What Remained

Characters: Murphy, Dresden, The Merlin, The guys from SI
Author's notes: This won't advance the timeline but it helps to get settled into Murphy's point-of-view for the next chapter

Written in Murphy's POV

There were a few specific things in my life that I used to relax me in order to prevent myself from losing my nerve in the middle of a shoot-out or the equivalent of having to do paperwork. Every cop in my department had their own little habits that helped us to forget the troubles of the worse parts of humanities actions and give us a little time to ourselves.

For example, I knew a certain partner of mine had a taste for flower arranging. He hadn't admitted it to anyone, but whenever one of us walked past his cubicle, there was always a small, neat flower box sitting on the edge of the desk connected to the partition. Lately, there had also been talk around the water cooler (or just water for us as the cooling system had broke down a month ago), that the new kid in the unit was a well known patron in some of the same-sex bars. He was well known because he had the unique ability of being able to completely abandon the use of alcohol and manage to bring home the real lookers who were there that night. Being the MAN'S club that SI still was, none of the guys admitted to being in a gay bar to start the rumour in the first place.

For me, I found that there was a certain level of calm that washed over me when I was doing a generally considered violent task in a controlled environment. For a large portion of my life, that has been my Aikido, which I had been training in since I was but a child. From the outside, I understood that it looked very violent and life-threatening, but when it is just you and your opponent facing off against one another, it feels as though there is nothing else in the world that matters. Everything but the floor you're standing on is just space that's currently not occupied by your opponents attacks.

If I ever found myself lacking a training ring and a minimum of one enemy, I would usually dig out some of my father's old weapons and clean them. In the old days of law enforcement, guns hadn't been made at a very high quality and therefore had to be cleaned on a regular basis. It would require you to take apart the gun a separate it across a table while using a special cleaning kit (made mostly of boot polish and a sponge on a stick of wire).

The latter task had led me to taking apart an old 44. Revolver that I had borrowed from Dresden and had yet to give back. Since the idiot thought that guns had been designed to work all of the time no matter how much pressure (magical or otherwise) you excerpt on it, so when I could, I would usually take the time to clean his after he guilt tripped me into doing it from admitting that leaving gun cleaning to him would mean it would most likely blow up in his hands in the middle of a, and I quote, "epic duel" with one of his enemies of the week.

I sat on my couch and glared at the dismantled weapon. From the guns point of view, I probably wasn't that threatening. After the events at Arctis-Tor when me and Dresden successfully killed the bad guy and rescued the kid, I had barely enough time to get home and have a quick shower before hastily throwing on my uniform and preparing myself for a no doubt long and arduous conversation with my superiors on why I had been missing from an active investigation for over a day.

I couldn't help the pang of worry that rippled through me. This was going to be bad. Best case scenario, I would lose my position and be demoted back to a rookie role at SI, with no hope of a promotion again. I wanted to blame Dresden and his stupid Council, but in no way was it his fault. I had to practically beat the shit out of him before he would let me go with him and I didn't regret it one bit. True, I didn't regret the battering, but it was my job to protect civilians of Chicago and Molly Carpenter fell into those borders.

While I would have much preferred to continue to brood on my poor unfair life, a sharp stab of pain suddenly shot through me. It didn't feel like pressure had been put on me, more like a sudden weight had been lifted off my skin, like I had been underwater the whole time and only decided now to break the surface. My hand clutched at my stomach desperately until the pain retreated back into a rapid throbbing.

I thought that standing up might help a little, but as my body lifted, it felt as though I had been sitting on Velcro, as my skin seemed to peel away from where I had been sitting. Putting effort into standing up, the sticky feeling suddenly gave way and I stumbled forward slightly.

Seeing that my kneecaps were about to hit the table, I prepared to hold out my hands a brace for a fall but my legs had continued to move forward and had righted themselves. Looking down, it looked as though the table had sliced clean through my legs and obscured the view of my feet.

