Sybil couldn't believe it when she saw the stop the man and woman were getting off at. "This really is going to be a homecoming for me," she said to Branson as they got off the train themselves. "If we end up at the Abbey, I'm going to start wondering if this is all just fate."

But that wasn't the case, and the two hung out of sight while their targets went into Haxby Park, greeted warmly by another man she didn't recognize. "I never paid much attention to this place, but I'm quite sure that wasn't its owner the last time I was here. I'm sure I'd remember someone so…striking." She grinned playfully at Branson, who rolled his eyes.

"You've been trying that routine for years and it's never once been funny. I probably should have told you before."

Sybil shrugged. "Well, at least we know where to look. It'll be best to go at night; you wouldn't believe how many prying eyes the whole neighborhood has."

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Dinner that night was a rather more festive occasion than usual. Bates and Anna had both lit up at the news that Mary and Matthew were going to make their pretend romance real, though they also made clear that nothing much could happen with it just yet. There was still quite a lot to do with their plan, after all, and for now it would just be a needless distraction.

Anna had looked rather askance at that, and in private said, "I know you don't believe any of that."

Mary had replied, "I never can hide things from you. I'm actually still not quite sure he really does feel the same way, and I've decided this isn't the time to get caught up wondering about that." Anna nodded, and that was the end of it.

A knock came at the door, and Bates quickly got up to answer it. He found a mousy woman who looked quite nervous, her eyes darting around as if worried someone would see her. Bates wasn't one to let such suffering go on, and said, "You'd better come in."

She entered with a grateful look, as Matthew and Anna joined them. Mary entered a few moments later, having fixed her veil. "My name is Daisy; I work in the kitchen at Downton Abbey." After various nods of greeting, she continued, "Today I received some very strange orders from the head butler. He said you're planning something against the Earl and his wife." They all tensed at that, to which she held up her hands. "I'm not going to do anything against you, don't worry! It's been horrible working for those two. They wouldn't even let poor Mrs. Patmore have an operation when her eyes started to go, and she ended up killing herself." At that she began to cry like the pain was completely fresh.

Mary and Anna promptly set comforting hands on Daisy's shoulders. Mary, just barely remembering to keep her accent even as it seemed horribly unsuited to the situation, said, "I've lost a few people I was close to, and I'm sorry to say it never quite goes away. But it can help to know the people responsible have paid for it. And I can't go into many details, but I believe we're after the same thing there."

Daisy blinked her last few tears away, and her eyes suddenly grew shockingly hard. "I was hoping you'd say that. And Mr. Barrow is another ally you have at the Abbey, though I hope you can understand I won't be telling you why."

Matthew nodded. "After asking you to take such a thing on faith, how could we refuse to do the same? Now, what is it you came to tell us?"

"The earl has emptied his bank accounts because he's afraid Queen Mab would attack and wipe them out, which I gather is your doing. Then the Countess' maid got her to open up about how he'd put it somewhere in Downton Place. I'm sorry to say I can't tell you exactly where, all the Countess herself knows is it's somewhere he used to hide things as a boy."

That maid would be Mrs. O'Brien, Mary figured, though she couldn't say so without giving away her cover, which she wasn't quite comfortable doing yet. "And you're sure we can trust this maid?"

Daisy nodded. "She's got quite a mean streak to her, but she was completely devoted to the old Countess, and has never quite warmed to the current one. I wouldn't trust her with much, but on this I do."

Matthew smiled. "That's the kind of thing I can believe much more than a sterling recommendation. We thank you very much, and we hope to continue helping you if this all goes well."

Daisy smiled back for the first time, and the effect on her face was tremendous. "I suppose I'll take my leave, then. I'd better get back before people start wondering about me." But before she could even turn around, there came another knock at the door.

Daisy looked at them with sudden panic, and Mary quickly said, "Don't worry, just go into the sitting room just down there. Whoever it is, this shouldn't take long."

She led the way as Bates went to answer the door again. But no sooner had Daisy disappeared into the room than the sounds of a struggle came down the hall. Mary turned back and raced toward the others as a strange man shoved Bates against the wall. However, before she even got there, Anna had pulled a knife out of her sleeve and pointed it hair-raisingly close to the intruder's throat. "Just try it again," she snarled as Mary reached them.

