The ride to Waldo Butters' apartment was quiet. Yang was lost in thought and staring out the window. I was content to close my eyes and appreciate the silence. I must have dozed off, because Yang nudged my shoulder when we arrived. I paid the cabbie and we got out.
The brownstone apartment wasn't much to look at. We walked up the stairs and made our way up to the third floor. When we got to the door, I rapped on the wall next to it with my staff. A moment later, Andi answered.
"Harry!" She looked up at me, smiling. "How are y-"she cut off the question as she looked over at Yang.
"Hello." Yang said. When Andi didn't immediately respond, she leaned in next to me and muttered, "Is everyone I meet going to react like this?" I stifled a grin, glanced at her sideways and shrugged. She mock hung her head and then put on her best smile.
"Harry, she adorable; I didn't know you knew anyone who cosplayed!" I pinched the bridge of my nose. Kids these days, I swear. She reached out a hand toward Yang's hair. "May I?" Yang nodded and leaned forward to let Andi run her fingers through the mane of sunshine. She gasped. "That's not a wig! How did you get it to…?" She carefully let go and looked back to me. "Harrrrrry, is this a friend 'from out of town'?" she asked, using finger quotes. We'd set up the code phrase ages ago to help identify nonhumans. I mean, she was ruining the whole covert thing, but I'd given up on that after the third or fourth time.
"Yeah, and she got kind of lost. I promised her I'd try to get her back home."
"Oh? How much is kind of lost?" She drew up one corner of her mouth and raised her eyebrows.
"A lot. Do you mind if we not do this in the hall?" She stepped back and held the door open.
"You know the deal, Harry," she said evenly. I nodded and pulled a straight pin out from behind my duster collar, then pricked my finger with it. I held up the bead of blood for her to see and handed the pin to Yang. She quirked an eyebrow at me then muttered something about weird customs and did the same. I was surprised to see crimson.
Andi said nothing, but took another step back. Hell's bells, I hated this part. "Brace yourself, Yang." I stepped through the threshold and felt the unpleasant tingle wash over my body as most of my power – and the Mantle – were stripped away. I turned to look at Yang as she followed and immediately had to catch her as she stumbled. I silently cursed myself. I should have warned her better.
"Oh man, what was that?" Yang moaned. I slipped her arm over my shoulder and started to hobble to the couch. Being bent down like that seemed dumb, so I just scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way. She protested weakly until I sat her down on the couch.
"Sorry about that, Sparky. When people like us enter a home without an invite, we leave most of our strength at the door. Think of it like checking in your weapons. It'll pass." At least, I hoped it would. She barely had any color to her, and I don't mean she just looked pale. Even her clothes looked washed out.
"Oh," she said, simply. "But why? Aren't you guys friends?" I pondered how to answer her for a moment, and then Andi saved me the embarrassment of having to explain.
"It's a crazy time right now. It's not war, exactly, but dangerous things are happening. We've had friends turn on us." I winced at that. Bless Andi, she was a forgiving soul, but I'd earned that dig just a little bit. Hell, that probably wasn't even how she meant it. That didn't stop me from feeling guilty. I used to have an invite, but someone from the ParaNet named Rosenberg had come up with a ritual to fix that. "It's the only way to make sure we all stay safe. Are you feeling okay?"
"Ugh. I feel like I've been fighting Grimm all day. Can I have some water, please?" Andi nodded and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Yang took it and sipped at it. "Thank you. I'm Yang, by the way."
"I'm Andi; it's nice to meet you, Yang." She turned to me. "Harry, your manners haven't improved." To which I gave her a short raspberry.
"Hey now, I totally knocked like a grown-up this time, didn't I?" She chuckled and pushed me down onto the couch next to Yang.
"I suppose there is that. Wait here, I'll go get Bob." I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd managed to convince Butters that taking Bob with him on missions was a very risky thing to do. He had agreed to allow me to consult with Bob occasionally. In return I'd agreed to the disinvite. Andi reappeared with the skull and set him on the coffee table in front of me. Orange lights hung in the sockets and flared for a moment.
