The doppelganger left the next morning before anyone else had gotten up to track down Samuel. Jean, Balder, Arthur, and Sneals all worked together on the mechanical arm, with Randor looking in to see how it was going to work. Lily and Xant spent the next few days away from the rest of them, usually leaving early and not returning back to the mansion until late at night. Arthur, who knew Xant very well, was the only one to notice that as time passed, he grew more and more depressed, his cheerful mood not as sincere as the others believed.

The doppelganger had been gone for two days when Tsubaki left the mansion. She was bored, and there was little for her to do. As she left the area to enter the city, she saw Lily and Xant in his human form a short ways away, lying on a hill, Lily with her head contentedly on Xant's chest. She wondered if this had been what they had been doing the past two days.

Tsubaki wandered through the city, not really having a destination. A door to her right burst open and an elderly man stormed out, whacking a wolverine with a broom.

"Out! Out!" the old man shouted. "Out, you goddamn pests!"

"Excuse me, sir," said Tsubaki. "Is there a problem?"

"You bet there's a goddamn problem," snapped the man. "That goddamn wolverine queen or some such made a burrow right under my goddamn house and now I got the goddamn pests all over my kitchen!"

"Maybe I could help you out," said Tsubaki.

"If you could, I'd be indebted to you, lass," said the old man. "Here, I'll show you where the mites are coming out of."

He led Tsubaki into his house and into his kitchen. In the corner of the room there was an enormous hole, leading downwards.

"I've tried plugging the hole, but they just reopen it again," said the old man.

"I can take care of this for you," said Tsubaki.

The hole was just big enough for her to fit through. She stepped down into the hole and followed the passage underground. The size of the crudely carved tunnels astounded her. They were high enough for her to stand upright. The bones of small animals littered the floor. The tunnel was decently lit by more passages leading to the outside world.

Tsubaki continued down the main path, until she saw a large chamber ahead. She walked into the chamber and saw her. A dire wolverine. Twelve feet long, she was curled up in the middle of the passage. Tsubaki approached her cautiously. She knew that she didn't want to fight the dire wolverine. She wanted to do something else entirely.

"Hey, guys, look what I found," Tsubaki said happily that evening when she returned to the mansion.

"What the hell is that?" asked Xant. He and Lily were currently situated on the roof and were looking down at Tsubaki. How they got up there was anyone's guess.

"Dire wolverine," called Tsubaki. "I tamed her. Let me tell you, that took most of the day."

"Have fun with that," called Lily. She grabbed Xant by the collar and kissed him. He kissed back and pushed Lily onto her back.

Tsubaki rolled her eyes and went inside, her new wolverine following her. When she entered the sitting room, she was surprised to see the doppelganger had returned. Everyone was in the sitting room. Randor was in the corner, trying out his new mechanical arm, which had been fitted to his shoulder earlier that day.

"There you are," said the doppelganger. "You're here and – that is a dire wolverine. Why…? Nevermind. Now we just need Lily and the boss. Where are those two; this is important."

"Xant is currently on the roof with his tongue down Lily's throat," said Tsubaki.

"I really did not need that mental image," said the doppelganger. "Someone go and get them."

"I'll go," said Jean. He got up and walked out of the room. They heard the front door shut. They also heard his yell, loud and clear. "Hey! You two! Stop fucking each other on the roof and get down here! The doppelganger is back!"

Jean walked back into the room and sat down with an air of accomplishment. A few minutes later, Xant and Lily joined them, both looking distinctly disheveled.

"We weren't fucking," said Lily with an angry glare at Jean.

"It was a near thing," said Jean.

"If we had been, you would know it," said Lily. "We would've been making a lot more noise."

"Doppelganger!" said Xant, abruptly changing the subject. He couldn't stop the faint pink from dusting his cheeks, however. "You're back! This is good news, I suppose."

"If you can call this good," said the doppelganger. "Samuel has figured out the code. He's heading there now. It's a warehouse in the docks district; not too far from us. We might be able to beat him there if we leave now."

"You know where exactly it is?" asked Xant.

"I was there when the big, shiny map came out of the marble," confirmed the doppelganger. "Lurking in the shadows is what I do best."

"Excellent," said Xant. "So, we leave immediately?"

"Is this it?" asked Jean fifteen minutes later. "It's tiny!"

It was indeed tiny. It was also very noticeable. Huge warehouses sat on either side of this shack. It was rickety, and looked as though it would fall apart at any time. Xant walked up to it with his hand outstretched.

"There you go!" he said as his hand disappeared up to the wrist. "An illusion, no doubt to keep the shipment safe." He pulled his hand back to see his nails were claw like, such as they were in his half-demon form. He shook his hand and his nails returned to normal. "Looks as if we can't have any illusions in here. I'll go first, shall I?"

