Episode 26 - Magic and Glamour

Two stars of blue and green light burned in the bright sky of the oceanic world of Jugeri. The waves below us crashed against rocks made of solid crystallium - which, yes, looks like crystal - and looked quite beautiful. Even when one considered that the water was full of toxic stuff that included several flavors of natural acid.

One of the fish of this sea flopped helplessly on the TARDIS deck. Liara eyed it warily. "Are you... sure about this?"

"Oh, yes, quite..." I stopped talking long enough to shift the fish away from the door with my foot. "We have to give it a bit of a chemical bath first to get all the nasty stuff out, but after that, well, they're quite tasty." I smiled at her. "If she could have I think Korra would have found a way to bring this species home with her. Unfortunately they'd be rather... toxic..." It flopped again and I had to shift away to avoid getting some rather acidic compounds on me. "...so we ended up giving up on that idea."

"Right..." Liara's voice remained skeptical.

"Oi, I hear that doubt in your voice," I said. "But it'll be gone tonight when we get to have a few of these delicious things for..."

There was a rushing of water outside of the TARDIS. I turned to where I had a fishing pole set up with a line in the water to catch another of the tasty treats. The line was tugging. Very fast. I blinked and went up to it.

The rushing of water escalated into an eruption. A massive sea beast emerged from the depths, the yellows and reds of the creature's scales vivid in their color. "Oh bloody hell..." My eyes had widened, and for good reason. "New plan! We need to go!" I detached the fishing line and turned to rush up to the TARDIS control.

...and I promptly slipped on the fishie. My foot came out from under me and I stumbled forward into the plank leading up to the console, stopping all of my forward progress. "Liara! The lever, now!", I shouted. I looked back and saw the beastie looking at the TARDIS like it considered us a form of snack. It opened its giant maw and lunged from the water for us.

The TARDIS engine started VWORPing at that moment. The scenery started changing to the Time Vortex. I snapped my fingers and closed the doors.

"Well, so much for that," Liara pointed out. "Maybe dinner elsewhere would be better?"

I frowned and nodded. "Yes, I suppose so," I conceded. I found my footing again and finally picked myself up from the ground. "Here, I think I..."

The TARDIS shuddered underneath us. Liara looked to me. "It didn't follow us, did it?"

"No, not at all," I said. I went to the TARDIS controls and pulled the screen over. "Dimensional disturbance of some sort, the TARDIS..." We shook again. "...is having to rough it. Give me a moment and I'll put us down to get our bearings."

"Could this be another of those Cracks?", Liara asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," I murmured. "Alright, let's see where we are..."

I opened the door and we stepped out into a garden park of some sort. It was night and lights were provided by local poles and other light fixtures to illuminate the fountains. I could see the skyscrapers of a decently sized city in one direction, all full of light. Liara stepped out behind me. "Where are we?", she asked.

"Earth, I think," I said. I looked around and saw a discarded newspaper. I looked it over. "Japan, we're in..." A soft smile came to my face. "Ah. Mitakihara. It's been a while. interesting that we arrived..."

I could feel wrongness in the air. Something... negative, I guess. I reached for the sonic disruptor. "Liara, there's something out there," I said quietly. "Get ready."

She nodded at me.

I almost didn't move in time. In a span of an instant a form erupted from the ground beside me, growing into a tall light-colored robed humanoid with a head that... well, it wasn't a head so much as it was blocks, like a face being pixelated into nonrecognition. An alien roar of some sort came from the creature and a limb reached out for me. A brief deflector shield batted it away.

"What are they?", Liara asked.

"Wraiths," I answered. "Beings formed from negative emotion, that sort of thing. Rather unfriendly."

"There's a lot of things you show me that are 'rather unfriendly'," Liara said.

Before I could retort the creature lunged again. I caught it once more and Liara let the wraith have it with a biotic bolt to the face. It reeled backward with an inhuman shriek.

"They're not very tough, are they?"

"Not entirely. But, well... they tend to come in packs."

Even as I said that more of the wraiths emerged from the ground. "Oi, this is going to be tricky..." I murmured to Liara. "Listen, when I..."

I was interrupted by a loud, jubilant battle-cry. A shorter form, a young lady, landed in our midst, long red hair sprayed out in the wind and a spear twirling in her hand. She lunged it at the first wraith and destroyed it with a single stab. A mid-air roll avoided a counter-attack from a second and a third, which fell in a trio of quick swipes from the spear.

Two more came up on her back. This time there was no battle cry. A second girl leapt in and brought a saber down on one of the wraiths, cleaving it from neck to underarm and destroying it. She shifted on her feet and evaded the inhumanly-fast counter-attack that the survivor gave. A sharp claw on the wraith's hand missed for the most part, only drawing a little blood on her upper right arm. Energy formed along the wound in the shape of a wheel with musical notes, which rotated until the wound was closed, indeed, gone completely, as if it had never been inflicted.

"Ah, Kyoko, Sayaka, excellent timing," I said, but I got no reply while they remained in the thick of the fray.

Liara was blinking. "They're... just children, aren't they?"

"Juveniles," i said. "Adolescents, really. Young teens. So it can be cultural, honestly." Seeing movement I tackled Liara, just in time to keep us from getting ripped up by an attacking wraith. "Probably better if we talk later," I mumbled to her while rolling away to get myself back on my feet. I reached for the sonic disruptor and sent kinetic energy flying into the creature, knocking it back. I got an alien shriek for my troubles.

A couple more loomed behind me and I had to bring up my shield to prevent being clobbered. I fell backward from the sheer force of the blows. Landing on my rump that roughly was always an unpleasant experience, but one easily weathered.

Having a Wraith smash my head in would be less-easily weathered.

Thankfully it didn't come to that. Bolts of pink and light purple energy, in the forms of arrows, studded the wraiths before they could strike. They dissipated in screeches, leaving behind nothing but small black cubes.

When I stood up the battle was over. Two more of the mahou shoujo of this world and city had joined this, young ladies I had a good acquaintance with. "Ah. Madoka. Homura." I nodded at them. "Pleasant night, shame to see it wasted on horrible gribblies isn't it?"

I was quite surprised when Madoka responded to my presence by running up to me. "Doctor! You're here! I... I need your help!"

I blinked. She... needed my help? Truly? "What is it?", I asked. I darkly pondered if Kyubey and his people had violated our agreement.

"My family, they're gone!", Madoka said, her voice full of uncertainty and worry. "They're gone and I can't find them!"

Now that got my attention. "What?", I asked hoarsely. "Really?" For a moment I wondered how. Madoka was... well, it was complicated. She was a mortal girl with a mortal body and simultaneously a bodiless, formless entity that some might fairly call a goddess, a being who spanned space-time with the sole mission of comforting dying magical girls so that they didn't turn into, well, witches. Theoretically that gave her a lot of power to influence the mortal world. But, I realized, it was also limiting. Madoka's "Goddess" side - Madokami if you will - existed for the sole purpose of dealing with other magical girls, of releasing the despair from their soul gems and letting them die in peace instead of being consumed by their darkest emotions. This gave her great powers to call upon... when it came to her field of interest. Outside of that...

"It's not just the Kanames." Homura stepped up beside Madoka and put a re-assuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "There have been disappearances all across Mitakihara. All of the terror and fear it's causing have made the wraiths even stronger than usual."

"Please, help me," Madoka said. "Help me find them."

My mind was already racing with the possibilities. "Of course," I said to her, offering her a sympathetic hug. "I'll help find your family, Madoka. Right away." I showed her a re-assuring grin to perk her spirits up. Whatever was responsible, I was sure it would be dealt with easily enough.

Of course, I was rather wrong about that. We had quite the adventure ahead of us, as it would turn out.

While it was a nice night for a walk, disappearances are often time critical when you're trying to solve them, and with so much time lost already it was clear I needed to bring us all to the Kaname home with the TARDIS.

That wasn't the odd part. The odd part was that she shuddered again as we made the shift in position. I double-checked my readings and felt a frown of puzzlement come across my features. "How peculiar," I murmured. "There's some form of dimensional instability interacting with the TARDIS."

Liara asked what I presumed all of the girls were thinking. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that there's some form of dimensional distortion that is creating a sort of resistance to the TARDIS," I explained, even as another shudder shook us. The VWORPing of the engine seemed to distort as well, changing to a higher pitch. "It's also interfering with our re-materialization. One moment..." I turned a few dials and altered the TARDIS' settings to account for the dimensional instability. The TARDIS engine started VWORPing normally. A few moments later I brought us to a stop. "Here we are," I said, walking up to the TARDIS door.

Liara and the four girls followed me out. The Kaname home was a cute little two-floor house in one of the city's residential wards. The front door of the house was along the left side of it from the street, and our choice of entry. The inside was a marvel of technology, with several digital screens at various points, quite a few set to displaying financial news information. Reasonable, since Madoka's mother worked a corporate job, one important enough to afford this lovely home.

Of course, the home wasn't so lovely. There was smashed furniture here and there. I went into the garden and found it trashed. I caught the sight of dried blood and recognized a pair of garden shears nearby. They were stained with fluid, greenish-blue in color... cyan, definitely cyan. I blinked and ran my sonic screwdriver over it.

"Blood," I murmured.

"Wait, are you saying that's blood?", Sayaka asked. "But it's... blue-green stuff."

"Yes. I can't tell what species, but it's definitely blood." I looked over at the splotches of dark red. "Human blood. A struggle, then."

"Dad," Madoka said, tearing up. I could see the concern in her eyes. "They hurt him."

"And he hurt them. Or it." I looked back toward the rest of the house and the stairway leading up to the second floor. Here and there I could see a small droplet of darkened cyan stark against the brown, wood-paneled floor. "They ran upstairs." I rushed up the steps at a brisk pace, checking the sonic screwdriver for scan results as I went, and followed the trail down the hall of bedrooms. One bedroom, lined with pink, was definitely Madoka's. And it had been trashed. The stuffed animals she kept were ripped apart and had created piles of fluff everywhere, mixed in with the detritus of her wrecked bed and bedroom furnishings. Further down the bedroom for her little brother Tatsuya was just as demolished.

But the trail led to the master bedroom. Equally trashed. The cyan blood stains ended here. And now there were more red blood stains. Just a few.

I swallowed. Poor Madoka. What could have done this?

"And you say this is happening across the city?"

"Yes." Homura stepped into my vision. "I've tried to follow them, but I've only see vague shapes coming and going. And whenever I get close, the wraiths attack."

"I've never seen blood of this shade before," Liara said, kneeling over. "What species could it be?"

"I'm trying to think. Definitely not iron-based blood. Could have a copper component like Vulcanoids." I held out the sonic and waved it around the room. "And dimensional disturbance too? This isn't a coincidence. Something is going on here."

Indeed, I already had a suspicion. A Crack. It had to be a Crack. And if it was a Crack...

...well, that meant something from the original Doctor's home cosmos. Going by the pattern, I mean. I strained to think of any foe or species of his that would do something like this and would leave cyan blood. Cybermen? No, they wouldn't be so picky and random with targets. Nor would Daleks.

"Doctor, please," Madoka pleaded. "I need to find them."

"And we will, Madoka, I promise," I answered. I checked the results of my screwdriver's scan and sighed. "I was hoping I could track them by scanning for unique traces of dimensional shifting, but the dimensional instabilities are making that impossible."

Sayaka looked up from a broken nightstand and the family pictures scattered around the debris. "So there has to be another way to track them. Maybe something in their blood."

I pondered that. "Perhaps." I walked around the room. "The problem is time. We could scour the entire city and lose hours trying to make even one contact, and by what you say, the wraiths are becoming an epidemic. We'll spend half of our time fighting them."

"We need more options," Liara said.

I nodded. My eyes scanned around the room yet again, allowing me to take in the others. Kyoko was... well, her usual self, while Sayaka was deep in thought. Homura was holding Madoka and trying to comfort her. Liara was watching me intently, and I met her eyes briefly. She knelt down and picked up a discarded hairbrush with strands of brown hair in it. "Is there any way of searching for them by scanning for their specific DNA?", she asked, taking one strand of hair out. "Something like that."

An idea crept into my head. "Yes," I murmured. "Something like that indeed." I smiled and clapped Liara on the shoulder. "Brilliant idea, Liara. I know just what to do. Stay here, I'll be right back." I went to the door.

"Where are you going?", Kyoko asked as I passed through it.

I looked back, smiling. "Going to get an expert," I said.

I didn't return alone.

The girls - and Liara - watched in curiosity as I showed our hired expert the evidence at hand. "I'm certain the dimensional disturbances are linked," I explained, "but the instabilities are so widespread I can't scan for them. But there are materials here you can use."

There was a nod from my compatriot. Harry Dresden, professional investigator and wizard, defender of the city of Chicago from the things that went bump in the night, surveyed the room again before kneeling over one of the droplets of cyan blood. He was in his customary black leather duster, covered as it was in protective spells and wards, and all the usual accoutrements of his trade. "Blood's dried so I can't use it. At least, not very well. But I'm definitely getting a distinct energy trace off of it. The being has magical properties of some sort. The fact they left blood means they're physical in form and not just beings of the Nevernever." His eyes narrowed. "Of course, that presumes the Nevernever can even connect to this world."

"It's... well, I'm not sure." I got close enough so that I could whisper to him, "Never had a chance to sit down with Bob and discuss the possibility," making sure that we weren't heard by Molly.

"Right." Harry looked up. "Grasshopper, what do you think?"

Molly Carpenter, Harry's apprentice in all things wizardly, was looking around the room with a subdued expression. Her clothing wasn't the usual mix of tattered jeans and tops meant to make her look like a goth girl, but rather a black shirt emblazoned with a logo for the metal group Metallica that had the midriff cut away, showing the lean ab muscle of her rather healthy build, inherited from her mother Charity. She had colored her hair dark red at the fringes but otherwise had left her natural blonde in place. I surmise that as she got older, she was becoming less interested in making her hair as colorful as possible.

Before answering, Molly reached down for something, which turned out to be a hair-dryer. She grimaced as she held it. "They were... someone was being hurt with this," she said. "And the people, the things, that did it, they enjoyed it." She reached for her head. "It's hard to describe it more. They're so different."

Harry's brow furrowed. His eyes scanned the floor where she'd lifted the device and up toward a closet. I was doing the same thing and we looked each other, not quite looking eye to eye since, well, we weren't so eager to soulgaze. "I established that Mister Kaname fought back in the garden and was wounded," I said. "And the blood up here is his, as far as I can tell."

"So they overran Dad first while Mom got their son upstairs. They took cover in the closet." Harry looked over to an intact closet door. "And the baddies brought Dad upstairs and tortured him to get Mom and Son out."

"Why would they do that?", Sayaka asked. "The closet doors aren't very strong."

I took a closer look in the closet, moving some discarded clothes out of the way. Underneath the pile a glint from the light shined, showing me what looked to be a letter opener. I held it up. "Maybe they knew Mrs. Kaname was armed. Maybe they didn't want to rush the closet and get stabbed?"

"They didn't let the first stabbing stop them," Kyoko pointed out.

"We're missing something," Harry said.

"Maybe, but that's not why you're here." Homura looked up from where she and Madoka were seated on the Kanames' bed. "The Doctor said you could track them where he couldn't."

At my nod, Liara presented the hairbrush to Harry. "I also found combs with more hair samples in them," she explained.

"Hrm. Pretty fresh. I could use them, sure." Harry looked to Molly. "Get the kit ready, Padawan. We've got some thaumaturgy to do."

We all filed downstairs and went to the kitchen, where Harry and Molly quickly prepared the thaumaturgy spell that would let them track the Kanames with the hair samples.

"is this going to work?", Madoka asked. "Can he really find them?"

"Harry's good at this, been doing it for years," I answered.

There was movement from the door, and the gentle thudding of paws upon the paneled floor. Mouse entered and trotted up to Madoka. Madoka showed some surprise at seeing a dog so high that he was pretty much up to her neck. The temple dog chuffed and nuzzled her gently on the face, eliciting a surprised look from the young lady.

"I didn't think human dogs got that large," Liara said.

"A few of them do," I answered. "Tibetan mastiffs, for instance. Mouse is of a related bloodline. And he's... not entirely normal, either." I watched Harry's dog - or was Harry actually Mouse's Human? - comfort Madoka and wondered if he sensed Madoka was more than just a young girl, or even a magic practitioner. "I don't remember you being that friendly to me," I said to him.

He let out a low bark in reply. Well, retort.

"So that's your excuse? The zombies? Oi." I rolled my eyes and looked back to where Harry and Molly had finished preparations. "Ready?"

"When we're ready, you'll know," Harry grumbled at me. He watched Molly finish the last of the ritual element of the spell. A few moments after he spoke she concentrated and broke the circle of salt they'd drawn on the dining room counter. Molly held up the compass with the strands of hair tied to it. "And now we're..." Harry looked at the compass and stopped mid-sentence, frowning.