Curious as to the lack of pain though, I sent instructions to my feet to wiggle my toes and sure enough, I felt them move and push themselves against the fabric in my shoes. I lifted my leg up and regretted it immediately as the lower part of my leg glided through the table and my foot came into view. It had an unnatural, white glow to it and, following up my leg, I discovered that the rest of me was emanating light too.

Now, even though I am not the kind of person who panics, I dare anyone to go through the experience I was going through right now and not feel their heart beat that little bit faster and their muscles become tense. Long ago, I had decided that the best defence was a good offence, so I hastily reached down to the scattered parts of the revolver in order to assemble them again. I could build a gun pretty quickly.

Where the grip and the trigger and the other miscellaneous pieces should have been though, were the scattered remnants of a sword. It had been broken into individual pieces, but there was no doubt it was a large, glowing long sword, sitting across my coffee table.

From my basic instincts, I tensed up my arms and began to carefully back away towards my kitchen, scanning the rest of the living room along the way for signs of an intruder. Most of the objects around me were glowing now, especially my Katana's sitting above my fire place that were very close to dripping sparks onto my floor.

As I continued to back away, where I should have passed easily through an archway, I instead hit a tall figure, slightly cushioned by a thick coat or shirt of some kind.

Also from instinct, I took up my arms and spun round, jumping back slightly to get more space between me and the intruder.

In front of me was a tall, willowy man, maybe in his twenties or thirties. A long thick duster was supported over him and his dark brown hair was cut short, billowing slightly over his eyebrows. Like me and most of my house, he was emitting an unnatural glow but the colours involved were mixed. His face and body were giving off strong white lights that I felt should have been blinding me. Across his arms though was a grey tinge that looked like it had stained him and though I couldn't quite focus on it, there looked to be a large black shape hovering around his ear, strands of black claws digging into the man's shoulder like it was holding onto the man's very being.

It took me a second to get my bearings, but eventually my brain kick started and the memories of Dresden flowed in, as I noticed his tensed up figure and a worried smile across his face. I pictured the many smiles of Harry Dresden and couldn't help showing my own when I noticed that he wasn't looking particularity worried and decided that there would be no immediate danger in the next few minutes.

Still so many unexplained questions though. Questions that a mere person like me couldn't understand but Dresden could explain in two sentences or less, partly due to his knowledge on the weird but mostly due to a limited vocabulary. I put the most important ones in order. "Dresden," I asked him, "Why, the hell, am I glowing, what, the hell, happened to my gun and why, the hell, are you glowing?"

Rather than immediately answer my questions, his face stuttered and looked at me with confusion. Instead off letting him try and defend himself with a pathetic excuse and a wave of his hand, I continued on the attack. "I swear to God Dresden, whenever you're around, something bad just has to happen, whether it be electronics, the stability of buildings or even reality itself."

Now on the attack, I felt in my game. I had always felt better when I was in control of the situation, maybe not literally but he certainly wasn't winning this argument and I wasn't going to let him.

With a silent reply once again, I prepared another speech, preferably one with as many swear words as possible. "And now you turn me into a ghost. Of all the…" I didn't get the last part of it out as Harry suddenly leaned in closer to me, wrapped his strong arms around my back and pulled me into a kiss

Before my mind had a chance to figure out what was going on, my body began to pull away and my neck tilted backwards as it reacted to the false impression that I was either under attack or my current lip lock was a devious trap. A lovely, devious trap. My thoughts were running in circles.

Is he kissing me?

Should I kiss him?

Do I want to kiss him?

Am I still glowing?

My one answer to these was the bright neon word of yes. Taking control of myself, I gratefully accepted his mouth and he accepted mine. My eyes closed and I focused on the wonderful feeling of him in my arms. I unclenched my fists and brought my arms around his neck, dragging his head down to my level more so my lips could get a better hold on his. Wanting to get more of a feel on him, I ran my hands through his hair, caressing his head and neck. In response, his hands began to move around on my back and touched with the pressure of a feather, all the right places. A quiet moan escaped from my lips and he inhaled them with happiness. I've had good kisses in the past sure. Ones that seemed to last for hours, but with Harry, time just didn't seem important. All there was, was the heat of the moment as I pulled him in closer to me, never wanting to let him go.

