It wasn’t just the infernals that sent a contingent. It appeared the entire town sent entities to the Council chambers.

I stood with April as people gathered around the immense crystal. Everyone spoke in excited hushed tones and several had winked at me, or touched me on the arm, or leaned in to give me a kind whisper.

I was definitely the, uh, Were of the hour.

“Those’ll kill ya,” I said, stepping up to ‘Desdemonia’ as she nervously smoked a cigarette in a long holder. She wore the black robes of her office and had pulled her dark hair up into a dramatic up-sweep that framed her chubby face perfectly.

She rolled perfectly shadowed eyes at me. “I could be so lucky.”

I wondered what was happening in my home reality. I wondered if my body continued to pass the hypno-virus on to townspeople and if they were all gathered in the chamber with scarlet glowing eyes.

My father took his place at his podium. He wore a grey robe, much different from his cloak of office in my original reality. In that reality, he’d paid over a thousand dollars for a tailored robe with silver piping. In this reality, he settled for the standard cloak with no frills or added decorations at all.

Mom stood next to him. They weren’t the only mixed-faction coupling, but I was the only mixed-faction offspring in Hill Valley. Mom gave me a wave, and Dad winked at me.

I felt like this was a big mistake. Afterall, weren’t we basically playing into the Being’s hand? It yoinked me into this reality, shouldn’t I be trying to get back to one it didn’t want me within?

Butterflies flooded my stomach, and I started to hyperventilate a little. I leaned over and put my hands on my legs with my head down, trying to control my breathing.

“You okay?” April said. She flicked ash from the long cigarette holder.

“Yeah, I just can’t help but feel like this is a mistake.”

“How so?”

I shrugged, standing up a bit. “It pulled me into this reality. This is where it wants me.”
“From what you said, it could get you in any reality.”

I nodded.

“Plus, you wouldn’t have a plan with other people in the other realities, right?”

“Or maybe a plan was/is made.”

She nodded, puffing on the cigarette. “Things get confusing when you throw meta-beings into the mix.”

“Do you really think this is going to work?” I said.

She gave me a Desdemonia grin. “You mean, do I think we’ll be able to replace your Alpha in time for you to wrestle the Cthuhulian horror that’s at the gate?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I guess time will tell.”

I nodded, still feeling lightheaded. I wanted to bolt, to run, to find a corner of the earth where this thing couldn’t get me—

As if in answer, I felt something pulling inwardly. It made me feel like I was going to vomit.

“Umm,” I said. “I think it might be coming.”

Her eyes got wide. “Oh!”

“So if I become this Were-Cthuhulian creature…won’t I be a danger to everyone too?”
She threw her arms around me and hugged me to her prodigious bosom. “Yes, but you’ll be our Cthuhulian Horror.”

Sweat started to bead my brow. Would I be able to control myself if I went feral? It had always been in the back of my mind since finding out I was a werewolf.

I did have control in some ways, when I shifted. I was able to tell right from wrong, kill, vs. Not kill. Food vs. Not Food. I guess most were’s gave in to their inner impulses, but I’d always been able to exert at least a bit of control over myself.

Maybe it was my incipient dual nature. Dad was able to do it too, and he wasn’t Dual. I sighed. “We should probably get this over with.”

Cecilia Goldman and ‘April’ entered arm in arm. Desdemonia wore a daring mini-skirt and halter in black, and had thick gold hoop earrings, gold bangles, and several gold necklaces. She also had pierced her nose with a gold septum ring and her extended nails led to gold rings on every finger.

Her curly midnight hair was caught up in a high pony that she liked to swish from side to side as she walked to her ‘mother’s’ side. “Hello Mumsy.”

“Hello, Daughter,” April said.

Ryan Blackwater the wizard, Balon Stamper the ghoul, and Lance Barlow of the infernals all took their places at their podiums equidistant around the crystal chamber.

“Well, Mother?” ‘April’ said. “I think everyone is waiting for you.”

‘Desdemonia’ sighed, and waddled up the few steps to her position as the leader of the Council. She adjusted the magically infused device attached to the platform.

“Is this thing working?” she said, and all of us could hear her as if she were speaking in our ears.

“Yes.” Came the combined response.

“Welcome, Council, and friends to our Council Meeting.” April read from notes that she and Desdemonia had prepared prior. “Thank you for your attendance tonight. Due to the nature of this event, we will be suspending parliamentary procedures and getting to the Rite of the evening.”

Several people started murmuring at that and Judy Nissom hissed, quietly.
“I know this is a deviation from our standard procedures, but I ask that you would indulge me,” April said.

She waited for the crowd to quiet down."Now, as you all know The Who stands at the Gate, and we believe will attempt to make entry tonight. You’ve all felt the ripples of chaos magic—“

She over at the ‘stable’ they’d created to house the mythical creatures that had begun arriving in High Valley over the past month. A unicorn, a griffin, two Harpies, and a Hydra had been captured and contained by the Council.

“In order to combat The Who, Seth Atkins has agreed to sacrifice himself, his very Alpha nature, in order to become High Valley, and the world’s Warrior!”

Mom and Dad began applauding at that. Soon, the smattering became a wave, until everyone was applauding. I could literally feel everyone looking at me. I spotted Jeff Farnum in the crowd—

He wasn’t applauding. He was shaking his head and saying something to me. In fact, he turned away, elbowing his way out of the crowd, toward the door.

I sighed. It made me sad he wasn’t going to see this, but at the same time, if he’d been up here, I’d probably have done the exact same thing.

“We’ll need everyone’s full cooperation to conjoin your energy into the whole. By joining our energy with that of the Crystal—“ she flourished a hand in the direction of the crystal. It was currently clear and centered right in front of us.

It was about 7 feet tall, faceted, and set within a nearly circular ring of silver that bracketed the crystal. I was supposed to walk within the ring and they would trigger the magic that would pierce me and transmogrify my Alpha state.

April continued speaking, but my eyes were caught by the multi-faceted crystal. Every face was mirrored in it’s perfectly smooth surface. It almost looked wet, but I figured it had recently been polished.

For some reason, my mind turned to Mitzy with her wings slowly moving in the air as she stood on the branch of the tree, her insectile head moving in jerky motions. I saw my father as a grey wolf, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he raised a paw, beside April who wagged her tail and loved to be scratched and petted.

I suppose I’d be joining their number soon, but as what? Some kind of multi-dimensional thing that could walk between realities.

I thought of the immense elephant-headed thing from that other dimension, with a face full of tentacles and burning yellow eyes. What would it feel like to be something else? Would I be sad, afraid, lonely?

I really didn’t want to do this. But I couldn’t see my way around it. No one else could stand where I stood and give himself like this.

Was I, in many ways, still April’s fool? I was letting her guide the entire throng into doing something to me. Was this all going to end very badly? Or was everyone in the audience going to yell “April Fools!” at me when I stood within the silver circle?

I looked at April, standing on the alter of the council of magic in front of the great Crystal. She looked confident, strong…and…happy?

Could this have been what she’d wanted all along?