"What's wrong?", Liara asked, beating me to it.

"We did the spell right," Molly insisted. "I can feel it."

"Harry...?", I asked, letting the name roll on my tongue for a moment.

Harry sighed and put a hand to his head. "Nothing," he sighed. "It's not working."

"So you did all of that hocus pocus for nothing?", Kyoko asked, showing irritation. "We wasted all of that time?"

Harry frowned and glared at her. "The spell's active. It should be working. There should be a connection, unless..."

Even as he spoke those words that horrible possibility came to me. We looked at each other and I could see the concern in his brown eyes. He didn't need to finish the sentence.

...unless they're dead.

Liara caught on a moment later. "Goddess," she managed, looking at Madoka with sympathy.

"That's not the only possibility," I said. "There are..."

Before I could finish, Mouse's neck stiffened. He turned away from Madoka and a low growl came from his throat. Everyone looked at the temple dog as he growled and glared at someone, or something, entering the door.

The creature that entered was four-legged like Mouse. But smaller. Much smaller. White fur, red markings... yes, you can guess who.

"What are you doing here?", Homura asked, her voice icy.

"Oh my. Such hostility, Homura Akemi." Kyubei found a nearby intact coffee table to jump up on, reducing some of the height difference. "Have we not honored our bargain with the Doctor?"

Homura didn't answer. I stepped toward the creature and asked, "What are you doing here, Kyubei?"

"We came seeking you, Doctor," Kyubei answered. "We need your help."

I nodded. "With the dimensional instabilities?"

"Indeed. We have been unable to pinpoint the focal point for the problem. We require your aid." Kyubei's voice remained child-like and calm even now. "Otherwise the entire world may be destroyed."

In general, I try not to think things like "Like I haven't gotten enough to do". Especially since, in my line of work, I generally find that when a bigger problem comes out out of nowhere like a smaller problem, they are often related.

So I was rather sure that the disappearances in MItakihara were related to Kyubei's ominous, entirely undetailed proclamation that the entire world might be destroyed.

Of course... this was Kyubei we were talking about. That "may" could mean anything.

"I see," I said calmly. "How?"

"There are many potential outcomes to dimensional instabilities," was the creature's reply, its innocence piled on thick with the help of that child's voice it used. "The longer they remain unchecked, the more likely something terrible will happen."

I nodded and glanced over. Molly was staring at the creature. I felt thankful Harry had already taught her so much about making bargains with other beings; at her current age she was a potential recruit under my agreement with the Incubators, and she was still young enough, idealistic enough, that Kyubei could have gotten to her otherwise.

I suppose it was unfair of me to be suspicious. The Incubators had lived up to their bargain with me. I had provided the block transfer equations to reduce universal entropy, they altered their approach to recruiting, going for older girls and ensuring they knew what they were getting into. And thus providing the world with defenders against things like the wraiths.

On the other hand... the Incubators were still utterly amoral entities. There were few limits to what they could do if they thought it within their interest and it did not contradict any prior agreements.

Harry gave me a look. There was a glint of recognition in his eye. He had never met the Incubators before, but he had dealt with Faeries enough to know when someone's avoiding giving a direct answer because they didn't want to admit to the truth. I gave him a slight nod and looked back to Kyubei. "You don't know," i said. "This is something beyond your knowledge. You're just afraid of the consequences of it and want to get me involved."

"We have a reasonable concern, Doctor," the Incubator drone answered innocently.

I tried not to roll my eyes. "I'll look into it," I said. "As soon as I find the Kanames and the source of the other disappearances. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some work to do."

"Please do not take too long, Doctor," was the reply I got before the creature slinked away. Mouse went to the door, as if to ensure himself that the drone was truly departing.

When he was gone, I heard Harry sigh. "Flipping faerie wannabe," he grumbled.

"So... what are we going to do now?", Madoka asked me, looking very much like she was ready to cry. "Please, I have to find them...!"

"We will," I assured her. "Since we can't track them, we'll have to hunt down one of these things."

Homura asked the obvious question. "How do you intend to do that?"

I looked to Harry. "Harry, that blood..."

"...it's dry and old, I can't do much with it," Harry answered.

"What about the magic signature you found on it?", I asked. "Can you look for that?"

For a moment he was in deep thought. Why, i could even then see the gears grinding together in his head.

Sorry, had to fill my quota concerning Harry's thinking process, I won't make another joke about it.

Probably.

Finally he let out a breath. "I can't promise anything," he said. "But we can try."

"Good. Now, unless we find a van along the way... I think we'll be going on foot."

"Story of my life," Harry sighed.

I didn't answer. At that moment, I really missed Korra and her Earthbending...

We got two blocks before the wraiths came after us.

Maybe they were sensing Madoka's feelings. Maybe they just fed on the despair and fear. Whatever it was, they erupted from the ground around us and attacked.

"Kyoko and I will take the front," Sayaka said, brandishing her sword. She looked to Homura and Madoka, who were reaching for their bows. "Mister Dresden, can you..."

It occurred to me that only Mami had really seen Harry in action before; Homura had only briefly observed him so long ago at the Southern Air Temple. So they had little idea on just what Harry could do.

Harry had his blasting rod up and ready. "Fuego!" A lance of golden fire erupted from the tip and blasted cleanly through the nearest wraith. Behind him Molly... well, Molly didn't do much, but she wasn't a combat wizard type.

Liara swept a hand out and a bolt of biotic energy struck another wraith, sending it flying back. I reached for the sonic disruptor and started cycling through settings, trying to disrupt them. I could see the flashes of pink and purple light to my side. Madoka and Homura had shifted into their business attire as well and started putting energy arrows into the onrushing crowd. Mouse plowed into the first one that got too close to them and jumped onto the next. Two hundred pounds of canine brought the dark being down easily.

And it was becoming a crowd. Harry's shield bracelet went up and a half dome of blue light caught a wraith strike coming for his head. A second wraith went for his weak side and I caught it with the deflector setting of my sonic. He cried out one of his pseudo-Latin spell phrases and a burst of force threw the wraith back and into a nearby house. It disintegrated into shadow.

I briefly checked our front again. Kyoko did a somersaulting leap over one and drove her spear into its back. As it disintegrated more came for her from the rear and Sayaka intercepted them, severing the hand from one before parrying a flurry of blows. The two stood back to back, switching between offense and defense as needed, but could make no headway.

"We need a new plan," Liara said. "Maybe I can generate a field around us long enough to get free."

"Too many of them," I responded. I looked to Molly and threw her an item I'd procured from the Kaname household. She caught it wordlessly and nodded. A moment later, she disappeared.

"Everyone back up!", Harry shouted. "We're going to get strung out!"

"He's right." Sayaka took Kyoko's arm and pulled her back toward us. Once everyone was close enough Liara gave us a biotic dome to stand within. She grunted with effort as blows started raining down upon it.

"This isn't going to work," Homura said. "We need a new plan."

"Actually, we just need enough time for Molly to finish," I said "Any moment..."

Beyond the wraith trying to assault us, I could see Molly reappear. She pricked her finger, brought forth a droplet of blood, and set it into the salt at her feet.

The salt she had drawn in a perfect circle around us and the wraith.

With my Time Lord senses I could feel the shift in the air's energy as the circle cut off the ambient energy outside of it. The wraith... froze. Froze in their places like they'd just been put into stasis. Or, rather, cut off from the energy around us.

Still, they didn't disintegrate, and if they found more power they could be a threat. The four girls went to work on the helpless enemy, shooting and slashing and stabbing their way through them. Harry took in a breath and looked at me. "When you mentioned phages, you weren't quite clear on how nasty they were."

"I was very clear," I retorted. "But let's face it, Harry, they're not that much compared to nastier things we've run into in our careers."

"Yeah, well, even the little things can still take your head off," he pointed out. He looked to where Molly was standing outside the circle, taking care not to break it. "Nice work Grasshopper," he said.

She nodded. "Thanks boss."

"Why aren't there more of them?", Liara wondered aloud.

"Probably not enough negative emotional energy in the area for them," Harry said. "They tapped it all out. It takes time for it to rebuild. Of course..." He sighed. "That means we'll get this over and over as we enter areas that have the energy they need to form. I don't think going on foot's the answer."

"A veil?"

"The veil could mess with the tracking spell," Harry said. "Especially since the link is so vague."

I bit into my lip and looked around. The garden park was giving way to a parking lot near one of Mitakihara's commercial wards. I spied the mostly empty lot and found what I was looking for. "Then, I think we need a change in transportation," I said to the others.

"I have reservations about this," Harry said indignantly.

"We know, Harry," Liara sighed.

"Seriously. Massive reservations. This just feels... wrong."

"We know, Harry," I repeated, exchanging a look with Liara from our places in the middle seats.

Harry glowered at us and directed a look to the front seat from his place in the rear of the van, where Molly was beside him. There was a Japanese woman at the wheel, young, pretty, barely tall enough to drive the van.

If I looked really hard, I could see the image fade and Homura sitting underneath it, seated forward so she could reach the pedals with the help of the long extensions fixed to her feet.

"She's what, twelve?", Harry continued. "It really should be me or Molly at the wheel."

"Liara doesn't know how to drive 21st Century Earth vehicles," I said. "You need me to keep the dampening field active so your active magic doesn't break the van." I needn't have pointed to my sonic, directed at the back of the van where Harry and Molly were sitting. "Which is why neither of you can drive either."

"He's got you there, boss," Molly said.

"Besides, how familiar are you with Japanese traffic laws?", Homura asked. "And how much do you know about the city's roads?"

Harry made that look he always gets when someone points out he's wrong and he knows it.

From my point in the rear middle seat I watched as Harry worked the tracking spell while Molly maintained the illusion over Homura, lest we get Mitakihara police curious. Liara had joined the others, minus the distracted Madoka, on wraith watch duties, seated in the forward middle seat with Sayaka while Kyoko was beside me. Madoka was in the front passenger seat with Mouse having somehow wedged himself into position between Sayaka and Liara so that Madoka could rest her hand on his head. "How many so far?", Sayaka asked from the forward middle seat's right side..

"A couple tried to attack," Kyoko answered from the rear middle's left. "But Homura's moving too quickly for them."

There was quiet coming from the passenger side front seat. Madoka was withdrawn, not at all her usual self, barely seeming to be capable of even the simple act of stroking the leonine hair around Mouse's head and neck. "They're not dead, are they?", she finally asked. Her gentle voice was tremoring with fear. "Because you couldn't find them with your tracking magic. That means they could be dead, right?"

"Not at all, kid," Harry said, his tone meant to be reassuring. "They could be behind defensive wards that blocked my spell. Or they could be in the Nevernever or something like it."

"Are you sure? Are you sure we can get them back?"

For a moment, I could see Harry was hesitant. He didn't want to give false hope. But the silence didn't last, and his question was answered by another voice. "Yeah," Molly said. "He's sure. That's what we do. Right boss?"

Harry showed no aggravation at Molly answering for him. "Right, Grasshopper," he said. "We'll get them back." There was a bit of cynic skepticism in his eyes, but Harry bit it down. He understood the importance of keeping morale up.

"Whatever has happened, Madoka, we'll get your family back," Homura said, as if she wasn't having to pay attention to the road. "I promise you that."

The reply was a little sniffle and a nod.

There are beings who believe power is only real purpose of life. Madoka sat in quiet rejection to that. She had Power and lots of it. But against the love of her family, that power meant nothing.

"She's got a lot of power," Harry murmured to me, keeping his tone quiet. "A freaking lot."

"Yes," I said. "But also, well... it's sort of complicated, but suffice to say she's the physical manifestation of a much larger being. At least, that's how I think it works. Quantum synergy can be a pain to guess sometimes."

"So with that much power, she should be able to wipe the floor with those wraith things," Harry continued. "I mean, Doc, when I'm talking power here, I mean Power."

"I'm not how much of it she can access without risking her physical body. I would have to..."

We were interrupted by the sound of the a cell phone ringing. Sayaka shifted in her seat and pulled one out. "It's Hitomi," she said for our benefit. She answered the phone.

There were whispered replies from the other end. "Wait, Hitomi...? Hitomi, calm down," she said, and as Sayaka spoke the tension in the van spiked. "Hitomi, what do you mean..." Sayaka's eyes widened. "They're there?! At Kyosuke's house?!"

Nothing more had to be said. Homura hit the gas pedal and the van accelerated.

The Kamijo family home was larger than the Kaname one, found in a residential distrct in the same corner of the city. We arrived and began pouring out of the van. I immediately felt the chill in the air.

The first wraith started to form and was struck down by a slash from Sayaka's saber. The other girls took up formation and with time-worn practice set into the ones assembling in front of us. Behind us... well, that was left to the rest of us. I gripped the sonics and checked them. I still lacked the kind of data that would let my sonic devices deal quickly with them. What I could do was provide some brute power to the more sophisticated magic and biotic attacks from Harry and Liara.

Harry waved his staff around and let out a cry of "Gravitas" that I'd never really heard him use before. But I knew what it was; for a brief moment we all got a little lighter as the gravity around us was siphoned away... and turned into an invisible sledgehammer that crushed one wraith outright. Harry repeated the steps twice before switching to fire magic.

Liara jumped back to avoid an attack and sent a biotic bolt into her attacker. Crackling blue energy formed around her figure as she summoned her biotic power and unleashed it in a series of attacks upon the wraiths. Two fell apart from the power of her warp fields and another was broken by the impact into a nearby street lamp from a biotic burst. This opened her up to a third, but Mouse was on top of it before it could strike, bearing the creature down and dispersing it. Hints of white-blue energy, like St. Elmo's Fire, formed around him as he tangled with the creatures.

Honestly, at that point I felt... rather boring. Sure, kinetic blasts from the disruptor and all, but there was no style to it. Nothing interesting. It had nothing to Liara wielding dark matter energy or Harry's control of the fundamental forces of creation.

This battle lasted all of thirty seconds before the wraiths were gone. "They must not have the energy to hit us with numbers here," Liara said.

"Nothing but a distraction," Homura said, and she and Sayaka took the lead in dashing into the Kamijo home.

I pondered that. I suspected Homura meant that it was a literal distraction, i.e., something that distracts. But what if it was an intentional one? Could these kidnappers have found a way to direct the wraiths? It would, I realized, make for a great way of keeping the Mitakihara girls off their trail. Homura had even said wraiths kept interfering with her attempts to track the unknown abductors.

"I don't know about you," Harry began, "but I'm starting to get the feeling that these wraith things are the bad guys' Han Solo, running at us and screaming to keep our attention."

"I know what you mean," I answered. "After you?"

"You realize that if Molly and I enter uninvited, the threshold's going to make our magic unworkable," Harry pointed out.

Ah, yes. A good point. There were few worlds I'd found where thresholds didn't exist, or rather, didn't have potential power over beings who had to operate with them as rules. And it was best to make sure of things before we risked their powers being dampened, even temporarily. "Alright. I'll be right back."

And so I entered.

The Kajimos were well off. Their home looked elegant. Nice. Except for the smashed coffee table, anyway. The broken display. Someone had fought back. Unfortunately, nobody had used a pointed object to draw blood we could use.

Ultimately, though, we had something better,, as Mouse confirmed when he barked and bounded off toward one hall. A check of my sonic screwdriver confirmed what he'd found; a lifesign.

Using the sonic I followed the halls of the house to said bedroom. The master bedroom by the look of things, for the adults of the house, and they would be displeased by how ruined it was. Liara filed in behind me and I felt the subtle thrum of her biotics make the hairs on my neck prickle from the proximity. I walked up toward a large wardrobe It was an old-looking but modern one, wood-paneled with stainless steel for the hinges and handles. Even the frame was made of stainless steel to support the wood. I gently touched the handle while, behind me, Sayaka and Homura entered the room, weapons readied. The other girls arrived after them and made the room a bit crowded with all of the weapons present. I motioned to inquire if they were ready.

They nodded.

And so... I acted.

When I yanked the door open I was answered by a scream of terror. The girls all lowered their weapons. "Hitomi?", Madoka asked.

The young brown-haired lady stumbled out, wearing a pink blouse and light green pants. I could see her eyes were fully dilated and full of... mortal terror. "Please don't take me!", she screamed at me and Liara. "Please!"

"Hitomi!" Sayaka stepped forward and took her friend, giving her a gentle shake. "It's okay! They're friends."

"Say... Sayaka...?" HItomi blinked and tried to get the tears from her eyes. "What... what's going on?"

"We're hunting the things that took Madoka's family," Sayaka replied. "They must have attacked you." Her eyes froze. "Kyosuke... was he...?"

"They took him. They took them all," Hitomi wailed. "I... I couldn't... I just ran. I hid! They..."

It was clear Hitomi was too frightened to fully explain, but it was fairly obvious as it was. Liara knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "We're here to help," she said. "It's okay."

