Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing massaged the bridge of her nose as she tried to ward off the headache Alucard had once again seen fit to give her. Pip Bernadotte, leader of the Wild Geese mercenary band, stood behind her with his weapon in his hands, eyebrow twitching slightly at what had recently transpired, while her butler Walter C. Dornez calmly stood to the side, ready to assist if needed.

Integra let out a long, slow breath of cigar smoke as she tried to keep from yelling at the group arrayed in front of her, especially the two main targets of her ire. "Let me get this straight." She finally began, voice trembling with aggravation. "You people came here through a portal to another world in order to protect this town from the Shades attacking it." She opened her eyes to look at the group of mostly teens arrayed in front of her, only two of them looking any older than her own twenty-two years of age. And she could only really be sure of one of them.

"That's right." The apparent leader said as he stood before her confidently, his emerald eyes practically glowing in the moonlight.

"Then you confronted Alucard when he approached, and got into a fight when he did not state his purpose as he should have." She said sharply, turning her eyes to glare at the ancient vampire, who stood a bit off to the side, smirking unrepentantly. "A fight that turned the town we had come to protect into a smoking crater, even after you apparently found out that Alucard was not an enemy."

"I fixed it…" The boy said somewhat defensively, making Integra almost bite through her cigar in frustration, her eyes turning to the nice, pleasant, perfectly intact town.

Even if she didn't believe him about being from a parallel world (though, considering the business she was in, it wasn't actually too hard to believe), the fact that she'd personally witnessed him repair everything in the town to the way it had been before the Shades attacked with a wave of his hand was a serious indicator of his personal power, if his calamitous fight with Alucard hadn't already made quite a statement. Calling the remains of the town a smoking crater was likely understating things.

The pale haired young woman let out another breath. "Fine." She growled. "I'm assuming you will be returning to your world of origin now?" She frowned when she saw the newcomers glance at each other.

"Yeah… About that…" Harry said slowly, making Integra's headache get worse just from the expectation of whatever bad news she was about to get. "We can't really control what world we jump to at the moment. And our method to voluntarily do so still needs a few weeks to recharge."

Integra closed her eyes, thinking. On one hand, she wanted these people gone, because she didn't need yet another complication considering the constantly rising threat of the vampires and Shades that were hounding things. On the other, once she got over that kneejerk reaction, having the strength of a group of skilled warriors, one of which had shown themselves to be able to stand up to a Level 1 Alucard, at her disposal would potentially make things a lot easier.

"Very well, here is my offer." She said, her voice indicating it was more of a demand. "I will give you a place to stay at the Hellsing Organization's headquarters and give you supplies for as long as you're on this world. While you will not be prisoners, you will still be subject to my rules. In exchange, you will assist with Shade and vampire attacks at my discretion, and provide any information you have."

Harry glanced at his now expanded team, most of whom were nodding their agreement, before he turned back to Integra. "That sounds perfect, Sir Integra. It'll free us from having to establish ourselves and set up an information network to be able to react to attacks." At his new employer's raised eyebrow he smirked. "We have a hard time staying out of trouble if other people are in danger."

Integra sighed and looked back at the town, now taking in the people being attended to by emergency crews, many of which were watching the group while keeping a fearful distance. "Fine. It seems we are done here, so let's leave in order for you to start earning your keep."

A few hours later the multiversal crew had been left to settle in while Cortana provided Integra with the information she wanted. Her reaction at the reveal of the hyper advanced AI was entertaining, to say the least.

Ruby sat on a couch in a sitting room with her team, JNPR and Penny, with Zwei on her lap, enjoying being petted. Harry, Lara and Alice had just explained exactly what had happened and where they'd ended up in more detail than the terse 'another world' they'd given back in the town the Grimm had been attacking.

Her head hung low as the weight of her action fell upon her. Due to her impulsiveness she and her friends were now farther from home than she'd ever imagined was possible, and they didn't have any reliable way to get back.

She flinched when she felt Yang's hand land on her shoulder. "It's alright, Rubes. You did the right thing."

Ruby looked up. "But Yang…"

"You saw a town under attack by Grimm and reacted as you're trained to." Pyrrha added firmly. "You didn't know that the mirror led to another world. We did the same thing when we saw what was happening." She smiled. "This isn't your fault."

