The portal had hardly opened into the Manor's Hero Study before Felix burst through, only pausing long enough to scan his thumbprint on the door reader before barreling out of the study with Dhuan trailing behind him and Barkk hovering near his head. Felix's head pounded, all the blood rushing to his head. He could hardly breathe; now that he was back in London, the concentration that had kept him focused all morning on finding Dhuan had finally broken. Only one thought ran through his head, one pressing need that had been unmet for almost three hours already. But no longer: he was going to see her, to see with his own eyes and his own hands that she was unhurt.

Pausing just outside of the Hero Study, Felix cocked his head to one side, concentrating on his hearing. The blood vessels thumped loudly in his ears, far too loud to hear anything else. Gritting his teeth, Felix forced himself to breath slowly and deeply, to relax the anxiety that had gripped his heart all day. Finally, the pounding in his ears abated, leaving silence behind. The second floor of the Manor was absolutely dead quiet. Looking up and down the hallway, every door was shut, including the doors to Anne's room and his room that he shared with Bri. The door to the master bedroom at the far end of the hallway was slightly ajar, though the room beyond was dark. Slowly, Felix turned in a full circle, listening intently for any sounds in the Manor.

"[Okay, what is going on]?" demanded Dhuan, following Felix out of the study more slowly and folding his arms. "[You need to explain what is happening here! You rescue me, then you call for assistance from Pegasus, only to instantly leave again, and with such an enigmatic statement. I want to know]–"

Felix held up his hand for silence and closed his eyes, concentrating on his hearing. His own heart, Barkk's soft breathing, Dhuan's quiet footsteps as he padded out of the study, the door shutting behind him with a click. From the hall bathroom, he could even hear the dripping of the faucet.

"We don't really know what's happening," Barkk explained to Dhuan softly. "But someone tried to kill Bri and Anne last night!" A low rumbling growl emanated from Dhuan's throat. "Felix wanted to come back right away to check on them, but we had to stay and find you."

Dhuan hummed. "[You have my thanks for the rescue, Dog]," he told Felix gravely, his quiet voice loud in the silence. "[I know how much it must have frustrated you to delay your return]."

"You can thank me by being quiet so I can listen," Felix grumbled, glaring at him halfheartedly.

Finally, faintly, the sound of voices echoed up from below. Felix cocked his head to one side, listening intently. At least three voices – no, four! A light, high-pitched giggle echoed off the stairwell. Felix turned in that direction, Barkk dropping down to land on his shoulder, her tail wagging eagerly against his shoulder blade. Felix furrowed his brows listening for the voices again. There were definitely four of them – coming from the main floor library, if he was hearing them correctly. Beside him, Dhuan leaned forward, all his muscles taut and ready to spring. Quickly, hardly daring to breathe, Felix sprinted down the stairs three at a time and charged through the open doorway at the bottom of the steps, into the library. His mother hardly looked up from her teacup, simply handing another biscuit to Duusu before taking a sip. On the couch across from her, however, both Anne and Bri jumped to their feet in surprise. Bri's bracelet controls sprang into her hands, the small retractable energy pistol barrels built into the bracelets deploying to point toward the doorway. Anne dropped one foot back as the ferns in planters around the room suddenly bristled with razor-sharp leaves and the sapling next to her extended two of its branches. Finally, Bri's eyes focused on Felix, and she hit the button to retract her bracelets' energy pistols, stowing away the bracelet controls.

"God, Pup, don't startle me like that!" Bri warned him, frowning in irritation and clutching at her chest. "You could've given me a heart attack! Or I would have shot you through the chest. After last night, we've all been jumping at shadows…" Felix blinked, staring at Bri in shock, his mouth opening and shutting dumbly as he tried to find the words to speak. Bri cocked her head to one side in confusion, staring at him with furrowed brows. "What?"

Waving for the plants to relax, Anne cleared her throat and arched her eyebrows, smirking. "Oh, hi, Felix! So nice of you to join us! I hope the trip wasn't too long…"

Felix's mother hummed, munching on a biscuit as she turned to watch them. "It couldn't have been too long," she mused. "After all, they did come via portal. Although how they actually got to a portal I'm sure will be an interesting story!"

Without taking his eyes off of Bri, Felix all but glided across the room, hardly noticing when his feet moved, and gently placed his hands on her upper arms, almost afraid to touch her lest she vanish. Bri's breathing hitched as his hands made contact with her bare skin; her eyes widening, she gulped. Felix ran his hands up and down her arms, drawing in a shuddering breath and sniffling. "I–I could have lost you," he whispered, looking her up and down and squeezing her shoulders gently.

Bri swallowed, sniffling, and blinked tears out of her eyes, looking back into Felix's eyes as Barkk settled on her shoulder, curling up with her tail wagging rapidly. "I–I–"

"Yeah, we definitely could have gotten hurt in that explosion," Anne agreed, stifling a laugh. Opposite her, Felix's mother covered her mouth primly with one hand, her shoulders shaking. Duusu started to giggle, and his mother grabbed the Kwami with her other hand, holding his mouth shut.

