Someone came incredibly close to guessing this chapter title, I was very impressed; a guest reviewer offered "cutting the strings", so it was only a synonym away.

Only five chapters to go after this one. Can't believe it's coming to a close after four years!

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

SEVERING THE STRINGS

O

Albus Potter leaned down and knocked on the ground, then waited.

He sensed Rebecca appear behind him. "Albus," she said breathily. "Don't turn around. Have you rescued your cousin?"

"Yes," said Albus. "She's safe! It's time for us to take back the world."

"Thank God," said Rebecca. "Thank God… and there's something incredible that I have to tell you as well…"

He knew Rebecca was going to check for magical concealment, and he quickly reacted, Disapparating and reappearing right behind her to send a Stunner into her neck. Rebecca was a remarkably agile duelist despite her old age, and was able to anticipate where he had reappeared, but she could not sustain the duel while he barraged her from all sides, and she fell, body-bound. Quickly, he administered the Marionette's Medicine to her as well, and Rebecca descended into her house to make swift work of incapacitating Dodecus.

Wilcox joined them in their house, maintaining his Albus Potter disguise; he would need it on his trip to the moon to kill his son and the others who were up there. Dodecus obediently handed him the portal, and they all stared into it until they had been transported into the moon.

"Albus!" said Exo brightly, walking over; he paused, confused. "Rebecca? Dodecus? Who's guarding the portal?"

"Teddy," said Rebecca, immediately knowing that Wilcox was in need of a cover story, and covering for him. "We've left him in charge while we take a look at Desulgon to see how he's holding up in his new body."

Wilcox's eyes shot open, and it took all of his concentration not to completely lose his mind. What did she just say? While we take a look at—Desulgon?

Then, from out of nowhere, a door slammed open, and a black-haired stranger charged out, wand at the ready; he was already casting spells.

Wilcox, Dodecus, and Rebecca set to the task, all furiously dueling against the newcomer. Exo screamed and ran for cover. Mia opened a door nearby to see what was happening; upon seeing the situation, she kept the door open only long enough for Exo to charge in, and then she slammed the door.

"You're—on—my—turf!" roared the stranger, accentuating each syllable with a supremely powerful spell, and suddenly he cast one downwards and the tiles on the floor lifted up, bucking and tossing their occupants; Wilcox Disapparated onto a nearby wall and clung there like a spider, but was jettisoned off after he was painfully electrocuted. The stranger beat spell after practiced spell into Dodecus, dropping him first as the weakest duelist; as Wilcox recovered his muscles from the electrocution, the stranger took care of Rebecca surprisingly swiftly as well. Then it was a duel between only the two of them.

The stranger was a ferocious duelist—the likes of which he'd only seen once—this couldn't be—and then there were strange spells, swarms of insects, sudden tilts in gravity, massive red disembodied hands pummeling him from all sides. These were Hourglass Empire spells, how could anyone on the surface be so adept at casting them, unless he really was dealing with…

On and on, back and forth, the duel rocked the glass-domed room. If anyone else had been there to see, they may have recalled it as the most extreme wizarding duel that ever came to pass. Its two participants, of course, were not interested in any comparisons of how intensely their flashes and bangs shone and thundered; they were only interested in taking out their greatest opponent. The four wands stabbed and slashed, sending spell after spell with ferocity unseen even on the entire planet they were orbiting. Silently, unseen by his opponent, one of them turned aside and whispered a word into his robes: "Entrain!"

A thousand daggers aimed into one wizard's heart became a thousand pellets of boiling oil streaking for the other wizard's face; a dark pulse of energy snapped back in the direction from which it had come, igniting into Frostflame; a tidal wave of sound so loud as to shatter bone was redirected into the wall, where the glass dome absorbed the contact. The facility was designed to protect those within its borders—even when those within its borders were trying to kill each other—so as to preserve the precious information held within the many rooms; the spells did nothing to break it, unless one of the participants knew the single spell it was designed not to withstand…

"End!" shouted the black-haired stranger, and suddenly the glass dome all around them shattered.

