Chapter 13:
It didn't take very long at all to catch up to the bandits. They were dragging captives–some old and feeble–across the rough country outside the Grey Forest. Finn had kept up a ferocious pace–one that his companions, weakened by hunger and exposure, struggled to maintain. They were an unlikely army of men who'd become accustomed to living the good life and women who had, not long ago, been far more interested in being served than in serving. Armed with motley collections of bows and rusty swords, they weren't going to win any major battles. Finn just hoped they were able to provide enough of a show that his real plan had a chance of working. I just need them to go, he thought. Their captives were already slowing them down, and there was a lot of fear there. He'd sown a lot of fear the previous night. His hope was that they would just go and leave their captives behind.
As the enemy approached the wild river ahead of them, Finn the Human stopped his raggedy band of soldiers, giving them leave to rest. Turning to Voletta, he said, "need a bowl. Preferably made of wood from the forest." Puzzled by that strange request, the young wizard nonetheless went searching for what he'd asked for. It took a while. In the meantime, Finn watched as his quarry did their best to rest their captives while they tried to figure out how they were going to get them across the river. The nymphs and the few men there were battered and bruised, and they hadn't been in good shape when the attack had come. There was going to be a good deal of trouble with making them swim, and even wading was going to be a problem. The river was icy from the season, and the waters were running a little high.
But they're committed, thought Finn. Whoever commissioned the raid will skin them if they come back with nothing. The pack who'd attacked the forest had been well-armed and well-organized beyond the usual run of slavers. They'd come with firearms, and some had been trained to use them. There was money behind this drive. Those men would drag the captives across, if they had to carry them. And Finn? He was gambling. He was taking a wild gamble. Backup plan, he thought? Maybe he could take them one-by-one. Maybe he could pick them off. The further along they got, the better their chances of reaching whoever had hired them, and that might really bring on a fight.
"Here, Lord," announced Voletta. Finn edged back from the hillside where he'd been watching the bandits. Taking the bowl, he set it down on the ground before drawing out a flask full of plain river water. As the gathered people watched, the big man poured the flask of river water into the wooden bowl. To everyone's surprise, but his own, a column of water nearly as tall as he was rose out of the bowl. "Well," burbled Baba Yaga. "How did you know?" "Figured you wouldn't stop watching me," he replied. Chuckling, she admitted, "well, I don't get my soap operas anymore, but your life is entertaining enough." Finn grimaced distastefully. Still, he hoped he entertained her enough that she would help him.
"I need a favor," he said. Primly, she replied, "say on..." Nodding at the far side of the hill, the big man told the witch-woman, "there's some sick fuckers over there, who've kidnaped a bunch of nymphs. They're..." "Taking them to be sold," the witch muttered! Shaking her head, she spat out a few salty Russian swear words. "You're turning my own femininity against me," she accused. Finn shrugged. Testily, she replied, "very well. Just don't make a habit of this." Issuing instructions, she bade him carry the bowl over the hill and down to the enemy's position. "And none of your tricks with time, hero," she growled. "It makes me dizzy."
Finn turned from the witch to the Law Keeper, who was staring at him in puzzlement. It was only then that he realized he'd been conversing in Russian. "This is my friend," said he. "She's going to help us deal with the bandits." Voletta nodded. His friend looked to be very powerful. She couldn't have managed such a feat on her own. None of the nymphs could have created a projected image, much less one so detailed. Finn was still speaking, outlining what he needed. Voletta tuned back in as the big man laid out exactly what their battered little army was going to do. And then it was time to do it.
The bandits were in quite a nervous state as their leadership looked over the crossing. The river had been wild and rain-swollen when they crossed, and things hadn't gotten better. On top of that, they'd lost half their numbers in the forest. On a raid that should have been a cakewalk. They'd been up against a bunch of sluts. How was it possible for bimbos to kill so many? If that wasn't enough, they had almost bupkus to show for the work. Kids, old women, and a few horndog men who'd just gotten caught up. That was all they had. If they came back with nothing, they were dead men, but most expected they were going to take a beating for this.
