Faith

Well, hey, we'd found one new and interesting thing about whatever the hell Angel was now– apparently he just did not show up on psychic radar. Our two flying glowing green dudes could see him just fine, but as soon as he moved out of their line of sight, or they had to focus on a different target, they completely lost him. Which he was currently taking advantage of by fading into the treeline to try and come at them from an angle we couldn't see either. What we didn't know, we couldn't give away, right?

Apparently these dudes were a pair of xenologists who'd been bodyjacked by the alien douchewads who'd started this whole mess, then left catatonic and partially transformed when the aliens decided a strategic retreat was called for. E's Shadow had apparently fixed 'em and brought 'em out of their trances, which meant they might not be all that brainwashed. Somebody who'd done that for me would have to do a hell of a lot to lose my loyalty, I gotta say.

Nick had joined us pretty fast, armed with a sling of all things, which he'd been loading with clods of dirt scooped up from the ground. They didn't do much damage, but hits to the face were distracting and fucked up vision something fierce.

Problem is, we were on a time limit. The sun was climbing fast, and not only did that mean we were getting close to Ascension time, it also meant that it was getting fucking bright. I gave us maybe fifteen more minutes, tops, before the light levels out here meant that Angel was as blind as a bat without a good pair of shades. Which we, of course, did not have.

I snuck another glance at the sun, which was just starting to clear the top of the ship's dome. We were outta time, and I don't mind admitting that my heart climbed right up into my throat as I saw the forcefield around the thing pulse deep blue once, twice, then a third time, before the entire thing broke up into shards. The sound of shattering crystal, real familiar to all of us by now, rang out at the same time, as something knocked both Sopler and Hoffman out of the air, though they managed to land on their feet. They turned toward us, eyes flaring with a sputtering green light– and then Angel just appeared out of the bush behind them, grabbing both of them by the backs of their necks. Like flipping a switch, the light in their eyes flickered out and they both went down in a pair of groaning heaps.

"Did we win?" Reno asked, hand still hovering near his sidearm just in case. Definitely thinking I liked this dude.

Hicks looked over at Nick, who was still staring at the ship. "Well, Worm Guy? What's the prognosis?"

"The local energy field is settling down," he said, almost absently. "I think the pocket of twisted space is dissolving. Or… untwisting. Or something, I'm a biologist."

Over on the ground, Dr. Sopler, the taller one, sat up, rubbing at his head. "Ugh… What the hell was that?"

"Synaptic recalibration," his partner replied, not opening his eyes or moving from where he was sprawled. "Whatever he did, he rebooted our brains. Which is good, because I think we were crashing, and once was more than enough for me."

Sopler made a face. "Agreed." He looked up at Angel. "Thank you, whoever you are– although I am a little curious as to exactly what you did."

Angel shrugged. "Uh… basically cut you off the network. The energy field on the island kind of had you all on the same… server, I guess, in computer terms? When one mind on the network dropped off, it made things unstable, so I… uh, isolated you."

"How exactly did that work, anyway?" I asked, moving over to help Sopler to his feet. Hoffman looked like he didn't wanna try moving just yet, so I left him alone.

Another shrug. "Totally spitballing, but I'm basically a magical sentient with darkness and blood attributes now, right? Darkness is also concealment and isolation."

"You seem pretty calm about the whole 'magic' thing," Hicks commented, as Sopler wobbled slightly beside me.

He waved a hand, running the other one over his beard absently. "I'm a quantum physicist, there are a lot of things we do that would have been called magic even five years ago. Also I spent the last two years partially transformed into a completely different species. At this point, I am not going to disbelieve anything."

"Neurologist," Hoffman said, still flat on the ground. "You learn real fast that brains can do damn near anything, so yeah, I'm fine with magic. That said, I refuse to think about anything seriously until I have at least one beer in me."

"There's a bar in the Officer's Club," Reno offered. Hicks raised an eyebrow in his direction, and he shrugged. "Just sayin'."

Monique was givin' both dudes the once-over, more considering than suspicious. "Do you retain any of your previous abilities?"