An alarm sounded as the wind, racing outwards, ripped Wilcox out onto the lunar surface, and he gasped for air that wasn't there. The stranger had already cast a bubble around his whole body, but the half-second that required Wilcox to cast a spell to save himself was a half-second that he could not afford in a duel against his greatest rival; as the Stunning spell struck him square in the chest, and he keeled over onto the moon's dusty surface with no bodily protection, he knew that he could only have lost the duel to Dalton Desulgon himself.

The door flew open as Mia came out with her wand at the ready, trying to figure out what the alarm was about and wanting to assist Desulgon; but the air rushed out of that room, too, and her eyes started to bulge as she struggled to stay standing to cast a spell of some sort to save herself.

Looking between the groups, Desulgon made the obvious choice to conserve the lives of the people who deserved to be saved, and he cast out four ropes from his wands which wrapped around the ankles of Dodecus and Rebecca and the wrists of Mia and Exo. He threw them all at the opposite wall, casting an enchantment to allow them to pass directly through that wall; they all landed in a room that still held air, where a distraught Cynthia began to demand an explanation as to what was happening outside the room.

Desulgon turned to Wilcox, but the fifteen-second exposure to the conditions of the moon had already left Wilcox unconscious, and he wasn't about to make a fuss trying to save the man, especially in case there were more of his troops incoming.

"Come," he said, phasing through the same wall. "There may be a second wave incoming if Wilcox takes too long to come back. We'll have to take the portal back, but get ready to fight if there's anyone on the other end."

He watched them all cast Bubble-Head Charms, and Mia instructed them on how to spread the charm over their entire bodies. Desulgon cast the Imperius Curse over Dodecus and Rebecca, to allow them to move without worrying that they were still under the Marionette's Medicine. As they ran back through the wall and towards the portal, Desulgon looked over at Wilcox, who was still motionless from the Stun but not quite dead yet… Should he…

Exo ran close enough to Desulgon's bubble to combine their bubbles, so that Desulgon could hear him speak.

"Leave him," said Exo coolly, and then separated their bubbles again to continue his sprint towards the return portal.

Desulgon did indeed leave Wilcox, but quickly breached his mind before departing completely; he read into Wilcox's thoughts, which were too panicked to repel Desulgon's invasion, and he took quick note that one of Wilcox's clones had placed Albus Potter under the Marionette's Medicine; this realization came just before Wilcox's thoughts darkened and disappeared completely, and as Desulgon was squeezed back out of the mind, he cast a human-presence-revealing spell to be sure: yes, this Wilcox was dead. He grimaced and bolted to the portal so that they could all return to the surface together. They were dissolved by the laser, and reconstructed inside Dodecus's and Rebecca's dwelling… A quick scan told him that no one else was here.

"If Wilcox knows where my base is now," said Desulgon, "there's no recourse for that place. I'm going to have to head back soon and blow it up."

"Not the whole moon?!" asked Mia with genuine concern.

"No, not the whole moon," said Desulgon. "Just the base."

"But…" Exo's shoulders slumped. "All that knowledge…"

"It's all in here," said Desulgon, tapping his head. "I made sure of that, in life and in reproducing my mind. Honestly, I hadn't even finished writing everything down yet."

Cynthia placed a hand on Desulgon's shoulder. "Is that one less Wilcox to worry about?"

"From what I gathered from his mind, there are two more," said Desulgon, "but yes, up until about thirty seconds ago there were three. One less to worry about."

"And we won't stop until there's nothing to worry about," said Exo.

"He was Polyjuiced as Albus," said Mia, the implication reaching her as she paled. "Does that mean…"

"He's got Albus," said Desulgon, shaking his head. "Fuck! This can't be…"

"He'll try to use him again," said Cynthia. "He's probably got to keep Albus alive… We need to warn Harry and everyone else not to trust Albus immediately if they see him."

"He'll use Albus to get the power of the Pandoran Catalyst," said Desulgon, remembering what Rebecca had told him on her last trip up. "But if the Catalyst has to recharge for a couple of months… he might have bound and hidden Albus somewhere for the next few months until he's sure he can use the Catalyst again. Did Albus tell anyone where to find the Catalyst?"