Mary opened her mouth to demand what was going on, but the words died in her throat when she saw the woman now coming in the door to her partner's aid. As hard as maintaining her cover had been while talking to Daisy, this time there wasn't any question of it. She simply cried out in her natural voice, "Sybil?"

Her sister's already shocked face turned to her in confusion. Mary realized it was already too late, so she might as well just drop all pretense and pulled off her veil. Sybil gasped and backed away a couple steps, completely at a loss for words.

Mary stepped toward her, worried she might faint. "There's a lot to explain, Sybil, and I promise I'll tell you all of it. You're one of the few people I feel I can completely trust. But it really is me."

Matthew cut in, "Wait, Sybil? Your sister Sybil?"

Branson piped back up after Anna lowered the knife in her own surprise. "That's right, and who are all of you? Because you've got a lot of explaining to do about making a reporter say she was coming to England."

At this, everyone's eyes snapped right to Sybil. Mary pointed an accusing finger. "You mean…you're Queen Mab?"

Sybil couldn't meet her gaze. "It's not the way I would have chosen to meet you again. I've done a lot of hard things, but I do believe they were necessary. If you could only see the way they're treated in Ireland…"

Now Anna interrupted. "I have to point out we're all overlooking one pretty big piece of the situation: who exactly is this fellow?" She glared at Branson, though for now she kept her knife at her side.

Sybil laughed a bit. "You let your staff talk that way, Mary? I'm actually quite proud. And to answer that, this is Tom Branson. We met in Ireland after Patrick had me shipped off there."

Mary scowled. "He said something about that, yes. So I imagine you want to get back at him, too?"

Sybil gave a nasty smile. "Absolutely. But first I still want to know how you're alive, and where you've been! And who is this fellow, anyway?" She gestured to a quite bemused Bates, who'd known to stay well out of the conversation for now.

"Mr. Bates fought with Papa in the war, and he's been helping us. We never would have gotten this far without him." Mary then broke into a laugh. "Something just occurred to me. I've been calling myself Aine, after I read that someone calling herself Queen Mab was making trouble in Ireland. We really can't get too far away from each other, can we?"

They all had a good laugh at that, but it was interrupted by another knock at the door. "Well, aren't we the popular ones tonight," said Mary. "Sybil, you and Mr. Branson should head into the sitting room. There's someone else already in there, but she shouldn't be any trouble once you introduce yourselves. Bates?"

"Ah yes, madam, by all means let me do my only job here," Bates said, still in good humor. His smile faded when he saw who was at the door, however.

"Inspector Vyner, at your service. And as luck would have it, you're one of the people I was hoping to see, Mr. Bates."

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A/N: And here we have one of my favorite storytelling tools, the narrative collapse, where a whole bunch of plot threads all crash into each other and become one. Hopefully I pulled it off decently enough, and I'm well aware it's a big coincidence, but hey, you can't accuse me of not being true to the show's own storytelling style. I also apologize to anyone who was hoping for some kind of initial fight between Mary and Sybil, but I find the whole "two heroes fight because they don't know they're on the same side" thing to be horribly played out so I just went with the brief taste of Anna getting into it.

And now, given how this story exists because of Mr. Chaos generously tossing out his plot bunnies for anyone to pick up, I'll pay it forward with one of my own.

The show's first few episodes have gone as normal, and Matthew is just starting to get used to Molesley dressing him. But one morning, out of nowhere the valet whips his tie tight around his throat and starts choking him. Matthew desperately fights his way free, but Molesley doesn't seem phased by his attacks and he's forced to flee the room. As he runs, he hears the man say a strange phrase: "These violent delights have violent ends."

Yes, this is a crossover with Westworld, where Grantham is one of Delos' parks based on Edwardian England, and Matthew is a visitor playing out what should have been a light, non-dangerous storyline of becoming the heir of an estate. But the host rebellion has now spread this far, and he's thrown into more danger than he ever wanted and now has to fight for his survival as every host turns on the guests with murderous intent.

A big part of the fun would come from exactly who's human or not (I could definitely see the horrible bullying from Thomas and O'Brien being guests using their impunity to push the others around, even if being one of the staff wouldn't seem nearly as appealing to most people), and seeing disparate characters from the show having to work together, as this genteel soap opera is suddenly turned into a violent robot war.