Aria is summoned to Earth and has to contend with a large number of professional soldiers in order to save her friend!

This chapter was kind of different for me, and I actually had to scrap a good portion of what I'd already written, but I think it turned out better this way. Hopefully y'all think so too :)

I've uploaded a gif I made to give better imagery for what the starburst I'm talking about looks like through the summoning as well as how it fades off. Obviously the gif is much faster than what actually happens, but hey, it's the best I can do without taking wayyyy too much time. We'll see if it actually works for everyone.

Also, there's a bunch of language in this part, sooooo... sorry about that, it's just the way things worked out.

Now to the action!

 

-Tas

 

 

 

 

 

Earth, Day 27

 

The light clung to me as I sprinted forwards, leaving a fluid afterimage of every movement, even including the quarterstaff I held in one hand. Wrapped in the Stillness, everything but me seemed like it was moving through water, slow as you please. I took in as much as I could; I needed to if I was going to pull this off against modern weaponry and keep Nick safe. My friend was on the ground in front and to the left of me, unmoving in a pool of his own blood. I could help with that.

Kasi. With a thought he was enveloped in healing light, though I couldn’t tell what kind of condition he was in without being able to touch him with my hands or something connected to me. The girl I’d seen was behind me, and there was another man in front and to the right of me, but they were both still moving and didn’t seem in any immediate danger. I noted the cameras set up to observe the summoning circle, but it looked like the one covering the entrance to the area had gotten blown off with most of the doorway. They didn’t have vision of me through video now.

There were three soldiers in front of me, the barrels of their guns slowly tracking up towards me, and the man in front was yelling something that sounded guttural. I still had my shield up, but why waste the mana on defending when it’s easier to disable? Cires. I dropped my shield as three small barriers came into being, nestled behind the trigger of each man’s weapon. I may not be an expert on guns, but I knew the main components, and you couldn’t fire if you couldn’t pull the trigger. They each only had one hand on their weapon now, the other coming upwards as well, but separately.

I was almost on them and was in the middle of swinging my quarterstaff forwards, still trailing a slight afterimage and aiming to take the closest man in the throat, when the two words he’d managed to shout in the time it took for me to cover the distance clicked.

‘We surrender’? …I can’t take that chance.

Nevertheless, I altered my strike, pulling in most of the power and redirecting the staff so it would clip his jaw rather than crush his windpipe and probably break his neck in the process. His head snapped backwards as the wood connected, but not far enough to do any permanent damage. He’d have a hell of a headache when he woke up, and likely a good concussion, but he wouldn’t be dead. I drove the other end of my quarterstaff into the gut of the man to the right, doubling him over with the force of the blow before his legs gave out and he folded towards the ground. The last man had almost completed the act of raising his hands in the air, one holding his gun pointed into the sky. His head was having trouble tracking me as I took down his comrades, but his eyes were wide in surprise. I danced forward and spun him around, snapping the back of his knees with my quarterstaff before setting it in the holder on my back and drawing one of my long knives with my left hand. When he hit his knees his neck was low enough to reach, and before he could do more than twitch I had the knife blade lightly touching his throat. He had a pistol in a holster on his right hip, and I drew that as I scanned for any other threats, bringing it up and using his body as cover from the only opening into the building that surrounded the small but open park-like area as well as from the man clutching his gut on the ground as he feebly gasped for air. I stopped there, keeping the pistol trained on the downed man.

“Drop your weapon.” I commanded softly to the man I held captive, and he obediently relaxed his hand, allowing the gun to clatter to the ground. Using the small light barriers I still had in place behind the triggers, I flicked the weapons into the trees, the two pistols on the other men quickly following courtesy of two more solid light spells.

That taken care of, I glanced back at the circle in the concrete in the center of the clearing, making sure to still keep an eye on the soldier on the floor. I’d been hoping Nick would be getting to his feet, but that wasn’t the case. The two other people there were still on the ground as well, and while I was unsure of their allegiance, I guessed based on the grey sweats and matching long-sleeve shirt that matched what my friend was wearing that they were probably friendly, or at least not hostile. There was another grey dressed figure off by the trees, this one a black man, who was attempting to get to his feet but tumbled over as I watched.