After who-the-hell-knows-how-long, I felt his body hesitate around me as the kiss (and some minor fondling) drew to a close. I broke the kiss off at the same time as him and he rested his head on mine. My heart had been beating a mile a minute and I panted as I drew oxygen back into my lungs. I looked up at him, "You know Harry, you could have come over to see me rather than evicting me from my body." He smiled his goofy grin back, in response.

"But I wouldn't be me if I went for the simplest answer. The more effort you put into it, the greater the sense of satisfaction and plus, it's only polite to put a bit of thought into wooing a lady such as yourself."

I smiled and gently punched his chest. "You chauvinistic pig, as dead impressed as I am though," I looked into his eyes, "I'd rather you put me back into my body so we can start on some more familiar ground".

He grinned and looked up slightly in thought and his lips cheekily smiled. His eyes though, didn't match as they were filled with worry and fear. Something was wrong, so I unlocked my arms from around his neck and stroked his arms in comfort. He answered me while looking down at his feet. "Karrin, I … There may be a chance that … that I won't be coming back."

He had genuine fear in his voice and now refused to meet my eyes. I grabbed onto his arms tightly and forced him to look at me with my voice. "Harry? What do you mean? Why won't you be coming back?"

Small tears glistened down his cheek and I stroked them away with my hands, holding his head to look at my gaze, "Talk to me Harry. Maybe I can help…" he shook his head and looked back down at his feet again.

"I'm sorry Karrin. I want to be here with you, talk to you, touch you, but someone still needs my help." He forced a smile onto his face and looked deep into my eyes, "Goodbye Karrin Murphy, and I'm so sorry."

He leaned forward again to kiss me and I automatically leaned into him again. As wonderful as it felt, he didn't answer my question. Pulling away from me, his eyes glazed over and his glow, along with him, began to fade. The skin around me began to tighten and I felt the familiar pressure of reality as my view suddenly switched from that of a fading Harry to his dismantled gun resting on a table in front of me.

As I tried to figure out what was going on, my phone began to ring which sent my senses back under control. I rapidly span around to face my kitchen where I could just see the outline of Harry's figure. "Harry? What do you mean?" I asked him, but he was already gone, leaving me none the wiser. I lacked answers but I had memories. My fingers brushed against my lips.

Running on automatic, my other hand reached out and picked up the phone, answering it as I brought it to my ear. "Murphy here."

There was a click from the other end of the line as her call was switched from the dialling machine to the caller. I did not want to deal with SI right now, but it was a problem I couldn't avoid and would have to deal with sooner.

"Murphy, we've received a call about some odd goings on in the warehouse district, North of Chicago. We're sending dispatch to check it out."

Well, at least it wasn't a bollocking. "Understood, I'll be there in five." I cut the call and rubbed at my eyes. Where there was odd goings on, there was Harry. I put the revolver back together and searched for my police siren.

Only after I drove off, did I realise that I had just said I would get across town in five minutes. I had to skip a few red lights and took a few turnings at unsafe speeds but sure enough, warehouses began to show around me with at least a few seconds to spare. I couldn't afford to be late at the moment. I was in enough trouble.

As I drove on, I eventually spotted a few police cruisers parked outside a large, black building, surrounded on both sides by large tower blocks. As the report of odd goings on was sent through the departments, it was quickly passed down to Special Investigations and as such, most of the guys from SI were around.

A few were leaning on their cars, but the rest had closely surrounded a group of young people, probably no older than teenagers. Thick, brown cloaks covered most of them and they had herded themselves into a flock of frightened kids. They had all been cuffed already, but a few had separated themselves from the crowd and were arguing with the police. I parked my car in front of the building, got out and walked over to them, barely catching the edges of their conversation.