"Help...?", Hitomi asked.

"Hitomi, this is important." Homura knelt beside her. "Why didn't they take you? Were you able to hide from them?"

"I... I... I don't know," Hitomi stammered. "I-I th-thought they f-found me, but they di-didn't open the door. They screamed things, I-I co-couldn't understand them."

"You made them angry," I noted. "Did they try to use Kyosuke or his parents to force you to leave your hiding space?"

"I.. I don't th-th-ink so," she said. "They shouted a lot and left."

"How long ago?", I asked.

"I-I'm not sure."

I breathed in a small sigh at that. They must have cleared out when they realized we were coming. That's why they left HItomi. But why couldn't they have gotten into the wardrobe? They were strong enough, certainly. They could have grabbed the doors and yanked them off.

"Where's Harry?", Kyoko asked.

"He and Molly are guarding the van," I answered. "Unless someone who lives in the house, like Hitomi, invites them in, their magic is strictly limited by the threshold of the house."

"We're going to need them."

"N-Need who?", Hitomi asked.

"Don't worry about it," Sayaka said to her, trying to reassure. "Come with me to the front door, it'll be quick."

I remained in thought while they were gone. Hitomi seemed to be barely functioning. She could never have escaped a renewed pursuit. In fact, she shouldn't have gotten away. Hiding shouldn't have worked, just as it didn't for Junko Kaname.

I started from the basic facts again. They were hurt by the garden shears wielded by Madoka's father. They feared her mother's metal opener such that instead of rushing her, they tortured her husband until she surrendered. They had inherent magic but weren't entirely beings of the Nevernever or a similar realm, as they left cyan blood. And here, they hadn't even tried to get into the wardrobe to get at Hitomi.

And all the while, all with their rampage of kidnappings, dimensional instability in Mitakihara had formed to the extent it had the Incubators frightened.

Why?

What was I missing?

I looked over the wardrobe again. It was the key. Why hadn't they forced open the wardrobe? It wasn't a safe. It was made of wood paneling and stainless steel fittings and framing. It wasn't like...

My mind stopped on that fact. "Of course," I muttered.

My gut twisted as all of the facts linked up in my head. if I was right... this threat was something the magical girls had never seen before. It was a threat I'd never faced before, in fact. And the stakes... the stakes were ever higher now.

Sayaka returned with Hitomi, Harry and Molly behind them. "So, where were you hiding, Hitomi?", Harry asked. "It might help us find out..." He turned his head toward me in mid-sentence and stopped as his eyes met mine and then went back to the open wardrobe. The open wardrobe with its stainless steel handles.

Our eyes nearly met again and I saw realization come to his face. Harry was, despite all humor to the contrary, quite good at putting the pieces together once he had critical facts. He had just noticed the detail I had. Faster than I had, really. It was part and parcel of his occupation.

The abductors had feared Junko Kaname's letter opener. They had refused to even touch the wardrobe Hitomi had hidden in. They had been wounded by garden shears and nothing else.

All of these things had one thing in common.

We both said the same word aloud, at the same time, in that fun way that drama sometimes plays out.

"Iron."

Molly gasped in realization. The others, and Liara, looked understandably confused. "Iron?", Kyoko asked. "What do you mean?"

"Hitomi," I began, stepping up toward her. "What did the attackers look like? Did you see them?"

She nodded and swallowed tightly. "Y-yes..."

"And...?"

"I... I-I couldn't qu-quite see them. They... their faces... their heads... they kept... flickering, changing, something," Hitomi began, and those words made my stomach twist harder in very reasonable apprehension. "They'd go solid though. And they looked... they looked..." She had trouble forcing the adjective she was trying to use. As it she knew it was wrong. "...beautiful."

My jaw tightened. That confirmed it. That confirmed... everything.

"You know, don't you?", Homura asked me. "You know who's responsible."

"Yes," i said. "And it's very bad news. We don't have much time if we're going to save the Kajimos and the Kanames. And this may be the most dangerous thing any of you girls has ever done."

"Woh." Kyoko looked at me in surprise. "You're... you're serious."

"Yes," I said. I swallowed.

"Then... who are they?", Sayaka asked.

I answered in one word. Just one. One that many people would never have understood the horror of, not unless they met the beings in question, the beings that personified the original meaning of this terrifying name.

"Elves."

I anticipated the initial response.

"Elves?" Kyoko looked utterly mystified. "You mean people with long ears that prance around in forests?"

"These aren't your standard Tolkein elves," Harry said. "They're nightmares."

"They're beings from a parasite dimension," I explained. "They attach to worlds like this one and steal things, people, for their own use. Artists, performers, musicians..." Which certainly explained Kyosuke. "...and children. As many people as they want, really. They're creatively sterile and rely on other species to provide them entertainment."

Kyoko looked perplexed by that. "So you're saying they took Kyosuke to hear him play?"

"Until he falls dead from exhaustion, probably," Harry answered.

I nodded. "The Elves have absolutely no mercy or empathy, and they revel in every kind nof cruelty. These are beings who would slowly gut baby rabbits as a mild entertainment."

"And they have my family?", Madoka asked, horrified. "But... why? My parents aren't musicians."

"Oh, plenty of reasons," I said. "Possibly because your father stabbed one. Or because they thought it would be amusing. The Elves do this all the time. They take things. Beings, memories, things, whatever they can get their hands on." I sighed. "This explains the dimensional disturbances that Kyubei is so worried about. It's the break between dimensions the Elves are using."

"So we find them and we stop them," Kyoko said. "Simple."

"Not so simple," I answered. "Odds are they've taken their captives into their dimension. The Queen's World." I scowled. "It's a nasty little place, full of distorted space-time and various creatures that pose a threat to any of us. Dromes that can seal us in dream states forever, that sort of thing."

"But we have to do something," Sayaka insisted. "We need to rescue those people!"

I drew in another sigh and looked to Harry. The expression on his face made it clear he knew how dangerous this was. But I could also see that quintessential stubborness of the man coming in. Harry... did not like leaving people to monsters. And he was almost physically incapable of avoiding fights with things bigger and nastier than him if it meant helping rescue people from monsters or otherwise thwarting those monsters. I knew I needn't ask if he was on board for this.

"I agree," Liara said, looking at me intently. "We promised to help. We should see it through to the end."

At that, I nodded. This was one reason I got along with Harry so well. We had similar thoughts on what to do with monsters who preyed upon people. "Right. Okay." I put my hands together. "This won't be easy. We're going to need everyone. Does someone have Miss Tomoe's number?"

"If we all go, who will fight the wraiths?", Kyoko asked.

"For the moment? No one," I conceded. "Can't be avoided. The Elves will demand all of our attention just to get through their realm safely."

The girls looked at each other nervously. This was their city. They worked hard to protect it. Leaving it to the tender mercies of the wraiths, especially since they'd become so prevalent... I could understand their reluctance. And I couldn't bring myself to warn them about the time dilation issues. It was entirely possible that we could be in the World of the Elves for hours on our end but weeks, even years, compared to Mitakihara. I wasn't sure they'd commit to this excursion if they knew that.

Unfortunately, it was also rather necessary for them to do so. Otherwise I wasn't sure we could make this work.

Sayaka let out an exasperated breath and reached for her cell phone. "I'm calling Mami now."

I nodded. "So now we need to find where the crossover point is. It'll be at the epicenter of the dimensional disturbances, that I'm sure of."

"Unless they have more than one," Harry pointed out.

I sighed at that. "Yes. Unless there's multiple ones. Then we've really got our work cut out for us."

"Grasshopper." Harry looked back to Molly. "Make sure you get the hairs. We're going to need to make another tracking spell. Fast and ugly. We don't have much time before these things get their captives back to their home dimension."

"Right boss." Molly headed off.

"If any of you can get a feel for what kind of energy these things give off, I could use your help," Harry continued. "Because we need to have alternative tracking methods ready, and ready now."

"We need magnets," i said. "The Elves' weakness to iron has to do with their senses relying on electro-magnetic fields. Iron distorts the fields they use, and magnets heighten the effect."

From that point everyone dispersed to begin preparations. Everyone save Madoka, who had knelt beside where Hitomi was crying in terror and fear. "It'll be okay," she said quietly, putting her hand on Hitomi's shoulder. The gesture escalated to a full supporting hug as Hitomi continued to weep. "We'll get them back."

I said nothing to interrupt them. Leave it to Madoka to ignore her own fears and worries to comfort a friend over her's.

Instead I turned my mind to planning. The Elves. Quite a nasty opponent to deal with. And we had to go into the heart of their territory. We would have to face the Queen herself and who knew how many elves and other creatures. This would be Dangerous with a capital Danger.

But not impossible. Indeed, not. Especially if I made some... arrangements.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the TARDIS remote, summoning my TARDIS. Hitomi let out a bewildered gasp from where she was being held by Madoka. Madoka turned and watched the TARDIS finish materializing. "Doctor, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to make some additional arrangements," I replied. "I'll be back in a second. Literally."

Well, okay, it turned out to be something closer to ten seconds. I blame the dimensional instabilities instead of forgetting to carry the four. Honestly.

Molly had joined Madoka and Hitomi when I stepped out of the TARDIS. "Uh, where'd you go?", she asked with youthful curiosity. "Is something wrong?"

I smiled and shook my head. "No. No, not at all. But I need a couple of things from you, Molly."

She blinked. "Oh?"

"Did you get Harry what he needed?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah. He's finishing up the spell right now."

I nodded. "Good. So I need you to follow me. First, we need to escort Hitomi into one of the bedrooms in the TARDIS," I said. "It's the safest place for her."

"Right." Molly nodded. "And then..."

"And then..." I looked around and decided it was best to be cautious. "Let's get Hitomi in first." I looked over to Madoka and Hitomi. "Madoka, please let the others know I'm going to be busy with Molly for a moment. I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay," she answered.

Molly carefully helped the younger girl up and led Hitomi into the TARDIS. I came up behind her and closed the door.

When we were done we emerged from the TARDIS and found everyone ready. "Saddle up, everyone," Harry said, holding up his compass. "Tracking spell is ready, but we'd better get going, now."

We arrived in one of the parks near Mitakihara's residential wards when the tracking spell went dead. "Crap," Harry growled. "I was still fixing a position."

"One moment." I took the sonic screwdriver in my spare hand and scanned the area with it. "Dimensional instabilities are quite a bit higher here. I think I can triangulate... pull over there, Homura."

There was no verbal affirmation. The van pulled to the side and we piled out. I scanned again and checked the results. "We're close," I said. "No more than five hundred yards somewhere along here..." I found a path leading into the park.

Everyone prepared themselves and we set off down a walkway flanked by trees and flower beds. It was very scenic, but there was an energy in the air that was unsettling. For me, it was probably my time lord senses telling me about how the energy of this place was off. Wrong. All from the dimensional instability.

And I knew why we had it. The dimensional instability meant that the barriers between the dimensions were weakening further. Soon it was possible that entire portions of this world would be subsumed into the Queen's World, along with any hapless souls caught within. Closing it would mean more than spraying a rift with energy from the Time Vortex like it was a Crack. The Queen's power was settling in here. It had to be stopped. Resisted. Resisted by someone who could claim this place as his or her own.

Her own, in this case. But we had to straighten things out first before we got to that step.

I felt the negative energy in the air as the wraiths began to form again. The others fell upon them so quickly Harry never bothered to join in. I returned my attention to the sonic screwdriver.

The hairs on my neck stood on end suddenly and I saw Liara look over to me and widen her eyes. She was starting to shout at me to look out. I was already moving as she did.

Which is why I didn't get my head ripped off by the beast that leapt through the air beside me.

They came from the trees on both flanks, rushing in with teeth glistening and claws ready to rip us to pieces. Harry saw them coming just in the nick of time to catch the one bounding for him with his magic shield. Liara's quick thinking gave her the defense of a biotic barrier and Mouse intercepted and knocked over the one that had aimed for Molly.

Homura spun in place toward the one rushing her. An energy arrow formed in her bow and she let it loose just before the grimhound would have hit her. The energy arrow pierced the beast's steel-fanged mouth and went through its skull, sending it dead to the ground. She twisted in time to catch the one coming for Madoka, who was trying to protect Sayaka and Kyoko.

Four grimhounds had attacked the two girls at the front of our formation, ripping in past the retreating wraiths with bloodthirsty ferocity. I had the time to catch a sight of one's claws ripping into Sayaka's arm as she moved to keep Kyoko's flank safe. Sparks erupted from where her saber deflected the blow and kept the claw that hadn't ripped the flesh of her right arm from slicing into Kyoko's weak side. Kyoko pivoted on a foot and struck her lance out, skewering the beast. She made an evasive jump that threw the strike of another off. She landed on its back and brought her lance point into its spine.

Sayaka's healing power was already repairing her arm as she dodged two quick attempts by another beast to disembowel her. The beast, in its eagerness to rip her throat out, stuck his head out too far. Sayaka sidestepped him and brought her saber down. The beast's body rolled to the ground. Its head rolled the other way, the fire in its eyes dying out.

"Doctor!"

Molly's shout of warning saved my life. I had been focused on checking on the girls and reaching for my sonic and hadn't realized my initial attacker had picked himself up and was coming at me again. I barely got the sonic disruptor in time to deflect the blow with a forcefield.

"What are these things?!", Kyoko shouted.

"Grimhounds!", I answered. "They're the Queen's personal hounds! She must have sent them after us!" I used the disruptor to absorb another blow from the grimhound facing me. His eyes blazed orange, containing a literal fire within them that looked hungry. No, not just hungry, ravenous. He wanted to flay the skin from my bones. He lunged once more and it was all I could do to keep him off me, using the protective dome emitted by my sonic disruptor like it was a shield. I just needed an extra moment to get my sonic screwdriver up and set to the right frequency.

Movement flashed across the right side of my vision. A second grimhound had slipped past the battle and came up on my right side, at an angle that would carry the beast to the side of my shield and let its steel claws and fangs rip into me. I had to jump away.

I wasn't fast enough.

Steel razor blades ripped into my right side, just below my ribs, and if I had been just a second slower the blow might well have disemboweled me completely. As it was, pain shot through my body as blood and flesh was torn away by the glancing blow. I let out an involuntary cry of surprise and anguish followed by an undignified grunt as I hit the ground right on my back. Both of the beasts that had set upon me leapt for the kill. I got the sonic disruptor up in time to keep them off me. But I had to get to my feet and I couldn't. They would attack from both directions the next time and I would go down.

Madoka's arrows pierced the first one a moment later, even as it recoiled from the deflector field of my disruptor. It howled in anger and savage pain and, half-mad with pain, turned to Madoka to begin attacking her. But the beast's change in target ruined its coordination with its fellow. The two grimhounds collided in midair and fell over, angry yelps coming from them as they fell in a tangle of dark fair.

I had the second I needed. I held the sonic screwdriver up and it whirred to life. I barely heard it. But the grimhounds... they did.

The hounds screamed in fury and pain and their attack lost all cohesion. One that had been trying to bite at Kyoko through her lance - held in both hands like a stick to ward off the steel teeth of the beast - let go and fell back in agony, leaving it open to a thrust to the torso by Kyoko. Sayaka's opponents, who had reduced her cloak to shreds and cut bloody gashes into her legs and arms and belly, were killed almost immediately by the expert strokes of her saber. Homura shot two more of the creatures as they fled.

They weren't the only ones howling, though. Mouse was on his belly, paws over his head, howling in utter agony. As soon as I noticed that I turned the screwdriver off. Harry went to his dog's side for the moment, checking him for wounds.

Liara came to me. "Oh Goddess," she said, her voice hoarse with concern. She reached into the first aid material she kept in her pouch and brought out medigel and bandages for the bloody wounds along the right side of my torso. "You're lucky they didn't cut deeper," she said.

"Possibly," I conceded.

"How is everyone?", Harry called out. "Grasshopper?"

"I'm okay!", Molly responded, reappearing from behind a veil. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had worked even on the grimhounds.

"I'll be okay," Sayaka added. Those little musical note wheels appeared over the wounds she'd sustained and soon her skin was uncut once again.

"We should keep moving," Homura urged. "The longer we wait, the more time the enemy has to..."

The wraiths came upon us with a vengeance, reappearing from the ground as if they had been waiting for just that moment. Kyoko had to parry a blow for Sayaka as she finished recovering. Homura and Madoka did hops to escape attacks on them and frantically returned fire. The wraith that formed over me put a meaty fist down on the protective biotic dome Liara summoned with her power. Harry summoned his magic shield again to guard his disorientated dog. "We need to move together!", he shouted, his new Warden experiences helping undoubtedly in giving Harry an idea of what had to be done. "Fall back on..."

There was the sound of a gunshot. A lot of gunshots. Two wraiths, including the one over me, took hits from what looked to be energy shots of some sort and they fell off, disintegrating.