Sopler shook his head. "Not that I can tell, and I'm just as glad, thank you. Come on, Ted, get your ass up, I'm not bringing the beer out here to you."

"You're no true friend," Hoffman grumbled, but he pushed himself into a sitting position. Out in the ocean, the ship rumbled, then flashed blue and disappeared, water streaming into the hole left in its wake. Luckily, most of the ship had remained above water, so we didn't get a tsunami or anything.

A second after that, there was a sound like somebody tearing through paper, and E and Doc appeared right in front of us. He looked pretty good, although he could definitely use a brush and a ton of detangler. She, on the other hand, was leaning on him pretty heavily and looked like she needed a month of naps. But she had a cat-that-ate-the-canary smirk, and I didn't see any pieces missing.

"Yo. Miss us?" she said, waving a hand. Something glimmered around her wrists, and I saw she was wearing a pair of crystal cuff bracelets, sparkling in the sun.

Nick's face was almost as bright as the sparkles. "Mendel! Elsie! What the hell happened?"

Doc sighed, shifting his grip on E to pull her a little closer. "To summarize? Elsie talked her Shadow into recombining. It was all very emotional and dramatic, but neither of us have had more than six hours sleep, and none of that was very good."

"Also, I'm combining two sets of memories from the last two days, plus integrating with all the knowledge my Shadow got out of the computers," E announced. "I am not entirely sure I can spare the neurons to walk right now."

Hicks sighed, rubbing his face. "Okay, fine, we just need to figure out what the hell I'm going to tell the brass about this one."

"Dr. Preloran kidnapped Elsie to send a bio-tech alien infiltrator unit wearing her appearance back in her place," Nick offered. "It had other ideas, though, killed Preloran, and tried to take the planet for itself. It attacked Sandy Point, took over the base here, and was planning to use it as a base for a conquest of the planet. We infiltrated, sabotaged its plans and destroyed its gear. The infiltrator was destroyed by the energy backlash."

Hicks stared at him for a long moment, and I had to admit, I was impressed. No part of that statement was a lie, or even what Xander sometimes referred to as a "Jedi truth." Sure, it left out some kind of important points, but those weren't really anybody else's business, were they?

"Lord, I'm glad you're not a lawyer," Hicks said at last, making Nick grin and everybody else, including Sopler and Hoffman, chuckle. "Okay, fine, I can do that. We implying that the infiltrator had both Craven and Chapman hostage?"

E nodded, then yawned. "I was a useful tool once, probably could be again, right? Just don't need to mention that the thing didn't just bring me along after killing Preloran."

"Okay, great. We've got guest quarters on base, I can put you guys up in some of those easy enough. Catch some shut-eye while I try and get the rest of this shit hammered out. – Except you two yahoos," he said, looking at Reno and Rude. "You two get to help me with the reports."

"Ya help save the world, and this is the thanks you get, yo," the redhead muttered.

Hicks snorted. "Try being an officer."

"You could not pay me enough. Sir."

Yeah, definitely needed to get this guy to come hang out in LA.

Hicks

Eight hours later, I'd been chased out of the commander's office by Dr. Delgado, backed up by Colonel Abernathy himself on the other end of the sat phone. I'd protested that I was one of the only people on the base who'd maybe had a good night's sleep in the past twenty-four hours, which… hadn't exactly gone over well with the good doctor. She'd pointed out, in small and mostly profane words, that being sedated by an alien being intent on using me as bait and leverage to ensure that HEAT and the local soldiers kept dancing to her tune was not restful, and that I should get my ass off-duty if I didn't want to be duct-taped into the world's biggest burrito ration. I know when I'm outclassed, and bowed out as gracefully as possible. (In other words, I ran like hell.)

It was easy enough to find Nick, though, once I'd left the base. All I had to do was follow the trails to the empty cove on the western side of the island, where Dupres and I'd fought the Wind Guardian. Sure enough, there was Godzilla, sprawled out on the beach taking in the sun, with Nick sprawled out on top of his head doing the same. One orange eye cracked open as I got near, and I stopped, taking a seat on one of the nearby boulders poking out of the sand.