He lifted the Imperius Curses off of Rebecca and Dodecus, knowing that Wilcox's death had freed them from the effects of the Marionette's Medicine.

"No," said Rebecca. "He said that he was the only one who could find it, and he didn't want to lead Wilcox to it, so he couldn't show anyone. He wasn't planning on taking anyone there until the Catalyst was recharged from his use of it, so that someone else in the resistance could use the Catalyst. He said that the guardians of the Catalyst told him it could be up to two months of waiting before it was ready to use again."

"Then Wilcox probably has to keep Albus alive for two more months," said Desulgon. "He wouldn't take Albus to the Catalyst before then—he'd risk alerting the guards of the Catalyst about his plans before the Catalyst was charged enough to be used, and they might be able to prepare a defense before he comes back. So he'll keep Albus alive until he's sure the Catalyst is ready to use again… he'll wait the whole two months, what's he have to hurry about if he's finally captured Albus?"

"So," said Dodecus, "two months is how long we've got to find Albus before Wilcox is possibly done with him and disposes of him?"

Mia cracked her knuckles. "We'd better start now."

O

Teddy leaned over to the water, and tapped eleven times on the surface to summon Aethan and the Liner.

"And it's definitely a Horcrux?" asked Aidan optimistically.

"We think it has to be," said Teddy. "Aethan says there's little else it could be, considering the size compared to the power, and the fact that it's inside a Mexican pyramid means it matches Albus's description exactly. So if it's a glass goblet like we hope it is, there'll be no question it's Wilcox's Horcrux."

Alec peered off into the distance. "And if that's what I hope it is," he said, "we're about to get some backup!"

The cloud of emotion poured into Alec's body, and they could see six brooms closing in on them rapidly, just as the Liner crested and broke the surface in front of them.

"Six brooms?" asked Aidan. "Even if Dodecus and Rebecca joined Exo, Mia, and Cynthia… that would only be five. Who's the sixth?"

Mia's raven Patronus and Exo's butterfly Patronus preceded them. The brooms pulled up, and indeed they and Cynthia were accompanied by Dodecus and Rebecca, but the sixth person with them was unfamiliar.

"Who's this?" asked Victoire, looking at the sixth person, glancing around to see if anyone recognized him.

"Well," said the man, clearing his throat, "it's a long story, and I should probably preface—"

"It's Desulgon," said Mia excitedly.

Exo slapped a palm to his face again.

"WHAT?!" blurted Aidan, Alec, Teddy, and Victoire together.

Desulgon grinned sheepishly. "In person," he said. "I think."

"Did he… Did he clone himself?" asked Alec, eyes wide.

"No," said Desulgon. "I mapped my brain, and inserted a copy of it into a body that I built from scratch. That's the short version, anyway."

"Glad you found us," said Aidan, "but who's guarding the lunar portal?"

"No one," said Rebecca. "Dalton will be making preparations to destroy the lunar base. Wilcox found us there."

"Shit," said Teddy. "Did you recover everything you needed?"

"I packed a few important items in anticipation of such an event," said Desulgon. "So, yes—I have some things that will be useful."

"We're glad you love-tracked us, then," said Victoire. "We could use some help here. We're about to go to Mexico and take out Wilcox's last Horcrux."

"By the way, that is an absurdly effective method of locating someone," said Desulgon. "I realize this was probably already tried, but would searching for Albus work using Janelle?"

"We've tried," said Aidan. "But they only really saw each other a handful of days over several years. Maybe it will be true love eventually, but if their relationship could get there, it hadn't had the time to develop all the way yet."

Desulgon nodded.

"Hey! Hurry up, would you? Any moment this ship is surfaced is a moment it's vulnerable!"

They looked over to the Liner; the shout had come from one of the crew of the Liner still Imperiused by Aethan, since Aethan couldn't do the shouting himself.

"Wait," said Desulgon as they began to move. "Everyone else can go, but, Alec. I need your help with something."

Alec began walking towards the Liner.

"Alec?" called Desulgon. "Did you hear me?"