A small figure darted into our midst, blowing on a horn and screaming a combination of cheese names. I recognized her. The youngest of the Mitakihara magical girls: Nagisa. The cheese-lover. The magic bubbles and such from her weapon struck foes and sent them flying in small bursts of energy.

Flipping over our heads, Mami Tomoe landed in the middle of the wraiths and in a movement of her hand dropped a host of rifles from nothingness, as if she'd been hiding them under her modest skirt. She picked up the guns and started to spin, blasting the wraiths around us in a constant movement until she had exhausted her supply of shots and had to generate more.

The flood of positive emotion at seeing reinforcements lifted our spirits and, undoubtedly, deprived the wraiths of the fuel of our negative emotions. They began to retreat as their numbers dwindled. Kyoko, naturally, made sure their numbers dwindled further as they retreated.

With the fight well and truly over Liara turned her attention back to my wound. She pulled my bloodied dress shirt up and resumed treating the wounds "Bloody hell," I growled. "These suits don't grow on trees."

"No, they just grow out of replicators," Liara remarked drolly. "Or wherever else you want to get them free of charge."

I eyed her irritably, but said nothing as she finished bandaging my wound. Harry and Molly tended to Mouse and the magical girls gathered near us. Homura and Sayaka took turns filling in the bits of the story, and what was going on, that they hadn't managed on the phone.

"Elves." Mami looked around thoughtfully. "I have heard of the older stories of them. i hate to leave the city unguarded, but the Doctor's right about needing all of us."

Liara helped me back to my feet. I checked my sonics and brought the sonic screwdriver up. "Yes. The Queen's starting to cross her world over. Soon much of the surrounding area could be absorbed into her realm. We have to go faster and find the opening between the worlds."

There were nods and we continued on.

Not all dimensional doors have fancy special effects. This one didn't.

In fact, it wasn't visible at all.

There was, along the park, a bridge with a walkway underneath for a different walking path. As we approached, a couple of sparrows or some other bird decided to use the underpass instead of flying over the bridge.

They took about two seconds longer than they should have.

"There we are," I muttered. I followed the trail to the lower path and to under the bridge with everyone behind me. My sonic screwdriver was giving me the strongest signs of instability I'd yet to find here. And the energy in the air felt wrong.

"Yes, this is it," I said. I looked back to the others. "The door is here."

"I don't see anything," Kyoko protested.

"You wouldn't," I said. It's not something you see, it's something you feel. The prickly cold, the energies of the pathway between worlds. I would think your enhanced senses could feel it?"

"They can," Homura confirmed, going past me and up to the entranceway. "Are we ready to begin?"

There were nods from the other girls, but Harry, Molly, and Liara didn't react. "I would feel better, Doctor, if we used a full medical kit on your wounds," Liara said.

"No time." I ignored the remaining pain in my sight. "We have work to finish. This... this is the most dangerous part. There are all sorts of creatures on the other end that we could face. The grimhounds are very much the least of them."

"We understand," Sayaka answered me.

"We should get going." Homura stepped past me.

"Hold it," Harry said. "First things first." He took out a small container that looked like it was used for cosmetics. Hair gel, perhaps. He opened it up and the smell coming from it was... not entirely pleasant. He dabbed his thumb in and smeared some of it below his eyes. "This should help us with any glamours the elves throw at us," he explained, holding the container up. "Make sure you put some on."

Homura stepped up and accepted the anti-glamour gunk first. She nodded after using it and returned to the doorway. I could feel her concentrate and then... with a step, she disappeared.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Molly?", Harry asked her.

"Actually..."

As she told him what I had asked her to do, or at least the basic element of it, I used my remote the summon the TARDIS. Harry looked from me to Molly and then nodded. "Good idea, Grasshopper," he said. "You keep our escape route safe. Keep Mouse with you. He'll need the time to get his hearing back anyway."

"Right, boss." Molly walked into the TARDIS and stood at the door, inviting Mouse in with her. Mouse chuffed and shambled in.. A moment later the TARDIS vanished from view.

I looked at Harry apologetically as he handed the container to Mami. "I'm sorry, I was being presumptuous," I said.

"Yeah," he answered, but the irritation I saw wasn't strong. I had merely done what he already intended to do. Molly... was not ready. She was still too sensitive to the psychic stresses of combat. Still too overconfident from her relative youth. "Well." He sighed. "Time for mischief in Elfland." He walked up and into the portal, flanked by Mami and Sayaka.

While Kyoko applied the stuff to her face, grumbling about it in the process, I looked back to where Molly was hiding the TARDIS, gave her a smile, and turned to Liara. "Would you like to...?"

Before I could finish, Liara flashed me one of her irritated looks.

"Thought so," I breathed. And then I winced, because my side hurt a bit more. Liara's work on the bandages was good enough to keep me from bleeding further, but I had to be careful about falling or running or anything strenuous, or I risked compromising the bandages, and I would begin to bleed again. At least until my advanced TIme Lord healing finished with the wounds, anyway.

Liara waited for Madoka to use the anti-glamour material before she put on her portion. I put some on, sniffed in indifference to the odor, and tossed the container back into the invisible TARDIS. Molly was good; I didn't hear it land. Hopefully she caught it.

Well, there was nothing more to be done. I swallowed, took in a breath, and stepped into Fairyland.

Now, you hear Fairyland, and you think bright meadows and frolicking fairies and all sorts of nice, summer-y things, right?

You'd be wrong.

Snow crunched beneath my feet and a cold wind pricked at my face. The vista was white. White with dark for the trees a bit further ahead. Small trees abounded here and there around us.

The trick was they weren't real. Close up, they did look real, but further away their forms fudged into almost shapeless blobs. As if the world could only be real in our vicinity. And the horizon. It looked off. Close enough to touch, maybe. Like we were on a world drawn on a paper by someone without much imagination.

There were footprints still visible in the snow. Some looked like they had been dragged. And they led toward a dark forest of half-formed trees in the distance.

Harry pulled his compass out of his pocket. The tracking spell was active again. He frowned. "Oh, not good," he said. "This place is messing with the tracking spell. It's too... off, I guess."

"We'll follow the prints," Homura said.

"We might need to be careful about..."

Before I could finish, there was a laugh around us. "Oh, foolish children!", a woman's voice called out. "What do you hope to accomplish?"

We all started looking around. "There she is," Nagisa called out, and we turned with her to face the Queen of the Elves.

She was riding on a resplendent horse of white color but with pitch black eyes. The Queen was dressed in red and black finery, her black hair long and flowing, her pale skin luscious, lips a bright cherry red, and her eyes turning a fine green as she looked at all of us. "Did you come to join me? To leave behind a world where you can do nothing but fight? I will understand. I will welcome you into my arms, and you can be happy and content."

I felt... my mind stir. The Queen's words were enchanted. They made the listener think they were right simply because they came from her. She was always right. She was the Queen. Lowly humans, mortals, they should nod and smile and obey, because she is the superior being.

"Give me my family back!", Madoka demanded. "And all of the people of my city!"

"Such insolence!", the Queen declared. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the sight of the girls. "Must you come and misbehave, girls? Will you reject my kind offers? It must be because of that detestable little vermin creature that used you. Yes. He's made you suspicious of me." The Queen's smile became warm. Falsely so. "You can be here with your family, Madoka. You can live forever at my court. Your family will never know worry with me. Your brother will always laugh and be happy." She moved her head toward us. "And you, gentlemen? Surely you..."

She stopped speaking. "You," she said, her tone growing colder. "You are together, aren't you?"

"Woh, lady, I think you've got us all wrong," Harry responded, a slight grin on his face. "The Doc and I are good buddies, that's it. He's not my type. Not pretty enough."

Ah, Harry. As usual, he can't help himself. "Always with the wisearse banter in front of the super-powerful beings, Dresden?", I asked drolly.

The Queen's expression was growing colder than the air around us. "Do not deceive me!", she thundered, and the earth shuddered beneath us. "I smell the power upon you! Upon you both! You have been sent to stand against me, to interfere with my rightful claims! Does the Cold Queen really think I would not know her stench by now?!"

I blinked. The Cold Queen? What did she...

Oh.

Oh.

She was talking about Mab.

Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Winter Court of the Fae, leader of the Unseelie. The progenitor of every legend you've ever heard of wicked faeries, specifically wicked faerie queens. A being of immense power tied to Harry's home cosmos. Harry had worked for her before, and not by his choice either. I had met her twice and dealt with her on a matter that I now regretted.

And apparently, she was the enemy of the Queen of the Elves.

Now that I think about it, that made a frightening amount of sense, given Mab's true purpose.

Granted, Harry didn't know about that, so for him the response was a blink as he figured it out. "Lady, I do temp work for Mab, and this isn't it. I wish to hell it was, because I only owe her one more favor and she's out of my life for good." Harry pulled out his blasting rod. "Now, are you going to do this the easy way, by which I mean you give up the people you've taken and go back off to whatever corner of the Nevernever you call home? Or is it going to be the hard way, which means I burn your face off?"

Homura and Madoka nocked their bows, forming the magic energy arrows as they did so. Mami brought up one of her magic flintlocks. The other three girls prepared their weapons. Not to be outdone, I reached for my sonic disruptor.

The Queen hissed and let out an enraged shout. "This world is mine!", she screamed. "Die here!"

I felt power gather around her. She threw her arm out and energy pulsed from it. I felt the power shift behind us and turned.

A... thing appeared. A very nasty-looking thing. A very... very alien looking thing. Even more alien looking than an elf without glamour masking its real appearance. It let out a shriek of anger and hunger that ruffled snow around us.

Just like that, the Queen was gone.

Everyone was turning to face the monster she had summoned. The girls blinked. "Wait, what... is that thing?", Kyoko asked, raising her spear in a defensive posture.

Mami raised her flintlock. "Those are a lot of..."

I looked to Harry. The blood had drained from his face and left it almost as white as the snow. "Holy fucking hell's stars and stones bells...", he said.

The girls looked at him with looks of bewilderment and maybe, from prim Mami, a bit of irritation. The Gift of the TARDIS had translated that seven letter term all too well.

"It's an Outsider," Harry hissed. "It's a fucking Outsider!"

My eyes widened.

"Oh bugger," I rasped.

Reality is, well, as you may have read, it is varied. It is diverse. It consists of the fantastic and the mundane. I have met wizards and psychics, magical girls and people who can manipulate the elements with their life force. Amongst my Companions I've numbered biotics, Jedi, wizards, and the young woman hosting her planet's incarnate spirit of light.

There is more out there, though. Dimensions existing outside of normal space-time worlds. Outside of Reality proper, if you will. They go by many names. Old Ones. Chaos Gods. Things From the Dungeon Dimensions.

Outsiders.

The creature that the Queen of the Elves had just summoned was one such thing. They hunger for reality. They're nasty and quick and, oh, nearly invulnerable against metaphysical forces.

Homura and Madoka acted first, trying to shoot the creature with their magic energy arrows. The energy sloughed harmlessly off of the wriggling mass of claw-tipped tentacles and appendages. A snarling, slavering mouth - wait, mouths - gnashed razor teeth. One tentacle lashed out for Homura. Madoka knocked her out of the way.

Sayaka swept in, saber raised, and brought it down on the tentacle. The swipe was strong, with much of her upper body put into it. It bit into ottherworldly flesh and removed the tentacle. A shriek erupted from the creature and another tentacle whipped forward. Kyoko moved to intercept it and managed to keep it from impaling Sayaka directly, but it still sliced across her side and tore a bloody gash through her suit. Sayaka cried out for a moment and fell to one side.

"Fuego!" Harry threw a lance of intense silver-white fire at the attacking tentacle. The magic seemed to slough off, but some of the energy still seemed to strike the Outsider. The wounded tentacle retracted... and another rushed forward and grabbed Kyoko around the waist, pulling her off her feet.

All this time Mami and Nagisa had been trying their own attacks on the creature, moving to flank it, but their attacks seemed to just... not quite be absorbed, I suppose, but not effect it in any way.

Liara and I moved in next. Liara threw a warp bolt at the tentacle grasping Kyoko. The dark matter seemed to congeal over the tentacle and stiffen it, allowing Kyoko to hack herself free. When yet another appendage of the beast came for her, I batted it away with a deflector field, giving Sayaka an opening to slice it off as well.

"Our attacks aren't working on it!", Madoka cried out. "What do we do?"

"If I could get over the tentacles, I might be able to hit it from above," Kyoko suggested. She backtracked under cover from myself and Liara to give herself a running start. She jumped high into the air, higher than a normal Human could have. But as she descended a tentacle whipped out and smacked her out of the air, its clawed end cutting a gash in her side. She fell back into the otherworldly snow of the Queen's dimension.

The creature seemed to focus on myself and Liara at this point. Four of its surviving tentacles lashed at us and the biotic and deflector fields we had to protect ourselves. "How are we going to defeat this?", Mami asked. "None of our weapons are working well."

"If I could just get higher," Kyoko said, picking herself up from the snow. "If I can get over the tentacles..."

Something clicked in my mind. "Harry!", I called out.

"Yeah?" Harry brought up his own magic shield to protect Madoka from a tentacle from striking her.

"Kyoko needs some altitude!", I pointed out. "Think you could pull off a Fastball Special?!"

Harry looked at me with momentary bewilderment before recognition came across his face and he smiled. "Yeah, I think I can manage that. Sayaka, I need a moment!"

Sayaka nodded and leapt in between Harry and the Outsider, her saber swishing about expertly to block the Outsider's attempts to attack her.

Harry fell back and looked to concentrate for a moment. He held up his staff in both hands and looked to Kyoko. "Jump as high as you can!", he called out.

Kyoko nodded. She focused for a moment, gathering her strength again, and leapt back into the air.

Before she had managed maybe twenty feet. This time, as she approached the apex of her jump, Harry thrust his staff up in her direction. "Ventas servitas!", he bellowed.

A whirlwind erupted from the end of his staff. A swirling column of silver-white energy - Harry had infused the spell with soulfire to give it added strength - flew upward and caught Kyoko, throwing her ever higher into the air. I watched her fly upward. Thirty feet. Forty. Fifty.

She did a somersault at the apex and started downward with her spear thrust below her, its point gleaming in the false light of the Queen's Realm. A battle cry erupted from her throat as she reached the final fifteen feet of her descent.

Two tentacles lashed upward, trying to stop her.

The Outsider was too slow.

Kyoko landed with the impact of a ballista bolt, driving the spear into the otherworldly flesh of the Outsider. It shrieked in savage agony and its tentacles whipped about, forcing us all back. After a moment, they went limp, and Sayaka jumped back in, hacking and slashing as well, while Liara's biotics blasted the tentacles away as Sayaka's sword severed them.

All the while, Kyoko - now standing on the main body of the writhing creature, kept stabbing it with her spear, claiming its eyes and tearing into its horrible slavering mouths.

"PYROFUEGO!", Harry roared. Another burst of soulfire-laden flame, even bigger than before, lanced out from his blasting rod and speared the creature's body below where Kyoko was cutting it to shreds. The shrieks of the Outsider gained volume, threatening to deafen us while Kyoko continued her assault on its main body.

The shrieks became death cries. And then they stilled. The Outsider... stopped.

Only after every tentacle ceased thrashing did Kyoko jump off of the Outsider's corpse, covered in the black fluids of its body. "These things take a lot of killing," Kyoko grumbled.

"Tell me about it," Harry mumbled. He shook his head. I looked at him with worry. He'd used quite a bit of soulfire already, and since the fuel was, well, his soul, it meant he had only so much to give before he'd need to rest heavily.

Of course, this was Harry Dresden we were talking about, and he rarely lacked the energy to run his mouth. "Holy crap. The Queen actually summoned a freaking Outsider."

"What was that thing?", Nagisa asked, full of the curiosity of youth.

"A horrible nightmare from outside of our reality," Harry answered.

"It reminded me of that creature that invaded Unseen University," Liara said, looking toward the remains. "Are they related?"

"Possibly," I said. "The Dungeon Dimensions are outside of normal reality."

"Let's just hope she doesn't have more of them," Sayaka said, favoring her injured side a little. She would finish healing shortly, but the wound had undoubtedly been painful. My own wounds from the grimhounds ached in sympathy.

"Possibly not," I said. "Otherwise she would have used them on some associates of mine when invading their worlds." I brought out the sonic screwdriver to scan. "Nothing else around here."

Harry, meanwhile, lifted the tracking spells he had for the Kanames and the Kamijos. "This way," he said. "Watch out for nasties."

"I'll take up the rear," Mami volunteered. She held up one of her magic flintlocks. "If anyone needs them, I brought the grief cubes dropped by the wraith we fought in the park."

The girls checked their soul gems. All had some darkness from the power they'd been using up, but none took her up on the offer. They still had reserves.

And so we continued on.

We'd been walking for a while in the faux-forest when Madoka stepped up beside me and asked, "How are we going to beat that Queen?"

