

This one, too, was sucked into the Staff, torn apart glowing piece by glowing piece, until it likewise had vanished.

"Okay," Nico said, looking at the Staff and feeling annoyance with its delight. "Again, don't get used to it. This was a special occasion."

She abruptly flared with violet light as she felt a surge of power from the consumed soul, and briefly she wondered if she had actually guilted the Staff into sharing the power from that soul with her. She looked at the unconscious body of Victor, behind Chase and Gert. "Heal Chase's dad!" she said, channeling the swell of power, holding the spell for as long as she could before she passed out.

—O—

Nico slowly began to drift back into wakefulness. She felt Karolina's warmth against her left side. Her right arm hurt like a bitch when she tried to move it, so she didn't try again. Her right leg was still throbbing, and that seemed to be worsening as she came to, unfortunately.

The warmth on her chest was unusual though. It felt heavier than Karolina's arm.

She blinked open her eyes and lifted her head (which also hurt), but what she saw made her forget the pain briefly.

Her daughter lay sleeping on her chest, Karolina's left arm draped lightly over the baby's back to hold the infant in place on Nico's sternum.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Karolina said proudly. "You like your new blanket?"

Nico lifted her left arm despite the pain in her shoulder; feeling the movement, Karolina rolled back slightly to free Nico's arm. The dark-haired woman's hand came up, and Karolina lifted her hand to let Nico slide her own hand against Persephone's back to hold their daughter. The baby was wearing the black onesie that Karolina had bought months ago, and that made Nico's heart soar even more at her wife's knowing gesture.

Karolina lowered her hand again, atop Nico's now, as they lay in their bed and held their baby.

"You saved Victor's life, you know."

Nico closed her eyes and lay still for a bit. "The Staff fed me some of the energy from those souls. I don't ever want to use anything like that again, and I especially don't want to use it to benefit myself. I needed to be as selfless as possible using it, and I wanted it gone." Nico glanced to the side until a bolt of pain shot up her right shoulder this time. "Ow," she said.

"Yeah, I bet," replied Karolina, smiling. "From what I hear, you got killed too."

"Yeah. I tried to do too much at once."

"No!" Karolina said softly but dramatically, making it clear she was being a smart-ass.

"I was mad, okay?" Nico replied, just as softly. "I want to hurt them. All of them. And I fucking did."

"That was how I felt, when I heard your phone cut off. I made them shove that fucking diaper on me and then get out of the way as I shot out of there."

"Your bleeding stopped?"

"Yeah. They put some nasty brown goop up inside me to stop it. And again, that sunlight you conjured was amazing. I feel tons better. The tiny little tear I had from the delivery is already healed, according to Dr. Lindell and Meghan. Not that I could feel it."

"Is that getting better?"

Karolina nodded. "I can actually tell that I have feet and legs again. And I can mostly feel when I need to pee. I have to wear this stupid thing for a bit longer, just in case my bladder's slow to wake back up."

"Where are the doctor and Meghan?"

"Asleep in one of the rooms we weren't using. Bed was big enough for both of them. Janet brought some food for all of us, so they ate before they passed out. We'll take them back home later this evening."

"Janet came by?"

"She came to the war zone to try and help us. She also brought by the last of the mind-wipe stuff. Stacey injected the surviving mercenaries with it, then we cut them loose. Chase, Alex and Molly moved the Wilders' bodies back to the car they had driven to meet Jonah, then Alex took the car to some place on the docks and torched the car."

"That's extra. Jesus."

"He said the fire'll destroy any DNA evidence or fibers but still leave enough to identify them, as well as the cause of death. He thinks it'll make it look like they got caught up in something shady and were killed."

"How'd he set the fire?"

"He had Chase run a rag into the gas tank, then blast it from a rooftop with an energy bolt, all while Alex was hanging out with Livvie on the other side of town with plenty of witnesses."

Nico shook her head. "His plans scare me sometimes."

"I know, right?!"

"What about all the wreckage and bodies back at the desert?"

Karolina smiled. "The Staff helped with that one. I used, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' and the bodies and wreckage blew away."

"Subtle and effective. I approve."

"I think it scared the shit out of Janet and Stacey, though. Me using the Staff. They thought you'd died for a minute."

Nico nodded. "I kind of did, to be fair."

Karolina shivered, and Nico felt it across her whole body. "How did you do that? Die and come back?"

Nico smiled. "It was dumb. It was a spell on one of the video games that Amy loved to play. After you cast it on one of your party, if that character died while the spell was active, it brought him or her back to life on the next turn."

Karolina kissed Nico's cheek. "That doesn't sound dumb to me. It sounds brilliant, in fact."

"It didn't bring back the character fully healed. You were still critically injured and could be killed again if you didn't get healed right away, but I figured that would work to my advantage. I needed to be injured and hurting to boost my power for the group rez spell."

"Group rez?" Karolina asked, confused.

Nico smiled. "Gamer talk. I guess I picked up something from her and Alex playing over the years."

"Did you hit your head or something?" Karolina said playfully, lifting Nico's hair to check for an injury but accidentally poking a lump on Nico's head.

"Ow!" Nico said, pulling back slightly and giving Karolina, who was laughing, a displeased look.