"Hey, Harry! What brings you to Casa de Butters?" Yang's jaw dropped open.
"It's a talking skull?" she squeaked.
"Oh wow, Harry! Hubba, hubba! Wait, does Murphy know you have a hot sidekick? She's going to hit you with one of her crutches if not." Andi snickered and went to the kitchen.
"Bob," I said evenly, "we're on the clock. Have you ever heard of a place in the Nevernever called Remnant? Shattered moon, monsters called Grimm? We're trying to get Yang home."
"Oh suuure, gloss over the juicy details and go straight to work? You disappo-"
"Bob," I chided him. Motor mouth and gutter thoughts were ten times worse than when I had him. Butters let him watch anything he wanted to.
"Fine, fine, see if I don't catch you up on your pop culture references. Yeah, I know about Remnant." Yang sat bolt upright when she heard this.
"Really?" She sounded just as surprised as I felt. "Do you know how to get there?"
"Hold on there, hot stuff. I can tell you all kinds of stuff, but I want something in return." Oh brother, here we go.
"Oh, um… Harry? Is this one of those deals I shouldn't be making?" I snorted. So did Andi, who returned with a sandwich on a plate.
"That only applies to Sidhe, but you're smart to ask. Bob will probably ask you to flash him or something." Her eyebrows tried to disappear into her hairline.
"Hey, I will not! I mean, unless that's on the table." Yang's eyes squinted at the skull and started to say something. She thought better of it, and took a bite of her food instead.
"Come on, Bob," Andi said. "I'll get you the latest season of Game of Thrones if you help her out."
"Woo hoo!" Bob gaped and rattled on the table. "Deal! Remnant is one of the realms deep in the Dreamlands."
"Oh. Well crap. How far out is it?" Yang made one of her cute huh noises.
"Does that mean it's too far away?" Yang's face had grown somber. Bob giggled a little bit.
"Not helping, Doctor Giggles. It means that getting there is going to be a challenge. How far, Bob?"
"Pretty far, and there's an added bonus. Time is accelerated in Remnant." Dammit. This was just getting better by the minute. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. We were damned lucky Bob had heard of it. Yay.
"What sort of slippage are we looking at?" I hung my head and scrunched up my eyes, hoping it wasn't going to be too bad.
"In hours? Eight to one, which isn't bad. I know of one that's ten to three in days. That's not your main problem though…" Bob trailed off, knowing I wasn't going to like the answer. The differential wasn't bad, but I could pretty much guess what he was going to say next. I asked anyway.
"How old is it? Are we talking more than a thousand?"
"From an Earthly perspective, it's just over twelve hundred years."
"Are you fucking kidding me?! Bob, that's almost four thousand years old!" I ran my hand over my face and smeared it around. This was not good at all. How the hell was I going to get us both that far out? How was I going to get back?
"Harry, I don't understand," Yang said. "What does age and this time slippy stuff have to do with anything? What are dreamlands? Does this mean you won't be able to get me home?" There were tears welling in her eyes, and suddenly I felt very tired.
"Let me start with the Dreamlands. They're a region of the Nevernever – the spirit world, if you will – that have a countless number of self-contained worlds. The older they get the farther out they drift. The time differential works like this: For every hour that passes here on Earth, eight hours go by on Remnant." I looked over at the clock, which read seven. "You showed up here about fifteen hours ago, so that's right around five days of Remnant time."
Screwed wasn't exactly the term I wanted to use, but it was pretty close. Yang's face grew more crestfallen with every word. By the time I was done, she'd hung her head and absently swiped a tear away with the back of her hand. Andi had moved to sit next to her, and was doing her best to comfort the poor kid. She glared at me and tilted her head toward Yang, then mouthed 'say something'.
"It's not impossible, Yang," I gently patted her on the knee for emphasis. "It's just going to be super hard." She didn't look at me, but she nodded and fidgeted with the sandwich. I looked back over at Bob. "I don't suppose there are any connections here, are there?" Bob made a tongue clucking sound.