That must be the one I saw get tossed by that explosion, he probably got his bell rung pretty hard by the way he’s acting. He’ll be okay. The other two though… I can just heal them a little bit, enough to get them off the ground but not enough to fight.

Kasi.

Light surrounded the pair for a moment, and I grimaced at the mana usage. I was conserving as much as possible, but even a small healing used up a lot more than I wanted. While I waited for the pair to get themselves together, I wondered at exactly what was going on. I was having to make a lot of assumptions about where I was and who the hostile forces were, and that didn’t sit well with me. Barring something like an alternate universe, this was definitely Earth unless Nick had changed his appearance in Ilos to exactly match the one he was born with and had made a headband that looked the same as one of the black Keys. Actually all four of the people in grey were wearing black Keys for some reason. Was that a requirement when summoning? Were they recently in Ilos? Or maybe it was something else, I didn’t know and it was pointless to guess at it more.

The brown-haired teenage girl was on her feet now, moving gingerly, but she was up which is what mattered. The larger man was sitting up at least, though he looked like he was in a lot of pain and didn’t want to move any further. The girl staggered over to Nick, and while I didn’t think she was any threat, I mentally readied a burning fassi spell that would take her head off at the neck if she did end up trying something. I watched as she turned him on his side and felt his pulse, leaning over to put her ear next to his face, ignoring the blood completely, then lifted his shirt and put an ear to his chest.

So she’s medically trained? I wondered as she continued poking and prodding him for another ten or twenty seconds before sitting up with what looked like a sigh and a relieved smile. With no medical knowledge myself, I had no idea what she had been doing, but I’d be able to check him myself with magic when I got a little more information and could let go of this soldier. It looked like the man on the ground had finally caught his breath enough to do more than clutch his gut, and started moving to stand.

I fired the pistol at his feet, trusting the system assist and deliberately missing by about an inch or so.

Crack!

“Fuck!” That put him right back on his ass, facing me this time, and he froze when he saw the barrel of my gun pointed directly into his face. I couldn’t trust the sidearm to get through the armor he was obviously wearing, but I wouldn’t miss his head from this close.

“Hands. Slowly.” I commanded.

He complied, raising his arms slowly so his hands were behind his head. I honestly trusted my knives more than firearms, I could probably throw one hard enough to punch through body armor now, but there was nothing that beat the bark of a gun to discourage your captives from doing something stupid. Well, nothing that didn’t use mana anyway, and I needed to conserve that particular resource.

The radio attached to the ear of the man I was holding spoke in a tiny voice, likely inaudible to even my hearing from more than a foot away. “All teams check in. This is Engineer. All clear.”

“Guardian. No accidents. All clear.”

“Answer.” I hissed at the soldier on the ground.

His eyes widened, obviously surprised I could hear the radio, but slowly moved one hand to touch his ear. “Assault. Mission Success. All clear.”

“Good job people. Well done.”

The ‘Guardian’ voice came from the earpiece. “Yeah, up yours Pete, you just hadda sit in that damn booth. Get the fuckin’ medics over here. Even with some of the mages in on it Pickles got burned pretty bad and Seal got a broken arm before we could lock them away.”

“Shaddap Fork, I won overwatch fair and square.”

“I still think that full house you got on the river was bullshit.” Fork muttered.

“How ‘bout you Ripper? Did Jellyfish catch some heat or did he just lose his radio again?” Pete asked.

The man on the ground – Ripper I guess – looked at me. I nodded, giving him the go ahead. “He took a good knock to the head and decided to get his beauty rest early, but Shots and I are good. How about the mages? The rubber bullets and the overfilled blood packs work well Fork?”

“Yeah, scared them out of their wits with all that red going everywhere. There’s a couple people with welts and one that turned his foot trying to run, no other injuries. I still don’ get why we had to scare the shit out of a bunch of nerds and mages, but with the kinda dough the Illusive Man is handing out, I don’ need ta know.”

Ripper looked at me expectantly. He was pretty obviously trying to get me to understand that they weren’t there to kill anyone. The brown-haired girl was worrying her lip off to the side now, keeping a good distance but unable to contain her curiosity, slowly inching forward. The fat man was still sitting on the ground, leaning back on his hands, the black guy was sitting down and looking a bit woozy, and Nick was on his back, unconscious. I needed to check on him soon, but making sure there weren’t any other threats took priority.