"You have to all get away from here now, you're not meant to be here!" A large, black haired youth shouted.

Two cops stood in front of him and did not look amused. "Sir, if you would calm down, you can explain what the problem is."

"No, you don't understand," the kid calmed down and hung his head, "We can't tell you but we all have to go now!"

Before I reached them and had a chance to intervene, there was a loud explosion as an entire wall of the warehouse behind me suddenly shot outwards and slammed into the building next to it. The kids ducked their heads down and huddled close together, while me and every cop there, rolled behind cover and took aim at the building. There was silence inside for a moment, but soon the whole building began to tremble and groan in frustration. Ripples spread across the walls as they tried to hold each other up but failed miserably.

I heard a sharp crack from the roof and cursed myself for not having a higher position. A small object shot into my field of view as it flew up into the air. Looking closer, I saw it was a tall, old man, flying up and hovering in mid-air. Yes, definitely magic.

We all aimed our guns at the figure and wondered what the hell we were meant to do at this point. Matters kept getting complicated though, when I heard someone shout from inside the building as the black walls tumbled inwards on themselves. There was another cracking sound from the roof and a second figure flew up to the first. I recognized him as his dark duster flapped around his body and his hair flew up around him.

Harry eventually settled his accent and the two figures looked across the air at each other. Harry had once told me that the magical community strived to not show itself in public, but those rules had been thrown out of the book now. They were around ten-storeys up, but I knew the lay of the land well and that position would be visible to just about every part of the city.

Also recognizing Harry, the cops around me turned in my direction as a signal that they wanted my opinion on what to do now. I was already beginning to tell them to shoot at the first figure, but before my mouth could open, Harry suddenly shot through mid-air towards the man. In response, the man held up his hand and a bright light shot towards Harry. Before it hit though, a blue shield suddenly formed around Harry arms and he knocked it away. No sooner had that happened, dozens of beams suddenly shot towards Harry and I grabbed tightly onto my gun as his body dodged its way through the oncoming fire and knocked away what was left.

They both slammed into each other and Harry's staff met with a sword the man had seemingly produced from nowhere. There was an agonizing pause before they both began to furiously chop and hit each other.

Seeing this might get ugly pretty soon, I turned to the cops and began to yell out orders. I managed to have about half of them stay and take aim while the rest grabbed the frightful kids and dragged them away to find cover. While my back was turned though, I heard a yell of pain from Harry. I span round to see what had happened, but he had already began to fall downwards, away from the figure.

Knots formed in my stomach as he hurtled towards the car park behind me and my mind tried to form crazy plans that would save him. When he reached about halfway though, the same blue shield spluttered to life around him and formed a solid barrier.

His now armoured body shot over my head and slammed into the bonnet of a patrol car behind me. The force was so great that the back of the car flew up into the air, before slamming down again with a thud. I took a few steps towards him and yelled his name. "Harry?"

Harry was curled in a foetus position on the crumpled bonnet, but either the sound of his name or the sound of my voice jolted him awake and the blue dome collapsed around him. Without the slightest inclining of pain or even discomfort, he jumped down off the car and glanced around him, his gaze lingering for a short while on the group of kids.

He then looked above my head at the figure in the sky and his eyes widened in shock. He looked down at me with fearful eyes and I still didn't understand what was going on. Before I could call for him again, he took off at a dead sprint straight towards me and I noticed the ground and walls around us begin to light up.

I thought he was going to tackle me to the ground, but his arm instead grabbed onto me and drew me in to his body while lifting his other arm to the sky. As I turned, I realised what he had been worried about. Covering the air around us was white hot energy, covering an area greater than the estate we were standing on. Though I couldn't touch it, I felt the air crackle around me as the excess magic electrified the air around us.

I was too frightened to move. All I could to was hold on tightly to Harry's arm and hope that he would be able to save us from this. His entire body tensed as a mask of concentration developed on his face and he drew in one large gulp of air.