As the bandit leaders contemplated building rafts to float their human currency across the river, a voice called out to them. "Hey," announced Finn the Human. Several men there got the shakes immediately. This was the unstoppable force of nature that had slain so many in the battle the previous night. Striding forwards, the big man declared, "I've got kind of an offer for you. If you'll give it due consideration." The bandit leader frowned at him. Calmly, the big man explained, "you're not really gonna' get away with this. Even if you did, the people you've taken aren't particularly valuable, and the remuneration you're going to receive for the expenditure of resources would tend to make this an unsustainable proposition."
The way the stranger spoke held the bandits transfixed. It was weird–that rough, battered face, spitting out those long syllables. At the same time, nobody could miss the bowl he was carrying, and the figure that was almost-literally standing up on top of it. Bandit and victim alike stood transfixed as the stranger came strolling up to the leaders of this ugly little enterprise, spouting those giant words the whole way. "What the hell'd you say," demanded the lead bandit, as their nemesis stopped right there in front of him. "Means you're not gonna' make a lot of money off this deal," the water-woman explained. "He wants you to piss off before we're forced to kill the lot of you."
The bandit leader and his lieutenant stared a moment, startled by the way these two had just mouthed off that way. Then, as the pair realized just what these two had said–and done–the lead bandit cursed them. As he reached for the sword at his hip, a tendril of icy river-water rose from the river, striking him like a fire-hose. The water entered his nose and mouth and drowned him there on dry-land. Six more tendrils of icy water shot out of the river, slaughtering a like number of bandits before they could even react. That did for the remnant of the thugs' courage. The gathered bandits lit out of there as if the Night-O-Sphere was chasing them. They ran straight into Voletta's troops, who jumped them on the spot, slaughtering them to a man.
When the young wizard approached her mistress's husband, she found him arguing with the strange water-creature from the bowl. "You owe me," growled the Rusalka. "You can try and spin it, but you owe me." "Fair enough," Finn said. "What do you want?" Seeing Voletta there, Baba Yaga retorted, "we'll discuss this in nymph-town. For now, you're going to have your hands full carrying me." Finn couldn't really help rolling his eyes. This was going to suck.
The Rusalka kept up a steady chatter as the big man carried her focus over hill and dale, doing his best not to spill so much as a drop. Curious–and obviously quite bored–she had a host of questions for him. It was clear she didn't watch all the time, though she had watched in excitement in the early days of his pursuit of the Dipped. "Kind of got boring after the first two months, though," she declared. "You got a little repetitive, and I couldn't always see what the vampire was doing. I was sort of hoping to see what happened when all those bitches caught up with you. You left kind of a mess." "Yeah," rumbled Finn. "I'm sure it was funny." "Missed it," grumbled the hostile witch. By the time she'd tuned in again, he was back to living in the damned treehouse. "The thing with the sex-robot was funny, though," said she. That was quite enough. An irritated Finn turned, dumped the bowl on the ground, tossed it away, and stormed off.
"Does that happen often," asked Voletta, when she'd caught up? "Too much," muttered an angry Finn. Baba Yaga was a lot like Jake, snarky and irritating when that was about the last thing he needed, and she even had the same piss-poor capacity to take a hint. He'd be paying for that. He was sure of it. Women had a tremendous capacity to make him pay and pay and pay. At the same time, having hurt PB and knowing what Sarah was going through, he didn't think the whole business was funny in any way. Relieved of the burden of having to humor the witch, Finn turned his focus now to getting the former captives home once more.
It wasn't easy. There were moments he spent literally carrying them. One particularly sickly woman had to be carried across two small streams that had become raging torrents after Finn's rag-tag little army passed by. Nearly all of them were starving, and he spent a fair bit of time scaring up food for them to eat just to get them moving again. He honestly couldn't see how the bandits thought they would profit on such misery. With bones showing through their skin, most of the women were about as unsexy as it was possible to get.
It was late in the evening when Finn carried the sick woman the last two-hundred feet into the dubious safety of the forest. The women Voletta had left behind with her lieutenant were waiting on them, and now the relatives and friends of the former captives swarmed in, snatched them up, and hauled them towards their homes, leaving Finn to go deal with the fallout. Taking his leave of Voletta–and offering some pithy suggestions about things she could do to help with security–the big man got on his way. Before the young wizard could even begin to offer thanks, the big man was out of sight. Honestly, she could understand the Matriarch's reluctance to return to this, when she had that waiting on her at home.