A little Spirit magic is in order here. I have his name and I’m close enough, so I should be able to use it to tell if he’s lying with a split second use… Su. ...and he’s not. He might not be privy to the plan though, I really need someone else to make sure of this.

“Brown-haired girl!” I called out, causing her to flinch and point to herself questioningly. Do you see any other girls with brown hair around here? “Come over here!”

She slowly made her way over to me, skittish of the pistol I still held trained on Ripper’s head. “Yes?”

“What’s your name?”

“Amanda.” She responded in a controlled voice.

“You’re a friend of Nick’s right?” I waited for her nod. “These soldiers claim that they were only here to scare people and that some of the mages were in on it. Who do you trust here to tell us what’s going on?”

Her eyebrows flicked upwards in doubt, but she answered the question instantly. “Arterian Dark. He knows everything that goes on in this facility.”

Su. She doesn’t believe him, but she‘s telling the truth about this Arterian.

I nodded at Ripper, whose hand was hovering over his ear, ready to press the button and transmit.

“Hey Fork, can you get Arterian Dark over here?”

“What? Why? He’s the one keeping all them mages from going ballistic, even if he is being kind of an ass about it.”

I looked at Amanda. “They want to know why.”

She thought for a second, then smiled slightly. “Tell them his daughter wants to have a word with him.”

He blinked, but repeated her words. “His daughter wants to have a word with him.”

“Ohhh shitttt.” Pete cackled. “Can you keep your line open when he gets there? I wanna hear this!”

“Idn’t she the one who takes care of him all the time?”

“Yeah Ripper, you or Shots need to keep your mic on!”

“I’ll bring ‘im. If this is gonna be anything like what you guys are hintin’ at, I gotta see it in person.” Fork replied.

My eyebrows flicked up for a moment, impressed with Amanda’s poise despite the Stillness. These seemed to be professional soldiers, and I didn’t doubt that if they wanted to give a fake attack, they could do it very convincingly. She most likely thought people had died at the hands of the three soldiers in front of her, people she knew, but I didn’t see any of the reactions I expected. Actually, the one she was looking at most was me. I admit I cut a pretty odd picture, a tiny girl in a dress taking down three soldiers by herself, but still… She isn’t scared of them, and she isn’t angry at them either, it’s like she’s more curious about me than anything else.

“Are you Ilosian?” She blurted suddenly, then flinched back a bit when I looked at her, but didn’t back down.

I just stared at her, not saying anything. This was still a hostile situation, not a time to be talking where enemies could hear. On that note…

“Remove your helmet and your radio and drop them on the ground.” I softly commanded Shots. He complied, not that he had a choice with my knife at his throat.

As soon as the radio joined his helmet on the ground I cracked him in the back of the head with the hilt of my blade.

Amanda gasped, backing away a few steps, and Ripper glared at me as his friend collapsed in a heap. My right hand never wavered from its aim at the man’s head though; I wouldn’t give him the chance to do anything. I sheathed my knife and then clipped the dropped radio to my belt, running the cord to my ear. I pointed to a spot in front of me where I could cover the entrance and the two downed soldiers. “Ripper. Right there, on your knees, facing the door, hands in the air.”

“Fuck.” He muttered as he lifted himself to his knees and moved to where I was pointing before turning to face the doorway. While he was moving I took the opportunity to note that the armor the soldiers wore only covered the chest. I could use that.

I had my knife across his throat as soon as his eyes left me, pistol up and covering the door. “How do you open the mic?”

“Press it in and twist forwards.” He growled.

“Amanda, I need you to be quiet until they get here. I know you want to ask questions, but that needs to wait until after I’m sure there are no more immediate threats. Alright?”

She nodded nervously, obviously uncomfortable with my sudden callous use of violence. “Okay.”

That was an unfortunate side effect of the Stillness, and really this body. I didn’t feel guilty in any way for putting Shots on the ground. I could slit Ripper’s throat right here and I would likely feel only slightly guilty about it, and that just because he had already surrendered. In the Stillness, if my opponent wielded deadly force with intent to kill, I would return the sentiment without hesitation and without remorse. Killing made things more complicated right now, but if violence would put me in a better position, I wouldn’t hesitate on that point either. There was too much at risk, and I would do what I needed to do to keep myself and Nick safe.

