The lamp on my nightstand, one of those new ones with the leds, started flickering for a second as the hospital room's door opened and familiar face nearly bumped into the top of the doorpost. I placed my book on the nightstand and sat upright. He honestly looked far worse off than me, with a bandage around his entire torso and a down look on his face.

"She really tore into you didn't she?"

"Nothing I didn't deserve," Harry replied. "Unless you're talking about Bianca, in which case, yeah."

"Did she have anything interesting to say?"

Harry groaned, and took a place on the chair next to my bed. "Only that she wanted my gun and my badge. Politics, she says."

"So you're fired?"

"I'm fired."

We sat there for a few minutes. Myrddin, fired. No longer a hero… I knew how much he loved the job, depended on it really. The White council didn't exactly pay its people, and from what Susan had told me, money had apparently been tight before he'd gotten the superhero gig.

"What's the excuse?" I asked.

"Failure to inform my superiors of the existence of not one but several global secret societies." he replied. I got ready to raise my voice in protest when he continued. "As well as actively taking part in one of those societies, and infiltrating the Protectorate on its behalf."

"Okay, yeah, they got you there…" I admitted. "So… did they at least tell you what happened?"

"It's complicated, and no-one will give me the specifics, but it boils down to the fact that Eidolon skipped every layer of insulation and went straight to the president and told her everything, with a live feed of video evidence. Here, just look," he said as he grabbed the remote, flicking on to a random channel. I'd have accused him of using magic to make sure it switched on to a dramatically appropriate image, but I knew that it would've interfered, and that every channel would have shown practically the same thing.

It was a helicopter image, showing the smoking remains of an utterly destroyed building, blown apart by a several different parahuman powers, as well as what looked like some sort of rocketry. A few corpses of what had probably once been Red Court Vampires could be seen, as well as a larger creature I couldn't quite place that was slowly dripping down into ectoplasm. The younger news anchor sounded like she couldn't quite believe what she was telling people, while the older one had quickly adapted his old McCarthy-ist repertoire, talking about the danger that the *Reds* posed as if the cold war were still raging.

"The hitherto hidden threat is quickly being neutralized by our brave American troops, supported by our mighty heroes, showing once again the greatness of our nation, and its willingness to stand up for those who cannot fend for themselves," the man explained.

"So they've done it, they've actually declared war?" I asked.

"Theoretically, only congress has the ability to declare war," Harry explained. "But in practice, the president can make quite a few moves before she's actually called to heel, and no-one wants to be seen as opposing the fight against literal blood-sucking vampires."

"And in the meantime, her polling numbers are probably shooting up," I remarked.

"Probably," Harry agreed with me. There was no way to know where this would go. Too many unknowns, but one thing was clear. The masquerade was over, finito, gone, and all the secret organisations and hidden cabals with a vested interested in keeping it there had been swiftly bypassed by a tinkertech camera and the second-mightiest man on earth.

"I'm guessing that, with you kicked out, I'll have to join the Wards now?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Things are messy and chaotic right now, and I don't think Revel wants to push you to join during wartime. Beyond that… the council will probably start official relations with several governments now, and you are officially my apprentice. That will hopefully still mean something when the initial chaos dies down. Hell, we might have Wardens yelling at Capes over issues of jurisdiction in the next season of Beverly Hill Heroes."

"Good," I replied, letting out a sigh as I ignored the joke at the end. "And Kravos?"

"Eidolon said he was dealt with," Harry said. "Permanently."

"That's what we thought last time, and dying in the birdcage didn't stop him."

"I'm… not entirely sure I want to know what he meant by it, but he was very convincing."

"What was his entire thing about anyway? Why was he working together with the Vampires?"

"The woman you and the Raith boy fought, she's an ancient Black Court Vampire by the name of Mavra, one of Vlad Tepes's spawn, according to my source. She lost most of her brood a while back, and seems to have been studying parahuman abilities since that point, leaking data to various interested parties that could then play Guinea Pig for her, allowing her to harvest the results with little danger to herself. When she had an unexpected success with Kravos, she probably went to Bianca, knowing that Kravos's ghost had the same targets she had. Hell's bells, Bianca and her pets were probably one of her projects."

"So the reason my power was so weak, down in the basement, that was Mavra?"

"Possibly, though I'm not entirely sure. Most likely it was her modifying Kravos's effect somehow. He's eaten two powers already, so that probably wasn't beyond him, given that his spiritual aspect in the never-never was combined with the interdimensional entities somehow. He didn't seem to like it all that much, given the berserk behaviour he exhibited."

"Wait, two?" I asked. There'd been more there than just Genoscythe?

"Victoria Dallon," he said. "Apparently, she got attacked in a dream and lost her oomph. She disappeared, and her sister's completely freaking out about it."

"So they're gone? Completely removed? Absolute done with?" I asked. Even if the means had been absolutely horrible, and Victoria sure as hell hadn't deserved it… to actually remove powers from someone, that wasn't an easy task.

"Maybe," Harry replied. "Though with her gone off the grid, we can't exactly check to make sure."

I shivered, thinking about that for a while. I hadn't had my abilities for too long, but I couldn't imagine living without them, or without my magic for that matter. To lose something like that… It'd been a close call, too close. I'd been careless, trusting skills that weren't as well-developed as I'd thought.

"And Mavra? Is she still around?"