"Well, the anti-glamour will help," I said. "I imagine that once we confront her and give her a few good whacks she'll lose interest. She's used to dominating the minds of others with her glamours and mental powers."

"Is that how she was beaten before?"

"More or less," I answered. "Although with a little help, mind you. One incursion I know of involved getting the King of the Elves to show up. The other time, well, it involved a young lady forging a rather interesting link to her homeland to overpower the Queen on her home soil."

"Could I do that?", Madoka asked. "With my other self?"

"You mean the part of you from the last timeline, who made the wish that turned her into the savior of other magic girls?", I asked. "The existing quantum link between you could allow it. But there is an element of risk." I looked over at her, my voice kept low. "If you draw on the power too much, it could overwhelm your physical body and merge you with your other self."

Madoka nodded. "That's what I thought," she said.

"Right." I glanced back to Homura and noticed a flicker of pain cross her features. She had heard us. She'd probably already considered the possibility and rejected it for the same reason.

"Hold up," Harry said. He stopped our movement.

Ahead of us, the road was empty and the trees still. Too still. Harry had undoubtedly realized that there was something out there. I pulled out the sonic screwdriver and waved it upward. Life signs of some sort. Hard to read in the sheer wrongness of this parasite dimension.

Hidden in the leaves and branches of the faux trees and along the underbrush were little... things. Barely recognizable as humanoid and with a grayish pallor that helped them fit into this environment.

"What are those things?" Liara asked, having noticed them. She held herself ready.

"Dromes," I answered.

Homura brought out her bow. "Are they dangerous? Hostile?"

"Immensely dangerous. Hostility is an issue of point of view."

"Oh?"

"Yes." I looked back at her. "How hostile are you toward a potential source of food?" After letting those words sink in, I continued. "The dromes can establish a sort of psychic link with others and put them into a dream state. The dream is so powerful that once you've had something to eat or drink within it, the sensation overpowers you and you can't leave it. Then the drome sits and waits."

"Waits for what?", Nagisa asked.

"For you to starve to death," I answered. "And then a bit more for your corpse to start to decompose. It doesn't have teeth, so it has to wait for the body to become soft before it can start to eat you."

A look of horror crossed the girl's oddly-colored eyes and she huddled briefly behind Mami.

"In the unreal space of the Queen's world their dreams are even more powerful," I continued. "They create a sort of pocket dimension within this one." I started to step forward. "Liara, if I fall asleep, give me ten minutes and then try to link minds with me."

Liara nodded.

"What are you doing, Doc?", Harry asked.

"There are a lot of dromes here," I said, looking around. "They're not much in a fight, but if they get lucky we'll all be ensnared. I'd rather not risk it."

"Doctor...", Homura began.

I didn't hear the rest of what she had to say. I stepped forward and right over where a drome had cleverly hidden itself under the snow. It leapt up and...

I was in my TARDIS, laying on my hammock.

It was... a dream?

"Doctor?" I looked over and saw Liara at a distance. "it's good you're awake. You promised to show me the Rings of Carina today."

"I did?" I blinked and gently lowered myself from the cot. Something seemed... off to me. Wasn't I just with... others? My head was foggy and I couldn't remember. "Yes, I imagine I did." I walked over toward the TARDIS controls. Several warning lights were blinking. I looked over the status readings and felt confusion. Why had the warnings triggered? That didn't make sense.

"I thought you might like something to eat, first." Liara walked up to me. She held a container of... ah. Sugar-coated candies. M&Ms, I think you lot would call them. She offered the container to me. "I have to admit, I've always liked Human chocolate."

"So do I," I answered, still feeling the strangeness in my head. I'd been somewhere else, right? I... I couldn't remember. I...

My fingers reached in and took a handful of M&Ms from the case. As I felt the little candies in the palm of my hand, a thought in my head told me... check my surroundings. My eyes looked beyond Liara to the shelves behind her. Drawings from Chrissy and Kari. Photos and holopictures from prior Companions. A nice little picture of me with my two prior Companions, Avatar Korra and Asami Sato, and that nice bald fellow with the scar on his face... wait, who? Wasn't that...? Why would he...?

As I pondered that thought, I brought my right hand up toward my mouth, ready to enjoy a nice chocolately breakfast after my nap.

My eyes moved further down the shelf to a blue mycosia flower, wilted and nearly dead, none of its vibrant blue visible any longer.

My brain surged with excitement as I knew, I knew, something was wrong.

Before the first of the M&Ms touched my tongue, I drew my hand back from my mouth and tossed them to the floor. I dropped the container and let the little colored candies spread out. I looked to Liara, her face showing shock and uncertainty and...

Her skin... started to become gray.

"Nicely done," I said to the drome as it lost its form. It stepped back but I grabbed it before it could get out of reach. I reached out with my right hand and a sword appeared in it. A simple blade, patterned mentally, I suppose, off Sayaka's saber. I drew it up to the drome's neck. It burbled something. Fear. Terror. Surprise. "I'm a Time Lord," I told the creature. "We're not so easy to trick."

It protested. It was hungry. They were all hungry.

"Of course, but I'm not much in the mood to be your dinner," I retorted. "And even if the lot of you were to overwhelm us eventually... have you thought how many of you would die?"

It shivered in fear at that, but expressed its hunger again. And its fear. The Queen...

"The Queen, yes, I understand. I'm here to stop her." I narrowed my eyes. "Now, I can easily cut your head off, and then I'll wake up and my friends and I will start destroying you and your kind in job lots. Or..." I stared at it intently. "...you could listen to me."

The drome expressed uncertainty and curiosity in one complex statement.

"Oh, I think you'll find what I have to say very convincing," I answered. "I have an offer to make to you and your kind stuck in this world..."

Liara, Madoka, and Harry were all kneeling around me when I awoke. The drome who had ensnared me had appeared nearby. "Don't hurt it," was the first thing out of my mouth, as I'd noticed Homura and Kyoko readying to attack. "Everyone calm down."

"What the hell?!" Harry glared at me. "What did you think you were doing?!"

"Establishing my bona fides," I croaked as Liara helped me stand up. "The dromes had to realize ensnaring us wouldn't be so easy. And I needed to talk privately." I looked ahead. The dromes were leaving. "Our way is clear. The Queen's throwing a celebration with her fellow elves a bit up the road, at the end of the forest. We'd better get going."

We didn't make it ten feet before Nagisa stepped off the path slightly. "What's this?", she asked, reaching down. I looked over at her as she held up a dark object. She had it by the handle. "It looks like kitchen ware."

"An iron frying pan," I said, smirking. "Undoubtedly left by the last person to invade the Queen's world." I went over and took it. "Well, a little more iron won't hurt. Come along, everyone."

We emerged from the forest path before the next threat set upon us. Shaped like humans but with dragonfly wings, the faeries -for lack of a better term - came down upon us in a swarm. Liara held them off with a biotic field that caught their hacking and biting and slashing. I could see the fatigue in her features. Given Harry hadn't really recovered from the soulfire he'd spent fighting the Outsider, it was critical we end this fight quickly. But there were so many.

I decided to play one of my trump cards.

I held up the sonic disruptor, set it for wide field effect, and activated a customized setting I'd rigged during my sojourn to prepare for our invasion. Nothing visible came from the tip, which glowed with purple light and whirred loudly.

The faeries... screamed. Howled. They began running into each other in mid-air, shrieking in dismay and disorientation, and many began to fall unconscious into the field and snow. After ten, fifteen seconds of this the conscious members turned and fled in a disorganized swarm.

"They'll be careful next time," I said. "I didn't want to show that until we met the Queen, honestly."

"What did you do?", Kyoko asked.

"Electromagnetic disruption," I explained. "The Queen and her kind have senses rooted in electromagnetism. It's why they can't stand iron, it interferes with their senses." I twirled the disruptor in my hand. "To their point of view, I turned the air into iron."

"Iron in the air..." Harry whistled. "Nice trick."

"Thank you." I frowned. "Unfortunately I've tipped my hand on that. The Queen will expect it. I anticipate she'll warn her people and they may try counters of some sort. They'll certainly see it coming."

"It will still be a useful edge." Homura put her bow back into its standby position on her shoulder. "We should keep going."

"Yeah." Harry held up the tracking compass and led us out of the forest.

Our trip through what looked to be high grass was uneventful. We came out into a corner of the Queen's world that was not like the rest. Evidently the Queen had managed to keep at least one portion still bright and nice-looking; an open meadow, green grasses and all the like, with a fake sun shining gold in the sky. It still looked slightly off, of course. This wasn't real. It was... an idea. A concept of the perfect pleasant meadow.

Elves were everywhere. Even Harry's anti-glamour stuff couldn't quite defeat the sheer power of their personal glamour, not here in the heart of the Queen's power. Here they still looked beautiful beyond words. They sat in the meadow, dozens in number - maybe hundreds - and looked like they were enjoying a great picnic.

In the middle of their picnic area stood a young Japanese man, wearing slightly crumpled house clothes, playing the violin with sweet and expert precision. "Kyosuke," I heard Sayaka say. "He's okay."

"For now," Harry muttered.

Indeed, I could see that Kyosuke was... tired. There was blood on one of his fingers and they showed the signs of overuse on the taunt wires of the violin.

Around him children and adults danced and frolicked with forced joy. They looked even more tired than Kyosuke in most cases. But they didn't stop dancing.

"Mom, Dad," Madoka said, her heart full of pain, seeing her parents amongst the dancers. Her father showed burn marks on the skin of the lower arm, undoubtedly from the torture used to force her mother and brother out of their closet. "But where is..."

"There," I said. I saw Tatsuya Kaname further on. He was seated before the throne at the opposite end of the meadow, surrounded by candy and toys, and he didn't look as disturbed. Of course he didn't.

Behind him, the Queen of the Elves stood from her throne. She was flanked by armored Elves carrying wicked-looking halberds and crossbows. Grimhounds stood up from where they'd lain near her, larger and meaner-looking than the ones from before. She looked to us and her fellow Elves did the same. "Welcome", she said, her voice growing cold. "Welcome, disrespectful children, so mindless of the needs of your people. Welcome, agents of the Cold Queen, mortal enemy to my kind, she who turned my King against me."

I raised my eyebrows at that. It would have made sense that if turning the Queen and King against each other would weaken them as a whole, Mab would do it. But was it true? The Queen was not quite like the Sidhe. I did not know if she had any compulsion placed upon her to not lie, for one thing. So she could be lying for all I knew. Blaming Mab for her fight with the King would fit the Queen's personality, maybe.

"We are not servants of Queen Mab, but come of our own purpose to state our quarrel with thee and thine, O Queen" Harry declared, stepping up. "I am Harry Dresden, Warden of the White Council of Wizards, a protector of mortalkind. I bid thee to return to their homes these people, and I will have no further quarrel with thee."

I nodded and stepped up beside him. "I am the Doctor, a Time Lord of Gallifrey, and the people of Earth are under my protection. Return them and I will depart your lands."

We were joined by a third figure. "I am Madoka Kaname," Madoka told her. "I've come for my family and the people of my city. I want them returned now. Give them back and I'll leave." Her face stiffened into determination. "I don't want to hurt anyone, but if you don't let them go, I will fight for my people."

The others all took a step to be right behind us. Harry nodded to Madoka and me before continuing. "Thrice thou hast heard our demands, great Queen. Our reasons for quarrel are clear. I bid thee again, Queen of Elves, to heed our cause and return those thy people have taken from hearth and home."

The Queen scowled at us. "You, of worlds that have life and substance we are denied, come to my place to make demands of me. You, who treat with the Cold Queen and her monstrous Court? You, who seed iron into our very air? You, who would deny us our rights?"

"Thou hast no right to take mortals who have offered thee no insult," Harry insisted. "I bid thee again, return them, and let us restore peace, or we will resume conflict with thee."

The Queen nodded her head. The elves stood from their blankets. They were suddenly clad in chainmail or armor. Bows were nocked with arrows. Swords slid from their scabbards with a cacophony of metallic hissing. Clubs were taken up.

To the right of the entrance, the high grasses parted to reveal a horde of slavering grimhounds, just as big and mean as the ones who had attacked us earlier.

Across from them, to our left, the grass parted with the thundering of hooves. Elven horsemen appeared on fearsome dark mounts, the horse equivalent of the flame-eyed grimhounds, and at their lead was a horseman with no head and the most fearsome looking mount of all.

Harry didn't glance my way, but I could hear him go, "Okay, now what?"

"Please tell me you have a plan, Doctor," Mami said, her voice strong with only the slightest hint of the fear I knew she had to be feeling.

I looked out at the army that was moments away from trying to kill us. Us being nine people, wounded, tired, and deep in the territory of the Queen of the Elves. We looked every bit the arrogant mortals who had far too much confidence and arrogance for our own good and would soon suffer for it.

Reasonable of them. We were, after all, outnumbered.

Completely outnumbered.

Utterly doomed.

And so, of course, I smiled widely.

I had the Elves exactly where I wanted them.

The meadow grew silent. Kyosuke stopped playing and the other people were, like him, ushered to the side under the mental domination of one of the Queen's courtiers. The rest glared at us with hatred mixed with irritation and unbridled bloodlust. We had dared to intrude here, in their realm. We, pitiful human mortals to their eyes, humans who needed to be put in our place, i.e. at their feet worshiping their superiority.

But the Queen wasn't. By now she should have given the order to attack. But she was just staring at us. Staring at me.

I smirked. I couldn't hide my utter lack of concern, and that was making the Queen uncertain. It was making her wonder what I was planning. "Oh, not so confident are you?", I asked. "Maybe you've heard of me, then. Maybe you've heard my name before." I allowed the smirk to become a smile. "I'm waiting, Queenie."

The tension in the air actually increased. The elves strained visibly, ready to launch themselves at us at their Queen's command. But in her green eyes I saw calculation. Calculation, uncertainty, fear.

"You're thinking 'what is he up to'?", I said for her. "You're thinking 'why isn't he terrified like a good little Human should be?'. 'What does he have up his sleeve?' Those are very good questions, yes. And you know you won't like the answers. Oh no, you won't."

And I saw it. She was about to attack anyway. Goaded by my words, goaded by her own uncertain fears.

Which was why I acted first.

"Molly! Now!"

At my shout, Molly Carpenter appeared, standing at the door to the TARDIS... and right beside the gaggle of Mitakihara denizens that had been corralled near the Queen's throne.

Now, you might wonder... just how did she get my TARDIS here? I'd never shown her how to fly it. Could it have even flown well in the bizarre space-time of the Queen's realm without alerting the Queen to its presence?

The answer is the most obvious one. She didn't fly it. It was carried.

And the means of being carried were now gathered around the TARDIS in a tight little horde along the ground and on the floor within my TARDIS. A living carpet that, at Molly's gesture, spread outward. A cacophony of battle cries echoed in the air, but they all coalesced into one distinct cry.

"Nae quin! Nae king! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled again!"

...okay, with one exception, coming from the forward section of said carpet.

"Nae quin! Nae king! Nae laird! One baron- and underr mutually agrreeed arrr-angement, ye ken!"

And with that the Nac Mac Feegle - led by the distinct rabbit skull helmeted form of Rob Anybody, the Big Man of the Chalk Hill Clan - rushed forth in a six inch high tide of blue topped with red. Mouse charged from the TARDIS with literally dozens of the Feegles seated on his back and neck and head, or hanging from his fur, rushing head-long for the grimhound pack like a big furry armored personnel carrier.

The elves never saw them coming. The nearest ones never even had a chance to fight back before being buried under a tide of Feegles.

And my party saw their chance.

"FUEGO!," Harry roared, and from his blasting rod a massive fireball came forth and entered the formation of elves to our right. The fireball exploded in their midst, resulting in screams of terror and pain.

"Parmigiano Reggiano!" The shill cry could only have come from Nagisa even if you hadn't accounted for her preference for cheese-based battle cries. The little magical girl shot ahead of us and into the gap created by Harry's fireball, her trumpet and its magic-charged bubbles blasting a bigger hole in the elves to our right. Into that hole charged Sayaka and Kyoko, hacking and slashing with their weapons with such speed that the result was quite a bit more of that cyan fluid flowing into the grass.

On our left, Mami had pulled out all of the stops, generating a massive... oh dear, she'd actually decided to progress her magical firearms a bit. A magical Gatling gun appeared before her and swept across the elves to the left with bolts of yellow light that blasted through their chainmail and knocked even the plate-wearing elves to their knees.

That left us. And it left the Horsemen. I charged ahead, Liara to one side of me and Madoka to the other, and Harry and Homura behind us. Fireballs and energy arrows and biotic blasts lashed out as we confronted a rank of elven infantry trying to bar our way. I held up the sonic disruptor and sent out a wide-angled kinetic charge that blasted three halberd-toting elves away from me. Another elf came toward my injured side, flail swinging... and promptly ran into Harry's force magic. "Forzare!", he cried as he sent out another bolt of will that bowled over more of the elves.