Finn was a little surprised to see Grid-Face people in the town when he arrived. A pair of them were on the town square working on the winch that had served one of the town's wells. They were shoring it up and repairing the windlass to get it working again. Nearby, he found a female sitting with a small crowd of children around her, and she was telling them a story. Rolling onward, he passed the jail, where a few of Voletta's remaining troops were busy repairing the front door, which had almost gotten battered in by the bandits. Finn kept right on going.
He knew something really odd was going on when he found a trio of Grid-Face people working on a machine outside Emeraude's door. "Master Finn," one greeted him, as he came striding up out of the darkness. Finn greeted that with a frown. Staring around him, he said, "ok... what gives?" "The radio-phone system here is faltering," said one of the men. "It was in need of repairs and some replacement parts. We were in the process of repairing it." Finn frowned anew. As far as he knew, Emeraude didn't have that money yet. How was she going to pay these guys? How had she even managed to send for them?
Shaking his head, he left them to their work, heading inside to see if he could get in to see his wife. It was dark. There was a good possibility that she was home and done with her day's meetings. Walking into the antechamber of Emeraude's office, he found Marianne there working away. The plump woman looked up in some surprise. "Here to see my wife," he replied. "She wasn't expecting you for another few days," Marianne burbled. "I took care of it," he said, as he brushed past her desk.
Striding into Emeraude's office, he shut the door on Marianne's curious face and found himself face to face with an anomaly. Nadia was seated at Emeraude's little luncheon table. She was sitting opposite his wife, and, if he wasn't mistaken, they were playing Card Wars. He wasn't sure what shocked him more–the fact that his wives knew how to play Card Wars, the fact that Nadia was here, or the fact that they weren't tearing each other apart. Easy, Finn, he told himself. It's not Breakfast. Emeraude doesn't have any reason to hate on Nadia. Compared to some, Nadia was the soul of discretion.
"Hey, guys," he greeted them. "Finn," Nadia burbled. She was focused on the cards in her deck. "When did you get here," he asked? "This morning," she replied. "I expected to see you here. I went to Marphisa's house." That was where he'd said he would be. "Had to take care of business," Finn replied. "So I hear," murmured the cyborg. "Husker Knights," said she, as she deployed some of her cards. Finn flinched. The very words, Husker Knights, still gave him the willies even after all these years. "Did it go," asked Emeraude? "Got 'em back," Finn replied. "Most are ok. A lot of them are pretty thoroughly drained... We need to work on getting that money..." Emeraude nodded, as she studied her cards. A part of him was tempted to tell her about The Pig, but he decided it really wasn't a good idea.
Thirsty, the big man went over to the sidebar and poured himself a glass of water. It was only as he was setting the pitcher down that he realized his mistake. The fist smacked into his chin with a meaty thunk, and then Baba Yaga was screaming swear-words at him. Momentarily, the witch's avatar was throttling him and pulling his hair, while she screamed cuss words at him in Russian. "Cerebral Blood Storm," burbled Emeraude, as if she saw her husband being pummeled by a glass of water every day.
Finn cussed the witch in return, and the Matriarch quirked an eye at the sound of Grid-Person speech coming out of his mouth. "Nano-bugs," she asked? "Nope," said Nadia. "Can't make him speak in tongues. That was the witch's doing. Silo of Truth." "Dammit," growled Emeraude, as her husband wrestled with his watery nemesis. Baba Yaga had plugged his nose now, and he was spitting water everywhere, even as he cussed her back. With a heavy sigh, Emeraude lay her cards down on the table face-up. "Hmm," burbled the cyborg. "Well, you've got my strategy," growled Emeraude. "Are you going to play? Hey! Keep it down, Finn! What the fuck?!" "They're just working some stuff out," said Nadia. Laying her cards down, she said, "I guess I'll end my turn there. Your move."
Baba Yaga was bashing Finn in the head now, and he was getting a little irritated by that. Which said nothing of the fact that she was all but trying to drown him. Grasping the Curse, he spun 360 in the blink of an eye, hurling the witch off of him. Landing on the floor, the cup bounced and landed upright, the witch glaring at him. At least she did for a moment. The next, she was making some very unladylike sounds. Finn imagined she was hurling in her apartment. "I said I was sorry," he muttered, "but you were being a cunt again." "Ooaa," moaned the nauseous nature-spirit. Clutching at her middle, the witch glared at him. "Are you two done," muttered Nadia? Emeraude was studying their visitor now. "Who's the girl," she demanded? "Just a friend," Finn told his suspicious wife. "I don't like seconds," muttered Baba Yaga.