Sitting up, Nick patted his lizard on the head, then carefully dropped the ten feet to the beach below. Dusting himself off, he headed over as I stood to greet him.

"Major," he said, with a smile that could have powered the base for a month. "Done with the paperwork?"

"Paperwork is never done, just temporarily abated," I replied. "But I'm not allowed to work past shift change, orders from the Colonel and the base psychiatrist. That's what Captains are for, apparently. Still, I filled out about five different reports covering this mess, and arranged for a boat to come pick you guys up and take you back to LA. All told, it's going to be something like four days, though."

He shrugged. "Wesley and Fred can probably keep Randy out of trouble for that long. I hope, anyway. Speaking of reports, what did you say about the ship?"

Now it was my turn to shrug. "The impostor pulled it out of who-knows-where, and when she was taken out, the ship disappeared again. All true. But out of curiosity, now that I won't be lying to a superior officer about it, where did it go?"

"Elsie sent it off to rest somewhere on the ocean floor in international waters. We're still not entirely sure what to do with it, but there's a lot of information there that… we're not entirely sure we want to hand over to the US Government just yet. If at all."

Yeah, I could kind of get that. "Well, it's not Hivemind tech, it's not Army property, and it's not here, so right now, it's not my problem. And I think I'm gonna hope it stays that way."

"Amen." Nick looked back at his lizard, snuggled down in the sand. "... Are you okay? Faith said they'd just sedated you, but then I did that cleansing, which… uh, I kind of had to make up on the spot. And after that, there wasn't really much time for anything."

"I'm fine, the base doctors gave me a clean bill of health," I assured him. "But what exactly did you do?"

He still didn't look at me, instead playing with the paracord bracelet he'd taken to wearing recently. "Fire purifies, burns off toxins, deadwood, that sort of thing. And fire's my best element. I just had to take my anger that somebody'd tried to hurt you, again, and rein it in until it only burned out the drug."

… I was beginning to get how Giles felt, riding herd on three kids who were constantly rewriting the book on what was supposed to be possible. All of a sudden, I was very grateful Nick had figured out a way to steal a march on the Shadow before she was ready, because if she'd managed to turn him, we'd have been in deep shit.

And crap, that's why she'd grabbed me. From what Nick had explained to me earlier today… last night… whenever, he and the rest of HEAT were screened from telepathic control thanks to having Hive DNA in a very specific proportion. Which meant that turning Nick wouldn't be as easy as turning the soldiers here. She'd have needed leverage, and incentive. And given that she was trying to save the world– well, a lot of things can start seeming justified at that point.

"Don't even start, Worm Guy," I sighed, reading my thoughts echoed in the tight line of Nick's shoulders. "If you even think about trying to apologize for what happened here, I will get Monique to work me into your morning sparring rotation just so I can kick your ass."

A snort of laughter, real even if it was a little bitter. "I just… You got hurt because of me."

It was times like this I was almost sorry I'd never gotten a chance to beat the shit out of Cameron Winter. I devoutly hoped that in whatever afterlife might exist, something big and mean was doing it for me.

"I got sedated and slept through the whole thing, Nick, I'm not hurt. And it wasn't because of you, it was because a bunch of alien assholes and a quisling xenologist decided they were gonna play God and let something loose they had no hope of controlling. It's not your fault, Nick. None of it is."

Nick took a deep breath, and then blew it out, letting his shoulders relax. "I guess I'm just… waiting for the house of cards to fall down," he admitted. "In the last three years, I've gone from digging worms out of the exclusion zone and seeing people other than Randy maybe once a year, to… well, HEAT and Godzilla. And now Buffy, and…" He trailed off, but I got it.

I got what else he wasn't saying, too– that it wasn't just the good things that had exploded into this new world. Sure, he'd gotten HEAT, and Godzilla, and rekindled his relationship with Audrey… but he'd also had to deal with people hunting Godzilla for money or power or prestige. Cameron Winter had come back into his life, and had found a new way to torture Nick– by threatening everyone he cared about. And as for Audrey, well, the two of them had been slicing each other up even as they kept desperately trying to make things work.