Alec turned. "Hold up a second," he said, confused. "You did say 'Alec'? That wasn't just me mishearing you?"

Desulgon laughed. "Yes. Alec. I need your help. Could you come with me instead? Everyone else is going to Mexico, it seems, but I was hoping you could give me some assistance in an important operation I'm trying to complete."

Alec shook his head. "Are you sure you didn't mean Aidan?"

"He's sure," said Aidan, patting Alec on the back. "Go with Desulgon, okay? We'll take care of the Horcrux."

Alec nodded, but he looked extremely nervous.

"No need to worry," said Desulgon, clapping a hand on Alec's shoulder. "I know you can do this. In fact, this idea I'm trying to set in motion… I got the idea from you!"

Alec beamed with pride as Desulgon tightened his grip and Disapparated with Alec in tow.

As they jumped aboard the Liner and walked into the cabins, Rebecca exercised her arm for the motions of Ahoulagata, one of her massively powerful specialty spells, which could pull a tidal wave from a nearby body of water and crash where she directed it. Their plan was to fill the pyramid with a low level of water; they'd be chased by guards if they went in the front, and there were many booby traps and curses set around the entrances to the pyramids, but if they filled the pyramids with some water, they could drive the Liner right into the pyramid and surface in the interior, right where Wilcox's Horcrux would be stashed. Aidan checked inside his pack to see Jedeza there, waiting patiently with her blindfold on for the moment she was needed to take out the Horcrux.

Aidan took a cabin with Exo, Mia, and Cynthia. Mia handed something to Cynthia—some sort of potion—and Cynthia downed the potion immediately. The potion turned out to be Inevertre, the potion that made love come out of the body; the potion their group used when they were using love-tracking.

"Why are you doing that with Cynthia?" asked Aidan. "Did Desulgon not tell you where he was going with Alec?"

"No, he told us," said Exo as the love began to pour outside of Cynthia's body. "We're just testing something out…"

"We still don't know if that's actually technically Desulgon in that body," said Mia. "There's one way at least to find out for sure…"

"Stolidify," said Cynthia, directing her wand at her own head.

The cloud of emotion did not move. It hovered close to Cynthia. Even as they descended with the Liner, the emotion stayed right next to her head the whole time. It made no attempt to jet off to find Desulgon.

Aidan stared into the cloud. He was so soothed by its presence, but still he felt a bit of dread creeping into him. Did that mean that Desulgon hadn't truly succeeded in reconstructing his essence into that body? Despite a fully human form, and a fully human mind… something was lacking.

The soul?

Was there any way Desulgon could have replicated that into his body?

"Should we tell him?" asked Aidan.

Cynthia stared blankly up into the cloud. "Maybe after the war," she said impassively.

Exo thrust a finger into Mia's chest. "Don't you dare," he warned.

O

Albus breathed slowly. He could not see, hear, or feel anything except himself; he was trapped, floating in a void without gravity, a prison Wilcox had created with the Paracosmic Devoctrix to prevent anyone from being able to sense Albus from the outside world, just like Wilcox couldn't sense Albus in the Empire unless he was there with Albus. And in this house-sized universe, Albus was the sole inhabitant.

Entire weeks had already passed by, he knew, from the times he ate and slept. And he knew why Wilcox was keeping him alive, too: his brain informed him of Wilcox's plans, but he couldn't control any of his own actions to stop those plans or even delay them in the slightest. Albus had told Wilcox everything—he'd probably already killed Dodecus and Rebecca and everyone in the lunar base and was learning all of Desulgon's deepest secrets to become even more powerful—and Wilcox was now waiting until the Catalyst was definitely able to be recharged, so that he wouldn't have to risk Nelson and Ingot making preparations for his arrival if Wilcox stopped by too early before the Catalyst was done replenishing its power. How could he have been so stupid and careless? But then again, how had Wilcox known to impersonate Lucy exactly at that precise moment? It was almost as if Wilcox had been able to predict when he was going to try and rescue Lucy, but Albus had only just achieved the power of the Superstorm—how could Wilcox have known what Albus had just done and what his next act was?

