Chapter Five: War of the Worlds

Roy was less than pleased when he and Giles were assigned to help with defending the British Embassy from the expected werewolf attack. He wasn't a member of Team One, what on Earth did the wizards think he could do that they couldn't? Giles shook his head when Roy asked him that in an undertone. "Right now, they really don't get that," Giles admitted, his voice just as low as Roy's. "Most of them see Team One and they think every tech cop is just like them. Especially the patrol Aurors, they aren't high enough up to interact with the tech world all that much."

Roy arched a brow. "And the higher ups interact so much more?" he questioned pointedly, casting an even more pointed look at Giles' sidearm holster…the first legal gun carried by a wizard ever.

"Well…more than the patrol Aurors at any rate," Giles countered, with a wry look at his techie partner.

Roy huffed a sigh, leaning back against the wall and looking out at the setting sun. "Think they're okay?"

Giles considered, looking out the window himself. He shrugged, unwilling to offer false hope to his partner. "Hope so," was all he could really think to say.

While Roy was unhappy with the answer, he fell silent, watching out the window and thinking hard to himself. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Giles drawled.

"How come those werewolves were so afraid to meet with us? Or each other?"

When Giles shifted uncomfortably, Roy cast him a challenging look. After a moment, Giles sighed to himself. "It's against the law for werewolf pack leaders to meet like that. It's supposed to be a deterrent against the packs uniting to attack us, especially after the chaos Grayback's pack caused during the Wizarding Wars."

"Wasn't just them," Roy pointed out.

A shrug. "No, but werewolves…everyone's afraid of them, so it's a lot easier to get laws passed to keep your average witch or wizard safe from them. Not so easy to crack down on pureblood privilege, so it's usually just the Dark Creatures that get targeted after the fighting stops." Giles was silent a second. "But all that really does is make the werewolves go even further underground…if Madame Locksley knew the pack leaders met at SRU Headquarters, she'd come down on me and Parker like a ten-ton Abraxan."

"No wonder that lady was suspicious when we showed up," Roy whispered, earning a nod from his magical partner. "You weren't kidding about the Auror Division going after the whole pack of rogues, were you?"

"No, I wasn't. And the other packs might end up in hot water, too, even though they tried to help us. Merlin help us all if Team One can't save Young and Callaghan."

Though the two men had kept their voices low, they'd attracted attention nonetheless, for a woman seemed to appear out of nowhere; Roy jerked and nearly pulled his weapon on her. Blonde hair in an elaborate array of curls framed a face with green eyes, rhinestone studded glasses, and a heavy jaw with a rather simpering smile. Her eyes glinted with both interest and a touch of predatory malice; already she was drawing an acid-green quill and sheaf of parchment from her crocodile skin bag, the color of the bag and quill setting off her magenta green-trimmed robes.

"Skeeter," Giles rumbled, his distaste for the woman obvious. "You know that quill of yours is illegal in this country without a signed contract beforehand…and funnily enough, I don't remember signing any contract."

"Auror Onasi, how lovely to see that your memory is as keen as ever," Skeeter snipped, pouting as she slid the acid-green quill away. "Surely two fine Aurors such as yourselves would be amenable to a few small, trifling questions?" She batted her eyes at Roy, who did his best to contain his shudder; she reminded him of a girlfriend he'd had back in high school…a gossip of the worst kind who'd spread every last secret he'd told her all over the school.

"Ask then leave," Giles snapped back, "We do have a reliable report of a potential attack on this Embassy tonight and we don't need to be coddling gossip columnists when the fighting starts."

Skeeter's eyes flashed. "Fine," she bit out. "Straight to the point then, since you two are so very busy. I'm looking for the new Head of the House of Lestrange and my information suggests that he works with you, Auror Onasi."

Onasi gawped, jaw hanging open for several moments. Then he recovered himself enough to sneer, "The day I end up working with a Lestrange is the day I turn in my badge, Miss Skeeter! Maybe you should go back to England where you can go back to gossiping about the famous 'Golden Trio Love Triangle' you've been pushing ever since the end of the Second War." He smirked at her expression, then his eyes narrowed as the smirk dropped away. "Now. Get. Lost!"

Skeeter was wise enough to retreat, though she cast Giles a near-lethal glare as she went. Roy whistled low, drawing another brief smirk and even briefer chuckle from his partner, and shifted to watch out the nearby window again. The two men fell silent again, each of them thinking about the situation they'd found themselves in as the sun vanished below the horizon. When the moon peeked out, Roy frowned again. "Shouldn't they be here by now?"