And sure, meeting Buffy and finding out about his actual heritage (and getting that damn limiter taken off) had been incredibly good for him, taking pressures off that he hadn't even known were there– but that had come at the cost of Kieran Drake coming out of nowhere, scrambling his brain and forcing Nick to get up close and personal with the parts of himself that he kept locked down for a damn good reason. It was really too bad the bastard's body had evaporated when King Ghidora'd been banished– I had a sudden desire to go dig up his skull and play kickball with it.

"We're not going anywhere, Worm Guy," I told him seriously. "Any of us. We all picked this crazy roller-coaster, and we're gonna see it through to the end of the line. Whatever that might be."

He finally looked over at me and smiled. "Thanks, Major." Then he seemed to shake off his mood. "So. It's late afternoon… I think. If we got something to eat now, would it be lunch or dinner?"

"Hell if I know, but regardless, we probably should eat something," I replied. "I can get you into the Officer's Mess. The food's the same as for the enlisted guys, but it's a hell of a lot safer."

"Safer?" he asked, falling in beside me as we headed up the trail.

"I'm not the only one who got off-shift. Last I saw, Private Flynn and Sergeant Bleakman had snagged a back table in the mess and were swapping stories about their crazy family members." I'd heard a few of Greg Bleakman's tales about his cousin Miles, and I was sure of only one thing– nobody should ever let that kid meet Nick. Apparently, talking his way into and then out of an armed standoff between the cops and a desperate cargo pilot was one of the tamer things the little shit had pulled.

Nick grinned. "Afraid I'll get ideas, sir?"

"Hell yes, and I don't need another ulcer!"

He was laughing too hard to answer for pretty much the rest of the trip back.

Mendel

Somebody'd delivered four sets of t-shirts from the base PX while I'd been showering, so at least I had something fresh to wear. I wasn't generally a t-shirt guy, but beggars can't exactly be choosers, and at least the same somebody had been nice enough to leave a bottle of SPF 50 and a broad-brimmed straw hat with the shirts. We were getting on towards summer here, and it was the tropics– I'd carbonize if I wasn't careful.

Clean, decently clad, and smelling only faintly of coconut, I headed out into the waning afternoon, following… really just a hunch, honestly. The hunch paid off, though, because I found Elsie down at the beach by the boat docks, staring out at the empty ocean where a giant spacecraft had been parked half a day before.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

She looked up and scooted over slightly, making space on the boulder she'd perched on. I took the offer, and the seat, and felt my heart jump just slightly as she linked her arm with mine and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Still mostly processing," she said honestly. "I've mostly managed to get things separated into three bins– Elsie Prime, Shadow Elsie, and The Download. Getting the memories integrated is my first priority, and I'm mostly done with those. I just have to not think too hard about the fact that some of these things were happening at exactly the same time. The Download's going to take longer, but they're not my memories, so as long as I keep them locked up, I don't have to worry about repression issues. They're just… information."

I nodded. "A lot of information. There's an old joke at MIT that trying to get an education there is like trying to get a drink from a firehose. I imagine accessing the Hivemind's information would be kind of the same thing, at least without precautions."

A sigh, and she squeezed my arm. "Yeah, pretty much. On the bright side, I'm feeling a lot more together than I have for a while. Even before all of this. Which is not to say that I don't… I really, really need to look into getting therapy. I told myself that I was handling things, and I mostly was, but 'mostly' isn't really good enough. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and see if Buffy can get her therapist to give me a referral. Might be the only way I can find somebody with the qualifications and clearance both to handle this kind of mess."

"Yeah, I hear you. I've been going to someone Ray recommended, but I've kind of… not mentioned the aliens? I mean, technically, none of us actually signed any NDAs, but the government slapped a Classified status on it for what was actually a pretty good reason, so."

"... So, as weird as this sounds, sorry about kidnapping you. I promise, that's not usually how I like to handle relationship upgrades." Her usual snark was creeping back into her tone, which made me feel a lot better.

