Authors note: Thanks for reading my story, also if you want to please leave reviews! But I will only accept CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND ADVICE, not harassment!

August 27, 1998

Annabelle woke up in the morning to the sight of something she never would have thought she'd see - not where she was now.

A magi-arachnid, of a species she hadn't met before, was standing at the foot of her bed and staring at her. They were about the size of a very large dog (malamute sized). They were sleek and glossy black, thin and low to the ground, with a streamlined abdomen that tapered off at the end into a faux stinger of sorts.

*Okay...* Annabelle breathed, slowly sitting up and grabbing her wand out from the depths of her pillowcase. She tugged up a little on the waistband of her underwear, pulled down the hem of her long sleeve shirt. *Okay. First off, just so you know, however you got in here, it's dangerous here for you: any nonmagic humans who see you are going to try to kill you right away. They won't understand what or who you are.*

*Trucik knows you're intent on meeting her,* the arachnid spoke. His voice was low, slow, and uneven. *She knows what you want from her, and she's sent me to tell you this: she refuses to be a part of your campaign.*

*All right,* said Annabelle, nodding. I wasn't expecting a flat out rejection like that - but it is what it is. I'll deal. *And...is there anything else she wants me to know?*

*Yes.* His needle-thin mandibles clicked. *The foreign arachnid that came across the lucar bridges made a delicious meal.*

Elyrie... Annabelle sucked in a deep breath, carefully setting her wand aside. *Thank you for...for informing me of the queen's response. If that's all: Leave.*

The air around the messenger swirled with black smoke, a miniature tornado, and then it cleared away - and the arachnid was gone.

Annabelle waved her wand down at herself, disappearing her sleep clothes and replacing them instantly with fresh day clothes out of her suitcase. She swept her gaze around the room, looking to the high and low corners. She got out of bed and dropped to hands and knees, looking under the furniture. It was under her bed, far back, where she found the particular person she was looking for.

The black widow's distinct red hourglass was starkly visible against her black body. She was staying as far back in the darkness as she could, not moving an inch.

*You,* Annabelle started quietly. *How are you doing today? We don't have any bugs in here for you to eat, as far as I'm aware - if we do, I'm going to have to put that in my review of this place.*

*I'm hungry.*

*I figured.* Annabelle lay down on her side and set her head on a casual arm. *Listen, the other Speaker, did they tell you that you couldn't eat anything while you were spying on me? I can't imagine they did, because what use would a spy be if they died on the job, you know?*

*He told me not to leave the room while you were in it.* A pause. *He made my webbing special: it draws food into it, no matter where it is or what time it is. But I set up my last web somewhere far away, outside your room.*

He? That's more than she gave me yesterday about this other Speaker. Annabelle sighed, her throat clenching tight. Out loud she said, *And you can't leave and go back to it because I'm still here, which means you still have to be here too. I'm sorry. But, hey, did you know that I can make your webbing even more special, myself? I have the same...abilities that this other Speaker does. Why don't you start on a web in here - wherever you think is the best place for you to be without a chance of disturbance - and I'll make it special for you. That way, you can eat without even leaving the room.*

*Why would you help me do something that hurts you?* The spider's tone was nothing but confused.

Annabelle smiled. She let her free arm glide along the floor, reaching casually under the bed. Her fingertips were within three feet of the spider. *Like I told you yesterday: I'm fine with it as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. And right now, it's not.*

*All right,* said the spider, her voice pitching deeper, and adopting a flang - that was shock, and that was...pleasure.

*All right, then,* Annabelle replied, wiggling her fingers. *Come on over here, and I'll make you even more special, girl.*

*Miranwe.* The spider's voice quivered along with her body. *My name's Miranwe.*

*Did you pick it yourself, or is that the name he gave you?* said Annabelle.

*I picked it.* Miranwe hesitated, then she scurried closer to Annabelle's fingers, and climbed up over them and into her palm. Annabelle curled her fingers very, very carefully. *Did you pick your name? Annabelle?*

*No - my mother did.* Annabelle pulled her arm out from under the bed and climbed to her feet. She took up her wand, and pointed it at Miranwe from a distance of several feet - she didn't want to crowd the spider.

*We don't name our children,* Miranwe said, nestling herself in the space between Annabelle's thumb and index finger. *If we live, we get to name ourselves. If we're killed, we don't have to worry about having a name.*

*Makes sense.* Annabelle smiled, and took a moment to touch a gentle fingertip to the top of Miranwe's abdomen. She breathed, and readied her mind for the magic she wanted to make as she steadied her wand. *Now, hold still for this, okay? I promise it won't hurt - but if it does I'm going to want you to tell me.*

*I understand.* Miranwe was silent, and still. And then she spoke up again, very quick, *I don't understand why you touched me. Was that a part of what you're going to do for me?*

*No.* Annabelle laughed, and shook her head. *That was just a show of...let's call it trust, from me to you.*

*What's trust?*

*Miranwe, trust is-* Annabelle stopped. Regathered her thoughts. How to express what she wanted to. *Listen, what I want you to know is that you can be relaxed with me. You can talk to me, you can be around me, and I'm never going to hurt you. That...that's what the touch meant. From me to you. From me to you, Miranwe, I want you to know that when you're with me you're going to be as safe, and as fed and watered as you'd be in your web. Know that I will go out of my way to protect you from harm, in every instance that I can, and know that if you ever have a problem with your web, or with competing species for your food, then you can tell me about it and I will help you to get rid of the problem. And if you ever just want someone to talk to, you can talk to me. That's what trust is, and it exists between two people in a relationship.*

*You would dedicate so much time to just keeping me from being attacked, or from starving?* Miranwe sounded very confused now - and like she thought Annabelle was insane. *Wouldn't you starve, too? Wouldn't you open yourself to being attacked, being out in the open so much, and in places you've never been?*

*Miranwe, compared with you, I can go a very long time without eating. And as for being attacked...I'm capable of killing any other member of any other species that tries.*

*All right,* Miranwe accepted the logic. *You said this trust is between two people in a relationship? Does that mean we have one now? Then should I return your signal of this "trust"? I might not be capable of doing most of those things for you, but I think I can at least show you that you can feel safe around me, too, and that I will help you with any of your problems, and that...what else does trust entail again?*

*That we can have conversations together whenever we feel like it,* Annabelle prompted. *It also entails shows of affection. Appreciation for the other. For the enjoyment or interest you get out of talking with them, or doing activities with and for them.*

*Yes. I'll be here to do that for you, too.*

*If you want to return the signal, go ahead,* said Annabelle, in her softest voice. *However you like, whatever you can come up with to show me that I can trust you too, you just go ahead and do it. I'll acknowledge it.*

*I don't do much thinking - wait.*

And Annabelle waited. She stood there in the middle of her room, gazing down at the glossy little spider in her hand. Not an inch was shifted, not a muscle moved. She was quiet, and she was patient.

Miranwe began to move. She crossed Annabelle's palm, and began to amble up her arm. Slow, careful, and with webbing let loose, she continued on - past the elbow, up over the shoulder. Miranwe stopped there, next to Annabelle's neck.

*Trust,* Miranwe spoke. *I'm not biting you. I'm not injecting venom. I could, here - I can feel your blood going through here, so close to the surface - but I won't. You can trust me. And I'm trusting you too, by putting myself out in the open on you. You could kill me easily and quickly, where I am right now.*

*Yes,* Annabelle agreed. *We have trust, and we have a relationship. And because we do, I'm going to give you another gift. Something that will make it so you'll be capable of killing anything that tries to hurt me. I'm going to make your venom more powerful, more potent, and give you a secondary type of venom. You'll be able to paralyze and kill even people of my size in under five seconds - and you'll have the ability to choose which type of venom to use.*

*All right.*

Annabelle raised the back of her hand to her forehead, and Miranwe crawled onto it without hesitation. She brought her hand down and sat on the bed, and then she aimed her wand at the glossy spider again. She spent the next minute muttering in ancient latin; a brief glow of green light from inside Miranwe signified that the magic had taken effect - Annabelle had successfully pulled it off, and without hurting Miranwe in the least.

*There. Done,* Annabelle said, setting her wand aside. *Now, do you want to go up to a corner and build yourself a web in here? I won't mind, and that way you can feed yourself no matter if I'm in the room or not.*

*Yes,* decided Miranwe, in a voice of flanging pleasure. *I'd like to do that.* She crawled to the edge of Annabelle's hand, attached new webbing, and jumped off. She lowered herself down, further and further, back legs working at her spinneret. On the floor, she scurried over to the nearest wall, and started her way across and up it until she'd found her corner. There, she started on building her web. Annabelle watched her for a good fifteen minutes, watched her work, until Adelyn entered the room with her usual air of casualness.

"So, Hermione's out. Where does that leave you?" said Adelyn, in greeting.

Annabelle shook her head. "I don't know. I'm thinking about- wait, leave me?" She looked at Adelyn; the vampire's pale face was stuck in a deep frown, and her scarlet eyes were dimmed. "Are you planning to leave the campaign too?"

"Yes," said Adelyn. Simple. Serious. She leaned against the nearest wall. "With my children back in my life, with everything they've said to me, I've begun to think about some of the others out there I've...let's call it what it is, abandoned. I've left a lot of things, people, and places unfinished in my long, long life, Annabelle. And now I...I should really make some rounds, ' round the globe, and finish some of them. For their sakes, not mine; I've hurt, I've left, and I've wronged. And that's wrong - and I'd like to try and make it all right."

"Okay." Annabelle nodded. "If you feel like that's what you want to do, you go do it."

"Well, I'll not be doing it right away." Adelyn grinned. "We can have a few more days together - it's not really a pressing issue, you know? Not like that, anyway. No one that I could go and see right now is in any danger of dying on me before I can." Adelyn frowned, and her scarlet eyes looked down at the floor. One hand went to grip the other arm. "Well, except for one: my son. These past few days, you know I've been having some long conversations over mirrortalker with him and Erika. And it's been during these talks that I learned he has a severe illness. A terminal illness."

"I'm sorry to hear that. If you want to spend time with him-"

Adelyn raised a hand. "Hermione's already left me with a full case of Felix Felicis - it will last me a week - and she's arranged for me to be able to visit her at her home over in Britain, at the start of each subsequent week and over the next three months to pick up more. After those three months are up, however, I'll be finding and hiring on a private potioneer to continue to supply me with it."

"That's good," Annabelle said warmly. "I'm happy you're going to be taken care of in that regard. I'm sure Jack will be too."

Adelyn lifted her gaze from the floor at last. Her frown turned into a small, genuine smile. "He is - as is Erika. They're really quite confusing about the whole matter, though; they seem like they want to be near me, but at the same time they don't really make much effort to...approach me."

"That was before Felicis," said Annabelle. "You did a good job hammering home the point that they'll be crippled or killed for being around you, and they're still holding to that. You're the adult, the parent, though, so you've got to go to them now and tell them it's fine now. That you have it under control. You can't expect them to come to you about it. They don't know what's going on with you, just like you don't know what's going on with them. But that's what you have to fix here. And on that note, have they told you where they've been staying this whole time? Hopefully they aren't doing anything illegal..."

"I couldn't say," Adelyn sighed. "Something I do need to change, you're right. I...I think why I'm having so much trouble and- so much uncertainty about them is because I've never had kids their age before. None of the families I've started before them, none of my children before them, have ever lasted a couple of years. The longest lived children I ever had before them was..." She hesitated. She pulled out her wand and turned it on herself, and over the next minute she self-transfigured herself in a display of mastery beyond anything Annabelle could have imagined; her current masculine body changed, becoming that of a tall, thin blonde woman with freckles and a slightly less pale complexion than her unaltered form.

When she spoke next, it was in a high, soft sort of voice with a bit of nasal to it. "This was me, back then: Rebecca Lang. I'm not sure I got all the details of this body right - it's been too long since I lived it, and I craft a different one every few lives, and they all tend to blur together anyway - but...this was me, for that lifetime. It was the nineteen fifties, and I had a son back then, Charles Lang, who died at the age of nine in a car crash. I lost him, and I lost his nonmagic father - though I, of course, survived it. I wasn't hurt, not even a scratch, but I...I couldn't move. I sat there in the car for several hours before help even came by. Help that I didn't need. Help that I didn't want. True, I hadn't been the one driving that day, but I'd had an hour of delusion and thought that maybe, if I wasn't the one driving, then maybe nothing bad could happen. I admit, I'd also sort of given in to pressure, since my husband had bought the car and been becoming increasingly offended every time I refused to drive with him anywhere - I always told him I'd walk. And I always did. But...that day...I saw the stress, I saw the hurt, building up, and I just couldn't refuse him. I finally gave in, finally got in that car, and they both died not even ten minutes later because of it. Therefore: my fault."

"That does sound like it was your fault," Annabelle agreed. "But, either way, I'm sorry for your loss." She was quiet a moment. Then she gestured at all of Adelyn - at her new, transfigured form. "Now this is something I've been curious about - about you," Annabelle started off. "You know that our societies haven't had much of any issue with alternate lifestyles, and gender concepts, and all the rest of the things that the nonmagic societies are still struggling with...but since I met you you've only stayed in your born form. Are you not overwhelmingly uncomfortable with it? Do you accept it, as is, or...? What's the story with that?"

Adelyn ran a hand through long, scraggly blonde hair, and light blue eyes sparkled with humor. "I've never really felt too discomforted by my birth body, yes, that's true, but what I do by staying in it...to be honest, I've only started that this past decade or so. And the reason I do is for the sake of the nonmagic communities. This past decade, there's been a surge in LGBT activism, advocacy groups and organizations formed for them. And in staying in my natural form, I sometimes go undercover as a nonmagic, and I stick with them on it. I help them. I advocate with them. Sometimes I question myself, sometimes I feel...disgusting inside, because I know I can just wave a stick and magically do for myself in an instant what they dream of being able to do for themselves, but that they always tell themselves can't be possible save for in storybooks. The realm of fantasy and sci-fi. The future. Beyond their lifetimes, at the least."

Annabelle walked up to Adelyn and put a hand on her arm. Squeezed it, and looked her in the eye. "That's amazing, Adelyn. It's good, and it's beautiful, and...I wish it didn't have to be. I wish we didn't have this Statute of Secrecy, I wish we could just go out and help people. Help the sick, heal the injured, and give people like that those dreams of theirs. I wish we could show them, tell them. I wish we could, all the time. The Statute, the hiding, the lies, the memory charms, and the discrimination...it's horrific. It's the state of things, but it shouldn't be. It shouldn't have to be."

"I was alive when it didn't used to be," Adelyn responded. "It only happened three hundred years ago, you know, and so for me, I spent the majority of my life in this world before it was ever a thing. Admittedly, I do miss those times. And...also admittedly, since you're similarly sympathetic in mind, I will confess that I've often used my magic, in small ways, here and there, to give nonmagic people a little miracle or two. Nothing so drastic or huge as...what I'd love to just do for them, with my literal centuries of knowledge and experience with healing magics, but...but things that I hope are enough for now. Until the fated day when the Statute is repealed, or forcibly torn down by someone. It wouldn't take much - just a call to a news organization, set up cameras, make an announcement, and show proof. And then that would be it. The lid blown off. And the future...whatever would come, would come."

"It's an eventuality, I agree," said Annabelle, giving Adelyn's arm another squeeze. "And I myself would love to see that day come, whatever might come of it. But...I think we do have to consider the larger picture. There's peace, there's progress, and there's happiness. People are content. Ripping all that away and throwing it into chaos would cause a lot of harm, and pain, and maybe even a full on war. I don't know. But I for one don't want to take that chance of forcing that day to come, and then knowing after that I was responsible for a war. Or worse, a genocide. Maybe some World War Two internment camp type shit. Busting into people's homes, rounding up families, murdering infants and kids. I couldn't ever take that chance. So I think, that no matter how much we might want to push that change, open that box, that we shouldn't force it. We should just wait for the day to come on its own, when it comes."

"But in the meantime, while we do that waiting, we'll just be letting more and more injustices happen!" Adelyn was seething; her hands turned to fists. "More memory charms, violations of basic sapient rights, personal agency, and more standing around watching people die off when we could just flick our wands and fix it all! All of it, and...and I hate it."

Adelyn was frantic, her words tumbling out. "I can't stand the Ministries of the world, the way they go around abusing and manipulating, controlling and treating the nonmagic peoples like pigs or chickens. Too stupid to know better, too dumb to ever get the chance to decide for themselves. To remember, to know, and to make a choice. Whether that choice is war and genocide, or a better way forward for all of us...they should have that choice. At least the choice!" Tears spilled down Adelyn's pale, narrow cheeks. "And I've been living with all this for so long, seeing it everywhere, so many deaths, that I swear to god Annabelle, I am this close to just throwing up my hands and going for it. Making that push myself. I'd be best suited for it: I'm immortal, I'm unkillable, and i have firsthand memories of what it was like before. I can fight, I can argue and reason, I could do it. The punishments of death or imprisonment, or torture for taking this action wouldn't work on me. I can't be threatened, I can't be cowed. I. Could. Do this."

"I know," Annabelle whispered. "I don't doubt that you could. And if you did, Adelyn, I'd not just be rooting for you - I'd be standing there with you. Because it isn't just against nonmagics, or nonhumans - it's against our own people too; Azkaban and the Dementors, the corruption and bribery, love potions and so much else. It's all wrong, it's all sick, and it all has to end. So let's have it out now, all right? We both want this, either way, however it comes about. But if you...if you want to go out right now, right now, and do it, and just start healing whole hospitals full of nonmagic people, and offering transfiguration services and potions to other transgender people, then tell me you're going to. Tell me your plans, and I'll be right there with you the whole way. Just say the word, and we'll go out right now and start it off. And when the Ministries of the world come together, come down on us, we'll stand and take it. We'll fight them on it all. And if they try to go after the nonmagic governments to quell it, we'll be there to protect them. Maybe we're biting off more than we can chew, with this, plus the SRM, plus the issues within magical society itself, but...I'm sure we have a moral responsibility to use our powers for all of this, and that we have a moral obligation to try anyway. That's just me; I can't say I'll help nonhumans with oppression, but ignore nonmagic issues that I could help and solve too. Yes, there's the possibility of war and chaos that I couldn't live with, but...but I also couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to help when I know I could. So just...tell me, Adelyn: Do you want to do this?"

"Yes." No hesitation. No uncertainty. Just strength. Firmness. And determination.

Annabelle let her hand drop from Adelyn's arm. "All right. Parallel operations, then. Let's get to the nearest hospital, and see what we can do. Let's blow that damn lid right off to outer space, and get started."

Adelyn nodded, breathed out a shaking breath. She plunged a hand into her long coat pocket and drew out a potion vial. She drained it in one swallow. "Twenty four hours," she commented. "Then I'll need another dose of the Felix Felicis." She reached for Annabelle's hand, hers slim and unfamiliar to the latter.