"She's right." Alice said gently. "Yes, you could have informed us and waited for some information before going in. But if you had more people might have died. They might have had unexpected consequences, but your actions weren't wrong."

"Besides, we'll get you back." Harry said firmly. "I don't care what it takes, we'll find a way for everyone to get back to their homes."

Ruby smiled softly as her friends all made noises of agreement. "Thanks guys…"

"Great. Now that that's dealt with…" Beast Boy said brightly before rounding on Harry. "What the hell was that, dude?"

Their resident mage scratched the back of his head. "I got a bit of control of myself, that's all."

"Control?" The greenette said incredulously. "You levelled a fucking town in that fight! And you laughed while doing it. And what's with the fangs?"

Harry opened his mouth and ran his tongue over his now lengthened and sharpened canines. "Side effect of taking some of Alucard's power. He is a vampire, after all. As for the town…" He shrugged sheepishly. "Let's just say I got a bit carried away."

"Just a bit." Lara said with some sarcasm. "That doesn't exactly explain anything. You seem…" She looked him over. "Calmer…"

Harry ran a hand through his white streaked hair. "When I absorbed Alucard's power… I almost drowned in it. You have no idea what it's like to feel your sense of self just start to disappear, overwhelmed by a tide of every dark emotion you've ever felt all at once." His audience flinched slightly at the thought. "It took everything I had to claw myself out of it. I only managed it due to some advice I got." He shot Ruby a smile, the girl returning it, happy her words to him had helped him so much.

"Is there a danger of it happening again?" Chief asked from where he stood off to the side.

Harry shrugged. "There's always a danger. But I'm in better control of myself now. I think I should be fine."

Chief stared at Harry (at least, Ruby thought he did. It was hard to tell considering his visor) before nodding. "Fine, but make sure that you're far from any civilians if it happens again."

Harry nodded seriously. "Agreed."

"We're going to need to do something about our weapons." Nora said as seriously as Nora could be after a beat of silence, remembering trying to launch a grenade during the fight only for nothing to happen.

This prompted Ruby to unsling Crescent Rose from her back and hug it with comical tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, baby. Don't worry, mommy will fix you."

Yang sighed as she watched her sister stroke her massive weapon like it was an actual child. "Yeah, Dust not working is a problem."

"You're telling me…" Weiss grumbled angrily, being the one at the greatest disadvantage when it came to combat.

"Indeed." Penny said, looking nervous. "I am currently operating on my secondary power supply, as my primary Lightning Dust supply is no longer operational."

Those that hadn't considered how things would affect Penny jerked around to look at her, paling. Chief, surprisingly, was the one to reassure her. "Cortana is already aware and modifying you're technical specifications to deal with the issue."

Penny perked up. "She is?"

Chief nodded. "She already had your design files after she hacked Atlas for fun." The Remnant natives twitched at that information. "She's confident she should be able to modify you to operate without any issues. We've also been working on making mechashift weapons work with things other than Dust, so there should be no issue with modifying most of your weapons."

Sighs of relief abounded, though Weiss still looked upset. "That doesn't help me much. Nobody else uses Dust the same way I do."

Harry smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, Weiss. I have some ideas for how to work around the issue. We'll look into it later."

Weiss hesitated before nodding. "Very well. Hopefully we can deal with this soon."

Jaune let out a long yawn. "I think that's enough talking for today. It's late, we just went through a huge fight, and I'm exhausted. Where do you think we're sleeping?"

"I can help you with that." Walter said from the doorway, making those who hadn't noticed him jump. He smiled amicably. "If you'd be so kind as to follow me?"

The group looked at each other before doing as told, eager to get some sleep. There'd be more time for discussions in the morning.

The next evening, as the sun was setting, Seras walked through the halls of Hellsing Manor, yawning after only recently waking up. She was heading to Sir Integra's office to report in when she paused by one of the doors she was passing, blinking as she heard what sounded like an entire machine shop hard at work while heavy metal music played behind the noise. Which was impossible, since she knew that particular room was just for the extremely infrequent guests of the manor.