"Good, I like feeling special. Apology unneeded, but accepted. I won't say it was my idea of a romantic excursion, but I get that you weren't entirely yourself at the time. The entire alien spaceship to explore was pretty nice, though, I have to admit."

Holding up one hand, she twisted it so the waning sunlight glittered off the crystal cuff on her wrist. "Yeah, well, that part's still on offer. I don't have the power to do point to point teleportation anymore, but as long as I've got these, I can go to and from the ship, and probably take at least one person with."

"Which is why you moved it?"

A nod. "Yeah, I… it doesn't have weapons on it, it's a library. From what I can parse out of the memories of diving into its databanks, the original owner called it… well, it translates to 'The Archive.' Probably something I'd want to let Wes and Giles at, even. After I've gone through it a bit more, of course. But still, I think it's probably a good idea to keep it quiet, at least for a while."

I couldn't help but snort. "Yeah, I don't think anybody's ready for some of the worms in the can this thing unlocks. El Gusano would look like so much fish bait."

"No kidding. Glad you liked your present, though. She wanted– I wanted to win you over, but also just give you something to make you happy. That light in your eyes when you saw the engines? You have no idea how hard it was not to just pin you to a wall right there."

"Uh. Really?" I could feel my cheeks heating. Something about Elsie always made me feel like that chubby middle-schooler again, sure he was doomed to be followed by the words "He's got a great personality" forever.

She turned to grin at me. "Yes, really. I know for a fact I am not the only woman who has ever found you hot, Mendel. For one thing, you came back to the hotel in Tokyo wearing plum lipstick, which was really not your color."

"Ahm." Okay, Yukiko-san and I might have taken advantage of a quiet alcove in her lab to, uh, blow off a little steam, but… honestly, that had been more shared frustration and adrenaline leftovers. And okay, she probably had been attracted to me, but it hadn't gone that far, and we'd parted as friends. Friends with hickeys, but friends.

Elsie's expression softened. "I… crap, I haven't actually said it yet, have I? I love you, Mendel. Surprised the hell out of me, but somehow it just snuck in. You said something on the ship about expecting me to find somebody more like Nick, but– I love Nick, I do, but I'm in love with you. Sometimes your anxiety gets the better of you, but you always come through when the chips are down, and honestly? Sometimes you're the only one of us showing any damn sense. You're funny and you're kind, and you're petty as hell when you don't like somebody, which apparently I find incredibly sexy."

I laughed. "Okay, then. That's surprisingly comforting to know. And I should mention that, about Nick, I do get it. You guys are on the same, the same wavelength, I guess?"

Augh, how did I say this so it didn't sound like I was protesting too much? "I've known you guys had something special from the beginning, and I still asked you out, so it's not like I'm jealous or anything. And then when you grabbed me first instead of him, I guess that kind of clinched it, that I was what you wanted, not just what you were making do with."

"Definitely." Then her smile turned back into a smirk. "That said, Shadow-me wouldn't have been opposed to having a harem if you guys had been okay with it. I mean, he is pretty hot."

"Well yeah, I'm straight, I'm not blind," I replied, before dissolving into snickers myself. "I guess I just got used to comparing myself to other people, not just Nick, and coming up second."

"Gee, Mendel, I don't know anything about that," she snarked, rolling her eyes.

"Point. And I would like to state, just for the record, that I'm sure your sister has many fine qualities, but I have no idea what any of them might be."

This time her laugh echoed over the entire beach.

Wesley

"I believe that should be everything," I commented, as Faith returned from loading the last of the machinery into HEAT's rental car. Personally, I wasn't certain the vehicle in question merited the name, but according to Nick, it ran and they could afford the insurance, which was apparently a recurring problem for the team when working in places they couldn't reach via their boat. Apparently, Dr. Tatopoulos was blacklisted completely from several rental companies entirely due to lizard-related issues.