"Her name is Baba Yaga," said Nadia. "Are you playing?" Emeraude Mertens nearly fell out of her chair. The most powerful magic-user in Ooo was here. In her office. "W-what the fuck, Finn," growled the wizard! "Why didn't you...?" "Working through some stuff," he said. "Anyways. What're you doing here, Nadia?" "Needed a favor," said the cyborg. "Huh," said Finn. Nodding to himself, "well, I need a favor from you." His wife glanced up and frowned at him in puzzlement. "I expect to see you in a few days," muttered Baba Yaga. "You owe me. I figure your chauffeur there can drop you off." Nadia's face went red-hot, but the witch was already leaving.
"What the fuck, Finn," howled Emeraude?! "Y-you brought the most powerful magic-user in all of Ooo to my house?! You didn't even introduce us!" With a shrug, Finn said, "Nadia's already met her. What're you two doing here?" "We were playing over whether or not she would help us," muttered the Grid-Face Princess. "Help with what," Finn murmured? With a sigh, Nadia said, "we're almost done smashing the Lich's ice-island. The war-machines have been doing a number on it. By spring, it'll be completely gone." Finn gave her a frown that seemed to ask, 'and'? Taking a deep breath, the cyborg-woman said, "Wildberry will be on our asses to dismantle the whole thing immediately afterwards." Which would take away Ooo's one defense against the risk of the aliens coming back. The big man began to swear again. "We're two votes short," sighed Nadia. "Two short of a tie." They would probably get Simone, but they still needed two more votes to tie Wildberry's faction.
Now he knew what the Grid-Face people were doing here. They were trying to win the Matriarch's vote. Unfortunately getting everybody's phone up and running again wasn't really what the village needed. They needed food and fuel. These meager efforts were in no way going to help them. He had some ideas, though. Said he, "I've got a proposition, babe. Can you go hang outside a minute. Need to talk to Emeraude alone." Nadia frowned at him. It wasn't like Finn to stick his face in the business of Royalty. At the same time, the expression on his face told her that she might be better off humoring him. Rising, she put her cards down, admonished her adversary against peeking, and then went out in the hall.
"Silence the walls," Finn told Emeraude. Startled, the wizard nevertheless did just that. Calmly, he said, "what she's offering is a pittance. Not for your vote." The wizard-woman frowned at him. "We're... she's...," stammered Emeraude. "She's the Grid-Face Princess," said Finn, "and you are Emeraude the Matriarch. And me? I'm just a dude passing by with a piece of advice." The wizard sat back to listen. "Agree to the idea," said Finn. "It's no different than backing Simon. PB has problems, but the war-machine needs more than her authority to operate. In exchange, Nadia will take the treasure and invest a portion of it in machines to heat the homes of the people here in the forest..." Emeraude goggled at him.
Hands down his pockets, he came to stand in front of her and said, "with all the shortages going on in the neighboring kingdoms, there's probably not enough money to buy food, Emeraude. Not enough to get tens of thousands of souls through the winter. But it might, just might, buy you the means to harvest what you need." Wood-nymphs could get some of their sustenance from the sun. They needed meat for the rest, and the forest was still teeming with life.
Jumping up, his wife threw her arms around his neck–very nearly pulling him off balance–and kissed him thoroughly. Tousling his hair, she said, "you need to get infected with nano-whatsises more often, baby. That's brilliant." Moving to her desk once more, she said, "you go get Sarah and Pat and get after that money..." With a sigh, he said, "sorry, babe. It'll just be Sarah and Pat. Maybe Voletta, if you can spare her. I kinda' gotta' go pay a debt." Baba Yaga didn't like to wait. Nodding, his wife thanked him. Smiling, Finn turned and got on his way.
