Snowflake's Passage

First Story (Scary Things)

Author's note: Well, all done now. Final chapter. Hope you liked it. Anita is in another ongoing story called Cat's Cradle (she makes an appearance in a few chapters at the end, the chapters are not yet published at the time of this writing 1/13/16).

I really liked writing this crossover. Have to see if I can come up with another Illyana/Anita plot (comment if you come up with one, always looking for good ideas).

Part 25: Epilog1

Well the fire trucks and the police showed up after Magik left; most folks also woke up after she departed. The one's that didn't ended up in the hospital and woke up later.

There was a lot of shouting once we explained the whole thermite thing. Things got a bit tense, meaning the cops were trying to decide if they should arrest us, but then Michael Twoyoungmen showed up and pulled some federal magic out of his hat as it were. Damn, things got calm fast after just a few phone calls. Don't know what Twoyoungmen did in the shadows, but he had major mojo.

I later found that my actions were approved by the Federal Marshals, even got a commendation in that I had prevented law enforcement fatalities by sacrificing my home. Which it turns out was now to be repaired at Federal expense due to the oddities that the paranormal branch field personnel was subject to. Guess I got my own personal Federal stimulus package as it were.

Michael's creepy friend showed up about noon. Some gaunt guy by the name of Stephen Strange. Weird dude. He and Shaman did some kind of private pow-pow and then spent an hour yelling at me tag team style. Rather annoying in that they wouldn't tell me what they were yelling at me about. I didn't have a need to know was their statement. They both drove off in a huff after a few hours.

Egypt was in an uproar. Khufu's pyramid had apparently blown up, gee who knew. Interesting in that tourism soared to record numbers afterwards.

We were poking around the wreckage of my home when Nathaniel found the gift that Magik had given me. Crap, it was unburned and still intact, wrappings and all.

Two days later:

Jean-Claude and I were cuddling in bed, in his bedroom deep within the Circus's underground. It was post sex and post ardeur feeding by me. Jason was on the far side of the bed snoring away with a rather blissful smile on his face. Jean-Claude was lying on his back with his head on a pillow. I was on his right side lying on my side with my breasts draped over his head. One breast covering mouth and nose. The other eyes and forehead.

Here's a hint girls, guys love it after sex. Tends to lead to fun underboob play. Most guys are babies at heart and babies love boobs. But you need at least a C cup to pull it off.

"Do you think she's ever coming back" I asked after a prolonged quiet time. No need to explain who she was.

Jean-Claude's voice was a bit muffled underneath the breast. "I do not know Ma petite. You offered a service to save yourself and us; and this... girl strikes me as one who remembers such oaths".

"Yea, I think so too".

"You are scared"?

"Damn tooting I am".

"Good. Such things should bring fear. She reminds me of... Well... Of the vampires that are tortured, tormented and utterly abused by their creators, the ones who lose everything and are driven mad. Base creatures they mostly become, given over to utter evil and survival. Nothing is left of what they were. But... sometimes one of these created monsters wakens, as it were, centuries later and realizes what they've become and... and are displeased. Mostly they ended themselves, the ones that don't... Well they can become obsessed with what they'd lost. They are some of the most... scary things I've ever met and in that I've lived oh so much longer then you ma petite that is saying something".

"But I suspect that is not all that concerns you Ma petite".

I glanced over at a table on the far wall. Magik's gift, the one that had been wrapped in holiday penguin gift wrapping, lay unwrapped and reveled. It was a penguin caricature of Magik dressed up in her black and yellow spandex costume. The smiling penguin was holding up its left hand with two fingers in a V symbol. I grumbled about the gift.

"My house is incinerated and explodes and yet that package, what was at ground zero by the way, was not damaged or burned in any way. And the penguin... It's a joke, a cute joke about herself. And the package was a message".

"Yes Ma petite, I believe I understand it. So understated, so European. I assume you comprehend its intent".

I gave dramatic sigh, almost like the one's that Childe, no not Childe, like Magik had liked to give. At this point I was pretty sure that that had just been an act.

"Yes. She knew. She knew that we were going to try and do something. We surprised her on how effective it was, but she still knew. She left this little gift to let me know after the fact. She needed me to swear to serve a service to her to give her open access to our world. She let us set ourselves up so that was the only way out for us. We did it to ourselves".

"Yes Ma petite, I think she was always five or ten steps ahead of us, ahead of everybody. Her planning was... superb".

I lay there silent. I had been played and played well. Everybody had. Some of her... criticism also didn't sit well. If I reminded her of her prior self then in some ways she could be taken as a reflection of me if I went... bad. Mirrors show us our flaws, our reflected actions, reflections of things we may not like to see.

"Are you going to keep it Ma petite"? Jean-Claude asked while somehow stroking a nipple with just an eyebrow.

"I don't think I should get rid of it. Who knows what it really is".

"I think the penguin is just a gift. She was poking fun at herself, or at least attempting to. But I suspect the little birdie is not the only thing on your list of concerns".

"No" I replied with a minor sigh. "Yes, she scares me, she scares everybody who has a functioning brain cell. It's her level of power and something that she said".

Jean-Claude continued to stroke my breast with just his eyebrows and nuzzled it with his nose. "Which was"?

"When I was thirteen my power raised my dead dog. If she is to be believed, at thirteen she created that sword and took over a hell domain with it. I believe that she really is only in her very late teens in many ways".

"And"?

"Many of us grow in power as we age. Especially vampires and apparently necromancers. Just what is she going to become as she grows older and likely stronger"?

The breast nuzzling stopped.

"I do no know Ma petite. But now you've given us a new thing to be troubled about".

Part 25: Epilog2

Two months later:

Got a postcard from Magik. One of those tourist photo postcards where somebody takes your photo and prints post card of it.

It was from Egypt.

Magik was standing in front of Khufu's pyramid with a smile on her face. Behind her was Ōyutaka Masachika, the big Japanese werelion. He had a grin on his face and was casually holding an umbrella over a person I recognized. The now not so new Master of Cairo; he looked very grumpy and I think sunburned. Crap, he'd been elevated in power, he was a day walker now; one of the rarest of vampire powers.

I think I knew were Magik had dissipated some of the pyramid's power.

There was a note on the postcard.

"Ōyutaka has heard of what Micah is doing with your Lycanthrope Coalition thingie. He'd like to fly to the US to have a talk about it. He'll be in touch".

Damn. I just know this is going to be trouble.