Annabelle herself took a long, steadying breath. She stared around the hotel room, glanced up at Miranwe's corner; the spider was still hard at work, like an unceasing machine. "Okay, let's go-"

*Are you going to leave this room?*

Annabelle blinked. Froze. Staring up at Miranwe, she smiled. *Yeah,* she answered. *I'm going to leave it for a while. Would you like to come with me?*

*It would allow me to keep spying on you,* Miranwe replied, a sort of clicking stutter to her voice, like a broken record. That sound, that stutter, it made Annabelle's smile widen; it was...cute, and she knew what it meant. *So, yes, I'll go with you.*

Drawing her wand, Annabelle said, *Mind if I float you down to me real quick?*

*Float me down?* repeated Miranwe, uncertain. Anxious, as much as she could be. *Will it hurt?*

*No.*

*Then float me down.*

Annabelle gave her wand a flick, and Miranwe's glossy little figure zoomed down from the corner and onto the back of her waiting hand. *Okay, you might want to hide somewhere inside my clothes - if anyone else sees you, they'll try to kill you to protect me.*

*We're in a relationship. We have trust. I won't hurt you.*

*I know you won't, but nobody else does.*

Miranwe, silent and accepting of the logic, crawled up Annabelle's arm and disappeared up the long sleeve of her shirt. When next Annabelle put on her jacket, she was careful not to put any pressure on or rustle Miranwe. Adelyn donned her long coat and fastened her belt; after straightening the pouches, she stuffed two wands, a knife and a handgun down the front of the belt. Finally, she conjured up a black fedora hat to wear.

Together and in silence, Annabelle, Adelyn and Miranwe left the hotel. The normal way - through the halls, down the elevator, and out the front doors.

*Where are we going?* Miranwe asked, as they set off down the sidewalk.

*Well,* Annabelle drew the word out, spoke it quietly as a small group passed her by. She ducked her head and snapped the buttons closed on her jacket, and continued on surreptitiously, *we're going to a place where we can help people. Like how you and I have promised to help each other - but a little bit different.*

*Do you humans do this sort of thing a lot? It sounds like you do.*

*We should,* Annabelle said, a surge of self-loathing, guilt and rage inside her as she spoke the truth. *I should have - should have been doing this ages ago, and damn everything else. I'm complicit, I'm part of the whole problem, the disgusting system, and I...I'll be sorry for it until I die. And I'll spend the time until I die making up for it. I can't ever have called myself good, or moral, before. I don't know if I'll be able to still, even after I do what I'm about to start doing. But at least...I'll be able to know that I started now. Sure, I was a kid before, but that doesn't excuse me to myself. Because even as a kid, I was...* She broke off, shaking her head and huffing to herself.

*I don't understand anything you just said.*

*You will soon,* Annabelle promised. *In fact, if I were to ask you to do something for me...would you?*

*If it doesn't hurt me. You promised to protect me,* Miranwe added in reminder.

*I did, and it won't - I'll even give you another gift, so that you'll be so durable that nothing could even try to hurt you. It won't last forever, it'll be just a couple of hours, but it'll be there, and you won't have to worry about getting hurt.*

*Then I'll do whatever you ask.*

With Miranwe's mind made up, Annabelle began to tell her very specifically, in every little detail and simple terms, what she wanted from the spider. When Annabelle then relayed the conversation and its outcome to Adelyn, the latter woman simply responded with: "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

As Annabelle and Adelyn were crossing the chilly morning parking lot of the general hospital, a twenty-five floor wonder, they found the path forward blocked by someone who had apparated in, directly in front of them. This person was immediately familiar to Annabelle - the long dark hair, the green eyes, the crooked nose were just so distinctive.

"Hey, Kyle," Annabelle greeted, shifting weight to one leg and palming her wand in her jacket pocket. "How've you been?"

Kyle looked like he was resisting a very immediate urge to roll his eyes and sigh at her. Instead, he awkwardly put his hands in his pants pockets and took on a slightly hunched posture; he was wearing nonmagic clothes today, not his dark robes of their first encounter. He looked at Adelyn, then took a glance around the busy parking lot before returning his gaze to Annabelle. Then he said, in level tones, "What are you two doing here, and what did you say to Miranwe to convince her to go along with you?"

Annabelle stared at Kyle for a good five seconds, in silence and with her mind working furiously. She felt Miranwe stir in her sleeve. Hesitantly, she parted her lips and spoke her response in arachnatongue. *I just told her she could hang out with me, and we could be friends - oh, and I gave her a few magical presents. Not too different from the one you gave her, from what she's told me.*

*She gave me two presents,* Miranwe said. *They're going to be very useful.*

Kyle sighed a long, deep sigh. *I'm happy for you.*

*And I'm happy she's happy,* Annabelle said.

*I'm happy you're happy for her,* Kyle responded, showing visible annoyance.

*Well, I'm doubly happy that you're happy that I'm happy that she's happy-*

*Why are we doing this?* Kyle cut Annabelle off, his eyes narrowing at her. He took his hands out of his pockets and stood straight and tall. Taller than Annabelle - he looked down his nose at her, literally.

*Why are you here?* said Annabelle, simple and calm. *You said last time that the next time anyone from your Mortifer organization showed up, it wouldn't be you - but here you are.*

*I'm the one asking questions here, not the other way around,* Kyle said sharply. *Answer them.*

*If you want to talk, we'll walk and talk,* Annabelle answered. *We're here to affect some world-changing...uhm, changes, so it's going to be a busy morning for us overall, as you can imagine.*

Kyle snorted at that. *More world-changing changes than you've already been going around making?*

*Yeah. So-* Annabelle started forward, deliberately bumping past Kyle, shoulder to shoulder. She threw a glance back at him as she continued on for the front entrance. *-if you want to interrogate me, you'll have to work with me as I try and find time to fit it into my schedule.*

Kyle stared after her, with his jaw clenched and a flush coming to his cheeks. Adelyn stepped around him - didn't give him so much as a glance or a single word - and caught up to Annabelle with easy, dainty sort of steps; her current physical figure made her significantly lighter on her feet than usual.

The three of them (plus Miranwe!) entered the hospital's entry lobby. Annabelle led the way over to the reception area; she seated herself on a plush armchair - Adelyn and Kyle followed suit, though the latter was more stiff about it than the former.

"Mortifer is into some nasty things," Annabelle spoke, breaking the silence between them. "I looked them up, like you said I should - didn't make much progress - and then I realized that, hey, I have a thousand year old witch sharing my hotel suite who I could try and ask about them. So I did, and she told me a lot about them. You guys are into self-mutilating rituals, enhancing markings, and sometimes animal sacrifices - among other things."

Kyle's gaze flickered to Adelyn. "Rebecca Lang - Adelyn Barnes - yes, Mortifer is well aware of her existence; we've been keeping tabs on her and all her identities for centuries. Though, personally, I think it's a waste of time: she hasn't done much with herself. She could have been so much more, done so much more, but she's spent most of her existence playing hermit or housewife - sometimes both."

"Like what? Should I have tried to become Goddess-Emperor of the world?" Adelyn spoke, voice drenched with sarcasm. "All dictators, every tyrant eventually loses their power, their position, and each and every single one of them all, at some point, comes to deal with rebellion. It all would be just so much work, and for so little gain and so brief a time with it. And besides all the hard work to put into such a thing, I'd have gotten bored on my own with it after a few decades. No, I've much preferred the simple life. The entertainments, the pleasures, the little moments to cherish. The smallest, but most important of memories to keep for eternity."

"Like I said," Kyle said to Annabelle, almost offhand. "A waste. She has one of the greatest gifts life can give - eternal life itself - and she doesn't deserve to have it at all."

"Did you do some reading up of your own between now and the last time we met?" Annabelle inquired. "Because you had no clue who Adelyn was before, I'm sure."

Kyle flushed, and looked away. He stared across the lobby, fixating on a random receptionist attending to a family of four - two men, and two children, boy and girl. When he looked back at Annabelle, his expression was firm with resolve. That irritation was being heavily suppressed. "Your every attempt at mocking me...they won't work, so cut it out; I'm the one in charge here."

"You're about as in charge here as an insect is of a whale," said Adelyn, and she laughed openly.

"Don't make me hurt you," Kyle snapped at her.

"Before you could so much as draw your wand, I'd have already grabbed you and apparated you to the bottom of the ocean," Adelyn spoke, low and fierce, her face twisted with a frightening intensity. "I can survive down there - I don't think that you can."

Unflinching, Kyle turned back to Annabelle. "Tell me what you're planning to do here," he demanded.

"We're going to tear down the Statute of Secrecy, by starting with healing as many people here as we can," Annabelle explained. She gripped her wand tight in her pocket, and she never looked away from Kyle.

Kyle went pale. His eyes widened in unbridled shock, and even a dash of incredulity. "Are you insane?" he snarled. "Do you have any idea what that will do to us all?"

"I know what it will do for the nonmagic population," Annabelle said steadily. "Give them knowledge, freedom, and justice from their abusers. The ones who control them, who play with them like ants on the sidewalk, and see them as nothing deserving of the marvels and luxuries that the magical societies horde for themselves and keep from the nonmagic majority - or even basic sapient rights, such as their own memories and thoughts, untouched by others. The power to heal broken bones in an instant, to cure harsh diseases within an hour's time, and the power to bring the necessities of food, water, and shelter to all the people so desperately in need of it but that they all ignore. The ability to look, sound, and feel how they were meant to and how they want to. The ability to love and be loved just the way they've always dreamed. They'll be able to know what's going on in the world around them, and they'll have the ability to choose, for the first time in three hundred years."

"You think you're some righteous savior," Kyle said harshly, his wand coming out and pointing at her from the hip. "You're going to bring extinction down on our heads."

"Maybe," Annabelle admitted, pulling out her wand too. She gave the arm that held Miranwe a little shake. "We'll just have to see. Just like I had to wait and see how things would play out when, at thirteen, I brought to light the actions of my abusive relatives. Maybe things would go fine, and they'd be arrested and charged without incident - or maybe they'd try to strangle me to death after finding out. Either way, I wasn't going to not go through with it, because no matter the outcome it was all still wrong. And this - how the mages treat nonhumans and nonmagics - is just as wrong. And it has to end, and we're making that call, right here and now."

Kyle's expression changed. The rigidity left him. The anger, the outrage, it bled away. Now he was looking at Annabelle with something...soft. He put his wand away and put his head in his hands. "I understand what you're trying to do now - and why - and...I'd like to help you with it."

"Why?" Annabelle said, stowing her wand away again. A moment later and Adelyn did the same, her face still a storm of all the burning things inside of her.

"Why?" Kyle echoed, his voice rough and low. He lifted his head, and his mask of stone and neutrality was gone. There was anguish, and pain, and doubt all over it now. "Well, besides the fact that your explanation indicates that your goals will quite probably have a positive benefit for Mortifer...I can empathize with you."

Annabelle cocked her head. "Can you?"

"Y-yes," Kyle said, struggling to even speak. He lowered his gaze several times. He couldn't hold Annabelle's eye now at all. "My own childhood was...similarly difficult. My mother...wasn't much of a good one. I was always being screamed at, struck with open hands and heavy objects, and even- even, you know, touched. I wasn't much of a real person to her, just an object, a toy - a dead weight in her life. A lot of times I got no food, no water, for days a time. For no real reason, I suppose, though she gave me a dozen different ones over the years. It only got worse when I was ten, and found out I was a wizard. She was a muggle, and suddenly she wanted me to do anything and everything for her magically. I was the goose with the golden egg, and she wanted that egg. And I gave it to her, most of the time. Or, I tried, anyway."

Kyle clasped his shaking hands in his lap, and briefly ducked his head and let out a woosh of shuddering air. His shoulders were shaking, his foot was tapping the floor like a woodpecker. "So she decided to home-school me - we set it up with the Ministry, and we had a private instructor come out every few months to check up on my progress. And I studied, and I learned, and I did magic. And at first, I did good enough for her. But then she started asking for more, for better, and even asked me to use my powers to do illegal things for her. Get into banks, steal from neighbors, blackmail and extort everyone around us."

"And I did it - you have to understand that things are different over here; when you get a wand and a license for it you're not monitored, we don't have a Trace - and I did it for her, and I was...I felt good, for the first time. She was good to me, for the first time. She rewarded me after each success, and...I felt good about that too. I was getting genuine praise, and warmth, and what she called love. But, after a year or two, all that was gone again. I couldn't keep up with her demands, her tasks, her...I just couldn't. I got burnt out, I got sick, tired. And she got worse again, and I got worse again. And the more I failed to produce results, the more she...got on me about it, which just led to a circle of me becoming even less confident in myself, and then her becoming even more furious with me. At fourteen, I was useless, malnourished - a thrown out piece of garbage to my mother. And she threw me out, literally, and I spent three weeks out on the streets...until an agent of Mortifer found me."

Kyle swiped at his mouth, licked his lips, and then did it again. His hand came up after, his fingers curled, as if he was about to start biting his nails, but the reflex was caught by conscious mind, and the hand fell back down into his lap. "Her name was Jenny. She taught me how to be strong, how to not be afraid of doing magic - or failing to do it - and she trained me. She gave me a room, a bed, good food. She held me, comforted me, made me feel safe and secure, and loved for the first time in my life. She had fun, she was fun, and she took me on social outings several times a month. She was like the mother I'd always wished I could have had. When I sixteen, Jenny supported me when I decided to go back to my mother's house. I decided to talk to her, to ask her why, now that I was strong enough to do so. I was still scared of her - terrified, really - don't get me wrong, but...with Jenny behind me, and with everything I'd learned...I was able to manage it. And I did, and I tried to talk to her, and I think I was as polite and kind as I could have been, considering it all. But things still didn't go well that night, for anyone: I didn't get my answers out of her, Jenny got a kitchen cleaver to the stomach, and my mother was killed in self-defense."

"Did Jenny live through it?" asked Annabelle quietly.

"Yeah," said Kyle, looking at her in surprise. "It was a nonmagic injury - she fixed herself up in a heartbeat." His gaze went to the family across the lobby again, who seemingly having a bad time getting attended to. "You're really going to do that here? For all these people? Do you know how many people are even in this place? Do you know how long it will take the three of us to get to each and every one of them? What will we do when the Ministry shows up? Have you thought about any of that?"

Annabelle looked to Adelyn, who smiled and gave a little fluttering wave of her delicate fingers. "We have; we discussed the details on the walk over here. And we're prepared for whatever comes our way - even if that means a short notice call for assistance from some of our allies. And we're prepared to spend a few hours here, just getting through as many people as we can. Are you, Kyle?"

Kyle gave a short, nervous nod. "I guess I'll find out? I'll commit to helping you with this, and I'll defend you, and all these people against the Magical governments of the world if it comes to it - wouldn't be the first time they've come after my head," he added, with the smallest of smiles tugging at his lips.

"Don't remind me," Annabelle said seriously. "You might be a good guy, and there might be some other good people with Mortifer, and their end goals might be nice, but the overall means and methods you use aren't too good. And that's as inexcusable as the magical world's treatment of nonhumans and nonmagics."

"I know," Kyle sighed. "And I don't like it. I really don't. But...I don't know how to change that, and-"

"And they're your family," Annabelle finished. "I know. They saved you, helped you, raised you, and that's good. I know. But...try to give a bit of thought to the rest of what they are, and if it's the right place for a guy like you to be, yeah?"

"Yeah," Kyle muttered, refusing once again to meet her gaze. "Can we get started with this already?"

"If your interrogation is over, any time would be a good time to get started," Annabelle replied, flashing a teasing smile as she stood up. Kyle quickly got to his feet and looked anywhere but at her; Adelyn shook her head and stood, an amused sparkle in her eyes. And when she looked at Kyle, there wasn't that anger from before - just pity, and sympathy, and even a certain gentleness.

The three of them crossed the lobby and approached the nearest free receptionist.

"Good morning," spoke the receptionist - a forty-something man with a pleasant and welcoming demeanor to him. "Are you here for an appointment or are you visiting someone?"

"Neither," Annabelle answered. She glanced at Adelyn; she gave Kyle a brief look too. This was the moment. This was it. Lid blown off, no going back. The future would come...whatever it would be. For nonmagic humans, the fight to have better than they'd always had in life started now, just like the fight for nonhuman betterment had begun this year too. "We're mages - her and I are witches, and he's a wizard - and we came here hoping we could use our magical talents to help the sick and the injured that are here today."

The receptionist simply smiled at her. "Of course. Now, Ms.-"

"Potter. Annabelle Potter."

"Ms. Potter, have you been having any other thoughts like this recently? Were you in an accident, or can you recall ever falling and hitting your head?"

Annabelle blinked. Okay, she thought. Expected. That was totally expected. Now it's time for the unexpected. Drawing her wand out of her jacket, she cast the simplest of spells: a transfiguration spell to turn the receptionist's nameplate into solid and very real - but not lasting - gold. Gold was one of those minerals that had an odd reaction when magic was used on it, or if magic was used to change something else into gold. Nobody knew why; it was just the way it was, just some innate property of it. Magic and gold just didn't mix. For today, however, it would be able to serve a good purpose.

The receptionist shot up from his desk, his eyes wide and fixed on the nameplate. He touched it, ran his hands over it, and then picked it up and turned it every which way. After a full half a minute of this, he set it down with a heavy thud, and looked to Annabelle. "How did you do this?"

Annabelle smiled. "I told you: we're mages. I used magic," she said, kind and patient.

The receptionist shook his head at her. "And how can I be sure this wasn't a trick? Maybe someone set you three up for this, sent you in to make me look stupid?"

"We can do a whole lot more, if you need more proof," Annabelle responded, raising her wand again. "How about this: you ask us to do anything you can imagine - anything weird, or impossible, or supernatural - and we'll do it. The only limitations are that we can't raise the dead, we can't just go and spontaneously create new human life, and any food conjured out of nothingness will hold no nutritional value. But other than that, there'd be no way we could have set up for every possibility, for any possibility you could think of off the top of your head. Right?"

"Right." The receptionist frowned in thought; he toyed with the heavy gold nameplate again, pushing it around on the desk like he expected it to explode any second now and shower him in confetti. "Okay, then, I-"

Annabelle reached out and took the receptionist's arm, and then she disapparated. They reappeared on the rooftop garden of a tall building that overlooked a massive cathedral.

The receptionist lost his balance, and fell right over and started puking. "What the hell did you just do?!"

"Teleported us - sorry."

"Teleported? Are you kidding me?" The receptionist looked around himself, wide-eyed and pale-faced. He made for the edge, gripped the railing and stared down into the streets far below. He shook his head and backed away, turning to face Annabelle again. "No way we're actually way up here now. You probably drugged me and-"

"What did you come up with for me to do for you?" Annabelle interrupted. Let's not go backwards here. "We're a dozen city blocks away and sixty-three stories above where we just were, so you ask me to give you your proof, and you have to accept it - or we keep doing things my way until I wear you down."

There was a long silence. "Okay. Deal. I'll accept your whole magic thing if you can do...what I'm going to ask you to do. I'll even help vouch for you with the rest of the staff so you can go around doing your Jesus thing like you want."

"No!" Annabelle firmly rebuked, shaking her head. "I'm not a god, I'm not an angel; I'm just a human, who, for whatever reason - or random chance of the universe - was born with the power to reshape the universe. But that's all I am, that's all there is to this. Please, don't ever think that I'm some divine entity."

"You're going to be saying that a lot if you really plan on doing what you want to do here."

"Point taken," Annabelle sighed. She strode over to the edge of the roof. She leaned out over the railing. Glanced at the receptionist. "What do you want me to do for you?" she reminded the man.

"Could you turn that bench over there into an elephant?"

"Yes," Annabelle confirmed. She pointed her wand and focused her mind, and she committed to the transfiguration. Several seconds later, and a full grown, living elephant was there on the rooftop with them. She grabbed the shocked man's arm and pulled him over to the elephant, careful and slow, until they were close enough to touch - and then she made the man touch the animal. Pressed his hand to a massive leg. The elephant turned at the contact, and Annabelle flicked her wand and reverted it back into a bench. "Convinced?"

The man gave a trembling, mute nod.