Hours later, an irritated Nadia walked into the cockpit of the small airship she'd come in. Finn was already sitting at the controls, waiting on her. "I had her fucking eating out of my hand," groused the cyborg. "This is a more equitable deal, Nadia," Finn replied. She glared at him. She'd been astonished when the forcefield popped up, blocking her from listening to the conversation. She dearly wanted to know what had gotten said. "I have half a mind to make you walk," she muttered. "And miss getting the last vote you need," he replied mildly? Her face snapped over to his. "Baba Yaga is a Royal," Finn reminded her, "and, if anybody understands the risks of having the aliens come back..." "...it's her," muttered Nadia, as she nodded thoughtfully. "Damn," she muttered. "Now I can't slap you for being a shit." "Got my beating already," he sighed. He was still dreading the beat-down he was going to get at the witch's lair.
Hundreds of miles to the north and west, Randy returned to his parent's basement after a day spent at work on reorganizing the watch over the Devourer. With the army spending so much time and resources on moving refugees, the watch over the creature had slackened a little, and his cousin wanted to make sure there were no opportunities for alien to slip in and wreck the world while her army was busy. Randy had been right there in the thick of things, working to make sure the watch-towers remained fully manned and provisioned. Freed from the work of taking care of the Kingdom, Shoko had gotten home and thrown herself back into her endless experiments in the basement, which somewhat reduced the time they got to spend with each other.
If he were at all honest with himself, it was causing damage to their joint lives because there was nobody here to make sure Shoko rested. She would be down in the basement for days at a stretch, working herself to a frazzle and taking her battered body to its limits. Randy's father was worried about her, and his mother was irritated. When Shoko was too busy to go to the edge of the kingdom to get food, the job got fobbed off on Randy's mom, and she was already displeased and disappointed that Randy was even dating the water-bag in the first place. In spite of Shoko's efforts to fit in, she felt as though the candy-princess should go home to her people and never come back.
Arriving in his beloved's lab, the young prince found her checking over the settings on her equipment. Within the containment at the heart of the strange machine, lay a single mouse. Said mouse was currently covered by a fire-shield spell. She kept a large number of them here in a shielded cage, all for the purpose of conducting her experiments. Flambo helped her by casting fire-shield on them to keep them alive in the heat until they could serve their purpose. A large number of them had gone to meet their maker in the run up to today's experiment. Now, as Randy watched, Shoko came back to the control console, and initiated the sequence.
There was a tremendous flash of light there in the basement. When the flare of light faded, he found himself looking at a flambit where the mouse had been. The little thing scampered around inside the containment. Shoko shot to her feet, clapping her hands in delight. Rushing forward, she immediately freed the little creature from the containment, cupping it in her hands and cooing at it. As Randy started forward, her delight turned to dismay. He knew immediately what was wrong. They'd been here before. As she turned around, he saw the tiny creature had faded to nothing in her hands.
Her expression was bleak as she caught sight of him, and he knew what she was thinking. Another failure. Another setback. After weeks and months, they were no closer to being together than they had been before this. "C'mon, baby," he murmured. "Let's go have supper. I'll tell you about my trip." Nodding, Shoko started forward. As Randy was reaching out to her, she began to topple. Before the elemental could catch her, she was hitting the floor with terrifying force.
Morning found Finn the Human walking with his lady in the forgotten city that Baba Yaga called home, having spent most of the night in the air. The fallen city of Yakutsk was much as it had been last time they were here with wild, overgrown streets snaking among empty and forgotten buildings. As the pair made their way through the warren of mossy buildings on the exposed remnant of once-broad streets, Nadia found herself studying her husband. He wasn't the same, and that was starting to bother her. Deep down, she feared that Betty was right. They had all wrought changes on him, molding him into what they wanted, even if only by parts.
She could see how all those changes–all the inconsistencies–could be damaging what had already been pretty nice. She feared that she had been the straw to break the camel's back. Even if she had meant it to save his life, she didn't have a right to change him like that. Just now, his eyes seemed to be taking everything in–as if he was looking at things only he could see. Playing a hunch, the cyborg princess opined, "I guess you see a lot of this..." "Do you ever think about what was lost," he asked?
Frowning, Nadia stared at him. The big man stopped right where he was. "It's her," he sighed. Shaking his head, he admitted, "Simon used to do this to me a lot... especially after we got him out of the Ice Crown's clutches." Simon wasn't a building or a crumbly old town. He was a living artifact of the past–of the way things had been–and Finn got kind of soul-searchy thinking about all the stuff his chum had seen from back before the bombs. "And what about Betty," she asked? He knew there was a lot of jealousy there. "She's my mean old mother-in-law," Finn replied. "She's less bitchy if I bang the shit out of her..." The voluptuous beauty goggled at him. It was only when she saw the hints of a smile that she realized he was teasing her. Nadia gave him a harumph.