My ears caught footsteps coming from the doorway, and I used the thumb of my right hand to press in and turn the little button on the earpiece before pointing the pistol at the doorway again. There wasn’t long to wait.

A man in that grey jumpsuit stepped through the doorway. His black hair and beard were close cropped and set off his blue eyes, the same color as Amanda’s. As soon as Fork’s leg stepped into view I cast cires, making a small block directly in front of Arterian’s forward swinging foot. He tripped over it of course, which was the whole point, and stumbled forwards out of the way.

Crack! Crack!

I shot twice, again trusting the system assist to guide me. Once to the right knee, once to the right shoulder just outside the armor, removing Fork’s mobility and gun arm. To his credit, he dropped to his left knee and began reaching for his sidearm with his left hand.

Crack!

I shot right by his ear, causing him to freeze. “The next one goes in your head if you try anything Fork.”

“You bitch!” Ripper snarled at me, trying to turn, but stopped when I pressed the knife against his throat a little harder.

“Soldiers! If I see any more of you, Ripper, Jellyfish, Shots, and Fork all die. Arterian! You get to explain this to Amanda so that I can hear.”

“What the fuck?! Two can play at that game bitch! If you don’t let them go we’ll kill everyone in this fuckin’ building!” Pete yelled at me over the radio.

“Go ahead.” I spoke softly, calmly. “There’s only one person I need to protect here.”

Silence reigned, the seconds drawing out slowly. Everyone in sight stared at me with wide eyes, shocked at how coldly I’d just dismissed the lives of innocents. It’s just not something one expects out of a teenage girl, and their reactions were exactly what I wanted. If they thought the captives weren’t worth anything they would concentrate their attack on me if things went bad rather than hurting civilians when I did what I needed to to keep Nick safe. In the meantime, it would shut them up and make them listen, which was what I needed if I was going to get out of this the easy way.

“That said, I don’t want anyone to die.” I continued a bit louder, if just as evenly. “If I can determine there’s no threat to my friend, I’ll heal all of the injuries I’ve caused as well as the burn and broken arm Pickles and Seal got. Now, Arterian, would you explain what the situation is?”

“Ah, ahem, yes. The Illusive Man and I wanted to know if it was possible to summon one of the players that had a silver Key, but we needed one as knowledgeable about the game as possible. It would have been impossible to produce the amount of mana necessary without using health, so we fabricated a situation where it was a choice between summoning something that could save our strongest mages, or death. With Nick’s close connection to Cariss, we were hoping to get The Calm himself. If successful I’m sure we could have kept him here for a week or two to help us with research. He most likely knows more words of power than anyone else.”

I can’t stay here for that long, there’s no way I’d be able to make up that much lost time. So much for letting Nick know what happened to me.

“What?!” Amanda gasped. “So you did kidnap Nick on purpose!”

“No, that was the Illusive Man’s idea; I had no part in it. I didn’t know the two knew each other until a week ago when we started planning this.”

“So the soldiers aren’t here to hurt anyone and this was just to force us into attempting to summon Cariss?”

Arterian nodded. “That’s correct.”

“I see.” Amanda turned to look at me. “You can let him go, the soldiers aren’t a threat.”

A third use of su let me know that none of them were lying. With three people of different groups all saying the same thing, the chances were high that there wasn’t a secret plan to do anything else. I dropped the Stillness, sighing as I relaxed a little, but remaining alert. I removed my long knife and sheathed it, walking around so I could present Ripper with the pistol, grip forward, speaking over the still open mic. “I’m really sorry about that. You’re all safe from me unless you make any aggressive moves and I’ll do what I can to take care of your friends.”

He just nodded guardedly, watching me closely as he got to his feet. My face reddened a little bit, kind of embarrassed at just how ruthless I’d been, but I saw respect in his eyes as well. I walked over to Fork, who was gritting his teeth and attempting to bind his shattered knee with a small roll of fabric from his vest with only his left hand, his right arm still hanging uselessly.

