Heretical Edge

As much as the others wanted an explanation about everything that was going on immediately (especially the whole Jacob part), I insisted we get out of this canyon first. I still wasn’t sure exactly what the place was or how dangerous it might be to sit around and chat. The strange, magical storm that had been screwing with our perception and making it difficult to tell exactly where any sounds were coming from had died down almost immediately when that creature was killed, so I was going to go with the assumption that it had been the source. An assumption I would check as soon as I had a free minute to do so.

Still, even with that thing dead, there could still be danger down here. And I just felt uncomfortable sitting down in the canyon. So, I quickly teleported all of us back up to the side of that broken-down cabin we had appeared in front of first. Which just brought up even more questions. They’d seen me do that already just a few minutes earlier, of course, but now they didn’t have Gidget being in danger to distract them. And they could tell for sure I didn’t use magic. They wanted to know why I was posing as a guy, where I got my teleport power from, why my kill aura was a different color (that one came with a somewhat hefty dose of suspicion from Roxa and Sean until Avalon told them she was absolutely certain I was really me), and so on. The questions came hot and heavy--

And you know how much we enjoy getting it hot and heavy, especially with Valley--

Yes, thank you for that contribution, Hot Type. Ahem, there were a lot of questions, all being hurled at me--us rapidly. Finally, I held up both hands, having already shifted back to my regular self. “I’m gonna explain! Hold on a second, I’ll tell you--okay you might have to hold on more than a second, because this is kind of a long story and very involved. But first, how do you guys know the name Jacob?”

Well that didn’t help quiet things down. All three of them immediately started blurting out answers at me, things about how there were all these stories about Jacob the Necromancer, most of which seemed completely impossible. But, Avalon had to add, now that she knew I was involved, she was starting to reconsider that. Either way, it turned out they had started learning about Jacob specifically because Stasia, the Robins, and Judas had been told by Grigori Rasputin that the way to clear his name, find Maid Marian, and make sure Charmeine was never a problem was to talk to this Jacob person. Me. They needed to talk to me. Only I didn’t know the answers to any of those things.

But one of my other selves that had been scattered through the timeline might.

Yeah, this was complicated. Even more than it already had been. And they really wanted to know what was up with my male disguise. So, while the idea of my alter-ego being famous continued to leave me reeling, I took a breath. “Okay, right, uhh, like I said, this is a long story. So, just to tide me over--” Reaching out, I caught Avalon’s hand and squeezed it before tugging her to me so we could kiss again. Only afterward, as her face turned a bit pink while staring at me, did I even stop to think about it. And yet, when I did, all I could do was smile. “Sorry,” I offered with no remorse and barely enough embarrassment to make the needle flicker. “I really missed you.”

“No one blames you for that,” Roxa put in, both hands resting on Gidget’s head protectively. “But it would be nice to know what the hell is going on. We told you why we know about Jacob, so what about you? Maybe we could start with, where are we?”

Sean raised his hand. “Personally my biggest question is why your aura is a completely different color. Is that a thing from being linked to Ehn? Did you take his boost? Did you--” He stopped short as the two other girls squinted at him. “Right, right, sorry. Go with ‘where’ to start.”

“Okay, that one I can answer really easily,” I noted immediately. “We’re in the Rocky Mountains, somewhere around Colorado or Utah, a few hundred miles south of Laramie Falls in Wyoming. It’s the umm, it’s the ‘when’ that’s gonna be tricky.”

That made everyone, including both Cyberforms, stare at me in obvious disbelief. Sean was the first to find his voice, after audibly grunting with realization. “Hang on, are you saying we’re in the past? How did that--did Ehn just drag us back here to help you?! I mean, not that I’m not ready and willing to do that, anytime and anything you need. But a warning might’ve been nice. Also, why wouldn’t he just have you come back here with a team to start with? I thought that hijueputa’s entire excuse was that you had to do this by yourself to get stronger or something. What the hell changed?”

“And where is he?” That was Avalon, her own voice firm. I had a feeling she wanted to give Ehn a piece or ten of her mind. “If he set this whole thing up just to see how it went when you had people with you, I don’t care what he’s a Heretic of, I’m going to--”

“It’s not that, it’s not him! He’s not the one who pulled you guys back here.” Getting that much out, I couldn’t help but smile and give a little snort of a laugh while looking back and forth between them. “Sorry, I just--I really missed you guys so much. I know you deserve an explanation, and I’m totally going to give it to you right now. I just…” Swallowing hard, I offered a helpless little shrug. “It’s really good to see you.”