Giles pushed himself forward, off the wall, and looked over Roy's shoulder out the window. "You'd think so," he mused to himself. "But maybe they're using a Portkey and set it to trigger after they transform." At Roy's startled look, Giles hiked one shoulder. "Werewolves can't control themselves once they transform. Grayback used to position himself right before the moon rose, just so he could be sure that he'd actually get his targets." A visible shudder worked its way down Giles' back. "A transformed werewolf would rip their own mother to shreds if they could."

Abruptly, the wizard drew his wand; Roy pulled his gun, chambering a round and assuming his firing stance. The two positioned themselves, ready for action, but silence rang around them. Roy stole another look out the window. The moon was completely above the horizon, gleaming in the night sky. Minutes ticked by, with no sound, no howls, and no movement.

Roy shifted, worry for his brother breaking through more and more the longer his phone remained silent. "We should go help them," he said suddenly. "You could get us there, right?"

Giles scowled at the idea of going anywhere near a pack of ravening werewolves, but, at the look in his partner's eyes, worried and just a little pleading, he gave in with a sigh. "Okay, let's go," he agreed with an expression that said this was against his better judgment.

Madame Locksley let them go, agreeing with Onasi's hastily formulated argument that Team One should have checked in by now and might need backup. The two men left the Embassy, wary of attack as they moved through the darkness. But there was nothing save the usual nighttime sounds, crickets buzzing, fireflies dancing to and fro, and the whisper of the wind through the grass.

Roy took the lead, eager to get to his car and start the trek to Team One. The detective's footsteps slowed as an odd whistling sound filled the air. Roy twisted around, searching for the source of the sound and confused when the whistling turned to a high-pitched mechanical whine. A faint roaring sound joined the mechanical whine and Roy looked up. Gray eyes widened in horror and Roy grabbed Giles by the arm, hauling the other man with him as he raced for a nearby rock. The rock wasn't all that tall, but Roy didn't care…it was tall enough. The detective dragged the Auror down with him as he dove behind the rock, ducking for cover as he hadn't done since the Sunrise Motel.

The explosion roared like nothing Roy had ever heard before, not from a movie and not on the job. A second explosion followed the first, a shockwave of sound and thunder that pounded at both men, echoing into the night. Debris rained down around them, deflected by Onasi's hasty shield spell. Around them, the grass lit, fire glowing an instant before going out. Roy's ears rang as he pushed himself up, staring in shock at the building – or rather, what was left of it. Fire raged in the shell, licking at the jutting timbers and jagged walls. Onasi's cry of denial and horror had a hollow sound to it, as if Roy was hearing it from a distance instead of from right next to his magical partner. The cop blinked hard, gagging as he realized no one inside the building had survived. But another thought made him swallow back the bile and grab his partner's arm again; Roy dragged them both through the gateway, his face pale and drawn.

"What the hell was that?" Giles screeched as soon as they were through. "You knew, didn't you? You were dragging me to cover like you knew that would happen!"

Roy whirled on his partner, slamming the other man into the wall, his eyes wild. "I heard it coming!" he yelled back. "And I saw it! Just for a second, coming from the sky!"

"What, can't take the idea of magic being real?" Giles spat, unappeased. "Is that it? Is that why you really wanted to leave? I should've known better…I should've known…"

"You think I'd've been anywhere near that building if I knew someone was gonna drop a missile on it?!" Roy screeched. "We got bigger problems, so stow the 'I-don't-trust-anyone' routine, okay? That was a missile; someone really, really high up had to order that. In the military, 'cause no way cops have missiles lying around."

Giles panted, his eyes flashing, but as he drew breath to spit his next accusation, Roy's phone rang. Roy released his erstwhile partner, stepped back, and answered with a brisk, "Detective Lane speaking."

"Lane? Get your rear in here, we need all hands on deck," Sergeant Gamboli ordered roughly.

"Sir?" Roy questioned in confusion. "We're kinda in the middle of something here."

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, forget it. Some magical freaks just massacred everyone at the British Embassy; we're going after 'em."

"What?" Roy blurted, his eyes wide as he whirled away from Onasi and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "What's that about magic, sir? And who attacked the British Embassy?"

Behind him, Giles gasped in shock, putting the horrid sequence together. "Yeah, you heard me, Lane," Gamboli confirmed. "Now, I know it's a shock…was a shock to me, too, when the word came down, but magic is real. Some of these psychos took it into their heads to attack the British Embassy…killed everyone, Roy, even the Ambassador's wife and kids. It's a right mess in there. We've got a whole community of these magical freaks right here in Toronto. Well, not any more we won't. Get yourself and Onasi in here, on the double."