"Run them down!", the Queen screamed, her voice shrill with rage.

The headless horseman and his cavalry were already charging, heading straight for us. I held out the sonic disruptor with my left hand and sonic screwdriver with my right and used both to generate as intense an EM disturbance as I could manage.

The elves in the cavalry screamed, as did those near them. The horses began to waver and move right to left until riders plowed into each other, sending rider and mount flying. The charge disintegrated around us.

That left the headless horseman, who might have posed problems... had a Feegle not descended on a borrowed buzzard to drop a second Feegle onto the being's horse. Big Yan of the Chalk Hill scrambled up the back of the horse's neck and head and plopped himself down in front of its eyes. "Here we are agin, ye bogle!", the Feegle shouted. "Let's see if yer heid is as tough as before!" And with that he gave the horse a ferocious head-butt between its eyes.

The horse swayed left, then right, and then... wham. It hit the ground.

With the cavalry charge broken we had the grimhounds next, or at least those not being cut up by excited Feegles. About six of the ghastly hounds charged at us, razor teeth positively slavering from their hunger for our blood.

Mouse plowed into the lead hound and sent it flying into the elves that had been on our right, where one swipe of Sayaka's saber put it down. He turned and bounded up on another while Harry bared the force rings on his hands. He sent a discharge of force power at them that was strong enough to flip a car.

The grimhounds never had a chance.

Elves not yet fighting the Feegles came from the other side, but Liara stepped up to deal with them. In a single throw she sent out a singularity powerful enough to suck in four of the elves, holding them aloft and helpless. Her second throw generated a warp field that led to more screaming from the elves that ran into it as the very molecules of their bodies started to fly apart. A force blast of biotic power threw their entire front rank back. There was a look of fatigue in Liara's sapphire eyes when she looked back at me briefly, but it was tinged with determination. She would hold them.

In all the confusion of the battle I hadn't had quite a chance to pay attention to the evacuation. Now I could see it, but only because elves screamed in surprise and collapsed, blinded by bright light. Molly had a wand in her hand and a baseball bat in the other, one to generate the lights that disorientated and blinded elven attackers going after the people from Mitakihara, the other to take advantage of their blinding by beaning them in the head. "Keep going!", she shouted, even as Kyosuke and his family moved past and to the entrance to the TARDIS.

We were almost to them when another aspect of the battle unfolded. The buzzing in the air prompted me to look up and see more of the feral faeries from before descending upon us with their dragonfly wings, in greater numbers than before. I held up my sonic disruptor and began generating more of the EM disturbances to stop them, but their greater numbers ensured that I couldn't get them all, not when they had braced for what I could do. If they landed... well, the Feegles were already fully engaged. It would be bad.

Thankfully... I'd already arranged some air support.

Dozens, hundreds, of little lights erupted from the TARDIS, lights that contained more little faeries in them. They were clad in makeshift armor made from cut portions of cartons or soda cans, and in their arms they carried, like halberds, box cutters with some paring or steak knives amongst them depending upon size. A shrill voice cried out, "For the Pizza Lord! Charge!"

Harry's head whipped up. "Toot?!", he said, incredulous, before leveling a look at me.

"I may have told him you were in need of aid," I admitted. "Pizza rations were arranged, too."

Toot-toot is not a being I have mentioned before, I think. He was one of the minor wild fae of Harry's home cosmos, a literal pixie faerie with wings, lavender hair, and everything else one might expect from a pixie. Harry had used him for years as an informant and ally. As it turned out, the Little Folk of Faerie loved pizza to the point of addiction, and Harry kept their loyalty with a weekly ration of pizza that had granted him the use of what has become a small army of faeries. He'd used them in combat situations too, such as thwarting the mad Summer Lady Aurora before she could destroy the natural order of the world, so this wasn't entirely new to them.

As it happened, I had expected we would need just such an army, and so I had made sure to find Toot and have him assemble the full force of the "Za Lord's Guard" - the elite of Harry's little followers - and the "Za Lord's Militia" formed out of the even wider circle of occasional recruits that could be brought in with pizza. All at the cost of a visit to Harry's favorite pizzeria.

Toot-toot and the pixies shot through the air, every bit the swarm that the Queen's feral fliers had become, and while they didn't quite have the sheer numbers of the Queen's flying little buggers, they had actual armor, and more than that, weapons. Weapons made of iron.

Well, stainless steel in most cases, but you get what I mean.

There was a great deal of shrill cries and screams as the two swarms converged, even as the Queen's fae had already begun to snatch away Feegles that were now freed by Toot-toot and his army.

The battle had turned in our favor once again.

Which, of course, meant the most dangerous moment had come. As we had reached Molly, Madoka rushed ahead and took her parents in a hug. "Mom! Dad!"

"Madoka?" Her father looked at her, wincing from where she'd pressed against one of his wounds, his eyes heavy with fatigue and the remnant effects of the elven glamour. "What are you doing here?"

"Where's Tatsuya?!", she asked, almost frantic with worry.

"I... I don't know," he admitted.

"Mom?"

Junko blinked. She was clearly fighting the mental manipulation. "He's... she has him. She wants to raise him."

One elf who recovered from Molly's light show came up, sword in hand, but Homura put an energy arrow into him before he could strike at Madoka. "Madoka, we should find the Queen," she urged.

"Stop!", the Queen's voice demanded.

And... we did.

The compulsion, the strength, of the Queen's voice was overpowering, as it was here in the center of her power. All eyes turned to face her.

To face her... and Tatsuya Kaname, who was crying in her arms as she held a wicked looking nail to his throat. Her rage was so great, though, that she was not bothering to even try to maintain her glamour, and her eyes, her features, were starting to turn gray and formless.

"You invade my lands. You spit upon my charity. Well, that is fine," the Queen rasped. "I will enjoy making you all suffer. And when I take your world, I..."

I reached into my jacket, pulled out the iron frying pan Nagisa had found, and in one motion tossed it toward her.

It fell at her feet.

The Queen's eyes flashed with malicious delight. "You thought that could frighten me, fraud? You, with your stolen name and empty heart, thought that just any iron might stop..."

The iron frying pan leapt from the ground.

As it did so, I could make out the hand that grabbed it. From nothingness a lone figure appeared, clad in midnight, and in one spin to gather power the frying pan raced up and took the Queen in the side of the face. She screamed and let go of her little hostage as she crumbled to the ground. Tatsuya dropped and landed in the waiting arm of the figure in midnight.

Tiffany Aching looked down at the Queen of the Elves and shook her head. "Granny Weatherwax was right about you," she said, cradling the weeping Tatsuya with her left arm. "You never learn."

"You." The Queen tried to lunge at Tiffany.

Tiffany got her in the head again, so hard that the dream built around us fell apart, and what was once a warm meadow became just another snowfield in her cold world. "Yes," Tiffany said simply. And with that word, the witch of the Chalk Hills turned away and started running toward us.

The Queen's bodyguards were already leaping into action to intercept her. Homura and Madoka were faster and they were riddled with a storm of energy arrows, giving Tiffany the opening she needed to come to us.

As she did so, the battle around us renewed itself savagely.

Tiffany was a decent runner, though, and with Homura and Madoka shooting down any elf that risked the iron frying pan she was wielding, she arrived and handed the crying Tatsuya to his mother. "Doctor," she said, nodding at us.

"Miss Aching," I answered.

She looked around. "You don't do subtle, do you?", she asked pointedly.

"Not always, no," I answered. I smirked toward Harry, who - while clearly running low on energy - was delivering yet another fireball into a gaggle of elves. Or a scourge, I suppose. "Especially with Harry." I said nothing else, but let her quick mind work out everything it needed to.

I honestly had not intended to bring Tiffany. But when I recruited the Feegles from her land, well... I suppose her coming along was a case of turnabout being fair play, given how often the Chalk Hill Feegles involved themselves in her affairs.

"We've got everybody," Homura said. "We should leave."

"Yes." I took out a whistle and blew on it. "All right everyone! Back into the TARDIS, double-time! And I mean all of you."

Our allies - the Feegles, Toot-toot and his pixie army, the magical girls - started moving toward the TARDIS. The Elves were starting to rally from the initial shock of the attack and Harry, Liara, and I had to wade back in to the fray to restore the holes in the Elven forces to let them back through. Nobody was getting out of this untouched, I saw. Harry's duster had protected him from the worst of it, but everyone was showing cuts and bruises - everyone save Sayaka, at least, who only showed damage to her suit. The Feegles carried their wounded and... yes, their dead too. Toot-toot's pixies aided them by air-lifting out some of the most wounded Feegles.

In the savagery of the fighting, I tried to keep the elves down with my little "iron in the air" trick. But they were getting used to it. Not that it still wasn't debilitating to them, but those along the outer fringes of the effect were starting to adjust. The best I could do was create holes in their ranks where they fell.

That was demonstrated aptly when one elf got through my efforts and the attacks from the others and started to bring a sword down toward my head. I caught the sword with a parry from the sonic disruptor, pointed my sonic screwdriver at the elf, and drew a scream of agony from him as he dropped from the electromagnetic distortion I generated around his head.

The momentary let-up of the disruptions gave new life to the efforts of the others, though. They might have overwhelmed us at that point of Liara hadn't stepped up and let loose such a large wave of biotic energy that it left her collapsing from the drain on her personal energy. I caught her with one arm and supported her with my shoulder.

At this point, with everyone in a circle around the TARDIS, it looked like we could be in real trouble. The elves were pushing us back, and while that bought time for the last of the Mitakihara people to be secured, it also meant we might be pushed back into the TARDIS in way that kept us all from getting inside. And even accounting for the Feegles' natural gifts at quantum dislocation... I really wasn't in the mood to leave anyone to the Queen.

Of course... it meant one more thing.

The elves were so focused on us that they never saw it coming when the dromes struck.

One moment they were simply there, a host of gray little beings. And elves began to fall over, sent into deep dreaming sleep. The dromes ignored them from that point on, simply continuing on as they had before. The elven ranks, realizing their allies were falling to the ground in deep slumber, began to fall back, not realizing the new threat that had joined the fight.

Within moments, the elven forces simply... broke. Beset by the dromes from within and without and by my allies from the front, the elves decided to run.

Tiffany noticed the horde of dromes and her mouth opened slightly. "You convinced them to help us?", she said.

"Oh yes," I replied. "I told them I'd find them a home so long as they aided us and left our people alone. If they so much as give one of us a little daydream, the deal's off."

Tiffany nodded at that. We watched the dromes join the others getting into the TARDIS. Around us the fight ran out of steam; the retreat of the elves was followed by those feral flying faeries they used. They'd... given up.

I breathed in. Looking out over the snowfield, I felt my stomach twist from how much red and cyan now stained the white. And the remains. All of the bodies.

"Doctor!", I heard a voice call out. I turned and saw Rob Anybody standing at the entrance to the TARDIS. "We'd best be goin', nae tellin' how long 'fore the Quin gets 'em back together!"

"Right." I nodded to Tiffany and then to Harry. "Let's go," I said.

Harry looked up and whistled. "Major General Minimus! Back into the blue box! We're leaving!"

"Yes my lord!", Toot cried out proudly. He started shouting orders, trying to sound like a Marine drill sergeant. The remaining pixies of his army headed for the TARDIS door.

We joined them. Inside Madoka was hugging her parents tightly. Hitomi was clinging to Kyosuke down in the pit of the control center. I decided to let them be for the moment. I helped Liara to one of the stairs leading to the upper ring of the control chamber and the doors beyond and helped her sit down. "You alright?", I asked.

"I just need some energy drinks," she mumbled. "Give me time."

I nodded.

"You, of course, realize the Feegles will take everything not nailed down?", Tiffany pointed out from where she was watching us. "And maybe even some things that are."

"Yes," I said. "Which is why the only things I kept in the TARDIS are the things I don't mind them taking. Or things I know they'd never bother with."

I was answered with a nod while I finished setting up the TARDIS. Harry, standing as door guard, looked back and said, "Looks like they're almost done regrouping. It's time to go."

"Right." I clapped my hands together, finished my calculations, and turned some knobs. "Here we go. The ride could get a might bumpy."

As it turned out, it was more than bumpy.

Several minutes of bone-shaking rattling and at least two falls on my arse later, the TARDIS materialized back in Mitakihara's garden park, near where the portal to the Queen's World remained. I stepped out with Harry and some of the others. "One last piece of business, then," I said. "How do we close that?"

"Thunderbolt iron," Tiffany suggested. "It's the usual way."

"But it has to be here in a way that keeps the local authorities from moving it," I reminded her. "And they're quite a bit more... touchy on things in this world than yours."

"I could try a containment circle for now," Harry suggested.

"A good idea. Let's..." I turned and watched Homura and Madoka step out. "How are they?", I asked.

"Dad will be fine," Madoka replied, looking, well, spent, but very relieved. "Molly's using your medicine on him. Tatsuya's still crying though."

"Frightening experience for a child that age," I remarked. I looked to Tiffany. "I don't suppose you could help with..."

The world shook furiously, throwing us all to the ground. As I picked myself up my senses started going haywire. I could feel space-time starting to warp and tear around us.

"Crivens!", came a cry from within the TARDIS. "This isnae good! The Quin is comin'!"

"Waily waily wail-..."

"Daft Wullie, I..."

As I picked myself up from the ground, powerful light was shining around us. The other magical girls came from the TARDIS to join us and we all looked up to see...

A Crack.

Not a big one. Not even close to the biggest.

But it was more than big enough to be a problem, given what it was doing. It ripped through the air just above the bridge that had served as our doorway, bright as day, energy spewing forth...

...and directly into the Queen of the Elves.

We were all watching as the Crack in the Universe surged, spilling bright light out into the garden park, its energy suffusing the form of the Queen of the Elves.

I swallowed and looked over to Harry, who had as close a look to pure fear as one can probably manage. He remembered the last Crack he'd seen, the one that allowed a young neophyte to magic to accidentally raise an army of zombies even when he fell into a coma, a feat met only by the most powerful necromancers his world had known.

And this Crack was larger than that one had been.

"You thought you could invade my home and leave just like that?", she hissed, her form becoming against the gaunt and beautiful feminine look. Gray eyes turned green and shinded with emerald fury. And for the first time, a thought crossed my mind. That the Queen's appearance under her glamour was just as unoriginal as the rest of her. It wasn't just a stereotypical appearance, oh no. She was emulating something.

Or rather, someone. Namely, Queen Mab.

"Your suffering will be spoken of for all time," the Queen vowed.

"Always with your monologuing, give it a rest," Harry retorted, his fear prompting the usual reaction of running his mouth. "For..."

Before he could finish his force spell, the Queen's hand reached out. Harry looked like he'd been struck by a truck. He flew backward in the air and slammed, hard, on the walkway beneath us. Given how tired he already was, the sheer power of the attack took what he had left. I heard a faint sound leave Harry's chest, and then the only movement was the weak heaving of his chest as he fell unconscious.

There was a war cry. Kyoko shot forward like a comet, spear raised, and she looked like she would be impaling the Queen in seconds.

The Queen waved her hand contemptuously. Kyoko's war cry turned into an agonized scream as massive energy slammed into her and sent her flying into the embankment of the upper path that led to the bridge. Stone and soil crumbled around her from the force of the impact. A weak sound came from her before she fell, unconscious.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka glared at the Queen and leapt into the fight, Nagisa streaking beside her and Mami's flintlocks firing. The Queen struck at them with her energy. Sayaka jumped and dodged while Nagisa slid to the side. Mami cartwheeled out of the way. Sayaka, saber raised, let out a "Hyah!" and came from the Queen's side while Nagisa, trumpet up and bubbles spewing, came from the other.

Suddenly the Queen wasn't there... and they smashed into each other.

She reappeared, nearby, and in one swing of her hand Nagisa and Sayaka went flying, slamming into the embankments to either side.

They stopped moving.

At that point, Mami generated... well, the biggest gun yet. It was an, in relative miniature, an entire rail cannon. "Tiro finale!", she shouted, firing a burst of massive yellow energy at the Queen.

The energy slammed into her and... it sloughed right off. Like it couldn't touch her.

"Mami, get...!"

My warning didn't come in time. A massive blast of energy erupted from the Queen. Mami couldn't jump out of the way in time. She went down with a brief cry of pain.

I shouted in anger and brought up both sonics, turned to maximum outputs, and channeled the biggest electromagnetic distortion I could manage right at her head. From around me energy arrows came flying, courtesy of Homura and Madoka, and we threw everything we had into attacking the Queen.

Flame erupted around her. I turned to see Tiffany standing outside the TARDIS. One hand was gloved and holding... oh dear. A thermal generator. One I'd shown her, of the same type that Asami had turned into a flamethrower for training with Korra, and she was using the massive thermal power of the device to channel heat into flame to strike at the Queen.