"Well, just to be sure-" Annabelle seized the man's arm more securely, and disapparated out off the roof into the air. They fell, wind rushing fiercely past them, tumbling together. The man was screaming, flailing. Annabelle apparated out of the air and into the hospital lobby when they were about five stories from striking the pavement.

Although the act of Apparating properly reoriented them, as well as killed their momentum entirely, the after effects of the experience itself were still being felt by the receptionist. He had fallen to his knees, gasping and sweating. He puked; Annabelle vanished the mess with a twitch of a finger.

Annabelle dropped down beside the man and awkwardly patted him on the back. "Sorry to do that to you, but what we're going to do here has to be done quick as much as careful - once we commit to this, once word gets out what we're doing here...everything changes. And a lot of people with a lot of power aren't going to like that. They'll come here, they'll try to capture us, subject us to torture after, and they'll trap and manipulate the minds of every single nonmagic person in this hospital. Staff, visitors, patients: everyone. You'll have your memories shifted around and erased. And all of that just because we're going to help people who need it - people we have the ability to help. Now, when these people arrive to do these things to you, we are going to stop that from happening, but we need to set things up here fast before they even get word of us, to counter them and block them out when they do arrive. Do you understand - and, what's your name, please?"

"It's David." The receptionist wiped his mouth. He righted himself, gave her a nod. He was determined, but...also horrified by the information. This reaction just affirmed the course of action in Annabelle's mind; this was right. "David Arguette."

"Ah, wonderful." Adelyn approached, a slender hand absently stroking through her own hair. "Anna, why don't you and David go and get the rest of the staff on board, and get started with today's agenda? Kyle and I will make ourselves useful and start netting up a protective field around the building - between the two of us, and all our knowledge of obscure magics, I'm sure we'll be able to come up with something that will keep the international forces out of here - perhaps even indefinitely. Isn't that right, Kyle?"

Kyle pressed his lips together, threw a glance at Annabelle. He sighed. "I'm sure I can think of something."

"All right then." Annabelle looked at the others in turn. "Let's get this started; oh, but I just have to ask one thing, and make one little pop away before we start," she continued, turning to David, as Kyle disapparated with Adelyn firmly grasping his arm. "Here's the question: how big of a health hazard would you say are foreign species of spiders and large lizards?"

"Uh, a really big one," David replied seriously, furrowing his brows in confusion. "We're always doing our best here to keep this place as sterile as possible, you know. That's sort of critical to the entire operation of a hospital. Why? Do you and your pals need to do some animal rituals or something first in order to...do your thing?"

"No." Annabelle shook her head. "I'm asking because, when the people show up here to try and capture us and mind wipe all of you, and if things get really out of hand at that point, we'll need some more protection for you all - protection in the form of an unknown number of sapient, magi-arachnids, and maybe one or possibly even two dragons. Also sapient."

"Are you fucking with me-"

"We've been over this - not fucking with anyone," Annabelle cut across David sharply. "Listen to me: when I say sapient, yes, I do mean that they have human level emotions and intelligence. And, yes, all manner of fairy tale and mythological creatures do exist. So, again, I need to know: will it be a health hazard if I call them in to help protect all of you? I'd honestly rather not have to, since your nonmagic government is probably likely to send out tanks and helicopters to missile the ever-loving shit out of any free-flying dragons and giant spiders clustered in their grand New York City - but, if it comes to it, I'll want them here."

David stared. Clenched his formerly slack jaw. "I- okay. So dragons are real. Awesome. You can't fit a dragon in a building, so as long as it stays outside, I don't think that will be a problem for the patients here. As for your terrifying giant sentient spiders, if you could keep them out here in the lobby then that's the best we could do. If they start roaming the halls or anything, a lot of people here might honest to god die of heart attacks - not to mention any diseases or whatever else they might have."

To mount a suitable defense of the building...that will have to do, unless push really comes to shove, Annabelle thought. Better a few people wet themselves over spiders in the corridors than be taken into international mage custody and have their minds altered against their consent.

"All right," said Annabelle. "I'll be back in a minute, and then we can go talk to the rest of your staff - don't go anywhere." She looked around the lobby, scanning the crowds and groupings of visitors and staff alike who were pointing and talking about the impossible disappearing acts she and her companions had been doing the past few minutes in plain view. She took a breath, focused her mind, and she did it again - and again, in plain view.

Mountains of Montana state, U.S.A.

Annabelle appeared high up in the windy, rocky mountains. Just outside Norberta's magically created cave system of a home. A place for herself, her incubating egg, and her fellow male dragon of a...friend.

She pointed her wand at her throat, and spoke in amplified volumes that reached into the depths of the cave. [Norberta, Emerich? I'm sorry to call you both out and away from whatever it is you're doing right now, but I have an emergency situation on my hands that requires the protection only you two can offer. There are a lot of people - humans - that are going to be in danger really soon, and my companions and I can't protect them all with just the three of us. So, please, if you're home, could you come out, and come with me?]

Norberta's lumbering figure came rampaging out of the darkness, shaking the ground under Annabelle's feet so badly she felt about to lose her balance entirely. [Just tell me where to go and who to eat - or turn into a crispy snack - and I'll be there! Who are we protecting, and who are we protecting them from?]

[Okay,] Annabelle said delicately, raising a hand. [Norberta, I realize you're in full-on, motherly-instincts mode these days, but for the sake of not starting a full blown war, can you promise me that you'll try to stamp down on your blood lust?]

[Answer! Who! Eat!] Norberta snapped, opening up her enormous wingspan and rearing her head high.

[Bloodlust. Restrain. Or not telling,] Annabelle retorted, shaking her head and setting a hand on her hip.

Norberta snorted out a heavy blast of flames over Annabelle's head. Her long neck drooped slightly. [I'll try. Please explain?]

[Adelyn, that Kyle guy and I are preparing a nonmagic hospital in New York for fortification against international government forces that are going to arrive to do us in - and everyone else in there - after they become aware that we're tearing the Statute of Secrecy down for all the world to see.]

Norberta let out a long series of hisses - dragon laughter. Laughter with an undertone of near mania. [You've always voiced your opinion on the problems your magical societies have with morality and rights - and I've always agreed with and supported you in them. If you think now is the time to bring all of the injustices and oppression out into the open, then I'm all for it. So, what's the address of this hospital? Where do you want me when the fighting starts? On the roof? Circling high above? Patrolling the windows? Down on the ground, sitting my huge scaly butt right in front of the entrance? If we're not killing anyone, can I cripple and terrorize instead?!]

[High above,] Annabelle said. She frowned. [I don't want you to make a target of yourself any more than we'll be targets inside. Keep mobile, keep safe as best you can. Be opportunistic, all right? Do some swoops and grazing, with claws and fire breath alike. Try to remember that we're not intending on starting an all out war here. The goal is to keep as many of them away from the building as possible, not to slaughter as many people as you can.]

[I understand, and I can do that,] said Norberta; she gave a very human nod of her head, quick and sharp with excitement.

[Good. Where's Emerich? Do you think he'll agree to help with this?]

Norberta lifted her left fore claw. She tapped it against the rocky ground, like she was testing it. Her lengthy, armored tail swished behind her. [He's inside, way back - with Sevra. And I want him to stay there with her; if something goes wrong at this hospital, I want her to have him at least.]

[Sevra. Her,] Annabelle noted, a smile coming to her lips. [You know the sex, and you've picked a name? All right: just us then. Like always. I'll set up a portkey really quick here for you that will drop you off on the roof of the hospital. Get airborne as soon as you see government forces start appearing below. If they attack you, or anyone else, start attacking back. If they try getting into the building first, stop them. And keep stopping them. But please, don't just go tearing into them before they even do anything.]

[Understood!] Norberta flexed all the muscles in her back and legs, and gave her wings a few experimental flaps that kicked up dust.

Annabelle took two minutes to make the portkey - she used a nearby rock - and then gave Norberta a long, critical look. [Before I throw this at you, let's lay out a few contingencies, all right? We've always had those, we need them now more than ever.]

Norbert held her head high, gazed down at Annabelle with utmost attention. [All right. Contingencies - I like those.]

Five minutes was spent in discussion, memorizing and planning, and then Annabelle finally tossed the portkey at Norberta. That taken care of, for Annabelle's next stop she apparated to the underground tribe home of Nyllia (all the way over in Africa).

*Sorry to barge in like this,* Annabelle began (voice amplified again), as many a magi-arachnid began to crowd her. She looked past them, over them all, to Nyllia's massive, looming form. *Nyllia, I know this is short notice, and I'm sorry - but, I'd like to ask for your tribe's assistance in protecting the lives of dozens of my people inside a human den, against international and official magical forces. Injuries and death might occur, and it might be necessary to stay for several hours. Yes or no?*

Nyllia's booming voice returned with: *Yes - have you forgotten? You are my tribedaughter, just the same as all the others I care for in my territories. I will always be here to help a tribe member, and every tribe member will be here to help one another as well. And...you fight for all. I will gladly fight for all right alongside you,* she finished warmly.

*Okay,* Annabelle nodded - force of habit. *Great. Thank you. Unfortunately, I think you're too big to show up personally to help out without causing a lot of unnecessary deaths, but if you could send a sizable number of smaller tribe members through a lucar bridge leading to right about...here...* She waved her wand and created a shimmering globe of the Earth in the air above them all. On this globe, a red light flared over the hospital's position in New York City. *If you could get them here, that would be appreciated.*

*It is possible to create a new lucar connection to that area for my tribechildren. What would they do once they are there?* Nyllia inquired, her voice soft and musing. *Do you have a strategy for the defense of this den?*

Annabelle nodded again, and then she told Nyllia the plan she had in mind.

After they'd worked out the details of their joint operation, Annabelle disapparated. But she did not go straight back to the hospital.

She had one more "ally" she wanted to visit, ask for assistance from. Unlike the ones she had successfully recruited so far, however, this last one would stand a very fair chance of refusing the call to aid...

St. Claire's Hospital, New York

When Annabelle at last reappeared in the lobby of the hospital, it was to shouting and general panic. She immediately spotted David, who was conversing rapidly with a little group of other hospital staff members.

"He's not crazy, I'm not crazy - here's proof," Annabelle said, inserting herself into their discussion. She flicked her wand at a nearby plant and caused it to grow and sprout up into a twenty foot tall Christmas tree, decorated with lights and baubles and all manner of golden streamers. The multitude of visitors, friends and families in the lobby had a wide array of reactions to this: some fear, some more panic, some awe, a little disbelief still in the eyes of some. Annabelle strode into the middle of the lobby and turned her wand on her throat; she amplified her voice and began to speak to everyone - not just in the lobby, but to everyone in the entire hospital - in tones patient, calm, and careful.

"Everyone - hello. I'm sure you've all noticed some really strange, impossible things going on here this morning. I'm responsible for them. I'm a witch, my name is Annabelle Potter, and I've been using magic. Yes, magic is real. Magic, and every fairy tale creature and nonhuman being, is real. It's all been kept hidden from you for the past three hundred years. And the methods by which it has all been hidden, stems from a viewpoint of oppression, of superiority in most magical societies."

"The magical governments of the world regularly have no regard for your free will, your own agency as human beings. Your minds are regularly erased whenever you see something magical, or someone magical. Sometimes, some of you are even mind controlled into serving as out and out slaves for some magical event or other, where afterward you're mind wiped and put back in your home without being any the wiser."

"It's wrong, it's all wrong, and myself and my friends and allies have decided that it ends today. Because...because the international magical governments aren't just harming you all, they're also actively preventing any people like me and my friends from using our magic in blatant and easy ways to help all of you without. And I'm here today because I can't live with myself knowing that I could save lives, and help so many people, but that some government has made it illegal and punishable by torture for me to even try doing so. So here I am, here we are, and I'm going to work with the hospital staff today to try and magically heal as many people as I can."

Annabelle paused, watched everyone around her. Staring, muttering - more than a few still thought she was just nuts. An escaped mental patient or some such, she thought she heard out there. She sighed. Smiled. "If anyone has any questions, if anyone wants to come and see firsthand, or even wants to refuse to have their family member or their friend treated by me - by magic - then you can do so. You can ask anything, and I will respect whatever you wish. I just want to help people here."

"Now, I do have to tell all of you some other things about today. About how the day is going to most likely go because of the decision to be here and to reveal the existence of magic to the nonmagic societies again. The international, human mage governments are going to dispatch people to try and capture and stop me and my friends from helping you all, and from spilling the secrets of it all like we are."

"To prevent it from getting out, they're going to take all of you, and they are going to wipe all your memories. Put you back at home, or in your hospital beds, and you'll never know anything life-changing happened today. I want you all to understand something: I'm not going to stop anyone from leaving if they want to, but know that if you do, the magical governments will easily just go to your homes and do you in there. Your best chance of keeping your own agency, and your own rights intact, is to stay in here with me and my friends and allies."

"We're going to put up protections around the building, and we're going to have some allies of ours patrolling and protecting the place. Protecting all of you who want it. Who stay here for whatever reason you have. But it's entirely optional, and voluntary. If you want to stay here, maybe see your family members healed, maybe keep your memories of the wider world around you, then you stay here, please. But if you don't, you're free to leave any time."

Again, Annabelle gave pause to let her words sink in with the crowd. In the shouting and high emotions that followed, Annabelle heard an echoing roar of ferocity from outside - and high above. Most everyone around her startled and went quiet at the noise. Terror. "Nobody has to panic over that - that's just Norberta, and she's my best friend. Also a dragon. Yes, dragons are real. They're as smart and emotional as any human. They're reasonable, they're kind, and, in Norberta's case, really lazy and cowardly. Trust me, she's a sweetie. And today, she's going to take part in the defense of this building and every single one of you in it."

"This all has to be some big game!" a woman yelled out, angrily storming up to Annabelle. Charcoal hair, stringy and short, eyes darker than. She looked a good few years older than Annabelle was. "Or is it an awareness campaign for something? Did you book the hospital for a religious presentation?"

"It's exactly what I've said it is," Annabelle said calmly, her voice still amplified.

The woman frowned. Her hand swiped out for Annabelle's throat, and she crudely started lifting and checking inside her jacket. "How are you doing that? Where did you hide the mic? Where-"

Annabelle disapparated, and reappeared on the roof. [Norberta, did you get a hairball, or were you signalling me for something?]

[Well, actually it's-] Norberta began.

"We're ready to raise the protective field," Kyle said, apparating in right beside Annabelle, with Adelyn on his arm.

"Not a moment too soon," Adelyn lamented, rushing to the ledge and pointing to the streets below. Various robed and other clothed figures had begun to pop into existence at the front doors to the hospital. Most went inside, while a dozen others began waving their wands and setting up a perimeter to keep the people on the streets from noticing them at all...or trying to enter the hospital. Adelyn's face twisted at the sight. "Kyle, let's get this in place, yes? On three. One, two, three...!"

Adelyn and Kyle began to take up a furious chant, like auctioneers they were so fast with it, that took them through half a dozen different languages, old and new. Their wand tips glowed purple, and then around the hospital formed a purple dome. It shimmered, glistened with blue particles here and there. It was almost a second skin, the barrier within a foot or two of the exterior of the building. The dome top far exceeded the rooftop, however, in contrast to the rest of it.

"To give dear Norberta some room to rest if she has to," Adelyn explained the extra space on top, with a warm look at Norberta. "We'll all be capable of passing through the barrier as we please - as well as apparating freely within or on either side of it - as will anyone that the barrier recognizes has no magic in them. The same won't be said of the government forces below, however."

"Good work," Annabelle praised. She switched to draketongue as she looked to Norberta again. [Are you ready? Remember: just circle around up high for a while. Wait until they actually try and breach the barrier, or if they start assaulting people that you can see. But please, don't just go crazy on them. Remember the plan, and don't forget the backup plans.]

[I'm perfectly sane, thank you.] Norberta spread her wings, and took off into the sky with a gust of wind so powerful it knocked Annabelle and Kyle right over - Adelyn was fine.

Trying not to think of the hell she'd just unleashed upon New York, of a kind not seen since the infamous and outrageous events of 1926 involving Newt Scamander (which had resulted in a city-wide obliviation of millions of people), Annabelle got to her feet again, gave Kyle and Adelyn brief nods, and apparated back down into the lobby. They followed her.

Annabelle was immediately greeted by her skeptic nonmagic woman staring her in the face - who now no longer looked so skeptical. "Sorry, that was rude of me," said Annabelle. She paused. "But you know, you were being rude too; hands off this woman unless she's given you permission."

"I - I'm sorry," said the woman; Annabelle didn't know if she meant sorry for the inappropriate contact, or sorry because she didn't understand why Annabelle was apologizing. It sounded like a question at the same time as it didn't.

Annabelle looked down at the floor. "Yeah, so, what are you planning to do today? Do you have anyone here? Are you sick or hurt, yourself? Do you plan on going home? Because if you are..." She put her wand to her throat and amplified her voice again. "Sorry, everybody, but: the magical government forces are here. They're outside the front doors, and they're going to be trying to find a way in. A way past the protective barrier we just put in place. I don't know if they eventually will or not, but please, remember that your best bet at staying safe and of sound mind is to stay here." She reverted her volume to normal, and gave the woman in front of her a smile. "What're your plans, uh...?"

"Helena Dark," the woman responded, frowning deeply. "I have a son in here - Jesse, he's six - and he has cancer. Leukemia. Could you...do something for him? Could you really? All this - the tree, that purple glass stuff out there, your voice - it's all spectacle. But that could still all be fake, some big set up. But my son, if you could...that'd be real. You couldn't fake that. And...I'd owe you a thousand times over, I think. If you could make it go away."

"I can handle the cancer," Adelyn spoke up, gentle and compassionate. "I have several centuries of hands on experience with treating such things in the past - before the Statute came and ruined things for everyone. Of course, way back then, no one knew what to call it - medieval societies didn't exactly have an understanding of science and medicine in any way comparable to modern times - but...I was still able to cure six hundred and eighty-two cases of various cancers in those times."

"Six hundred?!" Helena gaped. "Do you never sleep or something?"

"No, I don't," Adelyn said honestly. She hesitated, and then her skin transformed. Became pale as a ghost. Her eyes turned scarlet. Her fangs sprang out of her mouth. "That would be because I'm a vampire. I've lived a thousand years on this Earth, and today...well, today those thousand years of medical and magical knowledge are at your service."

Helena stared. Looked Adelyn up and down. Then she looked her in the eye. Dark brown on glittering scarlet. "Just - please - make him better again. I don't care who or what you even all are, I don't care, just...if you can do something for him...please do it."

"If you would kindly show me to his room, I can get started," Adelyn answered, a note of surprise in her voice as she regarded Helena. Helena nodded, and the pair left the lobby down a back corridor.

"Ms. Potter, uhm, witch lady?" David spoke, catching Annabelle's attention.

"What is it?" said Annabelle patiently.

"We've all agreed to stick it out here if we'll be safest, and we all agree that we're willing to let you do your magic healing thing - just under the strict supervision of some of the physicians, nurses, and the chief medical officer here. I'll turn you over to them, and I need to go start helping with keeping people calmed down around here."

"Thank you." Annabelle watched David go, then turned to the physicians and nurses. "So, who am I treating first?"

One of the others stepped forward. "Brian Letto. Good to meet you, Ms. Potter. I suppose, to see what you can do and how you do it, we'll start you off with a simple case. I'll take you to one of my charges, and we'll see this...this magic of yours. After, we'll want to run tests, of course - and, if this whole siege situation of yours gets resolved with our minds and lives intact, we'll also want to keep in contact with everyone you might treat here over the next few years. We'll put a big fat 'M' in their records, for magically cured. If you can do that."

