Six years later…

“Momma! Momma!” A pair of excited voices called out as my teammates, and I stepped out of our MIST. Almost immediately the twins barreled into me to give me hugs and I wrapped my girls up in my arms to show them how much I had missed them. Once I let go, they greeted their other mothers and their aunties just as exuberantly. I honestly couldn’t blame the girls since we had been gone for over a month on a scouting mission up north.

It was normal for us to be gone for a few weeks to a month before spending a couple of months at home on light duty to respond to Demon attacks, though those had been getting less frequent lately. With seed-storms being a thing of the past, Demon attacks on settlements were a lot less common now, allowing the Angel Corps to work on clearing the various old-world ruins across Misota of Demons. It was going to be a long process, but we had hope for the future now.

The risk of Demon infection would probably soon be a thing of the past as well, if Risha and Marti were to be believed, at least in Misota where we were actively hunting down dangerous Demons as soon as we got word of them and burning the bodies. Demon blood and corpses could still infect other living things, but the parasites couldn’t survive long outside a living host. It was just a matter of keeping animals desperate enough for food to approach a Demon’s corpse away, but most animals seemed to be learning to avoid them.

The threat of infection from Demons that were born that way was far less since over several generations they could build up an immunity to the seed parasites, much as many Seed-borne have. First and second-generation Demons and Seed-borne like the Twins would still be a risk, but with each generation without more seed-storms, that risk was going to decrease. If proper measures were taken and medical care was given immediately upon infection, that could be decreased even further.

As the twins were getting their fill of attention from my mates, and their aunties Marti, Lisbet, and Karina, I turned to my grandmother who was approaching far more casually. “The girls were counting the days until you got back,” she told me with a laugh and a smile in their direction before turning more serious. “How did your mission go?”

“I was too,” I admitted. I didn’t like being away from the twins for a month at a time, but on less dangerous scouting missions we could always take the twins with us. We hadn’t this time because we were going into unfamiliar territory. They weren’t like Leaf and Sweetie, who were small enough and quite content to stay snugly in their little protective pouches in Autumn’s and Heather’s HESS armor until it was safe to come out again.

I shrugged as I told her, “I wrote up my report on our way back, Wingleader, and I’ll store it on the main system before we leave again in the morning. I can give you the broad strokes now if you want though.”

“Please do, Snow,” she replied.

“I don’t think we’re going to find any allies up there,” I told her with a sad shake of my head. “On the northern shore of the lake, there’s the Canadian Alliance. They control a lot of land up there, but they are a loose alliance at best, there’s a lot of infighting, and their technology for fighting Demons is nowhere close to even where Misota was a decade ago. They don’t seem to trust Seed-borne either, though we did find a few isolated Seed-borne communities. Their neighbor to the east is a bigger problem. The Kabec Empire has some interesting weapons technology for fighting Demons, but other than that they aren’t very advanced and there’s a language barrier, and they… well, they enslave Seed-borne. Karina had a close call when scouting one of their towns.”

My grandmother sighed and shook her head sadly. “Well, it’s not much different than some of the other places your teams have been scouting, and it’s just as important to know what enemies we might make out there as it is to find allies.”

Finding allies to join our alliance with Ashburn had been a losing battle so far. Most of the territories around us didn’t look kindly on Seed-borne and many were either isolationist or were looking to expand their territory now that there hadn’t been any seed-storms in six years. At least our alliance with Ashburn continued to prosper, and the Angel Corps Base there was flourishing.

In fact, we were leaving to visit there tomorrow so Risha could give their AI core and computer systems their annual checkup and optimization. We planned to spend a few days there so we could visit Heather’s sister, Desra, and our other friends in the Suppression teams. We also wanted to spend some quality time with Risha’s daughter, Chii, and her adoptive parents, Mei and Billy.

Mei was trying to teach Heather, Autumn, and me to cook the old-fashioned way, as they did in the Golden Dragon when we visited last time, so she would probably try to get us to continue those lessons while Kallie and Kassie played with Chii. Mei and Billy had become good friends and were great parents to Chii, whose Avatar appeared to be around eleven years old when we last visited three months ago. Kallie and Kassie both looked forward to our visits to Ashburn so they could see their ‘cousin’, Aunt Mei, and Uncle Billy.

They almost enjoyed our visits there as much as they enjoyed going to the capital to visit their Auntie Lisa and Granny Sabine. The Queen and princess both spoiled them horribly and sometimes we would let them stay at the palace while we were off on a mission. That would be our next stop after Ashburn since Queen Sabine liked frequent visits from her daughters and granddaughters. She had wanted to do something akin to a royal wedding when Heather, Risha, Autumn, and I had our mate-binding ceremony last year, but we managed to convince her to keep it small and only invite friends and family.

I was looking forward to visiting the capital again to see how much had changed and I smiled at the thought as I scooped Kallie up in my arms and Autumn did the same with Kassie. The capital seemed to change a little more every time that we were there as the technology that the Tinkers and Alchemists produced for the general public improved. Misota as a whole had grown and changed a lot since my team and I started as recruits, people had hope for the future and Queen Sabine was trying to make Misota a nation where people of all races and walks of life would be welcome and equal.