The Queen seemed to stagger for a moment, beset by heat and magnetic disturbance and the power of Homura and Madoka. I thought that maybe we'd done it. Maybe we'd put together enough power to overwhelm her, to stop her.

The Queen screamed.

And sheer, unbelievable PAIN filled my body. The energy that erupted from her broke every bit of concentration in my mind. I dropped my sonics and fell to my knees. I heard cries behind me, but I could barely turn to see where Madoka and Homura had fallen. Tiffany was on her knees as well, her hair frazzled and face covered in sweat as she fought the sheer power of the Queen, empowered as she was by the Crack in the Multiverse and all of the energy pouring from it.

The Queen laughed with amusement. "So much for this world's defenders," she cooed. She brought up a hand and made a contemptuous little gesture with it. I heard another cry of pain. I could barely turn my head to see Molly now sprawled out beside Harry. She'd been trying to pull him to safety inside of the TARDIS; now she lay unconscious beside her mentor.

I grit my teeth and tried to stand. No. No, I wouldn't let it end this way. I wouldn't...!

There was a cry from within the TARDIS. The Feegles erupted from it, their terror now overwhelmed by their instinctive desire to fight - especially against the Queen. The Queen laughed at them as they raced toward her and gestured with her arm. Invisible energy lashed out and they all went flying in a spray of blue and red.

"Defend the Pizza Lord!", Toot-toot shrilled. Some, but not all, of his troops joined him.

"Don't," I croaked. But it was too late. Another wave of the Queen's hand and Toot-toot and his troops cried out in pain, falling to the ground with soft, horrible little thuds.

"Is that all?" The Queen let out a laugh with amusement. "Such power. I have never imagined such power. I could take this entire world with it. But why stop there?" She spread her arms and laughed. "Why stop at any world? With this power, my King will certainly return to me! With this power, even the Cold Queen cannot stop me!" She looked down at me as I fought to get to my feet and smiled. "And all thanks to you, Doctor."

"No," I said. "I won't let you."

She made a dismissive gesture toward me with her hand. It felt like she'd just hit me with a trash compactor. I flew backward onto my back and landed with a surge of pain. I tried to sit up but couldn't. The Queen's will pressed down on me. I grimaced and fought, but it was like trying to stand up when held by a titanium press.

"You think you know so much, but you know so little, false Doctor," the Queen continued. "I would almost let you go just to see you fail to stop what is to come. But you have annoyed me enough today. You will die screaming, and only after you see all of these others die first, knowing that their deaths are on your hands."

"I'll stop you," I hissed.

"No, you won't."

And she pressed down harder, almost to the point where I lost consciousness.

Two figures lifted from the ground. I watched, helplessly, as the Queen levitated Tiffany and Madoka into the air, suspending them over me limply, like rag dolls. "You two have invaded my realm. You have taken from me. You have insulted me and mine. Now I will repay the insult." She smiled wickedly as she directed her gaze at Tiffany. "I once asked you if you knew what color your insides were," the Queen cooed wickedly. "I think it's time we found out."

I tried to move. I couldn't.

I could do nothing but watch as Madoka and Tiffany began to scream.

The Queen was literally beginning to tear them apart.

And there was nothing I could do.

There was a scream in the air and Homura slammed into the Queen. She jumped away from the impact and landed back on the ground.

Tiffany and Madoka fell beside her. They weren't moving.

"Stay away from her!," Homura shrieked. And she held up something. Something I hadn't expected her to have.

A detonator.

The Queen looked down long enough to see the pipe bomb that had been sticky glued to her by Homura during their impact. She let out a laugh and reached to yank it off.

Homura pressed the button. It exploded. The Queen shrieked in agony.

Her hand and lower arm hit the ground. Unattached to anything else.

Homura reached into her belt and pulled out a gun, one of those big ones. The shots rang in my ear as she hit struck the Queen with round after round. Cyan exploded from the bullet wounds and the Queen shrieked again and again as the bullets tore into her body. She tumbled back to the ground, the stump of her right arm flailing helplessly and her left arm barely breaking her fall.

Homura stepped up to her and, without a word, emptied the last bullets in the clip into the Queen's head.

The Queen's body slumped to the floor.

I tried to move. I began to.

And the Queen laughed.

"Iron weapons," she purred. Suddenly she was whole again, standing over Madoka and Tiffany, and from my position I could see the side of her face barely and the wicked smile on it. "With this power, even iron is nothing to me now."

She flung her hand and Homura went flying back and into the archway over the bridge. She hit the floor with a loud thud.

And she immediately got back up. Her bow came out and she let loose a flurry of energy arrows at the Queen, who contemptuously ignored them.

At least until the last one, which actually pierced her skin and drew cyan blood. The Queen stared at the wound and then to Homura.

At that moment, i realized what was going on. I saw the black growing on Homura's soul gem. She was drawing everything into this fight, knowing the risk to herself in the process, all to protect Madoka from this creature that had sought to torment her. And that energy, that light from Homura's very soul, was enough to overpower even the energies of the Crack.

But I knew it wouldn't be enough. Homura didn't have enough left. All she could do was buy time, even now as she sent arrow after arrow into the Queen. The Queen approached her and, though her back was to me, I could imagine the cold fury on her alien features. "I'm going to rip you apart."

My mind raced. There had to be a way. A way to beat the Queen in this form. Sealing the Crack would work, but even my growing experience with doing it quickly would take too long, and I'd need help. I needed more time. I needed someone, something, that could face the Queen head on.

I swallowed when I realized what it would require. And what the risk would be. And with the Queen's attention off of me, i got up on my hands and feet and began crawling along.

Homura jumped just before force caused the ground beneath her to explode. In mid-air she somersaulted and pulled off the kind of arrow trick shot that I knew Ollie Queen would have been immensely jealous over, putting an entire spread of arrows into the neck and chest of the Queen and another into her back as Homura's jump carried her past the Queen. The Queen turned toward her and sent out a wide blast that clipped Homura, sending her sprawling to the ground. She rolled with the impact. I looked to her face. There was nothing but cold resolution in her blue eyes. And her soul gem was ever darker.

Either way, Homura was running out of time.

But she wasn't alone. The Queen let out a pained shout as Mouse jumped down from the bridge and brought two hundred pounds of canine power on top of her. The Foo dog snarled and snapped at her as he bore her to the ground and dug his teeth into the back of her neck. drawing more cyan blood to mingle with the blue light gathering around him. The Queen shrieked and forced herself back up, knocking Mouse off. She immediately took several more arrows from Homura, two of which made it through whatever barrier she had to dig into her shoulder and belly. "I'll rip your fingers off, one by one," the Queen vowed. "And then your toes. And I will progress from there! My people will speak forever on your fate, on the blood and the screams I draw from you, little witch!"

Homura pulled back on her bowstring to generate more arrows from her will. "I'm not a witch," she corrected coldly. "I'm a magical girl."

The Queen shrieked in rage as more arrows flew, and she attacked again.

By now, I was beside Madoka. I nudged her gently. "Madoka, wake up," I said urgently, keeping my voice low. "Madoka!"

Her pink eyes blinked a couple of times before opening. "What...?" Confusion showed on her face.

"Madoka, she's too powerful." I looked over to where Mouse was slashing at the Queen's calves while Homura recovered from another blow. "We need a new plan."

"What... do you want?", Madoka asked, her awareness returning.

"Forzare!" I looked up briefly to see Harry returning to the fight. His force spell barely made the Queen stumble. "Get clear!", he croaked, and that gave Mouse and Homura enough warning time to get out of the way before Harry unloaded all of his remaining charges in his kinetic rings. That much force should have been able to punch a hole in the kind of heavy armored plating Humans put on 20th Century naval ships. It did, at least, send the Queen flying into the embankment facefirst.

But she moved afterward, and in a wave of her arm Harry went flying again. He barely moved.

I turned away from the battle and looked to Madoka. "This is dangerous for you," I warned her. "But... we need all of you. All of your power."

She looked at me intently. "You mean...?"

"Yes. That part." I swallowed. "It's enough to overpower the Queen, even with the power of the Crack helping her. It might even be enough to shut the Crack."

Madoka nodded. "But it's dangerous, right?" She looked beyond me and gasped. "Homura!"

I looked back in time to see Homura trying to stand up again. Her right arm hung... well, it hung uselessly, but that doesn't do justice to how wrong it looked. It wasn't just broken, but arguably shattered. The Queen brought her hand up and Homura began to lift into the air.

"Madoka. You have to be careful," I said. "If you do this, and you take too much... it might overwhelm your physical body. It'll be absorbed into that other you. And I won't be able to bring you back this time." I swallowed. The device I'd used had backfired on me the second time I tried to use it, and in the process it had destroyed the rare piece of equipment that had made the entire process work. Even if I could find another version of it, and find all the other exotic parts that made the quantum compiler work as it had before... the vital component of an octarine gem meant that the odd forces of the Discworld might interfere again. There were no guarantees at all with using such a device.

There was a loud whine. I turned in time to see Mouse roll over on the ground. He was favoring a leg and losing consciousness.

The Queen held Homura in mid-air. She examined her mangled right arm. "Ah ha," she cooed. "That is what those things did to you. This body... it's nothing, isn't it? It's just an empty little shell that you use like a toy. This is the real you." The Queen forced Homura's right hand up and put her finger on the soul gem. The black on it was near to full now. "That's how you hurt now, isn't it? Here, let me see."

She ran her finger over the soul gem.

Homura screamed.

"Pain, little witch," the Queen cooed. "So much of it. I don't think I'll kill you after all. Not when I can do this. Over and over and over until you can't tell the difference between pain and pleasure. I'll make you love it."

"It has to be you," I said to Madoka, who was staring in horror at what the Queen was doing.

And then, because I can be just as stubborn and pigheaded as Harry on some things, I scrambled over to my sonic disruptor, took it up, and upon standing to my full height I pointed it at the Queen. "Leave her alone!", I shouted.

The Queen turned toward me. As she did so, her finger brushed over Homura's gem again, eliciting another agonized cry. She laughed. "Broken, silly little mortal," she said. "What hope have you against me? Even the Cold Queen could not face my new power."

"I won't let you hurt her again," I said. "I'll stop you."

"Of course you will, silly man. Of course."

She flicked her hand at me.

The next thing I knew, I was barely conscious and sprawled out alongside the embankment. Nagisa's unconscious form was right beside me. And everything hurt.

I just wanted to close my eyes now. After everything, after this long journey... I had nothing left. The Queen had become Power with a capital P, so great and so grand that I could not stop it. No tricks could. It was simple math.

The Queen of the Elves was better than me.

I should have accepted that.

Perhaps those thoughts were inspired by her. Or maybe by my guilty conscious over my hubris. Either way, I did nothing as the Queen returned to Homura.

She raised Homura up again. "I wonder what will happen if I..."

The Queen suddenly fell to the ground, as if struck from a powerful blow. She looked up in surprise, and in time to see the pink energy arrow disappear from where it had transfixed her belly.

Madoka was standing. Golden and pink energy crackled around her. She turned to face me and nodded, and as she did I saw gold light building in her eyes. Her suit transformed from the pink frilly magical girl dress into a long flowing dress of pure white.

And as she began to levitate in the air, wings formed at her back.

The Queen's face showed shock. "What are you?"

"She is mine," Madoka's voice boomed. My Time Lord senses made me dizzy from the sheer power circulating in the air. "This world is mine. You are not welcome here!" She held up her bow and fired it again. The arrow turned into a powerful stream of them as it loosed from her bow, the full power of Madoka as the Goddess and Protector of the Magical Girls channeled into them.

The Queen summoned the full power of the Crack to defend herself.

Madoka's power blasted through it like it was made of tissue paper.

The Queen screamed at the power that assailed her. She fell to the ground and scampered away, trying to get back to her feet. "What..." She stared at Madoka. Her wings remained stationary and her long robes trailed behind her as she moved in the air, advancing toward the Queen. "Stay back! No!"

"I want to feel sorry for you," Madoka said. She was drawing closer to the Queen. Around us, the power of her voice was bringing everyone else back from unconsciousness. "Because you're always alone. But you hurt people. I can't let you do that anymore."

"No," the Queen whimpered. "No no no..." She stood up, focused all of her malevolent will, and threw a blast of such power that I thought the air would catch fire.

Madoka didn't move. She... didn't need to. The energy slammed into her and seemed to go nowhere and do nothing.

The Queen threw more energy at her. More and more. So much that I saw the Crack begin to dim, as she drew so much energy from it that the Crack's ability to manifest into the base three dimensions diminished.

Madoka kept coming with a hand held out, absorbing every blow, and looking like she intended to take the Queen in her hand. The Queen started to literally shrink in front of us as the power of her personal glamour faded against the sheer awesome power of Madoka linked to her higher form. Her features distended, faded, and changed until she was a small creature, shaped almost like a little gray monkey, and fell back toward the portal to her world.

As she crossed the threshold into that world, Madoka strung her bow again. She let fly with another arrow.

I felt space-time bend and twist around the portal. There was a surge of energy on the other side.

And then it was gone.

I looked up in time to see the Crack seem to fade away.

That made me blink. Had the Crack somehow been... intertwined with the Elf portal? The loss of the latter thus affecting the former?

Madoka hovered over to Homura. Her gem was dark almost to the point of giving in. She looked up at her and her expression changed to show relief. "You're okay?", she said weakly.

"Yes." Madoka closed her eyes.

The white robe faded. The wings disappeared. She lowered to the ground and was in her usual pink dress again. She stumbled a bit and Homura tried to move to catch her, but with her right arm broken like it was she couldn't. Madoka had to get her own footing back, but she did. "I'm still here," she assured Homura. "Don't worry. I'm still here."

I looked to where Mami had stirred. "Those grief cubes?", I asked.

She nodded and took out a bag. She ran over and pulled them out, depositing them on Homura's gem so they could begin cleansing it. The other girls rushed over to join her, all five watching over their friend.

I took a step, to test my own strength. I didn't fall flat on my face, so I took another. By the time I'd walked over to her, Tiffany Aching was already picking herself up from the ground. "You're alright?", I asked.

"I'm... fine," Tiffany answered. She looked over to the girls hovering around Homura. "What happened?"

"Madoka is the guardian of this world," I answered. "She used the full range of her own power to force the Queen to flee again."

"Well, that's good," Tiffany said in acknowledgment. "So it's over?"

"It is." I looked around at the pixies and, well, pictsies picking themselves up. "The Queen drew so much power from the Crack that it appears to have temporarily removed it from the base dimensions here. Once Madoka slammed the portal shut..."

"They could come back," Tiffany said. "They'll need a way to deal with that."

"I know. I'll arrange it." I moved my neck. It hurt. "Well, I didn't quite intend for things to get this bad."

"Doesn't change that they did." Tiffany leveled a look at me. "This is why we witches try to stay out of these wizard things."

"Yes."

I felt well enough to walk over and help Molly up. She rubbed her head and mouthed "Ow". Harry was already getting up when I got to him. He accepted the hand with a sigh. "We're not dead," he said, sighing.

"Yes. Very observant of you," I teased.

"Threat's over?", he asked.

"For now," Tiffany answered for me.

"Questions aren't," I said. "That Crack had something to do with the Elf portal. It.. drew them somehow. But I've never seen a Crack actually contribute to a dimensional incursion like this. Usually it just pumps energy in or sucks it out."

"Lots of things could be different," Harry observed.

I nodded. But I had theories. Quite a few.

For another time, perhaps. We had cleanup work to do.

After making sure everyone got home safely, we finished at the Kaname house. The Kanames were still looking, if not entirely catatonic, very confused. Madoka got them into the house and took them to bed while the rest of us remained outside. Harry had enough strength to look like he wasn't aching and ready to collapse into bed as soon as I got him back to his apartment. The girls still had various scratches and cuts and bruises from all of the fighting. A sling kept Homura's arm still while one of the medical devices I had from Layom Station had been fit over her right arm, working slowly to rebuild the bones shattered by the Queen's fury.

"Where did those little blue men come from?", Mami asked.

"Discworld, along with Miss Aching here," I said, gesturing to Tiffany. "I procured their services at some minor cost. Among other things, Mrs. Kaname will need to replenish her liquor cabinent."

"So that's where you went off to back at the Kamijo house."

"Exactly. The Queen's mental powers might warn her of my plan if she got into anyone's mind. Had to play that one close." I looked askance at Harry. "Sorry."

"No, you had a good reason," he answered diplomatically.

"Yes."

"So that's it?", Sayaka asked. "The Elves are gone?"

"Pretty much, yes," I said. "The portal's gone. The Crack's been pushed back out of the main three dimensions. They can't get back in here."

"If you can find some iron to put around that portal, though, it will help," Tiffany suggested.

Madoka returned to us at this point. "We put Tatsuya into bed," she said. "My parents are going to sleep."