Curiosity aroused she opened the door and peered in, her jaw falling open in shock at what she found.

A large room lay in a space the blonde vampire knew should be too small for it, filled with machining tools of all types, many of them being operated by the guests they'd picked up the previous night. They were all hard at work doing various tasks the former cop didn't have a clue about, being directed by the girl in the red hood that had held her at gunpoint the previous night, her hand holding what appeared to be the hologram projector Cortana had used to talk to Sir Integra when she was giving them information on the Shades, or Grimm, as they now knew they were called. The corgi, Zwei, trotted along at his mistress' feet, not seeming too bothered by the noise.

The projector showed various blueprints and plans that the girl studied intently whenever she wasn't giving orders to her friends. From what Seras could make out they were all working on the weapons they'd been carrying when she met them, for what reason she didn't know.

Glancing around she found Harry sitting with Weiss in an empty corner of the machine shop, her rapier on a low table between them and a vial of some sort of red powder in his hands as he stared at it seriously. Deciding that they were probably her best opportunity for getting information on what was going on Seras made her way over to them.

"So what are you intending on doing?" The white haired girl asked as she looked at Harry seriously.

"You use Dust differently than the others do." Harry said after a glance at Seras, who stood silently, watching. "The others use it similarly to how the locals use their chemical propellants, so there's no real point in doing what I'm going to do for you with them when they can use a more universal solution. You, on the other hand, don't just pull a trigger to get the effect you want. And you're more dependant on elemental attacks than they are."

"I know." Weiss groused, crossing her arms. "I was hoping you'd have a solution."

"I do." Harry said with a smile. "I studied Dust a bit while we were on Remnant. It's essentially elemental magic taken physical form, from what I can tell. Not entirely sure why it's so dependant on being in Remnant's atmosphere to work, but I have some theories. What I'm going to do is basically re-enchant it to give it back its normal properties, though you might need to adjust how you activate it."

"You can do that?" Weiss asked, interested.

"I think so. I'm making it sound simpler than it really is, but most of the explanation would go over your head without the requisite background knowledge." He said, making the girl huff. "In any case, part of the process will be tying the Dust to you so you will be able to activate it."

"And how are you going to do that?" Weiss asked.

"Hold out your hand." He told her. When she complied he set the vial of red powder on her open palm before taking her hand in both of his own, making her blush lightly. "Alright, now channel your aura, please."

Seras watched in fascination as Weiss began to glow with a light blue light, the energy touching the vial in her hands. Then Harry began to murmur to himself, eyes focused on the red dust as his hands began to emanate his own dark energy. Shortly afterwards the dust and the vial it came in began to glow as well, eldritch symbols appearing all over the glass. Then there was a small flash and Harry stopped murmuring. Letting Weiss' hand go he let the two girls see that the red dust was glimmering slightly in the workshop's lights.

"Did it work?" Weiss asked as she stared at the glimmering vial in her hands, taking in the symbols that had been etched into the glass by whatever Harry had done.

"Only one way to find out." Harry said, picking up a small piece of paper, wadding it up, and tossing it a bit further into the corner, where it promptly became a large paper training target on a stand, startling the girls.

"Wha…?" Seras began before shutting up when Harry gave her an amused look before turning back to Weiss.

"Alright Weiss, now try to use the Dust as you normally would on the target so we can see if you can get it to work. If not then we'll need to adjust our methodology until we find something that does."

Weiss nodded, slipping the dust back into her rapier before standing up, taking a stance while aiming at the target, doing her best to ignore the noise of the machinery behind her. Taking a breath she thrust her weapon forward at the target as she always did when activating her Dust… only for nothing to happen.

Weiss' face fell, but Harry nodded, having expected that result. "Don't worry, Weiss. The likelihood of it activating the same way it had before was pretty low. What I did was meant to imitate Dust, but it isn't actual Dust, so it working like it had before wasn't likely. We'll need to try something else."

"Alright." Weiss said seriously with a firm nod. "What do you recommend?"

What followed was ten minutes of the white haired girl performing more and more outlandish actions in an attempt to make the Dust work as it should have. Seras stood back and watched the entire time. She didn't really understand what was supposed to happen, not really knowing what 'Dust' was, but she could gather it was important for her new erstwhile teammates' combat capabilities. She figured she should see what she could find out so she could report it to Sir Integra.