I found myself doing a lot of thinking about how much things had changed as we made our way home and parted ways with the other members of our team. We were all still close, like family, but Marti would be going back to the AI core at the hospital to spend some time with her other selves, and Lisbet and Karina both had moved into rooms in the underground section of the base. Lisbet had married Peter, her fellow Harekin from Phantom Wing, a few months ago and my best friend was in a relationship with another Devilkin who worked in the Tinker labs and shared a room with him. As for my grandmother and Raven, their relationship was still going, and getting pretty serious as well, though the Corps kept them both pretty busy with their respective duties.

“See you all when we get back from our trip,” I said as we parted ways. Then my attention was back on the walk home and the twins, who were excitedly telling my mates and me that Granny Abby and Raven had let them stay up late and have ice cream for dessert every night while we were gone. Okay, so all their grandmothers spoiled them horribly. I think Queen Sabine was the worst though, closely followed by Autumn’s mother, Lilac, whenever we managed a visit to Whiteriver Glade.

As soon as we were home, I went straight to our bedroom to shed the armor that I wore over my HESS armor. Lisbet was working in the Tinker labs whenever she wasn’t out with our team these days and had finally got a working prototype of Fenris-horn plate armor with a covering of Dragon scales fused onto the outside. It could really take a beating and was being produced as quickly as possible for other frontline heavy hitters like me. The outer armor would be a bit heavy for most people, and maybe even a few Angels, but it did its job well, though it was a little hard to get in and out of.

“A little help here?” I called out.

It was only a moment before Heather and Autumn joined me in our bedroom to help me out of my armor. They couldn’t just do it normally, of course, they both had to tease the hell out of me with lingering touches and breathing softly on my neck and ears. I moaned softly as Heather’s hands slipped inside the chest plate, they had just loosened to caress my breasts and Autumn leaned in to rain kisses along my neck.

Autumn’s Fay lessons were a terrible influence on Heather, or maybe a good one, I couldn’t quite decide. Heather had lost her hesitance and as she got to know more about being Fay and became comfortable in her own skin, her need to always keep up a tough exterior evaporated. She was as forward about sex as Autumn was now and just as much of a tease too. With the two Fay doing their very best to get me all hot under the collar as they helped remove my armor, I barely managed to gasp out, “Later… after the twins are in bed.”

“Oh, fine,” Autumn replied with a pout that Heather matched.

“Yeah, we weren’t planning on doing any more than just teasing you a bit, at least until later tonight,” Heather added as she turned her pout into a suggestive smile. “Since your grandmother already fed the twins dinner and we ate on the flight back, Risha is picking out a movie for us to watch tonight. It’ll be nice to get cozy with my mates and our girls and have a nice relaxing night before we head to Ashburn in the morning.”

I was one hundred percent behind that plan and once I was out of my armor and we were all wearing something more comfortable for lounging, we returned downstairs where Risha had already claimed the middle of the couch and had popcorn, soda, and other snacks spread out across the coffee table, much to the twins’ delight. Soon all four of us were snuggling close together with Kassie and Kallie draped across our laps as Risha started the holoprojector and cued a movie.

“This was sort of a tradition for me and Clover on Christmas Eve before the world went completely to shit,” the AI explained. “Every year we would watch a couple of classics, and I thought this might be a nice time to start that tradition up again. Too bad Shadow Wing left for their new mission earlier today.”

I almost forgot that it was the winter solstice, the ever-night, and tomorrow would be Kriss-Mass. I wondered briefly who the light-bearer might be this year for the village where I grew up. Whoever it was, they would be boarding an airship for Eden Base tomorrow to be tested and see if they were Angel material. We had defeated the Darkness, but the fight against the Demons wasn’t over yet.

We watched something called How the Grinch Stole Christmas, followed by A Christmas Carol, and by now we were able to enjoy the movies since Risha had been using movies to teach us about the old world for almost six years now. The twins seemed to enjoy the first movie but fell asleep during the second. It was past midnight by the time the movie ended, and my thoughts drifted again to the ever-night and Kriss-Mass, when all this began six years ago, and I was a girl stuck in a boy’s body.

Things had changed so much since then and I found myself snuggling closer to my mates and pulling the twins in close to just savor all the good that had come from that long night six years ago. This time, I wouldn’t have to stay up all night. Feeling nostalgic, I started to softly sing.

Darkest night, Ever-night
Stave off the dark, until the light
Round the light-bearer, one and all
Light pyre and lanterns, to hold back nightfall
Keep hope until Kriss-Mass dawns,
Keep hope until Kriss-Mass dawns.

Darkest night, Ever-night
When Kriss-Mass dawns, all will be right
When the night is over, don't be afraid
Hope for the future, let's celebrate
Celebrate light, hope, and joy,
Celebrate light, hope, and joy.