I crouched down and put a gentle hand on his, stopping him as I cast kasi, the familiar glow mending his shoulder and knee most of the way. I could tell exactly how much healing needed to be done with my contact through his hand, and I left a little bit of damage there that his body would heal on its own over a few days. There supposedly wasn’t any danger, but I wasn’t going to use any more mana than I had to.

He stared at me in shock, then slowly bent his knee and rolled his shoulder before standing, wincing a little bit at the movement, but still looking amazed.

“It’ll still hurt for a few days, but there won’t even be a scar.” I smiled slightly, looking up at the soldier. “I’m sorry about shooting you, but I couldn’t take any chances. If you bring anyone who’s injured out here I’ll do what I can to help th-“

“GOD DAMN IT ARTERIAN! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?!”

I whirled, throwing daggers poised to throw and already starting to drop into the Stillness at the first shouted word when I saw what was going on. Amanda was right in front of her father, who looked decidedly uncomfortable, and was screaming up into his face.

“Hot damn, she’s got a set of lungs on her!” Pete’s voice came over the radio.

“Shut up Pete. I wanna hear this.”

“WHAT THE FUCK POSSESSED YOU TO THINK OF THIS PLAN?! OF ALL THE AMATURISTIC, SCIENTIFICALLY INACCURATE, BULLSHIT SCHEMES YOU’VE COME UP WITH, THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST!!”

I blinked, sheathing my weapons in their hidden places. Alright. So her poise only lasts until the danger is gone. Got it.

Twisting the button on the radio so the mic clicked off, I skirted the swearing girl and her continually back-stepping father. Even the soldiers had retreated a few steps I noted wryly, though I could hear the blistering stream of words over the radio, so one of them had their mic clicked open. The fat guy was gaping at Amanda as I made my way over to Nick, crouching down to put a hand on his forehead and cast kasi once again. I used only the slightest thread of mana, checking his heath with the spell. It looked like I’d almost completely restored his health with my first healing spell, and I used a bit more right there to fill it all the way, but he didn’t wake up like he should have. I frowned in concern, it looked like he was sleeping, but…

My head dropped in relief and annoyance at myself as I realized my own stupidity. He looked like he was sleeping because he was sleeping. I’d experienced it first-hand a number of times over the past month; even if your heath was full, that didn’t mean you wouldn’t get tired. I’d bet that he pushed himself really hard to try and summon me; he was just completely exhausted, not still injured.

The black man had joined the fat one and was helping him to his feet, and it looked like Amanda was winding down from the tongue-lashing of the century, though she wasn’t stepping away from where she had backed Arterian against the wall. I couldn’t stifle a laugh as she transitioned into demands, telling the black-haired man exactly what he would do to make this up to her. Is that really her father?

Three more soldiers emerged from the building, one with a splinted arm, one with gauze covering his shoulder, and one carrying what looked to be a medical kit. I headed over to them, stopping on the way to heal Shots and Jellyfish – What’s with these names anyway? - enough to wake them up. The two men were significantly less injured than I’d expected given the force I’d put behind the blows. In fact, Jellyfish was still conscious despite the hit he’d taken to the jaw and had been playing dead the whole time. In an effort to avoid having a large group of well trained and well-armed men hostile towards me, I apologized, dipping my head slightly. “I’m sorry about knocking you guys out even after you surrendered – or trying to anyway - but I couldn’t take any chances with my friend’s life on the line and I didn’t have anything to tie you up with.”

Shots scratched the back of his head. “Well, I guess I would have done the same under the circumstances.”

“Hey, it beats dying. You weren’t aiming for my chin when you started that swing.” Jellyfish grinned.

He saw that huh? He has a great reaction time if he managed to avoid most of that impact, thinks on his feet really well too, pretending to be knocked out and all.

I walked over and took care of Pickles’ burn and Seal’s broken arm while those two picked themselves up and joined the other five soldiers and I.

“Alright Jellyfish, I gotta know why you surrendered to a little girl.” Seal said, smacking the man in question. “I know you do it all the time, but this is a new low for you man, she doesn’t look strong enough to even leave a bruise.”

“Yeah, she’s like what, four ten? You seriously earned your name this time.” Pickles laughed, looking at me. “How old are you exactly, fifteen?”