"Oh man, Harry, you're out of luck there. More importantly, you're a dolt." Yang snickered. I mock scowled and poked my tongue out the corner of my mouth.
"Gee, thanks Bob. Why am I a dolt?" Do not smash the skull, do not smash the skull…
"For so many reasons, but in this case it's because you're overlooking the obvious." I pressed my lips together and strangled the urge to yell and swear. "How'd she get here in the first place? Where'd she show up?"
"Demonreach," I answered. Bob let out a low whistle.
"Wow. I mean, how does that even happen? She shouldn't have been able to do that at all." Bob knew about the nature of the island in a way I couldn't understand, so that just confirmed what I'd said before.
"I was in a fight, and there was a big explosion," Yang said, looking down at Bob. The fingers of her left hand were clenched on her thigh. "The next thing I know, I'm wandering around in a tunnel and Harry showed up."
"Well that's no help at all. No explosion is going to get you onto that island; I don't care how big it is." Bob turned to look at me. "Harry, you should know what that means." He was kidding me, right? I flipped my palms up. "Geez, Harry. Someone or something put her there. That's literally the only way it could happen." Okay, yeah. Once I stopped to think about it, that seemed like the most plausible explanation. I felt kind of dumb for not realizing it before. Alright, fine, I felt a lot dumb. "Have you had any visitors, or anything weird happen lately?" I shook my head.
"No, man, nothing like that. Not before Yang dropped in, anyway." The wheels started turning in my head though. The original Merlin had created that place in multiple dimensions and times all at once. I didn't even begin to grasp how that was supposed to work, but I got one thing.
"Who or whatever did that has a lot of mojo. I mean, that isn't a short list, but I could try asking around, I suppose. Any ideas?"
"Not a clue, Harry, but you could try talking to Ulsharavas. The Loa spend a lot of time out there – maybe she knows something or can find out." Oh man. There was a blast from the past.
"Assuming she doesn't want to play rough, you mean. Her summoning is in Dumont's Guide to Divination, right?"
"Yup! That's all I've got for you, Harry." Bob rattled around to look at Yang again. "Don't worry toots," Andi made a disgusted noise and rolled her eyes. "Harry might be a big dummy, but he's a very lucky dummy. He'll figure it out."
"Thank you, Bob the Skull," she leaned forward and started to pat it, but I nudged her hand away and shook my head. "I appreciate your help, sir." Bob guffawed hard at that, and I snorted. Andi shook her head and wheezed out a laugh.
"No problem, doll!" Andi picked up the skull and walked it back to the next room, quietly chiding him about sexist language, to which he vehemently protested. Yang stared at me for a moment before popping the last bite into her mouth.
"You have the most bizarre world here, Harry. Are we any better off, now?" she asked.
"Well, like I said, it's not impossible, but it's going to be a hell of a thing, Sparky." She nodded once and stood up to stretch. Andi came back out, shaking her head. In all the flurry, I'd completely forgotten to ask about Butters.
"So is Waldo out on a mission or something?" She shook her head and smiled.
"He's at Saint Mary's training with Michael tonight. He won't be back until later. Did you need a ride or anything?"
"Yeah, do you think you could drop us by Murphy's place?" Please let Karrin be in good spirits. I didn't want to get beat up.
"Sure, Harry, let me grab my keys."
A/N - Sorry this took so long to get out. I took time last week to sort out AU events in Remnant and work on some worldbuilding (story is canon up to v3e10). I'm also curious about peoples' opinion on the Dreamlands thing - feedback would be welcome and appreciated. Also, this is the longest piece of fiction I've ever written. I fully expect there to be some stumbles and stalls while I juggle this with my work schedule, but I'll try my best to keep it to a minimum. Thanks for sticking with it! :)
A/N - Sorry this took so long to get out. I took time last week to sort out AU events in Remnant and work on some worldbuilding (story is canon up to v3e10). I'm also curious about peoples' opinion on the Dreamlands thing - feedback would be welcome and appreciated.