Right now, the potion informed his mind, Wilcox was waiting until the first dose of Marionette's Medicine wore off, so that Wilcox could restrain Albus just in time for it to wear off so that he could administer the second dose without Albus retaliating in that window of freedom. Wilcox's internal commands reached Albus's mind even while isolated in this small Paracosmic world, and so Albus knew exactly what was going to happen in an hour: Wilcox was going to arrive to begin that process.

But despite Albus now knowing every single piece of Wilcox's plans because of the mental commands from the Marionette's Medicine, there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Wilcox would restrain Albus while he was still under mind control, and he would make sure the bonds held under any circumstance. Then he would administer the second potion, and Albus would be his slave for another entire month. After two months, they were going to go to the Catalyst and Albus would give his enemy the greatest power the world had ever seen. Meanwhile, Wilcox had forced Albus to release the power of the Superstorm Devoctrix… so even if Albus did manage to break out of Wilcox's hold eventually, he no longer had the power, and Wilcox would again be able to crush them all if he ever found them… and with the moon base compromised, he'd have nowhere to hide.

He could not scream, he could not flail, he could not cry. He had to wait, alone for weeks already and weeks to come, with the knowledge that he had destroyed the world.

An hour passed, and as his mind knew fully well, Wilcox was here to fasten new strings on his favorite puppet. Albus tried as hard as he could to break free, but he knew nothing could break Wilcox's hold.

The entryway to the Paracosmic world opened, and Wilcox floated into the prison with him, carrying two sets of handcuffs, assumedly magic-proof; he fastened them around Albus's wrists and ankles, and dragged Albus back out of the void. They passed through a curtain at the edge of a stone tunnel that Wilcox had turned into a Paracosmic prison, and Wilcox threw Albus down on the stones. The rock crept up his body, slowly encasing him, solidifying stronger and stronger with every spell Wilcox cast. Finally, Wilcox took out an orb that Albus had seen before—the Sandbloods' patented Spellsplitter, which prevented any magic from being used in the area for a long time after it was used—and he smashed it on the floor.

An aura radiated out from the smashed sphere, and Albus felt his magic go out. Wilcox took out another vial of Marionette's Medicine, slid a narrow tube through Albus's obedient lips and straight down his throat into his stomach, and waited patiently.

Finally, the first dose of Marionette's Medicine wore off, and Albus knew the timing since he was receiving all relevant information from Wilcox's mind; he struggled and twitched his body around, but the rock was holding him tightly and he had no magic. Desulgon could cast Devoctrices with just his mind—Albus furiously envisioned his hands casting the Spirit Guard Devoctrix again, to help him out of this mess, he didn't care if he got the Contagion again or even went insane, he just couldn't be here—

Wilcox grasped the funnel at the end of the long tube that was positioned in Albus's stomach, and he poured the Marionette's Medicine into the tube. It was so much potion; Albus tried to force himself to throw it up before it had any effect; he retched and wrenched his jaw in different directions, but it wasn't working, so he tried to bite through the tube—

And he was back into the iron grip of the MM. He whimpered inwardly, but his obedient body stopped struggling.

"Excellent," said Wilcox. "A few days after the next dose, it will have been over two months… and we can go pay the Catalyst, and Nelson and Ingot, a visit."

Albus nodded as Wilcox released the handcuffs. Wilcox pulled back the curtain, which was enchanted so that only Wilcox or his clones could pull it open, and Albus dutifully climbed back into the prison, floating into nothingness again. Inside, though, Albus's soul was roiling with fury, and he knew that one day, somehow or another, the tides would turn, and he was going to wipe every trace of Wilcox off of the face of the planet and every planet.

O

"Guess what day it is?!"

The excited voice drifted towards Lucy long before Lyle Grody rounded the corner, a grin way too big even for his stupid doughy face plastered on him. Grody was holding a condom in the air, wild eyes looking Lucy up and down as if he were seeing her for the first time.

Lucy's eye twitched. "I know what day it is."

"Good," said Grody, "so you've been thinking about it all day like I have? It's been a rough day, we're all going crazy on this new project the Man in the Shadows is obsessed with. But I looked forward to this for so long. Really the only thing getting me through everything."