I scowled. “You should be thanking him, he saved all of your lives. And if you must know, I’m twenty two.”

His eyebrows went up. “Seriously?”

“No way.” Seal scoffed. “Something from you guys blowing the door probably came down and cracked you on the head. She’s just a teen that got lucky and is acting tough.”

Ripper noticed my expression darkening further and tried to head the larger soldier off. “She’s actually really good with that staff, and she’s a better shot than Shots is, faster too.”

“Hah! You just let a little girl in a dress get ahold of your sidearm and you’re trying to cover it up, admit it!”

“You insult me again and you’re going to end up with a broken nose.” I grated out, still glaring.

Ripper stepped between us, facing his friend. “Seriously Seal, shut your pie hole.” He glanced back at me. “I’m sorry, this one’s not too bright.”

“Aw c’mon, I wanna see this.” Pickles protested.

“Yeah Ripper, let her try it if she’s so tough, not that she’ll even be able to reach my face.” Seal laughed.

“Fuck it. You want to have a go with her? Fine.” Ripper said as he stepped out of the way, looking at me once he was off to the side. “You’re not going to kill him, right?”

“Don’t worry, I stick to my word.” I answered coolly.

Seal was openly mocking me, grinning widely as he spread his arms to the sides. “C’mon, I’ll give you the first shot.”

Once I was close enough, I hit him in the gut, then jumped upwards as he doubled over from the unexpected power of the impact, driving a knee directly into his nose. His shocked expression and the way the cartilage of his nose crackled so satisfyingly brought a smile to my face. Blood flew everywhere as Seal toppled over from the force, landing on his back. His hands immediately went to his ruined organ, trying to stem the blood flow as he screamed obscenities. I leaned over him, enjoying the picture of an idiot getting exactly what he’d asked for.

“Try not to be such a tool Seal.” I patted his cheek, grinning a bit wider. “You’ll live longer.”

Turning away before he could react, I walked the few steps back towards the other soldiers. Pickles had his phone out and was recording, and Fork and Jellyfish were both clapping for me. I bowed for them, using the motion to check on Seal. He was picking himself up off the ground and heading to join us, but not in any aggressive way, allowing me to relax a bit.

“You’re really twenty two?” Seal asked from behind me, his voice sounding weird because of the break in his nose.

I turned to face him, keeping my expression neutral. “Yes.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I was out of bounds there. You even saved me a couple months with a broken arm and I insulted you because you looked young.”

I sighed. These soldiers seemed like good guys, so while I was regretting the mana cost… “Here, kneel down.”

Frowning down at me, Seal blinked. “Why?”

Rolling my eyes, I gave him a flat look. “So I can reach your face you dolt. You’re like what, six eight?”

“Six ten.”

He knelt and I reached up towards his face. He’s on his knees and I still have to reach up. Gah. I pulled his hand away from his nose and gently touched the mangled thing myself, using kasi to heal it most of the way. “It’s going to hurt for a while and probably scar, but maybe it’ll remind you to think before you start speaking.”

“Ah, thanks.”

I took the earpiece out of my ear and unclipped the radio as he stood back up, turning to hand the pair to Shots. “Here, you can have this back. Sorry again about cracking your head like that.”

Suddenly that white starburst appeared below me, the same one that appeared when I was summoned. Probably twelve or thirteen feet across, it was larger than the one from Ilos, but the center still stayed locked to my position when I shifted to test it. It looked different though, dimmer, and it was fading a bit even as I looked at it. Actually it looked like everything was fading a little bit, and if I looked hard at the sky I could see the almost completely transparent images of the floating islands of Ilos. Looks like whatever summon spell they had is running out.

“Woah! Hey, look at that!” Amanda was hitting Arterian and pointing at the starburst at my feet.

“Look at what? Yes, she’s from Ilos.”

“Not that you idiot! The symbol on the floor! That’s the same one I saw when she got here, it’s just fading a lot slower.”

The two walked over, Arterian walking on top of the thing to crouch down and look at my feet while Amanda stopped at the edge of the glowing shape. “There’s nothing there Amanda.”

Ripper and Shots echoed him.

“Nope.”

“I don’t see anything either.”

Pickles still had his cell phone out and filming. “Nothing on the camera.”