Xant stepped forward and disappeared entirely. Lily followed him next. On the other side of the illusion was a warehouse far bigger than the ones on either side of it. She looked at Xant. He was in his half-demon form, green eyes looking the warehouse over.

"Whoa," said a voice behind them. The others were all entering the illusion as a group. Jean walked forward, ahead of all the rest of them.

"Shall we storm the front door?" he asked before charging forward.

"No, wait!" shouted Arthur. "There might be –! …Traps."

Lily was doubled up, laughing uncontrollably as Jean fell. He had activated a portal on the ground that he had fallen through. The portal opened up right above the first one, so that he fell in an endless loop. Arthur sighed and facepalmed.

"Someone get him out of there," he said with a disappointed note in his voice.

Xant walked up and stuck his hand in the space between the two portals, grabbing Jean by the collar and yanking him out of the loop. The portals closed once Jean had left them. Xant looked down at Jean, sitting on the ground.

"Let's try the back door," he said with a tone of amusement. Lily was still laughing, and she wasn't the only one.

Everyone had managed to control themselves by the time they got around the back. Xant opened the door and went in first, with the rest going in after him. Except for Tsubaki's dire wolverine, who she commanded to stay at the door and guard it.

Samuel was in the center of the warehouse, several crates in front of him. He was doing something very odd indeed. He was taking strange, metal sticks from the boxes and banging them together. When he did that, they merged. He looked up and saw them.

"I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to do this quietly," he said. "Give me a moment, would you? I'm almost done."

He merged a few more guns together and stepped back, pulling out another gun the same size from behind the crates. He weighed the revolvers in his hands, feeling them. Then he turned back to the party.

"Now then," he said. "Let's see how well these work."

He pointed both guns at Tsubaki and pulled the triggers. With an almighty bang, a ball of fire shot out of one of the guns; the other shot a ball of ice. Tsubaki flinched and squeezed her eyes shut. She heard the sounds of the bullets hit flesh and opened her eyes.

The doppelganger was standing in front of her, swaying, two massive holes in his chest. Ignoring the blood pouring down his body, he charged at Samuel. Samuel ducked and flipped the doppelganger over his back, firing two more shots into his back as the doppelganger skidded across the floor. He lay face down and didn't get up.

"I'd say they work pretty well," said Samuel happily.

Xant walked towards Samuel, standing defensively in front of the rest of the group. Weapons were drawn and pointed at Samuel. He scanned the group calmly, his eyes settling on Xant last.

"Xant," he said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. Well, I suppose that was my fault for not waiting you out. You've got, what, four days left to live now, is it?"

"WHAT?"

Xant and Samuel both looked over at Lily. She had dropped her bow slightly and was looking from Xant to Samuel and back with an expression of horror on her face.

"He's lying," she said in a shaking voice. "Xant, tell me he's lying…"

"I assure you, love, I am not lying," said Samuel. "I don't lie. And Xant, shame on you. You sacrifice yourself for a slut that doesn't even love you and then you don't even tell her? Tsk, tsk."

"Excuse me?" shouted Lily, pointing her bow at Samuel again. "Who are you to decide that? Xant…please." She looked back at him, her eyes pleading with him. But the expression on his face told all she needed to know. She slowly turned her gaze back to Samuel, her expression furious.

"It's funny how all your weapons are pointed at me," said Samuel. "It's not me who you'll be fighting this evening."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Balder.

At that moment there was a huge crash and the wall behind Samuel was broken down. A half-orc came flying through it, smacking into the wall and slumping down it. Lupin did not move. An ancient wyrm red dragon slunk his way through the hole, still baring signs of his constant battle with Lupin.

"You'll be fighting that!" said Samuel. "Have fun!" He disappeared.

The dragon caught sight of them. He stalked to the center of the room, past the crates Samuel had been sorting through. He roared.

That's how you say "Oh shit."

The portal trap was so funny, you have no idea.

So yes, Tsubaki finally has her Ranger Animal Companion. Five levels late, I might add. Yes, I haven't been keeping track of levels for this fic, but the campaign started at level three, and at this point in time, we're all level nine. Her wolverine doesn't even do anything! We're about to fight a dragon and Andrew "doesn't want to get my new wolverine killed" so it's guarding the door! If it didn't have significance in the sequel, I wouldn't even include it. Sorry the details are sketchy, but I went to get food at this time when we were playing and missed a bit. Besides, all that happened was Andrew rolled, Chris told him how many hours it took to tame it, and we did the appropriate time skip.

I forgot to say this in the last chapter. After Lily kissed Xant, her alignment changed from Neutral Evil to Chaotic Neutral. This is important later, so I'm saying it now.