Roy swallowed hard. In his mind's eye, he saw the eager young patrol Aurors, putting their lives on the line to protect innocents from a pack of werewolves, saw the older, wiser Aurors talking sense into the rookies, keeping them in line, just like any veteran cop would. And the children…the magical British Ambassador had had three little kids of his own, the oldest all of nine years old. All dead now, all dead because a group of monsters had exposed their world to his world and his world had reacted by lashing out and targeting people who'd never done them any harm.

"Sorry, sir," he said bluntly, "I don't do genocide." Without waiting for a reply, he hung up. Ashamed, he turned towards Giles. "They attacked the non-magical British Embassy," he rasped. "Everyone knows about your world now, Giles…everyone." Fear shone in Roy's eyes as he met Giles' horrified ones. "They're…they're gonna destroy your world, burn it to the ground." Roy dropped his gaze. "You gotta go, Giles. Warn as many people as you can, get your family out of Toronto."

"And what will you do?" Giles questioned.

"I'm going after Team One…someone has to tell them what just happened."

Giles looked down, clearly fighting with himself. When he looked back up, Roy was already halfway down the street to his car. The Auror fought with himself a moment longer, then he yanked his Auror trenchcoat off, balling it up and racing after his…his partner. He reached the car just as Roy pulled the driver door open and yanked the passenger door open. When Roy stared at him, Giles replied, "I'm coming with you. Someone has to watch your back out there, Lane."

The brown sedan cut through the night, making much better time than Team One's trucks had earlier. Roy kept his mouth shut as he drove; the radio was left off after the first ten minutes of media hysteria over the attack on the Embassy and the shocking reveal of magic as something real and not just fantasy. Roy's phone buzzed until Roy tossed it over to Giles and demanded, "Turn that off, will ya?"

The Auror turned the phone off quite willingly; he wanted no part of an organized attack on his people. As they drove, he watched Roy, surprised by his partner's decision. Essentially, Roy had just turned against his superior and his world in favor of the magical one. "Why?" he asked without thinking.

Roy glanced over. "I'm a cop," he replied. "If you were told to attack random innocent people on the street, would you do it?"

"No," Giles snapped.

"Same thing," Roy announced flatly. "They're wrong…it's like killing an entire family, just because they've got a gang member for a son." He shrugged at Giles' arched brows. "Can't think of anything better right now, sorry." Silence hung for a minute more, then Roy requested, "Stay quiet, I need to concentrate."

Giles stuffed his questions down as Roy turned onto a old, battered dirt road. The sedan slowed to a crawl, Roy flicking the car's high beams on as he navigated the poorly maintained road in pitch black. A flash of headlights ahead made Roy flick the high beams back off and both men breathed out in relief when they spotted Team One by their trucks, all of them, looking curiously towards the car.

Roy pulled up, as close to the trucks as he could get, and turned the car off, clambering out; Giles did the same. "Roy?" Ed called, confusion in his eyes and voice.

"Ed, it's over," Roy called back, hugging himself a little as the consequences finally started sinking in. "The weres…they attacked our Embassy."

"Dear God," Parker breathed, horror in his eyes. "They wouldn't have stood a chance."

Roy swallowed hard, then forced the next part out. "We dropped a missile on the magical Embassy."

"WHAT?!" came from the entire team.

"It's true," Giles confirmed. "We were there, but-but Roy wanted to come and help…we were walking towards the gateway when that…thing…hit." Anguish rang in his voice; grief was writ large on his face. He started to tremble and only Wordy and Sam's quick moves and actions kept him from collapsing. Softly, he whimpered, "They're dead…oh, Merlin, they're all dead." The Auror buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking as Wordy and Sam traded grim looks and shifted to better support him.

Ed cast a look at Roy, who explained, "We've been moving ever since then. My Sergeant called…sounds like the entire police force is mobilizing to take down as much of the magical world as they can."

"War," Giles managed from his position between Wordy and Sam. His face was wet with tears and grief was only just sinking in, but he wasn't so far gone that he couldn't think. "A war between worlds. And thousands will die before it's all over, on both sides."

"Not thousands," Parker disagreed, pale in the light of the full moon above them.

His team, Roy, and Giles looked at him in confusion; Parker drew a deep breath, then said it.

"Millions."

~ Ad Alia

Author note: To Be Continued... On the RL front, it turns out I'm not going to Plano, I'm going to Dallas. Although, technically, Plano is a suburb of Dallas. *sigh* I still have to figure quite a few things out, so please, please, please keep praying for me. Pray that God would grant me perseverance and wisdom as I continue this difficult period of transition. And, if you feel so inclined, please review as well. Prayers and reviews are pure gold to me and rare as diamonds.

Our next story, "West of the Moon", will kick off right here in the main Flashpoint archive on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018. See you on the battlefield!