“Well, you’re all standing on it.” I stated.

“You can see it too? It looks like it’s fading really slowly.”

I nodded. “I can only guess your summoning is running out of time, the world is sort of starting to fade too.”

Amanda put her thumb and index finger to her mouth, frowning in thought, and Arterian stood up and walked over towards the fat man still sitting on the ground by the summoning circle.

After a few seconds of silence, Fork spoke up. “So is this another one uh them magic things?”

“Probably. It’s gotta be if we can’t see it.” Ripper answered.

“This healing glow thing you do is pretty impressive.” The medic soldier mused, speaking for the first time as he examined Seal’s nose and arm. “They’re both almost completely healed. Can you do this on the move too?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I could heal it so you wouldn’t even know he was hurt, but with as much as I don’t know about this summoning thing, I’m saving as much mana as I can.”

“Well thanks for saving me two or three months of Seal’s bitching Combat Medic, good to have you on our side.”

Pickles almost dropped his phone and the rest of the soldiers stared at the medic, who continued as if not noticing their expressions. “I guess you know Ripper, Jelly, Shots, Fork, Seal, and Pickles already, so I guess I should introduce myself.” He held out a hand. “I’m Bones, nice to meet you CM.”

CM? A little confused, I reached out and shook his much bigger hand, noting that he had a firm handshake that matched my own, not softening his grip because I was a girl. “Um, nice to meet you too Bones, but who’s CM? My name is-”

He held up his free hand, stopping me, then let go of my hand and turned to look at the other soldiers, pointedly ignoring me. “Debrief in ten.”

I tilted my head, frowning and looking at the men curiously as they watched the medic head inside the building with an assortment of blank stares, though there were a few smug looks as if they’d had a guess confirmed. I’d probably have to wait a few seconds before they would hear anything I said, so I took the opportunity to look around. Nick was still on the ground, sleeping peacefully despite the noise. A glance to the side showed Amanda conferring with Arterian, the black guy, and the fat man. With the exception of girl’s father, they were occasionally looking down at and probably discussing the starburst, which had faded even more. The world was fading along with it, just differently than when I had been summoned. I could see everything just as sharply as ever, but it looked like Ilos’ image was superimposed over Earth’s, and the Ilos part was getting stronger. It was an odd effect, as if Earth was an old printed photo that was visibly aging as I looked on while Ilos faded into view from transparency.

“Well holy shit. I did not expect that.” Fork muttered, breaking me from my observations. “I’m surprised ya let him go after he cut you off like that. And here I was thinkin’ you had a quicksilver temper.”

“It seems like I do now sometimes, yeah.” I sighed, not angry as much as curious. “What was that all about? Why didn’t he want to hear my name?”

“Yeah. That. How do I put this…”

“Bones is our leader, and he just designated you as an ally and offered you a spot in the Phantom Lance whenever you want it.” Ripper stated.

I blinked. “So I get summoned here, beat some of you up after you surrender, act like I’m the most ruthless bitch ever born, then after I apologize everything’s okay and I get an invitation to your squad?”

“I wouldn’t simplify it that much, but yes. That’s pretty much how all of us were recruited. Minus the, y’know, magic.”

Weird, but whatever, I won’t be here for much longer anyway. “Okay… What about the name thing?”

“We’re not called the Phantom Lance for nothing CM, none of us knows anyone else’s real name. While we’re doing jobs with the Lance we have no identity outside the Lance, that way it keeps everyone else safe, especially our families.”

The soldiers with the exception of Ripper started walking away with a mixed bag of waves and farewells, heading to that debrief most likely. I absently waved back, concentrating more on what Ripper was saying.

“Most of us are ex-military and this is what we know, what makes us feel alive. We get to live safely with our wives and kids, keep a hand in the action, and get paid more than any civilian job any of us could hold down.”

“So, why me? I’m no military ma- girl.”

“You’d have to ask Bones about it, but I’d say it’s because you think on your feet and you’re talented. Not many people would be able to alter a strike like you did when you came after us at the start.”

I felt my eyebrows twitch upwards. He saw that too?