“It’s okay, Flick,” Roxa assured me, stepping over for a quick embrace, which I returned gratefully. “Whatever’s going on, just tell us. We can take it. Oh but uh, if we’re all stuck hundreds of years in the past, could you let us down gently?”

After giving Sean a hug as well, I shook my head. “We’re not stuck here. At least, I uhh, I don’t think so. It’s really complicated, and I think the only way it’s gonna make any sense at all is if I tell you how it got to this point. Cuz, trust me, if I try to explain just this part, you’ll end up even more confused and lost than you already are. I need to tell you about Laramie Falls, about Maestro, Fahsteth, the ship, the tower, meeting Gaia, Sonoma, and Bastet, the rift, all of it. I need to tell you the whole story first. And yes, that’ll get to the different aura thing.”

Opening and shutting her mouth a few times, having almost interrupted me repeatedly through that whole thing with each familiar name I said, Avalon finally managed a weak, “Felicity, exactly how long have you been gone, from your point of view?”

“Um, about six months for me,” I answered hesitantly. “A lot of which was spent training and learning. And trying to set up the--well, you’ll find out. But right now, I’m just gonna start from the beginning. I’ll tell you all I can, starting from when Ehn first brought Percy and me into the past--or well I guess we should start with the Incubus.”

“I knew it, you’re hotter!” Roxa blurted that while pointing at me dramatically, before visibly blushing when everyone looked at her. She kicked the dirt and offered a shrug while muttering, “What? She is. You guys noticed it too, don’t pretend you didn’t.” Her words were met with a very clear affirming noise from Gidget, which made me do a double-take at the cyberform cougar.

“We all noticed,” Avalon agreed, squinting at me. “I thought it was just because I missed you so much, that I was so glad to see you. But it’s more than that. You killed an Incubus and took their power. You look--you--” She stopped talking then, her own blush more pronounced than Roxa’s. Then she belatedly seemed to remember something, eyes snapping up to me. “Wait, are you possessed?” Her voice was sharp.

“Oh, you mean because of that whole heavily flirting with those two thing?” I asked while sending a mental look toward my current mental copilot pointedly.

Baby, that wasn’t heavy flirting, that was just light teasing. Barely more than a joke. Though if they are interested, I’m sure we can work something out. This is a real--

Tuning them out, I focused as Avalon dryly replied, “That and you said ‘damn it Hot Type.’ Which seems like a nickname. A weird nickname, but still.”

Judgy judgy, though I have had some fun actual nicknames once I really opened myself up to new experiences. Actually, I’d love to find out what sort of names--

Yup, tuning them out again. It was the only way I was going to be able to actually answer all the questions Avalon and the others had. Starting with, “I’m not possessed. I mean, not exactly. It’s--we’ll get there, I swear. I just have to start from the beginning. There’s someone else with me, just… yeah, complicated. Let me get to it in the right order.”

So, I did just that. Over the next forty minutes or so, I gave these guys as much of a rundown on everything that had happened as I could. Bit by bit, I made my way through the story of the Incubus Necromancer, coming back in time to that village, finding the buried coffin with the tape recorder from that Section Four lady warning me about what Maestro was up to and stopping him before almost dying in the attempt.

“And that’s why I can teleport anywhere on Earth,” I explained. “I mean, I have to be on Earth, or at least pretty close to it. That whole… wrecking Maestro’s spell to bring his people here sort of connected me to this world, so I can move anywhere on it as long as I have a decent idea of where it is. That--uh, that’ll be relevant later, believe me.”

Avalon interrupted my explanation by pulling me into a surprisingly tight hug, making a noise in the back of her throat. “You…. you saved the planet--you saved history from the Fomorian-Seosten demon-god creature, learning how to teleport anywhere on the planet in the process, and it’s just--that’s the start. That’s how you started this?”

“Please tell us that at least reaches the top five of ridiculous shit you’ve been up to since you came back here,” Roxa pleaded, eyes wide as she stared at me.

“Definitely top five,” I promised. “Maybe even top three. It’s--uhh, well I’ll leave it up to you guys to rank them. Living them was ridiculous enough.” With that, I continued explaining. I told them about finding out the village was Laramie Falls after we moved it to where it would be in the future, staying there to train, and about finding Gaia when I went looking for Millersby, disguising myself as a guy so she wouldn’t recognize me, which led to the whole Jacob thing.

“You… you met Gaia in the past, in disguise.” Avalon stared at me in awe and what I was pretty sure was at least a little bit of envy, looking me up and down for a moment while shaking her head slowly. “You talked to Gaia, you… you fought beside Gaia and she had no idea it was--wait, did she know it was you in the pres--fut--our time?”