"Forzare!"

The power of the word was so great that it hurt my eardrums. The words spread themselves around us like the many echoes in a cave formed a wall in front of us. The white fire slammed into the shied and both screamed out in protest as power thundered through them. Bright blue sparks shot out of the shield and flew around us, as Harry pulled me to the right slightly and a spark flew past my head and burned a line down his cheek.

Powerful gusts of wind shot around us and threatened to knock us over, but Harry stayed standing as the wind ripped past us and billowed out Harry's duster. Traces of litter were spinning wildly around in miniature cyclones and I had to shield my eyes into Harry's chest to avoid getting blinded by the tiny missiles. I looked up at Harry's face as he seemed unconcerned for his eye health. He just kept that same, determined face against the elements and he didn't dare blink.

I could still feel through Harry's grip though, the tremendous force that he was holding back. His feet began to slide backwards over the ground as the energy pressed against us. He wasn't just protecting me, but the people around us. Most of the cops had hidden behind their cars, but some were still aiming at the immense scale of power in front of them, their gun aims shaking as they tried to decide if they should fire or not or whether it would even make a difference if they did.

I looked back at the fire and it had begun to close in on us, the tip of it merely inches away from Harry's hand. Small trails of smoke formed on the edges of his fingers as they singed away his flesh but he still stood strong. Sensing he was struggling to hold on and that we may only be moments away from death, I held onto his waist and buried my head into his chest.

I wasn't going anywhere, and as the walls closed in, I let out a small whimper.

At the sound of my voice, every bone in Harry's body suddenly thrummed with power and the wall of energy stopped in it tracks. Harry's skin began to glow like it had back at my place and a white light shot out of his hand, so bright that I had to close my eyes and look away.

The heat from the flames seemed to evaporate from the air around us and was replaced with a cool breeze. Harry's arm lifted from my shoulders as he brought it out before him, but I refused to relinquish my hold on Harry. His arms made an aggressive motion upwards and the pressure in the air around us suddenly disappeared. Harry almost fell over but I supported him with my shoulders as I looked back.

All of the tremendous energy had suddenly disappeared. I looked up at the sky and a great ball of fire was shooting up past the clouds and into the distance. Before I had time to react, Harry suddenly fell to the ground, twisting out of my grip and hanging his head.

I stood in front of him and grabbed his shoulders, dragging his gaze back up to meet mine. "Harry? … Harry! Are you still with me?"

His body stopped shaking in my grasp as he recognized me and looked into my eyes. There was no denying though that he was furiously thinking about something. What was he worried about? "God dammit Harry, speak up."

He still lay there with a blank expression on his face. Maybe he had hurt himself, or suffered from brain damage. I wouldn't be able to tell unless he starts talking again so I tried once more.

"Harry, are…" the words froze in my mouth. His face had rapidly changed from that of a confused, weak man to the frightened, strong gaze of a wizard. Before I had a chance to ask anything else, he suddenly grabbed my shoulders and threw me to the side. My brain just registered what happened as a beam of electricity shot past my head and straight into Harry. I cried out as I hit the ground, but those cries were quickly overshadowed by the screams of pain coming from Harry.

Looking up, my stomach did a u-turn as I took in the sight before me. Harry was still kneeling on the ground, but electricity was pouring into his body, causing his limbs to flail wildly around. Bolts of lightening shot through his arms and legs, tearing him apart from the inside but doing nothing to silence his protests.

I tried to make a grab for him, but a stab of electricity shot through me when I tried to grab his arm and sent me flying back into a squad car. Before I could get up and try again, his body rose from the ground and began to soar upwards.

"Harry!" I cried out, but I don't think he heard me. He just kept yelling out that basic scream that every living thing will do when under an immense pain that it cannot silence.

As he flew threw the air, I began to panic and followed the line of wear the lightning was coming from. Up above me, the bolts of power were shooting from the figures arms directly into Harry. I could do nothing to help as the man brought Harry close to him and yelled at his face.