Loping down the stairs after Felix, Dhuan stepped partway into the library and leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded and a frown on his face. "[Will someone please explain what has happened]?" he demanded. "[Felix has not explained a thing since he found me]."

"Dhuan!" Felix's mother greeted him, sighing in relief. "I am glad to see you in one piece. When Bri said you were missing, we feared the worst."

"Dè thachair dhut?" asked Anne her eyes widening curiously. "

"[Some figure in armor attacked me as I was looking for clues]," explained Dhuan, shaking his head and grimacing. "[They blindsided me before I could defend myself]."

"Duine ann an armachd? A bheil thu air do ghoirteachadh?"

"Someone in armor attacked you? How odd. Do you mean like the Knight or Lancer?" wondered Felix's mother.

Felix stared into Bri's eyes, swallowing hard, his hands moving down her arms to take her hands into his own. She smiled at him, not quite hiding the confusion on her face. Rubbing the backs of her hands with his thumbs, he sighed, feeling the anxious tension that had gripped him ever since he had seen that video beginning to fade away. She was here. She was safe. She was uninjured. Finally, everything was right in the world. Cautiously, he raised her hands to his lips, kissing first one and then the other hand across her knuckles.

"Felix?" whispered Bri, surprise and confusion mingled in her expression. She coughed. "What–what's wrong?"

Felix swallowed anxiously, some of the fear returning only to fade once more. "I just – I could have lost you. You were in trouble, and I wasn't here. I'm so sorry I wasn't here when you needed me the most," he murmured. "If–if you'd been hurt while I was away… I don't think I would ever have forgiven myself."

She chuckled softly, quirking an eyebrow at him. "You knew I was safe," she pointed out. "I told you I was here when it happened. Honestly," she added wryly, "we were never in any danger, given that we've been living here for the last couple months!"

He smiled wanly and pulled her into a tight embrace. "True," he acknowledged, burying his face in her shoulder, inhaling her scent, running his hands up and down her back and pressing her flush against his chest. Bri hugged him back fiercely, playing with the hairs on the back of his head. His smile warmed. "But I needed to see and touch you for myself. To know that you were okay."

"I'm fine, too, by the way," Anne interjected from the couch, arching an eyebrow. "Yup, I'm fine, too. Though I did need to grow a new sapling, since the old one is holding up the flat."

"You'd had that sapling for… several months, correct?" asked Felix's mother, her eyes widening in surprise.

Anne nodded. "Longer, even. That was the same sapling I'd been carrying since before the Tarasque showed up in London – just after our trip to Germany, in fact."

"I suppose it went to a good cause at least," Felix's mother pointed out.

Leaning back slightly to look her in the eye, Felix pressed a kiss to Bri's lips, holding it for a long moment before finally breaking the kiss. "I promise," he told her firmly, "until this is all over, I'm not leaving your side for anything. As long as I can still breathe, I will never let you get hurt again."

She arched an eyebrow. "I can take care of myself, you know."

He nodded. "I know. And I can take care of you, too."

She sighed, leaning into him and resting her head against his chest, just below his chin. "Thanks, Pup."

Anne snorted, arching an eyebrow at Felix's mother. "You ever get the feeling we're not actually wanted?"

Felix's mother shrugged. "Welcome to mothering a teen!"

Felix frowned, separating slightly from Bri and wrapping his arm around her shoulder, holding her to his side. Looking around the room at the other three, he asked, "So, what's the situation?"

"[I am very curious to know that, also]," Dhuan rumbled, looking back and forth between them.

Bri shook her head helplessly. "Papa is here – I ran into his partner right after the bombing, helping to rescue Jennifer after the wall had collapsed and pinned her. He says the Lynchpin is responsible for the bombing, because they turned on him. Supposedly he's here to protect me – or me, me, rather."

Felix hummed, examining her closely. "You don't believe him?"

Anne arched an eyebrow. "Would you, under the circumstances?"

Felix pursed his lips pensively. "Lynchpin bombing your flat to get back at your dad would make sense," he allowed. "Certainly it would make more sense than if your father had bombed it himself, if that's what you were thinking."

Bri shook her head adamantly. "Father would never do that," she insisted. "He loves me too much to actually try to hurt me – I know that much. But beyond that…" She shrugged, frowning. "I'm not sure what to think at the moment." She fell silent for a moment. "I found Mecha-Man in the middle of beating up a man on the east side of the city, earlier today. He said he was one of the Lynchpin's men, but I couldn't find any other evidence that the Lynchpin or any of his men had been there before."

"What do you think that was about?" Felix asked.

She shook her head helplessly. "I haven't a clue what it could mean," she told him. "Believe me, I wish I did."

He let out a breath, rubbing gentle circles on her back. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out – one way or the other."


AN: As always, Scots Gaelic is the "Proto-Celtic stand-in," courtesy of Google Translate. The magic of the miraculous enable their holders to understand Dhuan specifically; it doesn't let them understand the language itself. Meaning they can't understand Anne when she speaks Proto-Celtic, though she hears them speaking English.