Just then, a honking horn announced the local welcome committee. As the pair glanced down the street, a rusty old car came trundling along. When it had pulled up alongside them, the door opened. Finn immediately moved to climb in. Nadia stopped him, saying, "you don't get into strange cars!" Finn pointed to the mass of greenery that was 'driving'. As Nadia stared, he jerked her inside. "Fascinating," burbled the cyborg hottie as the plant-creature steered and worked the gearshift, threading the car around rusting hulks and mounds of debris. Finn imagined she was studying their 'driver' with her electronic senses.
Yakutsk was a much smaller town in a car than walking on foot. It wouldn't take very long at all to reach Baba Yaga's place. Finn focused his mind on the coming meeting. The witch had threatened him several times, but he hoped she still found him entertaining enough that she didn't try to smash him out of hand. He was still pondering how to get this straightened out when their 'cab' pulled up outside the old hotel Marshall had described. There was an art to what he was going to do–apologize without really apologizing. He was still irritated that she thought his life was entertainment. More specifically, he didn't like her having fun at the girls' expense.
Climbing out, he held the door for Nadia. When his Russian beauty was standing at his side, the car trundled off again, heading around the back of the hotel. Probably where she keeps it, thought Finn, as he turned for the stairs. With Nadia at his side, he went up into the hotel, finding the place much like what he expected. Faded finery covered in layers of dust, and with riotous green growth here and there. Nadia sneezed repeatedly, and he imagined the pollen was getting to her. "Damn," she wheezed! "See what you did?! If I'd never met you, I'd be wearing my mask!" Finn checked his eyes from wanting roll at the incongruity of her statement. If not for him, the world would be blown up, and she'd be dead.
The big man stepped off, heading for Baba Yaga's strange elevator. "That thing can't work," sniffed Nadia. "There's no power." Finn knew better. Star had told him about this. Dragging his wife inside, he shut the door, and the thing immediately started upwards. The proud beauty at his side muttered curses. She didn't really like to be shown up. "Probably vines or something," muttered Finn. "Or Zero-Point energy," rumbled Nadia. "Who-what-where," asked Finn? "I'll explain later," said the Grid-Face Person. She would dearly have loved to dissect the witch to see how she did what she did.
Baba Yaga was waiting in her apartment, sitting on her couch, staring into a bowl of water. When the pair of them came in, she shoved the bowl aside, and stood to greet them with a scowl on her lovely face. Bowing deeply, Finn said, "I apologize for being abrupt. I should have handled the situation in a less emotional fashion..." "Whatever she did to your skull," growled the witch, "it doesn't change the fact that your apology isn't really an apology." "And your boredom doesn't change the fact that my wives are off limits," Finn replied. The pair stared at each other a while. "Alright, alright," muttered the witch. Moving on, she said, "come along. My project is downstairs on the second floor."
Her project turned out to be a massive grand piano. Nadia goggled at it. "D-does it work," she babbled? "Yup," replied the witch. "I've been trying to figure out how to get it upstairs for two hundred years." She didn't really enjoy coming down to play it when the weather was bad, and it was getting more and more difficult to keep it working. It was warm in her apartment, though. "Shit," muttered Finn. The thing probably weighed half a ton! This was really going to suck. "You're not thinking it through," laughed Nadia. "We can use one of the tenser-field generators from the ship. We'll float it down to the elevator."
Baba Yaga remarked, "it won't fit. I already tried it." She'd tried it half a dozen different ways before she gave up. As near as she could tell, the piano had made the trip up the side of the building by crane. "Damn," muttered Finn. "Nadia doesn't have anything like that on her ship, and it would take us days to rig something up." Days he really didn't have. He needed to get back to his sons. "Not a problem," said Nadia. "We'll sling it under my ship." At Finn's frown, the witch opined, "the oil-men used to do that with helicopters. That might work, mashina devushka." Nadia put out her tongue. Then, motioning for Finn to follow, she said, "I'll send Finn back with the equipment. He can call me when he's ready." The cyborg-girl turned to head back to the witch's door. Before she got three feet, she said, "need to borrow your car." "Certainly," replied the witch.