Harry spat into his eye.

Roaring in outrage, the figure performed a strange movement with his arms that sent Harry shooting towards the clouds above. I looked around at the shocked faces around me and decided it was time we acted. I had to raise my voice to cut across Harry's screams.

"Everybody here with a gun," I barked at the cops around me. Now being given orders, they suddenly straightened themselves as our law enforcing instincts kicked in. "I want you to all shoot at that attacker!" They looked very confused and I sighed to myself. "I want you to shoot at the man with lightning coming from his hands and take him down." I expected a moment of hesitation from them but they all obeyed my orders and lined up into a firing stance. We were a pack at SI and I (for now) was the leader.

With simultaneous roars, bullets were fired from our guns and were sent straight at the figure. Though he was very high up, we had all practised many hours of gun training and, while a few missed, most slammed into his back and startled him. I had hope that we would kill him, but his face turned towards us and flicked his hand. From him, a large fireball came shooting out and rushed to our position.

Without needing to be told, we all dived behind cover as the fire slammed into the exact spot were I had been standing and exploded, sending fire billowing out around it. My back was scorched slightly as some of the flames hit my shirt when I dived for the car but under its protection, the flames flew right past us.

I glanced around to check for injuries and for the most part, we were OK except for one guy who was frantically stripping off his uniform as the sleeve had caught fire.

I looked over at the kids in cloaks and they were unharmed as well. They hadn't his behind cover, but a few had stood out in front of their cowering peers and had projected a shield similar to Harry's around the group. One of the older boys caught my eyes and nodded to me, signifying that he and his peers were all right.

I had failed Harry. The only hope I could have offered him was the use of bullets, but without the death threat that normally loomed over our weapons, the evil figure simply ignored us and turned back to torturing Harry.

I didn't want to look, but I forced myself to keep looking up at the one sided battle, far above the streets of Chicago. Little by little, I saw the life going out of Harry as his movements became sluggish and his throat grew course from yelling.

Out of all the people in my life, I trusted Harry the most. I liked his cocky smile he gave after making yet another mistake. I admired how after he had taken suffering from the nightmares of the world, he would always get back up the next day and fight the same enemies once more. What I most wanted though, was the chance to feel his lips against mine once more and his arms to embrace me like he could protect me from anything the world had to offer.

I blinked as a tear went down my left cheek.

There was a sudden change in the atmosphere around me as the screams from Harry suddenly stopped though. It didn't feel like he had drooled out the words as his death took hold. More like he suddenly found himself without an attack to scream about. I just caught the edges of his outcry's as they took on a confused tone.

Focusing on Harry again, the air had began to spark and crackle around him, the energy rapidly spreading out in a wave around him as it emanated through me and onto the streets of Chicago. As the power rippled through my skin, my muscles twitched and shook for a second, like you would automatically do if suddenly hit by a chilly wind.

While me and the people around me quickly shook off the feeling, our electronics didn't far much better. One by one, radios and street lights and phones and house lights sparked quickly and died from the exposure to the energy field. I looked behind me and was stunned as I watched the electric lights around us die and let a tide of darkness sweep through the area.

It would have been pitch black if not for a faint, blue glow like the one from Harry's shield bracelet. I looked back up again at a glowing object in the sky and it took me the time for my eyes to focus to realise that it was Harry. He was still freely floating in the air, but rivers of energy were dancing across his skin while he studied his hands with a confusion that I was also feeling.

He held his arm out and a fork of lightning darted from him and into his torturer. The man just held up his own hand and met the electricity as it absorbed into him and dissipated.

Nodding as if expecting the reaction, Harry but on a serious game face which usually meant he was about to do something stupid.

I cried out his name as he suddenly angled his body and shot downwards towards the other man.

My fingers tightened on my gun as I could only watch Harry Dresden slam into the man and hurtle downwards towards the unforgiving concrete ground of Chicago.

Next Chapter: Final Thoughts (You won't be disappointed!)