In the end it was surprisingly Weiss getting frustrated that finally resolved the issue. After one too many failures she snarled out "Dammit, I just want some FIRE!" as she jabbed forward again, a jet of flame launching itself at the target as the girl shouted the last word, catching them by surprise.

Weiss took a step back, caught off guard, as Seras yelped in shock. She was absently aware of several of the other teens glancing over to see what happened, but most of her attention was on the now merrily burning target.

Harry stroked his chin. "Hmm… I wonder what part of that attempt was the trigger. Is it just focusing on her anger? It is Burn Dust, after all. Or was it simply shouting 'Fire' like a cartoon character?"

"I'm just glad to know it actually works." Weiss said with a sigh of relief. "I can focus on replicating the effect now that I'm not worried about whether it will or not."

Harry nodded agreeably. "Makes sense. Unfortunately, this tells me that re-energizing Penny's Lightning Dust supply won't work, since it requires something different and more focused than it's normal activation procedure. It might work as an emergency power source, but I doubt it'll be all that helpful if she has to focus on it too much. I'll discuss it with Cortana once we're done here."

Weiss nodded in understanding, though Seras was a bit lost. "Well, before that, do you mind reactivating the rest of my dust so I can get to work figuring out how to use it all again?"

Harry nodded, and the two took another vial, this one full of blue powder, and began the process all over again.

Deciding against interrupting their apparently important work, Seras moved away, heading towards Ruby, who was advising the girl with long red hair on something. The youngest person there turned to Seras with a smile once she was done, the redhead turning back to her work. "Hi! Seras, right?"

Seras nodded. "Yeah. And you're Ruby, right?"

Ruby nodded back. "Yeah. Err, sorry about yesterday, by the way." She said, shuffling slightly.

Seras blinked before realizing what she was talking about. "Oh, don't worry about it, I understand." Then she looked at all the teens hard at work. "What exactly is going on? Where did all this machinery come from?"

"Ah, well, we're modifying our weapons to work with your type of ammunition since ours doesn't work anymore." Ruby said as she moved over to someone else, checking to see how the black haired girl with a bow was doing.

"I heard Harry and Weiss discussing it. Something about a dust that only works in atmosphere?" Seras asked.

"Yep." Ruby responded with a nod. "Back in our homeworld of Remnant we've found out that Dust only works in our atmosphere. It's why we don't have any space capabilities. Apparently it doesn't work even in the atmosphere of other worlds, only our own. So all our ammunition is completely useless till we get back to Remnant." She glanced around at the working teens as she spoke in the voice of a professional engineer, which surprised Seras. "Our weapons aren't so different from yours that we can't use your type of ammo, but the weapons need some work to make them fully compatible. It isn't anything major, but we still have to do it if we want our weapons to work at a hundred percent." She then turned back to Seras with a grin. "You use an anti-tank cannon, right? Thirty millimeter rounds?"

Seras blinked, surprised. "Uh, yes, that's right."

Ruby clapped her hands. "That's so cool! You must be really strong to be able to use that with only minimal bracing!"

Seras blushed, scratching her cheek. "Ehehe, comes with being a vampire, I guess…"

"What's being a vampire like?" Ruby asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"It's, ah, different." Seras said slowly. "I haven't been a vampire long, and I'm still getting used to it, but it isn't bad." To change the subject she quickly repeated a previous question. "So where did you get all the machines from?"

"Oh, Harry made them." Ruby said with a smile.

"...What?" Seras asked, surprised.

"He made them with his magic." Ruby repeated before jumping a bit in place. "It was amazing! Once Cortana showed him the schematics of each machine he just grabbed a few rocks and turned them into what he was shown. He had to make a few corrections, but everything works fine now. The things I could do if I could do that." Ruby's eyes glazed over and she began to giggle with a grin on her face, creeping Seras out slightly.

"Sorry about my sis." Seras' fellow blond said as she approached, her long, luxurious hair tied back to let her work without worry. "She's probably imagining all the things she could do to Crescent Rose if she could just change one thing into another."