"With my luck? Yes. Eidolon didn't take her out, so she probably slipped away from the battle somewhere in the chaos."

The scene on the TV had moved on. The focus shifted to other aspects of the supernatural, such as wizards, ghosts and faeries, with dozens of old, blurry pictures, as well as one or two newer ones, made with Tecton's shielding techniques. There were a few sentences about the courts and the never-never, though it seemed more like speculation than actual understanding of the issues, with most of the information taken from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was rather preposterous, which reminded me of something.

"How's Regent doing? Besides the whole apparently being a vampire now?"

"The Raith boy managed to escape custody, mostly by disappearing from his medical bed before anyone could link him to his costumed identity," Harry said. "For better or for worse, his family can probably get him medical treatment. They're… quite well-connected."

"One more worry off my head, though I wish he'd stayed around to chat… Can't believe I actually miss that idiot."

"Something tells me we'll met him again," Harry said.

"I kind of hope so," I said, watching the TV.

The world was changing, the cavalcade of news on the small hospital TV was proof enough of that. Magic, for better or for worse, was publicly known now. Things had been moving at an incredible pace while Harry and I had been in the hospital for our wounds, wounds which couldn't be cured by Panacea because she was busy freaking out about the fact that her sister had actually lost her powers.

"So… what now?" I asked, looking at my teacher, who looked just as lost as I was.

"I guess… I guess I'll need to find a new job," he stated. "Maybe pick up the private eye gig again? I did that for a few months you know?"

"Private eye? Really?" I asked. "Selling your powers for money?"

"More like asking money from those who can spare it," he replied. "Don't know what to do for the name though… PRT still owns the Myrddin persona."

"Just go with Merlin?" I asked.

"Wouldn't work, not without having the excuse of going undercover," he said. "Hmmm, maybe something with a proper pun in there?"

"Also… I've been thinking…" I said. "I'm… not as capable as I thought I was, and I don't want to be doing anything stupid so… could I move in with you? Maybe help out with the detective gig?"

"Move in… not in my current place, not really any room," Harry said. "As for the job, you're sixteen, I'm not sure what the rules for underage private eyes are."

"What about the rules for capes?" I asked. "No-one needs to know Skitter's still a kid."

"Fair point grasshopper," he replied. "Which gives me an idea, something with a bit of a mix…"

"So? What's the plan?" I asked.

He smiled that stupid little grin of his again, the one that told me I wouldn't like what came next.

"We'll get you a new outfit, make something better for Lisa, and call ourselves Harry's angels!"

I didn't even say a word, I just glared.

"Dresden, Skitter and Tats, paranormal investigations?"

"That's better."

***Of Monsters and Masquerades***

An ancient being sat in an ancient throne, surrounded by ancient subjects, served by an ancient priesthood. They squabbled among each other, awaiting a moment of weakness, a moment they could take from others what they didn't have themselves.

They couldn't see the woman, the one in the suit, standing in a corner where no-one but he could see her. She looked good, her neck exposed, the veins standing out, throbbing just so. But he couldn't attack, couldn't lose himself. Not here, not now. The court would pounce on the weakness, and it would all be over.

That was the woman's plan, that had always been the woman's plan, even that first time, when she'd been a small child.

She moved her lips without sound, knowing that he would be able to read it.

"We had a deal," the lips spoke. "You would keep your lands stable, you would keep your presence hidden, and we would not interfere."

He pressed his lips together, trying to think of anything but her flesh, of the way she was biting her lips, a single drop of blood popping out.

He could kill this woman, he could tear her apart in the blink of an eye and feast to his heart's content, and in doing so, he would lose everything he had.

"There has been a change of plans," the woman whispered with her lips. He knew who she was, the things in which she dealt. Parahuman abilities, that damnable scourge upon the world that should be his.

"We no longer require stability, not with the numbers the way they are right now. Things have shifted. The Protectorate is changing, becoming more warlike, more organised. Something we could use, if they had a proper bone to sharpen their new teeth."

He looked at her, then back at the surrounding Lords of Outer Night. They still hadn't noticed her, but they'd noticed him, his change in demeanor. Was he just a pawn in this woman's game? His court a throwaway toy they thought to manipulate?

"Sadly," the woman's lips moved, "your leadership is too pathetic for that to happen."

The Red King roared, unleashing his power to the fullest on the woman, rushing forwards instantly to slaughter her and feast on blood and flesh and her succulently sweet smell.

His claws hit nothing but air, and the eyes of the court were upon him.

***Of Monsters and Masquerades***

A young woman, a girl really, sat in her room, moping as she stared at the orphanage TV. All her life, she'd wanted nothing more than to figure out a way to get away from her parents, and now that she had it, she goddamn missed them. Almost all of them.

War, that meant dead people, which meant more orphans, more of a burden on a nation's already heavily strained foster system. Not that she was looking for a way out, for some total strangers to call mom and dad, but more people meant less food, more assholes, more dealing.

Once again, the screen shifted to the ruins of the Chicago mansion, the subtitles telling her what she couldn't hear through the noise. The vampire party, Eidolon, Myrddin and Revel, some Canadian called Hijack, and… Skitter?

She stood up, looking around the room, trying to figure out a way to leave without getting drafted into chores as she snuck towards the stairs.

"Where are you going Aisha? Planning to get into trouble again?" one of the caretakers asked.

"No," she replied. "Just gonna chat with an old friend."