"Looks like it," the man in question agreed, looking over a checklist. A US Navy vessel had deposited our five travelers in the Port of Los Angeles yesterday, and had even arranged for a young airman from Edwards to meet them with Angel's GTX, which he had apparently cared for with all due reverence.

Angel and Faith had both been relieved to find that, while there had been a small problem with a group of vampires attempting to take over the operation of one of the local homeless shelters, Doyle's visions and Randy's skill with data mining had alerted us in plenty of time to take action. A simple call to Charles and Alonna Gunn had ensured that we would have more than enough manpower to deal with the issue. Not for the first time, I gave thanks that Angel and Doyle had been able to win the trust of the "crew" of local hunters by the time that Faith and I arrived in the city. The ensuing alliance had no doubt saved a number of lives.

"It's been an interesting experience," Angel commented, looking around the foyer of the hotel. He was, as usual, standing directly in a beam of sunlight, though at least his sojourn in the tropics appeared to have satisfied his need for actual basking. At least for now.

Elsie Chapman snorted, adjusting her gym bag over one shoulder. "That was incredibly diplomatic of you, I'm impressed."

He grinned at her. "I don't think any of us are particularly eager to repeat certain parts of it, but… If you guys come back to LA, we'll definitely be happy to see you again."

"Certain people especially," Faith snorted, inclining her head at Mendel and Fred, who were chatting happily away over something or other displayed on Mendel's laptop screen. Close by, Randy was explaining something or other to Doyle, probably about the computer system he'd spent the last four days designing for the agency. Doyle looked to be paying strict attention, but I made a note to myself to ask Randy to send me a copy of any documentation. Just in case.

"Which reminds me," I said, turning to Elsie, "please do stay in touch. I'm not Giles, I am perfectly capable of using email and text messages to communicate. While I am, of course, quite curious as to the contents of your new library, I'd also appreciate updates on… well, your status. You've been through a great deal, and there's no telling what further effects your reintegration might have."

She grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah, I get you. Oh well, at least finding our way through uncharted scientific and/or mystical territory is kind of Tuesday for us."

… Ouch, that was a rather uncomfortable parallel between herself and the creatures they studied, wasn't it? And of course, Nick was in a similar boat, since while half-Dragon's Teeth were hardly uncommon, few came into their gifts at thirty, and none had been bonded to a giant fire-breathing lizard. … that we knew of, anyway.

"And we'd probably better get moving if we want to make our flight," Nick commented, as Monique Dupres returned from… I wasn't sure I wanted to know what the woman had been doing, to be honest. It was likely safer that way. Seeing her enter, Randy and Mendel wrapped up their conversations and joined the group by the door.

"I… uh. Tell Buffy I said hi?" Angel asked hesitantly.

Nick's smile was wry, but he nodded. "I will."

"Doctor Tatopoulosssssss?" The hissing voice had everyone turning, Faith and Monique both producing weapons with their usual blinding speed. Off to my left, I could hear an ominous hum arising from Elsie's bracelets— or no, they'd apparently shifted back into gauntlets, though she was being careful to keep her hands hidden behind Nick.

Standing in the doorway was a giant snake– some eight to ten feet long, I surmised, with green scales and yellow eyes. It was also wearing what appeared to be a white dress shirt and black dress pants, both tailored for its lack of other limbs, plus a green-and-silver striped tie. A brown hard-sided briefcase sat on the tile floor near the supporting coils.

"Wes?" Faith asked, her gaze never leaving the snake, which was beginning to look slightly uncomfortable.

"Ah, our visitor would appear to be a Sh'lok," I answered, adjusting my glasses. "They're a, a collective mind, a sort of networked organism, one mind in many bodies. They generally work as attorneys for hire in the world of demons and magicals, sort of… legal mercenaries, if you will."

The Sh'lok nodded, tail coming up to pull at its collar uncomfortably. "Ah, yessss. It hasss come to the attention of my employersss that you are having isssuesss procuring legal represssentation. Our firm hasss empowered me to offer our ssservisssesss, asss we operate in many relevant areasss of the law." Slithering forward, the creature reached into its breast pocked and pulled out a business card– how, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps some type of tactile telekinesis. With almost exaggerated caution, and eyes never leaving Faith, it offered the card to Nick, who took it carefully and looked at it.