He tossed the condom over his shoulder.

"That was just for show," he said. "We won't need that… right? Honestly, I'm hoping to have a little red-haired baby with you. Wouldn't that be swell?"

Lucy suppressed the rising vomit and met his stare.

Grody dropped his robes far outside the prison. Abby Quinn, the Slytherin from Albus's year who'd Bonded their Unbreakable Vow, stood by, her lip curled up in the same disgust as it had been the first time she was here. She obviously did not approve of Lucy using her body and sexuality in this way, as collateral for better treatment.

"As long as you're nearby and can hear me if I call for help, you don't have to watch or anything," said Grody over his shoulder to her, and Abby rolled her eyes.

Grody turned to face Lucy again, drinking in her figure once more. "Ah!" he said. "And before your body makes me forget, I have something for you…" He extracted a rose from his coat on the ground. It was healthy and vibrant. "One true red rose… as we discussed, I liked your idea to have one rose for each time we meet, so that we can keep track of how many times we get down with each other. So, here is the first rose."

He let go, and it floated into the cell, two of the petals brushing gently against the bars on either side as it passed through. Lucy caught the rose, and smiled—a softer smile than she actually wanted to, to avoid suspicion.

"So," said Grody, and he turned a key in the cell's door, opening it wide as he stepped in. "Why do you like roses so much?"

"Because they're one of the best flowering plants for casting spells," said Lucy with a grin.

The dumbstruck look on Grody's face filled her with joy as she turned the rose on him. "Incarcerous!"

Grody was enveloped with rope; the rose was nowhere near as powerful as a wand, of course, but it was keeping him occupied. Lucy leapt into a sprint, and as he was wrestling with the loose ropes still coiling around him, she grabbed his collar, yanked him backwards into the cell, and slammed the door behind her; it locked automatically.

An alarm was sounding already as Lucy turned her rose to Abby, who was scrambling to get her wand out, not having expected a conflict. Lucy Disarmed Abby, sending her first wand flying over Lucy's head and clattering into the hall, but Abby extracted a second wand.

Lucy dove for Abby's wand, scraping her fingers as she snatched it up off of the ground, in her clutch only barely enough for her to whip the wand around to Dissipate her opponent's strike. Lucy locked herself into combat, but Abby was a superb duelist in her own right, and this wasn't going to be easy—

Lucy was being backed down the hallway, and her eyes widened as Abby finally struck a Disarming Charm, and Abby's second wand lifted out of Lucy's hand; Abby caught it firmly, both wands directed at Lucy.

"Very clever," she sneered, "but not enough."

Lucy glanced down. Abby was standing right on top of Grody's robes…

Lucy grabbed the rose out of her pocket again and yelled, "Accio!"

The robes were ripped out from under Abby's feet, and she flipped over backwards. Lucy's next idea germinated instantly—how did Albus do this sort of stuff again, did he just kick the air…?

Lucy kicked the air hard, and performed a level wandless magic that she had never done before; then again, she was sitting in a cell with her magic building up inside for months, so it maybe wasn't such a surprise. Her kick blasted out a powerful pulse of energy that hit Abby's upper torso as she was falling to the ground; the impact spun her around, so that her head cracked against the stone wall of the dungeon with a loud crunch, and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"But—the Unbreakable Vow!" growled Grody, finally free of his ropes but stuck inside Lucy's prison cell. He grabbed the bars of the cell and shouted through them. "You'll die if you don't come back here!"

"I think you'll find that I requested you bring me flowers in order for me to acquiesce to your demands," said Lucy, holding up the rose. "Flowers, plural. And I don't know about you, but I only see one flower."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" roared Grody.

"Enjoy your time in there," said Lucy, stepping in front of the prison cell and grabbing up both of Abby's wands. "If we ever capture you back, I'm going to feed you gray slime for the rest of your gray, slimy life."

Grody mouthed words but was speechless. Lucy turned, knowing she might not have much time now that alarms were going off, and she sped down the hallway that was to the left when facing the prison cell. She turned down the right hallway, and recalled the path from this point which she'd memorized from Grody's footsteps every time he left her cell following dinner: Fifteen, right. Fifty-seven, left. Twenty-two, left.