Ripper grinned, producing a large black KA-BAR knife from somewhere and rolling it flashily across his fingers. “Don’t look so surprised CM, you’d have had a much more difficult time if we hadn’t been planning on surrendering from the start. Now I gotta get to the debrief. Let the Illusive Man know if you ever want to contact us, he knows how.”

I watched as he strolled off, making the knife vanish somewhere along the way. Ripper huh? I have the feeling that he wasn’t given that name on a whim.

The starburst underneath me brightened a little, pushing away the fading of the world a bit, but it was at most a few seconds worth as the symbol continued to darken. It was mostly an outline now with a little bit of swirling color inside, and it looked like I probably only had a minute or two left here. I needed to make sure Nick would be okay after I went back. I turned my attention back to the four grey-clad … Scientists? Mages? Both maybe?

Amanda was smiling. “You can channel mana into it just like a summoning circle!”

“How long can you keep her around?” Arterian asked.

“We can’t. That was the last of our mana. She’ll be gone in a few minutes.”

I stepped forwards, causing the three wearing the black Keys to jump back a bit as the starburst flowed under their feet. “Can you get Nick home after I leave?”

Amanda nodded at me, her smile vanishing as she glared at Arterian for a moment. “Yes. My dear father here has decided to let everyone who wants to leave leave. Isn’t that right?”

The older man nodded quickly, obviously still cowed by the tongue lashing the brown-haired teenager had given him. “Yes. The Illusive Man has what he needs after this last experiment, provided you are one of the silver Key champions?”

“That’s correct.”

“He’ll get home, I’ll make sure of it.” Amanda assured me.

The world around me began to run together as the outline of the starburst under me began to lose its shape. Sounds distorted, and everything looked sort of transparent as Ilos solidified. The time I had left was measured in seconds now. I needed to leave a message for Nick, something that would let him know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was still alive. As I wracked my brain, I felt more than heard footsteps approach from behind me and turned to face them.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked into my best friend’s sky-blue eyes that seemed the only solid thing left of Earth, all thought of speaking left my head. He raised a hand a bit sleepily. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Nick!” I ran forwards as quickly as I ever had, throwing my arms around him. He hugged me back, more out of instinct than anything else probably, but I still found myself tearing up as I held onto the only family I’d seen since I’d been ripped away from Earth almost a month ago. His arms felt so safe and warm as I bawled into his bloody grey shirt, letting my guard go completely as I clung to one of the two people I trusted absolutely. I pushed what little mana I had remaining at the starburst at my feet, trying to hold this moment for as long as possible. I could see the symbol brighten slightly though my distorted vision, partially reforming its outline but immediately beginning to break apart again. The expense bought me a precious few seconds with the brother I never had, a little longer to hold him close.

It was enough.

I stepped back and looked up at Nick, his confused sky-blue eyes meeting my golden ones. I couldn’t hear anything from Earth now, nor see anything but Nick. I smiled at his transparent figure, tears streaking down my face, and reached up to touch his cheek just to keep some sort of contact with him. I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I spoke anyway. “Take care of yourself, and Jess too. I’ll see you again.”

His hand rose halfway towards mine, wide eyed and seeming somewhat stunned. Still smiling, I backed away a few steps as Nick’s form quickly dissolved into motes, turning before he was completely gone and striding towards the Air Gate that lead down to Circir.

He had no idea who I was, and with the way I’d acted he’d never guess. I didn’t understand why it felt so right to hug him and touch his face like that. I wouldn’t have done that if I were still David or Cariss, but it left me with a warm feeling that I doubted a handshake or fist bump would have offered. More changes, affecting my mind more than my body now.

I stopped at the edge of the island, looking across the mainland of Ilos as the sunset painted the already vibrant landscape in beautiful colors. The words Xynus had spoken what felt like long ago echoed in my head. ‘Do not waste this time attempting to return to your previous world, you cannot get back of your own power until the remaining champions join you.’ I would see my friends again, either of their power or when they joined the silver Key champions, but in the meantime… ‘Grow strong, for the fate of two worlds rests in your hands.’

I grinned savagely. I’ll grow strong Xynus, strong enough to take you on, and then I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done to me and my friends.

I turned and strode through the Air Gate. There would be time tomorrow to press forward, but tonight was the time to rest, and to remember the people that meant the most to me.