"Well, they know about you now," Kyoko noted. "How are you going to deal with that?"

"They might not remember," Harry said. "The Queen was messing with their heads enough that it's going to create a big cloud in their minds. Given enough time, without anything to make them think about it? They might decide they were kidnapped by a street gang or something and that you girls got them rescued by going to get help."

"Exactly," I agreed.

"It'll probably be easier that way," Madoka said. "It would be hard to explain everything to them."

"If it comes, it comes." Homura took Madoka's hand gently. "Are you okay?"

"I think so." Madoka closed her eyes. "I felt so weird though. Like I was... I don't know, drowning or something."

I nodded. "You briefly opened yourself entirely to that other you. The one who spans all space-time. As I said before, it's one thing for you to maintain the small connection you have now, just enough power to be another of the magical girls. Take in the whole thing and... well... you run the risk of getting absorbed into the whole."

Homura swallowed. "You shouldn't have taken the risk."

"I had to," Madoka answered. "She was hurting everyone. She was hurting you."

"What are these Cracks?", Sayaka asked. "You talk like you've seen them before."

"Here and there," I confirmed. "They're cracks in the fabric of reality. I'm not sure what caused them yet, I just know that they cause a lot of trouble and..."

"And what?"

I looked nervously at Harry before addressing Kyoko's question. "I've found that they usually result in something coming through. Usually from my species' home cosmos. This is the first time it was something else."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound good," Harry muttered.

"What's wrong, Mister Dresden?", Mami asked.

"Had a Crack in my world too," he explained. "We closed it a few years ago, but there's no telling if something came through before we did."

"Exactly my worry," I said.

"Don't worry, Doc, I've been keeping my ear to the ground," Harry answered.

"I know." i looked away for a moment. "What worries me are the Cracks themselves. I've yet to figure out what they mean. What caused them. All I know is... things are getting more dangerous."

"Do you know if it was the Crack that helped the Elves invade us?"

"It may have attracted their attention, yes," I said. I frowned. "Given what the Queen said, that's even highly likely."

"We'll keep an eye on it," Mami promised. "And we'll call you if anything else happens."

"Yes, thank you." I looked back to the TARDIS and sighed. In the distance I could hear the Feegles rummaging through the library. I wasn't worried about theft there. Feegles stealing books? Tiffany was more likely to steal them. "Well, I need to get a bunch of violent little blue fellows home before they decide to start trying to strip my TARDIS for spare parts."

"And I have an expecting mother to check up on," Tiffany added.

The other girls blinked. "Wait, you what?", Kyoko asked.

"It's what I do," Tiffany answered. "People in my Hills sometimes need someone to take care of them. People who can't bend anymore, who can't eat solid food, or who are bedridden with illness. Taking care of them is my responsibility as their witch."

There was the slightest flicker in Homura's eyes as the TARDIS translated that.

"Don't you girls do anything like that?", Tiffany asked. "You say this city is your's, and it's certainly too big for even the best witch to hold alone as a steading."

"We fight wraiths, that's it," Sayaka replied.

Tiffany didn't quite seem to like that response. "Ah. You fight monsters. Another witch duty." Her expression was whimsical. "But only some of the time."

"Actually, it might not hurt to help the people of Mitakihara in those ways," Mami said. "When we can."

Tiffany nodded. "I won't tell you girls how to handle your steading. But if you have questions, I'm sure the Doctor can relay them." And with that said, she stepped into the TARDIS.

I looked back and focused on Homura. "Different terminologies," I said. "The witches in her world are mostly there to help care for people in the steadings where they live. Frankly they spend more of their time doing nursing work or conflict mediation than they do casting magic and fighting gribblies."

"I see." Homura nodded. "She seemed quite capable."

"Yes, very." I nodded to them. Harry had already returned to the TARDIS as well, leaving me alone with them. "Well, I need to get them all home, and check up on Liara. Call if you have any problems."

"We will," Sayaka assured me.

I went to the TARDIS. Before I could open the door, I felt arms wrap around my waist. I twisted and knelt down to accept Madoka's hug with one of my own. "Thank you," she said to me, with tears in her eyes. "Thank you for helping me save my family."

I nodded. "You're welcome, Madoka," I answered. "And thank you for saving us all. Do take care."

They were all waving to me as I put my hands on the TARDIS controls. I waved back before snapping my fingers and closing the door.

With a pull of the lever, I shifted us out.

Well, when you have brought aboard your time ship violent little blue men who will steal anything they can get their hands on and a bunch of creatures who will put you into catatonic sleep and watch you starve to death and decay so they can eat you, you need to have a good sense of priorities on which danger to alleviate yourself of first.

Which is why our next destination was a landing in the Chalk Hills on the Discworld. I was standing at the entrance of the TARDIS, Harry and Molly across from me and Tiffany just outside of it. Her arms were folded. Her lips were pursed. And she was tapping her right foot.

Arrayed around us were Feegles. Together they could have probably chopped us all to bits with their speed and strength. They were instead pushing and shoving and groveling in terror. "It's the Tappin' o' the Feets!", wailed one - Daft Wullie, I thought - as he pulled at his fire red hair. "Waily waily waily!"

Molly choked out a giggle. Harry's eyebrows were up a bit.

"I'm waiting!" Tiffany fumed.

Rob Anybody coughed and sighed. "We was jus' gaein' t' borrow it, th' lads like th' noise it makes."

I crossed my arms. Not that it mattered. The Feegles wouldn't have found me intimidating. Tiffany, on the other hand...

"There will be no borrowing the Doctor's devices!", Tiffany told them in a loud and firm voice. "They're dangerous and could do all sorts of mischief."

"Even this wee..."

I coughed. "I believe that's my kinetic potential absorber. Set it the wrong way and you'll create a field that will siphon all of the kinetic energy in a two mile radius. Everything and everyone will turn into a permanent statue. Stuck, unable to move, for..." I narrowed my eyes. "...oh, a century or two, easy, before the battery gives out. It actually prolongs its battery life by absorbing the stolen kinetic energy, you see..."

Tiffany looked back to them. "Would you like to spend two centuries unable to move?", she asked. "Unable to fight and drink and steal?"

A gasp of horror came from the Feegles. Within seconds I had the absorber back in my hand.

"Now get going, Jeannie will be worried sick for you," Tiffany said, not quite letting them off the hook.

The Feegles vanished almost instantly.

I smirked and, just to be on the safe side, triggered the TARDIS to do a full scan. Just in case, mind you.

"Allow me to apologize on their kelda's behalf," Tiffany said.

"Oh, no worries. It's my fault for forgetting to pack that away," I answered, pocketing the device. "Thank you for coming along, Tiffany. Your help was vital."

She nodded softly. "I know." A warm smile came to her. "It was certainly an interesting experience to see that Roundworld."

"I imagine so." I snapped my fingers. "Almost forgot." I went back into the TARDIS, opened a secured compartment along one of my shelves - securing it from Feegle tampering had been most challenging - and took out something. "Some nano-weave silk cloth for bandages," I said, handing her a package. "And garments, should you have the need. And a first aid kit. Instructions are inside."

Tiffany accepted the package without comment. This was how witches operated, after all. They never got paid. No gold, coin, or cash. You just donated them things. Useful things. And in the places they stayed, nobody would even think of refusing such a donation to a witch. Or, well, no one would dare anyway.

As she turned to walk away, I stepped out of the TARDIS and called out, "I would like to make a small request of you."

She turned and faced me, brown hair blowing gently in the winds coming over the downs.

"The next time you should see Mistress Weatherwax... please let her know that she was right about me. About me and my friend. We're getting better now, in no small part thanks to her."

There was a bemused look on Tiffany's face, as if to tell me, wordlessly, that telling Granny Weatherwax she was right about something was like telling a skywatcher that the sky was blue. You were saying something completely self-evident.

But she nodded acceptance before continuing on.

I returned to the TARDIS and looked to see Harry and Molly watching me as I went to the controls. I started flipping them. "Yes?", I asked.

"Granny Weatherwax?", Harry inquired, eyebrows raised.

"As it turned out, Korra and I needed a bit of headology," I answered. "She was kind enough to oblige me."

I thought about what she had said. That the Name had taken me much as I had taken it. This past adventure was further proof of it. Being the Doctor... it was my nature. The Name had made me this way, even if I hadn't set out to turn myself entirely into the Doctor back when my journey began.

"Ah." Harry nodded. "So, next stop is..."

"Nice little planet, only 15% of land over the water, inhabited by a number of very plentiful soft species so the drome won't starve," I answered. "Then I check on Liara."

"She was still asleep when I last saw her," Molly said. "Is she.. okay?"

"She'll live, if that's what you're worried about. Biotic power consumes a lot of internal energy." I reached for the main TARDIS lever. "Odds are she'll be famished when she wakes up."

"Well." Harry smiled. "I think I know how I can fix that."

"This is your fault," Harry growled at me, as we stood quietly in Mac's Pub, where Mac was getting our meal of cheesesteak sandwiches to go. "You gave it all away?"

"I had to pay the Feegles something," I answered. "Junko Kaname's liquor cabinet was barely enough to attract a couple of the clans."

"But... but... it's going to take Mac days to get his stock back up!"

"Two days," Mac mumbled while getting the steak off his burner and pouring it into one of the sandwiches.

Harry moaned in irritation. "You've ruined my entire post-fight-for-my-life routine here, Doc."

"I know," I said, shrugging. "I could make a stop by Timbiqui..."

"That stuff was good, but it wasn't Mac's. It's Mac's that makes the entire recovery process work." Harry sighed. Mac put the last sandwich in the bag and he picked it up while I paid. Granted, I paid with one of my special credit cards. The kind that effectively print electronic money in a 21st Century economy.

Oh, don't look at me like that. It's not like I'm going to crash the economy with inflation by buying everyone a meal.

We returned to the TARDIS. By the time we did, Harry decided that Timbiqui Dark was acceptable after all.

We arrived at the house where Harry had his basement apartment loaded with the drinks and food. And lots of pizza as a victory bonus for Toot-toot and his little pixie army, but that would go into the yard later. Otherwise Harry would have to explain to his landlady, who was outside and waving at us, why he was leaving pizza in the backyard where animals might presumably get into it.

I'd met her before, actually. Harry's landlady, Mrs. Spunkelcrief, was a delightful old lady, but quite bad with hearing. Harry and I had been required to work in convincing her I was his cousin from England in town on business and not... well... I do remember the bemused look on Katherine's face during that conversation.

Liara was seated in the couch. She was awake now and already eating one of the Asari dishes we kept squirreled away on the TARDIS, but given all of the biotics she had been tossing to and fro, I wasn't under any illusion that she wouldn't be devouring at least one of the sandwiches as well. Seated on the floor near her was Mouse, enjoying a heaping bowl of what Harry affectionately called "Super Doggy Kibble", or essentially kibble that I bought from Layom Station and gave to him on my occasional visits. Mister, as usual, was perched on one of the shelves and looked down upon us with haughty feline indifference.

As Harry raised his wards again Molly came up from the trapdoor leading to Harry's basement lab. "Oh, good, I'm starving," she said.

Within minutes we were partaking. I had not had much occasion to enjoy Mac's cooking before, and I had yet to enjoy his signature beer, so the Timbiqui Dark was our substitute. Liara eyed it very carefully. "This isn't like anything my father would make, is it?"

"Not at all," I promised. "No Head Butts."

Liara took a cautious swig and, seeing I was right, she started to drink from it at a normal pace.

"'Head butt'?", Harry inquired.

"A drink that Liara's father, Matriarch Aethyta, subjected us to," I explained.

"Her father is called Matriarch?", Molly asked.

"Why is it that Humans always get like that?", Liara moaned.

"Translation issues," I remarked. I looked to her. "Mono-gendered species, Molly. In Asari culture, the father is whomever caused the mother to get pregnant, regardless of the father's gender."

"Oh." Molly nodded in understanding. "I see."

"So. The Queen of the freaking Elves." Harry whistled. "That was pretty intense."

"Yes it was."

"A good thing Madoka had all that power." Harry took another bite from his sandwich. He didn't resume talking until he swallowed. "And she knows Mab."

"I'm not entirely surprised," I said. "The Elves raid multiple worlds. It's entirely possible she once attacked Faerie."

"Yeah. Especially given she was pretty faerie-like too."

"It's entirely possible that their meeting was so... memorable for her kind that they started patterning themselves off as Fae," I ventured.

"Yeah."

We were quiet as everyone ate for a bit longer. "That's not the thing bothering you, is it Harry?", I asked.

"Nope."

"I know, because I think I'm worrying about the same."

"What?", Liara asked, looking up from her meal. As expected, her heavy use of biotics had left her ravenously hungry, and she had made the most progress in finishing Mac's culinary handiwork.

"The Crack," I said. "Most of the Cracks I've encountered have acted as conduits for beings or things to come through. The Gelth on the Discworld, the Silence in Holmes' England..."

"Wait." Molly looked at me. "You met Sherlock Holmes?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"That is so cool." She looked to Harry and grinned. "Boss, why don't we ever go on trips in the TARDIS? Imagine all of the fun stuff we could see. I mean, given what the Doc's said, you could even meet Spider-Man or something."

Harry grimaced. "It was hard enough on my brain having an actual Jedi show up in my living room," he sighed. "And we've got enough problems here, Grasshopper. Gallivanting around creation and dealing with all of the other horrible crap out there would just make us more tired."

Molly gave him a disappointed look before tearing into her sandwich.

"So you're worried that something might have come through to your world," Liara said, continuing our prior conversation.

"It's been a few years since we sealed it," Harry answered, "but yeah. The Crack was in Undertown. Anything that came through could have easily slid right into the shadows and never been seen until it wanted to be."

I tried not to shiver. There were a lot of nasty people or beings that could have done that, especially from the Time Lords' home cosmos. Things that could hurt Harry and all of the other people I'd met here.

"Toot's got standing orders to let me know if anything strange happens down there," Harry continued. "Well, stranger, this is Undertown we're talking about."

"I see." Liara looked to me as I finished chewing another bite of my sandwich. My glorious, delicious sandwich. I decided I needed to buy from Mac more often. "Of course, if you do find something, we'll be there to help, right...?"

"Yes, very much," I said, having just swallowed.

"Good to hear."

We finished dinner and further discussions on what had happened. It was time for Liara and I to move on.

As we approached the TARDIS, I heard Molly cry out to me and turned to see her run up. "I almost forgot," she said. She held up a blue box with a red ribbon to me. "Mom made this. It's for you. After you came by for Christmas and everything, she thought it was something you should have."

I raised my eyebrows. "I... well, thank you." I brought the box into the TARDIS, set it against the rail, and pulled the ribbon to open it.

Inside was a purple vest, much like the vest of blue I was currently wearing. "Your mother knows my favorite color, of course," I mused. Feeling material on it, I pulled it inside out.

Along the interior of the vest, Charity Carpenter had sewed light ceramic reinforcement backed with Kevlar. It gave the vest a slightly bulky look, but only slightly. It wouldn't clash terribly with my current wear. I felt my eyes widen a bit and my jaw lower. "Really? Armor?"

"She still had some materials left for fixing Dad's gear," Molly explained.

"Molly, I, well..." I didn't know what to say. It was something I simply... never bothered with. Body armor?

My right side lit up with phantom pain as I remembered the grimhound's claws raking my flesh. This armor would have at least deflected that attack, if not stopped it entirely.

"I put some defensive enchantments on it too," Molly said. "Actually, it was a bit of a test that Harry assigned me after I showed it to him. I'm still learning my way through it so the spells don't make it as tough as Harry's duster. But it should help a bit. Mom's insisting you should have it. Since you're an official adopted uncle and everything, I mean. Can't have the Jawas losing their crazy uncle because he's not wearing body armor while fighting monsters, right?"

I held up the vest. Liara stepped up from where she'd been standing and put a hand on it. "It looks good," she said. "And you could use the body armor."

I considered it. I... didn't wear armor. Not unless I was in the middle of a trick or scheme or something. It... it was just something I didn't do.

It was, well, I suppose it was rather foolish of me, wasn't it?

I smiled at Molly and looked to Liara. "Please, hold my jacket?" I slid out of my purple jacket - a replacement for the one the grimhounds had ripped up, and removed the blue vest below it. I put on the new vest. It was slightly bulkier than I was used to, but not in any bad way. I buttoned it and accepted my jacket back from Liara. As I put it back on, I said, "Thank your mother for me, will you? A shame you can't use cameras to give your mother a photograph."

"Actually." Liara held up her forearm. At a mental command her omnitool appeared. "Why don't you two stand together? Most of my experience is taking pictures of artifacts, so we need to keep this simple."

Molly's face beamed with delight. And we stood side-by-side for the picture.

It was only after Liara took it that I found out Harry had slipped up behind us and, true to form, given me bunny ears.

It was actually quite funny, now that I think about it. And a fitting cap to the entire adventure.