"I'm sorry," Karolina said around her laughter.

"Yeah, you sound it."

Nico shifted to move back against Karolina, but the movement triggered another surge of pain in her right shoulder. "Fuck," she swore softly.

"That's going to be our baby's first word," Karolina said, a twinkle in her eye. "'Fuck', and then 'Mama'."

"It's easy to pronounce."

"For you."

"It will be for her, too."

"I can imagine the calls we'll get from kindergarten when she starts school."

"PTA meetings are going to be fun."

"Please tell me you'll dress up like usual for them."

"Of course. I'm a little offended you think I wouldn't goth it up."

"That's my Nico," Karolina said, snuggling against her wife. "We're going to have to wake her up so she can nurse soon. My boobs are starting to feel full."

"I want to watch."

Karolina smiled. "Okay." Playfully she added, "Freak."

Nico's mouth opened. "Hey," she said, trying not to laugh. "I think it's beautiful!"

"I know. I was just teasing you. Of course you can watch."

"It might be a bit of a turn-on, too."

"No sex for a few weeks, according to the doctors."

"You heal fast. We'll make sure you get plenty of sunlight."

"God, Nico," Karolina said, faux exasperation in her voice. "You've got a broken arm, a broken leg, a black eye, probably a concussion, cuts and scrapes everywhere, and you're thinking about sex."

Nico waited, holding Karolina's sapphire gaze before replying. "I have a hot wife."

Karolina rolled her eyes. "Scoot over," she said. "I need some more pillows to support my back."

"I have a hurt arm. And a hurt leg."

"You can come up with a differently-worded healing trance later."

"Yeah, true. So how's Alex?"

"He's... not good."

"I'll talk to him soon."

"I think that'd be good. Chase and Gert would be horrible choices to talk to him."

"Has Molly talked to him? She lost her parents before the rest of us."

"She's talking to him now."

"Okay, good."

Nico moved to the side, trying not to disturb the baby or make any noises of pain as her right leg shifted with the movement. "Thank you for saving me today," she said, watching as Karolina piled pillows behind her back and grabbed her curved Boppy pillow, positioning it on her lap.

"You're welcome," Karolina said, her blue eyes bright as she lifted Persephone, who started to fuss and whimper at the removal of her warm bed from beneath her. Karolina briefly placed her daughter on the Boppy, then shucked her shirt over her head and tossed it on the bed next to Nico, who picked it up and held it to her face.

"You smell good," the jet-haired witch said, through the white fabric.

"I do," replied Karolina as she moved the baby and Boppy to her chest, positioning the infant at her right breast, then brushing the baby's lips with her nipple. After a few seconds, Persephone was firmly latched on and nursing. Karolina used her left hand to grab a white towel from her other side, placing it under her left breast to catch the milk that would soon start leaking. "I took a shower while you were out."

Nico slid back over, swearing under her breath at her right arm and leg as she scooted across the bed.

"You should really go ahead and do that healing trance," Karolina said, smiling as she saw the rapt look on Nico's face as she watched their child nurse at Karolina's breast.

"Yeah, probably. Just want to watch a bit longer."

"Sweetheart, you can watch me nurse her for the next year. You're hurting."

Nico looked up and met Karolina's eyes again, and she felt her resistance crumble in the weight of that blue gaze.

"Please?" asked the blonde. "Once you're healed, you can talk to Alex, help him through this really shitty day, then you can come back up here and watch our little girl suck on my boob like a little fiend."

Nico laughed despite the pain in her ribs. "Okay, how can I say no to that?"

Karolina smiled. "You can't. Because I am amazing."

Nico nodded, trying to figure out how she was going to call the Staff, when Karolina used her left hand to gently grip the Staff in a light field and bring it over to where she could grasp it herself; she then carefully passed it over the baby to Nico.

"You really are amazing," Nico said.

Karolina's smile turned into a playful smirk. "Told you. Heal up, my dark goth princess. I love you, and the rest of your family needs you, too."

Nico yawned, regretting it when everything hurt. "Okay, I'll just snooze for a bit."

"Healing trance, so you don't wake up a grumpy bear."

Nico lifted the Staff between them. "Healing trance, so I can wake up and not be a grumpy bear." She then set the Staff beside her and settled down, nestled beside Karolina so their bodies were touching.

"Good night, my sweet Nico," Karolina whispered. "Thank you for giving me everything I've ever wanted."

Nico reached up with her left arm and placed her left hand on Karolina's bare thigh, giving it a light grope before dozing off, letting her hand slide back down to the bed.

"God, Nico," Karolina said, trying not to laugh as she fed their daughter.

—O—

Author's Afterword: Okay, I know that some interpretations and accounts of Persephone's legend say that she swallowed four pomegranate seeds, not six. Some versions say five. There's dispute as to what the actual number was. As such, Nico and Karolina went with the version where she swallowed six seeds and thus spent half the year in Hades and half the year on the Earth, because they liked the symbolism.

I also couldn't find any official account of Amy's middle name, so I just picked a name that sounded nice and went with it. I can always amend it later if we ever find out the character's official middle name.

And in case anyone was wondering, Nico's dresses always have pockets. Because that's how she likes them.