"Wolfram and Hart, Attorneys at Law." Looking back at the Sh'lok, Nick smiled. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't believe your services are something that we'll require." He held the card up between his index and middle fingers, and it quickly burst into green flame which vanished, leaving not even ash behind.

A forked tongue flickered in and out, as the Sh'lock seemed to wish it had lips that it could lick. "Underssstood. In that cassse, Doctorsss, I wish you a pleasssant day." Turning to pick up its briefcase, the Sh'lok slithered out of the hotel as fast as its coils would take it.

"Okay, I'll bite," Randy said, into the sudden silence. "Who're Wolfram and Hart?"

"High-end demon lawyers," Doyle responded, making a face of disgust.

"As in lawyers who work for demons?"

"As in lawyers who are demons," Nick replied flatly. "As in, their senior partners are the Senior Partners. Robin gave me a rundown. I think we'll stick with Ray D'antoni, thanks."

Mendel moved to put an arm around Elsie's shoulders, as her gauntlets slowly transformed back into bracelets. "You okay?"

She let out a gusty breath. "Yeah, I think so. Just… something about that guy put every hair on my back up. Maybe the demon signature clashing with these– they're tuned to interface psychic energy with native magic. Kinda like nails on a chalkboard."

"You don't react that way to Doyle," Fred pointed out.

"Doyle's half-human, of a humanoid demon species, and firmly filed under 'ally,'" Elsie responded, getting a bit more equilibrium as she considered. "If I am feeling it, it's weak enough to ignore."

Squeezing her shoulders, Mendel gave her a little smile. "Research ought to be fun, huh?"

"We really have weird ideas of date time. But, yes."

Monique cleared her throat. "My apologies, but if we wish to reach the airport with enough time to clear security, especially with our… special requirements, we should be leaving now."

A quick round of handshakes and/or hugs ensued, and soon enough, our guests were out the door. I had just turned to head back to my study when a thought occurred to me.

"Angel? Did the US Military ever come and pick up that dragonfly?"

Owari

A/N - The Sh'lok is used with all credit and apologies to Howard Tayler.

… Sooo, yeah, remember how I said at the end of "Sowing Dragon's Teeth" that it was sort of a return to my fanfiction roots? Well, in a slightly different way, so is this. From my earliest Power Rangers stuff, the concept of the Jungian Shadow has been a major influence in my work, one that I return to time and time again. And then, you know, I got into Persona, which didn't exactly HELP. Fun fact– Nick's brainwashing in "Sowing Dragon's Teeth" was originally intended to be a case of putting his Shadow in the driver's seat, until I read a Boku No Hero Academia fic that pointed out how much more fun using actual real mental modification techniques would be, and how much more psychoanalysis it would open up.

So having tormented Nick for something like seven fics straight, I decided it was time to make somebody else's life harder, and given my comments in previous fics about Elsie having PTSD from the aftermath of the Hivemind invasion, she seemed like a good target. Giving her Hivemind DNA grew mostly out of my thoughts and musings about the transformation of Drs. Sopler and Hoffman, and the whole No Biochemical Barriers nature of that mess. Also because it was one of the meaner things I could think of to do to the poor woman.

I also wanted to explore Elsie and Mendel's romance, because the show didn't really do it. Things just kind of got dropped in here and there, and then they got shoved into an official upgrade in the last few episodes. (Sorta. Production order and broadcast order don't line up, and shit got a bit garbled there.) Writing romance is always kind of weird for me, being aromantic myself, but I hope I managed to make things feel realistic.

And I will admit here that yeah, all four Guardian battles are based on the Blight Ganon battles in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Because I am a gigantic Zelda geek.

After this, I do have some further plans for this universe. We will, eventually, see more on Reno's history and the very unusual place he grew up, for one, and I haven't forgotten Season Five's canonical plot, either. But I have other projects on tap as well. So we'll just have to see where the lizard takes me, I suppose.