"I understand," said Annabelle, nodding. "Lead the way, Dr. Letto."

As a child, during her seven years at Hogwarts, Annabelle had invested most of her off time to learning and practicing healing magic. In a childhood of utter abuse - of hurt - once she had discovered a way to put a stop to it, she had seized on it with everything she had. No more pain, she had told herself. Never again. Of course, she had had a bit of a double standard here, as pain inflicted upon herself, by herself had still been a thing she had done and gone through, but...but it was one she'd gotten over too, in time. With help, with a lot of conversation, she had stopped that. No more pain at all, no matter who or where it came from.

Now, Annabelle was going to do the same thing for so many other people.

And it all started here: patient room 514. Jared Munn. Age thirty-one. Spinal cord injury from a car accident six weeks ago, along with three broken ribs and a broken arm.

"Jared, how's it going today?" Dr. Letto greeted his patient, while two other physicians began checking monitors and other readouts.

"Same as yesterday," Jared shrugged. He noticed Annabelle (and her distinctly unprofessional attire). "Who's this?"

"The witch who's going to see if she can heal you with her magic," Dr. Letto explained, with a look on his face that said he was in total disbelief about the words coming out of his mouth right then. "Annabelle Potter is her name."

"The one who gave that whole D&D spiel over the intercoms?" Jared laughed. He gave Annabelle a thumbs up with his good arm. "Nice one. It was really cool to listen to. There a campaign going on in one of the waiting areas? If there is, do you think I could wheel on down there for it- hey, what the hell?!"

Annabelle sat down on the cushioned, high backed armchair that had formerly been known as a random pebble in her jacket pocket that she had picked up off the street half an hour ago. "Witch. Magic. Real," she succinctly informed Jared. "And, that wasn't your intercom: that was me. I used magic to make my voice heard throughout the entirety of this hospital building."

"So that noise- and when you said it was a dragon...?" Jared's eyes were wide. "All of that was true? It's all real? I mean, there's really a fucking dragon up on the roof right now?"

"Depends - she might be airborne at the moment," Annabelle answered, smiling. "But, yes. She's real, and everything I said is true. And I'm here to do what I said in my announcement: to heal you, and as many other people as I can in several hours' time."

"All right, let's have it then." Jared responded to her smile with a weak one of his own.

"Okay." said Annabelle. "Just tell me if you feel any pain or...anything; I've never actually practiced on anyone besides myself, my few friends, and a few random patients."

"That's not comforting," Jared spoke, at the same time as Dr. Letto asked, "Wait, are you medically certified at all?"

"I have...battlefield experience," Annabelle said honestly. "And I spent seven years learning and practicing this branch of magic, and I did spend a few months under the tutelage of someone who is medically certified - or, the equivalent in magical society, anyway."

"How old are you?" Dr. Letto questioned, looking almost exasperated with Annabelle now.

"Eighteen - we mature faster and do things much earlier than nonmagical societies do, though we live two to three times as long as the nonmagic human, on average," said Annabelle calmly.

"Jesus, you're just a kid?" Jared exclaimed. "Not so sure I want you using actual magic on my insides now, honey..."

"I thought I already established by now that I'm not your Holy Messiah?" Annabelle returned.

Jared laughed. "You misunderstood me, kid."

A second passed, and Annabelle understood. She felt her cheeks warming, and she looked away. "Right, sorry," she muttered. She took a breath, and then looked Jared in the eye. "Look, I know I'm young, but I'm a legal adult, and so that's how it is. I'm still trained, I'm still skilled, and I've put all of it to practical use a dozen times over. I can do this. I can heal you. You just have to trust me that I'm not going to screw up and liquefy your organs."

"Shit, can that happen?" Jared asked, sitting upright as best he could. "Serious here, sweetheart. Does that just happen if you mess up?"

"It could happen - but, no, it doesn't normally happen," Annabelle assured. "Not even in cases of screw ups. So...so can I have your permission to do this for you, Mr. Munn?"

"You've got it," Jared sighed. He threw a glance at Dr. Letto. "Not sure about the doc here's opinion on it, but mine is still: let's go for it."

"If you pull this off, I'll let you make some rounds," Dr. Letto told Annabelle. "If not, sorry, but, good intentions or not, I couldn't let a dangerous thing like horrific magic get near my patients."

"Understood." Annabelle scooted forward in her chair, leaning over Jared's hospital bed. She brought her wand up, and began muttering the incantations necessary to repair the known damages. She cast a diagnostic spell, and she was relieved at what she found: perfection. "All right, your ribs and your arm should be totally fine now. Feel free to test them out - just, slowly. And, if you'd allow me to levitate you, I can get you into an easy position that will let me get at your spine to finish this off."

Jared waved his formerly broken arm around. Banged it against the nightstand. Bent his elbow and straightened it out. He touched all along the arm with the fingers of his other hand. He sat up a lot straighter, and ran his hands over his abdomen. He took a huge breath - let it out again. And he laughed an airy laugh. "I can't believe it! You actually did it. Just- just- that's it? A couple seconds of focus and incantations, and boom, a guy's arm and ribs are fine as the day he was born? There wasn't even any dramatic flashes of light or anything."

"As I was once told by a very old, very accomplished wizard: bangs and smoke are often the signs of ineptitude," Annabelle said, unable to keep a smile off her face.

"Well, from what I can see and feel just with my own two eyes and hands," Dr. Letto began, as he tested and pressed Jared's former wound areas. "I'm very, very impressed. It's like a miracle. A real miracle. I'll want to take some x-rays after, if you can really fix his spinal injury too. A broken bone is simple, but a spine? That's complicated, that's..." He trailed off, giving Annabelle a look of mingled astonishment and contemplation. "I'll have to see it."

"To science, understanding how it all works, it's complicated," said Annabelle, readying her wand again. "But magic...magic doesn't need to understand how something works in order to do something. The caster doesn't have to understand. I didn't need to study up on the mineral composition of a rock, or the chemical composition of a chair and string in order to transfigure the stone into the armchair I'm sitting on right now. It's the same for anything, and everything," she concluded patiently. "Now, magic itself does have rules, laws, subtleties, differences, but...but when it comes to magic and how it affects nonmagical things, there's no need to know."

"Good to know," Dr. Letto murmured.

"Alright, let's go three for three," said Jared, relaxing into the bed. There was a beaming smile on his face now. "You fix my spine, no problems, and I'll send you gift baskets every year for the rest of your supernatural life. And if I die before then, I'll have my kids carry on the tradition. Probably grandkids, too - you did say you people live to be two hundred to three hundred years, right?"

"Yeah, we do," Annabelle confirmed. "But there's no need to thank me for this. I'm just doing the right thing. Not for praise, or glory, or anything else. Just...because it's right, and somebody has to." She flicked her wand and slowly lifted Jared off the bed by several feet. She rotated him onto his side, and she cast a diagnostic spell on his back. She found the injury, the breakage. The damage. And she spent five seconds muttering to herself in order to fix it. She let Jared down again, and sat back in her chair.

Jared stared down at himself. He pulled the blankets aside, and he moved his legs and feet. He was crying when he looked at Annabelle. Crying when he told her, "It's like it never even happened."

In that moment Annabelle knew, with the certainty of her entire being, that this was good - that this was right, and that this was worth the fight that was to come for them over it.

Annabelle stopped at the door to the private hospital room - room 311 - where Kyle was reported to be. It was in the children's ward.

"...you don't have to say anything, Natasha. I can see how they treat you. I can hear the words they call you. I feel every blow, every cut, and every burn they've ever put on you. And I can tell you that I can make it all go away. The physical pain, at least. Those scars, that hurt - I can make it go away. And I can make it so that they never do these things to you again."

"How do you know all that?" a young girl's voice came, sharp and accusing.

"That woman with the beautiful voice - did you hear her words earlier? About magic? About having a dragon for a best friend? About how she came here to help people? I'm the same as her. I know because I'm magic. And I'm here...to help you, Natasha. I can use magic to make your pain go away, and I can use magic to- to make sure it never happens again. Because that's the beauty of magic. It can do some of the most impossible things you could ever think of. If you think it's impossible to get away, to get help, to feel safe and loved...it's not. Magic can make that happen."

"How?"

"It did for me," Kyle's soft reply came. "I had...a bad mother, just like you. But magic gave me a new one. Gave me a new home. A better one. And now here I am, and I can give you the same thing. You just have to tell me that it's...that it's okay."

"Ok." That single word was uttered so quietly. "Can you ask that woman with the dragon if it can eat them for me? That way, after, just in case...I won't ever have to see them again."

"Of course," Kyle responded. Annabelle heard a soft laugh. An easy laugh. A real laugh. "She likes me - I'm sure she'd be willing to lend me her dragon for a day. For you, Natasha."

Silence. Then it was replaced by Kyle's utterance of many healing incantations that Annabelle recognized - and more than a few that she didn't; it was just more evidence of how much more skilled and knowledgeable Kyle was compared to her in the matters of magic.

"How do you feel?" Kyle's voice came again. "A whole lot better, don't you?"

"Yes." The voice of Natasha was breathy with relief and shock. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now, I need to go see who else I can help here, just like you, so you keep resting in here for me okay? I promise you I'll come back in an hour. And, after you go to your new home, I'll visit you there too if you want."

"Ok."

Footsteps were heard, and then the door opened and Kyle stepped out. He looked at her in surprise. His cheeks flushed. He didn't say anything to her - just strode down the hall with purpose in his gait, and a wand in his hand.

Annabelle went after him. She caught up to him, and caught his arm in hand. He instantly froze up, startled as he turned to her. She let go and stepped back. Stepped away. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Kyle responded, irritation coloring his features. "We only have limited time here, I want to make every minute count."

"You promised to give that kid - Natasha - a new home. A better home. How are you planning on doing that?"

"I'll find it for her myself," said Kyle. He tapped a foot, glanced away. "I'll-"

"Use Legilimency on the new parents? See if they have any history of treating children poorly?" Annabelle ventured, trying to hold Kyle's gaze - he just kept looking anywhere but at her. "A magical background check, is that how you'd justify it? Find her a home, arrange that - fine, that's fine - but if you plan on mind controlling anyone to make the process happen for that girl, or invading the basic rights to privacy and-"

"That would go against your whole cause, your advocacy, blah blah," Kyle cut across her. He paused, glanced up and down the hall; he waved his wand, and Annabelle felt the telltale tingles of concealing charms being cast around them - sound, sight, perhaps. "I realize that. But you realize this: I'm not a part of your cause. I'm not your friend - we're strangers. We've met twice. I don't give a damn what you think is moral or just, or ethical. I'm going to do anything I can to make sure that that girl in that room back there gets the life she deserved from the start! And if you- if you try to stop me from doing that...then tell me what the hell that makes you? Tell me how the hell you can call yourself moral, or just, or good when you stop someone from getting a child out of her own little hell! Tell me-"

"I was that girl!" Annabelle exploded. "I was that girl, goddamnit! I told you - I told you - and through all that, fuck, do you think I don't- do you think I'm not-" She cut herself off and whirled away. She threw herself against the nearest wall, drew back, and threw herself again. She slammed her fists against it and kicked at it-

A hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Sometimes legal isn't right, sometimes right isn't legal - you know that," Kyle said, insistent - furious. His lips pressed together. The hand holding his wand was trembling. Now he was the one trying to hold her attention. "Do you realize how many laws we're breaking right now? And you want to have the nonexistent set of balls to tell me to my face that I can't use illegal means to help a little girl feel safe for once in her life?!" Kyle's grip on Annabelle was harsh, unyielding. His face was twisted, and his eyes were tear-stricken.

Annabelle brought her wand up and blasted Kyle back against the wall opposite her. He didn't raise his at her. "It's not about that. It's about not mind fucking people, and about at least adhering to proper channels, and-"

Kyle slammed a foot down; Annabelle jumped. "So fucking what if I don't go through proper channels! Those proper channels fucking failed her to begin with! They didn't see it, they didn't- no one ever saw it!" he finished, voice rising in pitch - so sudden - until it was strained to the point of breaking.

"I went through proper channels, and I got out of mine," Annabelle said, voice thick from a tight throat. "I told, and I- I was helped, and I-"

"That clearly doesn't work for everybody, since my experience says different!" Kyle shouted over her. "And what do people like you do then? Where do you go, who do you go to? When you have no one and nothing? How do you fix that situation?"

"Obviously it's complicated, but you-"

"That's not a fucking answer!" Kyle yelled, slamming his fist into the nearest wall. "Give me an answer, a real answer, about how a kid out on the streets like me could have gotten into any kind of decent home, like the one you got for yourself, and the one I am going to get for that girl, without using any illegal means! Fuck- just- fuck you, we're right here, doing what we're doing, and you want to say we can't just pick a kid up and put them where they deserve to be placed and not give a damn about anything but that result?"

"That's not what I'm fucking talking about!" Annabelle was screaming, frustration ripping her apart inside. She stalked right over to Kyle and grabbed his shirt in a fist, slammed him into the wall. "What I'm fucking talking about is you, you don't get to just decide you're going to help a kid and damn the rest of the world! Not just let it burn, for fuck's sake, but go out of your fucking way to burn it down! You magic some papers through, you work out a deal with the parents, fine! Fine! But don't fucking think about mindraping people to get the process through, or to make sure the process doesn't reach them, just for her, because those are all living, breathing people just like you, and you don't screw with innocent people goddamnit! Do you get that? Do you understand me, Kyle? Tell me you do, tell me, or I swear I'll beat the shit out of you until you scream it out to me that you do-"

"Stop it, mom!"

Annabelle was suddenly blown sideways down the hall like she'd been struck by a car. She flew, hit, rolled and came to a stop. She lay there a moment, hearing nothing but sobbing. She thought it was hers, but...it was Kyle's. She got to her feet again, aching and bruised. She winced, she tested her arms and her hips. She touched a hand to her head and came way with blood. Kyle was leaning against the wall, forehead to the plaster, with his arms over his head. "I'm sorry," she said, in trembling tones. She didn't move closer. "Kyle, listen to me. Just listen - please. Innocent people don't deserve to be hurt, or used in any way. They never do. Because we never deserved it. That was us, they're all us. They could be us. But they don't deserve to be us, and not because you make them that way. Maybe you think that they do deserve it, and maybe that's because you think we deserved it on some level. I don't know. Or maybe you're doing it because, while they don't deserve it, you want them to deserve it - as some revenge type thing that you feel the need to act on."

"Whatever the case," Annabelle continued, sucking in a long breath. "Please don't. I'm asking you...just don't. Please. Get what you want, do what you want, but don't hurt people who don't deserve it just to get it. Break all the laws you want, throw off any government or society you feel like you have to, but don't...don't ever do anything that hurts innocent people. Your mother did that, that was her - but that's not you. Not if you don't let it be."

Kyle didn't respond. At least, not verbally; he disapparated with a loud crack - Annabelle flinched.

Shit. Annabelle spent several minutes getting a hold of herself - steadying her breathing, wiping her eyes, etc - and then she went to find Adelyn. It took her over half an hour of wandering and checking in with random nurses she came across before she finally managed to find her.

"Adelyn," Annabelle began, on entering the room. "Kyle's gone. That leaves us one very talented, very powerful ally short - not that I'd put a cap on how many we should have here."

"Understandable," Adelyn replied, not looking away from the mid-fifties woman in the hospital bed whom she was attending to. "Pray tell, did the ex wife of yours say she was willing to put in an appearance?"

"We never actually got married," Annabelle corrected, transfiguring her favorite rock into her favorite chair again and falling into it with a heavy sigh. "But, I met with Lisa, yeah - and she told me she was too busy, and too well off in life to come and join me in throwing that all away. I understand her, I understand that, I guess, but..." She shook her head. "It still wasn't something I wanted to hear."

"How unfortunate for us," Adelyn said, making a tssk tssk noise. "It seems everyone will just have to get really comfortable with spiders then..." She raised a hand, and gave Annabelle a sidelong look. On her lips appeared a sly smile. "Unless you know of a few others out there you could ask to come here and help us. We really could use a few more hands on this - both figuratively, and very literally. Now, if I recall, the night we first met, you seemed to have quite the crew of spare hands hanging around with you...didn't you?"

"Gertrude, Anju and Oguk?" Annabelle responded, her mind drifting back to that night too. She'd given them all mirrortalkers, true, but unfortunately they hadn't spoken through them yet. She had reasoned that they would have used them by now if they really needed to get in touch with her - or if they really wanted to. They had difficult enough lives as it was, she knew, and she didn't want to burden or even offend them by making a social call on her own whim.

However, given they had pledged themselves to the movement, and given this was a momentous event and action on the part of the movement - and one made in the name of compassion and justice - then surely they would...if only Annabelle would ask...

Annabelle plunged her hand into her jacket and pulled out her mirrotalker. She held it up to her face. "Gertrude. Anju. Oguk." These three names said clearly, the mirror face shimmered, the handle vibrated, and then two vertical, cracked lines appeared in the glass. The three sections of the mirror face swirled, and then three separate images appeared to reflect back at Annabelle. Three different voices emitted from the mirror, all talking at the same time.

"Annabelle? Do you need something?" Gertrude's raspy voice came, concerned.

"Oh? It's you! If you're calling me now about our children, they're doing fine - they'll hatch any day now," Anju's response came quickly, in tones of assurance. "In fact, I was thinking about calling you soon, to ask you if you'd be willing to be there for the hatching. I understand if you want to stay unattached, but..."

And Oguk's response was heard, louder than the other two; zir voice was full of warmth and excitement alike. "Ms. Potter - that is how your people signify respect, yes? - do you call upon me now to ask me to contribute to the cause I pledged to support for and alongside yourself?"

Then, three different voices all voiced their confusion at the sound of each other's.

"Anju? Oguk?" Gertrude spoke first. "Annabelle? You cracked my mirror. I'm not just seeing and hearing you, I'm seeing and hearing the other friends I made the night you came back to me. Or, am I the only one seeing this?"

"Sorry," Annabelle said quickly. "It's a special feature that my godfather added to my mirror - and so it carried over to your duplicates - he's a real marvel and a bit of a tinkerer when it comes to magic. Anyway, listen, right now I could really use your help. All of you. It's for the movement. It's not a move to protect any nonhumans, sorry, but it is a move to protect people who need it - nonmagic humans. We've blown a hole in the Statute, and we plan on tearing it down permanently once the day's over. Norberta is up in the skies, the international magical government has Aurors and other law enforcers trying to get through a barrier, and in a few hours I'm expecting a hundred or more magi-arachnids to pop up out of the streets and help protect the people we've got in here."

"I'll be there!" Gertrude was first to say, fierce in tone, and in a deeper pitch than was even her usual. "Wherever there is," she added uncertainly. "Where are you?"

Annabelle gave her three friends the city name and street address; all three confirmed that they could work with that information in order to perform various types of unique apparition magicks to arrive there shortly.

"You're sure you want to do this?" Annabelle questioned Anju. "You're literally the last of your people. If you get hurt or killed here, I- Anju, our kids won't have you there for them."

"But they'll have you," Anju responded, resolute. "I'd rather you raise them than ninety percent of the other people who came through that inn and came to me for a free fuck - or any other harpies around the globe. We're so few in numbers, and who they are, the lives they live and the things they call values...I wouldn't want my children to grow up with them - with that; it's not my community, it's not what I am. But you...with who you are and with what you believe in, I'd love it if you could have at least a hand in their upbringing."