Two hours later, Nadia pulled into a hover over the old hotel and dropped a heavy steel cable from the bottom of her airplane. Finn lashed out with the grass-sword, dragging the heavy cable inside, where he began to affix it to the lifting mechanism that his wife had rigged up. Baba Yaga grimaced in amazed disgust at the sight of the thing that masqueraded as his arm. At the same time, a portion of her could see how he could understand Yuri so well. They were opposite sides of the same coin–men who'd given up everything, even fundamental pieces of their humanity, for those they cared about. Somehow he had managed not to end up dark and twisted. Of course, all the changes suggested how it was that he managed to be so casual with his various paramours.
As the machine-girl began the lift, the witch reflected on that. With a body covered in scars and mementoes of the hard life he'd led, it would be a little hard for him to throw stones. And that meant, even his children were twisted. A corner of her mind reminded her, but he isn't alone, Talia. She'd been here in this town by herself for so long, she sometimes found it hard to imagine any other life, and honestly watching him did feel a little like one of her old soaps before political activism got the better of her. Of course, back then, Yuri would come along, cut the TV off in front of her face, and tell her she needed to go out more.
Even with the help of his cyborg wife, the process of moving the piano took a lot of effort, swearing, and grunting on Finn the Human. He was required to maintain an iron grip on a drag-rope to keep the piano from smashing itself to pieces on every wall and surface it encountered on its way through the room to the window and out. While he worked, he kept track with the machine-girl on a small radio, and Baba Yaga found herself wondering how things went in her home where she got to be 'lady of the house'. That led to other questions, and the Rusalka found herself bubbling over with amusement at the thought of what that must be like.
As she watched the big man wrestling with the drag rope, out of the blue Baba Yaga asked, "so will that thing come with wires too?" It took a moment. Old Finn might have been hours figuring out that she meant little Tatiana. New Finn realized almost immediately what she meant. Calmly setting down the drag rope–letting Nadia's airplane drag the piano towards the ledge and its eventual destruction, Finn calmly stated, "my children are off limits too, Your Highness..." Baba Yaga's eyes got big as plates as her precious piano was dragged towards its doom. As the piano gathered speed, the big man calmly reached down to stop it. He thought the lesson was learned. Moving on, he carefully eased the piano into the window opening, adjusting and readjusting his hold on the cable that steered the heavy mass. Finally Nadia was able to pull it out the window and hoist it into the air.
Knowing his wife was burning fuel needed to get them home, Finn rushed for the stairs, leaving the witch to catch up. When Baba Yaga finally came back into her apartment, she found the man wrestling with that heavy rope once more, hauling the massive piano to a touch-down on the floor of her balcony. Standing there in the entry, the proud woman watched the stranger–the man who called her friend–haul her most prized possession in out of the weather. "Would you have really let it be smashed," she asked? "Nope," he replied. "That would be shitty. I'd be tempted, but I'm not that kind of person." He never looked up from his work. The witch flushed. She would have. If she had been slighted half as much as she had insulted him, she would have let the piano be smashed to flinders.
With the piano landed, Nadia headed back to the forgotten airfield outside the town, returning to find Finn taking the levitation mechanism off the heavy piano. Baba Yaga stood off to one side, wearing the strangest look on her lovely face. Her neighbor looked a lot like she'd seen a ghost–or gotten a dose of Finn's temper after pushing a little too hard. For his part, the big man wore that look that had come to frighten the pack of them. He was... serene. It was as if he got hassled by an ancient witch every day.
As the big man folded the machine up to hand back to his wife, the Rusalka finally approached. Calmly, Baba Yaga extended a hand and shook Finn's big paw, saying, "well done, Mr. Mertens. Never be afraid to put limits on a crazy bitch." Nadia goggled at her. What did that mean. Finn flushed to his hair, mumbling, "I didn't mean it like that." The witch shrugged, "I'm Russian. It's in the blood." Which words had Nadia flushing. That was in her blood too. Impulsively, Finn hugged his frenemy. "I don't mind if you watch me a little," he said. "Just not..." The witch blushed to her hair and quickly turned away. "I suppose you have to go now," she sighed. "In a bit," Finn replied. "Why don't you play something?"