"Riiiight…" The vampire said slowly. "Well, I need to go see Sir Integra."

Yang waved her off with a smile. "Sure thing. Talk to you later." Then she turned to Ruby and poked her cheek. "Come on Rubes, snap out of it. There's still work to do."

Ruby snapped out of her daze and blush. "Oh, right." She looked back at Seras with a smile. "Nice talking with you!"

Seras couldn't help but smile at the girl's honest happiness. "You too." She turned and left the workshop with a final glance around, catching sight of Weiss freezing her target in ice, a triumphant smile on her face. With a bemused shake of her head the fledgling closed the door.

"I'm a bit scared." Penny admitted as she lay naked on a worktable, Chief standing out of armor beside her while Cortana showed herself from a hologram projector on a side table. The work table was surrounded by multiple robotic arms and manipulators for Cortana's use, a large set of parts on another table nearby.

Cortana smiled sympathetically in understanding. They were about to modify the girl to work with a small hydrogen generator of UNSC design. It would unfortunately be a rather invasive procedure as they removed the current Dust based power supply and put the new one in.

"That's alright, Penny. I would be too, to be honest." Cortana said gently. "But I've modeled the procedure and results hundreds of thousands of times. The odds of something going wrong are very small. We'll have you connected to external power the entire time, and Chief is here to intervene if something does go wrong with the machinery. Trust me, you'll be fine."

Penny nodded before turning her head to look back at the ceiling. "Alright. Entering maintenance mode now." She said before closing her eyes and going still.

Once they were sure Penny was 'out' Cortana began getting to work, the robotic limbs whirring to life.

"They made sure she was very realistic." Chief said as he took Penny's form in with detached interest.

"Mostly to prevent awkward questions if something happened to her clothes, I imagine." Cortana said as she sent the signal to Penny's systems that opened her body up much like a surgeon would. "Not to mention it involves her self image, making her aura's integration stronger the more human-like she is. Doctor Polendina truly is a genius." The external power supply was hooked up before Cortana began removing the parts and systems that no longer worked.

"Any chance her body's designs can be adapted for UNSC use? AI controlled gynoids to assist on the front lines would likely be useful as a supplementary force or in specialist roles."

"It's been looked into." Cortana admitted. "However there are a few barriers that R&D has been trying to hammer out, mainly due to the ways Smart AI minds work compared to humans'. And Dumb AIs aren't sophisticated enough to be able to perform well. Penny's mind was developed purposefully to work as closely to a human's as possible for aura purposes. Still, I do have the designs, so I'll pass them along when we get there, along with any modifications I make in the meantime."

"What about Penny's aura? Is that something we could replicate?" Chief asked as he kept his eyes on the procedure, taking his role as seriously as he always did.

"I don't know." Cortana said slightly sulkily. "Doctor Polendina was pretty paranoid about how he managed that. I have the designs for the systems that 'hold' her aura. They're integrated into her mind, for obvious reasons. But how the aura itself was developed, he never put down on a network enabled system. It's all off the grid, where I can't reach it. I'd have to ask him directly."

"The paranoia is warranted." Chief admitted thoughtfully. "Artificially 'creating' what amounts to a human soul… Something tells me it wasn't necessarily an entirely clean process."

Cortana hummed. "Penny told me there were previous attempts before her which went badly. I don't even want to imagine what happened in those cases." The parts removal was complete, and now Cortana was setting up the new power supply. "The first attempts at making Smart AIs were rather horrible, after all." Deciding to change the subject she asked her partner something she'd been curious about. "So, what do you think about our latest situation? We're going to be working with a monster hunting organization that has two vampires in its ranks, one of which has considerable power."

Chief was silent for a moment before responding. "We've made the best we could of the situation. Allying ourselves with the Hellsing Organization is our best option at the moment for resources and intelligence. Especially since your own capabilities are somewhat stymied."

"Tch." Cortana vocalized irritably. "The last year of the twentieth century is distressingly low tech compared to what I'm used to. Remnant was much better off in terms of technology. This place hasn't even developed smartphones."

"It could be worse." Chief said calmly, though he admitted to himself that he was a bit amused by her irritation. "We could be on a world stuck with pre-Industrial Era technology."