Shrugging helplessly, I replied, “I’m not sure if she did or not. It’s Gaia, so I feel like she probably figured it out at some point. Even if the guy thing probably threw her off. But… but yeah, I was right there with her for a little while.” I went on to talk about how we ran into Fahsteth when I was teleported up to his ship. And then, of course, about figuring out that he was from our time period, not the past. Which meant--

“You didn’t have to hold back,” Sean noted, eyes squinting just a little. “How’d that go?”

Shifting my own gaze from him, over Roxa, and to the intently staring Avalon, I met her eyes and spoke simply. “I killed him. He’s dead. Totally, one hundred and ten percent dead. I inherited his pet raptor, and now I can put armor on him and my sharks.”

Swallowing audibly, Valley glanced away, her expression uncertain as she processed that news. “He’s dead. He’s really dead. You--” She stepped over, hands finding the side of my face so she could kiss me with a tiny murmur. “You really killed him.”

My head bobbed against her hands. “Yeah, sorry you couldn’t be there to do it yourself. If it helps, I’ll share the memory with you when we get a chance for that.”

“Hey count us in,” Sean insisted. “I wanna see how that bastard bit the dust too.” Vulcan, crouched beside him, made a quiet growling sound of agreement.

“It does help,” Avalon agreed, hands sliding down my face, over my shoulders, and to my own hands so she could squeeze them. “But not as much as just being here with you does. So you killed Fahsteth--wait if Gaia was there--”

Shivering a bit from the distraction of being so close to her, I explained, “She came up shortly afterward, yeah. And she knows he has to live that long to maintain the timeline properly, so everything can happen the way it’s supposed to.”

“That’s why she never used her technopathy on him,” Avalon muttered quietly. “It wasn’t that his defenses were just that strong, she was maintaining the timeline by pretending he was immune to her. Or at least resistant.”

“Yeah, I… I’m guessing that had to be pretty hard for her sometimes.” The thought made me flinch inwardly. I couldn’t imagine having to job like that for someone like Fahsteth. Shaking that off, however, I pushed on. While the others listened intently, I talked about finding and recruiting Laein, and why I recruited her. I told them about my plan to create a school for Necromancers. They were, ahh, curious to say the least.

“Do you think you can actually set something like that up?” Sean asked thoughtfully while gazing off into the distance like he was trying to picture it. “I mean, I’m sure Koren’s mom and Athena would let you put it together on the station, there’s plenty of room. Even if you do need a lot of extra space for all the um, undead things.”

Coughing, I shook my head. “We don’t really need the station for it, we have the--uh, well we’ll get to that.” And I did. Over the next few minutes, I went into how we’d learned about the tower from Fahsteth. As soon as I said ‘Lashra Vaeil’ all three of them started a bit. Hell, even Vulcan and Gidget seemed to react. Which was… curious, but I pressed on. And when we got to the part about finding out just what the place actually was, none of them seemed all that surprised. They simply watched me.

They were, however, rather surprised when I got into what actually happened in that tower. As soon as I started talking about how exactly I had gotten through to the imprisoned Reapers, Avalon straightened up, pacing back and forth in between stopping to stare at me before pacing again. And, of course, when I explained what all that had led to, she stopped short. For a moment, she was dead silent, clearly taking a few seconds to process. Finally, she moved back over to where I was. Her hand rose to touch one side of my face, then another. Her eyes stared into mine. “Felicity?”

Swallowing hard at that, I met her gaze and kept my voice soft. “It’s me, Valley.”

“I know it is, I know you are,” she murmured almost inaudibly, our eyes locked. “I know you. You’re… Flick. And now you’re saying there’s more of you. So many more.”

“Sort of like having an entire army of alternate reality Flicks right up in my head,” I confirmed with a tiny smile despite myself.

“Somewhere, Ruthers just had an aneurysm and has no idea why,” Roxa put in.

Sean snorted. “Yeah, that’s how we’ll beat those guys: tell them we have an army of Flick Chambers to sic on them.”

Blushing, I pointed out, “Well, only one extra Flick can be directly in my head at a time, but still. They’re up there. They’re in my Archive. Like the Carnival. Most of them are asleep, they’ve been… uh, through a lot. Enough to make me look like I’m coasting through life, in some cases. And we’re still working on how to take strangers inside, but once we do, you can visit. Um, if you want to. They want to meet you.”