"All right," Annabelle accepted. "And, Anju, if...if something here does happen to you, I promise you now that I will do my best to raise our kids how you'd want them to be raised." She turned her gaze from Anju's image to that of Oguk. "Are you prepared to-"

"Yes," Oguk interrupted.

Annabelle smiled. "Okay then. See you all soon." She deactivated her mirrortalker and stowed it away. She turned to Adelyn. "It would be great if you could just keep doing what you're doing. I'm going to go back to the lobby and make another announcement - update everyone on the situation - and then once Gertrude, Anju and Oguk show up I'll get them introduced before I...get this started."

"Best of luck," Adelyn said, waving an arm with utmost exaggeration.

Annabelle nodded, then she disapparated.

Several hours passed without anything eventful happening. At least, nothing inside the hospital happened.

But the outside...

After checking in with Adelyn again, Annabelle apparated to the roof, and scanned the streets below. There were over fifty mages all clustered down there, trying to get through the barrier and the front doors. There was another fifty or so mages dedicated to lethal spellcasting toward an agile and deadly Norberta above them, who was taking swooping dives at them - dives filled with roaring, inferno breaths, and slashing claws and tail. A third grouping of fifty odd mages were creating a perimeter around the building, casting protective and concealment charms against every passing nonmagic person. Annabelle watched as a man shook his head, then approached closer to the mage gathering. His will was a bit too strong to be fooled by the magic - but it was still working on him, Annabelle could see that; he kept faltering, then stepping forward, hesitating and then getting over it again. A mage broke from her fellows and stalked right up to the man, brandishing her wand threateningly. Then she was leveling it at the man's face. The man who refused to be deterred by mental influences.

Annabelle apparated down to the street, appearing right behind the mage. She thrust her wand right up against the woman's back, and cast a Cutting Curse; the mage dropped like a stone, her body crumpling under itself. Annabelle seized the man's arm and disapparated with him. They reappeared in the lobby of the hospital. "I'm sorry," she said immediately. "You were about to be hurt, or worse - have your mind fucked with - just for being curious. If you stay in here, you'll be safe. I promise. And in a few hours, you might be able to go home without worrying."

Without waiting for a response, Annabelle apparated back to the roof. Just then, her ears caught a constant thumping noise, and her eyes sought its source: no less than three news helicopters. They were flying in fast, and high above even Norberta.

We're live on air, Annabelle thought, eyeing the distant figures of the camera operators standing in the open doorways of the helicopters' passenger areas. Good. She apparated back into the hospital lobby, and was greeted to utter pandemonium. The source? Three very distinct, very distinctly nonhuman figures standing around in the middle of the lobby.

"You all made it," Annabelle greeted her friends warmly. She dropped to her knees and kissed Gertrude on the lips: she hugged Anju, stroked her wing of an arm a moment; and lastly, she rammed her shoulder into Oguk's chest, grinning up at the towering orc the entire time. "Sorry for all the staring and pointing," she continued, in a low voice. "Please keep in mind that, to this particular type of human, all of you never were even thought to exist until today, besides in folklore and mythology that's survived and been passed down these past few hundred years in their societies."

"Understandable," Oguk spoke first. Zir tone was not one of discomfort, nor was there a trace of fear, anger, or disdain. In fact, there was something there that sounded a lot like pleasure to Annabelle - she'd have to ask about that later. Oguk reached over zir shoulder and unsheathed a massive broadsword, with jagged edges and an aura of bluish frost. "Where are the human mages who seek to impose oppression upon these variants? I've brought with me the most ancient, most powerful enchanted blade of my clan to deal with them! Today, they will learn why my people have endured outside of and beyond their rule, and they will learn why they never should have caught our attention in this way."

"Right outside those doors," Annabelle informed, pointing. "There's over a hundred of them out there right now, Oguk. Please be careful - oh, and don't accidentally hurt Norberta, would you? She's my dragon best friend, the one I told you about before. I don't know if you remember?"

"A hundred mages against a single orc?" Oguk threw zir head back and laughed. Booming, wild laughter. "Such a battle hasn't been seen between our peoples in over a thousand years!"

"With good reason," Annabelle retorted. "We're not out to slaughter people, or start a war, please. Kill if you have to, but otherwise...show some mercy when you can afford to. That's all I ask."

"To do anything else would be to dishonor all that I am," Oguk assured. Ze flexed zir free arm, and cracked zir neck.

"Right." Annabelle turned back to Anju and Gertrude; she looked slightly down at Anju - and a great deal lower at Gertrude. "Are you two sure you're ready to go out there and do battle against overwhelming odds? I promise it won't be that way for too long - we'll get reinforcements once I signal for them - but for the next minute or two...yeah, it'll be us stalling against a hundred mages."

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't ready for this," Gertrude rasped, sounding nothing but certain. Dirty, stringy black hair was pushed out of her face, and a grin stole over her dried lips as she gazed up at Annabelle. "I don't hate humans or anything - I'm not fucked up like Teafa is - I'm here for you, and I'm here for the movement."

"The same is true for me," Anju agreed, flexing her wings and shifting on her talons. "Nothing more needs to be said. If we die for this cause and these people, then we die knowing we did what was right. And I can't think of a better reason to die than for freedom and for truth, and for the sake of helping others who need it. My pledge to the movement is as serious as the pledge I made to you the night we met, and the pledge I made to bring back my people."

"Okay, then," said Annabelle, nodding. She shed her jacket and dropped it on the floor. She took her wand out of her jeans. She lifted an arm and pulled back the sleeve, and gave Miranwe a close look. *Miranwe, are you awake? It's time. Time for what we planned on the way over here.*

Miranwe lifted a leg in a little wave. *I'm ready.*

*Good.*

*I trust that you'll keep me as safe as you can.*

*Yeah. That's a promise.* Annabelle looked at her friends, who were looking at Miranwe curiously - not with any sort of fear, like most humans would have. She switched back to english and told them, "I'm going to signal for those reinforcements, and then we're going out there." That said, she held her wand out in front of herself and began to utter a very special, very old incantation taught to her on the fly by Adelyn. To all appearances, nothing happened. Her wand glowed scarlet for a few moments, but that was it. But for Annabelle...she knew it had worked.

Annabelle took a deep breath, and then she looked around the lobby one last time. "It's starting now, everyone, so please remember to stay inside and to stay safe. If the assaulting mages breach the barrier, then...fight if you think you can. Otherwise, stay out of sight, stay back. And please remember that Adelyn - the vampire lady - as well as these three here now, the dragon outside, and the giant spiders that will be here soon are all on your side." Alright, here we go. Annabelle crossed the lobby and stepped out the front doors.

"Annabelle?" Dean Thomas stood at the forefront of the small army of international mages. His eyes were wide. His face was pale as he took her in. He didn't lower his wand. "Annabelle Potter?" He lingered, then he set his jaw and adopted a professional tone. "Ms. Potter, surrender your wand and comply with all further commands and you won't be harmed. Work with us to get that barrier down, and we'll help you get away from whoever's in charge in there - whoever's blackmailed you, or threatened you, whatever is going on I promise you we can get you out of this safely. Is it one of them?" he added, gesturing toward Oguk, Anju and Gertrude. "Did you go to establish relations with another race, and end up being kidnapped? Held hostage? Is that what this is?"

Annabelle, for a moment, ignored Dean. She raised her wand to the sky and sent an orange jet of light flying up past Norberta, who was furiously engaged with two dozen mages down the block. Norberta twisted around in the air, gave Annabelle a longing look that the latter could see even from the distance, and then she flapped her mighty wings and soared up to land on the hospital roof; Norberta's long neck stretched out from the edge to peer down at the mages below her, her slitted eyes narrowed in total focus.

Now, Annabelle gave Dean her full attention. She responded to him, measured and confident. "No, Dean. That's not what this is. I appreciate the gesture, but what's going on here is something...something that needs to happen - just like what needs to happen for all the nonhumans in the world. Rights, equality, freedom, truth; they need all of these things, they deserve them, just like anyone does. Whether you're nonhuman, or nonbiological in origin, or nonmagic, you deserve all those things, just the same as the people who already have them in the world do - and the people who refuse to acknowledge or share these things with all peoples for whatever reasons they have. Bigotry, learned behaviors - things they just grew up with and never thought about changing - or out of fear or malice. Doesn't matter." Annabelle raised her wand again, and she stepped forward. "The only thing that matters, is that the oppression, the discrimination, the lies and the violations of so many natural rights on pure whim...it's time for it all to end. No if's, and's, or but's about it: it's wrong, it's always wrong, and it's over."

"I hear you," Dean spoke, in a casual tone, like they were kids again - just two teenagers hanging out together on the grounds at Hogwarts again. "I get it, Annabelle. I understand what you're trying to do - what you've been doing these weeks since graduating - and it's good. It's great, the- the activism, the getting in touch with people who...who shouldn't be ignored, or wronged for what they are. You've been doing good work. But this? What is this, Annabelle? This is...extreme. This is against dozens of laws! Norberta's been killing people out here! Tearing them apart, burning them alive!"

"Yes, it is," said Annabelle, nodding. "And yes, she has been. But the laws as they stand now are wrong. They're immoral, unlawful in and of themselves. And the enforcement of those laws makes every single one of you complicit. It makes all of you just as immoral. And as long as you're all here to hurt these people, then Norberta is justified in defending them with appropriate force - which, she is; I saw more than a few fatal curses flying her way. But that's besides the point. Point is: realize that you're wrong, that it's wrong to treat people this way. No matter if they're nonhuman or nonmagic. You're the ones in the wrong here. You're here to hurt, to violate, and Norberta and I, my friends, we're all just here to protect them from that harm. Realize it, Dean."

"I do realize that," Dean replied easily. "Come on, Annabelle, of course I do - it's me. I have nonmagic parents. I understand that the weight of the secrets and the lies...I know it all hurts. Us, our coworkers, our friends in the nonmagic communities. I know that - I do - but this isn't the answer. The answer is to sit down, to call meetings, to talk to politicians and to- to go slow and easy. I can see how you could believe what you do, and how you could believe that you and Norberta are justified in the actions you've taken today, but you can't just...force this. Not like this. Not today. You have to change minds, you have to have discourse. You don't just blow a hole in everything."

"And what happens then?" Annabelle asked. "We wait, we talk, we have meetings and political discussions. And all the while, all the people keep on suffering. Why is that right, why do you want want that? Why is that acceptable, large scale, when we don't just hang back and watch someone keep being beaten or raped on the small scale? We jump in, we get them out of the situation, and we help them - and then we wait for law enforcement and judges and courts to play out their roles afterward. After the people being hurt have been removed from an immediate, harmful situation."

"Annabelle, this isn't the place for a debate," Dean retorted, looking pained. "That's- look, this is what I mean. If you want to talk about this stuff, then let's get this barrier down, let people out of there, and let's get you a meeting with the International Mage Embassies. But don't- don't do this. This isn't the way to change things."

"The barrier is up, and the people are in there because of you!" Annabelle yelled. "We're here doing real good, we're saving lives and healing the sick, the injured! Little kids with fucking cancer don't have to be stuck in a bed anymore; a blind man gets to see again; someone without the use of their legs can stand up and walk again! Ralph Finch, Aaron Young, Leslie Slater - people. This is compassion, this is good, and this is right! What are you here for? What are you going to do? Stop us from helping our fellow beings? Tell me what you're going to do! Are you going to go in there, go right up to some little boy and magic a life-threatening tumor right back into his head and wipe his memories?! Are you going to look a woman in the eyes and re-snap her spine?! Who the fuck are you?! What the fuck are you, any of you, that you can do this and still sleep at night?! Call yourselves good, decent, moral, anything that's not sick and evil, and wrong in this world?! TELL ME WHAT THE HELL YOU PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE!"

In the wake of Annabelle's roaring, utter raving, there was silence. Birds, insects, cars and sirens and the helicopters above all filled that void.

"Sir, I know the barrier is a problem, but we could capture her and-" a woman started; but Dean cut her off with a raised hand.

"No." Dean's gaze held Annabelle's. Pain was now agony. Clear, dry eyes were now shimmering. He shoved his wand back in his pocket. He turned away from Annabelle, toward the immediate row of mages. "I'm not doing this, Sofie. What would be the point anyway? It's done, she's done it, the secret is out, and the whole world is watching. Live TV," he added, gesturing up at the helicopters. "And she's right. I can't be here, can't have come here to do what we're going to do, and still call myself a good person. She's the one doing good - helping people, using what she has in her. And you know, my parents have always told me, 'Those who have the power to do good, have the responsibility to do good.' They thought that if you stood by and let bad things happen...or if you were a part of it...well, I'm not going to be a part of it. Not here, not today."

Dean looked down at the ground. He took a breath. He took his wand out again; and he pointed it at the other mages. He stepped back, until he was standing with Annabelle. "I'm not going to be a part of this, and I'm not going to let it happen either. My parents would hate me for the rest of my life if I carried through with why we all came here - if they had to sit at home and watch it happen on live television."

Sofie looked at Dean for a long moment. "Dammit," she sighed. She shook her head; lowered her own wand and stepped over to join Dean. "Mine would hate me too," she said quietly. "They're not watching me on broadcast, but they are watching me from somewhere up in the sky."

Annabelle swept her gaze across the rest of the mages. She spoke to them, breathing heavily, and doing her best to regain a calm tone. "All of you have fifteen seconds to either leave, or choose to do the right thing here today. If you're still standing here after those fifteen seconds are up, if you haven't made a decision, then you're all going to die. Whether it's by my hand, or by Norberta's, or anyone else who's here to keep these people safe. If you're here to kidnap and hurt them, then you die today for trying. Because you had the choice to stop, to leave - to just not go through with it!"

"Auror Thomas, Officer Wilde," spoke another mage, taking a step forward from the rest. "If the two of you don't take Ms. Potter down and get back over here, right now, then you're both going to be considered to be aiding a terrorist."

"I can live with that," Dean responded, setting his jaw. "The terrorist's only crime, to me, seems to be helping her fellow human beings, and protecting them from abuse and harm at the hands of...others who arrived on the scene to reverse that help. Who's the bad guy in this scenario, sir?"

"The Statute is ruined!" the mage snarled, raising his wand. "She's willing to assault and kill all of us! She has an entire hospital locked down, preventing patients outside from getting in and getting that treatment she cares so much about providing! She has a dragon waiting in the skies to burn us alive - and was, not two minutes ago! Your fellow LEO's are dead in these streets, mutilated and made living charcoal around you, and you're really going to stand there with her? A psychotic terrorist?!"

"I am," said Dean steadily.

Sofie swallowed hard. She raised a quivering wand. "Me too - asshole. 'Cause I'm not going to be the asshole myself here."

Several rapid fire cracks and pops sounded in the silence; the mages all shifted ranks somewhere near the back.

A distinctive noise, like rustling sand, began to fill the streets. More and more, louder and louder, overlapping. Then, the street began to crack and burst, as little explosions started going off beneath the asphalt. High, louder clicking noises joined with the explosions and the running sand, and then the latter two sounds faded to leave only the clicking.

That was when the screaming started. Spells began flashing, and the mages all began turning their attention away from Annabelle and her friends and allies. Instead, they turned their attentions to the large magi-arachnids streaming up out of the ground in seeming endlessness.

Nyllia's tribe had made it.

All right, time's up. Annabelle flicked her wand at the sky, and sent up a green jet of light; Norberta came soaring down from the rooftop again with a mighty roar. Annabelle waved her wand. The glass of dozens of windows on nearby buildings all began to burst outward, and then they surged and became piercing glass tendrils that were dozens of feet long. They all stretched down into the street and found their targets; they stabbed into skulls, pierced necks, impaled chests. They took many mages up into the air, slamming them into building exteriors and making them bleed or flat out die from incredible blunt force trauma - alternatively, some of these glass tendrils merely held the mages against the sides of the buildings so that magi-arachnids could crawl up the walls and kill them in their utter helplessness.

Annabelle waved her wand again, and over two dozen vehicles spontaneously became cheetahs and rhinos, aggressive and powerful and hyper-fast - and entirely under her command. They had to be: she didn't want to risk innocent lives by just letting the transfigured animals go wild. She mentally commanded them all to assault the mages that she identified in her thoughts to be targets, and to pay no one else any attention whatsoever. They did just that for her, and the street was filled with shrill screams of terror and agony, as throats were ripped into by cheetahs, and bones were crushed by the weight of full grown rhinos charging into and pinning their prey before stomping them into the ground. Whoever wasn't dead from this treatment were soon killed by magi-arachnids.

She apparated behind a distracted mage and slapped her palm against the back of the woman's neck, then disapparated away to leave the woman standing there in confusion. Three seconds later, the woman sank to the ground and became still. Annabelle apparated over to her again and cupped her palm against the back of the corpse's neck; Miranwe crawled back into Annabelle's hand, and the latter apparated away with the former safely in her grasp again.

Annabelle blocked one, two, three incoming curses after another - reflected a Stunner back at someone - slashed her wand at the closest mages in retaliation; she used a deadly severing curse. She cast a Killing Curse, followed immediately by a Blasting Curse: several mages flew in all different directions, screaming as their limbs were torn off.

Two mages began to cast spells at Annabelle nearly simultaneously, but they were promptly tackled by two magi-arachnids - and then dogpiled by six more.

Annabelle heard a long, drawn out scream that had her looking skyward a moment; Anju had caught a mage in her talons and dropped them from many, many stories up. She watched Anju dive down, sweep past a mage and seize the man's wand arm with her talons, and rip it off with a great flap of her wings and a magically aided ascension of insane force.

Annabelle blocked a Stunner, and found herself in a back and forth with a wizard who looked positively murderous. The wizard's efforts were cut short by sudden assistance from Gertrude, who leapt up onto his back, wrapping legs around middle and an arm around his neck, and used her free hand to reach around and tear the man's throat out. Gertrude released the man and dropped behind him; she gave him a kick square in the back that sent him down on his face in his dying throes. Gertrude didn't stick around to talk to Annabelle - she jumped away, like a spring-loaded toy, and came down on a witch's head and began repeatedly slashing at her face and eyes with her claws.

Annabelle held back rising, sudden bile, and turned away from Gertrude's handiwork to seek out other opponents for herself. In her childhood, Ycu had always impressed upon her that it didn't matter how you attacked a threat, how you killed a predator - had always seen human ideas on the matter as being as perplexing to her as a caveman trying to understand quantum physics - because in the end you were still killing it. Just as long as when you killed something, you did it quickly, you did it efficiently, and you moved on.

So Annabelle moved on. She set aside her human thoughts on such notions, just like Ycu would have wanted from her, and she moved on to kill another with cool efficiency and nothing else - not a doubt, not a worry, not a thought spared for the method of her own kills.

She fought through six mages, individually and together, then killed several more, whirled and apparated and fought and struck everyone within reach, side by side and taking advantage of her allies' own strikes, just as they would take advantage of her strikes. But all the same, a point came when she found herself being surrounded by over a dozen mages. They were firing spells at her from near point blank, and she was reflecting and absorbing and stumbling under it all, barely holding out and with no allies in immediate vicinity to even help her. She was so pressed with it all that she dare not even try to switch from pure defense to any kind of offense. She didn't even have a single second to concentrate and pull off an apparition! They weren't intent on giving her that second at all.

Annabelle was starting to sweat, gritting her teeth and breathing heavily, starting to get desperate, and she couldn't hold out against this any more-

"Keresa, nati tuh! Esta ra'n!" a high-pitched voice boomed suddenly, reverberating through the air in a way that was physically painful for Annabelle and her ears.