Cortana groaned. "Please don't even joke about that. I'd probably go rampant all over again out of sheer frustration." Then she turned her visible attention back to Penny. "Alright, pretty much done."

Chief looked back down at Penny's body, seeing that the power supply was almost complete. "Any complications?"

"None, thankfully. Like I told her, I made sure to model the procedure and results extensively before even thinking of trying this." His partner said proudly.

Soon enough the last piece was in place. "Initializing system…" At Cortana's words the power supply began to hum gently. "Running diagnostics… all values within expected parameters… energy use is stable, no surges… activation successful." She disengaged the external power before once again closing Penny's body up, leaving her looking like a normal teenage girl. "Waking Penny up."

Penny's eyes fluttered open. "Is it done?" She asked.

"Yes Penny, the procedure is complete and all systems appear to be working fine. How are you feeling?"

Penny sat up on the table as Chief stepped back to give her room, watching as she moved her limbs. "I feel more energized than normal. My systems are receiving ten percent more energy than they had before." She hopped off the table. "Everything seems stable." She said with a happy smile.

"Excellent." Cortana said, pleased. "Don't hesitate to report any irregularities you experience, and run a diagnostic before and after sleep mode for at least the next two weeks to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"Yes ma'am." Penny said with a nod.

Harry yawned as he left his room, intending to head to Integra's office to request access to a place on the grounds for the team to train in. Ruby had reported that the weapon modifications were complete, but that they needed to test them out. Penny also needed to try out her new power supply in a combat scenario to make sure she'd still be combat ready if necessary. And the rest of them could always use more training. He still wasn't completely comfortable with his swords, for example.

He was walking down the hallway which held a few of the girls' rooms when he heard the soft sounds of someone crying behind one of them. Stopping after a brief moment of hesitation he looked at the door thoughtfully before moving to it and knocking. "Everything okay in there?"

He heard whoever was inside choke back a sob before a few seconds of silence ensued during which they presumably tried to compose themselves. Then Lara's voice came through the door. "I'm fine, Harry."

Harry pursed his lips thoughtfully before reaching down for the doorknob. "I'm coming in." When no response came he opened the door, peering in.

Lara sat on the bed with her back to the door, her body slightly hunched over and her hands gripping the bedspread as her head hung slightly. "I said I was fine." She said, her voice a bit rough and still slightly tremulous.

Harry closed the door and made his way over to Lara, looking down to see her trying to keep a firm look on her face despite the tear tracks on her cheeks. "What's wrong, Lara?" He asked, taking a seat beside her on the bed and looking at her compassionately.

Lara bit her lip before letting out a trembling sigh. "It's just… I've been away from home for months, Harry. Trinity was still active back on my world, and the bastards have a real grudge against me." She hugged herself lightly. "I'm worried about Sam and Jonah. If Trinity comes after them then they might not be able to protect themselves. And Sam wasn't in the best place mentally when we left. If I don't return…" She left the thought hanging for a second. "But we keep getting further and further away. We don't have any reliable way of directing what our next destination is, and considering how vast the multiverse must be, the chances of us getting back at random might as well not exist." She bit her lip again as a couple of tears escaped her eyes. "I… I just don't know what to do… The worry is grinding me down…"

Harry wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. She hesitated a moment, not entirely used to being so open and vulnerable with him, before laying her head on his shoulder and letting herself cry. "I know how you feel." Harry said gently. "I didn't exactly leave my own world in a good state when I first jumped with BB. Sometimes I stay awake at night, wondering how my friends are doing, if they're still alive, if Voldemort tried something else as monumentally stupid as before." He rubbed her arm comportingly.

"At least you have the likes of bloody Superman and Batman running around your world to keep things spinning." Lara said, sounding tired. "For all I know Trinity finally managed to unleash some cataclysmic power in their infinite stupidity."

"True." Harry said softly. "I do have the luxury of knowing that my friends have backup and can protect themselves reasonably well." He continued rubbing her arm. "But Sam and Jonah are strong in their own ways too. Not many could have endured what Himiko put them through as well as she did. And Jonah went through Yamatai and Kitezh with you. He's a fighter." He let out a breath. "Yeah, they're a bit outgunned, but they won't make it easy on Trinity. Something tells me they're both fine. You've got to believe that, because otherwise you'll drive yourself mad."