After fifteen strides, she reached a fork in the hallway, and turned right. Only fifty-three strides instead of fifty-seven—but then again, she was running—she reached another turn, and she chose the left path. Just ahead, she could see the next left that she was supposed to take, but someone was chasing her down from behind.

She cast a fierce wind behind her and rounded the right hallway instead, and then pressed herself against the wall with a Disillusionment Charm and waited. When the guard ran around the corner, he skidded to a stop and looked around for her, until Lucy fired an Imperius Curse right into the side of his head, and he suddenly became her escort out of the prison complex.

Lucy kept on her Disillusionment Charm, so that when anyone looked in her direction, all they saw was the Imperiused guard running down the hallway, and nobody stopped to look twice. The guard led her through the maze of tunnels, and when they reached the exit, he inserted his wand into a scanner, and the door opened.

Sweet, sweet daylight enveloped Lucy's body, and she breathed in the fresh air deeply.

She ran from the compound until she was far enough away to be out of the range of any of its spells, and with a twist, she Disapparated. She left the Imperiused guard to defend the spot from which she had Disapparated, so that he could delay their attempts to follow her until she was long gone.

She set out to find her family. And now that she couldn't be used as a bargaining chip, it was time to strike back.

O

It's time, he knew instinctively.

It had been a little over a week since the third dosage of Marionette's Medicine that Albus had received. He obediently floated towards the curtain that separated him from the rest of the world, and almost immediately when he reached it, Wilcox pulled it open.

"It's time," he said with his distinctive sinister grin. He downed a potion, and he was transformed by the Polyjuice until he looked like Lucy Weasley, just as he had the night he had captured Albus.

Albus floated out, and set himself still in the center of the room. Wilcox grabbed him by the collar and Disapparated, and they reappeared in Egypt. Wilcox, with the unprecedented ability to teleport virtually anywhere, had brought them to Egypt; Albus now had to do the last leg of the teleportation to bring them directly to the Catalyst, since Wilcox didn't know its precise location. With Wilcox's grip still tight on his neck, Albus was the one to Disapparate next.

They appeared on a patch of sand that immediately cleared away to reveal the seal of the Pandoran Catalyst underneath.

Albus was in full panic. If Nelson and Ingot were looking out of their house now, they would only see Albus and his cousin headed into the Catalyst—they wouldn't know that he needed rescuing.

Wilcox stepped into the center of the seal, and Albus stepped out, knowing that it wasn't a great idea for a bystander to be inside while the Catalyst was being activated. Wilcox vanished instantly, and that was it.

He was inside the Catalyst. Getting the power of the Superstorm. The seal turned bright purple as the power inside began to activate.

Albus stood still, commanded to do so and unable to fight the command. He could do this—he was gifted in mental magic—he struggled and fought and desperately hacked away at the strings that were holding him in place, the puppet strings that Wilcox was manipulating. It couldn't end like this… If he could just find a way to fight the MM, he could end it now—when Wilcox resurfaced, he would fire a Killing Curse into the man's head. Wilcox wouldn't be expecting it, he thought MM was flawless… the question remained, was it?

And then, suddenly, all hope vanished.

Ten Propheteers dropped out of the sky in front of him.

Wilcox was done with Albus now that he'd accessed the Catalyst—he'd be more than willing to allow Albus to die right now, and so Albus's marionette body did not move as the Propheteers raised hands towards him.

He was about to die, and Wilcox would be unstoppable.

One Propheteer was in the front of the rest—the one with a more ornate robe. He fired first, a bright white jet that struck Albus in the chest, and Albus's entire body seized up and dropped to the floor.

It hadn't been the killing blow yet, but he was sure it was coming…

"We should have been able to intercept Helio Wilcox sooner," said the Propheteer who had immobilized him. "It is the greatest failure in all the history of all our efforts. We will do our best to rectify it."

For the first time in the two months since he had been captured by Wilcox, a glimmer of hope lit inside Albus's heart.