The mages battering away at Annabelle from all sides...well, some of them hesitated a brief second. Enough for Annabelle take that lull and readjust her footing and restrengthen her shields.

Something very small and glittering (and familiar) came shooting across the sky, swooped low over everyone's heads - passed right over Annabelle! Left in the small flier's wake there were sparkling green particles falling from the sky, thick and widespread as heavy snowfall. It all coated everyone within seconds. The mages covered in these particles began to cough and wretch, double over and outright fall to the ground. Blood poured from eyes, noses, ears, and mouths all. Several seconds of this was all it took for dozens of mages to go still in the streets.

Which provided Annabelle with a much appreciated room for breathing, recuperating, and a quick apparition back inside the hospital lobby. A faint pop followed right after her appearance in the lobby, and a shower of blue particles burst into existence in the air in front of her face.

And there, hovering in the air before Annabelle, was a very familiar fairy - transparent sparkling white wings, a flowing green gown of leaves, and a soft, slender figure that definitely did not match up with the personality of the soul within it. Eyes so brightly green, hair so glowing and swishing orange...beauty and radiance that meant nothing to the one who held such features.

"Confiance?" Annabelle breathed, unspeakably grateful at this appearance by one of her first, real childhood friends in a time of great need. Though, of course, seeing as it was Confiance...Annabelle's heart still held a smidgen of wariness. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your huge, fat, really cute butt!" Confiance fluttered around Annabelle's head, stopped in front of her face and grabbed hold of her nose and kissed the tip of it. She flew backwards and performed an effortless backflip. "Can I get a thank you or something like that out of you? You were cornered out there, and if I hadn't laid on the toxic dust they'd have taken you down!"

"I'm pretty sure you killed more than a few of my friends and allies out there too," Annabelle said quietly, shaking her head.

Confiance shrugged her miniature shoulders. "Oh, don't worry about it. What's that human saying? Can't make an egg without breaking some other eggs?"

Annabelle took a deep, careful breath. "Thank you for showing up for me. You're...the last person I'd ever have expected to see here, for me. But I'm glad you're here, no matter what. Confiance, listen to me very carefully: No more toxic dust. Okay? Do whatever you want, kill anyone you want, steal whatever you want - I don't care - just don't kill anyone we're here to protect, or anyone who's here to help us protect them. Just go after the mages in the official-looking robes, and no one else. If you don't - well, Confiance, don't make me threaten you, because unlike when I was a little girl I can make very good on my threats now."

Confiance gave a rare, serious look and a nod. Then she threw up a wacky salute, chattered out a hasty, "Got it, boss!" and fluttered out the hospital's front doors by zooming right through the glass itself without giving a damn.

Annabelle took some more deep breaths, pushed sweaty, sticky hair out of her face, tightened her grip on her wand, and apparated back out into the midst of the battle.

"Annabelle - wherever you are - I don't know if you've looked out a window lately, but our barrier has just been taken down, and the mages are on the way in."

The voice of Adelyn echoed throughout the hospital, announcing the change in the battle.

All right, new plan! Annabelle thought on hearing Adelyn's words. She ducked and weaved, blocked and reflected spell after spell as she was forced back down a hallway, along with a half dozen people she was ushering along. She ran over to the nearest window and sent out a distinctive, emerald jet of light into open sky - Adelyn's words were true; there was no purple shimmer anymore around the building exterior. A roar echoed in the distance in response. She motioned the patients and Nurse Amelia Ontario further back down the corridor behind her, then turned her wand on a window and turned the glass to dust. She ran back the way she'd come and threw up several different barriers, along with a few hasty concealment charms. A great gust of wind and a mighty growl, followed by a loud crash cut through the sounds of battle. Norberta had arrived; she was hanging onto the exterior of the hospital with her great claws embedded in its walls of thick, sturdy brick.

[What do you need me here for?] Norberta asked, quick and concerned as she brought her long neck down and peered into the corridor with a single slitted cat eye.

Instead of answering Norberta, Annabelle looked to the hospital patients, and Nurse Ontario. "This is Norberta - I was there the day she was born, she's been my best, most loyal friend ever since - and I need all of you to get on her back and let her take you far away from here. Someplace safe, and secret. Less people in here means less people to defend, and we'll know you're all safe. I promise you all that she's entirely harmless, and incredibly friendly, and just full of empathy and compassion and-"

"Okay," Nurse Ontario interrupted, nodding, her jaw set. She glanced down the corridor, where Annabelle's layer of shields were being barraged still - and starting to break down and fade. "Ride a dragon out of here? Okay. My priority is their safety, and if this will do that, then I'll do it."

"Get on, then, and be sure to secure a proper hold on her spikes," Annabelle replied. She met eyes with Norberta, tried for a brief little smile. [Take them out across the ocean until you hit-]

[Oh, I know where to go - I just can't believe I am.] Norberta shook her head in a very human way. [Not to mention, some of these patients are males, so I'm not sure we'll get the best greeting from the-]

Annabelle's barriers evaporated, and several curses came flying down the corridor. Blind curses - her concealment charms were still in effect - but they would still be a threat if any of them happened to connect. Annabelle whirled and threw up another, single barrier, as well as shot a Killing Curse back down the corridor at her pursuers for good measure.

[I know - just go,] Annabelle said quickly. [We'll work it out later!]

Annabelle helped the patients up onto Norberta's back, checking and double checking that they had hold of her spikes - cast a multitude of temporary sticking charms on their bodies where they had any physical contact with Norberta at all for good measure.

"Ms. Potter, hold it right there!"

Annabelle raised her wand and turned to face the mages who had torn down her concealment charms. She put herself directly in front of the window, and conjured up a floating, physical, yet translucent shield with the appearance of beautiful crystal. She gave a half glance over a shoulder; Norberta had detached from the building, and was soaring out over the few blocks she had to clear to reach the ocean's shore. A few mages out on the streets below cast spells up at Norberta, but she dipped a wing and avoided them easily enough. Annabelle watched her go with utter relief, then returned her gaze to the mages coming down the corridor.

Annabelle twirled her wand to dismiss her shield and cast out a curse, but stopped herself short as several things happened in quick succession: One, a loud pop filled the corridor, echoed throughout; two, some sort of tall, pale being of feminine figure appeared in the middle of the hallway; and three, the eight mages in pursuit of Annabelle all began to scream and stagger as they were torn apart layer by layer.

First the clothing went, then the outermost skin, then the next down from there, then the muscles, tendons, veins and arteries - nothing was left at the end of this rapid process but skeletons. Pearly white, clean skeletons laying on the floor. Even their wands were eaten away at by some unseen force, reduced to nothingness. No ash, no particles left behind, no magical residue, just...nothing.

This being, this woman turned to face Annabelle, and Annabelle couldn't help but draw a sharp breath as she laid eyes on her properly; Annabelle recognized this woman. It was Daphne Greengrass. Daphne, who didn't look, on the whole, at all like the woman - the girl, the best friend - Annabelle had once known, but who still retained very recognizable features.

Daphne stood in the corridor, still as a statue, with her arms at her sides and her legs held tight together. She was stark naked. Daphne's whole figure seemed almost out of proportion, so tall and lanky was she. Like she'd been stretched, like some cartoon. Her limbs were twice as long as they should have been, and her height was highly abnormal - she was easily seven or eight feet tall. Her skin was deathly white. Her veins stood out against her skin, pure black. There were black and red lines across her body, along with scarlet symbols that squirmed and pulsed. Her hair was as long as her body, and snow white. Her eyes had no pupils, and they were glossy black, like Miranwe's exoskeleton. Her nails were several inches long, and sharpened at the ends into claws.

"D-Daphne?" Annabelle spoke, taking a step forward. She swallowed, hard, and reaffirmed her grip on her wand. Took two more steps. "Daphne, are you- can you talk? Can you...what do you need? A hospital - not this one, obviously - or a bed to sleep in? Were you hurt? Were you...Daphne, what's happened? Where have you been? Come on, we can talk. It's Annabelle. You're safe, you're okay, and it's me. Daphne..." She took several more steps closer, holding out a trembling hand. "Daphne, please, it's okay, you're fine, whatever's happened we can-"

Daphne's black eyes vibrated in their sockets; her head jerked left, then right, before focusing on Annabelle. She was really seeing her. The black and red lines and strange symbols all lit up, burned bright, and a shimmering, translucent black wave rippled outward from Daphne's body. It passed over Annabelle's hand, enveloped it; and then Annabelle screamed.

She screamed, yanked her hand out of that disturbed air and stumbled backwards. Her hand was deteriorating before her eyes, shriveling and paling, skin and muscle was dissolving - it was dying right before her eyes. And it hurt. Annabelle brought her wand to bear on her decaying hand, and began to utter every healing spell she could remember. She was chanting one that Adelyn had taught her, when finally something worked, and the injury started to heal. The decay was halted, and reversed. She kept on it, kept at it, but at some point the healing just stopped working. Annabelle was left with a partially ruined hand, sickly in color and with patches missing here and there. It was totally mangled.

"Daphne!" Annabelle said loudly, raising her wand. But she didn't go any closer. Not this time. "You hurt me! You hurt me, and I'm going to assume you didn't mean to - I'm going to assume that you're not in your right mind, and that you're hurting too. You want help? You need help? I'm going to give that to you, all right? Whether you want it or not. Because you're- you're still my best friend, my first human friend, and I still love you. Do you hear me? I just have an important situation to deal with right now, but I'll get to you after, I promise! Stupefy!"

Daphne's whole body shuddered violently; her head twisted at an obscene angle. The symbols lit up again, then died down in an instant. Daphne's white lips parted. Her black eyes went wide. Annabelle's Stunner stopped dead in the air between them, strained and struggled - and then it shot forward, continued on and passed through into the dark air...and it died. Dissolved into nothing, just like the flesh of the mages who were now skeletons.

Shit. Annabelle cast another Stunner, followed immediately by a Cutting Curse, and then a Blasting Curse, and finally: a curse of dark blue flames meant to loop around Daphne to ensnare her like a lasso. None of the spells took affect; every single one met that dark air, and every single one evaporated within it.

Daphne's lips twisted into a deep frown, like she was offended, or upset at the assault. Maybe she was.

"Daphne..."

"Ms. Potter, put your wand down, now! And you - whoever you are, if you're with her too, you come with us without a fight!"

Daphne's gaze stayed on Annabelle. "Help you," she said, in a voice that echoed faintly, and had a distorted quality to it. The dark field faded. She apparated, and then her long arm was ramming through the back of a mage and taking their heart out. She grabbed the skull of another mage, and just squeezed their head in her hands until blood and cracking and... Annabelle had to turn away; she only looked again once all the sounds had gone away.

"Helped you," Daphne said, in a voice of pride. "Love you."

"Yes," Annabelle replied. "Daphne, I...I need you to-" She glanced at the nearest door, nearest room. "-I need you to come with me, come in here, let's go, and you stay there. Okay? Come on. You need to hide, you need to be quiet, right in here. Please? For me?"

"Hide? Hide ugly? Hide...my ugly?" Daphne's clawed hand came up, and a fingertip pressed into her own pale chest.

Annabelle shook her head, and she stepped closer to Daphne. She held out her damaged hand, and stopped just short of passing it through the dark magic field. She tilted her head far back, and met Daphne's high, glossy black gaze. "No, no, Daphne - this isn't...this isn't about how you...how you look now, or...whatever happened to you. I just- I just- Daphne, there's a lot of danger here, this is the worst time you could have picked to show up again, and I need you to stay safe! Because you're my best friend, and I've missed you, and I love you, and I don't want you to get hurt here. So please...I need you to hide for me. Just hide, okay? Hide, and wait, and stay quiet, and I promise I will come back for you. I will talk to you, I will get you someplace, somewhere, that you can get help. All of this? All of you? We'll fix it, we'll make you better again, I swear. Just please, please...just hide for me now."

"Love me still?" Daphne's pale lips parted. Her head tilted to one side. "Best friends still?"

"Yes, yes! Daphne, we're still best friends, I promise! This doesn't change that, and..." And Egypt doesn't change that, not until I know whether or not that was even really you, Annabelle continued on to herself in silence. Out loud, she finished with, "I'm here for you, Daphne. I'm here."

"Hide," Daphne spoke, in a tone of agreement. Those symbols of hers lost their glow, stopped moving over her figure, and the dark field collapsed. Daphne's long arm came up, and a stretched, skeletal hand seized onto Annabelle's. "Hide me."

Annabelle started for the door, and Daphne allowed herself to be pulled along with her. Daphne had to stoop to get through the doorway. Annabelle dragged her over to the bed and pushed her down onto it. "Okay, Daphne, stay here. Hide, remember? Don't leave this room until I come back."

"Stay," Daphne confirmed. She was looking at the bedsheets, running her hands over them. "Soft...cold...like soft, hate cold...so cold..."

Annabelle watched Daphne with a tight throat and stinging eyes. She pressed her lips together and took a long breath through her nose. Then she strode from the room and shut the door behind her. She waved her wand at the door, began casting protective and concealment charms all around it - and around the room itself in a radius. Included among these charms was also an anti-apparition charm, just...just in case. Satisfied with her quick work, Annabelle ran down the corridor in search of someone else to protect.

Down two entire floors and on the other side of the hospital from Daphne's location, Annabelle fought her way through two teams of six mages to reach several patients who had unsuccessfully barricaded themselves in a ward.

Three magi-arachnids came barreling down the corridor, running on walls and ceiling all, and threw themselves at the mages. One mage was killed by the sharp, stabbing limbs of a magi-arachnid - she was impaled through the chest several times, and then a final time in the throat. Another managed to cast a deadly curse that threw the magi-arachnid off him, and set them ablaze with purple fire that left residual flames on whatever it touched. The third magi-arachnid never got the chance to do any damage, as they took a very powerful Blasting Curse to the mandibles that had their guts and limbs flying everywhere.

Annabelle mourned the two magi-arachnids immediately, instantly, and she turned that grief into greater focus and sharper attacks that killed several mages within seconds of each other. She slashed her wand and materialized a glowing white rope from the end of it. She used this magic, deadly whip of hers to ensnare a mage by her legs; a hard jerk of the whip and the enemy witch was down on the floor screaming without her legs to stand on anymore. A quick snap and she was dead, caught in the throat by burning tip. Annabelle snapped the whip across the chest of a wizard, gouging a burning path through his ribs, lungs, and a portion of his heart. She whirled the whip around and decapitated another wizard by capturing his neck and giving a hard pull.

A witch hurled a Cutting Curse at Annabelle, rage written all over her face; Annabelle snapped her whip up and deflected the spell into the ceiling with it. The witch froze up, rage turning to fear. Annabelle took her life with a slash across her face, tearing an inch-and-a-half deep gash through her skull.

Annabelle slashed, ensnared, and killed everyone around her. She had the assistance of the surviving magi-arachnid throughout, as well as gained further assistance from half a dozen more magi-arachnids toward the end that helped speed things along.

And then the corridor was quiet again.

Thank you, Albus, for teaching me that, Annabelle thought, dissipating the magic whip, and stepping through the door into the room of huddled patients. Among them was Helena Dark, and a very young boy whom Annabelle assumed had to be the woman's son - Jesse, she recalled the name as having been given earlier that day.

"Helena, is everyone in here doing okay? No one's hurt, or needs medical treatment for...what they were here for to begin with?"

"Everyone's fine, we're all fine," Helena said quickly. "A few more seconds and we wouldn't have been, but...you showed up, and- and so did- so did-" Wide eyes and a tense face regarded the magi-arachnids who had scuttled into the room behind Annabelle.

"Yes - sapient, magical, big spiders," Annabelle spoke, calm and casual - deliberately so. She dropped down beside the nearest magi-arachnid, and reached out to give their exoskeleton a few exaggerated pats and strokes. "They're all fine, see? Here to help keep everyone safe, and they're not going to hurt anyone who doesn't try to hurt them first. They're actually a really solitary lot, living underground over in Egypt. They came over here to help because I asked them to - I'm friends with their...president, you'd say over here? She's a really great lady - real beautiful too. Anyway, point is..." She tilted her head and stared into a few of the eight blinking, black eyes of the magi-arachnid she had hand on. *Hey, what's your name, please? I'd like it if you and at least two others could stay in here and protect these people personally. I'm going to put up some protective enchantments on the door, but if those get broken down and broken through...could you please be ready to keep them safe?*

*Inna,* spoke the magi-arachnid, in flanging tones and a pitch that immediately denoted femininity in Annabelle's mind. *I'll stay here for them. I'll ask two others to stay with me. The rest can leave with you to find more kills.*

*Okay, thank you, Inna,* Annabelle said, with heartfelt. She stood, and looked at the humans. She smiled. "All right, Inna here - this one - she's going to stick around and protect you all if any mages break through into here again. I'll be casting some spells to make it a lot harder to get in than your physical barricade of furniture did, but they could still get through with time, effort, and skill. So...just stay quiet, stay together, and just trust Inna here. She's just interested in keeping you safe, same as me. Hell, if it will make you more comfortable with her, try asking yes or no questions with her - get a conversation going; blink once for yes, twice for no kind of thing going on between you. She's as smart, and aware, and emotionally capable as you or I."

"All right," Helena said, with a shaky sort of nod as she set her eyes on Inna. She hesitated, swallowed, then - she began to speak in slow, cautious tones to the magi-arachnid. "Thank you? For this, for protecting my child. I..." She glanced at Annabelle. "Does she- does she get english? When you talked to her, you were...clicking and hissing, like she was. Is that...a giant spider language, or...?"

"It's complicated, on my end of things," Annabelle replied. "Among themselves, they have their own languages, and their own regional dialects and the like, but the way I'm even able to speak to them and understand them is by way of a magical, sort of catch-all language that...interprets and translates any and all languages they have into a basic one I can use and understand myself." She shook her head. "But, on her end of things? Yeah, she understand english just fine."

Helena nodded. Gave Inna a long, pondering look. "Okay then," she murmured.

"Okay," Annabelle repeated, taking backward steps toward the door; all but three of the magi-arachnids scurried out of the room before she reached it. "Just - yeah - stay in here, stay safe, all of you, and let Inna and her siblings handle things if anybody gets in."

Another room down, more people safe. Annabelle safeguarded the room, as she had Daphne's, then she moved on again.

Annabelle breathed. In and out. Heavy. Shallow. Sweat poured down her face, stuck her hair to her forehead and her cheeks. She eyed the two dozen odd hitmages, the obliviators on standby, and the international assault forces from behind her shield. They'd all cornered her in an upper ward waiting room after some chasing and some fighting along the way.

Now, Annabelle was trapped. She'd tried apparating away, first thing, but hadn't been successful; the government forces seemed to have caught onto her tactics finally, and they had evidently cast an anti-apparition charm on the area.

Annabelle ran through every option, every spell in her head, and tried to come up with something that could get her out of this one. But...nothing. At least, nothing that wouldn't be risking the lives of patients, friends and allies. She couldn't go too big, too powerful, not here, not with her goal being what it was. She was limited, restrained and handicapped, and it was because of her own self. She was frustrated with herself over it - a not unfamiliar occurrence in her life.

Okay, Annabelle, so no Fiendfyre, no Sapphire Mist, no Junosink'ing, no...but what else can I do, then? Nothing else is going to get me past so many opponents at once! I can't do this, I can't- dammit! But it can't end here, I can't get taken like this. Too many people need help, too many people...but what if I just hurt one person to get out of this? One person I'm already really good at hurting?

Annabelle heaved a ragged, harsh sigh, dropped her chin and stared at the floor beneath her feet.