Lara was silent for almost a minute after that. "It's so hard, sometimes…"

"I know." Harry said completely honestly. "Just focus on the here and now, and on getting all the power and skills you can so that you can teach Trinity the error of their ways for daring to even look at your friends funny." He smiled softly. "I'll help you. When we get back to your home, we'll rip through those idiots and make them rue the day they ever heard the name Croft."

Lara smiled lightly, feeling a bit lighter after a good cry and talk. "Yeah…" She removed her head from Harry's shoulder and wiped her face, sniffling. "Thanks Harry, I needed that."

"No problem." He said, conjuring a tissue for her, which she took with a smile. He hesitated before speaking again. "I was planning on discussing it with Alice first, but I'm thinking of forcing everybody to have a weekly session with her, to help deal with things. We've seen and done things people shouldn't, and I don't doubt we'll endure even more. Some therapy would do everyone some good."

Lara considered it. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I know therapy helped me after Yamatai, even if my doctor ended up working for Trinity. But Alice isn't fully trained yet."

"That's true, but she's learning fast, and frankly, she's our best option, since she's travelling with us. Besides, it'll help her get experience faster." Harry said.

"I say we discuss it as a team first." Lara said. "Forcing people into therapy when they don't want to might do more harm than good. Though I can't imagine that Chief has had that much help to deal with the things he's seen. He could probably use it more than any of us."

"I'll bring the topic up at dinner, then." Harry said with a nod as he stood up. "You going to be okay?"

Lara nodded with a small smile. "I think so. I think I'll just grab a book and relax a bit. Call me if you need me."

Harry nodded before heading to the door. Opening it he paused before turning back to Lara. "Everything will alright, Lara. I promise."

"What makes you so sure?" She asked softly, once again sounding vulnerable.

He smiled. "You'd be surprised at how powerful a little hope and faith can be." Then he left, closing the door behind himself.

Lara closed her eyes and let out a breath before smiling more fully. "Thank you, Harry…"

I Return!

I meant to have this out last week, but work issues and a bit of writer's block prevented that from happening. You all have my apologies.

I realize some people will be disappointed that there wasn't more of the fight between Harry and Alucard in this chapter. I have said many times that I'm better at character interaction than I am action. I tried writing it out in the beginning, but it just didn't seem to come out right. So I decided to start with the aftermath.

I am glad that most people liked what happened between the two last chapter. It was one of the main parts of this fic I really wanted to get right simply for how important it is to Harry's character going forward.

I looked but couldn't find anything to point to how Penny is powered, so I went with a Lightning Dust generator. If anybody knows better, let me know.

The ending part with Lara was something I've been intending to show for a while now. I've gotten several reviews stating that Harry doesn't seem to care that he's left his world for months considering the situation he left behind. I wanted to show that this isn't the case, but that he's focusing on the present and immediate future. If he finds a way back home he'll obviously take it, but in the meantime he knows there isn't much he can do, so his best option is to improve himself and gain what he can so he can curbstomp Voldie when he gets back. The longer they're away the more it'll wear on him, but for now he has enough faith in his friends that he can afford to not worry too much about it.

One thing I've always liked about Reboot Lara is her vulnerability. She's not afraid to cry, or let her emotions out. It makes her that much stronger, and makes her badassery that much more potent. For all the faults of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, that part they got mostly right.

For those interested, I have finally come up with what the multiversal team's name is going to be. It's not going to be relieved just yet. You'll find out in the universe after next. I'll just say I got it off a lyric in the RWBY Vol. 6 soundtrack.

...That show has a lot of influence on this fic, doesn't it?

Alright, can't think of anything further that needs to be discussed. I'll try to keep from having such a long gap in chapters of my stories again, though I make no promises, especially as we head into the holiday season.

As always, please keep in mind that you can have a say in what I write through my Pat A Ron, where every dollar you donate gives you one vote in the monthly poll I put up. For the December Poll that will go up in about a week I'll make it so that the top two winners are updated instead of just one. It is the season of giving, after all. So that's Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.

Till next time!