“Damn straight we do,” Hot Type used my mouth to agree enthusiastically. “Remember, we all know you, we all remember you. Our histories diverge after OG Flick went into the tower, but up until that point, we all experienced everything she did. Our personalities sort of wiggled after that.” She made our body literally wiggle as though to demonstrate.

“Okay,” Roxa put in while Valley was absorbing that, sounding more than a little dazed. “Let me get this straight. You have a horde of Flicks inside your mind, and basically your own super Reaper spaceship transformed into a school, and you’re not even an actual Heretic at this point because your body was erased and reformed into a Reaper--sorry, Ankou-Fae? Which is why your aura color is blue and silver now. And it means you get every power from things you kill plus sometimes their skills and memories--”

Sean cleared his throat then. “Speaking of which, what exactly did you get from Tiny back there?”

I started to shake my head. “I”m not sure. It’s not like this whole Ankou-Fae thing came with the ability to magically know what powers I inherited or--”

Ohhh uh, right, I think I was supposed to let you know we found out how to do that.

“Wait, hang on,” I said aloud before focusing inwardly. You what now?

Yeah, Hot Type confirmed, some of the others were checking things out and realized how to check what powers just got added into the vault. Something about glowing books and pictures in them or--yeah I wasn’t really listening. But here’s the gist.

She proceeded to explain, and I whistled low before passing that on to the others. “Right, so apparently we picked up a durability boost that’s like--”

Roxa interrupted by punching my shoulder, then immediately cursed and held her hand. “Ow, damn. Your skin is like a rock.”

“A rock that gets harder the faster we move, apparently,” I replied. “And we also got a strength boost to--uhh, well I was able to lift about five thousand pounds before, and we just doubled that. I also took that thing’s fireball breath, and the ability to generate that snowstorm that messes with your perception. But I have to stand still and focus on generating the storm until it takes. The longer I focus on it, the larger and stronger the storm gets.”

The others all opened and shut their mouths a couple times, before Roxa weakly asked, “So now you just have to assign the extra powers to those other personalities?”

“Not other personalities,” I corrected gently but firmly. “I mean, it’s not the same thing. They’re different people who happen to share the same body. Lots of minds, one physical body in this world. But lots of bodies in Archive space. Yeah, it’s complicated. Just-- it’s not me changing personality, it’s many people in one.”

“Complicated is one way to put it,” Sean agreed with a sound that was half-laugh and half-cough. “But then, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. You never did do things the simple way. And when a situation starts out as complicated as this one did, you really had to step up your game.”

Blushing a little, I offered a helpless shrug. “I mean, you’ve got a point. This was Ehn, of course he was going to throw me into situations I had to… um, get creative with.”

Muttering something about my tendency to ‘get creative’ in any situation, Avalon smiled at me nonetheless. Her hands found mine, squeezing a little. “But why are we here? You said Ehn wasn’t the one who brought us back here with you.”

“It was those Ankou, wasn’t it?” Roxa guessed. “They’re the other ones who seem powerful enough to pull something like this off. And you said you needed to explain all this before we’d understand who did it.”

Giving a quick nod, I replied, “Good guess. Uh, yeah, see Ehn decided he wanted to use this rift in space and time to go see the Fomorian homeworld--”

Well that made all three of them start cursing rapidly, so I had to quickly hold up my hands for quiet to keep explaining the plan. They still didn’t like it very much, but finding out we were trying to go to the Fomorian world before they became what they were now helped a lot. Enough that I was able to get into the actual problem.

“Um.” Sean started, then stopped, staring at me in disbelief. “So now you’re saying that Ehn is gone. Like, gone gone. The leader of Gehenna--” He stopped, blinking at me briefly. “Wait, did you know he was in charge of Gehenna and the whole being imprisoned thing was just a front?”

I shrugged. “Not exactly hard to figure out under the circumstances. But yeah, apparently he was obliterated. Some people tried to tell him not to go in that thing because having his dragon power would be like throwing a match into a room full of gas, but he didn’t listen because they were Alters. So he blew up, and now all his power is being sent straight toward the Fomorians in the present. If we let that happen--”

Roxa finished for me. “That Dragon power gets added to every Fomorian in the universe.”

“Pretty much,” I confirmed. “And the only way to undo it is for all of us, every me that’s been scattered through the timeline along with you guys and the rest of my friends the Ankou sent back to help, to find the rift in each of these times and send me through it. If we get every version of me through every version of those rifts, we can fix it.”

The others all looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to me. Avalon’s voice was firm. “Well, what are we waiting for?

“Let’s find that rift.”