"Ms. Potter, you're done," a wizard said clearly. "Just drop the wand, and come with us. Enough death has happened here today as it is, don't make us have to add you to the list of casualties."

Annabelle lowered her wand half way. She breathed. Sweat dropped from her face, hit the floor with heavy splats. Her wand hand fell completely to her side, tip pointed at the floor. She closed her eyes. She focused her thoughts, and the incantation rose up in her mind to be cast. Confringo!

The floor beneath her feet exploded upward, blowing apart her legs and bombarding her lower half with shrapnel. She fell right down through the opening, fell down to the next floor under. Annabelle wasn't done yet. Screaming and crying, gasping, she threw herself onto her side and jabbed her wand tip onto the floor beside herself, and she cast the Blasting Curse a second time. She fell a second time, down another floor. She nearly landed right on top of Adelyn, who was in full vampiric form, slashing her claws and tearing out throats with her teeth, and leaping off walls with speed and agility that was difficult to even keep track of.

Of course, that might have been some trouble caused by Annabelle's horrendous physical state.

Her second Blasting Curse had taken her left arm, shattered some of her ribs, maybe damaged a lung? She wasn't too sure about anything that was going on with her body now.

"Annabelle?!" Adelyn rushed over to her side in a blur, picked her up in her arms and then started to run with her. Annabelle lolled in her arms, feeling sick and dizzy, and starting to get cold? Adelyn took Annabelle into a random room and lay her out on a bed, flat on her back. Annabelle watched Adelyn begin to quickly cast protective charms around the room. When Adelyn was finished, she sped back over to Annabelle's bedside in a heartbeat, and began chanting out spells in a language Annabelle didn't recognize.

Annabelle's vision cleared, her pain eased, slowly and over many minutes. She began to breathe normally again - her ribs were repaired. She looked down at herself, and saw a shining silver replacement of a limb coming out of her left arm stump. The same was true for her legs. These silvery limbs were rippling and shifting, but a few seconds gone by and they became solid. Real. They had weight to them, and...sensation, to some extent. Annabelle lifted her silver arm, ran her right hand over it - she felt the contact, same as she would through physical nerve endings. But it was...different. Muted. Less. She sat up, pushed herself up with her metal arm, and reached down to touch her metal legs and toes with her real right hand. They were different, too, in that muted way of sensation.

"It doesn't feel right, does it?" Adelyn spoke. "It's distant? I'm sorry; that happens when the spells are performed either incorrectly, or when it's not given the proper time to go through the whole process. Which, given where we are and what we're doing here, I just don't have the time to dedicate to it. I'm sorry," she said again, her pale face shining with remorse. "Were we to have more time, I could give you the full range of sensation - hot and cold included - or even just go all the way past this method and give you perfectly biological replacements, flesh and blood down to the bone. But, we just don't have the time."

Annabelle swung her metal legs off the bed and stood. She wobbled - corrected herself and caught the nightstand with her silver arm. "Can't worry about it right now - no time. Let's get back to it." She started off across the room, uncertain and uncoordinated to a degree. She fell against the door, yanked it open. She raised her wand with her flesh and blood hand, and cast an immediate Killing Curse at one of the three mages standing there trying to dismantle the protections.

It seemed as if Adelyn had given Annabelle's magic-metal limbs a durability and strength comparable to her own vampiric levels of durability and strength - several times that of any normal human.

Annabelle slammed her metal fist into a mage's face, causing a total collapse of bone structure. She grabbed their throat and hurled them bodily across ten feet of open space. She kicked a wizard in the chest, and several cracks were heard as he fell to the floor and began puking up blood. She apparated, slashed her wand when she reappeared, slitting the throat of a hitmage. She felt a burning pain in her stomach, and she looked down to see a two inch chunk missing from it, allowing blood to rush out.

Splinched: that's not good. But it can't be helped.

She apparated away to another mage; she grabbed the woman by the throat and squeezed until it gave. Annabelle felt a twisting in the side of her face, and her metal hand shot up to the wound. Her fingers pushed into the side of her own jaw, where bone and cheek skin were missing. She felt her own gums and teeth. Felt the wind on it. She apparated, and she severed the spine of another wizard; her vision on the left side blinked out, and stayed dark, as anguish exploded there. Her eye, and part of her forehead - bone and skin all - was gone.

Annabelle apparated again, and shoved her wand into the mouth of a wizard and cast a Blasting Curse that blew his head off in gore and blood that coated her front; a jagged piece of his skull embedded itself into her neck. Annabelle...apparated again; killed another person. Her left side exploded in pain as flesh was ripped from it.

Another apparition was done, and she threw herself at a hitmage and took the woman to the ground. She switched her wand from right hand to left, and punched the woman across the face with a right hand that was missing a thumb and a large chunk of its left side. She punched again, and again - and then she jammed her wand tip against the woman's throat with a clumsy motion and cast a Killing Curse. She apparated again; took her wand back in its proper hand, and put it to the back of a man's head and used a second Killing Curse. Her chest exploded in pain, and she glanced down to find herself missing her entire right breast, several ribs, and a lot of muscles and tendons. Annabelle apparated, kicked a man in the stomach and caught him in the temple with a Killing Curse while he was hunched over - and then she fell over. Her entire metal left leg was gone, laying off on its own at her origin point.

Annabelle hit the ground hard. She rolled and waved her wand at the same time, deflecting a deadly curse. She flicked her wand at two mages, and they dodged out of the way of a Killing Curse. She rolled the other way and blocked several Stunners. She apparated again, reappearing flat on her back behind the legs of an assault witch. She severed those legs with an unexpected, very powerful Cutting Curse.

And then Annabelle's wand fell out of her grasp, from out of a hand that had no fingers left to hold it.

"Give it the hell up, Ms. Potter - you're killing yourself!" a wizard shouted at her, brandishing his wand at her but not casting a spell yet. "You've no wand left to fight with, and none of us wants to do this, so stop fighting us!"

Annabelle smiled with one half of her face. She lifted her silver left hand, and held it out in front of her; a shimmering, silver barrier coalesced in the hallway, separating them.

The wizard cast an experimental Stunner at the barrier, and it was reflected back at him with twice the speed and force of its original casting. He only barely managed to absorb it into a shield spell of his own. "Damnit, Ms. Potter, take this thing down, right now! Take it down, or-"

The wizard's words trailed off into a sharp scream, as he was tackled from behind by several small magi-arachnids. A much larger one continued right on forward, and passed through the barrier to approach Annabelle.

They lowered themselves to the floor beside her, and nudged her with a long limb. *I will carry you someplace to be healed.*

*No,* Annabelle replied, in perfectly recognizable speech (for arachnatongue, being a magical language, did not necessarily require working mouth, throat, vocal cords, or anything else to be articulated). She pulled her leg in and used her stump and metal arm to push herself onto her side. She snatched up her wand again in her metal hand. *Carry me - I'm grateful for that, whatever your name is - but we're going to go right back into the fighting. Take me somewhere, someone...needs protecting. I can still help.*

*My name is Taru.* The magi-arachnid hesitated. *You are dying. You need healing.*

*Then I die!* Annabelle hissed. She started pulling herself up onto the magi-arachnid's gritty abdomen, and pushing off with her remaining leg to get as much of her center mass atop the exoskeleton as possible. *Take me to a place I can help!*

The magi-arachnid lingered, their pincers working in a furious show of worry. A foreleg tapped the floor once, twice... *I am taking you to be healed, Annabelle Potter. My people are helping - trust us to keep doing it. Trust Nyllia. If you cannot trust any individual, then trust our nature.*

*I'm going to...throw myself...off...and crawl if I have to!* Annabelle began to protest, as the Taru took up a careful, slow journey down the hallway - very much not in the direction she had wanted to go.

Taru let out a faint hiss. *You're dying. Be still, and be quiet. I will not - I cannot - let you die. Tribe members ensure the survival of one another. You are my tribesister. So, as your tribebrother, it is as simple as that for me.*

*No. No, I...* Annabelle's efforts at arguing drifted, as she did; her vision in her right eye, her only eye was fading now too. She could hardly feel the sandy, rough exoskeleton beneath her. She felt...cold again?

Oh shit, I'm dying again...

A flash of orange streaked over Annabelle's head, continuing down the corridor to strike the wall; the wall promptly decided to expand outward like a filling balloon, becoming transparent and shifting to an orange color that pulsed and glowed.

*A trap spell!* Taru exclaimed. His pace picked up, and Annabelle almost slid right off. Taru turned and rammed them right through the nearest door into a spacious ward area. He navigated around and between equipment and monitors and beds. All the while, the mages chased, fired spells after them.

Taru reached the far end of the ward, and then he turned around and looked at the mages. He made a long, drawn out hissing noise, and then the floor was turning into sand. Deep, shifting sand. The mages were standing on this sand - and then they were suddenly sucked down into it as if by a vacuum cleaner. Not gradual, not slow. Less than a second. In the silence that ensued, the sand returned to being normal flooring.

*Where did they go?* Annabelle questioned.

*I bridged them to Lakyri's Rest - to you, that would be the "Mariana Trench,"* Taru added helpfully.

*Lakyri's Rest...? Mariana? You sent them to...?*

*I would assume they're dead now. If the pressures did not kill them, then Lakyri will - eventually, anyway.*

*Yeah...* Annabelle replied, halfhearted and dazed (and not just from her dying state). From everything she'd heard and read about Lakyri, and any whom dared wake him...she actually felt a swell of pity for those poor mages.

Suddenly the ground beneath Taru's many legs became shifting sand, and they were slowly sinking down into it.

*What's happening?* Annabelle asked. *Where are you taking us?*

*I am not taking us anywhere,* Taru spoke. *Another of my kind is trying to connect with us from their own lucar bridge. If I accept the connection, I do not know where we will go.*

*Then don't let us go.*

*You're dying,* Taru responded. *I will accept, and we will leave, and you will be saved.*

*No! I don't care, I'm not leaving anyone here!* Annabelle raised her wand to levitate herself off Taru's backside - and then she was being sucked down into hot, shifting sands. In this sand and heat and darkness, she lost all consciousness.

Annabelle woke up to a familiar sight...as well as so much unfamiliar to her.

The familiar was Norberta's snout in her face, and those beautiful slitted eyes blinking at her. The unfamiliar was literally everything else:The fact that Annabelle was laying out on her backside, naked, in some kind of natural spa of shallow, hot water; the fact that there was grass and trees, and ocean in any direction she cared to look out into the distance. She was on a high mountain ledge. And below her...the expanse of an island of supernatural beauty and lushness. So clean, so clear, lightest of breezes brushing over her...

Oh, and then there were the two amazon women standing at pond's edge. Tall, muscular, gorgeous. One had copper hair in a tight ponytail, the other had disheveled jet black hair matted with sticks and dirt. They were a complete tie for Annabelle's attention; she gave them a long once over, then very firmly returned her attentions to Norberta.

[What day is it?] Annabelle asked of Norberta, sitting up in the shallow water. The breeze became much more noticeable, and she crossed her arms over her chest - one real, one magic metal.

Norberta opened her mouth and gave Annabelle's face a long, slow lick. [September 1st. You've been in and out of consciousness for days - do you remember any of the times you were awake?] Annabelle shook her head. [I didn't think you would. The amazons have had you on medicines, herbs and crude potions, and Adelyn gave you a few modern ones she brought from the mainland.] She twisted her long neck around, dug under her stomach, and reemerged with Annabelle's wand held lightly between her teeth. [The amazons wanted to break it - but they didn't want to fight me for it, either.]

"We wanted to break it, yes," spoke the black-haired amazon, turning a fierce look on Norberta. Annabelle looked between them, and realization struck her: the amazon had understood Norberta. "Because we amazons do not live our lives influencing all the world and its people with magic - it is not an outward force for us, to bend and control and contort all around us - but instead we devote ourselves to turning our magic inward, to better and strengthen our own bodies. We are faster, stronger, and more resilient than any normal mage even can be - not to mention we live at peak physicality for centuries compared to any of you. We are warriors of the highest calibre. We fight for the innocent, the weak, and we fight for truth, justice, and freedom. After you and your arachnid arrived here, we assembled quickly, and we moved to join in your battle and continue where you had left it off. And at the end, we brought the innocents here for safeguarding, in wake of the ones that had already arrived with Norberta."

The copper-haired amazon gazed down at Annabelle with a considerably softer look than the one that the black-haired woman had given Norberta. She placed a strong hand on a stronger hip. "We do not turn away those who come here by chance or accident, or those in need of emergency assistance - mostly because it is so rare an event for us - and while you are here we will treat you with hospitality, but we will not allow all of you to overstay your welcome. We will give you all time to fully recuperate, and then you will be given three days to prepare for return to your own lands."

Annabelle stood up in the waters - gave her wand a random wave down at herself, and materialized clothing on her body that came all the way from her New York hotel room suitcase. She looked up and met the copper-haired amazon's gaze. And that was the moment that yet another realization hit Annabelle. The realization that something was very wrong with her eyesight. There was a huge black spot on her left side, and everything around her just looked...smaller? Thinner? Distant? She glanced at Norberta. [My left eye is still...still missing? Nobody could replace that?]

[Not until we get you to a magical hospital,] Norberta responded, in apologetic tones. [The operation will be quick and painless once we get you in for it, though. At least, that's what I was told by Jenny.]

[Jenny?] Annabelle repeated. [Do I know a Jenny? The name's familiar...]

[Kyle's Jenny,] Norberta supplied, and her tone...well, had she been human, she'd have been smiling. [In the final hour, before the nonmagic police and military forces appeared to put a definitive end to the assault, Kyle came back. And he came back with his...his Jenny. Adoptive mother? Unofficial guardian? I'm not sure-]

[Don't worry about it,] Annabelle interrupted, and she smiled. So Kyle had come back to help, in the end...that was great to know.

[Yes,] Norberta nodded. She puffed flames from her nose. [He's here, you know - so is Jenny. They're staying around, looking after people who need the medical treatment still. Oh, I thought you should know that Kyle has expressed several times over just how remorseful he is about having left you like that - and just how concerned he's been about your status these past days we've been here.]

[Really? Has he- has he been up here?] Annabelle asked, feeling her heart skip a beat. Was he looking at me naked for days on end, to heart's content? If he had been...Annabelle would have some mixed feelings on that little matter.

[Oh no,] Norberta replied, with quickness and a certain sincerity. [The amazons wouldn't let him up here at all: it's a sacred place, even among amazon women. No ordinary woman would be permitted to come up here, much less a man. It was these waters that saved your life, when even spells and potions were failing to have any effect. You would have died, Annabelle, anywhere else and any other situation. Any other day, you'd be dead right now.]

[Good to know,] Annabelle murmured, more to herself than anything. She looked up at the copper-haired amazon again. Switched back to english. "Uh, so, first off, thank you for the hospitality. Second, I'm Annabelle. Annabelle Potter. And it's really nice to meet you. And thirdly, um, thank you so much for saving my life."

"I am Helen," the amazon replied, tossing her hair. "And, saving your life was not the goal, so much as saving your soul was." A strong, sharp jaw showed off a gorgeous smile. "You've the soul of an amazon, despite being born an outsider. You went so far as to nearly give your own life away for the sake of showing your nonmagic kind the truth of the world around them, and for the sake of preserving their freedoms and their civil rights when faced with those who would take those away from then on pure whim - because such people found themselves powerful enough to just do so. You have our highest respects, and for you at least, we would welcome you back here any time you wish."

Helen stepped into the waters, bare feet submerged, and came in close to Annabelle. "Whether you wish to eat, drink, train in our ways and share in our knowledge, find refuge with us in times of need, partake in sexual intimacies as you desire, or perhaps seek out a proper woman to wed with...Themyscira will embrace you."

"I will...keep the offer in mind," Annabelle replied, grinning up at Helen with a bit of an awkwardness burgeoning in her. "One little bit of knowledge I'd love to know right away here is: how is it that you can understand Norberta? Do you know draketongue too? You speak it?"

Helen stepped back, shaking her head. She let loose with a loud laugh. "That magic? A cheap trick, instant understanding! I am centuries old, Annabelle. I do not have any need to rely upon that translator magic to understand the language of dragons - I learned it naturally, over many decades, by spending time with the dragons of old themselves. I could even speak it back to Norberta if I wanted, though I'm sure I am very rusty after so many centuries, and she would not want to hear such disrespectful mangling of her people's languages." She narrowed her eyes down at Annabelle. "You do disrespect her by using that magic. It shows you have no intention of actually learning about her, her people, and bonding with her naturally. You'd not put in the effort if you did not have your shortcut, I think your modern outsiders say?"

[I don't feel disrespected,] Norberta spoke up quickly, a fierceness burning in her tone. She reared up and stared down at Helen with flared nostrils. [Annabelle is like the mother I've never even had - or, she's the mother I had, I suppose! Yes, she's my mother. And you don't know a thing about her, or about me! She loves me, she's raised me, and I love her back! And she could learn my language without the translation magic if she wanted to, but neither of us have a problem with how things are now so it doesn't matter!]

Helen, to her credit, stood her ground in the face of a furious dragon. She blinked, and relaxed. Then, she began to speak in a very broken draketongue. [I apology, Norber. I...mean not to assume. The outsider is outsider still, though, so I did assume...Apology from me. Misjudge, no right to misjudge you. Or her.]

[Apology accepted,] Norberta huffed. She settled back down again. She looked at Annabelle, attentive and expectant.

[I accept your apology, too,] Annabelle told Helen, heaving a sigh. She walked up to Norberta and began stroking her head with her right hand. [But this does all bring up a good point. What if I were to ever lose this magic? I'd have no way of really holding a conversation with you again, Norberta. And that...that would be heartbreaking for both of us. I should- I should take a few years to try and get it all down, au naturel. Just in case. I should do it with all the languages I have magical access to, in fact. It'd probably be a nice gesture to the nonhumans I always interact with. Like Helen said, it'd show I took the time to...know them, know their language, for real.]

[If you really want to, we could start that soon,] Norberta said in agreement. [Maybe set aside an hour or two for the lessons? I wonder if there's a magic or a potion out there to switch off your understanding to begin with though?]

[We can ask Professor Dumbledore when we get back to Britain. I'm sure he'd love to help - give him a new project to tackle in his spare time,] said Annabelle. She looked out over the island, breathed in the air. She tilted her head back and felt the sun. Her lips formed a smile. "Helen, would you mind showing me down to where everyone else is? I think a lot of people would love to know I'm not dead yet."

In the lush grass of a large park area, surrounded by trees and cast down upon by sunny rays, tickled by the lightest breeze, Annabelle and friends were gathered.

Food and drinks were abound, tables and chairs were set out - transfigured and conjured, didn't matter. Several transfigured loudspeakers were set about, blasting out music that put a smile on Annabelle's face as she danced freely about (in consideration for the amazons, the area of the party had been cast about with sound-muting charms). Of course, that wasn't the only thing around that had her smiling.

Miranwe was creating a very special web between the branches of a tree. It was an expression, an experiment on her part, of pure art. This artistic webbing was multicolored, vibrant, reflective as any jewel - a gift on Annabelle's part (along with the explanation of what "art" was to begin with). Miranwe seemed to have a pattern in mind as an end result, though she seemed to be still at least an hour or two's time away from completing it. She was definitely taking her time with it!

Under Miranwe's tree sat a very wary, very withdrawn Helena Dark, her son held protectively in her lap while she watched everyone else's activities.