"We understand that you are still alive because Helio Wilcox is still alive," continued the ornately-robed Propheteer. "He took steps to conceal his true intentions. We were prevented from knowing that there was more than one of him. We will do everything in our power to assist you until Helio Wilcox can be killed for eternity." He grabbed Albus's wrist. "You will be the next to go once he is gone. But we will help you to defeat him first. You have the full force of the Propheteers behind you now. If you ever need us—use the incantation Destinate."

He reached into his robe and extracted a wand—Albus's second wand, and it glowed brightly even in the direct sunlight as it was reunited with its owner.

The Propheteer tucked the wand into Albus's robes and Disapparated, reappearing with a crack in a dark cave lit only by a fire. Then, he let go of Albus, and Disapparated once more, leaving Albus on the ground where he lay.

"STAND DOWN!" came a most wonderfully familiar shout. "Stand down, and reveal yourself, or we will cast to kill!"

He could not move, and even if he could he was still bound by the Marionette's Medicine, but the Albus inside the shell was crying for joy at the sound of his father's voice.

"Stay on the ground! Release your wands! Don't—"

An otter Patronus raced into the sky above Albus, and there were multiple gasps.

"Albus!"

"It's Albus!"

"Blimey—how the bloody hell did he find us here?!"

"Why isn't he moving?"

Ginny approached Albus, and fired off a human-presence-revealing spell; the halo above Albus's head was not its usual red-orange, but a very pale blue. "He's Body-Bound," said Ginny. "By a very powerful person. But he's alive! Thank Merlin—for a moment I thought they were delivering us his corpse as a message…"

"Don't revive him yet," said a voice, and Lucy came into view—Lucy! Albus's relief spread even further throughout his body at the knowledge that Lucy had somehow gotten out of her holding cell. "Not until we check him for the Marionette's Medicine. Do we have the ability in here?"

"We do," said Aunt Hermione's voice, and there was a puff of gas over Albus's body.

The gas turned bright green.

"Well, shit," said Uncle Ron, stepping forward. "He is a marionette. But why is he unconscious?"

Albus's brother and sister stepped into the light of the Patronus, and he was absolutely overjoyed to see them—he just had to wait three weeks until the Marionette's Medicine wore off until he could hug them like he wanted, but it was better than staying in Wilcox's prison.

"Someone must have delivered him here," said Lily. "Knowing we could help him!"

"But who?" asked James. "There isn't anyone else here—Mum's spell would have revealed them…"

"Enough chatting," said a less familiar, drawling voice.

Albus felt a foot slide under the back of his head, lifting it up, and then a large hand tipped a potion into his mouth, with a wand in the person's other hand opening up his throat to coax the potion down.

As soon as the potion reached his stomach, he felt snapping sensations in all of his muscles and his brain, and he knew that the strings of the Marionette's Medicine had been severed.

He was revived from his Body-Bind, and he sat up, looking around.

Draco Malfoy had administered him the potion.

"Guess what little potion we found the cure for," said Draco, with a smirk.

Albus wasted no time in charging at his family, enveloping them all in an enormous hug. He held it for a long time, and so did they; he wanted this hug to make up for all the hugs that he should have shared with his family if they had been a normal family growing up in a normal world. Who knew when they would even get to hug again after this one?

"I missed you guys," he said. "So much."

"We're so happy you're safe," said Ginny, and even after they all let go, Lily held a death grip around Albus's waist.

"We've been pretty isolated from everything else going on while we focused all our efforts on curing the Marionette's Medicine," said Harry. "But we finally broke through on that front! Mind telling us what the situation is in the rest of the world?"

Albus nodded. "Fair warning… it's not pleasant."

"Oh, damn," said James, grinning. "It's not pleasant? Really? I was hoping that Wilcox had turned to a life of rainbows and tulips by now."

It was a dumb little jab, but the remark, so classically James, made Albus break down into tears of joy.

He was home.

It might not have been where he was born, or where he grew up—he had no idea where they were right now, honestly. But he was where his family was. And for a few precious moments, it was all that mattered.

Now all that mattered was keeping it that way.