Standing in the shade of another tree was Adelyn, her vampiric features entirely on display. Clearly, she was uncomfortable with it, and with herself, but...she was making the effort not to be. Annabelle watched as Adelyn was approached by her twin children - Jack and Erika - who had apparently taken it upon themselves to show up to the hospital battle toward the end of it all after seeing most of it on the news. After seeing Adelyn being cornered and hurt. They had flown over in their animagus forms, ravens both, and they had both snuck and fought their way past many a mage to reach Adelyn. Though horridly reckless and dangerous their actions had been, they had still actually ended up rescuing Adelyn from being taken into international mage custody.

"...come on, mom, come dance with us," Erika spoke - demanded, rather, in that way she had about her. "You took that luck potion of yours, right? We won't have any problems today."

Adelyn was hesitant, eyeing her children in silence. Then, she sighed and pushed off from the tree. "It's not my curse that would give me problems if I were to dance with you - rather, it's the fact that I can't dance."

"Neither can I," Jack spoke up, so quiet and anxious that Annabelle nearly missed it. "Please, just try?"

"All right." Adelyn put on a smile, took her son's hand, and led him out of the shade. And they began to dance. Out of sync, out of step...but both were smiling. And even Erika, with crossed arms as she watched her mother, was smiling too.

Annabelle looked next to Anju, who was off on her own, kneeling in the grass with her wings folded over her front. Taru was in the park too, chattering away with several other magi-arachnids whom Annabelle knew had been there at the hospital defending the patients - along with two Themyscira-born magi-arachnids, one of whom had been the one to initiate the lucar bridge with Taru that had brought him and Annabelle here to begin with. Annabelle shifted her gaze again, and glimpsed Kyle and Jenny off on their own, far and away from everyone else. Annabelle hadn't approached them yet, and neither had they - or, Kyle - approached Annabelle in the least. She was content to let things sit like this, if they wanted to let it sit this way. When things changed...they'd change.

Annabelle started off across the park toward Norberta, who was resting in the grass as casually as anything. [Norberta. How're you doing?]

Norberta let out a puff of fire, flexed her wings, and began bobbing her head along with the music. [I'm happy - you're happy; the SRM won. It will be nice not having to hide anymore,] she answered seriously. Then she went on, in humorous tones, [And, going forward, I'm not going to be worried about the nonmagics and their firearms. As if these scales could be cracked by little bits of metal smaller than my smallest teeth!]

Annabelle twirled and swayed closer to Norberta along with a musical riff, reached up her arms; Norberta dipped her long neck and put her snout in Annabelle's hands, nuzzled into her palms. [Well, regardless - and regardless of your heroics - they're already scared of the simple fact of your existence, so let's not do anything that might encourage them to start taking some shots at you when we get back to the mainlands.]

[No charging at them and roaring like it's hunting night, got it,] Norberta responded. She flicked out her long, large tongue and licked Annabelle's forearm. [Maybe once they've all gotten used to my existence, though...it'd be really funny, wouldn't it?]

[Depends who you do it to.] Laughing, Annabelle dropped her arms and backed away. Twirled again. And there was Gertrude hunched before her, lips twisted into a playful grin; she nimbly climbed Annabelle's body and wrapped thin arms around her neck, kissed her on the lips. She wrapped her legs around Annabelle's abdomen, securing herself. Annabelle stumbled, staggered from surprise. She held to and squeezed Gertrude's rear with an absent hand, and flicked her wrist out behind herself to conjure an empty chair to fall back into.

"I never thought I'd see anything like this in my life," Gertrude rasped, drawing back with heavy breath. "Teafa would say we've just opened ourselves up to broader discrimination, hatred from more sides and different angles - but I say fuck that. I say we've opened up a way to stop all that; and to do so much more. With no need to hide from your nonmagic, dominant societies anymore, my people could have more land, more opportunities with more people. Things no one's ever considered before. It'll take time, more SRM actions, but I think we can do it. This is the start of something good, something better for all of us - I can feel it. We just have to keep pushing ahead with it."

"I believe that too," Annabelle replied, lolling her head back to take the sun on her face. "Wouldn't have done it if I didn't. This is better for everyone, the entire world. Segregation and oppression, historically, hasn't done anyone any good. Not a once. And it's still ongoing, in all societies. The only way we're going to stop it, is to all keep going forward together. Keep breaking down barriers and crossing borders."

"Kintatu, sheezu, mata whal! What in the world is all this?!"

Annabelle sat upright at the familiar language - and accompanying voice - nearly sending Gertrude right off her lap. She looked for the source, the speaker; and she found them in Confiance.

The fairy came soaring across the park, low the ground, and fluttered her way right toward Annabelle with a vengeance. She got right up in Annabelle's face and twisted around, and fluttered her wings against Annabelle's nose and eyes. Spinning back around to face Annabelle properly, Confiance hovered there with an accusing finger raised. "The biggest, various bunch of beings in one place in centuries and you didn't invite me? Some friend you are, some thanks this is, for the brave, sexy little miss who risked her life for you and your little club! I could've been smacked out of the air, sliced in half, or eaten by one of your magi-arachnid friends for my troubles! What if those government kestras had taken me, forced me to hand over my collection?! I've spent years building it up, you know! And I'll have you know that I don't appreciate-"

"You know, I heard from quite a few people here that they couldn't find you after the whole situation was done with," Annabelle interrupted, a grin coming over her face. "And isn't that an interesting question? Where did you disappear off to? Were you kidnapped, lost, what was it? What was it, I wonder, that had you gone from the fight while we were all still in the middle of it?"

Confiance pursed her lips into a pout, and she turned her chin up at Annabelle. "You're always worrying about me - and I love it - but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I just had something more pressing to take care of, and it really couldn't be helped."

"Thieving coward," Gertrude spat, baring her teeth and swiping at Confiance; the little fairy reacted quick, fluttering up out of Gertrude's reach in an instant. "You steal from Annabelle, you leave her - and all of us - to die, and you come here now like some-"

"Don't start a fight here, please," Annabelle said firmly, sitting up straighter and putting out a hand between Gertrude and Confiance. "Confiance, why don't you go visit with Hermione? I'm sure she'd love to see you again."

"I've missed her hair," Confiance mused, spying Hermione from afar (Hermione, like Adelyn's twins, had seen the news and answered the call to battle without a second thought). She hesitated a moment longer, then took off across the park; she flipped herself around and flew backwards long enough to send two middle fingers Gertrude's way.

Gertrude's claws dug painfully into Ananbelle's shoulders. "Annabelle, how can you still call her a friend at all?"

"I've known her since I was a kid," Annabelle responded, shrugging. "She was one of the first few nonhuman beings I actually met, and formed a bond with. She used to live in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. Confiance...she grows on you. And no matter how she acts, or what her career choices, her heart's in the right place - she still showed up, didn't she? She fought, she helped. I didn't ask her, I didn't call her like I did you, or Anju, or Oguk, or Nyllia's tribe - and she still was there for me. She showed up for me entirely of her own choice. That matters. To me, that matters." And it always would matter, to the little girl who'd grown up in a cupboard, with no one who had cared for her, no one who had noticed her, bothered to reach out and try to help her. To the little girl who had had to actually reach out to others, and help herself in the end.

"I suppose," Gertrude said quietly, eyeing Confiance from afar now with softer eyes. More considerate a gaze. She turned her attention fully back to Annabelle, and kissed her again. "I'll have to give some more time to her if I want to warm up to her too."

"She'd like that," said Annabelle, as she watched Confiance too; watched her flutter, juke and dive around Hermione's head, snatching up bushy locks and twirling and tugging it all every which way. Unlike when they were kids, however, Hermione seemed markedly less irritated about the whole song and dance. Annabelle supposed that Confiance's showing up for them all like she had, had actually touched Hermione's heart too - and softened it a fair bit when it came to the mischievous little fairy.

A sudden, loud crack filled the air, punctuating the music; Lisa Turpin appeared out of thin air, her pale, scarred face tight. She marched up to Annabelle with her wand in hand.

"Lisa, if this is about our wedding issues again-" Annabelle began, getting up from her chair and letting Gertrude down carefully.

"Shut up - I need to talk to you," Lisa cut her off. She extended a hand, an air of urgency about her. Her other hand was shoved deep into her jacket. "Come to my house with me real quick, all right? Please?"

"All right." Annabelle took Lisa's hand, and Lisa immediately disapparated the both of them. They reappeared in Lisa's familiar sitting room. Lisa set off down the hall, dragging Annabelle along. They went to Lisa's bedroom, where Annabelle was promptly shoved down onto the bed, and then was joined by Lisa herself.

They sat together, like this, in total silence. Annabelle kept herself calm, and steady; Lisa, on the other hand, was staring down into her lap and toying with a long lock of blond hair. Her scarred face was twisted with stress, and with anxiety - and maybe with fear? Annabelle held the silence, held the moment until...

Lisa's head came up, and she stole Annabelle's gaze. Her lips were stuck in a heavy frown. "How did you stop being all fucked up?"

Annabelle stared. Took a breath. "Excuse me?"

"You and I - we were never as close as you and Daphne were - but you...your childhood. It was fucked up, you were being hurt, and you were always scared, and quiet, and- and how did you know what to do? Where to go? What to say? Who to say it to? How did you even- even up and do it? And how do I do that too?"

"Is somebody in your life abusing you?" Annabelle asked.

Lisa flinched. Her face screwed up even more. Her shoulders shook; she looked down again. "I don't- know? I don't know if it's really abuse, I mean, she's...my new girlfriend - been together a few weeks now. She can get mad pretty easy, and she's got a damn mouth when she is, and she's said some mean things, some- fucked up shit, but she's not...she's not hitting me or anything like that. Well, except one time, and it was an accident, and it was just some- some accidental magic."

"Can you...show me what she did?" Annabelle said softly, nodding to the hand Lisa had still stowed away in her jacket.

Lisa drew in a shaking breath, hitched along the way several times over. She nodded. Drew out her hand, and held it up. The back of her hand was marred by a huge spot of blackened flesh - burnt flesh. Her ring finger was sticking out at an odd angle, and the base of it was ringed with a deep, blood red magical residue.

Annabelle's breath left her. She shut her eye a moment. Only a moment. "Okay. Lisa, does that- have you tried anything to fix it? Gone to a hospital? What do you...what do you want me to do to help you?"

"Whatever you did to help yourself when we were kids," Lisa whispered, shoving her hand back into her pocket. "Just do that for me, okay? I'm not a moron, I know this is wrong, and fucked up, and I know it's- I know, okay? But I don't know what to do to make it not fucked up. She wants to get engaged, and she's always saying how beautiful I am, and how she doesn't give a damn about my scars - and that's stupid because you know I'm proud of them - but the way she says it just makes me feel...all the same, I feel...and I think maybe I can just ignore...maybe she just had a bad time at work, or...but I know what that is, I know what that thinking is, because I saw it all the time in you!" Lisa slammed her fist down on her thigh. A tear came loose and fell down her marred face. "I saw it, I had to listen to you say the stupidest shit, every day, every time it was brought up, and I walked with you to those therapy sessions about as many times as Daphne did, or Hermione, and I...I know what this is. I know it's not right, all right? I watched you go through this shit for years, even after you got out of that household. You're still fucked up over it!"

"I know."

"Right? So- help me! I don't want to be like you! You were a fucking wreck when we were kids, you were a little- lying, crying, flinching little- and I don't want to be that too, sorry. So...please, help me here. Whatever you did when we were kids to get through it, to get away from it, do it for me and get me away from mine. Because I don't want to be in this situation, this life. I don't! But I can still- I can still see myself falling into it, getting dragged into it!"

"Of course I'll help you with this."

"Okay," Lisa said, nodding, and staring at Annabelle with earnest. "Okay! So what do I- what do I do first? What did you do first, with your relatives?"

"Okay, first, Lisa, we need to go." Annabelle stood, took out her wand and looked around the room. "We'll pack your things, your clothes, trophies, whatever you have and want, and we'll go to my place. Right here, right now. You don't have to leave a note, or anything like that if you don't want to. You don't have to explain why: she knows why. It's a choice, it's all on her, and it's not your fault at all."

"Yeah. Okay. Things- get...things, let's get things, and go, and...things." Lisa took out her own wand, and gave it a flick. A suitcase appeared out of thin air. She gave her wand another little flick, and clothing from the dresser and food from all the way in the kitchen and little slips of paper from the sitting room all came zooming into the bedroom. Funneled through the door, and flew right into the suitcase. Everything piled on, smooshed down into a horrid mess - but it was all there. Lisa lowered her wand, looked to Annabelle expectantly. "Things are here. What the hell is step two?"

"My place," Annabelle reminded, smiling as best she could. "Grimmauld Place. We get there, we do...what you want. You want to sleep, or eat, or hang out and watch TV, or...whatever you want to do. We just get there, and we stay there. Just relax."

"Sounds good," Lisa said, smiling back with watery lips. "I can't- I can't...it doesn't even feel good to be here anymore, you know that? I feel...damn tense, and- like I'm out on a hunt, getting a bounty, tracking a target? You know? Like I'm...fuck, in danger? No shit, Lisa, you know that. You know this. You watched her with this shit. Just never thought it would be you. Why do you have to have this happen to you now too?"

"I understand," Annabelle said kindly. "We get to my place, you won't have to feel that way anymore."

Lisa gave another nod. She pointed her wand with shaking hand, and her suitcase zipped shut and leaped up into the grasp of her mangled hand. She winced, let out a curse, and dropped the suitcase with a loud thud. "Shit," she spat out. She slashed her wand violently at her suitcase, and it levitated in the air before her. She glanced at Annabelle, uncertainty written in her scarred features. "I- could you take it?"

"Sure." Annabelle grasped the suitcase handle and pulled it free of the levitation charm; she felt its full weight as she held it at her side. She stowed away her wand and held her hand out to Lisa. "Okay, Lisa, we apparate away in three seconds. Want to count up or down?"

Lisa shook her head, gave the lightest of chortles. "What the fuck does that matter? What are we, kids again?" She summoned up a harsh look, and continued on in utter seriousness, "Don't do that, don't start treating me like a fucking kid, all right? I'm not falling apart because of this, I'm not some piece of china now! Oh, I got my hand fucked up once, and had some bad names called on me, so fucking what?!"

"Sorry - you're right." Annabelle wiggled her hand at Lisa. "Down from three, okay? I just don't want us to get splinched; after how much I fucked myself over a few days ago, I might've lost a bit of my confidence in my apparition talents."

"Hey, don't," Lisa started, her lips curving with a genuine, warm smile. "I've rewatched the footage of you a few times over now, and you were badass, yeah? You're still badass. For that, for when we were kids, and...now for this. For me. That's...why I wanted to marry you so damn bad, why it hurt so much when you just...left me at the altar." She sighed. "We're both pretty badass, and I thought we'd fit together, have long years ahead of keeping that up together as partners. I was so wrong on that one, though..."

"Sorry-"

"Don't apologize again, I'm getting sick of hearing it," Lisa cut across. "Just- just apparate us, okay? I'm tired." She hesitated, then took Annabelle's hand. Hesitated further still; her eyes shifted, brightened. "So hey, did you modify your room again, or do you still have a bed? If you do, I'm taking it. And, does Sirius still have my favorite snacks? When we were kids, you know, we'd stay up all night and I'd get so...so sick I'd...get sick." She laughed, a real laugh. Annabelle laughed, too.

"Apparition commencing," Annabelle tried for some humor. "Three...two...one..."

Crack!

Annabelle and Lisa appeared in Grimmauld Place's sitting room. Immediately, Annabelle checked herself and Lisa over for injuries - for missing parts. There were none, thankfully.

"Hah, see? You've still got it," Lisa said, flashing another genuine smile. She brushed her hair behind a scarred, torn ear, and set off across the room to the hallway. She threw a look over a shoulder, hand resting on the entryway. "I'll be in your room, making changes to it. Bring my things in whenever, get those snacks, yeah?"

Annabelle smiled. "Yeah. I'll be there in a minute - I should go tell Sirius I'll be here a few days again. Not to mention everyone back on Themyscira. Which, by the way, how did you know where we all were?"

"Am I going to be here a few days?" Lisa inquired, narrowing her eyes - and completely avoiding the question about Themyscira.

"Do you want to be?" Annabelle returned, perfectly innocent. If Lisa wanted to ignore the Themyscira issue, then Annabelle would let it rest for now.

"Yes," Lisa said, in a quiet voice. "I've always loved it here. It's always smelled nice. And we've had fun, every time."

"Okay, then." Annabelle set Lisa's suitcase in the middle of the room. "Yeah, go ahead and get comfortable, get situated, and I'll see you in a minute or two - with snacks." Lisa lingered a look on Annabelle, something inscrutable, and then she disappeared into the darkness of the hall. Annabelle let out a long breath, and set off for the dining room, as her first stop on the search for Sirius.

"You really messed up my room."

"I made it better - and it's my room now. Accio," Lisa added, offhand - the packages flew out of Annabelle's hand and landed on the bed in front of Lisa. "Sorry to bring up Daphne, but, have you seen her since the...what're the whole world's media outlets calling it, the Revelation?"

"Once. I checked up on her once - about two hours ago; the amazons have her in an underground chamber, really protected and heavily guarded. She's still..."

"An enormous stupid monster?"

"Different," Annabelle refuted firmly, sitting down on the bed with Lisa. "Hurt, and confused, and scared, and...lacking her mental faculties, yes. Clearly, when she disappeared a month ago in Egypt, she was taken and used in some kind of dark magical experiment. She was tortured, twisted, and...made into whatever she is now. I don't know if what she is now is the end result, or if they consider her to be a failure - but she is what she is."

"Whatever." Lisa shook her head. "I'm sure she'll get the help she needs."

"I'm sure, too."

Silence. "Are you going to visit her again later? Ask her about Egypt? Or have you already asked her that?"

"I haven't asked yet. It's in the past, it might not have even been her, for so many reasons, and...right now she's confused, and she's hurting, and she's not mentally competent enough to go through an interrogation like that - about...something complicated - if it was even her. So, yeah, I'm not- not going to ask her about that yet."

Lisa laughed - not a nice laugh - and took on tones of pure mocking. "Oh, look at how selfless and compassionate you are - you sure you're not just avoiding it because you're afraid of her answer?"

"No," Annabelle said flatly.

"Coming from the girl who skipped out on how many therapy sessions, and flat out avoided court because she was scared to face her relatives?"

Annabelle drew a sharp breath. Clenched her right hand tight. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not that girl anymore. You and I, Lisa, we're not kids anymore."

Lisa's gaze traveled up and down Annabelle's figure. Her lips parted; she swallowed. "I've- I've noticed, trust me." She laughed, nervous. "Almost married you over it. Definitely had a lot of...lot of fun times together over it. Both, when we were kids, and all the way up till the wedding day. But that was a year ago, and this is now. This is...today, this is reality, not that dream I wanted with us. You're a global terrorist to the magical governments of the world, a revolutionary leader to the nonhumans and nonmagics around the world, and I'm just some bounty hunter. You're beautiful, and strong, and amazing, and I'm...not so much those things."

Annabelle held Lisa's gaze. "You're still beautiful to me. You're strong, and just as amazing - come on, of course you are. You kick ass and take names across the world, same as me, just...for different reasons. And you uhm...uh, you...Lisa, you..."

"Yeah?' Lisa bit her lip. She darted forward, head down, and kissed Annabelle on the lips. "Do you want to have sex? Again? For old time's sake...?"

"If you do," Annabelle said softly.

Lisa's sharp features became even sharper with the addition of scorn. "I asked."

Annabelle nodded. "Yeah, okay - stupid of me." She tilted her head back and moved in closer to Lisa...